Ash Wednesday Feb 13, 2012
Tonight we come as a church and do a self-examination before our Lord. Its an extended time of prayer and preparation for the celebration of Christ resurrection.
Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.
Around 230 AD, a group of Christians started fasting for the 40 hours leading up to Easter. Pretty soon, the idea caught on. Years later, they bumped it up to 7 days of fasting and they called it Holy Week. By 325 AD, the church officially made it 40 days. Representing 40 days of Jesus time of testing in the desert.
In the Bible, ashes were always associated with Humility and mortality, fasting and remorse. If you had sinned against God, you felt remorse about that sin, then sometimes you would sprinkle ashes on your head as a sign of Sorrow and Repentance.
Ashes were to remind you that you were mortal, that you will eventually return to ashes after you die.
During the 6th and 7th centuries, Christian Church thought about this idea. People would sometimes sprinkle ashes on themselves as a sign of repentance. Eventually this became a public practice and instead of sprinkling the ashes, the ashes would be rubbed into the forehead in the shape of a cross.
It was a sign of repentance and a reminder of your baptism, then the sign of the cross was placed on you with water and the Word. The ashes would actually be taken from the palm branches from Palm Sunday, burned the year before.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the somber season of Lent. Lent is a 40 day time span from now until Easter. During this time, we focus on Christ’s battle with sin and Satan that he waged in order to win for us our salvation.
The 40 days of Lent do not include Sundays, because each Sunday is considered a “miniature Easter”, a time of joy and celebration of the resurrection of Jesus!!
Tonight I want us to look at King David and his life. He was one of the most recognizable characters in the Bible. The Bible says he “was a man after God’s own heart”. Yet, he fell into sin. He coveted, had a affair and then tried to cover it up when that went wrong---and had someone murdered.
He thought he had gotten away with it. He thought everything was all good and that his sin would Not catch up with him.
He could have been going to church with his new wife on his arm, smiling and saying Hi to everyone.
We live in a culture, a nation, a community and even a church environment that will let our sin slide. Everyone says we have to be good. We really need to repent!
Many times we don’t have anyone in our lives that challenge us to dig deeper into ourselves and even confront us when they see Sin in our lives.
That would be Judging. And we are to judge no one .......that would just come off wrong.
Psalm 51 talks about a public exposure of a great man’s sins.
It took Nathan - an external source - to make David reflect on what he had done. He cold busted him when Nathan the prophet told him exactly what happened.
2 Samuel 12: 7-12 -
7Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. 8I gave you your master’s house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. 9Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife. 10From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own.
11“This is what the Lord says: Because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will go to bed with them in public view. 12You did it secretly, but I will make this happen to you openly in the sight of all Israel.”
Psalm 51: 1-17
A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1Have mercy on me, O God,
because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion,
blot out the stain of my sins.
2Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin.
3For I recognize my rebellion;
it haunts me day and night.
4Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say,
and your judgment against me is just.
5For I was born a sinner—
yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
*David is asking God to blot out the stain of his sin. Sin Stains. It leaves a mark. A residue. Have you ever spilled Kool Aid on something. That stuff stains and is hard to get out. Sin does the same thing. It stains our life and sometimes people can see the stain and sometimes, they can’t.
Vs 3 David recognizes his rebellion against God. That what Sin is, its rebelling against the Lord.
Vs 4- “I have done evil in your sight”. Many times we think because no one is there watching us in the room, that we are getting away with sin.
God is always watching us!!
David admits that he is a sinner- born a sinner- from the moment his mother conceived him.
Romans - “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
6But you desire honesty from the womb,
teaching me wisdom even there.
7Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8Oh, give me back my joy again;
you have broken me—
now let me rejoice.
9Don’t keep looking at my sins.
Remove the stain of my guilt.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
11Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you.
13Then I will teach your ways to rebels,
and they will return to you.
He is asking God to “purify” him from his sins. His desire is to feel clean again....not dirty from the sins that he has been involved in.
Vs. 9- remove the stain of my guilt.... many people who haven’t asked Jesus to be Lord of their lives...live with the stain of sin and stain of guilt...
Vs. 10- “Create in me a clean heart O Lord, and renew a Loyal spirit within me.
“Loyal Spirit” - Lord, help us to be Loyal to you no matter what happens in our lives.
Vs. 13- I will teach your ways to rebels...and they will return to you. He is saying I will mentor, teach and help people that are living for you. So David didn’t just say...sorry....I got caught...forgive me...He also said He will help others also.......that takes it a step further.
14Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves;
then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness.
15Unseal my lips, O Lord,
that my mouth may praise you.
16You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering.
17The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
He is asking God for His forgiveness....so he can sing of his wonderful forgiveness.
God will forgive us if we pray and mean it from our heart.
Vs. 17- The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
Thats what God is asking from us tonight.....to allow him to self examine us. To come to him humbly and with a broken heart and repentant heart.
Lord....do some Spring Cleaning in my soul.....
The last part of Lent is leaving that Sin behind.
For the next 40 days....God is asking you to give up a certain sin...or something that you might not think its a sin....but God wants you to give it up, surrender it, to Him for the next 40 days.
Pray silently.......
Next: Pastors come forward to apply ashes....
