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Ash Wednesday 2024
Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping, and mourning; 13 And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, And relenting of evil.
Introduction
This evening as we enter the Lenten season I want us to look at a few of the basics of Lent. My hope is that by doing so we will renew our focus, grow in our understanding, and thus deepen the way that we engage with Lent this year.
Now to accomplish this, I want to ask 3 central questions that I hope will help us to have a productive/meaningful Lent this year.
· Why do I need Lent
· What is the basis/Assurance of Lent
· What concrete things can I do to have a productive/meaningful Lent
I. Why do I Need Lent?
A] Simply put, we each need the repentance, renewal, and cleansing that are central to Lent because sin is a fundamental brokenness/power/bondage that corrupts and defiles every aspect of every one of us at every moment.
Isaiah 64:6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
B] Not only that, the witness of Scripture is that we cannot fix ourselves. If man is going to be helped God alone must do it
Genesis 22:8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb”
Bottom line: why do I need Lent? I desperately need the forgiveness, renewal, and healing to which Lent points.
II. What is the Basis/Assurance/Grounds of Lent?
A] Notice, at first glance Lent seems to be a gloomy and bleak season. However, upon closer inspection we find that is not exactly the case. Lent may be sober but it is not morose. Why? Notice there is but one and only one reason/basis for the entire Lent season. What? God has called each one of us to repent and come to Him because He promises to forgive, heal, and wash us clean. In other words, Lent is fundamentally grounded on the assurance and hope of the Gospel.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.
Bottom line: Lent is fundamentally grounded on the assurance and hope of the Gospel (an assurance and hope that speak to the very details of my life today).
III. What Concrete Things Can I do to Have a Productive/Meaningful Lent?
1) The first way you can have a productive/meaningful Lent this year is to spend non-superficial time in God’s Word every day- the Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent expresses this sentiment exactly. It encourages us to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest God’s Holy Word”.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2) The second way you can have a productive/meaningful Lent this year is to make Lent local (about right here right now). In other words, because God’s grace is specific, let your repentance be specific as well. As such, do not simply pray generic prayers, about generic struggle, that seek nothing but a generic healing. Instead, bring the particulars of your current needs to God for Him to forgive and heal.
Luke 18:40 And Jesus stopped and commanded that the blind man be brought to Him; and when he had come near, Jesus asked him, 41 “What do you want Me to do for you?”
3) The third way you can have a productive/meaningful Lent is to deepen and renew your devotional life. Think about it, it is so easy to get sidetracked in our walk with God; it is so easy to become complacent or to grow comfortable with the convenient. Therefore, this evening I want to encourage each of you to choose one way, one thing that you can do to deepen and renew your devotional life this Lent.
James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.