And so we pray Lord how we need
you tonight as we start this journey into
Lent, how we need you always.
Honor and glory belong to you and so
receive us as we offer ourselves to you
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Good evening.
I'd like to make my appeal tonight to
you from this text in Joel.
And so if you've got Bibles and can
find Joel, one of the minor prophets, I
would like to appeal to this text with
you.
Joel always reminds me of John the Baptist.
The same flavor and often the same tone
that we find in the Baptist.
Because you hear and just as you heard
read today, the sound coming out of Joel,
the sound of the trumpets, this cry that
the day of the Lord is at hand,
a day of darkness and gloom, a day
of clouds and thick darkness.
So much so that in chapter 2 of
Joel in verse 11, for the day of
the Lord is great and awesome, who can
endure it?
And you get this sense of the ground
shaking, the trumpet blowing, that we're suddenly standing
in the presence of the Lord and the
condition of our soul is now before him.
Can we stand?
Can we endure?
And then comes this interlude of just utter
compassion and kindness.
This interlude where the Lord invites us in
verses 12 to 14 to return to him,
to return with all our heart, with fasting
and weeping, with mourning, to rend our hearts
and not our garments.
For the Lord is gracious.
Return to the Lord your God, for he
is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and
abounding in loving-kindness.
And he relents over disaster.
And then you have this sense that as
we do this, as we return to him,
as we rend our hearts, that he may
just indeed relent of this wrath for us
and pour out blessing.
This is an appeal to the well-being
of our soul, the care and nurture and
well-being of our soul.
And what simply is fascinating to me is
that the moment you and I have an
ache or a pain, a headache too strong,
something going wrong, boom, we're at the doctor's.
We need to make sure that our bodies
are well.
But when it comes to the issues of
the soul, it's like, I got this.
We don't know what to do, we just
stuff it in and say, you know, we
can handle it, we can fix it, it's
gonna be okay.
Even though we know something is wrong, we
still have that thing inside us that we
can handle it.
And that pride just kind of sneers its
ugly face and says, I don't need help.
And we somehow just accept the condition of
our soul.
We resign that it's not going to change.
And we turn into apathy, that cold, uncaring,
it's just the way it is.
And if it hurts too much, we'll just
medicate it and numb it out and put
up a stoic face for no one to
see what's really going on inside of me.
And so the question becomes, what does it
take?
What does it take to actually get help
for the well-being of our soul?
Not just palliative care that we're just simply
taking care of symptoms, but allowing the Lord
to do the real work, the real journey
of the soul, for Him to touch us
deep within.
What does it take for Him to do
that work inside of us?
And so this is the context that we're
in.
Because to be able to say that and
say, I need help, immediately it puts us
in the presence of the Lord.
It puts us under the government of the
authority of His Word.
And it puts us in the body of
Christ, where the Spirit of God can minister
powerfully to us and allow the medicine of
the gospel, like an intravenous drip, come into
our souls.
There is medicine for the soul, like you
hear from the medicine of the doctors that
can cure the body, which, by the way,
at the end of the day, you're going
to hear it tonight, turns to dust.
But the soul, it lasts forever.
The soul given by God.
Why the nurture of it, the care of
it, isn't more essential than everything?
The medicine comes into us.
And the first wisp, first taste of that
medicine, and suddenly we who could not believe
that we could be changed within, receive faith
to believe it's possible.
We receive power to believe that what has
so held us in bondage, we can be
free from.
Power to receive new life from above.
Power to persevere in this life, free, always
free.
And the grace to believe that one day
it'll be over and we will be home
with the Lord.
These are the things that belong to us.
How is it possible?
It's possible because of this person born in
Bethlehem, who lived a sinless life, under the
law, obeying the law, yet without sin, who
goes to the cross of Calvary on our
behalf, who raised on the third day and
ascends to his Father.
He's the one that made it possible.
If you take that medicine bottle and you
look at the fine print underneath, oh, it's
got all these big terms, terms that you
just have to unpack someday, but the medicine's
got the medicine for salvation.
It's got the medicine for justification, medicine for
sanctification, medicine for redemption, and medicine for glorification
one day.
Oh, yes, this medicine of the gospel's got
power in it.
But you're not going to want to go
the journey, are you?
You're going to want the quick fix, aren't
you?
And so what we often do is we
don't talk about the bad news, good Friday.
We all want to sail into Easter morning,
but our forebears gave us a process for
the well-being of our soul.
They gave us a pattern.
They outlined for us a five-step, I'm
going to use that language, they didn't say
it this way, but a process to go
through for the well-being of the soul,
and it all starts for the willingness to
submit to the process itself.
Point number one, the process to submit.
Submit to the process that the Lord wants
to do with us, which is why what
our forebears called this is the the 40
days, the 40 before we get to Good
Friday and Easter, the 40 days.
Not Sundays, every other day, but Sundays, the
40 days to walk through a process.
Who is it that should enter the process?
Well, always back centuries, it's been the time
when those who are coming to faith in
Christ would prepare for baptism on Easter Vigil.
That preparation of what it means to be
a Christian, to enter into that process of
what it means to go through, leaving back
our old self and allowing the born-again
life to come into us.
Second, it was for people who are having
a notorious sin in their life.
They know they've sinned and they don't know
what to do with that sin, and there's
a process for healing of the soul that
leads us to the reconciliation come Good Friday
and Easter.
For the rest of us, it is the
normal chronic conditions of the soul that we
just don't want to deal with, and we
just keep pushing down.
Or it's those traumas in life, those hard
moments in life that have, rather than shaping
us, they've defined us and turned into a
bitterness inside our soul.
Or maybe it's just areas of captivity that
the devil's got us.
These great addictions or bondages that he's got
us held captive in, and we simply live
in it, and we never deal with it.
Well, this is the process to deal with
it.
The Lord's inviting us, and that's the Lenten
process.
It's Ash Wednesday that begins it.
Let's enter into the process for the well
-being of the soul, our relationship with the
Lord, our relationship with each other.
Let's enter into the process, and it begins
with ashes.
Ashes are a perfect sign because ashes take
us back to Genesis 3, and you'll hear
these words said over you tonight.
You are dust, and to dust you shall
return.
Well, why are we dust, and why shall
we return to dust?
Well, it's because of this.
The Lord intended us for life, but because
of sin, and because of disobedience, and because
of rebellion, we fell.
And the life, the eternal life that was
removed, now we enter into death, and death
has now got us.
But listen to how the ashes are put
on us.
First of all, in these early traditions versus
later traditions, these ashes have actually come from
the palm branches of last Palm Sunday.
The palms were actually burned, and those are
the ashes that you'll have on your forehead
from Palm Sunday.
The palms that were waved, why were they
waving?
For the glory of the King.
Well, were we crying out, Hosanna, Lord save
us.
Lord, only you can save us.
But second, most importantly, we're using those ashes
not just to blob your head, but to
make over you the sign of the cross.
The sign of the cross.
How is it that we can be rescued
from our mortality?
How is it we can be rescued from
this dust?
Who will rescue us, and who will save
us?
And so, my dear friends, I say to
you, this is a, this is the way
we begin this process.
Here we are, willing to submit to what
the Lord wants to do with us.
Are you willing?
Do you want him to not just rend
your garment, your outside?
I know many of us will do something
as a pattern.
We'll stop some normative routine.
We'll give up something, or we'll take on
something.
That's fine.
Let it be a sign.
A sign of letting God do his work
in your heart to bring the curative measures
of his power to your life.
And so, that brings us to point two.
Point one, submit yourself to the process.
Point two, we submit ourselves to the Holy
Spirit, whose first job is always the conviction
of the soul.
He convicts us of sin.
He convicts us, does he not?
Do you know what that's like?
That, that, that moment he, he begins to
reveal to us what's really going on.
Immediately, perhaps, we find it in symptoms.
I read from Psalm chapter 32, when David
no doubt was dealing with the issues of
Uriah and his death and, and Bathsheba and
that great sin.
He said as a symptom, when I kept
silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning
all day long.
Day and night, your hand was heavy upon
me.
My strength was dried up by the heat
of summer.
When I kept silent about my sin, when
I kept silent, I had these symptoms begin
to appear.
And that's what happens to us.
You can feel the restlessness inside when the
conviction of the Spirit begins.
And what happened to David?
He couldn't keep it silent, could he?
The Spirit of God moved the prophet Nathan
to come to David, and suddenly David's secret
sin was secret no more.
Nathan looked at him and said, David, you
are the man.
And that word pierced his heart, and he
was utterly convicted.
And that's the word that comes to it.
When the Spirit of God convicts, what do
we cry out?
Lord, what do I do?
Just as it was when John preached and
people heard the word, they said, what shall
I do?
Just like on Pentecost Day, when the Word
of God and Jesus was preached, people cried
out under the conviction of the Spirit, what
shall I do?
Can you allow that convicting process of the
Spirit of God to let his word pierce
your heart?
That's my friend.
I might have lost you already.
Who wants that?
When he authentically does that work of conviction,
it leads to point three, and that is
confession.
Which is why you've got in the next
verse of Psalm 32, I acknowledged my sin
to you.
I did not cover my iniquity.
I confess my sin.
I acknowledge it to the Lord, and I
would suggest to you not to contain it
alone.
We go, just like James says, and confess
to a safe brother, a safe sister.
I've got to deal with, I'm dealing with
something.
I need help to confess.
What does confess mean?
To confess means to say exactly what he's
saying.
It's to put the amen behind it.
It's not to try to justify.
It's not try to argue.
It's not try to defend.
It's not try to weasel out of, well,
it's not as bad as the conviction really
feels.
No, it's that bad.
I promise.
Amen.
So be it.
Lord, you're right about me.
So much so that what it always leads
to is we ask, which is what we're
about to hear in Psalm 51.
When David came before the Lord, he began
to ask, Lord have mercy upon me.
Oh God, according to your steadfast love, according
to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
You see what he's saying is, I can't
do this on my own.
I need you to do what I cannot
do.
Mercy upon me.
Blot out, wash me clean.
Purge me from these things.
Create in me, Lord, a new heart.
Renew a right spirit.
Here I am, a broken and contrite heart,
a broken and contrite spirit.
Lord, here I am.
Can you see the utter inability in our
confession?
So we must wait upon the Lord to
do what only he can do.
This is what separates this medicine from all
the religions and philosophies of the world.
It is this, it is this medicine.
It is this gospel where we wait upon
the Lord to give it.
And that's called process.
It's allowing Jesus to get deep inside and
give us and grant us repentance, which is
the fourth principle behind it.
First is to submit to the Lord.
Second is to allow the convicting work of
the Holy Spirit.
Third is to make confession, to acknowledge it,
to ask the Lord for mercy.
And four, to ask him to give us
the gift of repentance.
Why do I say the gift of repentance?
Because we, in our own strength, cannot repent.
We cannot, in our own strength, get out
of the mess.
I'm reading from Romans chapter 7, when suddenly
Paul realizes this conviction, this confession, that the
principle is inside him.
Something's wrong inside of him.
There's a bondage.
There's a captivity.
And he finally cries out, wretched man that
I am, I can't do anything about this.
I can't do anything about this.
Who will set me free from this?
Now, I'm sorry, I'm probably taking too much
time, but I'm going to say this to
you.
It isn't enough to be open and transparent
about our sin.
Sometimes I feel like in our culture, like
transparency is like the highest summit anybody can
ever arrive at.
We say it, I've got a problem.
And everybody goes, oh, it's just so beautiful.
Well, let me tell you, it is beautiful.
Holiness, transparency, go for it.
But there's an indignation inside of me that
says, dear brother, you've been transparent.
Dear sister, well done you.
Now we're going to stand by your side
until we see you set free from what
has held you captive.
We're going to not leave you where you
are in your transparency.
We're going to ask Jesus to set you
free from whatever the bondage is, whatever the
captivity is, whatever the burden is.
Do you believe that's possible?
I believe it's possible.
Why?
Because in repentance what we find?
We find Good Friday.
We find the Lord taking us to Good
Friday where the washing happens.
What kind of washing?
The washing in the blood of the Lamb.
The washing that can cure our souls.
Don't race to Easter, dear friend.
No, no.
The old man goes down into baptism, and
oftentimes he keeps us down for a season.
Why is that?
To let the old man die.
The Lord can do a work inside of
us that can literally separate us from the
bondage of the sin.
The language of the Bible is to come
out of Egypt, not stay in it and
say, well, I'm open, I'm transparent.
Really bad life here.
No, no.
He wants you to see it and know
it and know the bitterness of the slavery.
Absolutely.
He wants to take you out and lead
you to.
And that's the joy of Good Friday.
I believe the Holy Spirit who convicts us
and brings us to confession takes us to
Calvary so that the power of the Lord
can deliver us from whatever sin, whatever bondage,
whatever the devil is doing in us and
set us free.
For I believe the Baptists have it.
There's power.
Power.
Wonder-working power.
There's some Baptists here.
In the blood of the Lamb.
No, no.
We don't dodge Good Friday.
Good Friday is where it all happens.
For it says the word of the cross
is to those who are perishing, foolishness.
To us who are being saved, the word
of the cross is the power of God.
Which leads us to number five.
Once we've come out of Egypt, out of
the bondage, out of the waters, the Lord
brings us to the promised land and Easter
morning comes and the Spirit of God comes
and we can be born again in Christ.
We can be set free and know what
that freedom is really like because where the
Spirit of the Lord, there is freedom.
You and I in Jesus have been given
the medicine that saves the soul.
And when we've got it and know it,
we get to come alongside others and help
them know it and be set free.
No Christian should be under the bondage of
the evil one.
No Christian should step back and say, no,
no, I'll never change.
It's got me.
I'm always like this.
I've always been like this.
It's the way it's always going to be.
No.
That is a lie from the pit of
hell.
And so our forefathers gave us Lent.
There's a process, dear friends, where we can
be set free.
There's a process to come to Good Friday.
Down in the waters of baptism where the
old man dies.
The blood of Jesus washes us clean and
then he brings us up.
He brings us out into new life.
Do not let this moment pass you by.
If you've got a chronic condition of your
soul that you've allowed to stay there, this
is your time.
Those ashes, that begins the journey.
Submit yourself to it and let the Spirit
of God have you so that we can
go to Good Friday together and watch the
Spirit of God wash us, cleanse us, and
create in us a new heart.
In Jesus' name.
Let us hear now the words of exhortation.