The Pretenders (Fast For The Right Reason)

Sermon Notes

Matthew 6:16-18
¹⁶"Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites (pretenders-actors),with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ¹⁷But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your FATHER (ABBA) who is in the secret place; and your FATHER (ABBA) who sees in secret will reward you openly."


Isaiah 58:1-4
¹"Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. ²Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God. ³'Why have we fasted,' they says, 'and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?' In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure and exploit all your laborers. ⁴Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high."

GOD WANTS THE CHURCH TO FAST FOR THE RIGHT REASON

1. WHAT IS FASTING

• Abstaining from food as an expression of remorse, humility, mourning over our sin.
• As a discipline (can be abstention from something other than food).
• Spiritual Discipline

2. WHEN YOU FAST...

3. DO NOT BE LIKE THE PRETENDERS

4. SO HOW THEN SHOULD WE FAST?

Isaiah 58:6
"Is this not the fast that I have chosen; to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?