Sermon Cloud

Today’s lectionary texts are fitting because they have to do with something common to all of us: temptation. Even the Apostle Paul confessed his struggle with temptation and sin when he said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it,” Romans 7:15-20. The Lenten season serves to remind us that we are mortal and that we are sinners in need of a Savior. There is good news in knowing that the great Apostle struggled with temptation just as we do. There is even better news in knowing that we “do not have a high priest (Jesus) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need,” Hebrews 4:15-16. We hope that this will be your experience as you worship with us today.