I find it strange that at a time of year when we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, our lives become busier and busier and, dare I say it, a little more stressed.
This message which I shared with the brilliant people of New Life Church on Sunday 13th December will help you find a place of peace no matter the circumstances you find yourself in.
Happy listening and thanks for visiting therevster.com
A couple of years ago I saw a young man walking towards me wearing a t-shirt that said on the front “Done watching”. After he’d passed me I caught sight of the back of his shirt which said “Doing”. I thought this was such a powerful message that I wrote it down in my file for possible useful anecdotes.
When I came to prepare a talk about the importance of Christian believers being practictioners of God’s word rather than just hearers (or even just students) the image of this t-shirt suddenly became relevant.
If you want to know how to have a strong unshakeable faith and emerge out of any storm strong and secure with even greater blessing in store; then you need to hear the principles contained in this short talk.
Join the great family of New Life as we met together at our Sunday celebration at The House in Scunthorpe.
Thanks for listening and visiting therevster.com
Whatever your view of war, defence policy or miltary service; those millions of people who have been killed in wars over the last century are to be commended for lots of things. They are to be commended for their work ethic, discipline, diligence and not least their willingness to lay down their lives for future generations. It is for these kind of reasons that these heroes are to be commended.
In Hebrews 11:2 we read; “This is what the ancients were commended for”. The ancients are mentioned in the rest of the chapter; a list of biblical heroes of the faith . These people exhibited all the same characteristics of the those killed in action and secured for us not just the lineage of Jesus the Christ but also a means for our eternal salvation.
This podcast is a short message given on Remembrance Sunday 2009 at The House in Scunthorpe to the great people of New Life. The powerpoint presentation above was shown during the message.
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Have you ever been in prison? OK you don’t have to bare your soul and perhaps your chequered history in the comments section, but maybe you’ve been in prison in a different way. Maybe imprisoned by fear, loneliness, trapped in a relationship or bound in a cycle of addiction. If so then then this podcast is just for you and may just help you turn the key in your prison door enough to see the first glimmer of hope and light bursting through.
“Unchained melody” is the first in a series of six talks based on the biblical letter to the Ephesians and will help you become a bigger person, big on the inside.
This was also my first sermon since the news of Michael Jackson’s death, so as a homage and to keep those who enjoy their sermons “lite” happy I have inserted over 10 of MJ’s song titles throughout my talk. See how many you can spot.
God bless you as you join the believers of New Life Church who are gathered at The House to hear this message.
This Sunday is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. It’s also Father’s Day. I’m really looking forward to the morning celebration at New Life when we can pay tribute to dads and fatherhood in general.
This week I’ve been thinking of the little bits of advice my dad gave me; some which have proven their worth, others which in hindsight have been lacking in substance but sounded good at the time. I may mention some of these as I bring the message on Sunday morning. Something I will definitely mention is the wonderful advice that God passes onto His children through his life-manual, the Bible. He is the wisest father of all and one that never gives dodgy advice and never has a suspicious motive. What a pity that the Bible is the most popular unread book in the world.
Pastor Russ and his dad around forty years ago.
I was privileged to have had a great dad, but many haven’t been as blessed. Let’s pray that this coming Sunday morning all around our country many people will begin a relationship with God the father of creation and the best dad in the universe.
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Russ
Hi and thanks for visiting therevster.com.
I recently spent time away with some of the leaders of the church I pastor and as well as having lots of fun and enjoying each other’s company, we chewed over many of the various statements, mottos and axioms that we’ve used to describe our church. It was a helpful exercise and in the doing of it we arrived at an overarching phrase which we believe will express the whole scope of our flavour as New Life Church.
“Big God.. big people .. big church” is already becoming part of the language of New Life’s leadership. We believe in a Big God .. we build Big People .. who belong to a Big Church.
Heather Small, now a solo artiste was the lead singer of a band called M People when she sang the inspired song “What have you done today that makes you feel proud?”. What a grea song and what a great thought. I recently gave a challenge for the congregation of of my church to think of some things that they’ve done this year that make them feel proud. We know that the Bible teaches that having a proud heart is a sinful thing but being proud of personal development and achievement is not a self-exalting excercise – it’s a celebratory excerise. Perhaps if we find it difficult to list many things we’ve done which make us feel proud gives us a clue that we are not living life the way that Jesus intended; a life packed with lessons learned, battles won and successes earned.
This podcast features the bulk of a talk I gave entitled “Big People”. It was a call to the great people of New Life to listen again to the CALL of Jesus to “follow Him”, to take advantage of the consequence of followship which is a “life to the full” and then to take seriously the commission to become a true disciple.
You see the belief in a Gig God will cause a deep longing to see people become all they can be; for them to live life large and experience it to the full. For them to place body, soul and spirit into the service of God … to become Big People.
My team of leaders are committed to growing people in love displayed through our values, see them experience forgiveness, overcome weaknesses, resist the enemy and find freedom in God. We will join with the angels in celebrating every success and rejoice with everyone who is growing big on the inside.
In this second talk of a series you drop in on me talking about our need to be Big People. Enjoy as you join worshippers gathered at The House, the home of New Life in Scunthorpe, England
I wonder if you have ever engaged in some act of Christian service and done so with great effort but soon found that there is no joy in it and that it seems a bit of a chore. Perhaps you’re feeling like that right now – about the acts of service your engaging in within your local church. The last thing you would call this is Service with a Smile – yet in your heart of hearts you know that serving Jesus and his church should be rewarded with joy and peace and happiness.
In Session 3 of a recent series of talks titled, “Service with a Smile, I explain that the cause of this is all down to the type of fuel we put in at our spiritual service station. The talk causes us to take a look at our motivations and often well hidden roots of our service and highlights 3 possible areas of concern. If you like you can think of them as 3 types of fuel which are incompatible with Service with a Smile.
If we want joy and peace and happiness as a bi-product of our service then we have to discover a place where our primary motivation is love. But what happens when far too many believers have guilt or duty or favour as a catalyst for their service.
Find out by continuing to listen to this podcast and the 3rd part of the series Service with a Smile.
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This is Russ Westfield saying God bless and thanks for listening.
