The Practice of Drawing Near

Kevin Beck

The Jesus Manifesto • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Matthew 6:16–18

Fasting and Abstinence

Spiritual Discipline

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Opening Prayer

Let’s open with prayer. If you have a prayer concern, just offer it up out loud in this space. It can be a situation, a need, a family member or friend. When I sense we are finished I will close out our prayer.

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that we may know and understand what things we ought to do, and also may have grace and power to faithfully accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Introduction

We are doing part 2 of a series we began last summer on the Sermon on the Mount called The Jesus Manifesto. A manifesto is a public declaration of belief, policy, and motives. A manifesto outlines what a person or group believes and the kinds of things they will practice. In this respect, the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ manifesto. It provides the definitive guide for what he meant when he said, “Come, follow me.”

In part 2 of the series we are looking at the kinds of kingdom practices that will help form us to be mature and thriving disciples of Jesus. One of the things we’re trying to stress is that Spiritual practices are not a means to get you into heaven but to get heaven into you. To make us more like Christ in our thoughts, words, and actions.

This mornings passage is another one I wish wasn’t here. I hate fasting! I said a couple of weeks ago that I thought confession was the most neglected of the Christian formation practices, and I still think that’s right. But I have to say that fasting must run a close second. I’ve never heard a single Christian testimony where someone claimed they loved to fast. Fasting is hard, because in fasting we bring our body into our spiritual practice. If you think about it, much of our spirituality happens between our ears. It is internal. But fasting gets the whole body involved.

Scot McKnight writes, “Fasting is the body saying what the spirit yearns for, what the soul longs for, and what the mind knows to be true. It is our whole person speaking - not the body speaking for the spirit, soul, or mind. But for the whole person. Fasting is one way we bring our entire selves into complete expression.”

I don’t like to fast. In fact, I have run from it much of the time. But at the same time, I can look back at certain moments of my life and see how God met me in significant ways as I fasted. God seeks us out, and sometimes particular moments are so sacred that he calls us to fast so that we may more fully dial into him. We fast from the secular so that we may feast on the sacred. In fasting we deny ourselves the normal pleasure of food so that we may delight in the pleasure of God. Fasting is one way God distances us from the natural so that we may be attentive to the supernatural. Fasting is the voluntary denial of the ordinary to be more present to the extraordinary. The big idea this morning is that Fasting is our response to a divine invitation to draw near to God where he reveals his glory to us and shapes our faith for breakthrough.

What is fasting?

Let’s get some basic housekeeping out of the way about fasting before we see how God wants to use this practice in our lives.

First, what is it? Fasting is abstaining from food in response to a grievous or sacred moment.

Fasting is going without food. Sometimes water. But biblical fasts always involved avoiding food. So while it is good to abstain from TV or social media, like during Lent, that is not the kind of fast Jesus is talking about here.

Fasting is not a weight loss

plan. There’s nothing wrong with doing intermittent fasting as a diet, but that is not fasting in the biblical sense.

Fasting is assumed by Jesus. “Whenever.” Later he is asked why the disciples of John (the Baptist) and the Pharisees fast, but his disciples don’t fast. Jesus replies, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” (Matthew 9:15, NRSV)

Most importantly, fasting is centered in seeking the Lord, not an outcome. Certainly not seeking the attention of others as the hypocrites.

A -> B -> C

A is the sacred event. B is fasting as a response. C is an outcome. Too often we approach fasting where we start at B so that we can get God to give us C. But fasting begins with A, a grievous or sacred moment where God invites us to respond, which leads to B. Then sometimes C happens the way we hope, and sometimes C happens in unexpected or unlooked-for ways. But I’ll say that in fasting, breakthrough of some kind always happens.

Fasting is our response to a divine invitation to draw near to God where he reveals his glory to us and shapes our faith for breakthrough.

Fasting results in guidance

So how does God use fasting in our life?

Sometimes he invites us into a time of fasting so that he may give us guidance. The early days of the church was almost exclusively a Jewish movement. And there was no urgency by the apostles to change that. But one day a group of disciples were praying and fasting, seeking the Lord, when God spoke. “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” (Acts 13:2–3, NRSV)

This was the beginning of the first of several missionary journeys that brought the gospel to the Gentiles. In seeking the Lord they received guidance and direction. God revealed his glory to them and shaped their faith for a breakthrough.

One of the most impactful moments of fasting in my life came in our early days here at the Vineyard. Tell about coming, being disillusioned, and leaving to find another church. In desperation felt God leading me to fast. I had never done it before. God clearly said to go back to the Vineyard and “come along side” Dan and Amy.

As you seek God in fasting, not as a means to force his hand but as a response to his divine urging, he can use it to reveal himself to you and set your life on a whole new course. He will guide you into moments of breakthrough.

Fasting releases burdens

God uses fasting in others ways as well.

Sometimes we carry burdens. It might be grief over a sin that we can’t seem to overcome. It might be grief over the loss of a loved one. Or it could be the burden you carry for someone you love who is doing dumb things. Sometimes God invites us into a time of sacred fasting so that he might release us from the burden.

You may recall the sordid story of how King David seduced another man’s wife, got her pregnant, and conspired to have him killed. We forget that the child that came from this union was not Solomon - he was their second-born. Their first child, after it was born, became sick to the point of death. And so David, carrying a burden for the child, went and fasted before the Lord, pleading for its healing. Unfortunately, the child died. When David heard the news, he ended his fast, washed himself, and ate. This shocked the servants, for they assumed he would continue to fast because of the death. They asked, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but when the child died, you rose and ate food.” He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me, and the child may live.’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”” (2 Samuel 12:21–23, NRSV)

Fasting didn’t remove David’s grief. But through fasting David was able to release the child to God’s loving hands and be free of the burden he carried.

Several years ago we had a child that had gone way off the rails. I suspected she was experimenting with drugs. She was hanging out with people who I know did drugs and who were drawing her further from God and from us. I felt the Lord urge me to bring him my burden through fasting. I don’t remember how many days I fasted, but I remember kneeling in this room crying out to God for my girl. And at some point in the fast, I felt my burden lift. Nothing had changed with my daughter. She was still into whatever it was she was into. But as I sought God he revealed his glory to me by coming near and lifting from my shoulders that heavy weight. Nothing changed with my daughter, but I now had the assurance that God was working in her life in ways I couldn’t see. Breakthrough happened - not with her right then, but with me.

As you seek God in fasting, it is not a guarantee that things will change or that you will get the results you want, but he will meet you in that place, taking your burden, offering you his perspective, and further shaping your faith for breakthrough.

Fasting grows self-control

One final benefit of fasting. Sometimes God calls us to grow in the area of self-control. While self-control is a fruit of the Spirit in our lives, it is not without effort on our part as well. So in fasting we put our flesh to death so that we might participate in the resurrection life of Jesus. “for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13, NRSV)

I don’t know about you, but I need more self-control - particularly in the area of food. Food is my drug of choice. Too often it is my comfort when I am stressed. In this respect, food is an idol in my life. Maybe your idol isn’t food, maybe it is porn. Maybe it is pridefulness. But typically we all have things in our lives that are so entrenched we feel a lack of control over them. At numerous times in my life God has invited me to make a regular habit of feasting on him as I fast from food. To my shame, much of the time I ignore this summons. But he is faithful to continue to call me.

A few weeks ago, the urging from God became more insistent - maybe it was because I knew I’d be preaching on this eventually. So I have entered into a time of weekly fasting where I set aside a 24-hour period to abstain from all food. I don’t enjoy it. I can’t even boast of any spiritual breakthroughs as of yet. But what I do know is that there is a connection between my body and my spirit. So I have the quiet confidence that as I push away from the table in order to lean into God, the Spirit is at work in the unseen, growing my self-control. And this will give birth to a breakthrough moment.

In fasting you put to death the flesh so that you might live according to the Spirit. As you seek God in fasting, oftentimes he brings a new power in your life over the flesh and fleshly indulgence.

Communion with God

Going back to the beginning, we must not lose sight of the purpose of fasting. It is the invitation for communion with God in a very special way. We fast from the secular so that we may feast on the sacred. We deny ourselves the normal pleasure of food so that we may delight in the pleasure of God. We distance ourselves from the natural so that we may be attentive to the supernatural. We say ‘no’ to the ordinary to say ‘yes’ to the extraordinary. Fasting is our response to a divine invitation to draw near to God where he reveals his glory to us and shapes our faith for breakthrough.

The disciples once tried to cast a demon from a young boy, but were unsuccessful. They asked Jesus why, and he replied that sometimes these things cannot come out except by prayer - and some manuscripts add fasting. Prayer and fasting and breakthrough all go together. Sometimes things come upon us that can only be broken by fasting. Sometimes blockages can only be removed through fasting. Sometimes the great leaps of faith that God wants to accomplish in our lives can only happen in the sacred space of fasting to the Lord.

So listen for the divine invitation to come away for a while. To remove the distraction of food, to forego the normal necessity of calories, to let your whole self - soul, spirit, and body - feast on God. And see what he does. Amen and amen.

Communion

There is a time for fasting. But there is also a time for feasting. Sunday is a feast day. It is always a feast day. Because in it we gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the defeat of death, the forgiveness of sins, and the door being opened to eternal life. We come to this table to do all these things.

Before we come, however, I want you to examine where you are with God right now. Have you placed your faith in Jesus and committed your life to him? God is calling you right now to do that. And if you have, please reach out to me and we will talk about the next step of baptism.

Are you in a season of wrestling over some important decisions? Is it possible that God is offering you an invitation to draw near to him in fasting and prayer? Make that commitment to him today. If you aren’t sure how to get started then come see me and I can help.

God wants to be with you and reveal himself to you. He wants to do powerful things in you and through you. Listen for his invitation and respond.

And so we are bold to pray...

The Lords Prayer

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