New Year New You Week 2
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Last week, we looked at Paul and Silas being put in Jail. We also recognized that Paul penned his letter to the church in Philippi while he was in Jail.
It is our desire to follow the example of Paul as he follows Jesus. We want to be Christlike
Paul knew his identity
He was a slave of Christ Jesus
He was concerned about others
He was Jesus focused
He said take on the attitude of Christ Jesus who humbled himself.
What if scripture offered us a tool to help accomplish these things?
I believe scripture does offer us a tool and in the Christian walk is a highly under utilized tool that could help us understand our identity, be concerned about others, be Jesus focused and take on the attitude of Christ Jesus.
16 “Whenever you fast, don’t be sad-faced like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so their fasting is obvious to people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward!
17 But when you fast, put oil on your head, and wash your face,
18 so that you don’t show your fasting to people but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew
Jesus says whenever you fast
It is assumed that you fast
This is no longer a common practice with the majority of professing Christians
Jesus says whenever you fast. He is not saying if you fast or if you want to fast, Jesus is saying when you fast.
What does fasting do?
Fast, Fasting. Eating sparingly or abstaining from food altogether, either from necessity or desire. In medical terms, fasting is the detoxification of the body through the restriction of food.
Spiritual fasting entails setting aside activities as well as reducing the intake of food and replacing these activities with the exercise of prayer and preoccupation with spiritual concerns.
Bass, C. B. (1988). Fast, Fasting. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 780). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
Two scriptures that really influenced my life to begin fasting was.
24 Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize.
25 Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. However, they do it to receive a crown that will fade away, but we a crown that will never fade away.
26 Therefore I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air.
27 Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
1 Corinthians
and
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galatians
What does fasting do?
What does fasting do?
What does fasting do?
Fasting teaches you your identity
Fasting teaches you your identity
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.
2 After He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry.
3 Then the tempter approached Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 But He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Matthew 4:1
Jesus knew he was the son of God and did not need Satan’s stamp of approval to be the Son of God.
Fasting teaches you that you are not living by bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Fasting allows you to see that life is more than food.
During a fast, you are praying this and thinking through this that God I am yours and I don’t live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Fasting teaches you your identity in Christ
Fasting brings humility
Fasting brings humility
13 Yet when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, and my prayer was genuine.
21 I proclaimed a fast by the Ahava River, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us, our children, and all our possessions.
22 I did this because I was ashamed to ask the king for infantry and cavalry to protect us from enemies during the journey, since we had told him, “The hand of our God is gracious to all who seek Him, but His great anger is against all who abandon Him.”
23 So we fasted and pleaded with our God about this, and He granted our request.
Ezra 8:21-
Scripture says to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus.
Fasting is denying yourself of food. It is a humbling of yourself. Thinking of Jesus and others rather than constantly feeding your need and desires.
Struggling with selfishness then I encourage a Biblical fast to help with this.
If you don’t control your hangry emotions while you are fasting then you will miss Jesus in the middle of the fast. This will teach you to control the hangry inside of you.
Fasting produces humility
Fasting causes you to be Jesus focused
Fasting causes you to be Jesus focused
Matthew 6:16-
16 “Whenever you fast, don’t be sad-faced like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so their fasting is obvious to people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward!
17 But when you fast, put oil on your head, and wash your face,
18 so that you don’t show your fasting to people but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
They were fasting for the wrong reasons. They were walking around with sad faces and hoping to get other people to notice them.
5 “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward!
Matthew 6:5
You fast so that others notice what is that?
Selfishness and the very act of fasting is to deny self
He says you fast to get noticed then that is your reward that you are noticed.
4 Then the word of the Lord of Hosts came to me:
5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these 70 years, did you really fast for Me?
6 When you eat and drink, don’t you eat and drink simply for yourselves?
Zechariah 7:
They were fasting for the wrong reason
Fasting is the act of denying yourself to focus on Jesus. If you fast so that others see you fast for the wrong reason
Fasting is focusing on Jesus. Anytime the belly aches or the hand reaches for food, I pray Jesus man does not live by bread alone but by every Word of God.
During lunch hour or time to eat you set that time aside to focus and worship on Jesus.
36 There was also a prophetess, Anna, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well along in years, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,
37 and was a widow for 84 years. She did not leave the temple complex, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers.
38 At that very moment, she came up and began to thank God and to speak about Him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
Luke 2:
Fasting can by a joyous time and not a somber day. You can worship during fasting. During lunch you deny yourself physical food and seek to fill up on Spiritual food.
Fasting teaches self-control
2 As they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called them to.”
They were worship the Lord and fasting and the Holy Spirit speaks.
Fasting Causes you to be Jesus Focused
Fasting teaches self-control
Fasting teaches self-control
1 Corinthians 9:
27 Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galtians
It is amazing when you decide to fast how often your hand reaches for food.
When the hand reaches out, it is then that you discipline your body and bring it under strict control.
From mints to chocolate to crackers to others offering snacks to you, fasting teaches you to bring your body under strict control.
It is amazing that if you can gain control over your body for food how many other things in your life you can see that you have control over.
You start to gain control of your thoughts rather than your thoughts controlling you. You start to become conscience of your speech and the things you let come out of your mouth.
1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: During the month of Chislev in the twentieth year, when I was in the fortress city of Susa,
2 Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived with men from Judah, and I questioned them about Jerusalem and the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile.
3 They said to me, “The remnant in the province, who survived the exile, are in great trouble and disgrace. Jerusalem’s wall has been broken down, and its gates have been burned down.”
4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Fasting Teaches you your identity
Fasting Brings Humility
Fasting Causes you to be Jesus Focused
Fasting Teaches Self-Control
There is so much more that fasting does and this is not an all inclusive list.
If I was to take two people up on stage and tell them that I have a $20.00 bill back in the sound room on the shelf there for them. I told one person that you have to go out the side door around to the front and then come in and the other person can go straight back there and I said who would win. The person who went straight there.
We want to be like Paul
Paul knew his identity
He was a slave of Christ Jesus
He was concerned about others
He was Jesus focused
He said take on the attitude of Christ Jesus who humbled himself.
This morning scripture has given us a tool to get there quicker. Fasting is a tool that will cause us to know our identity, be concerned about others or humble ourselves, stay Jesus focused and have the attitude of Christ Jesus so why don’t we use this tool more often?