CMLC 2026-02-22 Sermon

So how's Lent going? Yeah, yeah. How many of

you are still like, yeah, I'll let that go by

Thursday, right? Have you already renegotiated

the Lenten sacrifice? You know, well, I was gonna

give up all sweets, but maybe I'll just give

up cake. Well, maybe I'll just give up birthday

cake. Maybe I'll just give up my 40th birthday

cake that you already ate three years ago. Have

you adjusted? Have you quietly redefined giving

up? See, it's remarkable what we discover during

these times with the Lenten sacrifices. See,

the moment that we say, I'm not going to have

that during this season, that's the very thing

that catches our attention every single day.

The dessert tastes better when it's forbidden.

The phone feels a little heavier in our pocket

whenever we promise not to check it. The boundary,

it doesn't just sit there, it hums and calls

us. There's something in us that reacts to the

word no the same way that dry timber reacts to

a spark. See, Paul wrestles with that in Romans

7. He says he would not have known coveting if

the law had not said, do not covet. The commandment

that was meant for life somehow became an opportunity

for sin. The line in the sand, it doesn't just

reveal the problem. It actually seems to stir

it up. And why is that? Why does being told no

to something make us want to reach out to it

even more? See, that question, it's older than

Lent. It's older than Paul. It goes back to a

garden. See, in Genesis 3, everything is given.

except for one tree. There's abundance everywhere.

Countless trees, countless fruit, countless vegetables,

countless everything. But there's one. One boundary.

And somehow, that becomes the tree that gets

everybody's attention. I mean, how many amazing

trees must there have been? The tree of kindness,

or the tree of good hope. or the tree of saying

nice things to other people. Nobody cares about

those trees. Something about the knowledge of

good and evil is the one that always catches

because that's the one we're supposed to avoid.

But you see, these temptations, we discover that

humanity has been hanging in the balance. You

see, when we step into the Garden of Eden, we

need to start with something very simple. What

did God actually say? Like, God did not give

Adam and Eve a maze of regulations. This was

not complicated. He did not bury them under fine

print like an apple contract, trying to trick

them into breaking it somehow. In Genesis 2,

he gives one clear command. You may eat from

every tree in the garden, but from the tree of

the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not

eat. That's it. One boundary. world of abundance.

And then listen to Eve's response in the next

chapter. When the snake asks her about the command,

she says, well, we may eat of the fruit of the

trees in the garden, but God said, you shall

not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the

midst of the garden, neither shall you touch

it lest you die. Hold on. Just one moment. God

never said do not touch it. Don't you hate it

whenever someone puts words in your mouth that

you know you did not say? And something has already

shifted because what it does is it proves something

inside of that person. You see the command has

grown sharper, heavier. It's been expanded. It

tells us not a lack of clarity on God's part.

It tells us something that was stirring in the

hearts of those people. The boundary, it felt

restrictive. The command was suspect, and the

goodness of God was being quietly questioned

and making the command harder to follow. You

know, when we think about how difficult it seems,

you know, we sometimes assume that Adam and Eve,

we sometimes assume they were set up to fail.

If we're honest, that's how life often feels

to us when temptations they feel Overwhelming

it's like it's right there The obedience it's

it's uphill somehow and we think of course eat

it who wouldn't come on But they're not the same

condition that we are We are born subject to

sin. They were not We wake up each morning with

our desires bent inward They did not We fight

impulses. We did not choose to have they were

created upright free able not to sin and yet

They still chose to That is what makes the fall

so weighty This was not weakness from corruption.

This was rebellion inside of freedom They had

every capacity to trust God's Word and instead

they trusted the whisper of questioning and temptation.

And when they did, something catastrophic happened.

Because original sin, it's not just that Adam

and Eve committed the first bad act. It's their

fall bent the entire human race. Scripture teaches

that we are born into that corruption. We're

not neutral. We're not just spiritual blank slates.

We're already curved away from God from the beginning.

That means that sin, it's not just the way that

we imitate those first parents. It's what we

inherit from them. You see, we are not sinners

as a result of our sins. We sin as a result of

being sinners. We inherit a nature that has corrupted

a will that distrusts God and a heart that wants

our own ways. See, that's why Lent is so exposing,

because when we try to discipline ourselves and

tell ourselves no to something, we discover something

very unsettling. The resistance to God, it's

not outside, it's within us. It shows up when

forgiveness feels optional But resentment feels

justified. That rebellion, that resistance shows

up when we pray for God's will, but quietly we

kind of prefer our own timeline. It shows up

when we replay conversations over and over in

our head instead of releasing them to forgive.

It shows up when we justify being impatient because

we feel overworked. It shows up in the quiet.

confidence that we would have handled the Garden

of Eden better. You know, we sometimes struggle

with that idea. You know, the idea that we've

inherited something broken. You know, we ask,

how can I be affected by something someone else

did? But we understand inheritance and everything

else, don't we? Children inherit physical traits

without choosing them. Eye color, bone structure,

predispositions to certain diseases, thank you

dad for cholesterol. Scientists, they even talk

about inherited patterns of behavior in animals.

You know, the puppies, they're born and they

already start trying to root around for milk

from their mom. And then the sea turtles, you

know, you see them flapping around on the beach,

you know, and they already start going toward

the ocean. How did they know to do that? Instinct

is passed down. Patterns are embedded. But if

we understand that physical life can carry inherited

traits, why is it so strange to think that spiritual

life does well? We are born into Adam's line.

Adam's line? It's fallen. This corruption, it

doesn't just touch our souls, though. It ripples

through all of creation. Our bodies break down

and frankly, they do not behave the way that

God intended. Our minds misfire. How many struggles

that we have psychologically that we cannot seem

to get past. The ground resists gardening. Our

relationships fracture. The world groans under

decay. Death was not part of the original design.

Disorder was not part of the original design.

Both are now woven into our daily experience.

See, we don't sin merely because we imitate Adam.

We sin because we're born from him. And that's

why we cannot fix ourselves. You see, if the

problem were just behavior, we could try harder,

work more. If the problem was only our environment,

well, let's just move. But the problem is inheritance.

The problem is nature, which means the solution

cannot come from within. in Adam's line, it has

to come from outside. So now, though, let's step

away from that garden for a moment. Let's go

to the complete opposite. We find ourselves in

a bare wilderness, leaving shade and abundance

for sun and hunger. And instead of Adam standing

beside a tree, Jesus is standing in the dust.

You see, the first Adam, he had a single boundary

and still pushed past it. But there's Jesus.

He's facing real hunger, real weakness, real

temptation, and He's still following what's right.

And so we have to ask, why does it matter so

much for Jesus to say no to these things? Because,

let's be honest, saints' temptations, they're

actually not ridiculous. They actually, you read

them, they seem kind of reasonable. See, You're

hungry Jesus. There's a stone. Just turn it into

bread seems pretty simple, right? What's the

big deal or? Just prove to everybody who you

are right look you just jump from the temple

the angels will catch you you can silence all

the doubters or Even if you just take the kingdoms

of the world now without going to the cross just

Just rule over everything already. You don't

have to suffer. See, every temptation, though,

it's whispering the same lie that we heard in

Eden. You can have the good things without trusting

the Father. You can grasp it. You can secure

it for yourself. And what does Jesus do? He refuses.

Why? There was a reason He was there. There was

a purpose to being in the wilderness. If he was

really hungry, he would have never gone out there

in the first place. Look, a reason for the fasting,

a reason for the hunger. He was not wandering

aimlessly. This was not a mistake. He was preparing

for the journey that was about to come. He was

consecrating himself to the Father's will. The

deprivation, denying what he wanted, was not

pointless. It was forming him for what was to

come next. And that's what Lent is supposed to

be for us too. You see, when we let something

go, it's not because the thing is necessarily

evil. In fact, it's usually better if it's not.

Bread? Not evil. Food? Not evil. Cookies? They

stick around a little too long, but inherently

not evil. Comfort is not evil. The issue is whether

we believe we need them more than we need the

Father. Lent is what peels back our illusions

about the things we want. It reveals how quickly

we justify getting them for ourselves. How easily

we say, what's the big deal? Six cookies versus

five. an extra drink, or maybe just giving in

to this addiction just a little too much. Just

this once, just a little compromise, just one

shortcut. And Jesus stands in the wilderness

and says no when Adam said yes. But you see,

he's not resisting as someone born into Adam's

corruption. You see, he's conceived by the Holy

Spirit. He enters humanity without inheriting

our corruption. He's not dragged by some inward

rebellion. He's free. And sometimes that almost

bothers us. Of course, Jesus was able to resist

temptation. He's God. That's not fair. But think

about what we're saying when we say that. That's

not fair. Imagine you're drowning in a river.

The current, it's stronger than you thought it

was going to be. You can swim, but somehow, your

limbs, they're giving out. You can't reach the

bank. And then someone, standing on solid ground,

throws you a line, braces themselves, and pulls

you out. And then, imagine you are coughing on

the shore, and you shout out, that's not fair!

That doesn't count. You weren't drowning like

I was. How absurd would that be to be upset that

someone was not drowning when they saved you?

See, you don't need another drowning victim.

You need someone who's standing without the current

sweeping them away. The only person who truly

knows the strength of temptation is the one who

never gave in and never would have in the first

place. See, the one who resists knows the full

force, but didn't succumb. See, Jesus does not

resist because temptation is easy. He resists

because He is strong in obedience, strong in

trust, strong in love for the Father. And here's

the Gospel heartbeat. He does it for us. The

first Adam stood in a garden bursting with life

and reached for what was not given. And in that

reaching, Everything cracked. Death entered.

Corruption spread. The ground resisted. The body

decayed. The soul focused on itself. And we protest

it's not fair. Why should we be subject to what

somebody else did? But if we're honest, what

confidence do we really have that we would have

done any better? We struggle daily to trust God

with far smaller commands, don't we? We rationalize

things, we soften our boundaries, we adjust the

wording, just like you did. We explain away rebellion

in ourselves while we still condemn everyone

else. If anything, our attempts to justify Adam

and Eve reveal how deeply their condition lives

in us. So the issue was never fairness. If God

were concerned with strict fairness, The story

would have ended in Genesis 3. Instead, from

the very moment of the fall, God was already

speaking promise, covering shame, marking out

all of the things that would have kept us from

mercy. Faith has always been the thread. Trusting

in His Word has always been the way. And then

the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Not

to observe, not to sympathize from a distance,

but to stand where Adam fell. You see, Jesus

in the wilderness goes beyond what Adam was able

and willing to do in his mind. Let me say that

better. Jesus goes beyond what Adam was willing

to do because he was always able. But you see,

Jesus does not stop at resisting bread, spectacle,

and power. He goes all the way to the cross.

You see, when Jesus pulls us from the water,

we do not accuse Him for not drowning. He was

conceived by the Holy Spirit, not born under

Adam's corruption. He faces temptation without

bending toward the sin. He feels its full force

and does not yield. And we thank Him for not

letting us drown. Because now there's a new inheritance.

Instead of inheriting the corruption from Adam

and then being left with no hope, instead we

also inherit now the righteousness from the second

Adam by faith. The first passed down death, the

second passes down life. Instead of condemnation,

we are now given the obedience. of Christ Jesus

that is credited to us for righteousness. It's

not about fairness. It's about grace. See, fair

would have left us in the river. Grace sends

us God's son. And that, that is how we're meant

to be seeing Lent. It's not about competing.

Did you keep up with your sacrifice and someone

else didn't? Is there some spiritual scoreboard

and, well, another Lent on the scoreboard? It's

not about who sacrifices more or struggles less.

We're not measuring fairness. We're training

our hearts. We let go of unimportant things to

remember who never lets go of us. See, we may

not ever be able to truly understand all that

happens with God. But you see, we can surrender

comforts to learn that comfort was never meant

to be our Savior. We may feel the ache, but we

discover deeper satisfaction in our security

with Christ. See, some of us may wrestle with

temptations that others do not. Some of us carry

burdens that feel uniquely heavy. And again,

there's a little whisper that says, that's not

fair. No, it is not. But neither is the cross.

Neither is righteousness we did not earn. Neither

is inheritance we did not secure. Neither is

eternal life that was given freely to those who

trust. We are not walking in the wilderness alone

because the second Adam already walked it and

has already won the victory for us. You're not

in the wilderness to win something. You're in

the wilderness because Christ has already won

it for you. You're not negotiating an inheritance.

You already have one. You're not fighting for

righteousness. You've already been given it When

lent exposes you it does not threaten you it

reminds you of who your true Adam truly is now

So the first Adam gave you death the second Adam

gives you life and His victory is not fragile,

and it doesn't break when you stumble so in this

season of Letting go may we cling more tightly

to Christ not to our strength, not to our discipline,

not to our performance, to Him because the one

who stood in the wilderness for you still stands

for you even now. Thanks be to God.