Bethel Mennonite Church - Gladys VA

Romans 14:1-23 My prayer is that the things I share from Romans will give you a hunger to search for the deep things of God. The principles Paul gives are timeless and firmly anchored in divine revelation. Beginning in verse one, Paul exhorts us to accept the one who is weak in the faith. We are to receive him because Christ has already done so. In Romans 15:7 we are told “receive one another as C...

Text: Romans 13:1-14 Last night we talked about our relationship with the body of Christ, but tonight our focus is on our relationship with those without. These include our non-Christian friends and neighbors and the government. Beginning in verse 14 of Romans 12 Paul begins to focus beyond the sphere of the Church. It seems to me that in this passage, Paul instructs us on how to interact with non...

The Body of Christ is mentioned a number of times here in the first part of chapter 12. To begin with Paul covers the relationship of the church to the World. Then he talks about the individual Christian finding his place in the Body of Christ. It is obvious from the title of the sermon this evening that we are assuming a number of things. That being made new, we become part of the Body of Christ....

Romans 11:33-36, Romans 12:2, Psalm 4:1, Titus 3:5, Ephesians 5:25 The unsearchable riches of God should not be left unexplored; Part of man’s uniqueness is being created in the image of God. This allows us to think and contemplate the “depths of the riches of God.” “Inexhaustible fullness” of God’s wisdom. 3 Questions – Romans 11:34-35 God is the source of everything good, He is the “Object...

Romans 9 Israels rejection of Christ and the Gospel raised profound questions, wherever Paul went across the Roman Empire. Since we don’t have Jewish roots we probably will have a bit of a hard time understanding the depth of some of these questions. At first glance Romans 9 contains some theological concepts that we have some difficulty dealing with. The overall thrust of this chapter is that Isr...

John 17:1-26 – This is Christ’s prayer immediately before his trial and death. Hopefully we can be drawn into God’s intentions for and toward us as we look at this this morning. There are many thoughts in these verses. Verses 1-5 Christ says “Glorify your Son” – this speaks of the relationship that the Father and the Son have. These verses express the intimate nature of the relationshi...

The Spirit that is big enough to hover over the whole world at the creation is also small enough to nestle in each one of us. Most of what I have to say about the Spirit could also be the other members of the Trinity. But we should remember that the Trinity is made up of three distinct Persons, although one communion of love. Several weeks ago we looked in the Old Testament at the work of the Spir...

Matthew 20:29-34 – Jesus and His 12 disciples were traveling, along with them was a multitude following Jesus and being interested in what he was doing. This is just before the triumphal entry and towards the end of Jesus ministry. The characters of this story are two blind men. Jesus mentions that he was sent to heal the blind. Often blindness was understood as a punishment for sin, there w...

How we feel is not determined by our circumstances, but by what we focus on. Internal attitudes are more important that external circumstances. This means that we tend to see what we’re looking for. Including in other people. I think there are two kinds of people— complainers and worshippers. They may have the same circumstances, but they have two different views. How do worshippers do it? They ar...

Ephesians 6:10-13 Often we express our identity by what we “stand”. If we don’t know our identity, the easier a target we are for Satan. If we know our Christian identity we have freedom to live it. HOW SATAN STEALS OUR IDENTITY 1) He gets us caught up in the routine of life Satan wants to take away any glory for God and make life routine and to see everything as ordinary. 2) He makes us think we...

I want to talk about being authentic Christinas. Sometimes we get caught up in the pretense of being real. How real are you? Joshua 24:9-15 I think because of our background we learn really well how to pretend. I’m afraid that sometimes we as young people grow up faking it. That’s not an authentic life. Numbers 22,23 (the story of Balaam) Seven things that fake Christians do: 1) They live in fear...

A very very long time ago I went to Maranatha Bible School. In the second term, the choir director asked me to have a speaking part during a song. About two days before the program, we had a little get together, with some singing. We sang the song, and I’m wondering should I do my part or not? Someone tapped me on my shoulder… so I did. After I was done, I was roped again and told… “Yo...

All of us have some growing to do… My theme this weekend is Purpose. The subjects I’m going to talk about are Appetite, Identity and attitude. I want to talk about your spiritual appetites first. I want to tell you a story. There once was a young man who walked on the farm with his dad. He helped tend the animals… he was always busy. Life was just work. In time this man go tired of wor...

Text: Colossians 1:15-23 Other Scriptures: Philippians 2:6, John 10: 30, 38, John 12:44-45, John 14:6-11, John 1:18 Who is Jesus? The person of Christ… His humanity and divinity, His relationship to the Father, His relationship to creation, and His relation to us. There are a lot of bad things in life; there are bad things in the Bible. We easily forget Who God is and His presence in these t...

Scriptures: Romans 8:9; Genesis 1, 2; I Samuel 10; II Samuel 23; Ezekiel 2:36-?; Isaiah 11, 42, 61; A genuine Christian has the Spirit indwelling Him. And He does this for all believers around the whole world at once! I’m afraid we are prone to take the Spirit for granted. At creation, the Godhead worked in harmony, the Spirit hovering and brooding over the chaos. During the Creation of man, the S...

Text: John 17:1-5 Other references: Romans 8:26; John 12:23-29; Romans 11:33-36; Hebrews 7:25 No one understands us like Jesus. When we join Him in prayer we can experience love and acceptance. We can never wrap our minds around the depth of His love. Jesus is still praying for us. he invites us to pray with Him. Jesus prays for God’s glory. He prays for it to be revealed to everyone. It is a pray...

Text: 2 Timothy 2:16,17 I would like to present some evidence for the truthfulness of Scripture. I will mostly focus on archaeology and fulfilled prophecy. Science provides evidence for the creation. The world is filled with highly developed organisms. There is the scientific thoughts in Scripture that were far ahead of their time. Archaeology… If God wrote this Book, what would you expect t...

Text: Colossians 1:1-14 Other References: I john 3:12 This letter was written after Paul had a visitor from Colossae. Paul was dealing with some heresy present in the Colossian church. Two heresies addresses: 1) a belief that a Christian must follow the Old Testament ceremonial law, and 2) that salvation is primarily a matter of special knowledge rather than faith in Jesus Christ. The first was Je...

Have You Ever Been Afraid? Matthew 10 – Fear is something that all of us have experienced. The disciples here were probably experiencing some fear as well! If we are true disciples of Jesus we will also be asked to face some times and situations in our lives that will cause us some fear. Jesus tells us clearly in these verses to “Fear them not.” While it is nice to hear our Savior say these...

Meekness is closely related to humility. They cannot really be separated, but they are not the same thing. Humility is how we see ourselves compared to other people, pride would be the opposite of what humility is. Meekness is a response to others, to circumstances, and to God. There must be humility along with meekness, but it is a character quality before it comes out in a response in word or in...

An evening talk from our neighbor to the north. Freeman Miller talking about child training. The post Child Training – Part 1 appeared first on Bethel Mennonite Church - Gladys VA .

Text: Matthew 19:16-22 Other references: Romans 3:19,20; Romans 3:21-24, 26; Romans 8:29; Matthew 10:25 Each of us must be perfected to enter into the presence of God. Every one of us has a time appointed when we will experience Him, in His absolute perfection and holiness. Are we ready? Jesus is the standard by which we will be judged. He is a perfect person— and we must draw near to Him. The Ten...

Hebrews 10:35-39 – Nebuchadnezzar had men picked out from among the captives to serve the kingdom. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were three such young men. Daniel 3 – Nebuchadnezzar built an image. Likely an image of himself. He wanted to see all people bow down and worship this image. These three young men were “caught” not bowing down to the statue. After giving them a second chance...

Matthew 14:13-21 – One thing that John mentions that Matthew didn’t is that the source of the loaves and fishes was a young boy. This miracle was a powerful statement about who Jesus was. John 14:10-18 – Jesus said that those who believe in him will do the same kinds of things that he did… even greater works. Would we be expected to feed 10,000 people? What does this mean? 1 Cori...

Texts: Psalms 45:1-8; Philippians 2:7; Hebrews 12:2; Luke 2:28-32 Are you ready for Christmas? Some of the ways that people celebrate Christmas… How does God view Christmas? The incarnation was God’s plan, not ours. Our text gives us Heaven’s perspective. How does the incarnation affect me personally? Christmas is about God mending something that has been broken; it’s called salvation. With...