Wake up to exercise

Exercise

5am, 1st Jan 2023 - I wonder what you were doing? I decided to get up and go for a run. I didn’t feel like it, my alarm went off, I had my running stuff all ready, I put it on and slipped out of the house. I wanted to start the new year well. I ran along empty Norwich streets in the dark, no one around, praying for the year ahead and excited about what God might do. I came back feeling awake and alive. Exercise wakes you up.

I want to re-order my life away from the satanic lullaby (Mark 4:18-19 - the worries of this life, the decietfulness of wealth, the desires for other things come in and choke the word making it unfruitful). And the order of our culture: of me first, maybe other second and forget God to… God first, demostrated through loving others and then God will provide for me.

In Matthew 6, Jesus suggests three ways we can exercise I faith and practice following him, three really simple things - give, pray, fast which will make us uncomfortable and wake us up.

Give - putting God and others first in our money and stuff

Pray - putting God and others first in our time and talents

Fast - Putting God first in our energy and focus

Let’s look together:

Matthew 6:1 ““Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

…when (not if, but when) you… (give/pray/fast)… do not do as the hypocrites do… Truly I tell you they have received their reward in full. But when you… (give/pray/fast)… Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Jesus emphasises in this passage over and over again that we shouldn’t do these 3 things to show off to people, but we should do them in secret and expect a reward from God. There are definitely times for

Corporate giving:

Acts 2:45 “And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.”

Corporate praying:

Acts 1:14 “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

Corporate fasting:

Acts 13:2-3 “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.”

But here, Jesus challenges the believers to not give, pray and fast in front of others to be seen by them but do it in secret to be seen by our Father and be rewarded by him. Jesus said not to be like hypocrites when you practice these three disciplines, but instead do them in secret. It has been said that these were three of the most important spiritual disciplines in the early church. Why? One reason might be because they all make us uncomfortable. They all cause us to exercise faith. They all cause us to have less and to invest in an unseen God, believing that he will grow the garden of seeds we are planting in giving, prayer and fasting.

I want to challenge you and me today… how is your giving? How is your prayer life? How is your fasting going? Could we change these to help us to wake up?

I’m just going to spend 10 minutes looking at each one of these areas briefy:

Giving:

Gen 1:27-31 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Everything we have is a gift from God to be used to be fruitful and multiply. The correct order is - God, Others, Me… the order of culture today is Me, maybe others (comic relief and the DEC appeals) and never God.

Deut 8:18 “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”

Three types of giving:

1. Tithes - your first 10%:

Gen 14:18-20 “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”

Gen 28:20-22 “Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.””

Lev 27:30-33 ““Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord. One shall not differentiate between good or bad, neither shall he make a substitute for it; and if he does substitute for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.””

Num 18:19 “All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.””

2. Offerings:

Genesis 4:1–7 ESV

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Heb 11: 1-4 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.”

Abraham built 4 alter’s for each season he went through in the Bible and presented offerings… the most well known is that of when he offers Isaac.

Burnt (Lev 1:3-17) - likely the earliest type of atonement offering in the Old Testament

Grain (Lev 2:4-14) - voluntary expression of devotion to God

Peace (Lev 3:1-12) - includes thanksgiving, freewill and wave offerings (Lev 7:12-32) The purpose of the Peace Offering was to consecrate a meal between two or more parties before God and share that meal together in fellowship of peace and a commitment to each others’ future prosperity.

Sin (Lev 4:2-26) - atonement offering for unintentional sin.

Guilt (Lev 5:15-16) - guilt wasn’t about conscience but about the amount owed because of one’s sin. It had a specific monetary value.

Prov 3:9-10 “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.”

3. Alms:

Prov 19:17 “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”

Matt 25:40 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

Mal 3:8-10 “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

2 Cor 9:6-11 “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.”

Pre Christmas and feeling it was right to give - post Christmas no money, tax bill. Appealed to God that we had been faithful with finances… God provided.

Perishable and unperishable stickers on things.

Prayer

The middle passage about prayer says we should go into our room and pray to our Father who is unseen. I wonder whether you ever put this passage into practice? I sometimes set an alarm on my phone and go into my bedroom and close the door and pray and keep praying until my timer goes off. Jesus says we don’t need to keep babbling like people who don’t believe in God because our Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Pete Greig encourages us to:

Keep it simple

Keep it real

Keep it up

I actually think the last one of these is the hardest. To keep going in prayer and not quit. Jesus told parables to encourage people to keep praying and not give up (Luke 11 and Luke 18

Luke 18:1 “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

I wonder what you are longing to see God do… turn to the person next to you and just share one thing that you are praying for and losing heart in and pray again for that things one more time.

Jesus then says ‘this, then is how you should pray:

(In Luke 11:2 “And he said to them, “When you pray, say)

Whether this is a model or a specific litergery for prayer or both, let’s just have a look at it.

Our Father in heaven - we have a good Father who is in heaven, who loves us to spend time with him. Most days I say the names of God:

Jehovah Elokim - actively present, faithful, unchangeable Creator God.

El Shaddai - God who is sufficient and God the enough

Jehovah Jireh - the Lord who provides

Jehovah Rophe - the Lord who heals

Jehovah Nissi - the Lord is my banner

Jehovah Qadesh - the Lord who sanctafies who makes me holy

Jehovan Shalom - the Lord is peace

Jehovah Rohe - the Lord is my shepherd

Adonai - Lord of the universe and master over every situation

Jehovah Tsidkenu - the Lord our Righteousness

Jehovah Shammah - the Lord is there

This is the God we are praying to who we get to call Father.

Then we get 3 your’s - Your name, Your kingdom, Your will.

I need to get to the place each day where I am saying it is Your name, Your kingdom and Your will. And it is a battle.

John faced and won the battle of the name

John 1:19-28 “And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”

Peter faced and won the battle of the kingdom

Acts 10:24-26 “And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.””

Jesus faced won the battle of the will:

Matt 26:36-39 “Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.””

Jesus wanted the cup of suffering to be passed from him but in prayer he won the battle of whose will was in charge.

In praying the Lord’s prayer meaningfully, we surrender our name, our kingdom and our will to him.

“Don’t allow me to waste my life making a name for myself but help me to devote my life making Jesus’ name known”

The next line is the hinge point: On earth as it is in heaven.

Do you believe that is possible? That God actually wants what is going on in heaven to be going on on earth.

What does this mean?

I don’t know about you, but I know I don’t have a full view of what heaven is or will be like. I often see pictures of heaven like this - a place in the sky with clouds and lots of worship and Jesus and if you believe in Jesus then you go there when you die. And lots of this is good stuff and lots of it is true (not all). But what if the idea of heaven started in Eden - with perfection, shown as a garden and with God and people in perfect relationship with each other encouraged to multiply and be fruitful. But then that went wrong when sin entered the world. I want you to view heaven and earth as two spaces.

The heaven space is full of God and we see this space called a few different things - heaven, the kingdom of God, eternal life - his rule, his reign and the earth space is full of us - known as the world, the present age, the age of sin and death. Now, the way I have thought of it is when you die, you jump from earth to heaven. But then the Bible doesn’t always talk about these spaces as different places. These spaces use to be fully overlapping - in eden. And one day they will be fully overlapping again, when Jesus returns, in the Holy City, the new Jerusalem.

Rev 21:1-5 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.””

So what about the middle part that we live in now? Well there are times when these spaces overlap. In the Old Testament, this was in the temple - either the tabernacle (build by Moses) or Solomon’s temple. In the middle of the temple was the holy of holy’s that only the high priest could go in to after sacrificing a pure spotless lamb.

As we know, in the new testament, Jesus became our great high priest and was the pure spotless lamb. He made it possible for us to access heaven, the kingdom of God, eternal life. That’s why when Jesus walked on earth he kept saying the kingdom of heaven has come near. He brought heaven to earth by healing people, saving people, delivering people. And he wants us to do the same until the day that he returns and we expereince a new heaven and a new earth.

So then… the rest of the Lord’s prayer is how we go about doing that - seeing God’s name, God’s will and God’s kingdom come. The next part of the Lord’s prayer has 5 statements about us...

Give us today our daily bread - a reference back to the Israelites dependance on God’s provision of manna from heaven. To go out each day and experience God’s provision… (George Muller)

Then the next key thing is forgiveness

Matt 6:12 “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

This idea that sin gets in the way of our relationship with God and others and the way out of that is through forgiveness. Sometimes when I pray, God brings to mind unconfessed sin. For example, I was praying with a sports team a few weeks ago before the sports camp and just remembered that I had selfishly not put the bins away outside our house thinking that I was hungry and just wanted to go inside and that Rich could do it. I felt that that sin was a block in my life until I confessed it and so I did in the prayer meeting.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

There is so much power in confessing sin and I so rarely see it done in churches well.

We are told in this passage that our sins will be forgiven as much as we forgive other people of their sin and this is emphasised by Jesus again in Matt 6:14-15.

Finally - lead us not into temptation.

Jesus knows that the world is a tempting place to live. He expereinced it first hand. He also prayed for us knowing that temptations can cause us to stumble.

John 17:15-19 “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

There are three temptations - to have, to feel, to be - passion, position, posession.

So, how is your prayer life? We are going to have a few moments of silence and I would like you to speak to God and allow him to invite you into something new in prayer.

Fasting

The third discipline Jesus speaks of is fasting. When you fast - the assmuption is that followers of Jesus do fast. I’m not sure how many people here fast? But growing up, it was never something I had heard of or was introduced to. Here is a little history of fasting… Moses was the first person who was mentioned fasting in the Bible

Exodus 34:28 “So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”

And then pretty much all of the big guns of the Old Testament fasted at some point.

2 Chron 20:3 “Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.”

Esther 5:2 “And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.”

2 Sam 12:16 “David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.”

Neh 1:4 “As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”

By Jesus’ time, Jews would fast from sunrise to sundown twice a week on a Mon and Thurs. The early church continued this practice but to distinguish themselves from Pharisees they did it on Wed and Fri - to remember Jesus’ betrayl and his death and then having Sabbath (changed to Sunday) as a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection on a Sunday.

Lent was a 40 day fast but is 46 days long because they wouldn’t fast on the Sabbath but would feast. Ramadan has come from the practice of fasting during lent.

Fasting is a bodily discipline and is not the same as abstinence from something.

John Mark Comer suggests 4 reasons to fast:

To offer ourselves to Jesus - Rom 12:1-2

2. Grow in holiness

3. Amplify your prayers

4. Stand with the poor

I have to be honest, I find fasting really hard. It is definitely a discipline for me and not yet a joy. I love doing exercise and I love being full of energy and life and fasting makes these things a lot more challenging for me.

Isaiah 58 ““Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo …”