To Contend For Your Neighbor

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 Remain standing in honor of God’s word. We’re going to read our primary text. It’ll be on the screen. I’d love for everybody to bring their Bibles, uh, and so you can, we’ll really be studying this throughout. So, if you can’t find it quickly, that’s okay, it’s on the screen, but then find your way in Isaiah 58.

But let’s read, starting in verse 1. Cry out loudly. Don’t hold back. Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day and delight to know my ways like a nation that does what is right and does not abandon the justice of their God.

They ask me for righteous judgments. They delight in the nearness of God. Why have we fasted but you have not seen? We have denied ourselves, but you haven’t noticed. Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast and oppress all your workers. You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist.

You cannot fast as you do today, hoping to make your voice heard on high. Will the fast I choose be like this? A day for a person to deny himself? To bow his head like a reed and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast? And a day acceptable to the Lord. Isn’t this the fast I choose? To break the chains of wickedness?

To untie the ropes of the yoke? To set the oppressed free? And to tear off every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry? To bring the poor and homeless into your house? To clothe the naked when you see him? And not to ignore your own flesh and blood? Then your light will appear like the dawn and your recovery will come quickly.

Your righteousness will go before you and the Lord’s glory will be on your rear guard. At that time when you call, the Lord will answer. When you cry out, he will say, here I am. If you get rid of the yoke among you, the finger pointing and malicious speaking, and if you offer yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted one, then your light will shine in the darkness and your night will be a day.

Like noon day. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, teach us your ways and give us your heart. In Jesus name, everybody says, Amen. You may be seated. Three times a year, we dedicate an entire month to learn a practice of Jesus and hopefully continue it after. And so we’ve been studying together, what does it mean to fast?

And you’ve been talking about it in your groups. And let’s all be honest, we are stumbling along the way as we’ve been learning about this practice this month. of fasting and before we go any further, let me just say, I have been beyond blessed and impressed with you. Like how crazy is it? We’ve been telling you all month, don’t eat.

And you’re like doing that, which is pretty incredible. So none of that is lost on us. We are blown away that we really are becoming a practice based church and in all transparency. As I was thinking about this practice series, until I studied, like truly studied Isaiah 58 this week, I would have been confident in saying, we’ve already learned enough about fasting.

If you just took the first two or three principles of fasting that we’ve learned all month, you have it down. This is what we’ve learned so far. From the library of scripture, we’ve learned that one, it empowers you to say no to cheaper desires. Right? Pastor Caleb did a wonderful job on this. We were saying if you struggle with temptations such as like lust or anger, it’s incredible when you commit yourself to God and when you begin to fast, when you say no to food, has this transformative work in your life where you begin to have an easier time saying no to other fleshly temptations.

The next week we talked about how when we fast, it leads you to say yes to deeper union with God. And let me just, I want to say this every single week because I think it’s so important. Fasting does not make us more precious to God. What it does though, in an amazing way, is it makes God more precious to us.

It has this way of whetting our appetite for God. We long for him and we want to seek his presence and I’ve noticed that in the room. The last thing we learned last week was when you begin to fast, it opens you up to confess your need. It has this power to define reality, either positive or negative. It helps you see what’s actually in front of you.

And then it also gives you the power to ask God to deliver you from whatever your reality is. And so again, to be honest, it sounds pretty complete to me. The problem. As we see all three of what we’ve learned so far here in Isaiah 58, and yet God is rejecting them. So let’s look again at a few key lines in these first three verses.

Because I find it to be stunning. Verse 1, first of all, look at that first line, cry out loudly, don’t hold back. What God is doing, He’s talking to Isaiah and telling Isaiah, you’re going to give a word to people they’re not going to like, but you need to say it loudly. You need to say it courageously, because they need to hear this.

Message. Look at verse two. Notice he is stating reality and it seems to be a good one. Verse two. They seek me day after day. That sounds a whole lot like saying yes to deep reunion. They’re going to God every single day. That would be incredible if our church would do that as well. Go down a little bit.

It says that they ask me for righteous judgments. They nearness of God. What? I interpret that, of course, is that they are confessing their need for God. They’re saying, we need to be near you, we need your judgments, not our own. We are not wise. God, we’re looking to you. So it seems like a pretty good fast.

Verse 3. Why have we, so this is now, verse 3 is the people of Israel now talking, saying we have fasted but you have not seen. We have denied ourselves but you haven’t noticed. So they’re noticing God isn’t there, but look at that line, we have denied ourselves. What is that? That was what we said in week 1.

Fasting is saying no to cheaper desires. So they’re incredibly doing the fasting practice at least the first three weeks, and yet we see. God is not there. He does not see them. He does not notice them because God is rejecting them in their fast. So the question I’ve wrestled with all week is what went wrong?

Why was their fasting rejected? What is the missing piece? According to Isaiah 58, this final piece of fasting is so important. That if you throw this fourth one out, you miss the entire point. It’s not like you get a 75 percent on the grade and you’re still passing and getting your degree. No, you’ve missed everything altogether.

And I know what you’re thinking. You’re so encouraged. You’ve done all three and now you’re told none of that matters. Okay. It does matter. But it has to have this fourth element as well. To put it another way, if you take everything we’ve learned this past month, all three of these elements of fasting, what you’re doing is essentially climbing the ladder of fasting.

You’re getting better and better. But if you just stick with these first three principles, you’ll get to the top of that ladder, only to find the ladder’s been leaning against the wrong wall. It actually means you’ve missed the point entirely. See, if fasting is only about self denial, Deepening our spiritual hunger and having personal confession.

We have actually, according to Isaiah, denied the power of God in our lives and those around us. We have become what Paul warns to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3. We have become, quote, as having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. Fasting. I don’t know if you’ve noticed. I know for me, fasting’s a lot of work.

Anybody else? Amen? It’s a lot. And I certainly don’t want to do it if there’s no power behind it. So what is the missing piece? Let’s do some digging here in Isaiah 58 to find out. Let’s pick up where we left off. Uh, the second half of verse 3. Look. This is now God speaking again to the Israelites. Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast and oppress, underline that word oppress, all your workers.

You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. It’s probably like some of you this morning, just fighting with each other. Shut up. We’re trying to go to church, right? It’s just this idea of like, oh, we love God, but we really have all sorts of contention and strife within our community.

And he says, you cannot fast as you do today. Hoping to make your voice heard on high. I’m not going to listen to that if this is how you treat the fast. Verse 5 is supposed to be read as sarcastic. So he says, Will this, uh, will the fast I choose be like this? In other words, the answer is no. Here’s what he says how they view fasting.

A day for a person to deny himself. Not bad to bow his head like a reed and to spread out sackcloth and ashes again That’s not bad itself as long as the heart is there, but he’s arguing the heart is not there He’s saying will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord? Have you really missed the plot line and thought that this is what it means to be good at fasting?

If you know the story of Israel, uh, Israel, one of the worst things to call the people of God is oppressors. Because that’s such an offense, because Israel’s whole identity was that they were in Egypt, under the oppressive rule and reign of Pharaoh, and God, in His mercy, Pulled them out of captivity, crossed the Red Sea, and into a promised land.

And their whole identity is that of, we once were captives, and now we’ve been set free. And if you read all the Old Testament, even in the law When God is telling them, now, in light of you being freed, here is what you’re supposed to do, so often, in the biblical text, it’s, free those who are slaves. Help those who have been oppressed.

He would remind them, you too were once slaves. Now, if a slave comes, set them free. This was their call to ex, extend that same freedom to the foreigner who would come to Israel, to the widow who lost all she had, or to the orphan. So, the, the people in Isaiah know this context. They know they’re supposed to set people free.

And God is telling them, you’re actually the oppressors. So this, that’s the situation here. And so in Isaiah, the people of God are ignoring the poor, they are ignoring those in need, while still showing up to the temple, showing up to church every single day, asking for a breakthrough. And they don’t see the disconnect.

God is saying, I’m not hearing you because of that disconnect. Now that disconnect didn’t just happen in Isaiah’s time. The early church struggled with it as well. One of the greatest preachers of the 4th century, his nickname was called the Golden Mouth Preacher. What a name. Also, what pressure. Oh, the Golden Mouth Preacher is preaching today.

This one better be good. All right. His name was John Chrysostom, and he actually warned his congregation about fasting that had no real power. And he put it this way, quote,   📍 It is common for everyone to ask in Lent, which by the way, We’re going to introduce what Lent is starting next week. Make sure you come back.

It’s common for everyone to ask in Lent how many weeks each has fasted. Some may be heard saying they fasted two, others three, and others that they have fasted the whole of the week. So it’s a four, it’s a whatever, I think it’s six weeks, whatever 40 days is. I don’t like math. Okay, so, but what advantage is it if we have gone through the fast devoid of works?

  📍 So if another says, I have fasted the whole of Lent, you should say, I had an enemy, but I was reconciled. I had a custom of evil speaking, but I put a stop to it. I had a custom of swearing, but I’ve broken through this evil practice.   See the heart of what Chrysostom is telling us. If fasting doesn’t change how you love your neighbor.

You might as well not have fasted to begin with. This problem is not just an Old Testament thing. It’s not just an early church thing. It’s our problem today. Francis Schaeffer, he’s one of the sharpest Christian minds in the 20th century. He warned that the American church would lose its power and influence in the 21st century, and he seems to be right so far.

And it’s not because of what many of us would assume. He said it’s not because of persecution or opposition that’s going to lead to the church’s downfall. He said, no, it’s actually because we are too attached to comfort and wealth, or what he labeled Personal peace and affluence. He predicted the American church would start asking God to show up, that we would have these revival services saying, God, where are you?

Please come down. All while clinging to the ease of the American life, chasing what Americans would call success, and prioritizing our own personal security. And yet we will wonder why the power has gone. I think a lot of Mark 4, kind of our banner verse for all of this year, Jesus talking about the four soils.

What does he say about the third? He says the third, they heard the word, welcomed it, but then what happened? The worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things, aka the American dream, came in, choked the word, and it became unfruitful. Unfruitful, another word for losing all power.

Jesus saw this as well, and it is such a temptation for the church today. And if I can be honest, this is the biggest temptation and pitfall at Passion Creek. Many of us, since we started in 2023, we did three practices a year. It’s been incredible. It’s been so cool to see God move. And what a privilege to be a part of it.

But what we have noticed, and what me and Pastor Caleb are trying to discern, how much we have actually, I think I, have led astray, is we have noticed people love the practices, as long as it’s focused on getting closer to God, as long as it makes you feel like you’re really strengthening your faith. But, even, you can be all in on the fasting practice, doing all of these things, but many of us in this room still hesitate to even serve more than once a month on church on Sundays, because we fear burning out.

Now I can be, you can misunderstand me, but please hear my heart here. We have missed the plot line if we think we are so honoring God by doing these practices, but not even serving our family, let alone the community around us. And this is just a warning folks, I was like writing this sermon all week and I’m like, I don’t sound very pleasant today.

And that’s just what that is. It’s not my normal tone. Um, but I was actually trained with preaching. You have to match the tone of whoever you’re, uh, reading whatever texts and prophets are angsty. Okay. So I’m a little angsty today. Please forgive me. But notice that God doesn’t leave Judah confused. He doesn’t just state the problem and walk away.

I want there to be hope this morning. There’s actually a solution. Let’s look at verse six together. Isn’t this the fast I choose? So you say, okay, that’s what you think it is, but here is actually what I think it means to fast. To break the chains of wickedness. Can you imagine people leaving here no longer under the chains of sin?

To untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke. This is God being poetic here. It’s this beautiful call to transformation. Such vivid language, and it’s incredible, but it’s a little bit ethereal, right? How can you and I see like a yoke being torn off? That’s why he says, verse seven, it’s like, if you want that, like this crazy God revival stuff, what you really should do is, verse seven, is it not to share your bread with the hungry?

to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him and not to ignore your own flesh and blood. So if you want verse six, you got to do verse seven and that famous line, everybody wants to change the world, but nobody wants to help mom clean the dishes. This is what he is addressing.

And I have to be honest again. I think this is especially hard for us in suburban America. We have literally designed and I’m happy to live here. We have designed a community where we weed out the hungry and the poor and the homeless. And this feels so detached from our reality. Even when I came back from New York City, uh, so many were asked how it was, but then inevitably Christians, and it’s fine if it was you, all grace here, I’ve done the same thing, but it was, I picked up on this pattern.

Everybody was saying, well, wasn’t it gross because of all those homeless people? And some of them, there was some genuine to it, but others, and don’t worry, none of you in this room, there was like this sense of disgust, like those homeless people. Now let me be clear. I do think. We can have so many opinions on the reasons why some became homeless and what are the solutions we need to implement.

I get all of that, and there could be all sorts of opinions. But I feel like we have missed the plot line of Scripture. If we can look at the least of these, like those without homes, and treat them with disdain as if we are better than them. This is what God is saying. God is saying, this group of people, you act like you’re going to church every day, you act like you’re so holy, and you treat others with disdain, and you expect me to answer your prayers?

What’s pretty interesting, as I was reading it this week, at the end of verse 7, it says not to ignore your own flesh and blood. Now, some people interpret it literally, and I think it’s a great interpretation because isn’t it hard to actually love those who are literally related to you? Anybody else feel like those are the hardest people to love?

It’s like, can I just love my neighbor? I don’t even know his middle name. Let’s start there. What a joy, but my sister, right? You know, my mother. Okay. And if you’re watching online, it’s neither of you. I love both of you, but you gotta be careful. All right. My birthday is coming up. I got to get a good gift from everybody.

So, some of it’s that maybe God is saying, hey, like, don’t forget to even, like, neglect your family. And there’s some New Testament precedent to that as well. But another translation, or excuse me, commentary, I think it really made me think a lot. He is saying, he argues that this text means, remember, all humanity is your flesh and blood.

We are all made in the image of God. God has a plan for every single person who is living. Who are we to think we are better than or other than? We must serve them and love them. But let me also break the illusion of suburbia. We also still have needy among us today, even within our congregation. Someone was texting me this week, kind of going through a bit of a situation.

And someone asked, am I the only one that’s going through this? And I wound up thinking it through and thinking, no, actually what’s crazy It’s so many people in our church are experiencing the same thing just this month alone We’ve had several people who are just so wholeheartedly a part of our family Receive a diagnosis or have to schedule a surgery that is a little bit scary and a bit tense And so we’ve been praying On behalf of them, that they would be healed.

There’s a lot of people within our congregation who are experiencing some family heartbreak. We’ve had some folks late lose their main source of income and get a bit nervous about how they can pay next month’s bills. And that doesn’t even mention the myriads of needs of people outside of these four walls.

So don’t believe the lie of the enemy. Everybody here has needs as well. It’s not just flying to a big city to see what people are going through. We have the needy among us today. And my question then is if there, if there is needy among us, which there certainly is, do our hearts break for them? Or do we just go to God for our own needs and our own prayers?

See, the key idea here in Isaiah 58 is for Judah, but also for you and for me, to hear this loud and clear. You’re not actually loving God. if you’re not sacrificially loving your neighbor. You can say you love God all day, but if you are not serving your neighbor, God would say you are living in an illusion.

So what does loving like that look in real life? How do we know we’re fasting in such a way that it pleases God? Well, let’s take a look at this graph.   📍 No one really confirmed last service what to call it. I think it’s quadrants or quadrilateral or a graph. I don’t know. I went to college for theology. The only thing about math was the book of Numbers and there’s not much math in there.

 It’s just called numbers. Okay, so whatever this thing is, I love making graphs. We did it for our generosity practice. Anybody remember the generosity graph? I quit my job. Okay, but anyways. I’m kidding. All right. It’s a joke. There’s five of you. Okay, so look at this graph. Here is, uh, I want you to figure out where you’re at on this plot point.

You can actually do this with every practice. I encourage you to try to figure this out, but let me just explain this briefly. On the one going up and down, I believe is the y axis, right? Up and down. Yeah. Okay. I looked at my engineers over here. So loving God is up top. Here’s the reality. You can love God.

Or love the world. You can’t do both at the same time. Consult 1st John 2 15. Okay? So you either in your life, you’re loving God or you’re loving the things of this world. So you put yourself on that axis somewhere. But then the scripture is also really clear over on the right hand side is loving your neighbor and on the left hand side is loving yourself.

Now, this doesn’t mean we hate ourselves. In fact, Jesus says the grace commands to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. I’m using this word loving self really in 2 Timothy 5. Two Timothy three. Paul says, lovers of self, it’s where you love yourself so much that you hate the world.

You only take care of yourself. Okay, so think selfish, think prideful, all of that. So scriptures also say you can’t love your neighbor and love and live in pride, love yourself at the same time. So we find ourselves somewhere in this graph. Now let me show you what these mean when it pertains to fasting.

Okay? So if you are somebody who fasts. But you love yourself and you love the world, at best, what you’re going to get out of fasting is   📍 dieting. So what you’re doing, we learned about this in week two, it does do some incredible things for your body when you fast.  Again, consult your doctor. For some people it doesn’t, for some people it does.

I just don’t like getting sued for a living. All right, so consult your doctor. But essentially, some of us, all we’re doing is dieting. May improve your life a little bit, but it doesn’t please God and doesn’t bring down the power. Now, what about the second category? What does it mean if you fast in such a way where you feel like you are loving your neighbor, but you’re doing it in a way that you love the world?

You’re not doing it for God, but for yourself. Let’s look yet again at Matthew chapter 6. We have read this story, uh, this will be the fourth time. Actually, yeah, every single time we have consulted this passage. It’s an anchor text for us. Matthew chapter 6, starting in verse 16. Whenever you fast, by the way, again, Jesus assumes we’ll fast, not if, but when, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites.

For they disfigure their faces so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others, but to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will know.

We’ve exegeted this passage a few times for my purposes. Let me just point out, seems to be fasting the right way, right? He’s not squeezing an In N Out burger through a straw, right? He’s doing fasting, but what is his purpose? It isn’t to love God. It’s to be loved by their neighbors. It’s to be seen, not by God, but by others.

I would put this category as   📍 pretending. When you fast in a way that’s not for God, but you do want to be seen and loved by others, you are pretending for your neighbor.  Your fasting is hypocritical. You’re acting like it’s for God, but really it’s to be seen. And let me just be honest here too, like we are all mixed bags on like a Tuesday morning at eight, you can be dieting and then, you know, Wednesday at five, all of a sudden you’re fasting for the glory of God.

So it’s not like you’re stuck in one quadrant. Uh, just the other day I was talking about how I run and I pray. And so then, uh, someone in our church that lives in our neighborhood the next morning actually saw me running and praying. And so they text me and my wife and we’re like, we’re just really glad you don’t lie.

Like, thank you for actually running and praying. I was like, oh my gosh, yeah, you’re welcome. The next morning, I was like, I wonder if they see me again. I was like, I’ve missed the whole point. I am now pretending. I’m like, and Lord! You know, what car do they drive? Uh, and so, we’re all a mixed bag. Still try to encourage me.

I’ll ruin it, but still try to send me those encouragements. Alright, what about fasting because you love God, but really you just love yourself? Okay, we have a category for that as well. If you are a Bible turning champion, go to Luke 18 real quick. If not, it will be on the screen. Luke 18, the first few passages or, or verses are wonderful, and we’re going to read it during our prayer practice, but let’s look for our time together at verse 9.

He also, being Jesus, told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else. So they thought Their relationship with God was great, but they didn’t like anybody else. Verse 10. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

Pharisee was like the Sunday School All Star, tax collector was the person you would be shocked to see in church. The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself, God, I thank you that I’m not like other people. Greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like This tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of everything I get.

And the irony is thick because in August I told you maybe we should start giving a tenth of everything we get. And I’ve been trying to convince at least one of you to begin to fast twice a week. And so some of us, we see these passages and think, see, if you fast twice a week, you become a Pharisee. But what Jesus is trying to address is the heart.

You can do all these right things for the wrong reasons, and that’s what this Pharisee’s doing. Let’s see him continue. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his chest and saying, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you, this one went down to his house justified.

Who’s the this one? The tax collector, rather than the other, which is the Pharisee, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. I could spend all of our time on this passage, but for our purposes, what was he doing while he was fasting? He wasn’t necessarily dieting.

He wasn’t pretending. What he was doing was   📍 condemning his neighbor. He used it to feel better than everybody else.  And this is a temptation for our church. As we become practice based, even as we talk about other churches around us, we need to be careful not to condemn those who are not doing what we are doing.

Jesus warned against that time and time again. So the question is, What is the right way to fast? What does it look like if you begin to love God and love your neighbor while you’re practicing fasting? We are calling it   📍 contending for your neighbor. That’s a big word. I will define it, uh, by a definition.

 But let me first define it with a story. Now we’re in Matthew 25. If you actually read, um, If your Bible’s like mine, when you read Isaiah 58, there’s little, you know, little asterisks, little footnotes. It tells you, while you’re reading Isaiah 58, to read Matthew 25, because Jesus here in Matthew 25, starting in verse 35, is literally ripping from Isaiah 58.

He’s saying it verbatim and applying it to his context in that moment. It’s so good, we have to read it. Starting in verse 35, Jesus is speaking. He’s giving a parable here. And then he says, For I was hungry. And you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in.

I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you took care of me. I was in prison, and you visited me. Do you see Isaiah 58, 7 there? It’s all of those. He goes through that whole checklist. But let’s continue. Verse 37. Sorry, yes. Verse 37. Then the righteous will answer him, those who are saved, those who are truly disciples.

Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Are thirsty and give you something to drink. When did we see you a stranger and take you in or without clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? He’s saying, look, I love the compliment, but I’d see you now. I’ve never seen you before.

This is our first time meeting you. And you’re telling me my whole life I’ve been feeding you and helping you. They’re a little bit shocked, but look at verse 40. And the king will answer them. Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, You did for me.

This is incredible. Jesus so identifies with the least of these. If you serve them, Jesus is saying, you are serving me. Verse 40, 41 though, let’s look at the negative. Then he will say to those on the left, Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat.

I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. For I was a stranger and you didn’t take me in. I was naked and you didn’t clothe me. Sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of me. Then they too will answer Lord When did we see you hungry or thirsty or stranger or without clothes or sick or in prison and not help you?

They’re saying we would have helped if it was if we knew it was you we would have done it But then he gets to the heart of it, then he will answer them. Truly I tell you Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these You did not do for me What’s Jesus saying here? It’s a hard saying He’s saying it’s impossible to say you love God while not loving your neighbor.

In the same way, he’s saying it’s impossible to love your neighbor while not loving God. And not just any neighbor, because we can figure that out and say, Oh, well, I’ll love that neighbor. No, it’s the worst among us, the least among us, the most neglected. So, how do you fast in a way? That connects with the heart of God and taps into the power of God.

I would argue it’s by contending for your neighbor. Now contending simply means where you’re moving beyond just sympathy. You’re willing to stand in the gap. It’s kind of like the parable of the Good Samaritan. You’re willing to see the person suffering and meet them where they’re at and serve them.

It’s about becoming an agent of his justice and mercy in the world. Now what does contending for your neighbor actually look like. I don’t think it’s something we stumble into by accident. I think it takes a lot of intentionality, dependence on the Holy Spirit, and it’s really a day by day thing as we submit ourselves to the authority of Scripture.

But I want to leave you with three ways you and I can begin to contend for our neighbor. Our long term goal is that we become a church who is known for contending. This is what we do as a regular basis, but for today, I’m just introducing the topic, but I’m hoping we lean into it more and more. Here are the three ways I think we can begin to contend.

Number one, is to ask God to move you from sympathy to agony. Number two, to share what you have to those in need. And number three, to pray the promises of God. A quick word on each. First, I believe the call is to ask God to move you from sympathy It’s agony. In my life, I just have to be honest, this is a huge shortcoming for me, I’ve just waited to be in agony.

And I found sometimes if you don’t ask for it, it’ll never come. So a lot of us were saying, if I feel bad for that person, I’ll go serve them. But I think we have to change the situation and say, God, would you give me a burden? And again, I’m not shocked if any of you in this room don’t feel that burden, because I also have done a poor job at this.

I know for me, I have a burning passion, and I hope you notice this, to make attenders into disciples. I want to be a church that actually practices the way. That is what I live and breathe. I’m all about that. However, as I prepared for this message, I’ve had to get honest with God. I can’t remember the last time I’ve wept over the loss.

Feeling that deep sense of agony for those who are far from God, I hope they come. I think about the loss all the time, but not in agony. And I know I love to make fun of junior high. Tre. Homeboy was a nerd, right? Remember, I talked about him last month. As if he’s not me. But I talked about this guy last month.

In these school walls, I was sharing the gospel in the worst way possible. But man, here’s the thing that I will commend, that tray that I hope comes back. I have a junior high Bible, that I still have that you can tell there’s tear stains on the scriptures. And I remember specifically, just in agony. That I knew people in school that never knew God and I knew where they’d wind up if they didn’t do something about it.

I can preach about agony all day long, but I have to be honest with you. It has been a while since I felt that burden. So I have been praying, God, give me that burden. I invite you to do the same as well. In fact, I’m reminded when we first started Passion Clinic. Creek. There’s a reason we use the word passion.

A lot of us think it means enthusiasm, to be exciting, but passion in the biblical sense means to suffer. That’s why the movie is called The Passion of the Christ. Passion actually means to be willing to suffer and to sacrifice for the sake of the least of these. And I have to be honest and notice where I haven’t led our church to do this well.

So that’s number one. Will you join me in praying to move from sympathy, which I think we all have. Number two, to begin to contend is to share what we have to those in need. This was very common throughout church history. St.   📍 Augustine put it this way, Do you wish your prayer to reach to God?  He’s actually commenting on Isaiah 58 because God’s saying your voice isn’t heard on high.

So then he says, Do you want to be heard? Okay, here’s how. Give it two wings. Fasting and alms giving. Alms giving is an ancient word which simply means being generous, resources wise, but for the sake of those who are caught in injustice and who need food. In early Christian writing, the shepherd of Hermas, he instructed the early Christians to fast twice a week and then quote,   📍 estimate the cost of the food you would have eaten on that day and give that amount to a widow or orphan or someone in need.

Be humble in this way that the one who receives something because of your humility may fill his own soul and pray to the Lord for you.  It used to be so common for the church. We recognized the poor, the needy. That was our responsibility, not the government’s. This is what we do. And we’ve kind of released that responsibility.

So one great way, as I’ve been studying this practice, is to actually Think about what you would have spent on food when you fast. And instead of taking that money and just saving it, which I have done in the past. It’s a great way to save money, by the way. Just don’t eat for a while. But take that money you would have spent and give it to the poor.

Give it to organizations who serve to those in need. Give it to your church. It is a way to stand in solidarity and to seek to bring about change. But lastly, and I’ll be brief, A way to contend for your neighbor and draw on the power of God is to pray the promises of God. Imagine if you and I fasted this week and not just thinking about people and saying God bless them, but what if we spoke scripture over people?

Do you know somebody who’s lost? What if he began to pray Luke 19 10 during your fast? Lord Jesus, you say the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Save him Lord! Save her Lord! What about the weary? Do you know somebody you should contend for in your life who is weary? Declare Matthew 11 28 during your fast.

Lord Jesus you say come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Give them rest in you King Jesus over their lives. What if they’re oppressed? Pray Isaiah 58 over them. Say, Lord, as I fast, may you loose the chains of injustice and set the oppressed free. Set her free, Lord. Maybe they’re sick, which we have so many in our congregation in this moment.

I’ve been praying James 5 15 during our fast, saying, Lord Jesus, in your word it says, the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise them up. Heal them now, Lord. This is a different kind of praying. It’s not, God, I want to raise. That’s not bad. But like, what if we prayed for heaven to come down to seek and to save the lost?

So that’s our invitation to you. I hope that you’re in groups this week. Go to formedbyjesus. com slash fasting. You’re going to engage in three different sets of practices in your fasting. It’s on the screen. It’s about praying for those in need. My question for you, though. Is, will you take up this call to stop pretending or condemning, but to contend for your neighbor?

Maybe like me, first step is to ask God for a bigger burden. That God would expand your horizons, expand your prayer life to go well beyond your Inner circle. Talk to somebody between services and he says in his experience He heard a message years ago similar to this and he said when you ask god for a burden He will give it to you And that’s my prayer Lastly, will you search the scriptures so you can figure out, you can learn promises of God rooted in scripture that you can pray over them.

Let’s just look one more time at Isaiah 58 because I want to end with the promise. Look what happens if you and I take this call seriously and truly contend for our neighbors. Verse 8. Then! Your light will appear like the dawn, and your recovery will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the Lord’s glory will be your rear guard.

If God’s got my back, you better watch out. Verse 9, At that time, when you call, the Lord will answer. Verse 3, Where are you, Lord? You’ve denied us! No, you do this? Man, I’m gonna answer right away. When you cry out, He will say, Here I am! If you get rid of the yoke among you, the finger pointing and malicious speaking, and if you offer yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted one, your light will shine in the darkness and your night will be like noon day.

Friends, that’s the, that’s revival. That’s the power we long for. But we cannot ask for such power while neglecting those around us. And so I want us to end by just simply asking God to use us to become contenders for our neighbors. Let’s pray.