Okay, repeat after me. “This Morning. . .I will be. . .truly honest with myself. I will not hide. I will not deny. I will not lie. I will listen for God’s voice. And apply it to my life.”
So now this isn’t between you and me. This is between you and God. And just between you and God, I want you to honestly, truthfully, answer the following questions:
Do you ever schedule your day around eating?
Have you ever left an event or gathering to fulfill an urge for food?
Are you more likely to attend an event where there is free food?
Are you more likely to attend an all-church luncheon or an all-church hour of prayer?
Among the many church bulletin bloopers you can find was the following National Prayer and Fasting Conference announcement: “The cost to attend the Prayer and Fasting Conference includes meals.” You’ll get it in a minute. So would you be more likely to attend?
How about this one, have you ever taken communion with the paper see through wafers, and complained about the choice of bread?
Honestly. Truthfully. How about these?
Do you ever eat or drink to calm your nerves?
Do you ever eat or drink to alleviate fear?
Do you eat or drink for comfort?
Do you eat or drink to find joy?
Do you ever look to food in order to feel better about your day or life?
Do you ever eat, even when you are not hungry?
You see I am especially intrigued by my own answers to that second set of questions. Because if I asked you to describe to me, or give a label to something that is a key resource that I utilize for calming my nerves, for making me feel better, or for bringing me comfort. . .at best you might call it a dependency, and at worst you might call it an idol or even a god.
Is it any wonder that if animals could talk, they would probably see us humans living something like this (Over the Hedge clip)?
Now that is pretty humorous, because when push come to shove we are quick to say, “It’s just food.” But again, under our vow and commitment to be honest with God this morning. Is it?
Grab a Bible, and join me as we journey through a few thousand years over the next couple minutes. Begin by turning to Genesis, chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3 (read through verse 6).
The serpent was crafty. And with everything at his disposal, what did he choose to bring about the fall? Not just any old sin. But “the fall.” What was his weapon of warfare? Food.
And lest you think Eve was just tempted by the prospect of being like God. Look again at verse 6 (re-read). “Good for food.” “A delight to the eyes.” It’s just food. Or is it?
Journey forward in God’s Word and you come to that sinful city of Sodom. A city whose name will be utilized for centuries, even today, to demark a place of sinfulness and corruption. And we often link Sodom to immorality and sexual sin. But look at one of the other underlying sins that we see was influencing Sodom. Turn to Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16:49 (read through verse 50).
God declares through the prophet. These are the things that brought Sodom down. She was prideful. She prospered without even having to work. And she had an excess of food. And in the midst of this gluttonous, lazy, prideful existence, she did nothing to help the poor and the needy. But it’s just food. Or is it?
The Hebrew children had been enslaved by Egypt. God raised up Moses and Aaron to lead the people out of the land, and to the Promised Land. They were free. They could care for their children. Husband and wife could be together. The beatings were over. The oppression. The demanding work of Pharaoh to build his kingdom and increase his power. That was all behind them.
And the question to ask is, what in the world would cause people to want to go back to that? They witnessed the plagues. They watched Pharaoh stalk them until God parted the Red Sea. They were led by a pillar of fire at night and cloud by day. And yet they were willing to reject everything that God promised them, and all that He had done on their behalf. Why would anyone do that? Why would anyone want to return to a life of slavery? Turn to Numbers 11. Numbers 11:4 (read through verse 6).
“So what if they whipped me. So what if they stifled my worship of God. So what if they separated my family. So what if they treated me like the very dirt of the ground. I had good food! Meat, and cucumbers, melons and leeks. Now I just have this cruddy manna!”
It’s just food. . .or is it? Turn way back in your Bibles to the book of Philippians. Philippians 3:17 (read through verse 21). Enemies of the cross. Their end is destruction. And what is their god? Their bellies.
One week from Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. And we will once again embark on a 40 Days of Prayer journey that will take us from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. And I will once again encourage us to give concerted focus to prayer and fasting during these 40 days, and throughout all of 2008 on Tuesdays which we are recognizing as a church-wide day of fasting.
But for my own life, and dare I say for many if not most of us, I have come to realize something about fasting. Something more serious than I previously thought. Something much more spiritual than physical, and something significantly more powerful than I had ever before explored or imagined.
For many of us today. It isn’t just food. It is a dependency. An idol. Even a god. And for many of us, myself included, it can be a spiritual stronghold that keeps me from full dependence and reliance upon God as my source of strength. And this is key, I believe there are breakthroughs in our individual lives and in our life as a church that cannot take place, until we overcome and destroy every spiritual stronghold, including this spiritual stronghold of food.
Whoa! Wait a minute. A spiritual stronghold of food? Keeping us from breakthrough? Jesus Himself said that there are spiritual battles over which we will not be victorious without separating ourselves from food. Without giving ourselves to prayer and fasting.
Matthew 17. A familiar passage to many of us. Matthew 17:14 (read through verse 21).
Jesus says, there are some types of spiritual battles. Some confrontations with the enemy that can not be overcome without prayer and fasting. And to overcome those strongholds in our lives will require a heart and willingness to knock food off the throne, and in a spirit of humility, enter into a period of prayer and fasting that once again places God in His rightful place on the throne of our lives.
The scientific number varies by person and health, but the real life examples make it clear that 99.9% of us are capable of lasting as many as four to six weeks without a single bite of food. Many Christians have health conditions that they indicate would make it impossible to go 24 or 48 hours without food, yet those same people would last for days if stranded in the wilderness or taken hostage. But we are bound to this accepted idol, this false god, this stronghold of food.
And I am pretty much equating fasting to fasting from food today. Not an electronic fast. Not a media fast. Not an ESPN or sports radio fast. Not a fast from HGTV or your daily crossword puzzle. An actual food fast. Because in the American church today, we quickly okay, validate, and check off on other forms of fasting. And there are plenty of other forms of fasting that have spiritual benefits to them.
But if we are not careful, we are at the same time defending the god of food, and saying, “Sure, fast from TV. It doesn’t really matter what you fast from. Besides, it’s just food.” Or is it?
There is no Biblical president to fasting from TV. Fasting from music. Fasting movies. When Jesus spoke of fasting, He was speaking of fasting from food.
If you still don’t buy it. If you still say, “Hey, I’m being honest with myself just like I promised at the beginning, and I simply don’t have the problems you are describing. Food is just not a god for me. It doesn’t control me.”
Then ask yourself just a few more questions just to make sure. What happens when food is taken away from you? How is your demeanor, attitude or outlook after you have missed a meal or two? The last time you fasted for five days, did you find yourself craving to eat? More telling, were you still the same loving, caring, warm person that you were at the start of the fast? Or maybe just ask yourself, are these PowerPoint slides making me hungry this morning?
When I ask myself those questions. When I honestly reflect with my inner-man. It’s quite plain and simple. Food holds a place in my life, that as a follower of Christ, it should not be entitled to. And so on a regular basis, I enter into times of fasting, and allow God to hammer away at that stronghold in my life that looks to something other than Him for my complete dependence, joy and strength.
I would like to ask you to take some time this week, as we prepare for our 40 Days of Prayer, and as we focus in on our Tuesday fasts. Take some time and give some consideration to a few thoughts. A few possibilities.
1. FLIP YOUR THINKING ABOUT FASTING
We know that prior to Jesus ministry, the Holy Spirit took Him by the hand, and led Him out into the wilderness. We know from God’s Word that He was lead into that wilderness for the purpose of being tempted by the devil. And we know that for forty days and nights He fasted in that wilderness, and became hungry. And it was at the end of those 40 days that Satan came to tempt Jesus.
But this is where I have to flip my thinking about fasting. My thinking says, “Satan waited, and then came at Jesus’ weakest point.” He waited 40 days to tempt Him. He waited until all physical strength was gone. Until that point when the body is reaching the sustaining, true biological need for food. When the body has depleted all of its internal resources, and is going to need fuel soon. Jesus could not have been weaker when Satan attacked Him.
But I have to flip my thinking. Because the truth is that after 40 days in the wilderness of fasting. Being sustained by nothing other than the very Spirit of God. Jesus was never stronger. His resolve was never firmer, His mind was never sharper. He quoted the Word of God, and dismissed the Devil in a matter of minutes.
In my weakness, He is strong. The weaker I get, the stronger He is. And when I fast and deny myself the physical pleasure and energy of food, as my human strength decreases, my spiritual strength increases all the more. And fasting is no longer something that drains me. It is the very thing that sustains me.
Take some time this week. Give it a try on Tuesday. Flip your thinking about fasting. And as I fast, I have to always remind myself. . .
2. DON’T JUST SET ASIDE FOOD. . .SET ASIDE PRIDE
We are told in Matthew 11 that John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He has a demon.’ He was ostracized, and labeled as demonic, why? Because He modeled a life of self-denial. Of fasting.
And I know that one of the things that can keep us 21st century humans from fasting is not just the part that requires we set aside our food, but the part that requires we set aside our pride.
Again, honest questions to ask ourselves –
Would I be willing to attend a company luncheon, and continue my fast?
Would I be willing to tell a neighbor, “Oh, we would love to come over for dinner on Tuesday, but that is the day our family joins with our church and spends the day fasting. Can we join you on Wednesday?”
Would I be willing to sit in the school lunch room, talking with friends, and simply not eating. . .even if it made me look like some kind of religious freak?
Because remember from last week. The more steps we take towards Christ, the more steps we will be taking away from this world.
(Example of Jamie with Reading & Fasting)
Flip your thinking about fasting. Don’t just set aside food, set aside pride. And one more thing to ponder. . .
3. REMOVE FOOD AS A BREAKTHROUGH BLOCKER IN YOUR LIFE
This is how it works in my life. I am a nervous eater. Very compulsive. As my stress level goes up, so does my munching.
So what happens is that every time there is something going on in my life that is a challenge. That presents some form of angst or difficulty. Even if I look to God, or seek His face while grabbing that bag of Doritos, I’m still not fully depending on Him. I’m still letting an earthly idol get in the way of God’s ability to utilize the challenge to bring complete reliance and dependency upon Him and take me to a new level in my walk with Him. I’m still allowing food to block the next great breakthrough that God has for me.
And I have no logical explanation for why I would do that other than honestly admitting to myself that food is an addiction. An idol. A god in my life.
Richard Foster writes that fasting more than any other spiritual discipline, reveals the things that control us.
And if anything other than the Spirit of God is controlling an area of my life, it is a stronghold. And strongholds of the enemy serve no other purpose than to block me from God’s breakthroughs for my life.
Maybe you have never dove into this spiritual discipline of fasting. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “When you fast.” Not if. He assumes that His disciples, Christ followers will be engaged in the discipline of fasting. And if this is new to you, and you would like some helpful resources on fasting, let me know and I’ll be happy to assist you in experiencing the joy and comfort and breakthrough that is available as we place more and more of our lives in complete dependence upon God.
Let’s pray together.
