5-31-09 Hungry Series – Go Fast and Live

 Big Idea: Fasting make us weak physically, but strong spiritually. We have two voids within us; our stomach and our soul. We keep trying to fill our stomachs with food (even when we are not hungry), when the real need and real hunger is our soul that is craving to be filled.

 

Right after I received my drivers license, four seniors at my high school were drag racing with another car when they missed a curve and hit a huge old oak tree doing more than a hundred miles an hour.

 

The car was displayed outside a scrap metal business for all to see for several weeks. My friends and I stopped and looked at the twisted pile of metal that no longer looked like anything resembling a car. To our horror, we saw blood, pieces of skin, and hair throughout the car. It was an image that has been burned into my mind ever since.

 

That week signs appeared in the hallways of our school. They said something like “Speed is killing us. Slow down and live.”

 

I am much indebted to Mark Buchanan and his book “Your God is to Safe” for this message. In his book, one chapter is entitled the same as this message, “Go Fast and Live”. It’s a play on words. He says, “Consumption is killing us, Go fast and live.” He’s no longer talking about the speed of a car, but rather the biblical practice of fasting.

 

Now, I have to tell you that fasting has never been anything that really interested me. I mean why would it? If you’ve ever fasting, you’ll know that it’s uncomfortable. Anybody here ever tried to stop an addiction? Smokes, drugs, caffeine?

 

I would suggest that food is the number one thing that we, as Americans, are addicted to. When we fast, we are withdrawing from something that our body craves, and with it comes an addiction headache and a craving. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like that feeling. It’s not very comfortable, so why do it?

 

That’s been my question for some time now. I’ve Googled fasting – nothing! I’ve looked in the many Biblical dictionaries and theological handbooks that I own, but none of them ever gave me much to satisfy my questioning and certainly not enough to make me go through the withdrawal headaches that I typically experience. I talked to my good friend, Rob Link who fasts a lot and who hears from God much more when he fasts, than any other time in his life, but nothing that he said rationally added up to enough for me to go through the uncomfortable side affects of fasting. The stories that Rob told about what happened when he fasted convicted me, but the reason why we are supposed to fast evaded me, so . . . I asked the only person that I knew that knew, God. I prayed and prayed for God to reveal a rational reason to fast, and he did.

 

A few weeks later, Stacy Handley, our children’s director gave me this book by Mark Buchanan called “Your God is Too Safe” and she said, you have to read this book. It’s a great book. Now you have to know that many people give me books that are great, and I have a large backlog of “Great books”, so the book sat on my shelf for a couple of weeks.

 

Then one day, Roy Groves, a great “Wise Guy” in our congregation said, I just read a great chapter this week on fasting – you have to read it. I was intrigued. I said, what’s the name of the book, You can only guess what he said – “Your God is Too Safe”. I read the chapter on fasting the next day. The day after that, I read it again. This past week I read it for the fourth time. Fasting finally makes sense to me. I can assure you, that it has changed my life. I could say that I am sharing a part of Mark’s book, but I can assure you that what started out to be Mark’s teaching is now mine. What he has given me, I now own. It is a part of who I am. So let’s wade in..

 

You can’t read the Bible very far in any direction without realizing that fasting was simply a part of the natural rhythms of life for the people of God. They expected and planned to fast as naturally as they expected and planned to eat. To them, fasting was woven into the rhythm of life, like day and night, summer and winter, sowing and reaping, waking and sleeping.

 

Fasting is never explained in the Bible and the reason that fasting was never explained is because everybody knew why they fasted. There was no reason to explain it, because everyone knew. When Jesus was teaching about fasting, he said, “When you fast . . .” He didn’t say “If you fast”. He expected people to be fasting. It was a given. It was a no-brainer. Everybody did it. So the question is, why? What did they know that we don’t?

 

Jesus began his ministry with a long 40 day fast. Jesus spent 40 days without food. Do you think that was easy? Do you think he did that to be comfortable? Do you think he did that for a vacation? Probably not. The author of the Gospel of Mark, said that the Spirit of God drove Jesus into the wilderness. My question is, “Was this for punishment or for training?”

 

I don’t know about you, but I’ve put my body through a lot of very uncomfortable things in my life to get stronger. When I played football and other sports, I, and many of you, pushed our bodies to unbelievable limits to get in better physical condition to win.

 

Jesus was fasting for 40 days when the Devil came to Jesus. I always thought that Devil came to Jesus at his weakest moment, when he was gaunt, hollow, and weak as a willow – at a time when he would have ravaged any food, and devoured any crumbs. I always thought that even pork would have looked good to Jesus at that time.

 

The devils first temptation was to offer Jesus food. He said, “Turn these stones into bread. I always have seen this as attaching Jesus at his lowest most vulnerable point – tempting him with the very thing that he craved most. But I’m not so sure anymore.

 

I now believe that Jesus was in training for 40 days, so that he could withstand the Devils deceit. Like football practice weakens you in the short term, but in the long term you actually get stronger. When I started the season in two-a-day practices, almost anybody could have pushed this 150lb string bean over. Because I trained with passion and diligence, by the time the season began, I started at center – center of the line, going against the biggest guy on the defense who usually outweighed me by 50 – 100 lbs. Why, because I trained hard.

 

I’m convinced that Jesus was not his weakest when he went against Satan, but his strongest, because he had trained hard for 40 days. He was a fighter who entered the ring in tip top condition and when he entered the ring, his opponent didn’t stand a chance. Why do I think that? It’s because of how Jesus answers Satan.

 

Jesus replies swiftly to Satan! He responds almost without thinking, saying,

 

Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Matthew 4:4

 

First of all, you have to know that Jesus is quoting an Old Testament verse. We talked about that last week. We’ll talk about that again in a moment. Now, here’s what Jesus is saying. He’s saying that you and I believe that bread – food is the necessary to live – right? If you’ve been fasting for 40 days, you’ve just about expired. You’re very week . . . Physically. But what fasting does is it makes us strong spiritually.

 

Now, the spiritual reality is difficult to understand when we have full bellies. Let’s look at this reality in another story.

 

The Serpent came to Adam and Eve in the Garden and they were surrounded by an abundance of delicious food that God had freely given to them. Adam and Eve’s bellies were full when the Serpent temped them with food, saying, “Here’s something you’ve never tried. Want some? And they said, “Yes, we would”. It’s the person with their belly full who is most likely to forget where our blessings come from.

 

Jesus’ was in the wilderness, where nothing grows, where there is no food, with his belly empty – see the contrast, and he flicks Satan away like a fly, but Adam and Eve who are surrounded by food with their mouths full, look at the food and when they saw that it was good food and pleasing to the eye, they each took some.

 

Jesus while he was fasting, he warred with Satan and won, Adam and Eve were not fasting and they lost the war.

 

Consumption is killing us, Go Fast and live.

 

Jesus retort to the Devil – Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of our Lord – is a good place to start. What word comes from the mouth of the Lord? This is where Jesus quoted this verse. Let’s see what he’s getting at.
(God says) Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8:1-3 (NIV)

 

God took a million people into a desert – a place where there is no food. Why? Because he wants them to die there? No. Because he wants them to be uncomfortable? Probably not his primary thoughts. Is it because he wants them to have headaches and get weak. No. Then why? It’s right in the verse. God led them into a place with no food. Why? He says this:

 

to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart,

 

What does God care about what’s in our hearts? Because life is about Love. Jesus when asked what the greatest command is responded that the greatest command is to:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)

Fasting is an exercise that makes us weak in our selves, so that he can be strong. I don’t know about you, but I have this tendency to play god. I have a tendency to love me most of all. I have this tendency to think the world revolves around me, but fasting makes us weak in ourselves and more aware of our dependency upon God. Fasting is born out of an appetite for more of God’s presence in my life.

 

What are you hungry for?  What are you craving? What do you have an appetite for?

Go fast and live.

 

I want to share a definition of fasting with you. Fasting is a Spirit driven hunger, whose purpose is to:

 

1. Humble us

2. Test us

3. Teach us, how to love God and how to love other people.

 

Fasting humbles us, because it quickly shows us our limits and our fragileness. Fasting shows us our utter dependence ultimately on God, but also on one another. If farmers don’t grow crops, if mills don’t grind grain, if truckers don’t bring it close to hand, if bakers don’t make it into bread, if stores don’t stock it fresh and sell it cheap, then I don’t eat.

 

Unless God, in his mercy, provides manna for this day, we are in trouble. Look at us, we start coming apart after only twelve hours of not eating. We get depressed, cranky, sharp, and weary. After 12 hours, our heads hurt, our minds aren’t clear, and our bodies complain. Hunger humbles us.

 

That’s why Jesus rebukes the Pharisees’ manner of fasting. He said,

 

When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Matthew 6:16

 

In other words, the very thing that God intended to humble us, they were using it for reasons of pride and selfishness.

 

Fasting is meant to humble us, to make us understand how small and frail and needy we are. It should increase our sense of dependency upon God and one another. It should never be used to as a way of saying “look at me, aren’t I great?” It should always be a demonstration of weakness.

So it’s good that we feel hungry, weak, and weary when we fast. Jesus says,

 

Do not work for food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world . . . I am the bread of life. John 6:32-33-35

 

Jesus is saying that we have two voids or holes in our bodies. The first one is our stomach. When we get hungry, we are very much aware of this void. When our physical bodies are filled with bread – with food, this is necessary to allow us to live. We have to eat or we will die. This is true.

 

Fasting makes us aware of the second void inside of us. There is another space within us called our soul that needs to be filled with God or else we die internally. We die because we are not filled with love, joy, and peace of God, which are the very fruits of heaven.

 

Jesus is saying, apart from me you will starve to death, maybe not physically, but certainly emotionally and spiritual your soul will dry up like a prune and die. Apart from me, Jesus says, the inside of you will be empty. Apart from me, you will always be hungry for something, but it will not satisfy you. You can eat and be full and it will not be enough. Jesus says to you, I am the bread of life

 

Go fast . . . and live.

 

My friends died that dark night because they had too much speed when they rounded that corner. My friends didn’t know when to stop. Consumption is killing us, because we don’t know when to stop eating. Eating without fasting is killing us because without fasting, we don’t understand our deep craving and hunger for God. We don’t understand the emptiness of our soul. We get our hunger for God confused with our hunger for food, so we just eat more.

 

Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” I am all that you hunger for.

 

Communion

 

Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26:26-28 (NIV)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life link:

 

As a way of helping our groups not lose the vision, I suggest that you take a few moments to talk about why we gather.

 

Why do we come to life group? What’s the purpose behind it? Why is life group important for you as a leader?

 

As a leader here are some things to consider:

 

1 Corinthians 12 Explain what it means to be a part of the body of Christ – Why is the head of Christ so important? What does it mean in this context to “follow me”

 

Matthew 18:20 (NRSV) For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. Why is God more present with multiple people instead of with one?

 

 

 

• Do you see God working in your life right now? If so, where do you see him working?

 

• The question – was there anything that struck you from the message, anything that you disagreed with, or anything that confused you?

 

• Have you ever fasted? If no, why not? If yes, what was your experience?

 

• Have you ever clearly understood why we are called to fast?

 

• Why does God call you to fast?

 

• When you fast, you will have headaches, a gnawing stomach, and you will probably be physically weak. Is this good or bad?

 

• To be a Christ follower, Jesus said, “Come follow me”. After Sunday’s message, are you planning on following Jesus in fasting? Why or why not?

 

• Do you have any questions about fasting? (you or the group may not have all the answers, but at least get them to share them and then let’s talk about any questions that your group was unsure about)