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Turn if you would to the gospel
of Matthew chapter 17 the gospel of Matthew chapter 17 and We're going to continue on
from last Wednesday's subject and that is fasting fasting and
we're going to just briefly refresh our minds and hearts and souls
and spirits and We're going to read our scripture reading first. So we pray that this will be
a help to us in our daily lives. Fasting is something that children
of God ought to do. It's in the Bible. And I've said
before that demonic spirits didn't go away because it's the 21st
century. And fasting didn't end because
it's the 21st century. And so we want to look here in
Matthew chapter 17. We'll begin at verse 14. And this is a tremendous occasion
of which took place. And we're going to read here
these verses down through verse 21. And it says, and when they
were come to the multitude, There came to him a certain man kneeling
down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he
is lunatic and sore-vexed. For oft times he falleth into
the fire and oft into the water, and I brought him to thy disciples,
and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said,
O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus
rebuked the demon, or the devil, and he departed out of him, and
the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples
to Jesus apart and said, Why could not we cast him out? Jesus
said unto them, Because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto
you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say
unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall
remove. Nothing shall be impossible unto you, albeit this kind goeth
not out, but by prayer and fasting. Now, just a few thoughts here.
Again, this is a popular section of verses that is taken out of
context by many false religious people today. Some people, they'll
say if they pray about something or if they ask God for something
and it doesn't happen, they'll say, well, you must not have
had enough faith. You never hear anybody say, well,
it wasn't God's will for that to take place. And oftentimes,
people who want God to remove a mountain or something of that
nature, they often ask a mist, they're asking to consume it
upon their own lust. And I've never heard anybody
say that when they want to be like the Lord, they typically
don't refer to, as Jesus said, the foxes have holes and these
have dens to lay, but the Son of Man hath nowhere to lay His
head. Nobody means that when they want to be like the Lord,
do they? They want all the comforts of this world that they think
they're afforded. But this is not what this verse
is speaking of. Prayer is not a blank check.
Prayer changes people and things, but not God. And it often changes
our will. When we come unto His throne
and we're seeking Him and petitioning Him, oftentimes the mountain
that is moved is our own will, isn't it? And God conforms us
into what He desires and He wants. And so he is speaking here in
this fashion in verse 21. He says, Howbeit this kind goeth
not out but by prayer and fasting. This was a tremendous occasion.
An individual was possessed by a demon and the Lord with supernatural
power casted him out. And his disciples said, how come
we couldn't do this? And he tells them why. First
of all, they had unbelief. Second of all, he said, this
kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. And this is a principle
teaching that teaches us that there are certain things that
prayer and fasting must go before something's accomplished. And
again, I want to reiterate what we said last week, and that is
prayer and fasting are not some lucky rabbit's foot. It's not
something you go to to rub and say, okay, now I'm going to get
what I asked for. That's not what it is. Fasting
is to refrain from eating food and or water to afflict oneself
for a spiritual need. I told someone the other day,
I said, I preached on fasting Wednesday, and I'm going to preach
on it again this Wednesday, and he said, he goes, boy, I really
need to fast, rubbing his belly. And he was a larger gentleman.
That's not the fasting that the Bible's referring to. It's not
about weight loss of a physical kind. Fasting is seeking the Lord and
seeking to know God and His will in a deeper fashion. There were
multiple occasions of which God's people fasted in the Old Testament. And the Old Testament was written
for our admonition and our learning. There are multiple occasions
of which the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament
fasted. As he said here, there are certain
things that will only go out but by prayer and fasting. So before I end up preaching
last week's message all over again, let's note tonight's point
number one. I'd like you to turn over, if
you would, to Matthew 6. And that is, the Lord gave us
some rules for fasting. Rules for fasting. And yes, I
know folks like to say, well, I'm not under the law, I'm under
grace. Well, grace has rules. And there's rules for fasting. First of all, as we look at these
verses, we'll read verses 16-18, and you'll see here that the
Lord is rebuking hypocrisy. He's rebuking hypocrisy. In verse
16, He says, Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites
of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they
may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. But thou, when thou fastest,
anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto
men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father
which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Now you'll
notice here that Jesus says, verse 16, moreover when ye fast,
not moreover if you fast, but when ye fast. So we find here
that the Lord is commanding and expecting His people to seek
Him with fasting. Now, you'll notice here in Matthew
6, you'll find here that the Lord lists a few things. In verse 1-7, verse 1, He speaks
of almsgiving. And again, you read that, He
says, Take heed that ye do not your alms before men. So again,
He's expecting us to do alms, isn't He? He's expecting us to
do good unto our fellow mankind. And we have Galatians 6.10 which
says, that as you therefore have opportunity, do good unto all
men, especially unto the household of faith. So we're supposed to
do good on all men. And I reiterate that the greatest
good that we can do is to tell them the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the greatest good you
can do. Remember there, Peter and John, they went up to the
temple to pray in the book of Acts? And they said unto that
man, he was a beggar there at the beautiful gate, and he was
begging for alms, and they said, Silver and gold have I none,
but such as I have, give I unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ,
rise up and walk. Boy, that was far better that
they preached the gospel to him than if they had just gave him
silver or gold and walked on by. It's far better that they
shared the Gospel with him. And so he speaks about almsgiving. Verse 5, And when thou prayest. So again, he's talking about
you're supposed to do alms, you're supposed to pray. We have the
model prayer beginning here in verse 9. And then, in verse 16,
he talks and speaks about fasting. Isn't it interesting that almsgiving,
prayer, and fasting are all mentioned right here? And then in the next
verse, verse 19, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth
where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through
and steal. And then he skips to verse 33, if you would, Excuse me. Verse 33. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. Take therefore no thought for
the moral, for the moral shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." So, he's
talking about almsgiving and prayer and fasting, and then
in the next verses he's talking about not laying up on this earth
and seeking the spiritual things, isn't he? There's a connection
between all that, isn't there? You see, the Lord rebukes this
hypocrisy. Back there in verse 16, He says,
when you fast, be not as the hypocrites. Here, He's talking
about a private fast. There were public fasts. Remember
we said last week there were times when kings would proclaim
a fast. When Jonah went into Nineveh
and he preached that three days or forty days and Nineveh would
be overthrown. And a fast was proclaimed to
repent. And God, He turned from destroying
them, didn't He? And so, thanks buddy. That's a big cup. I'm sorry,
the bathroom's back there. You can go that way or you can
go that way and you'll eventually get to it if you have to yell
and there's a water cooler right around the corner. Help yourself.
So we have here that he speaks about a private fast. A private
fast. There's public ones. There's
ones when days passed and gone and maybe they need to be days
current and happening. when churches would have a fast
together. I don't know if this church has
ever had a fast. But the Bible tells us here that
they're not supposed to. He says, when you fast, be not
as the hypocrites of a sad countenance. When you fast, don't be walking
around, oh, I'm so hungry, but I'm fasting. They disfigure their faces that
they may appear unto men to fast. You know, that they would put
dust upon them. Because that was a sign of sorrow
over sin, and it was done as an outward of what the inward
was done. And the hypocrites, or the Pharisees,
the religious people of Christ's day, they would do that, and
yet they had no inward sorrow. He said, Christ says, don't do
that. When you fast, don't be like the hypocrites. I told my wife Wednesday, I preached
on fasting. I was going to preach on it again
tonight. She says, are you planning to fast? I says, not while I'm
in Kansas. Brother Dale's cooking barbecue. But you know when you fast, unless
it's a proclaimed public fast, and I don't know if we've ever
had a president or a governor or anybody who's ever proclaimed
one in our nation, and you know we have a national day of prayer,
why not a national day of fasting? They used to have those in nations. But when you fast, you don't
do it to men, you're doing it unto the Lord. The Pharisee in
Luke 18.12, when he prayed, he said, I fast twice in a week. He was boasting of his fasting.
God warns us through the Scriptures about outward fasting only. It does not please Him. He is
not pleased with that show of religion. These Pharisees and hypocrites
adorned themselves and went into the street to be seen of men."
When you have a private fast, you know what you're supposed
to do? You're supposed to be at home in your prayer closets, seeking
the Lord. That's what you're supposed to
be doing. Secondly, about fast, this point,
managing private fasts. Verse 17-18, But thou, when thou
fast, anoint thine head, and wash thy face. You know what
the Lord is saying? Keep it private. We're not told
how often to fast. One writer said, Circumstances
vary, and wisdom is profitable therein to direct. The Holy Spirit
directs our spirit and our hearts by His Word when we ought to
fast. One of the things about managing
a fast is the Lord does not abate the reality of the fast. And
by that I mean He doesn't say, go ahead and take a little something. That kind of sounds like Satan,
doesn't it? Oh, thou shalt not surely die. The purpose of fasting is to
afflict our souls. When Christ was suspended between
heaven and earth upon Calvary's hill on the tree of the cross,
there was no abating the reality of our sins that were put upon
Him, was there? God didn't lessen our sins upon
Christ, did He? They were in full force poured
out upon Him and God's wrath was also not abated. And so there's not a take a little
meat or a little drink or a little cordial and then keep on going. No, let the body suffer. Lay
aside the show of appearance of it. appear with an ordinary
countenance, as fasting is the humbling of the soul. Your outward
appearance shall not be any different from when you're not fasting." That's how we're ought to fast.
And then in verse 18 of Matthew 6, that thou appear not unto
men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father
which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Religious fast, if rightly kept,
will shortly be recompensed with an everlasting feast. He'll reward us openly. Now, that again is, as we noted
there in our first point this evening, rules for fasting. Keep
it private. I mean, some people, they might
rent a billboard and say, you know, if it was me, the way they
rent a billboard says, I'm fasting today, Nate Hilley. You know,
or post on Facebook or social media. Pray for me, I'm fasting
today. Well, let's look secondly at
types of fasting. Types of fasting. There are different
types or kinds of fast revealed in the Bible. Matthew, Henry,
he stated, each are used as a means to curb the flesh and the desires
of it and to make us more lively in religious exercises. as fullness
of bread is apt to make us drowsy, each kind of fast is an act of
self-denial, and mortification of the flesh, and holy revenge
upon ourselves, and humiliation under the hand of God." Fasting
is abasing ourselves. Now I'd like you to observe first
of all, if you'll turn over to Luke chapter 4, under the types
of fasts, I'd like you to know, and these names that I'm going
to use are arbitrary, okay? They're man-made names. The first
here I want to look at is called the normal fast. And if you want
to call it by some other name, that's just fine. And if some
other preacher calls it some other way, that's fine too. I found this in a Bible dictionary. I said that's a good way of dividing
them up. But the normal fast. And here in Luke 4 verse 1 and
2, And Jesus, being full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan,
and this is after he was baptized, You that are when the Lord saves
you, and you seek to be scripturally baptized, and you become a member
of His church, that might be a time to fast. You know, what
do we do as Baptist churches? Hey, we better have a fellowship
dinner. The Lord saved somebody. The Lord fasted after he was
baptized. Luke 4, maybe we ought to fast
for that person. Luke 4, verse 1, "...and Jesus
being full of the Holy Spirit, He turned from Jordan and was
led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the
devil, and in those days He did eat nothing. When they were ended,
He afterward hungered." Now, we call it a normal fast, and
this is a total abstinence from food, but not water. This is
the most common fast. And our Lord did it for 40 days. You can live without food for
40 days. I remember I had a medical issue
last year and the doctor, he put me on a liquid diet. You
know what he told me? He says, you will be hungry. And he was not lying. If you fast, You will be hungry. You're going to be hungry. It's
going to happen. Understand that. That's part
of fasting. You're going to be hungry. But
you're not going to eat because you're going to go afflict your
soul. You say, oh, I couldn't do that. Maybe that's the problem
we have today. We're not willing to follow the
Lord and do without. But he, it says, when they were
ended, he afterward hungered. I bet. I bet he was hungry. I usually get hungry every 4
hours, let alone 40 days. I don't know if you can tell,
I like to eat. Turn over if you would to Acts
chapter 9. Secondly, types or kinds of fast. Acts chapter 9. Verse 9. This is an absolute
fast. An absolute fast. Acts 9 and
verse 9. Here is the occasion. Saul of
Tarsus was saved on the road to Damascus in an amazing Jesus
Christ was baptized and then he fasted while he was being
tempted of the devil. You ever been under a trial or
a temptation of the devil? You ever think about fasting
during that time period and seeking the Lord? Well, I haven't. That's kind of eye-opening, isn't
it? How about this? Saul of Tarsus after he's saved.
Remember what he said there in verse 6? And he trembling and
astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? What did
we say fasting was? It was seeking the will of the
Lord, wasn't it? So what do we find in verse 9? And he was three days without
sight and neither did eat nor drink. What do you think he did
for three days? I think you sought the will of
the Lord, don't you? He went three days without eating or drinking. An absolute
fast. Here he was, after the Lord saved
him. Remember what Paul said, we read it last week, that he
was in fastings often. There in 2 Corinthians. Fasting
is often. You know what the word often
means? It means seldom. Frequent. Or not seldom. It means frequent. He was fasting
frequently. I eat frequently. We do, don't
we? So here he was in an absolute
fast. Three days. You know, you can go three days
without drinking. you can physically go three days
without drinking. Now I want you to understand,
this Paul was not out digging ditches while he went without
food or drink for three days, was he? People make that mistake. They
go to work or they go to their job or they're working around
the house or something like that and they're fasting and they
get sick and they say, well, I've got to eat or I've got to
drink something. I bet you do. You know what Paul was doing?
He was probably on his knees in prayer. See, that's the problem
is we try to do our normal activity and fast and it cannot be done. During that time, one is supposed
to be seeking the Lord. And I understand we have daily
things that we have to do. You know what? That laundry can
get done the next day. And it's not like you're going
to have any dishes to do, because you're not cooking, because you're
not eating. You understand? You're afflicting
your soul during that time. Then if you turn over to Daniel
chapter 10, in the Old Testament, still applicable, Daniel chapter
10, we have here a partial fast. A partial fast. And again, we
got Christ, About to be tempted of the devil. We have Saul of
Tarsus after he's saved. Remember what Jesus said about
Saul of Tarsus? I will show him how great things
he must need suffer for my name's sake. No wonder he fasted often. Here we have Daniel. You know
where Daniel was? He was in captivity. In Daniel 10, verse 1, In the
third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a thing was revealed
unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar, and the thing was
true. But the time appointed was long,
and he understood the thing, and had an understanding of the
vision. In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. You know what he was mourning
over? The sins of Israel. That's what he was mourning over.
The sins of God's people, the sins of His nation. And our nation
has a lot of things that we should be mourning over. There's a lot
of sin happening in our nation. I don't need to tell you. It's
wrong to murder people. It's wrong to murder innocent
people. It's wrong to murder those in
a womb. It is. That's a national sin. And it doesn't matter how great
people want to tout about our economy, until that gets fixed,
this nation will never be blessed of God. It's not going to happen. That's not right. The things
that are going on in Washington D.C. and all the backdoor deals
and all the other stuff they got going on. It's not right. You know the purpose of government
is not to provide all of these things for people. You know what
the purpose of government is? To uphold the laws. To uphold
righteousness. That's it. It's laid out in Scriptures. The government is supposed to
say, you know what, you over here, you're oppressing these people
over here and you have to stop that. That's government. That's
what government is supposed to do. But here Daniel had a partial
fast. Three full weeks. The next verse, I ate no pleasant
bread. Pleasant bread is the best of
bread served in king's courts. It's of the finest wheat, hot
and fresh bread. I'm sure maybe everybody here
has had homemade bread or something. My wife will still make some
homemade bread. And I tell you, it doesn't last
through the meal. It doesn't. It's hot, it's soft,
My mom's dad, I never met him, but his wife, my grandma, she
would make homemade bread. She'd make like eight loaves
at a time, and then she'd freeze them to get through to the next
Monday, and she'd make eight more loaves. And then, you know,
store-bought bread came out, and he called that air bread
because it was so light, he didn't care for it. But homemade bread,
You know what it's like when it's all hot, comes out of the
oven. If you haven't had that, I'd recommend you find somebody
who will make you a loaf. Dana said, I didn't eat that
bread. I remember we were out on a field
trip. I was in school and they had hardtack. You know what hardtack
is? I remember watching some shows
in the Navy and they'd have bread and it would be hard as a rock
and they'd tap it and the weevils would come out. That's not pleasant bread, is
it? Daniel said, I ate no pleasant bread. He went on into verse
3. They said, neither came flesh
nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all till
three whole weeks were fulfilled. He didn't anoint himself as far
as that with oil and different things of that nature. He didn't
eat meat and he didn't drink wine. All of these things were
afforded him in the king's house and we know Cyrus was a big fan
of Daniel. But you know, the Scripture tells
us that Daniel denied himself. And if you look again, verse
2 and 3, it tells us he was in mourning. And you can read down,
the Lord gave him a vision of what was going to take place.
I'm not going to read it at this time. But that was a partial
fast. He was still eating. He was still
drinking. But he wasn't eating those delightful
things. What did he do? He was mourning
for three weeks, wasn't he? Three weeks. I mean, sometimes
we can't even pray for three minutes. He was mourning for
three weeks. So those are the types of fasts.
Let's look thirdly at the lengths of fasts. There are different
lengths of fasts recorded in the Bible. We already read in
Luke 4 verses 1 and 2, the Bible says Jesus fasted 40 days without
food. I do not recommend that you start
out with a 40 day fast. I wouldn't recommend that. But the human body can go 40
days without food. What's the goal of fasting? It's
not to get sick or to pass out or to go into the hospital. It's
not to become dehydrated. The goal is to seek the Lord.
Draw closer to Him in spiritual things. In the book of Acts chapter 27
verses 33 and 34, You remember there, that storm,
I believe it was called Euroclide, and it came up and the sailors
that took place there, they thought they were going to die. And remember
we said Paul, he was in long absence and he came out and he
said, I told you not to leave, but good news, if you abide in
the ship, not one soul is going to be lost. And in Acts 27 verse 33 and 34,
they went fourteen days without taking anything, any food. Fourteen days without any food. When it comes to an absolute
fast that is no food or drink, three days seems to be the maximum
length in the Scriptures. With one exception. Turn over
to Exodus 34. Exodus 34. Exodus 34 verse 28. Again, an absolute fast. No food
or water. And again, if you go to fast,
if you're burdened by the Lord to fast, Again, you need to understand
the purpose is not for you to get sick. It's not for you to
get dehydrated. There is an affliction. You will
be hungry. You will be thirsty. If you do
a partial fast as Daniel did, guess what? You're going to crave
meat. You're going to crave, you know,
I remember the kids in school we grew up with and they do Lent.
And they give up Pepsi and drink Coke. They craved what they didn't
have. It's kind of like a New Year's
resolution, you know? That's not what fasting is. In Exodus 34 verse 28, And he was there with the Lord
forty days and forty nights. This is Moses now. He did neither eat bread nor
drink water, and He wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant,
the Ten Commandments. Forty days and forty nights without
food or drink. Somebody says, that is humanly
impossible. And you know what? That's exactly
right. It is humanly impossible. You
know what also I've never seen before or never heard of except
for in the Bible? Where people's clothes lasted
for 40 years in the wilderness. And that happened too, didn't
it? God is able to do these things,
isn't He? The problem is, some fool is
going to say, I'm going to fast for 40 days and not eat food
or drink. Well, listen, if God calls you up to a mount to give
you His law, then yeah. But Moses was no fool, was he? You'll probably have delusions
of grandeur and think you saw God. Kind of like when, what's his
name, the start of the Church of Latter Day Saints, was drunk
off his rocker and he came out of a tavern and he saw an angel. No kidding. But three days seems to be the
length of an absolute fast. You don't have to do it for three
days. You don't have to do a normal fast of no food. You don't
have to do that for 40 days like the Lord did. In closing, here are some things
that help for fasting. Again, first of all, this is
a spiritual work. done in a physical way. Remember
Brother Duke? He came and preached and he said,
it's the physical that feeds the spiritual. How'd you get
to church tonight? Your body went and got an automobile
and you drove here using your five senses. You walked into
the door and now for what? So you can be fed spiritual.
You're using your physical ears to hear, aren't you? If God burdens you with fasting,
then fast. Perhaps you fast during your
lunch hour. Instead of eating during lunch,
you fast during that lunch hour. Maybe you eat breakfast at home
and you go to work and you don't have a lunch and you don't eat
until you get home for supper. And you fast during that time.
And anytime you begin to get hungry, you go to the Lord. And you fast one meal. You go to your knees in prayer
and truly pray. Maybe the church is having revival
services. Maybe you're having problems
with your spouse. Maybe you're having issues with
your child. Maybe your child's going wayward
or starting to go wayward or is already wayward. Maybe they're
just lost and undone and you fast for them. And maybe you
take that hour of lunch and instead of, you know, as I have, we're
at a job site, and instead of going off the job site, you go
over there by yourself and you pray over all the things that
you're burdened with. It doesn't have to be one thing
that you're fasting about. It could be the spiritual condition
of the Lord's church. It could be this church. It could
be the church that I left in Kansas that needs a pastor. It
could be other churches that need pastors. It could be your
marriage. It could be your children. It
could be something in your life. It could be your neighbor who's
lost and in need of a Savior. It could be a fellow saint who's
got cancer. When fasting, and I thought this
was a wonderful idea, when fasting, every time you
think about food, pray. Boy, I thought that's just good,
isn't it? Because again, you will be hungry. You will be thirsty. When fasting, don't go about
your daily routine. Again, it's going to get hot
out there, isn't it? Don't go about your daily routine,
be out in the sun sweating all day, and come in, and you're
dehydrated, and you gotta be in the hospital, and they say,
when's the last time you drank something? Well, yesterday, because
today I'm doing a fast. And they look at you and say,
you went out and dug ditches, or like Brother Crowder, put
20 bags of mulch around your house today, during a fast? That's not spiritual, it's stupid. Now, he didn't do that. But it
is, isn't it? When you fast, what do you do? You're seeking the Lord. Seeking
the Lord during that time. I told you last week I know a
young man who he was going to ask a girl out on a date for
the potential of courting her and he was fasting about even
asking her on one date. Because he wasn't going to date
anybody, he wasn't planning on marrying. And he said, he goes,
this is a big decision. I said, you're darn right it
is. Now, if you're going to fast,
it's your fast, isn't it? It's not your spouse's fast.
It's not your children's fast. It's your fast. may come a time
when we as a church may need to fast, isn't it? You know,
there's some churches that'll have prayer, and they'll have
a sign-up sheet, and it'll be, Brother Crowder, you're going
to pray from 6am to 7am, and then Brother MacDonald, you're
going to pray from 7 to 8, and then Frankie, you're going to
pray from 9 to 10, and so on and so forth. And they have this
whole, the whole church is in prayer for the whole day. Sometimes
people have to get up in the middle of the night to cover
their 10 minutes or 15 minutes or 30 minutes or an hour. Sometimes churches will fast
together. Maybe the church is having revival
services and you're so burdened that the church would be revived. But it's your fast. You know, if you say, I'm going
to fast three days and you only make it two days, don't say,
oh, I failed. Because you just fasted two days. You think God says on that third
day, you know what, I'm going to go back and I'm going to unhear
all your prayers over those two days because you said three.
And you didn't make it three. But I'd also be careful how many
days I'd say I'm going to fast too. But don't say I'm a failure.
That'd kind of be like, you know, well I didn't read scripture
reading yesterday, so you know what? I'll just wait until January
1 and start over. That's kind of like people do
with their diets. You know, it's Monday morning. Oh, I went off
my diet. I'll start next week. Well, you
got a meal coming up in four hours. Start over then. Well, if you're fasting and you
go two days and not three, you just fasted two days. You just
afflicted your soul for two days and sought the Lord for two days. Don't go beating yourself up
because you didn't go a third day. God will honor those two days.
You know, two days is better than zero days, isn't it? And it's not about the days,
is it? It's about the time with the Lord, isn't it? So, as we Just follow the Lord. Remember the Bible says when
the bridegroom's here, how can the children of the bride chamber
fast? Well, he says, when I am gone, then they'll fast. Well,
again, he's been gone for almost 2,000 years, hasn't he? So, there's supposed to be some
fasting from time to time. Maybe you don't do it often.
Again, there's no thing that says, You know, it's kind of
like I knew a church that they said, we're going to observe
the Lord's Supper seven times a year. No less, no more. I thought,
well, where did that come from? There's nothing that says you
have to fast X amount of times a year. But again, it is commanded. We read that. God is expecting
His people at some point to fast. Now, don't run home tonight and,
you know, we're going to fast tomorrow. I mean, you ought to
consider the Lord. But there's rules in all of these
things as it's outlined here with fasting. It is a spiritual
affliction of one's soul to seek the Lord in His will. You know,
in the Bible, there was a man by the name of Cornelius who
did alms and prayers and I'm sure fasting. He was a lost person. He was a Jewish proselyte. And
he was fasting. But you know, and I'm going to
say this with all sincerity. You can do all the religious
rites and all the religious works recorded in this book, but unless
you have repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,
you will not be saved. That's the only way to be saved. And if you are saved, you need
to follow Him. Walk with Him. And that's where
the fasting comes in. Seeking Him and His will. Drawing
closer to Him. Boy, why would you not want to
draw closer to Him? Paul said, Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do? Jesus taught us to pray, not my will but thine
be done. That's what we do in fasting. You know, maybe one, as Paul
wrote in Hebrews about those besetting sins, maybe in fasting
you'll be able to cast that off. Remember, certain things only
come out by prayer and fasting. Maybe that sin of pride or that
lust, which is, you know, sensual and non-sensual things, Maybe
that sin, maybe that sin of self-righteousness, or whatever it is that is your
besetting sin, maybe that will go out with prayer and fasting.
I don't know. But here's some more thoughts
on the subject. And as Paul said under the church
at Ephesus, I commend you under the grace of our Lord. I can't tell you when to fast. That's not my place. That's the
Lord's place. So again, if you're burdened,
here's some thoughts about it. And again, you will be hungry. At the first sign of hunger,
you don't quit fasting. But you're not supposed to starve
yourself to death. You don't have to go 40 days.
You don't have to go three weeks. Like I said, maybe you fast one
meal, or from lunch to supper, or you fast from breakfast to
supper. You fast from lunch till the
following breakfast, and you afflict your soul through that
time. So, I can't do that. I have medical
problems. I get that. You know, probably
everybody's got some pill to take, don't they? But you know
what? I mean this with all sincerity.
I'm not one of those faith healer people, but I do believe God
heals people. He still does today. Maybe you fast over that medication
and get rid of it. God will heal you. I don't know. I'm not advocating that. I'm
advocating seeking the Lord. Some people say, well, I have
to have this. Well, what if we treated spiritual things like
prayer and fasting, like we did medication we took three or four
times a day, like we had to have it. What if we did what God said,
and we acted like it was essential to our life, because it is. Again, if you're here without
Christ, no amount of works are going to save you. You can fast
until the Lord comes, and you'll die and go to hell. If you repent
and believe the gospel, you'll be saved. And then follow the
Lord. So while we stand, we're going
to have a prayer, a series of prayer, Brother Crowder and then
Brother McDonald.
Fasting (Part #2)
Series Fasting
In this message, Pastor Hille continues preaching on the subject of fasting. In this lesson, types or kinds of fastings are expounded upon, lengths of fastings. One must always remember that fasting is a work and will therefore not produce righteousness in order to be saved.
| Sermon ID | 52519141805252 |
| Duration | 50:38 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 17:14-21 |
| Language | English |
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