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How to Fast

From the Series: How
Speaker: Joel Schmidgall
Date: February 3, 2008

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Transcript

Hey, my name is Joel Schmidgall and I’m the Campus Pastor over at our Ballston location. I want to welcome all four of our locations, as well as those people listening on the podcast. It’s good to see everyone today. We continue our ‘How’ Series today and we are gonna talk about How To Fast. If you’ve got a Bible here, you can open it up to Isaiah Chapter 58 and Mark Chapter 9. I’m just gonna start up out by throwing something out there, I’m just gonna let it fly and if it sticks, good; if not, throw it back at me, ok. I want you to consider fasting 40 days. A joyous hush over the crowd. (Ha ha). I was planning a standing ovation right there, so it’s not going so well so far. Hey, the root word for fasting is this Greek word called nesteia and what it mean is: not to eat. So the mere fact that I am up here talking about how not to eat is a miracle of God. Food is my idol. I admit it, this is who I am, I love food, I love a good meal, the Lord is God and His food endures forever. Isn’t that how the Scripture goes? I’ve talked about this a little bit and I’ve told you guys how cheap I am as well. It’s not that I don’t like to buy expensive things, it’s that I don’t like to spend money, period. I’ve gone years without buying a t-shirt. Now let me show you something that my wife brought over for me, this is one of my undershirts that I wear on a regular basis, look at this baby. I wear this regularly. My wife loves that. I will go years without buying a t-shirt, but then I’ll go out and spend $25-30 bucks on a steak, cause I love food. It’s the one exemption from my cheapest. So I feel like it expresses a level of my commitment to God that I can fast, that I can lay it out there for God, and I want to talk a little bit about that today.

My first experience fasting was in college. And the idea is that you fast food and you take that time that you were gonna spend time and you use it to seek God, you use it to read Scriptures or to pray, so I did this and you guys, it was one of the hardest times of praying that I could remember at the time. I remember getting into and praying, “Lord help me to have your heart and if you don’t mind throwing a side of fries in that, that’d be great Lord.” And I’d get into it and somehow every prayer ended with nacho cheese. Your mind just goes back it, you’re trying to focus on one thing but you keep going back there; and so I get through this, and you know what, I felt good about it. I’m happy I did it, and it ended at about 1:00, and I figured, ok I’ve done my fasting duty, so I went down to the student lounge and had a big chicken strip meal, and I don’t know, is that really fasting or is it just checking it off the mark. So, not the greatest first experience of fasting. Here’s the truth, when you fast, somehow every commercial has a juicy burger in it, isn’t that true? Somehow you open the frig and there is that pot-roast or lasagna staring you in the eyes and you don’t know what to do. In Hebraic culture, fasting was more than just dieting. It was more than just seeking self-discipline. We see in Leviticus 16:29: Fasting is synonymous with afflicting one’s soul. Not afflicting one’s body, but afflicting one’s soul. You should have message notes you can follow along with me. Afflicting one’s soul. In other words, fasting is denying your body, but it is more than that, it is denying your wants, denying your desires. It is a way of saying that food and my desires are secondary to seeking God. Here’s the key though, it is not just this holy diet we go on. It’s more than just abstaining from food, abstaining from something, subtracting, so that we can add something from the Spirit of God. When you see in the Scripture, fasting is always accompanied by prayer, they don’t go without each other. Like when you come to Ebenezer’s, Ebenezer’s and good coffee are synonymous right? They go together. And in the Scriptures, when you see fasting, you see prayer, there is always a subtraction, but then an adding. Same thing is true with our walk with the Lord. When we subtract something, when you see Jesus in the Scripture, he called the disciplines and said for them to leave their nets, leave their lives behind, but then He gives them a call, He says, “Come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” When He calls them to leave, He gives them in greater proportion, an addition. When God calls us to subtract, He gives us in greater proportion an addition. When He calls us to drought, He gives us a flood of His presence. When He calls us to cut out sin in our lives, He gives us this addition of His goodness. Isaiah 58, we’ll start in verse 3: Why have we fasted then and you do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and you do not notice? They are asking these questions unto God. So we ask this question, why do we fast? Let me take a queue from this Scripture and talk for a moment about why not to fast. Why should we not fast? First, we should not fast to diet. Diet is a great thing, but the purpose of spiritual fasting is not a diet. If that were true, I think Hollywood would be this meca of spiritual virtue, right? Number two, for control. Fasting is not this magical way to get God to hear or to do what we want Him to do. We can’t control God through our sacrifice. Trust me, the Cubs still haven’t won. I still don’t have my Michael Jordan rookie card and my flat-screen fund is empty. We can’t control God through our sacrifice. Number three, it’s not a hunger strike. Spiritual fasting is not to accomplish a political agenda. So what is the purpose of fasting? Well, back when Nina and I had first gotten married, I was really taking serious this call to spiritually lead our family, spiritually lead in our relationship. What does that mean God? How do I take up this mantle? I’m great at the prayer before the meal thing, but I think there’s more to leading your family than just ‘God is good, God is great, thank you Lord for this chocolate cake!” It goes a little bit further than that right? So what is our call as spiritual leaders in our families? So I found this book called Seek God for the City. What is does is goes through 40 days of prayer and fasting. So, we talked through this, we talked through different ideas, like what can we give up, what can we subtract? What can we add, how can we seek the Lord during this time? And what are we seeking the Lord about? And we went into this time and went through 40 days and it was hard, you guys. Fasting is such a great idea when you’re talking about it, but when you get into it, it’s not fun! It is hard. We went through it, we got through it, and here’s my observation, I feel like it set the tone for a lot of things in our relationship. It sets a tone for this idea that we need to put God first in our relationship. It set the tone for the idea that it is not about meeting our own needs in this relationship, but it is about extending ourselves and meeting the needs of each other, and putting God in the middle of all the things we do. I think each one of us can benefit greatly from cutting some things out and saying, “God how do I need to prioritize my life?” We see a number of different reasons throughout the Scripture to fast. Sickness, preparation, protection, special revelation, direction. Maybe you are seeking God for a personal dream, to start a pattern of devotion, a lot of different purposes of fasting. Let me touch on four of them today for our purposes.

The first is this - Repentance. We see in Isaiah 58, go down to verse 6: Is this not the fast which I chose to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke. The first word Jesus spoke in ministry was to repent. To turn from sin and to turn towards God. I think a lot of us here have a lot of things in our lives that we need to repent of. Maybe some sins that are hidden away in our lives, addictions that are unaddressed, whether addiction to alcohol or anorexia, or pornography, maybe there are seeds of bitterness or anger in our hearts. We’ve got these things that we need to take before the Lord. What are those vices that maybe other people don’t know about, but that you need to confess to God and lay at the alter. We need to repent of those things.

Can we just pause for a moment? What does repent actually mean? How do you repent, how to do you do this thing. Just a simple acronym I came up with ACT. A.C.T. The A is for acknowledgement. We acknowledge and confess things before God. The C is for contrition. We need to not just acknowledge or know that there is a problem but we need to be sorry for that and express that to God. Then the T is for transformation. We need to turn from that and change and leave that and let go of those things and repent before the Lord. There are patterns of sin and addiction that need to be broken, and here’s what fasting does. Fasting can interrupt the pattern in your life. It can break a cycle that you live in in your life. Scripture says that it is to loosen the bonds of wickedness. To undo the bands of the yoke and let the oppressed go free and break every yoke. There are controlling issues that need to be laid before God. Rehab is kind of a popular form of fasting, isn’t it? It takes 21 days to form a habit or to break a habit. So a lot of us know friends or family, or maybe we have been through a time of rehabilitation in our lives and that’s a good thing. I think some of us need to get godly wisdom and godly counsel, we need to find professional help, we need to go into some kind of rehabilitation. It’s a good thing. But I would say this, that some of us just need to fast and pray and find some accountability partners. I remember a pastor growing up said something that stuck in my brain. He said, “We need a little less psychology and a little more knee-ology.” I thought that was corny, but it stuck in my brain. The idea is this, I had a dad who wore the knees on his pants out before anything else, and it’s because he would get down on his knees and pray all the time, so that was the first part to wear out. Some of us just need to wear out the knees on our pants a little more. We need to find a prayer closet, we need to learn how to seek God and seek His presence and not just give up on things so easily. There are addictions that we need to let go of and simply repent before God. Jesus came to set the captives free, Paul said, “I will not be mastered by anything.” Fasting is not just to repent the sin but it is to break cycles. Patterns that we are stuck in in our lives.

We see in Mark 9, we find this story of a father who has this demon-possessed son, and he takes his son to the disciples and they can’t do anything about it, so this father is in a state of desperation. He has done everything he can, so finally he comes to the point where he just brings him to Jesus and we find them in verse 23 and Jesus says this to him: Everything is possible for him who believes. Do I really believe this statement? Do you really believe it sitting in your seat? That everything is possible for him who believes in Christ? I say that, I say I believe it, but sometimes, I’ve gotta be honest, my heart is not there, and that’s what impresses me by his reaction, in verse 24, it’s this raw, this honest, this desperate statement that he says back to Jesus: I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief. In other words, he is saying, I’m trying so hard God, I’m doing everything I can, I am laying it out for you, I believe, but Lord take me the rest of the way. Fill that gap which I cannot fill myself. I think a lot of us are right here today. Saying to God, “I believe but strengthen my faith, take me the rest of the way. Fill that gap of disbelief, intensify, toughen my belief.” So Jesus commands the spirit to come out. Mark 9:26: Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly and came out of him and he became as one dead, so that many said ‘he is dead’ but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. So what happened? He was emptied out so that he could be filled up. He was dead so that he could find new life. Verse 28: And when he had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ So he said to them, ‘This kind can only come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.’ In other words, the disciples, who had good intentions, who were empowered by God, who were sent out by Christ, could not break this bond without prayer and fasting. Some addiction, some bondage, some sin in our lives that can’t be broken without prayer and fasting. That’s a bold statement to make isn’t it? Do we really believe that? I’m face-value, I have a hard time when I think about it, I say “Yes, absolutely” because here’s why. Something like fasting, it shows this desperation in your heart. It shows God that you have nowhere else to turn but that “God I will trust in You” and you become persistent in prayer. “I will not let go of You until I find your Words, until I find your Spirit, until I find your strength, until I find your help Lord.” When I was younger, I had a pattern of living this roller coaster existence in my faith, I’ve shared this with some of you before, I had a pattern, a cycle of sin and of doubt, and I came to this point where I said, “God, I can’t do this anymore,” and I began to fast, I began to pray, I began to read the Scriptures and I began to lay it out before the Lord and say,

“God I need You and I am determined to find You.” And I came to this point where I had an altercation with God that changed the course of my life. And it was in this 9x12 prayer room at my college, and I still remember it. And here’s the part that I don’t like to share. I remember being in that room, so frustrated with God after days and weeks of just fasting and praying, so angry and frustrating, saying, “God, where are you? I am self-disciplined right now, I am passionate, I am seeking You, I am doing everything I know how to do to find You, yet I can’t sense or feel the Holy Spirit, I can’t understand what You are trying to say to me.” And I came to this point of frustration, and you guys, I picked up my Bible and threw it against the wall, mad, waited for lightening to strike me, so frustrated with God. And I realized something, I realized, this is the cycle that you have been living through the many years of your faith existence. You ramp up to a point and you let go, and I said right there, Jeremiah 29: You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with your whole heart. I said, “God, I commit to you that I will not let go. I will be persistent in prayer until I find You.” And it was at that moment that the Holy Spirit fell on me. I was overcome, I lost it. I let go of it. The Spirit of God changed me from that day. I haven’t been the same since. I gained a unique understanding of the grace of God in my life that day. And the fact that the Lord has the plan for each one of us. You know how Jeremiah 29 says is? It says: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Andrew Murray said, “Fasting helps to express, to deepen, and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, to sacrifice ourselves to obtain what we seek for the kingdom of God. Fasting and prayer for me was this catalyst to break a pattern, to break a cycle in my life and find the transformation of the Holy Spirit. So we go back to Mark. It says that Mark commanded this demon not to return, and there was a transformation in this child’s life, he was changed and never the same from that point on. Then Jesus invites the disciples back and he invites fifty more people to come back in, and then He sends them out to go and do his work. Then they come back in and they say this in Luke’s account: Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name now. They are filled with this joy. I have to believe that this is no accident. They come back after learning this lesson through faith, through fasting and through prayer, we can accomplish more. We have greater access to the Father’s power. Not only do we have greater access but we also hear the voice of the Lord more clearly, I believe. Here’s what happens in our lives. We get all these voices coming in from different places, and I’m the worst. I hate silence, when I go home, I’ve got to flip on the TV, ESPN, or whatever. When you get in the car, you turn on the radio. Anywhere you walk now, you see people with an ipod or talking on the phone. We have voices coming into our heads from every different angle. We say how do I hear the voice of God. How do you tune out so many other things? You have so many frequencies coming into your brain. No wonder we can’t hear God’s voice. It’s called white noise. Here’s the definition of white noise: It’s a sound that contains every frequency with the range of human hearing in equal amounts. Has anyone ever heard white noise? We’ve got a little taste for you, can we play that? (Static) When you fast, it begins to turn down the volume of those other frequencies coming into your head. It begins to turn down the distractions or the voice of other things coming in until you can only hear the frequency that God is trying to speak to us.

I come from an extended family of farmers. My dad was one of 8 kids growing up, and I remember them telling this story about one of my uncles. They took him to the doctor and they thought my uncle was going deaf. The doctor takes this instrument and puts it in his ear and pulls out this huge glob of ear wax, aren’t you happy I told this story? Then the doctor says, “Can you hear me son?” Uncle says, “Yes, I can hear you.” The doctor says to my grandparents, “If you don’t want your kid to go deaf, just clean his ears out every once in a while and he should be fine.” Isn’t that disgusting. Now I’m wondering why I did tell you that at this point because you’re looking at me with very odd looks. You know what? We let things build up in our ears and we have these different frequencies and we have blockages in our ears and we say, “God why can I not hear You? How can I not hear your voice?” It’s because we’ve allowed so many things to come and block and stand in between us hearing the voice of God. So, fasting merely takes away those things and takes down the volume and takes away the blockages so that we can hear clearly God’s voice. Let me say this though, when you begin to take those other things down, we have an expectancy for God to say something specific to us, but I think you need to be ready to not necessarily hear what you want to hear. I think I’ve sought God on certain things and I’m looking for a yes or no answer and God will say, “Wait, or maybe, or not right now.” I like the way Dick Foste [?sp?] talks about Jesus. He says, “Sometimes Jesus will be asked a question, and He gives an answer to the question that you should have asked.” Right? He doesn’t even address your question. A lot of times when I fast, here’s what happens, I feel like I hear the voice of God but it has nothing to do with the question that I was asking God. I think sometimes what He is saying is that He gave me a brain, I should use it and make a decision about that, but here’s what you need to be focused on though – you are my disciple. You need to love me passionately. We need to love the Lord passionately and focus on His Word. Be ready for the Holy Spirit to speak to you in ways maybe that are unexpected to you. We fast for repentance, we fast to break cycles, we fast to find the voice of God, and we fast for those in need.

Verse 6 of Isaiah 58 said: Is this not the fast which I chose. Then we see in verse 7: Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house. When you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh. Part of the answer to finding God’s will, to seeking Him how in repentance, to hearing his voice is just the idea of spending some time meeting the needs of those around us. First, because caring about the helpless, caring about the hopeless is God’s heart. Second, because when you care about the needs of those around you, it takes your perspective off of what you are so concerned in your selfish needs. Letting those things go, and it sheds new light into our situation. In Verse 8, it says: Then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring forth. Scriptures say give and it shall be given unto you. When Nina and I fast for 40 days, we are always incredibly challenged in the idea that we set out with something that is so personal to us, and we get into this 40 days and we seek the heart of God and we are so challenged to be attentive to those needs that are around us.

How do we get started fasting? Let me share 5 quick principles to help get you started fasting.

Number 1. Identify what you are seeking from God. What are your goals? Is it repentance? Is it a dream that you need to pursue? Is it seeking the direction of God in your life? What are your goals?

Number 2. Make your commitment. What is the amount of time that you’re going to fast? Is it one day, is it two, is it a week, is it forty days? And what are you going to fast? And I would say this, it doesn’t have to be food. It can be a distraction in your life that you need to let go of and get rid of and fast that. Nina and I will go through forty days and we’ll fast something for the entire forty days and we’ll fast something else each week that is different. You can try food, just drinking water only. We’ve done dessert fasts where you don’t have any dessert. We’ve done what’s called a Daniel fast which is where you only eat fruits and vegetables. I’ve always wanted to do a reverse Daniel fast but it should probably be something that is hard for you to sacrifice. Think about media, try turning off your TV for a month. Turn off your radio, turn off your computer at home. I had a friend who fasted politics, some one you probably would get fired if you did that, but it’s an idea. We fasted our vehicles and maybe used public transportation for a little while and use those walks as prayer walks to spend some time with the Lord. Maybe you need to fast gaming. One of my favorite things that was fasted in a group that I did, someone fasted their snooze button. She said she added an hour every day, that’s a lot of snooze. Maybe you fast caffeine, try going without coffee and soda.

Then secondly, what are you going to fast and what are you going to add. The key piece is not just cutting, right? Not just subtracting, but what are you going to add? Let me mention a couple of resources that we have for you today. One is, I mentioned this book earlier, it is called Seek God for the City. Every year they come out with a new one of these, and it’s really simple, it gives you a five-minute devotional for the morning, it gives you a focus for that day. We use this more as a launching pad for us. We’ll read this for five minutes and we use it to journal in, to write notes in the margin, we write what we’re fasting, we write who we are praying for in this and we really use it as a catalyst to our fasting experience. We’ve got this up at the hospitality table for one buck today, we’re giving it to you for basically nothing, so if you want to pick these up, you can get one upstairs. We’ve also got a prayer blog that our prayer ministry is starting. It is going to go through Lent, go through the forty days, and every morning there will be a new prayer posted by one of our prayer leaders. So maybe you log onto that and you add that. You just say, “Lord, I’m going to fast and every morning I’m going to get up and just pray with some others.” Maybe you need to add prayer or Scripture reading to your daily devotions. Maybe you need to add some sort of outreach. Couple of ideas, Nina and I would send out cards after we would pray for friends and we would give them a call that day. We would make meals for some of our homeless friends and take it down to them. Nina would bake some baked goods for our neighbors, I would go out and shovel snow on certain days. But add an element where you are giving to those around you.

Number 3. Create a schedule. We force ourselves to get up in the mornings at least 20 minutes earlier. So we get up, spend five minutes reading and at least 15 minutes praying together. But you need to think about how you can force yourself into this habit.

Number 4. Keep a journal. For us, it was just taking this booklet and writing notes in the margin. But write down, be attentive to what God is doing in your heart when you fast.

Number 5. Fast in community. Let me say this. It is great to fast alone and it is a good thing, you need to do it, but I want to throw out a suggestion for us. As a church, what if we think about going into this Lent season and pining our hearts together, going in with one purpose, with one mind, committing to God, committing to each other to fast in community. I think there are 3 benefits that happen from doing this. One is accountability. When you fast with someone else and they see you eating that dessert, they are gonna bust you on it. It brings a little accountability. Number two is unity. When you are focused on the same things together, it unifies your hearts together. And number three, I think it gives a richness in your learning. When you are able to share what God is doing in your heart, I think it digs out some of those things God is really doing. I would just say one thing for the married folks here too, this is a point I’ve noticed over the years, when I pray for my spouse, I gain God’s perspective on my spouse. When I pray with my spouse, I gain God’s perspective on our marriage. I think there is a unique difference. We need to understand the other person, but larger than that, we need to understand what we are about as a couple, and attain what God desires to do in us.

Here’s what I want you to consider to committing to fasting with us today. A couple ideas, a couple ways to do it. One, commit to fasting 40 days. You can do it a number of ways. Here’s what happens, in three days, Wednesday is called Ash Wednesday and it will kick off this time called Lent which goes from Ash Wednesday all the way until Easter. You fast 40 days, you can take Sundays off or you can not take Sundays off and fast up until Palm Sunday, a week before Easter. Consider fasting 40 days with us.

Two, maybe you’re not ready for 40 days and you’re saying no way I’m ever gonna do it so I’m not gonna try, but you still are interested in trying this. Try fasting 1 day, 24 hours. Pastor Mark had this great idea that I think we are going to do both of these things, 40 days and we’re gonna fast 24 hours, and in that 24 hours whatever money that you would spend on food otherwise, if you do a food fast, use it to give to someone in need. Let me just throw something else out there, we are doing a Convoy of Hope coming up in September of this year. What is a Convoy of Hope? It is basically bringing in medical, dental, haircuts for those in need. We are brining in 5,000 plus bags of groceries. Job fairs, all kinds of things to bless those in need in our city. And we need to gear up for it right now and raise a lot of money to make it happen. If you would like to do the 24 hour fast and consider giving whatever you are saving in that 24 hours, or $24 dollars or whatever that is, and giving it toward this Convoy of Hope experience. And maybe it’s this coming Wednesday. The following Wednesday, if you are interested, we’ve got a one-hour information meeting on February 13^th. We’d love to have you, anyone who is interested in that to come and be a part of it. But consider fasting 40 days, consider fasting 24 hours. We’ve got David Russell who leads worship for us sometimes and does such an incredible job and also does some of our digital stuff, he just got an online forum up for fasting. So here’s part of the community piece, if you commit to this, when you get home tonight or sometime in the next 3 or 4 days, go online, I think it is www.40days.theaterchurch.com and we just want to share, what are you fasting, what are you trying to give up? What are you seeking the Lord for? We want to pray with you about those things. So I’d like to ask you guys if you are interested in committing today, in just a moment Pastor Chris is going to come back up and our different pastors at the locations and if you are interested, just jot down on your connections card 40 days or jot down 24 hours and we want to commit as a staff to praying for you and praying with you. We’ll pray that God would strengthen you during this time and that you would get through it but also that you would really hear the voice of God.

Let me close things out, I will pray for us and we’re going to celebrate communion together. I used to ask this question growing up, I would ask, “How do we know that we are saved? How do we know that we are part of that holy remnant that God calls his own?” And I think it comes back to this, Lordship. The idea that Who is Lord of your life? Who is Master? What is in control of your life? To go through an exercise like fasting, it forces you to understand what is master over you. I just pray that whether you leave from here and you fast or not, go through this time with us. I just pray that each one of us would gain an understanding of what priority we have in our life and that we would be able to come before the Lord and say, “God, I submit to You my life, my life is about knowing and seeking You and caring for those around me.”

Let’s pray. Lord, we do honor You today, we thank You for an opportunity to serve You. We thank You Lord that You call us out, and Father when we talk about a subject like this which is tough for a lot of us to do, Lord we pray that You would strengthen us, and God I ask that as people are here right now and sitting here and considering committing, whether it is 24 hours or 40 days, I pray that Lord as commitments are made today, that we would see your fruit come through our lives. That we would see prayers answered, Lord that we would see direction given, that we would see sickness healed. Father we ask that we would see your will be done in our lives. Lord we desire more than anything else to have desperate hearts for You. God let our faith be extended today, let us have the faith of that father as he reached out to You and was so honest and raw before You Father. We pray that each one of us in this place today would submit to the Holy Spirit who has a plan for our lives, and God we do that today in Jesus name, Amen.

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