Bethel Mennonite Church - Gladys VA

What “Mountains” do we face? God offers His wisdom and power through prayer. He will only give us good things, and will change us as take our needs to Him. Is it possible that we have not, because we ask not? We can be confident in the working of God. Text: Mark 11:12 – 14, 20 – 26 Lessons of the Fig Tree Faith in God Who hears… Life is full of difficulties, “mountains” that must...

God cares a great deal about holiness— if we want to please Him we must be holy. We need to remember that holiness is a process. Paul expects the Thessalonians to do better— he has hope for them. God is merciful. But it is not an excuse to not strive, as God can help us to stand and to be faithful. I Thessalonians 3:11-13 – Christ and the Father are united in the work of directing us in frui...

Jeremiah 17:7-10 – The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? The human heart is in a desperate and helpless condition. This heart hides from itself. It’s owner sometimes doesn’t even know his own heart, and can believe that he is doing better than he really is. The Lord sees the hearts of man and is a discerning God. He sees all that is there. As Christ...

I Thessalonians 2:13-20; 3:1-11 We continue our study through the book of First Thessalonians. Today’s passage focuses on the perseverance of this church and Paul’s love for them— his “hope”, “joy”, and “crown” (v.19). Paul cared about discipling the Churches that he started. He was aware of the needs they had, and did what it took to strengthen them in their faith. This isn’t always easy, but the...

Malachi 4:6 God’s desire is that our hearts would be turned to Him as our Heavenly Father, and our human fathers. If there is going to be a heart change, Jesus is the only one who can do that. The presence of the father in the home and the lives of their children is of great importance. It’s a very serious thing for almighty God to place in our hands a never dying soul. It is a challenge for us to...

We’ll be looking at Judges 6 this morning. The people of God were hiding, they were hopeless against the Midianites who were oppressing them. God had a message for Gideon and he shares it with him. It is a message of God’s presence. God’s Presence Gideon really needed some assurance that God was present with him. Gideon thought that he had seen the Lord and that because he had seen him face to fac...

Paul writes to Timothy and says, that he serves God with a “pure conscience.” Paul probably wasn’t perfect all the time, but he knew how he needed to live and he lived that way. Three basic verb tenses. Past. Present. Future. There are more, but we’ll keep it fairly simple here. Past tense: Jack jumped – Sometime before this moment Jack jumped. It could have been weeks, minutes, days, years...

I Thessalonians 2:1-12 Paul reminds the believers at Thessalonica of his conduct among them. His coming had not been in vain— because they were bold in the gospel through God’s power. Paul had been tested by God, and had been “approved”. He did not flaunt his authority among them or ask them for material support. They had been gentle among these babies in the faith. Rather they were dear to Paul,...

Text: John 12:1-8 | Other references: Romans 12:1,6-8; Hebrews 13:15; Revelation 3:20 Worship is our response to the love and goodness of God. Everything good comes from Him. We honor Him with extravagant love and extreme submission. True worship is mindful and comes from a heart of love and gratefulness. Using Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, we look at three ways we worship: Like Martha, we worship Go...

Its hard to know what to say about mothers. Here are some quotes about mothers. The most important thing a father can do for his children is love their mother. All I am. I owe to my mother. A school teacher said, tell mothers to train their children so that I don’t have to do it for them. Jesus and His Compassion for Mothers Luke 7:11-17 – Jesus has compassion on a widow. We could say...

Free From the Law of Sin and Death Romans 7, it is built around three rhetorical questions. Know ye not that the law has dominion over man as long as he lives? Is the law sin? Was that which is good made death unto me? We are freed by the dominion of sin by Gods divine enabling power of grace! None of us can live a victorious Christian life in our own strength. Romans 8 is a picture of the “normal...

Romans 6:1-23 Jesus offering himself on the cross was something that he did for us. His suffering, death and shedding of blood was effective in allowing us to have a changed relationship with God. As justified and sanctified believes we can stand in the hope that comes from God. We no longer have to come short of the glory of God all the time. Grace that super abundantly much more abounds. In a se...

In tonight’s session we explore Paul’s teaching on justification. Already in the Old Testament justification was based on faith. Justification is our being brought into a right relationship with God– it changes everything. We are actually made holy before God. The Doctrine of Justification The doctrine of justification by faith in the old testament The doctrine of justification by fait...

Romans 3:21-31 The things that we’ve been looking at this week are nothing new, but they are fundamental to our understanding of faith and salvation. There is no appeal, no plea bargain, no defense to be made in reality. The only right response is to see how “vile” we are, as Job did in the Old Testament. What does it mean to be “under the law?” As soon as one breaks the law, he comes under condem...

While our judgement is often untrustworthy, God’s judgement is always reliable. “To believe in the fact of divine judgement points to the intrinsic value of human existence. For if God regards what we do important enough to judge, He must regard us important enough to matter.” (Stuart Briscoe) Paul also examines the presumptuous piety of the self-righteous Jew. The Integrity of Divine Judgement (2...

Text – Romans 1:18-32 In the opening chapters of Romans, Paul brings all men into the courtroom of Heaven, and he indites them all as sinners before a holy God. He explores how sin corrupts the experience of man; Sin and disobedience are a slippery slope that leads to a degenerate life. Properly understanding sin is necessary to correctly understand anthropology and soteriology. Seven Steps...

The spiritual truths found in this scripture (and many scriptures!) are incredibly deep. No matter the amount of times that we look at these scriptures we will usually find something new here. Romans 1:1-17 – This seems to basically a prologue to the book of Romans. It is an overview of what the author is going to cover in the rest of the text. Paul says three things about himself, things th...

Texts: I Thessalonians 1; Also Acts 17:1-10, James 1:23,24 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16) The gospel– the power of God– is vital, not only at conversion, but also in the ongoing life of the believer. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel...

Referenced texts: Psalm 130, 6, 22, 38; Lamentations 1, 2, 3; Habakkuk; Job 3, 6, etc.; Isaiah 53, 57, 58; Matthew 4:23, 8:14-17 Summary: Many people experience times of darkness and despair- a ‘midnight of the soul’. This is a consequence of living in a world broken and thrown into chaos by the tyranny of sin. The Bible gives us a way of dealing with this… through lament. The Bible itself is full...

Throughout history, God’s people have found themselves in bleak circumstances and despair… and yet God provided great deliverance for them. We know that God wins. God is able to work through weakness and seemingly impossible situations to bring glory to Himself. Some examples from Scripture: Joseph Moses The People of Israel/Ai Paul Jesus Christ Christians are on the winning side… God’s resources...

Romans 15:4 and 1 Kings 19:1-18 We have faith in a living, risen Christ! This gives us a hope for the future as well as today and this week. Elijah on the run ‎Elijah under the tree ‎Elijah in the cave What are you doing here? God has a purpose for each of us! Elijah experienced disappointment ‎God heard Elijah ‎God sent help ‎God guided Elijah ‎God spoke softly ‎God corrected Elijah Questions&#82...

Four qualities of the resurrected life: Purpose – 2 Cor. 5:14-17; Eph. 2:10 Hope – 1 Peter 1:3-5 Joy – John 20:19-20 Power – Eph. 1:15-20; Romans 6:4, 5 The post A Resurrected Life appeared first on Bethel Mennonite Church - Gladys VA .

Text: Hebrews 11 There are many things we can put our faith in Our faith is not in God, not ourselves Five Essential Elements of our Faith Solid Foundations – 1 Peter 2:4-7, Luke 6:48, Psalm 71:3 – We find this in God, in His word, and in prayer A Sure Hope in the Father – Hebrews 11:1 Faith pleases God – Hebrews 11:6 Faith sees ahead to the Homeland – Hebrews 11:15,1...

This message is part of the 2018 Youth Rally. Here are links to each of the sermons. Called To Serve The King A Vessel Prepared Whats In Your Vessel My Father’s Business The Day of Reckoning Texts: Revelation 22:12 and Luke 19:12 – 27; Other references: Matthew 10:32, Romans 8:17, Luke 12:42 – 46 Our life here affects our eternal destiny Those that choose to serve Him here will continu...

This message is part of the 2018 Youth Rally. Here are links to each of the sermons. Called To Serve The King A Vessel Prepared Whats In Your Vessel My Father’s Business The Day of Reckoning Texts: Luke 2; Ephesians 1:4,12,23,24; II Corinthians 9:12; Numbers 14:21; Habakkuk 2:14 Ephesians 4:15,16 Who are we and what are we doing here? I belong to the King and I’m here to do the Father’s business G...