Sermon Notes: "Giving Up Lent"

The scripture lesson for yesterday's message was from

Luke 9:22-24

22.  "The Son of Man must suffer many things, 

and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, 

and be raised the third day.

23.  Then He said to them all, 

"If anyone desires to come after Me,

Let him deny himself,

and take up his cross daily,

and follow Me.

24.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."

Easter is the most important of all holidays, and yet it doesn't get the attention and interest that Christmas does.  The season of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter, includes several very important days in preparation for Easter:  Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and then Easter Sunday, the day of Christ's Resurrection..

Where did the tradition of putting ashes on ourselves come from?  Back in the day, when people depended on wood fires for cooking and heating, ashes would accumulate quickly and needed to be kept swept up regularly.  However, if someone was sick or  grieving and unable to maintain cleaning up the ashes, the ashes would spill over and people would find themselves covered with smudges of soot from the ashes in their homes...and ashes became a sign of grief or mourning...and there are many examples in the scriptures of  "putting on sackcloth and ashes" for  a period of grief  for the loss of loved ones or for sorrow for sin.  

(Personal note, just this morning I read in my devotions from Daniel 9:3-9 about Daniel's very own confession of sin and his prayer to the Lord....verse 3 in particular says:

"Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, 

with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes...")

Lent traditionally was a time to bring in new converts to the Christian faith, to spend this 40 days in "the wilderness", to shake ourselves from business as usual and tune into what God is saying to us personally and to our church.  Many of us are out of tune and for some odd reason we don't recognize it when we are out of tune.  It's interesting that we have time for doing other things that we like to do, but we are too tired to worship or visit the sick.  People are afraid to show their emotions at church, but they have no problem yelling and jumping up and down at their favorite sporting events.

It's also interesting that we only want to imitate Jesus in some ways...we tend to only take what we like or want, kind of like eating at a smorgasbord, and often leave off the most important aspects of following or imitating Christ.

We tend to give up the same things year after year for Lent, like TV, or meat, but it really doesn't seem to make any difference in our hearts and lives.

Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us by giving up His life so that we could be set free from our sins and have eternal life.

Would you be willing to go beyond self-sacrifice or self-denial of things to prepare yourself for Easter and Christ's Resurrection?

When we do give up things we discover how much time we have been wasting...would you be willing to spend that time in self-examination...to look at ourselves in depth?

Is Lent truly a time of self-denial for us...but in reality, Jesus isn't concerned about our TV, whether we eat meat or not...Jesus is only concerned about what is going on in our hearts...

Can we take the time to give up the sin of lethargy...or do we say "right now I'm just too busy..."

Are we like that Pharisee that we see in Luke 18:9-14...the one who went to the temple to pray at the same time as a tax collector...and listen to what that Pharisee said:

11.  "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,

'God, I thank You that I am not like other men--

extortioners, unjust, adulterers, 

or even as this tax collector.

12.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess,'

And then Jesus goes on to describe the tax collector in verses 13-14

13.  "And the tax collector, standing afar off, 

would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, 

but beat his breast, saying, 

'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'

14.  "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,  and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

The "sinful man," i.e., the "tax collector", prayed for forgiveness and mercy...and that is what Christ is looking for in our hearts during this season of Lent...

So, I'm giving up the way the "church" traditionally celebrates Lent...I'm giving up Lent this year instead to draw closer to God Himself during this time...

What about you? Now, what are you truly giving up for Lent?

Won't you pray with me this prayer of confession:

"God of grace and glory, forgive us when our failed faith causes us to stumble or stop on this journey with Christ.

Grace us with faith that hopes against all hope, 

so that we may trust in Your promises and walk in Your ways.

Lift us up, that we may carry our cross 

and continue on the path to new life."

Amen.

Here is one of the hymns of commitment we sang:

"Where He Leads Me I Will Follow"

Dear Friends, thank you for joining me in these weekly "Sermon Notes" from our Pastor's Sunday morning sermons.  I would like to ask you to please keep praying for our Pastor A.C., as he is still dealing with some physical issues, and yesterday was very difficult.  Thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers on his behalf.

Sermon Notes: FUMC, Interlachen, FL, Pastor A.C. Myers, 3/17/2019

Please Note : I want to repeat this disclaimer here...the notes, outline, and content included here are based upon my own personal understanding of the message that was being given. I am not attempting to completely quote or reproduce this message or any other message I've shared previously. Just as each person reading these notes may glean insights and thoughts that seem to directly apply to one's own situation and interpretation, my own delivery of these messages is skewed by my hearing and translation of what is being said. Some may read my notes here and wonder if they were hearing the same message as I...and I say, God speaks to each of us as He wills...there are things He is trying to get across to each individual that may be entirely different than what the person sitting next to you in the pew is needing to hear... That is how the Holy Spirit works! He knows what we need to hear and how to apply it to our hearts. So it is with that understanding that I present these sermon notes to you.