Lent 2019

21 0 LEGACY CHURCH 9

LENT

Introduction Fewer propositions are more convincing in support of the inspiration of Scripture than the timelessness and universality of the text itself. Each age sees its own turmoil and hardships in unique ways. Often it feels like no time before and no time to come could ever understand the current plight of life. Yet no matter what a generation thinks of itself, Scripture possesses wisdom for the day at hand. If this were not enough to astound us, its wisdom does not only stretch through time, but also through space. The student of God’s Word need not be born and raised in a particular location with a prerequisite culture satisfied. Scripture speaks universally to all people from all places. It is a feat unmatched by any other holy writ. The Lord our God spoke with the desire to be heard by all people in all places at all times. And His Word does just that. One of the astounding ways in which God ties together His people throughout the ages is through miracles. The miraculous would serve as a reminder to a people who needed reminding of His faithfulness. The miraculous would serve as a call-sign to the people who did not rightly recognize God’s people. The miraculous would serve as an inauguration of new things being introduced to belabored and broken people. And this is a beautiful thing. When at times we neglect conversations about the miraculous in our lives today, let us not forget that we are all tied together by miracles. Each and every one of us that calls upon the name of Jesus has been impacted by miracles upon miracles. This may sound surprising, but it is the remarkable truth. Afterall, our entry fee into the Kingdom of God was the product of no less than three miracles.

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At this point, it’s helpful to define a miracle. For as often as the term is used in nomenclature, it could detract of how we mean it as it’s used by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. For example, it might be confusing to imagine the miracles of Scripture being somehow equal to the miracles of, say, that one time Johnny jumped cleaned over the creek behind Madison’s house. Or that one time Scott asked Emily to the dance and Emily actually said yes! Or that other time I swiped my card to pay for groceries and the keypad read “Approved”. (Walmart was a place of many miracles in my college years). So for the sake of avoiding unnecessary confusion, let me propose a simple biblical definition. A miracle is simply the act of God reaching into human history by supernatural intervention. This indeed is a broad definition and is inclusive by design. And that’s the point. I want to encourage us to take the time to recognize God’s activity and identify it fearlessly for what it is. It’s miraculous and it’s creating connections each and every time. Miracles are not blips on a radar screen. They are not independent instances absent of any influence or interaction with one another. They are not single-sering amenities useful only to the recipient and impactful only to those present. Miracles, rather, are the pattern woven across a tapestry, intertwining groups, generations, populations, and eras together through supernatural needlework pointing through the fabric of human history. By miracles we are tied together. To be sure, by one miracle we are declared righteous. By one miracle, declared saints. By one miracle, declared family. And so through a panoramic vista of God’s miracles conceived within human history, may our hearts and minds be prepared for remembering the divine action upon which we believe all the rest are true. Let us prepare ourselves for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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3/6/19

In Ashes The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. - Jonah 3:6 With contrite hearts, millions of people observing a day on the liturgical calendar will approach the altar to receive an anointing of ash spread across their forehead. It’s the beginning of a new season and while we may not observe it with similar rituals, the symbol of the ash is worth contemplation. Ash is what’s left over when everything else has passed through fire. Ash clings to and dirties whatever it touches. It can billow like a cloud or it can settle in mounds. Ash is how we feel when we are broken. Dirty, dusty, without use or function, just the evidence of a strong fire that consumed all it could and left the rest behind. It’s a dismal scene indeed. But then I think of someone who lived in Nineveh. This town filled with evil, with deceit, with exploitation and manipulation, where the powerful are bullies and the weak are victims. I think of someone who heard about a God who forgave. This person hears this message of a God who loves the weak and humbles the strong. This person hears of a God that desires to show mercy and grace. And then this person looks upon the throne to find his or her king has stepped down, covered himself in sackcloth, and is sitting in ash. A kingdom has been turned upside down. A king sits in ash. And I think to myself how beautiful is the ash that covers joyful hearts freed in God’s forgiveness?

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3/7/19

In Doubt He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” - Genesis 3:1 How deeply we want to feel that we are not as easily duped. With education I might know the facts about the things in the places and equipped with this knowledge, I will be no one’s fool. With experience I might see the errors in the ways of the world and equipped with these tales, I will be no one’s fool. With counsel I might hear the wisdom in the words of the wise and equipped with these proverbs, I will be no one’s fool. And then in all my study, all my time, all my thought, a single question is asked. No one but my own doubt doubles back and a fool I am made all the same. In the world’s very first Bible Study between Eve and the Serpent, a single question was asked. It did not stir up pride, it did not stir up argument, and it did not stir up confrontation. It stirred fear. The serpent asked, “Did God actually say…?” Doubt was cast in one direction; upon the character of God. There was no challenge as to Eve’s ability to understand God’s meaning. There was simply a challenge to the authenticity of God’s intentions. Did God actually say such things? Does He actually mean to do for you as He said he would? The ground on which we cannot give an inch is not what we believe God has said; it’s who we believe God to be.

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3/8/19

Intentions And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” - Genesis 3:2-3 The first Bible Study in history is off to a rocky start and it’s not getting any better. The serpent has made the small group leader nervous with an insidious question casting doubt upon the character of God. Eve returns the question with a steadfast recitation of what God did say. However, an amendment has been made. Eve asserts confidently that God instructed the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden not to be eaten. This part is true. But then adds that the tree not even be touched. From where did this addition originate? Regardless of God’s original instruction, Eve came to believe somewhere along the way that the decree included a prohibition of touching the tree. Yet God’s desire for Adam and Eve was that they tend to the garden. Have you ever tried to trim a tree that you could not touch? Conceivably, at the thought of immediate death resulting from eating the fruit, Adam and Eve decided it would be beneficial to establish a boundary that would further prevent them from ever getting close. And so they decided not to even touch the tree. In an attempt to follow one of God’s instructions (to not eat the fruit), they added a boundary (to not touch the tree). And yet this boundary now prevents them from following God’s other instruction (to tend to the garden). Our best intentions can never improve upon God’s purposes. And yet we behave otherwise. We always have. 5

3/9/19

In Fear But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” - Genesis 3:4-5 My son sees an older boy climb on the outside of the slide, scale to the top, and then jump off to return to the ground with an action-packed barrel roll. His eyes widen, his smile broadens, and he looks at me and shouts, “Daddy!”. He’s looked hoping to find permission from me in the form of a thumbs-up. When instead he is met with my eyebrows high, my mouth straight, and my head shaking slowly from side to side, he is all at once distraught and destroyed. What follows is a bellowing cry, “You’re not my best friend anymore!”. I’d withheld the one experience he wanted most in the world. How could I be his best friend? The serpent likewise assures Eve, God just doesn’t want you to have the kind of experience you want. For a split second, Eve thought there might be a chance that her Daddy was withholding something good from her. To be like God, knowing good and evil? That sounds like such a good thing. And my Daddy doesn’t want me to have it? Imagine the heartbreak and confusion Eve is experiencing in this moment. Imagine the hurt. Imagine the doubt. This isn’t pride that’s leading her astray in this moment. It’s absolute fear that when God said, “I love you”, He didn’t mean it. The fear that our Father is withholding good from us is the most effective and destructive lie at the enemy’s disposable. Stop believing it. 6

3/10/19

In Pride Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. - Genesis 3:7 Pride is a symptom. It’s a cover up. It’s a red herring, attempting to draw attention away from the real issue. The craven trick of pride is that it would like to have you believe that it is the root of the issue in and of itself. Pride, in whatever form it shows its face, is just a symptom. Fear is the root of all pride. Fear is the default of our fallen nature. Fear is the disease that leads to all the other symptoms of our depravity. Eve ate the fruit because of fear. Her fear drove her from trusting in the loving goodness of her Father. It was fear that made her forget that He is eternally for her good. And when fear took hold, leading to the fall of Adam and Eve, we see the face of pride within humanity for the very first time. In fear, they ate, they rebelled, they fell, they soiled their spirits, and they broke their perfect relationship before a holy God. And in pride they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. It’s nothing but a symptom, a cover up, a distraction. They are naked before the Lord. And they covered up with fig leaves. Fear took them down. Then pride took them over. If the enemy’s greatest lie is that God doesn’t love us, our greatest lie is that maybe we can make Him love us if we could just dress ourselves up a little bit.

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3/11/19

In Faith The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. - Genesis 3:20 These are the state of things. The garden is no longer their home, its foliage no longer theirs to tend, the soil no longer willing to yield its produce, and the earth no longer eager to be filled with the progeny of a fallen humanity. And yet there is hope. We refer so often to Eve by name conversing with the serpent that it’s easy to forget that at this point, she is still unnamed. She is referred to as only the woman. It is not until they are facing exile and separation from the physical presence of God in the garden that Adam turns to the woman and names her Eve. In that moment, Adam did something significant. He lifted his head from the despair in which they were steeped and he looked up. He looked toward hope, toward faith, and toward God. A long list of curses and condemnation had just been handed down, the gates barred, and nothing but toil promised. There was also the troubling reality of death now looming upon the horizon of his life. And he turned to the woman and called her Eve, “because she was the mother of all living.” In moments such as these, to choose a name that calls upon a hope in the love of God, in the face of doubt and fear — this is the stuff of faith. To remind ourselves of the character of God is our greatest defense in the face of despair.

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3/12/19

In Love And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. - Genesis 3:21 I have a streak of inferiority in me that likes to poke its head out in social situations. Anytime I feel a little intimidated about the setting I’m about to find myself subjected to, my knee jerk method of compensation is dressing up. In many of my previous professional contexts, I’ve been known to be one of the more formally dressed employees. There was never a dress code requirement for a coat and tie, but nevertheless I would be wearing one almost every day no matter my professional role. What my coworkers thought was an overachieving desire to dress to impress was in reality a nervous tick of self-soothing antics of superficial compensations. Covering up with fig leaves is alive and well in my life. Consider the compassion of the Lord our God as He looked upon the pitiful loincloths sewed together by His poor and broken children. What reason would a holy God have to stoop to the aid of their ineptitude other than pure fatherly love? Garments of skins, God prepared for Adam and Eve. Being covered by God required bloodshed. It did then. It does now. Whereas my attempts to cover up are silly and prideful, when God covers us it’s sacrificial. He let us know the kind of price He’d be willing to pay on our behalf from the very beginning. And He has never wavered from that promise.

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3/13/19

Wrath ...among whom we all once lived in the passions of our lesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. - Ephesians 2:3 We share a family heritage and a  family curse from that day in the garden. As people lie, cheat, and steal for the sake of their own personal gain, irrespective of damages done to those around them, it is a function of our fallen nature. As people isolate themselves in their own way of living with the convictions that their decisions belong to them alone, it is a function of our broken relationships. As people flounder and flail after this or that job, this or that pursuit, this or that cause in search for purpose and meaning, it is a function of our loss of responsibility. We are fundamentally broken to our core where satisfaction and fulfillment are merely fanciful platitudes but have little to no relation to real life. And these are the desires of the heart and the mind, the find the solution to personal satisfaction. Toward this end we constantly strive as children of wrath, ever carried to and fro by fleeting passions and rational lies. Contentment in our circumstances evades our reach as we convene to control those circumstances by whatever means possible. The pattern set its first iteration in the garden. Fear of withheld love led to pride covering up our hurt. And we continue to lay the pattern today. All the while God wants deeply to provide us lives of fulfillment, of satisfaction, of contentment by His Son. First, we have to set aside our fear and our wrath.

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