Matthew 6:16-18

Jesus is speaking on a theme. He tells us that it is important that we live by and from certain practices. We are called to give to the poor, we are called to pray to the Father, we are called to fast. Jesus gives us these three kinds of practices to show us, not just that we should do them, but that we should do them a certain way. Jesus shows us these examples of these practices of faith and that, as we work out these practices in our lives, we do them a certain way.

The way that we do them tells us who it is we find the most valuable. When we fast, as we look at today’s passage, we are not to do it for the sake of others but rather for the sake of the Father.

Because Christ is telling us that we don’t have to trust the reward of the immediate. But we can trust the voice of the Father. That we don’t have to trust the applause of the crowd, because the reward of the Father is better.

And that we don’t have to trust even what we think is most necessary in our lives. God is even more necessary.

Fasting revolves around that question. It is a central idea of faith. What happens when we give something up?

Will everything else be enough?

And the only way we can answer it is through looking at “who do we trust?”

Fasting will push through all the things that we think we have trusted to keep us up, and it will force us to ask the question who we really trust. Because who we trust will get the center stage of our lives.

whoever is in the center stage gets the trust . Whoever is in the middle of your life defines who you trust the most.

But it is difficult. It is a hard things to move out of the center. But it is hard to give that space up. We want to be in the middle. We don’t want to move. It’s comfortable, we have the best views.

This past Friday Sarah and I went to a concert. We went to see a band called 21 pilots. It was a 2 hour incredible show. There are two band members and throughout the whole concert they moved throughout the arena. They had different stages set up as a part of their set. They weren’t just performing in front. They would walk around, do stage dives. And at the very end, at the last song, they addressed the general admission, the pit. The people right in front of the stage, in the exact center of TD Garden. There was a giant spotlight in the center of the pit. And the lead singer addressed that group. And said, for our last song we need you to do something.

We need you to move out of that spotlight. He addressed the hundreds of people in that area and said they all had to take a few steps back in order to clear the area of this circle that was about 30 feet in diameter. And so everyone started to move. But they didn’t move far enough. They didn’t get out of the circle enough.

Now they knew the reason that he was asking them to move. He and his bandmate were going to do the last song from the middle of the pit. But first they had to bring equipment in and then they needed a way in.

And even though there needed to be enough space so that the band members could enter into their space, to be with them, they needed follow-up coaxing.

They didn’t move the circle far enough and he said again. Listen if we are going to do this next part we need the circle to be large enough to get equipment in. The whole crown waited another minute or two for this group to get their act together.

Here is what is phenomenal. The lead singer of the band that they had paid hundreds of dollars to see is literally saying, I want to be with you, but I need some room. I will enter in with you, but I need you to make some space.

And they had a hard time doing it. They needed further coaching and prodding to do it.

The King of the universe has announced, I am coming to be with you. I am coming amongst you. I am entering into your space.

But I need some room!

And we have a hard time.

Fasting is the proclamation that we are rushing out of the circle so God can rush in.

We’re gonna look at the idea at being off center this morning. We’re going to see that fasting takes us off center. And that is good. And that fasting makes God Central.

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.

Fasting Takes us out of the Center

Fasting is defined as the removing of a necessary object in our lives in order to focus ourselves on something else. In a spiritual sense, when we fast we are going without something necessary (usually food) in order to place our greater attention on God.

Fasting has been a central practice in the church for the last 2000 years. The early church fasted twice a week. The desert fathers fasted for days and weeks at a time. We have seen this through Christian history but there is spiritual value in it. When we participate in fasting, we say that the thing we are fasting from is (while important) is not the most important. Fasting is important because it is a says that some things are bigger than what we believe to be necessary things. And when we fast as a spiritual discipline, we say that God is the most important. The ultimate concern.

Fasting is giving up what we know to be necessary, like food, in order to see what is even more necessary than food, like God.

have to be careful with what we think is necessary. Because we’ve learned to think that everything that can be accumulated as necessary. And that’s why fasting is a difficult conversation.

So we see that fasting is hard but it reveals who we really trust. Who we really depend on. His mercy is enough. His grace allows us to draw a breath. His Kindness leads us back to Him. He sustains all things by His right hand. His justice still holds the world together. His holiness is worthy beyond our comprehension.

Christ is more than a meal, Christ is the entire harvest.

To fast is to see God as primary. And to do that means that we are no longer in the middle. It throws us off.

We don’t like being off center. It feels wrong, it feels off. It feels off balanced.

But sometimes being off balanced is the best thing we can do.

by being off-balance shows our need to find someone with greater balance

When we feel off center we want to do whatever we can to right ourselves. We want to feel upright and in control. That’s why fasting can be difficult. We feel out of control for a bit.

But being off center means that when we grasp something to stand upright again, we grab the hand of Christ. We see that He is not only central but capable. We can hold on and be held upright because when Christ is in the center He has perfect reflexes to hold and keep us upright.

When we lived in Oregon we visited some friends in Couer D Alene Idaho. It is a beautiful tourist town on a lake. The town winds around the banks of the lake and there is a great harbor area to walk on. We went for a walk on the docks to look at some of the boats and see the town a bit. Our kids were small, all in single digits. So we were walking on these docks, nothing but water to our left and right. We were holding the kids hands and one of my kids let go and walked ahead. She tripped and started to fall over into the water. Some kind of superhuman reflexes in me took over and I grabbed a hold of her jacket and pulled her up before she fell in. Just her leg got soaked. She fell off center and her dad caught her.

Fasting reminds us that we are at our best off center. Because Christ catches us.

Christians are perpetually offset. Jesus makes that clear in the first 10 or so versus of chapter 6 because he only talks about activities which place us off center.

the goal of Christianity is to be a decentered individual. . This is the call in fasting. It is the reminder. We don’t have to be ultimate. We have someone who has taken responsibility for us. We have someone we can trust. Someone who is better in the center anyhow.

We don’t do well in the center. We never have. Fasting is an agreement with Christ at center and the Christ follower off center.

Fasting Makes God Central

When Christ is in the center, we get a better sense of how things really are.

Christ is our better perspective.

When we are in the center, we often can’t see the full picture for what it is. It is always better to defer to the one who sees further and farther.

It’s not that we can’t see, it’s just often that we can’t see the full picture. Fasting is a reminder of our dependence on God who sees fully. We step out of the way and place God in the center of our lives. We can’t replace Him there. He is in the center. Always. We just have to see Him for the way that He is.

We often have an odd way of looking at things. Our perspectives are skewed.

We lived with a sense of forced perspective. This is where we see things as larger or smaller than they really are. The perspective that we live with though is naturally a forced perspective. We always make ourselves bigger than we are. We have a natural forced perspective that needs shifting. Our perspective is off. It often creates interesting angles.

You see this all the time in different ways. One way is when people use forced perspective to hold up, or lean against different monuments. One of the most famous is the tower of Pisa.

Show pictures.

But here is what it really looks like:

Show two pictures.

We have this perspective that we are holding everything up in our lives. But really it is a forced perspective.

We need to recognize that we are off center at best. And that is a good place to be. Because it recognizes God as central.

Let’s look at how we see Christ as central

Colossians 1:15–20 ESV

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

It is More than Enough that God is Central

The idea in understanding fasting is that when we fast we recognize that we belong to Christ and we are His. That there is One center and He is it.

So what do we do about this?

Christ is best in the center of our lives.

We are best when we are off center.

because when we are off center we understand Abraham kuypers statement as the center of our understanding.

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

Abraham Kuyper

Our lives in Christ are intended to reveal the God who is sovereign. They are intended to be the recipient of the God who cries out mine!

We recognize that when we fast. So the application is to fast.

Traditionally fasting is to abstain from food for a meal or a day or from sunup to sundown. Sometimes people fast for multiple days.

This has been a challenge to me as I haven’t fasted in awhile but I have done multiple fasts. I’ve fasted and prayed for each of my kids before they were born.

Maybe you’ve never fasted.

Throw yourself off Center

Throw yourself off center. Trust the perfect reflexes of God who is Center and Central.

When we feel off center it feels, well, off. But what If it is the most appropriate place for the christian

SO throw yourself off center.

Throw yourself off center by throwing what you think is necessary out of the center.

Fast for a meal this week.

Instead of eating, spend some time in the Scriptures. Spend some time praying.

Maybe take the money you would use for that meal and give it to food and friends, or abundant hope.

Or maybe you can’t fast food, that is difficult. Maybe fast coffee. Or maybe fast from political rhetoric. Take something you depend on and remove it for a season, day week or so. And replace that time with time in the Scriptures.

Christ will meet us in that place. He will hold us upright.He will enter into that circle. He is doing so with creation at this very point. He can do that with our lives. Proclaim Christ at the center. Where we recognize He is central and not us and not humans. He is the satisfaction of our loves not anything less.

this morning you’re feeling a little bit off-center or off-balance. We want to invite you into a life with Christ. Go to invite you to find the solid ground that is Jesus our Lord. So if you feel off-center already, but you don’t have a better Center who is Christ We want to invite you into that. Our leadership team will be up here after the song, we wanna ask you to come, we pray for you so that you can find the solid ground who is Christ in your life

Discussion Questions

1. **Fasting as a Spiritual Practice**: The sermon emphasizes that fasting helps shift our focus from what we consider necessary (like food) to what is truly necessary—God. How does fasting, or the act of giving something up, help reveal what or who we truly trust in our daily lives?

2. **Off-Center Living**: The idea of being "off-center" is presented as essential to a Christian life, where God, not ourselves, occupies the center. Why do you think it is difficult for people to step out of the center of their own lives? What can we learn from being "off-balance" spiritually?

3. **Forced Perspective**: The sermon discusses how we often live with a skewed, "forced perspective," seeing ourselves as more central than we truly are. How do you think this distorted perspective impacts our relationship with God and others, and how can fasting correct this?

4. **Trust in God’s Provision**: The sermon describes fasting as an act of trust in God’s provision, suggesting that “Christ is more than a meal, Christ is the entire harvest.” How does fasting challenge our reliance on material or temporary things, and what might it look like to trust God as the ultimate provider?

5. **Practical Application of Fasting**: The sermon calls for specific actions such as fasting from food, coffee, or even political rhetoric, and using that time for prayer and Scripture. What might be a practical step you can take to incorporate fasting into your spiritual life this week? How could you replace a “necessary” activity with time focused on God?