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Beyond the Prayer
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 9 Aug, 2020
Over the last three weeks we have looked at the Lord’s Prayer. In our services, we often follow the Lord’s Prayer with the familiar phrase, “Lord, forgive us our trespasses; as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This is based on the teaching that Jesus gave immediately after giving His disciples His Prayer. Having prayed, it is a useful reminder that we must also live the words that we have spoken; that we must actively work on repentance from sin so we can forgive and be forgiven. So this week we leave the Prayer behind as a spoken conversation with the Lord and turn to how we live it in our daily lives. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Revisiting the Lord's Prayer - Part 3 - Lead Us Not Into Temptation
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 2 Aug, 2020
This Sunday we will finish revisiting of the Lord’s Prayer by reflecting on the last two sentences of it. We will be focusing particularly on how the Lord teaches us to pray in times of temptation, crisis, and evil. Sometimes it takes things getting pretty bad to make us resort to giving prayer a try. But, especially if we’re out of practice with praying, and our desperate prayer seems to go unanswered, that can be pretty hard to take. Let’s revisit how to pray about hard things and when things get hard. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Revisiting the Lord's Prayer - Part 2 - Freely Gotten, Freely Given Away
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 26 Jul, 2020
As we continue our way through the Lord's Prayer the focus pivots away from the God who we pray to and comes to rest on us: we ask that He give us our daily bread and that He forgive our debts. In these two phrases we see the immensity of what we receive from the Lord, and our inability to repay it. Thankfully, He does not ask that we repay. Simply that as we have received, we in turn give. In giving away what we have to others and forgiving our debtors, we also receive from the Lord. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Revisiting the Lord's Prayer - Part 1 - Our Father
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 19 Jul, 2020
We say the Lord’s Prayer regularly but because of that familiarity we can sometimes forget the meaning and significance of the words that we’re saying. Over the next three weeks we will be revisiting the prayer that the Lord taught us so that it can become all the more meaningful for us when we say those familiar words. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Fools for Christ
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 12 Jul, 2020
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
You Have Enemies and You Need to Love Them
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 5 Jul, 2020
If I asked you, "Do you have any enemies?" you would probably answer, "No." I think most people don't think that they have any enemies. So does the Lord's revolutionary command to love our enemies not really apply to most of us? Well, we all have people that we treat as enemies and we need to recognise that fact. And then we need to learn what it means to love them and then do it. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Comings and Goings
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 28 Jun, 2020
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
Living in a Post-Apocalyptic World, Part 3: The Future of the New Church
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 21 Jun, 2020
What's going to happen in the future of the New Church? What are things going to look like in the next 50 years or the next 1000 years? Will there be a need for another new church? This Sunday, as we celebrate the founding of the New Church 250 years ago, we will try to get a picture of the future of the New Church and an understand of what our role is right now. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Living in a Post-Apocalyptic World - Part 2 - New Foundations
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 14 Jun, 2020
The New Church teaches that the Apocalypse has already taken place: in fact, it took place over 250 years ago, as the New Church was being born into the world. Understanding the spiritual events from that time period can help us better understand the world we live in today. Last week, Malcolm talked about how the mere existence of the New Church did not automatically make people better: even New Church people have, and still can, support abhorrent practices. This week we will talk about the difference the New Church does make, and why it matters that a New Church was established and continues to exist. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Living in a Post-Apocalyptic World - Part 1 - The Larger Narrative
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 7 Jun, 2020
Things in the world these days can seem rather apocalyptic. Intriguingly the teachings of the New Church say that the apocalypse has already happened, over 250 years ago in fact. What does that mean for us today? How can that larger narrative help us to understand what's going on in the world at the moment? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
How Are You Doing?
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 31 May, 2020
Why would the omnipotent God of the universe ask a mere mortal a question? Wouldn't He already know the answer? Yet there are many examples of God asking questions in the Word. God does not ask questions so He can learn the answer; He asks questions so that we have a chance to reflect and respond in the context of His perspective. In a similar vein, there is value in letting the Lord know "how we're doing." He already knows of course; we don't have to tell Him anything. But this Sunday we will explore the value of reflecting on how we are doing and sharing that reflection with the Lord. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Misconceptions of Providence - 3 - It's all God or it's all me
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 24 May, 2020
In this sermon series we’ve talked about how the Lord is working in every little detail of what happens in our lives. That can be a profoundly comforting thought but, in other moods, it can make us feel like it doesn’t matter what we do. If it’s all in God’s control, then our decisions mean nothing, really. In other moods, it can feel like God is just some distant force (if He’s there at all) and it’s entirely up to us to figure out what we need to do with our lives and what God is doing or not doing is largely irrelevant to our daily lives. The teachings of the New Church provide another option for how to understand this. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Misconceptions of Providence - 2 - Coincidence? I think not!
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 17 May, 2020
This week we continue our series on misconceptions about Divine Providence. There are moments when something so unlikely and unexpected, and yet so wonderful, occurs, that we cannot help but see it as the hand of God at work in the world. But if God intervenes so forcefully in the world sometimes, it serves to highlight the many times when He does not (apparently) intervene. Why is one person miraculously spared from cancer, while thousands of others are condemned to die? The truth is that God’s Providence is not just at work in the unlikely and the obvious ways we see. His Providence extends to each and every moment of our lives, even down to the most mundane. He is never absent. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Misconceptions of Providence - If it happened, it was meant to be
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 10 May, 2020
We’re starting a sermon series on misconceptions about Divine Providence. Often when something difficult happens we want to know why—why did this happen? Sometimes the answer that people come to is that “it was meant to be”. But is that true? What does that even mean? How should we think about all the different things that happen in our lives? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
The Tabernacle, Part 3 - Wrapped in Garments of Salvation
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 3 May, 2020
As we have seen in the past two sermons, the Word's description of the Tabernacle is, spiritually, a description of the many complex things that make up our lives. This week we look not at the Tabernacle itself, but the clothes that the priest had to wear to be able to work in the Tabernacle. These garments stand for the ways that we weave love and goodness into our outer lives so that we can truly reflect the Lord's work in the world. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
The Tabernacle, Part 2 - A Model for Life in a Complex World
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 26 Apr, 2020
This Sunday we’re talking some more about the Tabernacle—the mobile worship centre that God told the Children of Israel to build. If you read about the Tabernacle you can quickly become overwhelmed by the complexity and detail. Why is it so complicated? Well, life is also pretty complicated and in this complicated explanation of the structure of the Tabernacle we can find a model of how the Lord can help us to deal with the complexity of life. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
The Tabernacle, Part 1: A Dwelling Place for the Lord
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 19 Apr, 2020
The Tabernacle was a tent that served as the centre of Israelite worship. But in this archaic structure we can also see a heavenly model for our own minds. This week we will explore how the materials willingly given by the Children of Israel represent the many pieces of our hearts and minds out of which the Lord builds a place for Him to dwell within us. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Why the Lord Appeared First to Mary Magdalene
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 12 Apr, 2020
This Easter Sunday we are going to be focussing on the women at the tomb. Mary Magdalene, Mary (who had given birth to Jesus), and some other women were the first people at the tomb on Easter morning. And Mary Magdalene was the first person to see the Lord in His resurrection. Why was this and what can we learn from this about what in us will be most able to see and believe in the risen Lord? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Rejoicing in Hope
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 5 Apr, 2020
When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday the crowds greeted Him with joy. Yet at that point, nothing had changed: after merely looking around, Jesus left the city again to spend the night on the Mount of Olives. The joy and hope of the crowds was only realized after the events of Jesus' capture, trial, torture, death, and resurrection. Even so, the joy of Palm Sunday is an important part of the Easter Story. Many of us, I am sure, are feeling that we have little to rejoice in at the moment: we have a long struggle ahead of us. But even if we cannot rejoice in the conclusion of this process yet, perhaps we can rejoice in the hope that the Lord will lead us to victory. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Finding Jesus in the Life of Elisha: Under Siege
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 29 Mar, 2020
We're in the midst of a sermon series on the life of Elisha and the story we were scheduled to talk about this Sunday, in the midst of a national lockdown, is the story of the Children of Israel being besieged by an enemy in the city of Samaria. As we experience our version of being besieged in our houses by an enemy, we will talk about what help the Lord can offer us in times when we feel trapped. During the lockdown we will be streaming the worship services from our homes instead of from the church, to abide by the mandate to stay home. Find more details about how to watch the service at http://newchurchwestville.co.za/online/ We will also send out a WhatsApp with a direct link to the service on Sunday. Let us know if you'd like to receive that WhatsApp. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Finding Jesus in the Life of Elisha: Persistently Seeking the Lord
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 22 Mar, 2020
In the challenges that we face, and that many of us are facing right now, it is important that we continually go back to the Lord. Spiritual life does not just happen: it takes intentional and persistent work, work that goes on even when life is at its hardest. Remember that this service will be streamed live online at 9:30am this Sunday at https://www.facebook.com/newchurchwestville. There will be a children's talk before the adult sermon. We encourage you to not just watch the video, but to actually experience worship: open your own copy of the Word, light candles, kneel for the prayers, sing some worship songs before or after the service, and so on. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Finding Jesus in the Life of Elisha: The Word Made Flesh
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 15 Mar, 2020
The New Church teaches that, at their deepest level, the stories in the Word are all about the Lord and what He went through while He was in this world. We are going to be looking for connections to the life of Jesus in the dramatic and sometimes quite confusing stories of the prophet Elisha. In this first part we will be looking at the relationship between Elijah and Elisha and exploring how the Lord in the Word made flesh can help us with our real problems and challenges. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Render Unto Caesar
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 8 Mar, 2020
The teachings of the New Church point out how important it is to distinguish between things that are spiritual and things that are natural. This might sound like a bit of abstract philosophy, but you've probably run afoul of doing it wrong: have you ever felt like a bad person for cheating on a diet or wearing the wrong thing to a wedding? That guilt comes, in part, from lending spiritual weight (being a bad person) to a natural rule (diet or dress code). If we can do better at distinguishing spiritual from natural, it will lift an unnecessary weight from our lives. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
From Dust to Living Souls
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 1 Mar, 2020
We are all going to die someday. That’s not exactly a pleasant thought but it can be useful. It can be useful to spend some time reflecting on our mortality—the reality that our lives in this world will not last forever and in fact they could end at any moment. And so, on Sunday evening, we’re going to take some time to think about this and the value of knowing that we are dust and to the dust we shall return. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Lose Something Good to Gain Something Better
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 23 Feb, 2020
When we think of removing things from our life, our mind probably goes to the harmful, destructive, negative things. After all, why would you get rid of something that is helpful, good, and positive? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But at times, our attachment to something good holds us back from moving on to something better. This Sunday we will look at how to recognize those times when we need to move on, even if it means the end of something good. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA