Kaleo San Diego Church > Sermons

Hungering for Him

David Fairchild
Nov 18, 2007
Series: Acts

Acts 13:1-3: "Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 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.' 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off."

INTRODUCTION

It's easy to look at this dilemma as a pastor and think that since you've been taught about giving that we should just hammer on your will until you give. We could simply say, "You know you're supposed to give to the work of the Gospel, but you're just not doing it. So do it! You know you're supposed to live generously, you're just not living it!"

It's tempting to lead that way because it requires no transformation of the heart. You may be saying, "I know and believe that I should be generous with my giving but I still have a hard time doing it," but the Gospel teaches you that you really don't know what Jesus has done for you. You might even say, "I know the Scripture teaches me that Jesus Christ, for my sake, became poor so that by His poverty I might become rich in all things (2 Cor. 8:9). I know the Bible teaches me that I should be giving my money way but I'm just not doing it."

The truth of the matter is that you don't really know it. The truth is that you don't really believe that Jesus Christ, in the greatest act of self-donation, gave Himself away so that you could give yourself and your resources away. What this teaches us is that you know this with your head but you haven't tasted it with your heart.

Take honey for example. You can know that honey is sweet by reading books about honey, by speaking with friends who have tasted honey and have told you it's sweet, and by hearing lectures about the complexity of our taste buds and the chemical reaction our taste buds have when coming in contact with the sweet substance of honey. But if you've never tasted honey, then you really don't know its sweetness for yourself. It's only an intellectual thing. You really haven't tasted it with the same reaction to its sweetness. It hasn't gone deep into experience. When you taste it, when you sense it and experience the sweetness of honey, you know it in a far more profound and fuller way. You can know it with the head and not know it with the heart, but once you've tasted it with your heart you not only know it with the heart but also with your head.

If you say, "I know God loves me, but I hate myself," what you're really saying is that you know it with your head but you don't really believe it with your heart.

If you're stingy and only give out manageable, bite-size doses of what you're comfortable with and can control, it demonstrates your affections are actually set on money. Perhaps your affections are fixed on approval, which money gives you. Perhaps your affections are set on control which causes you to withhold. Or you're fixed on security which you think money will bring you. But the only way you're going to become generous with all aspects of your life, including your financial resources is if the Gospel becomes real to you at a heart level.

It's important that we teach you what the Bible teaches you about tithing, and we've done that, but more information won't transform you. You have to come to believe at a deep and profound level the wealth of grace that Christ has lavished upon you or you'll never become generous by grace. To the degree that you believe that Christ died for you and gave himself up for you in self-donation, to the same degree you'll become generous, and not until then. Any other fix is just jimmy-rigging and will only produce temporary results. When you come to believe the Gospel, the call of Scripture and the call of those who lead you no longer are burdensome but beautiful. Is your heart attuned to grace? It will show in your response.

The wealth of Christ's grace has to become so real to you that money becomes just that, money, and no more. Not security, not control, not approval, just money. Only when Jesus becomes that real to you will you replace your affection and need for money from something unhealthy as an idol to a tool used to glorify God.

Defining the Heart

As you begin to study the Word of God to learn and grow, you come to realize that there are plenty of terms in the Bible which our modern English words simply fall short in doing justice to the meaning, or it has morphed into something which has a very different meaning than it did in Scripture.

One of the words that I've come to appreciate in a far deeper way than ever before is the word "heart" in the Bible.

We have a tendency to take the modern definition of the word "heart" and read into the Scripture what we think it means. It's really hard to break the habit, but when we hear the word "heart" we think of it as your emotions vs. your intellect or head. We think the head is the place where we have our reason and will. It's where we think our reasonable decisions come from, and what we should do. Our heart, in our modern view, is the place of our emotions and it leads us to do what we want to do. So there is this conflict in this modern view, that the head and heart often war between reason and feelings. The heart is perceived to be the seat of our emotions and nothing more. Some say, "follow your heart," and they're considered romantics; others say, "think it through," and they're considered the responsible ones.

This modern view is not how the Bible describes the heart. The Bible teaches us about thinking with the heart (Luke 9:47, Proverbs 14:33), feeling with the heart, and acting with the heart because the heart is not simply the seat of the emotions, it's the seat of the mind, will, and emotions. The heart is the control center of our entire life and the foundational core commitments at the center of our being that controls our mind, will, and emotions.

In the book of Proverbs, the word "heart" is mentioned over and over again. It's a struggle for translators to give an equivalent to the word, so they just leave it at "heart." Perhaps the closest we can come to the word in our modern English is the word "motives." The heart is what motivates you.

For instance, some of us are willing to lose power in order for people to like us. We'll exchange power or approval. Yet others of us are different, and we don't mind stepping over people or losing their friendships or approval to gain power. These are two different motivational structures at work.

What motivates you? What are you committed to? What have you set your deepest hopes on? What do you find the most attractive and beautiful? What really gives you meaning when everything around you is falling apart?

You might say, "Jesus gives me meaning," and that's a good answer, but what does your heart really yearn for to gain meaning in your life?

The affections of your heart are the inclinations of the soul. Your affections (your motivations) are not just the seat of your emotions. Why is it that a friend of yours can take insults really well, but you respond with anger and hurt? Well, you've set the affections of your heart on your reputation. What is really important to you is that you look good at all times and never lose face. Your friend just doesn't get bothered by it because his or her affections and meaning aren't set on reputation but something else. That's why your emotions respond the way they do.

The longing of the heart is one of searching for beauty. Your heart is looking to set its affection on something and rejoice over it. Your heart is longing for glory and splendor and is starved for it. Your heart is looking to adore something, to worship something, to hope for something.

Whatever your heart is fixed on will completely determine the direction of your life. Your heart is the basic motivational structure of your life.

You might ask, "What does this have to do with money and our message?" Everything! The need of our heart is to desire, adore and worship of Jesus.

STUDY

Every January, at the beginning of the year (usually when everyone is back from vacation) we gather together as a church and dedicate three days to corporate fasting and praying. Many of the leaders in Kaleo fast for five days as we seek God for His direction for our church.

It has proven to be an incredible time of seeking God's face as we say to Him with our stomach and other ways, "This much, God, I want you!"

We're doing the same this year starting on January 8th until the 10th. Each night we'll gather together and on the last night we'll break our fast with communion.

As we enter into a time this next year where we're looking to plant more churches and give ourselves away more and more as a church, I believe we need to make this more than just the three days at the beginning of the year. The passage we're in today speaks about the early Church gathering and worshipping, praying and fasting as they sought God's will for their new church.

So starting next Wednesday, we're calling you to join us in a fast every week until the beginning of the year when we'll begin our three days of fasting, praying, and worshipping together.

This is not a command, but it is a strong appeal and request by your elders to join us as we skip breakfast and lunch on Wednesdays, and spend the time reading God's word and praying for San Diego, our church and the lives of those around us. This will be a 24 hour fast and it starts after dinner on Tuesday night and is broken as you eat on Wednesday night. This way we'll be joining each other every Wednesday no matter where we are or what we're doing. We'll be seeking God together, even if we're apart. This will give us seven Wednesdays before our three days of fasting and praying, and if God puts it upon our hearts, perhaps this will continue into the new year for some time.

Let's pray with great intensity that this next year will be a tremendous awakening of God's grace in our lives, in our church, and in our city. That God would be pleased to use us for His glory through this next year and that we would look back at 2008 as a year where God worked in mighty ways and gripped us with His beauty and grace and set us apart for work which He's called us to so that our city would be radically transformed.

Verse 2: "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.'"

Barnabas and Saul were gathered together as the church worshipping the Lord, fasting and praying together when the Holy Spirit spoke to them.

We're not told what they were fasting or praying for, but we do know this was a normal practice for them and this wasn't just a special time of prayer and fasting. It was the practice of the Church to gather together and go hard after God in this way.

We can easily imagine what they were praying to God for. Perhaps they were questions like, "God what's our next step at Antioch? What do you want to use this church in Antioch for? Should we start to planting churches? Who should we send? What should they be doing? How much should we send with them? Who should go? How long should they be away? Where should we send them? When should we send them off? Who's going to lead us when they're away?"

I believe these are the questions they were asking because the Holy Spirit broke in and spoke to them by telling them to set aside Barnabas and Saul for work to which He's called them.

These leaders at Antioch were so hungry for God's guiding and leadership, so hungry for a breakthrough in direction that they expressed their hunger with more than just their lips and their hearts; they expressed their hunger for God through their fasting.

Fasting is the expression of a longing for God with your hunger.

Fasting is a lost art and activity of the Church. If you look over the last 20 years you can easily see that there has been an awakening of worship. Various styles and ways in which God's people are creatively worshipping God. We have also had a resurgence of prayer as we have a national day of prayer and many leaders in various cities have begun to gather together for kingdom prayer over their city.
But fasting has had little or no attention paid to it. If the three-legged stool of the Church, to demonstrate its passion and hunger for God was to worship, pray and fast, could it be that the loss of fasting is one reason the Church has such small desires and passions for God?

Consumerism and Fasting

Fasting in America is an almost unthinkable activity because we are prosperous and have been brainwashed by a consumer culture. We are taught to experience the good life by consuming, not by renouncing consumption.

Rodney Clapp says this:

"The consumer is schooled in insatiability...The consumer is tutored that people basically consist of unmet needs that can be appeased by commodified goods and experiences. Accordingly, the consumer should think first and foremost of himself or herself and meeting his or her felt needs."

Fasting is barely thinkable except as some weight-loss gimmick.

It's easy to think that the reason we refuse to fast is because we have McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, Carl's Junior, In and Out and Wendy's on every street corner. But I don't think that's the reason. I believe the reason is that we simply don't hunger enough, so we settle for fast food or some form of entertainment as a substitute. We settle for money, work, career and relationships instead. So we don't have strong enough passions for God, they're simply too weak.

C.S. Lewis noted,

"if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels (Matthew 5:10-12; Romans 8:18; 1 Peter 1:4), it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, we are like ignorant children who want to continue making mud pies in a slum because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a vacation at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. As Jesus expressed it to the Christians in Laodicea, "Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth" (Revelation 3:16).

Too much desire or passion is not our problem, rather, man's problem is a lack of passion for God, a lack of desire to obtain the inexpressible joys that God calls His children to have.

When people have desperate cravings for God, the transformation of your heart, the saving of your friend or loved one, the explosion of the Gospel of grace in our community, they fast!

Our affections are simply not strong enough and that's why we are stingy with our money and that's why we don't fast. When we continue to live our lives as if everything is "fine" and there is nothing really happening, we won't fast. Fasting is born of desperation and longing for God to break in and change you and others in His image.

Do you feel desperate for anything? I pray that we seek God out as we fast as a church together.

Planning for the future of our Church

One of the things that bothers me so much about gathering together as leaders to plan for various decisions for the direction of the church is that 95% of the questions we're asking aren't directly answered by God's Word. Sure, some of them are, but where to find our next space, when to meet on Sundays, where do we plant our next church, etc., are all questions that have no direct answer from Scripture.

This freaks me out because I love God's Word and I love it when God's Word tells us clearly what to do. When I can't find an answer from Scripture, I get a little nervous because I realize that our decision needs to be made from wisdom as we've soaked in God's Word.

Yet these are the types of questions the church at Antioch was faced with. Planning for the future of the church is so difficult because most of the questions aren't in the Bible and therefore churches split over these differences.

It isn't easy, but what did the church at Antioch do? They worshiped, they fasted, they prayed. Leaders of Kaleo, there is a tremendous amount of pressure not to pray, isn't there? We have an agenda, we have things to accomplish, we all want to say our piece and speak our opinion. I know; I want to do the same. The pressure on us not to pray and worship together is incredible. Pray for us, that we become a more intense, worshipful and prayerful people.

I want us as a church to be able to say as Moses did, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here" (Exodus 33:15).

The Holy Spirit spoke to the church and said, "Set aside for me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them" and after this they prayed and fasted some more, laid hands on them and sent them out.

Sending us out

What are the "sendings" in our community that need to happen? How do you need to be sent out? What "sendings" need to happen to plant churches? What "sendings" need to happen in our missional communities? What "sendings" are needed so that we labor to see San Diego transformed?

It's not in the Bible is it? We have to seek the Lord in worship, prayer, and fasting. We need to ask Him, "what should we do Lord?" This is why it is so important that we fast together as a Church.

This fast changed the course of history

The historical importance of what happened at Antioch is mind boggling. Up till this point in history, there had been no global missionary thrust to go overseas or to bring the Gospel with a worldwide focus.

Paul had yet to go on any missionary journeys across the Mediterranean. Thirteen of our 27 New Testament books had yet been unwritten and would not have been written without this meeting of worship, prayer and fasting. Each of Paul's letters was written in response to churches that were planted which came out of this meeting.

Within two and a half centuries, the Roman Empire which had made Christianity illegal was turned upside down and it became so widespread that the Empire was considered a Christian Empire.

1.4 Billion people name Christ as their Savior today because of the mission that was born out of Antioch.

If you begin to sense the weight of this small church gathering to seek God and waiting to hear from Him and the incredible results of God answering their prayer so that it literally changed the world, couldn't it be the same for us, the Church at San Diego? Why not? Why couldn't God use us in the same way?

If the church at Antioch prayed and fasted, and God broke through, what might happen if we pursued God with the same intensity?

What is fasting?

Fasting, at its root, is the hunger and homesickness for God.

Fasting is a longing for Jesus, the Bridegroom to come back and dine with us at His second coming.

Matthew 9:14-15: "Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?' 15 And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.'"

We live in the days when the Bridegroom has been taken away (between his first and second coming). The meaning of fasting in these days is that we long to have the Bridegroom back. It is an expression of longing, of hungering and thirsting for Christ and all that God is for us in Him.

John Piper says,

"If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it isn't because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry, and to say with some simple fast: ‘This much, O God, I want you.'"

Our power for fasting

John 4:31-34: "Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.' 32 But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.' 33 So the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought him something to eat?' 34 Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.'"

Jesus is showing His disciples that His food is to do the will of His Father who sent Him. This is tremendous news for us. Jesus isn't just an example for our lives, but our substitute in our place. He not only shows us what true humanity is, He became true humanity and lived a perfect life for us so that His righteous standing would be given to us by faith.

We are credited with His keeping the will of the Father. So that our Father can look at us now and say that we've kept His will perfectly.

Jesus was able to go hungry for us.

John 19:28: "After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst.'"

But not only did He live a perfect life on our behalf, He also died or our sins. Our guilt, our shame, the things we're afraid to mention, Christ upon the Christ was able to say "I thirst" as he gave up His life.

John 6:35: "Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.'"

Yet in His hunger for the Father's will, and in His thirst upon the Roman cross, Jesus says to us that He is the bread of life and the living water and whoever comes to Him in faith will not hunger and will never thirst.

How many us here this morning are hungering to do the Father's will on our own strength? Look to Christ and see He went hungry because He was full on His Father's will.

How may of us here are thirsting because we feel condemned? Look to Christ and see that His thirst on the cross for you secured the Father's love for you so that you'll never thirst again!