092522-“Whenever You Fast”...Matthew 6:16-18
The Biblal Doctrine Of "Total Depravity”
-Does not mean that we are as wicked or sinful as we could be!
-God has created us with a conscience to know right & wrong.
-This Bible doctrine simply means we have no ability in ourselves to obey God!

Jeremiah 17:9..."The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?”

Romans 3:10-12...“There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good,
not even one”

Isaiah 64:6...“But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away”

Luke 9:23...“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”

Romans 7:18-20...“For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me”

Romans 8:13...“For if you live according to the flesh, you will die! But if, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.”

Matthew 6:16-18...“Whenever you fast, don’t be sad-faced like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so their fasting is obvious to people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward! But when you fast, put oil on your head, and wash your face, so that you don’t show your fasting to people but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Sermon In A Sentence: Fasting Is A Spiritual Discipline that is to be done privately for the purpose of denying power to your flesh & giving power to the Spirit.

Jesus Teaches Us About Fasting:
-Fasting helps us to identify our idols
-Fasting is expected of believers following Jesus
-Fasting has a spiritual warning against hypocrisy
-Fasting is intended to sharpen our focus on God
-Fasting will be rewarded by the Father

What Is An Idol? “Anything that we come to rely on for some blessing, or help, or guidance in the place of a wholehearted reliance on the true and living God.” -John Piper