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So He Gives His Beloved Sleep
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - February 08, 2026
The Word is written in such a way that every word and concept has a deeper spiritual meaning. These meanings are threaded through the entirety of the Word, tying together disparate and varied stories into one story with one message. This Sunday we will follow one of these threads by exploring sleep and wakefulness. In this theme we learn about the need to be vigilant and awake spiritually, as well as the need to rest and sleep in the Lord. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (28m 34s)
Seven Habits For Spiritual Life, Part 3: Prayer
Worship Service: Sermon only - February 01, 2026
Who needs a little help or encouragement? I suspect we all do. One thing we can do to facilitate this is to work on developing a habit of praying regularly. Logically, if there is a God that created us and is the source of life, love and understanding then it would make a lot of sense to connect with our creator as much as possible so we can tap into more of God's life, love and understanding. | By Rev. David C. Roth | Boulder, CO
See Event (56m 07s)
The Places in Between
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - February 01, 2026
Psalm 121 speaks of the Lord protecting your going out and your coming in. This speaks to times of transition, times in which it is especially crucial that we remain in the Lord’s care. A prominent example is the Children of Israel coming out of slavery in Egypt and going in to possess the Promised Land. But this story also illustrates the struggle of times of transition: between coming out of Egypt and going into the Land there was forty years of wandering the wilderness. As much as we would like to directly leave hardship and enter good times, more often than not there is an intermediate stage of trial and growth that the Lord must lead us through. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (29m 24s)
Seven Habits For Spiritual Life, Part 2: Continually Learn Truth
Worship Service: Sermon only - January 18, 2026
Why is it so important to always keep learning? Why does it matter whether I learn the truth or not? What is so special about the Bible or Word of God? Why should I read it and study it? Can't I just follow my instincts and figure things out as I go? The habit of continually learning will help us in all aspects of life, and when it comes to our spiritual life it holds untold benefits that will enrich our life forever. | By Rev. David C. Roth | Boulder, CO
See Event (40m 58s)
The Waters of Baptism
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - January 18, 2026
The central element of the baptism service is water. Water in general represents truth, and that is what it represents in baptism: just as water quenches thirst, the truth that is learned from the Lord and His Word quenches our desire for guidance; just as water washes away dirt, truth is the tool by which we wash away sin and evil. Conversely water represents falsity: just as a person needs to be lifted up and saved from drowning, the Lord leads us away from what is false and guides us to live based on His truth. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (42m 01s)
Seven Habits For Spiritual Life, Part 1: Self-Reflection
Worship Service: Sermon only - January 11, 2026
If you would like to develop a stronger and healthier spiritual life there are habits you can develop that will make a big difference. What would a stronger and healthier spiritual life look like? It would look like the ability to find peace and contentment in any moment regardless of what is happening around us or within us. It is also a state of being or character that we carry with us from this world into the next--a character of kindness, goodwill, usefulness and integrity. | By Rev. David C. Roth | Boulder, CO
See Event (49m 29s)
Fools for Christ
Worship Service: Sermon only - January 11, 2026
The wisdom of God seems like foolishness to the world, and so following God's wisdom inevitably leads to us feeling foolish. The pressure to give in and embrace the "wisdom" of the world can be strong. Resisting takes sacrifice, from passing on a promotion, to ending a relationship, to letting go of ego, and beyond. But until we are willing to be seen as fools by the world, we are not able to fully follow the Lord. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (28m 53s)
Missed Opportunities
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - January 04, 2026
| By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (28m 41s)
The Pursuit of Truth
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - November 30, 2025
Part of living a good spiritual life is looking for the Truth that will guide you. The problem is that “truth” is a lot harder to come by then we might imagine. Every true thing we know, or think we know, has endless layers that remain obscure to us and countless nuances that are beyond our current comprehension. We never find the Truth itself in all its complexity. In spite of this, and in fact, because of this, the never-ending pursuit of truth is a crucial part of our spiritual growth. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (32m 46s)
Getting Spiritual Support
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - November 23, 2025
We know that the Lord has created us to love others; but what about ourselves? Can that love also be from the Lord? All of us have needs that must be met but it can be hard to ask for help. We worry about putting a burden on others or opening ourselves up to criticism. Yet the Lord is clear that we are to love ourselves. If we cannot love ourselves enough to get the help that we need, we lose the ability to help others. When we ask for help we are not being selfish, but rather are taking the first steps towards helping others. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (30m 50s)
Spiritual Fatigue
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - November 16, 2025
Whenever something goes wrong in the world, there seems to be an outpouring of compassion. We almost get excited at the chance to leap into action and help. But as time passes the energy wanes. We can become fatigued; not just fatigued physically, but fatigued emotionally. It is impossible to keep up that initial level of care and energy. Above even the emotional there is the spiritual fatigue: we face exhaustion with ourselves and our own spiritual growth, and can push ourselves to the breaking point. We need to be able to truly address the issues, but to do so in a way that is sustainable. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (31m 48s)
What is Sin?
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - November 09, 2025
Religious life is all about resisting sins. But what actually counts as a sin? We have to be able to know what we are looking for if we are going to be able to resist it. Thankfully the Lord gives us guidance in identifying sins, especially through the Ten Commandments. Although there are only Ten, if we look deeper we can find that they guide us to see whatever vice or sin we might be struggling with. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (29m 28s)
Gratitiude and Responsibility
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 26, 2025
These two concepts aren't often paired, but they are actually intrinsically linked. Everything good that we have is a free gift from the Lord, regardless of how much we have worked for it. When we realize just how much we have been blessed we are filled with a feeling of gratitude. But it also brings a sense responsibility: if we have been so freely blessed, then there is an obligation to freely bless others. As the Lord says, "Freely you have received, freely give." | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (38m 08s)
Who is My Neighbour?
Worship Service: Children & Adult - October 12, 2025
Loving your neighbour is easy if it means loving the people you like. But if the neighbour includes people we aren't so fond of it becomes much harder. One of the ways we can get better at it is by remembering that we can love the Lord in other people, even if we don't like other parts of the person. There is always something worth loving in everyone you ever meet. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (39m 56s)
Snakes in the Desert
Worship Service: Children & Adult - October 05, 2025
Our topic will be a somewhat obscure story from the time the Children of Israel wandered in the desert. They grew tired of the food the Lord provided and complained. This brought a plague of venomous snakes. When the begged the Lord for help, He had Moses set up a bronze statue of a snake, and everyone who looked at it was healed. What can this story teach us about the times we crave pleasure and are desperate for things that pull us away from the Lord? | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (00m 00s)
Facing the Floods of Life
Worship Service: Children & Adult - September 28, 2025
There are big, life-altering, spiritual challenges that we all face from time to time. Most of us would rather not have that be the case. But they are inevitable, and the truth is they are also necessary. We need to have opportunities to face our flaws, take on our selfishness, and allow the Lord to build us back up into better people. This Sunday we will look at how we can become more accepting of the fact that spiritual life requires times of turmoil as well as times of peace and contentment. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (00m 00s)
Choosing Your Heritage
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - September 21, 2025
You can’t pick your ancestors. The ones you’ve got are the ones your stuck with. The same is true of your heritage in general. For good or ill, your heredity is set. This is also true spiritually: you have inherited from birth an inclination towards certain evils. But that does not mean that we are stuck with them: we can, and indeed must, be truly born again from the Lord. While that will not change where we have come from, it will change our future. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (38m 00s)
Results Don't Matter
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 10, 2025
Of course results matter! But they don’t matter in the way we might think. We tend to think that if some choice we make has a good or pleasant result, then we made the right choice; and if it has a bad or painful result then we must have made the wrong choice. The Lord, however, encourages us to do the right thing regardless of the (apparent) outcome. The immediate results won’t tell us much about whether we have done right or wrong. It’s more important for us to do what is right according to the Lord’s guidance rather than relying on our limited view of the results. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (34m 03s)
Maintenance
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 03, 2025
Things seem to fall apart and get broken rather easily—from our aging bodies, to the buildings we live in, to the equipment we rely on each day, to our lives in general and the world at large. Just think of your current to-do list of things that you need to fix, replace, clean, or sort out. What are we meant to do in the midst of this reality? Give up on fixing anything? Let’s talk on Sunday about the importance of maintenance and how to find the humility, courage, and trust to do the work to maintain what matters. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (33m 55s)
The Power of Truth
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 20, 2025
One of the most well-known stories in the Bible is that of David felling the giant Goliath with a simple sling. What gives us this power in our own lives? The answer from the Teachings of the New Church is... Truth! That might not sound exciting, if you think of truth as mere ideas. But when we use the Lord's truths properly, they are some of the most powerful tools in the universe. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (21m 13s)
How Long, O Lord
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 13, 2025
How Long, O Lord? These words, "How long, O Lord?" were spoken by a group of people huddled under the altar, desperate to know how much longer it would be before their oppression would cease. Likewise, they are words that we might find ourselves saying when we seem unable to break free of our own sin. But although we might despair of ever being free, the Lord, in secret and hidden ways, is working for our growth and rebirth, if only we put in the little effort that we are able to. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (33m 50s)
Is it Useful
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 06, 2025
This week we ask "How do we measure usefulness?" At the heart of this question is putting truth and kindness into action. Truth and kindness without use are simply airy ideas. By asking "Is it useful?" we bring our focus to the actual impact that our words will have on the people around us. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (00m 00s)
Is it Useful
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 06, 2025
This week we ask "How do we measure usefulness?" At the heart of this question is putting truth and kindness into action. Truth and kindness without use are simply airy ideas. By asking "Is it useful?" we bring our focus to the actual impact that our words will have on the people around us. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (26m 41s)
Accept the Gift
Worship Service: Sermon only - June 15, 2025
The difference between payment and a gift is that we are entitled to payment for the work we have done, while a gift is freely given. So if the Lord freely forgives and saves us, why does it seem like we have to work so hard for it? What do we get credit for and what do we have to acknowledge is the Lord's? If we can clearly see how the Lord freely gives us what we need to work with, we'll be able to accept that gift in every situation through the choices we make. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (21m 15s)
Unintended Consequences
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - May 25, 2025
Intentions matter more than actions. In other words, someone who is good hearted but makes mistakes is better off than someone who is malicious even while doing the right thing. Yet even the most well-intentioned person can cause harm. Their good intentions do not negate the damage they can cause in ignorance. Rather than justifying ourselves or others by saying, “they meant well,” we must find ways of addressing the harm and correcting it, even as we support and acknowledge the good intentions lying behind it. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (31m 16s)