Houston Congregational Christian Church

Pastor James Manuel
4883 Russia-Houston Road
Houston, OH  45333
Phone:  937-295-3591
Email:  click here

Date:  March 1, 2009

Title:   What Is Lent?

Call to Worship:     Psalm 103:3

Prayer:

Scripture Reading:   Luke 18:9-14

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable unto You O Lord on this Your day.

What is Lent?   Have you ever heard someone say---There’s nothing wrong with me?           There’s nothing wrong with me---can be a dangerous thing to say.         Spiritually it is probably the worst thing a person could possibly say.    For a person to stand before God and say There’s nothing wrong with me,   that’s incompatible with Christianity    and unacceptable to God.        What’s the opposite of---There’s nothing wrong with me?        Probably it would be----There’s everything wrong with me.       According to the Bible a Christian is someone who stands before God and says---there’s everything wrong with me.   Romans 3:23 says that,  ‘All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’     A Christian is also someone who says---Jesus has overcome my sin.   He has taken away all the things that are wrong with me.

Today is the first Sunday of Lent.  What is Lent?   What’s it all about?  We find the answer as we focus on a story Jesus tells about two opposite people.   One said----There’s nothing wrong with me.   And one said there’s everything wrong with me.     Today we focus on these two people as we seek to learn better what Lent really is and what it means to us today.

Jesus tells us in Luke 18:10  that,  ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray,  a Pharisee and a tax collector.’    Remember the Pharisees were the people who lived good   clean lives.    The tax collector were people who swindled and intimidated others out of their money.   Both of them went to the temple to pray.     V 11  tells us that,  ‘The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself.  God I thank You that I am not like other people---robbers,  evildoers,   adulterers,  or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’   Maybe we can sum up his prayer this way----I thank you God,   that there’s nothing wrong with me. 

Then Jesus focuses on the tax collector in His story   the opposite of the Pharisee.   He has been stealing money from people his whole life,  ruining the lives of others so that he could live it up.    He knew that his whole life had been a disaster    and that he deserved to go to hell when he died.     Jesus says in v13 that,  ‘the tax collector stood at a distance.’   He wouldn’t even walk up to the front of the temple,    he would not even look up to Heaven.   He was so ashamed of his sin that in  v13,    ‘he beat his breast and said,   God have mercy on me a sinner.’    His prayer was the opposite of the Pharisee’s,  maybe we could sum up his prayer this way---God,   there’s everything wrong with me,  help me.

Jesus goes on to say that the sinful tax collector was the one that was forgiven by God   and not the perfect Pharisee.   Why?   Jesus tells us in v14,  ‘For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’    The Pharisee was proud,   looking down on others,   exalting himself.    The tax collector was humble,   sorry for his sins.     Jesus tells us in v14,  ‘I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God.’

The truth of the matter is,   neither the Pharisee nor the tax collector deserved God’s forgiveness.    The Pharisee didn’t because he was conceited and self righteous---thought he was better than everybody else,   thought he was perfect.      The tax collector didn’t deserve God’s forgiveness because of the terrible life he had led.    Neither one deserved to be forgiven by God. 

God forgives people purely out of His mercy.  James 5:11 tells us,  ‘The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.’    God forgives people because Jesus has taken away the sins of the world.    Because of that sacrifice Jesus made on the cross----He offers forgiveness to all.    In this story God offered forgiveness to both the Pharisee and the tax collector.     But only the tax collector received God’s forgiveness.        Those who stand before God and say----There’s everything wrong with me.   Lord have mercy on me.   For I am a sinner.         Those humble people who recognize their sin,  recognize their need for God’s help    those are the people that receive God’s forgiveness.    Not because they’re earned it     but because God shows underserved Love to all who are humble and sorry for their sins. 

Today Jesus speaks to us through His Word   and He tells us that Lent is a time of self denial,   a time to give up something.    But Jesus isn’t concerned with chocolate,  movies,  pop.        Jesus is concerned with what’s going on in our hearts.   Lent is a time to give up those sins in our lives.    It’s a time to give up the sin of hypocrisy---acting like a Christian on the outside   but being proud and self centered on the inside.    Lent is a time to give up the sin of duplicity---being a Christian on Sunday  but anything else the rest of the week.      

 What is Lent?   Lent is the man who stood in the back of the temple and looked down at the ground and prayed to God.   V13,   ‘Lord have mercy on me a sinner.’    Lent is a time for us to be like that man   to give up our sinful habits,   our sinful attitudes,   to stand before God and ask God to forgive us,   to wash our sins away    and to empower us to turn away from our sinful past. 

And after we lay our sins before Christ    Lent is also a time to give up our guilty feelings.   Just as that tax collector walked home justified before God,   so can we walk away    knowing that we have been forgiven. Psalm 103:3 says,  “He forgives all my sins.’   I no longer have to feel guilty about my sins.   I no longer have to beat myself up about the way I lived.    I have been forgiven.    My sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus.  I have a clean slate.

Today we begin that long walk to the cross    where we see just how serious and terrible our sins are.   But there we also see how wonderful and deep our Savior’s Love is for us.   John 3:16,  ‘For God so loved the world---.’     The road doesn’t end there   but at the empty tomb,   where Jesus rises from the dead to prove that all of our sins have been forgiven.      May God Bless you as you begin your Lenten journey.