VERDUGO COMMUNITY CHURCH WORSHIP SERVICE JUNE 11, 2023

2023-06-12

We open our service with song. Pastor Gail Linstrom welcomes all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family, and Albert Ramseyer calls us to worship with a reading of Psalm 32 and Luisa Fernandez opens us in prayer. Nick Baltazar, Mike Minasyan, 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, “Up a Tree, Waiting for God,” Pastor Gail looks at the stories of Zacc...

In her sermon, “Up a Tree, Waiting for God,” Pastor Gail looks at the stories of Zacchaeus and the rich young ruler found in Luke 19 and 18. Both are wealthy when they encounter Jesus. The rich young ruler seeks Jesus out to ask how to gain eternal life. Jesus challenges him to give away his fortune to the poor, and follow Jesus. The ruler rejects this because of his love of wealth. Zacchaeus is a tax collector and ostracized by his community. He hides up in a tree to see Jesus, who stops and calls him by name and says he must have a meal at Zacchaeus’ house, even though the crowd then condemns both Zacchaeus and Jesus. Zacchaeus joyfully complies, and publicly repents of his sinful actions, voluntarily gives up half his fortune to the poor, and agrees to make restitution to those he has cheated. Jesus sought out Zacchaeus, just as God seeks us out to offer salvation with what John Wesley called prevenient grace. We need to avoid the reaction of the crowd and willing to work with God to show his love to our neighbors.

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.

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