“Love, Hope, and Light in the Community”

9:30 SUNDAY SCHOOL

Today's Leaders

*Prelude: Emy Yoder
*Song Leader: Susan Huyard
*Worship Leader: Tate Love

*Offering takers: Isaac and Luke Huyard
*Scripture reader: Leah Huyard
*Message: Kevin Gasser

Announcements

Lowell and Marlene Wenger will be hosting a Super Bowl party for the church this evening. You are welcome to come any time after 6:00 pm. Please bring a dish to share.

The Creation Care Group of Harrisonburg Mennonite Church is showing the award-winning video series "Years of Living Dangerously" Wednesday evenings from 7-8 pm through March 4. Come for one or all 9 episodes. For more information, call Anne Nielsen at 574-6125.

The annual Mennonite Central Committee meat canning is scheduled for February 23 - 27 at the Hinton Mennonite Relief Center. Help is needed from 5 am until 11 pm each day. Anyone is welcome to come and help on any day!

Prayer Request

• For the victims of the attacks in Paris and Nigeria.

• For Berni Humphries’s mother and family as they live with the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Concerning Food Sacrificed to Idols
1 Corinthians 8:1-13 New International Version (NIV)

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.  Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.  But whoever loves God is known by God.

So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

No one truly knows Christ unless they follow Him daily in life" - Hans Denck

Thank you for joining us in worship today.  If this is your first time at Staunton Mennonite, please fill out the “Welcome” card in the back of the pew and place it in the offering plate.

Love builds up Gathering We gather today to welcome God’s Spirit. We gather today to invite God to teach us to love. We gather today and open ourselves to God’s Word among us. Affirming Faith Leader: God’s love builds up. People: In love, Jesus casts out demons and teaches with authority. Leader: God’s love builds up. People: In love, Paul gives up meat sacrificed to idols so that others will not fall. Leader: God’s love builds up. All: Give us courage to build each other up in love. Offering Lord, your works are full of honor and majesty; you are faithful and just. We give thanks and praise for all you have done for us. We offer what we have—money, time, talents, and love—to praise and honor you for what you have given us. Amen. —Laura Amstutz, Harrisonburg, Virginia Bible readings for today: Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 (1); Mark 1:21-28. Bible readings for next Sunday: Isaiah 40:21-31 (26); Psalm 147:1-11, 20c; 1 Corinthians 9:16-23; Mark 1:29-39.