Out with old in with the New
Notes
Transcript
Fasting and handling God’s Possessions
Fasting and handling God’s Possessions
16 “Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
19 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
As we are about to enter into a new year, one thing is for sure, WE DON’T KNOW WHAT IS IN STORE FOR US! As seen in the past year, world is on the brink of something huge. The biggest headline and the one that concerns us all is what’s going on in Israel and how us as Christ followers are to be prepared.
The people of the world continue to deny the fact that all of this is the sign of Christ return. As we sit in here today read God’s word, the world is ready to tare itself apart.
How does this tie into Fasting and- God’s possessions? Christ explain to the disciples the purpose in which we are to fast and the reason way in Matthew 9:14-17
14 Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”
15 Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. 17 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
How does this tie together? In verses 19-24 they all tie back the the 3 previous parts talked about in the sermon on the mount involving tithing, praying, and fasting. All three are ways to worship God and examples of how not to. All three of the these accounts give us insight as how to grow in closeness with God the Father.
In the book of James chapter 5, he goes in with a bit more depth on the matter of “store up treasure” and why we are to only do so for heaven not for earth.
James 5:1-6 “1 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. 4 Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Armies. 5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous, who does not resist you.”
Throughout the bible when ever we see the affects of sin and what it leads to, we also see what happens when we put our trust in Jesus. In the book of James this is also true. The next passage James 5:7-11 “7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door! 10 Brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name as an example of suffering and patience. 11 See, we count as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about—the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”
We see the mercy that comes from submitting to Christ as our lord and savior. We are at a point in time where the world is the wealthiest it has ever been, that also brings us to the greediest time we have ever seen. Not only are we lovers of money, but even more so we are lovers of self. A few examples would be, marriage or relationships in general, lives of babies, the family home, and church devotion. For relationships- it has come to be the moment that it gets difficult you run or bad mouth your partner. For mothers today they can abort their baby in the state of New York at full term, there are roughly 1,000,000 babies killed that are reported every year, all because the woman says its “my body my choice” (Firstchoice). The family model has been under attack for years now, and now more then ever we see that in that Parents choose not to stay together, in 2022 there were 689,308 total divorces in the USA (CDC.com), and it truly is the children who suffer the most. For the life of the church we are in a great turning away, in 2020 we reached the lowest attendance across all places of worship it was 47%, just 23 years ago we were at 70% attendance ( news gullup).
How does all of this apply to the main passage? We see from all of these areas that we are missing the main point to it all, AND THAT IS PUT JESUS BACK IN FRONT AND FOLLOW HIM!!!!!
Luke 12:8-12 “8 “And I say to you, anyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God, 9 but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. 10 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 Whenever they bring you before synagogues and rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how you should defend yourselves or what you should say. 12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what must be said.””
As Christ says here in Luke, as plain as day “acknowledge Him and He will acknowledge you, deny Him and He will deny you.” In coming full circle on how we are to store up treasures, by tithing, praying, and fasting they all lead to us ACKNOWLEDGING CHRIST above all. Because without Him we have now reason to store up anything, we will just simply fade into nothingness. But, I’m so glad there is a but, He did come in the form of a innocent, defenseless baby, and grow to be the great teacher, rabbi, and savior that we all need.
The acts that we have looked at are all forms of worship, in all things we do we give back to the Father. Just as Paul says in Romans 1: 16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
And by faith it shall be, not blind faith, as the world believes it is, but just like Jesus told Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” We have the great gift that is the complete Word of God, and everything in it is what we need to learn and grow in relationship with Christ our Lord.
Closing
As we enter into a new year, let us keep in mind, that in all thing God has complete control in anything and everything is all apart of His will for not just our lives but the lives of everyone who calls on the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. In the last verse of our passage 24, the two masters it speaks of gives a great closing example, here is a quote form one of the sources from my studies, “Two Masters (6:24) This final paragraph of the passage is a concise statement returning to the subject of treasure that began the passage (6:19–21), focusing more specifically on money. The desire to store up treasures from the earlier part of the passage is now spoken of in terms of loyalty and service. Disciples of Jesus cannot have divided loyalty. A life in service to money cannot simultaneously be in service to God.”
So this year I hope you can grow in your walk with the Lord by grow in the three areas we discussed tithing, praying, and fasting, also what we value on earth is temporary, all things for heaven are everlasting.