Sunday Sermon Summary...Experience God's Love

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday.....the beginning of the Lenten season. If you don't know much about Lent, here is an overview that I found when I googled it.

The season of Lent spans 40 weekdays beginning on Ash Wednesday and climaxing during Holy Week with Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday), Good Friday, and concluding Saturday before Easter. Originally, Lent was the time of preparation for those who were to be baptized, a time of concentrated study and prayer before their baptism at the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord early on Easter Sunday. But since these new members were to be received into a living community of Faith, the entire community was called to preparation. Also, this was the time when those who had been separated from the Church would prepare to rejoin the community.
Today, Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter. Since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the six Sundays that occur during Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent, and are referred to as the Sundays in Lent. The number 40 is connected with many biblical events, but especially with the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for His ministry by facing the temptations that could lead him to abandon his mission and calling. Christians today use this period of time for introspection, self examination, and repentance. This season of the year is equal only to the Season of Advent in importance in the Christian year, and is part of the second major grouping of Christian festivals and sacred time that includes Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost.

In our church we celebrate Ash Wednesday with a service led by the confirmation class (of which my eldest daughter, Addison, happens to be a part). Our youth pastor leads the sermon, but the confirmands (whom are mostly 6th graders) provide the prayers, scriptures, and praise and worship. On Ash Wednesday, at the conclusion of the service, you go before a pastor who places the sign of the cross on your forehead in ashes. The ashes come from the burned palm leaves that were used in the previous Lenten Season during Palm Sunday. The ashes signify repentance for the person who is receiving them.
Matthew 6:16-18
16 “And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. 17 But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. 18 Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
During Lent, we are asked to fast....Pastor Ken asks us to all give something up....something that is really hard to do without for the entire season of Lent. You are suppose to cut something out of your life.....that brings you pleasure or fulfillment in some sense of the word whether it be a certain type of food, sweets, sodas, impulse buying, etc. Something that you use or do often, so that every time you think about "NOT" using or doing it; you will remember Jesus. For example, if you drink coffee all day long (like I do) and chose to give up coffee for Lent; you would think about Jesus and the sacrifice He made for you everytime you wanted a cup of coffee.....basically for me it would be all day long. It's not suppose to be easy or enjoyable.....the sacrifice.....I mean think about the word sacrifice, and one of its meanings found in the dictionary....the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.
Can you believe that Jesus thought we were a higher or more pressing claim? He gave His life for us....He died, so we could live eternally with Him.
In Isaiah 58:3-9, it is explained how we should not fast and how we should fast....
'Why do we fast and you don't look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?' 3 -5"Well, here's why:
"The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like?
6 -9"This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'
God wants us to see things the way He sees them, not the way we want to see them. He wants us to align ourselves with Him. Lent is a time devoted to helping you achieve this.
During Lent, our pastors are encouraging us to try to do the following....EVERY SINGLE DAY!
1. Pray and read scripture.
2. Do a lot of self examination and repentance....examine our relationship with God, ask His forgiveness for things we need to, and repent or change the direction of these things.
3. Almsgiving....giving of yourself to the poor whether it be financially or with your time or both.
4. Self Denial....FAST something....something that is truly hard to do without, so that everytime you think of it; you will then think of why you are doing without it....you will think of Jesus and His sacrifice.
Don't you think you can make a sacrifice for Lent? Jesus sacrificed His life just for you and for me!
Galatians 2:20
20 My old self has been crucified with Christ.[a] It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Pastor Ken says....When you make a sacrifice this Lenten season, you are crucifying yourself in the name of God. That takes my breath away when I think about it....I am crucifying myself in the name of God by making a sacrifice. I think about the sacrifice Jesus made for me, and my sacrifice seems so minimal compared to His. But I can't help but wonder....if we don't crucify ourselves in the name of God, was His sacrifice all in vain?
Change is not easy....as Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." This Lenten Season, make the change you need to make to grow your relationship with God.