Kingdom People | Hungry for More | Matthew 6:16-18

Good morning church! If you have your Bibles go ahead and flip on over to Matthew 6. We’re going to continue our series on Kingdom People looking through the Sermon on the Mount at Jesus’ instructions for his followers. Today’s passage is one that has really caught me by surprise by how much I’ve enjoyed studying for it. The topic of this passage is fasting. So I’ve decided as a way to help us do this that I’d go ahead and preach right on through lunch. Ya know, practice what we preach?

I’m curious though, how many people have heard a sermon on fasting before? Just by show of hands real quick. I’m sure that I have heard a sermon on fasting, but I just don’t remember it. I was too hungry. Well good, maybe today we can learn something new.

On the outset, I told Will on Friday, that as I’ve studied on fasting this week I am absolutely convinced that this is something that we, the church, should be practicing regularly. I think there’s lots of reasons for that, many of which we’ll get into here in a bit, but ultimately I think we should fast because we’re hungry for more. What we really long for is more than food. Look, I love a good steak dinner as much as anyone out here. But after that steak dinner, I wake up the next morning hungry. As C.S. Lewis said, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

Here’s the thing, every one of us came in here today with a longing that our hearts be satisfied. You know that there’s nothing else that can satisfy your deepest desires, otherwise you wouldn’t be here! You’d be chasing it! So what do we do when we find ourselves longing for more? Well, fasting isn’t the only thing we do, but it’s one of the ways physically that we show spiritually and emotionally we long for more. Kingdom People fast because they are hungry for more. That’s our main point for today. Kingdom People fast because they are hungry for more.

Let’s look at our passage, read, pray, and then jump into it. Matthew 6:16-18

Matthew 6:16–18 ESV

“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. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 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.

This is the word of the Lord. Let’s pray.

There’s 3 points from this passage this morning. First, Kingdom People are committed to fasting. We’re going to spend some time on this one and hopefully answer a lot of questions. The second, and shortest point, is Kingdom People don’t fast to earn favor. And finally Kingdom People do fast hungry for more. Let’s jump into that first point.

Kingdom People are committed to fasting.

Now in this passage Jesus follows the same rhythm he’s followed in prayer and giving. First, he gives the negative perspective & then he gives the positive instruction. But just like in prayer and giving, Jesus makes an assumption. He says, “When you fast.” He assumes that his followers are going to fast. I think this brings up a couple questions: why would Jesus assume this and what does he mean by fasting?

Let’s define our term first and then look toward the assumption. Simply put, fasting is abstinence for spiritual purposes. That’s your really short definition: abstinence for spiritual purposes. When we look throughout the Scriptures the focus is on food, but in our day there seems to have been a broadening of that to other areas of life. For example, I’ve heard of people who are fasting from social media.

Now based off of my definition, while Scriptures only describe fasts of food, I do think it’s acceptable to fast from other things. However, when I’ve thought about my own fasts from things like social media, I’m usually just trying to reduce screen time. I don’t take those moments when I would be on the phone and make them focused on communion with the Lord. I don’t focus them on prayer & Bible reading and growing in Christlikeness. So in those moments, I’m really just exercising discipline. I’m not fasting, because fasting has a different focus.

Well if that’s what fasting is—abstinence for spiritual purposes— the next question is why would Jesus assume his followers are going to fast? Just like Jesus said, “when you give” and “when you pray” he says “when you fast.” Now those aren’t commands. They’re expectations that Jesus has of his followers. He expects that his followers will maintain these spiritual disciplines. But why? I think the Scriptures show us a whole lot of reasons for fasting. This week I looked up every use of the word fast or fasting in Scriptures and fasting occurs a lot with God’s people both in the Old & New Testaments. Don Whitney has written a book called Spiritual Disciplines in which he categorizes the different uses of fast into 10 different categories. So we’re going to take a minute to look at these 10 plus one more that I’ve come up with.

Now you may be going, wait a minute, 11! different reasons!? That’s a lot. I know it is. But I think it’s important for us to take a look at these because I think we’ll see that fasting should be a regular rhythm of our life. Reason number 1: We fast because we’re hungry for more. Flip over a couple pages to Matthew 9:14-16

Matthew 9:14–16 (ESV)

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

The disciples of John and the Pharisees fasted because they didn’t have what? They didn’t have daily communion with the bridegroom—Jesus. But Jesus disciples walked with him daily. Their lives were consumed with following him. And when he left them, they longed to be with him. They fasted when Jesus ascended to heaven.

Now Christ hasn’t returned yet, so while we can meet with God through the Spiritual Disciplines like prayer, bible study, and fellowship, we don’t get to walk with him like the disciples did. We don’t get to experience the close communion that Adam & Eve had in the Garden. Now we see through a glass dimly. We can see the fingerprints of God in our lives, but the day is coming in which we will see him face to face. He will hold our face in his hands and wipe away every tear from our eyes. The only reason there will be tears is because what we’ve always longed for is finally right in front of us. Tears of joy and satisfaction, not sadness. The question really is do you long to be with him?

The truth is your heart longs for more than what this world has to offer, but are you seeking satisfaction from the things of this world or are you longing to be with Jesus? If you long to be with him then fasting is an appropriate response. It’s what Jesus said his followers would do until he returned.

We fast because we’re hungry for more and we fast to express love & worship to God. In the birth story of Jesus in Luke 2 there’s the story of the prophetess Anna who “did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.” She longed to see the Messiah come and God in his mercy allowed that. This 84 year old widow lived at the temple and expressed her worship through fasting and prayer.

We tend to think of worship as the songs we just sang. We just worshipped, right? Yes. But as you know there’s more to worship than just singing. Worship is a lifestyle lived in adoration of God. When you adore him and long for him, you can’t help but worship him. So when you fast as worship what you’re doing is finding your greatest pleasure and enjoyment in life from Him and not from food or something else. That’s what Anna did.

The third reason Jesus assumed his followers would fast is to seek God’s guidance. In the book of Judges the people of Israel sought God’s direction on whether or not they should go to battle through fasting, mourning, and offering of sacrifices. In the book of Acts, when Paul would ordain elders in churches part of the process was fasting for guidance. Honestly church, having looked at fasting this week I believe we should’ve probably spent some time fasting as a church seeking God’s guidance during the pastoral search. I do believe the Lord provided and I don’t believe we failed him in anyway by not fasting. Again, this isn’t a law that we have to do this, we’ll get more into that in our next point, but I think when it comes to making big decisions for the church fasting is a wise step that expresses our dependency on God.

The fourth reason Jesus would have assumed his followers fasted was to express grief. There’s a couple different times in the Old Testament when people died and the response was fasting. For example in 2 Samuel 1 when Saul & Jonathan died the way David responded was by tearing his clothes, weeping, and fasting.

When you lose someone whom you love dearly the desire to eat tends to just go away. It can be part of the grieving process. But again, to just not eat is not to fast. It’s appropriate to take that desire to not eat and turn it toward the Lord expressing your grief, while at the exact same time finding your satisfaction and comfort in him.

Reason number five to fast is to seek deliverance or protection. Remember in the book of Esther when Esther was going to go before the king. For her to walk uninvited into his chamber was a death sentence. So she and all of her people fasted before the Lord asking for him to deliver her so that she could deliver His people. The Lord met their request and Esther was not just granted an audience with the king, but her requests to not kill the Israelites was also requested. In fact, the evil people who sought to have them killed were killed instead.

Is there somewhere in your life where you need deliverance or protection? Maybe it’s deliverance from a persistent health issue. Maybe it’s protection from a wicked person like Haman was to Esther. If that’s you, fasting is an appropriate way to look to the Lord for deliverance or protection.

The sixth reason why Jesus would expect his followers to fast was as a sign of repentance and returning to God. Many of the times fasting occured in the OT was as a sign of repentance. Think about Jonah for a minute. Remember when he preached his message to the Ninevites? What did they do in response? They repented and fasted! I love what Don Whitney has to say on this,

“Not only can fasting express repentance, but it can also be in vain without repentance. As with all Spiritual Disciplines, fasting can be little more than a “dead work” if we have persistently hardened our hearts to God’s call to deal with a specific sin in our lives. We must never try to immerse ourselves in a Spiritual Discipline as an attempt to drown out God’s voice about forsaking a sin. It is a perversion of fasting to try to use it to balance self-punishment for a sinful part of life we want to continue feeding.”

I know I’m rolling through these pretty quickly, but there’s a lot of them. Number 7: We fast to humble oneself before God. Psalm 35:13 says,

Psalm 35:13 ESV

But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.

The Psalmist in this situation was being oppressed by wicked people, and when those oppressors were sick he sought their well being. In his humility he fasted and prayed for them. Can you imagine the level of humility it took for David to do that? Here he is being mocked, derided, made fun of, belittled, and falsely accused and what does he do for his accusers when they get sick!? What would it look like for us to have that level of love and humility toward others?

The eighth reason we find in the Scriptures to fast is to express concern for the work of God. In the book of Nehemiah, the first chapter, Nehemiah gets word that Jerusalem has been destroyed and that there is only a remnant left there. His immediate response is to fast and ask the Lord in prayer to use him as an instrument in leading the people of Israel to repentance and then to gather them together back in the city of Jerusalem. It’s an incredible prayer in Neh. 1.

Daniel does the same thing in chapter 9 of the book of Daniel. Having read the book of prophecy of Jeremiah he perceived that the time was right for the Lord to fulfill his promises. So in anticipation of what God would do he fasted and prayed and sought the mercy of the Lord. Church what if we had such a sense of urgency for the work of God to be accomplished, the will of God that we talked about last week and the kingdom of God that we fasted!? When was the last time you were so serious about seeing the work of the Lord done in your life and the life of your family and the life of your church and city and business and nation that you fasted and prayed for the Lord to work?

Jesus expected his followers to fast to minister to the needs of others. This might be the most surprising passage on fasting that I read this week. Isaiah 58:6-7

Isaiah 58:6–7 ESV

“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? 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?

I saw a post on facebook this week that had the baptism questions for a country in South Asia. You had to answer these before you could be baptized.

Are you willing to leave home and lose the blessing of your ather?

Are you willing to lose your job?

Are you willing to go to the village and those who persecute you, forgive them, and share the love of Christ with them?

Are you willing to give an offering to the Lord?

Are you willing to be beaten rather than deny your faith?

Are you willing to go to prison?

Are you willing to die for Jesus?

I wonder how many of us would be ready to answer yes to these questions? Here in the next couple months we’re excited to present to you Josh & Jenna (Harrison) Gregor to bring on to support as missonaries. They’re getting ready to head to China to teach English over there. As they get ready to go to a country in which the church is extremely controlled and restricted it made me wonder when was the last time we had such care and concern for our brothers & sisters across the globe that we fasted and prayed for them? The persecuted church is a very real thing. We exist to glorify God by making disciples in Dalhart & around the world and church one of the ways we can fulfill that around the world part is to fast and pray for the persecuted church.

But the other part of Isaiah that’s interesting is that the fasts God desires is one in which we give what we have to those who are in need. When was the last time you gave your lunch to the guy on the street and then prayed for them?

Jesus also expected his followers to fast a a sign of their desire to overcome temptation. We talked about this a little bit last week at the end of the Lord’s Prayer how we are to ask God to deliver us from the Evil one and his wily schemes. Jesus exemplified this just a few chapters before this one in Matthew 4 before he was tempted by Satan himself. Jesus fasted for 40 days in preparation for that.

Satan is clever and the things that he tempts us with in this world are tempting. We need our Savior’s help to deliver us from evil. One way to show our sincerity of that and to have our wills shaped by his is through fasting.

And finally, that’s right you made it to the end, Jesus expected his follower to fast to strengthen their prayer lives. Have you noticed that in every one of these other situations in which we fast that prayer is directly tied to it? Last week we talked about how we are to pray “Your will be done.” We can often think that when we pray what we’re doing is bending God’s will to match our will. I think the same danger awaits us when we fast. We can begin to think, “Lord, I’ve done the thing so now it’s time for you to do your thing. I’ve done my part, so you do your part!” But fasting is not a get God’s attention card. As Don Whitney said,

“The Bible does not teach that fasting is a kind of spiritual hunger strike that compels God to do our bidding. If we ask for something outside of God’s will, fasting does not cause Him to reconsider. Fasting does not change God’s hearing so much as it changes our praying.”

Look here’s the thing, every one of these reasons for fasting, Jesus knew we would encounter them. He knew we would need his help walking through them so he expected us to fast. OuUltimately our hearts were made for his presence and so we long for more. Since we can’t have it in fulness now then fasting should be a regular rhythm of our life. But how regular? How regular should we fast? Just like there is no commandment to fast there’s also no commandment on how often to fast. As Richard Foster said, “Our freedom in the gospel, however, does not mean license; it means opportunity.” Fasting doesn’t secure our righteousness. Fasting doesn’t earn us favor. And that’s our second point:

Kingdom People don’t fast to earn favor.

We don’t fast to earn favor with God or others. That’s what the pharisees would do. Look back at Mt. 6:16

Matthew 6:16 ESV

“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.

They would literally take ash and cover their faces with it and walk around town in sackcloth not only showing how they felt about whatever the situation was, they also did it so you know how they felt about it. Just like in prayer, just like in giving we don’t fast so others will see how good we are or so that God sees how good we are. Because how good are we?

Fasting shows our need for help. Fasting shows that in and of ourselves we are full of brokenness. But that’s where the good news of the gospel brings us freedom. God looked down on us in our helpless state and sent his son to live the perfect life we were supposed to live and to die the death the we deserved to die. Now when we recognize our poorness of spirit we can come to him in humility. When we do that he makes us into a new creation that is hungry for him! It’s hungry to know him and walk with him. Have you done that? Have you recognized your sin? Have you confessed it to him? He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness and not just that but make you into a new creature that longs for new things.

When you fast to try and earn approval from God or man you’ve earned your reward. Temporary approval. Maybe others are awed by your righteousness or maybe your impressed with yourself, but that’s all you get. However, when you fast in the freedom of the gospel, seeking the one who set you free you find what your looking for.

The question then becomes, how do we fast? That’s our third point:

Kingdom People fast hungry for more.

Yes that was a previous reason for fasting too. But Jesus actually gives us some pretty specific instructions about how we’re to go about fasting. Let’s look back at our passage. Matthew 6:17-18

Matthew 6:17–18 ESV

But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 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.

So the first step in fasting is to just get ready for the day. “Anoint your head and wash your face” means to go about your day as if everything is normal. We’re not making a scene about it. We’re not trying to let everyone know how awesome we are or what we’re doing. It’s not for them. It’s for us to commune with the Father. So go about your day externally as if everything is normal.

Second step in fasting is to fast hungry. I know—kinda seems like a duh statement. Aren’t you starving when you skip a meal? Or aren’t you wanting to grab that phone and look at that screen? Those physical inclinations are to be triggers to remind you that what you really desire is something much greater than what this world has to offer.

So how then do you position your heart to be in a place where fasting isn’t just a discipline you’re trying to maintain, but is instead in a place of worship? The answer to that is to remember your why your fasting, but most importantly remember who you’re seeking when you fast. How do we begin our prayers? “Our Father in heaven.” When you meditate on the character of God, when you remember who he is you will find your heart being tuned to sing his praises. So remember who you’re meeting with when you fast.

Then remember why you’re meeting with him. Whatever your need is it’s great. You can’t fix it on your own. You need someone who is great to step in and help save you or redeem and restore your situation. So fast hungry working to position your heart by remembering who and why you are fasting. Let thos physical pains be remeinders that food can’t satisfy you, but Christ alone.

The third way in which we fast is to fast with confidence. Over the last three weeks we’ve repeatedly heard these phrases “your Father who is in secret” and “your Father who sees in secret.” I’d encourage you to go back later and underline those in your Bible. Each week there’s been different aspects of them that I’ve found helpful. We’ve looked at in prayer we’re communing with our Father. The same applies here in fasting. When we fast we’re seeking the presence of the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God. We don’t have to fast to get his attention. As the old hymn says, “His eye is on the sparrow and he’s watching over me.” So you can fast with confidence knowing that you don’t have to get his attention. He’s in secret. He’s there where no one else is. He knows the secret things of your heart when everything else below the surface is bubbling. All those things your ashamed of him or someone else knowing, he knows. Yet he still desires you. He sent his Son to die for you and to make a way for you. Because of Jesus when you seek the Father in the secret places you can be confident that you’ll find him.

You can fast with confidence because your ultimate satisfaction is found in the Father. Have you ever had one of those moments in your life where your like, this is the pinnacle? I’ve reached it. I’m completely content and there’s nothing that will top this? Not in some suicidal type of way, but just in like a state of complete satisfaction. Since we’re talking about not eating maybe a good example would be how you feel after a really good meal. Like one where you had food that just paired together perfectly and flavors, oh the flavors were incredible. Or maybe students and kids when you’ve won something really awesome? A couple years ago for Walker’s first year of t-ball I thought we had a terrible team. We ended up going undefeated and I think the championship ring is still riding in my pickup to this day. Just like dang, can life get better than this? Or maybe in an experience like the sunset or being at the beach or mountains? Look, all of those are amazing and incredible experiences, but all of them are but shadows of the reality. Those point us to the creator and that’s who we seek when we fast. We seek him and since he’s “in secret” we can meet with him and know that we can commune with the Father. Yes, now it is in a glass dimly, but the more time we spend with him and pursuing him the more we find of him. Here’s the thing, when you sit in his presence communing with the Father you can’t help but be content. You can’t help but find what your heart is looking for. You can’t help but be satisfied with Him.

You can fast with confidence because you’re communing with the Father. You can fast with confidence knowing that when you meet with him you’ll be satisfied by him. and you can fast with confidence knowing that when you meet with the Father you’ll be changed by the Father. When you’ve met with the Lord, you can’t walk away the same. When you’ve spent time with Jesus, you don’t leave like you were when you showed up. Think for a minute about Jacob when he wrestled with “the angel of the Lord” back in Genesis. He was left with a limp. Think for a minute about Moses when he encountered God on Sinai. He had to cover his face because of the glory of the Lord shone upon him. Think about every one of the disciples. Even Judas left his life to follow him. That’s not to speak of Paul and his miraculous turning. Then we can think of heroes of the faith. Guys like John Wesley or David Brainerd or Lottie Moon. The list goes on and on but every one of those people when they encountered Christ they were no longer the same.

What about you? Have you encountered him? Have you actually met Jesus? If you have then you can’t be the same. You can’t leave walking the same as you did before. You can’t leave having the same desires as you had before. He changes you and your desires to align with his. When you encounter Christ you find that the things of this world, as wonderful as they truly are, pale in comparison to knowing and being known by him, to communing and walking through life with him. Are you hungry for more? Or are you satisfied with the things of this world?

If you haven’t had a life changing enounter with the risen Lord then Will or I would love to talk with you today. After the service we’ll be around and would love to pray and meet with you. But for those of you who do know him, if you find yourself hungry for more, wanting to express love & worship to him, need his guidance, need to express grief, want to seek deliverance or protection or repentance and a return to God, if you want to show your humility to God or express your concern for the work of God; If you want to minister to the needs of others or overcome temptation or strengthen your prayer life then I would encourage you to fast. Jesus expected his followers to fast. He knew they would need to abstain from the things of the world the pursue him. I want to challenge you right now, if Christ is Lord to pick a day this week to fast.

Maybe even after this you’re not quite sure what to do to fast. So I’m going to open up the church on Tuesday from 12-1 for us to fast. I just realize I forgot to include corporate fasting. That’s something God called the whole nation of Israel to do to repent of their sin. Corporate fasting is actually part of this nations past. There’s been multiple occasions on which presidents have called for a national fast. So, if you’d like someone to walk through fasting with then meet me here Tuesday at noon. We’ll fast as church together and pursue the Lord.

But for now, for right now, what or who sustains you? What satisfies your heart? Are you hungry for more? Let’s pray