Please read the note below from Pastor Woodhouse regarding his sermon:

At times, the message that seems to come from so many contemporary Christian churches these days could be easily mistaken for therapy or positive affirmation. The point of worship services there is to make people feel good about themselves, to give them a vaguely warm feeling that God will do many nice things for them, or to reassure them that everything will get better for them. This approach only seems to be amplified as more and more churches try to discover what sort of message will succeed at luring more people through the doors and into the pews. They seem to reason – whether rightly or not – that people want to hear a comforting message, rather than the truth. They want to hear about love – or what they think is love – instead of hearing about sin.

Our readings for this second Sunday in Lent show us that this is not a new phenomenon. Jeremiah, Paul, and Jesus Himself all faced persecution, ridicule, and even death because they preached God’s Word faithfully and truly instead of giving the people a message they probably would have preferred to hear. The Lenten season is a time for reflecting upon our sin, and being honest with ourselves. We are poor, miserable sinners, in desparate need of a Savior. But what a great comfort it is to know that that Savior has come!