Why Fasting Is Imporant Series

Voter’s Guides are Available in Ministry Galley. I encourage each one of you to vote. Today we conclude our series Seven Practice of a Healthy Christian. And our focus this morning is on the mouth. I call on our church to a Week of Prayer and a Day of Fasting for World Missions. For this reason November 4-11 is a special week and November 11 is a special day. As you prayerfully consider this, I am asking you to do four things.

1. I’m Calling on you to pray Luke 10:2 at 10:02 am and 10:02 pm.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2).

Set your alarms on your clocks, your egg timers, and your smart phones. Regardless of how you remind yourself, I want our entire church praying at 10:02 am and 10:02 pm for world missions. You’ll receive some beautiful prayer cards next week for missionaries. Use these to pray for these men and women at 10:02 am and 10:02 pm.

2. I’m Calling on You to Pray for 24 Hours on Saturday, November 10 – Sunday, November 11.

You can sign up for a fifteen-minute prayer time by going to www.nrhbc.org/24. You can pray wherever you are. I encourage you to use the World Mission Week Prayer Guide in today’s Worship Guide.

3. I’m Calling on You to Give to our $75,000 Goal for the World Mission Offering on Sunday, November 11.

The children are helping out by their “Quarter Mile” campaign. Again, our goal is to raise $75,000 for missions in One Day. I ask every one of you to give something – even if it’s just a quarter. Pray specifically about what the Lord would have you give. We’ll announce the total by the end of the third service on November 11. I’m so eager to meet our World Mission’s Goal of $400,000 by the end of the year.

4. I’m Calling on You to Fast for 24 Hours.

As we pray for 24 hours, I am calling on you to fast for these same 24 hours. Many of us will fast from food while others will fast from TV or social media. Let me go over those four things again.

1. I’m Calling on you to pray Luke 10:2 at 10:02 am and 10:02 pm.

2. I’m Calling on You to Pray for 24 Hours on Saturday, November 10 – Sunday, November 11.

3. I’m Calling on You to Give to our $75,000 Goal for the World Mission Offering on Sunday, November 11.

4. I’m Calling on You to Fast for 24 Hours.

My goal today is to create a greater hunger for Christ that you are currently experiencing. I want you and I to hunger for His presence with greater passion. I want you and I to hunger for God more than the nice, gentle pleasures such as TV-watching and Internet-surfing… …family meals and gardening… …reading and decorating… …traveling and investing.

I want you to leave here sensing that something is missing and you want more of God. Why Should You Fast? Fasting is the pushing back from some form of physical gratification, for a short time, in order to achieve a greater spiritual goal. Fasting is not just focused on food. Instead, fasting is about the appetite. While I introduced this topic thinking about the mouth, I could have just as easily pointed to the finger that controls the remote control that controls your life. Fasting is about pushing back from anything that is a substitute for God.

1. Warning! Sharks Are Looming!

The deep, probing notes of Steven Speilberg’s classic film is but two notes (E and F) and each note represents a chilling effect as JAWS comes from underneath the deep waters for his victim. The “da-dum” is the most widely recognizable music score in movie history. When you think about fasting, it might be appropriate to hear the musical score for the movie JAWS playing.

Let me explain why this relates to fasting. Placing attention on fasting is dangerous business. Placing attention on our performance is dangerous. There were two men standing in the Temple. One said “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:12). The other man standing in the Temple that day said, “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13b). There is a strange wickedness that passes for religion throughout history. Unconverted people come into church with a real desire to change and only find ways to further corrupt their hearts by following external commands at the expense of leaving their hearts as black as before. The first man’s sin was simple: he wanted others to view him as religious. He wanted others to view him as moral. He wanted the feeling of superiority.