FASTED LIFE - Week 2

Hello Go Church family, I'm Lara and I'm here with Pastor Matt Hatubah, and Gilbert.

Hello everyone.

We're so excited to be back here for week two of The Fasted Life.

Has it been fun so far?

I'm enjoying it.

Yes, very much.

It's an amazing subject and it's like everything else, I always say this, but it's so applicable.

I mean, it's something that we can always apply and use and allow it to really enhance

our walk with the Lord.

I'm glad that we talked about the meaning of fasting, that we spent some time in our

grow groups really digging into the discussion last week about Jesus and the temptation of

Jesus and how fasting played a part in these exchanges between him and the devil.

I find it really interesting that the fasting was such a big component.

Well, notice we didn't talk about this in the podcast, but probably you got into it

in your grow groups.

You see, the challenge of the temptation was all about identity.

Fasting put Jesus in a place to respond to temptation from his true identity, not be

drawn into the natural, which is something that you said that very well last week.

I would say that the same thing is true for us as we turn the voice of our flesh down,

as we turn the voice of this world down.

I love that verse in first John of love, not the world or the things of this world.

We change and we move our focus on to his things.

We can respond to the events of life from a place of our identity, our second Corinthians

521 identity, our second Corinthians 517 identity.

If you don't know what those verses say, look them up, read them for yourself because you

need that as your identity.

Those should be your identity cards, second Corinthians 517, second Corinthians 521.

Yeah, that's really good.

Like we talked about last week, those things are already done for you.

These are already finished works.

Jesus already paid the price.

Jesus already took his blood up into heaven, into the most holy place.

He finished all his work and sat down at the right hand of God.

The fact is everything else is now our responsibility to walk in and to know and to grow in.

Everything helps us grow into these things.

A couple of months ago, Pastor Tokes was with us from Abuja, Nigeria and he is the director

of REMA in Nigeria.

He made a comment to me.

He said, there is no one more blessed in the earth today than someone in Christ.

That's true.

Yeah.

That is what the Bible says.

Ephesians chapter one verse three says, I have been blessed with all spiritual blessings

in heavenly places in Christ.

There is no one more blessed than anyone in Christ.

Amen.

That's right.

That's good, isn't it?

That's amazing.

He is such a blessing.

Praise the Lord.

So let me read out the purpose of this series.

I think it's important that we visit it every once in a while and remember what we want

to get out of this series and the word of God in this series.

So Laura, could you read the purpose for them all?

Yes, sir.

We want the Go Church family to understand the power and place of fasting in their lives

and to recognize that we live a fasted life before God as a church.

That's so good.

Praise the Lord.

So we want to develop and we want to be able to live a fasted life before God.

So this is not something that we want to do once, we want to do in January, we're going

to try to do for a month if we fail two weeks in.

We're not talking about fasting as a New Year's resolution.

We're talking about fasting as a lifestyle.

A lifestyle that we can grow in from now and practice from now and keep exercising so that

we see the fruit, the rewards of our lifestyle that we chose to commit to the Lord.

So last week we talked about the meaning of fasting.

In week two we're going to talk about the method of fasting.

And the reason we want to talk about it is because I'm sure many of us still have many

questions about what it looks like, when do I do it, how do I do it, am I doing it wrong,

can I do it wrong or am I doing it right?

Can I do this again another time if this works well?

Like I'm sure we have tons of questions about this and hopefully today we get to answer

some of those questions and maybe give you some practical application points about how

you can pick it up right now.

Yeah.

I think one point that I want to make is the internet is largely beneficial or at least

it could be, but there are some things on the internet that I don't think are very helpful.

But the one thing that I could say is the internet is not the Bible.

And so what we know or what we practice about fasting should come from the word of God and

not from something.com.

And here's what I mean by that.

There you might find someone that is teaching, well, if you want direction, then you need

to do this kind of fast.

If you want to have victory in your life over bad habits, then you need to do this kind

of fast.

And here's the reality is everything that God did in Christ, he did by grace.

And if I'm going to receive what he has done for me in Christ, then I'm going to receive

it by faith, not by fasting.

So like that's what we talked about last week, fasting doesn't earn me something from him,

but fasting does help me change me.

It is one of these good works.

It is one of these godly things that I can do that has a reward for me.

And in the break, we were talking just among the three of us and Laura, you mentioned a

little bit about fasting.

You made a comment that was kind of funny.

You said, it seems like maybe sometimes when I thought I was fasting, I wasn't, it was

just dieting.

And I think that that's an important point to make because that's true.

If we're talking a little bit last week, especially we talked a little bit about what fasting

meant and we talked about saying no to things, but it needs to be replaced with something

else and it needs to be replaced with something spiritual.

Yeah.

So Laura, how about you share what you were mentioning?

Because I think there's two sides to the story.

And on one side you said like that there are things that you thought you were doing that

were fasting that were not, but then you realize on the flip side that there are things that

you were doing, but you didn't realize that that was fasting.

Right.

So why don't you share a little bit?

First of all, I love fasting helps me change me.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

So yes, looking back, I've started fasts and like called them out as fasting, but looking

back now they were just diets because I didn't finish them first.

Second, I wasn't like replacing anything, just cutting off food and there was no prayer

involved.

So that's a no-no.

But again, last year I can say that I have replaced a lot of bad habits and things that

took me away from the Lord and replaced them with fasting, like, sorry, with praying and

meditating on the word, spending time, learning more, getting to know God more, growing in

my relationship with the Lord.

But I didn't call it fasting at the time.

Now I'm like listening to you and learning through the Grow Group and this series that

now I fasted, so I know what to do now and call it fasting.

Praise God.

And the reward was there was a change in me.

Yeah.

That's pretty good.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

Praise God.

And I love that.

I love that you shared that.

There's a great friend to Go Church Beirut and to all of us, his name is Pastor Tom Cromwell.

I know that you got to meet the Cromwells when we were in Turkey last year.

Pastor Tom made a comment.

It was very profound.

He said, if you want to be spiritually healthy, do spiritual things today.

Do spiritually healthy things today.

Last week we were talking about documentaries about mountains, Gilbert's Netflix habit.

And I'm joking.

I know.

I wasn't so.

I noticed though, if you watch, I'm not a mountain climber, but if you watch these shows

about mountain climbers, all of them start at the bottom.

It's true.

Which is like obvious, but kind of profound.

Because they have a pretty clear goal.

The goal is to reach the summit and they start at the opposite of the summit.

But all of them that keep going, make it.

And if they don't keep going, maybe something prevents them.

Like in the case of a mountain, it's a weather storm or whatever that makes for an interesting

documentary.

The formula for success for mountain climbing is keep going higher.

And spiritually, it's that same way.

Fasting helps me change me by making room in my life for more spiritual things.

So if I say no to my flesh on a given thing, let's say cookies.

Because I like cookies.

I thought it was going to be gelato.

I'm so disappointed.

Okay, let's say gelato.

Gelato is easy to say no to in January though, because it's closed.

But if I tell myself no, if I tell my flesh no, I abstain from something and then I do

what Laura said, I replace it with a spiritual practice.

What am I doing?

I'm taking steps that are moving me toward my goal, and I may have not arrived there

at the ultimate goal today, but I am on my way.

If I want to be spiritually healthy, I need to do spiritually healthy things today.

Today.

That's so good.

Praise the Lord.

You know, I like something that you were mentioning at the beginning about not applying certain

formulas in this thing.

And I agree with that.

And it makes so much sense to me because the way God created us is he created individuals,

you know, with individual, I don't say strengths and weaknesses.

He never designed for us to have weaknesses.

He designed to fill all those gaps, you know?

But the fact is we learn to like things.

We learn to focus on things.

We learn to hide when things get tough in certain ways and hide behind things.

In certain ways.

And the reality, we're all individuals.

And what I need to absolutely say no to, so what seems like crucifying the flesh for someone

else is just like, oh, I actually enjoy salad.

So this is, you know, this is not really me cutting out, like me fasting, me, you know,

specifically abstaining from something and seeking the Lord in it.

It's just, it doesn't work the same way.

And the fact is I have certain tendencies that would require a lot more fasting, which

like I mentioned last week, I would really need to cut things out for the sake of my

soul or the sake of my emotions or the sake of where my mind takes me.

And that these are things that are a lot more of a negative influence in my life that would

easily draw me away from the truth of God's word or from, you know, from spending time

in His plan and His purpose for my life.

So as individuals, we require different things.

So it almost doesn't, you know, it's not logical that we would just subscribe to a formula

or what someone else did.

I will do the same thing.

It doesn't work because you need specific things.

So let's go a little bit further in the method of fasting.

And let me ask this question.

How are we supposed to fast?

Well, I would say I'll pick up on something that we said last week, and that is we choose

something, we choose something that ministers to our flesh specifically.

When I say flesh, you know, you're saying soul.

It's this part of ourselves that is yet unrenewed and needs to be put under and so that we become

spirit dominant.

And so I would say the first thing that we would want to look at is, and what I'm doing,

making me more spiritually aware.

Is it making me more aware of the things of God?

Is it making me more focused and concentrated on what the Lord's telling me to do?

Or the Lord is instructing me to have Lord's instructing me to act or to put it in Paul's

words.

Is this making me walk worthy of His calling?

Yeah, that's really good.

I want to go to a scripture in Matthew chapter 6 verses 16 through to 18, which is actually

Matthew 6:16

the scripture that we're going to talk about in our Bible Bible illustration or discussion

during our grow groups this week.

And I'm not going to read the whole the whole passage right now, because we'll get back

to it towards the end.

But the first three words, Jesus says, when you fast, and then he starts giving instructions,

but he doesn't really give instructions about fasting or what you're supposed to fast on

or how long you're supposed to fast or, you know, he gives instructions about how you're

supposed to handle yourself, especially in front of others while you are fasting.

And there are things that you can pick up from what Jesus says, and there are things

you pick up from what he doesn't say.

And the fact is, he says when you fast, and he's expecting us to fast, he's expecting

us not to make this a one time event.

He's not saying when you fast at the beginning of the year or the end of the year, but he

says when you fast, this is something that we're supposed to do frequently, regularly.

It's something that we're not really supposed to disconnect from.

And there is no hard and fast rule about what we're supposed to fast on, how long we're

supposed to fast.

You know, obviously, these are things that the Lord will lead us into.

But ultimately, we are supposed to fast.

Yeah, let's look at that a little more detail.

In Matthew 6, there are three things specifically that Jesus opens up to us with this phrase,

when you.

You know, so it starts in verse 1 and 2, when you give.

Verse 5, when you pray, and then verse 16, when you fast.

Because there's not a specific fast that is mandated in the New Testament.

What do I mean?

There's not a thing that says on the eighth Tuesday of every quarter, you should fast

lunch.

Okay.

So that, because that rule is not there, some people have gotten the idea that fasting is

for some people, it's not really for me.

I have low blood sugar.

I have to eat all the time.

That's probably why you have low blood sugar.

But actually, fasting is included with giving, which is very godly and very much part of

the Christian life.

Yay.

Say amen.

Amen.

And prayer.

And prayer is a godly thing.

We should pray.

It's not like, well, praying is for somebody.

You know, people like Laura, they're called to pray.

Me, I don't know, not so much.

No.

Prayer is something that every Christ follower should do.

Give is something that every Christ follower should do.

And fast is something that every Christ follower should do.

When?

Well, Jesus presents it as it is part of our life.

So his instruction is not when to do it, but when you do it, do it like this.

Don't do it like this.

The same thing with giving.

When you do it, do it like this.

Don't do it like this.

When you pray, do it like this.

Don't do it like this.

So the implication is it should be happening all the time.

And because it's happening all the time, make sure you're not doing it like this.

It's something that will happen naturally in our lifestyle as believers.

Right, which is something that you were saying.

Like you didn't take time to call a fast.

You didn't even necessarily recognize that what you were doing was fasting, but you see

now in the light of this study, it's what you were doing.

And it's something you would want to do.

It's not forced.

Yeah.

I like that Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 14, that whatever you do that is not

Romans 14 · chapter mention

of faith is sin.

And the reality is that we're supposed to fast in faith.

We're supposed to believe that this is something that at this point is standing, or this is

an aspect of my flesh or an aspect of my soul, which is now superseding the things of the

spirit.

And I am deliberately demoting these things today because I want my spirit to supersede

these other things.

And so it's not, like I mentioned, it's not limited to food.

And in my case, it's not like food is my stumbling block.

I mean, it's not like if I go, I've done keto and I've done no sugar and it doesn't make

me feel spiritual.

It makes me feel miserable, is what it is.

And the reality is like those were diets.

Those were not done in faith.

And I will go a step further and say that in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 through to

1 Timothy 4:1

3 Paul says this, now the spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart

from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and

hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding

to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who

believe and know the truth.

Now I'm not going to try to make this say what I wanted to say.

I'm going to apply some context to this and say that, you know, there are doctrines which

will just prevent you from eating.

And I'm not saying that Paul is referring to specific things in our current day, but

he was referring to religious banning of foods that were coming up during his time.

And there were things like asceticism and things like, you know, different sects that

were saying that if you want to be spiritual, you cannot entertain the enjoyment of your

flesh.

This is not fasting.

This is religion.

This is just following a blind rule.

And this is not what we are talking about and this is not how we are supposed to fast.

We are supposed to fast by, you know, making this a faith-filled personal conviction.

We should be willingly doing this.

You know, we should do this in faith.

We should go in in faith knowing that we're going to come out different.

And that is really the basis of how we are supposed to fast.

You know, it's not necessarily about food.

I mean, you know, you can abstain from food and that can be fasting.

You can abstain from food and that can just be religious tradition.

They both look the same from the outside, but they're both very different when it comes

to your faith walk.

Another thing I will say is that the Lord can definitely guide us into the things that

we ought to do.

You know, just like a loving parent would guide their child and say, hey, you know,

this is you shouldn't be playing video games till three in the morning.

You know, hey, I think you're you know, your ice cream habits are replacing your actual

healthy meals at this point.

Hey, like and I'm not I'm not saying again, I'm not trying to turn this into a natural

thing, but there is you know, your parents will open your eyes to things that are affecting

your life or your ability to grow or your ability to move forward in life.

And that is something that the Lord does more often than not.

I mean, in in in scripture, you know, in Proverbs chapter three says that, you know, we are

to not lean on our own understanding, but we are to follow the direction of the wisdom

of God and the Lord will reveal his wisdom.

And you know, his wisdom is always different to earthly wisdom, sensual wisdom, natural

wisdom and his wisdom will guide us.

Out of things, so hence fasting, he guides us out of focus points that we are too focused

on so that we can grow in spiritual points.

So we're talking about method and these are these are important points you made a comment

that I just want to highlight that this it cannot become about rules.

It can't be about ritual observance.

That is that's the thing I want us to steer away from.

And there's a passage in Colossians chapter two, it says, let no man beguile you of your

reward in voluntary humility and worshiping of angels intruding into things that they

have not seen vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind.

There's a temptation to take something very natural and try to apply spiritual meaning

to it.

And inside of that is that that word beguile just means to deceive, but no one deceive

you.

And so I don't want I don't want anyone to get off track in the fasted life by saying,

well, I observe this particular kind of fast or I observe this particular.

No, ritual observance is not what we're talking about.

Jesus said, when you fast, don't be like the hypocrites.

I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but there's some there's some necessity that we keep the

focus.

We keep our focus on what you just said there, and that is following the Lord for ourselves.

So I'm not so concerned if if what I'm doing is fasting before the Lord fits your model

for it.

I know that my flesh is crying out for this thing that I have told it no to.

So I know I'm fasting.

I know it's it's I am I am hungry for that.

And that's OK.

I'm just telling it no.

And in place of that, I'm doing this I'm doing this spiritually healthy habit.

In every instance, whether it's specifically the Lord leading us or it is us recognizing

a screaming flesh or a screaming part of our right, we initiate the fast.

So we take the decision.

We go into it saying this is what needs to happen coming up.

Now, it's so important that we just we don't make it about rules, but we make it about

focus and about growth and about change.

I want to read this passage of scripture, which we actually referred to this.

I believe it was in our prayer series a couple of months ago in Luke, Chapter 18, verses

Luke 18 · chapter mention

nine through to 14.

And so let me read that of the Pharisee who prayed with himself.

Yeah, absolutely.

So verse nine, also.

So he, Jesus, spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous

and despised others.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other

men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even this tax as this tax collector.

I fast twice a week.

I give tithes of all that I possess.

And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but

beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me as sinner.

I tell you this, sorry, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than

the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself

will be exalted.

So the message is pretty clear.

Motives matter.

Absolutely.

Actions are just that and they perish with the doing, but motives last.

Motives define and motives are what determine if the action that we're doing, specifically

we're talking about fasting, qualifies us for the reward that goes with fasting.

Yeah.

What stands out to me is in verse 14, he says that everyone who exalts himself will be humbled

and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Actually fasting is a form of humility.

I mean, fasting, so Lard put this verse in our notes, which is in Psalm 35 verse 13,

Psalms 35:13

and it talks about humbling ourselves with fasting.

And the fact is when we choose to say no to what our body or our mind is screaming for,

we choose to humble ourselves and say, listen, I'm not picking, I'm not my God, but God is

my God.

I'm not going to choose what I'm going to do right now.

I'm going to like, God help me see what is important for me right now.

And the fact is the Pharisee was fasting twice a week, but he was not humbling himself in

it.

He was looking at himself, boasting about this is what I do.

This is my lifestyle.

This is who I am.

Look at me.

It's not, he wasn't doing it to get to come out of it with, you know, so what Jesus says,

you know, I tell you, they have their reward.

I mean, he has his reward.

There you go.

Everyone perceives him as a spiritual man.

You know, he has a certain position among his community, but that's all he's getting.

And those are natural things.

Those are not spiritual rewards.

Those are not everlasting rewards.

And the fact is the tax collector who lived his whole life according to his flesh, lived

his whole life according to his, you know, worldly nature and desires, chose to bow

his head down to the Lord and say, Lord, what does he say right here?

You know, God be merciful to me as a sinner.

This is a man truly in repentance and fasting is a form of repentance because you're turning

away from your flesh.

You're turning away from your desires and you're turning to the Lord.

So this man in his action and prayer did more fasting than the Pharisee did.

I think that the truth about humility is an important one that we look at.

David made the statement, King David, in the old covenant, he said, I will keep myself

lowly in my own eyes.

Everyone saw the king.

Everyone saw the conqueror.

Everyone saw the one that never lost a battle.

David said, I'm going to keep myself low in my own eyes.

Fasting helps us keep ourselves low.

So how can I take this and practically apply it to my life?

So I think that there are some very key steps, very, let's say some very easy steps that

we can follow.

We'll talk more about this in our grow groups, but the first is something that we do every

time we get on the podcast, we talk about our purpose.

What's the purpose of our message series?

What's the purpose of this discussion?

What's the purpose?

Fasting, if we want to really get the most out of it, we need to do it on purpose, decide

what is the purpose of this?

I'm going to take some time to fast and I'm doing it for this reason.

I'm doing it for this purpose.

And it's not important that you tell all of Facebook what that purpose is, but you should

know.

I should know.

You should.

And you can tell the Lord, Lord, I'm going to tell myself, no, this thing, I'm putting

my hand on this thing in my life.

I'm going to tell myself, no, I'm not going to do this.

I'm going to fast this for this purpose and for this period of time.

And then we're, you know, we've, we haven't read the whole verse yet, but Matthew six

18 says that there's a reward for fasting.

We can believe we receive that reward by faith because this is a spiritual practice.

And then we take time to minister to the Lord, thank him for that reward and use the time

while we're fasting to minister to others as well.

It can't just be all self-focused.

We need to be constantly outward facing as believers, as followers of Jesus.

When I say outward facing, I mean, looking toward that, which captures the heart of Jesus.

And that is those who have not yet heard the good news, those who are the precious fruit

of the earth.

And then we need to expect that God's going to help us.

We can expect divine help through the period of fasting.

Shouldn't be something that I just do all on my own because then I just get the, you

know, pat on the back.

Good job.

No, I expect him to help me.

Yeah, it's really good.

That's really good.

If I look at the way, you know, if I want to really assess what is something that is

taking a hold of me, I do what I would do with my iPhone, which is, you know, I open

an app called the Screen Time app.

And you start looking at how much have I actually used my phone.

I don't like that app.

Yeah, I don't like that app either.

That's why I use it.

And the fact is it tells you like every single day how much you use WhatsApp, how much you've

used Instagram, how much you've used your Bible app and how much you've used some different

things.

And you start realizing where is my attention going?

Where is my focus going?

I'm not suggesting that, you know, you only focus on your phone.

What I am suggesting is you take a screen time snapshot of yourself.

You know, you take a screen time snapshot of yourself and you say, where is my focus

going right now?

You know, where is my attention going right now?

Is it really to the things of God?

Is it really to the things that I know that God wants me to be doing?

Or is it my things, my focus?

Is it what my mind wants?

What my flesh wants?

What I feel like doing and what I don't feel like doing.

And that is a good place to start.

That is a good place to see where your flesh or your soul really are taking a hold of you

and really strangling you from going further.

Strangling you from going further is well said.

All right, praise God.

So let's read Matthew chapter 6 verses 16 through to 18 and we'll leave the rest of

Matthew 6:16

the discussion for our grow groups.

All right, so Matthew chapter 6 verse 16.

Matthew 6:16

Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance, for they

disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that you do not appear to

men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place.

And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Praise God.

That's good news.

That's great news.

And that's true about the Go Church family.

Do you know that?

The Father who sees in secret is rewarding the Go Church family openly.

That's right.

That's happening in these days.

Yes.

Glory to God.

Praise the Lord.

It's very clear, Jesus gives us some very clear method of fasting, and that is, wash

your face.

Please, put on some perfume, the Amplified Bible says.

The message must say brush your teeth, probably.

But the Bible tells us, here Jesus said, don't make it here to men that you fast, the other

people that you're fasting.

And Gilbert, you made a comment when we were talking about this, don't put the weight of

the fast on someone else.

This is something that I'm doing to change me.

I'm making a change in me to go up the mountain with the Lord.

And so I'm not going to saddle you with that.

I'm going to carry it.

And so Jesus gives us a clear instruction.

Don't be like an actor.

That word hypocrite literally means one who acts.

Don't be like that.

So instead of replace the, oh, you know, sorry, today I'm fasting, so I can't have any of

the biscuits that you've put out for me.

Sorry, you know, fasting.

I've been fasting all week, actually, down two kilos.

You have your reward.

That's what Jesus said.

Enjoy it.

Enjoy the two kilos down and enjoy the recognition of whoever you're telling, wow, look how spiritual

this person is that they're willing to fast.

No, instead, just keep your mouth shut.

And you don't have to share everything.

It'll help you.

But the part that I want to draw our attention to there is the father who sees.

He will, he will, he will reward you.

And that's what we're going to talk about next week.

And I'm excited about that.

We want to say we love you.

We're praying for you.

And we'll do that next time.

Thank you for listening to this message.

We want everyone to experience the unconditional love of God.

Growing his love and go with his love to the rest of their world.

We invite you to connect with us at one of our groups for our next gathering.

And if no one told you yet today, we love you and believe God's very best for you.