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Intro:
A few weeks ago, I introduced [Vision365].
God is calling us to ask ourselves the same four questions every day:
Have I prayed today?
Have I read my Bible today?
Do I need to fast today?
Have I lived for Jesus today?
From 1857 to and 1947, India was a part of the British Empire.
Meaning, Great Britain controlled the country.
The king and queen were the emperor and empress of the nation.
Eventually, many Indian people desired freedom.
They wanted wanted home rule, to have their own elected officials, free from any other nation’s influence.
When a revolution is on the rise, many people want to take up arms and start a war.
That was not the case for Mahatma Ghandi.
Between 1913 to 1948 he went on seventeen different hunger strikes, ranging from three to twenty-one days.
He abstained from food.
Some might call this fasting, but he did not sacrifice for spiritual reasons, but for political and social reasons.
He is one a many political revolutionaries who have “fasted” or went on a hunger strike for a movement.
Their names are not as important, instead, I want us to see why they went without food.
They will fast to attempt change political, social, economic, or environmental policies.
Often, the media will celebrate those who make their protest by refusing to eat.
They will assert their wants by making a statement.
We MUST be careful not to view fasting from a modern perspective.
In Scripture, fasting, carries a different meaning.
Fasting is NOT about asserting OUR will, but about opening ourselves to God’s work.
We are not strangers to fasting in our church.
Since 2016, we have had a corporate twenty-one day fast every January.
For seven years, we have sacrificed something for the Lord.
Fasting is an important part of the Christian life.
Remember Jesus’s words in Matthew 6:
I always like to point out that Jesus never said, IF you pray or IF you fast, but WHEN.
Coupling fasting with prayer produces supernatural results.
Fasting was a part of the lifestyle of both the Old Testament and New Testament believer.
People knew that they should WANT to fast.
As I have mentioned though, these messages on prayer, reading our bible, fasting, and living for Jesus are not on what WE get out of these disciplines.
Instead, why does GOD want us to pray, read, fast, and live?
How does OUR fasting benefit God?
There are moments in life when God wants to bless, touch, inspire, heal, reveal, or show Himself to us.
Fasting is a way of removing distractions and becoming intentional on hearing from God.
In our text we read the words of the Prophet Zechariah.
Zechariah and the Prophet Haggai had an important ministry assignment.
They spoke to God’s people after they endured seventy years of exile.
The Lord allowed them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple and resume their worship to Him.
Upon coming home, many of the people began to reevaluate what they do for God.
Some started to wonder, is it really important to fast?
Every summer for seventy years we fasted, do we need to continue that?
Why did they ask this?
They wanted a pat on the back.
I can picture it my head.
Some people from Bethel travel ten miles south to Jerusalem to meet with the priests.
They explain, we have been diligent to fast, all these many years we have dedicated an entire month to the Lord, should we continue this dedicated practice.
Expecting accolades and appreciation, I would say they were surprised at how God responded.
He asked, when you fasted, was it even for me?
Didn’t you do it for yourself?
And when we worship me and celebrate the feasts, don’t you do that for yourselves?
Shouldn’t you do what the prophets spoke?
I want to point out something about dedicating EVERY DAY to God.
This is not a legalistic quest.
We are not trying to prove something or please God.
Praying, reading, fasting, and living for God are doorways to know the Lord more.
We do not do these things for US, but we do them to make space for God to speak to us.
Many in Zechariah’s audience fasted, but they did for themselves, not for God.
Let’s take the word God spoke and look back at what the prophets have to say about fasting.
Turn to Isaiah 58, and we will see three facts about fasting, [The Wrong Way to Fast], [The Right Way to Fast], [The Results When We Fast].
Let’s begin
1.
The Wrong Way to Fast
Prophets have the responsibility to speak for God.
Sometimes God compliments people, other times He brings correction.
In this instance, the Prophet Isaiah brings correction.
God tells Isaiah, SHOUT with a loud voice and get my people’s attention.
Clearly God had something He wanted them to know.
What was God’s message?
The nation had failed.
They lived a wicked and godless life, but loved to parade around as though they were Godly people.
The fulfilled their religious duties, but their heart was not there.
They went to the Temple to “seek” Him
They acted like a righteous nation
And they even fasted
But they complained to God, we have fasted for you, why aren’t you impressed?
We have been hard on ourselves and it doesn’t seem like you even notice.
They people lived in hypocrisy.
They ignored their sinfulness assuming that their religious rituals would impress God.
The Lord spoke through the prophets more than once:
The fact was, God did notice.
When they fasted:
they exploited and oppressed their workers
they continued to fight and quarrel with each other
they indulged in wickedness
God noticed, He paid attention.
So much so, He asked them a question.
Isaiah 58:5
Is this really the type of fasting I want?
No way, this is the wrong was to fast.
Can you really consider it fasting when there is no sincere desire to draw closer to Me?
I thoroughly believe in fasting and make it a regular practice in my life.
But we have to make sure when we fast we do it with the right motivation.
Fasting is not to impress God or others.
He is not impressed by giving up something for twenty-one days or for twenty-one hours.
God looks at the heart.
Why do we fast?
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