SERMON: A MOMENT WITH GOD

13 March 2011

I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Luke 4:1-2

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

-- I want you to think for a moment about gifts -- everybody loves gifts, don’t they? -- we love to give them -- and we love to get them -- there’s just something about seeing a nicely wrapped package with your name on it that gets your heart beating just a little bit faster -- especially if there’s something that you’ve been wanting and you think that this just might be it
-- I was thinking about gifts this morning and I came to the realization that I am 44 years old -- you know what that means? -- that means I have been through 44 Christmases -- 44 birthdays -- and countless other gift-receiving events throughout my life -- conservatively thinking, I have probably received over 1,000 gifts since I was born -- and if you’re somewhere around my age, then that’s probably true for you, too
-- but you know what? -- even though somebody took the time to go out and purchase every one of those gifts for me and then they wrapped them and wrote my name on them and gave them to me on a special occasion -- and even though that gift might have been really special to me at the time -- for the life of me, I just can’t remember them all
-- it occurred to me that I can’t even remember most of the gifts that I’ve gotten in my life -- in fact, when I tried to sit down and think about all the gifts I have gotten over the years, I could only remember a handful of them out of the thousand or so that I have received in my life
-- but, I can tell you what I do remember about all of those gift-giving occasions, especially the big one -- especially Christmas
-- when I sit down and think about Christmas -- I don’t think about the gifts that I got -- when I think about Christmas, what I remember is going to Grandma’s -- when I was a kid, that was what we would do -- we didn’t have any family up here -- all of our immediate family was down in Florida -- so every Christmas, we would load up and head to Grandma’s
-- we usually had to wait for Daddy to get done loading greens on Christmas Eve, but as soon as he got home -- no matter how late it was -- we’d load up the car and head south -- driving for four hours or so until we finally saw that great big mailbox that said, “Lee,” on it and we turned down that narrow, bumpy lane that led to Grandma’s house -- scraping the bottom of our car as we drove down it -- that is what we did every year -- and that’s what I remember most about Christmas
-- and like I said, thinking back on it, it’s not the gifts that I remember -- the best part of being at Grandma’s happened after the gifts had been opened -- when the whole family -- all six of the kids and their spouses and all seven of us grandkids would gather on the front porch with Grandma and Granddaddy after lunch
-- and while the kids played with their new toys -- the adults reminisced -- they talked about memories of past Christmases -- memories of growing up in the country in Florida -- memories of life together
-- this is what I remember most about Christmas -- not the gifts -- not the trees -- not the tinsel -- but these moments that our family would gather -- these moments when we would be reminded of who we were -- of our place in the world -- of the things that really mattered

II. The Season of Lent
-- this morning, we’re going to talk about just such a moment -- a moment in time when our church families stop what we’re doing -- and we gather together to talk and to share and to be reminded of who we are -- of our place in this world -- and of the things that really matter -- this is what the Christian Season of Lent is all about
-- now, before we go too far, let me make sure you understand that I’m talking about Lent -- L-E-N-T -- not lint -- L-I-N-T
-- I read about this preacher who was giving his first sermon at the start of Lent -- and so, during the children’s service, he asked the children who had gathered around him if they knew what Lent was -- one 8-year-old boy said, “I do” -- the preacher said, “Well, great -- why don’t you tell us all?” -- so the boy reached into his pocket -- fished around for a moment -- and then pulled out a handful of lint and showed it to the church -- “This is lint”
-- yes, that is one type of lint -- but that's not the type of Lent we're going to talk about this morning -- we are going to talk about the season of Lent -- the period in the Christian Calendar where we take a moment to stop in the middle of our busy lives and intentionally spend time remembering -- remembering what is important -- and remembering who we are as Christians -- as we prepare to celebrate Easter together again

-- the word "Lent" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word, "lencten" -- meaning spring -- the time of the year when the days grow long -- it begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts for forty days -- not counting Sundays -- and ends on the Saturday before Easter
-- the season of Lent is not in the Bible -- it was started in the early days of the church as a remembrance of two events in the life of our Lord where He took time out from the world to spend a moment with the Father and to prepare for what the Father was about to do through Him

-- the first event that Lent is based on happens at the start of Jesus’ public ministry -- look back at the passage that we opened with in Luke 4

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

-- this passage happens immediately after Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist -- Luke tells us here that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit -- as we talked about a few weeks ago, to be filled with the Holy Spirit means more than just being filled up like a cup -- it means being filled with the presence of God like a sail on a ship is filled with wind to the point that the Spirit gives direction and meaning and purpose to your life
-- that’s what we see right here -- the time has come for Jesus to begin His public ministry and the Spirit has completely filled Him and leads Him out into the desert
-- that seems kind of strange, doesn’t it -- here Jesus had just been baptized and the Spirit of God came and rested on Him like a dove and the voice of God spoke out from heaven saying, “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”
-- Jesus is getting ready to carry the message of salvation to the world -- but, rather than leading Jesus to where the people were -- rather than leading Jesus into Jerusalem or to Rome or to any other large city in that time -- Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert -- why?
-- because Jesus needed to spend a moment with God -- He needed to take a moment just to be with God and to prepare Himself for what He was about to do -- and so, for 40 days, Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness and spent time with God -- all the while suffering temptation by the devil who was trying to keep Him from His appointed task -- this is the first event that the Season of Lent is based on

-- the second event that Lent is based on is Holy Week, starting on Palm Sunday and ending with the crucifixion
-- now, while Jesus was always seen going off to spend time alone with God while He was ministering here on earth, we really see that pattern during the last week of His life -- as things started to get difficult during that last week -- as opposition increased and as Satan started to do everything he could to keep Jesus from accomplishing His task here on earth, Jesus would take a moment out of His busy life and go out with His disciples to the Mount of Olives to pray and to fast and to spend time with the Father
-- let’s look at that real quick

-- flip over, if you would, to Luke 22:39-44

39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him

-- now, there’s an important phrase there in verse 39 I want you to see -- Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives “as usual” -- this was something that He did on a regular basis -- it wasn’t just a one-time thing -- it was a habit
-- as Christians, we’re called to imitate Christ -- in fact, the word “Christian” literally means, “little Christ” -- Jesus routinely would go out and spend a special moment with God in a quiet place to just rest in His presence -- to just spend time with Him -- and so should we

-- verse 40

40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

-- here we see Jesus getting ready for what is about to happen -- He knows that He is about to be betrayed by Judas -- He knows that He is going to be put into the hands of His enemies -- He knows that He will be beaten and mocked and crucified -- He knows that the sins of the world are about to fall on Him -- that He is going to take into Himself all the sins that you and I and everyone who has ever lived has committed
-- and, what does He do? -- how does He get ready to suffer on the cross for our sins? -- He takes a moment to just spend time with God in prayer -- while the world around Him was melting down, Jesus withdrew to the Mount of Olives -- to a quiet place where He could be alone with God -- and He spent time with the Father in order to prepare Himself for the trials to come -- for the burden that He had to carry -- for the suffering that He had to endure
-- Luke tells us that Jesus’ moment with God was so intense that as He prayed, He actually sweat drops of blood

-- these two events -- the 40-days in the wilderness and the experience of Holy Week -- were special moments for Jesus -- periods of spiritual reflection and preparation for the task ahead of Him -- they were times for Jesus to strengthen Himself against the temptations of the devil and to prepare to accept the responsibility for the sins of the world

-- following the example of Christ, the early church developed the season of Lent as a time of reflection, prayer, and strengthening to help Christians get ready to celebrate Easter -- Lent was developed to be a special moment for us -- a time when we could take a break from our normal routines -- to stop the world for just a moment -- so we could spend time with God and prepare ourselves for Easter
-- it is also a time for us to look honestly at who we are to see if we are truly walking with God or if we have sin in our lives that we need to repent of -- and it is a time when we try to share in the sorrows and sufferings of Christ so we can better appreciate what He has done for us and who we are in Him

III. Ash Wednesday
-- as I said, the season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday -- traditionally, on Ash Wednesday, a special service is held where people are marked with the sign of a cross on their forehead in ashes that they are to wear the whole day as a reminder of who they are and of what Christ has done for us
-- there are several reasons why we use ashes -- first, they are a reminder of who and what we are -- the Bible tells us that we came from dust and that we will return to dust -- if you remember, in the Book of Genesis it says that Adam was created from the dust of the ground and that he only became alive when God breathed the breath of life into him -- so, the ashes remind us that without God in our lives, we are just like dust -- without life and without worth
-- the ashes also remind us that anything we do in our own power -- apart from God -- are worthless -- the Bible tells us that there is nothing that we can do on our own that has any value to God -- that’s why we can’t work our way to heaven -- our lives and our actions only have value if God works through us and gives us meaning and purpose -- so the ashes remind us that we have to depend on God throughout our whole lives
-- the third reason we use ashes is that ashes have traditionally been a sign of repentance and mourning in the Bible -- back in the Bible days, it was common for those who were sorry for their sins and who wanted to make a new beginning with God to cover themselves with sackcloth and ashes -- that’s why it says in Job 42:6, "I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." -- ashes are a symbol of our repentance and a sign that we seek forgiveness through God's grace

-- the ashes are placed on the foreheads in the sign of a cross as a reminder that after we have mourned and repented of our sins and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit -- traditionally, the ashes used on Ash Wednesday would be mixed with oil to symbolize the presence of the Holy Spirit who works to keep us holy and who intercedes on our behalf
-- one more thing about the ashes -- the ashes used on Ash Wednesday usually come from palm fronds -- palms are symbols of victory and were waved before Christ as He entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday -- by making the ashes from palms we are reminded of how we have victory through Christ's death and resurrection
-- so, the overall purpose of putting the ashes on your forehead on Ash Wednesday at the start of Lent is to remind us that we belong to Jesus and to celebrate what He has done in our lives

IV. Closing
-- then, for the next forty days, people are encouraged to break from their normal routines so they can spend a special moment with God every day
-- traditionally, this involved fasting and prayer -- and people would give up one meal a day or one day a week and not eat -- and then they would use that time that they would normally be preparing their meal and eating to just spend time with Jesus -- to have a special moment with Him
-- but, it’s really all up to you -- you don’t have to give up eating to celebrate Lent -- the overall idea is to offer up something that you replace with time with God -- maybe instead of giving up a meal, you give up watching TV for a night and spend that time reading the Bible and praying
-- or maybe you try to take up some new spiritual discipline --- like having a set quiet time with God every day or starting to journal or reading through the entire New Testament during the forty days of Lent
-- the important thing is that you’re taking time with God -- that you’re using this season to examine your life and to get ready to celebrate Easter and what Jesus has done for us all

-- so, as I close in prayer, I want to invite you to go ahead and take a moment and think about your life -- think about where you’ve been and what Jesus has done for you -- and take a hard, honest look at yourself and see if you need to make any changes in your life and the way you have been living -- and, if so, then confess your sins to God ask Jesus to forgive you and give you a new start this morning
-- this is what Lent is all about -- this is what the cross is all about -- this is what Jesus is all about
-- let us pray