Fasting

Well, thank you, John, and good afternoon, everyone. Certainly nice to see you today. I appreciate being able to come to services and be able to talk to several of you, as I did beforehand, and I hope we'll be able to talk a little more afterwards. No matter how many times we run into difficult weather like we have, it's always nice if we're able to come to services. But, as Mr. Crosby mentioned, we might have a few times when we couldn't meet, and that'll always be given to us so that we know that we're not able to have services at that time. But it really is a wonderful blessing if we can come. And I hope that all of us will use good judgment as we look into the future here. Whenever you have bad weather, you've got to kind of evaluate a lot of things as to whether or not you can safely get where you need to go. And I think that's maybe important that we mention that, that we hope to have services most of the time. But, ultimately, I was talking to John about that some last week or the week before. I think, at least in the past, I know I probably had some services that should have been canceled. It should have been just because of conditions that people wouldn't have rightly been able to safely go. Many people went, and thankfully, most everyone was fine. But it is a concern whenever we have bad weather.

And, of course, today it seems like it's a little easier, at least for me, to get around than it has been the last several days. So, I hope everyone is able to stay warm at home. Mr. Crosby mentioned his gas bill. I'm sure that's going to be high for all of us because, you know, the heater tends to run much of the time and not much we can do about it, unless we just want to put on more clothes.

But again, I'm glad to see each of you and appreciate being able to share this Sabbath with you.

I wanted to talk about something today in the sermon that, I guess, in many ways, is not very popular. Now, who could guess what that might be? Anyone? Something that's in the Bible but not very popular.

Well, for me, at least, thinking about the topic of fasting is not extremely popular for me.

And I know in many cases, I probably have not used the tool of fasting near as much as I could have or should have over the years. Looking back over almost 40 years now, having been a part of the church, I know that there certainly have been times when I've not utilized that tool as well as I should.

And maybe you're doing a lot better in that regard than I am, but I think for the most part, most of us tend to not like to go without food and without water. That doesn't really set well with us. But I wanted to cover something today that I hope would encourage us all to maybe put a little more emphasis on it, to think about not only how much of a benefit it is, but how much of a benefit it is to all of us as a church, as a congregation, and as a body around the world. Because it really is something that not only benefits us individually, but it helps us collectively whenever we are. And I think you probably have heard, I've certainly heard in the past, that the church of God kind of moves forward on its needs.

You know, when we're praying, when we're fasting, when we're asking for God's direction, when we're asking for His blessing, when we're asking for His guidance. And when we're doing that in an attitude that is receptive to Him, then He's able to empower us. And that's the type of power we want. We want that kind of power in order to be spiritually strong. So, I thought I would start in the book of Matthew here, because Jesus made some statements about fasting that I think are important for us to keep in mind. Here in Matthew 9, you see starting in verse 9 that Jesus was walking along and He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and He said to Him, well, Matthew, I want you to follow Me. And so He got up and He followed Him. Now, it looks like a very simple call that Jesus gave to Matthew. Just follow Me. And yet, in verse 10, we see some of the criticism of Jesus, the way that people looked at Him, because He was really different than everyone was familiar with. It says, as He sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, well, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? And when He heard this, He said, well, those who are well have no need of a position, but those who are sick. Go and learn what that means, that I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners. See, that was a statement that Jesus made in order to actually point out who it was He was concerned about, who it was that He could probably deal with, who it was that He would call and work with. Now, clearly, Matthew was one of these tax collectors. He was not a popular person. He was one of the people that people like to hate.

And yet, He was one of the individuals that Jesus was calling to be a part of the Twelve, who would initially be leaders in the Church of God. And so, you know, you find that the way that Jesus viewed people, the people that He was associating with, the people that He was around, many of the Pharisees and others didn't want to be around. They didn't like them.

And they didn't want to be affected. In some ways, they might have thought, well, we'd be affected by the bad attitude that the tax collectors and sinners have.

But another question arose as we go into verse 14.

The disciples of John came to Him saying, well, why do we, these being the disciples of John, the people who were following John, who had seen a little bit, at least something about repentance, why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?

And so, they were directing this question to Jesus. They said, we're fasting. We see a benefit of that. We know that that's important. We know that we're supposed to do it. And the Pharisees, of course, did. And yet, they did it in many ways just out of an obligation, out of a rote function. And then, something that they hoped would be noticed, and something they would hope, others would think how righteous they were. That was what you find the Pharisee fasting twice in a week. I don't know why he would want to be doing that that much. But that's what it says. It talks about fasting on a very frequent basis. And yet, Jesus said they were doing it for a wrong reason. They were doing it with the wrong outlook. They were doing it with the wrong attitude.

But they asked Jesus, these disciples of John, why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said, well, the wedding guest cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? And so, He gave them an example.

And yet, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then He makes a very clear statement, then they will fast. And of course, He was pointing out that, well, how much closer were the disciples going to be able to be to God than to be right there following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ? You know, the bridegroom was still there. He was the one that they needed to follow. He was the one that they needed to emulate, and they couldn't get much closer to Him than just simply walking around and following Him. But He said, whenever I'm gone, because He knew, of course, He would be leaving, He would be taken away, and after His death and resurrection, the church of God, His apostles, and then those who were His disciples, so they would have need to fast. And very clearly, Jesus just said then, they would fast. And so, in my mind, that puts a little more emphasis on the need for me. If I want to be a Christian, if I want to be close to God, if I want to draw close to God, well, then I ought to be fasting now. And I would say the same thing goes for you. That if you want to draw closer to God, then fasting is one of the tools that we have in order to do that. We could also back up a couple of pages, and you're familiar with in Matthew 6, the example that Jesus gave. He was talking here about, actually, He was talking about giving alms, and He later was talking about prayer.

And then finally, here in verse 16, He mentions the topic of fasting. In Matthew 6, verse 16, He says, "...not if you happen to fast, but whenever you fast." And so again, I think giving a directive from the Son of God that my followers not only will fast, but when they do, and this is what He was telling us about how we should do that, do not look dismal like the hypocrites, for they just figure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. And so He clearly showed that, well, there are wrong ways to fast. There is a lot of fasting being done by religious folks, as He was pointing to the Pharisees, that really is done with no benefit. It's not done by drawing closer to God. It's actually being done just for show. So He says, "...truly I tell you that those who fast in that way, where they disfigure their face so as to show others that they're fasting, truly I tell you that they have received their reward." And so that's the end of it. That's the end of the benefit of that type of fasting. That was the fasting that the Pharisees were doing.

But He says, "...when you fast," in verse 17, "...put oil on your head, wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others, but by your Father who is in secret.

And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Now, I don't know that this is not directly telling us that no one else would know if I happen to be fasting. I would think people in our own family would probably know.

Probably our husband or wife would know. Probably others, if we have other family members at home, they would know if we happen to be fasting. Probably would be a good idea to let them know that, so that they kind of know what's going on. But what this points out is that our fasting should clearly be done to draw closer to God. And God, who is our Father and who sees in secret, who knows not only what we do, but He also knows what's our attitude in doing it.

Why are we trying to do this? Why are we trying to go through the action of fasting or avoiding food and water? Now, that's something that, again, I think we ought to keep in mind that it was, you know, not to be done as an outward show, but simply to draw close to God.

And as I think about it, I guess I see at least one very clear example where Jesus was drawing closer to God. This was before He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. And, of course, He was fasting for an extensive period of time, 40 days. And I know that none of us are going to try that. None of us are even going to remotely think about that, because, you know, we shouldn't be doing that. We were not asked to do that. But that was one example where Jesus felt like He needed to be close to God, where He knew that He was going to be combating the ruler of this world, and He was going to overcome Satan's directives, and He was going to overcome Satan's rule, and become, of course, the Savior and Redeemer of all of us by doing so. And so, Jesus, you know, drew close to God in that way. And I know we see other examples. We see people such as Moses. Moses had several experiences where he was drawing close to God extensively through fasting. And, of course, I guess we have examples from David and Daniel and the apostles. I don't recall if we have one regarding Abraham, but Abraham was clearly close to God. And that, of course, is the whole purpose of fasting. Again, not something we like to do to afflict our soul, to afflict ourselves, to make ourselves feel bad. And, of course, sometimes if we don't properly even prepare, we may inadvertently feel bad. I know if I drink enough coffee most of the time, that if I don't stop drinking coffee before I want to fast, then I may not feel very good during the time I'm trying to fast. But I found that I can prepare for that by simply drinking decaf for a day or two.

And then it doesn't seem to affect me near as much. Whenever I am trying to restrict drinking and eating, it makes it just a lot easier. It makes me feel better. And so it allows me to be able to, I think, benefit a little more from the fast. If I don't do that and I start getting a bad headache, then you don't feel like you're benefiting it from that effort near as much.

But I hope to just point out by this that not only did Jesus tell us that we should fast in order to follow His example and follow His directive, but that the whole purpose of fasting is to draw close to God. And we see in James 4, verse 8, that if you draw close to God, then God will draw close to you. And I certainly want to be close to God. I want God to help me. I want God to guide me and leave me. And so one of the things that we can do is to use this tool of fasting in order to draw truly close to God. And as I said earlier, it is something that benefits us individually, but it also benefits us as a church collectively. If we're all fasting, in a sense, on a regular basis, and again, I can't say regular as far as how regular. Every week, every month, every two months, every three months. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that it probably should be more often than what we normally do. And I can say that certainly for myself as well as for anyone.

I also maybe should give one caution here. I realize that sometimes fasting is not the wisest thing to do because of our health. And so I'm going to give a little disclaimer that depending on what your health situation is, you may rethink the whole process of fasting and how you actually go about doing that, or maybe the length of time that you want to fast as far as avoiding food and water, or drink of any type. Those are things that I don't, you know, I'm not trying to be giving any specifics on, but I just bring that up because there are situations where people perhaps would hurt themselves or damage themselves if they are, you know, of of a health situation that is very, very limiting. And even though they may have a desire to fast, they may want to consider that whenever they are thinking about doing so.

The three things that I thought about as far as, you know, in thinking about the topic of fasting, I thought of three different, I guess, overall not only benefits, but three different examples that we have in the Bible that perhaps should keep, be brought up and discussed and be able to keep these in mind as we're thinking about, you know, when we are planning to fast. And it's not a matter of, again, how often, it just is a matter that it should be probably more often than what we normally do.

And the first one we find back in the book of Daniel, and I think we may have even gone through this in preparation for the Day of Atonement. And, of course, all of us realize that on the Day of Atonement, I think those of us in the Church of God probably know more about fasting than many, many people because we do it on at least an annual basis with the Day of Atonement. You know, it's something we know about, we're familiar with in many ways more than others because of that. And, of course, yet it shouldn't be that the last time we fasted was just simply on the Day of Atonement, or perhaps it would be right now, having just been a couple of months ago. But it is something that we don't want to forget as we go through the remainder of the year. Here in Daniel chapter 9, you see an example of Daniel. And, of course, the problem that Daniel is living in is that he is now a captive in Babylon. He appears to be a rather favored captive because he and others of his friends are receiving a good amount of benefit from King Nebuchadnezzar, but Judah has been overtaken by Babylon. And they are in captivity, and Jerusalem is not able to be the thriving city and the city of God that the people of Israel really want. And, of course, they have gone into captivity because they've been neglecting God. And here in Daniel chapter 9, starting in verse 3, you've got pretty much down through verse 19, you've got the example that Daniel gave. He says, I turn to the Lord in verse 3 to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I pray to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, O God, O Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments. He says in verse 5, we have sinned. We have done wickedly. We have acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. We have not listened to your servants, the prophets who spoke in your name. And he says in verse 7, he actually points out that we see, because we're now in captivity, that we have been wrong. We need to repent. And it was something that Daniel was saying for himself, and he was also saying for the rest of the people of Judah who are also now in captivity. He says in verse 7, Righteousness is on your side, O Lord, but open shame, as to this day, falls on us, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all of Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them because of the treachery that they have committed against you. Open shame, O Lord, falls on us, on our kings, our officials, our ancestors, because we have sinned against you, and to the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord. So Daniel was praying. He was fasting. He was drawing close to God. He was acknowledging his error. He was acknowledging the error of the collective body of people, the people of Israel. And he was telling God that we've been wrong and we need something. We need your mercy. We need you to be merciful. You have been right to send us into captivity because we have sinned. But he said, I beg you, I beg you for your mercy.

See, he was asking for the mercy of God. And he continues here in verse 11, saying, all Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice.

And down in verse 13, he says, just as is written in the law of Moses, this calamity has come upon us.

We did not entreat the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and reflecting on His fidelity. So the Lord kept watch over this calamity and He has brought it upon us.

Indeed, the Lord our God is right in all that He has done, for we have disobeyed His voice.

See, he was just clearly acknowledging what was quite obvious before him, that the people were not respecting God. They were not drawing close to God. They were not fasting like they should. They were not fasting at least with the right attitude. And they were just obeying.

They were ignoring the commands of God. And so, going into captivity didn't seem to be that unusual. He said, well, that looks like just pretty much what's going to happen. If you ignore, in their case, God's directives, and then God will bring to pass how He says that what that will bring, which in this case was the captivity.

In verse 15, He says, Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with the mighty hand and made your name renowned, even to this day we have sinned and done wickedly. O Lord, in view of all your righteous acts, let your anger and wrath, we pray, turn away from your city, your holy mountain, Jerusalem. And down in verse, mid-part of verse 17, He says, O God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, and for your own sake, Lord, let your face shine upon your desolated sanctuary. So you can almost see as Daniel is fasting and as he is praying, as he is drawing closer to God and God is drawing closer to him, he is becoming more and more earnest, more and more intense in asking God for His mercy, asking God to turn His face once again to help Judah, to help them and to promote them and to encourage them and to lift them up.

So he says, let your face shine upon your desolated sanctuary. In verse 18, incline your ear, O God, and here open your eyes and look at our desolation and the city that bears your name, for we do not present our supplication before you on the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of your great mercy. And so here he clearly points out, I think, that, well, we obviously have deserved what we've gotten. We've been wrong. We are now in captivity, and we don't have anything to really bring to you as far as how righteous we are. And I think none of us can perhaps view ourselves in that way either, that, well, because of my great righteousness, I'm going to come to God and expect that God will respond. But what he points out is, when we come to God and ask Him to turn His face toward us, when we come to God and ask Him for His mercy, when we come to God and ask Him to provide the forgiveness and the mercy that we need, and actually you see in the very last part of this section that Daniel is just appealing to God.

He's appealing to God by saying, O Lord, in verse 19, O Lord, here. He says, I want you, and now I've prayed, and as we know at least from other examples, that Daniel appeared to be praying on a regular basis. He appeared to be doing that even when it wasn't popular or even when it was frowned upon, and he possibly could be put to death because of it. But he says, O Lord, here. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act and do not delay. For your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people bear Your name. See, he was appealing to God that, look, God, we are not calling ourselves the people of God because of anything that we have done. We are called by Your name simply because You had worked through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the sons of Jacob and the sons of Judah and all of Israel. You know, God was the one who was working with them and the one who had designated that Israel or that Jerusalem would be His holy city. He was the one who had given that directive.

And so, in this case, and I know I have thought of this as I have read this particular section, whenever I am wanting to appeal to God, I want to appeal in this same way. O God, please hear. Please act and do not delay. See, that is what most of us want. We want answers to our prayers. We want answers to the difficulties and the problems that we have soon. We don't want it later. We want it soon. And, of course, God does act soon sometimes, and we also find that He acts a little later if He is wanting us to learn other things. But in this case, Daniel points out that I want to ask you to not delay. Please bring your answer quickly. And, of course, you have a number of other scriptures. Several of the Psalms point out that same idea. And David prayed about that extensively because of some of the problems that he was in.

He wanted God to intervene quickly. And I think that that is truly the thing that we can learn from this type of example. So here in Daniel 9, we have an example of Daniel's fasting and praying.

And yet, the thing I learned out of that, or I think that perhaps we can remember as we rehearsed that section of Scripture and as we talk about how it is that God was working through Daniel, that He was seeking God's mercy. He was just putting Himself out there saying, I need help. We need help. We need your intervention. And so, whenever we are fasting, I think we want to be seeking the mercy of God. And asking, as Daniel did, to let your face shine upon your sanctuary. Turn your face to us. We don't want God's face turned away from us. We want God's face close to us. And that, of course, is the example that we have of drawing close to God. If we want God close to us, then we should be drawing close to God. And then He says, He will draw close to us. The second thing that I think we should keep in mind regarding fasting is pointed out here in Isaiah 58. And this, again, is an example that I know you're familiar with.

But this example in Isaiah 58 is an example of, actually it's a contrast between apparently fasting that was being done in some way, but not being affected, not being successful, not really achieving anything. And it is contrasted here, the verse 5 verses of Isaiah 58, that's contrasted with verses 6 through 12, where He says, Now this is the right type of fast. This is the right approach or attitude that I would like for you to have whenever you fast. So let's take a look at this and see if we can figure out how it is, that it points out what's wrong with the way that people were fasting here to begin with.

Verse 1, we're told to shout out and do not hold back, lift up your voice like a trumpet, announce to my people their rebellion, the house of Jacob, their sins.

Now that's a statement that for the most part Israel is not really attuned to today.

And back at that time, if God was directing Isaiah to make those sins known, He was making them, He was wanting them to be aware that they're not approaching God in the right way. Yet day after day, He says, they seek Me and they delight to know My ways.

And as if they were a nation or as if they were a nation, that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. To hear He was talking about them going through some motions, maybe acting like they want to know the way of God, but then as they learn or as they are reminded of God's commands, they don't follow them. They ignore them. They forget them or they neglect them. And He says in verse the latter part here of verse 2, as if they were a nation that practices righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of God, they ask of Me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God. And yet in verse 3 He says, Why are you fasting in that way? You do not see. Why humble yourselves, but you do not notice.

Look, you serve your own interests on your fast day and you oppress your workers.

And you fast simply to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.

Such fasting as you do today is not going to be heard on high.

See, here you find an example of them actually doing something. They were fasting apparently at times, but they weren't doing it with the right attitude. They were doing it to serve their own interest. They were doing it in order to try to implore God to do whatever it is they wanted to do, even though they were neglecting obedience. They were neglecting honoring God with their life.

They were not trying to do that at all. They were simply going through motion.

So He says in verse 5, Is such the fast that I choose a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bull rush or to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call that a fast? It's a day that's acceptable to the Lord. See, He contrasts what they were doing.

Doing it for a wrong reason. Doing it just simply for their own interest, but also doing it and not allowing it to affect the way they treated other people. He goes ahead to say, you know, you oppress your workers and you fast simply to quarrel and to fight.

You know, that was not a reason to fast. That was the wrong attitude altogether.

And so here we find, starting in verse 6, the type of fast that God says that He can accept.

He says, Is not this the fast that I choose? To loose the bonds of injustice and to undo the thongs of the yoke? To let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and to bring the homeless poor into your house and when you see the naked to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin? See, now here He talks about a fast that is quite different. A fast where people are actually trying to look at how can we show love? How can we show respect? How can we humble ourselves and simply ask God for His help and for His direction? He says in verse 8, Then your life will break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up quickly. Your vindicators shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. And then, in verse 9, whenever you fast in this way, whenever you have an attitude of humility, whenever you are beseeching God, not because you want to get something from God, as we see earlier, seeking their own interest, but simply drawing close to God. Simply saying, I need help. I need your inspiration. I need your intervention. I need you to allow me to know how to love other people better. He says in verse 9, Then you shall call and the Lord will answer.

You shall cry for help and He will say, Here I am. Now, how many of us want that type of relationship with God? I think we all do. We all want a relationship with God where we are humbly coming before God. We're asking God for His mercy. And we're asking God in humility, knowing that in many ways we don't deserve God's help. And yet He says He'll provide it. He'll give us that help. He'll enable us. He'll empower us. And that, of course, is why it's beneficial for the entire church to be practicing the tool of fasting on a more regular basis than we do.

Because it helps all of us if we're praying about the work that we are to do. We're praying about the role of the leadership in the work. If we're praying about our part in that, our support of how it is that the Gospel is being preached, how it is that we're able to either through television or radio or whether through the Internet or through booklets or whatever it is, is being used to reach people, that it actually will touch the hearts and minds of those people and bring them to a recognition of their need for God. That's what we want. That's what we need.

That's what the church is here for in order to make that work known.

And so what we find here is this the attitude that is described here is one of humility.

And we also find on down in verse 9, if you remove the yoke from among you, if you remove the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in darkness and your gloom will be like the noonday and the Lord will guide you continually. Now that's what we want. That's the attitude we want to have. That's the type of fast that is acceptable to God as He says up in verse 6, is not this the fast that I choose? One that is done in humility. One that is done as we beseech God for His direction, for His guidance in our lives. That's how we can greatly benefit, brethren. That's how we can thrive individually and collectively. I'd like for us to back up a little bit. Normally, we focus on Isaiah 58 when we're looking at the topic of fasting, but actually you see in the latter part of Isaiah 57, the section that's probably, in my mind, even as beneficial. Because here in verse 14, He says in verse 14 of Isaiah 57, it shall be said, build up and prepare the way, remove every obstruction for my people's way.

In verse 15, He says, Thus says the high and lofty one, who inhabits eternity, and whose name is holy. Now obviously, this is talking about God. It's talking about the one who resides, as we see in other places in the north. It's talking about the one who is ruling over his entire creation. But He describes Himself, and I think this is a fabulous way to remember God or to think about God, not simply as our Father, but as the high and lofty one who abides or who dwells in eternity and whose name is holy. That's a great way to think about God.

It's a great way to remind ourselves as we're praying, who we're praying to, who we are yielding as we bend our knees and bow our head before. We are coming before the great God.

We are coming before our Creator. And that, of course, is another word, another concept that is great to remember, something we've had emphasized here recently, how important it is to remember that God is our Creator. And yet, He's the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity and whose name is holy. And He says here in the last part of verse 15, I dwell in the high and holy place, and also I dwell with those who are contrite and humble in spirit. Now that's us, or that should be us. That's where we ought to fit. Because, see, He says, He's obviously the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, but He says I dwell in eternity. I dwell in this high and holy place, but I also dwell with those who are contrite and humble in spirit. And see, brethren, that's where we want to be. That's where we want to fit. Because He says I dwell with the contrite and humble in spirit in order to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite. Is God able to do that? Is God able to lift us up when we're down? You know, Dan was talking about some conflicts and disagreements that certainly can happen among people, and those disagreements can be resolved. They can be understood, and they can be resolved, and then they can work together, as he pointed out later in the sermonette about how it is that there was resolution to this initial problem with Mark, and then how later Paul seemed to be quite accepting, quite encouraged by the way that Mark was responding.

And yet, in many ways, I think we realize that Barnabas, being the encourager that he was, he probably was able to motivate Mark in maybe a different way than Paul was used to motivating people. Paul was probably a little more direct. He was a little more stern. At least, that would be my impression. And yet, how they worked that out by just agreeing to do different things and then later have much more resolution to that, that came about by everybody, Paul, Barnabas, and Mark, and others, drawing close to God. And I think having the type of a humble and a contrite spirit that would be willing to ask for help, to ask for resolution, to ask for improvement, and even within the Church of God today. We can ask for that kind of cooperation. We can ask for that type of encouragement, not only for us, each other, but for all of us. Those at the home office, those who are scattered in congregations across the United States and around the world, you know, we all have the same goal. We're all working toward the Kingdom of God. We're all desiring Jesus to return. And yet, this talks about an attitude where we can be strengthened.

Whenever it talks about God reviving the spirit of the humble and reviving the heart of the contrite, well, that's what we can be encouraged by. That's what we can be lifted up with.

And we can be thriving with that kind of benefit. And this goes ahead to talk about how Israel had been punished to a degree. God had been angry. But He was going to remember. He says in verse 18, I've seen their ways, and I'm going to heal them. I will lead them, and I will repay them with comfort, creating for their mourners the fruit of the lips peace. And He says in verse 19, I will heal them. See, again, whenever we need healing, whenever we need intervention, you know, we want that soon. We want that now. And yet, sometimes God does delay that.

And yet here, I think verse 15 of chapter 57 of Isaiah is a remarkable verse, because it points something out about God, about how fabulous He is, about how clearly eternal He is, how He abides in eternity, and yet how He can dwell with us. If we are of a contrite and humble spirit. And that, of course, is the attitude that He is encouraging us to have as we fast. Of course, in James 4, we have a pretty clear example that I referred to earlier. But in James 4, it says, submit yourselves to God and resist the devil, and He will flee from you in verse 7. Verse 8, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. In verse 10, humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you. At least clearly tie together with what we read in Isaiah. But I wanted to go on in verse 11, because James is continuing that thought to humble yourself. Draw close to God. And he says, do not speak evil against one another, brethren.

Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There's one lawgiver and judge who's able to save and to destroy, so who then are you to judge your neighbor? See, he follows a section talking about drawing close to God, humbling yourself before God, with a section explaining the need to not be judging others, not be judging your neighbor, or speaking evil against one another, but actually trying to build each other up. And that really is, I think, what we're going to find that whenever we are seeking the help of God and seeking the humility that comes from God, well then we're able to pull together and we're able to cooperate and we're able to thrive with God's blessing and his intervention. And so again, not only helping us individually, but helping us collectively as a group. The last thing I want to mention, the third thing here is found back in Psalm 35. Psalm 35 is a psalm that David, of course, wrote. And he mentioned several things about his relationship with God, and he is pointing out here in a few of the verses, and I want to just briefly go over a couple of these verses in Psalm 35. Starting in verse 11, he says, malicious witnesses rise up.

I'm not sure exactly why this was the case, but David writes about this an awful lot.

People calling me, all kinds of stuff. People criticizing me. People wanting to tear me down. People wanting to overthrow me. And of course, later we find even some of his sons were trying to overthrow him. At least one was trying to overthrow his kingship. And not only does it seem like people of his own house seem to be at odds with him, but he had a lot of enemies.

A lot of people who were trying to pull David down. And of course, in many ways, many of those folks could have been jealous of him. They could be jealous of the way that God had worked with him or jealous of the way. Maybe they just thought he was just not good enough to be king. Because everybody knew about David's problems. Everybody knew about David's sins. And so, maybe everyone else thought it's fine to take potshots of David because look, he's just a man. He does wrong things. He sins. And yet, you find David writing about that in a number of different psalms where he expresses that the enemies are out there. They're all around. I don't know where to turn. I can't even get away from them. I don't know that I feel that way. And I don't know that you feel that way. That you've got enemies everywhere. But to a degree, we do run into obstacles either at work or with other people. And maybe we do have legitimate enemies. I'm not sure. But here he talks about malicious witnesses rising up. And they ask me about things I don't even know. So he was being charged with things that he had no idea. Where did you come up with that? Now, he could also have said, well, I know that you could say this and you could say this and those would all be true because those are some of my problems that everybody knows about.

But he said these are all false things. And he says in verse 12, They repay me evil for good, and my soul is forlorn. See, in some ways he seemed almost perplexed about why would people do what they're doing? Why are they so against me? But he says, as for me in verse 13, When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, and I humbled or afflicted myself with fasting.

And I prayed with my head bowed to my bosom as though I grieved for a friend or for a brother. And I went about as one who laments for a mother, bowed down, and in mourning.

See, many times I know we've used this verse to just point out that fasting and humble, that's what we're supposed to do. But there's more to it than just simply that. That's clearly there.

But here David is talking about doing something that was very uncharacteristic for anyone to do in the Old Testament. I mean, this is clearly what Jesus would later tell his disciples and all of us. You know, you need to love your enemies. See, that's what David was saying. Whenever they falsely accuse me, I don't really understand that because whenever they're sick, I pray and fast for them, I bow my head down as though I'm grieving for a friend. See, he was showing love for other people.

He was showing a respect for God and love for God, but he was also showing a love for others.

And see, and that's another benefit of fasting. The third thing I wanted to mention, just that fasting and drawing close to God in that way helps us express the love of God for other people. He says in verse 15, At my stumbling they gathered in glee and gathered together against me, ruffians whom I don't even know, tore at me without ceasing. They impiously mocked more and more gnashing at me with their teeth. See, this was just completely dumbfounding to him. Why do they act the way they do? And yet, what he exemplified in verse 13 and in verse 14 is what we see Jesus talking about in Matthew 5. Matthew 5, verse 43, tells us, and of course, David's example is one of the examples of this, but in Matthew 5, verse 43, Jesus said, You have heard that it was said, You should love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, you should love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for He makes the sun rise on the evil and good, and He sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.

See, David was exemplifying a very New Testament principle by doing what he did in humbling himself and in praying for others and in fasting and in asking God to help them. See, I think it's amazing to see the way it is that David wrote about that or the things that he thought about, because that's what was important to him. Now, I don't know exactly the time frame as far as when he wrote this, what age he was, what he'd already gone through, what he was yet to go through.

But what we see was the Spirit of God guiding his mind, loving his enemy, even his enemy, because that's what he said he was doing. So, as we think about the topic of fasting, as perhaps we can bring this up and maybe resolve to do a little more as far as individually, drawing close to God, and then thinking about it from the standpoint of all of us collectively, if we're doing that, we're all going to be moving together. We're going to be drawing together.

We're going to be cooperating. We're going to be appreciative of one another. We're going to be able to overlook the flaws that we all have, because we're going to need to do that, because that's an important part of the type of cohesion and closeness that God expects us to have as we collectively do His work. But as we do that, as we have that result, and as we draw close to God, I hope that we can find that we will have what we read back here in Philippians 4, because here in Philippians 4, we find an example that is, again, one that we often read, but one that I hope we can think about in this light as an example of what happens, what's the end result whenever people draw close to God.

As we do that by not only our studying and our praying, but also by our fasting, by humbling ourselves before God with fasting. He says in verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone, the Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and by supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. I think Paul is explaining to the Philippians as they were actually a pretty, I think, generous and a pretty effective congregation.

They were a thriving group there in Philippi, and they actually had many things going for them, but he wanted to encourage them, and he left them with this admonition. He says in everything, don't worry about anything, but in everything, simply by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And, brethren, that again is the same type of admonition we need. That's what we want to do. That's how we want to live. And he says, the result of you doing that, doing that in humility, doing that with a desire to draw together, with a desire to love one another, with a desire to seek God's mercy, and to do that with a humble attitude, he says the peace of God, in verse 7, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ. Now, those are unbelievably fabulous words.

It's clearly what I want. I think it's what you want. You want the peace of God to flood your life, and you want a cooperation, a peace, a comfort that comes from God living in us. See, if we're humble, he says he dwells with us. And one of the ways that we can more effectively be humble, and perhaps remain humble, and not forget just where we are, who we are, how much we need God, is by using the tool, the spiritual tool, of fasting.

So I hope that in reminding all of us of this, that it can be something that we maybe think about more than we might otherwise, and that in just so doing, we can all draw closer together, and then we can all benefit with the peace of God that he says he will give to us, and he will provide through us through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.