VERDUGO COMMUNITY CHURCH WORSHIP SERVICE MARCH 17, 2024

We open our service with song. Pastor Gail welcomes all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family and leads a responsive call to worship. Luisa Fernandez 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, “Trust Is Key to Discipleship,” Pastor Gail looks at two stories, the first in 1 Kings 17 where Elijah was instructed to confront King Ahab and then flee into the desert at God’s instructions, later going to live at a widow’s house in Sidon, outside of Israel. He asked the widow to trust that God would provide the flour and oil needed to make meals, which occurred. Then the widow’s only son and future support dies. Elijah prays for his return and the boy lives again, causing the widow, a gentile, to praise God. In Luke 7 a widow’s son has died and is being taken out to be buried. Jesus has compassion over her loss and raises the son back to life and returns him to his mother. These stories demonstrate that God cares for each individual. We need to trust that God will help us overcome our challenges.

 

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.