This week, I have been sitting with a question. Why does loneliness hurt so much?

The answer, I think, starts right at the beginning of the Bible. In Genesis 1, God says, “let us make human beings in our image.” That little word “us” has puzzled scholars for centuries. Who was God talking to? The answer points us to something beautiful: God himself has never been alone. Father, Son, and Spirit have always existed in community, in relationship, in love. And because we are made in that image, we were built the same way. Connection is not a bonus extra to a good life. It is woven into who we are.

Key takeaway: loneliness is not a personal failure. It is a sign that something we were designed for is missing. The good news is that God invites us back into connection, first with him, and then with each other.

If you have felt that ache of loneliness lately, even surrounded by people, I would love for you to watch the full sermon. We talk about why a quick coffee after church is not enough, why the modern world quietly pulls us apart, and why something as simple as a small group might be the answer you have been looking for.

Sunday Rewind - each week I share a sermon from the Battle Ready Sermons archive. My role has shifted to training the next generation of Salvation Army officers at William Booth College, so I’m no longer preaching every Sunday, but God’s word doesn’t go out of date. These messages are here to encourage, challenge, and point you to Jesus, whenever you need them.

This week’s sermon was originally preached 18 July 2021.

Watch the full sermon here:

What is one small step you could take this week to connect with someone? I would love to hear from you in the comments.

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” - Philippians 4:13

But here’s the thing. When you read those words where Paul actually wrote them - from a Roman prison, after beatings, shipwrecks, hunger and years on the road - the verse takes on a completely different weight.

Sunday Rewind - each week I share a sermon from the Battle Ready Sermons archive. My role has shifted to training the next generation of Salvation Army officers at William Booth College, so I’m no longer preaching every Sunday, but God’s word doesn’t go out of date. These messages are here to encourage, challenge, and point you to Jesus, whenever you need them.

This week’s sermon was originally preached 11 July 2021.

In this week’s sermon, I unpacked what Philippians 4:13 really means when you read it in context. And I found something I honestly hadn’t spotted before: part of Paul’s extraordinary contentment wasn’t just his personal faith. It came through the church. Through real friendships. Through people who showed up for him in the middle of his hardest season.

Research tells us that deep, lasting friendships are one of the most important factors in our health and wellbeing. People who are socially disconnected are two to five times more likely to die from any cause than those with close ties to family and friends. The church, at its best, is exactly the kind of community that changes that.

Key takeaway: Contentment isn’t just a private spiritual achievement. It’s something God grows in us through each other.

▶ Watch the full sermon here -

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Hit reply and tell me: who has been Christ’s hands and feet for you this week?

Grace and peace.

Rob

Jesus says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” But - if you’re honest - you know that’s not quite true. You can run the service. You can serve the meals, make the visits, sing the songs. Churches do it all the time without any real sense of Jesus being present in it.

That’s exactly the point Rob makes in this week’s sermon. We can do all the right things apart from Jesus. The question isn’t whether we’re doing them - it’s whether they’re bearing any lasting fruit.

Sunday Rewind - each week I share a sermon from the Battle Ready Sermons archive. My role has shifted to training the next generation of Salvation Army officers at William Booth College, so I’m no longer preaching every Sunday, but God’s word doesn’t go out of date. These messages are here to encourage, challenge, and point you to Jesus, whenever you need them.

This week’s sermon was originally preached 21 June 2021.

Remaining in Jesus, Rob suggests, isn’t about trying harder. It’s not about praying for longer or adding another meeting to the calendar. It’s about a relationship - spending time with a person, growing in love, letting that love spill outward into community and beyond.

And then there’s the moment that stops you in your tracks. A real-time search engine illustration shows what the world actually types when it thinks about Christians. Not “gracious.” Not “good neighbours.” Not “giving.”

It’s a wake-up call - and an invitation.

*Key takeaway:* Fruitfulness flows from connection, not activity. When we remain in Jesus - personally and together as a community - something changes. People notice love. And love draws people in.

*🎥 Watch the full sermon here:*

Draw me nearer. That’s the prayer.

This week’s sermon was originally preached 13 June 2021.

Dear friend.

Have you ever prayed and heard nothing back? Have you cried out to God in the middle of the night and been met with silence?

If you have, you are in very good company. The writer of Psalm 22 knows exactly how you feel. He starts with one of the rawest cries in all of Scripture - “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” - and if those words sound familiar, it is because Jesus used them too, from the cross at the lowest point of his earthly life.

Feeling abandoned by God is not a sign that your faith has failed. It is part of the honest human experience of following him.

But here is what I find so remarkable about this psalm. Right in the middle of the darkness, the psalmist chooses one small pivot. One word. Yet. He cannot feel God. He cannot hear God. And yet - he chooses to remember. He chooses to recall God’s faithfulness to those who went before him. And then he goes to his church family and gives his testimony.

Your testimony - your story of God’s faithfulness, however small - can give someone else the hope they need to keep going.

This week’s sermon explores Psalm 22 and asks: what do we do as God’s people when he feels absent? I think the answer will encourage you.

👇 Watch the full sermon here:

With you on the journey.

Rob

In Exodus 2, the people of Israel are in slavery. They’re groaning. They’re lamenting. And here’s what struck me this week: the passage doesn’t even say they were praying. It just says they cried out. No eloquent words. No tidy theology. Just raw, honest pain rising up from the dust.

And God heard them.

That’s the heart of this week’s sermon. Even when you haven’t got the strength to pray, even when your cry is just a groan into the air, God hears you. Not because you’ve earned it. Not because you’ve got the formula right. But because of who he is and the covenant he has made with you through Jesus.

Key takeaway: God’s love for you isn’t a contract you have to keep. It’s a covenant he will never break. If all you can do today is cry out, that’s enough. He’s already leaning in.

If you’re in a hard season right now, or you know someone who is, I’d love for you to watch the full sermon. Take 18 minutes. Bring your tea. And let this passage remind you that you are seen, heard, and remembered.

🎥 Watch the full message here:

Grace and peace.

Rob

This week I preached my final sermon at Maidenhead, and I turned to a passage that quietly took the weight off all of that. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul writes about who really makes things grow. He planted. Apollos watered. But the growth? That belonged to God all along.

I planted the seed in your hearts and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. (1 Corinthians 3:6)

That truth changes everything. It means you can stop striving. You can stop measuring your faith by numbers you can see. The growth that matters most is often quiet and unseen, happening in hearts and lives in ways no leader can manufacture.

Key takeaway: Your job isn’t to produce the growth. Your job is to stay rooted. Keep your roots deep in Jesus, keep showing up, and trust the one who gives the growth. He always has. He always will.

If you’re in a season of change right now, I think this message will meet you where you are.

👉 Watch the full sermon here:

And this week we begin a new seven-day series, When Everything Changes, on the channel and the Battle Drill app. I’d love you to walk through it with me.

Grace and peace.

Rob

In our Second Sunday Celebration this morning, we looked at Romans 6:12-23. Paul says that every day, we offer ourselves to something, whether we notice it or not. Our eyes, our hands, our mouth, and our legs are always serving someone.

We thought about the small choices that add up over time. A look that lingers too long. Hands that stay busy, but mostly for ourselves. Words we wish we could take back. Journeys we never quite make towards someone in need.

None of this is meant to leave you feeling worse about yourself. Quite the opposite.

Here is the key takeaway: Jesus did not come to help us try a bit harder. He came to set us free, completely, through his death and resurrection. Whatever your eyes have looked at, whatever your hands have done or not done, whatever your mouth has said, and wherever your legs have taken you, there is full and generous forgiveness. And there is a fresh start, today.

This week on the Battle Drill Daily Devotional, we are spending five minutes each morning going deeper into this, one part of the body at a time. I would love for you to join us.

You can watch the full message, Who Are You Living For?, here:

Wherever you are this week, you are not alone, and you are not stuck. There is grace for the past, and a new way forward, today.

When someone uses the word leader, does something in you step back?

Maybe you think of someone more confident. More polished. More obviously gifted. Maybe nobody has ever used that word about you, so you’ve never quite felt entitled to claim it.

This Sunday, I preached from Acts 2 on exactly that question - and Peter’s story changes everything.

Because Peter wasn’t polished. He was impulsive, loud, and prone to spectacular failure. He denied Jesus three times around a charcoal fire. He wept in the street. And yet - on the morning of Pentecost - the Holy Spirit stood him on his feet, and through one restored, Spirit-filled fisherman, a community of 3,000 people was born.

The question the sermon lands on is this: the Spirit who transformed Peter is the same Spirit living in every believer right now. Which means the real question isn’t “Am I the kind of person who could lead?” The question is “Am I willing to let the Spirit lead through me?”

Key takeaway: Your story - including the parts you’re most ashamed of - is not a liability in the hands of the Holy Spirit. It’s one of the most powerful tools of leadership you will ever have.

▶ Watch the full sermon here:

And if this speaks to you, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. What does leadership look like in your everyday frontline this week?

Grace to you.

Rob

Peter has denied Jesus three times. He’s gone back to fishing — probably because he doesn’t know what else to do when the thing you were meant to be has slipped through your fingers. And then Jesus appears on the beach. He lights a fire. He makes breakfast. And then, quietly, he asks a question.

Not: what on earth were you thinking? Not: let’s go through what happened, shall we?

Just: do you love me?

This Sunday at Maidenhead Salvation Army, we spent time in John 21:15-19 — the beach conversation that I think is one of the most tender, most precise, most hope-filled passages in all of Scripture.

We looked at how Peter’s wrong priorities led him to his famous failure, how Jesus’ response wasn’t a lecture but a restoration, and what it actually means to be forgiven and called in the same breath.

Key takeaway: Failure is never final with God. The same Jesus who restored Peter is asking you and me the same question today — not to examine the condition of your heart, but because he already knows the answer, and he wants to harness your love for something extraordinary.

🎬 Watch the full sermon here:

And starting tomorrow, the Battle Drill Daily Devotional channel will be spending seven days going much deeper into this beach scene — things like why Jesus lit a charcoal fire, why he asked the same question three times, and what it means to hear him say your name.

If you know someone who needs a bit of hope this week, please do share this with them. It costs nothing. It might mean more than you know.

Rob

Jesus turns to his disciples and asks, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” The crowd’s guesses come back: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah. Then he narrows it: “But who do you say I am?”

And Simon Peter - impulsive, inconsistent, not-yet-fully-formed Peter - answers with the most remarkable words in the Gospels. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

What happens next is what this sermon is really about.

Jesus doesn’t just say, “Well done, Peter.” He reveals Peter’s purpose. He hands him the keys of the kingdom of heaven - the same image the prophet Isaiah used for the faithful steward who opens and closes the royal court. Peter is given a calling in the very moment he recognises who Jesus really is.

And then Jesus keeps his word. At Pentecost, at Cornelius’s door, in Samaria - Peter opened the kingdom to thousands. Not because he was perfect. He denied Jesus three times. But because he was forgiven, and willing.

The key takeaway: Jesus doesn’t hand the keys to perfect people. He hands them to forgiven ones. And if you belong to him, you’re already holding a set. Your street. Your workplace. Your kitchen table. Those are the doors you’ve been called to open.

Watch the full sermon here:

Grace and peace.

Rob

And in those moments, the question often surfaces - not loudly, but honestly. Does God actually know I’m here?

This Sunday at Maidenhead Salvation Army, we sat with that question together. We started with a brilliantly daft argument about whether Australia exists (trust me, it makes sense in context), worked through the evidence for God that surrounds us every single day - and landed on one of the most personal promises Jesus ever made.

John 14:18. “When I go, you will not be left all alone. I will come back to you.”

No pressure. No performance. Just presence.

🔑 Key Takeaway

Wherever you are on the faith spectrum this week - wondering, watching, or walking closely with Jesus - that promise is for you. You are not alone. You have never been alone. And if you belong to Jesus, you never will be.

This week’s challenge is a simple one: each morning, before your feet hit the floor, pray just one sentence: “Holy Spirit, I’m not alone today. Please help me notice you.”

Then watch. He’ll show up - at home, at work, on the school run, in the queue at the shops.

▶️ Watch the full Sunday message here:

And if this stirred something for you, there’s more. New devotional videos land every morning on YouTube - one small step of faith at a time. Subscribe and walk through it with us.

When life gets stormy - when the job falls through, the relationship breaks down, the diagnosis arrives, the future feels uncertain - we do what feels sensible. We grip the sides, keep our heads down, and wait for it to pass.

The disciples did the same thing. They’d been fighting the waves all night when they saw something coming out of the darkness. Their first instinct wasn’t to step towards it. It was to shrink back in fear.

But not Peter.

This Sunday’s sermon looks at Matthew 14:22-34 - one of the most vivid, dramatic scenes in all of the Gospels. It’s the story of Peter stepping out of the boat and onto the water. And it raises a question worth sitting with this week:

What if the safest place isn’t where you feel safe - but where Jesus is?

Key Takeaway

Jesus doesn’t ask you to have it all worked out before you step. He simply says: “Yes, come.” And that has always been enough. We step. We falter. He grabs us. We walk on together. That’s not failure - that’s faith.

🎬 Watch the full sermon here:

If this lands with you, I’d love to hear about it. Just hit reply.

Grace and peace.

Rob

Peter had one that morning by the Sea of Galilee. He was tired, he’d worked through the night, he knew the water far better than the carpenter standing in his boat - and what Jesus was asking simply didn’t make sense. Every instinct he had, every bit of professional knowledge, every logical bone in his body said: this won’t work.

And yet.

“But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” - Luke 5:5

Five words. And they opened the door to the greatest catch of his life - and then to something far greater still.

This week’s sermon at Maidenhead Salvation Army looks at Luke 5:1-11, and it asks a question that I think a lot of us carry around quietly: what does it actually mean to be called by God? Because it turns out, it’s not a job for the qualified. It’s an invitation for the willing.

Key takeaway: Jesus doesn’t step into polished, sorted, ready-for-ministry lives. He steps into ordinary boats - your workplace, your Monday morning, your unremarkable routine - and says the same thing he said to Peter: follow me.

Watch the full sermon here:

And if you want to go deeper this week, I’ll be releasing a brand new daily devotional series from tomorrow, picking up a different thread from Luke 5 each morning. Five minutes a day. Subscribe so you don’t miss a single one.

Grace and peace.

Rob

On Easter Sunday evening - hours after Mary had run back to the disciples shouting “I have seen the Lord!” - the disciples were still hiding behind locked doors.

They were frightened. They were unsure. They weren’t exactly bursting with faith.

And that’s exactly where Jesus showed up.

This Sunday at Maidenhead Salvation Army, we spent time in John 20:19-31 - one of the most honest and human passages in all of Scripture. It’s the story of frightened disciples, a sceptical Thomas, and a risen Jesus who doesn’t tell anyone off for doubting. He just... shows up. He holds out his hands. He says, “Peace be with you.”

Shalom. Not just the absence of stress - but life in its fullest, most whole sense. Every blessing of the kingdom of God, spoken over people who were still working things out.

Key takeaway: If you’re somewhere between wanting to believe and not quite being there yet, you’re in very good company. Bring your doubts to Jesus. He can handle them. Thomas did - and it led to the most complete statement of faith in the whole of John’s Gospel.

This week, try this: find just one person and tell them what Easter means to you. It doesn’t need to be long. It just needs to be honest.

▶️ Watch the full message below - it’s about 26 minutes and includes a rather entertaining object lesson involving kitchen scales and a thermostat.

Before you get to the eggs and the family supper, can I ask you something honest?

Is there a part of your life that feels stuck? Not broken, necessarily - just locked. Like the life you were hoping for is on the other side of a door you can’t quite open?

Most of us know that feeling. We carry it quietly - behind the smiles, behind the busy-ness, behind the version of ourselves we show the world.

This Easter Sunday at Maidenhead Salvation Army, I preached on exactly that. Because here’s what I believe the resurrection is really about. It isn’t just a story we tell once a year. It’s the announcement that in Jesus Christ, that door has been flung wide open.

In John 10, Jesus says something remarkable: “I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.” And in John 20, on the very first Easter evening, he walked straight through a locked door to reach a group of terrified, hiding disciples - and said simply, “Peace be with you.”

He still does.

Key takeaway: You don’t have to have your life sorted out before you step through. You can come as you are - with your fears, your failures, your doubts, your exhaustion - and find that the door is open. It always has been.

🎬 Watch the full Easter sermon here:

He is risen. The door is open. I hope it means something to you today.

Rob

P.S. This week’s daily devotionals pick up threads from this sermon and take them deeper - looking at the invisible prisons of pretending, unforgiveness, and fear. Hit subscribe if you’d like them in your inbox every morning.

The moment the temple curtain tore.

Not a thin piece of fabric. This was a structure 60 feet tall and four inches thick - a densely woven barrier that separated ordinary people from the most sacred space in the whole world. Only one man could pass through it, once a year, after days of ritual preparation. For everyone else - the sick, the struggling, the sinful, the ordinary - it said clearly: you cannot come in here.

Until Good Friday changed that. For ever.

In this week’s sermon, I want us to slow down and really look at what happened in that moment. When the curtain tore from top to bottom - not from the ground up, as a human hand might, but from heaven toward earth - it meant something staggering. God himself tore it. God wanted the door open.

And Hebrews puts it plainly: because of the blood of Jesus, we can now enter boldly into God’s presence. Not tentatively. Not apologetically. Boldly.

Key takeaway: The door is not ajar for the spiritually sorted. It is torn wide open for everyone - including you, exactly as you are today.

👉 Watch the full sermon here:

And starting Easter Monday, join me for seven short morning devotionals going deeper into what it really means to walk through the open door. Subscribe on YouTube so you don’t miss the first one.

He has done it. It is finished. Walk through.

Rob Westwood-Payne Maidenhead Salvation Army | Battle Drill Daily Devotional | Battle Ready Sermons

And then Jesus stopped - and wept.

Not quiet tears. Luke tells us it was loud, deep lamentation. Right there in the middle of what should have been the greatest moment of celebration.

This Palm Sunday, we asked why.

The answer changes everything. Jesus wasn’t weeping because he was sad to be celebrated. He was weeping because he could see people all around him who would miss the very thing that was worth celebrating - the good news of happiness that he came to bring.

That phrase, the good news of happiness, comes from Isaiah 52:7 - a verse the angels echo at Jesus’ birth. And it’s the phrase that sits at the heart of this week’s sermon.

Key takeaway: Joy and compassion aren’t opposites. Jesus held both at once. And we’re called to do the same - to celebrate what God has done in our lives, and to ache for those who haven’t yet found it.

William Booth put it brilliantly: “I’m pleased that you are pleased - but amidst all your joys, don’t forget the sons and daughters of misery.”

This Holy Week, who are you carrying in your heart?

🎥 Watch the full Palm Sunday sermon here:

And starting tomorrow, join me for The Door Is Open - a brand new Holy Week devotional series, five minutes a morning, all the way to Easter Sunday.

Subscribe so you don’t miss a single day.

In our latest sermon for Mothers’ Day, we explore the life of Jochebed. She was an unnamed slave woman in Egypt. In the eyes of the world, she was a nobody. But she was the mother who saved Moses and changed history.

She taught us that faith is “caught more than it is taught”. By loving her son and teaching him the ways of God in the ordinary moments of life, she prepared him for his great calling.

If you feel unseen today, remember that God has a habit of doing his best work through the people the world overlooks. Your quiet prayers and gentle corrections matter.

May you know that you are seen, known, and loved by God today.

Have you ever had one of those mornings where you wake up and just want to start the whole day again? Perhaps you feel a bit like a plastic water bottle left in a hot car - a bit stale and not very refreshing.

In our latest all-age message from Maidenhead Salvation Army, we explore the story of the woman at the well. It is a story about a woman who felt “not enough,” yet she met a man who offered her everything.

Jesus did not wait for her to get her life in order. He did not ask her to clean up her act. He simply offered her living water.

If you are feeling dry or weary, I invite you to take a moment to watch this week’s video. We also share a moving story from actor Andrew Garfield about his own journey with these feelings.

God knows your story, he knows your mistakes, and he loves you anyway.

In Christ.

Rob Westwood-Payne
Captain

My dear friends.

Have you ever felt like you just do not have enough? We often look at our neighbours and feel we are falling behind. But if we look at the whole world, most of us are incredibly blessed.

This week, we looked at 1 Timothy 6 to discover how to handle the affluence God has trusted us with. We often get stuck in the “more” trap - thinking more money will make us happier, more important, or more secure. But these are myths. True security is only found in God.

Money is simply a tool to help us fulfil God’s purposes. I invite you to consider five ways you can invest your resources today:

1. Treasury Fund: Worship through giving.

2. Mutual Fund: Build Christian fellowship.

3. Growth Fund: Invest in your own spiritual life.

4. Service Fund: Help those in need.

5. Global Fund: Spread the gospel to the world.

You cannot take your wealth with you, but through generosity, you can send it on ahead to heaven.

I hope this message encourages you to live a life of significance this week.

Grace and peace.

Captain Rob