Sermons - Matt Chandler - Feasting while Fasting

hi pastor Matt here thank you so much for either streaming or downloading this sermon I pray that every week you're challenged by the Word of God you're built up in his love the Word of God kind of gets in you and rearranges things and draws your affections of to the person and work of Jesus Christ I want to remind you as always that although men I'm I'm so glad that that you want to hear what what I've got to say this week or we've got to say this week that this is never meant to substitute God's good plan for you to be in a community of faith where the Word of God has preached and proclaimed and so I want to encourage you to use this like a vitamin not like a meal so that you belong to a community of faith where you're being shaped by being known by using your gifts by receiving the word but partaking in the sacraments and by walking faithfully in accordance with the scriptures and then this is something men you're listening to while you run or you're watching when you have a few minutes and so just want to make sure we we frame what this is and what it should not be now but with that said one of the things that the village church wants to do is the things that are created here by the grace of God man we want to give those away that's podcasts and podcast that's family discipleship curriculum that's Bible study curriculum like what we've tried to do for over a decade is just whatever we create here we want to give away and so to do that though we rely on the donations and generosity of those who believe in what we're doing and who have benefited from the things that have been created here and so here before you dive into what I'm sure is gonna be a 4550 minute sermon I just wanted to encourage you if you have grown if you have benefited from our resources would you consider being a part of the team that helps this engine continue to produce and create biblical creative and practical discipleship curriculum for men and women of all ages and all stations and so man if you'd pray about that and consider that that would that would be amazing thank you so much enjoy the Word of God proclaimed well good afternoon if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab those we're going to be in math whew Chapter nine just a few verses there and Matthew nine but but let me set it up by reminding you on September 1st I preached the first sermon in this series where we've we've really talked about the concept or the idea of witness right that you cannot do life for Jesus without doing life with Jesus and that by and large most of us have learned and have grown up looking at Christianity through the lens of what we're supposed to do and not supposed to do and that's not witness that that's actually Faunus but but you can't live life for him without doing life with him and so that the great invitation from the Creator God of the universe is not you obey these things but be in a relationship with me and that the way we work towards really being transformed is not be a kind of external disciplined white-knuckled um but by actually living life with Jesus but living life with Jesus is a bit more of a confusing concept than just doing life for in fact many of people would just say just tell me what to do tell me what not to do and I know how to do that I've grown up trying to do that and yet the invitation to you and to me is for something greater to do life with him to be in relationship with Jesus to do this thing that our souls were created to do which was be in the presence of God now no I'm contended for over a decade I don't feel like I've seen anything experiencing anything read anything in the scriptures that make me back off of it but but I think the most significant by the way we were talking about these practices and how these practices that we've been covering actually help us walk in our relationship that God has made available to us in the person and work of Jesus and so I want to continue to contend that the most significant transformation that's gonna occur in your life is gonna occur over a long period of time through just leaning into faithful ordinary acts or behaviors and so what I mean is that God is going to radically shape you through a lot of boring ordinary means of grace that you should love to give yourself over to because you trust that that's what God is doing so that the Christian life is I'm gonna practice this and God is going to shape me in this while simultaneously asking and wanting and expecting breakthrough but I get real nervous when people try to pick one of those but if you're around breakthrough people you tracking with me breakthrough people like everything's a breakthrough and you're always wanting to breakthrough know and and not that that's a bad thing unless wanting that breakthrough means I don't need to study God's Word I don't need to memorize it I don't need to be serious about God's Word I just want the Holy Spirit to break through that's wrong in the same way that somebody's like I don't need to pray for that just whatever suffering comes whatever difficulty comes my way it's all whatever God wants right that's not biblical right and so the place that we need to stand is that I'm affirming and passionate about the Word of God and growing in my knowledge Lord and memorizing that and understanding correct doctrine and then praying for God to breakthrough and that's the kind of church we're trying to build because that's what biblical Christianity is there aren't word people and spear people that's impossible the Spirit does the work of illumination you can't even understand the word without the Holy Spirit and if you're filled with the Holy Spirit you gonna be driven towards the word because that's where you see most clearly the beauty of Jesus is a false ridiculous dichotomy no no no we're full of the Holy Spirit clinging to his revealed will and word and being formed through ordinary means of grace and the occasional breakthrough right so so that that that's what so let me maybe give a real-life example in my Bible reading plan this past week I was in everybody's favorite book leviticus and so on Wednesday here's what I read Wednesday morning 5:30 a.m. I'm up I've got my my iPad my little Apple pencil and and I've got my text open I'm like okay Lord speak to me and and move shape me with your word I know you're present to do this and so show me wonderful things from your word and then I read do not sacrifice to demon goats in the wilderness and do not have relations with any of your relatives now I don't like to brag on myself all right I don't ever want to go look how godly I am but I will tell you I nailed that and I even I was in Argyll and I had the abbe there was a there was a Black Goat in Argyll outside this mean I walk down there he wore like very what the demon go to bar guile he was right there I could have easily sacrificed to him and yet wasn't there was no compulsion whatsoever to sacrifice to the demon goat of Argyll or I've been around a lot of family this week no compulsions right I mean just free from that so I mean I can just tell you like Paul does later in the New Testament according to the law faultless at least those two chapters of Leviticus right so that's Wednesday so I'm just being on like there's no profound download from the Holy Spirit no tears no I really sense the presence of God and it's not that those texts don't have a legitimate meaning for me in 2019 right the Holy Spirit gave that to the Church of Jesus Christ for a reason we should be curious about what's going on they're not just like well that's weird no it's in there for a reason we need to seek to understand it both of those and then on Thursday morning then I get up I'm in Leviticus 19 and I'm just reading and it's more of the same psyche okay I won't be gosh I never thought of doing that and then then all of a sudden there's this four verse set that says when you harvest your field do not harvest to the edges and do not after the harvest go back over and pick up other grain but you will leave it for the poor you will lead it for the needy and you will leave it for those that do not have and I was just struck by the generosity of God one in provision for the wealthy farmer and in provision for the one that has nothing and then I'm same place same places demon goat and don't have relations with your relatives same see same place same thing I'm doing every morning at the same time and the Spirit of God just I mean I just teared up and began to just thank God for his kindness for his provision those moments in my life where it looked like it wasn't gonna happen and God made away and and there's how much God cares and sees and loves that he wasn't giving affection just to those who were at the time that Leviticus would've been reading it elites but to the marginalized and the poor in the outcast he's I'm gonna provide for them and you got this picture of the gospel in Leviticus and so not every morning is this teary God it's so great and amazing in fact what I'll tell you is that all of a sudden you'll wake up a decade from now and you'll be in the deep end of the pool and you're not even be sure how you got there right and I see a lot of heads nodding right now because the way it works is all of a sudden you'll start to counsel somebody and all you're like oh my gosh I'm full of the Word of God when did I learn that where did that come from it what I didn't even know I knew Leviticus 19 and it was just because you had faithfully read the Word of God studied the Word of God I mean I hear it all the time right now around the book of Acts because in men's and women's by was like we're studying the book of Acts and Allisyn these all these women and men they've got this insight into the book of Acts and they're able to share and encourage others with the book I mean you're you're moving to the deep end of the pool and i'm guessing that last tuesday when you went to women's Bible study when this boomed Firework Holy Ghost bonanza it was just men that is good and that is true and that is right and so it's important for us to note that men spiritual formation isn't an always highly emotive and a lot of fun sometimes it's just faithfully trusting that God is at work in the everyday ordinary of life and you'll just wake up and you go oh my gosh I'm so much farther on you'll find yourself in a valley that would have killed you five years before you'll find yourself in a conflict that would've cost you all your relationships a decade before but he has strengthened you he has created fortitude he has strengthened I have a friend that says strengthened your spiritual walls so you could hold more right and so now with that in view I want to talk about fasting now let me let me read John Calvin on fasting listen look right at me you know John Calvin loves you I'm gonna be afraid of Calvin he loves Christ in you he treasures Christ and you don't need to get anxious about John he cares for you and here's what he said in his Institute about fasting let us say something about fasting because many for want of knowing its usefulness undervalue its necessity and some rejected as almost superfluous while on the other hand where the use of it is not well understood it easily degenerates into superstition and so Calvin not from the Old Testament but from the Reformation is saying that spirit in dwelt believers will make one of two errors when it comes to the discipline or practice of fasting they will say we've got the spirit we've got the Word of God who needs to fast or they will say let's fast because we can control God and our boy John a saint no teach something about fasting because both of those are wrong both of those are wrong so that's my Calvin quote how about we get to my Jesus quote right in that the one that matters great glad you're with me mark or Matthew chapter 9 and it's you you'll learn this in if you ever do our Christian story class Calvin is just quoting a lot of Augustan who who have to be quoting a lot of Paul who happens to be quoting a lot of Jesus all right so all those guys are your friends Matthew 9 I'm gonna pick it up in verse 14 then the disciples of John came to him saying why do we and the Pharisees fast but your disciples do not fast and Jesus said to them can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast but no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patched tears away from the garment and a worst air is made neither is new wine put into old wineskins if it is the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed but new wine is put into fresh wine skins so that both are preserved now when we're talking about fasting we're talking about abstaining from food for a spiritual reason Christians do not corner the market on fasting in fact all both monotheistic and polytheistic religions utilized fasting at BIA spiritual formation Christians just approach it a little bit different I'm gonna get into that here in a moment but the scene here now is that John's disciples right John the Baptist not of denomination but the Baptizer right he he's come and his disciples are fasting and then the Pharisees by the way these two groups are not friends and then the Pharisees their disciples are fasting but here's Jesus and his crew and they're eating and drinking and being merry in fact it's they are accused often of being gluttons and drunkards and sinners right so they they they like to they like to feast you could say in 2008 they like to party Jesus and His disciples and it's really confusing to disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees and so they're like hey we're fasting you're not fasting what's going on and Jesus answers them and he answers them with this really beautiful imagery of it he's making these he's making these claims about himself that if you had ears to hear would be really troublesome so in the Old Testament one of the most frequent illustrations used between God and His people as that his people were his bride and and he was their husband in fact often in the Old Testament when they worship other gods when they're guilty of idolatry the Bible calls it adultery right that you have cheated you have strayed you have left me and so when Jesus says the bridegroom is here he's saying something they're right he's saying that God has come in the flesh the Son of Man is here God is here and you would never ever fast when it's time to feast now they'll fast but they're not fasting now cuz I'm here Jesus says my presence is a wedding feast now let me let's have a talk maybe we can have this talk maybe we can I'll just bare the way to the emails my experience in white weddings not white dress weddings white people weddings all right he is that you do the ceremony the ceremony at tops is an hour right you go longer than that there's some proper ID you'd be like we have 42 songs and it's like okay so white weddings are man that I mean you're an hour tops usually about 25-30 minutes and then you have a reception and that receptions maybe a couple hours maybe less than that and then people go and and then the people head off to their honeymoon well well a wedding in this period of time was days maybe weeks and it was an all-out Wow kind of event eat this kind of wedding feast makes Thanksgiving Day and our culture look like a poultry celebration like there's not enough food or drink here right so when Jesus is saying hey when the bridegroom's here and the feast is going no one fasts right like nobody fasts at the apex of celebration you feast and I'm here so why would they fast and then he goes on to say he used these two texts and that and I'll just these two texts about the patch and the wineskins I call them bully texts because people will use them to bully other Christians here's what I mean by that the the sheer volume of proof texting on this new wine old wine skin it's through the roof it has been used in all of my twenty something years of following Christ anytime a group in the church wanted to change something about the church they would say that what they were wanting to do is new wine and what was being done before them was old wineskins Amen I mean this is a bully text right the way I want to do music the way I want to do Christian ed the way I want to do discipleship that's new wine and your old Sunday school model that is your old organ and piano and choir that is old wineskins and if you try to put this in this little burst it's a bully text and it's out of context and it's ridiculous this text like all other text finds itself in a context so that it means something are you with me on this right this text means something and you don't pull it out and go we shouldn't have choirs that's crazy but Jesus is saying something profound here so what he's saying is that because the bridegroom is he when the bridegroom is not here we will fast but we won't fast like we used to so he's talking about the heart involved so so let's talk about that in the Old Testament here's why you fast you would fast for consecration right it's interesting to note that that all the fasting in the Old Testament it's it's narrow title it's in a narrative it's not in a command right and and so you would fast to consecrate yourself right remember Joshua about to head through over into the Promise Alliance what consecrate yourself for tomorrow we're gonna cross the river so it would use used for consecration it was used for grief or for sorrow it was used in order for God to intervene in fact if you've got kids over in LV today they're learning about Esther and the people have got fasting and asking God to intervene and then you've got fasting as repentance or the seeking of forgiveness and so here's what's Jesus is saying with this old wineskin and new wine he's saying we don't fast like that anymore why because I've come because I'm here so let me let's chat this is Gospel II conversations I love them right you don't need to physically do something to consecrate yourself before God to make yourself holy before God why because Christ has come Jesus consecrates you you don't consecrate you and that's why if you try to save yourself with behavioral modifications the whole thing's gonna bust because Jesus consecrates you you don't consecrate you right if you try to too fast so that God might intervene that's gonna make the skin burst because God has intervened he has delivered you from sin and death the greatest deliverance you'll ever need has been accomplished for you in the person and work of Jesus Christ you need not fast to repent or to seek forgiveness it has been given to you in the person and work of Jesus Christ we don't fast this way that's not how this works we fast we'll grab we fast because we've tasted the kingdom and nothing else will satisfy us my my dad was not a grill master he like let me say it this way I love dad I know you probably listen I love you a meat done well in our house was just burn it until it's nearly jerky that's just I love my daddy we had sauce with our steak please forget about you might have you might look at me completely differently after I said that but you don't like cook it and then you put like ketchup or or a ones sauce on it if you're still doing that god bless you there's a better thing and so on one of my first dates with Lauren we went I mean it was it was like a big date I think we've been dating like three months or something and and so we went to Outback Steakhouse which man I just knew I knew such magic I did not know such magic existed and so we're ordering and like my girls he's yeah so she she ordered the Victoria's fillet and I was just like well okay there goes next month's rent and but she said I'll take the Victoria's fillet rare please I was like I don't think I can be with this woman like I cuz I didn't even know listen I didn't even know what that was like I thought there was just gonna be like a hunk of meat on her plate and like an animal like like a nasty animal she was just gonna eat this raw piece of meat and I'm like I can't watch it I don't care help you I will vomit and and so I was like I was surprised when they actually brought and it was seared on both sides and it didn't scream when she cut into it and and it she's like you want to take a bite of this and I was like no no why and and so over time so we've been together 22 years married 20 over time I have moved off of well and I've landed on medium-rare I can't do it I can't do like if it's cold and purple I'm just out alright like I hear I even heard a couple of amens when I said raw I'm not you're freer than I am I'm just not there but I am medium rare and here's what happens if it's cooked more than that now I I don't like the taste of it like I'll say crazy like you ruined this I won't actually say that design I like servers you ruin this take it away from my side I would just go this there's a better way and when Jesus says we're not gonna fast like we used to he's saying that we fast as those who have tasted and we just know it's better and we know there's no treasure greater than him there there's nothing that tastes as good as the presence of Jesus and so when he's taken away even though we're in dwelt with the Holy Spirit we went along for it and went up but we're not gonna do it to consecrate ourselves because his indwelling Spirit has consecrated that's we're not gonna do it to get forgiveness because his indwelling Spirit means we're forgiven of all our sins past present and future fully freely and forever right we say that a ton II I'm trying to get it in your guts and so I love the way Piper talks about this here's what John Piper says we have tasted the powers of the age to come and our new fasting is not because we are hungry for something we have not tasted but because the new wine of Christ's presence is so real and so satisfying the newness of our fast is this its intensity comes not because we have never tasted the wine of Christ's presence but because we have tasted it so wonderfully by a spirit and can now not be satisfied until the consummation of joy arrives and so we're fasting from a different place we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good now with that said what does fasting accomplish I'm glad you asked that cuz that's where I was headed now I've struggled with how to word this first point so this is the best I can do Christian New Testament fasting provides a shot of power so let's let me talk about this and in in Matthew 17 and in mark 9 you have this really odd moment where the disciples of Jesus are trying to cast out this demon and and there they've actually been pretty successful at casting out demons do you remember when Jesus sends out the 72 and they come back and they're like even the demons obeyed us and Jesus rebuked him you remember the rebuke it was like hey don't rejoice and such things rejoice that I know you and your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life really cool but there's a greater thing than casting out demons so they've got some experience in fact they were pretty successful at it right and yet here they are trying to cast out this demon and he ain't budging and so then jesus walks down he's like what's going on it's like Oh me and and then commands the demon to come out some of you're with me some of your honor commands the demon to come out and the demon leaves doesn't screech oh just leaves which is how it always happens when Jesus is the one driving and then the disciples come up till afterwards like hey you know we've been able to do that what what happened and then Jesus says this this kind which we could do a whole sermon on that huh like what their kinds of demons this kind only comes out through prayer and fasting right so what is that that that's somehow the the pot of this mysterious stuff all sudden the power gets turned up when we fast also and it comes up in so maybe maybe if you're like I mean I need something that's that spooks me a little bit great let's talk about this way when I became a Christian there were three things that were sinful that's it it was just a really simple time in life where I was naive and ignorant and had no idea what Jesus was actually gonna do it was all right don't get drunk or high don't sleep with anyone who's not your wife and don't get in fistfights and I thought if I could do those three things I'm gonna crush this Christian anything because this no one told me no one told me how ruthlessly the Holy Spirit's going all of it and not your behavior you keep thinking on a behavioral wave and I want to get under it into kind of what's actually driving the behavior and so men I loved Jesus I mean I just loved him I had a t-shirt I heart Jesus I was digging the well I had my decorated my room in scriptures and yet my compulsions would catch me here's what I mean by compulsions although I knew that those three things were wrong all of a sudden I'd find myself in those spaces and I don't even know how I got there and then there'd be so much shame afterwards and so much and so let me tell you how I tried to fight let me let me use the the one that is is the least gross so I learned growing up not nobody verbally process but I learned growing up that the best way to solve dispute was for me to punch you in your head and keep punching you until somebody drugged me off of you I'm not proud of that I'm not there there was anger in the deepest part of my being and so that's how I would respond if things went bad if things went south it felt like things were elevating what I knew was physical violence and I knew that if I hit you first I probably was gonna win but that means I needed to hit you first so it's probably four or five times that I thought I probably could have got out of it just by talking but just thought ah maybe not God and then we would just go and tell somebody separate us and so that that was in me and I hated it there were so many times that I mean I'm wearing my I heart Jesus shirt I've got my anger verses memorized and I would be in the situation I'd be quoting you know how Fool behaves this way and then I'm in Christ I'm not and then we would just be at it and I'd be like what in the world happened I mean I'm gonna fight wearing an I heart Jesus t-shirt like who does that like how I mean I'm sharing the gospel with everyone I'm throwing hands before I even knew it and I hated it and it couldn't underlies couldn't go I couldn't get to the bottom what was going on it was impulsive it was fast that's why I call it a compulsion like I didn't even see it coming on it would just happen you want to ever have anything like that in your life like lust works this way anger works that so it's like before you know it you're exploding or you're giving in and you weren't even sure you felt prompted it just overwhelms you and man I just felt stuck and shameful and and so man I had memorized a ton of verses around anger and I was using those verses to kind of help me and then I was like man I I don't know what to do anymore man I have talked with my youth guy I've even gone up to the ED guy at First Baptist tech city I've even tried to get in with a lead guy but you know I'm you know 18 19 is not really interested in a guy like me yet and and and so then through all of that I just when I stumbled on to some passages and I stumbled on to some sermons and I was like I'm gonna I'm gonna fast and so what I do is I took three days and didn't even know what I was doing right and I just pled with the Lord to break this out of me and and here's what's crazy God did not remove my anger he healed my wounds and he redirected it see here's this is gonna sound crazy to you maybe this will help you rethink things aggression is part of how God made me the enemy just twisted it my sin had twisted it my own brokenness had twisted it but God has every intention of keeping me aggressive because that's how he wired me that's what he wants me to be in order to fulfill the mission that he's given to me my destiny involves my aggression but it doesn't involve me sinning and anger and and so what's happened is this like I I felt something break I spent a lot of time crying just a lot of time just ugly snot crying and and then all of a sudden it started to get redirected like I started to when I thought about preaching when I thought about sharing the gospel when I thought about the works of the enemy I could feel Ephesians five and six start to kick up at me right that I have a real enemy and that enemy is not flesh and blood but it's spiritual it's principality I just longed to crush the face of the devil when I felt tempted I'd feel like I wanted to fight and when I compulsion welled up in me I'd feel rage but not towards another human but towards the enemy there was hell-bent on destroying me and then also I was praying with more vigor like a frothy Pentecostal right I found myself just wanting God to bribing the imprecatory psalms the Psalms of David or he's like break the jaw of my enemy he like I started praying those about the devil I like crush his jaw knock the teeth out of his mouth right because that's certainly not talking like you don't punch on me like you know it's biblical break the jaw of my enemy gotta obey the full counsel of God bro sorry here's your tooth right like know it it's that I could feel that aggression pointed in a different direction and it felt more like destiny and there was no shame involved fasting it kind of dials up some our right it also it also is an MRI the number one drug of choice for comfort is not alcohol its food its food you ever heard the phrase you can eat your feelings you can eat your feelings and so here's here's the way it kind of works most of us don't even know this script is running in our head right but but the script is because the scripts always the same with the enemy that's why I hate him yeah you're you're never gonna measure up yeah you're not good enough yeah everybody is kind of disappointed in you yeah that that that's why she's not warmed you that's why he's not warm to you yeah that's why you didn't get that promotion yeah that's why your kid is acting like that you're you're a failure you'll never measure up you'll never and you know what shuts that up for a little bit mint chocolate chip ice cream huh amen you know we'll shut that up it's a good old piece of pizza at 9:00 at night oh yeah you know you just eat your feelings and then it shuts it off for a little bit and so what fasting does is it takes away from us our defenses namely the defenses of comfort right when I feel disoriented discombobulated what I want to do is shut all that off by cramming deliciousness in my face and foods not bad in fact one of my favorite things about great food and great wine is that it reveals just how generous God is like what does food have to taste like anything it's like God's like not only is it gonna sustain you there's a great deal of pleasure to be had in food so I'm not vilifying food I'm saying food hasn't been given to us - emotionally protect us it's been given to us to sustain us and to create joy and gratitude towards the giver of such good gifts and so what can happen and I'm not talking about low blood sugar like that's a real thing I'm talking about where we eat for comfort instead of letting it stir stuff up in us like why are you angry in that moment why are you why are you so agitated in that moment and here's what I would ask you to do if if you end up fasting doing the homework this week and you see this in you here's what I would ask be compassionate to yourself let me remind you of this Christian God never convicts so that you might feel shame he always convicts to lead you into greater life so if as we're talking you're hearing oh my gosh I do this all the time I hate myself oh you're listening to the enemy and not to your savior because the king of glory is like yeah I want to show you this because I've got something better for you so be as generous to yourself as he is to you right he's not revealing anything to you today to shame you or to drive you from him he reveals everything in regards to conviction to wooing you closer in but fasting it's an MRI it will reveal some things in us and then lastly it's an exclamation point on this series let me let me show you this um this is Psalms 42 1 through 2 as a deer pants for flowing streams so pants my soul for you oh god my soul thirst for God for the Living God when shall I come and appear before him and then in Psalm 63 one and two oh god you are my god earnestly I seek you my soul thirsts for you my flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water so I have looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding your power and your glory and you heard will earlier read during worship our call to worship Psalm 27 one thing I ask and all that I seek said I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in his temple this is an angsty I want you and there's more of you to be had and I want it it is a kind of contented discontentment you track it with me it is a contented praise God for the indwelling of the Spirit praise God for this relationship I want it to move deeper and I want to know you more own experience more of your grace I want to walk in greater intimacy with you I want to know your power and these kind of angsty prayers they're not effeminate prayers unless brothers you have killed at close range a lion and a bear and have songs written about you how you've killed thousands you should you should be quiet with that nonsense ferocious masculine men of God pray like this one thing I ask and all that I seek all that I desires to be in your presence and like a deer panting for water my soul pants for you Oh God you oh my god earnestly I seek you the deep things of God have not been given to an elect few they've been given to all the children of God and David here is praying there's more and I want it there's more and I thank you but I want more and just so I can get to the New Testament the Apostle Paul prays like this and the reason I want to throw Paul in there is because Paul to me can get really discouraging like I can read David and I'm like yep right like we've talked about this for nearly 20 years like you're on one page there's like oh you're so near and so beautiful and so great you like like one page like will you forget me forever like weights right it's this and yet that's been so many of our experiences right I know I'm loved by him cherish time he's near to me and they like sure Tuesday like where'd you go why'd you abandon me how long is this gonna last I'm in the desert like wait you were just in the third heaven four o'clock yesterday afternoon ålesund are you and the wilderness but we can read David we know yeah that's been my experience meanwhile a Paul in the third heaven with his super cape flapping in the wind as I was like to live is Christ and to die is gain and no matter what suffering comes it's not were easy to be compared to future glory Glenn so Dave is like where are you God Paul's like he's over here with me and you it's like I like Dave I could read no but but but Paul I am out of control forgive me I pray that you'll take my heart out of here don't do that you don't need that I don't need that Philippians 3:8 3:11 says this indeed I count everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which to that but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith and that I may know him and the power of his resurrection that I might share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection of the Dead and I love I should have put it on here I didn't the very next sentence says not that I have already attained these things and then he he uses just a great preacher trick by saying but one thing I do and then he lists like for he's kind of where I got my style right just got one thing I want to talk about today it's just got four parts right what but one thing I do I press on and then he starts to list out that he's not there yet he know he's not there yet he wants to press in and he knows he's secure he's but discontented alright and I love this whole surpassing worth thing because here's what fasting shows here's what all these practices show and this flies in the face of how we've been branded by our culture look at me the way to abundance is through abstinence look at me the way to abundance is through abstinence so we live in a day and age is all about more and more more abundance abundance abundance and it's not working david says it like this the boundaries have fallen for me in Pleasant places so when we fast what we're doing is we're separating from the Spirit of our age and and we're beginning to join God in his heart which is the way to abundance is through abstinence so there are boundaries around food there are boundaries around sex there boundaries around marriage there's boundaries around all these things but none of those are to take from us all of those are to give to us and so by saying there's something greater than food I'm rebelling against the spirit of our age and I'm believing that Jesus is the greater treasure that Jesus is better than he's more delightful than he's greater than he is more worthy to be pursued he is more satisfying to protec in and so this is that exclamation point why do we pray why do we fast why do we fight for community why do we try to get along with people to get on our nerves why do we humble ourselves why do we try to outdo one another and honor why do we invite others to the table why do we why why why why because Jesus is better he's just better and he's greater and that he should be pursued for that reason so here's our homework for the week I want you to try to if you're physically able I know there are physical things that can keep you from fasting from food but there are other ways to fast right wherever that place is that you find comfort that you can kind of turn off and not have to deal with the internal disruption of you know the internal dissonance whatever you go to maybe that's you binge Netflix maybe that's you go to the Jim and just turn around just over Kriya tune up and and work things out maybe that's how you do whatever it is that you quiet the dissonance in your heart that you find comfort so you don't have to go to the dark places that are in there you're tracking with me well that's what we want to fast from but here's what I would if you're new to all this and you're new to even the idea here's what I would encourage you to find a to Mele block I would recommend a breakfast and a lunch for a couple of reasons one you're not pulling anybody else in you're fast usually if you're doing breakfast and lunch right and so I fast every Thursday breakfast and lunch and I do that because I'm not demanding that now Lauren and the three kids join me so I break my fast on Thursday night and just you know so we can have real talk I have asked Lauren can we have dinner closer to five than seven all right I'll be home about 5:15 it would be awesome if I could walk in to the smell of food but I might devour right but but that so that works for me right I can do breakfast and and lunch and I'd do that on Thursday because Thursday is a lockdown study day for me I have another study day but I'll still have lunch with people I'll still have maybe a meeting or two but Thursday I ain't talking to anybody I am in my office I am in the book I am digging and hexa gene and tying and putting together and wrestling with the Lord and so that's a good day for me to just fast and pray so pick a two meal block you'll have to look at your calendar and figure that out and then you need to plan what you're gonna do when you would normally be eating see Old Testament fasting might be white knuckled I'm just need to fast because it pleases the Lord New Testament fasting is the Lord's pleased with you come on into his presence and so on Thursday at lunch you'll find me right here you'll find me right here on my face contending for my own soul contending for the souls of my children and wife contending for this church pleading for God to work among us in a way that would change everything and then around two o'clock I go get a juice and then I'll break the fast with the family that night and that starts my Sabbath which is on Friday well we'll talk more about how to put all these things together in another couple weeks but but here's the invitation find a to meal block this week set it aside figure out what you're gonna do when you normally be eating and then every time the stomach rumbles that's an invitation to pray and press into the presence it's not gosh five o'clock can get here soon enough it's man I am hungry and irritable I need you will you enter this but I don't want too fast just too fast what I want is you and I want more of you and I know one greater victory in my life or maybe as I was talking about my own wrestle with anger the light came on for you maybe the spirits inviting you into a pleading with him to break off of you and to walk in the Christus Victor that you have been given by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit victory over sin look at me you you can do this again fasting prayer eventually these aren't things given to the elite there is no Christian SEAL Team six look at me look around the room seriously look around the room it's just us we're kind of frumpy and unimpressive no offense I'm talking about myself and yet this is what God wants to use in our day in this place for his glory and for our joy you can do this it's breakfast and lunch and pressing into what Christ has already paid for you it's hopeful it's life-giving over a period of time it changes everything let me pray for his father bless these men and women in the name of Jesus Christ I pray this week that we might starve the flesh and feed the spirit I pray breakfast and lunch whenever those fall or maybe it's lunch and dinner you you know who's in the room and how they're wired that as they pray over the Word of God as they read the word of guys they pray what they got that you would meet him in profound ways I pray that you break free men and women who've struggled things for a long time and they've done everything they know man they memorized verses they've gone and seen a counselor I just pray that you would meet them in these spaces of embracing abstinence as a path to abundance and that you would bring freedom your kind and gracious and good and we bless your name through your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 17,904

Rating: 4.9067359 out of 5

Keywords: Fasting, feast, fast, feasting, matt chandler, the village church, church, jesus, creator, creation, christ, christian, christians, christianity, meditate, glory, god, spirit, return

Id: GCwDqtoaf70

Length: 45min 0sec (2700 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 04 2019