2024-08-18 And When You Fast…

Alright, we are finishing up our series on / / Prayer & Fasting this week. Yes, I am going to stick to just one week on fasting AND I won’t keep you here until 3 this afternoon either. But we’ll see. You never really know.

Over the past 7 weeks, 8 including today, we have been on this journey through Jesus’ thoughts and teachings on prayer. And he starts with giving some warnings, right?

Do you remember week 1?

/ / And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites…

Why? Well, because their motives and reasons for praying were all wrong. If you bring that thought forward to today, you could say they were doing it for the likes, shares and comments. He says praying on the street corners for all to hear so you look more spiritual and godly is just not the right thing to do, and that the reward you receive for that is simply just whatever that gains you from the people around that you’re trying to impress.

And so he says, / / …go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Maybe a simple thought here, but do you notice Jesus isn’t saying the key is to go by yourself and wait for God, he says that God is already there waiting for you!

/ / …your Father who is in secret… who sees in secret…

What does that mean? Well, the word / / secret there isn’t like “I want to tell you a secret of”, but it means hidden, concealed, private. “keep it secret…keep it safe!”

So, Jesus is saying, “When you pray, understand that this is an invitation to go be WITH your Father, and where HE is, is in the hidden place, the concealed place, the private place, so when you pray, go to THAT place and you will be with your Father, He will see you there.”

It’s like in all those movies where people are being chased and need to split up and they say, “We’ll meet up at our secret place..” and they’re the only two who know where it is. Except Jesus isn’t telling us about a specific place, he’s telling us about the hidden place, and it’s not that it’s a rule that you have to go be alone when you pray, it’s that this is exactly where God the Father is - in the hidden place, so go to the hidden place, which is anywhere that you are by yourself. SO whether that is your closet, your bedroom, like Jesus up the mountain side, like my friend Pastor David Futrell who meets God when he goes for a run. And let’s be honest, maybe you have a hard time finding that quiet place.

Ever hear of a woman named Susanna Wesley?

Maybe not, most people haven’t. Well, Susanna was the mother of John and Charles Wesley, who were these great evangelists and revivalists in the United Kingdom in the 1700’s. And they started what we now know as the Methodist church, called that because of “the methodical way in which they carried out their Christian faith.”

But, my story isn’t about them, the two boys that would change the better part of their world in their time, but this story is about their mother. Susanna and her husband Samuel Wesley had 19 children. And although nine of her children died as infants at various ages, you can bet the house wasn’t quiet. But Susanna was a woman of prayer, she was a woman of faith, and she wouldn’t allow the chaos to stop her from finding God in this place of hiddenness, in the secret. So what did she do? She would sit in her chair and pull her apron over her head, and when she did this, this was her signal to the rest of the house that she was in prayer and was not to be disturbed…

19 children… I have one and have used that as an excuse for be too busy.

We are not too busy for God, we CHOOSE to not go to the hidden place where He is.

And let’s face the facts here, we’ve all been taught, and I have even said, that God is everywhere. And that is true, we can’t break that reality. God IS truly omni-present as we discussed last week, but Jesus is giving us a specific invitation to meet with God the Father in a special place. But you have to choose to go there. Whether that is completely by yourself, or with your apron over your head in the midst of chaos.

Then of course he does teach us how to pray when we are there, and that is the last 7 weeks of this series. Now today we’re going to finish this series by looking at what Jesus says about fasting.

Let’s start by reading the scripture for today. Matthew 6:16-18, and you’re going to notice a recurring theme that we’ve seen already. This, of course, Jesus teaching, having just finished talking about prayer, now bringing in this thought about fasting:

/ / “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.”

Four major themes, or parts that we’ve seen before, some of which I’ve already highlighted a bit this morning.

/ / Jesus gives a warning of what not to do…

/ / Jesus gives instruction on what to do…

/ / Jesus explains there is a reward for this physical action we are called to…

/ / Jesus says the Father is in “secret”, which is where we are meant to go…

And if you’ve noticed, that’s now three times this format has been used in Matthew 6. For Giving in Matthew 6:1-4, for Prayer in Matthew 6:5-15, and now for Fasting in Matthew 6:16-18.

And so with fasting, as with prayer, Jesus uses this word, that we translate as secret, or the NLT says in / / private, and it means, concealed from the notice or knowledge of all persons except the individual or individuals concerned.

Which I would say means: From your perspective, be only concerned with how GOD views your fasting, so we do it in secret, no one needs to know. And from God’s perspective, because this word is used both ways, Your father is in secret, and he sees in secret, when we go to that secret place, again, not a physical place necessarily like we see in prayer, Jesus going up a mountain, or you sitting in your bedroom, or Susanna Wesley with her apron over her head, but here with fasting, as you are already doing nothing, you’re not going to do something, you’re choosing to not do something, and so the secret is not a place, but a mentality, or a choice to not talk about it, to not make it obvious, to not be seen and praised for your “good deed of fasting” - and because we do that, God sees us in that “secret place” - because we have gone where He is and concerned ourselves with Him and Him alone, now He is concerned with us. It draws his attention.

It’s like getting away with someone so you can have their undivided attention.

Now, as much with giving, or praying, fasting is the same. / / It’s not about anyone knowing that you are fasting. It’s not about anyone seeing you give, or hearing you pray. / / It’s about the motive behind this spiritual discipline. And that’s what these are, very natural things, that are considered spiritual disciplines that produce godliness in our lives. Why? Because Jesus says that our Father WANTS to reward us for these things. There is a very real reward for fasting. And it’s not just the health benefits that everyone these days talks about with intermittent fasting and whatnot, although that’s not a bad thing, it’s a very real thing. The body does some amazing things when given time to fast from food specifically. There’s just so much more to it.

Now, fasting isn’t the most fun subject ever. And there’s some pretty obvious reasons why.

If you know me, you know I love food.

If you know me, you know I like to put a good meal in front of people.

I love seeing people enjoy what I’ve cooked for them.

And I have a good time barbecuing. I did a nearly 17 hr cook this weekend and it was fantastic.

My brother and his family were visiting Friday and yesterday, and Kelley mentioned that she loves when people come over because my cooking game goes up a notch. I’m not sure what that says about my every day cooking…

Food is involved in so much of what we do in life. And it is supposed to. Food is representative of feasts, of parties, of festivities, of community gathering together. We get together around the table. We enjoy each others company. We go out for coffee. We meet up for drinks. We grab dessert or ice cream or hey, why don’t you just come over and we’ll grab a pizza.

We get popcorn for our movies. We talk about our favorite restaurants. Food is integrated into the very social fabric of our society. And I don’t think it was any different in Jesus day.

Jesus even compares himself to food. He says in John 6:35, / / “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.” In the Old Testament, when King David was anointed with oil, 1 Samuel 6:13 says, / / So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought and anointed David with the oil. And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on.

You see this connection between oil and the Spirit of God all throughout scripture.

Food is all over the place. Passover, one of the greatest Jewish festivals is marked by eating together. And then Jesus is called the passover lamb. John 1:29 says that when John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, / / “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

What does Jesus use as symbols for us to remember him by? Communion, right? Bread and wine! What could be better than a fresh loaf of bread and a nice bottle of fine wine? Or if you grew up in the church’s I did, you got Welch’s grape juice.

Many of you will know Psalm 34:8, / / Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Food is not just a symbol of God’s goodness, it IS God’s goodness. It’s central to the Creation story. In Genesis 1:29, after God creates Adam and Eve and gives them the mandate to rule over the earth and over all the animals, he says, / / “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.”

And just so that you don’t think that God is a vegan. If you know the story of Noah and the flood, after the flood, God reaffirms his covenant that he had given to Adam & Eve, with Noah and his family and says in Genesis 9:1-3, / / “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea…I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables.”

Ok, so food is a symbol of goodness, provision, covenant, promise, blessing, abundance, favor… and yet, we know, that it also has a dark side. I said if you know me you know I love a good meal, but let’s be honest, I love a good meal a little too much. Food is also one of the biggest struggles in my life. It would be remiss of me to not say, I am not a master of this area. I have not come into a great understanding of this spiritual discipline. I am preaching to myself as much as I am preaching to anyone else. In fact, I am preaching to myself MORE than to any of you. I already feel the conviction of the Lord, in His kindness and gentleness, and all we have done is just mention the word fasting.

I have shared this before: In my younger years I thought it was a good idea to attempt a 40 day fast because as I was reading scripture I saw that Jesus fasted for 40 days, and then at the time I thought there was no other mention of Jesus fasting and so I just assumed that maybe Jesus only fasted once, and it was for 40 days, and if I could just get myself through a 40 day fast I would never have to do it again.

Well, first, that’s a bad understanding of the life and ministry of Jesus. And second, I should have listened to every single one of my friends who told me I was a complete nut case for trying this. It was terrible. I made it, I think 11 or 13 days before I ended up in my doctor’s office with excruciating pain in my side. He scheduled me for an x-ray and I went home. I was full of stupid, I mean, full of faith, so I continued to fast for the next couple days. They did an x-ray and the technical results came back, “Full of sludge in the kidney”. Thankfully, as if by a miracle, the pain disappeared, I ended up being fine, but I had learned my lesson. Fasting is not for me. Let those who are stronger in the faith do the fasting. I’ll stick to leading of worship.

And to ease myself back into things I ate stewed tomatoes first, and that was punishment enough for my misdeeds. And for years after that I did not give myself to learning about, nor did I attempt fasting.

Now, you can rest easy. This experience is not where my teaching today comes from. First, that was nearly 20 years ago and I am just so much older and wiser now. But second of all, I have been following a preacher for some time now who really has focused his life on the spiritual disciplines, of living a life of following and being a true disciple of Jesus - John Mark Comer, and his teaching on fasting is some of the best I have ever heard in my entire life of being in the Christian church. So, I draw from him heavily in this topic, today.

I was saying to someone the other day that listening to John Mark’s teaching on fasting actually inspires me, it makes me want to fast. And I so appreciate people in the body of Christ that are leagues ahead of me in areas of theology and doctrine, of teaching and understanding. On that note, please be praying for me as I head back to school this week and start my second year of university. I am at a new school, that was thankfully willing to accept all of my credits from Trinity International University and so I have not lost time or money toward my degree, but am right on track.

I will also say this up front. And I mentioned last week, the topic of fasting could easily be more than one week, and yet, I am sticking to one week as I know I am meant to be faithful through our journey of the Sermon on the Mount for this year. I honestly and truly believe that God has been leading us through this scripture this year to prepare us for what is to come in the months ahead. This is not by chance or a mistake. God is calling us to a place of true and deep discipleship to Jesus where our lives begin to mold and shape to be more like Christ. That as we learn and apply the teachings of Jesus, and I truly believe, become serious about our discipleship and our working out our salvation through the spiritual disciplines in our lives, we will see dramatic transformation in our lives and our community. I have never felt that more than I do right now, that the Holy Spirit is truly guiding this church and leading us toward something very special. But that takes a commitment to what Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 28:18-20, what we would call the Great Commission. Jesus says to them, / / “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And I think the church as a whole, globally, has done well with that part. We like getting people “saved”. But Jesus then says this, / / “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you…”

I truly believe this is where we are at as a church. Learning what it means to become disciples that obey the teachings and commandments of Jesus Christ. And I believe that this year, going through the Sermon on the Mount is a major set up toward that movement.

Because let’s face it. As much as the world has their issues. The church has not been left out of them.

Most statistics you read about people in general, are equally as true for the church.

As much as we see blessing and abundance and mystery in food and how it pertains to God, you know my life, I struggle with an addiction to the stuff. And people all across the church are no different. To find someone that has really mastered their health in this country, well, come on, they’re hard to come by. If you have. Well done. Honestly. I couldn’t commend you any higher. You deserve to be acknowledged!

Because / / our world, or let’s specifically talk about our country, and again, this has not escaped the church, has a very disordered relationship with food. It’s estimated that 2/3 of this country deals with obesity. Nearly 7 out of every 10 people. Most of them, or an increasing number are children.

Food waste - a normal family of four is throwing out thousands of pounds of food per year while we have people who cannot afford enough to feed their families.

We have issues of what would be called “food injustice” where healthy foods are less accessible in certain areas. I think the right term is called living in a food dessert. No grocery with healthy food within walking distance or an accessible distance from people’s homes, and part of that issue involves foods that are bad for our bodies are actually more subsidized by our government and made more readily available.

So our relationship with food is not good.

And our relationship with the body itself has also taken a serious hit. Hasn’t it?

We all know the fashion industry, the health industry, the modeling world have all pushed a narrative of being as skinny as you possibly can, and how interesting is it, and maybe it’s not even a coincidence, that it seems we have all rebelled against that narrative and nearly 70% of the country is considered obese. Where we need affirmation, we got condemnation and now we are all suffering from it.

So we have these two polar opposites of unhealthy outlook on our body. A disassociation of sorts. We view the body as separate from the rest of us. It’s a thing we deal with, but it’s not who we are. We say things like, “The real me is on the inside!”

How many would agree? You’ve heard that before. “The weight’s not who you are, honey, it’s ok.” But what if I told you that was a bad teaching. What if I told you we’ve been hoodwinked into believing a lie. That looking at our body that way gives way to not caring for our body.

I was talking to my therapist this past week and just talking about the fact that I have been overweight for as long as I can remember. I would say pre-ten years old. And I have been bullied and picked on and called every name in the book for my entire life. Not just as a child by other children, but as an adult by other adults. People can be cruel, and it can make us want to disassociate ourselves from the problem. I was looking through photos the other day on my phone, trying to find a specific, pretty amazing photo of me with highlights in my hair. The first and only time I dyed my hair. Anyway, another topic for another time. But, I think my hair was like that when Kelley fell in love with me. But I don’t know if she’d agree.

But going through the last 17 years of photos seeing my body grow and shrink and grow and shrink as I morphed and tried my best, and won and failed, was honestly quite heart breaking. I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide………. But we can’t.

As much as the world would like you to believe that the body is just a throw away thing, or you can do with it as you please, the reality is that the body is very much who you are. And it is a gift from God.

And so John Mark Comer presents this question: / / “Is there a practice of Jesus [discipline, a way of Jesus, of the kingdom] to not just heal our relationship with food and our body, but to get our whole person in touch with the presence and peace and power of God?”

And the answer is yes. It is the practice, or the / / Spiritual Discipline of Fasting.

So maybe my first point this morning is:

/ / 1. Jesus had a good relationship with food, and the body, within himself.

Luke 7:34 says, / / “The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard…’” If someone has any sort of cause to call you a glutton or a drunkard you are at least enjoying some level of food and drink, right?

Robert Karris, who is a New Testament Scholar said of the book of Luke, / / “In Luke’s gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal.”

So Jesus liked his food. I can sign up for that. But he also fasted.

We of course know, and have looked at recently that in Matthew 4 it says Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights before he was tempted by the devil. And that is what started his ministry. He fasted BEFORE having done any ministry, comes back, and is launched into his teaching and miracle ministry.

And I was thinking this week, Jesus’ response to the devil when he tries to get him to turn stones into bread, is from the book of Deuteronomy. He says, / / “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) and I wonder if Jesus is saying more here than we think. We live by the “word’ that comes from the mouth of God. What is the Word, or better said, WHO is the word?

John 1:1, / / In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone…So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

/ / Jesus IS the word of God! And we, humanity, can not live without Him! Bread is good, but bread is not enough. Food is good, but food is not enough, we must have Christ. Who is God the Son, along with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit. We can not live but by the power and presence of God.

Then in John 4, which is the story of the woman at the well. Jesus’ disciples go into the nearby town to get food, and when they come back John 4:31-34 says, / / Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.” But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.”

“Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other.

Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God…”

There’s implication here that Jesus is fasting, that he’s living by the word, the presence, the power of God and not by the natural food they are trying to give him.

Another instance, in Mark 9, the disciples were praying for someone, trying to cast out an evil spirit, but nothing was happening. Jesus steps in and handles the issue. But afterward it says the disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t do the miracle and his response is, / / “This kind can come out by nothing by prayer and fasting.”

Your translation may only say, “prayer”, and this is another situation where some manuscripts do not use the word fasting and so some translations choose to omit it. But I would say at least half include fasting, and I see no reason to argue with that in the way Jesus responds.

And the reality is, that as Christians, and specifically western world Christians, we really know how to feast, but how often do we talk about, let alone actually practice this discipline of fasting? Again, not intermittent fasting for all the health reasons or because you have to get blood work done.

And that’s not a dig at us here in this church, the statistics across the board just show us this. According to some research done earlier this year, / / four out of ten catholics say they fast, and that’s most likely because Catholics observe Lent, the 40-day period leading up to Easter.

When it comes to the / / Protestants, or Christians that aren’t Catholics, that number drops to roughly 2 in 10. Some fast for lent, while some are part of churches that call for “corporate” fasts.

But what the statistics are showing is that not many people are choosing to fast as a regular practice of following Jesus on their own.

And I don’t blame them.

It’s not fun. And it doesn’t always seem clear as to why we should, or would. And we aren’t Jesus. And the last time I did I ended up in my doctors office, and I don’t need that again.

And for some, because food is such an issue, take myself for instance, it’s a big thing, and so fasting becomes much more than just a simple decision. Anyone who has ever suffered with an eating disorder will tend to push back at fasting because there is trauma attached to the idea, religious or not.

People don’t like talking about it, and like doing it even less.

But what if, as John Mark says, we are missing out on one of the most powerful practices of our discipleship with Jesus by way of fasting. And we have much to learn from Jesus himself. Who as I am saying in this first point, had a healthy relationship with both food, and his body.

/ / 2. Jesus Assumes His Followers Will Fast

Let’s jump back to Matthew 6:16-17 for a second. Look at what Jesus says, / / “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites…But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face…”

/ / …when you fast…

I looked up the greek, just to make sure. Sure enough, that when, means when. There’s no hidden words here, there’s no missing manuscripts, there’s no way to take this and argue away that Jesus meant something else. He’s saying to his disciples, in this Sermon on the Mount, this teaching on what it looks like to live within the kingdom of God, “When you fast…”

Not “If”, not “maybe”, not “possibly”, but “when”…

In Luke 5:33-35, there is a group of people that come to Jesus and ask him, / / “John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?”

Gosh, if Jesus came back today and had a press conference with the world, this could very possibly be a question that he would get regarding the American church, “Jesus, why is it that the muslims are really good at observing the practice of fasting, and the health industry is very good at fasting, and the Jewish community fasts, and the Eastern, African and Indian church all fast….why is it that your church doesn’t really fast? Like, only 20-40%, and that’s very infrequent.”

And so Jesus responds, / / “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

And that is the time we are living in. Not the celebrating with the groom, so we don’t need to fast, but the groom being away… Everything after Jesus ascends into heaven in Acts 1, is this time period where Jesus has gone to heaven and will again return one day, but that has not happened yet, which means we are in the season of, “and then they will fast.”

And this is not to get us to do something uncomfortable, as uncomfortable as it might be, but this has a very specific purpose attached to it. We’ve already discussed it because it lines up with the other topics of Matthew 6… / / “And when you fast…your fasting [will be] seen by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Does that seem a bit ambiguous, yes. But is it a promise, also yes. We don’t know what that reward is, but God doesn’t give bad rewards. I have always said, if you trust the person giving you the gift, you can trust the gift. So we can simply look at that and say, / / “There is something good waiting for you on the other side of fasting!”

So, if the time we are in is this time Jesus spoke of, “and then they will fast.” how did the early church handle this that maybe we’ve moved away from?

/ / 3. How Did The Early Church Fast?

By the time of Jesus it was common practice to fast two times a week, every Monday and Thursday, and they fasted from sunup to sun down. They would eat one meal on their days of fasting after the sun went down on that day. That was standard practice.

The early church, being steeped in this tradition already, continued this practice, except they changed the days from Monday and Thursday to Wednesday and Friday.

They did that for two reasons. The first was to distinguish themselves a different than the Jewish Community who had NOT received Jesus as the Messiah. They saw this in part as Jesus saying, “Don’t be like the hypocrites…”

And so they chose Wednesday and Friday because Wednesday was the day that Jesus was betrayed, the day the religious leaders conspired against him. And Friday was the day he was crucified. And so this fasting was almost in solidarity, or recognition of the suffering of Jesus.

We aren’t betrayed, and we aren’t crucified, and yet Paul actually writes in Galatians 2:20, / / My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

There’s no indication that Paul’s talking about fasting here, but there is this identity with the suffering of Christ that reminds us that we are no longer our own, but we are His, that we are dead to sin, dead to the world, but alive in Christ, alive to the purposes of Christ.

But somewhere along the line we’ve lost this tradition, or practice.

John Wesley, who I mentioned earlier, started the Methodist church in the 1700s. He said of the church at that time, / / “I fear there are now thousands of Methodists, so called, both in England and Ireland, who, following the same bad example, have entirely left off fasting; who are so far from fasting twice a week….that they do not fast twice in the month!”

What would he say of the church today?!?

Wesley himself fasted on Wednesdays & Fridays as the early church did and actually refused to ordain anyone into the ministry without them following that practice.

Fasting was held as a high value, like reading the bible, going to church, praying, being in community together. Although we’ve seen a decline in all of those as well, haven’t we?

And here’s the thing. We’ve seen the decline mostly in the western church, maybe even entirely in the western church. The Eastern Orthodox church still observes this. The Coptic Christians in Egypt, most of Africa and India. Fasting still plays a major roll in Christianity outside of the Western church.

John Mark says, / / “Fasting is one of the most essential and powerful of all the practices of Jesus, and, arguably, the single most neglected in the modern, Western church.”

Virtually all of the Christian historical figures talk about fasting and it’s importance. St Basil the Great, the bishop of Caesarea in the 4th century said, / / “Fasting gives birth to prophets, she strengthens the powerful; fasting makes lawgivers wise. She is a safeguard for the soul, a steadfast companion for the body, a weapon for the brave, and a discipline for champions. Fasting repels temptations, anoints for godliness. She is a companion for sobriety, the crafter of a sound mind. In wars she fights bravely, in peace she teaches tranquility.”

It’s amazing, in that one statement he hits on so many of the cherished Christian desires. Prophecy, strength, wisdom, safety, discipline, overcoming, repelling temptation, godliness, sobriety, or freedom, or specifically freedom from addiction, or what tries to hold us down, and then what’s so needed in todays word, a sound mind, bravery and tranquility!

Fasting is both essential and powerful.

/ / 4. What is Fasting?

So, I mentioned Lent, the 40-day period before Easter, where you will see the most fasting from the Catholic community but also the within the Protestant community as well. But even that has become more of what we would call abstinence, and not fasting. Where the general practice has become to say, “I am fasting from social media.” or “I am fasting from coffee.” or “Sugar” or “shopping” or whatever else someone chooses to give up for the season of lent. And that is wonderful, that is good, good for the soul, good for the body, but that’s not actually fasting.

Fasting is also not a restricted diet. You’ll hear people talk about doing a juice fast, or in the church, you might hear about a Daniel fast, which is modeled after the life of Daniel and his friends who for a season restricted their diets to prove that God would sustain them. Again, that’s wonderful, go for it, abstinence to any degree is usually a good thing, BUT scripture doesn’t even use the word fasting for any of Daniel’s actions.

/ / Fasting is at it’s most basic explanation not eating food for a set period of time, and sometimes includes not drinking water either.

As I mentioned, with the daily fasts, and with Lent, it started in this way that from sun up, to sun down no food was to be taken, and you would have one meal on that day, after sundown.

And this practice carried over from the Jewish tradition of which Jesus is referring to when he says, “When you fast…” fully expecting we would. And that went on from the start of the early church for 1500 years. But we don’t see it much these days. You’re more likely to hear about fasting from your personal trainer than you are your Christian friends.

I also want to clarify, when Jesus says to fast in secret before your Father, he’s not saying that you only fast alone. The church has for 2000 years fasted as community on a regular basis. What he’s saying is don’t use fasting as a way of virtue signaling, of acting righteous before other people. When we fast together as a church, that’s very different than posting about fasting on social media to appear more spiritual than we are.

So, fasting at it’s basic is setting a time and space where you completely abstain from eating any food. Whether that is Wednesday and Friday like the earth church, from sunup to sundown, or for 40-day Lent, before Easter, or times or seasons like often happened in the Old Testament where the nation, or a group of people were “called to a fast” for purposes of repentance, salvation, or prayer. The nation of Israel, every year, on the day of atonement, would fast together.

My friend Pastor David recently called his church to a 10-day fast to pray together for the direction of their church.

So, we can end with this question, although this is a big question and we won’t get through all of it today:

/ / 5. Why Do We Fast?

Is it because the early church told us to?

Is it because the old testament references it?

Is it because Jesus did it for 40 days and so we should?

Is it because Jesus says that he expects we will, and that some ministry seems to only work if we’re living a life of prayer and fasting?

Is it a rule? If we don’t do it, does God hold that against us?

Well, first things first, Romans 8:1 says, / / So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

God is not looking to punish you if you don’t fast. He’s looking to reward you when you do!

Here’s the thing:

There is no scripture that says fasting is in any way connected to your salvation.

There is no scripture that states you must fast.

However, like many things in the Christian life we are invited to live a certain way to obtain the life that Jesus is offering. It would be wonderful if in the moment that we accepted Christ as our Savior that everything changed, we were completely different, couldn’t sin, couldn’t fail, every time we prayed it came to pass immediately, every healing we prayed for happened, every donation we gave came back to us 100 fold return and all the promises of Scripture just flooded us non-stop. That would be a pretty interesting life, wouldn’t it?

But is that the reality we live in?

It’s not. And fasting, along with the other spiritual disciplines and practices, are physical actions that produce both spiritual and physical results in the life of the Christian as we follow the way of Jesus, for the glory of Jesus, and the Kingdom of Jesus.

So, why do we fast? For the sake of time, and the sake of being faithful to the season that we are in, today I am only going to give you the primary purpose of Christian fasting:

/ / To Offer Ourselves to Jesus

I mentioned earlier that the early church fasted on Wednesday and Friday, because Wednesday was the day Jesus was betrayed and Friday was the day he was crucified. And they would take this as an opportunity to step into a Participation with the Suffering of Christ, voluntarily. Not the suffering we all may go through in life by being humans in this earth, but reminding ourselves that Christ suffered, and we join with him to the grave, now dead to sin, and raised to life again in Him. It’s a powerful reminder.

/ / The primary reason to Fast is out of a burning hunger and desire for Jesus. To be with him, and to be transformed by the Spirit to be like him.

This is the ultimate and primarily foundational reason we fast.

Fasting becomes a way of connecting with a physical hunger that parallels our spiritual hunger. In that same way that our body yearns for food when we deprive it, we connect with the yearning, the desire and hunger for Jesus, who called himself the Bread of life.

When Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” He’s pointing to himself! He is the bread of life, He is the word of God.

But….Why do this? Honestly. Do we have to make ourselves physically hungry to cause spiritual hunger? I would suggest that spiritual hunger comes even harder than physical hunger. We identify with physical hunger more easily than spiritual hunger. I think we ignore spiritual hunger, and we give into every earthly desire much easier.

I would suggest to you this morning that most people don’t think about their desire and hunger for God until a crisis happens in their lives and they are brought to their knees in a cry, “I need you! Where are you?!?”

And we live in a world that tries to continually convince us that to fix most any problem, all you need to do is just buy more stuff. Fill the void. We call it comfort food for a reason. We call it retail therapy for a reason. We come home, after having a rough day and instead of falling on our knees before the King of the Universe we fall on the couch with a bag of chips or a pint of hagendaz…

And because we are so satiated with the things of this world, many don’t even have a hunger for God. Don’t feel bad, don’t feel shame. I live in the world you live in. We see it everyday. Life, for the most part, is pretty good. The notion that we can feel better by sitting down with a pizza and Netflix is an inviting. Temporary, maybe, but easy, that’s for sure.

But deep down I believe there’s an inkling of hunger in all of us, at the very least, a desire to WANT to want God, even if we don’t know how that works. It’s hard to define, to express, to tell you what it truly looks like to be “hungry for God”. Is it falling on our face at the altar on a Sunday morning? Is it weeping uncontrollably in desperation? Does it only happen when we feel at the end of ourselves?

John Mark says that / / Fasting is one of the best ways to wake up that spiritual hunger for God.

And these are not just empty words, but the tried, tested and true experience of the Christian church for 2000 years.

Fasting is a practice to offer our whole life, including our body, to God. We don’t just offer our heart, or our mind, but our body.

Jesus, when quoting the greatest commandment says it is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That is the whole person. Your mind and heart are not separate from your body.

Paul says in Romans 12:1, / / And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

It is giving God our body.

He writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, / / Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

Fasting calls our body into submission before the throne of God, as a living sacrifice, an offering to God, to honor him with our body.

/ / Fasting is opening the door as an invitation for God to move in your whole self: body, heart, mind and soul.

Fasting will put you in touch with your need for God. It will expose all the illusions that we want to believe that we’re strong enough, and powerful enough, and can do it all on our own. It will put us in touch with our weakness.

Paul says that at the end of our strength is the beginning of God’s grace.

/ / The primary reason we fast is not to get something from Jesus, but to give something to Jesus.

What Paul calls our acceptable worship.

So, what do we do from here? Because this, of course, is an invitation.

Now, let me clarify something.

Jesus himself through these words in Matthew 6 is saying he just assumes his followers will fast.

The early church fasted. the Apostles taught to fast twice a week. The early church fathers and mothers fasted. Great men and woman of faith for 2000 years have embraced this practice and discipline of fasting.

Yet there is no command in the New Testament that you MUST fast.

You literally get to choose whether or not you do this. It’s 100% up to you.

You are not commanded to fast. But, let me say this…Jesus fasted, and Jesus said, “Come follow me.” Why? Not for command, but by way of invitation, because Jesus knows something you might not know yet. Your heavenly Father wants to reward you.

Jesus knows the path that leads to life and is inviting us to walk on that path.

So, my invitation to you this week is to start. Yes, this week. Let’s not put it off any longer.

/ / Wednesday this week I am going to fast from sun up to sun down, meaning, I will have dinner on Tuesday evening, and I will have dinner on Wednesday evening, and during the day on Wednesday, in times where I might be normally grocery shopping, cooking, eating, or something involving food, I am going to give myself to prayer.

Let me tell you this. I’m not super excited about it. But I want to follow Jesus.

Yes, I’m standing here admitting to you that I do not regularly fast, but my desire, not because I want to be religious, or appear any sort of way, but because I want to truly follow Jesus with my whole life, not just my heart, not just my mind, but my whole life. And people who are smarter than me. People who have come before me. People who walked with Jesus and talked with Jesus and laid out the way of the Christian life for the early church, say that this is one of the best ways to worship and honor Jesus, and to command the body to a place of hunger for God, to step into something spiritual in our lives, by doing something seemingly very practical.

Sun up to Sun down, Wednesday, just water, and prayer.

And guess what. You might end up being cranky, hungry, hangry even. If you’re used to getting up and eating first thing in the morning. If you are prone to snacking. If you eat a high carb, or high sugar diet, you might feel the effect of not having that in your system, and that might even make you frustrated and irritable. You might find yourself tired, a bit lethargic.

And if you slip up, and start to eat - don’t just throw the towel in and say, “oh well, I’ll try next week.” If you decide to do this, I would suggest that you stick to it, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, put the food down and keep going.

And if you have a negative relationship with food. Or maybe you’re like me and you have a real serious problem with food. A disorder of sorts. This may be the week you decide it’s time to talk to someone about that. A therapist, a coach, your doctor, or a trusted friend. And maybe this is a time to open yourself up to healing in this area of your life.

And you might be thinking, “It’s just one day, not even one day… what’s so hard about that?” Yup. Sure, but let me tell you, the decisions we make to follow Jesus tend to get the biggest pushbacks from our flesh, the world and the devil. Remember those three things we mentioned last week as we talked about the last line of the prayer, “Deliver us from evil…”

So, if it’s a real issue for you, don’t feel bad if you feel like you can’t do it. This might be the time you begin a journey of healing that starts now. Don’t feel shame or feel like you have to do this. Don’t feel shame if you try and realize there’s some things you need to deal with mentally, emotionally, in the process. There’s a difference between something being difficult and something that you just need to hold off for a season while you deal with other things.

Now, if you are going to do this, and you’re not accustomed to doing it. Here’s the thing: / / Doing something with the right heart and right motive doesn’t mean that it is going to be easy. You can actually struggle through fasting and it still be worship towards God. In fact, I would suggest that if there is no struggle involved in it, then maybe it’s not really a sacrifice. If everything is easy, you can’t really call it a sacrifice, can you?

We don’t ask our kids to do something in the home as part of their chores or as part of their participation in being a family member and then require that they do it with a smile on their face while continually yelling, “I love you so much Father, thank you Father for giving me this work, Father, You are so great and I just love serving you.” No, of course not. But we know and we see that the work will be good for them, in way of teaching, health, mentality and humility. And for those reasons we allow them to struggle through things because we know it will be good for them.

Fasting isn’t the funnest topic. It’s not the funnest action. But let me tell you this, and I am honestly praying this for you as you decide whether or not you will join together as a community to do this: Like I said, I’m not necessarily super excited to not eat, but I have never wanted to fast more than I do right now. I have never wanted to position myself before God in this way as much as I do right now.

I honestly think there’s a grace to do something here. And that doesn’t mean it will be easy. But I know that it will be worth it.

/ / Final Slide