Sermons from Ascension Lutheran Church, RPV

For this week's sermon, our guest speaker, Deb Prieto, continue sour series on the Fruits of the Spirit. Abiding in the Father can produce the Fruits of the Spirit, such as Kindness. What could abiding in the Father look like for you? 

In this sermon we explore the difference between love and kindness. They are both Fruits of the Spirit and while similar, have two different meanings. We see how it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentence.

When Paul asked Philemon to accept Onesimus back as a brother, he did not use his authority as an apostle. Instead, he asked Philemon to do so out of love. When we do things out of love instead of duty, we do so with Joy.

Jesus says to rejoice when people hate and revile and defame us on his account. How can we do this? Know that Jesus has victory in the spiritual realm. When we face life's trials, ask for his vision, to know that the heavenly hosts and chariots of fire are all around us.

To be fruitful and multiply is more than a call to just have babies. It is a call to abide in Jesus!

Joy doesn't respond to circumstances. Joy has its eyes fixed on something in the future.

On this Easter Sunday, we are reminded that God has completed the items on our To Do list that we could not do ourselves. He has dealt with our shame. He has given us a source of hope. He has diminished our despair. Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection from the dead has accomplished these tasks for us, things we could not do for ourselves.

In the same way a strong scent can transport you to another place and time, the scent of Christ on Palm Sunday is powerful for those he encounters.

When we watch a movie, we identify with the main character. We want the story to be about us. We want to be in control. But in reality, we are one of the minor characters, one of the extras, looking on from the background. As Christians, we need to step aside and recognize that Jesus is the center.

Biblical self-control is not the same as the dictionary definition. It is not gritting our teeth and trying to control our desires and actions. It looks more like surrender. When we submit ourselves to God and fix our eyes on Jesus, he will empower us with his Spirit and bestow upon us his self-control.

We are simultaneously saint and sinner. This is the core of self control. The old Adam rages, yet there is within us a new spirit of peace, life and hope. God is within us and for us.

God has called us to be a place of forgiveness so that others may feel safe to repent and receive the healing of Christ found in community. 

Gentle and repentance are words that we normally don't associate with each other. But when God calls us to repentance, he greets us with gentleness and forgiveness. 

The beginning of gentleness is seeing the humanity in others. The living God created them in his image and died for them. But we also need to see ourselves as the image-bearers. We must treat ourselves with gentleness if we are to also love others as ourselves.

In some ways it's easier to recognize gentleness by looking at things that aren't gentle. In this sermon, we compare and contrast two fathers: Laban, the father of Rachael and Leah, and the father of the Prodigal Son.

The rich man in Jesus' parable built new barns to hold his surplus crops instead of generously distributing it among his neighbors. But God wants us to give generously from the abundance he has given us, whether it is our finances, or our talents, or our time.

It's very easy for us to make Jesus into something palatable for us. But in doing so we keep him at arm's length. Generosity is not just about our dollars. It is about God's love flowing through us and we should just generously give it away. It's only when we understand how powerful his love is that we don't put up little blocks inside of ourselves to stop it from coming o...

God is the generous giver, the source of all gifts. We receive from God, but we act as a dam. Out of fear we hold on to what God has given us. Realizing that God has first given us Himself is the start of generosity.

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4

Why did God choose to come into the world in such a messy way, the scandal of an unmarried teenage mother? The story of Christmas is that God came into a messy situation then the same way He comes into our lives now, with grace and mercy, loving us as we are in the messiness of our own lives.

When God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham didn't argue. He went forth, believing that God would provide a way to fulfill His promise. Abraham knew the character of God.

Abraham argued with God and God listened, what is our prayer life supposed to look like as we wait for Him. 

Abraham learned to be patient as he waited for God's promise of decedents. He didn't do it perfectly; he tried to take matters into his own hands, but God remained patient and carried out His promise. 

On this Christ the King Sunday, we are reminded that when we submit to Jesus as our King, we have peace. Our lives are in his hands and we can rest, knowing that He is for us and that all will be well. 

The work of the Messiah is Peace. Peace that is larger than understood in the world. “The best definition of Christian pacifism begins in God’s own life-giving positive: it is the patient and consistent discipline of discovering creative, life building responses to unjust human conflicts.” - Gerald Schlabach , Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics, 362