Ash Wednesday 2/26/20
Notes
Transcript
Well a lot of you know this but growing up I was big into swimming.
and I can say this now because its been years since I have actually swam, but I was good.
I was really good.
I would go to states almost every year and one person that would be at the same swim meet as me was Michael phelps
But I even swam in college for a little bit and went to National.
I mean I was good at swimming.
Now if you threw me in the water I would probably sink.
But for me to be good it required me to be dedicated in order to prepare me to race others and do well.
And then meant I didn’t have time for certain things and I had to kick unhealthy things out of my life
And I had to to replace that with working out, it usually would be 4 to five hours a day and sometimes even up to 7 hours a day.
And as we are kicking off the Lent season there is this idea of dedication that we should be making.
Dedication to God and turning to him during this season.
and dedication to widening our hearts.
So we are going to be looking at 2 Corintains 5:21-6:23 and seeing what this passage say in the contect of lent.
So it says:
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. 11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. 13 In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.
Well look at the first verse (verse 21) because you probably recognize or have heard that verse before
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
You know that verse talks about us becoming the righteousness of God,
And when you think of us growing closer to God a lot of our minds go to what can I do to accomplish that.
But I want you to notice something because that verse does not mention us doing anything...
A little odd, right?
But what we need to understand in this verse is that its not what we do, that makes us rightous, but its what God does in us.
Think about if you had a power washer, and you wanted to clean the side of your house with it
So you plug it in and turn it on and nothing happens,
and you realize the powerwasher was not connected to a faucet.
But thats true for our walk with God in general, as we go into the season of lent.
Because you may have an awesome, thing that youy are adding or taking away for lent, but
but if it does not start with God, its going to be useless.
And thats actually why we use Ashes,
Thats one reason we uses Ashes because it shows our need of God.
But thats why
A lot of people see the Ashes on our head and think its a badge of holiness (look how good I am!), but really its a sign of saying I am in the ashes of my sin and in desperate need of God.
Ashes are a way that we recognize our sin and mourn the sin but also it represents us dying to the sin and coming to life in Christ.
And look at the middle part of this passage because there is this list that Paul writes and it has all of these bad things that are happening (if you have been around the church for awhile you probably are familiar with this list because all of the things in this list were common in the early church.
there was persecution, people would judge Christians, there would not be a lot of food always and the middle part of that passage is saying regardless of where you are you should be turning to Christ.
And the really amazing part of this is that Paul mentions in verse 10 that even when you are in this place where you have nothing you posses everything.
there is a joy their.
And in lent thats partly why we may choose to give up something, if you fast a meal it reminds you that you are full in Christ.
Look at the last point because its in verse 13 because its so simple because Paul tells the church “I speak to you as children.”
Basically this is so simple, but I want you to open wide your heart.
We need to widen our hearts.
And this is one of the major things we are doing as we celebrate lent.
Because we are allowing God to widen our hearts.
And so tonight I want to ask you how is God wanting to widen your heart?
and is there somthing you can do (take away or add) for that to happen?
Because the season of lent is a time of preparation,
I want to encourage and challenge you to go deeper this season then just saying I am not going to eat cocalate for these 40 days, (unless there is a reason that would help you spiritually)
But I want you to look at your life and ask what am I going to add or subtract in my life for this season.
And Ill be honest there is not anything in the Bible that says you have to participate in Lent, but you do see people fasting and it is a great spiritual discipline.
So I don’t know how God want’t to widen your heart tonight,
Maybe you could do a fast? Fast a meal and pray or read your Bible during that time
Someone mentioned on Sunday they are doing the Daniel fast. Thats awesome!
Maybe you want to get off social media for 40 days and use that time you save on it to do somthing God wants out of you.
Maybe you want to volunteer at a food bank.
Maybe there is someone you need to reconcile with during these 40 days.
Wright encouraging notes to someone each day
If that the case and you want to be very intentional about widening your hearts during lent I want to end our time together doing somthing some of you may not be formilure with.
We are going to end by placing ashes on our forehead as a way of widening our hearts.
Really the ahses are just an outward expression of our inward state
that we need dependance on God.
So we are going to be playing a song in the background called “beautiful things”
“beautiful things”
And I want to invite you to first off pray.
Maybe you want to ask God “What is it that you want me to do to widen my heart over the next 40 days.”
But then I will be upfront and during this song I will be placing Ashes on the foreheads of those who would like to receive the ashes
And I will just invite you to come forward when you are ready.
So let me pray for us and then we will go ahead and do this.
And once you receive it just sit back down and reflect and be in prayer with God.