Our Rule of Life - Prayer & Fasting Pt1

So a bit of a recap of this series that we're in.

We're in this Rule of Life series here, and what is this series about?

It's about developing this set of practices as a church family that

we gather around, we engage in.

For what purpose?

In order that we would be with Jesus, that we would become more like

Jesus, that we would find ourselves being as Jesus was in the world.

And this is the telos of your life.

Did you know this, church?

Telos is the point, the end goal, the end game of why you have been created.

It has been to know God, but to become like Him, to fulfill that

Genesis mandate in Genesis 1 and 2.

To fulfill that mandate, we need to become more like Jesus, more like the true

selves that we were created by God to be.

But that doesn't come just by a bunch of wishful thinking.

It comes as we engage in these practices that have been given to us, these means

of grace by which we find ourselves in, in His presence, and it's only in

His presence that we find ourselves transformed more into His likeness.

So we've been looking at these different practices.

We've grouped them into three sets of three under each of the three values

that, uh, we highlight here at Reddoor.

So we've got this first one here, relational.

We resist individualism and consumerism by the sharing of our whole lives

through the practices of hospitality and witness, service and generosity.

So we've already looked at those over the course of the series.

And then the next one, real.

Under the value of real, we have confession and forgiveness and worship.

So we've just recently been through these, and some of these we're actually gonna

revisit and, um, in a few weeks' time.

Um, and, and if you're not up to speed on all this, all of this is on our

podcast, which brings us to where we are today, which is this next one, reliant.

So with under the value of being reliant, so we resist self-reliance by abiding in

Christ through the practices of prayer and fasting, Sabbath and scripture.

Now, prayer and fasting do go together.

Now, we speak a lot about prayer.

Today, the focus is on fasting, but you can't actually

divorce fasting from prayer.

If you divorce prayer from fasting, you just end up with starving.

And, um-

It doesn't really do much except make you hangry.

All right, so let me begin here.

Actually, let me begin by praying, shall we?

Father God, we again still and settle ourselves in your presence, and we set

our hearts and our minds upon hearing from you in these moments that we have

right now to come before your word.

So Holy Spirit, lead and guide us into all truth.

Instruct each of us according to the will of the Father in this time that we

have, this moment that we have right now.

We yield ourselves to the work of the Spirit Illuminate us to

your truth this morning, we pray.

Amen.

All right, church family, let me ask you this question:

What are you holding fast to?

Let's just look at this image here for a moment, and I'll just let this image sit.

What are you holding fast to?

So a few weeks ago, and, and look, this, this won't go on forever,

church, but while it's still live, you're gonna get examples, metaphors,

analogies from our trip away, okay?

So just be gracious and bear with us, right?

So a few weeks ago, we're in London and, uh, we're getting on

the Tube, the train in London.

It was hectic.

It was one of those moments where the, the train was just packed and you're

just like, the door opens and it's just this wall of people, and you're like,

'How are we gonna…?' But it just, you just, you just squeeze on in there.

And so we did, we squeezed on in and I'm thinking, 'All right, it's pretty,

it's pretty hard to find somewhere to hold onto because there's so many

people,' without it being awkward.

You know, you're under someone's arm, or it's just like, it's just, you're

just finding your face up against inappropriate parts of other people's bo-

It's like, it's a very awkward scenario.

So I'm thinking, 'Okay, to avoid all that awkwardness, I just, if I just

brace myself, right, I'll be fine.

Okay?

When the train moves, it'll be fine.

If I just get the right, I don't actually need to hold onto

anything.' Anyway, as soon as the train takes off, it's not fine.

And Dale ends up stumbling into all the people around.

I almost ends up in someone's lap, and then you're incurring the scorn

of the well-seasoned Tube traveler who's just like, "Ugh, rookie tourist.

Don't they know they need to hold on?" And, uh, so then it's like, 'All

right, well, I need to find something to hold onto.' So the minute I had

something to hold onto, I was fine.

No matter what the train was doing, okay, I was good, I was stable, and

I, then I was able to avoid further damage to my neighbors and to my own

emotional state of the awkwardness of falling into strange people's laps.

So in this very shakable, uncertain world in which we live,

what are you holding fast to for security, for assurance, for life?

In this world in which this reality of spiritual warfare is raging on around us

all the time, whether we acknowledge it or not, what are you holding fast to in this

place of conflict and strife and trouble?

What are you holding fast to for your life?

I mean, we all know the right answer as Christians should be God, okay?

But it's amazing how we are tempted, and tricked, and fooled into holding

fast to all manner of other things other than God, trying to find that

hope, that assurance, that security.

And even as it says here, this little scripture from Deuteronomy 30:20, and

Deuteronomy 30:20

actually this command is repeated over and over in Deuteronomy, "Hold fast

to Him, for the Lord is your life."

God is giving this word to His people to prepare them to

enter into the promised land.

Why does He put it on repeat over and over again?

Because He knows they're gonna be tempted to take hold of all manner

of other things other than Him that ultimately will not give them life,

but actually the complete opposite.

So how do we hold fast to God?

'Cause it's one thing to say it, but how do we do it?

Well, we do it through these spiritual practices that we've been talking about.

And I think there's probably no more powerful practice, well, it's a pretty

powerful one anyway, let's not rank them, but the practice of fasting.

And it's in the name itself, isn't it?

We fast to hold fast to God.

It is an incredibly powerful practice for holding fast to God.

And so let's just quickly define what we mean by fasting here for a moment.

Voluntarily going without food for a set period of time for a spiritual purpose.

That's important, a spiritual purpose.

Temporarily restraining physical appetites in order to connect with

God in a posture of surrender.

It is a way of praying with our whole body.

And then finally, I love this from Dallas Willard, 'Fasting is feasting upon God.'

And so today I want to look at, and we'll go to this in a moment, why Jesus seemed

to assume fasting, that His followers would fast, what fasting is and what

it isn't, and then, um, we'll just look at some practical steps about how do

we actually engage in this discipline.

So before we just look at our key passage for this morning, let's

just consider this next image here.

Hopefully you can read it.

Just asking this question, not to provoke any sense of

guilt, shame, or condemnation.

'Oh, I'm a terrible Christian, I don't fast.' Okay,

fasting's not commanded, okay?

Calm the farm.

All right?

But it might be good to just consider where you fit here on this spectrum.

What kind of spiritual faster are you?

Now, I put the word spiritual there for a reason, because who

knows, fasting is life, one of the ultimate life hacks right now.

Like, if you go on any of your podcast gurus, they're gonna be having

people on talking about fasting.

Fasting is basically the cure-all for everything right now.

And we shouldn't be surprised, right?

That something that is such a core spiritual discipline and practice would

have incredible health benefits as well.

So some of you here, you might be, 'I'm an intermittent faster.

You know, I fast for health reasons, right?

And I'm very disciplined in it.' That's not a spiritual fast, right?

And you can't just suddenly just magically say the name of Jesus and turn that

kind of fast into a spiritual fast.

So we're ta- talking about spiritual fasting here.

Maybe you're here and you go, 'I have never thought about it before.' Okay.

So I would say just be curious and open this morning.

Um, maybe you're a non-practicing faster.

So you approve of it.

You're like, 'Scripture testifies to it.' I don't do it.

Yeah, it's a good idea, but no, I don't do it.

Uh, maybe you're a lapsed faster.

Maybe you're like, "Once upon a time, yeah, I was really disciplined

in this pract- practice, but, uh, I've really let go of it."

Maybe you're a nut No way.

Do not ask me to go without food.

Not happening.

Okay?

And we'll see what the Holy Spirit does with you this morning, shall we?

Um, maybe you're an occasional faster, so if the ca- occasion demands it.

Like you're in a season of trouble, of strife, of suffering, decision,

and that would provoke you to enter into a time of fasting.

And then maybe you are here and you would say, yes, no, I am a regular

weekly, or whatever your w- regular rhythm might be, disciplined faster.

And great.

So in the spirit of full transparency, where does Dale sit?

Okay?

All right.

Dale's probably a non-practicing faster, to be honest, and might dip

occasionally into the occasional faster.

All right.

N-now, please don't tune out on what I'm gonna say, going, "Oh,

you're a hypocrite." All right?

I'm not standing here, up here as going, "Follow me as I

follow Christ in this." Right?

Okay.

The blessing of doing this message though has been like, oh wow.

All right.

This is now something I deeply want to engage in as a regular practice, okay?

And you might go on that journey as well.

So this is something that I've resisted for a while, um, and we go

into the reasons for that in a moment.

Uh, but where do you sit on this spectrum?

Again, without guilt, shame, or condemnation.

And where might the Holy Spirit be nudging you perhaps?

Perhaps.

All right.

Let's look at this passage of scripture from Matthew chapter six.

Uh, so this is right here in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus says this: "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in

front of others to be seen by them.

If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the

hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others.

Truly I tell you, they've received their reward in full.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know

what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret.

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand

praying in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, pray to your Father

who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will

be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their

faces to show others they are fasting.

Truly I tell you, they have received their rewa- reward in full.

But when you fast, put oil on your head, wash your face."

Seriously, if we all started putting oil on our head when we

fasted, people would be wondering what we were doing, wouldn't they?

But obviously context, right?

Uh, wash your face so that it will not be obvious to others that you are

fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen, and your Father, who sees what

is done in secret, real- will reward you.

So like I just said, these verses are sitting at the center

of the Sermon on the Mount.

What's the Sermon on the Mount?

It is essentially Jesus' manifesto for life in the Kingdom of God.

Okay, so he is describing here in this sermon how the citizens of the kingdom,

his kingdom, disciples of Jesus, are to r- right- to rightly relate to the

King of the kingdom and to one another.

And Jesus gives instructions on three practices here, and fasting is among them.

And, uh, we have to pay attention here to it.

With the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is standing on a mount, and he's

delivering, uh, this sermon, and it echoes something found in the Old Testament.

It echoes Moses, doesn't it?

And Moses is standing on the mountain, and he's bringing

the law to the people of God.

And what did he bring the law for?

What was the point of the law?

It was to show people how to live in right relationship with

God and with one another, right?

But ultimately, they couldn't do it, could they?

Because their hearts were corrupted.

So Jesus comes, and he makes a way for his Spirit to be given to people, that

they are able to live in this way of right relating to God and to one another.

And he ups the ante on the law, doesn't he?

He fulfills it, and he brings it to its fullness in this description

in the Sermon on the Mount.

And right here in the middle, and the bit that I missed was, you may have noticed

it, was actually the Lord's Prayer, which sits in the middle of the middle

of the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.

But right in the middle, he talks about these three practices, and he talks

about them in a way that has a bit of an assumptiveness about it, doesn't it?

Right, he doesn't say you have to.

He doesn't say if.

He says when.

So it's kind of like Jesus is treating these three things of giving of

praying and of fasting as no-brainers.

So I'm calling them the no-brainer trifecta.

So Jesus offers up this no-brainer trifecta.

If you're seeking, how do I live in the kingdom of God, live rightly before the

king, and live rightly with my fellow citizens in the kingdom, to what end?

That, that you would fulfill the original promise given all the way

back to Abraham in Genesis, that we would be a light to the world and a

blessing to all nations, that we would be a people who would be that way.

Sitting here are these three practices, and included amongst them is fasting.

Like, we get the praying thing, surely.

Well, that makes sense, right?

'Cause how on earth are we gonna have a relationship with God if

we don't communicate with him?

But, and giving, I think we intuitively can get giving, right?

'Cause God's a generous God, so we need to participate, and it's a

very clear and obvious way of how to bless others and make a difference

in the world, is through giving.

But fasting?

Really, you're gonna include that, Lord, in this trifecta in

the middle of your manifesto?

What is that about?

Why is fasting there?

And it's good to wonder these things, right?

It is good to sit sometimes with scripture when it seems a little

bit curious and go, "Spirit, can we wonder about that together?"

What is going on there?

So let's wonder about that together, shall we, church?

Why might Jesus have included fasting in the no-brainer trifecta?

So let's just go back a bit in Matthew's gospel, back to Matthew chapter four,

which says this, 'Then Jesus was led by the Spirit.' So why the then?

What's, what's just transpired before this moment is Jesus has been baptized.

He's come up out of the waters.

He's had this, uh, declaration from the Father in heaven, 'This is my

Son with whom I am well pleased.' And the Spirit's descended upon

him, and now he's being led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Super fun.

After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he's hungry.

A little bit obvious, but yes.

And then the tempter came to him and says, 'If you are the Son of God, tell these

stones to become bread.' Jesus answered, 'It is written, Man shall not live on

bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' So Jesus has

fasted for 40 days, and then what happens?

The accuser has come and is tempting him.

If you are the Son of God, prove it.

Turn these stones into bread.

I'm gonna hit you where it hurts, in your place of hunger.

Let me tempt you in your place of need and hunger to hold fast to something

other than your Father in heaven.

Hold fast to food.

Hold fast to comfort.

Hold fast to distraction, to power and control, whatever it might be.

The enemy hits us in our places of hunger, in our places of need, tempting us to

hold fast to anything other than God.

Jesus here, He is led by the Spirit into fasting, and this is interesting.

He's not fasting to get more of the Spirit, is He?

He's not working something up.

He is responding, and fasting is a discipline of the Spirit.

It's not something we do because we just think it's a good idea.

It's something we're led into through the teaching of the Word and through

the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

And just as Jesus faced opposition in fasting, you know what?

We're gonna face opposition.

Even though it's a Spirit-led thing, we shouldn't just assume by that that

it's just gonna be this glorious, grace-filled, ethereal experience.

No, we can expect opposition and resistance because we are in a war,

and we ex- can expect temptation, and we can expect that it's

not gonna be easy all the time.

And so the next verse in this passage is key for understanding fasting, too.

Jesus abstained from bread in order to actually take hold of something.

So again, this is not just about abstaining, but it's about what

we appropriate in the abstaining.

Because like I said before, if it's just about abstaining, then

it's just dieting or starving.

We fast, we abstain from food in order to appropriate, to take hold of something.

So Jesus says here, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word

that comes from the mouth of God."

And these words come from Deuteronomy 8:3 which says this: "He humbled you, causing

Deuteronomy 8:3

you to hunger and then feeding you," so He's speaking to the Israelites here,

"with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man

does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

So the Israelites, the people of God, in their 40 years wandering

in the wilderness, they ate manna, something that they had no idea about.

And why did God do that?

He could have fed them anything in that moment.

He could have fed them on rabbits.

I mean, He had, they had that quail moment, but that was

actually a moment of discipline.

But you know, if, if it had been, you know, oh, God just, you know, manifested

a bunch of cattle, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and, you know, they

likely would have just attributed that to natural causes, not supernatural ones.

He gave them something that existed in a category all of its own that defied

natural understanding, and He did them to teach us, teach them and us through

their story that man doesn't live by physical bread alone, but by a direct

connection with the Spirit of God.

This is the appropriation part, believing God enough to believe that He can nourish

you and sustain you by His presence.

We learn this and we come to know this in our Noah.

You know, like, we get a little obsessed with knowing things here, okay?

But we actually, like… And this is the, this is where something like

fasting is so good, 'cause fasting is this fully embodied practice, and when

we actually submit to it, we actually come to know its fruitfulness and its

power in a way that far transcends just intellectual and rational,

logical ascent and understanding.

We deeply know it, and we know its goodness, and we know its power.

And, you know, at this point, it's further emphasized in another passage

where Jesus talks about fasting.

This is, this is really good.

In Luke 5:33-35, and Jesus is being questioned here, and it says, "John's

Luke 5:33–35

disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees,

but yours go on eating and drinking."

And Jesus answered them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast

while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be

taken from them. In those days they will fast." Yeah, so when Jesus returns, we,

we won't need to fast anymore, right?

Because He's there.

He's present, physically present amongst us.

But in His absence, we now fast.

H- why?

To take hold of Him, to appropriate His presence So what can we

learn about this from fasting?

Just to summarize, uh, just this next slide here.

What can we learn?

So to live, to live, to truly live, not just to exist, we

need more than physical bread.

All right, again, bear with me, okay?

Can yous have this next slide up?

All right.

What is this about?

Okay.

I just thought this was a great reminder or, uh, just

highlights that point I just made.

So what is Adam doing here?

So Adam is at a gravestone for James Bond.

All right.

I know, go with me.

And, uh, when we were on our trip to the Faroe Islands, one of the

final scenes in the latest James Bond movie, James Bond dies.

Y- this is a massive hike.

Like, on, just on the other edge there is just, like, this

100-plus meter drop into the ocean.

It was terrifying.

I'm terrified taking this photo, church.

Um, but they've erected this tombstone to James Bond, and on it at the bottom, the

bit Adam's pointing to is, "The proper function of man is to live, not to exist."

I thought that is very good, and it's quoted in the movie, but it's also

really what all this is about, right?

We can exist in this world, and we can exist happily distracted, numbed by the

culture around us, but that ain't living.

His true life, abundant life that Christ died to give us, is only found in Him,

as we know Him, as we abide in Him, as we appropriate His presence in this life now.

All right, next slide there, Sabrina.

What else can we learn about fasting from this?

Fasting is a discipline of the spirit.

I think this is really important to keep in mind.

And then the next one… Was there a next one?

Oh, there is a next one, yes.

Is not just about abstaining, but it is also about appropriating.

It's not just about letting go.

It is also about taking hold, holding fast And we also need to remember what f-

fasting is not about punishing the body.

We get these really warped understanding often in, um, certain streams of the

church that our physical body is bad.

That's not true.

When, you know, when scripture's talking about the flesh and needing

to crucify the flesh, it's not talking about your physical being.

It's talking about your corrupted human earthly nature.

And so we don't fast to punish our bodies, and we don't do

it to prove anything to God.

We gotta be careful we don't turn it into some kind of gospel whereby I'm

earning God's approval or favor by look at this hard thing that I'm doing.

Look at what I'm denying.

Now I've earned the, uh, favor of God, the grace of God.

And we can't do it to manipulate God, and I think this is why I kinda gave

up on fasting, 'cause I think we can either directly or indirectly pick up

a message that fasting is what I do when I want God to do something for me.

Yeah?

So I've got this situation in my life.

It's beyond my ability to work out, so I'm gonna fast and I'm gonna prove

to God how devoted I am, and then he's gonna do what I want him to do.

Now, God is gracious, right?

And sometimes he honors our very messed up, distorted prayers in this place.

But over the long haul You know, y- you are gonna hit a wall in that space, okay?

If you're ultimately, your fasting is not for His presence first and foremost, if

it's not… You remember, right, where He talks about fasting in the Sermon on the

Mount, and I said it's right in the middle there in the Sermon on the Mount, and

right in the middle of the middle of the Sermon on the Mount is the Lord's Prayer,

and how does the Lord's Prayer begin?

"Your kingdom come, your will be done." Yeah?

So yes, we take hold of Him, and yes, we may be bringing our prayers

and our needs in that space as well, which is fine and good, but it's

all ultimately submitted to that.

Your will, not mine.

And so fasting is not a way for you to get God to do what you want Him to do.

That is to misunderstand its purpose, and it's a trap I think we easily fall into.

How we going for time here?

Okay.

All right.

So just continuing on this vein where fasting, uh, can go wrong.

If we look at just a few places of warning within God's Word.

In Zechariah 7:5, goes wrong when it's not done unto God, and that touches

Zechariah 7:5

on what I just said a moment ago.

So in Zechariah 7:5 it says this: "Ask all the people of the land and the priests,

Zechariah 7:5

'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past 70 years,

was it really for me that you fasted? Were you really fasting unto me?'" And now

we gotta get clear on that, and I think that's part of what it is to be Spirit-led

in this practice of fasting as well.

Is it for the Lord?

And then Isaiah 58.

Oh, Isaiah 58 is, you know, pretty epic passage on fasting.

And, uh, so let's just actually read the passage and then we'll

go through these three things.

All right.

So in, in Isaiah 58:1-9 it says, "Shout it aloud, do not hold back.

Isaiah 58:1–9

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.

They seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that

does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.

They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near.

'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it?

Why have we humbled ourselves and you haven't noticed?'

Yet on the day of your fasting you do as you please and you exploit your workers.

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each

other with wicked fists." I mean, it's one thing to get hungry, but

to start hitting people, like, wow.

You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen?

Only a day for people to humble themselves?

Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed, for lying in sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the kind of fasting I have 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 with the hungry and to provide

the poor wanderer with shelter?

When you see the naked to clothe them and not to turn away from your

own flesh and blood, then your light will break forth like the dawn, and

your healing will quickly appear.

Then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the

Lord will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer.

You will cry for help, and he will say, 'Here am I.' All right, so just a few

things from this passage in Isaiah, if we can just go to that next slide, Sabrina.

You know, fasting goes wrong when we treat it as transactional.

You know, I'm gonna do this, and God's gonna give me this, okay?

When we treat it as transactional, if it's not done unto God for the glory

of God from a place of worship and devotion first and foremost, it will

easily slip into a transactional act.

When it's performative, okay, when we're doing it to look pious, to look

religious, to be a good Christian.

And then when it's compartmentalized, which we just cannot do, church.

We can never have this, I'm good this way, but not good this way to those around me.

Right, there is no reality where that is okay, where that works.

We can never say, you know, I am at peace with God, and I am right

with God, and be in strife and conflict with those around us.

This always has to be, it's a movement.

It's always moving.

And so if your act of fasting ultimately is not causing you to have a greater

heart of compassion and mercy for those around you, for the world around you,

something's going wrong there, and we need to be aware of these things.

All right, I thought I would share.

So just during this week, I've just been doing, you know, a bit of a

survey, chatting to our staff about their relationship with fasting and had

a great conversation with Tim Olsen.

And, uh, 'cause Tim is somebody for, who for quite a while has been, as a regular

weekly practice, engaging in fasting.

And maybe some of you are sitting here right now going, but didn't

Jesus say in Matthew six that we're supposed to do it in secret?

Have you not just ruined the power of fasting for Tim by

telling the church publicly?

Now, that is to miss what Jesus is saying there in that passage.

I can wholeheartedly share Tim's testimony, and he's given me

permission too, because Tim is a man who walks in deep humility, and there

is nothing remotely performative about Tim Olsen whatsoever.

I

didn't even know he did this until Luke told me Tim does

this, so I think we're safe.

Um- All right.

So Tim, Tim shared this with me.

He wrote this to me in an email, and I thought I would share it with you

because there is, there is a lot of wisdom in what he has to share here, in

how he came to engage in this practice and what it has come to mean to him.

So in thinking about this fasting practice and the why did I enter into

it, I have felt like in some sense, I didn't think too hard about it.

It was Lent, and I found myself wanting to draw closer to God by putting a spiritual

discipline in place for the Lenten season.

If you're not sure what the Lenten season is, it's just a

period of time, uh, before Easter.

And I chose Tuesdays as my day, and I proceeded to fast on Tuesdays,

and during that fast, I wanted to be praying for my marriage and my family.

Lent ended, but Tuesdays have become a day where I drew closer to God intentionally

by giving up food and focusing on prayer.

I did not want to stop that rhythm in my life, so even though it's been years since

that first Lent, I continue to do it now as a part of my weekly walk with God.

It has become a rule of life for me, I suppose.

If I think about-- If I think about it, my Orthodox mindset

says that it's a no-brainer.

I happily walked into this practice, and I expected God to meet me

there, as it was an intentional act on my part to draw closer to God.

What's the promise from James?

"Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you." I didn't go into it thinking that

I would receive an epiphany or God would come down in a beam of light and give

me a special dispensation of His favor.

I know this is a Christian discipline that has been done for thousands

of years, and I trusted that God would meet me if I entered into it.

In that simple act, I have found that Tuesdays are the

day I feel closest to God.

I look forward to Tuesdays in a way I never did before.

It has become a discipline I yearn to enter.

Perhaps this season of weekly fasting will end, but for now, I

cherish the practice of fasting because it brings me closer to God.

I'm not surprised by this drawing closer to God feeling.

There may be deep theologies involved in the practice of fasting, but for

me, it was a simple intentional choice fueled by my desire to be closer to God.

It started with the choice to enter into the discipline, and the rest of the hard

work that has been done as a result, well, God has done that work in me.

So if people are asking me about fasting, I would tell them to just do it and

see what God can do in your life as a result of adding this discipline.

So good, eh?

So what I love about this is that Tim, and even though Tim is very

theologically minded, he didn't go into a deep theological treatise

before trying to prove to himself, uh, that fasting was worth doing.

He just submitted, and yielded, and obeyed, and went and did it.

He stood under the practice, and now he has a profound

understanding of the practice.

Yeah?

And that is how you come to understand things, by standing

under them, by submitting to them.

And perhaps that is an invitation for you this morning.

You know, I was gonna refer to different resources you could go to to learn more

about fasting, but at the end of the day, it's not rocket science, people.

And we can spend so much time trying to convince ourselves that it's worth

doing, and try much time trying to understand the mechanics of it, and the

Holy Spirit's going, "Well, you just do it. It's not hard. Stop eating." Like,

how many books do you need to read?

How many podcasts do you need to listen to to be convinced?

Yeah, if the Holy Spirit is leading you, then just Nike it.

Just do it.

Yeah?

Start.

Start.

Okay.

So where do you start?

Under that.

All right.

A simple s- a simple guide for starting to fast.

Firstly, are you being led by the Spirit?

And this, this is important, right?

Because as much as Jesus clued it in his no-brainer trifecta,

not everybody should fast.

Not everybody should fast.

You go, "Really? You've just banged on about it for the last thirty-five

minutes, and now you're saying not everybody should do it?" Yeah, not

everybody should, and the Spirit will not lead all of you into it because why?

Well, for different reasons, but some of the main ones, in our culture right now,

we've got messed up relationships with food, messed up relationships with our

bodies, and sometimes engaging in the spiritual disci- discipline of fasting,

it would actually be dangerous for you.

I'm not just talking from a medical perspective, but if you've had, you know,

a journey with eating disorders and things like that, something like this, if there

hasn't been a deep, true, genuine healing from that, that just becomes a, fasting

just becomes another form of control with spiritual words attached to it.

Yeah?

So we've got to be wise in this space.

Are you being led by the Spirit in this?

Um, and you know what?

If you go, "Okay, I can't not eat food," right?

Because of medical reasons, because of perhaps these other reasons

that I've just touched on, not just because You have a gluttony problem

or you just really, really love food.

Okay, that, that excuse doesn't cut it.

But for these other reasons, right, there are still things that

you can lay down and participate with this same posture of heart.

You just go, "What am I clinging to for my life?" There are still ways that you

can engage, uh, in a very similar vein to not eating food for a period of time.

Yeah?

You can just, you could turn off every screen for a day in your world.

You know, if that is what you'll go to, right, then turn those off for

a day and spend that time instead.

There are other ways of engaging.

Then start with why, not how much.

Before deciding what to give up, decide who you're fasting for.

Remember, it's first and foremost, it's an act of worship, and without that aspect,

it just becomes dieting or starving.

Write down in one sentence what you're bringing to God, a person, a

decision, a repentance, a longing.

Start small, okay?

Don't be going, "Great, yes. I'm gonna fast three days next

week." No, no, no, no, no.

Just start small.

Build the muscle.

It is a discipline, yeah?

And like all disciplines, we start small.

We're not gonna go out and run a marathon tomorrow.

We start bit by bit.

So c- comes in degrees.

Start with one meal, then two, then maybe try 24 hours or just, you know, a,

a regular rhythm of sunrise to sunset.

That's what the early church practiced.

Um, and e- expect it to be hard in the beginning.

Don't be surprised that it is.

And then, yeah, four, expect resistance, and resistance isn't failure.

And even if you do fail, don't go, "Oh, I'm a terrible Christian,"

and then give, and jettison the whole practice altogether.

If you fail, okay.

Just like, all right, well, moving on.

Let's, uh, try again next week.

Um, and so fasting will reveal how much your peace depends on food, on

comfort, and on control, and you might get irritable, and your flesh might

rage, and all of that is very normal.

Uh, just, you know, don't, if the Spirit is leading you into it, just don't get

discouraged by these places of resistance.

And as much as you can, do try to keep it hidden, not hyped.

You know, don't go telling everybody that this is what you're doing.

If you need some accountability, then great, bring another person

into it in the early stages.

Um, but then you know what?

Don't get superstitious about it either.

Oh my gosh, I've watched Christians twist themselves in all sorts of sh-

weird shapes and distort themselves and get all upset because, "Oh, I was

fasting and then I told somebody."

It's like, I thought, what, the magical power of it was broken?

It's like, because let's face it, fasting is hard to do and not have other people

notice that you're not eating food, right?

And so what, what, you can't lie to go, "Oh, you know, I'm having surgery

tomorrow, so I'm not eating." Right?

It's, it's okay.

It's all about that heart posture.

If you're doing it to just try and look good, yeah, that's a problem.

But it's like don't get all, you know, wigged out about it because,

"Oh no, somebody found out that I was fasting." It's really important to

fill the space, don't just empty it.

So what, what prayers are you gonna be bringing to the Lord?

And it's a great cue, your hunger, to turn your attention to God throughout the day.

But what are you gonna be praying?

What are your prayers in that space?

Have them written out beforehand.

And let it move outward, not just inward, and we talked about that in Isaiah 58.

And build rhythm before intensity.

So repeatable weekly or fortnightly rhythm is gonna serve you better

than one dramatic attempt.

Pick a day, and I would say, look, Wednesdays.

I think I'm gonna do Wednesdays.

The early church practiced Wednesdays and Fridays.

Look, if you want to go two days a week, I'd, I would suggest starting,

you know, in the smaller end.

But sometimes it's nice to know I'm doing this community and other people are doing

this as well, so, you know, if you want to join me on a Wednesdays, and oh, now

I've made myself accountable, haven't I?

Um, um, then, you know, come along.

Come along for the fasting ride.

It'll be fun.

Fun with fasting.

Um, beautiful.

All right.

So in the time that we have left, 'cause we're gonna take

communion together this morning.

Can we just bring up this final slide here, Sabrina?

All right.

I've got this image here again for you, 'cause I want to bring us back

to this point, to this key idea that fasting is such a powerful

way for how we hold fast to God.

And so as we prepare our hearts for this time of communion, I just want

you to spend a moment considering this image and perhaps what this image might

be saying to you in the time and the place and the season that you're in.

Consider this image and what you've, image and what you've heard about

fasting this morning, and what might the Spirit be saying to you in this moment?

What might the Spirit be saying to you about what you have heard?

And then, actually, Nige, do you want to come on up?

Um, as we consider communion this morning and what it means, as we remember Christ's

sacrifice, his broken body and his shed blood through the taking of communion

And this is the way he made so that he is able to eternally hold onto us.

What might you need to do?

What might you need to let go of in order to fully take hold of him

Because church family, this is the reality and this is what communion reminds us of.

He died.

He went to the cross and He rose again so that He would be able to eternally take

hold of us, so that w- we would never be able to be separated from His love.

But it is a two-way street

And so there is a need for us to respond and go and to take that hand that

is being reached out to us in love.

Think about this for a moment, Church, as we allow familiarity to slip away.

The God of all creation suffered and died to take hold of you

What kind of love is this?

You're just not that lovable, right?

Like, we are so broken before a holy God.

And yet He is so loving and good that even on your worst day, especially on

your worst day, He would still reach out through His death to take hold of you.

That's wild, and it's heart-melting, and it's beautiful, and this is what

we remember in this act of communion.

So what might you need to let go of that you are able to take hold of Him?

If you recognize through what we've talked about this morning and what

we've considered, you know, there is things I am holding onto, all manner

of things, that ultimately are not gonna bring me life, but I have been

fooled into believing they will.

Maybe this is a moment in prayer as you take hold of these communion

elements which represent Christ Himself, and this is the beautiful embodying

act of the way we take communion.

It is a representation in itself of us taking hold of the life of Christ,

of actually taking it into ourselves.

It is a beautiful and it is a powerful, reverent, fully embodied

act, this act of communion.

So church family, let's just take a moment now just to be still in His presence.

And when you feel… Whoa, I just got mail

Oh yeah, that's a good point.

Yeah, 'cause kids are with us this morning.

So parents, be thinking about how you can even direct your kids to

consider this image for a moment, and to encourage their little hearts

that God is reaching out for them.

How are they gonna take hold of Him?

So just take a few moments to sit with the Holy Spirit, and

when you feel ready, come.

We've got stations here.

Have we got any at the back?

Yep, stations at the back as well.

Just come, grab your communion elements, whether you wanna do it

as a, in a little group or whether you just wanna take it on your own.

That is completely your choice.

But let's just take these next few moments that we have, these

next five, 10 minutes or so, just to sit with the presence of God.

Allow God to minister to us through His Spirit, to come and to take these

communion elements, and then just to see how the Spirit leads us in this moment.

Amen.