Colossians 1:13-14 What does it mean to be Redeemed?
Repentance and fasting. Are these somehow linked? And if so, how? Many have wondered if fasting is a practice we Christians ought to be doing in our time as well. To be abundantly clear, we are going to be considering this practice in light of Scripture, as religious orthopraxy, not as a diet plan to drop some lbs you might have picked up over the holidays. Fasting means something. It is intentional or purposeful. The purposes are many and varied. And yet the practice is linked quite often with prayer. There is an appeal, there is a desired connection, spiritual connection to God. It is a demonstration of commitment, a demonstration of the heart, a demonstration of change. In our text this morning we will see that this practice was an appeal and gave evidence of change in the hearts of the people of Nineveh. And we may find the impetus, the encouragement for incorporating this practice into our lives as well.
Last week we talked about making unintentional mistakes. But some mistakes we make have an associated cost. I remember one fine summer evening in Houston, and I was weed trimming around the house and I ran my weed-eater and sliced right through one of the sprinkler system pipes. All of a sudden I have a water geyser shooting 20 feet up in the air and now I’m soaked, and I’m mad, and so then I had to call a plumber to fix my mistake. And of course you don’t do yard work in Houston during “normal” business hours, you do it in the evening when it cools off, so now I have to pay even more expensive “after hours” call. Some mistakes will affect your pocket book. Another time, I thought I would get ahead and do some preventative maintenance and change out the brakes on one of my cars. The front disc brakes went smooth, but the rears were drum brakes, and I was, needless to say, way in over my head. After managing to crack a brake line, spill out all the brake fluid on the driveway and royally messing up the brakes , I had to call a tow truck to tow it to a garage and have them fix the mess I had made. So much for prevention, so much for maintenance. It was just a flat out screw up that was expensive. Dave Ramsey likes to call these mistakes stupid tax. And over the years I have certainly paid my fair share of stupid tax. All of this to say that sometimes when we make mistakes, there is a price to be paid.
People make mistakes. It’s part of what it means to be human. We have been moving into the age of artificial intelligence. Super computers, smart phones, smart homes, and smart cars. They are working on cars that drive themselves! Why? Because human drivers make mistakes. We make bad choices. People drive under the influence, drive too fast, drive too aggressive, drive too sleepy. You get the idea. Peple make mistakes and so if we can make computers that remember everything, can evaluate and make the best decision, well then the thinking goes that we can save humanity from ourselves. And yet for all the promise of technology, we still figure out a way to make a mess of our lives with technology too. Why? Because we are human, and we are fallen, and we live in a fallen world. Now I’m not anti-technology, I like my iPhone thank you very much. But we can’t put our hope, our faith in technology. Well if we did, we’d be making another mistake. When we make mistakes, something has to be done about it. There is someone we can turn to. And that is what we will find in our text this morning.
Acts 15:36-41 "A Disagreement Between Two Godly Men"