- [Instructor] Welcome to a Grace Digital Production.
What are the benefits of a fast?
The order of things?
I would like to show you some key aspects of life
that we tend to get out of hand.
First, we often miss the significance of Paul's words.
"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely
and may your whole spirit, soul and body
be preserved blameless
at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ."
First Thessalonians five 23.
See that?
God's priority is your spirit first, your soul second,
and your body third.
We get it completely backwards.
Always focusing first on our body and then on our spirit.
We worry about things like, what am I going to wear?
What am I going to eat?
Where do I need Botox?
Jesus told us not to worry about such things
saying, "Is not life more than food
and the body more than clothing?" Matthew 6:25.
According to God's principle of first,
what is put first will sort out the rest.
If you put your spirit first,
you are serving the things of the Holy spirit,
rather than the desires of the flesh.
As a result, your mind, will, emotions
as well as your physical body and the health
will fall in line according to the Spirit's lead.
"For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,
but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live," Romans 8:13.
Forgiveness, another area that too often gets out of hand
is reconciliation and public devotion.
Notice what is to be first, according to Jesus Christ.
If you bring your gift to the altar,
and there remember that your brother
has something against you,
leave your gift there before the altar
and go your way.
First to be reconciled to your brother,
and then come and offer your gift," Matthew 5:23.
First be reconciled.
God desires our public and corporate worship.
However, these public acts of worship
do not resolve our private acts of dispute,
dispute and irreconcilability.
What you put first will order the rest.
Once upon a time, there was a story about a local
who moved back to Georgia to buy the old farmstead
where she grew up.
Her mother and father had passed away
and the land had to be claimed.
One of the first things she had to do
was hire someone to clean up the well her father had dug
many years earlier.
Over the years, a lot of material had accumulated
in the well, rendering the water worthless.
The crew got a good sized pile out
and showed the woman so they could get paid for the job.
But she said, "Nope, there's more to it.
Please keep digging."
This went on for about three days.
Finally, at the end of the third day,
the woman looked at the last pile of garbage,
toys and other items that had found their home
at the bottom of the well and she said, "You're done."
Taken aback, one of the men asked how she knew.
She answered, "Because when I was a little girl
and Papa first dug that well,
I took a teapot and threw it in the well.
I figured that the first thing that fell into this well
would be the last thing that came out."
Fasting allows the Holy spirit to come in
and just like these well tombs
He can start digging things out of your mind.
You will have a hard time accepting the grace
and forgiveness of the Lord
if you have not descended to this teapot in your own heart.
You have to get out that first offense
you start up years ago,
and sometimes you will have to dig for a long time.
But when you go down to this teapot,
the river of living water can gush out of you
and refresh others.
This is the priority of God, dirty cups.
What else does the Lord expect us to keep first?
In the words of Jesus, "Woe unto you Scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter,
but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Thou blind Pharisee,
cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter
that the outside of them may be clean also,"
Matthew 23:25 through 26.
Jesus taught the people to obey God's law
taught by the Pharisees
but he instructed the crowd not to do as the Pharisees did.
They had gone overboard into legalism
and in their extremes had turned things around.
For example, they cleaned a nice cup outside
but inside it was still full of debris
that they had not cleared out.
Whether you are talking about your life or your cup,
clean the inside first,
because that makes everything else much more presentable.
Fasting will lead to the deposit being removed
by cleaning the inside, which will then clean the outside.
Something in your eye?
Another first is found in Matthew chapter seven.
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.
And with what measure ye mete,
it shall be measured to you again.
And why beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye.
Or how wilt thou to say thy brother,
let me pull out the mote of thine eye
and behold a beam is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye
and then thou shalt see clearly
to cast out the mote of thy brother's eye,"
Matthew seven verses one through five.
Before one is willing to perceive the wrong thing
in another's life,
one must first make a small self-examination
of one's own life.
You're worried about a tiny splinter in their eye,
when you have a phone pole in your own.
Hypocrisy is condemning someone else
when something worse is going on inside you.
Our attitude and way of life
should be as Paul at the church in Galatians.
"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault,
ye which are spiritual, restore such a one
in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted.
Bear ye one another's burdens
and so fulfill the law of Christ.
For if a man think himself to be something,
when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself."
Galatians six one through three.
The word restore is taken from a Greek medical term
and means reset,
as if you were putting a dislocated shoulder.
Sometimes we need to remember
that someone may be out of joint,
but they are not out of the body of Christ.
When saints get unhinged, they need delicate hands.
You need trained hands to reset and restore them.
Kingdom first, we have discussed this briefly
but this is another area
where Christians tend to get out of hand.
Jesus said, "Therefore take no thought,
saying what shall we eat?
Or what shall we drink?
Or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.
For your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need
of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you."
Matthew six 31 through 33, NIV.
Again, fasting helps you to distinguish
between what you want and what you really need.
If you decide not to worry about these things
and seek him first, you are demonstrating the kind of faith
that pleases God, because you trust
that he will also give you all the things you need.
If poverty has killed thousands,
prosperity has killed tens of thousands.
We all need to heed the warning of Jesus.
"Take heed to yourselves,
lest at anytime your hearts be overcharged
with surfeiting, overindulgence and drunkenness,
and cares this life." Luke 21:34, King James version.
First love, what would be your answer if the Lord asked you,
"Do you remember the last time you were lovesick for me?"
Ponder that question.
Do you remember the last time you were lovesick for God?
So I ask you, "Do you remember the last time
you walked away from a meal because you were so preoccupied
with your first love that the food was of no interest?"
Just like a first date with a lady of your dreams,
have you experienced the seasons
when it felt like the bridegroom was distant?
You just don't feel as presence as much as you used to.
You have no heart for worship and you lack the excitement
and childlike enthusiasm you once had for spiritual things.
Perhaps it is time to end the hustle
and bustle of everyday life and declare a fast,
a season of love sickness.
In order to bring the passion of the first love
back to the right place in your life,
when one fasts, everything slows down.
The days seem longer, the nights seem longer.
But then the stillness of the search you will find him
whom your heart desires.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, even though I do not understand
what you are doing in my life,
I praise you for your faithfulness and power.
If I am disappointed, I will remember your unwavering love.
Help me to trust that you will order my steps
according to your ideal plan for my life.
You are my faithful shepherd.
Give me the grace I need to trust in your direction.
Thank you for the doors you open
and for the doors you close.
Console and strengthened my heart today.
When discouragement and doubt come, help me to believe
that you have good plans to bring blessings into my life.
Allow me to take heart,
while I wait for you to answer my prayers.
Lord, take me by the hand and lead me down the path
that you have chosen for me.
Show me when it's time to wait
and when I have to move on.
Thank you for your faithful and unwavering love.
I will rest on that today.
In Jesus's name. Amen.