"How is your Hunger for God?"
"How are you doing in the Total Yielding of your life to Christ this morning?"
Most of us would say that as we look around at our lives and those of others, we are all right. But Jesus gave a different test. He said don’t look around at others, look inside.
He asks, "Does your hunger after Jesus Christ, His Word, His Way, His Coming, His Righteousness, His Will, and His Supremacy in your life cause you to joyfully and willingly choose to abstain from food?"
This longing after Jesus with a heart of love and devotion is called Biblical Fasting. Biblical fasting, or the voluntary abstinence from good and right things such as food, is a spiritual discipline that has fallen upon hard times in modern Christianity. So this morning, I repeat our task:
1. In the Old Testament, we see Biblical Fasting as an urgent call to get serious about Knowing God.
2. In the New Testament, we see Biblical Fasting is an ancient spiritual discipline to reschedule my life with God at the center instead of dining, relaxing, amusing, accumulating, advancing, securing, and a multitude of other things that are not wrong – just deadly to intimacy with the Almighty.
3. This morning, we narrowed our focus to this one thought, How did the Early Church of Acts and the Epistles demonstrate this Hunger for God? We shall see that their Hunger shaped their lives, ministry, worship, and outreach. In the Early Church, we see Biblical fasting is a powerful way to yield every part of my life to God’s supremacy.
4. So we can study and learn about Biblical Fasting in God’s Word: in the Old Testament, in New Testament, from the Early Church, and then tonight as those who live for Christ in 21st Century America. Biblical Fasting is an immediate way to declare your allegiance to God’s way and glory in every day of your life!
Now, let’s be specific. When was the last time you fasted? Not for medical reasons, not for weight loss, not because you were too busy to make a meal – no, when was the last time you practiced the Biblical Discipline of Fasting for purely the spiritual reason God designed it for, because you were so much in love with the Lord you wanted to spend extra, precious time with HIM?
Before we jump back into our Mark 2:18 text this morning, may I ask you some other questions?
• Would you like to revitalize your spiritual life?
• Would you like to heighten your awareness of God?
• Would you like to experience God in such a deep and intimate way that you find yourself absolutely satisfied and contented in a way God’s Word calls perfect peace?
Then Christ’s words this morning are for you. Our text contains the most important words in the Bible on fasting. And these words can change your life if you understand them!
(NR1-30; 000730AM)
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