02.21.2010 Sermon Luke 4:1-13 "Finding Our Identity"
These forty days called Lent are like no other. It is our opportune time to return to the God who rescues; to receive the gifts of God's grace; to believe with the heart and confess with the mouth the wonder of God's love in Jesus; and to resist temptation at every turn. This is no small pilgrimage on which we have just embarked. It is a struggle Jesus knew. It is a struggle Jesus shares. The nearness of the Lord, in bread and wine, water and word, will uphold and sustain us.
We may be tempted to find our identity in what we can do for ourselves, but in this text from Luke, Jesus goes out of his way to define himself by his dependence upon God.