Sermon Notes

RHYTHMS OF GRACE

PRACTICING THE WAY OF JESUS IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Week 5 – FASTING

There are elements of life that make us curious but intimidated, and due to a lack of understanding, we may completely ignore them.

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If you want to experience the life of Jesus, you must adopt the lifestyle of Jesus by the power of the Spirit.

Fasting

Fasting is a practice from the life of Jesus that may make us curious but intimidated, and due to a lack of understanding, we may completely ignore it.

“Fasting is the most feared and misunderstood of all the spiritual disciplines” Donald Whitney

SERMON IN A SENTENCE:

In a unique way, fasting creates a hunger for God and deepens our dependence on Him.

1. WHAT IS FASTING?

Biblical Fasting: Abstaining from food for spiritual purposes

Fasting is expected of Jesus followers.

Matthew 6:16-18

 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And when you fast…”

“Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?' And Jesus said to them, 'Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.'" Matthew 9:14-15

2. HOW DOES FASTING HELP US GROW SPIRITUALLY?

“Let us say something about fasting, because many, for want of knowing its usefulness, undervalue its necessity, and some reject is as almost superfluous while on the other hand where the use of it is not well understood, it easily degenerates into superstition.” John Calvin

4 Purposes of Fasting:

1. To Offer Our Whole Selves Fully to God

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Romans 12:1

2. To Intensify Our Spiritual Desire

“As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?” Psalm 42:1-2 NLT

“If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry, and to say, with some simple fast: ‘This much, O God, I want you.’” John Piper

3. To Amplify Our Prayers

“This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:21 NASB

"The idea is to devote the time we would ordinarily spend on these activities to prayer and waiting before the Lord. Fasting calls us to renounce the natural in order to invoke the supernatural." Tony Evans

4. To Long for the Forever Feast

“Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?' And Jesus said to them, 'Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.'" Matthew 9:14-15

“I know of no other way of life that can both acknowledge all that the Lord has done and yet still yearn for all that we desperately long for him to do” Justin Earley

3. WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE PRACTICALLY?

"'And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.'" Matthew 6:16-18

In a unique way, fasting creates a hunger for God and deepens our dependence on Him.