There is a purpose— My will vs His will (5/31/23)

Fasting— discipline

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NASB

24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. 25 Everyone who competes in the games exercises [[self-control]] in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 Therefore I run in such a way, as

Best the body

not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; 27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified

Gladiators fought to the death and our warfare is for the eternal soul

Ephesians 6:12 The word wrestle is:

πάλη palē; from πάλλω pallō (to vibrate; another form for 906); wrestling: — + wrestle. AV (1) - wrestle 1; wrestling (a contest between two in which each endeavors to throw the other, and which is decided when the victor is able to hold his opponent down with his hand upon his neck)

Who will be the victor saint them or us? One of the fruits of the Spirit is self control. It’s the Spirit’s fruit, but it’s the self cooperating with the Spirit. Is this not the case with all of the Spirit’s fruit? Does God not require the vessel of self to joint participate with the prompting of the Spirit in order for the harvest of fruit to become realty in our lives? Christian’s are supposed to have the fruit of the Spirit— right? God wants to display His fruit in our world that is driven by self.

I can assure you that God wants His place in the lives of Christians, and He starts right here with me. He starts with you and that is why fasting is a part of the Christian life, because it’s the practice of denying self so we can have more of Him.

Listen to me closely because if you don’t you’re going to be deceived, thinking I’m preaching a works based message and turn me off. I’m not preaching a works based message. Works for victory is false doctrine, so let’s dig a little deeper. Victory over sin was provided through what Jesus did at the cross. Our faith in His work aligns us with the Spirit of God, who provides grace into our lives that gives us the supernatural strength that we need to overcome the power of sin.

So why can’t we get free from that one thing? Why can’t we get free from that: Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

We all agree what Jesus did was enough, so what’s the problem? Is it because it’s just a struggle that we have to wait around for the victory? We will get into that a little more, but first I want I want to make a point about fasting with the thought of self denial and really Christian disciplines.

It requires self denial to pray, go to church, read the word, because all these require time and time is like money, if I’m not careful, in my mind, it’s mine. I give my time, boss gives me money. My time is valuable. Don’t mess with my time. I don’t like you to mess with my time. I don’t like you to mess with my money, and I don’t like you to mess with my butterfinger Reese’s sonic blast and I sure nuff don’t want you telling me I can’t eat what I want and when I want. I heard one person say early in this 45 day fast, “I mean… I’m not going to make it legalistic!— and I could tell, just from that little comment the way that it was said, that there had been conversations about this.

Legalistic? Give me a break, you haven’t even gone 4 hours without food. I don’t mean to be rude, but when you’re fasting, you’re either fasting or you’re not fasting. You determine between you and God how long you will fast and then you fast. If it’s 4 hours, then you fast 4 hours, and if something happens and you have to eat in 3.5 okay, you broke the fast. The reason may have been legit, you might not have been had a bad headache, whatever the reason, you broke the fast, but you don’t go into each day saying, “Okay, Pastor asked us to pray about this 45d fast thing, and this is the answer I got. I will fast 12 hours per day from 6 to 6 for 1 week” but then everyday at 4 you say, “I mean, I’m not going to be legalistic about it, so I’m going to go ahead and eat now.” Can I just say this, that’s not a fast, that’s disobedience.

Do what you want man. It’s your body. It’s your life. It’s your choice. Eat what you want, when you want, how much you want, but don’t call it fasting. You’re either fasting or you’re not fasting. Part of fasting is connected to endurance. This brings me back to Paul saying I discipline my body. Fasting and prayer is connected to endurance and I’m sorry endurance is important in battle. Mental tenacity is important in battle. Am I going to always be a person that just always gives in to temptation? I mean I’m doing okay from 6-4, but boy those last two hours, man that’s rough. I do okay with the porn for a week or so, but man after 8 days, the weed… I’m good for about 3 months or so, the whatever it is… in the message of the cross, we have learned a loop hole out of consecration. I have been preaching sanctification through the cross since 2002 and I have poured over these scriptures and I have something to say.

The loophole out of consecration is our struggle. What I mean is this. Jesus did it on the cross. We believe that by faith and so when we’re not free in an area of our lives, we chalk it up to, “I just have a struggle in this area.” The struggle is the loophole. Well, Jesus set me free 2,000 years ago and I believe it, but I just have this struggle. I can’t wait until He frees me from my struggle. 10 years later I’m still in my struggle….

This is different than the blanket of justification where I use justification as a pardon for my ongoing sin. He declared me innocent, so even though I’m still in sin, I’m still justified. Well, yeah that’s true until it’s not. It’s not true anymore when you stayed in sin so long that now you’re just deceived by demonic spirits, your conscience is seared in that area of your life, your conviction receptors need repair and you think you’re good but your not good. No, you’re living in disobedience.

Do you honestly think that God is playing that game with us where he’s winking at sin. God isn’t winking at sin. Jesus had to die because of sin. God hates sin. No, reality is that sometimes that’s why our lives are gripped with chaos, fear, and anxiety because of our sin and disobedience. But we call it our struggle.

Anyway, the struggle is a loophole and it’s different than the blanket of justification. It’s still a blanket but it’s a snuggle with my struggle.

Christian disciplines like fasting, prayer, studying the scriptures and the basic idea of resisting temptation. Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. What does that mean submit to God, well, submit to faith in the cross— yeah, but it also means, now go and sin no more.

Paul said it not me. He said, I make my body a slave, because I’m engaged in a spiritual battle. I live here right now, but this is not my permanent dwelling place, so throughout the day, throughout the week, I leave this place so I can go where I want to be. Where do you want to be? I want to be with Him.

So I go to church

I go to prayer

I worship

I fast

I sleep less, so I can pray more

I give material things to support spiritual work: I give my time and my money to the work of God

You’re weird and why do you do that, because I believe some things. I believe that if I will give my time and money, He will reward me. I believe that He will reward me some today or tomorrow, but I believe my greatest reward lies ahead. So that’s why you do it out of selfish ambition? No way, Jose. I do it because I had an encounter with Jesus in that church, and He changed me. I was writing this last Wednesday, and I remembered something from 36 years ago, when I stood up she said something to me. She put her hand on my right shoulder and she said, “If you keep coming back, He’s going to do something brother.”

And boy He really has. I have no regrets about the amount of money that I’ve given to the work of God other than I wish that I would have given more.

I have no regrets about the amount of time that I have given, except I only wish that I had given more.

I wish I would have read more and studied harder. I really, really wish that I would have prayed more. I wish I would have asked some of you to pray on Tuesdays and Fridays and before service sooner than when we started. I wish that I had fasted more and wish that I would have asked you to fast more with me.

Listen close, because I think that this is the most important thing that I’m going to say tonight we are all going to wish that we had given more when we had the chance. Once we see Him in glory, we will really understand, and we will wish that we had not been so selfish with our time and money. We will realize what a waste all our excess was. How we spent so much on our earthly pleasures. It’s hard to see it right now with these terrestrial eyes, but I can promise you that if you will start reading the whole counsel of God’s word and not just stay in your little pea patch where you like to dwell, you will begin to realize how true what I’m telling you is.

We like to say that we’re separated from the world, but I can tell you that we’re more connected than what we realize.