Matthew, 6:16-24
Bradley W. Maston · Aug 26, 2007
Sermon on the Mount, No. 09
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926037225997

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we're moving forward on inward versus outward reality. I'm just going to be honest and say this mic drives me absolutely batty, because I'm too loud anyway, so the extra help I don't need. Yeah, exactly. So I put it all the way down here, and then it's like you're going to hear my indigestion and stuff like that, which doesn't do it all either, really, does it? It's either indigestion or heartbeat. Yeah, exactly. Give a little rhythm to the morning. Fantastic.

Well, anyway, so we're still talking about Matthew. We're in chapter 6. Last week we talked through verses 1 through 15 and we highlighted and kind of hammered on this inward reality that Jesus was constantly harping on this inward, this condition of heart that he wanted to see in his people, that he wanted to see in these people if they were going to enter into the kingdom. So, he kind of started us off last week in 6.1 with this topic verse.

It says, Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your father who is in heaven. So that's his topic. That's his lesson. That's his primary statement. And then like a good teacher, like at least any good teacher I've met, will give you the lesson and then give you some examples of it to show you how that plays out.

And as we talked about last week, he took these three things that were typical and important Jewish signs of devotion. and the three were almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. So last week we obviously discussed almsgiving and giving to the poor and about how the important thing was to not do that before men, not do that for the approval of people, not to do that for your own prestige, not to anything along those lines. We talked about companies today that will give massive amounts of money for tax reasons or so that they can put their banner up on the side of the whatever it is, school or however you put it, and that being not what the Lord had in mind, obviously. Then we talked about prayer and we talked about people using prayer as a tool to make themselves more holy, more Yeah, and a greater standing before men or people. And we even gave a lot of time to what's commonly known as the Lord's Prayer, which definitely was probably the most, I don't know, aroused the most response, I think, in some people I know. So we discussed that and we'll leave that where it is.

So this is an exciting, powerful sermon that undoubtedly kept the people stunned throughout it. I mean, I just think Statement after statement, you think about it, if you've ever read through it, it doesn't take that long to get through it. I mean, you could probably read it through in way less than an hour or half hour. So it maybe didn't even take him that long to fire through it all. And the people were probably just. you know, trying to keep on their feet for how shocking and amazing it was to him. And how challenging it certainly was, especially in the first century setting, as he nails down these problems and different issues. All right, so moving on to Matthew 6, 16 through 18.

It says, whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they're fasting. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your father who is in secret. And your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. So, still moving on with the secret life.

As we get into fasting, fasting is not a thing we hear just a whole ton, a ton about, and I think there may be some reason for that as we walk about in this New Testament time. Well, I guess the fastest way or the best way to go about it would look at fasting in the Old Testament and then we'll look at fasting in the time of Christ and what Christ was specifically addressing and then we'll talk a little bit about fasting today. So, what do we know about fasting in the Old Testament? Does anybody have anything in their memory banks about fasting in the Old Testament?

Not a rhetorical question. It's always associated with prayer, isn't it? Oftentimes. Oftentimes associated with prayer. A lot. In the Old Testament, Christ emphasized it, fasting and prayer, as a couple times as we'll see. And then in Acts, when we see it, fasting and prayer, fasting and prayer. So the two are intimately related. And we'll definitely have to highlight that, because that, I think, nails down a primary importance of fasting, or one of the primary importances. Can anybody remember any? Old Testament instances where somebody fasted? David! David was fasting all over the place. I wonder if he ate anything sometimes. Moses definitely fasted. Moses fasted. Why did Moses fast? Does anybody remember?

If you need a cheat sheet, it's in that last paragraph on page one. Moses fasted for that 40 days, and oh no, it's not. See, and I even misdirected you. Sorry. So Moses fasted for 40 days and nights when he received the law on Mount Sinai. By the way, I read all that in a book. It wasn't sitting in my active memory bank, so don't feel bad if you couldn't remember it. OK.

So in the Old Testament, though, we find only one fast in the Mosaic law, and that's the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement's the only Mosaic, Law defined, hey, don't eat from here to here. All the other fasts were personal and for personal choices. So before we go into some of those Old Testament examples and looking at them, why? What are some of the reasons to fast, besides just the law told me to fast? Why do they fast in the Old Testament?

Winnie? I didn't know you had an Old Testament. I was going to say for cleansing your body. Sure. No, that's absolutely right. It's still medically active and viable today, right? I mean, I think that maybe there'd probably be people on both sides of the fence, but they'll do a medical fast. Even if you're going to go have an operation, something like that, they'll say, hey, fast. Don't eat from, which always seems kind of mean. Like, we're going to cut you open, so starve yourself for a week. That's just sad. It's just really sad. That's right. It would be too bad, wouldn't it?

Okay, so what are some other reasons? Even in our modern context, I mean, I think people fast for completely unrealistic reasons. Health is one of them. Does anybody think of anything else? Extreme emotional situations. I think a lot of times, someone is experiencing trouble with a relationship that's really important to them, or loses someone they love, a lot of times appetite will just go and they'll fast. Just because they don't know how else to cope with their emotion, with their feeling. I think as we look through the Old Testament context, that's a common reason why they fasted too. David, you know, with the son who was in Cuba, Yeah, Carol? Emotions affect digestion extremely.

For sure. So you could be happy and not want to eat. I mean, you do want to eat when you're happy. As you can tell, I'm quite happy. And anger and so on just totally takes your appetite. Absolutely. Oh yeah, I know. The more stressful I get, the more I eat. That's right, that's why we made comfort food. Mashed potatoes and tomato soup. All right, good enough.

Let's move forward to the top of the second page. It's not an exhaustive list, but it's some examples of fasting in the Old Testament. And the reason why I want to bring these out is because this would be the background. This would be what's giving the people who Christ is talking about a lot of their information about what it is to fast and what it means to fast. So this is where a lot of that is coming from in their personal, their religious background. And then we're gonna talk about some things that came as a result of their cultural background or that were going on, wrong things that were going on in the day.

But Moses fasted for 40 days and 40 nights when he received the law in Mount Sinai. So there's an element of fasting and almost receiving revelation, like being used by God in a respect. Judges 20-26 tells us about a voluntary group fast when the Benjamites defeated the other Israelites. People also fasted when Saul and his son were buried, which is an example of that grief fasting, I think.

They may not have even liked it. Who knows? Maybe it was just a loyalty issue. Oh, hello. Maybe it was just a loyalty thing. It's hard to say. Sorry, I'm going to trip over this 10 times if it continues to be there. All right. So we also know that people fast personally. Those were more, you know, group-oriented, congregation-oriented thinking.

David, however, fasted upon hearing that Saul and Jonathan were dead. And David, obviously, such an amazing man that this guy who's been trying to kill him, but he's the Lord's anointed. So he's fantastic. David, what an amazing heart there. So David fasted when Saul and Jonathan were dead.

Nehemiah fasted and prayed upon learning that Jerusalem had remained in ruins since its destruction. Darius fasted all day and night after throwing Daniel in the lion's den, which, fasting all night, I mean, is that really? It got note, but I usually sleep at night and wind up fasting anyway.

Anyway, was the temptation really that great? Somebody bring me a ham sandwich. I'm so worried about this whole thing. Anyway, sorry. So there was a sense of fasting that simply indicated that during extreme emotional duress, an appetite simply wasn't there. Much as many today experience it going through difficult times. All right, so what are some bad religious reasons, bad like religious reasons, if you take my meaning, to fast? To perceive God's power by being holier or something maybe?

Absolutely, to look good before God. Look what I did. Not exactly. And that's exactly what we're talking about today, right? Kind of like hunger strike. That's my favorite image. It's like a little kid holding his breath. Did I get what I want yet? Okay, I'm not stopping.

And that's one of the things we see in a pagan context. Obviously, fasting is not a practice that is unique to Judaism or Christianity. So we kind of tend to see probably, in all likelihood, from the outside coming in, but maybe it's just our way of thinking, our legalistic way of thinking. This line of thinking in the Jewish mindset, or in the mindset of this time, of, by fasting, I'm going to get God to do it. By fasting, I'm going to make God do this for me, or give me that, or solve this problem. And fasting is my way of twisting God's arm, which I think the more appropriate example is that kid holding his breath, and just trying to threaten mom and dad with their own personal health. And that is obviously not not the biblical reason for fasting as we see as we go forward.

However, in a non-Christian, non-Jewish concept, with people who don't have this, who don't worship this god, that actually might make some sense. If you worship a Greek or a pagan god who you're bartering and trading with, to get favor or to get what you want, that might actually make some sense. Okay, well, I denied myself these 10 things and therefore you give me this. That's the way humans think and therefore that's the way man-made religion works.

So, we need to be intensely careful to look out for that. Also, at the same time, as we said, that kind of, hey, look at me, I'm fasting, I'm so holy and righteous. Look at me, God must really like me. is something that's still just as much out there and around today. I mean, high school is obviously the easiest context because it's so kind of everybody's so together and everyone has so much an identity based off everybody else's identity. But I assume it's the same in your workplace.

There's always that One person, or not always, often times that one person who makes themselves, who sets themselves aside by everyone else, not by loving the Lord and being a believer, not by their actions and their service to others, but by their holy. I'm the holy one. I'm the righteous one. I'm this and that.

And people, even in a high school context where there's a lot of maybe rebellion and belligerence towards that, will still almost give a modicum of respect if they don't absolutely reject them and just make fun of them. So I think that's, as much as we're a less religious society today in some senses, I think that's still obviously a threat for us, and even in a church context. All right, so moving forward. So what did the verses say? What did today's verses say? You don't have to look at the Greek to figure out what Jesus had to say about that. What did today's verses say in distinction to some of those worldly views of fasting? Once again, not rhetorical. Exactly. Totally secret. Completely secret.

I mean, I think our human tendency is to want to pull double dividends. You know, everyone else finds out that, you know, well, you all think I'm holy and that's good. But what I'm really counting on is God. But, you know, it feels a little bit good to have someone say, oh, you know, you're really, really great, really holy, whatever this and that. So I think that even Yeah, even someone with half-way decent intentions can want to do it half-way before men.

Last week we talked about Christ saying, give so that your left hand doesn't know what your right hand is doing. Give so much so that your other body part wouldn't have a clue what was going on. And it's the same thing here, that you wouldn't want anyone to know about this because it's a private act of devotion between the believer and God. So that's once again what he's Nailing down. Yeah, once again, there are no double dividends pulled from the duties of devotion.

How's that for alliteration? I was really proud either Either the reward will be from the father or from people There's only one source that has any real value and the rewards that they're the rewards that the Lord has to give The Lord has emphasized the truth that God sees and values most was done in secret and private Okay.

So where do we see fasting today? Where is he fasting today? Obviously, what? At Lent. Yeah, there's a big kind of Catholic high church law point where people... I have a friend that's Catholic and I talked to him about it. The Catholic fast just means you eat less than you normally eat. You don't really fast. Breakfast and lunch combined is supposed to be as big as your biggest meal of the day or something like that. That's what they consider a fast. And that's consistent with a lot of 1st and 2nd century views of fasting.

They'd not eat from the, now I can't remember how the time thing works, it's like from the 6th hour to the 9th hour, maybe when the sun's up. So it wasn't like, we're not going to eat at all, but we're going to eat only at these times. Snacking. No buffets. That's fantastic. So anyway, yeah, that's absolutely right.

There's different views certainly of fasting. So we see fasting in maybe Catholic or the high church or in fact, I don't know, actually I don't know the history of this or how it's been popularized, but most people give up something for Lent. So I'm not going to drink coffee, which is just crazy, for 40 days or whatever the deal is. So there's that. That's definitely one view of fasting. How else do we see fasting?

Where else? Today. Actually, on this line, Ramadan. Yeah, Ramadan. It's a whole month, right? Is it a whole month? A whole month, you don't eat during daylight hours. Oh look we just crossed the date line. So I'm not figuring out a way to get around it. Everybody shut the window shades. I've got to eat something. Just kidding. All right, so that's right. We see it all over other religions. In Muslim, it's a huge Buddhist and Hindu practice. And I think the reason why this universal strain, and we'll get into the cautions.

Let's see. Yeah, before I guess, we won't jump start it. Let's go through it as we talked about. So we'll get back to this. But definitely to note, and it's important to note, that it's not a purely Jewish or Christian practice. And so therefore, we can't probably, we can't assume that the reasons why a Muslim will fast is the same as the reason why perhaps we would fast. Or the reason why someone who's Buddhist would fast would be the same reason why we would fast. And the outcome, the goal that's desired is obviously quite different.

So, I'm gonna keep losing my place, all right. So the only time we see fasting after the Gospels is really in the Book of Acts. And the one exception to this is that I think in the Textus Receptus in some certain copies, First Corinthians, when it's talking about you and your wife can not come together for an agreed time so that you could dedicate yourself to prayer and fasting. I think in some older manuscripts it's just prayer, and I think in others it's prayer and fasting. So you will see that in certain concordances that you read up. Outside of that, not a whole lot of reference to it outside of the Book of Acts.

So, we got these two verses at the top of page three if you want to read along with me. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, The Holy Spirit said to them, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them away. They sent them away. It's Acts 13, 2 and 3. I apologize. I didn't get to update that. So the third verse is on there too.

Then Acts 14, 23 says, When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed." So, what do these passages tell us about fasting? Obviously, these are believers after the cross, they put their faith in Christ, and here they are Part of the ceremony?

Sure. It may have definitely been adopted as part of a, like, before we do this, before we do something important, as far as God's will, we pray and fast and anoint with oil. So definitely there might have been ceremonial aspects involved. What was the purpose? Why were they praying and fasting beyond perhaps the idea of ceremony?

Focus more on the Lord rather than what they want to do or whatever they're supposed to be doing. I think it's focus on the Lord and what he would have them do. I think that's exactly it. Focusing on the Lord and declaring to both self and the rest of the congregation that we're relying on the Lord for guidance and to focus on.

I mean, I would be surprised if in these contexts there wasn't a single great business mind or decent business mind of the day around. Someone who couldn't say, you know, I bet if we send Paul and Barnabas off over here and over here, I mean, they're great at what they do, so that'll start to da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. I mean, I'm sure that on a human level, a strategic thinker might choose to do this or do one thing or the other, and yet they're openly declaring, both to themselves and others, their reliance on the Lord by prayer and fasting. Yes, Carol?

It seems like they're related over and over and over, prayer and blessing. And I think that's because you can't do a good job of prayer if you're eating. Hard to pray with a hot dog in your mouth? Kind of a thing? That's what I think. You need to concentrate on your prayer. I think that's a big part. I think that's a huge part of it, is that it's about concentrating yourself on the Lord and not getting distracted with something that we, as humans, have a tendency to think a lot about. I start thinking about dinner the moment I wake up. I don't know if that was a confession, but in any event, Yes, that's right, because April is a phenomenal cook. Really, you should all come over. How's next Thursday for you?

So anyway, it would seem to me that the two disciplines of prayer and fasting are related to intimacy in our relationship with the Lord constantly. Even Mark 29 and 1721, the Lord and those aren't the only kind of prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting, you see it again and again. and was kind of remiss, honestly, to find fasting on its own. So, fasting seems to be specifically something that is important for its relation to prayer and relation to giving us focus in prayer and dependence and reliance. So, all that being said, and we'll We'll come back to that. What are some cautions that we can safely make about fasting? Just from what we've learned so far, from what the Lord said. What are some cautions that we can make? Do it in secret. Yeah. Did anybody ever watch the show King of Queens?

The guy found out his friend was volunteering with some big brother organization and then he went off to do it himself because he felt like he felt bad for never doing anything good for anyone else. And then his friend said, hey, do you want to go to a movie Saturday? No, I've got something to do.

He said, oh, that's fine. Oh, well, you know, let me tell you, I mean, it's something important. And he just, the guy didn't even want to know, but he had to tell him, I'm volunteering with this older brother, this big brother organization. So I think that's a big thing.

I mean, it's, especially with fasting, you know, everyone's like, hey, want to go out to lunch? No, no, no, I'm fasting. I mean, if you didn't ask, I wouldn't have told you. So I think that that's certainly a challenge to do it in secret. Absolutely. Yeah. Again and again, right? Always. Must. Must be a hard issue. And if you're doing it for the wrong reasons, eat something for crying out loud. Why waste your time and be hungry? OK. So. I think, too, don't milk it. Don't just figure your face. Just show others that you're fasting. So don't, you know, be dramatic about it so that everyone will notice something's wrong with you. You can tell them what's going on. Yeah, I think that's huge. You've got to remember, every time you're fasting, you're going, oh, Lord, it's been eight hours. He's like, I did 40 days.

What do you want? It's not that big a deal. Not pretending that it's more of an issue or more of a personal sacrifice than it is. I think one of the messages that comes across is that when it comes to our relationship with the Lord, we need no marketing department. Fantastic. No advertising. You mean not even those really cool t-shirts? I said that out loud. I'm fasting today t-shirts. Oh my. I didn't tell anybody. I don't know where they got the idea. Fasting, as we talked, never be done before man, never be done for that.

Also, if you look at the 27th paragraph down, we know that our position, our walk, our place in Christ is secure because it's about what Christ did. not about what we do, right? And getting back to that heart check issue, it's not about Oh, Lord, I did these five things today. That makes me holy. And then acting like God's going to hold us up on a higher plane or higher ground or anything like that. No, the reality is that our walk is not about a set of rules, about a list of things that you can do. Oh, you know, having difficulty with your faith? Do these ten things. No, absolutely not. It's about a relationship, right?

The proper use of fasting for the believer is to be used in such a way that we would fall deeper and deeper in love with our Lord and learn to abide and rely more fully on Him. Nothing can improve what Christ has won for us, of course. So once again, I would never... Well, with certain exceptions, I wouldn't speak against fasting. If you're diabetic, Maybe fasting isn't what the Lord has for you today.

But if you feel like your heart's in the right place and it could be beneficial to you, I think there's absolutely no question that that's a wonderful tool that the Lord can use to draw you closer to Him. However, we caution us from ever thinking that it was going to give us brownie points with God or anything like that. Another reason to fast that I saw Well, actually, before we move out of cautions, another caution is that part of the, yeah, obviously the health concerns, but part of the reason why fasting is something of a universal practice is because, I don't know how many of you have fasted before, but what tends to happen when you don't eat is you kind of get lightheaded.

And if you do it for long enough, you can kind of get a euphoric, almost spiritual feeling. And I think that's where people in, you know, Buddhist or more, you know, those oriented faiths tend to take advantage of it because it gives you a spiritual feeling. I feel more spiritual.

In fact, going back to the Gnostic belief of the first century, they believed that, and this is an early attack on the Christian church, they believed that matter, things, were evil. And that what's spiritual is what's good. So therefore, by putting more matter into my matter, I'm just putting bad into the bad. So fasting, well, I mean, they would go two ways about it. One would be, well, it's all evil, so just do whatever you want and glut yourself and it doesn't even matter. And the other side would be, you know, eat only melons or eat only, you know, very little food.

And of course, we know from the word that matter itself is not evil, right? Food is not bad. And yeah, so matter itself is, this chair is not an evil chair. It's just a chair. If I use it to hit somebody else, then it's doing a bad thing. If I sit on it, like you all are, it's doing a good thing, right? So, matter itself is not evil.

I would put forth that if you're fasting for the reason of getting an emotional high or a feeling of being spiritual, that's much the same as what we're talking about here. If you're not fasting purely to cause yourself to rely on the Lord and grow in your relationship with Him, but rather, I mean a great example, Salvador Dali, you know the painter, all the funky paintings, would deprive himself of sleep and would stay up for days at a time and then once it got really hard, he'd hold a spoon over a tin can or a cup or something So that whenever he nodded off, he'd drop the spoon, it would make a noise and wake him up, and he'd do it again. And once he'd slept enough, he'd start to hallucinate, or not slept enough, he'd start to hallucinate and see things change shapes. Not really a spiritual practice, I wouldn't say. But it's what our bodies can do when they're deprived.

I guess because I grew up in a church where they fasted to get something from God. But I always thought, to focus on the Lord, if you're hungry, you're not exactly focusing on the Lord. I mean, if anything, you're setting yourself up to be tempted by the devil to take your focus off the Lord.

And it ends up a work, because it's, oh, I've got to overcome this. We have 24 hours in a day. Why do we have to only focus on the Lord at mealtimes? It just kind of becomes a work to me. I guess because I've always been a Jew, and I never understood the purpose for it. It was always, what can I get from the Lord? Or look at me. I didn't see change in these people's lives from it at all. Oh, exactly.

And in keeping with that, I mean, even Well, even Gandhi said, when he was talking about fasting, obviously in the Hindu context, something quite different, but he said, you know, well, I'll fast with this guy, and he'll just constantly be talking about, well, this is what I'm going to eat when I'm done, this is what I'm going to eat when I'm done, this is, I just can't wait to, you know, get to Thursday, because then I can have ice cream again, or whatever the deal is. And he says, for him, and of course, once again, totally different spiritual context for Gandhi than for us, but for him, the fast did no good. Well, it would be the same for us, wouldn't it?

If I fast and spend the whole day thinking about what I'm going to eat tomorrow morning or when I'm done with the fast, I'm not focusing on the Lord. And I may as well not do it until either I've come to the point where I'm ready to, you know, focus on the Lord in that way or just not do it. We're not under law, right?

Nowhere, and as we'll see, it doesn't hardly come up in the epistles at all. Paul never said, and three times a week, make sure you fast, or once a year, or da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. In fact, the first time you start seeing that, I think, is Tertullian. Start seeing it in some of the church fathers that they instituted fasts, but never, never in here. Never in here. And they were more fast, kind of like what you're talking about, you know, with the, you know, like, we're not going to eat from the third to the sixth hour in daylight or whatever. Still. Would there be a time to expose though, like, Jesus fast, did he not fast for 40 days before the temptations? Is that true? That's absolutely true. Okay, good.

Is it possible that the Lord might, not as a works thing, but as a, For the first 10 days, I'm thinking about what I made on day whenever I quit, but that the Lord might even actually want us to battle through that to get to the place of reliance. But it may be a battle, feeling like works a lot of times, to where I go, I don't just give it up in a day, thinking about tomorrow. And I've never fasted for more than 12 hours. That's about as long as I've ever slept, so. But you know what I'm saying? Is it possible that the Lord might want us to sort of battle through that for whatever, I don't know why, but to get us to the place.

But it doesn't, at least for me, it wouldn't happen quickly. I'd be like Gandhi's boy, by nature. And yet Jesus did it for 40 days. He was all man, all God. He had to be, I'm guessing, hungry, thinking about it. I don't know. We don't read that in scripture. I'm just guessing his humanity. Just wondering out loud. One time I was in a situation where I wasn't given the word for a week, and I couldn't really follow.

The hunger was in the early part. By day three, the hunger was gone. And it was more, I needed the nourishment. So I was getting nourishment by food, too. But really, those first couple of days, I was just starving to death. And I think that I've heard that of people who are starving, and it gets to where they don't even feel hungry anymore.

It's like the mechanism to bigger hunger gets turned off in your brain. Yeah. And that's certainly true. I mean, that's certainly true. And that's the that's why eating disorders are such a huge threat for sure. So because you stop being hungry after a while and just just works out. So certainly.

Does anyone else have anything? So I think we've pretty much nailed the nail fastened to the ground. And what I would offer for us, just as a personal note in my life, food, like we said, matter. Food is not bad or sinful. I mean, I honestly believe that we are so stupid as people that if God didn't make food taste good, we wouldn't eat it. So I think that the Lord chose to bless us with food. However, in my life at least, food I think can be bad, wrong, sinful, or maybe more appropriately, detrimental to my relationship with the Lord.

Because I'll wake up in the morning and start thinking about dinner. Or I'll start having a bad day and start thinking about food as something that's going to comfort me. And it won't even be a totally conscious thing, it'll just be like, I'm just so upset with this day, I really need a cup of coffee, or I really just want to go to McDonald's and get a super ultra-mac, or whatever it is, rather than what my response should be, and relying on the Lord.

Isn't it like Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline talks about fasting as much a part of our spiritual disciplines? as his Bible reading, as his prayer, as his physical exercise. We often see fasting in this negative light as something that's negative.

It's this distraction in our life. Whereas really, if we look at fasting in the context of what the Lord's intent for it is, It's actually a spiritual discipline that brings us to a place of dependence upon Him. It's a point of surrender. I will fast from this. And I think in our current context we talk about fasting in terms of food, but what about fasting from television for a week? And the consumer things that implode our consciousness today, that then allow us the space, the headspace, to actually focus on the Lord.

It's a discipline, I think, as much as anything else. And I think on top of it being a discipline, I really do believe that we should be rejoicing if we did fast. That it shouldn't be like, oh, I'm fasting today, it's so hard. God better pay me back. Well, the payback is that we come to a place of intimacy with the Lord that we don't come to if we don't fast. Exactly. And I think that's the light in which fasting can be an awesome thing.

I don't want to cut this short, but we have about seven minutes and about three pages. So there's a there's a supplement on fasting on the back. And I don't want to like I say, we're going to be buzzing to get through the the money section as it is. Even still, I think that there's some great, great things that have been said. And I think that's yeah, I think it's fantastic. So.

All right, so do not store up for yourself treasures on earth. Sorry, we're starting at 19 through 24. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be. The eye is the lamp of the body. So then if your eye is clear, then your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." Wealth. So obviously money is a sensitive issue anyway. Has anybody ever known anybody or actually left a church because the money issue became such a big deal? We have the building fund is really behind our, anybody ever seen, maybe had that?

Yeah. We really feel like we need 10 multi-level parking lot to serve God efficiently. Therefore, please consider giving 30% of your income or just that. Maybe a pastor gets up. I was talking to it. In fact, I see it again and again and again. When I talk to people about the Lord at work, it's I went to church for a long time.

And then some pastor or whoever got up or the elder, whoever got up and said, and just gave this talk about how you need to give your money to us. And it needs to be this much or something like something along those lines. And, you know, like I said, I was talking to our service manager and he said, come just to get asked for my money. You look like you're on the edge of a comet. Okay. Alright, so it's it's certainly thing and I think that kind of ties into man-made religion or man's view on religion It's it's going to be law.

It's going to be this you're going to give 10% You're going to give this you can give this much it's it's going to be this way in this way versus as we'll talk about the true the Lord's view of money or the way that we should view money and It's a you can keep 90% I mean we're only asking for 10% I mean so it's it's always about a law it's always about a rule or about and and furthermore it's amazing that Jesus talks about money but he never says and you know make sure you're giving that money to me so that I can you know we don't have any record of Jesus asking anyone for money especially in these sermons he's not saying give it to me right so We often talk about the tithe being the Lord's money, but isn't it all the Lord's money? Exactly. But we hold on to the 90% or 95% or 98%. Is that net or gross? That's the question. But it's all the Lord's money, isn't it? But that's exactly it, as we're going to get on to.

These law views are just foolish. I mean, and what we do is we go back and kind of dip into the 10 percent, you know, that we see that God demanding in the law. And really, actually, if you look at it, I think it's more on the order of 30 percent. It's a lot more if you actually read. That's just for the temple tax. But if you read everything that the law requires out of a person, not any 10%.

So we've just kind of, in the church, gone back and dipped out this little figure that we're kind of comfortable with. Okay, if you gave 10%, then you're pretty good. Then you're doing okay. But really, in the New Testament context, like you said, it's all God's, right?

We're not trying to satisfy some law, we're trying to grow in the Lord. growing in that intimacy in that relationship is realizing that everything we have from from the shoes on our feet to the job that we got to make that money to again and again and again and compounding on into eternity to the fact that there were crops that we could buy with that money or that there were is all the Lord's it's all the Lord's blessing so that we should you know find an appropriate amount to solve our conscience and then set that aside is of course not at all the Lord's view of finance. I would certainly agree with that, but it's jumping a bit ahead, and that's okay. So I think the important thing that Jesus is also saying, don't store up treasures.

Why do they need wealth, excessive wealth stored up, in anticipation of the coming kingdom? What would be the purpose of having wealth at that time? They know that they'll be provided for. They know that they'll have their needs met. They know that no one's going to go hungry. So storing up all that wealth in anticipation of that's just silliness at some level. That thing, don't store up treasures for that time, doesn't mean don't save for college. Don't save for next year.

I think we come to an issue or the question between, and we'll talk about greed and preoccupation with what the Lord's given us and stewardship. Obviously, there's a stewardship issue that, you know, the Lord wants you to use your brain and, you know, he's provided for today and thinking and saving and talk about finances and stuff. But the other side of that coin being that it's still all the Lord's and that you're still not, no matter how much you save, you can't insulate yourself against the Lord. And that's what we'll talk about the dangers of wealth as a result of that. Brad, this passage to me is kind of talking to you about our thoughts of how we deal with money. Not so much tithe, but how we think of money. The love of money.

Personally, I mean, that we personally are to store up treasures in heaven. More than, say, a church or something like that. We are to store in heaven. Yeah, yeah. Right. Anyway, but how we feel about money, how it directs our lives, Don't let it be your God. Don't let it be your God. That's what I'm trying to say. I think that's fantastic.

Absolutely. All right, we're gonna charge forward, charge forward. All right, so to gather up money, houses, lands, crops, and other things for themselves would be like a child being offered a candy bar now or a trip to Disneyland next week. With the candy bar now or the trip, and the child saying, I'll take the candy bar. Right? It's just foolishness.

So let's talk about the nature of the two treasures in view and what Christ is saying here. What kind of treasures have we got? Heavenly and earthly, right? Heavenly and earthly. What's the assumed is of greater value? Heavenly treasures, right, are the only ones that are of any real value.

Because everything else is just temporal. Yep. Moving right ahead. Moving right along. I think that bell means we have no minutes. Five minutes. Are we done? Do we have a few more seconds? Yeah. OK. All right. Let's fire forward. All right. We're going to just bust it, and then we're going to go through it really briefly. I'll encourage you to maybe read it through on your own to get a more full idea.

So, obviously, earthly treasures, moths, rust, thievery, and all those things in stark contrast with the treasures in heaven, They're eternal. They're imperishable. They're unable to wear out, or with use, or old age. They're completely invulnerable to theft. And, oh, by the way, you'll be around forever to enjoy them.

So, you know, what good would it do? I mean, we last longer than most of our treasures anyway. A house might unlast us, but a car is probably not likely to. You know, all the things that we put time and effort and money into wind up not even lasting as long as this life, which is nothing as compared with eternity.

Jesus takes it back again to the heart level as we talk about the heart issue. Wealth is emphasized in scripture and by Jesus specifically because it is a great temptation to the heart of man. Having wealth enables us to provide our own security and peace rather than relying on the Lord. Wealth enables a person to be constantly entertained and distracted. Wealth can, with very little prodding, cause others to look up to the wealthy one and admire him. Wealth is a special temptation in that one can all too easily rely on wealth instead of relying on the Lord.

The physical things themselves are neither good nor evil. They can distract one from the truth and become an alternative to reliance upon God. I think that's why wealth is so commonly hammered away upon in the Gospels. That's why it's so commonly hit upon because it's just a way, it's the most foolproof way to be able to hide yourself.

You can always afford, you can always, and the pursuit of wealth can take up so much of our time and consciousness and our sense of meaning in life. So moving on to the I issue, the I in this time was viewed as the portal through which light would enter the body. So essentially what he's saying is if your I is gummed up by greed, and remember this is in the context of his talking about money, So if your eye is gummed up by greed, it can blind you spiritually. How great is that darkness within you if you're blinded by the love of money and greed?

So, it definitely hearkens to Ephesians chapter 1 where Paul says, praying that the eyes of your heart are enlightened, or rather, eyes of your heart being enlightened, that spiritual sight is something important and that greed is something that in a special way can stop that from being clear.

Christ is also very clear that clearly demanded the full and complete dedication of the Jews if they were to receive the earthly kingdom at that time. They're going to repent, like he told them to. It means serving God singularly. as their master and not considering themselves with their own agendas. God's glory is the only truly important thing and the only thing worth working towards.

As we move up, because we're looking at the last 30 seconds right here, just as our take home for today, or at least the thing that knocked me out on the wealth side. And this final section, of course, is only really discussing the wealth section so much more than the fasting. We are, of course, not in the position of these first century Jews.

However, the principles that Jesus touches on here are no less important for us to heed. They're universal in nature. As they reveal, the heart of the Lord is forever unchanging and unchanged. The Lord is no less concerned with the place of wealth, the place wealth holds in our hearts, than he was in the place of the hearts of these first century Jews, of which he was describing the character that would be required to enter the kingdom. Wealth can cloud our spiritual vision as much as it could cloud theirs. The love of money, a house, a car, expensive vacations, security, or any number of things, though not bad in and of themselves, can interrupt our fellowship with the Lord as much as the worst of our outward and overt sins. Our focus is to be bringing glory to the Lord, using our spiritual gifts in glorifying the Lord and building up his body here on earth, being the church, and have our hearts set on the glorious future that is before us in him. Christ closes these verses with a shocking, or sorry, Christ closes these verses that we're looking at this morning with a clear and concise statement of truth that is powerful, shocking, and undeniably true. You cannot serve both God and wealth.