Sermon:
 ¡ñ We have been walking through Matthew 6 the past three weeks
¡ð focusing on the spiritual disciplines that Jesus talks about in this
passage
¡ð giving, praying, and today . . . fasting.
¡ñ Fasting defined:
¡ð To abstain from food. To eat very little or abstain from certain foods,
especially as a religious discipline
¡ð practice of deliberately and voluntarily abstaining from usual
nourishment, which, when performed in the context of prayer, brings
supernatural power to our prayer
¡ð renouncing the natural to invoke the supernatural
¡ð personal, voluntary humbling of the heart before God that increases
spiritual brokenness
¡ð a commitment to self-control that enables a believer to die to self
¡ð a worship activity that increases spiritual receptivity by creating a
climate in which the holy spirit can speak

¡ñ Don¡¯t you love it how Jesus sort of warms us up to the idea of fasting?
¡ð we can give without being changed ¨C it makes giving easy
¡ð It¡¯s even a little more difficult to pray
¡ð Fasting is probably most costly
¡ð prayer and giving can be token, but fasting always has a price. Missing
a meal is difficult.

One day, my husband announced to the family that he was going to fast and
pray. Ginny, our 5-year-old, had recently learned that fasting meant not eating.
"No!" she shouted. "You can’t fast! You’ll die!" Her dad carefully explained that
many men and women fasted in Bible times. Ginny paused a moment. Then, with
a flash of insight and a note of warning, she proved her point. "And they all
died," she said. Citation: Kathy Cash, Dallas, TX. Today’s Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart."
¡ñ fasting is difficult, but it won¡¯t kill you
¡ð The only thing that might die as we fast is our selfish motives and
desires
¡ñ she¡¯s right -- they did all die, but not from fasting! (The following are
individuals who fasted in the Bible
¡ð Moses, Elijah, David, Ezra, Daniel, Nehemiah, and, of course, Jesus
- When Jesus started his 40 day fast in Luke 4:1, the bible says he
was ¡°full¡± of the Holy Spirit
- When he completed the fast in 4:14, the word says he returned in
the ¡°power¡± of the Spirit
¡ð think of the victorious lives and the great things that God did through
each of these men, and fasting was a normal part of their lives.
¡ð one more thing (beyond prayer and giving) that helps us develop a
deeper relationship with the father
¡ñ Matthew 6:16-18 (This is a short teaching on fasting compared to the
amount of time that Jesus spent on prayer, so we will supplement it with
Isaiah 58)
¡ñ Three things come to mind as I read those passages:
¡ð reasons for fasting
¡ð responsibilities of fasting
¡ð rewards of fasting
¡ñ Challenge: begin a regular practice (discipline) of fasting while keeping the
reasons, responsibilities and rewards of fasting in mind
¡ð be great to take a church that is full of the HS and let it be empowered
by the spirit
¡ð as you practice these three disciplines, I believe that God will empower
you!
¡ð Eccl. 4:12, ¡°a cord of three strands is not