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Waiting on the Lord
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 10, 2016
Many of us understand that spiritual growth is a long, slow process, and that change doesn't happen overnight. But sometimes it seems like we're not moving at all, and sometimes it even seems like we are moving backwards. How can we find the trust and strength to continue waiting for the Lord when it seems like we have already been waiting for so long? | By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn | Westville, RSAEvaluating and Improving Your Spiritual Health
Worship Service: Sermon only - April 03, 2016
How are you doing? How's your life going? How's your spiritual life going? These can be hard questions to know how to answer and hard questions to want to answer. Especially if things aren't going well we can feel a lot of shame and resistance around directly thinking about how we're doing. But, the first step in getting healthier is to take an honest look at how we're doing right now. That's what we're going to do this Sunday. This Sunday, during the adult sermon, I will give a short talk and then give people about 10 minutes to privately fill out a series of pages called the "Spiritual Health Snapshot" and "Spiritual Health Plan." It's a tool for evaluating how you're doing spiritually, picking an area to focus on, and then making a plan to work on it. These will be available on www.newchurchwestville.co.za/snapshot . You can download and print from there. If you've done it before, it can be useful to do it again and see how things have changed since the last time. If you haven't done it before, I hope you'll give it a try. Let's each do our individual work so that we can become more healthy as individuals and as a church. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAWhen We Feel Like We Have to Carry a Lie
Worship Service: Sermon only - March 06, 2016
This message thinks about the soldiers who were placed at the Lord's tomb and the lie they were bribed into telling regarding what really happened to His body. This is a message about the lies some people feel like they have been carrying, and it is especially a message about moving forward with the Lord's help. | By Rev. Garry B. Walsh | Phoenix, AZFixing Fragile Hearts
Worship Service: Sermon only - February 07, 2016
This week we think about how challenging elements in our own imperfect natures can cause us to feel weak or fragile. The way the Lord deals with this is captured, in part, in the story of His turning out of the temple those who bought and sold, the money changers and those who sold doves. | By Rev. Garry B. Walsh | Phoenix, AZCrying Hosanna! or Lord, Save Me From Myself!
Worship Service: Sermon only - January 31, 2016
This message reflects on the Matthew version of the Palm Sunday story. The focus is on the cry, "Hosanna!" This is a word that literally means, "O Save!" The question is: Save from what? The "saving" that we think about here, is saving from the negative voices that want to discourage us. | By Rev. Garry B. Walsh | Phoenix, AZQuestioning the Lord's Authority
Worship Service: Sermon only - January 03, 2016
This message thinks about what some people who saw the Lord in the world were missing out on. They failed to see that His essence was Love itself. They therefore were not open to receiving the blessings He had on offer. If we are not careful we might find ourselves doing something similar today. | By Rev. Garry B. Walsh | Phoenix, AZChristmas - Hope in the Christmas Story
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - December 20, 2015
Hope comes when fear is taken away. The angels of the Christmas story come with a message of hope to take away fear. A message of hope in the Lord that He can help us and save us. And the hope of every new beginning in that direction. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Sarver, PAPart 2 - Holding On
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - November 15, 2015
| By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn | Westville, RSALonging For Truth
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 11, 2015
When we're desperate for an answer from the Lord--when we're desperate to make sense of something or to find a way forward--sometimes then the Lord seems most absent. It feels like we're desperately thirsty in a wilderness with no water anywhere in sight. This Sunday is a lay service and the sermon being read is by the Rev. Brian Keith and it has some great insights about how to turn to the Lord for guidance in the right way. | By Rt. Rev. Brian W. Keith | Westville, RSAHealing Hurting Relationships - The Lord's Forgiveness
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 11, 2015
Healing a hurting relationship is a journey through forgiveness to reconciliation. That journey is a spiritual process that demands a reliance on the Lord God Jesus Christ and brings toward spiritual maturity. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Sarver, PAWhen Will the Lord's Joy Come to Me?
Worship Service: Sermon only - September 06, 2015
Many people are waiting for some future time when they will finally start to feel the Lord's joy, when, in reality, His joy is already all around us, there for us to experience. | By Rev. Garry B. Walsh | Phoenix, AZThe Demons We Face Along the Way
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 30, 2015
This message reflects on how we all have demons that we need to fight, and how the Lord with His love and power is always there to fight those demons and take them away from us. | By Rev. Garry B. Walsh | Phoenix, AZThe Lord in the Midst of our Stormy Seas
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 16, 2015
There can be times when we find the equivalent of a storm at sea blowing through our life. In those difficult times it is good to remember that the Lord is All-Loving, All-Wise, All-Powerful, and always there for us. | By Rev. Garry B. Walsh | Phoenix, AZGideon Part 1 - Weakness and Strength – You Mighty Man of Valour
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 09, 2015
This week we begin a three-week series on the story of Gideon, one of the Judges of Israel. This week, we hear about his startling call: an angel appeared to him, called him a mighty man of valour, and told him he would rescue Israel from their enemies. The problem? Gideon was the youngest son in an unimportant family, and didn't feel much like a mighty man at all. And yet - God chose him to conquer the enemy. In our own lives: how does God transform our weakness into power? How can we see ourselves as mighty men and women of valour when we know from experience just how weak we are? | By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn | Westville, RSAFinding a New Innocence
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 02, 2015
This message is for those who feel like their innocence has been lost. The Lord offers His reassurance that He is gently leading you into a new type of innocence, which is angelic innocence. | By Rev. Garry B. Walsh | Phoenix, AZThose Who Are With Us
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 02, 2015
The prophet Elisha and his servant were surrounded by a huge enemy army. It seemed hopeless - until Elisha prayed to the Lord and the servant's eyes were opened to see the angelic army that vastly outnumbered the enemy. When we feel alone, how can our eyes be opened to the reality that "those who are with us are more than those who are against us"? | By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn | Westville, RSAExposing the Lie
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 02, 2015
How do we gain control of our lives in the face of strong destructive feelings? | By Rev. Erik J. Buss | Bryn Athyn CathedralThe Parable of the Talents
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 12, 2015
Our sermon this Sunday focuses on the parable of the talents. In English, a "talent" means a skill or ability, but in Biblical times it was a very valuable coin. The parable describes two "good and faithful" servants who use their master's coins well and make more for him, and a bad servant who buries the talent entrusted to him. Those "talents" symbolise more than just our natural skills and abilities - they represent a kind of spiritual treasure that we are called to use wisely. So, what does it mean to use our "talents" as good and faithful servants? | By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn | Westville, RSAThe Prodigal Son
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 05, 2015
The parable of the Prodigal Son tells the story of a young man leaving his father's house, wasting all that he had, returning to his father, and finding forgiveness. How are we like that prodigal son, and what does it mean for us to find our way back to our Father's house again and again? | By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn | Westville, RSAThe Lord's Coming, Part 2: The Last Judgement
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - June 14, 2015
Some of the prophecies of the Lord’s coming are beautiful and hopeful but others sound rather cataclysmic and disturbing. This Sunday we’re continuing our series on the coming of the Lord by talking about the Lord coming to perform a Last Judgement. The New Church teaches that the Last Judgement has already taken place. Wondering how you missed it? Listen to it on-line. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSATrusting the Lord
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 26, 2015
3 lessons, children's talk, and sermon Readings: 1 Samuel 8:1-10, 19-22. Children's Talk: Like all the other nations Readings: Psalm 37:1-17,37-40; Arcana Coelestia 8478:3-4., parts. Sermon: Intellectual trust grows as we learn revealed truth and recognize it rationally, but it becomes real trust when it enters our will by living by it. | By Rev. Kenneth J. Alden | Boynton Beach, FLRethinking the Idea of One Bad Apple
Worship Service: Sermon only - March 15, 2015
This message considers Judas Iscariot, not so much as an evil person in his betrayal of the Lord, but as an example of how we are all vulnerable to the negative effects of attacks from the hells. It is important to know that the Lord is far more powerful than the forces of evil ever will be. Judas might appear at first to be a bad apple. But, upon reflection, he might not have been. | By Rev. Garry B. Walsh | Phoenix, AZBeing Alone
Worship Service: Children & Adult - March 01, 2015
3 lessons and Family Address Readings: Psalm 102:1-17; Matthew 26:36-46; Arcana Coelestia 2684, 2689, parts. Family Address: When we are left to ourselves, the choices we make are more keenly our own, and the Lord is more closely present. | By Rev. Kenneth J. Alden | Boynton Beach, FLCaring about Others - Compassion and Mercy
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - February 08, 2015
Our ability to have compassion on others is tied to our relationship with the Lord. If we see our need for the Lord to love us in our faults and His grief at our faults, we have a better chance of loving other in their faults and experiencing grief and compassion for them. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Sarver, PA