VERDUGO COMMUNITY CHURCH WORSHIP SERVICE SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

We open our service with song. Pastor Gail Linstrom welcomes all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family. Albert Ramseyer calls us to worship with a responsive greeting and opens us with a prayer based on Psalm 16. Nick Baltazar and Ed Manacop lead us in our praise singing. Greg Hart takes up the praises and concerns of the church and our world in the Prayers of the People.

 

In her sermon, “Our Hearts Revealed,” Pastor Gail looks at the Easter story as found in John 20 and other scriptures to show that our response to the actions of God shows what is in our hearts. God had rolled away the stone that separated Mary Magdalene, John, and Peter from the evidence that Jesus had been resurrected. John and Peter saw the empty tomb and went home, believing. Mary stayed and encountered the risen Lord, although she did not recognize him until he called her name. God is always seeking us out by name, ready to help remove the obstacles to belief, but we must respond in love. When we do, we, too, can encounter the risen Lord and be transformed into his messengers of hope and salvation.

 

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 has been edited to respect the privacy and confidentiality of individual prayer requests. All CCLI songs are performed under Verdugo Community Church’s license with CCLI.

 

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 2023 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2023 by Gail Whitcome Linstrom and Verdugo Community Church.