Ash Wednesday :: 3/5/25 :: Billy Waters

Welcome to Wellspring Church!

What is the purpose of Lent? In this Ash Wednesday message, Pastor Billy Waters invites us into this sacred season of reflection, repentance, and renewal. Lent is not just about giving something up—it is about laying everything down at the cross of Christ.

Looking at Psalm 139 and Matthew 16, we see that Lent calls us to examine our hearts, detach from false desires, and renew our sacred bond with God. True discipleship means embracing the cross—not just seeking glory without sacrifice.

📖 Key Themes in This Message:

🔹 Why Lent is a season of wilderness—a gift of refinement and renewal

🔹 The danger of seeking glory without the cross

🔹 How fasting detaches us from false desires and draws us closer to Jesus

🔹 The invitation to fully surrender—nothing held back from God

Lent is a call to trust Jesus—not just for eternity, but right now. As we enter this season, may we allow God to search our hearts, lay down every part of our lives at the cross, and embrace the fullness of His grace.

📅 Join us this week at Wellspring Church!

Looking to deepen your walk with Christ this Lent? Visit www.wellspringenglewood.com to learn more.

💬 How is God speaking to you this Ash Wednesday? Drop a comment below—we’d love to hear from you!

Transcript

Evening.

My name is Billy waters. I'm one of the pastors here at the church, and this is Ash Wednesday, and this kicks off the Lenten season. And as we are praying before the service at noon, David, our worship pastor here, just made the comment that it's not about it's not about a sermon, it's not about a song. It's not about a service. It's about our Savior. The reason why we've come together is to worship King Jesus and to grow closer in likeness to him, like, just to put everything at the cross of Christ, like, if there's just one message here tonight and throughout this Lenten season. It's Jesus and then the cross of Christ, like just to be crucified with Christ. That's the message.

Now, historically, the season of Lent that began with Ash Wednesday had a couple different purposes. The first purpose, as we heard earlier, was that when someone was caught in a notorious sin, or they were expelled or exercised from the community. They were brought back in through gentle restoration. As a part of that gentle restoration, they entered into 40 days of repentance and fasting, and they would be returned into the body of Christ. That was the first purpose of Lent. The second purpose of Lent is a time where the early church and it carried into the later church, a time where we could fast from certain things and for the purpose of feasting on other things. So you give up things that you're participating in for the purpose of having greater silence and solitude with Jesus.

It would be things like, you know, not just fasting in terms of time, but also in terms of things. So they would give up certain luxuries, certain food luxuries, like meat or salt or wine or other kinds of alcohol. They would give those things up in order to be able to reallocate their funds to those who were in need. It was a fast that represented and lived into Isaiah 58 and that is the fast that the Lord requires to break the bonds of injustice and to care for the oppressed and to feed the poor. But the third reason why you had lent in that early church that carried on in today is a time of deep examination of the heart that we take a space during the church calendar where we allow the Holy Spirit to especially search the deep things of our heart, examination so that stuff can just get like rooted out. Lent is a season of wilderness, and wilderness is a gift. Wilderness is a time of uncomfort. That uncomfort leads to beauty. It's a time of distress, but it leads into glory. In the Old Testament, you had the people of Israel. They were saved, and they were delivered under the oppression of the Egyptians. They were brought into the desert for 40 years not to secure their salvation, but to further internalize their salvation. It was already achieved. Their salvation was already earned by what by what God had done. That was achieved. And so those 40 years are just allowing the salvation, the salvation, the deliverance, that they had already experienced, to be further internalized in their souls. Furthermore, you had the church fathers, and during the first few centuries, especially the first three centuries, when the church was incredibly persecuted, there was a potent minority. But by the time you get to the fourth century, with Constantine, he rose, became the emperor, and he Christianized the Roman Empire. And as a result, the potent minority became the comfortable the comfortable majority. And there was a few people that said, we've lost our potency. In order to regain our potency and our faith, we need to leave the city. We need to go out into the wilderness, into the desert in the place of discomfort, in order to regain our first love. But what they found is this, is that when they left the city, the city hadn't left their hearts.

The desires of the city were still inside of their hearts, but they went out into the wilderness for the purpose of detoxing these false attachments and have a renewed sacred bond with their Heavenly Father. That's the purpose of the wilderness, and that's the purpose of Lent, to detox and to detach from the false attachments and to renew the sacred bond that we have with our Heavenly Father. That's the purpose of Lent. Now, as we were praying in the clergy, Scripture came to mind to terror. And I think this encapsulates the purpose of what we're going to be engaging in in the next 40 days. And it's Psalm 139, verses, 23 through 24 says this, search me. O God, know my heart, test and know my anxious thoughts that's Lent. Search me, Lord, see if there's any offensive way in me that's Lent

and lead me in the way of everlasting that's resurrection, and that's where Lent is heading toward everlasting life, resurrection, power, new life in Jesus. But we can't experience the glory of new life without going through the crucifixion and the cross of life.

Lent,

and that's why this time is so important. Okay, so we're gonna look at two things here this evening. First is, why do we need Lent? And second, what is the key to Lent? What is the key? Charismatics have keys. We're charismatic. We got a key. What's the key? Why do we need Lent? What is the key? Okay, so first, why do we need Lent, or our need for Lent? Matthew, chapter 16, verse 21 through 23 from that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day, be raised to life. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke him, never Lord. He said, This shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and said to Peter,

Get behind Me, Satan, you are a stumbling block. All right, a

couple observations here. The first is that this is the turning point of Jesus' ministry. At this point on, Jesus resolutely sets his face toward Jerusalem. From here on out, he's going to the cross, and when he tells his disciples, Peter says, No, this should not happen to you like you're the Savior, You're the Messiah, you're God suffering the cross. That doesn't happen to you. Now, Jesus turned around to him, and he says, Get thee behind me, Satan. Now that's an interesting conversation that he's having with Peter. I mean, that is not

on the list of things you want Jesus to be telling you.

I mean,

maybe things like what we want to hear is My yoke is easy. Burden is light, like that. Told you, I'm never I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I like that. Mercy is new every morning. I really like that one. Get thee behind me saying I don't like that one. Why? Why does Jesus go at Peter so hard when g when Jesus is talking to the prostitutes and the tax collectors, the outsiders, those that are on the fringe. He's very gentle, very kind. He engages them in dialog. But when he gets to the religious leaders, he's harsh. He'll even say strong things, like You brood of vipers or You offspring of Hades. Now that's a strong, direct word, but never, never does he use this kind of language. You are Satan. Get behind me. Why? Why does Jesus use such strong language?

This passage is an echo of the third temptation that Satan gave to Jesus. Because what Peter is telling Jesus to not go through is suffering, experience glory, but don't experience suffering. That's the same thing that Satan tempted Jesus with earlier on in Matthew when he took him to a high place, and he showed him, in an instant, all of the kingdoms of the world and all of the glory. And he says, All of this can be yours. The only thing that you're called to do, just bow down and worship me. And in that moment, we begin to see the obstacle of our discipleship. What is the thing that will hinder us more than anything in our devotion to Christ? And that is this, to want the glory of God without the cost of discipleship, to want the power of the resurrection without good Friday suffering

and that's the temptation that can seep inside of us, and this is why we need Lent. This is why we need Lent. We want the glory without the cross. We want fulfillment without surrender. We want to enthrone our desires and dethrone obedience to God.

That's the temptation that Satan gave to Jesus all the glories, worship me. Dethrone your father. And that same temptation is seeping inside of our hearts as well enthroned desires while dethroning God.

David Benner says, and he's quoting st Ignatius. St Ignatius of Loyola notes that sin is unwillingness to trust that what God wants is our deepest happiness. Until I am absolutely convinced of this, I will do everything I can to keep my hands on the controls of my life, because I think I know better than God what I need for my fulfillment. Okay, there it is, Glory without the cross. Can't trust God. Can't trust him. Gotta take matters into my own hands. Now, enthroning desires, we have to know a little bit about desires and the anatomy of desires. Desires are given to us by God as a good gift. Desires are meant to draw us closer into God,

also because they're a gift given to us by God, by nature, desires are infinite, and they can only be ultimately satisfied in the presence of an infinite God. And when we take these infinite desires and we chase after other things that are finite in the hopes of fulfilling an infinite desire, two things happen in that process.

One by taking in that finite thing, it only increases our desire for it. All the while, the more that we take in, we have less and less satisfaction. That's the definition of an addiction,

greater promise, less fulfillment,

and when we seek, I mean, okay, Rockefeller, when he was asked, How much is enough money? Just $1 more. I just need another dollar. You're the richest man in the world. One more dollar.

Because no matter how much money he had there was, there wasn't this sense of contentment. Seeking satisfaction of an infinite desire through finite things will only increase the desire and decrease the satisfaction when we get the thing that we think that we need,

and that's why we need Lent is because we need to repent from those things, because that's the path of destruction, and it's a temptation that we oftentimes find ourself giving into.

For the first time, I don't know, like 20 or 25 years, I got a ski pass, and so I thought we had to update some of my gear. And the one thing I needed was goggle. I needed goggles, and I needed the two lens goggles, one for high rays and one for low rays. And so I needed goggles. I got goggles, and then I realized I need a better helmet to fit my goggles.

Okay, I already had a helmet, but I thought, I want another one. And then I looked at my suit on the cold days, I have a great jacket. The problem is, is that it's gray and my pants are gray, and it's like a grout suit, like it's just gray on gray, and that doesn't go well. So I need, like, I need a new jacket. Well, then furthermore, if I need a new jacket, I also need new pants, because my pants are, like, over 20 years old. I got new booths, but those are fine, but I have powder skis, and not all terrain, all mountain skis. So I need new skis. And where am I going to put all this stuff? I need a truck.

Like it started off with goggles, it ended with truck. Now the reality is I only got the goggles, but where my mind went, it was to the truck. And at the moment, I was like, What's going on with me? And if we're honest, like that, yours may not be goggles in a truck. Yours might be something else. But the problem is, is that the reality we all deal with this stuff. Sky githani says, and I thought, This is so honest, my secret is that I want to be relevant and popular. I want my desires fulfilled and pain minimized, don't we all want that? I want a manageable relationship with an institution rather than a messy relationships with real people. I

want to be transformed into the image of Christ by showing up at an entertaining event, rather than through the hard work of discipline, I want to wear my faith on my sleeve and not look at the darkness inside of my heart. And above all, I want a controllable God. I want a divine commodity to do my will on earth as it is in heaven.

What the benefits of the kingdom

without surrendering to the king

and Jesus will have none of it,

none of it.

And this is why we need Lent.

As Dallas Willard says, desires given by God, they're great motivators. They're terrible masters.

And when a when a desire is a master, enslaves us, promising us more and more, giving us less and less. And when desires become masters, what they will eventually do is give birth to acts of the flesh, is what Paul calls them. And you can see this in Galatians chapter five, listen to the severity of desires unhinged from a relationship with God. These desires become masters which give birth to the acts of the flesh. And this is serious. The acts of the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

You can distill these acts of the flesh into what the ancients would call the seven deadly sins. Deadly you won't inherit the kingdom of God. These are deadly and that's why, during this Lenten season, we are going to be going through a sermon series on the seven deadly sins, not for the purpose of just like rubbing our nose in condemnation, guilt and shame, but bringing an awareness to what our hearts have been given into so that we can once again receive the mercy and the grace of Jesus and find healing for our souls.

The purpose of this time is to experience freedom, forgiveness and joy in the Holy Spirit. This is what we.

Look for and long for the desires of our heart. But this is why we need Lent. It's because often times we want glory without the cross. Okay? What is the key to Lent? What is the key answers found in 24 through 27 Then Jesus said to His disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give to exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done

the key? What is the key to lent in all four Gospels? This passage gets repeated. Very rarely. Will you have any passage of scripture that gets repeated in all four Gospels which is pointing to the significance of this passage? Furthermore, it is at a strategic, significant point within the gospel. This is at a hinge point where Jesus is doing all these great stuff, Glory being revealed, and now it's the cross. And the hinge is this passage of Scripture. Because what's being revealed in this passage is the key to our formation, the key to Lent. And what is it? First of all, what is it not? It's not saying self harm. When he's saying, lay down your life, take up your cross, deny yourself, he's not saying self harm, nor is He saying do away with you, like how God has created you in a creational sort of way,

like your Myers Briggs Ness, or your your Enneagram, or your working genius, or your what strengths like, what whoever you are like, whatever your giftings are in your personality. He's not saying like be a different person. He's not saying that. So what is he saying? He's saying this and denying ourself and losing our life. What we are called to do is to take the desires that are found within the human heart and to place them at the foot of the cross. We are to sacrifice our desires by laying them at the foot of the cross. Acceptance, the cross, achievement the cross

a legitimate desire to be heard, to be known, to be seen, to be loved at the cross, at the cross, at the cross to be chosen, to be loved, everything at the cross of Christ, this is the core of discipleship,

to lose our life in Christ so that we may gain our life in him. I like just, I wish, just to come down, you know, from here, and just to look in each person's eyes for, it's the cross.

It's the cross. That's the crux the of Christianity.

This is where our spiritual formation pivots on. It's the cross. Everything is about the cross. That's what Paul says, For, I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but it's Christ who lives within me.

Since you've been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, not on earthly things, For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God you died. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Again, For you died, and your life is now raised with Christ in God, like you died, and because you died, you've now been raised. And that's not true eternally. It's also true now, because eternity starts now, the key to formation, the key to Lent is the cross. So during the Lenten season, we oftentimes engage in certain practices like fasting, and the reason, or the purpose of fasting is to give up certain things. Again, wants to draw our hearts back to the intimacy the father and laying things down at the cross of Christ. So we may give up certain things, like social media. We may give up, I don't know, Netflix Prime video watching videos, and we we fast from those things for the purpose of silence and solitude, intimacy with the Lord. We may give up certain things, maybe fasting on a Wednesday, or we fast from going out to eat, not so that we can continue to save up more and more money, but so that we can use that money to be able to give to the poor and for those that are in need. So there's not only a fasting component, but there's also a feasting component. We fast from certain things so that we can feast on God's word, feast in his presence, feast in generosity.

That's the power of Lent. Is during these practices, what we're doing is we're uprooting all of those things within our hearts, the desires that are within us, that we have sought to fulfill, apart from or unhinged from a relationship with the Father. In other words, there's parts of our hearts that haven't been fully baptized in the grace of Christ. And Lent is a time where we can re baptize all things in Christ, Jesus, like all.

All Things go under the water of the cross. Everything, nothing is held up. Nothing in our life remains unbaptized.

Charlemagne, who was the eighth century emperor, took over the known world. I mean, he was just, and he was he was heard by saying this, or this is reported that Charlemagne would instruct his forces to go into the nearest river to be baptized with a mass baptism. The story goes that he would have the soldiers fully submerge under the water, but a hand holding a sword had remained out of the water, because their bodies were God's, but he would let them know that their fighting hand and the sword who was his

everything but the hand,

the sword that went to battle. And

I want to ask you here this evening, what are you holding up?

Is there something in your life that you haven't baptized in the cross of Christ?

Is it your wallet that you're holding up? Is it your calendar that you're holding up? Is it a relationship that you're holding up, you know? Is it a hobby that you're holding up? Is it a secret habit that you're engaged in that you're holding up? Is there a dark part of your heart that you're holding up and you refuse to get baptized under the cross of Christ? The invitation for us and Lent, and yes, even now, is to be fully submerged in the grace of Jesus.

The key, the key to Lent, the key to Lent, is the cross. And this is what will happen when we do quote from Madame gay young,

oh, unutterable happiness,

as she had gone through some suffering, and this is what she says, Oh, an utterable happiness. Who could ever have thought that a soul which seemed to be in the utmost misery should ever find happiness equal to this? Oh, happy poverty, oh happy loss, oh happy nothingness which gives nothing less than God himself in his own immensity. Oh, happy dying of the grain of wheat, which makes its produce, a hundredfold

dying of the wheat, hundredfold blessing laid at the cross of Christ. That's the key to Lent. It's the cross we're

about to go into the imposition of ashes in which the words are going to be spoken, you are to dust, and to dust, you shall return.

We were created out of dust, and because of sin, we are going to return to dust. But for those who put their trust in Jesus, dust does not have the final word, resurrection, life does. And if we're going to trust Jesus for our resurrection,
we're also called to trust Jesus now.

Trust Jesus now. And so during we're gonna take a few moments of silence just to be still and ask the Lord, where in your heart are you holding something back? Where in your life are you lifting up the hand above the waters? What is that thing, and then as we come forward to receive the imposition of ashes, it's once again, a prophetic proclamation that Jesus, I am yours.

I surrender my life to you. Let's take a few moments of silence.