What Should We Give Up For God?
Sermon Link: https://youtu.be/3HVaay6zo2Q
Readings: Jonah 3:1-10 (Nineveh fasts), Psalm 69:1-2, 9-15, 34-36, Matthew 9:14-17 (You will fast)
As we look a little closer at fasting, I have a simple question for you. What should we be willing to give up for God? (Pause) Take a moment to think about that. What should we be willing to give up for God? (Pause)
Everything.
If we were to give God everything, even our lives, it would still be less than he deserves, it would still not equal the thanks he deserves. It would still be less than he gave us.
Instead, we too often think and live in the opposite of this recognition. We have become a culture of comforts and pleasures that is often more centered on what we deserve. If we compare ourselves to Nineveh, we have a few big things going for us: 1) we are not currently a warring/conquering people, and 2) we don’t sacrifice anyone to our gods. I would say in general that is a good thing. But if we really compare our cultures we can be even worse.
Nineveh was the capital of ancient Assyria, which was the first-ever major superpower that began to become a cross-continental power. This means that their army and wealth were never before seen. Most of that wealth would have funneled back to Nineveh, their Capital city and so Nineveh became known as the city of pleasures. Food from all over the world, games, luxuries, pleasures would have been all around them, at their disposal.
When we compare ourselves to Nineveh in this way, we are not that different. In fact, we have comforts and pleasures that Ninevites would only dream of. The first things that come to my mind are modern fabrics, bedding, entertainment, technology, food anytime from any place, refrigeration, running water, images, a sex obsessed culture, modern sports, mobility, alcohol, drugs and so much more. We partake in most of these things without questioning where they come from or at whose expense they come to us. So in terms of vices, I think we should recognize that we are in a worse place than Nineveh.
You might be asking though, what is wrong with food, or entertainment, or sex, or technology? If you are, good. That is a good first question. Though I would tilt it a little bit and ask, what is wrong with our relationship with these things? Its not the thing that is wrong, it is how we use it. The Ninevites knew enough to know that they should just outright stop these relationships. So they fasted. They put a break on all of their vices, even the ones they needed, they left their comfortable clothes and put on an itchy. uncomfortable sackcloth and they gave up luxury to sit in and put on ash. So notice they fasted from more than just food. They fasted from a way of life, clothing, games and more. This seems pretty drastic, would we be willing to do this for 40 days. Even the king does it. A king who in Assyrian religion would have been considered a god himself. He gave up everything for God. Are we willing to do the same, even for a few hours, or a day?
The strangest thing about this story to me is why Nineveh begins to fast. Here is this foreign man, Jonah, who comes from a country Assyria has basically decimated and enslaved and he walks through about ⅓ of the city yelling out a single line, “40 days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown”. And that’s it. That’s all they get. What would we think if we heard someone saying this about our city? Probably not nice things. It is very unlikely we would pay too much attention, but they did. Nineveh wouldn’t have known much about Israel’s God, they would have thought very little of Israel’s army, I can’t imagine them being intimidated by a single man (unless maybe they saw him get thrown up by a whale), so what was it? Well, I think the only real possibility is that God was already shaping their hearts, moving things around them to open them up to change and the beautiful thing is that they followed. It made such a massive difference that even though Assyria would go back to being an evil superpower, Nineveh has, since then, been an incredible witness to God and then to Christ, even today.
So already, in this story we have seen some incredible and pertinent things about fasting. First, fasting for God helps us to stop and look at what we are doing and ask if this is right and good for me, for others, for God. It is to help us restore a right relationship with the stuff we are fasting from. By fasting from food, we might realize we don’t need as much luxury, or such quantities or that we actually need more of one thing. By fasting from technology, we might realize how much we have depended on it and how much richer our lives are without it. By fasting from sleep, I was kind of forced to do this while I had Covid, we might realize how much rest and energy is found in God, or how much prayer is sometimes more needed or how many ideas we never took time to think about. Everytime you fast it will do this work of digging deeper just a little more.
Second, fasting in God helps us to repent, to change our ways and it is an important avenue used to say we are sorry and try to be better. It worked for helping the Ninevites. Think about it. We know that our relationship with things and people is off, even if in a small way. When we fast from it, we stop associating with it. You have created distance to look at your desires, your practices and what it can get in the way of. Then when we restart eating, or viewing etc. you now have an opportunity to restart that relationship founded in what God wants for you. You have an opportunity for restoration.
Third, fasting actually has a way of reaching out and connecting with God. As I said, the Ninevites wouldn’t have had much of a relationship with God, but their fasting reaches him and changes God’s mind, even though they had an awful history. This intensive fasting for 40 days would then seem to become the bedrock for a lasting, familial, even municipal relationship with God. I heard the Vicar of Baghdad talk while I was in seminary and he will tell you how the people of Nineveh held onto this hope throughout Isis attacks and how it gave them such amazing faith, strength and courage. Isn’t our relationship with God important enough that we should try and reach out to him like this? Even Jesus when he is talking about fasting says that we should fast when he is gone. Fasting is a way of expressing grief of distance, but through fasting we might feel God's presence once again.
Fasting is liking reaching out to God, but it also helps us to experience and know him because by fasting from something for him, you are literally making more room for him
Fourth, fasting for God, is an act of showing priority. When Nineveh put everything aside to fast and humble themselves, they were making a very clear statement, “Nothing is as important as you God”. This should be the statement we make with our whole lives, but most of the times we feel all of these other pressures that we eat because its time or because we are hungry, we work to appease someone, or realize a sense of achievement, we go on our phone because we have a moment, or because it is how we are used to connecting. Our primary reason for doing any of these things instead should be GOD. Fasting is a deliberate act of practicing physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, the belief and knowledge that God is more important than and is the reason for all of these things. When we put something that we literally need like food on hold, we are even making the statement that God is more important than our lives.
By making God a priority, you make more room for God in your life and I believe he steps into it. That means that fasting also becomes an avenue for a greater relationship with God. So lastly, by humbling ourselves and making room for God through fasting, we begin to restore a right relationship with God.
So fasting helps us restore a right relationship with everything, yourself and with God. It helps us to show God’s priority. Fasting helps us change our ways and fasting helps us connect with God. I would urge you to try fasting from something. Starting small is okay, as long as you are willing to slowly try more. Obviously, don’t fast in a way that will put you in danger, but fasting can and often should be a struggle, because it is working with God to change things. When you fast, don’t just distract yourself with other things, make sure to take some time to experience it, to feel what is coming up. You will feel temptation, Jesus did in the desert, but if we hold on we will experience a greater relationship with God. I would love to hear your experience and how you meet God in fasting. AMEN
