Sermon Tone Analysis

START – focus is on the “Why we need to fast.”

Because it is an act of Praise!! Acts and Old woman at temple.

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Turn in your Bibles this morning to if you will.

I want to read with you a passage that we dove into a few weeks ago, to set the stage for where we are going today.

(Read )

You may remember that not long ago I preached out of this Psalm, about

the power of praise as a weapon.

We see here in verse 6 that the praise that is in the mouth of Gods people is like that of a double-edged sword.

It is a tool that separates bone from sinew (), and in it is a tool that is of the Spirit, it is as the Word of God.

– praise began with – p.310 Tennent

Praise is a weapon that has helped me to overcome the dark times – the times I have been misguided – the times I have went left or right because of anger, or doubt, or fear.

It is praise that overcame the enemy, when I could not.

You see, praise is so powerful because it puts God in His proper place.

Praise lifts God above all things.

Praise exalts God.

And that praise causes us to see two things with a Clearer Vision:

1) That God IS God, and He is in control, all the time.

2) That we are not God, and thereby we must depend entirely upon Him for everything.

Throughout Scripture we can see how that Truth has helped Gods people for generation after generation – but for now, I want to settle in on where this brings us today – because we are going to a place that many of us have never been, because we have not understood it Biblically – and that ignorance has prevented us from believing that it was necessary.

So let me first begin to show the need of

WHY we must go to this place called fasting.

CS Lewis stated that man has “as much of God as he wants.”

What about you?

Do you have as much of God as you want?

Are you fulfilled each day by the time you spend in the Presence of God?

Are you grasping all of Gods Truth and overcoming every doubt and fear that you have?

Are you confident in your salvation and steadfast in a life of Holiness?

Are you pressing onward toward the goal – by His strength, and not your own?

Are you assured that Jesus has died for each and every sin that you ever committed, or will commit, and thereby live every moment of every day, resting in His everlasting arms?

Are you so absolutely certain of the grace of God, that every morning when you wake up you spend your first few minutes in awe of just how truly amazing His grace really is?

And do you spend your evening moments laying out your day before The Lord, and reflecting on the awesome power you have obtained as you sit in the quiet, and as you walk in a healthy fear His greatness?

Is the New Covenant that has been given for you by His Blood, and His Body, a wonder that blows your mind and challenges you to live an even greater life of love tomorrow?

So I ask, do you have all of God that you need?

OR,

Do you merely, have only enough of God, that you have all that you want?

Pause

Consider this if you will.

We live in a world that bombards us with advertising that tells us “Be all that YOU can be” or “Have it YOUR way” or “You deserve it – so go and get it now.”

We live in a day when any 12 year old can sing the jingle “It’s your money – and you need it now – call – (sing) JG Wentworth 877 (let audience finish) “cash now”.

But is it not the case, in light of all the “we can have what we want, when we want it, mantra” that we often find ourselves waking up and wishing we were someone else in someplace else?

Is it not true that our burdens override us, and our emotions run us from one point of exhaustion, to another point of exhaustion?

Is it not the case that it is only when we have come undone and find ourselves hanging on by a thread, that we fall to our faces before God and ask Him into the fight so that we can live our lives with some semblance of sanity?

And is it not the case that we do all of this because the flesh is not a pushover.

WE live in a life that could be described as semi-chaotic because our desires are not always to live for the Lord – but rather we live to meet our own needs, and our wants, in our own way.

(We call this idolatry in any other sermon!!!!!)

Pause

The will of man is a powerful thing – and if that will is not under submission to Christ – then it runs us up and down, and hither and tither, by every whim that hurts our feelings or challenges our own desire to be important.

Think about this:

Are these things not true of us?

And how then do we manage?

How do we console ourselves and live life to satisfy the flesh that wars against us?

I will give you the answer in 1 word – STUFF – (spell it) “S- T -U -F- F.” It is our things.

It is our entertainment.

It is our food.

It is our relationships that are done to serve ourselves – not to serve others.

IT IS OUR STUFF.

(again – idolatry in any other sermon)

We get just enough of God – and then we add all the other stuff that makes us feel as if we are satisfied. . . .

for the moment – until the next thing happens, and then we get just enough of God – only as much as we want – and then we get more stuff.

Pause

Three times in the New Testament we are told to look to the Old Testament and to learn from the examples that were set before us so that we will not give into temptation and fall.

But any survey of any one book in the Old Testament is proof that the people that God called out and set to be His own – lived their lives to have just enough of God as they wanted, and then set their sights to fulfill their desires by any means they felt necessary.

And they did it at a tremendous cost of life and livelihood.

(idolatry)

They were beaten into submission – they were killed in battle after battle – their sons and daughters were taken into slavery, and the peoples were driven into other lands, and their identities wiped away as they were coerced into assimilation of every other people around them.

And the tears that fell - were innumerable.

So as we come to this place called fasting, I suggest to you that all that has just been said, is why we need to go to this placed called fasting.

And I ask you to hang with me this morning as we go through this time of instruction – and to hear what the Bible says to us about why we need to fast.

There will be much more we will learn in the future – but I ask you to consider the Word of Truth regarding this practice, knowing full well that this is not a subject that has been given its due consideration – and I realize that this is a personal and unnerving subject – mainly because the teachers of Scripture have said far too little, for far too long (myself included) – and so our defenses go up – and our excuses run rampant.

So we can continue as we always have; with just enough of God.

In 1748, Gilbert Tennent spoke very clearly on this matter of our wrestling with the validity of fasting and he said, “Fasting is among the most useful means, for it has a noble tendency to keep the body in subjection to the mind.

But this duty is so contrary to people’s keen appetites that they can scarcely be brought to believe in it, and it is still more difficult for them to practice it . .

.” (Gilbert Tennent, 1748, found in Sanctify the Congregation by ROR, p.314).

In other words – people so much love the things they love – their food – their entertainment – their stuff – that the only thing they dislike more than hearing about fasting – is to actually fast.

Let me begin to address fasting by first defining or describing what it is, then explain what fasting does, and bring us back to addressing why we need to fast.

And finally, close with why this message has come at this time.

WHAT FASTING IS:

The Oxford dictionary defines fasting as “To abstain from food as a religious observance”.

But I want to share a small part of the best definition, slash description, that I have ever read.

It comes from a sermon delivered by Thomas Thacher in 1678.

Of fasting, Thacher said:

The very idea of a fast speaks of abstinence,( that is, to go without).

A fast is a time of extraordinary worship and seeking of Gods face which includes denial of self and the use of ordinary and even necessary things for a special season, and for a particular reason, as We solemnly proclaim that we seek mercy and grace from God in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins and sorrows . . .

and We solemnly engage and bind ourselves to reform the evil of our ways and to walk before God in new obedience according to His Word for all time to come.”

(Thacher, Thomas.

A fast of Gods choosing plainly opened, as found in Sanctify the congregation, by ROR p. 56).

There are two themes that you find in Scripture about fasting that Thacher brings to the forefront in his description.

And they are directly connected.

(one is self denial – the other is worship).

The first of those themes is that of self denial.

In the book of Leviticus, chapter 16, and 23, and in Numbers chapter 29, you will find what is known as “The Day of Atonement”.

We will go into this deeper at another time – but for now, we need to understand that this was the only fast required by God in the OT.

And this was the one day in the whole year that the priest would enter the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the sins of the people.

And it was on this day, that the people were told – “hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves”. . .

and they were instructed to do no work.

And again, immediately following, God repeats Himself and says to the people, “you must not do any work and you must deny yourselves, and anyone who does not follow this instruction is to be cut off from the people, and “I will destroy them” ().

The Hebrew for “deny yourself” means “to afflict one’s soul.”

It is the picture of a person who is recognizing how little they are apart from God.

It is the essence of being humbled in heart because I know that apart from the Lord and His work, and His grace, and His gift, I am, and I have, nothing.

Ultimately it is the picture of repentance.