VERDUGO COMMUNITY CHURCH WORSHIP SERVICE FEBRUARY 25, 2024

We open our service with song. Pastor Gail begins by welcoming all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family. Michelle Hensley calls us to worship with a reading from Psalm 25, and Albert Ramseyer centers us with an opening prayer. Nick Baltazar and Ed Manacop lead us in our praise singing, and Greg Hart takes up the praises and concerns of the church and our world in the Prayers of the People.

 

In her sermon, “Journeying with Jesus Always,” Pastor Gail continues our Lenten study of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. She reminds us that the call to take up our cross and follow Jesus found in Mark 8, and Mathew 16 and Luke 9, was addressed to Jesus’ disciples as a metaphor for total commitment, not martyrdom. We are each to take up our own crosses in following Jesus, not Jesus’s cross. The challenges and disappointments we face in our own lives are where we need to focus on Jesus’ constant admonition to “fear not” and his promises that we will have a more abundant life and the help of the Holy Spirit. She reminds us again that Jesus wants us to care for others, particularly those viewed as society’s outcasts. She challenges us to “fear not” as we make a total commitment to following Jesus.

 

Pastor Gail then leads us in the sacrament of communion, and you are invited to participate as well.

 

Verdugo makes its Sunday sermons available to you on Facebook and posts audio copies of the service and sermon at https://verdugochurch.podbean.com.

 

Prayers of the People have been edited to respect the privacy and confidentiality of those participating or mentioned. All CCLI songs are performed under Verdugo Community Church’s CCLI license # 2486815.

 

Verdugo Community Church is a Free Methodist congregation serving the Glassell Park, Eagle Rock, and Glendale areas in Los Angeles. It is located at 4300 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles, CA 90065. Our email address is verdugofmc@gmail.com. Contact Pastor Gail at (323) 500-3343.

 

Worship service copyright 2024 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2024 by Gail Whitcome Linstrom and Verdugo Community Church.