Let's turn in your copy of God's Word with me to the 6th chapter of Matthew's Gospel. We're still in our series that we've titled, Wisdom from God, in Matthew chapter 6. And remember, just before Thanksgiving week, we considered verses 16 to 18 of chapter 6, which is the Lord Jesus' third illustration of not practicing your righteousness before others, which is the illustration of fasting. And we considered Jesus' description on how not to fast, followed by his instructions on how to fast. So you're not to look gloomy and distort your face and basically try to impress other people by drawing attention to yourself when you fast. But instead you just do what you would normally do when you fast. You go ahead and bathe and shave and all the rest. fasting for God and not for men. And God who sees your heart will reward you. That's the basic teaching here. But now what I want to do is to lead us in a little study on Christian fasting in general from various scriptures, because I'm aware the church in America doesn't really understand the Christian discipline of fasting. It's not unique to Dayspring. This is something that you see in churches all across uh... america uh... people just don't understand uh... fasting what it is how we do it and why especially why we do it with the purpose of it is because for many it just seems like a rather arbitrary and strange uh... abstract external exercise uh... sort of like flogging yourself for something you know belonging to some strange eastern religion I had a friend, a close friend in high school, he lived with me the summer after his first year of college. He went to Princeton, real smart kid, and his name was Nicky, and he was a Buddhist at that time, and I was a Christian. We had a lot of interesting conversations. But after that summer of when he lived with me in my apartment, He went off to Japan and joined a Buddhist monastery in Japan. Shaved his head, became a Buddhist monk. Sold all his possessions and all the things that you do when you become a Buddhist monk. And it was a hardcore monastery. And one of the things that they did was they beat him with rods. And he talked about how that broke his ego and was very beneficial to him spiritually. And sometimes I think we think of things like that when we think of fasting. It's just a sort of weird, almost Eastern, strange thing that seems foreign to our walk with Jesus. But what we find in scripture is actually that fasting is Christian and it's something that is expected of Christians. In fact, you could describe the age in which we live that time period that we've been looking over and over again in the book of Revelation on Sunday mornings from the ascension of Jesus Christ to his return, it can be referred to as an age of fasting. Because remember what the conversation was between Jesus and the Pharisees when the Pharisees came to Jesus and said, John's disciples fast, but your disciples aren't fasting. What's going on here? Remember what was Jesus's response. When the bridegroom is here, there is no fasting. There's feasting when the bridegroom is here. But I'm going away. And when the bridegroom is gone, that will be a time of fasting and of mourning. And so part of our Christian fasting is a longing for a hungering after the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in this period of suffering, of affliction, of persecution as we await our Lord. So let's begin by looking at chapter 6 and just the opening phrase of verse 16 is our passage for today. Jesus says, And when you fast, So you see, he just assumes that you know what fasting is, that you know how to do it, that you know the spiritual reasons behind fasting, and he assumes that you are, in fact, fasting. But the church in America, I mean, we have to be honest when it comes to the spiritual discipline of fasting, and some of the other spiritual disciplines as well, we've become Christianity lite. where we've conformed more to our culture really than to the image of Christ. We're not really following Jesus in this area. Fasting is one of, I think, the most feared, also the most forgotten disciplines of the Christian life. It's very misunderstood as well. Most American Christians are aware that fasting is there in the Bible, but they just tend to pass it over as something that was merely part of that ancient culture, but has no relevance to the 21st century West. But I'm suggesting that Jesus wants 21st century American Christians to be fasting, to be a fasting people. That this isn't something cultural, it's something Christian. from the advent or the ascension of Jesus to his second advent. It's part and parcel of the redeemed Christian life, the walk as we follow Jesus. Followers of Jesus fast. And so here's how I want to break down our lesson tonight. I want to just ask and answer three basic questions. First, briefly I want to answer the question, what is fasting? So biblically speaking, what is it? I want to try to define it. And then secondly, and this is where I intend to spend most of our time tonight, what is the purpose of fasting? Why do believers fast? Why did God invent and institute fasting for his people? And we'll consider multiple purposes from the Bible, from scripture itself. And then thirdly and finally, final question, how do you then fast? How do you actually go about doing it? just practically how do you incorporate fasting into your Christian walk, into your life as you follow Jesus. So those are our three questions for tonight. We're going to move from what to why to how. So first question, what is fasting? What is fasting? Anyone want to take a shot at a definition of fasting? Okay, withholding something from yourself for a designated period of time. That's pretty good and that's pretty close. That's pretty broad. Biblically defining fasting, you could say that fasting is the voluntary abstinence from physical nourishment, food and drink, for special spiritual purposes. This is the voluntary abstinence from physical nourishment, food and drink, for special spiritual purposes. And it is, it's voluntary. Years ago I had a Day Springer suggest to me that I call a fast for all of Day Springers to fast for a particular thing and I was uncomfortable doing that because I didn't want to make it compulsory and sound like that you had to participate in a fast, because fasting is to be voluntary. I do think congregational fasting is biblical, and we'll look at that later, and so I just have to wrestle through that on my own. But that's essentially what fasting is. I think if we were a fasting people, if fasting was just a part of our daily walk or regular walk with the Lord, I'd be more comfortable in suggesting from time to time a congregational fast. So that's biblically defined what fasting is. We'll look in more detail a little bit later on, on how to go about fasting, different types of fasts. We'll answer questions. What if you're a diabetic? What if you're pregnant? Those types of practical things. But before we do that, I want to ask the most important question on fasting, which is our second question. And that is, what is the purpose of fasting? Why do believers fast? Why did God create fasting? and institute fasting for his people. So we're moving now from the what to the why. And first off, I want to give you two wrong answers to the why question, two very wrong answers. And the first wrong answer is that we fast in order to impress others with our spirituality. Okay, we saw that clearly taught in our passage from Matthew 6, that the hypocrites, they were moping around, gloomy, they were actually distorting their faces to bring attention to themselves and to impress others, to impress themselves. So, very obvious, it's not to impress others. But secondly, maybe not quite as obvious, the second wrong answer is that we fast, the reason we fast is in order to impress God. Not to impress others, but to impress God. Now that's also a wrong answer. Fasting is not in order to just really impress the Lord and get His attention. Fasting is not a mechanistic way of getting your prayers answered. As though if you just fast, then that guarantees that God will answer the way you want Him to. That's a theology of works. Fasting doesn't manipulate God. So two wrong answers. You don't fast to impress others, and you don't fast to impress God. And the one thing I really want to emphasize with you tonight is that the most important thing about fasting, when you actually try it, is to realize that fasting is to be done for a purpose, a God-centered, biblical purpose. purpose. Otherwise, it becomes a miserable self-centered experience. So many American Christians who actually try fasting, maybe you've tried it in the past, they try it in a way that's completely disconnected from a God-centered biblical purpose. And so they say, you know, I realize that Christians are expected to fast, and so I tried it, and boy, I was so hungry. There was growling in my stomach, and I thought, if I ever get through this, I'm never going to do it again. So, the whole time while they fast, they think, you know, how much longer until this is over? Their whole thought is making it to the finish line. Well, that just works. That's just legalism. That's just endurance of self-inflicted suffering in hopes that God will be impressed by it, you know, by my self-inflicted suffering. That's not what fasting's about. So the most important thing about fasting is to understand its purpose. Fasting is practice for a God-centered biblical purpose. In his wonderful book, which we have copies of just out here in our bookstore, the title is Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. I highly recommend it to every Christian to read this book. In chapter 9 of the book, Don Whitney deals with fasting. And he summarizes 10 purposes found in scripture for fasting. And so I'm going to, in a moment, just walk through these with you. Most of them have to do with strengthening prayer. John Piper, he speaks of fasting as an intensifier. And I think that's good. It's an intensifier. So here's how it should work. for the motive to be right, for the heart to be pure. When your stomach growls, so you're fasting, and your head aches, and you start to say, boy, am I hungry, your next thought's going to be, that's right, I'm hungry because I'm fasting today. Now, if your next thought is, gosh, how much longer until this is over? That's wrong motive, wrong heart. It's just about, that's just going to be a bad experience. What your next thought should be is, oh, and I'm fasting for this biblical purpose. So for example, let's say that you're fasting for the purpose of praying for your spouse or praying for the salvation of your child. And throughout the day, your stomach aches and growls, your head hurts, and you think, I'm really hungry. Oh, that's right. I'm hungry because I'm fasting. That's right, I'm fasting because I'm fasting for the purpose of praying for my wife or for my child. I'm broken over their condition and fasting, it intensifies, it adds to my brokenness. So what are you doing all day long? You're praying. You're grieving before the Lord and you're praying out of your brokenness and from your contrite heart for a God-centered biblical purpose. So actually, when you're fasting, you want to feel hungry. Your hunger serves you. Your hunger serves a higher purpose, which is to pray all day for your spouse or for your child. So that's why hunger is a good thing when it comes to fasting. Because the end goal of fasting is not to feel hungry. The goal is not to suffer and then think that God will be impressed by your suffering. The hunger serves a higher purpose, which is to pray for your spouse or to pray for your child, to grieve over their condition before the Lord. Our culture, even our American Christian culture, tells us that we should seek to be happy, happy, happy. But we follow, who do we follow? We follow the one we sang about. We follow in the footsteps of the man of sorrows who fasted. And the Bible encourages believers to mourn, and to weep, and to wail, and to express our sorrow before the Lord. And we're to be always repenting. Repentance involves sorrow. Prayer with fasting is one way to do that, to intensify that. And we see examples of that in scripture. So remember Daniel. Back in Daniel chapter 9, it's about a year ago, we were there together on Sunday mornings and that great prayer of his repentance to God, asking God to fulfill his promise of bringing the people out of exile. Remember it had been 70 years, so it's now the Babylonian Empire has risen and fallen Now it's the Persians who are ruling. Daniel realizes that that time has come to an end, and he doesn't just say, all right, people, let's go. No, what does he do? He goes before the Lord. Daniel 9, verse 3, this is what we read, and pleased for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. to you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame." And it just goes on imploring God to act savingly and in mercy for His namesake to fulfill His promise. Daniel chapter 10, the next chapter, verse 2, in those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all for the full three weeks." So what's the purpose of Daniel's fasting? It's intensifying his sorrow and his grief and his mourning over his sin and over the sin of his people which have led them into this exile. Our culture tells you that when you feel feelings of guilt or sorrow, to do things to get you out of that mood, right? To perk yourself up, to get rid of those feelings. The Bible shows us that it's often appropriate to intensify those feelings through fasting. So fasting is to be done for a purpose. Again, I would highly recommend to you to read the book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney. So here are those ten purposes found in scripture for fasting that he summarizes in the ninth chapter of his book. I won't take time to read all the scripture verses, but I will give you the references here. So you'll notice as I go through these ten purposes, there are a lot of overlap in these purposes. A lot of them are very similar. So the first one. First purpose for why fast? To strengthen prayer. Ezra 8.23, Nehemiah 1.4, Daniel 9.3, Joel 2.12-17, Acts 13.3, to strengthen prayer. And when we talk about strengthening prayer, remember what we're not talking about. The Bible doesn't teach that fasting is a kind of spiritual hunger strike. right, that moves and compels God to do our bidding. Fasting doesn't change God's hearing. It changes our praying. Christians who pray while fasting communicate that they're truly in earnest, that they're expressing that earnestness in a divinely appointed way. Remember, fasting is God's idea. Number two, second reason to fast, to seek God's guidance. We see this in Judges 20, 26 to 28. We see this in the New Testament as well, Acts 14, verse 23. So fasting doesn't ensure clear guidance, but it does make us more sensitive to God. It helps us to tune out the world and the appetites for the things of the world, and to focus on the Lord so that we might listen more attentively to His Word. Think of the leaders in Acts fasting before they sent out Paul and Barnabas. What were they doing? They wanted to be sensitive to more of the Spirit's leading, so they fasted. Maybe you need the Lord's guidance with something in your life right now. Consider fasting. Third reason, to express grief. So we saw this in Daniel 9, Judges 20, 26, 1 Samuel 31, 11-13, 2 Samuel 1, 11-12. Often in the Bible there is fasting to express grief. Biblical confession involves grief for the sin committed. And so, since fasting can be an expression of grief, it's never inappropriate. Don Whitney says in his book this, quote, There have been a few occasions when I grieved so deeply over my sin that words alone seemed powerless to say to God what I wanted. And though it made me no more worthy of forgiveness, fasting communicated the grief and confession my words could not." So a good biblical purpose for fasting is to express grief, sorrow over sin in particular. Fourth reason. to seek from God deliverance or protection. 2 Chronicles 23-4, Ezra 8, 21-23, Esther 4, 16, Psalm 109, verses 21-26. We see examples of fasting in order to seek deliverance and protection from God. Fasting is a spiritual discipline of God's people and should be a line of defense against persecution from family, schoolmates, neighbors, co-workers, other Christians even. Number five, Fifth reason, to express repentance and a return to the Lord. 1 Samuel 7-6, Daniel 9, Joel 2-12, Jonah 3-5-8. So very closely related to expressing grief over sin. Fasting can also intensify repentance and signal a personal revival and renewed commitment to take up your cross, to shun the world, to follow Jesus in newness of life. Sixth reason to fast, to humble oneself before God. You see this in 1 Kings 21 verses 27 to 29, Psalm 35 verse 13. John Calvin said this about fasting, quote, Since this is a holy exercise both for the humbling of men and for their confession of humility, why would we use it less than the ancients did in similar need? I think that's a relevant question to ask today as well. A seventh reason, to express concern for the work of God. To express your concern for the work of God, fasting, for that expression. Nehemiah 1, 3-11, Isaiah 58, 6-7, and Daniel 9-3. Now I wouldn't want anyone leaving here tonight thinking that we should fast all day every day as an expression. of concern for all of God's work. But God does, on occasion, He gives us so great a concern for His work that the Holy Spirit prompts us that we should fast. Eighth reason. to fast, to minister to the needs of others. To minister to the needs of others. See this in Isaiah 58 verses 6 to 7. So fasting cannot be compartmentalized from the rest of our lives. The spiritual disciplines that we have in scripture are not only for our sake, but they're for the sake of others as well. If we fast, if we give up some meals by fasting, we can use that lunch hour or that lunch money, that extra time and resources to minister to others. And so that's a biblical reason for fasting. Yes? Yeah, it's the clips and a funny... Got it. Our sound man, he picks it all up. Ninth reason for fasting is to overcome temptation and dedicate yourself to God. So we see this in the fourth chapter of Matthew's Gospel with the temptation of our Lord as an example. So fasting is, it's a good exercise in self-discipline. Refraining from eating food can strengthen our ability to refrain from sin when we're tempted. It trains us to draw near to God and to rely upon Him, to go to the Lord and trust Him for everything, to rely upon Him. And then tenth and final reason, biblically, to fast, is to express love and worship to God. Luke chapter 2 verse 37. To fast means that you love God more than food. You deny your hunger for food to pursue your hunger for God. Seeking more of Him is more important than eating. When you feel a hunger pain as you're fasting, you let it remind you that your stomach is not your God, and your fasting reminds you that your sustenance is the living God. Fasting tests where our hearts are. It helps us to focus on God, to feast on Him and His Word more fully, and it communicates that our hearts are with God and not with this world ultimately. So that's really at the heart of understanding Christian fasting. When you fast, fast for a God-centered, biblical purpose. You don't just fast to endure it and get to the finish line. But before we close tonight, we have to ask one final question. How do you practically go about fasting? So how do you implement this? So we're moving from the what and the why, now to the how. Biblically, there are at least four components to fasting that you have to consider in considering how to fast. So fasting is described in terms of what is given up, that's the first component, who participates, secondly, Third, the duration of the fast, how long is it going to last? And then fourth and finally, how often is the fast conducted? And so the first thing is the degree of the abstinence. So we can abstain from food and drink to various degrees. There's the normal fast, which is avoidance of all food and drink, or the partial fast, which is a limitation of diet, but not abstinence from all food and drink. So the normal fast, partial fast. Secondly, we have the number of participants in the fast. So there are private fasts. This is you as an individual Christian fasting. A private fast is what Jesus has in mind and what he's speaking about in the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 6. There's small group fasts. We see this in scripture as well. So we can fast with other believers, fast with other Christians as a shared commitment. And this, I mean, some of the ladies recently had a fast for my wife and praise the Lord. My wife's doing much, much better. Then there's a congregational fast. So a fast can be conducted by an entire congregation of God's people. We see this in scripture. So Esther 4.16 describes a fast of all the Jews in Susa. Nehemiah 9.1 describes a fast by the entire nation of Israel. Joel 2.15-16 is a third example. So those are degrees of abstinence, number of participants. Thirdly, we have the length of the fast. So how long does a fast last? Well, the Bible doesn't give it any commands about length. It includes fasts that cover part of a day. So really just one meal can be a fast. If you do it for a God-centered biblical purpose, it can be a Christian fast. We see it in Judges 20, 26 to 28, a fast like that. A fast could be one entire day, Jeremiah 36, verse 6. three days, Esther 4.1, Acts 9.8-9, seven days, 1 Samuel 31.13, a 21-day fast, we saw that one in Daniel, Daniel 10.2-3, and even fasts of 40 days, so Deuteronomy 9.9, 1 Kings 19.8, and Matthew 4.1-2. The Bible also records many fasts without even mentioning their length. We don't know how long they were. And then fourth and final component to fasting, frequency of fast. So how often, on what schedule is the fast occurring? So there are three different frequencies. There's the regular fast, so on a repetitive schedule. The Israelites fasted annually on the Day of Atonement. See that in Leviticus 16. The Pharisee, remember the Pharisee and the Publican? The Pharisee in Luke 8, 12, he congratulates himself for what? fasting twice a week. So twice a week he would fast. That's a regular fast. Secondly, there's occasional fasts. These occur whenever a need is perceived. Most of the fasting examples we have in the Bible, in Scripture, fall into this category. So occasional fasts, when there is a When a need is perceived, an occasion arises that the Spirit then prompts you to fast. And so that's the most common. Then there's the continuous fast. We see this example in John the Baptist. Remember Matthew 3, 4 says that his food, just his regular food, was always locusts and wild honey. That's what he lived on. That was his sustenance. That was just a continuous fast. Okay, so that's how to fast in terms of what is given up, who participates, the duration of the fast, how often the fast is conducted. Now I want to go briefly back to what is given up, because when we talk about fasting, many people automatically rule themselves out. because they're diabetic, or they're pregnant, or they have debilitating migraines if they fast, or they have to take medicine with every meal, three meals a day and so on. Well certainly, we would not want to be asking anyone to do anything that would cause harm to themselves or certainly to their unborn child. But in the Bible, first chapter of Daniel, you remember back then, he and his friends, they had only vegetables for a period of time and water to drink instead of the food, the rich foods that were offered to them. So really, In almost every case where a person wants to fast, but has some physical limitation, they can participate by means of the partial fast. So if they need balanced nutrition, for example, they have a balanced meal, but just much smaller portions. Or maybe they have just one simple food, like just rice or just bread. And the point of it is, is to get the minimal nutritional intake to avoid the physical problems, and yet they still feel that lack of satisfaction. They still feel a little hungry. I think that where there's a will, there's a way. If anyone wants to fast, they can find a way to fast. Even one meal for spiritual purposes can be a biblical fast. And while the Bible doesn't really address fasting in terms of the avoidance of anything other than food and drink, I do think the principle at least can be extended into other areas of life with spiritual benefit. So Martin Lloyd-Jones agrees. He gives this broad and inclusive definition of fasting. Lloyd-Jones says, is the abstinence from anything that is legitimate in and of itself for some special spiritual purpose. Again, emphasis on purpose. If you're a news junkie, you could fast from the news from a period of time. Some of us, I know, are really into following sports. You could fast from Super Bowl Sunday. You could fast from March Madness. Again, what fasting does, spiritually, it helps reveal how strong the cords and bonds, the appetites of this world have on you. So you can try fasting from news, from sports, from TV, from video games, from entertainment, from the stock market, from social media, checking Facebook every two seconds. You can even fast from work, workaholics, and see what really masters you. But biblically speaking, fasting is primarily a voluntary abstinence from physical nourishment, food and drink for special spiritual purposes. So, in closing, I want to challenge you and encourage you to take some time, sometime soon, to consider the reasons for fasting that we just went through in answering the why question, those 10 biblical reasons. Maybe you need God's guidance on an important matter in your life. Maybe your prayer life has been dulled by worldly concerns. Maybe you're struggling with a particular sin and you need to intensify your repentance and return to the Lord. Whatever the issue, fasting may well be a means of God's grace in helping you with your need and in pointing you toward the sufficiency of God and your trust and reliance upon Him alone. To close, consider the words of Pastor John Piper on the essence of Christian fasting from his book, which is another one I highly recommend, A Hunger for God. In A Hunger for God, Piper writes, fasting tests where the heart is. And when it reveals that the heart is with God and not with the world, a mighty blow is struck against Satan. For then Satan does not have the foothold he would if our heart were in love with earthly things like bread. Every time we fast, we are saying with Jesus, not by bread alone, but you, Lord. Not by bread alone, but by you, Lord. Let us pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we are humbled and awed that you have given us the blessing of fasting. And we pray that we would be a fasting people, that we would fast rightly with a God-centered biblical purpose. Help us to mourn, to mourn over our own lack of faith, to mourn over our love for the world. over the anemic state of the church, over the fall of our nation into ungodliness, over the misery in this world. We pray that we would seek you and hunger for you through Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.