Why Should You Fast?

QUESTIONS FOR QUESTION SHEET

Have you ever fasted before?

If so, what did you receive as a result of your fast?

What in your life right now do you need to fast over?

Welcome to CCC both here in person and online. What a blessing to have each and every one of you here with us this morning. It is a blessing to see you worship and honor and put God first here on this Sunday morning.

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Introduction

We spent the last 3 weeks looking at Matthew 6:14-15 and forgiveness. I pray that was something that God spoke to you through and more importantly that your responded accordingly.

This morning we are moving on in Matthew 6 to verses 16-18

“Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

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As with forgiveness the truth here in Matthew is very important and I felt God asking me does everyone who will hear this message know what fasting is?

To truly understand this passage and truth you must understand fasting. That is where we will start.

Now I will say this before we get going, this is NOT going to be an in depth sermon on fasting. I heard a sermon on fasting once that I thought was really good and it was close to an hour just on fasting.

We are not going to go that in depth but I do want to try and paint the picture of fasting in a manner where you will truly understand what fasting is, what purpose it serves, and how to do it Biblically before we tackle the truth being discussed here in Matthew 6:16-18

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The Biblical Dictionary definition of fasting is

The practice of abstaining from food (and probably drink). This could be done as an expression of remorse for wrongdoing, as an expression of mourning for a loss, or as a spiritual discipline meant to help one focus on spiritual matters

I love Dr. Tony Evans’ definition of fasting,

“The denial of the flesh to gain a response from the Spirit”

That is a great definition of fasting. When we fast as a Christian we are denying ourselves of something physical to spend that time in prayer seeking the Spiritual…we are seeking God for a very specific reason.

You all know me…I wanted to find the exact verse where God commands us to fast. Well fasting is a little more complex than that. To my knowledge there is no thou shalt fast verse like thou shalt not kill.

God talks a lot about fasting, some we will look at this morning as we dive into fasting.

Fasting is something that has been around from Old Testament times to Jesus and to us today. It is a discipline that many have never truly done. It is something that has been lost because like many things it is difficult so our flesh likes to make up excuses like that is old testament stuff we don’t need to do that today.

I pray after today that fasting is a regular part of your walk with Christ because it should be.

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There are many reasons to fast the most important is because of your heart. There is something going on in your life,

a situation,

a stronghold sin you need delivered from,

a person you are struggling to deal with,

something requiring God’s wisdom,

seeking what direction God wants you to go

and because of those things you are truly seeking God you are wanting your voice to be heard.

You are committed to seeking God knowing you will find him when you seek Him.

When we truly fast for the right reasons with the right heart we are acknowledging that there is much more to us than just physical beings, we are acknowledging that we are spiritual beings

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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Today we hear all the time, I have to keep my mind, body and Spirit in check and following God. You got it wrong....look here at the wording used, spirit, soul and body

This is much more than semantics, or arguing over words. The order is so important. Let’s look at each of these things.

Spirit is how you communicate with God

Soul is how you communicate with yourself

Body is how you communicate with your environment your 5 senses

If the Spirit isn’t first you will always be wrong.

If you seek to communicate with yourself or the environment looking for an answer that only God can provide how in the world would you think that any answer you find would be a good answer.

But isn’t that what we do.

We turn to our experiences,

We turn to our worldly knowledge,

We turn to our environment, something we have read or seen or heard.

We turn to a person here on this earth instead of turning to God.

So many of us have God on a 911 basis,

we only go to Him when we have nothing else,

we only go to Him when we should be going to Him first before anything else.

If we understand verses like this one we will always turn to the Spirit and God first!

Another purpose for fasting is it

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Our hearts should always be humble. The only good in us is Jesus.

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone.”

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There is no on good except God. The only good is us is Jesus. Who are we to think that we are good or that our actions would result in something good happening.

When we humble ourselves and fast we are saying God I have no idea what I am supposed to do.

I have no idea how I am supposed to handle this situation.

I have no idea how to deal with that person.

I have no idea how to forgive them.

I desperately want to find the door you are opening in my life.

It requires a humble heart to fast properly. One thing I have learned about fasting is your flesh hates it, or at least mine does. I struggle to go a few hours without eating let alone a few days.

I have fasted out of a humble heart and it was the most wonderful, amazing experience of my life. It grew me so close to God and softened my heart in a way that I had never experienced before.

I have also fasted out of obligation and flesh and it was one of the worst experiences in my life. It was painful, it was long, I was grouchy. It was just a horrible experience.

Both of these fasts were for good things, Godly things but the difference was the humbleness of my heart. The first was wonderful and brought me closer to God. It was painful, going without food for 3 days hurts, your body doesn’t like it at all. From a discomfort level it was the same in both fasts however in the first fast I was focused on God, when those pains and discomforts came I turned to God. I prayed. I read HIs word. I gave it to Him.

In the second when those pains and discomforts came I tried to defeat them myself and focused on them, only making them worse.

When yout focus is on the physical, the pain, the discomfort, the growls of your stomach in this case, those things get worse and worse but when your focus is on Jesus and you truly give those things to Him, He is enough! Those things fade away in the light of His glory and love and mercy and grace!!!!!!

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I want to share an illustration with you. I first heard this from Dr. Evans in one of his sermons.

Once upon a time there where two lumberjacks at odds over who chopped more wood. So one day, they decided to hold a competition to determine the winner. The rules were simple—whoever produce the most wood in a day wins.

So the next day morning, both of them took up their positions in the forest and started chopping away in their fastest possible speed.

This lasted for an hour before Peter suddenly stopped. When John realized that there was no chopping sound from his opponent’s side, he thought: “Ah Ha! He must be tired already!” And he continued to cut down his trees with double the pace.

A quarter of an hour passed, and John heard his opponent chopping again. So both of them carried on almost in sync. John was starting to feel weary when the chopping from Peter stopped once again. Feeling motivated and smelling victory close by, John continued on, with a smile on his face.

This went on the whole day. Every hour, Peter would stop chopping for fifteen minutes while John kept going relentlessly. So when the competition ended, John was absolutely confident that he would take the triumph.

But to John’s astonishment, Peter had actually cut down more wood.

How did this even happen?

“How could you have chopped down more trees than me?

I heard you stop working every hour for fifteen minutes!”, exclaimed John.

Peter replied, “Well, it’s really simple. Every time I stopped work, while you were still chopping down trees, I was sharpening my axe.”

The world throws everything it can at you to dull our axe.

You keep fighting.

You keep battling.

You think you are doing what God calls you to do but in reality you are losing because you have a dull axe.

This may be the case in your marriage.

You keep trying to do things right.

You keep trying to please your spouse.

You keep trying to be the best you can be but it always seems to come up short.....maybe your axe is dull.

Maybe you are struggling with addiction.

Again you fight and fight.

You really do want to be clean.

You really do want to get your family back.

You really do want to hold a job and be a productive member of society.

You want to be better but you keep on using.....maybe your axe is dull.

Maybe you are struggling in your ministry.

You want people to know Jesus.

You want people to come to church.

You want people to be in right standing with God but despite all you are doing you are seeing no results…maybe your axe is dull

You see fasting sharpens your axe because you are inviting God in to fight for you, to do the work, to bring results.

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“For my part, brothers and sisters, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, since you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, because you are still worldly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not worldly and behaving like mere humans? For whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not acting like mere humans?”

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Paul is talking to the Christians at Corinth but also to us. They were so divided over people and things that they missed the point.

I want you to get the point of this scripture. He is talking to Christians but Christians who have never moved off of the milk of the bible....the Gospel.

You see someone is on milk by their fruit, is it worldly or Spiritual?

“you are still not ready, because you are still worldly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not worldly and behaving like mere humans?”

Church this is serious. If you are a Christian you are a new creature. Get into God’s Word and get out of the way and let it change you into that new creature. That is the only way! Jesus work on the cross opens the door and invites you in, when you accept Jesus you enter the door and family of God but some of you have been standing in the foyer for YEARS!!!!!!! There is a whole mansion to explore and get to know and you are standing in the foyer, holding your coat, waiting for someone to lead you.

He already has, Get into the Word of God. It is not your Sunday School teachers responsibility to grow you. It is not your leadership team’s responsibility to grow you. It is not my responsibility to grow you. You must seek to move from milk to meat.

You may be so focused on the circumstance or situation or mountain or hurt or whatever it is that you are missing the point.

Fasting allows you to slow down and get God’s perspective which moves you from milk towards meat.

“We have a great deal to say about this, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become too lazy to understand. Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.”

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Church one of the saddest parts of ministry for me, the saddest is the fact that people chose to die and go to hell, the other very sad thing is when I meet a person who is so proud of the fact that they are a Christian and have attended church for x amount of years and you begin to talk about the Word of God and all you hear is milk. They have never moved past milk. They are missing out on so much of God. It breaks my heart.

Fasting helps move us from being self focused or worldly focused or so immature that we are not growing in Christ. Fasting is one way God grows us because we are again saying that it has nothing to do with us and everything to do with God. More of Him and less of us.

Fasting says I deny me to find you God!

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The main thing to remember about fasting is it is a heart issue and it must always be accompanied by prayer. You can pray without fasting but you cannot fast without prayer.

“Even now— this is the Lord’s declaration— turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God. For he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and he relents from sending disaster. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, so you can offer a grain offering and a drink offering to the Lord your God.”

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Turn to me with all your heart. Fasting is a heart issue. When you fast and pray you are seeking God with your whole heart. You are clearing away you and replacing it with God.

The key is to stay focused on what you are fasting about and be in constant prayer about that.

There are several ways to fast, in fact there is no one real way to fast. Here are some biblical examples of fasting

The regular fast. This is fasting from all food and drink, except water. We see Jesus do this type of fast in

“After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”

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40 days is a long time and in fact it would only be possible through the Holy Spirit.

However for shorter periods of time this would be fine.

Again more about the heart then not eating.

There is a partial fast

“I didn’t eat any rich food, no meat or wine entered my mouth, and I didn’t put any oil on my body until the three weeks were over.”

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Here Daniel didn’t eat certain types of food for a set period of time.

Partial fasts work great for people on medicine or have a condition that would put them in danger if they fasted completely.

One could give up one meal a day for a certain number of days.

Or fast from from dinner to dinner, eat dinner tonight and then do not eat again until dinner the next night.

Maybe it is best to give up lunch.

Again this is more about the heart then what you give up.

If you never eat breakfast and you fast from breakfast that is not the heart that God calls us to in fasting.

Partial fast could also include things like tv, phones, facebook, social media etc.

Here is the key.

What you give up is not nearly as important as your heart.

Also giving something up and not replacing the time you would have been doing that with prayer is also not what God is asking for.

When you are fasting you should be in prayer during the time that you would be doing that, eating, tv, etc.

If you are fasting from food every time your stomach growls pray.

The heart of fasting is seeking God in a spiritual way by giving up something physical.

You are acknowledging that you are a spiritual being in need of spiritual guidance.

I pray that gives you a quick and better understanding of fasting.

Before we move on to today’s passage let me say/challenge you with this.......What do you need to be fasting for right now?

“Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

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Now that we understand fasting this passage makes a whole lot more sense doesn’t it?

Jesus is saying here if you are fasting for men’s approval that is all you will get. You will not connect with God. You will not connect with your Spiritual being. You will get what you get on earth and that is it.

No one should know you are fasting.

Your mood shouldn’t change.

Your attitude shouldn’t change.

No one but you and God should know about your fast because of your actions.

Look at the examples Jesus uses here, don’t be gloomy.....don’t be all sad and down and depressed when you fast.

Don’t make your face unattractive…the KJV says they disfigure their faces…frowning....sad faces…etc

No Jesus says make it look like everything is normal and the same. Don’t make your fasting obvious to others.

Now I will say if you are married you may have to let your spouse in on the situation as they may be offended if you just don’t eat dinner for a few days. That, however should be the only way they know.

Look at the last bit of this passage, your Father who is secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

God knows your heart.

God knows you are fasting.

God knows you are seeking.

God knows you are solely relying upon Him when you fast.

He will also reward you.

What does that reward look like? It depends on each person.

That reward may be walking away from alcoholism or drug addiction.

That reward may be a saved marriage.

That reward may be your children or loved ones or friends or co-workers being saved.

That reward may just be a closer relationship with Jesus

Before Men’s Encounter all the servers join together on a three day fast the week prior to Encounter seeking God to move in the hearts of those who are attending and if someone is supposed to attend but hasn’t yet signed up that God would move and make that happen.

The reward for that fast is what God does at Encounter. I have yet been to an Encounter and I have been to probably close to 15 or 20 of them. I have yet been to one where I did not see God move in the lives of men and see men changed for eternity because of their Encounter with Jesus.

The reward is never about you but always about God and His Will. That is really what fasting is all about…

seeking the will of God.

Seeking the heart of God.

Seeking God in your life.

I want to challenge you. If you have never fasted before start. Maybe it is a meal a day for 3 or 4 days.

Maybe it is giving up facebook for 3 or 4 days or more

Maybe it is doing a three day fast with no food and only water

God is laying something on your heart right now, whatever that is give it to Him. If He is calling you to fast do it.

make sure you are focusing on God and whatever it is your are fasting about but do it.

Get your heart right and go for it.

Maybe you have nothing in your life right now to fast about right now....fast about the ministries here at CCC.

Fast asking God to show us His plan for our youth and the youth of this community.

Fast for the leadership team to be seeking God’s direction as we lead this body.

Fast for the baptistry to be full because people are coming and hearing the Gospel and accepting Jesus.

Fast that God brings us more musicians to continue to minister to people through worship.

Fast for me, that I as your Pastor I will seek God and seek the will of God and be able to do all He has called me to do!

I pray that everyone here and anyone hearing this message will humble themselves and fast and pray this week. What a difference that will make.

If you have never accepted Jesus today is the day. Come.

If you need prayer or need to give something to God come. Maybe you feel called to join our congregation, come.

Whatever God is laying on your heart Respond and come.

Why Should You Fast?

Matthew 6:16-18

What is fasting?

What is the purpose of fasting?

I Thessalonians 5:23

Humbles you before God

Luke 18:19

Fasting sharpens you and your relationship with God

Fasting helps you move from milk to meat

I Corinthians 3:1-4

Hebrews 5:11-14

How to fast

Joel 2:12-14

Matthew 4:2

Daniel 10:3

Matthew 6:16-18