Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 58. The title of the message this
evening is a very serious question. Are we playing church? Are we
just playing church? This is a very serious question,
but I have a somewhat light illustration to make my point. When I was
a little boy, we would often play church. or get together,
somebody be the song leader, somebody sing a special, somebody
be the preacher. And I don't remember any details
of those meetings. But I heard the details of a
service held one time by a four-year-old boy. That four-year-old boy now
is one of our dear pastor friends. And he was going to play church.
His congregation was his mother and his father. And they sat
down on the couch and he had him in a little pulpit there.
And this was his entire message. I can give you his whole message.
He said, God said, don't you do it. And don't you do it. Now Brother Mollusk is going
to sing a special. I'm glad he's learned something since then.
And that's kind of a comical illustration of playing church.
But you know, that is exactly what almost everyone in religion
is doing today. And it would be comical if it
weren't so heartbreaking. It would be comical if it weren't
for the eternal consequences of what they're doing. And my
question for us tonight is this. What are we doing? Are we playing
church? Or do we meet together to worship?
Are we just going through the outward motions of religion?
We just meet on Sunday and Wednesday because that's what we do. We
have some lingo we use, some jargon that we use. Or do we
gather together to worship the Lord? To find out what does say
the Lord? Are we just going through the
motions? Or do we come together on a Wednesday night? Because
I'm hungry. This world is not a pleasant
place. I need something. I'm hungry.
Are we just going through the motions? Or does what we claim
to believe, does Christ in the heart really make a difference
in our conduct, our attitude towards our fellow man? Well,
let's find out. Here's my first point. Israel
had every advantage, didn't they? But they showed us what it is
to play church. They showed us what it is, you
just go through the motions. Verse 1 of Isaiah 58. Cry aloud
and spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet
and show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their
sins. The Lord commands the prophet to go show the people their sins.
He said, lift up your voice. Don't mince any words. You make
sure that people understand the iniquity, the depth of their
sin. And you read that and you think,
wow, the Lord must be sending Isaiah down to the really bad
part of town, you know, to be preaching. No, he's not sending
him to the bad part of town. He's sending him to the temple.
He's sending him to preach to outwardly religious people who
unfortunately are just playing church. And God said, you know
what God calls their playing? He calls it a great sin. And
Isaiah had to go. He had to come with this message
to show the people their sin because they're just like all
of us by nature. They didn't know they had any
sin. Look at verse two. Yet they seek me daily and delight
to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and forsook
not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances
of justice. They take delight in approaching
to God. Now these people are, they're
religious. But all they're doing is they're
making an outward show of seeking the Lord every day. They've left
the Lord, they've left the worship of the Lord, but they never quit
the form and the ceremony of religion. They were very careful
about the ceremony and form of their religion. But that's all
it was, was form. They were just playing at church.
Their religion was for two things. Number one, so they could get
something from God. Number two, so they could make
a show for other men. To show other men how righteous
and holy and pious they are. It was not worship from the heart.
And here's a real clue to know where their heart was. God says,
they ask of me the ordinances of justice. They think they're
doing so well with all this form of religion. They're asking God
for justice. They're not asking for mercy.
They're asking for justice. And that just shows you they
didn't know they had any sin. Somebody had to come and show
them, tell them what awful sin this is to play church. They're
not worshiping the Lord from the heart. They're just going
through the motions trying to get something from God. Look
here at verse three. They make no bones about it.
Wherefore have we fasted? Why have we fasted, say they,
and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our
soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast,
this is God speaking, behold, in the day of your fast, you
find pleasure and exact all your labors. Now they say, why have
we fasted? Why have we gone through this
ceremony of fasting? Now, fasting was something that
they did in the Old Testament. Our Lord fasted and fasting is
denying yourself, isn't it? It's denying yourself food when
you're hungry. I would not do good at that. I just I can't deny myself even
when I'm just, you know, a little hungry. But the reason the Lord
gave fasting is for this reason. It's a picture. It's a representation
of self-denial. Look at Matthew chapter 16. And
every believer does deny self. Now we're not saved because we've
denied ourself, but there's no salvation apart without us denying
ourselves, self-denial. Matthew 16, verse 24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
if any man will come after me, let him deny himself. and take
up his cross and follow me. And that's exactly what every
believer does. We deny ourself. We deny the
way of self. We deny our self works to follow
Christ. Now, we're not saved because
we denied ourselves and follow Christ. No, we're saved because
the father elected us unto salvation, because the son came and through
his obedience, he established a righteousness for his people.
And then he suffered and died for our sins. Then the Holy Spirit
comes and gives us life in the new birth. That's why we're saved.
We're saved because of what God did for us and what he did in
us, not in anything that we do. And after the Lord saves us,
after we're converted, you know we're not blessed because we
did something better than somebody else. No. We need to get that
thought out of our head. We're not blessed because we
did something better than anybody else. Every blessing you and
I have ever received, it's been a gift of the pure mercy and
grace of God. He's never given us one blessing
because we earned it, not one. So every believer, even though
everything God's given us, everything he's done for us has been a gift
of pure grace. Yet a believer does deny self.
We deny our own works to help save us. We deny our own self-interest
for the good of the body of Christ. And we follow Christ. We take
up His cross. We take up the message of His
cross and we follow Him. But that's not what these people
were doing. That's not what they considered with the fast. They
said, we fasted and God hadn't blessed us. Well, that's not
fair. You know, we're doing all these
good things, this fasting, and God ought to be blessing us more
than He is. And what they're saying is, reading the commentators
and all the different words and stuff, I mean, what they're saying
is this. We fasted on the Sabbath day. They're talking about the
Sabbath day. You know, God never required
to fast on the Sabbath day. Ever. Remember when Israel was
in the wilderness and they ate the manna? What did he tell them
to do on Friday? gather up twice as much. So you
have something to eat on the Sabbath day. He didn't tell him
to fast on the Sabbath day. But yet these people, they're
saying we've added fasting to the observance of the Sabbath
day. We're doing more than God required. And you know why they
did that? Because they thought, well, God
ought to be more pleased with me because I'm doing more than
he required. But what God says they were really doing is they're
mixing grace and works. They're saying now, we're saved
because of God's grace. We're saved because God chose
us. All of national Israel believed in, and probably, I guess they
still do, believe in election. They just believe God chose their
nation, not sinners, not people. Well, we know we're saved by
grace and because God chose us and those things, but now God's
gonna bless us more if we obey the law really well. If we obey
the law and we do these good things better than somebody else
does, Like this extra fasting, God's going to bless us more
than He does them. How many years later it was, the man that descended
from them stood in the temple and prayed thus with himself,
Father, I thank you. I'm not as other men are. I'm
not like that publican. I fast twice in the week. It
grew, didn't it? Not just once in the week, now
he's fasting twice in the week. Just expecting God to bless him
because of that. And look where their heart is
when they're going through this ceremony, this ceremony of the
Sabbath day, the ceremony, the fast that's supposed to be worship.
They say, well, God hadn't blessed us and we've afflicted our soul. And what they're saying is on
the Sabbath day, we've afflicted our soul. You know, everybody
wants to rest until God tells you you have to. Then we want
to work. That's our fallen nature. The
Sabbath day was supposed to be a time when we would rest from
all of our earthly work. We wouldn't do earthly work except
for works of mercy or something, you know, so that we could spend
the day thinking on the Lord, thinking on his mercies to us,
thinking about who he is and his glory. And they said, that's
an affliction to us. Now we do it faithfully, even
though it's an affliction to us, we're doing it faithfully.
So the Lord ought to be blessing us more than he is. On the day
that they were supposed to be thinking about the Lord. We're
supposed to be resting. Thinking about God's mercy to
us. Thinking about His salvation in Christ. And spending that
day of rest finding pleasure in all of God's goodness and
mercy to us. Finding pleasure just in who
God is and what He's done for us in Christ. They're saying
this is an affliction to us. But now let me ask you. Remember
my question is not what they were doing. My question is, are
we, at Hurricane Road Grace Church, are we playing church? Are we guilty of that? Are we
guilty of saying, I come to the service every week. I don't miss and I think because
the Lord all blessed me because I'm so faithful. Is that why
we come? Is that why you're faithful?
Or is it that you're faithful to come to the worship service
because you have a desire to worship? because you need to
be fed on Christ, the milk of the word. It's coming to the
worship service. Is that something that's pleasure
to your soul? Or is it duty and affliction? I mean, it's just
a real sacrifice, but you do it so God will bless you? Is
that what it is? Or is it just a real pleasure
to your soul? Oh boy. And on this day that they're
supposed to be resting, They're supposed to be, you know, people
who play church. I'm telling you, boy, it affects
not just their attitude toward God. It affects their attitude
and action toward their fellow man. On this day that they're
supposed to be resting, all of Israel is supposed to be resting,
so everybody would have time to think on Christ and to worship
Him. This was a religious day. You
know what these fellows were doing? They were afflicting their
soul resting, making themselves rest. But you know what they
made their employees do? They made their employees go to work.
Because they couldn't stand for their business to lose a dollar.
They made their employees go to work. And they wouldn't pay
them a fair wage any day. Not just the Sabbath day. They
wouldn't pay them a fair wage. See, playing church makes your
attitude bad toward God and man. But now let me ask you. I mean,
I know what they're doing. Are we playing church? Now, do
we do the same things or are we careful to protect our own
savings? Are we careful to protect our
own self-interest at the expense of God's people? God delivers. Look here at verse
4, you see more of their attitude toward fellow man. This is what
happens when we play church because there's no Christ in it. There's
no Christ in our heart. He said, behold, you fast for
strife and debate. and to smite with the fist of
wickedness. You should not fast as you do this day to make your
voice to be heard on high." These fellows, they stuck to all the
details of their religious traditions very closely. They had it, I
mean, just every detail down. And you know why they did it
that way? Because they wanted to thump their chest and say
they were right and everybody else was wrong. And God said,
yeah, your form is just right. Outwardly, But what it is in
the heart is wickedness. You're just using the fist of
wickedness to beat people down with your religion. Now brethren,
that's something we need to guard against very, very closely. We
preach Christ to exalt the Savior. We preach Christ to lift His
people up, not beat them down. We don't preach Christ to beat
down the unbeliever. We make no bones about the fact
that we're sinners, but we preach Christ to lift people up, not
beat them up. And they had the scriptures.
They read them every Sabbath day, but they read them and they
studied them and they talked about them to be a matter of
debate rather than to show us Christ in the scriptures so we
could worship. And that's a very popular thing in our day. Now
with, you know, the way the media is over the internet and stuff,
it's easy for people to get their voice out there to be heard.
And that's what they want. They're very interested in their
voice being heard. When what we should be concerned
with is people not just hearing our voice. What we should be
concerned about is people hearing the voice of the Savior. Speak
to the heart. The scriptures are not to be
debated. The Scriptures are to be proclaimed
and believed. That's our relationship with
the Scriptures. The Scriptures are not to be used to get a gain
for us somehow. The Scriptures are to be preached
and to be declared so the sheep will follow Christ and feed on
Him. Now look at verse 5. This shows us when we play church,
this is our attitude toward both God and man. God says, is this
such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his
soul? Is it to bow down his head as
a bulrush? To spread sackcloth and ashes
under him? Will thou call this a fast? Are
you going to call this an acceptable day to the Lord? Now, the primary
goal of people playing church is to impress other men with
how religious they are. They make a big show of bowing
their head in prayer. You know, when they go through
a time of you know, sorrow or whatever it is, you know, they're
spreading the sackcloth and ashes. They make, I mean, they spread
it out. They make a big show of it so everybody knows I'm
fasting. Everybody knows I'm, you know,
oh, I'm so beat up over the sin of the people and all that. They
had the form of religion, but they denied the power thereof.
Now, do we do the same thing? This is something we need to
guard against. What is it we're looking for? Do we want people
to be impressed with us and how religious we are? Or is our interest
truly to seek Christ and to know Him, to be found in Him? And
we need to guard against that so carefully because God says
if you're trying to impress men, you haven't impressed God. God
says that religion is just playing. It's just acting on a stage.
It's not real. It's from the heart. We took
the girls to New York City one time to see a Broadway play. And we watched the play, the
actors, actresses up on stage. It was fantastic. There's this
woman in that play. She was, I mean, she was despicable. Oh, I did not like her. Just
the sight of her, just, oh, I don't like her. Well, we were hanging
around afterwards, and somebody told us, you just wait right
at the store. The actors are going to come out. That's where
they change. They're going to come out, and they'll go to their limos
and stuff, you know? Well, this woman I was hating on just a
little bit ago comes out, and she's just a sweet little old
grandma that just, you know, tried out for this play in a
lark, you know, and she is the sweetest woman. Well, where's
this hateful woman? It was just an act. It was just
an act. That's what God said. He said,
I'm not going to be pleased with that. I see through that. You
may not, might not see through it. He does. He says it's just
an act. I'm not going to be pleased with that. That's plain church. Well, here's my second point.
What was this picture of the fast supposed to teach us? I
see what they were doing with it, but what's the picture of
the fast really supposed to teach us? Well, it's supposed to teach
us rest in Christ. God says, what's the fast that
he's appointed? It's salvation through the self-denial
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The greatest example you will
ever find of self-denial is the Savior. Paul said, for you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sake he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be rich. He self-denied himself of all
of his riches. He denied himself of his glory.
Christ for a time, the son of God, gave up his glory to become
a man, to take on him the flesh of a creature. He denied himself
so that he could save his people from their sin. The lawgiver,
the one who justly should be the judge, made himself under
the law so he could redeem his people from the curse of the
law. The omnipotent God, in self-denial, limited himself to the body of
flesh. Now, he was in the flesh. He
still had all power, didn't he? But in self-denial, he never
used it for his own good, only for the good of others. God,
who has all glory in self-denial, made himself of no reputation.
God, the ruler of heaven and earth in self-denial, appeared
on earth in the form of a serpent. And then the Holy Son of God
willingly went to the cross to be made sin for his people. I
mean, you talk about self-denial, to be made sin for his people. And then the one who gives life
to everything that's got breath died in self-denial, denying
himself. He suffered and he died to satisfy
the law and to deliver his people from the curse of the law. See,
fasting was given to be a picture of how Christ would save his
people by denying himself for their benefit, for their good.
The fast was never given to be a show in the flesh so we can
show everybody how pious we are. And if we're worshiping that
way, we're going through the motions of religion that way
to try to impress people. You and I are no better than
these people using the fast for that same reason. We're just
playing church. But if we're worshiping God from the heart,
that's true religion. That's true religion. And God
will accept us. That's the only way we ever will
be accepted, isn't it? Is in Christ. in the form and
the ceremony of our service. Now, I mean, there are certain
things with preaching the word, but you know, a lot of the form
and the ceremony, the way we go about our service really doesn't
make that much difference. All that matters is, is it from
the heart? I mean, it really doesn't matter. Do we have one
services or two services on Sunday? That really doesn't matter. All
we know is the early church met on Sunday. We don't know if they
had night services or not. It really doesn't matter. It
doesn't matter whether we stand up or we sit down when we sing.
It doesn't matter how many songs. We don't want to sing too many,
but it doesn't matter if we sing one or three. I mean, it doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter. Do we have to have certain lingo,
you know, when we pray or when we preach? All that is form. It doesn't matter. All that truly
matters is, is the heart. It's from the heart. Are we seeking
Christ? Are we worshiping him? If we
are, the rest of it take care of itself. It really will. So
the result of playing church is death. God's not going to
accept that. I mean, that's what he said. You're going to call
this an acceptable day to the Lord? You ought not, because
it's not. But he promises he will accept us in Christ. So
that's my third point. What is the spiritual result
of the self-denial of Christ for his people? Look here at
verse six. Is not this the fast I have chosen?
to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and
to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring
the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the
naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from
thine own flesh? Isn't this the fast, God says,
that I have appointed? Now remember, fasting is self-denial. It's a picture of self-denial.
God gave us the fast to show us how we're delivered from our
sin and all the consequences of our sin through the self-denial
of Christ our Savior. And because of the Savior's self-denial,
number one, we have freedom. He loosed the bands of wickedness
by being made sin for us and bearing our sin away. He gave
us freedom from the law. He undid that heavy burden of
the law. by keeping the law for us and
dying to set us free from the law. He let those who are oppressed
by sin, those who are in the prison house of sin, he let them
go free by taking our place and bearing our punishment. We have
freedom in Christ. Second, because Christ denied
himself, we're supplied with everything we need in Christ.
Christ gives bread to the hungry soul. He distributes that bread
to those who are hungry. by Himself being the bread of
life that we feed upon. Those who are poor in spirit
and cast out, He gathers them together. He brings them into
the house of God. He lifts the beggar from the
dunghill and sets him among princes. Those who are naked, through
His self-denial, Christ clothed them in His righteousness. He
gave them what belonged to Him. He gave them His righteousness.
And we talk about Him clothing the naked with His righteousness,
It's not just a robe we put on. He made his people righteous
through and through by his self-denial, becoming obedient to the law.
And he does not hide from his people. They have need and he
does not hide from them. He makes himself known to them
through the preaching of the gospel. So when we come together
to worship, let's set ourselves, our hearts on these things. Think
on these things, make these things our goal. Because when we do,
here's the third thing we have. We have, in Christ, we have light. God gives His people light. Now
where there's light, there's life. You can't have life without
light. Where there's light, there's life. And there's understanding. When there's light, we say, oh,
now I see. Christ is our light. Look at
verse 8. Then shall thy light break forth
as the morning. It'll be bright, bursting through. like the sun rising in the morning.
And do you know why believers have spiritual life? Because
of our Savior's self-denial, because he suffered for our sin
and darkness. Then because of our Savior's
self-denial, we have life. The scripture describes our nature
as dead in sin. And we have every sin sickness,
don't we? We're blind so that we cannot
see. We can't see Christ, we can't see him in his word, We're
deaf. We can't hear Christ in His Word.
We're lame. We can't follow Him. We go the
other way. We've got a tongue that can't
speak of Him. Isaiah described our sin sickness as covered in
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. But Christ gives His people
life and health. That next phrase in verse 8,
And thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness
shall go before thee. Do you know why every believer
has spiritual life? because Christ died for us through His self-denial. Do you know why every believer
has spiritual health? Because Christ took our sins
and His body on the tree. Sin is what causes sickness,
doesn't it? Christ took all the sickness, the sin sicknesses
of His people and bore it away and gave us His spiritual health,
His righteousness that goes before us. And fifthly, because of the
self-denial of Christ, Every believer is brought back to God. You do not have to be worried
about being cast away from God if Christ died for you. Now,
we were cast out of the presence of God in Adam, weren't we, because
of his disobedience? But Christ has come to gather
his people back to God. Look at the end of verse eight.
The glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Now, I had to look
this up. Every time I see it, I gotta
look it up. I never can remember it. It means to gather together. Christ, the great shepherd of
the sheep came, and he came to seek and to save those sheep
that were lost. They were scattered in Adam.
He came to gather them together. He went and finds them. He goes
to where every one of them, he finds them, and he puts them
on his shoulder, and he brings them all the way home. He is
going to gather them together where there'll be one fold and
one shepherd. But then this word re-reward also means to recover
another from leprosy. And that tells us how Christ
saved His people from their sin. Who was a leper? A leper was
cast out, wasn't he? He was cast out of society. And
he could never come back into society unless the priest pronounced
him clean. Well, leprosy is a great picture
of our sin sickness. Christ our Savior came. He didn't
just pronounce His people clean. Eric, he made him clean. He washed
him in his blood. He took that sickness and he
gave us his health. He's healed us and he's brought
us back. Now we can come back. We're not
separated anymore. Now we can come back to God because
Christ has healed us. And when we come together to
worship, that ought to be our main focus. The sacrifice of
Christ must be central to everything that we do. If it's not, we're
just playing church. It really is. It's got to be
all about Him, not about us. Here's the sixth thing. This
is beautiful. I love this. Because of the self-sacrifice
of Christ, do you know every believer is heard in prayer?
Because of his self-denial, sinners can call on God and be heard. Look at verse 9. Then thou shalt
call, and the Lord shall answer. and thou shalt cry, and he shall
say, here I am. You cry, and he says, he'll hear. Now, when we pray, let's call
on God. When we pray, let's have our
prayers be talking to our Father from the heart. And you men who
pray publicly, you know, public prayer is the most difficult
thing to do. And we need to always keep this
in mind when we pray publicly. We're not playing church now.
Don't pray to impress people who are listening. When we pray
publicly, you know people are listening, but don't pray to
impress them. Prayer is not talking to people. Prayer is not talking
to men. Preaching is talking to people,
but prayer is not preaching. Preaching is talking to people.
What's prayer? Talking to our Father. Public prayer is leading
the congregation before the throne, leading them to the feet of Christ,
not so people will be impressed with our piety and our knowledge.
And here's the last one. Seventh, because of the self-denial
of Christ, we have the water of life. Christ leads his people,
the good shepherd, he leads his people to the still water so
we can drink freely. Verse 11, and the Lord shall
guide thee continually. and satisfy thy soul in drought,
and make fat thy bones. And thou shalt be like a watered
garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. Now it's no, there's no point
in trying to deny it. We have an oasis here. God's
given us an oasis in the middle of this dry land. This is a place
where the water of life is preached. Where Christ the water of life
is preached. And you know why we have that
water? Because of the self-denial of our Savior. Because from the
cross he cried, I thirst. He thirsted. He thirsted for
us so that we don't have to thirst. He's given us this oasis. And
I'm telling you, if the reason for us meeting here ever quits
being Christ, the oasis is going to dry up and there'll be no
water. If the subject of our preaching is not Christ, the
oasis is going to dry up. If the goal of our preaching
is not the glory of Christ, the oasis is going to dry up. If
the goal of our preaching is not the Savior's glory so that
the sheep will be saved, so that the sheep will be fed and encouraged,
the oasis is going to dry up because Christ won't be here.
If our goal in meeting together here ever quits being the worship
of Christ and it starts being about us, we're in trouble. The
oasis is going to dry up. If our goal is to be seen of
men and to impress men, if our goal is to gain a larger social
circle, you know, if our goal is so we can argue and debate
about scripture and say how right we are and how wrong everybody
else is, the oasis is going to dry up, brethren, because Christ
won't be here. You see why I'm so concerned
about this? I want to know, are we playing church or not? Or
are we worshipping, truly worshipping Christ from the heart? Now last,
let me give you this fourth point. That was the result of Christ's
self-denial for His people. Now the fourth one is the result
of Christ's self-denial in His people. And in short, this is
what that result is. They desire to be Christ-like.
This is exactly what you sang, Micah. I want to be more like
Him. Oh, I want to be more loving. I want to be more holy. I want
to be more like Him. They desire to be Christ-like. Let's read
verse 6 and 7 again. Is not this the fast that I have
chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy
burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every
yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to
the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to
thy house? And when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him,
and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Like I
said earlier, every believer experiences self-denial. We deny
ourself and follow Christ. We deny our self-interest. We
deny it doesn't matter if somebody's going to make fun of us. We deny
that self-preservation and we take up his gospel. We take up
his cross. We're identified with it. Self-denial
is denying your own works, that your own works had anything to
do with your righteousness. You deny self. and trust Christ
as your righteousness. Self-denial is denying ourselves
any credit for salvation, any credit for any blessing God may
give us in giving all that glory to Christ. But you know, there
should also be self-denial in our everyday life, in our dealings
with one another, believers and unbelievers alike. We really
should seek to relieve people from the heavy burden of the
law. Just have some self-denial and
don't be quite so judgmental. Just relieve them from that burden. We should let people go free. Yeah, you might be wrong and
you might have some right here to extract some revenge, eye
for an eye, tooth for a tooth, if that's the way you want to
live. But I'm telling you, we ought to practice some self-denial
and just not hold each other's feet to the fire so much. We
really should. We should practice self-denial,
not so God's going to give me something, but practice self-denial
for the good of somebody else. If you fast, if you do something
that's denying yourself, do it for the good of somebody else
in need. You know that one of the purposes of the fast The
rich would fast. You know, I had a certain amount
of food I was gonna eat today, but I'm gonna fast. Well, you
know what a real good idea would be? Give that food to somebody
that's hungry, that doesn't have it, that doesn't have enough.
And we may not run across that so much in our world today, but
I thought of this example. Someone here in our church family
loses a loved one. Well, you know, I understand
it's hard to cook food and a drop of a hat, oh, we've got to cook
food and take it over to them. But it would be a good idea to practice
some self-denial and get that food cooked so we can take it
to them, wouldn't it? You see what I'm saying? It's self-denial
for the good of somebody else. I wish me, I, would quit thinking so
much of myself and start thinking what's good for somebody else
more. Oh, I wish I could do that. You know, we know people have
needs. You look around you. Your flesh is these people sitting
around you. I know they didn't come from
our bodies, they didn't come from our loins, but if these
people sitting around you are the body of Christ, they're your
flesh. Don't hide yourself from your
own flesh. When they have needs, don't hide yourself from them
now. Look for a way to help them if you can. Just look for a way,
not so you can gain by doing it, so God will be pleased with
you for doing it, but for the benefit of somebody else. Can't
we spread the bread, spiritual bread around? Can't we help distribute
the bread of life to the hungry? And everybody can't preach, I
know that. But you can pray for the preacher. Eric's going to
be preaching here Sunday. You can pray for him. That'd
be an awful good idea. I mean, if for nothing else, for your
own self-interest, pray for him. He's going to be preaching the
gospel here. Pray for him. You can give to help support
the work here. You can help take care of things
around here so your pastor can devote himself to study and prayer
and preaching. Do that for the good of somebody
else so the hungry can hear and be fed. God help us. Not to play church, but to truly
seek to hear from God and worship our Lord Jesus Christ. God, help
us not to look at this assembly as a social gathering. We're
going to try to have some social climbing, carve out a better
place for myself here, you know, at the expense of others. But for the good of others, that
Christ be glorified and worshiped, because if we don't, Our oasis
is going to dry up. I pray God give us a heart that
looks to Him, to His fasting, our salvation through His self-denial. Make us willing to deny ourselves
for the good of somebody else. That'd be nice, wouldn't it?
Alright, let's bow. Our Father, how we thank You
for Your Word. How we thank You that You've
given us some understanding of what this fast really means. The self-denial of our Savior
for the good of his people. Father, we thank you. We humbly
fall at your feet and worship for your mercy and your goodness
to your people. It's so undeserved, yet out of
the goodness and grace and mercy and love of your character, what
you've done for your people is unspeakable. We try as we might,
we cannot fully grasp it. but how we thank you, how we
worship you. And Father, we pray that you
would make us more like our Lord Jesus Christ, that we'd be more
like our Father, which is in heaven, that we'd be willing
to sacrifice something of ourself for the good of your gospel,
for the glory of our Savior, and for the good of others. These
are brethren and those who don't know you, that they might hear
the gospel and come to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
bless us, we pray, as we go back to our homes. Bless us and cause
your word to take root in our hearts and comfort and edify
and strengthen us in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's for his name
we pray and give thanks. Amen.