Owning your identity

By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist Church June 9, 2024 – 1 Peter 2:4-12             Who are you? Over the last twenty years, our world has become obsessed with identity. If you are of European descent and were to time travel back a couple of hundred years – your identity would be focused around your class, and …

Living Well in this World

Part 3 – 1 Peter By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist June 2, 2024 – 1 Peter 1:13-2:3             About 25 years ago, I took a three-month sabbatical. Lynda and I packed up our then 1 year old daughter Amy and our three-year-old son, Ethan, into our Ford Windstar van and drove out to Vancouver. (I know …

Concerning this Salvation…

By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist May 26, 2024 – 1 Peter 1:1-12             I don’t often preach the same passage of scripture two Sundays in a row. However, I am going to do that today so that you can get the full impact of verses 10-13.             The word of the old hymn has been going …

The Tensions of Life

By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist May 19, 2024 – 1 Peter 1:1-9             We are starting a new sermon series this morning. I have titled it “A Summer Tour through 1 Peter.” We are going to be camping in the book of 1st Peter from now to the end of August. There are a couple of …

Broken Cisterns and Living Water

By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist – May 5th, 2024 Jeremiah 2:1-13             I have been thinking about the book of Jeremiah lately. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. – so if you are looking for a positive, uplifting book, I don’t recommend Jeremiah. But there is something about this book that is incredibly relevant to …

Easter Sunday – Writing our Stories.

Rev. Dr. Brent Russett Asbury Free Methodist March 31, 2024 – John 20:1-31     I love a good story. I love a good novel or a good Netflix movie because I love a good story. A well-written novel will tell you the truth about the world without having to state the truth about the world. A well-crafted movie will show you …

Christus Victor and Palm Sunday

By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist March 24, 2024 – Matthew 21:1-17     I want to take you back to ancient Palestine at the time of Jesus. Not because all of you love history but because those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. There are some of you who have felt stuck and maybe …

Christus Victor and the Principality and Powers

By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist March 17, 2024 – Ephesians 1:19b-23 We have been working our way through a series entitled Christus Victor – Christ the conqueror. Through Christ’s life, death and resurrection, he conquered Satan, evil, sin and death. In a previous sermon, we looked at where evil originates. The Bible sums it up quite …

Victory and Humility

By Rev. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist March 10, 2024 – Philippians 2:3-11             This Lenten season, we have been looking at Christus Victor – Christ the Conqueror. Humanity was trapped by evil, held in the grip of death, captured by sin, and enslaved by Satan. But Christ came, and he battled evil, sin, Satan, and death and was …

Our Hearts and Christus Victor

Asbury Free Methodist – March 3, 2024 March 3, 2024 – Colossians 3:1-14 We have been working through a series on Christus Victor over this season of Lent. Christ the Conqueror. If you have been here for the last couple of weeks, then you will remember that for the past three or four hundred years, the primary metaphor we have …