Pittsburgh New Church » Worship Category

And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish (John 21:6).

The disciples were fishermen before the Lord called them to follow Him and become “fishers of men.” After the Lord’s resurrection, those same disciples returned to their boats and nets. When they caught nothing, the Lord appeared to them with the call to “cast the net on the right side,” which made the disciples catch a huge number of fish.

This story teaches how we personally can become more successful at sharing our religion with others. Instead of focusing on teaching the truths of the New Church, switch to sharing your love for the New Church.

In the New Revelation, the Lord teaches often about the relationship between good and truth, love and wisdom, or faith and charity. Because one of the most often taught lessons is that truth shows us how to be good, we tend to think that teaching what is true is more useful than teaching what is good.

However, the story of Ehud illustrates a better way of thinking about this teaching. When Ehud thrusts his sword into Eglon’s belly, we see how the truths of the Word (the sword) have the power to destroy the falsities of hell (Eglon). But Ehud could do this only because he strapped that sword (truth) to his right thigh (celestial love). Truth only works when it comes from the power contained in love. The truths of the New Church only become powerful when you live them because you love the Lord.

Learning the truths of the New Revelation is life changing to those who are already seeking them from a love of serving the Lord. Others, like those the disciples taught, need to learn of the life of religion and the power of that life before they begin to seek the truths of religion. When the next person asks you about your religion, instead of immediately jumping into the truths of your faith, begin by talking about what you love about the New Church and how your life has changed because of it. You may find that you catch more fish. The disciples were fishermen before the Lord called them to follow Him and become “fishers of men.” After the Lord’s resurrection, those same disciples returned to their boats and nets. When they caught nothing, the Lord appeared to them with the call to “cast the net on the right side,” which made the disciples catch a huge number of fish.

This story teaches how we personally can become more successful at sharing our religion with others. Instead of focusing on teaching the truths of the New Church, switch to sharing your love for the New Church.

In the New Revelation, the Lord teaches often about the relationship between good and truth, love and wisdom, or faith and charity. Because one of the most often taught lessons is that truth shows us how to be good, we tend to think that teaching what is true is more useful than teaching what is good.

However, the story of Ehud illustrates a better way of thinking about this teaching. When Ehud thrusts his sword into Eglon’s belly, we see how the truths of the Word (the sword) have the power to destroy the falsities of hell (Eglon). But Ehud could do this only because he strapped that sword (truth) to his right thigh (celestial love). Truth only works when it comes from the power contained in love. The truths of the New Church only become powerful when you live them because you love the Lord.

Learning the truths of the New Revelation is life changing to those who are already seeking them from a love of serving the Lord. Others, like those the disciples taught, need to learn of the life of religion and the power of that life before they begin to seek the truths of religion. When the next person asks you about your religion, instead of immediately jumping into the truths of your faith, begin by talking about what you love about the New Church and how your life has changed because of it. You may find that you catch more fish.

Read Judges 3:12-23, John 6:1-14, and Interaction Between the Soul and the Body 20.

But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. (Exodus 17:12)

Part 1:

[Scroll down for Part 2]

The Lord wants us to look for His help in His Word and in the Church when we are under spiritual attack. This is illustrated for us in the story of the battle against the Amalekites. The Amalekites represent the lies associated with hidden evils. Just as they harassed the Israelites by attacking the weak and those separated from the main group, the hells go after us with lies when we are weak and alone.

The Israelites won the battle using the Lord’s power. So long as Moses raised his hands to the Lord, they prevailed; when he became weak and dropped his hands, the Amalekites prevailed. Likewise, in our own spiritual battles it is hard to always keep our focus on the Lord, because we are weak.

The image of Moses sitting on a stone, his hands supported by Aaron and Hur, is a representation of how we are to rest on the most basic and simple truths from the Word, and seek help from the Lord by looking to his Word and to his people—to one another. From this it follows that the Lord also wants each of us, as His Church, to be an instrument of His power, assisting others in their spiritual battles.

To see that this is true, read Exodus 17:8-16, John 16:20-33, Secrets of Heaven 7814-7817, and Secrets of Heaven 8555, watch Part 1 and Part 2 of the full video sermon, and then spend a week on the following task:

Help others striving to focus on the Lord and accept support on your own journey.
This week look to your spiritual community (friends, neighbors, spouse, family, mentors) to help keep your focus on the Lord. When facing challenges, reach out to your spiritual community and receive support and accountability as you walk your spiritual path. Ask for reminders of what is most important as you work on being a better person. Remember that you are not alone on your journey. Also, take time to recognize and offer the gifts and strengths you have to support your friends and neighbors in their spiritual work.

This sermon is part 6 of 8 in our series, “The Journey: Realizing Spiritual Freedom”, and is on the subject of offering and accepting support which helps to focus on the Lord. Check back next week for part 5, which will be about choosing to follow the Lord. For more information on the Journey, please contact us. To sign up for an online version, click here.

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Part 2:

[Scroll up for Part 1, along with the summary, task, and readings.]

And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Exo. 16:3)

We are now tempted a third time to give up our journey. We find that the life of religion is all work and no play; it’s no fun. In our former lives, even if we were unhappy much of the time, at least we were happy some of the time and had some fun even though it made us feel guilty. But doing good is hard work with little reward and lots of sacrifice. Time and again during our difficult journey, we will fondly remember the very things that that made us leave in the first place.

The Lord does not abandon us there. Instead, the Lord provides new delights and new pleasures that will sustain us until we reach the final destination. While starting to live our new lives leaves us hungry for the lower or baser pleasures of the “flesh” we once enjoyed, the Lord satisfies that craving with the “bread from heaven” or the higher delights coming from the good we are doing.

Our hunger is the feeling that when our delights are gone, our very life is gone—we love the fun and excitement of evil. When we give that up, it feels like we’ll never have fun or experience pleasure ever again. We wish to return to the evil that we think would be delightful again. But we can persevere with the help of the Lord: He provides new delights that, while not as impassioned as those we left, provide enough to satisfy us and allow us to continue. We overcome this temptation when we seek to find delight in the new life that the Lord is giving us.

To see that this is true, read Exodus 16:1-8, John 3:1-6, and Secrets of Heaven 8413, listen to the full audio sermon, and then spend a week on the following task:

Acknowledge and show gratitude for the blessings the Lord brings into your life every day.
This week look for the ways the Lord is present in each day. Keep your eyes, mind, and heart open. Look for the manna. When you feel empty and spiritually hungry for happiness in your life, pray “give us this day our daily bread. Lord help me to recognize the bread (goodness and blessings) in my life.” When counting your blessings, it is also important to take action and make your gratitude known. It is useful not only to think about how we appreciate someone, but to actually show our appreciation. The same is true with God. Take time to talk about the blessings in your life with others. Take time to praise Him for His great gifts.

This sermon is part 5 of 8 in our series, “The Journey: Realizing Spiritual Freedom”, and is on the subject of receiving daily blessings from the Lord. Check back next week for part 5, which will be about offering and accepting support which helps to focus on the Lord. For more information on the Journey, please contact us. To sign up for an online version, click here.

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And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” (Exo. 15:24)

There are times when the things we learn seem wrong. In science class we are told that even when acceleration is decreasing, speed is increasing. The recording industry is beginning to think that they make more money when they give music away for free.

The Lord’s truth can seem counter-intuitive as well. Serving the neighbor is first in importance, but serving yourself is first in time. Doing whatever you feel like is slavery while submitting yourself to the Lord is freedom. Real charity is shunning evils within yourself as sins while helping the poor is only a secondary type of charity.

In Marah, the Lord taught the Children of Israel what to do when the waters were bitter; the Lord teaches us what to do when the truth seems confusing and unpleasant and therefor unholy and rejectable: heed the voice of the Lord. We need to have a basic trust in the Lord, that He wants the best for us and knows what He’s talking about—that He is Jehovah who heals us. So even when His laws seem counter-intuitive, we obey His voice instead of our own. The result of victory in this temptation is peace and comfort in an abundance of truth and the good things that come with it.

To see that this is true, read Exodus 15:22-27, Exodus 17:1-7, and Secrets of Heaven 8352:2, listen to the full audio sermon, and then spend a week on the following task:

Look for the good the Lord is bringing out of difficult, hard, and bitter experiences in your life. Consider the Lord’s eternal perspective on your life and look for the good in all situations. Even the hard truths and challenging situations in life are opportunities for growth. When you have a difficult experience, look for the good that can be brought out of it. What might the Lord be teaching you through these experiences?

This sermon is part 4 of 8 in our series, “The Journey: Realizing Spiritual Freedom”, and is on the subject of finding the good in challenges. Check back next week for part 5, which will be about receiving daily blessings from the Lord. For more information on the Journey, please contact us. To sign up for an online version, click here.

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And Jehovah said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.” (Exo. 14:15)

The Children of Israel were in a scary situation. They had trusted Moses to lead them out of Egypt, but that truwst was melting away as Pharaoh’s chariots came down on them. They were stuck between death by drowning or death by the sword. What was their solution? To complain about their terrible lot and to blame their problems on Moses, saying, “I told you so!” They wanted to take the whole thing back, to return to Egypt as slaves and never try to escape.

Do these “solutions” sound familiar? No good deed goes unpunished, or so the saying goes. When we try to do something good, the evil spirits are going to try and stop us in two ways, by directly attacking us and by making escape seem equally pointless. The evil spirits want us to believe we are “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” so you might as well try to have fun being the evil. In effect, we are saying that we would rather be slaves to falsity than take the even more scary next step: to trust our lives and salvation to the Lord.

What was the Lord’s solution to the Israelites dilemma? “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the Children of Israel to go forward.” As long as we think that we can solve our own temptations and fight our own battles, we will lose. But we will win the battle when we allow the Lord to fight for us. Our part is simply to “go forward,” to continue the journey on the path the Lord has set out for us—following His commandments. THere will be happy and sad times on that journey; there will be funny and scary times on that journey. We trust the Lord to take care of us and we go forward. We face the fears of temptation head on and march right through them.

To see that this is true, read Exodus 14, Lamentations 3:22-41, and Secrets of Heaven 8181, and then spend a week on the following task:

Hear God’s message and then take action to move forward and obey His voice. This week listen for the Lord’s direction and consider how He is asking you to “Go forward.” Notice the fears that hold you back. Be still and pray to the Lord to give you the courage to step forward and the trust that He will provide for and guide you. Consider what concrete step you can take that will help you move closer to God, heaven, and freedom? Take that meaningful step forward and observe how you feel and the work the Lord does in your life.

This sermon is part 3 of 8 in our series, “The Journey: Realizing Spiritual Freedom”, and is on the subject of moving forward on our spiritual walk. Check back next week for part 4, which will be about finding the good in challenges. For more information on the Journey, please contact us. To sign up for an online version, click here.

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And the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. (Exo. 3:2)

We learned last week that evil spirits will try to enslave us using the facts we know about religion; they will twist the teachings of the Word to prevent us from doing anything good. How do we combat that to live a spiritual life?

Some people think that living a spiritual life means not living a natural life, as if the two were mutually exclusive. Some people fear that tending to the everyday (making dinner, meeting deadlines, being nice to people you meet) gets in the way of spiritual life, as if meditation and prayer or reading and studying were the way to live spiritually. Ritual is sometimes confused with spirituality, believing that going to church on Sunday and saying your prayers at night constitute a spiritual life. In correspondential terms, we think that the fire of spiritual life should consume the bramble bush of natural life. But it doesn’t and we wonder why.

We often believe that the way to fight against the enslaving hells is to live apart from the natural life. But as long as we are on this earth, genuine spiritual life can exist only within our natural lives. Like our bodies are containers for our minds, our natural lives should be containers for our spiritual lives. Spiritual life is not something apart from the everyday, but is the purpose within the everyday. The fire does not consume the bramble, but instead allows us to experience the presence of God.

To see that this is true, read Exodus 3 and Secrets of Heaven 6832:10, listen to the full audio sermon, and then spend a week on the following task:

Be still and listen for the voice of the Lord through reflection and reading the Word. This week take time to hear the voice of the Lord and see His leading in your life. What is the message of hope that the Lord has for you in the face of enslaving thoughts, habits, and behaviors? Your task this week is to listen for the Lord God by spending time by yourself on a walk, sitting quietly, praying, or meditating. When faced with a challenge in a relationship, at home or at work, pause and listen for the message the Lord God has for you. Read the Word with these thoughts in mind “What is the message for me? How does this move me forward on my spiritual journey?”

This sermon is part 2 of 8 in our series, “The Journey: Realizing Spiritual Freedom”, and is on the subject of listening to God’s voice. Check back next week for part 3, which will be about moving forward on our spiritual walk. For more information on the Journey, please contact us. To sign up for an online version, click here.

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Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

When Israel and his children went to Egypt to live with Joseph, they were safe, happy, and free. But after Joseph and his brothers die, a new king of Egypt comes to power who does not remember the things Joseph did for Egypt. Fear of the Israelites leads the Egyptians to treat them with great cruelty, turning them into powerless and miserable slaves.

This story parallels our lives. In the Word, “Pharaoh” and “Egypt” represent factual knowledge, and “Joseph” represents the life from heaven that comes to us through love. As long as these two pieces are together, life is good. But when they are seperated, the facts we know start to deny the life of religion. The hells use these facs to strangle our happiness and freedom and enslave us to the experiences of our senses rather than the truths taught by the Lord.

Knowing facts is not a bad thing. But it is important to remember that the Lord’s truths are what informs our understading of our world, not the other way around.

To see that this is true, read Exodus 1:1-2:10 and Secrets of Heaven 6015:1-3, listen to the full audio sermon, and then spend a week on the following task:

Identify any behaviors, thought or emotions that hold you back and enslave you. Identify times in your life are areas of your life in which you are stuck: What holds you back? Where do you feel you are trapped or enslaved? Identify any behaviors, thoughts or emotions that are destructive to your life. When do they come up for you? What are their patterns? What are the excuses/lies you use to defend these behaviors? Do these habits have control over your life? Are you a slave to them? Once you have recognized ways that you are stuck in life you are ready for the possibility of moving out of the enslavement.

This sermon is part 1 of 8 in our series, “The Journey: Realizing Spiritual Freedom”, and is on the subject of discovering when we are stuck. Check back next week for part 2, which will be about listening for God’s voice. For more information on the Journey, please contact us. To sign up for an online version, click here.

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This is part three of our summer series, “Be the Church”. In part one (“Connect with the Lord”) we reviewed the seven basic components of a life in the church. Then last week, in part two (“Love One Another”), we discussed what it meant to be the church to one another as part of the communion of saints. This week, in part three, “Serve Humanity”, are are going to talk about doing good deeds as a church.

Good works are not optional. Which good works we do, and how and when we do them, are left to us to decide. But the Lord does not want people in this world to suffer and it is our obligation as his church to do something to make the world better. We start by shunning evils and performing our daily occupations, and also by being good citizens and good spouses and parents. But the Lord asks more of us. The world is full of natural as well as spiritual suffering, and we are not meant to ignore either.

When doing good works, it is important that we do them justly and from good judgment. Indiscriminately giving money to anyone who asks for it, for instance, may do as much harm as good. At the same time it is a mistake to let our fears of doing the “wrong” good deed stop us from ever attempting good works at all. So long as we try to use our best judgement, and try to do it out of the kindness of our hearts and not merely with the hope of some reward, the Lord will bless us and lead us to become ever better at it.

Now, natural charity is meant to be a foundation for spiritual charity, so in two weeks we will have part four, “Proclaim the Good News”.

To see the truth of this message and to learn how to apply it to your life, read Matthew 25:34-40 and True Christian Religion 459:13-17, then listen to the full audio of this sermon by clicking here, and then try out what you learn in your life. This sermon, along with the rest of the series, is available through the Pittsburgh New Church (where it was preached), TheoBlog.com, the New Church, and for free at the Apple iTunes Store.

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Matthew 25:34-40

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’

“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”

True Christian Religion 459:13-17.

When the speeches were over, I held up my hand and asked permission, although I was a stranger, to give my opinion. The presiding officer put this to the meeting, and when it was agreed, I spoke as follows: ‘My opinion is that charity is acting in every deed and employment from a love of justice combined with judgment; but from love that has no other source than the Lord God the Saviour. All that I have heard from those sitting on the benches on the right and the left are well-known examples of charity. But as the presiding officer of this gathering said in his introductory remarks, charity is in its origin spiritual, but in what is derived from this it is natural. Natural charity, if inwardly it is spiritual, appears to the sight of angels transparent, like a diamond. But if inwardly it is not spiritual, but purely natural, it appears to the sight of angels pearly, like the eye of a boiled fish.

‘It is not for me to say whether the well-known examples of charity, which you have brought forward one after another, are inspired by spiritual charity or not. But I can say what the spirituality in it must be, for them to be natural expressions of spiritual charity. Their spirituality consists in their being done from a love of justice combined with judgment, that is, in a person looking to see, when he does something charitable, whether he acts from justice; and it is judgment which allows him to see this. For a person can do harm by kindnesses, and do good by things that look like doing harm. For example, harm is done by kindnesses if anyone supplies a hard-up highwayman with the money to buy himself a sword, although in asking he will not say this is his intention. Or if anyone helps him break out of prison and shows him the way to the woods, saying to himself, “It is not my fault that he robs travelers; I helped a fellow human being.” To take another example: if someone feeds an idler, and takes care he is not compelled to work, saying, “Come into a room in my house and lie in bed; why tire yourself out?” anyone doing this is fostering idleness, Or again, if anyone promotes relations and friends of bad character to high office, in which they can set on foot many kinds of mischief. Can anyone fail to see that charitable deeds of this sort are not motivated by any love of justice combined with judgment?

‘On the other hand, a person may do a kindness by acts which look like wrong-doing; for instance, a judge who acquits a wrong-doer because he weeps, utters pious expressions and begs to have his offense overlooked, on the grounds that he is his neighbor. Yet the judge in fact acts charitably, when he imposes the sentence prescribed by law, for by so doing he prevents him from doing further wrong and harming the community, which is the neighbour in a superior degree; and he sees to it that such a judgment is not a cause of scandal. Is anyone unaware that it is for their own good that servants are chastised by their masters, and children by their parents, for doing wrong? It is much the same with those in hell, all of whom love to do wrong, being kept shut up in prison and punished when they act wickedly, a punishment permitted by the Lord to reform them. This happens because the Lord is justice itself, and does whatever He does as the result of judgment itself.

‘These facts allow us to see clearly why it is that, as I said before, spiritual charity arises from a love of justice combined with judgment, but from love from no other source than the Lord God the Saviour. The reason is that all the good of charity is from the Lord; for He says:

He who remains in me and I in him brings forth much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

also:

He has all power in heaven and on earth. (Mat. 28:18)

All love of justice combined with judgment has no other origin than the God of heaven, who is justice itself, and the source of all human powers of judgment (Jer. 23:5; 33:15)

‘This leads to the conclusion that everything said about charity from the seats to right or left - that it is morality with faith breathed into it, piety with pity breathed into it, doing good to the upright and to the wicked, looking after one’s relatives and friends in every way, giving to the poor and helping the needy, building hospitals and supporting them with gifts, endowing places of worship and doing kindnesses to their ministers, that it is the Christian brotherhood of old, or forgiving everyone his faults - all of these are splendid examples of charity, when they are done out of a love of justice combined with judgment. Otherwise they are not charity, but only like watercourses cut off from the spring that feeds them, and like branches torn from a tree. True charity consists in believing in the Lord, and acting fairly and righteously in every deed and employment. Anyone therefore who at the Lord’s bidding loves justice and executes it with judgment is an image and likeness of charity.’