Bethel Mennonite Church - Gladys VA

Colossians 4:2 – “Be persistent and devoted to prayer, being alert and focused in your prayer life with an attitude of thanksgiving.” Prayer is an expression of our heart to God. It is done in faith that God is, and that God is hearing our words. We express to God our longings and our worship. Paul teaches in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that we should be praying without ceasing. He is describing a...

How to Find Refuge & Comfort in God Psalm 62:1-12 – When you talk with someone who has first hand experience with something it is worth listening to it! David when through many difficult things so when he says that we can trust God to be our refuge, we can believe him! The Difficulty David is Facing It isn’t 100% clear if the leaning wall in verse 3 is referring to David, or if it’...

Luke 10:38-42 – Distraction is something that we all face, distraction something that prevents us from giving attention to something that is more important. This passage is the story of Mary and Martha. Mary sat and listened, she continued to focus on Jesus and hear His words. Martha was distracted, or troubled with much serving. The things that she had to do distracted her from what was imp...

We all face decisions every single day. What will I eat for breakfast. Should I read a book? What book should I read? Should I go to college? A lot of times we can wonder if we are making the right decisions. As Christians we are concerned about what God thinks of our decisions and we want to do His will. Younger people in particular are often curious about what God wants them to do. Older folks w...

When we face problems in life we tend to try to fix them on our own. Living the way God wants us to may not be popular or comfortable or easy… but it is the best way. As we look at the world around us we see that having a non resistant position isn’t a very popular position to have. We want to look at this carefully because it could be construed that we are being critical of country or rebel...

Psalm 61:1-8 – Have you ever felt overwhelmed in life? We all want to feel strong and independent and like we can accomplish things in our lives. We tend to be stubborn and struggle alone for a long time before we get to a point where we admit that we need some help. God has a way of showing us how self reliant we tend to be. We know in our heads that we need other people but sometimes it do...

Matthew 16 – What does “cross bearing mean” it means bearing ones cross and death to self. Facing one direction and not being able to turn around. A man on a cross cannot turn around and look at what is behind him. The man going to the cross does not say “Peter, I’ll see you to go fishing next Tuesday.” There are no future plans when someone is going to the cross. We pursue what we want most...

Text: 2 Chronicles 14, 15, 16 Other references: Matthew 9:22,23; 9:28-30; Matthew 15:22-28; Matthew 14:22-33; Acts 11:18 Asa sought the Lord in great distress— but did not in smaller things. His life shows a troubling trend of lessening dependence on God. I believe that it’s possible for us maturing Christians to begin to trust in things other than God. We can rationalize our way through life that...

Texts: Matthew 10:24-39; Matthew 16:21-27; Luke 14:25-33 Companies have their own set of values; People have their own set values. Jesus gave us a unique set of values. These are the values we are to learn in discipleship. Do we live them? Disciples of Jesus value being right with God over being right with men. If you want to follow Jesus, you will have to put a higher value on your relationship w...

Texts used – Matthew 25:4, Ephesians 1:4, 2 Chronicles 16:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:3, Psalm 23 God knows our frailties. God has provided gracious provisions for us. So that we can respond correctly and grow in character. Only an all knowing God could orchestrate move and work in these kinds of ways. 2 Chronicles 16:9 – God knows and is interested and involved and provides help encouragemen...

It is a good thing for us to be introspective at this time of the year. It is very important where our hearts are so it is a good thing for us to spend some time considering and thinking about. John 15:1-17 – Vines and fruit. The Passover is at full moon. There’s a good chance that Jesus and his disciples were walking through the country, perhaps through some vineyards, in the light of the f...

The first Christmas broke the silence that had been in place for some 400 years. What the people on earth couldn’t see was “the other side.” Heaven was mounting a full scale rescue operation. God was sending forth a living word, in flesh, breaking the silence. Luke 1 – Zechariah was chosen to go in and burn the incense on the alter. While he was there an angel appeared to him. Zechariah was...

John 18 – Pilate in the trial of Jesus asked the age old question, “what is truth?” Truth originates with God, it is the self expression of God. It is consistent with who God is. God is who we measure truth by. Today there is so much information that truth can get somewhat muddy. John 1:14 – John presents truth as a concept that is important of itself. Jesus was full of grace and truth...

Luke 10:25-37 – There are roles in this story that we can identify with at different times in our lives. Parables are interesting. We like stories. Jesus told stories that a lot of people could relate to. His parables should be taken to make a simple point. At times we can try to pull too many things out of these parables. We’re not really told whether this lawyer was hostile towards Jesus o...

We live in a world of many religions and there is a constant call to be more tolerant of other peoples beliefs and views. You have your god and I have mine. Some people would say that it is wrong to claim that “my way is the only way.” This morning we want to look at the question, “who decides what is right?” Acts 17 – Paul had been on Mars Hill and he saw alters and gods that people worship...

1 Corinthians 11 – Where Jesus instituted the communion service. We certainly want to remember and think often of what Jesus has done for us, and that is part of why we are here this morning. As we remember Jesus and what he has done, if we really remember him as we should, it brings us to worship him. To worship Him is to follow him. John 10:11-18 – We remember Jesus not as “a” good s...

There are about 3200 tigers in the wild. There are close to 5000 in captivity, the majority of them are owned by private owners, not zoos. James 3:1-18 – We all make mistakes. Those who are instructing others are in a place that gives them increased opportunity to make mistakes. How We View the Tongue James compares the tongue to a bit in a horses mouth, or the rudder of a ship, or a spark t...

Text: Revelation 19:1-10; 17, 18 Understanding prophecy is not that you understand how everything will happen but that God will win. We can’t sit back and wait for God to do all the pulling! We must understand that there is a glorious end. When we lose sight of that we get discouraged. He will defeat the violence, corruption, and evil of the world. The great system that had grown up over the whole...

Text – Matthew My unofficial title this weekend, is why do church? Church attendance and membership has declined in the west. Large inner city church buildings are being sold. They are being converted into office buildings and gyms. It is a sign of what is happening spiritually, under the surface. There are two factors here: one is the rise of the “nones” — people who claim no religious affi...

Text: Ephesians 4:1-16 What are some of the out workings, how we do Church? We might do church in different ways, but each church needs to have certain things. There are some components that are necessary. Key components of the church: Repentance – reorientation of life Separation – a different kingdom Mission – proclaiming the power and kingdom of Christ Discipleship – wat...

Text: Colossians 3:1-4; 5-11; 12-17 Other references: Romans 6:5; Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:1,2; Philippians 3:7; Romans 13:14 You have died an earthly death; And you now have a heavenly life hidden in Christ. As we have put our faith in Jesus, we die and are raised with Him. You are now reconciled with God… It is an incredible privilege to belong to Jesus. We needed a death and a resurrec...

Galen Yoder – Time & Opportunities Ephesians 5:15-17, Colossians 4:5, Psalm 90:12, Psalm 39 – A few things for us to think about. Wise people understand the significance of time passing. It is an ordinary event, but it is an important thing to realize. Wise people understand these consequences before they become irreversible. Running out of time is a “game over” moment… you c...

Matthew 6:9-15 – As Christians we should not be obsessed with the devil. We shouldn’t be constantly fearful or wrapped up in things of the devil and what he is doing now, today. When we hear of evil, or are tempted with evil, we need to remember that he is our enemy, he has clever devices and evil purposes. We must not forget either that he is a defeated foe! Our focus and our life should be...

John 3:1-21 – Nicodemus doesn’t seem to be like at least some of the other Pharisees. Nicodemus was a man in darkness and he was seeking the light. It is entirely possible that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night just to try to get some answers and he knew that fewer people would be around Jesus to “get in the way” of him asking his questions. Some of the Pharisees were talking about the miracl...

Text: Philippians 1:6 (1:1-30) Other References: Ephesians 2:9,10; Romans 8:28,29; Philippians 3:12; Jesus is making a masterpiece of you and me. I pray that you can stop and think on the journey of all the grace that God is pouring out on us. God has a plan for each person— He wants to work His work in everyone. We just need to cooperate. This is such a hopeful verse. We are not yet to the goal....