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Good evening. My name is David. I'm the pastor of Centennial Church. It's great to be with all of you. Thank you again, John, for the invite for allowing us to be here. Although now that I'm thinking about it, I think this is a public service, so I guess we all could have just come unannounced and yeah, that probably could have worked out anyway. But uh anyway, uh our uh sermon passage, well I should say our meditation passage this evening comes to us from Isaiah chapter 58. So if you have a Bible, dig that out. Uh I'm gonna be reading from the NIV, and I'm gonna be looking at verses 1 through 8. Originally it was gonna be 1 through 12, but I decided to cut it at the last second, which I'm sure makes some of you happy. All right, let me let me read this for us. 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 judgments, they delight to draw near to God. 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. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice 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 sackcloth and ashes underneath him? Will you call this a fast a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose? To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house? When you see the naked to cover him and to not 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. This is God's word to us. Thanks be to God. Uh one thing uh to know about me, uh, because I know I don't know uh all of you in this room, one thing to know about me is that I grew up in a uh a mixed denomination household. So I grew up uh with a Catholic mother and a Lutheran father, uh, which yes was very confusing and sometimes created conflict at times. But uh either way, uh I grew up celebrating, quote unquote, uh, this season of Lent and Ash Wednesday in this time leading up to Easter. And I put celebrating in quotes, uh because it wasn't really that much of a celebration in my mind. Uh as far as I was concerned, uh Lent was just basically uh me showing up to some church sometime in winter and somebody putting ashes on my forehead. Uh and then some for some odd reason I still don't get this to this day. I wouldn't eat meat on Fridays, my family wouldn't eat meat on Fridays, I still don't get that one. And then the other thing that would happen, the other thing I thought of when I think about Lent, at least growing up, was I would get the question from my mother, that awful question of David, what are you giving up for Lent this year? And as a kid, you know, like it was it was pretty uh not important things, you know, like I'd give up like candy or soda or uh one year I remember giving up video games. Uh I do remember making a distinction between console games and computer games, because there is a difference. Uh one year I remember giving up TV, which was the worst idea, because then I realized that I couldn't watch March Madness, so that was that was pretty awful. But all that to say, I I didn't get much out of Lent growing up. Indeed, I I probably hated Lent. I didn't like this season. And probably the main reason why I didn't like it was just because I didn't really understand it. I didn't understand the significance of it. Why do I have to fast from all these different things? So, what I felt called to talk to y'all about, hopefully in the next 10 minutes or so, we'll see what the time looks like at the end. But what I felt called to talk to you all about tonight is fasting, but fasting wrongly. Because fasting wrongly is what I did growing up. As a nominal Christian, saying, Oh, I'm this holy individual, but really it wasn't anything from the heart. And so my goal with you this evening is that our fasting. You probably thought about giving up something for Lent, that that fasting that you're doing over these next 40 days, that it would not be in vain. And that we would do fasting that our Heavenly Father would be proud of. And even more so, dare I say, fasting that we can take joy in as God's dearly loved children. So I have I have two simple points, two simple questions that I want to try to answer with you this evening. The first one being, uh, what is right fasting? What does it look like to fast correctly? And then secondly, what is a right motivation for actually doing fasting? So those are the two that I want to get to. So uh let's go back to Isaiah 58. Uh again, I'm reading from the NIV, which says this Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet, declare to my people their rebellion, and to the descendants of Jacob their sins, for day after day they seek me out. Day after day they seek me out. They seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and is not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions, and they seem eager for God to come near to them. Why have we fasted, they said, and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed? So if you're unfamiliar with the Bible, Isaiah is in the Old Testament, and you can sort of picture the scene where you have uh Israel, the Jewish nation, coming and talking either to God Himself or to Isaiah, saying, We have been fasting and fasting and fasting, and we are not hearing anything. And so God speaks through his prophet who says, Your fasting is in vain. That's why God isn't blessing you. It's because your fasting is in vain. You're you're doing, you're doing religious things, you're doing spiritual things, pious things, yes, but it's ultimately being done in the wrong way. Why? Well, as Pete read for us, Joel 2, rend your hearts, not your garments. Or as God says, yet on the day of your fasting you do as you please, and exploit all of your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast that I have chosen? Only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? To put this in New Testament terms, at Centennial right now, we're going through the Gospel of Matthew, specifically the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus essentially echoes Isaiah's words in that sermon. Saying, You, you Pharisees and scribes, yes, you are fasting, but all it is is to make a great big religious show. You put on your makeup to make yourself look gaunt and starved, you put on your ashes on your body to make yourself look sad. But it's all on the exterior. It is in vain. To put this in our day, it's it's it's Ash Wednesday. I'm supposed to go to church tonight. I'm supposed to give up something for Lent. I'm supposed to make myself look really sad today to show how pious I am. But that fasting is meaningless unless it comes and impacts your heart. The fasting is meaningless unless it leads to a right behavior, a right understanding. Or as God says in uh Isaiah 58, is not this the kind of fasting that I've chosen? What is the fasting that God is seeking? He says, This is what I've chosen, to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke. Is it not to share your food, presumably the food that you're fasting from, with the hungry, and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter? When you see the naked to clothe them and not turn away from your own flesh and blood. All that to say, dear brothers and sisters, as we think about this starting point of the season of Lent, I am inviting you to not just consider this question of what am I giving up for Lent, but what am I going to be doing for Lent? What are my actions going to be and look like over these next 40 days? Don't just think about what you are going to be ceasing from, or at the very least, reducing in your life. Think about what you are going to be doing in these next 40 days. Don't let tonight just be something to be checked off the list. And the way that I think, to come to my second question, the way that I think we'll prevent ourselves from fasting wrongly is by remembering why we fast and repent in the first place. Why are we, as believers, fasting and repenting? Well, contrary to what Israel seemed to think, it's not to try and get God on our side. It's not trying to win his favor. It's not trying to prove to him how holy and righteous we are. No, we fast and pray because we are people who know that we have been given God's favor to us, namely in Jesus Christ. You see, Isaiah 58 needs to be read in the context of Isaiah 57, where God says this in verse 15 for this is what the high and holy and exalted one says, He who lives forever, whose name is holy. Listen to this. I was enraged by their sinful greed. I punished them and hid my face in anger, yet they kept on in their willful ways. I have seen their ways, but God says, I have seen your willful, sinful ways, but he says, I will heal them. I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel's mourners, creating praise on their lips. Peace, peace to those far and those who are near, says the Lord, and I will heal them. Meaning what? Meaning, friends, as we consider right fasting, right action, it comes from a right understanding of the grace of God to us in the gospel. We're not giving up candy in a vacuum. We're not giving up video games in a vacuum. We're not marching on over to our local food shelf or food bank in a vacuum. No, we do it because God, the high and exalted and holy one, has seen our willful, wicked ways, and behold, he says, I will heal you. I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel's mourners, creating praise on their lips. Peace, peace to those who are far and near, says the Lord, and I will heal them. And in Jesus Christ, friends, we have that great healer, that great physician who comes not to those who are well, but to those who are sick and know they need help. He comes not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Those who keep on in their willful ways, God says, I will heal them. Going back to Isaiah 58, we don't hide ourselves from our flesh and blood. Why? Because Jesus clothed himself in flesh and blood for us, dying the death we deserve to die. We set the oppressed free and break the yoke, because Jesus did that for us, who were enslaved to sin. We share our food that we are fasting from with the hungry. Why? Because Jesus became heavenly manna for us, who is broken for us on the cross, and we provide the poor wanderer with shelter and clothe the naked, because Jesus Christ has welcomed us into his heavenly home and has clothed us in his own righteous robes. And so, friends, for these forty days, we seek to identify ourselves with our Savior who fasted for 40 days in the wilderness, being tempted on our behalf. We celebrate this season to realign ourselves with him and to remember his costly life and sacrifice for us. And friends, if there's an application that I can give to you an encouragement, it's to find ways to remind yourself of this gospel news for each and every single day of Lent. And a practical example of that is what we're going to do right now in a Lenten liturgy, a liturgy of repentance and then reminding ourselves of the forgiving grace of God to us in the gospel of Jesus. So would you pray with me right now as we look to a responsive prayer of confession? The top of each slide will either say, uh, leader or congregation. I invite you to read with me when it says congregation. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so you're right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb. You taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have crushed rejoice, hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, will not despise.