3/10: Lent 2019
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Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
15 I put my hope in You, Lord;
You will answer, Lord my God.
16 For I said, “Don’t let them rejoice over me—
those who are arrogant toward me when I stumble.”
17 For I am about to fall,
and my pain is constantly with me.
18 So I confess my guilt;
I am anxious because of my sin.
19 But my enemies are vigorous and powerful;
many hate me for no reason.
20 Those who repay evil for good
attack me for pursuing good.
21 Lord, do not abandon me;
my God, do not be far from me.
22 Hurry to help me,
Lord, my Savior.
Intro
Intro
As we continue on in our series on Lent, I want first start by reminding us all of what it is that Lent does.
Lent leads us to repentance and repentance produces sanctified and grateful living.
And the temptation for all of us is to think that this will come without any struggle or difficulty or pain. That is what we want, but just like everything, we always have to fight. You always will have a struggle in this world for things you want and this is not meant to serve as some sort of motivational speech, but to remind you to keep on fighting. To discipline yourself.
If you want to get better grades in school, well it is going to take some effort. You are going to have to study and pay attention in class. If you want to lose weight, you have got to say no to the honey bun and start eating better, healthier and working out. I remember when I ran in high school, I was pretty fast. But that never just came to me. I had to be out there running. It took time and effort. The whole point to this is to remind you that just because you have repented, does not mean that you will automatically become sanctified.
You will not immediately become holy and the most joyful person ever. Because you will face struggles in your life. This mornings reading reminds us all of that truth. We will face struggles and this morning I want to remind us that we do not struggle just against flesh and blood. No we are in a spiritual battle, but the good news is that the war has already been won. We already know the conclusion to it. God wins, Satan loses.
Body
Body
David was no wuss. He had gone to war many times. This is the guy that took on the nations. He was God’s instrument to defeat Goliath. Listen to David talk about some of the challenges he faced before going up against Goliath.
34 David answered Saul: “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep. Whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it down, and rescued the lamb from its mouth. If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down, and kill it. 36 Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 Then David said, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you.”
This is the David we read crying out to the Lord in the 38th chapter of Psalm. Can you hear the distress in his cry to the Lord.
vs 17- “For I am about to fall and my pain is constantly with me”
And what was this pain? This failing? It is not specified here, but David expresses a truth we all need to understand. Repentance and confession of sin is a necessary step before restoration. David had stumbled and sinned and all his enemies and those who are arrogant and proud they rejoice when he stumbles.
They are mockers of God. David is not contending here against something he can physically slay like Goliath or a lion or a bear. No, he is in a spiritual battle. A battle even Paul went through.
15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.
We struggle. Lent reminds us how even Jesus struggled on his way to Golgotha, on the way to the cross, he was also in a spiritual battle. Things were not perfect for him, so why do you expect things to be perfect for you? We are to be faithful while we wait and we know that when we fall, God will we can get back up again. We do not just give up when we fail!
IN BASKETBALL one of the most important skills for players to have is the ability to rebound. Rebounds occur because a shot somewhere has been missed. There is no need for a rebound unless something has been missed. If a shot was missed, that means a shot was attempted, but somehow something went wrong in the attempt that caused the shot to be missed and therefore we have the need for a rebound.
One reason a shot can be missed is that a player was off in their perspective. They were looking at the goal, but what they saw and what they did didn’t match. They were unable to sink the basket. They may have shot too short, too long, too hard, or too soft. There was not a correlation from the eye to the action.
Another reason that shots are missed in basketball games is because the opposing team is in a player’s face. It’s the job of the opposing team to wave their hands in the shooter’s face and obstruct their view. They are supposed to provide a distraction.
Sometimes shots are missed because a player is fouled. A foul means that a player has been illegitimately handled, producing an inability for them to make the shot.
Any coach will want their player to go for a rebound on their missed shot. The player shouldn’t walk off the court, quit the game, or throw in the towel because they have missed a shot. A good player will go back up for the ball and retrieve it to shoot again.
In the Bible, there are lots of people who missed shots. Many of God’s servants missed their target and had to deal with the consequences of missing their shot. In fact, a study of the Word of God will turn up many people whom God used who were on the rebound.
“In the waiting, our foot often slips, and the accuser, our great foe, stands ready to rejoice when we fall and accuse us of our failures. Satan is the one who wishes to render evil for good. At every point of our day, as we continue walking with Christ through the desert of His temptation this Lent season, we must affirm that God is our salvation and call upon Him in our time of need.”
Again in Ephesians, Paul writes this to the church at Ephesus, a church he was encouraging to walk not in sin or division but in their salvation, he says
10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. 12 For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.
He is not at all implying that they will never battle in the flesh and blood. That in this world they would not have any sort of persecution. But what he was doing was prioritizing their effort. They are struggling against spiritual forces of evil. And this comes in many ways, and the devil is even using tactics to disrupt the church with false teachers and divisions.
Notice also that Paul does not say anywhere in the letter that everything will go well with them once they are saved. But that they must strengthen themselves…how? by the Lord. Not by lifting weights or taking a Krav Maga class. We are to be strong in the Lord.
When Jesus was tempted in the desert, it was not by His own strength that he overcame Satan, but by the power of the Spirit and the Word of God. This is true for us today. We have the indwelling Spirit as our Helper, and the Word of God as our sword (John 14:16; Eph. 6:17).
We recognize that, like Jesus in His temptation, our main battle is not with flesh or blood “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).
And yet, how silly it is that when we face the enemy we turn to God and say “Stand aside God, I got this.”
And when we fail, let’s not be like Adam who just pointed to Eve and said, it was her fault or Aaron who becomes a charismatic, “I just threw the gold into the fire and out of nowhere this golden calf came out.” We must take responsibility for our actions.
Also, when we fail God, especially do not become a legalist. Do not become one of those people who makes a bunch of crazy promises or try to enforce all of these restrictions on yourself thinking that you just need to figure out the perfect system?
The best thing for us to do is to humbly go to God in prayer and repent from our sins.
And what can we do to prepare for these seasons. There is no better example than that of Christ. He leaned on the power of the Spirit and God’s Word.
Conclusion
Conclusion
I want to leave you with a few points as we continue walking with Christ through the desert of temptation.
Stop doing things. Stop relying on yourself and start trusting in God. Place your hope for salvation in the hope of salvation. It is not you.
Strengthen yourself in His Word. Read with the intention of knowing God more and not what it is that you could apply to yourself. The more you know of Him, the more you will become like Him and know His will for your life.
Support your fellow travelers. Likely part of the reason you are failing is because you have been neglecting fellowship, corporate prayer or bible study. Not just because we are God’s instruments to strengthen one others, but also because we need it ourselves. So when you lack in these corporate times you are not just preventing others from being comforted and strengthened, you are also keeping yourself from it also.
Trust in God. He is always near. Ask Him for the strength to endure and know that the answer is coming, keep waiting.
As we continue on this journey through Lent, let’s remember the spiritual reality of our struggles and recognize that we have a God who is not far from us and who will answer us in our time of need.
SUGGESTED FAST: TELEVISION AND MOVIES
This week, think about unplugging your televisions or devices and spending that time soaking in the Lord’s presence. If your family typically watches a show or movie together, consider exchanging that hour or two each day to open God’s Word, pray and discuss the reality of sin in our hearts and in our world.