SERMONS ON ASH WEDNESDAY
Our sermon ideas for Ash Wednesday will help you preach a powerful message. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. This is a great season of reflection on our lives and especially on all that God has done for us through the life and death of Jesus Christ. Prepare your message for your Ash Wednesday Service with sermon outlines or an entire sermon series.
All Sermons $5.99 each.
Opening Our Hidden Life to God - For Ash Wednesday
by Tony Nester
We keep a lot about ourselves hidden. We have secret thoughts, secret desires, secret feelings. We have a lot to keep hidden. We hide things from one another because we're ashamed of what's inside of us.Others may think we have a pure heart, but we know that impure thoughts have often entered our heart. Others may think we are unselfish, but we know how much selfishness remains within us. Others may think we are strong and courageous, but we know how weak and afraid we really are. I don't believe we ever come to know anyone completely. You can experience every possible intimacy with someone, you can live...
Ash Wednesday
by Bob Wickizer
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. . . Only one other time in the life of a Christian besides Ash Wednesday do you hear these words. Of course if you are the one being buried, by the time the priest says these words it is too late for you to do anything about it. The prophet Joel announces to the city as if a battle is expected. ''Sound the trumpet'' that military instrument used to rouse the troops' spirits during battle. ''The Day of the Lord is coming near.'' We are to prepare for a battle with the most difficult enemy of all - us. Joel encourages the people of Israel to return the Lord with all your heart. In the midst of many peoples, cultures...
Reflecting on the Solemn Assembly
by J. Gerald Harris
Last week I indicated to you that there is a verse of Scripture that has been haunting me for some time. It is Psalm 66:18. Listen to the words of the psalmist: ''If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.'' My dear people, I want you to listen. God wants to do something. God is longing to do something. God is ready to do something, but ''if we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not...'' I mean, if there is iniquity in our hearts, there are certain things He will not do, because it would be inconsistent with His nature to do them. He is longing to bless, but if there is sin in the camp, He simply will not bless. He will...
Fasting - Hungry for God (6 of 7)
by Roger Thomas
Today we come to the third of three illustrations Jesus uses to teach that motives matter to God. It is possible to do a good thing for the wrong reason. He outlines the principle in verse one. ''Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness before men,' to be seen by them.'' He first applies the principle to giving to those in need. Of course, sharing is good. Doing it to show off, however, doesn't impress God. The same principle applies to praying. The Lord wants us to pray. But he wants us to remember who we are praying to when we do. This is not just an old problem. I know that preachers and leaders who lead public prayer...
What Did Jesus Say about Praying and Fasting (9 of 15)
by Rick White
Introduction: With or Without a Mask A few years ago, two men held up a bank in Dallas. For reasons I do not know, only one of them wore a mask. In ten or fifteen minutes they were captured. Can you imagine one of those men standing before the judge and saying, ''Your Honor, I admit I robbed the bank. I admit that I did it. But at least I went in there without a mask. I was not a hypocrite. Everybody saw who I was.'' That doesn't make it with a judge in Dallas. So, if you want to play the game of Pharisee, you can play it from any position in the board. This tax collector stood in the presence of God, and in the...
Fasting
by Nelson Price
JESUS CHRIST was asked by the disciples of John, ''Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?'' He answered: ''Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the day will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.'' Immediately after His beautiful baptism He fasted forty days in the wilderness. Fasting was not experientially unknown to Him. Later He incorporated the principle in His matchless message on the mountain by saying, ''When you fast...'' In that same sermon He spoke of giving and praying...
Rethinking Repentance (2 of 9)
by Eddie Snipes
The word repent is translated from the Greek word, Metanoeo, which means to change the mind. It means to take our mind out of human thinking, and rest our minds in faith. Our minds need repentance, or a change of thinking, whether we are in temptation to sin, or the temptation of religion by human effort. The majority of the scriptures that are used to condemn believers comes out of the Old Covenant of the Law. According to the scriptures, the law was designed to reveal the guilt of the entire world to show mankind we can never become righteous. Then through that condemnation, the law becomes our tutor, that leads us to Christ where all sin, condemnation, and guilt have been taken out of the way.
Ash Wednesday
by Tony Thomas
A. Winston Churchill once admitted to three impossibilities: 1. To walk up a ladder leaning toward you ... 2. To kiss a girl leaning away from you ... 3. And speaking on a subject you know nothing about. B. Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent (3 confessions): 1. First, I've never observed Lent. 2. Second, I've never worn/sprinkled ashes ... 3. And although I've been preaching for 48 years, I've never preached on Ash Wednesday! C. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent: 1. I looked it up in the Bible (it's not there!).
God, Here Are My Ashes, Make Me Beautiful (1 of 4)
by Donald Cantrell
John was born into a family of 12 children. They were very poor. He was the youngest. He never remembered his father eating a meal with the rest of the family. He had to work long hours to feed his family. One day his father ran off with another woman, leaving his mother to care for all 12 children. At age 6, his mother told him through tears that she was going to put him up for adoption along with 3 of his sisters. She told him she had no choice. If she didn't take this step they would likely starve. She placed an ad in a newspaper of a nearby town and within 3 days a couple responded. When the day finally came for John to leave, he said it was the worst day of his life.
Are You Sure You Want God to Show Up? (3 of 17)
by Larry Osborne
The reality that God prefers forgiveness over judgment is a profound comfort to us all. The culmination of God's love for us is demonstrated through the sending of his son, Jesus, and the sacrifice of his life so that we might have life. As we close this quarter, we want to remember what Jesus has done for us and who we are by taking communion. In preparation for this, read through Psalm 86:1-11. Write down what it says about who God is, what he does for us, who we are as his followers and how we can come to him. Growth Group Homework QUICK REVIEW: Looking back at your notes from this week's teaching, was there anything that particularly caught your attention, challenged...
Doing Right Things for Right Reasons (17 of 26)
by Jonathan McLeod
''Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven'' (v. 1). SCRIPTURE READING In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that we who profess to be his followers are to be different. In 6:1-18, he tells us that we are to have a different motivation for doing religious things. [Read Matthew 6:1-18.] LIVING FOR THE APPLAUSE Comedian Jerry Lewis, in an interview with GQ, admits that his act ''is fueled by an unquenchable thirst for attention. He says, ''I need the applause.'' Lady Gaga performs a song called...
God Is for You - Part 1 (1 of 4)
by Fred Lowery
This series is born out of my walking on my new hip and asking God to restore me physically, emotionally, spiritually because I don't know about you but I don't stay where I need to stay with the Lord. I'm not always where I need to be. I haven't arrived. I don't have it all together. I still have ups and downs and so it's - God is a God of restoration and He wants to continually restore us. You know the Golden Gate Bridge - Leigh and I were out there in San Francisco several years ago and we went to Alcatraz and stayed a few - a little time behind the bars there and but we were fascinated with that huge bridge and we found...
Something Everyone Must Do-Repent (11 of 20)
by Jim Henry
You ask any kindergarten child, "What's the first letter of the alphabet?" and they'll say 'A'. And you know 'A' is the first letter of the alphabet, not only in English, but in Greek and in German, and French, and in Hebrew, and in Russian. You ask believers, 'What is the first word of the Gospel?" and some will say it's love, some will say it's trust, some will say it's forgiveness, some will say it's peace. But would you believe the first word is the word that John the Baptist used first (first thing he taught)? Jesus used it in the first lesson He brought; the twelve disciples were told that was the word they were to give; the seventy who were sent out were sent out with this word on their hearts. Peter, when he preached at Pentecost in the beginning of the Church, preached it; Paul wrote about it in the epistles. And it's a word called repentance.
The Last Week: Wednesday (4 of 8)
by Joe Alain
Because God has made us free, we have the ability to chose the path of light that leads to life, or the path of darkness that leads to death. How do we respond to Jesus and his message? Specifically, how do we respond to his death and resurrection? The chief priests and scribes on the one hand (vv.1-2) and Judas on the other (vv.10-11) were preparing for Jesus' death by planning to kill him. Between the two parts of this conspiracy account (vv.3-9) stands the story of a woman who pours ointment on Jesus' head at a dinner party. Mark brackets this story as a way of bringing to our attention the graphic contrast...
On the Ash Heap (1 of 5)
by Tony Nester
A little girl was riding along on her bike when she bumped her head on the low hanging branch of a tree. She ran into the house hollering, "Mom! Mom, Joey hurt me!" Mom looked up from what she was doing and said, "Sissy, Joey didn't hurt you. Joey's not even here. He went to the grocery store with your daddy." The little girl got this startled look on her face. Then in a bewildered sort of voice she said, "Whoa! You mean stuff like this can happen on its own? Bummer!" It's hard to face up to the fact that life doesn't always make sense. Bad things happen for no good reason. Some stuff just happens on its own. We might...
Being the Real Deal (11 of 23)
by Ken Trivette
Ferdinand Waldo Damara, Jr., during the course of three decades, taught college classes in psychology, worked as a zoologist, served as dean of the School of Philosophy at Pennsylvania's Gannon College, taught science at a Catholic boys school, did cancer research in Seattle, worked as a civil engineer in the Yucatan, directed a student counseling center, taught Latin, English, and French at a high school on an isolated island off the coast of Maine, served as a deputy sheriff in Washington State, served as lieutenant surgeon in the Royal Canadian Navy being hailed as the ''miracle doctor'' and credited with the saving of...
The Make Up Of Man (7 of 48)
by Stan Coffey
INTRODUCTION: Only the Word of God tells us how man came into being. But it not only tells us how man came into being, the Word of God tells us why man came into being and what man is like. It is important to understand who you are to understand how you're suppose to function. And you have to understand what you are to understand how you're suppose to function. God made you for a purpose and you are to function with a purpose. In Genesis 2:7 the Bible says that man was made in the image of God. God is a triune God. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Man is only one person but there are three parts to man's...
Divine Respiration (2 of 9)
by J. Gerald Harris
So, God literally blew life into everything that lives: everything that is animated. Breath is "ruach." It's the same word as "wind." It is the same word as "spirit." Although he breathed life into all living creatures, only into man is God breathing life that is "in His own image. "There is no evolution here. There is no time here. There is no process. There is no mutating. There is no survival of the fittest. There was no pre-Adamic man of any kind. There is no pre-human man. There is no transitional man. I am constantly amazed and I supposed amused at the bizarre, unfounded, confused machinations of evolution that have...
The Promise of Confidence (2 of 12)
by David Cawston
Introduction: There is always a question as to whether what I believe is really right or maybe there is another way! May be I am wrong and some other religion is right? We are confronted by so many choices today! That is not bad but it only requires that we become sure of our choice and are able to have the confidence that we have made the right one! If we are not clear in what we have found then we can be side tracked! Illus. Mormons (Another Gospel) Attracted by good works! Healthy families! But do they have the truth! What is the basis for salvation – discovery of truth- fullness of life? After all our search for spiritual things is...
A Prophetic Grid for Victory in the Modern Church
by Jimmy Evans
Introduction: Even though the principles of God's word are always true, there are seasons and situations which require special insight and instructions. America is currently in such a season. As James Dobson stated this year, ''America is in a moral free fall.'' Every fiber of morality and Judeo-Christian ethic is being questioned and attacked from society, Satan's kingdom and even within the church. The result is social confusion, spiritual disillusionment and moral decay and imminent collapse. As we will see in the book of Joel, God has an answer for such a time as this, if we will be careful to receive it and...
Get Real! (8 of 8)
by Jeff Lynn
This is the last message in the series, ''Righteousness Redefined''.TEXT: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 Several years ago my family took a vacation to Southern California where we visited such places as Disneyland, the safari park in San Diego, and Universal Studios in Hollywood. One of the ''rides'' at Universal Studios was what they call their ''back lot'' tour, where you ride a tram down to, basically, a little town. The amazing thing is that they can change the buildings to suit whatever purpose they desire. We saw the courthouse and the lawn in front of the courthouse where all the ''Back to the Future'' movies were shot. We saw...
