This lesson was developed for a senior high student ministry and was presented in PowerPoint format. If you would like the original PPT file (about 1 meg without video clips), click on “all sermons by Robert Fox” at the top of this page, then click on the “contact” link and shoot me an email.
[Spiritual Habits]
Slide Graphic – Disney’s Mulan, training to fight
Slide Text - 30Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:30-31)
In all honesty, how strong of a Christian are you? I mean, when times get tough, when the hard decisions come, when it’s time to stand up and be counted, when it’s time to be different, when it’s time to fight for what’s right, when it’s time to love the unlovely, do you have what it takes? Me – I’m not nearly as strong as I wish I was. Let me tell you about a time in my life when my spiritual wimpiness almost had disastrous consequences.
From the day I was born, my parents had me in church every time the doors were opened. I know that is an over-used phrase, but in my case it was literally true.
I was saved, honestly saved, when I was eight years old. I did the Vacation Bible Schools, the youth groups, and the church camps. I was as involved as anyone could be. But I was passively involved. I was there because my parents brought me. I didn’t resist it or resent it, but I was, frankly, just riding the wave. I didn’t have to have spiritual discipline in my life – my parents were my discipline in all aspects of my life. They told me when to get up, when to eat, when to go to school, when to turn of the TV and do my homework, when to go to church, and when to go to bed.
When I left home and went to college, there was no one to tell me when to do these things, and, frankly, I floundered. On the spiritual front, I didn’t get plugged in to a local church. I didn’t really think about it much one way or the other – I had other things on my mind. But I drifted away from God. I had no spiritual will and strength of my own to keep me from drifting.
At my college, they didn’t have Baptist Student Union or Campus Crusade for Christ. They had a group called the Navigators, led on our campus by a man named Jim Cuneen. Jim was a very cool guy who loved to play soccer. He and the other Navigators, most of them students, would play every Saturday morning. Whenever they saw someone walking by stop and watch for a minute, one of the Navigators would invite that person to join in. They played hard, and they were really very good (several were missionary-kids who had grown up overseas), but the thing you noticed right off was their attitude. They never got mad at each other, they never cheated, they never cursed or even raised their voices. Just good, clean, they-way-it-ought-to-be fun.
Then, after then game was over, they would huddle up for a quick prayer. Nothing long winded or particularly holy – just thanking God for the day. Then, they spent a little time just chatting and getting to know you. If you showed any interest, they would invite you to their small group meeting, but you got the feeling that this wasn’t why they were talking to you. They seemed genuinely interested in you, regardless of whether you came to their meeting or not. Either way, you got an invite to play the next Saturday.
I eventually came to their small group meeting. They were studying Philippians. By a startling coincidence, this is the same book you are going to be studying when D-Groups start. If you were interested in memorizing scripture, you could pick up little bundles of business-card stock with verses printed on them. And you would be encouraged and held accountable for them. You were encouraged to have a daily quiet time and develop spiritual disciplines “on your own.” Taking charge of your own spiritual growth.
I have never been as disciplined as I should – ever. I think Jim must have wanted to shake his head and write me off as a lost cause. Honestly – I picture that time in my life as sitting at the top of a steep slide, inching forward. At any second I could find that I had slid too far and plunge down the slippery slope. While I never made much upward progress in college, those disciplines, those spiritual habits, were all that kept me from sliding over the edge of the abyss. Jim poured his life into me, and never saw any progress. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that, without Jim showing me how to seek God on my own, I would have taken the plunge into a purely worldly life, totally separated from the things of God.
Over 95% of kids who are involved in church youth groups lose all touch with God and His church when they leave home. They don’t lose their salvation, but they do lose their faith. It was almost that way with me. Why do you think that is? Is that going to be you? Please, please, don’t let it be you.
On the other hand, students who are involved in a personal daily quiet time, bible study, and a consistent prayer life are much less likely to slip away. They don’t graduate from their faith when they graduate from high school.
[More Power To You]
Slide Graphic (background) – atomic bomb explosion
Slide Text A – Fasting, Prayer Journal, Tithing, Scripture Memorization, Bible Study, Daily Quiet Time, Accountability Partners, More…
Slide Text B - 1As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Psalms 42:1-2)
Spiritual habits are things that you have disciplined yourself to do out of a desire to grow closer to God in your relationship with Him, and out of your desire to be a useful tool for His use on earth.
The Bible gives us lots of examples – things like fasting, prayer, daily quiet time, scripture memorization, and more. There’s lots of others. Anything that you can do on a regular basis to draw you closer to God or make you a stronger tool for His use can be a spiritual discipline, even if the thing is never mentioned in the Bible and even if other people think it’s just weird. There was a guy named Bob Donahoo in my church in College who committed to spend $20 each week (that was a lot of money then) doing some totally anonymous service for someone who needed it. I knew him for 2 years before I found out about it, and we were pretty close friends. He had found himself growing callous to the hurts and needs of people around him, and took on this spiritual discipline very deliberately in order to make himself more aware. This wasn’t charity or duty – this was a discipline he desperately needed in order to focus himself on what was really important in God’s eyes.
You absolutely must develop spiritual discipline in your life. Every single one of you (me too) needs these things in your life that you do (on your own!) that draw you closer to the heart of God and make you a better tool for His purposes. There is no program in any church that can make you start practicing these habits – that has to come from you. We can, however, tell you about some very effective things you can do on your own. We can tell you why they are important, and how they will change your life. We can give you the tools to help you get started and show you how to use them. We can encourage you and help hold you accountable. But, in the end, only you can make them part of your life. We could probably make you do them for now, but then you would only be riding the wave of someone else’s discipline, like I was at your age.
One reason spiritual habits like these are so hard to put in your life is that things like these are what make your life different in the eyes of the world. They make you stand out. They put you at risk, socially. If you just ride the wave and go to church when you are expected to, people in our society will think you are a “good guy” and not be too concerned about what makes you different. But if those same people find out that you tithe faithfully, that you get up early every morning to study the bible and pray, or that you (gasp!) fast – then they will think that you are very weird, maybe even fanatical!
Is your desire to grow closer to God stronger than your fear of what people will think?
[I have a video clip here of a commercial for an energy bar – “the energy to push you further”]
[Think Fast!]
Slide Text A – “What is the Great Commandment?”
Slide text B (on click) - 37Jesus replied: " ’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.“ (Matthew 22:37-40)
Slide Graphic C (on click) – photo of sign “no eating or drinking”
Slide text D (with Graphic) –
What is Biblical fasting?
It’s not about food – It’s about priorities
It’s not about getting rid of sin – It’s about getting rid of distractions
It’s not about focusing attention on yourself – It’s about focusing your attention on God
We’re going to be coming back to this topic of spiritual habits all through the summer. I wanted to introduce the topic today, however, by talking about “fasting.” Fasting is a spiritual habit – a discipline.
Some of you have mentioned fasting to me recently. Some of you have tried it, some of you know someone who has. I’m not saying we have a groundswell of popular demand for a fast-fest. There isn’t a fasting movement afoot (though wouldn’t it be great if we all felt like that!). I’m just saying that there has been some interest. One thing we studied last fall was that you don’t decide what God would like you to do, then go do it. You look to see where God is at work already and join him there. And we learned that you can tell where God is at work by looking for things only God can do, such as people showing an interest in growing closer to God.
No man comes to me unless he is first drawn by my father
The interest in fasting some of you have shown is evidence of God, the creator of the Universe, the God who died on the cross for you, that God – is at work in your life. The teaching leaders put a great deal of thought and prayer into determining where God is leading this group. I (and the other leaders) want to join God wherever I see Him working. So let’s snatch this opportunity to look at what God has to say about fasting.
First of all, what is fasting? Anyone? Fasting is voluntarily withdrawing from some “fleshly appetite” for a specified period of time. Fasting is usually associated with abstinence from food and drink, but there are many other types of fasting, too. You can fast from anything that you might be tempted to indulge in. If chocolate runs your life (show of hands?), you might decide to fast from chocolate. If you spend every minute you can watching sports shows, you might fast from sports. If you are addicted to fashion, you might decide to have a fashion-fast.
There are two things, though, that make “fasting” different from “restraint.” Two things that make fasting a spiritual discipline. Let me explain by first asking about the “Great Commandment.” What is it? Anybody? Jesus said the great commandment was to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. This is the great commandment. This should be our highest priority in life, right?
1. Suppose you examine your life one day and find that there are things in your life that distract you from doing good job of following this great commandment.
A. Sometimes things in your life distract you from God. You may find yourself tempted to stay home from Church in order to watch a certain TV show. TV by itself isn’t bad, but when it is more important to you than God, then TV has replaced God in your priorities – it has become your idol. That’s what an idol is – something you put in place of God. We are very much an idol worshiping society today!
B. Sometimes things in your life distract you from showing the love of God to other people. If you are on a sports team, but winning is so important to you that you sacrifice friendship for the sake of it, then winning has come between you and a love of people. Many things can creep up on you in your life until you find they are more important to you than relationships with people you should love – making money, being part of the right crowd, being the one in charge, being funny, winning… Whatever it is, if it comes between you and loving people (as God commanded), you need to readjust your priorities.
2. The second thing that is necessary for biblical fasting is that, in giving up this thing that has become a priority or distraction in your life, you spend that time you now have focusing on the correct priority instead - loving God and loving people.
If you are doing these two things – temporarily giving up something that might not have been bad in itself, but has gotten in the way of your real priorities, and replacing that focus with what you should have been focused on, then you are experiencing a biblical fast
[How does fasting work?]
Slide bullet 1 – What is it that you should give up? Sin? or Distractions?
Slide bullet 2 (on click) – How long should you give it up? 1 day? 3 days? 40 days?
Slide bullet 3 (on click) – How much of it do you give up? Extreme? Token?
Slide bullet 4 (on click) – Who do you tell? Everyone? No one?
What is it that you should give up?
If there’s something in your life that turns people away from God (alcohol, drugs, bad language, violence, gossip,…), then it is just Sin. If it is harmful to you or to others, or if God has prohibited it for any reason, it is sinful. These things are evil in themselves and are bad under any conditions. Some people say they want to fast from a particular sin in their life. Lay it aside for a while to focus on God, all the while planning to return to it later. God doesn’t want you to fast from these kinds of things, He wants you to remove them from your life. Overcoming bad habits is hard, but can be done through the power of God – but that’s a different lesson.
Fasting is different than setting aside sin. Fasting is what you do when you find things in your life that have become more important to you than obeying God’s command to love other people. Things that aren’t sinful in themselves. Chocolate isn’t sinful! Making chocolate the focus of all your thoughts is sinful. Making money isn’t sinful. Making it the primary focus of you life is. Having nice outfits to wear isn’t sinful. Focusing more on your appearance than on your savior is. Your dating relationship, I hope, is not sinful, but if it consumes all of your thoughts night and day to the point where you have no time left for loving God and loving people, then you’ve gotten distracted from your priorities.
Fasting is taking these things which have grown into priorities in your life, and setting them aside for a while to keep them from distracting you while you focus on what is really important.
What did Christ say was really important? He gave it to us in the great commandment. What is the great commandment? To love God and love people. Assuming you already have a personal relationship with Christ, then the great commandment is your highest priority.
How long should you give it up?
There are lots of cases of one-day fasting in the Bible. Paul fasted for 3 days right after getting saved. Moses fasted for 40 days when he was given the 10 commandments, and Jesus fasted for 40 days when He began His ministry.
There is no certain length of time you have to fast. It can be any length of time – the point is that you use the time to focus on God instead of the things you are setting aside. A man I used to work with skips lunch every Monday and goes instead to find a quiet place to talk to God. That is a spiritual fast. The point is that you fast however long it takes to re-focus your priorities. What are your priorities? – to love God and love people.
How much of it should you give up?
Keep in mind what your purpose is and don’t go to crazy, unnecessary extremes. In the first chapter of the book of Daniel, Daniel and 3 other Hebrew boys decided they should not indulge in all the rich foods that were offered in the courts of Babylon. They didn’t decide to give up food entirely – they gave up the rich foods that everyone around them were so focused on. They didn’t want their lives to be about dessert – they wanted their lives to be about seeking God, and at the end were stronger and healthier and smarter than those who spent their days indulging in eating anything they craved.
If you feel convicted that you are spending too much of the life God has given you watching TV, you might decide to give it up entirely for a period, or you might decide, like Daniel did, to set reasonable limits for yourself. That’s OK. The point is that you get your priorities straight. What are your priorities? – to love God and love people.
Who do you tell?
"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:16-18)
The Pharisees in Jesus time would actually have a pair of raggedy clothes just for fasting. They would put on these clothes, stop bathing, and stop washing their hair. They would take dirt and ash and rub it all over their bodies and walk through the streets telling everyone that they were fasting and suffering in order to grow more holy. Some people probably admired their conviction. I hope so, because Jesus said that admiration of people is all the reward these people will ever get.
Jesus said, if you want to fast, take a bath. Wash your hair. If you really want to focus your attention on God and make him more of a priority in your life, that is between you and God, not something to be played out in front of everyone you meet.
[When fasting doesn’t work]
Slide graphic – fork in road. One fork (labeled “my way”) leading to an amusement park. The other fork (labeled “God’s way”) leading into the woods.
Slide text –
1 "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ’Why have we fasted,’ they say, ’and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ "Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD ?”
(Isaiah 58:1-5)
Probably the longest passage in the Bible on fasting is the 58th chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah describes that in those days, people seemed eager to learn about God and grow closer to Him – they even practiced “fasting.” But God didn’t answer their prayers. He didn’t help them out with their problems. He called them sinful and rebellious. Why was their fasting ineffective? This is important, because there have certainly been times in my life when it appeared to me that I was doing all the right things, but God wasn’t coming through for me.
It was ineffective because they were just going through the motions – pulling the lever on the Fasting slot machine and complaining that they weren’t getting the payoff they expected. They really didn’t want to change their lives, they just wanted God to make the lives they were living easier.
Look at this picture. The Israelites were off down the right-hand path. They were focused on living the good live for their own pleasure. But, even though they had turned away from God and had no intention of turning back, they still wanted God to keep his promises to take care of them. They thought all they had to do was perform a little ceremony, skip a meal or two, and, poof!, God takes care of everything and makes their lives easy again.
Is this really fasting? No! Fasting is setting aside the things that are distracting you from your highest priority – seeking God.
The point is to make God your highest priority. Set aside anything that distracts you from that. Then, when God sees that your heart is seeking Him, he will reward you. It’s not the skipping of a meal or memorizing a verse or whatever that God wants – He wants to be your highest priority.
[Fasting isn’t a quick fix]
Slide graphic – same as last slide
Slide text - 6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
(Isaiah 58:6-7)
God tells the Israelites that if they set aside the things that are distracting them and make Him their highest priority, he will
• Correct injustice
• Make their burdens lighter
• Send revival
• Break the hold of depressions and addictions
That is His desire, but he can’t take care of all of this if you have chosen to walk another path. God says that He never took these things away from His people. They are all still there waiting, but they are waiting on the left-hand path. It was you who walked away from those things, God didn’t take them away. God isn’t going to pick up these blessings he has for you (justice, revival, delivery, etc.) and bring them over to you on the right-hand path just because you performed a ceremony. If you want them, you need to set aside these things that you are reaching for and reach for God instead. Yes, you’ve drifted away, but it’s not too late. I don’t care how long it’s been that you have been walking down that right-hand road - there’s another fork in the road in front of you right now. Don’t pretend God isn’t keeping up His end of His promises to take care of you and you are forced to walk your own road, take care of your own self. God’s path for you is right there in front of you right now. All you have to do is turn away from the things that are distracting you and turn to God instead. And what do we call that? We call is fasting. Purposely setting aside distractions in order to turn our faces to God.
If you Follow Gods path, not only does He have all of this and more waiting for you, but what’s more, you will be his instrument in the world, bringing food, shelter, and clothing to those who are in need (v7).
[Your light will break forth like the dawn]
Slide graphic – same as previous
Slide text - 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
(Isaiah 58:8-11)
Read this with me. Doesn’t that sound like the life you want? It does to me! I want those things – I need those things. The Bible says you don’t have to earn them or beg for them. They are right there waiting for you right now. But they are on the left hand path. If you walk away from God, you are walking away from everything He has to offer. If you want these things, you have to turn away from the things you have been chasing after and turn to God instead?
As a Christian – what should your priorities be? The great commandment – Love God and love people. Anything that distracts you from that is pulling you down the right-hand path.
[The day is coming…]
Slide graphic (background) – desert scene – dunes
Slide text - 11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
12 Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.
13 In that day the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst.”
(Amos 8:11-13)
This passage in Amos is prophecy about the last days of the earth before God returns – a time when the word of God is no longer taught in our land. But this passage is just as relevant when applied to your own life. You are going to go places in your life where there isn’t a strong church, where you don’t have close friends who are committed to Christ. Bad things will happen and there will be no one to stand beside you and shore up your faith. You are going to go through the dry places where there is a famine of the word of God in the world around you. If you haven’t built that faith up inside yourself, you will have a very difficult time. I know I did.
For me, that famine came the day I left home. Statistics show that this is true of many young people. One day you will be out on your own. No one will be there to tell you what to do and to make sure you do it. You can slack off as much as you like. Only you will be responsible for your life.
If you don’t have spiritual habits – things that you do regularly on your own to keep you plugged in to God – you will drift away. You will follow the easy path and find yourself far from God.
Life is lived poised at the edge of the slippery slope. If you aren’t hammering stakes into the ground, you will eventually slide over the edge.
Don’t let this happen to you! Have the strength of character, the strength of will to develop spiritual habits! Choose to strap yourself to God! That choice is the only thing that God can’t help you with. That’s the way He created us – the choice must be yours. Not to choose just once, but to choose again each day the road that leads closer to God.
This summer, we are going to talk about a few spiritual disciplines – spiritual habits that you can practice on your own to keep yourself headed in the right direction and build up your spiritual strength. We can teach, we can explain, we can give you tools, we can encourage, and we can hold you accountable, but only you can pick them up and make them part of your life.
As one final illustration of the difference that spiritual habits can make in your life, let’s go outside for a minute…
[outside demonstration]
To perform this illustration, you’ll need a couple of 2 liter bottles of coke and a couple of rolls of Mentos mints. I got the cheap store-brand cokes at a local super store. It doesn’t matter what kind, but you can see darker colas better, and diet is less sticky to clean up. I got the Mentos at a local gas station (for some reason, the super store didn’t carry them). You’ll need a table you can get messy. It also helps a lot if you have a clear plastic tube just slightly larger than the mentos roll. I used an old Christmas candy cane – the kind that comes filled with M&Ms.
You may consider yourself a pretty good Christian. Like this coke, you look pretty good. You are tasty, refreshing, and full of fizz! These mentos are like spiritual disciplines. This one is fasting. This one is tithing. This one is scripture memorization. This one is keeping a prayer journal… (put each in the tube)
(open the bottle of coke) (take a drivers license or something similar, hold over the open end of the tube, turn the whole thing upside down, and hold it down on top of the open coke) This coke is your life. These mentos are spiritual disciplines. And this (pull out the card, let the mentos fall into the coke bottle, and back up) is your life filled with the power of spiritual disciplines.
(I bought enough materials for two runs. I did it myself the first time, because I really wanted to and because I wanted people to see how messy it was before they volunteered and got their clothes drenched in cola before the main service. The second time I called for a volunteer. I had plenty, so I used the person who had answered the questions I asked in the lesson, like “what is the great commandment?”)
(The coke will fountain out of the bottle – six to eight feet easily. You’ll probably only have an inch or so of coke left in the bottle when you are done. The science behind this has nothing to do with an acid-base reaction, though there is carbonic acid in the cokes – the dissolved carbon dioxide gas that gives cokes that “bite”. The real reason is the surface texture of the mentos. They are covered with tiny micro-pits, like the surface of the moon, and that surface is perfect for bubble formation. Have you ever poured coke into a glass with a scratch on the inside and seen bubbles form all along the scratch? Same thing. Wintergreen lifesavers will do the same thing, but they are so light that they float on top and just foam. The mentos are heavy enough that they fall to the bottom of the coke and form gas very quickly. That gas is underneath all the liquid coke and shoots it out the small opening at the top as the gas expands. This is a very “powerful” demonstration. BTW, if you leave the coke bottles out in the sun to warm up before you open them, the effect is even greater.)
[Prayer]
1 O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
Psalms 63
21Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Luke 6:21
