10/18/2020

there's a there's some books that I referred to. And they are a written on the little insert your bulletin and they're also on the back table beside. Mr. Fan Dell. I finally found out who belongs to that sign that says John FanDuel. I've seen a lot of familiar faces getting to the privilege of teaching at Powers. I get to meet lots of lots of people fast and pretty much everybody in town. I feel like but if it was fun to attend Sunday school and hear a great lesson, and I also just took a moment to count how many folks in here have at one point or another personally helped Christy and I Christy is the farm manager and she also Subs at powers and other schools in and she's an assistant instructor now at walk. And we have been blessed by I count at least 12 people in the room directly that having one way or another helped us either at school or on the farm. And so I'm grateful and I consider this a privilege a privilege to share with people. I know I feel like I known because I work with you and so I am grateful that that Don offered this opportunity and I know he stands down there, but if I stand here your head will be tilted just right cuz he's like a foot taller than me. So that's what you're used to.

And I guess there's also those that may be surprised.

That I don't work with you might be surprised to see me here this morning. And those that I do work with are just a little surprised that I made it here before church actually started. But this morning I wanted to start by asking you what you're expecting. What if not not of me, but of God, what are you expecting right now? And I don't mean when you die at judgment or in heaven, but in this moment, what are you expecting of God? cuz we can fall into the belief that the doctors have cures that people have answers and that The world is going to invent a solution to heal and and certainly we will celebrate those scientists that come up with a cure for the coronavirus or a treatment for the coronavirus. But ultimately we know that all good things ultimately come from God. But it's only God that's going to be able to give us healing Joy or actually give us the ability to live in Freedom at the heart. This morning's message is an invitation to hit the reset button on our expectation of God through fasting and it's almost fighting words in some searches because if there's a church, then there is food and to say that we're going to abstain from food for any reason might be a reason to also never be invited back to preach but I'm taking that risk. Because I think it's important. And I believe it's the message that that I'm supposed to be bringing the reset that I'm talking about helps us. Remember the center of the universe everything to do with it is not us but it is is in the hands of God that he's the one at work and he's the one bringing life and he's the one doing the healing and he's the one giving us the ideas that might lead to a Corona beer.

And God is speaking right now. He's speaking right now. He's moving right now, and he's moving and speaking in our Direction. But I'm I'm confessing that if not in this moment, there are many moments in the week that I forget that I forget that God is taking the initiative to find me to be near me to love me and I act like he's not even there.

So I want to pray this prayer for all of us. Father I pray that you will interrupt so that we can hear your voice clearly. I feel your hand firmly upon us as you draw us into your healing. As you draw us into your restful energizing love. Hey, man. So begin now to change if need be change your expectations to hear and see God move in your life and the life of your family and those that are on your heart this morning. Well, it may not feel logical. Let's start with dessert in the Bible. Forget the hell he deserves like dates and pomegranates and raisins and other healthy things that the Middle East has to offer but what's head right for the bread aisle? And let's also skip the breads that don't have yeast or sugar which leaves cake. And I'm grateful for mrs. Grants who allows the students to make more than they could possibly eat because often a little offerings come into my desk and contribute to my high blood pressure. But while it's true that the Wafers or cookies pecan cookies are mentioned in Exodus 29 to win God's Messengers be visited Abraham. What's the first thing that he and Sarah did while I'm going to tell you Genesis 18-6 and Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said make ready quickly three measures of choice flour and needed and make cakes cakes, right? There it is. Hey the highest calling.

Okay, I see some Angry Eyes out there. So for those of you who are truly the pie lovers I'm going to ask you to not be K caters for 30 minutes and just go with me and think of a Pie as a a flat cake filled with just fruit or or cream or something, but just go with it for a moment and think and maybe you'll come to realize cake is the best. But it's also a desert. And out of all cakes. Importantly the brass ring or the brass bread ring to reach for the highest Apex of creation of cake is the donut.

I don't know. It's like a utility cake. It comes shape with an infinite handle so that you can grab it from any angle. You can even jog with a donut in each hand. Some of you are now asking why did Don ask this person to preach but hang in there we started with desert and it will come back to Delmont Donuts in a in a moment. I always come back for donuts will come back to Donuts in a moment, but

I want to invite you.

The call to fasting want to call you to consider. The responsibility arguably the invitation so fast. Most people already know that fasting can be not eating anything or not eating food with processed sugar or not using cell or not watching TV some people fast or do without some Flavor of Life. During certain religious Seasons like Christmas or Lindor leading up to the Super Bowl We fast before blood test surgery or to start new diet. But if fasting that was a joke, by the way, some of you know me and maybe you caught that but I don't really believe Super Bowl is religious event.

I it worries me when it's quiet like you think Super Bowls has

so where was that?

You're all asking know we've left the donuts for a moment. We've left the donuts for a moment. But we fast we fast before blood test before surgery or born before we start new diet, but fasting only makes our stomachs hungry for food. Are fast might be medical or dietary or it could even be a religious fast. It could be son on a regular and consistent basis meaning I can be regular and consistent and purposeful. But without involving God at all. So just fasting doesn't mean that God is a part of the scene and that's not the cussing. I'm inviting you to this morning.

For Jesus followers fast that are spiritual might involve. Allowing our heart to be broken. During a fast our minds bite me moved to change from one way of thinking to another way of thinking. During a fast we may come to understand that there's a particular person in our family our neighborhood we talked about who is our neighbor in Sunday school. We may be moved during a fast to go and love someone in a particular way in the name of Jesus.

We met during a fast hear God's spirit more clearly than we have ever heard if you remember after Jesus was baptized. In that moment in that moment. He experienced the whole Trinity all at once he of course was the man God he was present and then there was God the Father speaking from Heaven loving him deeply saying son. I love you so much. I'm so pleased with you and then people visibly saw the Spirit come down and rest on him there. We see all parts of the Trinity and Jesus was full he was full. and then since John the Baptist had just said when before the baptism he was announced and and John the Baptist said behold here comes the Lamb of the world. So when Jesus came in he knew that he was taking one of the first initiatory steps or the cross right there. He knew he was on his way to the cross and it just a few short years. He would be shedding his blood and giving his life for us.

but after baptism God spoke the Spirit came down. Jesus came to be full of God and then he went to the desert to do what he fasted. And after 40 days of being without food then and only then did the devil come to tempt him. And Jesus basically told the devil go away because the food that I have to eat is soul food and I'm paraphrasing. Of course at the Devil could not get Jesus attention because he was still full of God. He was full of God and the fast is an opportunity for us to present our souls so that God might fill them up. There is some crazy Christians who do fast every week there also called mature Christians. There are some of all these things that people can be doing on a day off from work on Sunday like you all arguably arguably are fasting from Excavating you could you could be chasing cows through the pasture right now. There's a number of things you could be preparing for tomorrow's lesson Mr. Macneill. I'm sure is probably doing lesson plans in the back of his head occasionally, but you could be doing other things, but all of you have chosen to fast from everything else than your normal everyday everyday world to come and give God the opportunity to speak to you. And so in a sentence you fasted this Sunday morning to give God the first opportunity in your life. The following are some thoughts from Christians who have been devoted their life to Jesus and the practice of fasting including some who led the Revival of Christians during the Reformation, which I was looking forward to seeing a particular student and insane okay if it happened in the 16th century about what years would that event, but he's not here. In his book celebration of discipline Richard Faust basics of the spiritual fast saying one should begin with a partial fast of not more than 24 hours for a week. So just some practical words if you're going too fast, I did bring those books back there and they're by the yellow tennis shoe that says hunger for God on it. If you want to find some books that I can introduce you to fasting it's good not to just dive in it's good to understand what you're what you're up for. But Richard Richard Foster says again with not more than 24 hours. So after dinner on one evening Fast breakfast and lunch one or the other the next day depending on a lot of factors if you choose to fast food that is and then start again with a meal the next evening. So for working people you may not be able to fast food. It might be that you take some time away from something else that you would do besides work and give God some of that time to have a go at your heart. In the didache a 1st Century manual written by my mature Christians to less mature Christians. They encourage people who are fasting regularly to take a break from the church schedule which has everybody in the first century. Everybody would fast on the same day. And in the Decay the mature Christian said, hey, if you get in a Groove like that you're liable to be so religious about it. And so ritualistic about it that you forget to bring your heart to the fast so mixed up the days Let Yourself fast, sometimes according to the schedule and then change it up so that you keep yourself alert. according to John Calvin a reformer in the sixteenth Century. He said fasting can cause sinful desires to weaken and spiritual appetites to grow. Calvin claims fasting is good for bringing about the loss of appetite for things in this world so that we may grow in our hunger for God's present. One of the first things Christians think of often when we think of fasting as we think of that. Of time leading up to Easter called Lent. Well some Christians depending on their age when they hear fast, they think of Fast and Furious but this morning were thinking of that happens often during the time of Lent before Easter.

So when we hear fasting we may consider those practices that are honestly there more often found. I don't know if the this Church of God practices any sort of fasting as a church during Lenten. But often it's more found with a Catholic Episcopal or Lutheran Churches, but regardless of the church tradition. A definition of bad religion is a spiritual practice without God. So the reformers warned beware of doing the same thing all the time in the name of God. And leave God out of it make sure that if you are going too fast that you bring your heart to the occasion and that you expect to hear and see God's heart.

spiritual growth author Marjorie Thompson rights Lynn is not a six-week inconvenience in an otherwise abundant year. During which we somehow please God with our voluntary if minor suffering. When is not a testing ground for the True Grit of our willpower? It is certainly not a spiritual rationale for losing 10 lbs before venturing to the beach in a bathing suit. Thompson continues the question we need to ask with any spiritual discipline is what does God want to accomplish in me through this practice? So it's not about me during the fast it's about God.

16th century reformer Martin Luther said fasting should not be done to get something from God. He said too fast because when the stomach is full the spirit gets sleepy. I know when my stomach's full my eyes get sleepy also, but I am not necessarily looking for the will of the Lord after a huge Thanksgiving dinner. Which is ironic in it? But all of these Riders about Christian maturity and fasting are affirming that fasting is about the heart not the stomach making ourselves hungrier and hungrier does not twist God's arm to act there was a period in the early the early church where folks thought if I can put myself through enough pain. God will pay attention to me and speak to me and lift me up to a new spiritual level. I just need to find the right amount of pain and they would ask themselves for extreme periods of time. out of I'm sure genuine and good intention. They wanted to see and hear from God so badly they would put themselves through almost anything and some of them did some crazy painful thing with the hopes of twisting God's arm to invade their life.

God is their judge but I don't believe we're being called to that fast.

And I want to now that was the introduction. I want to know just close with the message which is from Isaiah. If you don't have your Bible open the verses will be on the screen. the people of God we're concerned because God wasn't picking up the phone. They felt like he was ignoring them and they couldn't figure out why and by the way, Isaiah was sent to him. We don't have time to look at the whole book of Isaiah. But he was sent to them to warn them that they're they're walking away from God constantly and ongoing made it very difficult to hear what he was saying because they were going where he wasn't and you've heard the old adage. If God seems distant guess who Moved well, Isaiah was sent to give them many word bite them to know that God loves them. So the people the Hebrews ask God, why do we fast but you do not see why humble ourselves, but you do not notice. There are folks here this morning. I'll bet that have some difficult and weighty burden on your on your heart. And you're wondering. Okay, God just how long is this going to go on? What do I have to do to get your attention?

Well to his people then God responded to their please. I'm sorry. I can't hear you. for those of you

my age group or better you probably have seen the show Green Acres where when the phone rings they would have to go outside of their house and climb a pole because when they put their phone in their house and only came as far as the phone pole, so they had to climb up the pole to answer the phone with cell phones. Now, sometimes that's what we have to do if we want to get a good signal we have to go out on her front porch so I can relate to this. But God said I'm having trouble hearing you.

Isaiah 58 for he says look you fast only to quarrel and fight and just strike with a wicked fist such fasting as you to do today will not make your voice Heard on High. They're fast had become a ritual they were able to see and pray and have Fellowship Fellowship dinners at the temple. They were they were going through all of the religious group that said we are the people of God. And I did it whether God showed up or not. They were his people and they were acting like his people but they were able to act like his people without inviting him to be in their mitts. Did come to believe they could carry on their face. and their life even without God so God asked them and instructed them at the same time. He said I know this is what my fast looks like. Is this not the fast that I choose to loose the bonds of Injustice to undo the thongs of the Yoke to let the oppressed Go free and to break every yoke is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin.

God's response to them when they said we're in we're hurting here and you can't hear us. his response back to them was to say My fasting my kind of fasting will build up your heart and equip you to love other people in my name with my resources Don't seek Justice more from your for yourself. Don't look for answers and fulfillment more for yourself than the people that are on my heart. Yeah, you're on my heart. You're my people, but you have made yourself the center of my world. And you've made a mistake.

There are those that I believe that need my resources and my love right now and you are my instruments to bring them my resources and my love. So during your fast see if you can't hear what I'm saying. See if you can't hear where I'm leading hunger like I do God said and these are my my way of saying what what he was saying In this passage hunger like I do to break the grip of addictions and depression and in your family and those you know, that I love hunger to depend only on me instead of your strength and what this world has to offer because when you are free you can lead others to Freedom. When you do have read that I have provided for you share it with those who have none. Don't allow people without basic necessities to go without food. There are people, you know, they are the people, you know and see everyday.

And stop hiding your heart from those who love you most. Instead seek their heart like a treasure. God says his fast is to be hungry for the things he most hungers for Fasting is about acquiring God's appetites. That's a definition of fasting that you you can take with you is fast until you know, what God is hungry for and it sometimes during that fast that we realize the things that are troubling us and waiting on us so much are not something that God is worried about at the moment. It doesn't mean he's letting you suffer for no apparent reason. It doesn't mean that he's unaware of what we need because the scriptures teach he knows what we need before we even ask him. But fasting is an opportunity to say Okay God here's my list. But I'm going to leave my list here. What's your lips? What are you hungry for? Have you ever spent an entire prayer time asking God, how you doing? And I don't mean that to be trite. I don't mean that to be a Whimsical thought but his father and we are children if we're Jesus followers He is wanting to say intimately how much he loves us and what he's hungry for what he is Desiring in our life and the world around us. I think fasting is the opportunity to come before him and say What's on your heart guide and then something very difficult almost illegal for Americans.

I'm confessing. I'm confessing as I bring this message, but something hard for us. It's just to sit down and wait on the Lord. It is it's difficult. My list is burdensome. And sometimes I forget that God is aware of my list and does offer a light heart for me.

I hate to tell you but there is a 2-minute version of this message. But it's too late for that. Now if you if you place your hands open. In front of you or extended to Heaven either way.

And with your open hands or by opening your hands, you let go of everything that you are holding onto in your heart. Everything weighing down on your mind.

You can it will help you communicate to God. I'm I'm Letting Go and letting God you've maybe seen that up here or maybe in a book Mart. But there's something about giving God permission. To put something in your open hands that you and I aren't trying to take in our own strength. That's a 2-minute version. I'll go back to the other one. But that's what God was asking his people to do.

That means that they could practice God's fast by laying down the things they were doing the activities. They are doing the burdens on their heart. They could lay all of those things down and possibly still eat cake.

because if they were busy doing the things he called them to it did not necessarily exclude eating cake.

many of us would say Sure, I will demand Justice for the oppressed. But I'm Bound by my own change this morning. I'm depression exhaustion or sickness. I'll walk with the addicted out of addiction. I'll do that as soon as I have enough healing in my own body. I'll leave others to Freedom as soon as I can find my way through this dark place in my life.

So how did we first become Unchained free and empowered and full the love of God to point to the point of overflowing? So that others can experience the freedom and healing and provision. He wants to bring.

Let's look back at the way God closed part of the conversation with Isaiah's Wednesday night bible study. God said to become hungry for the things that he is hungry for. Too fast in his way and he said then your light shall Break Forth like the Dawn and your healing shall spring up quickly your Vindicator. She'll go before you and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer you show cry for help and he will say here I am.

So he Paints the picture for Isaiah's people and says if you can sit and wait and rest with open hands. And let me be the one that sets the agenda. Let me be the one most important in your heart let the things I hunger for B the things you most hunger for.

I'll be right in the middle of everything right in the middle of everything right beside you.

Sometimes even believing Christians believe it will be after death in heaven before we should expect things to change. To heal or to be restored part of our reset of the expectation of God's present. is to Know that heaven is not tomorrow Heaven is today where God is heaven is And God says here I and when Jesus was here, he said that heaven has come to Earth and is not there, but is here. God the Father God the human son and God the Holy Spirit are not light years on the other side of the moon.

but his kingdom is near if we if we go to the resources and look in the original languages when Jesus said near near means near it doesn't mean they are it means near like just a step away. God is more interested in us doing what he's called us to do. He's more interested interested in us being filled with his spirit and serving him and so he's not dangling near just out of our reach.

Truth be known he's got his arm around each one of us saying I love you. I want you to come and go where I'm going. I want you to experience the Forgiveness that I'm offering you. I want you to experience the healing that I have at 4 you're asking. I want you to have the provision that I can give you if you will just open your hands and receive it from me.

so Jesus follower if in your unbelief, you do not expect God to answer his phone. The first step is to confess to a brother or sister that you love into say.

I am not expecting anything. Just admit it.

Best of someone that Jesus just seems too far away. and then fast without food or without something else occasionally. Remember your fast will not twist God's arm to meet you or speak to you or heal you because God is already moving towards you. Some of you who are not officially Jesus followers yet know that while you're walking away.

He's following you. He's looking for you. He's inviting you.

God's already moving towards you because he always moves toward you first. God always makes the first move of Grace. So let's stop. And hear God saying I am here.

stop it's time to fast. It's time to become hungry for the right thing. Stop expecting anything or anyone in the world. But God to break the chains in your life. Stop believing that your addiction or your illness is outside the capability of God to heal. Stop thinking the voices that yell in your head. You're not enough.

Stop thinking. Those voices are true. And instead hear God say what he said to his son and says to his children you are beloved to me. I am so pleased with you. I created you for a special purpose. And as you grow into the person I created you to be it will be so pleasing. But where you are? Is pleasing because I love you where you are. I love you is what God saying to us right now.

How near is Christ the Apostle Paul hollered at the early church. Do you not know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit within you which you have from God and that you are not your own and the Elder John said in first John for your little children of God because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

So now that you know, he is committed to be near. stop rest wait And expect the Lord to show up it'll be his timing and to do what he intends to do. But wait, see what he's hungry for. You deserve a donut. Have a donut while you wait. It's not about her stomach.

It's about our hearts. Instead of being in this hungry in this world instead of being hungry in this world without God expect that God is already begun right now breaking those chain. He wants to free you more than you want to free you. Believe that your diction your illness your Brokenness will crumble beneath God's miraculous touch. And know that God's love is enough.

Let God. Love you.

If you know God loves you, she was God's fast. She used to get hungrier in your soul. for the things God is hungry for

have a donut. Or not pies, okay. Heavenly father. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being near enough. To come and shed blood on this Earth to walk with some of us though years ago. You walked and you experience what it's like to step on a rock and your foot hurt. and you experience what it's like 2 speed challenge

and to be overwhelmed and to the oppressed with the needs of the world, but I pray for each one here that they would experience you fresh and a new experience your grace experience your will and then Lord use us for what you supposed to do what you want to do and help us to be hungry for the things that you are hungry for.

So we commit ourselves to receiving your will and doing your will by the Holy Spirit. And in Jesus name we ask and we wait.