The Chosen Fast - Part 2
080810 The Chosen Fast 2
Is. 58:6-ff
Tim Franklin
Introduction:
· Tomorrow, August 11th, will begin a call to 21 days of fasting here in at Freedom Christian Center.
· We have regularly the past few years called for 21 day fasts as a church. As always, everyone is encourage to participate at some level for the next 21 days in this fast. If you are new to fasting or feel ignorant about fasting please get Wednesday nights CD and go on line and study the notes. It was a very basic message that answered most practical questions people have about fasting.
· We are going to look at Is. 58 this morning and find out what a fast looks like from God’s perspective.
o We will look at two ‘Rs’ of the Chosen Fast.
o One, the Requirement – what does God require when we fast.
o Two, the Reward – what should we expect to receive from a fast done Gods way.
· Most people in the West today see fasting as time of going hungry. It is also seen as a way to cleanse the body. Still others see fasting as a way to get something from God. Others see it as a way to lose weight. Trust me when I say fasting is a poor way to lose weight. Get Wednesday’s message if you do not believe me. Well, if these are man’s ways of looking at a fast, what does God see? Is. 58:6-ff.
· What is the setting of this word? Is. 58:1-5
o The people are going through all the right motions but their hearts are far from God.
o The are eaten up with self gratification and are consumer minded not people minded.
o They are committed to getting more and bettering their lives but they are not committed to helping their fellow man.
1) God’s Requirements of a Chosen Fast
A) As we look at these requirements, do not let yourself think that this is a list in which you earn something from God by performing for Him a certain way. We are not earning something. We are receiving the rewards of grace that come through faith. We are simply trusting God’s word.
i) Do not try to earn His grace.
ii) Trust His grace and follow His counsel and you will be blessed.
iii) Fasting is intentionally afflicting or humbling ourselves that we might Encounter the Holy One by realizing the afflictions of the poor and ministering to them.
B) Seven Requirements of the Chosen Fast of Is. 58
i) God requires that we set people free. Is. 58:6 “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? NKJV
(a) Bond, burdens, oppression and yokes… all hold people down, back, and incapable of moving forward. These words are prison words. Jesus said in Luke 11:46 "Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. NKJV
(b) The yoke we are to offer is Mt 11:28-30 Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest….my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” NKJV This is the starting point of the chosen fast—you must be born again. It is a requirement for the one fasting and he must also be ready to share the hope of lighter burdens with those who are outside the New Birth experience.
ii) The second requirement of the Chosen Fast is that we feed the hungry.
(a) Current estimates are around 40-43,000 people die a day of starvation. That is about 30 people dying every minute of starvation. More than a billion people of the worlds population live in absolute poverty without adequate food, clothing or shelter. These facts plus the ones outside my door and on my way to work are relevant to how I fast! What God is saying in Is. 58 is that fasting is to awaken me to the hunger of the whole world and not just my hunger for him.
(b) Do not let the statistic freeze you up. We are not responsible for what we cannot do but for what we can do. Ie. YWAM went into Manilla to a place called the smokey mountain a garbage dump and in three years eliminated deaths due to measles, infections, tetanus, whooping cough and other diseases.
(c) I want to encourage you to during this fast. Give away your lunch money to someone in need. Maybe think about taking your family to the soup kitchen to help for a night.
iii) The third requirement is that we house the homeless.
(a) We have all refrained from helping the homeless because we feel there are programs out there for them whether faith based or governmental based. We should not let the government’s willingness to care for the homeless control our labors of love.
(b) Take small risks and help. Do worry that your little bit will not count in the scheme of things or that it will have no long term effect. LOVE DOES NOT CALCULATE THAT WAY! Ie. The Good Samaritan did not say, “One interrupted day will make very little difference in the problem of chronic violence in the region.”
(c) I realize this passage says we are to bring the homeless into our homes but I also believe that there are right and wrong structures of doing this of which I do not have time to undertake this morning.
iv) Fourth God requires in the Chosen Fast that we clothe the naked.
(a) Some of you are doing that by helping by back packs and clothing for the kids in need starting the school year. In Florida one of the things that you can give the homeless that is a big help is mosquito repellant and sunscreen.
(b) Keep your eyes and ears open around FCC. You will be amazed at the number of people in need right here in our own body.
v) Fifth requirement of the Chosen Fast is that we be sympathetic vs. 7.
(a) Put yourself in their place and feel what they feel. When we do this it keeps us from sealing ourselves off from places of trouble and misery. Ie. Nations of Georgian and S. Ossetia. Russian tank and planes leveling cities. What about the homeless there, the wounded an no hospitals, no water, no electricity etc.
(b) One trip into the life of the poor and your heart is changed hopefully forever. A trip to Haiti can do this and reality check in one of the lives of the poor in FCC will do it.
(c) It is easy to get calloused in our land of abundance but if we remember in our fasting it has great reward.
(d) The fast that God requires is one that does not let us hide from our fellow man who is in need.
vi) Sixth, the fast that God has Chosen requires we quit blaming and pointing the finger vs. 9.
(a) It is easy to look at the poor and point the finger as to why they are there.
(b) It is also easy to live among the poor and become calloused to their ways.
(c) We must fast this chosen fast to awaken our senses to love and ask God to remove everything that hinders love.
vii) Seventh, The Chosen Fast requires that we give ourselves. Vs. 10
(a) The ministry here is soul to soul.
(b) It is not always just about relief—it is often about relationship.
(c) Those who are down or who have been down are so thankful for the relief they receive but you what?... They are so thankful when you take the time to touch their life. IE. I was watching a video called the Finger of God. In it on several occasions’ people who were on the street ministering to homeless often had them walk away forgetting that they had asked for money because their hearts had been so touched.
2) God’s Rewards of a Chose Fast
A) When we remember the poor in our fasting, our intentional times of afflicting ourselves or humbling ourselves and we minister to them. We encounter God. Remember Jesus saying in one teaching, “Lord when did we do all this? When you did to them you did to me! Enter in to my rest!” God rewards not our works but our faith. The things I call requirement above are exhortations from the throne that if obeyed in faith will yield grace that does neat things to us and through us.
B) The first reward of the Chosen Fast is that the darkness in your life will become light! Vs. 8 & 10.
i) John Piper said this, “It is one of God’s many paradoxes that there is more light in the dark places of the world for those who go there to serve. And there is more darkness in the glitz of the great malls for those who go there to escape.” We want to live near Jesus and when you read the Gospels you find where he lives.
ii) What is the gloom factor in your life? Maybe you should find somewhere to serve the poor or feed the hungry.
iii) That is what this text is saying, “If you want the clouds to roll back start pouring your life out for others. How ingrown are you? How self focused are you? Take the God prescription in the requirements above and your light shall break forth.
C) Second, God promises strength! Vs. 8 and vs 11
i) Who knows how much weakness is in us individually and as a church corporately because we are not pouring ourselves into others weaknesses.
ii) We don’t minister to other or get involved in ministry because we are to tired, so we sit at home and …There is strength to minister to others when we think that all is spent. 2 Cor. 12:15 Therefore will I gladly spend and be spent for your souls…
D) Third,God will be in front, in back and in the midst of us with righteousness and glory. Vs. 8 and 9. God with us.
i) Prayer is not for the enhancements of our comfort but for the advancement of His Kingdom.
ii) When Is. Says that God will answer it is tied to vs. 7. When we join our selves to love and minister to others (poor) God joins us especially in the territory of high risk love. Ie. Haiti, Heidi Baker Mozambique.
iii) God wants to show himself to others who are in need therefore we have to go those and there God show himself strong.
E) Fouth, God promises guidance in the chosen fast. Vs. 11.
i) I wonder how much confusion in our lives would go, if we as believers would tend more to the poor when we fast.
ii) Gods guidance is poured out on the paths of darkness where there are few answers to be found. Most of these paths are the from the pain of poverty, hunger, nakedness and oppression.
F) Fifth, in the Chosen Fast He will satisfy our souls. Vs. 11
i) Our souls are meant to be satisfied in God not in immersion in our self centered Western culture.
ii) Pouring ourselves out for others is the path way to the greatest satisfaction in this life.
iii) God satisfies us in the dry places if we will fast the chosen fast, come out of our comfort and consider those less fortunate.
G) Sixth, In the Chosen Fast God will make us a watered garden. Vs. 11 Again, these blessing come out of our obedience in faith to God’s direction.
i) As you give yourself away you get more. God supplies seed to the sower.
ii) It is here that we live out John 7:38 He who believes out of his inner most being shall flow rivers of living water.
iii) In other words when we trust Jesus for all we need as we touch others He opens the spring of the Holy Spirits power.
H) Seven, In the Chosen Fast He restores the city and the people.
i) Just think how many broken things could be repaired if God’s people gave themselves to the chosen fast.
ii) When God is with you, guiding you, strengthening you, satisfying you, lighting you up etc., with so much eternal activity in your life you can’t help but fix some things.!
3) The Purpose of this FCC 21 Day Fast
A) That our hearts are ahead of our actions. We do not want to have the right actions with the wrong heart. Fasting brings our hearts back into the right place. It is an act of repentance and intentional humbling of ourselves.
B) Is to break consumer Christianity off of our lives.
C) To bring us to a place of stronger commitment to God by committing ourselves to our fellow man.
D) It is a fast to get our hearts properly positioned before God.
Conclusion:
· To participate in this fast you must be born again.
· Who want to invite Jesus into your heart today.
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