Pastor John, what is the purpose behind fasting? Richard Foster wrote a book on spiritual

disciplines and in it, he says that probably the most important text in all the Bible

for establishing the importance of Christian fasting. Christian fasting, that we should

do it today is Matthew 9, 14 and following. Let me read just a couple of verses of that

and show you the sentence that I think he's right about. The disciples of John, John

and Baptist came to Jesus and said, why do the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do

not fast? So he's not fasting. 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.

Then they will fast. Now that's the sentence that Foster says and he's right, shows that

in Jesus' mind, when he is taken away, that is when he dies and ascends to the Father,

there will be fasting. And therefore the context of fasting in Jesus' mind is longing for

the not yet of the kingdom. So he's come. And while he was here, they didn't fast because

the bridegroom was present. But when the bridegroom is taken away to come a second time, there's

this age in the heart of God's people. And I think that's the general statement about

the meaning of fasting. Fasting is a physical exclamation point. At the end of the sentence, I need

you. I want you. I long for you. You are my treasure. I want more of you. And oh, for the day when

you would return, Narinatha, come Lord Jesus, and fasting is an exclamation point at the end of

all those sentences. So the heart of it is longing. And a pudding of our stomach where our heart

is in order to give added intensity and expressiveness to our ache for Jesus and our longing or

our ache for all the implications of Jesus' power in the present moment that isn't completely

realized. We want to see people here. We want to see people saying we want to see marriages

redeemed and we ache and long for this to happen. And therefore we ask Jesus to come by putting

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