Bethel Mennonite Church - Gladys VA Bethel Mennonite Church

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Sin blocks/hinders fellowship with God. Repentance clears sin away, opening the way and restoring fellowship with God and joy. Walking in the light of fellowship with Christ is the life of a penitent. In the Light they see their sins. They’re sensitive to sin and repent of it to keep fellowship flourishing. (Acts 3:19; 1 John 1:4-9).

What makes up repentance?



* Conviction. The case and realization we have sinned. Reprobates and those with seared consciences may not feel conviction. Not everyone who’s convicted repents. But all penitents feel conviction.

* Contrition. The remorse and grief that comes with conviction, knowing we’ve grieved the Spirit, and seeing fellowship affected. Paul wrote of godly sorrow that leads to repentance and worldly sorrow that doesn’t. (2 Cor 7:9-10).

* Confession. Agreeing with God regarding our sin and sinfulness. David’s confession after his sin against Uriah, Bathsheba, and God is a classic example. When confronted by the prophet, he said, “I am the man.” No excuses. Psalm 51 is his moving confession, lament, and prayer.

* Change of heart. A change of mind and purpose from sin and selfishness to God. After Paul was helped to his feet after his experience on his way to Damascus, he was still headed toward Damascus, but his heart had done a 180-degree turn.

* Forsaking old. Leaving sin and carnality. What does that look like?



* Forsaking means following through. Sometimes people delay and put off taking the practical steps. They’ve decided, but haven’t followed through. They may feel relief, elation, and even rest, but they’re not further along. The longer the delay, the more likely their new resolve weakens and withers. (Parable of the soils Matthew 13).

* Forsaking means leaving sin. A break with wrong thoughts, attitudes, behavior.

* Forsaking means not looking back. Israel murmured against Moses and remembered Egypt. (Numbers 11; Hebrews 11:13-16). Those who look longingly back increase their risk of returning to the old life.

* Forsaking means hating sin. 1 John 1.15; Psalm 97.10; Proverbs 8.13. Not an on/off switch for that. Anything that improves our relationship with God and coming to see sin from God’s point of view will help make sin less appealing. It’s possible to feel the appeal and temptation of sin while despising it (Romans 7).

* Forsaking sin means making no provision for the flesh. Don’t make it easy to sin. Christians pray “lead us not into temptation” but sometimes carelessly walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand with sinners, and sit where the scornful gather. They hear the thoughts and stories of the scornful and watch their activities. Those influences are not edifying and weaken the righteous.





* Embracing the new. “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Hebrews 12.1-3 is repentance in a nutshell. A Christian doesn’t stop sinful behavior and attitudes through brute force and will power without God’s grace for victory. We need the “Holy Spirit and fire” John the Baptist said Jesus would bring. When we experience John 15 and Philippians 1.6 and 2.13, we’re walking in the Light. It’s putting on the new man (Ephesians 4:14 and others).



We have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor 4.7). As long as we live on earth, we’ll be subject to some degree of the pull of temptation. But how well we forsake the old and embrace the new life in Jesus will affect how strong temptations are. The song says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim . . .” Salvation puts us in a right standing with God. Then begins the work of sanctification, God changing us into people who live righteously, reflecting the character of Christ.

Scripture commands believers to turn from sin to righteousness many times. Examples of this are found in Romans 6, Eph. 4:17-32, and Phil. 2:12-13. Romans teaches us that in principle, in God’s reality, a person’s habits of sin die when they are co-crucified with Christ. If a person wants to stop sinning, it is helpful to know and believe that the person you were “in Adam” has died, so you are no longer a slave to sin.

Ephesian 4:23-24 says to “be renewed in the spirit of the mind,” which sounds like the direction or set of the mind needs to change in order to stop sinning. We cannot stop our habits of sin unless we know that who we were “in Adam” prior to conversion, and the “body of sin” (bodily habits of sin) that were part of our life before conversion, have died or been rendered inoperative in our death and resurrection with Christ. In addition, a believer cannot forsake sinful habits without being renewed in the spirit of the mind and being delivered from their blindness of heart.

Philippians 2:12-13 says we should “work out” our “salvation with fear and trembling” because “it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Our salvation is “worked out” or brought to completion as we have a healthy respect for God’s commands and cooperate with God as He works in us the willing and doing of His will.

The Bible condemns sinful behavior and commands righteous behavior, but people’s sinful behavior is always produced by deeper sinful attitudes and feelings and thoughts. Sinful acts must be viewed as “surface issues” or fruit that is rooted in deeper sins. It is almost impossible for people to experience long-term deliverance from sinful behavior by treating the behavior (expressions of anger, for example) as the most important or basic sin, or by trying to instruct a person into not committing acts of sin. If this is all you focus on, people will almost always continue in their sin.

Many of us have often wished we could read a letter from Paul “to the Church at Gladys.” Although that is, unfortunately, impossible, we can learn from the circumstances, struggles, and successes of the Corinthian church and apply it to our own situation here. 1 Corinthians begins with Paul praising God for the many rich blessings the Corinthians have in Christ and serves as a reminder to us that there is always something to be grateful for in the lives of fellow believers.

Paul quickly identifies the chief problem of the Corinthian church: they lack unity. There are a number of reasons given throughout the first four chapters for the church’s division: loyalty to certain teachers over others (1 Cor. 1:10-17), a reliance on man’s wisdom rather than on God’s wisdom (1 Cor. 1:18-31, 2:1-5), their carnality and immaturity (1 Cor. 3:1-4), an emphasis on the work of some men over others apart from the work of God (1 Cor. 5-17), and their boasting of their gifts given to them by God (1 Cor. 3:18-23).

Fortunately, we can learn from Paul’s example. Paul was compelled by the Spirit to tell the Jews that Jesus is the Christ; he was led by the Spirit and not selfish ambition (Acts 18:5). Additionally, throughout his letter to the Corinthians there are several things Paul does to encourage unity among fellow believers: he did not keep score (1 Cor. 1:16), he did not use excellence of speech, persuasive words, or human wisdom in his preaching (1 Cor. 2:1,4), he acknowledged the contribution of others like Apollos (1 Cor. 3:6), he recognized his work in relation to the work of God (1 Cor. 3:7), he recognized Christ as the foundation on which he built (1 Cor. 3:11), he looked to the Lord for his praise rather than to men (1 Cor. 4:4), he was a servant, willing to be foolish, weak, dishonored, hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed, beaten, homeless, laboring. Reviled, persecuted, and defamed for the sake of Christ and the Gospel (1 Cor. 4: 1, 10-13), and he showed no jealousy or envy, but strongly urged Apollos to visit the Corinthians (1 Cor. 16:12).

There are things that we can do to help foster unity in our local church. We should start by examining our relationship with God – Are we abiding in Christ, yielding to the Holy Spirit? What attitudes are evident in my life? Is it envy, jealousy, and self-seeking? Or, am I displaying the wisdom of above that is pure, peaceable, willing to yield, without partiality or hypocrisy? If it is only our common heritage, hobbies, politics, or occupations that unite us with others, our church will not weather much adversity. An abiding, growing relationship with Christ is what will connect us to other believers on a deep, spiritual level.

We can also examine our relationships in the home – Do I love my wife and family as I should? Do I love my siblings as I should? Is there unity in my home? Next, we can examine our relationships within the church – Can I appreciate the successful work of others? Do I often compare myself with others? Do I care more about how I look in my church than how Jesus looks in my church? Do I care more about a building and numbers than about the spiritual condition of my brother or sister? Do I care more about doing church my way than about my brother or sister? Finally, we should examine how we relate to Christians outside of our local congregation – Can I be firm in my convictions, committed to my brotherhood, and yet humble enough to admit that I can learn from others? Can I acknowledge the contribution and success of those whose methods may be different from my own?

The results of church unity identify us as Jesus’ disciples and serve as a witness that Jesus’ was sent by God (John 13:35, John 17:20-21). The church is a welcoming, beautiful temple that radiates the glory of God when we are built on the Lord Jesus Christ, recognize God’s indispensable work, are united in the spirit, and when we love each other enough to serve one another.

When we face difficulty, we ask why God allows misfortune in my life. A better question would be, how does God want to use adversity in my life? What would He like to accomplish?

Misfortune is the wrong word to use because it is too early to tell. Is God present and active in our difficulties or is he the cause of them? Heb. 11:7; I Pet. 1:7. We tend to think of God in ways: He has a perfect will and He has a permissive will. When we look at life by faith, we see that God is in it, that God has good intentions, that God is refining us, that God’s goal is our sanctification.

How does God refine us? Not just by sermons but also by the people around us and the circumstances of our lives.

John 15:1ff; Heb. 12: We are made perfect through suffering if we yield ourselves and the difficult thing to God. That is when he blesses us. Joseph had favor everywhere he went. Job suffered great losses and his visitors caused him more difficulty than his original losses. Don’t resist what God wants to accomplish. God is not punishing for wrong; He is seeking to grow us. We do not need to prove ourselves. We don’t necessarily cause our difficulties, but we do choose how we respond.

The ultimate witness to the world is the love believers have for one another in the life of the church. How do we maintain harmony? Most churches do not have brotherhood. They do not pursue brotherhood. Instead, they have either individualism (everyone does what works for them) or they have family first (whatever works for my family matters more than what works for the group). Brotherhood only works when the church is a team. The church must be a team. The effectiveness of the church depends on the spirit with which its work is done. In Acts 6, the apostles asked the body to contribute to the solution. When there is an offense or when no trust between leaders and the body, no life flows. In brotherhood, we both speak and listen. Lack of listening and lack of agreement is a lack of love problem. Nothing is more powerful than love and unity. Too often in church life, people are trying to figure out who is on their side. This is not love and this is not right.