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Short Clip
“The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for Heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the x-rated video, the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the evil Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet of His love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18-20) The greatest adversary of love to God is not His enemies but His gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God Himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable and almost incurable” (John Piper).
Are you incurably hungering after God or this world? Are you incurably delighting in God’s Word or trivial pursuits? The greatest destroyers of intimate hunger for God may be things that are good and right in their places like coffee and lawns and hobby and travel and retirement planning and mall walking and TV watching and computer mastering. But any that take God’s first place, and become easier to turn to than God and His Word and His intimate communion, are then deadly destroyers of our hungering and thirsting after God.
So the Kingdom of God, the reign of God as Supreme over all of our lives is our goal in fasting. We want Him to rule our appetites not us, we want Him to rule our affections not us, we want Him to rule over our choices not us. We want God’s Rule in this church, not ours. His goals, not ours. That is the test, that is seeking 1st the Kingdom, the Glory, the Rule, the Supremacy of our Father in Heaven. Then we come before Him seeking His Glory not ours in praying, asking and fasting it changes how we pray.
 Now when we ask for Him to lead us into the conquest of those old habits that grip and enslave us, the roadblocks that stand in our path to spiritual maturity – it is so that He may rule in our lives and be glorified.
 When we cry out for wayward or unconverted children or spouses to come back maturity – it is so that He may rule in our lives and be glorified.
 When we prepare for growth and plan for needs in our church as we fast and pray – it is so that He may rule in our church and be glorified.
How did the 1st Century saints live that way and we so often don’t? Do you remember from our study of 1st Thessalonians a couple years ago, what was the heartbeat of the early church? Expecting Christ’s Return. Do we ever grow weary and lessen that passion? Yes. So what is Christ’s way to get us to long for His Coming? Look for His coming? Wait for His Coming? Stop eating, fast, deny ourselves, feel the pain of deprivation, and show our allegiance to Him (demonstrated in fasting) as higher than even life (demonstrated in eating). Think with me about these verses, and ask yourself, do you really long for Jesus every day? If not, fasting is for you!
One of the key attitudes we find displayed by God’s saints is that they were exiles on earth and citizens of Heaven. This produced not a detachment from earthly life or other people, rather it led to such a lacking of love for things that these early saints actually had abundant time to love and seek and win their neighbors. Think of all the time we spend gathering, protecting, and caring for our THINGS. Then think of what value collecting, protecting, and caring will have in Heaven at Christ’s Throne versus the same time, energy, and strength poured out in loving passion for the souls of our neighbors.