Fasting ( How We Fast)

Last Weeks Memory Verse

Colossians 3:12

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,

This Weeks Memory Verse

Isaiah 58:10 ESV

10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.

Today we start our fast, today we start a 21 day journey to walk closer to God. 21 days of giving to God something so we can spend time learing about him, talking to him, and listening to him.

But some of us here today my not know much about fasting, maybe we havent done it in a long time or maybe even ever. Where do you start?, How Do You do it????

Scripture give us great insite in to how we should fast, more then just what we fast, but how to live during our fist. what to think about, and how to serve while we fast.

Seek God Daily

Humble Yourself

Serve Those around you.

Let God Shine

Isaiah 58:1–14 (ESV)

1 “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. 2 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.

1. Seek God Daily

Jeremiah 29:11–14 (ESV)

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Fasing is setting our heart, life, and day on seeking God with our Whole Heart.

How do we do this

With our Eye (Read The Bible)

With Our Words ( Pray)

With Our Actions ( Follow what we read)

These are the necessary things that we need to do to seek God with Our WHole Heart

Many only give them part of their heart. So many around us only give God 14% of their Heart

For my Math Nerds, thats 1/7 of their heart meaning...... They only give God one day out of 7, and its only for a few hours.

this is now how we are to worship God.

more people are excited over a cup, a game, a trip. then they are about a present God that is wating for you to reach out to him.

WE MUST SEEK GOD FIRST IF WE WANT HIM TO CHANGE ANYTHING IN US

3 ‘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. 4 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. 5 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?

2. Humble Yourself

Matthew 6:16–18 (ESV)

16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Pride is one of the most prolific killers of the church

Pride will keep you from

following God,

I know where I am going

serving others

I have better things to do

devoting your self to the word of God

I already know what it says.

Pride focuse on being seen and praised

Fasting is about Giving God glory and praise

Our life as christians are to give God glory

Your not givng God glory when you are to busy taking it for your self.

If you are doing things to be seen you are missing the point

if you are doing things so people can give you a pat on the back, your missing the point.

ITS NOT ABOUT YOU. IT HAS TO HAS TO HAS TO be about God.

6 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 8

3. Serve Those around you.

1 Peter 4:10–11 (ESV)

10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Matthew 25:40 (ESV)

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.’

As we Fast, God has called us to Serve

To do more

to give more

to help more

To many time, it feels like we can only do one or the other

While we are fasting we should be

Finding new opportunities to serve

Helping more people by supplying their needs

Being more generous then you have before

Fasting is a time of Giving to God, what more can you give to him?

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, 10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. 11 And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. 12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

4. Let God Shine

Psalm 145:18–19 (ESV)

18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.

1 John 5:13–15 (ESV)

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

we have already talked about how Fasting is about giving God Glory

Once we start giving him glory in the little things, HE will start moving in our lives the Big things.

Some of you are a praise away from God doing something Big in you life

God has given us a promise, if we humbel our self, and serve him, he will

bless us

help us

lead us

He us just waiting on us

Today maybe you are here and your life is apart from God, You need him to do something in your life, but you are not walking with Him.

God tells us that if we step to him he will set to us. IF you are here today and you are not serving GOd, you have not accepted him as Lord and Savorior of you life IF you have not expreanced His change in your life. TODAY is your day to start and see how God will more and bless you.