Slowing Down To Fast

(I started by showing the church a table full of food with chips, candy, cans of food, fruit, cereal, coke, etc…)

Have you ever thought of controlled we are by these things? There’s not a day that goes by where we don’t have these things or other types of food on our mind!

Food calls out to us all the time – at least three times a day and usually more! :)

• Have you ever thought about how much time eating takes up?
• Have you ever thought of how much a distraction food is? (Use loud radio in background.)

It’s hard to focus on other things when these things are calling out so loudly to us!

Don’t worry, I’m not talking about giving up eating completely. But what about temporarily?

What if giving these things up TEMPORARILY could change you or your life PERMANENTLY? Would it be worth it to you to try it?

How many of you have ever fasted one meal?
How many of you have ever fasted one day?
How many of you have ever fasted more than one day?

Think about this…

Fasting is something that’s universally practiced in most major religions. It’s also something that we seem to do naturally. It seems to be a part of our nature.

Don’t believe me?

• Have you ever been so sad that you couldn’t or didn’t want to eat? That was you naturally choosing to fast!
• Have you ever been so excited about something or focused on something that you forgot to eat? That was you naturally choosing to fast!

Today I want to talk about fasting.

I want to show you what it is, show you reasons from the Bible of why to fast, talk about different types of fasts, and then I want to end with a challenge for you -- by giving some reasons why you might want to join me fasting from now until Easter.


Alright, so, What is fasting? I know you know what it is but listen to what James Packer in "Your Father Loves You", says…

“We tend to think of fasting as going without food. But we can fast from anything. If we love music and decide to miss a concert in order to spend time with God, that is fasting. It is helpful to think of the parallel of human friendship. When friends need to be together, they will cancel all other activities in order to make that possible. There's nothing magical about fasting. It's just one way of telling God that your priority at that moment is to be alone with him, sorting out whatever is necessary, and you have cancelled the meal, party, concert, or whatever else you had planned to do in order to fulfill that priority.”

So fasting is a natural thing that has nothing magical to it. But, don’t be fooled by this. There are some powerful things that Fasting CAN do in your life!

We’ll talk about that in a second but first, let’s look at 3 main forms of fasting that there are in the Bible…

This is from the “Holman Bible Dictionary” and it says…

“The Bible describes three main forms of fasting: 1) The Normal Fast, involving the total abstinence of food. Luke 4:2 reveals that Jesus “did eat nothing.” Afterwards “He was hungered.” Jesus abstained from food but not from water. 2) In Acts 9:9 we read of an Absolute Fast where for three days He “neither did eat nor drink.” The abstinence from both food and water seems to have lasted no more than three days (Ezra 10:6; Esther 4:16). 3) The Partial Fast—in Daniel 10:3 the emphasis is upon the restriction of diet rather than complete abstinence. The context implies that there were physical benefits resulting from this partial fast. However, this verse indicates that there was a revelation given to Daniel as a result of this time of fasting.”

One kind of fasting that many people are doing this time of year is called “LENT”. (I went on to describe it: why, how long, except Sundays, & what Sue & I are doing. Hear audio for exactly what I said.)

Before we look at what the Bible teaches us about fasting, let me tell you this…

There are a few places where God specifically tells people to fast, but usually in the Bible fasting is something that’s taught more by example than with words!

There are all sorts of places where Godly people in the Bible show by example why Fasting is important.

And when we look at these examples, we start getting a picture of reasons WHY we should fast. Let’s look at “WHY FAST?”

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“Keepin’ It Real” series: “Show And Tell”

When I was a kid I loved “show and tell”.

I couldn’t wait for the day when it was my turn and I could show and tell about my toy, or pet or whatever! It was fun to let people know about me and what I had.

But somewhere from the time we’re kids to the time we’re adults things change. Suddenly we don’t like “show & tell” anymore. Maybe it was all times kids made fun of us or judged us when we showed who we really were.

As adults we go from loving “Show & Tell” to instead wanting to play “Hide & Seek”. We’re not so open to letting people know us as much.

Today, I want to talk about a different kind of show and tell. This kind of “show and tell” I’m talking about is the 3rd group of people we need to confess to.

Last week, we talked about how we live in a culture that claims to want to “Keep it real”, but in reality our culture is really all about “Keepin’ it fake”.

People aren’t really supposed to show who they really are. They’re supposed to hide it. You have to always look cool, sound cool, and act cool. The internet is the perfect example of “Keepin’ it fake”!

There are places like MySpace.com is really a place for the unreal. People put of their best or favorite pictures of themselves, try to get a ton of friends to prove how cool or popular they are.

It’s showing only ONE side of them! It’s 1 dimensional - “1D”.

We said our culture is so NOT “Keepin’ it real” that even “Reality TV” isn’t real! In reality, our culture teaches many people that it’s all about “Keeping it fake!”

That’s why what I’m talking about is important.

In a culture filled with people “Keepin’ it fake” what I’m talking about could have a really powerful affect in our lives.

Remember:
We’re not talking about confession in the traditional way. We’re looking at it as a way to free us and others. We said that confession basically just means admit the truth. We said there are 3 people we need to confess/admit the truth to.

1. Ourselves (could be the hardest to confess to)

I read you a quote last week from David Allen who’s known as the “productivity guru”. He wrote a well-known book called, “Getting Things Done”. The quote I read was his 4th principle from his book called “Ready For Anything: 52 Productivity Principles For Work And Life”. Listen again to what he says…

“4. Getting to where you’re going requires knowing where you are.” Then he says, “A map is not functional until you know where you are on it.”

I told you that that’s what confession is! It’s self-inventory. It’s taking a REAL look at: where you’re at, how you’re doing, admitting what you’ve done right and wrong, and where you need help.

Until you do this you can’t get anywhere in life! This is the first step because until you do this you can’t confess to anyone else!

2. God

We Read 1 John 1:5-10 We saw that John was telling us…If you say you have fellowship with God, then you have “live in the light” and expose (admit) when you sin. That opens you up to others and cleanses you.

Then he says this in v. 8-9…

"8If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. 9But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong."

We said that God wants what we want when someone does us wrong. We want them to ADMIT it and not make excuses!

But, God can’t forgive us just cause we’re really sorry. He can only forgive us when we acknowledge and accept the payment for our sin in what Jesus did for us. Once we begin this relationship, then the way to keep things from getting in the way of us and God is by DAILY admitting the truth of how we’ve messed up to God.

I told you that I think one of key things that holding a lot of us back in life is that we’re in denial. We’re falling short in a lot of areas. We have guilt. But we don’t do anything with it!And it stalls us out of the map of life.

We run out of gas and eventually go down in flames because we never took time to be REAL with ourselves and God and take a self-inventory.

Today, I want to talk about the third person we need to confess to. After confessing/admitting the truth to ourselves & God…

3. the third thing we need to do is confess/admit the truth to someone else. No everyone! But at least someone!

Let's look at James 5:16...

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“The Overlooked Miracle”

This message is Feb. 26th and I just found the time to post it!

Do you know what these people have in common?
(Showed pictures)

These people are 8 people who worked at a meatpacking plant together in Nebraska, who pooled their money and just recently won the biggest lottery Jackpot in U.S, history!

Listen to some of their stories from this report from Foxnews.com…

"Powerball Winners Tell Their Stories”
(Opens new window.)

Can you imagine what it would be like to go from a low paid meat packer to INSTANTLY a multi-millionaire? It’d be such a HUGE blessing that it’d be hard to believe. It’d feel like a dream!!! But it would definitely change your life forever!

Now how about this…

Could you imagine someone winning a lottery and not realizing it? You’d feel sorry for someone like this wouldn’t you? They’d live the same life when they could’ve lived differently...

It’d seem impossible or crazy for any one to do this wouldn’t it? Listen to this story…

Winning Powerball Ticket Found Under Bed
(Opens new window)

This guy almost missed out on something amazing and life-changing that he already possessed! If a friend didn’t tell him about the missing ticket he might have!

Why am I telling you these stories?

The Bible tells us we have an amazing gift, worth more than $365 million Powerball jackpot, that was given to each of us when we became Christ-followers.

The crazy thing is that many believers don’t realize or think about this amazing gift, so they live the same. Or, some who have heard about this amazing gift choose to live life without its benefit. We’re like this guy with the winning ticket under his bed!

Today, I want to talk about what I’m calling “The Overlooked Miracle”. I want to help us see this amazing gift God has ALREADY given us as believers, so you can leave here realizing what winners!

I want to be for you today like the friend who told him there was a missing ticket. I want you to have that same feeling that these winners had going from nothing to more than you can imagine! I want you to be able to live with the benefits!

What is the overlooked miracle I’m talking about? I’ll tell you in a minute, but first I want you to see something...

I started thinking about this overlooked miracle when I was in Washington, DC at the National Prayer Breakfast.

I was reading a passage, during my devotions, from the Old Testament, about an amazing event that happened in Israel’s history.

It was after reading these passages and thinking about them that I remembered about this overlooked miracle believers live with.

I have two passages to look at, so let’s look at the first one. Turn to 1 Kings 6:11-13.

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Keepin' It Real - PT 1

We live in a culture that claims to want to “Keep it real”, but in reality our society is really all about “Keepin’ it unreal”.

People aren’t really supposed to show who they really are. They’re supposed to hide it. You have to always look cool, sound cool, and act cool.

The internet is the perfect example of “Keepin’ it unreal”! You can be anyone you want to be! I remember a guy in college who was pretending to be a girl online and got invited by another guy to his cabin!

There are places like MySpace.com (a place I just joined to connect with some old youth kids and see if we can connect anybody with our church through it) and, besides being a site that has some crazy stuff on it that you need to guard yourself from, it’s really a place for the unreal.

People put of their best or favorite pictures of themselves, try to get a ton of friends to prove how cool or popular they are. It’s showing only ONE side of them!

Think about it. Our culture is so NOT “Keepin’ it real” that even “Reality TV” isn’t real! In reality, our culture teaches many people that it’s all about “Keeping it fake!”

That’s why what I’m about to talk about is important.

In a culture filled with people “Keepin’ it fake” what I’m about to talk about could have a really powerful affect in our lives.

Today, I want to start a short, 2-week series about “Confession”.

I’m not talking about the old school idea of confession. This ain’t your Grandma’s confession! I’m not talking about confessionals or being forced to admit your wrongs to the person sitting next to you.

I’ll be talking in a different way about confession. In fact, by the time we’re through, I hope you’ll never see “confession” the same way again.

The confession I’m going to be talking about is other thing that can actually help us to see the change we’ve been hoping for for so long.

It can and free us and others to really start “Keepin’ it real!”

Do you know what confession really is? It’s just admitting the truth.

There are 3 people we need to confess or admit the truth to. The first one is in some ways the hardest to admit to. Let me tell you a story before I tell you this first person we need to confess to…

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Next week, I want to finish this talk about “Keeping It Real”.

Some of the things I want to talk about…

• The last person you need to confess to.
• Talk about positive VS. negative confessions
• Talk about how I think confession can actually help protect us from making some HUGE mistakes in our life.

If you know someone who’d want to hear this sermon, then tell them about the link to hear it online and invite them to come THIS Sunday for PT2!