Sunday Service from Hillside Circuit for January 14th 2024:
Lectionary Theme: The call of God’s servants.
Occasion: 2nd Sunday after Epiphany
Lectionary readings:
Psalm 139: 1- 6, 13-18
1 Samuel 3: 1-10
1 Corinthians 6: 12-20
John 1: 43-51
[Click or tap on a Bible reference above to jump down the page to the Bible reading to read it for yourself and then click or tap on Back to top to come back here.]
Songs:
Here are the songs for Sunday morning service. Click or tap on a song to open it in YouTube.
Will you come.
He gave me beauty.
All I once held dear.
Be lifted up.
Give thanks.
O Jesus I have promised.
A charge to keep.
Now unto him.
You can listen and join in with prayers from the English Methodist Service Book. They can be found at the Prayers for worship webpage.
Children’s Address:
Sermon:
Bible readings:
Psalm 139
1 You have looked deep into my heart, LORD,
and you know all about me.
2 You know when I am resting or when I am working,
and from heaven you discover my thoughts.
3 You notice everything I do and everywhere I go.
4 Before I even speak a word,
you know what I will say,
5 and with your powerful arm
you protect me from every side.
6 I can’t understand all of this!
Such wonderful knowledge is far above me.
13 You are the one who put me together
inside my mother’s body,
14 and I praise you
because of the wonderful way you created me.
Everything you do is marvellous!
Of this I have no doubt.
15 Nothing about me is hidden from you!
I was secretly woven together
deep in the earth below,
16 but with your own eyes
you saw my body being formed.
Even before I was born, you had written in your book
everything I would do.
17 Your thoughts are far beyond my understanding,
much more than I could ever imagine.
18 I try to count your thoughts,
but they outnumber the grains of sand on the beach.
And when I awake, I will find you nearby.
^ Back to top. ^
1 Samuel 3
1-2 Samuel served the LORD by helping Eli the priest, who was by that time almost blind. In those days, the LORD hardly ever spoke directly to people, and he did not appear to them in dreams very often. But one night, Eli was asleep in his room, 3 and Samuel was sleeping on a mat near the sacred chest in the LORD’S house. They had not been asleep very long 4 when the LORD called out Samuel’s name.
“Here I am!” Samuel answered. 5 Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. What do you want?”
“I didn’t call you,” Eli answered. “Go back to bed.”
Samuel went back.
6 Again the LORD called out Samuel’s name. Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “What do you want?”
Eli told him, “Son, I didn’t call you. Go back to sleep.”
7 The LORD had not spoken to Samuel before, and Samuel did not recognize the voice. 8 When the LORD called out his name for the third time, Samuel went to Eli again and said, “Here I am. What do you want?”
Eli finally realized that it was the LORD who was speaking to Samuel. 9 So he said, “Go back and lie down! If someone speaks to you again, answer, ‘I’m listening, LORD. What do you want me to do?’
Once again Samuel went back and lay down.
10 The LORD then stood beside Samuel and called out as he had done before, “Samuel! Samuel!”
“I’m listening,” Samuel answered. “What do you want me to do?”
^ Back to top. ^
1 Corinthians 6
12 Some of you say, “We can do anything we want to.” But I tell you that not everything is good for us. So I refuse to let anything have power over me. 13 You also say, “Food is meant for our bodies, and our bodies are meant for food.” But I tell you that God will destroy them both. We are not supposed to do indecent things with our bodies. We are to use them for the Lord who is in charge of our bodies. 14 God will raise us from death by the same power that he used when he raised our Lord to life.
15 Don’t you know that your bodies are part of the body of Christ? Is it right for me to join part of the body of Christ to a prostitute? No, it isn’t! 16 Don’t you know that a man who does that becomes part of her body? The Scriptures say, “The two of them will be like one person.” 17 But anyone who is joined to the Lord is one in spirit with him.
18 Don’t be immoral in matters of sex. That is a sin against your own body in a way that no other sin is. 19 You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God. You are no longer your own. 20 God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honour God.
^ Back to top. ^
John 1
43-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, “Come with me.”
45 Philip then found Nathanael and said, “We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
46 Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
Philip answered, “Come and see.”
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, “Here is a true descendant of our ancestor Israel. And he isn’t deceitful.”
48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
49 Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!”
50 Jesus answered, “Did you believe me just because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see something even greater. 51 I tell you for certain that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man.”
^ Back to top. ^
[Did you miss last week’s Sunday Services? They can now be found at Worship Archive – January 7th 2024.]
Methodist Church: Hillside Circuit 
You must be logged in to post a comment.