Offering Ourselves

Follow Along with the Message

An apprentice of Jesus is one whose entire life is organized around three basic goals:

1. To be with Jesus
2. To become like Jesus, and…
3. To live as he did.

Matthew 4:4 (NLT)- But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Matthew 6:16–18 (NLT)- “And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward
you.

“I fear there are now thousands of Methodists, so called, both in England and Ireland, who, following the same bad example, have entirely left off fasting; who are so far from fasting twice a week… that they do not fast twice in the month!” - John Wesley

The Basics:

1. First off, what is fasting, exactly?

Fasting is – at its most basic –  eating food.

2. How long is a fast?

1 Samuel 31:11–13 (NLT)- But when the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their mighty warriors traveled through the night to Beth-shan and took the bodies of Saul and his sons down from the wall. They brought them to Jabesh, where they burned the bodies. Then they took their bones and buried them beneath the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.

Jonah 3:4–5 (NLT)- On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

Jonah 3:10 (NLT)- When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.

And then in Esther 4, when the Hebrew people are threatened with genocide, Queen Esther calls for three day fast, and they are saved.

Fasting is both a  and a .

3. Do we fast in community or alone?

Matthew 6:16–18 (NLT)- “And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

5. Why do we fast?

1. To  ourselves to Jesus
2. To  in holiness
3. To  our prayers
4. To  with the poor

Romans 12:1 (NLT)- And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (NLT)- Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.