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How many of us today have heard the word “LENT” talked about or even explained?
Maybe, you have heard some discussion about it this week.
No, I am not talking about this, (your dryer lent, that you get from the clothes) I am talking about the season of lent.
This past Wednesday many people took part in Ash Wednesday which is the beginning Season of Easter.
Ash Wednesday is the preparation period that begins the 40 days of Lent.
The early church fathers paralleled this to Christ’s 40 day desert fast before his passion.
In AD 339, Saint Athanasius wrote that the Lenten fast was a forty-day fast that "the entire world" observed.
Saint Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–AD 430) wrote that: "Our fast at any other time is voluntary; but during Lent, we sin if we do not fast."
The early church Fathers took this very seriously.
Now no where in Scripture is this event talked about or even mentioned, but we do see the mention of giving up things by that of prayer and fasting many times.
But, what exactly is this season of Lent all about???
As we approach the Holy Week of what Christ did on the Cross and Remember the Resurrection we take time before to remember our sin that was the cause for Christ’s sacrifice, we confess our ongoing battle with sin.
We take time too fast, not just from food, but willingly and joyfully fast and let go of the things in this world that have too much of a hold on us.
We give ourselves to prayer and cry out for the help that we desperately need from Christ.
We remember the sacrifice, the suffering and the resurrection.
These are all things throughout this season that I want us as a church to take time to remember as we journey to the Cross and prepare for Easter.
Think about this with me today, the cross that Christ died on confronts us with the reality of who we really are (sinners) and what we truly need (the rescue of Jesus and His forgiving grace).
The whole purpose for us as a church to take the next six Sundays and journey to the Cross is so that our mourning will increase in order for our joy to grow even more for who the Lord is and what He has done for us.
Today, I want to take some time and address the main reason of why Christ had to die and why it is important for us to see that we should mourn or be grieved about our sin.
Whether we realize it or not something is wrong with us.
We don’t have to look very long or very far to see that every where around us from our jobs to where we live, to government, politics, education, entertainment, and the internet.
We live in a world that has been deceived by sin.
In Romans chapter 8, Paul points us to this really sad condition of where the world is at, and he shares some phrases with us about our world that should break our hearts.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 8.
The first thing that Paul shares with us here is that our world is subjected to futility.
(vs.
20) Futility is the inability to achieve a goal or a purpose.
Because of our sin, God cursed this universe.
No part of creation entirely fulfills God’s original purpose.
The second area here that Paul addresses is the fact that the earth is in bondage to corruption.
(vs.
21) In other words, the entire creation suffered from the effects of the fall.
Everything in this world has come under the bondage of corruption.
Finally, in verse 22 we see that Paul uses this language, “in the pains of childbirth.”
All around us is pain.
It seems these days that people cause a lot of pain.
Now, it is so important for me to say this today church.
Of course, we should be filled with joy at times.
In fact, we are to be a rejoicing people, because we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus and we know as believers that our final home is an eternity with Christ, however there are times where we need to mourn.
Here is a great definition in case you are wondering what in the world are you talking about Matt?
Mourning means that we have been knocked over by the weight of our sin and what it has done to us and those around us and ultimately to God.
Mourning means that we understand right now that there is one big spiritual war going on, and that the enemy wants to really harm us.
Mourning means that every morning when we wake up we will be dealing with many temptations as we go about our day.
Mourning means that we understand there are still places where our hearts have a tendency to wonder away from God and His word.
But, mourning also does something amazing in our lives as believers.
Mourning helps us to cry out for God’s help.
Do you know you need God’s help?
Mourning also causes us to cry out for God’s rescue, forgiveness, and deliverance.
Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 5 verse 4 that those who mourn will be comforted.
What Jesus is talking about here, is about the comfort and presence of our Redeemer.
So I want to take you to a passage of Scripture today where we see this exact thing.
In Psalm 51 we see David who is crying out for God’s help.
In fact, this is David’s Prayer.
This Psalm is one of the most important prayers in the whole Bible.
It is one that we can look to when we think about confession and what true confession is all about.
King David comes to the Lord after the fact that he took another man’s wife and then murdered that man.
What we see here is David’s true sincere heart.
His heart is filled with mourning and confession to His God.
One of the first things David does here is that he realizes and acknowledges that his problem is not just the occasion of sin but something much deeper.
David uses several words in his prayer to describe the different aspects of the nature of sin and I want us to look at them.
In verse one and three David uses this word transgression.
King David realized that sin is much more than a moment of weakness that leads to doing something wrong in the eyes of God.
Yes, this is of course sinful.
A transgression is a willful stepping over of God’s boundaries.
Transgression is seeing the NO Trespassing sign and climbing the fence anyway because there is something you want to get to on the other side.
That could be our anger and rage, our lust, or cheating to get ahead.
You see transgression is a spirit of rebellion, because we are rebelling against God and what His Word tells us.
It is us wanting our own way more than submitting to God’s way.
Transgression is a condition of the heart that turns us as sinners into a rebellious person in some way.
What David does here through his prayer is that he shows us true and honest confession is where we need to head.
Confession is pouring our heart out to God and not just confessing our weakness but also our rebellion that causes us to be weak in our struggle with sin.
Notice the second word that David uses here.
The Word David uses here is Iniquity.
We see this in verse 2,5 and 9.
The word iniquity means a moral uncleanness.
The only way that we could perfectly obey God is if our thoughts, motives, desires, and intentions of our heart were completely pure, but they are not.
We already said that we have a rebellious nature.
I wish that I could say that my heart and desires our perfectly pure.
I wish that I could say that I never get angry or give into temptation, but I know that I still have sin residing in me and I am far from pure.
So again, this is why we need to mourn over our sin and see it for what it is.
We desperately need to confess it and acknowledge the moral impurity of our hearts.
The Last Word that David uses here is Sin.
Now we finally come to our confession of a specific weakness and failure.
The word sin helps us to see this image of falling short of God’s wise and righteous standard.
As we talked about several weeks ago, it’s more than an archer pulling the bowstring back and missing the target.
It is pulling the bowstring back over and over again and at each attempt falling short of the target.
When we mournfully come to God and confess specific sin there is an admission of our weakness and need for Him.
We are admitting that we can’t do anything good on our own.
We are admitting that our best things still fall short.
When we truly mourn over our sin what we are in fact doing is crying out for God’s help, to be forgiven by the one who is greater and more powerful than we will ever be.
Has there come a time lately in your life where you confessed your sin to God? Have you admitted your weaknesses and failures to Him? God wants you to bring your mess to Him so that He can show you His wonderful grace.
Conclusion: So, as we take time to journey to the cross and have a season of personal reflection I hope that we will each take time to see our sin for what it really is and mourn over it but also confess it.
As we think about these 3 words today that we looked at, Transgression, Iniquity, and sin I hope that is will guide us to confession.
And here is the good news today, as we each take time to confess our sin, may you be comforted by God’s promise that He will never give up on you, He will never turn his back on you.
God will never despise the one who comes to Him with a truly broken and contrite heart.
Church today confession is God’s way of helping us come into a deeper experience of His majesty and grace.
(Pray and lead into Communion)
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