WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:00.880 Good morning. 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:03.200 My name is Scott O'Donoho. 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:07.280 I am one of the pastors of the Village Church down in Hamilton, Ohio. 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:09.199 We're a fellow X-29 church. 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:14.480 And so we've known Pastor Justin for a while, and some of you in this room for even longer than that. 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:16.800 Thanks for letting me be here with you this morning. 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:33.280 I get to close out the series you've been in this summer called Holy Habits, and I am very aware that they brought someone in from the outside to talk about stuff that might make you feel bad about having lunch plans later today, thinking about what you might eat later. 00:00:33.359 --> 00:00:35.520 And so I get it, I'm not dumb. 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:36.240 I see that. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:43.359 And that's maybe a little silly, but honestly, unless fasting is part of some diet that we're doing, right? 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:52.320 Intermittent fasting, which is we're talking about fasting today, or uh, or maybe it's part of a cleanse or uh prep for some medical procedure or test or something that you're doing. 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:57.359 Um, if it's part of that stuff, then we can see how fasting is good and maybe good for us. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:08.560 It's healthy, that's easy to see, but when it's part of our spiritual life, um, it is easy to think about fasting as a way to make us feel bad about enjoying the good things that God has given us, right? 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:13.200 Or to keep us from things that were actually meant to nourish us and strengthen us. 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:24.239 Paul uh even tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, he says, it's the demons and the hypocrites telling folks to abstain from foods that God created to be received with gratitude. 00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:26.560 Everything that God created is good. 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:30.159 Nothing is to be rejected if it's received with thanksgiving. 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:31.280 That's what Paul said. 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:31.680 Right? 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:36.799 And so our posture apart might be so let us eat and drink and be merry, all to the glory of God. 00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:38.959 Uh and to that I say, do that, right? 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:39.599 Amen. 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:43.840 Uh that the church should feast better than anyone else on the planet. 00:01:44.079 --> 00:02:00.560 And what should make the feasting of the faithful so good, uh, so beautiful and distinct from the rest of the world, is that when we break bread and we drink deeply from the cup, it's not just our taste buds doing the talking, but it's our our soul, hungry for the things of God. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:18.800 It's our body feeling its daily need met by God's provision that sends our whole selves into worship when we feast, satisfied and strengthened by what God has prepared for us, what he has promised us, and whatever he has set before us today, however much or little that might be. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:22.240 But but man, all from Him, right? 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:28.719 His grace and His truth that we might feast on those things and be strengthened all the more. 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:31.280 Everything that He has given abundantly to us. 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:37.840 And so what we're gonna do this morning, our main idea uh today uh for is this, for fasting. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:40.159 It's not about making us weak. 00:02:40.319 --> 00:02:40.719 All right? 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:46.000 Fasting is not about keeping our joy in check or tempering how much we look forward to a good meal. 00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:52.000 Fasting actually cultivates an honest hunger for the things of God. 00:02:52.159 --> 00:03:02.000 And not so just we stay hungry, but so that we can feast even better and be strengthened all the more on the grace and the power and the truth that God has set before us. 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:06.800 And so uh if you will, if you've got your Bibles, you can keep them open or turn them back open again to Matthew 6. 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:10.240 I just want to read our focal text one more time so it's fresh in our brains. 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:13.199 Uh, this is Matthew 6, 16 through 18. 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:21.840 Jesus says, Whenever you fast, don't be gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so that their fasting is obvious to people. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.080 Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:33.199 But when you fast, put oil on your head, wash your face, so that your fasting isn't obvious to others, but to your father who is in secret. 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:37.439 And your father who sees in secret will reward you. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:42.719 Alright, so uh this morning I'm uh I'm a three-point sermon guy, so that's what you're gonna get from me today. 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:47.199 Uh the the first point this morning is this that fasting is normative. 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:51.759 All right, so the words that we just read, they are from Jesus. 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:55.759 They're pulled right from the middle of a sermon that we aren't hearing all of. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:00.240 Uh it's called the Sermon on the Mount, and he is giving that sermon to people who aren't us. 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:08.800 And so we've got to clear up a couple of assumptions that Jesus might be making right on the front end, because he assumes he's assuming one, that y'all know what fasting is, right? 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:14.719 That you know what it is, and two, he's assuming that the people who are hearing him are actually already fasting. 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:15.280 Right? 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:26.720 He doesn't introduce them to fasting in the sermon and say, so when you start this brand new thing that I just told you about, or or if you ever decide to fast, he says, whenever you fast. 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:28.319 That's how he starts. 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:32.079 And so I can't make those same assumptions that Jesus makes today. 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:39.199 Fasting uh at a very basic level is this it is abstaining from food for a period of time. 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:43.199 That might be one meal, uh, that might be a few meals, a few days of meals. 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:45.519 Some people fast even longer than that. 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:48.879 And fasting was actually a normal part of life for the Jewish people. 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:56.879 So many of the people that Jesus was preaching to, uh, they would have been fasting twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, and then other times throughout the year. 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:00.879 Now, today, plenty of people still regularly fast. 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:07.519 Uh, about eight in ten Muslim Americans fast for spiritual reasons at some point throughout the year. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:14.079 Half of Jewish Americans feast at some point, or fast at some point, about 40% of Catholics do that. 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:23.199 Our particular flavor of Protestant Christianity, we barely make it over the 15% mark as something that we do for spiritual reasons at some point in the year. 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:26.879 So uh I can't assume that you would know what fasting is or why we should do it. 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:30.720 Uh, I can safely assume that 85% of us don't, right? 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:38.720 Uh and to be clear, if you think that that Pastor Justin invited me to talk about this because I am a fasting guru, I am not. 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:39.279 All right. 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:44.000 Uh if you feel convicted at some point because you're hearing a sermon about fasting, you're in that 85%. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:47.680 Think about preaching the sermon and being in the 85%. 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:49.040 All right, that's me. 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:54.079 And so I have entered preparation for this sermon humbly as a learner, right along with you. 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:57.040 So if you find yourself there, I am joining you in the seats today. 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:11.040 Uh, and where I started, what where that process began for me is letting myself be confronted with what I just couldn't get around, which is that fasting across the entire history and the entire tradition of God's people is normative. 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:25.279 All right, there's no hard and fast rules about how or when or how often to fast, but the people of God, from ancient Israel all the way to the modern day church, have practiced fasting as a regular means for spiritual health and strength and vitality. 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:32.879 And so when I think, ah, fasting is this uh this ancient thing, it's from a different culture, old covenants. 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:37.439 Uh, it's not really relevant to me today from my walk with Jesus. 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:48.720 Or uh, gosh, I know in the past that the church has tied fasting to penance as a way to try to make up for sin or earn merit before God, and I don't want to fall into that, I don't want to be associated with that. 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:50.000 That feels like law. 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:55.279 I want to swerve towards gospel, or you know, I'm just not as productive when I'm hungry. 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:55.680 Right? 00:06:55.839 --> 00:07:04.560 I uh my brain gets fuzzy, uh, no one gets my best, God doesn't get my best, I'm distracted, I get hangry, and no one gets more of Jesus when I'm hangry, right? 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:06.240 And so I get all of that. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:25.680 But but whatever the reason, if we choose to never fast, and we're saying that we're okay being the exception to the rule of this long, unbroken practice of God's people across time and cultures and continents, and my guess is that we don't want to be that. 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:27.439 We don't want to be the exception to the rule. 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:33.920 We're not trying to redefine or erase holy habits, and so um, I just don't want you to take my word for this even. 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:37.920 I want to paint a picture of this for you, starting with the Bible. 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:38.480 All right. 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:44.879 So biblically, fasting runs cover to cover from Old Testament to New Testament. 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:50.000 All right, Moses, who wrote the first few books of the Bible, he's the first person that we see fast in the Bible. 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:54.319 He fasted while he was up on the mountain, getting the stone tablets of the law from God. 00:07:54.480 --> 00:08:00.560 He fasted again on behalf of God's people when he found out how wicked they were being, uh, worshiping a golden calf. 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:01.199 All right. 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:06.879 Um, Samuel led all of Israel to fast in repentance of their own idolatry. 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:13.120 David fasted while he was pleading with the Lord over the failing life of his baby boy. 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:20.480 Hannah fasted while she was suffering infertility and the daily torment from a cruel woman in her life. 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:27.839 Ezra led God's people to fast, asking for a safe passage before they made a long, dangerous journey back home. 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:33.200 Esther fasted before she confronted a king to beg him to spare the life of her people. 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:35.200 Daniel fasted in mourning. 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:38.080 The church at Antioch fasted as a normal part of worship. 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:44.000 Paul and Barnabas fasted as they appointed elders and said goodbye to churches that they had planted. 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:51.120 Fasting was formally commanded by God, one time in the scripture, once a year, for all the people on the day of atonement. 00:08:51.279 --> 00:09:01.840 And then later in Zechariah, as the Jews were returning back to their home from exile, he mentions that there are these monthly fasts that they just kind of put on their own calendar that God's people would do. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:06.159 And by the time we get to the New Testament, we see those twice a week fasts. 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:12.720 And before and during and after all that stuff, uh God's people fasted voluntarily as they felt led. 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:15.200 Alright, so it's in the scriptures. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:27.120 Historically, the very first church manual that we see for what like normal church life should look like, it's called the Diddyke, it was written in the first century, the same century that Jesus walked the earth. 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:34.320 And it says Christians should also fast twice a week, uh, but on Wednesdays and Fridays, not uh not Mondays and Thursdays like the Jews. 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:44.559 It also says that when someone's about to be baptized, that person and the person doing the baptizing, they should fast a day or two in it leading up to that baptism Sunday. 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:55.600 Uh Justin Martyr and Tertullian in the second century, Origen in the third century, Athanasius in the fourth, Augustine and the fifth, all of these people speak to the significance of fasting in the church. 00:09:55.919 --> 00:10:05.600 You fast forward to uh to Martin Luther and John Calvin and John Wesley and Martin Lloyd Jones, the Protestant Reformation, the 1500s, all the way to heavy hitters of the last century. 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:07.360 They all fasted. 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:15.840 Our seasons of fasting and prayer in our church have been high days indeed, Charles Spurgeon said. 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:22.879 Never has heaven's gate stood wider, never have our hearts been nearer the central glory. 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:27.840 The practice of fasting is just unbroken throughout church history. 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:33.039 And even Christologically, which is a uh just a big word for what does this have to do with Jesus? 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:36.320 Um, fasting is a good and appropriate practice. 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:38.159 Jesus himself fasted. 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:40.720 It was the first thing he did when he was uh baptized. 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:43.840 He confronted the devil and his temptations in the wilderness. 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:47.840 Jesus expected his disciples to fast, like we're seeing in today's passage. 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:51.279 Um, and then he expected us to keep fasting even after he was gone. 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:51.600 Right? 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:59.519 The time that we are in right now, while Jesus is away from us and we're waiting for him to return, this is exactly when we should be fasting. 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:02.080 Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 9. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:09.519 The only thing Jesus wanted to stop when it came to fasting was us doing it from a place of pride. 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:16.159 It was not Christ's intention to reject or despise fasting, Martin Luther said. 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:20.480 It was his intention to restore proper fasting. 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:24.879 And so look, uh, I know none of that is immediately practical. 00:11:25.039 --> 00:11:29.919 No one walked in wanting a church history survey of fasting, you know, throughout the centuries. 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:36.960 But if it gets some of us to say, oh gosh, maybe I should consider fasting, then I think that's a win. 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:38.799 I think that is sort of practical. 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:44.480 And there is no set frequency or rhythm for fasting set forth for us in Scripture. 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:47.200 There's not a set length, not one set of reasons. 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:50.080 You guys heard all the reasons why people fast in the Bible. 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:51.519 It's all over the place, right? 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:56.639 But there is one unbroken testimony that fasting is normative. 00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:59.039 It's a normative practice in the church. 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:02.000 It should be the rule, not the exception. 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:04.159 And so should we, right? 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:05.679 But why? 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:07.600 Why would we do that? 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:12.159 That is our second point this morning that fasting is beautifying. 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:16.799 Now I know that is a weird word to maybe use. 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:27.919 Um, but I'm using it, and I like it because it's an idea that's hanging out here in the text, and I think it points us to uh a bigger story, a familiar story for us that might help us understand fasting a little better. 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:44.320 So uh I get to live with three awesome women, uh, my wife Kelly and daughter Mabel and other daughter uh Vera, and I become very aware over the years, especially as we enter into the high school era of things, of uh skincare routines, right? 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:51.120 All the bottles and things, there's uh cleanser and there's toner and there's moisturizer, not uh not lotion, right? 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:51.679 That's different. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:57.600 Somehow lotion is different from moisturizer, and it can't be any moisturizer, it has to be facial moisturizer for the face. 00:12:57.759 --> 00:13:02.399 I guess like other skin gets dry differently than your face, and so I don't know. 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:06.799 All I know is that it comes in a smaller bottle and it's twice as expensive as anything else. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:11.440 As weird as it sounds, Jesus is referring to skin care in our passage today. 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:20.320 When he tells them not to make themselves look gloomy or disfigure their faces when they fast, but to wash their face and put oil on themselves. 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:24.080 Jesus is saying, don't stop your skincare routine. 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:26.080 Washing and oiling the face. 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:29.600 That was what they did to keep themselves looking uh clean and clear and under control. 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:30.320 That's what they did. 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:33.679 Oil was the moisturizer of their day. 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:38.639 And a lot of folks uh wouldn't just give up food when they fasted, they would give up looking good. 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:43.759 All right, and so they would make themselves look bad, or or Jesus says disfigured on purpose. 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:47.120 That's a harsh word for Jesus to say about someone's faces, right? 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:49.600 Uh, but but Jesus is saying, you don't have to do that. 00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:55.679 You don't have to do that when you're fasting, because fasting isn't about making you look weaker or uglier than you really are. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:57.840 It's not about the the way people see you. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:03.840 Uh fasting very much involves your body, but it is not at all about altering your physical appearance. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:05.039 It's not about you. 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:16.960 All the habits that you've talked about in this series so far, uh being in community, being in the word, being a people of prayer and solitude, all of those things involve your body. 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:34.639 It's placing it among the people of God, or taking it away and being by yourself for a little bit, or uh maybe it's using your hands to open up your Bible and flip through the pages and your eyes to read uh the scriptures, or maybe it's closing your eyes and lifting your hands or putting your hands on someone's shoulder in prayer. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:40.960 But fasting, it uniquely involves and discomforts the whole body. 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:41.600 Right? 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:47.679 I I know for some of you being around people is like the least comfortable thing on the planet, right? 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:49.840 For some of you, being by yourself is the worst. 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:55.600 Okay, we're we're all different in that, but the kind of discomfort that we're talking about today is a little bit different. 00:14:55.759 --> 00:15:04.720 It is voluntarily not giving your body something that it needs, refusing to satisfy when it's telling you what it needs most, right? 00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:11.279 And letting yourself go about your day, just living in light of your own lack. 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:13.840 Why would anyone do that? 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:14.240 Right? 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:16.320 Why what does it have to do with beauty? 00:15:16.559 --> 00:15:26.159 It might be helpful to then situate fasting inside a much bigger story than just our our weekly meal plans that we might have on our fridge or in our calendars. 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:38.960 See, our our unbroken lineage, and not just in the church, but for all of humanity, it began with people created by God from the dust of a wilderness on a on a formless earth a long time ago. 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:49.919 And God picked a place on that formless earth, he called it Eden, and he planted a garden there, and he put those people in that garden with every provision and every protection they could possibly imagine. 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:51.279 Uh, a whole garden, right? 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:53.440 A tree of life that would sustain them. 00:15:53.519 --> 00:16:02.240 There was only one fruit, one tree in the whole garden that they couldn't eat from that would lead to death and not life. 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:27.039 And yet all it took was one tempter, the same tempter who tempted Jesus in the wilderness after he was baptized, to get us to see the food that God said would kill us as, and I quote, good for food, delightful to look at, beautiful, and desirable for obtaining wisdom. 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:37.360 And the consequence for what feels, maybe that feels small, was actually a cosmic rebellion and a garden lush with the goodness of God, and God himself was death. 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:38.720 That was the consequence for that. 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:47.440 It was a life sent back out into the wilderness, back to the dust where we came from, separated from God and his garden and the fruit of the tree of life. 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:57.039 In other words, the fall of humanity means we now live a life of hunger for the things that we were made to be satisfied by. 00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:04.319 And it also means a life of being tempted to see deadly things as beautiful things. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:09.519 Apart from God, our life, our body and our soul, leads to death. 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:21.680 And so fasting reminds us in a place and a period of time in which we are lush with food and worldly comfort, that we aren't living in the garden anymore. 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:30.319 Even with stocked pantries and lunch plans, when it's easy to cozy up to this idea that everything really can be as maybe it should be. 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:31.839 Fasting says no. 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:36.160 We are still living body and soul outside of Eden. 00:17:36.319 --> 00:17:38.799 We haven't tasted the fruit of the tree of life. 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:40.319 Our bodies aren't self-sustaining. 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:41.680 They were never meant to be. 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:43.759 Our souls really are hungry. 00:17:43.839 --> 00:17:46.640 They're longing and they're groaning just like the rest of creation. 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:56.640 And they should be, we should be nervous if they're not, because we were never meant to feel full or be fully satisfied apart from the full presence of God and his goodness. 00:17:56.880 --> 00:18:00.000 Fasting reminds us we have not made it back there yet. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:05.119 And it's also a reminder of what we need while we are here. 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:08.960 Some of us don't need to be reminded that you're not in paradise. 00:18:09.119 --> 00:18:10.720 Your heart is weak. 00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:15.839 You came in hungry with heavy hearts today, or your body does groan. 00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:20.640 Maybe you literally do that when you stand up and you sit down, you groan out loud. 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:25.039 Uh and so what fasting reminds us is what we really need while we're here. 00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:31.759 And it's not new knees or new hips, it's not uh a different headline in the news. 00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:36.960 It's not the server getting your order right or being quick and prompt and on time. 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:45.119 This past week, on a day that I was fasting, like practicing this, getting ready for this sermon, my laptop just died. 00:18:45.359 --> 00:18:46.160 Just stopped working. 00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:49.920 Black screen, uh, blinking lights on it, just stopped working. 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:56.559 And it was a sweet reminder for me, as frustrating as it was in the moment, that my greatest need isn't something to type on. 00:18:56.720 --> 00:18:57.039 All right? 00:18:57.200 --> 00:19:04.240 My greatest need, and our greatest need isn't built, it's not bought, uh, it's not grown from the dust of the wilderness that we're in. 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:07.279 We need the God who planted a garden right in the middle of it. 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:09.759 All right, a barren wasteland sprung to life. 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:15.759 Not because life just found a way, not because we uh were the ones who took dust from the earth and breathed life into that. 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:17.119 No, that that's what God does. 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:17.920 God does that. 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:19.839 He speaks life and it lives. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:21.279 And so we need him. 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:26.079 And we need him to move, and we need him to move first and foremost in us. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:33.279 We see lots of things in this world that we reckon need fixing. 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:35.599 Some things maybe even in us. 00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:38.079 God, like I just I need you to move here. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:40.559 I need you to move in me, do something in me. 00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:47.119 I've hit a wall, I feel the limits of what I can do as a finite being in a fallen world that I'm seeing way too much of. 00:19:47.279 --> 00:19:53.200 Uh we see things, maybe obvious things, and say, God, go to work there, do that. 00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:56.880 But we forget what's obvious to God. 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:01.680 That even in the garden, our sight was the first thing to go. 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:08.000 What God said was deadly, we saw as beautiful, and that is ugly. 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:16.319 It's a disfiguring of the image of God that we bear that needs cleansed and beautified because of sin. 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:30.720 And so, fasting, whether it is a part of a routine or we find ourselves caught in sin and seeking repentance, or we're mourning, we're interceding on behalf of someone else, whatever the occasion, fasting is a whole body, whole self-confession that we don't see rightly, right? 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:34.720 Even when we look in the mirror, which is where beautifying ourselves begins, right? 00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:37.359 Uh we don't see what God wants us to see. 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:39.519 And so we ask Him for eyes to see. 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:41.039 God, help me see like you. 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:46.720 Help me to not be blinded by my own sin, not be swayed by the tempter that I know I'm tempted by. 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:55.839 Help me hunger for the right things and forsake the false satisfaction that keeps me numb to the things you made me to long for and be satisfied by. 00:20:56.160 --> 00:21:01.359 There's an ugliness in me, God, that I don't see the depths of, but that I know you need to wash. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:04.160 There is an image of you in me that needs beautifying. 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:11.440 So, God, go to work in me, in the obvious places, and also in the places that are a secret to me because they're not a secret to you. 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:22.880 Tell me once again where I am, what I am, what I need, and by your grace, speak life to me that I might live today hungry and yet somehow satisfied in you. 00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:28.160 Fasting is an embodied spiritual posturing. 00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:31.279 It's not trying to make you look like something you're not, right? 00:21:31.440 --> 00:21:36.799 Putting lipstick on a pig like the hypocrites who make their self-righteousness obvious to the world. 00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:48.160 It is an intentional visceral posturing to help us live before God more honestly, as we already are, but just really hate to admit and don't want to feel. 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:54.240 Jesus doesn't want you to change your skincare routine when you fast. 00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:57.119 If you wash your face every day, do it when you fast. 00:21:57.359 --> 00:22:02.559 If you've never moisturized in your entire life, Don't start doing it on the days that you fast. 00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:11.599 It would be weird if I walked into the office one day and my face looked like whatever it would look like if I started using toner, whatever that is, and people were like, Oh, why do you look different today? 00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:13.279 And I said, It's because I'm fasting. 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:13.839 It's not. 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:16.400 It's like as I'm fasting, it's gonna put toner on my face, right? 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:17.599 That's why I would look different. 00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:20.960 Fasting is concerned with beautifying the inside, not the outside. 00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:26.720 If anything weirdly beautiful shows up, it should be more fruit of the Spirit in our lives. 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:32.160 What should be obvious on days that we fast isn't that we are fasting or gloomy about it. 00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:38.160 It should be Christ in and through me, who always provides for me every single day. 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:46.960 Practically, it is common to hear that when you're fasting, hey, just take the time that you normally set aside for eating, uh, read your Bible, right? 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:47.680 Pray. 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:48.799 And that's really good. 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:49.440 I like that. 00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:55.119 But look, talking about what's making uh what's being made obvious in the way we go about doing this. 00:22:55.279 --> 00:23:11.279 If you don't normally bring a Bible to the cafeteria, um, or if you're not like jamming out the hymns all day on the car ride or at in the office in your cubicle, whatever, my encouragement would be not to suddenly show up one day in some super spiritual costume, all right, on the day that you fast. 00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:14.400 And that is not me saying, don't read your Bible at work. 00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:18.799 That is me saying, what's stopping you from reading it at work any other day of the week, right? 00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:25.039 I I have confidence, I believe in you that you can turn pages in your Bible and also eat a sandwich at the same time. 00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:26.400 You can do that, right? 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:38.000 Just even thinking about what fasting might look like in your life, it can reveal to us what we truly depend on to get us through the day, to carry us through hour by hour, minute by minute. 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:42.480 Is it actually bread alone or the very words of God? 00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:47.599 The point is this when you fast, show up as you normally would. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:57.759 Do what you would always do, and do it with a heightened bodily and spiritual awareness that on your own, cut off from the garden, you have got nothing. 00:23:57.920 --> 00:24:04.640 You are wandering the grocery store and the cubicles at work, you're wandering soccer fields as one in the wilderness. 00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:25.119 And all that you need and all that you've got is all that matters, which is the power in the presence of God sustaining you, his truth guiding you, the spirit strengthening you in whatever he wants you to see and whatever he wants you to do around you, or maybe even especially in you, as you stand in front of the mirror and confess to him in secret what he already knows. 00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:32.640 That we are weak, that sin is in us, that there are wounds to heal in us, that a tempter is claiming he can heal. 00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:34.720 Help me see God as you do. 00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:37.279 Beautify your image in me. 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:44.720 Fasting teaches us to live our normal, everyday life carried along by him. 00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:47.279 Beautified by him. 00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:50.400 And that is not a life of just mere desperation. 00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:52.720 That is a life of expectation. 00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:55.359 We get to look forward to what God might be up to. 00:24:55.440 --> 00:25:00.240 And that is the third point this morning that fasting is expectant. 00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:07.680 Expectation is a built-in feature of fasting. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:13.680 When we stop uh eating, when we start fasting, stop eating, we expect to start eating again. 00:25:13.839 --> 00:25:15.200 That's what a fast is. 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:18.640 Uh we put food down, knowing that we are going to pick it back up again. 00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:24.319 If you've fasted before for any reason, uh you know that you really look forward to that next first meal, right? 00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:25.759 You look forward to that. 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:27.279 You're already thinking about it. 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:28.079 Uh, you're hungry. 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:30.720 When it comes, you mighty eat more than you normally would. 00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:33.440 It tastes extra good, you put an extra heaping on your plate. 00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:34.160 That's okay. 00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:34.720 That's good. 00:25:34.799 --> 00:25:35.920 You're allowed to do that. 00:25:36.079 --> 00:25:42.319 Because fasting reminds us that while, yes, we are spiritually hungry, it also tells us that we were made to be full. 00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:55.279 We were made to feast, but here outside the garden, stuck in a wilderness, our appetites for what we were made to enjoy, they have been dulled by the stuff of this world because all we can eat here is dust. 00:25:56.079 --> 00:26:03.680 We we live for long weekends, or a second pour, or a salad that's too expensive. 00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:08.319 One more game, one more bite, one more minute, one more round, one more swipe, right? 00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:10.559 One more sweater that's gonna hang in the closet forever. 00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:12.480 We're never actually going to wear it. 00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:13.279 It's just dust. 00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:14.960 It's dust, dust, dust. 00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:22.799 Dust was the stuff that the hypocrites left on their face for people to see, and dust was all they got when people saw it and they were impressed. 00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:30.880 Whether it's food or man's approval, the only thing the world can reward us with is dust. 00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:33.759 They became hungry for the things of the world. 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:38.559 They got the things of the world, they have their reward, Jesus says. 00:26:39.039 --> 00:26:42.000 But for those of us in Christ, we have a different one. 00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:43.359 Author C.S. 00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:44.720 Lewis wrote this banger. 00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:51.119 He said, uh, It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong. 00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:53.519 He finds our desires too weak. 00:26:53.680 --> 00:27:09.599 We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he can't imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. 00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:13.440 We are far too easily pleased. 00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:16.720 It's mud, it's dust. 00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:19.920 And God's not trying to rub our faces in it when he calls us to fast. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:23.839 He wants us to see it all for what it is, but but to detox us. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:34.960 He wants to retrain our taste buds so that we'll start to see the futility of seeking satisfaction in stuff that lasts for five seconds, and so we can start craving the better stuff that he made us to enjoy. 00:27:35.200 --> 00:27:40.079 Righteousness, peace, prosperity under the rule and reign of King Jesus. 00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:54.559 And it's often the lack of those things that leads us to stuff our faces literally and figuratively with the stuff of this world, because we are coping with the state of things, the state of us, but dust will never satisfy us. 00:27:55.440 --> 00:28:04.000 At the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they'll be satisfied. 00:28:04.240 --> 00:28:09.680 The Father's reward that Jesus mentions here, he says, earlier that reward is in heaven. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:10.319 Right? 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:12.880 That satisfaction is waiting for us with him there. 00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:24.960 And later in this series, uh this very same chapter, the same sermon that we're in, he says, the world spends all of its time wondering what it's gonna eat and what it's gonna wear, seeking after food and clothes. 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:36.559 But I say, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, because if you do, you will get those better things, you'll get that reward, and you'll get the food and the clothes or whatever you need to do all that stuff thrown in. 00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:38.640 God feeds birds, right? 00:28:38.799 --> 00:28:40.240 He dresses the flowers. 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:43.680 Don't worry, uh, your life is more than food. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:46.240 Your body is more than clothing. 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:52.799 It's all for the kingdom, and I'm gonna give you everything that you need to work with me on that. 00:28:54.079 --> 00:29:14.400 And so we fast expectantly, first, knowing that if even we end a fast and we're still hungry for whatever we're broken by or wanting more of, that we will one day be satisfied fully and forever by our Father in heaven, and when his kingdom comes here, this gets at the heart of Jesus' warning today. 00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:29.279 We should fast when we are at a loss and we're seeking wisdom or repentance, the Lord's divine intervention in a situation, but that doesn't earn an immediate answer or put him in our debt so he'll do what we want him to do. 00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:31.279 It's not what fasting is for. 00:29:31.759 --> 00:29:40.640 The only way to not be hungry now is to forsake the Father's future reward and get a lesser one from the world instead. 00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:46.880 Jesus warns us not to die with a full belly, but to live with a hungry and hopeful heart. 00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:55.440 Fasting helps us learn to be less easily pleased and learn to live hungry and expectantly for better promised things. 00:29:55.759 --> 00:29:57.920 Which is the second thing that we get to expect. 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:05.119 Uh, not just future satisfaction, but a present provision from God to help you bring into today this kingdom that is coming to stay. 00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:06.480 In Isaiah 58. 00:30:06.559 --> 00:30:08.960 Uh, we won't read this, won't be on the screens, but you can turn there if you want. 00:30:09.119 --> 00:30:11.839 Isaiah 58, we hear God's people complaining. 00:30:11.920 --> 00:30:13.759 Uh, there's a lot of bad stuff happening. 00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:14.880 I a lot of stuff going on. 00:30:14.960 --> 00:30:18.880 They need help, they've been fasting, uh, but God's not answering like they expected. 00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:27.119 And so they're looking at their watches and like, hey, we we have been fasting, we've been denying ourselves food and all this other stuff, and it kind of feels God like you're denying us. 00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:28.960 You're not answering the way that we wanted. 00:30:29.039 --> 00:30:36.240 And God responds first with this He says, Why would you expect me to listen to you when on the days that you fast, you're horrible people, right? 00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:43.200 You're terrible bosses, you're mean to your employees, you are grumpy with your coworkers, you bicker, you're fist fighting in the parking lot, right? 00:30:43.359 --> 00:30:52.559 And you're coming to me as someone who can fix all these other things outside of yourself, but you're living as if I've not given you what you need today to just be decent human beings. 00:30:53.039 --> 00:30:54.640 I don't care if you've not eaten food. 00:30:54.799 --> 00:31:00.640 Fasting is a posture of heart that should make the kingdom that you're longing for visible in you. 00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:04.400 Isn't this the kind of fast I would choose? 00:31:04.559 --> 00:31:06.799 This is what God says in Isaiah, starting in verse 6. 00:31:06.880 --> 00:31:15.519 He says, For you to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, to tear off every yoke. 00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:21.279 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry while you're fasting? 00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:27.519 Bring the poor and homeless into your house, clothe the naked when you see them, not to ignore your own flesh and blood. 00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:38.640 Do that, and then your light will appear like the dawn, your recovery will come quickly, your righteousness will go before you, and the Lord's glory will be your rear guard. 00:31:39.440 --> 00:31:47.039 One of the heartbeats of this whole series is that regular spiritual practices are meant to give you strength in the Lord. 00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:49.839 But that strength isn't just meant for you. 00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:56.640 You yourself are meant to be a supplemented strength in the lives of others, and fasting is no different. 00:31:56.720 --> 00:31:58.480 It is kingdom building. 00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:07.519 Fasting takes food and all the things of this world, including your bodies, and it helps us see them with spiritual eyes and put them in their proper place. 00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:09.200 Not as unimportant, right? 00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:27.599 Not as things that we should enjoy less or feel bad for enjoying at all, but as an even greater means of eternal significance in helping others taste and see and surrender to the beauty of Jesus, who's breaking into this world, right, by his kingdom, that's coming into you through you and into the world. 00:32:27.759 --> 00:32:30.240 Food becomes fuel for mission. 00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:40.640 Not when we stop eating it, but when we let God humble us and loosen our grip on all that we have, that we might invite others to come and eat. 00:32:41.039 --> 00:32:44.640 Come and drink, come and taste and see the goodness of the Lord. 00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:51.519 Literally sharing a meal with the homeless, or by the fruit of the Spirit being born in you. 00:32:51.759 --> 00:32:57.680 Fasting helps us live in expectation that God's kingdom will come in full. 00:32:57.920 --> 00:33:12.640 And has already begun coming, and it's gaining ground today, not by our strength, not by the clarity of your mind, by the lack of fuzziness, or you not being hangry, but by the strength of God given through his son by his spirit. 00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:17.119 So look, when you fast, expect to be distracted. 00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:20.480 Maybe a little hangry. 00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:23.039 Expect your brain to be fuzzy. 00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:24.799 Expect to wonder if it's even doing anything. 00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:26.000 Why am I even doing this? 00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:30.640 With with it, do I even have the right posture of heart when I'm coming at it? 00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:35.920 And my encouragement to you, if you ask those questions, is to keep doing it. 00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:41.440 And look, real quick, no medical advice is being dispensed up here today. 00:33:41.599 --> 00:33:46.960 For real, if you have questions or concerns about you stopping to eat food, you should talk to your doctor before you do that, right? 00:33:47.119 --> 00:33:48.480 So I just want to encourage you. 00:33:48.559 --> 00:33:50.799 Uh I'm not a doctor or trained physician. 00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:53.440 You should probably talk with a professional before you do this. 00:33:53.599 --> 00:34:01.839 And yet, here's the thing you can pick up any spiritual discipline with the same mentality Jesus warns us about here. 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:09.760 And if it if it doesn't give you an immediate result, if you don't get some immediate feedback or some immediate high, we ditch it, right? 00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:13.920 And so what I want you to do, I want you to plan to fast, do it, right? 00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:15.440 And then do it again. 00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:24.320 Let God do the slow, steady work of tilling your heart, sowing seeds, and reaping a harvest that will bear fruit. 00:34:24.480 --> 00:34:36.800 It will bear fruit, but it won't even be fully finished until he once again brings our bodies out of the dust and breathes life back into them and places us back in the garden with him. 00:34:38.079 --> 00:34:40.480 So I could keep going this morning. 00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:42.159 I have to wrap up. 00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:50.239 We've talked a lot about posturing ourselves towards the Lord, and I want to end by talking about Jesus' posture towards you. 00:34:51.280 --> 00:34:55.519 One of the last things that Jesus wanted to do with his friends, he wanted to share a meal with them. 00:34:55.679 --> 00:34:58.639 He wanted to feast in celebration of God's provision. 00:34:58.719 --> 00:35:00.400 And at his table, there were all kinds of people. 00:35:00.480 --> 00:35:08.719 There were traitors, uh, there were government employees, and also people that wanted to burn the whole thing down and just some blue-collar folks that were trying to get on with their life, right? 00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:11.679 Maybe that describes some of the people in this room this morning. 00:35:11.920 --> 00:35:18.400 At this final meal, he broke bread and he drank wine, just like we'll do in a few minutes. 00:35:18.719 --> 00:35:29.599 But he said this: he said, I tell you, I'm not drinking this wine again from now until the day I get to drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. 00:35:30.559 --> 00:35:37.280