Getting Close to God through Jesus – Step #1: Making Room

Welcome to Ash Wednesday – the beginning of our season where we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ Death & Resurrection.

We call this season Lent.

Some of you may have any number of memories of Lent, or maybe you have a special “thing” you do during Lent.

People do all kinds of things: they give up certain items in their lives (called fasting), or them come to church more often, or they volunteer and give more to the needy.

People do all kinds of things and I’m going to encourage you in this message to consider “doing something things”.

But before I do I want to give you a key principle: Whatever we do for Lent – its aim should be to drawer closer to Jesus.

Let me say that again – Whatever you do for Lent – its aim should be to draw you closer to Jesus.

When I was young there were all these “things” we did for Lent.  I can remember being panicked when I accidentally ate meat on Friday!

And yet I never knew why we weren’t eating meat!  Then there were other things that changed – the crosses were covered – the music in church was different – but why?

So my point isn’t that we shouldn’t do these things – my point is we should know why!

And with that introduction let me introduce you to our 2010 theme for Lent – Growing Closer to God through Jesus!

The title of this message is “Making Room for God”

The prophet Joel writes in chapter 2:

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the LORD is coming, it is near--
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful army comes;
their like has never been from of old,
nor will be again after them
in ages to come.

It’s a foreboding message – that a terrible time is coming.  Joel’s point is this: get ready, you don’t know when the Lord is returning, but HE IS!  So sound the alarm – or in other words START!

Lent is about starting – again- starting to again return

Yet even now, says the LORD,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the LORD, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.

Joel is serious about this, he says it doesn’t matter what you are doing, but you need to start, listen to these words:

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;
gather the children,
even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her canopy.

Let the bridegroom leave his room – could you imagine?  But it emphasizes that nothing is more important than returning to the Lord.

Lent is a season that helps us focus – helps us focus on returning to the Lord.

And it is in that spirit that I want you to consider “Making Room for God”.

As I visit with people I often hear, “I really want to get to church on Sunday, or I want to join that Bible Study, or I want to start praying in the morning.”

But then life seems to get in the way.  It isn’t as if people are out notoriously sinning – rather many are involved in “good things”.  A sport, or some leisure, or spending time at the coffee shop with friends.  The challenge is that all of these “good things” are getting in the way of spending time with the “BEST THING” – spending time with God.

So this Lent I want to encourage you to “Make Some Room in Your Life” in order to spend time with God.

What is it that you want to do – is it pray more, or read your Bible, or be at Stations of the Cross, or…?

Make a commitment right now to do one less of those “good things” so that you might be able to do the “best thing” – let’s pray.