The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E41 - True Fasting

Episode Date: June 15, 2020

Hey, church family. It is Devo Time. If you've got your Bible, we're going to be in Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah chapter 58. Last week, as a church, we prayed and we fasted. And I reminded you last week that we fast from and we fast for and that praying and fasting are not nothing. It is the first step in gospel movement when we cry out to God and when we see injustices in our world and we asked God to move, but it cannot stop at fasting and praying. Pastor Cam reminded us last week that Nehemiah prayed and fast and then he got to work and got to action. And so I'd like to take it to Isaiah 58. If I would have had time to preach on fasting a couple weeks ago, I would have gone to this passage. And so we'll deal with this and then maybe that'll be the last of fasting for a little while, at least talking about it. Isaiah 58 says this, cry aloud.

do not hold back, lift up your voice like a trumpet, declare to my people their transgression to the house of Jacob, their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God. They ask of me righteous judgment. They delight to draw near to God. This is God's accusation against Israel. It says they have this appearance that they want to know God, they want to be close to God, that they attend all the religious services, that they do all of the right offerings and that sort of stuff. They delight to draw near to God. Verse three, this is Israel's response.

Why have we fasted and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves and you take no knowledge of it? Behold, in the day of your fast, you seek your own pleasure and oppress, all your workers. Who's what they're saying? They're like, God, we have, we've cried out to you, we prayed, we fasted, we humbled ourselves, we did our part. How come you haven't done your part? He says, behold, in the day of your fast, you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.

is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself. Is it to bow down his head like a reed and to spread his sackcloth and ashes under him? Would you call this a fast a day acceptable unto the Lord? Here's what he's saying. Is that you can go through all of the religious ritual. You go to church every Sunday. You can worship with your hands up. you can practice all of the spiritual disciplines between you and God.

But if what you do on Sunday does not infect and impact the way we live Monday through Saturday, then do we think God will be pleased with it? Or we could do the hard thing, like fasting is hard. We could do the hard thing to say to God, God, see how much I love you, I will go without, tell my flesh no, so that I can tell you yes, but if what we think we're doing is just between us and the Lord and it does not impact the way we treat one another, the way we love one another, the way we serve one another, do you think God is really pleased with that kind of fast?

So just as an illustration, parents, if you're a parent, if you're a child, if used to say you had multiple kids and one of your children wakes up every day and says wonderful things to and obeys you and makes their bed and makes breakfast and makes it for you and says thank you for all the good things that they have in their life because it came through you. And yet one of your children, that one, terrorized the other of your children. How pleased would you be with that child? There's no way you would look at your child's activity towards his or her brothers and sisters and say that has no impact on my relationship with the kid.

What you would say is, listen, if you love me, then you've got to love your brothers and sisters too. This thing is all wound up together. So Israel, they would fast, and they'd be begging God for a big breakthrough, and then seemingly God wouldn't show up and do what they ask him to do. And they're saying, why, God?

We prayed, we fasted, we humbled ourselves. We went to church, we went to disciple group, we prayed all the prayers, we memorized the verses. Why didn't you do? what we wanted you to do. And then God says, is this kind of fast you think I'm into? Do you think somehow you're now super Christian because you can fast and pray? And then God lays out in verse 6 and following. He goes, if you want to fast, then it doesn't stop the fasting. Fasting and prayer are the starting line for sure. And they open our minds and open our eyes to what God would have for us. But then it better

lead to real action. God says, is not this the fast that I choose? To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke. Is it not to share bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh, then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. In other words, this is what we have been saying over and over and over and over. Our relationship with Jesus is not isolated to just us and Jesus. that as we discover and deepen our relationship with Jesus,

it has to pour out on fighting for justice, speaking up for those that don't have a voice. It has to pour out on love for our neighbor. In fact, Jesus says that all of the law could be summed up as simply as this. Love God and love people. So religious activity to try to impress God is never impressive to God. That spiritual discipline that draws us close to God, and he draws or abides in us always produces spiritual fruit.

Pastor Cam, he quoted, and I'm going to misquote it because this is just from memory, but he said, listen, you can be hermeneutically sound, you can be doctrinally excellent, you could be biblically wise, you could be smooth in your words, you could be theological precise and spiritually useless. this is the condition of the religious people in this part of Israel during this day because they think if I do my religious activity, then God owes me. And what God is saying to them is you're missing the heart of it all. A heart for the beaten down and the broken and the oppressed.

And if you really, if you really want to fast, then why don't you pray and fast for sure? And then it leads to these things. and there is a blessing. And then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

And then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry, and he will say, here I am. Where is he? Is he just in the religious activity? Listen, Jesus makes this very clear in Matthew chapter 25, that when Jesus comes back to judge, that he's going to separate the sheep from the goats, the sheep he puts on his right, the goats he puts on his left.

He looks at the goats, and he says, depart from me, I never knew you. And they're like, what are you talking about? He says, when I was in prison, you didn't visit me. When I was hungry, you gave me nothing to eat. When I was thirsty, you gave me nothing to drink. And the goats on the left are like, well, when did we see you? If we would have seen you, Jesus, in any of these situations,

we would have done something for you, and then Jesus says, whatever you've done for the least of these brothers of mine, you have done unto me, depart for you never knew me. In other words, if you really knew me, then you would know that I am present in the people that need help the most. Then he looks at the people on the right, the sheep,

and he says, enter into the joy of your master. Because when I was in prison, he visited me, when I was naked, you gave me clothes, when I was hungry, you gave me food. And they said, same thing, they're surprised too. Jesus, we didn't know you were in jail? When did we do this? And when did we give you food? And when did we give you drink? And he says, for whatever you have done for the least of these brothers of mine, you have done unto me. In other words, they knew Jesus. So they knew to have compassion on people and take care of people. Isaiah, thousands of years before this, says the same thing. Why? Because there's one author of all of the scriptures.

When you're doing these things, when you're fighting for the press, when you're speaking up for those to who don't have a voice, you shall call on the Lord, and the Lord will answer. You shall cry, and he will say, here I am. And if you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfied the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness

and your gloom be as the noond day. Church, are you pouring yourself out for the hungry? You see, honestly, most of us, instead of emptying ourselves for the sake of the gospel, oftentimes we are full of ourselves just trying to make much of us. You know, one of the things this church has been committed to since before we even began as a church is to pour ourselves out for the hungry and the hungriest of the whole world. Like we sponsored about 10,000 compassion kids. I think a big part of that, thank you for that, by the way.

I think a big part of God's blessing on our church. shining light on our church is because in that arena we have been pouring ourselves out. Now, that doesn't mean that we stop there. That doesn't mean that that is enough. The light that shines brightest shines brightest at home, so we need to be doing those things right here too. Pastor Cam laid out a whole bunch of action steps for us, and I hope and I pray that you've been begging the Spirit of God

to point you in the direction that you should go to make this earth look a whole lot more like heaven. He says, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desires of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as noon day. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desires in scorch places and make your mown strong and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose water does not fail, and your ancient ruin shall be rebuilt.

You shall raise up the foundations of many generations. You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restore of streets to dwell in. And then he keeps going. And it looks like a little addendum here. Now, by the way, why don't you please, please, please go to our website and find places in our community that we could serve.

No matter what campus you attend or what part of town you live in, We have partners in our city, like the Boys and Girls Club, who have now joined with the McKinsey Wilson Foundation and Mark McKenzie Academic Resource Centers in our town, and you can physically do these things that Isaiah is talking about. I hope you'll go there. Now, sometimes what happens is people turn away from the gospel and they just move, the pendulum them swings too far and they think all the church is supposed to do is just social work. Now listen, the church is against all suffering, particularly eternal suffering. So then the way that

Isaiah ends this is that it is rooted in us discovering and deepening a relationship with Jesus Christ. These things are not separate. These things are two sides of the same coin. He says, if you turn back your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight in the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. In other words, all of this pouring ourselves out for those in need is not separate from our worship of Jesus, our discovering and

deepening a relationship with Jesus. But it is, and the reason he talks about Sabbath day is because in the old covenant, the primary time, they would go and worship would be on Sabbath day when they would gather, they would study the word, they would celebrate together. You see, it's in conjunction with the body of Christ. It's in attending church and being involved in your disciple group. studying God's Word. Those things fuel us to then go out and act like the Spirit of God lives in us that we've been studying all week long. So Church of 1122, may we continue to be a fasting people, not just fasting from and fasting for, but also that our fast drives us to see more clearly what God is calling us to do, to be agents of light in a crooked and depraved generation.

and may we take the gospel both in our declaration and in our demonstration to the ends of the earth, but start right here in Jacksonville. Let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you and I praise you that you do not give us religious activity to like test us or so that we can prove how awesome we are and obedient we are. But God, you give us spiritual disciplines to draw us nearer and nearer to you. And God, as we continue throughout the seasons and years to pray and fast, Lord, I pray that we would never be caught up in our own activity, but you would use our prayers and you would use our fasting

to drive us to gospel activity in our world. That we would be people that declare the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we would be people that demonstrate the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And God, may we be a people that part of the God. May we be a people that part of the ourselves out for the hungry because Jesus, you poured yourself out for us at the cross. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen.