Preparing For Spiritual Success
Text: Isaiah 58:1-8
Introduction
1. As we begin a new year, we set goals for ourselves; things we wish to accomplish in the coming year. As a church, our goal for every coming year is to grow into a deeper relationship with our Lord.
2. One of the chief ways that we do this is through a period of prayer and fasting.
3. Illustration: Dr. Siang-Yang Tan, of Fuller Theological Seminary, in his book Disciplines of the Holy Spirit, says "Fasting is a most tangible and practical way of surrendering to God and allowing the Holy Spirit more control in our lives. By giving up food - the very sustenance of life - during a fast, control over ones own existence is surrendered and offered to God" (127).
4. This morning we want to consider:
a. What does it mean to pray and fast?
b. What is the wrong attitude during prayer and fasting?
c. What is the right attitude during prayer and fasting?
5. Read Isaiah 58:1-8
Proposition: Through prayer and fasting, we demonstrate that our relationship with Jesus is the most important thing in our lives.
Transition: Before we can begin a time of prayer and fasting, it is important for us to understand what we are doing.
I. What Does It Mean to Pray and Fast?
A. Fasting
1. What does it mean to fast?
a. Very simply, fasting means being so consumed with a matter that it becomes more important than food.
b. Therefore, the believer sets food aside in order to concentrate on seeking God about the matter.
c. Biblical fasting means more than just abstaining from food; it means to abstain from food in order to concentrate upon God and His answer to a particular matter.
2. Several different models of fasting were practiced in biblical times.
a. Normal fast. A person abstained from all food, solid or liquid, but not from water — usually to prepare for some significant event.
b. Partial fast. Sometimes people entered into a partial restriction of diet, but not total abstention. For a three-week period of mourning, Daniel ate no meat or drank no wine, and he applied no lotion to his body (Dan. 10:3).
c. Absolute fast. During a relatively short, urgent period of time, people could abstain from all food and water to discern God’s leading. Notice that this kind of fast was only for a short time, because it was very dangerous to go without water. It is not recommended except for extreme circumstances.
d. Private and corporate fasts. Fasting is usually a private affair, but at times the people of God came together for corporate or public fasts, such as on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:37), in times of national emergency (2 Chron. 20:1 – 4), or for seeking God’s guidance in prayer (Ezra 8:21 – 23). (Wilkins, NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Matthew, 281).
B. Prayer
1. Christians aren’t the only ones who fast, and you don’t have to fast for religious reasons.
a. Some people fast for political reasons, such as to protest what they deem as unethical or unfair policies of a government.
b. Some people fast as a means of protest as a means of getting their way or to raise awareness as to their cause. This is sometimes referred to as a hunger strike.
2. However, biblical fasting is always an attempt to seek God’s favor or direction, and is always accompanied by prayer.
a. Ezra 8:23 (NLT)
So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer.
b. Acts 13:2-3 (NLT)
One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.
3. Jesus himself spent time in fasting and prayer.
a. Matthew 4:1-2 (NLT)
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.
b. He assumed that his follower would fast.
c. Matthew 6:16 (NLT)
“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get.
4. Illustration: James Duncan, preaching with great unction and power, was asked what was the secret of such powerful preaching. "The secret," he said, was "thirteen hours of consecutive prayer." When asked the secret of his spiritual power, Charles Spurgeon said: "Knee work! Knee work!" Livingston of Shotts, on two different occasions, preached with such power that in each service 500 were converted. Both sermons were preceded by a night of prayer. Charles Finney, after spending a day in the woods in prayer and fasting, preached that night in a phenomenally irreligious congregation. The sermon was accompanied by such divine power that the whole congregation, except one man, fell prostrate upon the floor, and voiced their agony under conviction of sin, in such loud outcries that the preacher was forced to stop.
5. It’s time for something new!
a. We need a fresh movement of God.
b. We need a fresh revival.
c. We need a fresh fire in our hearts for God.
d. We need to stop making our relationship with God a pastime and start making in a priority.
e. We don’t need a New Years resolution, we need New Years repentance!
Transition: It starts by humbling ourselves before God in prayer and fasting. However, for that to be successful we need the right attitude.
II. The Wrong Attitude (1-5)
A. Why Weren’t You Impressed
1. This chapter opens with the Lord saying to Isaiah, “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins!"
a. The phrase "shout with the voice of a trumpet blast" is literally to “cry with the throat” (Calvin’s Commentaries Online).
b. If you’ve ever had the experience of having someone blow a trumpet in your ear, then you have a good idea of what God was trying to express to Isaiah.
c. He wanted the people to hear loud and clear why he was angry with them.
2. They seem to think that God really has no grounds to be angry with them. They think that they’ve done everything right.
a. They come to the temple everyday and seem eager to learn more about God.
b. They act like a "righteous nation" that follows God’s laws.
c. They pray to God and expect him to answer.
3. In fact, they think that they have every right to be angry with God. They say, "‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’"
a. They say, "Lord we have fasted and prayed, but you didn’t respond."
b. "We sacrificed, but you didn’t bless us."
c. What’s the deal God?
4. The deal is that there attitudes stunk. He tells them, “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers."
a. They weren’t fasting to deepen their relationship with the Lord, but only to deepen their own greed.
b. They weren’t trying to get closer to God, they just wanted to see what they could get out of Him.
c. They weren’t trying to humble themselves, they were trying to exalt themselves. "Look at us; see how spiritual we are."
d. 2 Timothy 3:5 (NLT)
They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
5. The Lord tells them, "What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me."
a. True fasting requires a humbleness of spirit.
b. True fasting requires a change of heart.
c. True fasting requires a change of action.
B. Attitude of the Heart
1. Illustration: Chuck Swindoll once said, "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on Life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, or say or do. Attitude is more important than appearances, giftedness, or skill. Attitude will make or break a company --- a church --- a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude that we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people act a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude."
2. Fasting is like a computer; you only get out of it what you put into it.
a. If you put in the wrong information, you cannot blame the computer when you get the wrong answer.
b. If you want fasting to be successful, you need to be sure that your attitude is right before God.
c. 1 Peter 5:5-6 (NLT)
“God opposes the proud but favors the humble.” So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.
3. Your attitude must be one that seeks to know God more.
a. God I’m willing to do whatever you tell me to do.
b. God I’m willing to go wherever you tell to go.
c. God I’m willing to give up whatever you want me to sacrifice.
4. Your attitude must be one of total surrender.
a. Surrender of your thoughts
b. Surrender of your desires
c. Surrender of your fears
d. Surrender of your sins
Transition: Then there is...
III. The Right Attitude (6-8)
A. This Is the Kind of Fasting I Want
1. One of the great things about God is that when He tells you what you’re doing wrong, He then tells you how to do it right.
2. After telling the people that their attitude was all wrong, he tells the people through Isaiah, “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people."
a. What God is saying to them is that the kind of fasting He desires is one that makes them grow spiritually.
b. He doesn’t want them to fast so they could stay in their sin, but to fast in way that causes them to change for the better.
c. Fasting and not expecting to change what’s wrong in your life isn’t fasting at all; it’s merely going on a diet!
3. The number one goal in fasting is to get closer to God.
a. There’s nothing wrong with fasting so that we get an answer to prayer or so that God will look with favor on a certain situation.
b. However, the main priority of fasting is so that we deepen our relationship with the Lord.
c. As we grow closer to Him than all else seems to fall into place.
d. Matthew 6:33 (ESV)
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
4. The Lord tells us that if we fast with the right attitude “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply."
a. If we fast with the right attitude God will honor it and we will not only grow closer to him, but He will also bless in ways that we cannot yet imagine.
b. If we fast with the right attitude, God will bring healing to our wounds.
c. If we fast with the right attitude, we will be able to do things that we never thought was possible.
d. Notice that it says "your godliness will lead you forward." As you grow closer to God, he will draw closer to you.
e. He promises that when we fast with the right attitude, we can call on God and He will answer us.
B. True Fasting
1. Illustration: It seems that two members of the same church participated in a 40 day prayer and fasting time to seek God’s will for their lives. One of the woman badly needed a kidney transplant, and at the end of the 40 day time of prayer and fasting, the other woman felt strongly that God was leading her to donate her kidney to this other woman. People couldn’t understand why, after all they weren’t family, they weren’t even friends before that, one was white the other was black. Her response was simply, "She has a need and God has given me the ability to meet that need…that’s what loving each other is all about."
2. Fasting with the right attitude will bring success because it will change you.
a. It will change the way you think because you will be filled with God’s thoughts.
b. It will change the way you act because you will be Spirit-filled and not self-filled.
c. It will change with way you see things because you will be looking at life through God’s eyes.
3. Fasting with the right attitude will bring spiritual success because God’s will becomes clearer.
a. Your eyes will see the things of God
b. Your ears will hear the things of God
c. Your mind will comprehend the things of God
4. Fasting with the right attitude will bring spiritual success because you will have surrendered yourself to God.
a. He will be the center
b. He will be your sustenance
c. He will be your existence
d. Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV)
You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart,
Transition: Fasting with the right attitude is like a good, strong cup of coffee; it will wake you, shake you up, and take you up!
Conclusion
1. Are you ready to seek God with all your heart this week?
2. Are you ready to depend upon God to be your sustenance?
3. Are you willing to sacrifice this week so that we can have a great year?
4. God is waiting for your reply.
