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 out.

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.