“Love, Hope, and Light in the Community”

9:30 SUNDAY SCHOOL

Today's Leaders

*Song Leader: Joe Shenk
*Worship Leader: Garlan Yoder
*Message: Kevin Gasser

Announcements

Church Council will not meet this month.

Next Sunday Joe Lapp, Managing Director for the Harrisonburg Everence office, will be leading our adult Sunday school hour. Joe is an attorney specializing in will and estate planning.

Over 170,000 EYN (Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) church members are known to be displaced in Nigeria, while 8,083 members have been killed, and 1,390 (of 2,280) local churches destroyed. VMMissions & VMC invite you to join with us in supporting our Nigerian brothers and sisters in prayer, fasting, lament and bearing witness to the power of Jesus Christ in the midst of crisis. For up to date information on the situation or to make a financial contributions, visit: www.brethren.org/nigeriacrisis/

Prayer Request

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

• Those traveling this week.

1 Corinthians 9:16-23New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷ If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. ¹⁸ What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.

Paul’s Use of His Freedom

¹⁹ Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.²¹ To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³ I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

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.

Lift up your eyes Gathering WAll: Lift up your eyes Leader: to see Simon’s mother-in-law, on her sick bed. Jesus comes to heal. All: Lift up your eyes Leader: to witness God give power to the weak. Jesus lifts up the brokenhearted. All: Lift up your eyes Leader: to sing praises to the One who numbers the stars. Jesus will renew our strength. All: We will lift up our eyes. Confessing/Reconciling Holy One, we confess that we often try to rely on our own strength. We confess that we see the powerful in our world and wish for that power. Help us to remember that you make the rules of the earth into nothing. We confess now the ways we have relied on ourselves and not on you. (pause for silence) Those that wait upon the Lord will have renewed strength. They will run without growing weary. They will walk without growing faint. Amen. Sending Lift up your eyes to see all that God gives and all that God does. Go into the world with renewed strength to do God’s work. —Laura Amstutz, Harrisonburg, Virginia Bible readings for today: Isaiah 40:21-31 (26); Psalm 147:1-11, 20c; 1 Corinthians 9:16-23; Mark 1:29-39. Bible readings for next Sunday: 2 Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 30; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Mark 1:40-45 (40) or 2 Kings 2:1-12; Psalm 50:1-6; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-9.