Lent 2024
The Cross As Victory
March 24, 2024 • Brian Offutt • Genesis 6:9, 3 John 4, Colossians 1:9–14, Colossians 2:6–15, Genesis 5:24
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:6-15
Repentance and Renewal
March 3, 2024 • Brian Offutt • Matthew 15:8, 1 John 1:8, Joel 2, Joel 1:1, Luke 15:17–18
The season of Lent is a 40-day period marked by repentance, prayer, fasting, and returning to the Lord. Lent is nothing more than a renewed focus on our discipleship and an invitation to turn away from our sins and toward the grace and mercy of Jesus.