Why Lent Matters | Lent Bible Study

We have to be intentional about what we want the Lord to do in our lives. We have to be intentional about carving space where God can work in and on us. It's not always, it's not always a requirement that we know exactly what God is going to do, but it is a requirement that we offer God ourselves and give him the time that he deserves so that the work can be done. [00:08:59] (35 seconds)  #MakeSpaceForGod

Don't get to Easter and then say, gotta do the work. Do the work now so that when you come out your grave, when the new doors open, when the new opportunities arrive, when God is ready to show his manifest power in your life, you can say, I'm ready and prepared for what's on the other side. And so we do the work. So Lent is a time of reflection, repentance, renewal, and realignment. [00:13:42] (27 seconds)  #DoTheWorkNow

say, what is it that giving up meat is going to do for me? Why am I giving this up? Why am I not going to this place? Why am I not participating in these activities? What is it about and this is the key. What is it about those activities that has caused me to be separated or not fully connected to God? And if I give them up, am I replacing that time with time with God? [00:15:11] (26 seconds)  #GiveUpToReconnect

That's the difference. Let's unpack that for a second. There's a difference between falling short and messing up and continuing to fall in the same spot. As a growing believer, and I want you to save this imagery. As a growing believer, there are times we we make a mess. No matter how sanctified and saved you are, you're gonna make a mess from time to time. There are times where that happens. But as a growing believer, we should be putting caution signs down where we made the mess so that we don't keep tripping over that. [00:17:22] (33 seconds)  #MarkYourMistakes

Church history is never intended to be put on the same level as the word. One of the mistakes many churches make is that they move from worshiping God, worshiping the God that we find and the savior that we meet in the bible, Jesus Christ, to worshiping their practice and their way of expression that has become codified in their local congregation or in their community. [00:30:10] (34 seconds)  #WorshipGodNotTradition

Our lives are noisy and hectic. They're busy. There's a lot going on. Lent is our time to get in a space where we can be honest with ourselves and God, where we can be renewed in our focus on Christ and Christ alone. Our focus doesn't have is not to be on everything else, it's to be on Christ and Christ alone and we can strengthen our spiritual habits. [00:39:01] (29 seconds)  #FocusOnChrist

We cannot constantly be moving so fast through our lives that we are not slowing down enough for God to do the work that's necessary. And if I could even push that a step further, we cannot be so fast paced even in the expression of our Christianity that we don't give God time to work on us. We may be operating in a calling, operating in an assignment, operating in a place that God has put put you, but that does not mean you are a finished work. There's still work to be done, and we still must find the time and the space to give to God. [00:10:42] (39 seconds)  #SlowDownForGod

We have to we are a canvas that God is building, and we must offer that canvas to God, the architect and contractor, who will then, in his time, prepare it to be the design he wants for it to be. And at every juncture of our lives, even beyond just the Lenten season, we must always be asking ourselves, are we giving God time that he can work on us? [00:09:34] (29 seconds)  #LetGodDesignYou

But I want you to reflect because we've got to look in the mirror so that we can become stronger because there's something God has for all of us and at the end of this Lenten season we're gonna see it. The only question is will we have done the work to be ready when God brings us out of our tombs. [00:40:15] (18 seconds)  #LookInTheMirror

It's when Jesus got up from the grave and there's transformation that takes place. And this and you you'll hear me preaching a lot about this over these next couple of weeks and even teaching it in our bible studies. We do not wanna get to Easter on the calendar and not have allowed God to do the work in us so that whatever new is getting ready to come is ready. [00:13:16] (25 seconds)  #ReadyForResurrection

Every believer and I want you to write this down. I want you to save it. I want you to remember this because it's a guiding principle that must be a part of our Christian walk. Every believer must understand why they do what they do in growing on their journey, and every believer must be able to stand on some level of scriptural authority that gives them clearance and clarity on why what they do is in accordance to God's word. [00:26:38] (33 seconds)  #KnowWhyYouBelieve

And whenever you begin to worship your god, little g god, which is your history and not big g god, which is Jehovah, the god of the universe, then you will get off track. And so we stand on two prongs, but one prong supports the other, the bible, and we use church history to see how over the years other believers have worked out their faith and their practice over two thousand years that help us to become stronger, [00:30:44] (38 seconds)  #BibleFirstHistorySupporting

We have to be intentional about what we want the Lord to do in our lives. We have to be intentional about carving space where God can work in and on us. It's not always, it's not always a requirement that we know exactly what God is going to do, but it is a requirement that we offer God ourselves and give him the time that he deserves so that the work can be done. [00:08:59] (35 seconds)  #IntentionallyOfferTime

If Jesus took forty days to prepare himself, then we can too take forty days to prepare ourselves. No. Jesus didn't say you have to take forty days, but because we're following his example, we can be confident and feel okay saying if Jesus took forty days, then we too can take forty days [00:28:13] (26 seconds)  #FollowJesusFortyDays

Lent is a time of getting connected to God, and it's in our reflection and in our understanding and truthfully in our sober examination of ourselves that we see the areas that we need the Lord to work on. So our fast and our prayer time should not just be centered around what everybody else is doing. Don't do for lent where you say, well, everybody else is is giving up meat, so I'm just giving up meat. Don't just give up meat just because, [00:14:39] (32 seconds)  #PersonalFastingNotPeerPressure

For some it may be you trust God in areas of your life individually, but you don't trust God in the context of your relationships. You trust God with your thoughts and your plans, but you don't trust God with how to handle the relationships, how to handle your spouse, how to handle your children. And as such, when you examine and this is the key. When you examine those relationships, you do not evidence godly character in your actions to them. [00:20:58] (32 seconds)  #TrustGodInRelationships

But I'm disconnected because I've I've asked God for money. I've asked God for resources. I asked God for a job. I asked God to provide, but I don't even give God what he instructed me to do because I'm disconnected. God did not bless you with financial resources for you not to give it back to him. He says just give me 10% and if I'm we are not doing that we're disconnected and that's an area we got to work on. [00:20:26] (32 seconds)  #GiveBackBeConnected

As maturing believers, and I want you to hear me on this because it's so significant especially in the day and age that we're living where people are questioning and trying to throw rocks and stones and tear apart organized religion and anything that people stand behind. It's so important to understand this. We don't do this because it's in the bible, but we do it because it helps us to grow and to become stronger on our journey. [00:25:46] (29 seconds)  #PracticesHelpUsGrow

to be reminded of what Jesus went through. So early church, first, second century, their fast were a way to remember the suffering, to deny themselves of something, deny themselves of food so that they would then feel what it felt to not have because Jesus was deprived. Jesus was beat. He was wounded for our transact transactions transactions. He was bruised for our iniquities, [00:34:14] (26 seconds)  #RememberChristsSuffering