New Covenant Fasting

What did Jesus say about fasting? Turn to Matthew chapter 6. He said in Matthew 6 verse 16, Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face, as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will repay you.

So just like everything else in the new covenant, it's the inner attitude and motive in an action, which God looks at, not the external action. In the old covenant, it was only the external fasting that was important, even though God wanted inner attitudes to be right. But this is emphasized here.

And notice another thing, Jesus did not say in verse 16, if you fast, but when you fast. Verse 2, when you give money to the poor. Or verse 5, when you pray.

He never said, if you give money to the poor, or if you pray. But there are people who give money for God's work and who pray, who never fast in their entire life, because they think it's not necessary. Of course, there's no commandment.

There's no commandment like that. For many other things, it's optional. But we do it, because we see that Jesus did it.

The apostles did it. And because Jesus did not say, if you fast, but he said, when you fast. So the first thing I want to ask all of you, dear brothers and sisters, is, how many times have you fasted in your life? In your whole life, you've been a believer many years.

It's like asking, how many times have you prayed? Or have you ever given any money to the Lord? Why is it that when it comes to fasting, we don't believe that we should do it? Because we think nothing will come out of it. A lot of people feel like that about prayer as well. What's use praying? Whatever is God's will will happen.

But it's not true. We'll discover in the final day when we stand before God, that there are many things that did not happen, because you did not pray. I'm not saying God's will will not be done.

God will do his will through somebody else. But something that God wanted to accomplish through you will never be accomplished. And so I look at it like this.

I mean, from my earliest Christian life, I realized that Jesus did not say, if you fast, but when you fast. And so that's one thing that, even though I didn't understand fully the reason for it as a young Christian, I did it because Jesus said it. And because Jesus himself fasted.

And because the apostles fasted. And I think the reason is, the reason for fasting is when you have a burden. For example, if your child is seriously sick, very sick in the hospital, have you noticed how you lose all appetite for food? It's not because somebody tells you not to eat.

You don't feel like eating because you have such a burden for your child. But when you don't have a burden, of course, it doesn't matter. So fasting is a result of a burden for God's name to be glorified.

The first prayer that Jesus taught us to pray here in previously verse nine is, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Very good prayer to pray. Lord, I want your name to be glorified in India, in Bangalore.

It's not being glorified right now the way it should be. And I have a burden. It's like saying, Lord, my child is seriously sick in the hospital.

The doctors have given up hope. I've got a burden in my heart for that. Do something, do something.

The same way, Lord, your name is not being hallowed in India. Your name is not being glorified in this land. And also, Lord, there are many people in CFC who are not glorifying your name.

And in some of other CSE churches, I have a burden, I have a burden. Who will have that burden? You won't have that burden for somebody else's child in the hospital. It's not possible.

But when it's your own child, then you have a burden. And when you consider the church as your own family, and the name of Jesus, and Jesus is your bridegroom, it's like your husband's name being dishonored. And your concern, how many of your wives would be unconcerned if your husband's name is being dishonored? No, you'd be greatly concerned.

So we see here that it's a result of a concern and a burden that makes us have a desire to fast. And that appetite goes away when we have a burden. But apart from that, it's also a good discipline.

You know, like, we shouldn't pray only when we feel like it. It's good to pray with a burden. But it's also good to pray as a discipline.

And most of the time we pray as a discipline, and the discipline leads to having a burden. People who don't have a disciplined attitude of prayer will never pray. If you wait for a burden, it'll never come.

In the same way, it's good to have a discipline of fasting. It accomplishes a number of things. First of all, it frees us from slavery to food.

Our bodies got a tremendous desire for food. And that's okay. It's hunger, and God's given us food, you must eat it.

But I must not become a slave to it. You know, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul says about food in the stomach, 1 Corinthians 6, and verse 13, he says, food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food. But God will do away with both of them one day.

Likewise, the body, sexual desire is a good desire if it is in marriage. But it's not for immorality. In the same verse it says, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

So he speaks about two areas where there's strong desires in our body. One is for food, and the other is for sex. And he says there's a need to control this, to discipline ourselves in these areas.

And that's one thing we accomplish through fasting, by avoiding food, and not only to food. He says, even in the matter of sexual relationship between husband and wife, he says in the next chapter, 1 Corinthians 7, verse 5, stop depriving one another except by agreement. That means husband and wife don't have sex for a certain period, because they devote themselves to prayer.

So there is a place for fasting even there. You know, Paul says later on in 1 Corinthians 9, he says we must run, verse 24, in such a way that we will win, 1 Corinthians 9, 24. And everyone who takes part in a race runs, but prepares themselves with self-control in all things, 1 Corinthians 9, 25.

And they do that to get a crown. So we also must discipline ourselves in the same way. And he says about himself in verse 27, 1 Corinthians 9, 27, I discipline my body, I beat my body, that means I made my body my slave.

Or as the Living Bible says, I tell my body what it should do, my body doesn't tell me what to do. I am the master, not my body. My body is a slave.

Otherwise, he says I can preach to so many people, verse 27, and be disqualified because I did not keep my body as my slave. So fasting has many advantages like that. Another advantage is, when you miss a meal just for one day, and you find the hunger pangs come in your heart, in your body rather, then you will know how other hungry people in the world feel.

The hungry people in our city, in other places who are hungry and poor, we get a compassion and a feeling of sympathy for them because we have been without food for one day and some of them get hardly a meal in a day. So there are certain advantages here. And quite apart from all that, when Jesus has said, whenever you fast, we fast and something is accomplished.

Now I want you to turn to another passage in Matthew chapter 17, where the disciples were trying to cast out a demon from a boy and they could not do it. But then Jesus came and cast out the demon immediately, Matthew 17 and verse 18. And then the disciples came to Jesus and said, why didn't, why couldn't we cast it out? Matthew 10 itself dotted, Jesus had given them the authority to cast out demons.

Why couldn't they cast it out? And he said, because your faith is so little. If you had faith, you could even tell a mountain to move and it'll move. This demon would wouldn't stay there.

But you don't have faith. And what is the reason you don't have faith? Because you don't pray and fast, verse 21. So casting out a demon is not by praying and fasting, it's by faith.

But if our faith is little, then we need to pray and fast to increase our faith. That's what we see here. So there again, Jesus spoke about prayer and fasting as a means by which our faith can be strong enough to drag the devil out of a situation.

As the devil come into some situation in your home or in your church or some place in your life, prayer and fasting is the way to get out of it. See, many passions that we have and sins that we fall into, sometimes discipline in our body by the fire of the Holy Spirit can help us to conquer that. Let me show you an example, Ezekiel chapter 16.

We read God speaking about Sodom. Now all of us know that the sin of Sodom was men with men, homosexuality, unnatural sexual sin between men and men. But what is the reason behind it? That's written in 1 Corinthians 16, I'm sorry, Ezekiel 16 verse 49, where the Holy Spirit says, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom.

Arrogance, which is pride, plenty of food, no fasting, a lazy lifestyle, and no care for the poor. There are four things. Pride, enjoying food without ever fasting, no self-control in eating.

Third, lazy lifestyle, and no care for the poor. If you have these four things, you can easily fall into sexual sin. If you control yourself in these four areas, you'll be able to conquer.

So the Holy Spirit doesn't do the work in us if we don't cooperate with Him in discipline. Why does Paul say, as he read in 1 Corinthians 9, if I don't discipline my body, I'll be a castaway. I believe that many of you, brothers and sisters, you've done everything right, you've understood the truth, so many things, and yet there are strongholds in your life that the devil has, which you never seem to break away from.

You know what you need to do? Pray and fast, with a good motive. Jesus said, when you pray, don't let anybody know about it, secretly before God. I mean, those in your home will know about it, you can't avoid that.

But you don't have to let other people know about it. So there is a purpose behind praying and fasting. We can concentrate more when we come together, even without having breakfast.

Or you go without breakfast and lunch one day and seek God. You're able to concentrate more, your mind is focused on the Lord. I remember in the early days when we started meeting as a church in our home, way back in 75, 76.

Whenever we had a holiday, national holiday, we would almost always have a half day of fasting and prayer. We'd come together and pray, we were just a few people, but we'd pray, seeking for many things. We'd seek for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we'd seek for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we'd seek that God's name would be glorified in Bangalore and through our church.

We were very small, despised by everybody as false teachers and so many things, that didn't bother us. We wanted God to be with us and we began to seek the Lord. And I tell you, the result of what we see today has come out of those foundation years of seeking God and fasting and prayer.

And we've lost out on some of that by neglecting it. So I'm glad you're doing it again today. I want you to see the first great missionary movement in the early church was in Acts 13, where Paul and Barnabas went out to preach the gospel and they went out and established a number of churches in different places because the Holy Spirit specifically told them to go out together.

But turn to Acts chapter 13 and see how it began. It says here about a number of people who are in prophets and teachers, they're very prophets and teachers because they're very gifted people. But in spite of that, they waited on the Lord.

It says in verse 2, they were ministering to the Lord. Ministering to the Lord means worshipping. They were not just praying, they were worshipping.

You know, when you minister to people, you're preaching. When you minister to the Lord, you're worshipping. When you're praying, you're not ministering to the Lord, you're asking the Lord.

It says they were worshipping the Lord, praising Him, giving Him glory and doing it with fasting. And while they were in this process of fasting and ministering to the Lord, the Holy Spirit spoke. So why didn't the Holy Spirit speak in the very first minute? God is a rewarder, not of everybody.

Hebrews 11, 6 says, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And when a person is dead in earnest and fasts and prays, God sees this person is dead in earnest about something. And He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

He's not a rewarder of those who seek Him casually or half-heartedly. My brothers and sisters, the reason why many of your prayers never get answered, why you do not live a life of continual fullness with the Holy Spirit is because God sees you don't seek Him diligently. Jesus said, if you thirst, come to Me, and rivers of living water will come out of you, you can drink.

But what if you don't thirst and casually ask? Nothing will happen. You got a thirst, you got a long for it. Like it says, I'll pour water upon the dry ground.

A dry ground is silently crying out to God, I'm dry, there's no water here, pour some water on me. That's the silent cry of a dry ground. And when God sees that type of attitude, it says in Isaiah, I'll pour water on the dry ground on him that is thirsty.

So they were also ministering to the Lord and fasting, praying, Our Father, hallowed be Thy name. Not only here when we are living in Antioch, but all around. And God saw the burden of the heart, said, Okay, I'm going to do something.

I select Barnabas and Saul. And when they heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, that means they felt in their spirit, God is appointing these two brothers among us to go out and minister. They again fasted and prayed.

First, they fasted and worshipped, first two, now they fasted and prayed. Oh, Lord, thank you for showing us. Now we're going to send out these two people to minister your word in different places.

They laid hands on them, prayed and fasted for them. And they went out and they plagued churches all over. This is how the CFC work started.

We prayed, we fasted, we never knew. For six years, we were in Bangalore, never going outside. We had no churches outside, just one in Bangalore.

We would pray, we would fast, we would seek the Lord, we would praise Him. We were a small group, we were despised, rejected. But all of a sudden, just like we read in Acts 13 and the churches began to be established in different places, we find in the last 30 years, God has established churches all over and not only in India, but in other places too.

And raised up, most wonderful thing God has done is raised up elders. So that's what we see in the next chapter, Acts 14. After they'd appointed, planted churches in different places, the next step, so see the different steps.

First in Acts 13.2, they were seeking God's will. How shall we glorify your name in other places? To find out they worshipped and fasted. Once God had spoken, second step, God said, send these people out.

Again, they prayed and fasted. Remember, fasting every time. And the third time, third time we see when Paul had planted these churches, and now we had to appoint elders.

That's a very big responsibility to appoint elders. Says in Acts 14.23, when they all came back after appointing churches, maybe a year or so later, and he appointed elders having prayed with fasting. Notice how at each stage there was fasting and prayer.

They were dead in earnest about glorifying God's name. They were dead in earnest about seeing that the word of God goes out. And we must have a burden today that the word of God goes out, especially with the situation that we find in our country in India today with so many anti-Christian forces.

We had to pray and fast and pray that Jesus' name will be glorified in this land, not only through CFC, but all in God's people. CFC is only a smaller part of God's work in India, and we want God's name to be glorified. So I pray that that will happen as we come and seek God together today, that it will not just be an empty ritual.

And I believe that what we start today, I hope will become a habit for many of you, particularly you young people, to discipline yourself. If you haven't started, start with missing one meal in a week. Then go to two meals in a week.

Then go to three meals in a week. And I remember in my younger days as a discipline, I'd fast for 24 hours once a week regularly. And during times of crisis, I remember in the early days, sometimes we came to a crisis in our CFC early days, and Ian and I would decide that by ourselves without anybody knowing it, he and I would fast for three days and seek God without food, just drinking liquids.

And we remember those days of crisis when at the end of it, God gave us direction for the future, and we went forward. We did that once or twice. And so we've seen at different stages in the development of CFC too, exactly like we see in Acts 13 and 14.

There was prayer and fasting, casting out demons, number of cases, just like we read in Acts 17, prayer and fasting. So there's, God doesn't want to use just one or two brothers. He wants to use all of us, brothers and sisters as a church.

And that's why we need to come together. And I believe that the purpose why we fast and pray together is to encourage all of us to do it on our own as well. So I hope this will be a good beginning for many of you to start a discipline in your life of prayer and fasting as a discipline, and gradually it'll become a habit, and you'll find a power not coming through the fasting, but coming through the Holy Spirit who's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

God bless you. Let's just bow in prayer. Heavenly Father, it's so easy for us to be stirred temporarily, momentarily, hearing a word like this.

I pray it will not be momentary. I pray you that the Holy Spirit will come upon us, and stir us, and remind us of the seed that's sown here, and that we keep on being reminded of it till our lives are changed and gripped by the truth of your word. Help us each one, and as a church, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.