Today, we turn to the third spiritual discipline Jesus addresses in the Sermon on the Mount: fasting.  In the past two weeks we’ve investigated “almsgiving” and prayer.  Giving and prayer are viewed as “normal” spiritual disciplines.  Anyone who has any idea at all about being a follower of Jesus has learned give and pray regularly.  But when I mention the word “fasting” what comes to mind?  Do you think of “normal” Christian activity, or do you think of a monk in a monastery, or a hermit living off by himself?  Fasting is NOT part of most of our lives as followers of Jesus living in America today.  We’ve all heard of fasting.  Most of us have probably been required to fast—in the sense of going without eating—in order to have our cholesterol checked, or prior to a surgery or various other medical tests.  But as we’re using the word today fasting is more than not eating.  Let’s start with a definition of fasting, so we know what we are and what we are not considering this morning.  I take this definition from Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas in their seminar titled “Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough.”  Here it is:  “FASTING is abstaining from something, usually food, for spiritual purposes, and during that time asking God to grow you to the next level.”  (Would you say that with me:  FASTING is abstaining from something, usually food, for spiritual purposes, and during that time asking God to grow you to the next level.)   We see then that fasting is: 1) ABSTAINING from something (usually food); 2) For SPIRITUAL PURPOSES, and; 3) ASKING God to GROW YOU to the next level.

     Let’s turn now to Jesus’ teaching concerning fasting as we find it in Matthew 6:16-18.  Please stand and join me as we read His words first in the MOT and then in the NLT.   Let’s read God’s word together:  ¹⁶And when you (plural) fast do not be gloomy ones as the hypocrites; for they disfigure their faces so that they may appear as fasting ones to men; truly (amen) I tell you they have their reward.  ¹⁷But when you (singular) fast, anoint your head and wash your face ¹⁸so that you may not appear to men as fasting, but to your Father, the one in secret, and your father, the one seeing in secret, will reward you.  Matthew 6:16-18 MOT  Now, let’s read them from the NLT:  ¹⁶“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. ¹⁷But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. ¹⁸Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.   Matthew 6:16-18 NLT.   Let’s pray……….Amen.  (Please be seated.)

     Of all the topics in the Sermon on the Mount--and we’ve broken the sermon into twenty separate topics--fasting may seem at first glance to be the least helpful of them all.  After all, fasting was for Bible days before Jesus came, right?  Moses fasted. Elijah fasted.  King David fasted.  Esther fasted.  Jesus fasted.  But Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast.  In fact, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, of whom we’ve spoken so often during this series, asked Jesus why His disciples didn’t fast, because every FAITHFUL Jew fasted in Jesus’ day—at least according to the Pharisees.  Here’s what happened:  ³³They [The Pharisees and teachers of religious law] said to him [Jesus], “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”

³⁴Jesus answered, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? ³⁵But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” 

  Jesus’ answer is taken from the culture of His day.  When a family celebrated a wedding, no one in the family fasted. It was a time of celebrating, eating and drinking—feasting not fasting was the order of the day.  Jesus compared His time on the earth to a wedding feast.  He’s the bridegroom.  In fact, the church is referred to in the New Testament as the “Bride” of Christ.  Jesus’ point is simple and clear:  my followers don’t fast, because I’m with them.  When I'm gone, they will fast.  Here’s an important question.  It’s easy, but important:  Is Jesus with us right now?  Is He PHYSICALLY with us?  No. He’s not.  He’s here in Spirit, but He’s not here in body.  That means His followers ARE to fast.  Obviously, Jesus saw the time for fasting coming, because in Matthew 6:16 He said, “And WHEN you fast….”  Notice it doesn’t say, “And IF you fast…” but “And WHEN you fast…”  So, WHEN we fast we’re called NOT to act the way the hypocrites acted when they fasted.  Three times now Jesus has used the Jewish religious leaders as examples of how NOT to practice spiritual disciplines.  Each of the three examples gives us the same instruction:  Don’t practice your spiritual disciplines for others to see.  Here in addressing the practice of fasting Jesus tells us not to be gloomy ones as the hypocrites; for they disfigure their faces so that they may appear as fasting ones to men.  Fasting is NOT fun.  It’s not supposed to be fun.  In fact, if you’ve ever fasted for more than a day or two, you know that fasting can lead to some not so pleasant feelings, and intense hunger.  When you take the time and effort to fast from food for a day, or two, or a week or even longer, you may want people to know that you’re making a special sacrifice for God.  The religious leaders of Jesus’ day did.  So instead of getting up, showering, shaving, combing their hair and trimming their beards, they did the opposite:  they messed up their hair.  Sometimes they even put some ashes in their hair and on their faces.  They wore uncomfortable clothes.  They were sacrificing and the least they could receive for it was the accolades of others.  

  Jesus tells us that if that’s our goal: the recognition of others, that is all the reward we’ll ever receive.  There is another way to fast, though.  It’s Jesus’ way.  Here’s how Jesus tells us to fast: ¹⁷But when you (singular) fast, anoint your head and wash your face ¹⁸so that you may not appear to men as fasting, but to your Father, the one in secret, and your father, the one seeing in secret, will reward you.  For Jesus fasting is the same as giving and prayer---No one but God is supposed to know what we’re doing.  When we fast, Jesus tells us to get up, take a shower or a bath, put on a little after shave or perfume, dress as if it’s a normal day, and keep the focus on God.  If fasting is abstaining from something, usually food, for spiritual purposes, and during that time asking God to grow you to the next level, then during our fast our focus turns directly to God. 

This teaching is clear and simple.  Jesus covered it in a few sentences, but what I want to do right now is to talk about the “how to’s” of fasting, since for many fasting is a new idea, and since our culture has such a distorted view of food that for those who know about fasting, it may simply be as a dieting technique.  Let me say first:  FASTING as we’re using the term this morning is not done to lose weight.  Fasting is abstaining from something, usually food—but it could be many other things—for spiritual reasons.  You may have never considered it, but you could go on a “television fast,” during which you watch no television, or when you don’t  watch it during certain specific hours of the day.  You could go on a “credit card fast” a time during which you don’t use any credit cards.  You could go on a “gossip fast” and so on.  Fasting is done to focus our attention on God and to ask God to move us to the next level in some area of our lives as His followers.  Fasting can be done individually, as a family, as a congregation, or even as a nation.  Remember that when Jesus said, “When YOU fast…” the first time, the you was PLURAL. The second time the you was SINGULAR.  So even though His teaching is that we’re not supposed to draw attention to ourselves when we fast, we may certainly fast together and even draw strength from one another during a corporate fast.

    Let’s talk a little bit about the three types of fasts involving food.  They’re:  1)  ABSOLUTE fasts;  2) NORMAL fasts and; 3) PARTIAL fasts.  An absolute fast is a fast from all food and drink.  Such fasts can be dangerous to the human system, and are not to be undertaken except in very specific situations and for limited times.  In the Bible there are only a few examples of absolute fasts.  The most famous are the 40 day fasts of Moses, Elijah and Jesus.  No normal human being can undertake an absolute fast for 40 days without the supernatural intervention of God. 

  The most common type of fasting undertaken by followers of Jesus is the normal fast.  In a normal fast, one abstains from all food and drink except water.  During the fast, as with any form of fast, when the mind notices hunger pangs, or other symptoms of not eating, the person turns their attention to God and focuses on Him.  Also, during meal times, since you’re not taking the time to eat, it’s good to take the time to be alone with God—praying, reading Scripture, or worshiping Him.  (Remember, fasting is for a spiritual purpose, so we don’t fast so that we can get an extra half hour or hour of work into the day!)  A common time frame for a normal fast is 24 hours, and typically such fasts go from one evening meal until the evening meal the next day. 

  The partial fast, is abstaining from certain types or varieties of food.  You’ve probably heard or even participated in the common practice in some Christian denominations of abstaining from certain foods during Lent or on specific days of the week or year.  These are partial fasts.  When we’re participating in a partial fast over an extended period of time, every time we think of the food from which we’re abstaining, we turn our attention to God and focus on Him.

  So, why fast?  Why abstain from food or other activities for a spiritual purpose, and how does God use fasting to grow us to the next level?  The why is actually simple:  When we stop eating for a period of time, or stop watching television, or whatever it is that is the focus of our fast, when we think of those things, because of a sense of hunger, or lack, or need, instead of focusing on them we focus on God.  You may remember the 60/60 challenge I presented back at the end of May—setting your watch or cell phone alarm to go off every 60 minutes for 60 days, and when it goes off to ask, “Is what I'm doing in God’s will right now?  Fasting is similar to that, but when we fast from food the hunger pains won’t come at regular, hourly intervals.  They may not come at all for a time, but once they start they may be frequent.  That’s when we focus our attention on God, praying for His strength, and if we’re fasting for a specific purpose, then we pray in that area.

Let me give you an example from New Life’s past.  Back in January of 2005, we’d decided to have a month long launch of our CLUB (Come Let Us Build) process.  Part of that process was a church-wide fast that was held on Tuesday, January 11, 2005.  At the time the series of messages and the fast was planned, we had no property, and knew of none being available at a price we could afford as a congregation.  A couple weeks before the series started we found out about 127 Knoch Road.  A member of the community had told Elder Dave Norris that the property might be coming up for sale, so Elder Frank Relihan and I had visited, and prayer walked the land on the “brisk” morning of Monday, December 20, 2004.  That morning we left a note in the front door of the home of George Fehring, the property owner.  After that we waited, and waited, and waited.  We heard nothing. 2004 ended and 2005 began.  I drove past the property a number of times during that period, and each time the note was still in the door, that is until the morning of Sunday, January 9, 2005.  The note was gone, but still we heard nothing.  Then on the afternoon of Tuesday, January 11, the day of the church-wide fast, a day when many folks from New Life were abstaining from food and asking God to take us to the next level with regard to finding property, the phone in my study rang.  It was Dr. Ronald Flatt, the nephew of George Fehring.  He told us he’d found the note, and wanted to know whether we wanted to get together to talk about the possibility of our purchasing the property.  Some would say the timing was a coincidence, that Dr. Flatt would have called on January 11, 2005, whether we had designated it as a day of fasting or not.  What I know is that on the specific day we had set aside to fast and call on God to move us to the next level in our pursuit of purchasing land for New Life, the call came.  I call that a divine appointment, not a coincidence.

As I was preparing this message, I realized that we haven’t been as intentional as we may have been in calling for times of prayer and fasting, individually and corporately as we’ve moved forward in various areas here at New Life. When we went through the 40 Days of Purpose, we undergirded the process with times of prayer and fasting.  The impact was powerful.  When Pastor Tim was here, he and I invested regular days in times of prayer and fasting for the congregation, praying for everyone in the New Life directory by name, a practice that Brad and I will be moving into intentionally this fall.  In addition, we’ll be much more intentional about preparing for new seasons of ministry and mission at New Life with “seasons” of prayer and fasting. 

The key to all of this though is not to practice any of our spiritual disciplines in order to draw attention to ourselves, or to try to “impress” God with what we’re doing.  The key is, as Jesus put it, to quietly and intentionally invest time in fasting before God, knowing that God sees and rewards faithful, loving obedience.  Here’s TODAY’S CHALLENGE: I will set aside one day this week to fast and call on the Lord to move me to the next level in ________________.  The reason for the blank is that each of us undoubtedly has a different area in our lives where we want to focus our hearts for God to move us to the next level.  Some need to move deeper in prayer. Others need to memorize Scripture.  Others need to reorder priorities.  You know what area most needs your attention.  Remember, if you have never fasted before, and you’re going to abstain from food and or drink for a period of time, consider your general state of health.  Those with diabetes or hypoglycemia may want to fast from something other than food.  Those in general, good health, may want to start with a “one meal fast,” where you eat breakfast, then fast during lunch, investing the time in prayer and fellowship with the Lord, and then breaking the fast with your evening meal.  Take the matter to the Lord.  He will show you the kind of fast that will honor Him, and as you fast, don’t make a big deal about it. Remember, the Lord is the only one who should know you’re fasting other than you!

  One word of caution here:  As you make fasting part of your, regular spiritual disciplines, you may find that it IS a way of losing weight, and the spiritual discipline may become more of a way of controlling your weight, and the focus will shift.  That is NOT what we’re talking about here today. As we’ve said: FASTING is abstaining from something, usually food, for spiritual purposes, and during that time asking God to grow you to the next level.   Fasting for physical health reasons is something that should be done under the supervision of a physician.  The challenges I present here on Sunday mornings if lived out faithfully WILL impact every area of our lives—not just the spiritual, but the physical, emotional and mental as well.  The reason I offer them, though, is that you and I may DO something that will draw us closer to Jesus, and into fuller daily obedience to Him.  As we do that others will see Him at work in us, and be led to glorify God.

  Please stand with me.  Let’s look at the challenge again:  TODAY’S CHALLENGE: I will set aside one day this week when I will fast and call on the Lord to move me to the next level in ________________.  As you and I begin to fast individually and corporately, Jesus promises that God will reward us.  The rewards are known only to God at this moment, but eventually they will be seen in our lives and others will be blessed through them.  Fasting is NOT just for Jesus’ day.  Fasting is for our day, that Jesus may be experienced more fully and powerfully in us, and through us, to our families, our friends and our community!  Let’s pray…………………….Amen.