What to Do When You are in a Tough Spot

The Third Sunday in Lent

Pray for the Lord’s Help
Have Patience
Praise the Lord for Deliverance

SERMON TEXT: Psalms 69:1, 4a, 6,9,16,21,30, 33-35

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.

Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause,

Lord, the Lord Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me.

for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me.

They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.

The Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people. Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them, for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it;

Bible Readings

FIRST LESSON: Exodus 20:1-17

Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. You shall have no other gods beside me. You shall not make any carved image for yourself or a likeness of anything in heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow down to them or be subservient to them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God. I follow up on the guilt of the fathers with their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren, if they also hate me. But I show mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not permit anyone who misuses his name to escape unpunished. Remember the Sabbath day by setting it apart as holy. Six days you are to serve and do all your regular work, but the seventh day shall be a sabbath rest to the LORD your God. Do not do any regular work, neither you, nor your sons or daughters, nor your male or female servants, nor your cattle, nor the alien who is residing inside your gates, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. In this way the LORD blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother so that you may spend many days on the land that the LORD your God is giving to you. You shall not commit murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.

SECOND LESSON: Romans 8:1-10

So then, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. Indeed, what the law was unable to do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did, when he sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to deal with sin. God condemned sin in his flesh, so that the righteous decree of the law would be fully satisfied in us who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. To be sure, those who are in harmony with the sinful flesh think about things the way the sinful flesh does, and those in harmony with the spirit think about things the way the spirit does. Now, the way the sinful flesh thinks results in death, but the way the spirit thinks results in life and peace. For the mind-set of the sinful flesh is hostile to God, since it does not submit to God’s law, and in fact, it cannot. Those who are in the sinful flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the sinful flesh but in the spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit lives in you. And if someone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

GOSPEL: John 2:13-22

The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers sitting at tables. He made a whip of cords and drove everyone out of the temple courts, along with the sheep and oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those selling doves he said, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a place of business!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” So the Jews responded, “What sign are you going to show us to prove you can do these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.” The Jews said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! And you are going to raise it in three days?” But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. When Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. Then they believed the Scripture and what Jesus had said.