You know, Mr. Boss, if I had left here as it grew maggoty, nursery — oh, not surfer, sir, they sure do this.
Hello, my name is Denny Finnegan, and we welcome all of you back to joining us with worship. Whether it’s your first time or you’re returning again, we’re just very thankful to have this opportunity to be able to share this worship experience with you.
But before we begin, I just wanted to say happy Mother’s Day to all the moms that are out there. Really, I’m kind of sad. As our staff was talking about it, we realized that this year we won’t be able to celebrate and do something special for our moms on Mother’s Day. With the possibility of how things may go, we’ll have to see what happens with Father’s Day. However, when we have the opportunity, we’re going to be doing a joint celebration for moms and dads down here at the church when we can finally get back together. So we’re looking forward to that opportunity.
Before we begin our time of worship, I have a few announcements I want to share with you. You’ll be able to find those announcements if you go to the church website. Look under either resources or news and events, and you’ll be able to find the bulletins. If you explore around for a bit, the bulletins for today will have the announcements at the very end of the order of worship.
One thing I’ll just mention: I am really enjoying seeing what people are bringing down for People Helping People to the church. We’re receiving canned food items, fresh food items, and as they accumulate, we put the fresh food stuff in the refrigerator downstairs. Then on Monday or Tuesday, I take all those food items down. You really are blessing a lot of people, so my thanks to you.
The second announcement is: if you believe this worship service might bless someone or be of benefit to someone, the link for the service is also in the announcements. You can copy and paste it either into an email, or if you go on your phone, you could actually text the link to some people like Marsha does to some of her family members.
Third, if you have any prayer requests, please make sure to call them into the church office. Either Carrie will write it down and get it to me, or you can leave a voicemail. The other option, too, is if you have my email address (you can find it through the church website), you can email me, and we’ll get those out. There are some really important things going on for church members right now, and we want to make sure we stay supporting one another.
The fourth announcement I have is: a week from the Sunday that you’re viewing this worship service, May 17th, we’re going to be celebrating communion again. The instructions for our virtual communion will be there for you at the end of the order of worship in the announcements. So please take some time, and if you would like to join us for communion on that next Sunday, please take a look through that and let’s prepare again for a communion service like we did back on April 19th.
Before we move into our time of worship, one of the things I believe is so important for us to do is to remind ourselves why we gather, by reminding ourselves what we have been called to do—the mission of our church. The statement, I believe, may be on one of our screens behind me, but it is also going to be put onto the video feed.
So, if you would please join with me right now in our mission statement:
We serve to build relationships. We build relationships to share the gospel.
That is why we come, so that we can be sent back out.
Now, as we prepare for our time of worship with our call to worship, we’re going to stop first and pray and ask the Holy Spirit to, as Jesus said, ‘harness’ us, so that we might be able to worship in spirit and in truth.
So please let me pray for you right now.
Holy Spirit, you are our counselor, the one who teaches us all things as Jesus desires. The one who comes alongside us. And Jesus said that we need you to worship in spirit and in truth. So, Holy Spirit, we offer ourselves to you in this time. Prepare us now through this call to worship to give ourselves to Jesus Christ, and it is in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.
Our call to worship this Sunday is from Psalm 104, verses 30 through 34, and again, it is meant to be an offering of ourselves through the offering of this call to worship. It is a responsive reading. I will read both parts, and then the third part will be in unison together.
‘When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. May the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in his works, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke.
Not together, I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.’ Amen.
Now, as an opportunity to further prepare ourselves, let us respond with our prayer of confession. This will also scroll through the screen, so please join with me:
Almighty God, we need Christ to renew our commitment. We confess that sometimes our lack of faith has made us fearful. We acknowledge that we have sinned and gone astray. We have foolishly let our desires lead us away from your plans and purposes. May you once more set our course firmly in your direction. Let us not turn our faith into a lifeless ritual. Let us discern your call upon our lives.
Holy Spirit, let us feel the healing and forgiveness from the cross. Lord Jesus, let us hunger for the power and truth of your word. Heavenly Father, may your spirit linger in our hearts today and every day and bring renewal into our lives as we go out and serve you this week.
In Jesus’ mighty name, we pray. Amen.
Let’s pause right now to respond to it with your own personal confession, and then I will close this part of the service with an assurance of pardon as well.
Lord Jesus, if there are any ways we have drifted away from your will, either because of complacency or because there’s something going on in our lives we’re not allowing you to deal with—whether it’s a relationship with someone that we’re holding a grudge or anger towards, or whether it’s something that’s hurting us inside because of what so many have said. It might even be something that we have done to them—forgive us, Lord Jesus.
Lord Jesus, if there is also something that you are calling us to do that we have tried to ignore, give us the desire and the courage to face it, and to surrender ourselves to the work that you have prepared in advance for us to walk in.
And now, I say to you that as you lift these things up to Jesus and let go of them to him, Jesus declares that as we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Know that you are forgiven, and I say, be set free, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
One of the opportunities we have to respond to this prayer of confession, as well as to continue in our worship, is through the opportunity of offering a song to the Lord. I like to think of the music we do as music prayers to the Lord—prayers of praise and thanksgiving.
So let us confess together through the hymn ‘Fairest Lord Jesus.’
[Follows musical portion.]
Normally, in this part of the worship service, we have the opportunity as a community to respond in worship through the offering of our tithes. First, I just simply want to say thank you again for those who are continuing to support the ministry that God is doing through this church with your donations and your tithes. So many different ways God is blessing us, and I thank you for your participation with that.
I would ask you at this time, though, to prepare. Fully consider what it is God might ask you to continue to give. It might be to some charity or ministry within the community, or it might be to support the ministry that is ongoing through this church.
At the end of the bulletin, the very first announcement gives you some directions on how you might be able to donate through the church using the QR code or to mail in a check to the church office. Or you could explore the website and find out how to give online.
Whichever way it is you do it, I give thanks for the way the Lord is using you for this ministry. Let’s give thanks right now for these gifts that have come in and will become an end.
Please join with me.
Lord Jesus, I praise you and thank you for this opportunity to serve your kingdom through the financial stewardship that you have entrusted to our lives. I present these gifts to you, Lord Jesus. May they be multiplied like you did with the fishes and loaves. May they be used for your honor and glory.
It’s in Jesus’ precious name that we pray. Amen.
I’m very thankful for this opportunity to share the Word of God with you, and in particular, we are continuing on with our series in the Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 6, as a part of what we are listening to for God’s instruction for our lives.
I just want to remind you, too, that before the announcements in the bulletin, there is a sermon outline that I put there that you can use to take notes with, and I hope that you might bring that out when we get near the end of the sermon, particularly for the personal application I’ll be offering to you at the end.
But right now, before I share with you this word from the Gospel of Matthew, let me just ask the Holy Spirit to come to be our teacher in this time and to prepare us, so please join with me in prayer.
Holy Spirit, I thank you that it’s your desire to come alongside us with the Word of God to represent Jesus to us. It’s almost as if you help us hear the words as if we were in that group of followers who are on the road or in the crowd, hearing Jesus speak it to us as if it’s for the very first time. Holy Spirit, refresh and renew our ears, our eyes, and our heart to the Word of God.
And now, I speak the Lord’s blessing upon you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Here now this instruction from Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, ‘And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Over the past few weeks, we started in the beginning of Matthew chapter 6 by looking at the practice of acts of compassion—that was a spiritual discipline back in their day—and then we moved to instruction that Jesus gave about the way God would like us to pray, the attitude that we should have, and then the specific ways that Jesus said are how God likes us to pray.
Last week and today, we are going to be looking at a third spiritual discipline, a practice of faith that was very important to God’s people back then—in particular, this one is about fasting. But what is the big deal about fasting?
As I reflected upon the subject and the discipline of fasting, it struck me that you and I have already been fasting for years. If you don’t believe me, then tell me: what is the name of the first meal you have most every morning? It is called ‘breakfast.’ The Greek word for ‘fast’ literally means ‘not to eat,’ which is what most of us do from supper until sometime after we get up in the morning—but usually not for spiritual purposes. This first meal of our day got its name simply because, when we arise from our beds, we take a break from not eating; we break fast.
But for some reason, the idea of fasting causes many followers of Jesus great anxiety, especially when it is spoken of as something we should do regularly as a regular part of our following Jesus. I believe that is what I hear Jesus saying in the very first part of verse 16: ‘when you fast regularly for the kingdom of God.’
Jesus said, ‘And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.’ Did you notice Jesus did not say ‘if you fast,’ but ‘when you fast’? In Jesus’ time, fasting, along with prayer and acts of compassion, were seen as three very important disciplines of faith that followers of God practiced regularly, and Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6 was not to stop us from practicing them, but to get us to practice these disciplines of faith in a way that pleases God.
So again, like Jesus did with prayer and acts of compassion, Jesus sends us to our room, to the secret place, so that this third essential discipline of faith can be practiced by faith for the sole pleasure of God. That is why Jesus concluded his teaching—like he did with the previous two about fasting, and I mean about acts of compassion and prayer—with the statement that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
There it is again, going to the secret place. So this morning, we will be looking at two good reasons why fasting is essential to our faith.
These two good reasons we’re looking at are a summary of principles and truths about prayer combined with fasting that I’ve been personally challenged by over the past 35 years. But I have to begin with a confession: I still struggle with fasting, and most of you probably do too when you sense that call to do it or even over the thought of it.
Which is why the first reason that we are going to be looking at has been so important for me to remember whenever I sense God’s call to pray and fast.
Good reason number one is this: it’s to humble ourselves before God. Now, one person of faith that stands out to me for this model is Nehemiah. Here is testimony from Nehemiah chapter 1, verse 4: ‘As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.’
We don’t know how long he fasted and prayed, but what we do know is that the context for this verse is that God’s people were in a crisis, and Nehemiah chose to respond rather than just react to the bad news he received about God’s people back in Jerusalem by combining prayer with fasting so he could share his heart with God.
I have shared this verse with you before when I spoke about the importance of prayer—particularly how essential prayer is to hear the voice of God when we are confronted by a crisis. But we never really talked about how fasting connects to this work of prayer.
Here are some things I have noticed and have experienced when I have sensed the Holy Spirit’s call to combine prayer with fasting. Now, I think many of you who know me are aware of how much I enjoy food, so when I sense God’s call to combine prayer with fasting, it is a real challenge for me. But through this challenge, I sense Jesus doing something with it.
It seems as if Jesus wants me to demonstrate that he is more important to me than food. It is a call to shift my desires from food to a hunger and thirst for God. In order to persevere in prayer and fasting, I also find myself becoming more reliant upon God’s grace and strength as I surrender my will for food to ‘your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’
But I’ve also discovered that this prayer—this phase of prayer combined with fasting—is not complete until I actually have humbled myself enough to hear, to listen, and to obey God. What I have discovered is that prayer and fasting humbles me enough to better hear God’s voice of truth.
As the Bible constantly testifies, one truth of God is vitally more important than thousands of our opinions. So which do you rely upon? Your opinions or God’s truth?
If we do not get this part of prayer and fasting as a means to humble ourselves before God—if we don’t get this right—then we won’t be ready for what God wants to do next through prayer and fasting, which is the next good reason that I’m going to be sharing with you:
Prayer and fasting is good as a breakthrough for God’s kingdom. While these two good reasons for prayer and fasting are demonstrated through the book of Nehemiah throughout the book, as he sought the voice of God in order to serve the will of God, I believe that Jesus proves these two good reasons even more dramatically in Luke chapter 4, verses 1 through 2, as I’m going to share a verse thirteen.
Also, this is known as the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Here is what is written: ‘And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And Jesus ate nothing during those days, and when they were ended, he was hungry.’ Then I’m going to go on down to verse 13, the conclusion at this time, and say, ‘And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Jesus until an opportune time.’
Jesus’ prayer, combined with fasting, prepared Jesus to stand firm in the authority of God’s truth and not yield to the devil. As Jesus stood firm in obedience to the Father, the devil had to yield to the Father’s will and authority through Jesus and departed from Jesus—that is, until the devil could arrange, as it says in verse 13, for another opportune time to tempt Jesus again.
Each time Jesus stood firm against these attacks, the devil gave up more and more ground to Jesus until Jesus totally undid the devil’s plans against Jesus through the victory of Jesus’ cross. Through Jesus, we see how prayer and fasting will prepare us to deal with power encounters of temptation from the kingdom of darkness, as it also did for Jesus. And as we also stand firm in the authority of God’s truth, the devil and his servants become defeated and must yield to what God wants to do through us as God’s victory is established in us.
God’s victory is established by our obedience to Jesus. What Jesus demonstrates is how prayer, combined with fasting, led by the Holy Spirit, before we step out into ministry, brings about breakthroughs for the kingdom of God. The advance of God’s kingdom was at the heart of Jesus’ will, at the heart of all that Jesus wanted to see the Father do through him and now wants to continue to do through us.
But the real question given to us is: What do we want to see God do through us? I believe I already know what Jesus wants to do through us because Jesus tells us in John chapter 14, verses 12 through 13: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will they do because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son.’
Jesus never meant for the ministry he started to stop. But I believe there is a mistake—actually, probably more like a lie of the devil—that much of the Church of Jesus Christ has bought into because Jesus paid it all. We have mistakenly believed that we don’t have to do much of anything at all for Jesus.
As I heard one preacher say a while ago, many Christians only want to be saved so that they can wait at the heavenly bus stop for their ride to heaven. But the truth is this: Jesus wants us to continue the ministry he started. His death and resurrection make that possible.
But the issue for us is not so much a matter of power and authority from God, but a matter of our will. In other words, will we continue to do what Jesus did? Will we desire to see God’s kingdom come, God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, as many of us often pray in the Our Father or Lord’s Prayer—whatever you call it?
If we do desire to see God’s kingdom will continue to break through through us, like it did with Jesus, then a vital key to that happening is through prayer and fasting.
So I would like to end our time this morning by looking at the faith practice of prayer with fasting. Now, again, it would be good to have your sermon notes there, or at least something to write on. I’m going to mention just two steps that you and I can take that will begin, first, to transform us, and then, second, to transform our world around us for the kingdom of God.
Here’s step number one: we must have a hunger and thirst for God. That is how King David expressed it before he was king—and it was in a crisis. Hear his cry for God in Psalm 63, verse 1. It writes: ‘A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah: Oh God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints or hungers for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.’
King Saul and his army were chasing David in the southern wilderness of Israel to kill him. So David declares in this crisis that his only hope was to hunger and thirst for God.
As David, Jesus, and so many other people of faith have demonstrated, if we want to see the kingdom of God break through into our world, the kingdom of God has to break into our lives first. That happens only when we take the time to show God how earnest, thirsty, and hungry we are for him and his presence, even if it means showing that he’s more important than food.
So as a personal challenge, let’s grow our appetite for God and his will. To do this, first, we position ourselves through prayer combined with fasting, simply to learn how to be in the secret place with Jesus through personal and private worship.
Now, worship is not meant to be emotionalism, but it does involve our emotions. If we can get excited about sports teams, movies, concerts, or hobbies, then should we not also learn how to express joy and delight in being with Jesus?
Then, as our sense of delight in Jesus grows through personal worship, we will become a great deal more open to the will of God. Prayer, combined with fasting, positions us to hear, to listen, and to obey what God wants to do in our lives and through our lives.
Again, let’s demonstrate to God that he is more important to us than food. Now, you can start with a short fast of just one, two, or three days, where you can fast anywhere from one to three meals each day.
But the most important part about the fasting—whether it’s food, coffee, or something—is don’t forget to pray during the meal or food you fast. Otherwise, all you’re doing is simply skipping a meal, and you’re not fasting to honor Jesus.
Here’s step number two: fast to find where God wants to break through. That’s what I believe we see the early church doing in Acts 13, verse 2. It reads like this: ‘While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Do you see how humbling themselves through worship and prayer, combined with fasting, prepared them to hear the will of God? Once they did, they were then prepared for God to send out Barnabas and Saul, also known as Paul, to start their missionary journeys throughout this part of Central Asia.
Think of how God broke through into the lives of thousands that grew into millions because they were willing to make themselves available for God’s kingdom work through the work of prayer and fasting.
Even if our prayer, combined with fasting, only touches one person, that is one more person who gets to experience the victory of Jesus Christ in their life. But then that one person’s victory could lead to one more, and so on and so forth.
If we want to see God’s victory go out through our lives, then here’s one more personal challenge: let God’s victory grow in and through our lives.
Just like Jesus had a power encounter that started off internal before he lost the outside ministry, there are two battlefronts for our prayer and fasting to fight.
Battlefront number one is this: it’s in our life. Let Jesus show you what God wants to transform in your life where you may be stuck or stubborn. Then ask Jesus for his victory through this time of prayer and fasting. Hang in there, until you sense God releasing something in you.
But at the same time, as we are on that battlefront, we also need to let Jesus help us with battlefront number two: that which he wants to accomplish through your life. Let Jesus show you what God wants to transform in your church, in your community, in our nation—where we may be stuck or stubborn collectively.
Then, as Jesus shows you what he wants you to pray, step into the work—step into that ministry for which Jesus calls you to do. While we do it, ask for his power and his authority to bring his breakthrough through you. We need to keep praying and fasting until we sense Jesus’ peace to stop.
To close and summarize, here are three things to remember about the faith practice of fasting:
Number one is this: prayer, combined with fasting, is for the pleasure of God, first and foremost.
Secondly, prayer, combined with fasting, is an essential faith practice.
Then finally, number three: prayer, combined with fasting, helps us to do what Jesus did.
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, right now I present my brothers and sisters to you. I know I struggle with prayer and fasting, but I know that when I do act upon it, it’s amazing some of the things I see that you do in and through my life. I praise you and thank you that you’re so patient with me, just like you’re so patient with each one of us.
Your desire is not shame or blame, but to release us, give us free from those things that hold on to us, and at the same time to give freedom to those that you may lead us to because of a simple act of prayer combined with fasting. Please, Lord, give us the courage to look for ways that we can practically do that—that is responsible to our health—but also at the same time shows that we are earnest, we are hungry, we are thirsty for your kingdom to come and your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Be blessed and encouraged, and it’s in Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen.
As a way for us to be able to respond—because part of prayer and fasting is for us to have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that understand what God desires—the praise course that I’m going to ask you to join with me in at this time is called ‘Open the Eyes of My Heart.’
You’re welcome to sing along or to simply let it soak in:
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. I want to see you.
[Followed by more of the hymn.]
Amen.
As an opportunity to practice a little bit of what we learned today, our time in prayer in closing will be focused on praying for God’s breakthrough in our lives and through our lives.
So again, we have this hope and encouragement from Jesus himself because he is our great high priest, as it says in Hebrews chapter 4, who has gone on before us, who can sympathize with our weaknesses, and who, in every respect, was tempted as we are, yet without sin.
So we have this confidence to draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
First, I’m going to ask you to pray about whatever prayer position you want to get into—close your eyes, keep them open, hands raised or lowered, some people kneel.
First of all, here’s what I want you to start praying about: ask the Lord where you need a breakthrough in your own life.
Holy Spirit, right now, I ask that you would come and show us what is stubbornly resisting your transformation in our lives.
Maybe it’s something we are not aware of or something we’re trying not to be aware of. Now, as the Lord shows you something, just simply say, ‘Lord Jesus, I need your help, and I want your breakthrough in my life.’
So in the name of Jesus Christ, I say, ‘Be set free.’
And now, as you’re still in the attitude of prayer, ask Jesus to show you someone who needs a breakthrough in their life. Speak their name out. You don’t necessarily have to say what you think it is, but you’re welcome to do that.
Then just sit and say, ‘Jesus, I’m here at the throne of grace in your name, seeking a breakthrough for this person. Set them free.’
And in Jesus’ name, we agree together to set them. Declare that they are loosed and set free by Jesus Christ.
Be set free in Jesus’ name.
Now again, think of one need in our community, where you live. Where does God need to break through where you live? What is he showing you?
Then by faith, simply say to the Father in Jesus’ name, ‘I am here for your grace to help.’
Father God, in the name of your Son, Jesus, breakthrough.
Now finally, think of one need for our nation. Father God, again, we come to your throne of grace in the name of your only begotten Son. There is so much going on in our nation right now, and only you can bring the breakthrough. Only you can turn our hearts to you, and for those who may not want to, we do it on their behalf because we care about this nation you’ve given us.
Breakthrough, Lord. Let your grace to help pour out.
And now, Lord Jesus, you gave us a prayer that was meant to be a prayer outline, but it was also a confession of faith. It reminds us of the ways to pray when we say:
Our Father, who is in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
I’m offering this one last chance, one last time this morning in this act of worship to be able to offer ourselves to the Lord, to the things that he desires not only to do in our lives because of his love for us, but also the privilege of doing things through our lives.
This hymn really struck me as I was reading through the lyrics and thinking about the melody. It’s called ‘Have Thine Own Way, Lord.’
So I’m going to ask you to join with me in this place.
[Follows musical portion.]
Amen.
As we prepare for this time of worship—even though I cannot literally send you out from the church today, as we’ve prepared and this time—we will be going out from our homes or wherever we are watching this worship service, and worshipping together.
God sends us out for a purpose. His Great Commission was so that he would continue to do not only in us but through us, the very commission that he demonstrated himself.
And so I say to you in Jesus’ mighty name: therefore go and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded.
And again, what makes this possible is what Jesus said next: ‘Behold, I am with you always.’
Be blessed, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
It’s the season itself. Be absolved, nine-minute.