Misguided Motives - Part 3 - Fasting, Fortunes and Our Focus

Fasting — (Vs. 16-18)

A. The Act of Fasting

The act of Fasting, for anyone who isn’t familiar, I would dare say is almost a forgotten art for the Christian.

The act of Fasting simply means to go without food for a period of time.

In the Old Testament, you read more about the forgotten art of fasting than you do in the New Testament but Jesus Himself, if you will remember, fasted for 40 days and 40 nights as He endured temptations in the wilderness after being baptized.

And then in Acts 13:2 the Bible says...“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”

There’s even an instance in the New Testament where some disciples of John come to Jesus and ask him why they and the pharisees fast often but His disciples fasted not to which Jesus replied...

Matthew 9:15 KJV 1900

15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

From the studying I have done, there was only one day in the Old Testament that the Children of Israel were required to fast and that was the annual Day of Atonement.

Leviticus 16:29–31 KJV 1900

29 And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: 30 For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. 31 It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.

On this special day, the Children of Israel were to do no work at all and the Bible says they were to “afflict their souls”.

Most scholars interpret this phrase to mean that the people were to spend the day fasting, confessing their sin to God and praying for forgiveness.

Warren Wiersbe said — “On that day, God called His people to get serious about sin; the church needs to heed that call today.” — Bible Exposition Commentary

James 4:8–10 KJV 1900

8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

The act of fasting was for the wayward sinner and the saint alike. It was an act that was to be done in order to reshift our focus from the world back to God.

It is a way for the person who has strayed from God to get humble and remember who God is and what He has done for them. It is a way for them to see their sin for what it is and turn from it and turn to God.

Fasting shows the sincerity of your repentance toward your sin.

It is also a way for the saint to draw closer to God, to walk step in step with God, to humble themselves at the foot of the cross and bring the cares of this world to an almighty God who can do something about it!

The forgotten art of fasting needs to be rekindled among the Children of God.

If you notice here, Jesus doesn’t say, “if you fast”…He says, “when you fast.”

Fasting ought to be a part of our everyday lives.

Now, with that being said, there is nowhere I know of in the Bible where it says how often you should fast but simply that when we feel the need to get serious with God, fasting is certainly the way to show God we’re serious about the petition we’re bringing to Him.

It’s been said that the Pharisees fasted twice a week, on Monday's and Thursday’s, but as we are going to see here, the problem was that they were doing it for the wrong reasons which brings us to our next point...

B. The Attributes and Attitudes of Fasting

Notice what Jesus says here...

“Be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.”

When the Pharisees fasted, they did it for show. They did it to receive praise of men instead of doing it to give praise of God.

And because of these misguided motives behind fasting, Jesus calls them hypocrites!

He even takes it a step further later on in His ministry and at one point says this to the Pharisees in...

Matthew 23:27–28 KJV 1900

27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Their attributes and attitudes towards fasting and all of their activities for God were misguided.

If you will remember, in the beginning of this chapter, Jesus told them the same thing about their almsgiving and praying.

They were doing it for the wrong reasons. They were performing for the wrong crowd with the wrong outcome in mind and because of this, Jesus, three different times in the chapter, says to the crowd surrounding Him...

“Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”

Which leads us to the last point I want us to look at this morning on Fasting.

C. The Award of Fasting Appropriately

Jesus tells the crowd here, that if they allow misguided motives to become their ambition, they will be like the Pharisees and they shall have their reward.

Jesus said in...

Mark 8:36 KJV 1900

36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

The answer is nothing! The pharisees could gain the applause of all the men of the world but in the end, the applause of men could not gain them eternal life!

But…on the other hand, Jesus says here that the award for fasting appropriately is a reward from the Father.

And not just any award, but the Bible says that He shall reward the openly!

What that means is that if you fast appropriately, not to be seen of men but to be seen of God, then God will award you in such a way that will be seen of men!

Isn’t that just beautiful!

The Pharisees, in their misguided motives, fasted to be seen of men and Jesus said that’s all the reward they would ever get but when we fast in secret, our Father which sees in secret shall reward us in such a way that men will take notice anyway!

And guess what…the best part is…when we do it the right way....God’s way....we heap up for ourselves treasures in Heaven which leads us into our next section here on Fortunes in Verses 19-21.

Fortunes — (Vs. 19-21)

A. The Act of Laying up Treasures

The first thing I want to touch on here is The Act of Laying up Treasures and the reason I want to touch on this is because just as fasting is almost a forgotten art, so also, I feel like the act of laying up treasures is all but a lost art in many Churches.

What exactly does Jesus mean here when He says, “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven?”

He’s speaking of works for God.

Let me explain something to you very briefly…these Pharisees we’ve been covering for the last few months now, they get a really bad rap but if there’s one thing they couldn’t be dinged for it was their works.

They had works on top of works on top of works. The problem with the Pharisees was they were doing the works for the wrong reasons.

Now, fast forward to today and the majority of self professing Christians have no works whatsoever!

Listen, there has to be a happy medium and when a church and it’s members find that happy medium and set and sizzle in that medium, it will eventually become a body of believers on fire for God!

Listen friend, if God has saved your soul, then you have a job to do!

There is a big wide world outside those back doors that needs to hear about Jesus and you my friend are a chosen vessel carrying that something they need!

As a born again child of God, you have a responsibility to share the gift that’s been given to you!

In many Churches today, there are only a handful of people who get involved with the workings of the Church.

Listen, working for the Lord is not only sharing the gospel but it’s equally important to lend a helping hand to the Church in whatever capacity you can.

Maybe you have a special talent that is needed in the Church, if so, then get busy helping and putting that talent to use!

Now, some of you may be saying, “well Bro. Bobby I don’t have any special talents” to which I’m gonna reply B.O.L.O.G.N.A. BOLOGNA!

Listen, if God has called you into His ministry and saved your soul and made you His child, then dear friend He’s already given you a gift to use and He’s just waiting on you to put it into action!

Adrian Rogers used to say, “you weren’t called to sit, soak and sour but to serve!”

Dear friend, if you are a child of God, He’s called you to serve Him in some form, some fashion, some way, some how!

James said it best when he said...

James 2:20 KJV 1900

20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

James 2:26 KJV 1900

26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Vain man! The word vain means useless and as you all know, and I’ve said this many times, the reason I love the Book of James so much is because he didn’t hold anything back.

What I believe James was saying here was that if you call yourself a born again child of God then you will have some works to back it up!

Now, unlike the Pharisees, we aren’t working for the praise of men but the praise of God, if you’ve been born again, you ought to have some works to back up your claim for faith without works is dead!!!

Paul said this to the Church at Corinth...

1 Corinthians 3:6–15 (KJV 1900)

6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Paul says we are all to be laborers together. Then he says, “every man’s work will be made manifest.”

You see, there’s coming a day when every single one of us will give an account for what we have done for God.

Every mans work will be made manifest... (be made known, evident, visible, clearly seen).

What’s going to pop up on the screen of life when your works are made known?

Will there be anything?

What did you do for you Church?

Were you active in the Church?

Did you lend a helping hand every chance you got?

Did you participate in the Churches events?

Did you show up on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights and Wednesday nights to support your body of believers and your Pastor?

Did you try to share the good news of Jesus with others every chance you got or did you not share Him at all?

Listen, Jesus said to lay up treasures.

No if’s and’s or but’s about it. If you are a child of God, then you ought to be laying up some treasures....but equally as important as laying up treasures is WHERE you lay it up which is our next point.

B. The Area where Treasures are Laid up

Where does Jesus say not to lay it up? — Earth

Why? — It will do you no good when you leave this world. Here it will decay, it will rot, it can be stolen and you can’t take it with you when you leave, right?

So where does Jesus say we are to lay it up? — Heaven

Why? — Because it’ll be waiting on you when you get there. Because you won’t have to worry about it rotting or decaying; you don’t have to worry about someone breaking in and stealing it! It’s there and it’s safe and it’s eternal, Amen!

The Pharisees were stacking up their rewards here on earth, even as many people do even today, they stack up those treasures thinking they’re going to somehow take it with them or it’s going to change where they spend eternity when in reality, the best thing it can do for them when their gone is buy them a really nice grave stone.

This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through, my treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue.

Where are you laying up your treasure this morning?

The reason the act and the area of laying up treasure is so important is because they determine where you attention lies which leads us to our last point on Fortunes.

C. The Attention of Laying up Treasures

Look what Jesus says there in Verse 21.

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

When you’re working to lay up treasures here on earth, your focus will be on the things of this world.

When you’re working on laying up treasures in Heaven, your focus will be on the things of Heaven.

Now, I can speak from experience here, when you are focused on the things of God and not the things of the world, life tends to have so much more meaning.

My worries tend to be less, my future tends to look brighter, my fears are non existent, my joy is more abundant, my peace surpasses all understanding, my sleep is more deep, my love for my God is unfathomable, and my desire to please Him grows more and more each day!

That my friend is why where you lay up your treasures matter!

For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also!

Where is your heart this morning?

Where are your worried about laying up your treasures?

Which brings us to our last section here…Our Focus.

Focus — (Vs. 22-24)

Examples: Moses — Judas

Which master are you serving this morning?

Where does your focus lie?

Have your motives been misguided like the Pharisees?

Are you focusing more on the things of the world than on the things of God?

What are you doing for the Kingdom of God?