Genuine Fasting

Amen. I join that worship as always. We work hard to sing Christ-centered worship. It teaches us and leads us and equips us. I have also seen people take lyrics that we have sung in the life of the church and use it in their own prayer time. It does start us emotionally. Christians are good, but they need to be stirred by truth, and I'm very thankful for the truth that we have sung. Just listen to one phrase or two phrases that we sung, "And we shall ere his people be, all glory be to Christ." See, everything about our lives should sit around the glory of God in our lives, everything. That should be our heartbeat. That should be our desire.

That should be the reason why we live, not just so we can get to the end of our life and someone just preaches on into heaven. See, it's all to be Christ-centered, and I'm very, very, very thankful for that, and that's what this subject of fasting is all about, and it might surprise some of you this morning. So if you would take your Bible and turn back to Matthew 6, which is where we were earlier in our Scripture reading, and we will be in verses 16 to 18, and I will reference some other Scriptures, especially some Old Testament Scriptures.

And you know, in dealing with this subject of fasting that some of you might not be as familiar with, I would encourage you to write those passages down, make those a part of your personal Bible study this week. One thing that I always encourage us to do as God's people is to be good students of God's Word, not just listening to a message, but studying what we're studying together on a Sunday morning all throughout the week so that we can get all that the Lord wants to give us. Now here we are at this third religious practice that Jesus is dealing with in verses 1 to 18.

Those of you who have been with us in this journey through the Sermon on the Mount, you know right where we are. Jesus was dealing with three areas of Jewish religious life that were very, very common, and some scholars say these were the three most important areas of their lives. We see giving here in verses 2 to 4. Now verse 1 really is the warning about being hypocritical that's carried all throughout these lessons. But we have giving starting here in verse 2 to verse 4. Then we have this large lesson on prayer. We looked at genuine prayer in verses 5 to 8, and then we have the pattern for genuine prayer there in verses 9 to 18.

And here this morning we're looking at this third lesson, and that is on fasting in verse 16 to 18. Now before we really get started in the verses, we need to ask ourselves what comes into our mind when we think about fasting? I believe some of you think of some type of religious practice, but many of you think of some sort of weight loss plan or fasting connected with a healthy diet. You know weight loss, special diets for health and such, that's just a part of our American culture, is it not? Well this week just out of curiosity, I opened up my internet browser and I went to the old trusted Google. Do we not all go to Google?

I think I'm going to age myself here. I remember the day when we went to the encyclopedia. Those things are null and void. Now we just go to Google, and if our children have a rash and a certain look in their eye and we Google what that's like, Google will tell us they have some chronic disease. Isn't that right? But you know I went to the old trusted Google and I Googled one word and the word fasting, and I wrote down the top, I call it the top 10 hits or top 7 hits. It came up fasting and diet, then next was fasting and praying, then third was fasting and blood glucose range, and then fasting and blood sugar.

I kind of thought that was all the same, but I'm not a medical professional. And then fifth fasting in the Bible, and then sixth fasting for blood work, and then seventh fasting benefits. I guess my curiosity kept getting the best of me. I clicked that first hit fasting and diet. And the first website that come up was this, do fasting.com. I couldn't help but I had to click on it. And when I opened that up, you know there were all these charts and graphics and all that good stuff, but right there at the top it said this, it just got easier to lose weight. I thought easier to lose weight. I thought that was hard.

Then below it said find out what works for you with the 60 second quiz approved by our experts and get your personal revolutionary fasting assistant. And then immediately I thought about who would be on the other end. Probably someone who needs to fast laying on a couch with some cellular device eating a bag of Doritos telling you how to fast. I know many of you think of some sort of diet plan when the subject comes up, but that's not what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew six. Honestly, the Bible never, never speaks of fasting for any other reason except for a spiritual reason or for religious purposes.

Now earlier when I brought up the subject of fasting, some of you did think about some kind of a religious context. Some of you do know that fasting is a part of many of the world religions. Fasting is a part of what we would see as the Eastern religions, Buddhism and Hinduism. Fasting is a part of Islam and even modern day Judaism. Fasting is a part of Catholicism. You know, we're familiar with Mardi Gras and that's all tied in the land and Catholics don't eat meat on Fridays during Lent. And some of us are familiar with that. But you know, fasting is a part of true biblical Christianity and that could surprise some of you.

But a basic question, what is fasting? We can't take for granted that we all know what biblically fasting, true fasting truly is. And biblically fasting is abstaining from certain physical necessities for spiritual purposes. Fasting is abstaining from food, sometimes water, sometimes sleep, maybe even sexual needs so as to devote oneself to God. Fasting is denying self, the body, so as to seek God for spiritual needs and spiritual purposes. Sometimes people may fast during great times of morning. Sometimes people will fast when they're wrestling over sin and self, trying to gain victory over sin and self.

Sometimes fasting is a part of God's people seeking to know God's will and accomplish God's will. And some may fast when they're seeking God's blessing or favor in a particular endeavor in life. And you know, there are plenty of examples in Scripture, both men and women who fasted for the very reasons that I just mentioned. Well here in verses 1-18 and in other Scriptures, both New and Old Testament, fasting is connected to prayer. Really and truly fasting and prayer are inseparable. Now think about it like this, you can pray without fasting but you can't fast without praying. If you fast without praying, it's just a diet.

Now that is a basic but very biblical understanding of fasting. And there are some specific circumstances that we do need to see in the Old and New Testament. I will mention those like I said earlier as we continue along in the message. Now you can say it like this, I've really answered a basic biblical question, what is biblical fasting? But what about fasting in this context? Remember this is a Jewish context, we know that. I've explained to you many times the context there of the Sermon on the Mount is primarily a large Jewish audience. They are the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Oh there are some Gentiles there and there are the disciples there on the front row. One scholar said this was like their ordination service. But what about fasting in this Jewish context? Notice what Jesus says in verse 16, "And when you fast, Jesus assumes that the Jews fasted because they did." And fasting was a very large part of their lives and their religion it had been for generations. If we go back and study the Old Testament, we see that many of the Old Testament saints fasted. Moses fasted 40 days and 40 nights, two different times. We see this in Exodus 24 and Exodus 34.

Daniel, the great man of God Daniel, he fasted for three weeks. We can see that at the beginning of Daniel chapter 10. One of my favorite is the Old Testament saint Hannah. This wonderful woman of God was suffering because she was childless, she was barren. And 1 Samuel chapter 1 shows us how she fasted for years seeking the Lord because she wanted a child. Some of you may be surprised, but the great King David fasted many, many times for many different reasons. David fasted when King Saul died. You know that one struck me funny this week. Think about it. King Saul was trying to kill David.

David was the rightful King, but yet when David heard that the anointed King of Israel, Saul died, he fasted as he mourned Saul. David even fasted when his child with Uriah's wife was sick. We see that in Samuel chapter 12. He was beseeching the Lord that the child may live. And then when the Jews, they came out of Babylonian captivity, the great men of God Ezra and Nehemiah, they fasted and they led God's people to fast. Now that's just a few examples. So there are many more. But within their Jewish religion, remember the Jews, that's the primary audience and the backdrop is their great religion.

Within their religion, there was only one commanded fast and that's found in Leviticus 16 and 23. And this fast was connected with the great celebration, the great festival of the day of Atonement. And on that day, all of the people were to humble themselves before God, which included fasting from food as a part of their self denial. And this was a nationwide fast and it included men, women and children. Scholars also tell us that the Jews did have other national fasts. The Jews fasted commemorating the capture of Jerusalem, which was recorded in Jeremiah. They also fasted to remember the burning of the temple and that scene in Zechariah 7.

And then they fasted to commemorate the attack on Jerusalem. That's found in Zechariah as well. But then there were also some unique times when the entire nation fasted. After the disastrous civil war with Benjamin, they fasted. Samuel made the people of God fast because they had left God to worship the Baal, which was a pagan deity. Nehemiah did the same thing in Nehemiah chapter 9 when he called his people to fast and to confess their sin when they were coming out of captivity. And there's some other examples. Now I know that what I've given you is a lot and you could add to that list. But what is my point?

From Moses to the time of Jesus, fasting was a big part of Jewish life. In Jesus' day, the religious leaders fasted two times a week. In addition to all of these fasts to commemorate certain events in their nation's history, the Pharisees in Jesus' day fasted every Monday and every Thursday. And we see that in Luke chapter 18 verse 12. Now I want to ask you to take a guess here. Were the religious leaders hypocrites in their fasting or were they genuine? Remember all through these lessons we've been learning about the hypocrite and how that contrasts with the genuine.

But the question is this, were the religious leaders hypocrites in their fasting or were they genuine? Those of you who have been on the journey with us, you know they were hypocrites. And that is just what Jesus is attacking here. He is attacking the Jews in their fasting, not their history of fasting. But their abuse of fasting, what God meant to be a true spiritual self-discipline, they had prostituted it for false piety. They had prostituted fasting for self-righteous religion for all to see and what does Jesus call them? Hypocrites. All through these lessons, hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites.

I've said this before, he did not gain any friends and influence there. Now remember that Jesus is basically, he had two purposes here in dealing with their giving and dealing with their prayer and now dealing with their fasting. He was about attacking, I mean a front on full attack, attacking their hypocritical religion and he is calling his people to genuine Christian living. And that's just what we will examine this morning. You probably could guess the title of the message. It comes right out of what we see in the scriptures. We are looking at genuine fasting as opposed to hypocritical fasting.

Now notice that Jesus starts with the negative, doesn't he? In verse 16, "Do not fast like the religious leaders." He starts off by exposing the hypocrisy there, then he moves to the positive. I guess I wanted to be positive. I used a positive title. I could have used a negative. I could have called this hypocritical fasting. But I want us to focus on genuine fasting because I believe that's what God wants to develop in our lives. So we're going to follow the scriptures here. We're going to follow how Jesus explained all of this and we're going to look at number one, hypocritical fasting out of verse 16. Look at the verse with me.

Jesus said, "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces and their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward." Now I made this statement earlier, but we see that Jesus assumes they fasted. It was a part of their religious life. It was a part of their culture. It was a part of their history. And Jesus does not condemn fasting. He condemns fasting for the wrong motives and practiced in the wrong manner. But notice what Jesus is condemning. It comes right out of the verses.

Immediately Jesus gets into the practice of the hypocrites and he exposes their pretense. We have seen that almost every part of Jewish religious life have become a perverted version of what God intended. See the Jews, they either reduced the meaning of the Old Testament or they added to the meaning of the Old Testament. I've said this before, they were masters at reductionism and they were also masters at legalism and fasting, it was the very same way. They either reduced the meaning of the scripture or they added to the meaning of the scripture. Now look at the rest of the verse.

"And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites." He called them out. "Do not look gloomy like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others." I said it earlier, Luke 18, 12 tells us that the Pharisees would fast two times a week. On the second and the fifth days of the week, the religious leaders fasted on those two days because of a tradition. Their tradition said that those days were the days that Moses made the trips up Mount Sinai to receive the tablets or the law of God. But you know there's a coincidence here? Oh, there's a coincidence right here.

It just so happened that those particular days, they happen to be the two busiest days of commerce for the Jews. You see the coincidence? On those two days, their towns and villages were full of farmers and merchants and all kinds of people shopping. In other words, these were the busiest days in their streets, in their markets, in their towns, in their cities, in their villages. These were the two days where the Jews could perform for all the people to see whether it was giving or prayer or fasting. See, I've said it before, they were play acting in their religious expressions. And Jesus calls them out on their hypocrisy.

They were play acting. Historians tell us that Jewish leaders, that they would wear old clothes, they would wear worn and dirty clothes, really specifically set aside for this practice. Scholars tell us that they would appear unkempt and unclean. They would go so far as to cover themselves with dirt and put ashes on their head. They would even put makeup on their faces so that they would look worn out and sick. And this was all to give the appearance that, oh, they were making all kind of great sacrifices in their fasting. Notice their audience. Jesus said they did it all for men.

Remember they practiced almost all of their religious acts for the public to see. They gave their alms, they gave their monies out in the places of worship and out in the streets for all to see. They prayed out on the broadest and busiest of streets, praying out loud with their meaningless, repetitive words and phrases, oh, for all to hear and see. And here they are fasting. And they're making a great show of things, trying to look super sacrificial in the eyes of men. But notice their reward, just like with their hypocritical giving, just like with their hypocritical praying, their fasting was for the praise and the reward of men.

And Jesus says you will get no reward from God in heaven. So notice in summary what we have here. Jesus assumes they fasted. He did. It was a part of their culture and their religion. And he did not condemn them in their fasting. He just condemned their hypocritical fasting. All they did in their fasting was band centered, not God centered. It was for the glory of man, not for the glory of God. And look, their motives for fasting were to impress their fellow men and their methods of fasting were all set up to ensure that they could fast in front of other men. And Jesus says God rejected it. Jesus said God says it's worthless.

Now, I think it is important for us to see how much God hates hypocritical acts of religious service. We've been seeing this all along. God hates it. Jesus is just pointing it out all along. Again, he never gains friends here. I mean, right after they pick up stones to kill him. Why? Because he's pointing out their hypocrisy and we need to see just how much God hates hypocritical acts of religious service. Yes, God hates our external Christianity if it's hypocritical. If we perform our Christian acts of service to impress men, see folks, if you give, if you pray, and if you fast for others to see, you're just like these hypocrites.

You are one. You're just like the Jews. And you might say, pastor, I've never fasted. Let me rephrase it like this. If you give, if you pray and you have any act of Christian service whereby you are sacrificial and you do it for other people to see, you are exactly like these religious hypocrites. And so I ask you, do you give, do you pray, and do you sacrifice for others to see? You know, I've been asking us all along to make us a list. I've been asking you to make a list of the top three or four things that we could see as our top externals.

Scholars say that these three activities that Jesus pointed out were some of the most prevalent and some of the most important things in their life. And so I ask you to make a list of the top three or four. I've asked you to discuss it with your spouse, maybe a Christian friend, maybe in your small group, maybe giving us at the top of the list, maybe praying is at the top of the list. You know, in our Baptist churches we have all types of people that pray out loud. Have you ever seen someone pray and they just pray for others to see? You know, sometimes we have giving campaigns. There's nothing wrong with that.

Sometimes we can organize that giving campaign where people can see who gives what, when, where, and how. You know, I'm not big about plaques on walls. I mean, you know, these plaques that just show who gave what, where, and where, and how. I mean, isn't that what we just see? And what about fasting? And you know, sacrifice. You know, sometimes people will sacrifice in the life of the church and they just make sure that somebody sees it. But you know, there's some other things we can put on a church. Is coming to church a hypocritical act of service for you? Do you let people know at work that you go to church for your reputation?

Oh, do you let people in your family know that you go to church? You know, I've seen people come to church for political reasons. I never forget years ago I saw a man who was running for political office, public office, and he just so happened to choose the biggest and most influential church in town. And he came and he joined the church right before the political election. After he lost, he didn't come back. I'll get a little more personal and I'll get inside the closed door of your home. Do you read your Bible? Do you pray for your family to see? You see, Jesus has been all about doing these things in secret, in private, before God.

You see what we're looking at here? Jesus is condemning, and he's done the same thing all along. He is condemning their hypocritical acts of service. I said it earlier and I'll say it again, they had prostituted that which God had given. And we can do the same thing. Well, let's move on. I want us to look at the positive. Jesus starts with the negative. Let's look at genuine fasting in verse 17 and 18. Notice Jesus says, "But," this is a good transition, is it not?

"But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you." Now in verse 17 we see the assumption again, and this is a different audience now, this is his followers. But we have the assumption that his followers would fast. And it seems that Jesus is insinuating that fasting is a good thing. As a matter of fact, if we look forward into the New Testament, we see many references about fasting, and they're almost always good.

And it would be safe to say that fasting was a part of this genuine Christian life that Jesus is unfolding for his believers here. But notice what Jesus is teaching here, and I'm comparing it, contrasting it with what we've learned before. Whereas the Jewish leaders regularly fasted two days a week, Jesus never mentioned the time, and he never mentioned the schedule. He never did. Jesus does not prescribe a particular time to fast. He does not prescribe a particular way to fast. Jesus does not even give them certain events that they should commemorate with a fast. Nothing like we see in the Old Testament.

Well a question, and we need to ask this. What is important for us to see here? See, it was all about personal Christian choice. It was all about Christian conscience. It was all about being led of the Spirit of God. It was all about the individual person's experience and need, even experiences and needs of the church that we will see later develop as the work of the church grows. I'll give you an example. In times of great sorrow. See someone can come to a unique particular time in life where they are experiencing personally great great sorrow. And that could be a time when the Spirit of God would lead them to fast.

I go back to the Old Testament. King David fasted when his child from Uriah's wife Bathsheba was sick. That was personal. That was unique to him. David fasted and David prayed, what? For God's grace that the child would live. Another example, in a time of maybe personal sin. We're wrestling with a personal sin and that's unique to our life and the Spirit of God convicts us and we go to him in great prayer and fasting because we want victory over that sin. Again King David. He fasted and prayed after he had committed the terrible sin of adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband killed in battle.

He was grieved over his sin and he prayed and he fasted and he sought forgiveness but he wanted victory over those sins. But another example, in a time of decision. See someone, some of you may have a time in your personal life where you are looking at great decisions and you need to know the will of God. And oh this can also apply to the life of the church. In Acts chapter 13 we see the church at Antioch praying and they were fasting as the Spirit of God led them.

See they were worshipping and praying and fasting and the Spirit of God worked in that group of believers and called out Barnabas and Saul for the great missionary journey that was before them and they prayed and fasted and laid hands on them and they sent them out. See they were praying and preparing to send out Barnabas and Saul. So the point is this. Whereas the Jewish leaders were all about their times of fasting whether on certain days, whether centered around certain events, Jesus did not set times. He didn't give a schedule. Fasting for his followers was Holy Spirit led.

Fasting for his followers would all be about personal needs and how the Spirit led and even for the church. And also whereas the religious leaders dressed and acted out to be seen by others in their fasting Jesus calls his followers to do the opposite. I will reference some of the language here. This term anointing their head with oil simply spoke to good grooming habits. It was different culturally in that day but this was all about grooming habits and he calls them to wash their face so that they would look fresh and well kept. This was very simple. Jesus was calling his followers to look fresh, to look well kept, to look normal.

They were not to attract any attention to themselves so as to reveal to men that they were fasting. Look even if they hadn't eaten in days because they were fasting they were to look fresh and well kept and well fed. But notice the audience here. Jesus calls his followers to do all that they do in fasting so as not to be seen by men he calls them to perform their acts of fasting before God in secret just like they're giving, just like they're praying. Their fasting was first for God and only for God and for God's will in their life and ultimately God's glory.

But notice their reward just like in genuine giving, in genuine praying, their fasting here it would be rewarded by God. And look he does not say what their reward would be only that God would reward them. Again it was all God's sinner. So in summary notice what we have here. Jesus assumes his true followers would be fast and he almost seems to encourage them as well but he calls his followers to be God centered in their fasting. Their motive was to sacrifice themselves so as to go before God and their methods were to do everything for God to see not for men.

Jesus even calls them to clean up and to fix up so that they can hide their fasting from others and if they do God says, Jesus says that God will receive this spiritual act of service and they will be rewarded. Now I think it's important for us to see that fasting should be a part of the normal Christian life. But you know us Americans we're well fed, we've got everything at our fingertips, we don't really see that we need to fast but do we? I mean do we need to make sacrifices so as to seek God for God to work in our life and ultimately for God's glory in our life? Do we? You know some of you are like King David.

Listen folks, some of you are afflicted by terrible circumstances. Many times David endured terrible circumstances and he would come to God in great times of prayer and fasting. Why? Because he was afflicted by terrible terrible circumstances. Some of you are suffering greatly now. Some of you are in circumstances not of your making. I mean even David came sometimes when he was the one that created the bad circumstances.

And some of you are in great terrible circumstances and your suffering and your prayer life just isn't sufficient and you need to be biblical here and look at these Old Testament examples and pray and fast and deny yourself to seek God to have victory in the terrible circumstances that have been brought your way. Also some of you are like King David in that you are afflicted by terrible sin. Some of you have haunting sins, some of you have sins that chase you, some of you have sins that you do not have full victory over. Christians can suffer in this manner. Now I'm not making an easy way of cheap grace. No that's not what I'm talking about.

A lot of people leave the church and they go out into the world and they never been converted. John says that they went out from us because they never were of us. I'm talking about Christians who are connected to the body and yeah they have a sin that chases over them and they do not have full victory over that sin. And look you shouldn't stay that way. You shouldn't allow sin in your life to rob you of your victory and to hinder you being right with God as you should be. So my question for you is this. What is the sin that is in your life that you need to pray and fast over so that God would help you to have victory over that sin?

I thought about the Corinthian church. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Paul gives this great long list of grievous sins now and what does he say? This is what some of you were. They had victory. Listen folks, Christians shouldn't stay ball and chained to a particular sin and some of you need to pray and fast and just don't let go of God until God helps you have victory. Some of you may say, "Pastor, I don't know how to fast. What do I do? I mean how do I proceed?" Jesus has just told you how not to fast. Listen, how not to fast shows you how to fast in many ways and he has given us the basics. Deny yourself.

Deny the most basic of human needs and that is food and go into that secret place of prayer and seek God and basically say this, "God, I'm not leaving until you work in my life." Some pastoral tips here, study the examples. Study all of these men and women and glean from their experiences both Old and New Testament. And listen, I'll just give you some pastoral guidance here. Some of you, you just might need to come to me and say, "Pastor, I need you to give me some help here." Sometimes when you're at the very beginning of some of these spiritual disciplines, you just need a mature believer to point you what to do.

And you may ask, "Pastor, do you fast?" Yes, at times. It's a part of the Christian life. During times of crisis, during times of spiritual decision, yes. And fasting has been a very big part of my Christian walk. And I say that not to let you know about my external acts of righteousness. No. I say that because I want you to know that I live this myself. Now, as I begin to close, and what I mean by close, move away from dividing the text here, I want to personalize what we've studied a little more for our church, for us.

And there are two big reasons why we should make fasting a part of our personal lives and a part of our corporate life, our church life. So this is personal and this is corporate. Sometimes this is separate, but yet many times this is all connected. And I've been mulling over these two issues really for quite some time. First of all, I believe we should engage in prayer and fasting because we have many unconverted people in our church. I've had conversations with moms and dads here. Many of us have sons and daughters that are not converted to Christ. They've not been born of God. And you know our method of evangelism.

We don't whip people up into an emotional frenzy. No. We preach the gospel and the sinfulness of man and we allow the Spirit of God to draw people to that place of conversion. But oh, listen, think about it. We've got many people, young people and adults. There are some of you adults. You've counseled with me, you've counseled with Brother Keith and you have counseled and been honest and said, I know that I'm not converted. And listen, this is a serious, serious, serious issue. We need people to be birthed into the kingdom of God, born of the Spirit of God like Nicodemus was. Again, I remember King David.

He fasted when he had great spiritual needs. Oh, Hannah, I just can feel her heart as she is broken because she had great physical needs and spiritual needs. Ezra and Nehemiah fasted when they had great spiritual needs. I think about one. Think about the King of Nineveh. He issued a decree that man nor beast shall eat when Jonah preached God's judgment. And what did they do? They relented, they repented and God withheld his judgment on those people.

Now I'm going to add to this folks, you who have young people who are not converted, not only do you need to be praying and fasting for them, you need to have them here every time these doors open. What do we do? We faithfully proclaim God's word. We teach God's word on Wednesday night. We teach God's word on Sunday morning. We teach God's word at special events. Listen folks, every time the teenagers come to my house, we open up God's word and we need to assemble together. You need to be around God's people and we need to pray and fast that God would birth people into the kingdom of God.

We have no hope for our sons and our daughters and our lost friends who might be next to us unless God does what only God can do. But second, as our church advances in decisions that have to be made, we have a lot more organizing to do that is vital. Many of you know that in many ways, ways in which we did not even anticipate we have been starting over in our move back in the spring, we were starting over and then when the Corona virus here, it just pushed everything back. And you know, we've had some difficulties here. We've had some difficulties here.

Some of you know, some of you don't know, and we've been having to work through those things. God's been purging and God's been working in our midst. But listen, we are responsible to organize the church biblically because listen, we are responsible to take the gospel to our town and around the world. And we evangelize folks out in the world and we bring them into a gospel centered, a biblically healthy church. I love the church at Antioch. You know, the church at Antioch wasn't the big church like the church at Jerusalem. It wasn't open. Antioch was a great sending church. What did they do?

They were praying and fasting and worshiping on the spirit of God did what the spirit of God worked among them and said, you set apart Barnabas and Paul for my work. And what did they do? They prayed and fasted some more and they laid their hands on them and they sent them out and Paul goes out on the first great missionary journey. And when he got back, he went all the way back to Antioch to give a report. That was the sending church. Paul never, ever, ever, ever did his missionary work disconnected from the local church. But what did they do? They prayed and they fasted.

Jesus at the beginning of his earthly ministry, he was a great example as well. He needed to pray and he needed to fast. Why? Because he was embarking on his great earthly ministry. And so what I'm showing you is this, as we advance in the life of the church corporately, we must have times of prayer and fasting. Why? Because we are responsible for doing the work of the church right biblically. I think I told you a little lie that I had too that I was mulling over. Really, the list is three. Third, I believe we must pray and fast during these changing times in our land. Our culture is changing fast. Our country is changing fast.

Government is changing. Our culture and our government is becoming increasingly anti-Christian. And listen folks, it's going to get dangerous. It's going to get different. It's going to be tough. I'm afraid of what's coming around the corner and I'm not trying to be a prophet, no. And I'm not trying to be a pastor of gloom and doom, but as things change, we need God's guidance. You do know that those who have seemingly been elected have stated all along that they plan to shut things down more. You do know that they have publicly stated that they plan to form laws against us as Christians.

I was talking to my brother-in-law this week, talking about church things. Context was government, things changing. And he said, "What are you going to do as a church and as a pastor if we have another government shutdown?" Now, you know I've taught you faithfully. We are to obey the laws of the land. But there comes a time when laws contradict God's word. You know what we do? We contradict laws by men and obey God's word. God is essential. The church is essential. You are essential. The body is essential. Teaching the word is essential. Small groups is essential. Teaching the Bible to teenagers on Wednesday nights is essential.

Everything is essential when we're talking about the work of the church and we must be sober and we must pray and fast and have wisdom to know how to proceed during these times. Listen, folks, these are times of opportunity, not times of defeat. We don't just ball up in the fetal position and say, "Oh God, what are we going to do?" No. So what are we seeing this morning? Genuine fasting. Genuine fasting connected with genuine prayer and it's all a part of the true Christian life. Now as I close, I want you to take a few steps back and look at these verses, verses 1 to 18. Look at verse 1.

Jesus starts off by saying this, "Beware, beware, watch out. Watch out of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." And what is he saying? Do not be a hypocrite in your giving, in your praying, and in your fasting. And it's all about, listen, making God the sinner of our external religion, of all of our Christianity. It's all about being God-centered first and that is the only way he'll get glory. Otherwise you'll be a people pleaser. Otherwise you'll prostitute the things of God. Otherwise you'll have no victory and God will not use you.

I said this one time before, even hypocrites don't like hypocrites. God doesn't either. So what are we looking at? Genuine fasting. Let's pray. Let's commit what we've studied to the Lord and let's ask God to help us to be these genuine people that he wants us to be. And I do believe that that will enable us to not just bring glory in our own personal lives, but in the work of the church. So let's pray.