Series Guide
Overview
This six-week Lent sermon series exposes the rebellious nature of sin and helps you teach your people about the beautiful resolution offered in the hope of the gospel through a researched series guide.
In our world it is common to minimize our own actions and, thus, minimize our responsibility in the problem. But the season of Lent reminds us that confession is liberating for the soul and that true, Godly sorrow leads to salvation.
Too often sin is seen as an external problem “out there” that needs to be dealt with, not as an internal problem within us; and while it is important not to indulge in self-pity, it is important to engage in true confession.
This sermon series on Lent includes seven specific messages on the weight of sin, death and darkness in the world, and that ultimately through faith in Jesus Christ, we too can be given victory over death, and our hearts can be transformed by the beauty of the cross.
Weekly Previews
Ash Wednesday
The first step toward God’s salvation is to recognize the evil within our own hearts and to own up to it. We are rebellious, self-centered beings who are in desperate need of our sins being covered. On the cross, Jesus was uncovered so that we could be covered.
Week 1
Death is an uncomfortable topic: secular society tries to hide it and religions try to turn it into a welcome friend, but the Bible defines death as the greatest enemy to humanity, an enemy which Christ has defeated.
Week 2
Humans were originally created in God’s image, but that was marred when sin entered the world. What we needed was a Savior, a human being who perfectly reflected the image of God the Father for us. We needed Jesus.
Week 3
Lent is usually a time for fasting, but we must pay attention to our hearts when we observe spiritual disciplines. God’s desire is not that we “pay our dues” but that our hearts are transformed by his love and generosity displayed in Jesus.
Week 4
As human beings, we feel our ineptitude and our need for fullness, but we tend to seek our redemption through human means when the God of salvation has offered us a divine path toward him.
Week 5
Jesus was tempted just as we are but did not sin. Not only does he provide us with an example of how to respond to temptation, but he is the one who saves us from our sin.
Week 6
In Jesus’s parable there are two sons, both equally lost and estranged from the father. But Jesus is the older brother we needed, who came looking for us in order to bring us back into the family of God.