Bethel the House of God

Bethel Mennonite Church – Gladys VA

The early church met in homes and it wasn’t until the time of Constantine that they started building larger churches. Often if you go to Central America you’ll often find small houses around huge churches.

God is too big to build into a house. No matter how big you make a house it’s just not big enough to “box God in.” The blessing for the building comes not because of the building itself, but because of the people who meet there.

Is the church the place where God lives? Is it a club where good people go to hang out? Is it a place to go where you meet with God? Is it a place where you go for emotional support?

The things that are needed before we enter the doors of the church for true worship.

• Other people. There is such a thing as private worship, but it is important to be with other people as well.
• Some effort.
• Personal sacrifice. We need to be willing to sacrifice when we come in the door.
• Heart preparation. Jesus says that the most important thing is peace and reconciliation.
• God focus.

A few lessons from the story of Bethel.

• God does choose particular places to choose to reveal Himself to people.
• Sometimes we need to go back to places we were before to recapture our relationship with God.
• Sometimes we need to start over.

Scriptures used – Genesis 28:10-22, 2 Chronicles 6, Psalm 24, Genesis 35, 2 Kings, Hosea, 2 Samuel, Matthew 5, Hebrews 12

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