Making Room
Christ in the Bible • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsWhat is fasting? It is taking your time and your desires and giving them over to the LORD
Notes
Transcript
Good morning. I would like to thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to teach today.
Could we open in a (another) word of prayer
PRAY
I want to open up with a question. I want to let you know there are wrong answers. But I will say there are many answers that are not wrong.
What specifically is a fast? Think purpose? Reasons? What you are fasting? How long?
Give me a couple of thoughts.
Now, those were all good opinions. I’ve got my own. But let’s read the passage and see what Jesus says on the subject.
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.
Jesus’s own words outline what a fast is supposed to look like. Now, it doesn’t specifically speak to what fasting is. It is food, or a lifestyle, what exactly are you giving up? Culturally it was food. Today, people may say things like I’m fasting from just donuts, or TV, or smoking. Today, we are just going to move forward with food as the standard. If you think giving up TV for a month is a form of fasting that’s between you and God, but for this message we’ll move forward with fasting from food being the standard. And by looking at out short passage today there is a big point to learn and I think beyond fasting this point is a good one to live by.
That point comes right from the verse
-Don’t look gloomy or disfigure your faces
Simply Put, don’t make a big deal about your fast. I’ve been around several people in a time of fasting and they may separate themselves from food a bit, but unless you are being super nosy, you won’t notice. A person fasting could come into the activity and loudly announce. I’m fasting, no one offer me food, because I’m honoring God with a painful stomach.
And yes that seems pretty straight forward, but there are a great deal of Christian’s who like attention. It’s almost as if they are human beings or something.
Anyone here like a little attention? A well done on a good job? Maybe not an attention seeker like this passage illustrates, but who doesn’t appreciate a “thank you” for a job well done?
Now, narrow the focus to fasting. What does fasting do? When you give up food for, let’s say three days. What are those three days going to do to your body? What are you going to feel?
If I’m going to have a medical procedure and they say I have to do a three day fast, you bet you’re going to know about it. I’m not going to want to do anything but rest, because I’m not taking in any nutrients or energy.
But if I’m going to fast for three days in order to deepen my relationship to God, you’re not going to know it by my lifestyle.
Open up to John 4:31-34
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
Can anyone tell me what Jesus was just doing before he said these things?
Jesus and his disciples were traveling through the area and he was tired. It was around noon and he was resting when the woman at the well came and chatted with him.
By the end of the conversation, the work he had done, sharing the gospel with her was all the food he needed. He was energized by focusing on God’s work.
So, apply that to fasting. When you stop eating and in turn change your focus on doing something for God, you are now being fed spiritually.
Now, we’re going to call this Making Room for God. He doesn’t need us to make room for him, but often times, in order to hear him or really benefit from him we have to move ourselves out of the way and let more of him in.
We can do that with fasting. In fact, several studies have shown that giving up food for a period of time, be it a day or longer, heightens your awareness in your senses. If you choose to fast, for the purpose of growing in your relationship with God, or in connection to spend extra time in prayer for a certain thing, then your body responds by allowing you to hear better what the Lord may say to you in this time.
All this is to point out that when you do fast, it’s not to make people notice you, but to make you notice God more.
Jesus even speaks to that in this passage. What ever your motivations are, you will get your result. You do something in order to get noticed. You’ll get noticed. I see people who never talk to certain people, they keep their distance, but when certain other people show up, then they are the life of the party, wanting to be seen and noticed for how “holy” they are.
Let’s turn over to Genesis 4 and look at an instance where two people had an opportunity to make room for God and how it turned out, then we’ll come back and finish the passage.
2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
This doesn’t seem to have much to do with fasting, but what I want to aim at today is the root of fasting, which is making room in your life for God. We can do that through fasting, sure, but there are other ways.
Who can tell me the difference of what is happening between Cain and Abel?
Good answers
Abel brought the very best of what he had.
Cain, over time, brought what was laying around, not the best.
So, break it down. If Abel gave up his VERY best, what was he doing?
He was making room for God and trusting God do supply him with what he needed.
Cain did not give his best. What was he doing?
He was putting on the show. Not trusting God for his needs.
This is why God favored Abel over Cain. And we know how this story plays out. In jealousy Cain kills Abel and thinks he can get away with it. He seems to think that God can’t see him when He’s not with him personally. This alludes to me another Christophany. I wonder if when God spoke to Cain, if he came bodily. Now, it doesn’t say so, but we can imply from the context. Cain lied to God about where his brother was, which leads me to believe that Cain may have believed if God wasn’t there bodily, then he wasn’t there. We know better.
Let’s go back to the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus gives some instructions for fasting. Who can tell me?
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.
The passage started out with the instructions, don’t disfigure your face, don’t look gloomy so as to bring attention to yourself.
We are in a period of Lent right now that is practiced by many Christian’s. If you have given something up for lent, I don’t need to know about it, that’s between you and God.
In many area’s of the world Muslim’s are practicing Ramadan. Which is a, to put it bluntly, a 40 day period of changing the time of day for your daily meals from day time to night time and calling it a fast and in addition, making a really big deal about the hardships of the fast.
Here, Jesus says that when you fast, don’t make yourself look different. Don’t bring attention to yourself.
A fast is between you and God. You are not fasting for me, or for your friends or family. You are fasting to the glory of God. Maybe you have a prayer and you decide to fast in order to dedicate more time to prayer, or just to listening. I don’t need to know.
The rest of the passage tells us what happens
Your fast is not to be seen by others, just the Father. And he will reward you.
Now there are two kinds of praise offered here. You can’t get both.
Which one is better. Everyone answer here.
Man’s praise, or God’s?
Good answer. Man’s praise is temporary. God’s is eternal.
Before we close up, I want to really explore the root of the matter here. I called this talk, Making Room, and there is a big reason for that.
No matter what we are doing, when you have given your life to Jesus, then you should always be on a path when Jesus is reflected more and you are reflected less.
John the Baptist said this clearly in John 3:30 when he said
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”
And there are different ways to do this.
Someone remind me what one must do to be saved: shout out the scripture if you know it.
31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
(or others)
Exactly. That’s it. Believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and he rose again on the 3rd day. Great.
If you have done that, accepted his gift of salvation, then you are going to heaven.
But that’s not all. Now that you are saved, there are still commands out there. They aren’t commands to save us, nor are they commands to keep us saved. But they are commands for the Christian. One’s we should obey, not because we gain glory in the work, but he gains glory.
Some of these things we are commanded are public.
Baptism - Jesus commanded his followers to be baptized. He didn’t command your parent’s to baptize you as a baby, he didn’t command you to be baptized to get saved. But he commanded you to be baptized after you are saved and in the presence of witnesses as a public declaration of you dying to sin and being raised again in his likeness. This is a public event to glorify God for his work in your life. Not your work for God.
That is a public display of your faith in Jesus. And people have asked me through the years. I’m a follower of Jesus, should I get baptized? YES! If you need to pray about it, go ahead, but you could also read Matthew 28:19
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Why wouldn’t you want to give God the glory of his work in your life?
And just to be clear. You do this as a response to your salvation, once. You don’t need to do it twice. But when you do, it needs to be your choice.
The other way to express your faith in God is to follow him in fasting.
In both verse 16 and 17 of Matthew 6 Jesus repeats a 3 word phrase in regards to fasting.
Anyone?
When you fast.
Not IF, WHEN.
I’ve met many believer's in my life. And I couldn’t say for certain if the vast majority have ever fasted before. That’s how it is supposed to be. It’s not my business. So, if you’ve never fasted in your life and you are convicted to do so after today, great. Don’t tell me about it, it’s between you and God and for his glory.
And the purpose for all these things, weather they are public displays of faith or private ones.
All of them are you becoming less and him becoming more. You are moving things out of your life to let him in more.
Able brought his very best to God so that more of God could be in his life. Cain pushed God out.
When you are baptized, you are publicly proclaiming that you have died to Christ and raised up covered in his blood. He has removed your sin and made room for his spirit in you and baptism is a public proclamation of that effect.
Fasting is an opportunity, to empty yourself out and let in more of God. Making room for him in you life.
In closing, I picked on fasting because that was our passage, I picked on baptism because it’s a public display whereas fasting is private. You can apply much more. Prayer, giving, healing, teaching, speaking, interpreting, loving, etc, etc, etc.
The whole point is make room for God and you will have treasure. What is that treasure? Well, Jim will tell you next week while Thomas and I are at Father Son camp.
Let’s pray
