- Please open your Bibles to Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter 58.
Our lesson tonight will be taken from this passage.
If you haven't seen the bulletin,
my sermon this evening is entitled Beyond Fasting.
Beyond Fasting.
And it's an unusual sermon title,
first of all because it will be followed
by a chili cook-off.
[audience laughs]
That's a coincidence.
It is an unusual title because when Christians discuss
spiritual maturity and growth in Christ,
fasting is one of those activities that we think
belong in the upper reaches of our Christian experience.
We think only truly dedicated
and spiritually mature people fast.
What then could be beyond fasting?
What are you supposed to do beyond fasting?
When you read the Bible and you focus in
on the subject of fasting,
you see that it is helpful in sharpening one's focus
when praying or seeking God's will.
For example, in Acts chapter 13, verse 1,
we see the leaders of the church, the elders of the church,
teachers of the church are fasting and they're praying
before selecting Saul and Barnabas
to go on a missionary journey.
But aside from this, we do not see fasting in itself
as a spiritual exercise that builds up the church
or is especially pleasing to God as a constant practice.
Isaiah the prophet explains that there are things
that can be done that are far more pleasing than fasting,
and certainly more edifying for the church.
And so in the 58th chapter of his book,
Isaiah describes three things better than fasting,
three activities that go beyond fasting
in their ability to please God.
So let's begin reading in Isaiah 58.
Isaiah writes, "Cry loudly, do not hold back.
"Raise your voice like a trumpet,
"and declare to my people their transgression
"and to the house of Jacob their sins.
"Yet they seek me day by day and delight to know my ways,
"As a nation that has done righteousness
"and has not forsaken the ordinance of their God.
"they ask me for just decisions,
"they delight in the nearness of God.
"Why have we fasted and you do not see?
"Why have we humbled ourselves and you do not notice?'
"Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire,
"and drive hard all your workers.
"Behold, you fast for contention and strife
and to strike with a wicked fist.
"You do not fast like you do today
"to make your voice heard on high.
"Is it a fast like this which I choose,
"a day for a man to humble himself?
"Is it for bowing one's head like a reed
"and for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?
"Will you call this a fast,
"even an acceptable day to the LORD?"
And so in these few verses,
Isaiah rebukes his fellow Israelites for their hypocrisy
and their constant complaining.
They love to be known as the people of God.
They delight in thinking that they know God's ways
and they have divine guidance.
Even though these things have been true in the past,
in recent times, their nation has stumbled.
They find themselves in political and military trouble
during the day of Isaiah.
So they make a show of their great religiosity with a fast
and with public prayer,
but their situation persists.
There's no relief politically.
There's no relief economically.
Now, they begin questioning God
and asking why doesn't he respond to their prayers.
Why has he not responded to their fasting,
which they think is the ultimate spiritual act of devotion?
At this point, God does answer them through the mouth
of the prophet Isaiah,
and he says to them that their fasting before him
is not acceptable because it is not accompanied
by the things that he truly desires from them,
with or without a fast,
three things that go beyond fasting.
And so, he wants them to go beyond fasting
and first of all, minister his justice.
Verse six, he says, "Is this not the fast which I choose,
"to loosen the bonds of wickedness,
"to undo the bands of the yoke,
"and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke?"
Denying yourself is a good exercise,
but obtaining freedom and justice
for those who are denied these things,
this is better than fasting.
Whether it be an effort to support
and defend those who are oppressed by injustice
in any form in our society, or freeing those enslaved by sin
through the power of the gospel,
this type of service is far superior
to merely creating an artificial hardship
for ourselves through fasting.
Fasting may help one see God.
Fasting may help one discern God's will
with a little more clarity,
but freeing the oppressed establishes God's justice
for others and it allows them to see God working
on their behalf through you, through a believer.
God also wanted them to go beyond fasting
and do something else, minister his love, verse seven.
Isaiah writes,
"Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
"and bring the homeless poor into the house?
"When you see the naked, to cover him,
"and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?"
Denying ourselves food and drink for a time,
this is not an act of love.
It's an act of discipline.
Of course, discipline is a good thing,
and necessary to cultivate in a Christian's life,
but it's not the way God wants us to show our love for him.
Fasting focuses the attention on self
and it's all about mastering self.
Love requires us to focus on others
and showing our love to God demands
that we focus our attention on others, not self.
Isaiah mentions two examples of ministering God's love
in verse seven.
First, benevolence, sharing food and clothing,
so on and so forth.
And secondly, taking the responsibility
for the needs of one's own family.
And so fasting provides a demonstration
of one's self control before God.
It's a private thing.
No one else is supposed to know.
But ministering God's love, however,
creates a triple witness that glorifies and honors God.
It's a witness to God himself that you love him.
It's a witness to others that you are a sincere Christian.
And it's a witness to the world that God is love
and God's disciples in Christ minister God's love
to other people.
One other spiritual exercise that Isaiah mentions
which goes far beyond fasting, ministering God's peace.
In verse nine B, it says,
"If you remove the yoke from your midst,
"the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness."
You know, the good feeling we get from fasting
is that of self satisfaction,
the pleasure we experience
when we begin mastering our own flesh.
Now don't get me wrong.
This is okay.
This is a legitimate pleasure
when we take control over our flesh.
But our fasting doesn't create good feelings
in other people.
It has no power to do this.
As a matter of fact, fasting at times causes jealousy
and fear and hatred in others
because it focuses on their weakness
as opposed to our strength.
A good example of this is the trend in Hollywood
towards extreme thinness
and this trend simply demonstrates a power statement.
If this young actress is thinner than that young actress,
that young actress has a power over that other one,
makes us feel powerful when we can demonstrate control
over our flesh in front of people who seemingly cannot.
This is why the Lord says that fasting,
when it is done, should be done in secret,
and only between ourselves and God,
Matthew chapter 6, verse 17 and 18.
Isaiah says, however, that when we create unity and peace
among others by removing what burdens them
and refraining from speaking wickedly and critically.
These actions combined with the other ministry deeds
will provide light and joy to other people,
a light and joy that personal fasting cannot produce.
Ministering God's peace means that arguments and disputes
and criticisms and divisions and other such things
are on the decline when we are involved.
You ever notice that, if you're a supervisor, manager,
something or other, teacher, and there's trouble.
There always seems to be trouble
over with this group over here.
And eventually when you get to the root of the problem,
there's usually one person in that group
that we call, old-fashioned, troublemaker.
Wherever they are, there's trouble.
You switch them over here
and you put them in that side of the classroom,
now there's trouble on that side or with those people
because some people invariably bring trouble.
They gossip, they criticize, they just stir people up.
Well, Isaiah, or God is saying through Isaiah,
when you're around,
those type of things should not increase.
Those things should decrease.
You bring peace to wherever you are.
We bring healing.
We lift up.
We speak kindness and wisdom and love,
and like salt or light, our presence fills the situation
with what Paul the Apostle referred to
as the aroma of Christ, 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14.
Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers
"for they will be called sons of God."
In contrast to this, the Lord never demanded or blessed
or spoke in positive terms about fasting,
because as a spiritual exercise, it was limited.
It's a good thing, but it's a limited thing.
Limited especially when compared to the results
that ministering his justice, ministering his love,
and ministering his peace could create.
Now, I don't want you to misinterpret what I'm saying.
This lesson is not a harangue about fasting.
Fasting is a useful, spiritual exercise
for the individual Christian when accompanied
with study and meditation and prayer.
My point here is that whatever benefits
that derive from fasting pale in comparison
to the more mature spiritual activities
described by Isaiah in this passage.
Note the rewards he mentions that come forth
from ministering God's justice, love, and peace.
First of all, he mentions the powerful witness of faith,
verses six to eight.
Just read verse eight.
He says, you do these things.
The rewards of ministry.
"Then your light will break out like the dawn,
"and your recovery will speedily spring forth;
"and your righteousness will go before you.
"The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard."
Isaiah says that whatever people thought of you
before you ministered will be replaced
by the unmistakable light
of a true and sincere witness of the Lord.
In other words, people will know
that a man or a woman of God has been among them
because of the ministry that you render to others.
In other words, still, there will be no doubt
in anyone's mind, yours included,
that you are a genuine child of God.
Everything you do will be bathed
in the light of God's glory.
You will look blessed from every direction,
whether you're looking at your own life
or whether others are looking at your life
and feeding it back to you.
You will be blessed, he says.
Another reward of ministry,
aside from a powerful witness of faith,
is a powerful prayer life, verse nine A.
He says, "Then you will call, and the LORD will answer.
"You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.'"
Notice the parallelism?
Remember when we studied the Psalms, the parallelism?
He's saying the same things in two different ways here.
When you call, the Lord will answer.
When you cry, he will say, "Here I am."
"It is the prayers of the righteous that availeth much,"
James says in his epistle.
He didn't say the many prayers.
He didn't say the repeated prayers.
He didn't say the long prayers.
He says the prayers of the righteous availeth much.
The key word there is righteous.
The keys to powerful prayer are faith and righteousness,
not just believing person praying,
but a righteous believer praying.
When you're lifting up your hands to God in prayer
and you believe everything you say,
take a look at your hands.
Take a look at the works of your hands
and see if they're clean.
See if they're righteous hands that you can raise up to God.
You know, when Paul says the men, in the church,
in the public, the men should lift up holy hands in prayers.
He's not just saying the male species,
the males in the church,
the men in the church should lift hands.
He's also saying the men who have holy hands
should lift them up in prayer.
It's the holiness of the hands
and the faith in one's hearts that render prayer effective,
that gives power in prayer.
When your prayers are not answered,
don't look at your faith.
Look at your hands.
When it comes to prayers being answered,
it's more important that you are righteous
than you are loud or repetitious or eloquent
or fasting, even.
A final reward to those who seek to go beyond fasting
is that God will bless you with a powerful ministry.
"And the LORD will continually guide you,
"and satisfy your desire in scorched places,
"and give strength to your bones,
"and you will be like a watered garden,
"and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
"Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins.
"You will raise up the age-old foundations,
"and you will be called the repairer of the breach,
"the restorer of the streets in which to dwell."
God will reward you with a powerful ministry.
He's not talking to professional ministers here.
He's talking to everyone
because everyone has a ministry of sorts.
Isaiah, in context here, was speaking
to his Jewish countrymen and he was exhorting them
not to think that their outward religious exercises,
like fasting, was what empowered them to do great things
in God's name for his people.
Power in ministry doesn't find its source
in religious ceremony.
Power in ministry comes from doing God's will
in ministering to people.
It doesn't matter if we have a cappella singing
in our public worship if we don't love each other.
We can sing without instruments all night long,
but if we don't love each other, our worship is useless.
The Jews were promised that they would be the people
through whom the Christ would come,
and they could provide a powerful ministry to the world
by preparing the world to be ready for this.
Isaiah is telling them
that they could get the world's attention
by their ministering God's justice,
by their ministering God's love and peace.
Now we know that they failed to listen to this warning.
The Christ still came according to the promise,
but was born to a nation whose reputation in the world
was as religious hypocrites, cultural bigots,
and political rebels.
Jesus, therefore, was born into a nation 1,000 years
past its glory and a scant 70 years away
from its final destruction.
We should note carefully Isaiah's message
because it still speaks powerfully and prophetically
even to us today.
You see, like the Jews of Isaiah's day,
we in this age have been charged with the preparation
of the world for the return of Christ.
They were charged.
They were the people of God
and their job was to prepare the world
for the coming of the Messiah.
That was their task.
We are also the people of God
and we have been charged with the preparation of the world
for the return of Christ.
So let's be careful when we look at the Jews and we say,
well, those guys, what was their problem?
If I was there, I would've done this.
I wouldn't have missed it.
Well, let's be very careful.
We've also been given a charge as serious as their charge.
Of course, the return of Jesus this time, however,
not for the work of saving the world,
but rather for the task of judging the world
and issuing a reward or condemnation
to those who deserve either one.
We, as God's people, as Christians, accomplish this task,
this task of preparing the world,
we accomplish this task by preaching the gospel
and the witnessing of the power of our regenerated lives
as we minister Christ's justice, as we minister his love,
as we minister his peace.
We're also preparing our fellow saints for his return
through the power of our prayer life and our faith
and our ministry.
And these spiritual activities
that go far beyond mere fasting
are like the combustion chamber that moves
the kingdom of God to that inexorable moment
when Christ will appear, and he will appear.
The thing we need to be absolutely convinced of
is he will appear at a time that we do not expect him.
You know, I think about this at times.
I don't know about you,
but I'm the kind of guy, I like to get things done.
I got a list, let's go, Monday.
Check, check, check it off.
I'm feeling good.
Got my schedule going.
And I understand.
Not everybody's like that, but I'm like that.
And one day, I was going over my list
and realized the Lord's going to come
before I've finished my list.
I better be ready.
You know, I'll be on number 4 of 12 or something,
and I'll be in the middle of number four
and I haven't finished number four,
and he will come.
When we least expect it.
In my mind, I'm thinking, well, he'll wait
'til I've got everything squared away, and then he'll come.
Nah, that's not how it's going to happen.
He'll come in the middle.
You'll be in the middle of a sentence.
You'll be in the middle of an act,
the middle of a thought, the middle of a word,
the middle of a prayer, and he will appear.
Peter says that we the saints will hasten the day
when the Lord will come.
Isn't that interesting?
2 Peter 3:12.
Now you're probably wondering what all of this
has to do with fasting, that I'm rambling
and I'm far off the subject, but I'm not.
Let me try to put this together.
Isaiah was rebuking the people for thinking
that a largely ceremonial, fleshly thing like fasting,
could somehow have a tangible effect in moving God
in creating some kind of spiritual catharsis.
In other words, if we fast, if we really give ourselves
to this exercise, it'll move God to do something,
do something about our economic situation,
do something about our political situation,
but nothing happened.
In many ways, the same is true today.
We need to realize that sometimes there's a big hoopla
about clapping during worship.
You know, we sing songs and in some churches,
they clap along, and other churches don't,
and there's always a big hoopla about it.
I've seen churches argue about this,
but you know what?
Whether we clap in worship or not changes nothing in heaven.
That one teacher or group is honored more than another
in our brotherhood does not advance a wit
the cause of Christ in the world.
That our nation is rich, that our nation is poor,
that our nation is first, that our nation is last
influences nothing insofar as the kingdom of God
is concerned.
However, that we consciously pour ourselves out
in achieving God's justice for those who are oppressed,
that we spread God's love
and caring for the needs of others,
that we truly become salt and light wherever we are
in the name of Christ,
this will make a difference here in the world
because God's light will shine in dark places
because of us.
Here in our hearts because we will grow in power
and others will see it, be strengthened by it,
and be moved by it.
And it will also make a difference here in the kingdom,
the church, because it will bring us closer
to that day when the kingdom of heaven in heaven
will become one with the kingdom of heaven here on earth
at the return of Jesus,
1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 15 to 17.
We need to realize that the Bible doesn't tell us
to simply wait stoically for Jesus' return
like you're waiting for a bus or something.
It says to pray for it, to work for it,
to remain faithful, to do all that we can do
to hurry the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so every generation brings us closer to this point.
But some people speed it up a little faster than others.
Let's let our generation be a golden era
where we make great strides in moving the heavens
towards the coming of that day.
We are only held back from spiritual greatness
by the things that we have tied ourselves down to
here on earth.
Let's break free of that.
This sermon, not necessarily a quote New Year's sermon,
could preach this at any time,
but on this particular night, I think it's apropos
to say let's break free and allow God to make of us
a spiritual wonder, a Christian phenomenon.
Why not?
Why shouldn't we aim for that?
Let's cross the divided sea of doubt and fear.
Let's walk on the water of materialism without sinking.
Let's do the greater things that Jesus spoke of,
justice, love, peace.
Marty, this morning, he was talking about
our mind was dwelling on those things which are lovely,
those things which are pure and good
that Paul is talking about.
That's not just like a pie in the sky thing.
That's a very practical thing.
Our mind's always about, how am I going to get ahead?
When am I going to finish the to-do list?
How can I make more money?
Is that where our mind, where our heart is?
Is that where our intention is all the time?
Both Paul and Isaiah are saying, no.
Our mind should be focused on justice and love and peace
if we're Christians.
That's what seeking the kingdom is.
If I were to exhort you to pursue one thing in the new year,
to make one resolution,
it would be please pursue the kingdom first,
and then God will add all these other things
and what we need.
It's such a simple promise, but we forget it all the time
because it seems so impossible,
but, no, our task is to seek the kingdom of God
in everything we do each day
and he says, if you put your mind to that,
I'll make sure that everything you need,
I'll provide it for you.
But unfortunately, what we do is we put all our heart
and soul and energy in providing the things we need,
and then once a week, we give God an hour of our time,
and then we wonder, why am I not growing?
Why am I not getting this?
Why don't I have more spiritual insight?
Why am I not more powerful in overcoming this temptation
or whatever?
Well, how strong would you be if you only spent
one hour a week in the gym?
Or if you only followed your diet one meal per week?
How successful would you be?
If you're an athlete, you only trained once a week.
Could you go to the Olympics on once a week?
Why in heavens name do we ever think
that we can become great spiritually
by investing an hour or two of time?
God is calling us to give our whole heart.
What does it mean to love God with our whole heart
and soul and mind and strength?
That means that attitude on a daily basis,
and brothers and sisters, it's not a burden.
It's not a thing that's hard to do.
It's liberating.
You want to taste freedom?
Give yourself all to God every day.
Ask him to show you how to free yourself
to devote all of your strength and mind to him.
Does that mean you're going to go off to a cabin somewhere
with your Bible?
No, we got to live.
We got to earn a living.
Everybody's got to do that.
It's an attitude of heart and spirit,
and what a liberating attitude it is
once we get past the doubt
that if we don't invest every moment
of energy in this world, we won't make it.
This is Satan.
This is the world that is convincing us of that.
Jesus gives us the recipe for a happy, content,
and successful life.
Seek ye the kingdom first, he said.
Make that first in everything
and I will provide everything else that you need.
Brothers and sisters, we can do it, and we should do it,
and as part of my invitation tonight,
if someone needs to perhaps begin that process
by putting the kingdom first
because they haven't obeyed the gospel.
There may be some folks here tonight
that haven't obeyed the gospel.
Maybe someone needs the prayers.
I know I repeat it every time,
but believe me, I mean it with all my heart
when I say perhaps there's someone
that needs the prayers of the church
to be strengthened in the things
that I've talked about tonight.
We have some of our elders here.
I know Marty's not well, but we have elders here
that'll be able to pray for you
and ministers that'll be able to take care of you.
So if you have a need of some kind,
and I encourage you to come forward and ask for prayers
or confess Christ, as we stand
and as Johnny leads us in our song of encouragement.