The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E38 - Fasting

Episode Date: June 8, 2020

Hey, church family. It is time for Devo. If you got your Bible, we're going to be in Matthew Chapter 6. If you tuned in this last weekend, you know, well, you know that we've been in this teaching series called Best Sermon Ever. We're just going verse by verse through the sermon on the Mount taught by Jesus, the greatest preacher ever. This last weekend, we were going to be in Matthew 6, verses 16 through 18. And, you know, we chased some things. up. I invited my friend Pastor Cam Triggs from Grace Alib to come in, and he did an incredible job of opening God's word, looking at what Nehemiah's response was to his city that was on fire, and what our response as Jesus followers should be to the cities that are on fire in our nation.

So if you didn't get an opportunity to see that sermon, please, you can just go back on our website, and you can watch that. And if you did see it, already, you know that we called our church to fast. So if you're watching this Monday night, the fast is over or almost over. And if you're watching this Tuesday morning, then you fasted yesterday. And so I said that I would unpack a little bit about why, as people of God, why do we fast, what are we to learn from fasting? What does fasting do? And so Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 16. Now you'll remember if you've been paying attention, and I know that you have, that all of Jesus's teaching on prayer and giving and fasting, we're all under the banner of chapter 6,

verse 1, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order that you may be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven. In other words, there is a way of practicing spiritual discipline like the three that he picks are giving, praying, and fasting. There are a way in doing these things that are hypocritical and showy, and the only reward you get is that people see you and they think you're awesome. Then there's another way of doing it that is deep down in the heart and you are doing this as to be viewed by God who sees what you do in secret,

and there's a reward that you get. And the reward, the God reward is that you get God. You get an audience with him. So with that in mind, he says this, and when you fast, not if you fast, but when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces

that their fasting may be seen by others, truly I say to you, they have received their reward. Now, just real quick, fasting basically is just to deny yourself, primarily of food is typically what a fast is today. And when the Bible talks about fasting, that is what it's talking about. You would decide a certain amount of time that you were just going to abstain from eating food. And there are a group of people, there are a group of religious people, and when they do this, and if you've ever fasted, which I'm sure you've had, you know, it's not, it doesn't make you feel great. It makes you feel pretty terrible. And so what they would do is they would put on display their terrible feelings and they would

contort their face and they would make sure that every single person knew that they were fasting so that everybody would see their fasting and be like, now that is a super spiritual person. And he says, all right, if you do that, truly I say to you, those kind of people, they have received their reward and their only reward is that other people think that they are spiritual. but when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face, that your father may not, excuse me, that your fasting may not be seen by others,

but by your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you. In other words, the whole point of giving, the whole point of praying, and the whole point of fasting is to not make much of you, is to make much of him. All right. So Jesus says, don't be a hypocrite. But in essence, here, he says, except when you fast, you kind of want to act like you don't look like you're fasting because you don't want to make much of you.

So fasting is essentially this. It's taking some physical thing that we do, primarily food in the Bible, but these days we kind of expand this. You could do a social media fast. You could do a news fast. You could do electronics fast, whatever it is. But it's primarily, we talk about fasting. We're talking about food. And you tell your flesh no, so that you make room to tell Jesus yes. That's primarily what fasting is.

Fasting is you look at your flesh that tells you I want to eat. And here's the crazy thing about fasting, at least in my experience. I grew up Southern Baptist. We never really fasted, but so so it wasn't until we started 1122 that as a church I became a part of like corporate fast as a church and it's crazy there are some days where I have like an accident on fast you ever do

that you just get up and you get so busy it's like four o'clock in the afternoon and you're like you know what I haven't eaten yet I do that and it's crazy when I do that I don't feel like I'm starving I don't feel like my stomach is aching it's crazy but on the days when I determine that I am going to fast on purpose. I wake up pretty early in the morning, and by 7.30, I feel like I'm starving. It's amazing. You see, one of the things that fasting teaches me is how intensely my flesh continues to cry out to be satisfied. I've been a Christian a long time, man, like 30-something years, a long time.

and I thought, if you would ask me back then, I thought I'd be much further along in my sanctification process, particularly in regards to what my flesh wants. And yet one of the things that fasting reminds me of is just how intense my flesh wars against my spirit and cries out to be satisfied by the temporary things of this world. And so again, when I fast, it's crazy. I'm starving by 11 o'clock. Most days I don't eat breakfast anyway, and I'm not that hungry on those days, but the days that I decide I am going to make this about Jesus

and not just some sort of like nutrition plan, then my flesh begins to scream out. And there is something very positive to being able to look at your flesh and say to your flesh, flesh, this desire that you are bringing to me for food or for sugar or for whatever it is, this desire that you are bringing to me is not my Lord, but Jesus is my Lord. And essentially what it is, it's like a part of what fasting helps us do, the reason I would call it a spiritual discipline is it's really good to stack up small

wins in your life. It's really good to be able to tell your flesh, know in some areas of your life because that will help you by the Spirit of God, build your faith so that there can be times that through the Spirit of God you can tell some of those big temptations in your life know that you have yet to find victory in. You see, fasting also lets me know just how consumed I am with me. Listen, man, I love Jesus. I'm all the way in on Jesus. I do this for a living. I read my Bible a lot. I'm with Jesus people a lot. I do the Jesus thing a whole bunch. But if I'm not really careful, I wake up in the morning, I spend some time with him in his word. That's a regular habit of mine. And if I'm not careful, I can go hours and hours and hours, even doing Jesus things at his church,

having meetings about what we're doing and what's coming next and all of that. And yet not have any thoughts or prayers to him. And a part of what we do when we fast, especially from food, when we fast from food, is every single time that you think about fasting, every single time that you're reminded, oh yeah, I'm still hungry, every single time that happens, then you take those thoughts and you point them to Jesus. And it's amazing how much more my time, my affection, my attention is on the Lord when I'm fasting. That's a part of what fasting does for us. Now, not only do we fast from something,

but we also fast for things. One of the things that we do when we fast is that we remind ourselves that pain and suffering is a part of the gospel. That James, the brother of Jesus, says that we consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kind. And a fast is a self-induced, trial in a sense to stir up in us affection for Jesus. So we fast from things. We're going to say no to food. We fast for things. Fasting is, is us saying to God, God, we need you to intervene in our lives in a way that we cannot make this thing happen. We need to fast for a breakthrough. And so we called our church to fast this past Monday, today or yesterday, depending on you're watching it, to fast for unity in our city, for peace, for love, for our hearts to be changed. And those things will not be

changed from the top down, just like the hope for our nation is not the White House, it's not the courthouse. The hope for our nation is in Jesus Christ through his house, through his church. and so we bend our knee, we bow our head, we say no to the flesh, and we come to God and say, God, would you please do this thing that we can't do? Would you change hearts? Would you change lives? Would you bring healing in our land? In Nehemiah, chapter one, when Nehemiah finds out that his city, the city of God, is on fire, the first thing that he did is he prayed and he fasted. and all of the incredible results that were brought through the activity and actions of Nehemiah, I don't think would have been there if at first he did not stop and pray and fast.

In Matthew chapter 17, you don't have to turn there. It's one of my favorite accounts in all of the scriptures. Jesus and Peter James and John are up on the mountain, and Jesus has transfigured, and I've talked about that a lot, the interaction that they have, and they see Jesus in His glory, they hear the voice of the Heavenly Father.

And on the way down the mountain, Jesus says, hey, let's just, I wouldn't talk about this until I pull Easter off because nobody believe you anyway. And then when they get down to the bottom of the mountain, there's a father, this is also recorded in Mark chapter 9, there's a father who's got a son who is possessed by a demon, and this father has taken the son to the disciples.

Jesus gets down to the bottom of the mountain. He's like, what are you arguing about? And the dad is like, I brought my son to you to be healed, but you were up on the mountain. You weren't here, so I thought your disciples could do it. And now they're in an argument with the Pharisees. So Jesus says, bring him to me, cast out the demon. And then later, Matthew records that the disciples come to Jesus

and say, why couldn't we cast us out? and in Matthew 1721. Now, just a footnote, if you look up Matthew 1721 in your ESV Bible, it will be down here in the footnotes instead of like in the text. And I don't have time right now to get into like biblical textual criticism and why that happened. But Matthew 1721, Jesus's answer to why they could not, why they couldn't cast it out,

he says, well, it's because of your little faith. And he says, because if you had faith the size of the grain of a mustard seed, you could say that this mountain move, and it would move. And then the way he finishes it in 1721 is this, this kind can only be cast out by prayer and fasting.

In other words, there are some kind of demonic oppressions and possessions. There is demonic activity. and if you were to ask me, Pastor, you mean to tell me in 2020, you believe in demons? You tell me what's going on in our world right now. You think it's just poor decisions by a few people?

Or if you were our spiritual enemy, how would you come against us? I mean, the enemy is trying not only to divide a nation, but the enemy is trying to divide the church. There is so much, there is so much divisive talk right now on social media about the bride of Christ. Where do you think that comes from? And so Jesus says there are certain kinds of demonic activity that can only be pushed back

by prayer and fasting. A desperate, relentless cry out to God. Lord, would you come do something in us that we cannot do on our own? So Church of 1122, when you fast, don't write about it on your blog. Don't take pictures of what you're not eating. Don't complain about how long it takes the sun to go down when we fast in the summertime. Nah, when you fast, we don't do it in such a way that says, look at me, I'm awesome. We do it in such a way that honors are awesome, God.

God. Let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, Lord we thank you for the miraculous that happens, not just through us, but in us. When we say no to our flesh, when we say no to the temporary things of this world, and we feast on you, it is a reminder

that this world has all that we want and nothing that we need, and that you and that you, you alone satisfy. So God, we dedicate this fast to you, Lord, and we pray that your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that you might use your church, your sons and daughters to spread the love of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout our city, throughout our broken nation, and throughout this world.

We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen.