Good morning Ginghamsburg!  Welcome to our 4^th of July weekend celebration where we remember and celebrate the independence of our nation. For that we give thanks, glory, honor and praise to God. There’s no better place to be than right here in worship on the 4^th of July.

We use Jesus as our life coach as he's teaching on the mountainside at the north end of the Sea of Galilee. He's teaching us that we have to lose some things we do religiously or some self-indulgence, in order to create space, time and energy to receive those things only God can supply. In the midst of trying to do that we understand it’s about replacing self-indulgence with self-denial. Now, self-denial is not a sexy subject. It’s nothing you get excited about coming to church to hear that message. I can hear you inviting your neighbors now, “John, come to worship celebration with me this weekend. Pastor Brian is speaking on self-denial and why we should deny ourselves everything we've always wanted. What time can I pick you up?” Your neighbor responds with, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Self-denial is counter to everything we've been taught. On the other hand self-indulgence is king. We've been taught to self-indulge and to get all kinds of stuff in order to make us feel fulfilled.

Throughout decades we have been inundated with this idea that it's all about self-fulfillment through gathering an abundance of things that we can indulge in. For a few minutes, I want to take you down memory lane, look at a few commercials that have infiltrated our minds and have you fill in the blanks. There was DeBeers Diamonds that told women it's okay if you're getting older, don't worry about it. All you need to do is self-indulge and get a diamond because diamonds are.... [congregation: forever]. Then Nike came along and said, “You know it's really all about you, all about achieving your goal,  reaching your potential so all you need to do is just...”[congregation: do it]. Coca Cola said, “You need something to quench your thirst, because you need to be satisfied, so they told us that Coke is the real...”[congregation: thing]. Then Miller came along and said, “I know you're worried about your figure. That's okay! You can still indulge because Miller tastes great, but it's less....”[congregation: filling]. And if that's not enough, General Electric got into the game and said, “Well, you're going to need a place for your Miller Beer, your Coca Cola and all that. So, you need an appliance to put all those things in and we've got just what you need because we bring good things to...”[congregation: life]. And whatever you wanted, we were told that you could find it. Whatever you needed to feel complete you can find it. Yellow pages told us, “Just let your fingers do the...”[congregation: walking]. This is what we've been taught and inundated with, the self-indulgence on how to get things to feel fulfilled.

But then Jesus tells us less is more. If we're really serious about having more life in our living, he invited us to sit down and he would show us “why deny.” Pray with me. Dear God, we are grateful on this 4^th of July to celebrate our independence. This message on self-denial, on the surface, doesn't seem too attractive. Help us to go deeper this morning so we can regain the power to be better than we think we can be, when nothing else will do. Amen.

Why deny? Jesus said through self-denial you will gain the power to purchase what money can't buy and the power to spend your life better than you think you can. In Matthew 6:16, the Sermon on the Mount series, he starts off with three words and says, “When you fast.” Notice Jesus doesn't say “If you fast” but “when,” because fasting--self-denial -- is a prerequisite to power. It's a prerequisite to receiving the power to live. If we desire to draw closer and have a deeper and powerful life influence on our lives and the lives of others, there will be a time when we will have to create a space for God to come into that only God can fulfill. In the Old Testament, there were fasts that went on for various time periods -- half of a day, one hour, one day, 3, 7, 14, 21 and 40 days. The length of the self-denial period varied tremendously, but what didn't vary is those that were chasing after God spent some time in self-denial. Fasting, or self-denial, is a spiritual discipline that's been practiced by many throughout the ages. We remember Hannah in the Old Testament. Hannah went through a fast in order that she could give birth, and Samuel was born. Daniel went through a fast when it was declared that he would be thrown into the lion's den, and the lions lost their appetite. David went through a fast when he was being chased by Saul, and God allowed him to be strong enough to lead the nation. Fasting, self-denial, is extremely powerful. What is self-denial all about? A working definition would be the intentional denial of something that's pleasurable to the body or the mind. That's the first half. The intentional denial of something that's pleasurable to the body or the mind for the purpose of focusing on a deeper relationship with God so that we can hear from God and receive the power to be better than we think we can be.  An example of something that might seem like it's impossible is if you've ever wanted to lose weight but you don't have the will power, or you want a better relationship, but things aren't getting better, or, God is calling you to a higher place and to greater service but you can't reach it. Those are things that sometimes life calls us to do, but we feel like we can't reach them. But, through self-denial, we find out that “why deny” supplies power. That's a place where we can receive that power.

There's a reason why we called this message Why Deny? as opposed to Why Fast? Fasting and food withdrawal are not synonymous. Fasting is one powerful, powerful way of self-denial. But the bigger picture involves self-denial that can take on many, many different forms. The possibilities are endless. It's all about creating some space for God to come in where we deny ourselves something. When we recall that we are denying ourselves we are able to focus our attention on God in that space and allow ourselves, to hear from God and receive power to become better than we can be on our own. Let's talk about it for a minute. What are some forms of self-denial other than chocolate, caffeine and things like that? We know all of those are a food fast and that is a form of denial but it's much bigger than that.  In Bible study, I had a gentleman say for him denying himself would be not watching the news for a week. He said that would really get his attention because it would create space to allow him to focus on those things God is calling him to and to focus on his relationship with God. What about you? Just shout out a few things that involve self-denial other than food. What's another area of self-denial?

[Congregation] Shopping! Internet! The movies! Sports!

[Brian Brown] Exactly. Whatever you spend time on. Any area where you spend time that's occupying space, that's pleasurable to the body or the mind that you can use to focus on your relationship with God. That is what self-denial is all about.  Jesus is intentional with his instructions on allowing our fast to be effective and not just for nothing. In Matthew 6^:16 this is what Jesus says on having an effective fast. He says, “When you deny, or when you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, when you're going through this self-denial, put oil on your head and wash your face so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting but only to your father who is unseen.” In other words, Jesus is saying keep this to yourself. As we talk about this we're going to see that self-denial, whatever form it's going to be, is going to be challenging, so you might need one or two accountability partners. Accountability partners will help hold you up and make it through the fast. But the bottom line is, this is not a public broadcast, it's between you and God. An effective fast includes denying the body the physical gratification of food and denying ourselves any physical or physiological pleasure from receiving accolades or pats on the back from one another. You see fasting is meant not to gain the approval of people, but gain a deeper focus in our relationship to receive power from God. So if you're fasting, here's the deal. Let's say I'm at work and I'm denying myself coffee this particular morning. Kim walks into my office and says, “Brian, how you doing?” I respond with, “I'm great Kim, but you know I haven't had my coffee this morning and it's a little rough right now but I need this time to spend with God.” Well, God says, “No, no, no, this is supposed to be between me and you.” And God is saying you might as well have drunk a whole pot of coffee because you nixed your reward. Or if you're denying yourself watching the news and somebody comes up and says, “Hey Steve, did you hear what happened in Dayton last night?” And Steve responds with, “Well, no, I didn't hear it because I'm not watching the news so I can spend that time with God.” God is saying, “Nope, you might as well have been up all night watching Fox News or CNN, because you've just nixed your reward.”

So, how should you respond? How do you respond when someone says, “Dave, let’s go out to lunch.” You don't have to lie and say I'm not hungry, you know? But you can say, “Not today but maybe some other time.” Or, if you’re asked about what happened in the news, you can say, “I hadn't heard that yet.” God is saying keep this between you and God. So instead of sharing it with others, smile - because you've got a secret on the inside that's creating power for the outside! That's what God is talking about. We fast to please the spirit, not the flesh. We are instructed to make it a private affair between our spirit and the Spirit of God. It comes down to this, God is a Spirit. We are made in God's image, we are a spirit, we live in a body, and those things come together. What fasting does is to remind us to tell the body, “You're not the boss of me!” It reminds the spirit it has the power to remind the body that yes, you are my means of transportation, and we are to work together, but I'm the one giving the direction. When we live out of the spiritual direction from God, we use the body as a tool to bring about what is invisible into the visible world. Both the body and the spirit want to lead, but only the spirit can lead to life fulfillment. It is the power of denying the body gratification for designated periods of time that causes us to be more receptive to hear from God and to receive the power from God in order that we might become better than we think we can be.

Let me warn you, there is going to be a fight when you remove gratifying things from your body or your mind. The body is not just going to roll over say, “Okay, have at it.” There are going to be some repercussions due to change. Two things that are part of my normal fast, in any given week is fast from worry and a big one at times - food. I've got one of those minds that's always working and strategically trying to plan this and that. I’m always trying to go to the next level and praying for a lot of folks. I'll be driving home thinking about the stuff that still needs to be done and I'll say, “No I'm calling a fast right now.” A self-denial fast from worry, so when I get home I'm present with my family and not in all these different places. Has anybody ever been with someone and they're in front of you but way off somewhere else? I go through this fast and denial, because it reminds me to turn it over to God when I think of something that needs to be done or someone I’m praying for, “God that's yours. It's too big for me right now, but I thank your for taking it on. If there’s anything I need to do I know you're going to give me the know-how and the power to accomplish it.” As I said my big one is food! I just have a challenge in that area. I start off good, man. I come to work at 8 a.m. in the morning and decide it's going to be a full fast for me today, from sun up to sun down. That's the ticket for me today. Then, what happens is I forget why I'm fasting and that's the challenge. I'll say by 10:30 a.m. I start getting real hungry, and then there's this thought that comes in my office and it starts just floating around, buzzing around. It starts off small and says, “Why don't you just have a meat fast today? You can do that, that's still fasting. I like that idea! Then at 11:45 I find myself in my car on my way to McDonald’s in Tipp City. I get in line and then start smelling the fries, and what was going to be a Santa Fe salad without the meat becomes a #5 with supersized fries! I'm amazed at myself sometimes. Anybody ever been there? So, what was supposed to have been a fast, ended up much worse! If I had never even tried to fast, I wouldn't have eaten that much!

I don't know what yours is whether it's the news or whether its work or shopping, but when you deny yourself those things, your mind and body are not just going to let you have at it. You could be 70 years old and had quit smoking back when you were 20, but if you decide to stop watching the news for 3 days, I'm going to tell you, some crazy things will start floating around in your head. A thought will come in and say, “Why don't you just have a Marlboro Light?” Look, the body says it doesn't have to be specific it just says, “Gimme something!” So be intentional about remembering where the power comes from and remind yourself why you're fasting in the first place. It's about spending time with God to receive power from God. Remind yourself that this is a time where God has my attention because I need something from him that CNN, Fox News, work and chocolate can’t give me. It's about reminding yourself that you need something that only God can give you to be better than you think you can be. Nothing else will do. So when the body cries out for that thing to be denied, remind yourself that this is a time when we're invited to humble ourselves before God, recognizing there's a fight going on for power, but you need the power that only God can supply.  

Why deny? To supply power. This power also gives us focus so we can prioritize our lives. So we can assign priority on who is calling the shots. Jesus tells us in Matthew 4^:1-4, “Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry. The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the son of God; tell these stones to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written, people do not live on bread alone, but from every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ Fasting reminds us we are alive because of the Ruha, the breath and power of God. We're alive secondarily due to lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. Let me say it again. Fasting, this self-denial, reminds us that there is something else that we need in life and we're primarily alive and called into existence for a specific purpose. Our primary reason for being alive is the Ruha, the breath of God and the word of God that gives us strength. Why deny? To supply power and renew priorities. If you were to go to your optimologist, to the eye doctor and ask him how your eye works, he would tell you there is the optic nerve that comes off of the eye and goes into the brain. There's actually a blind spot in your eye but you don't see the blind spot because the mind has enough information all around the blind spot, to fill in the information. That's pretty cool isn't it? It fills in the part that that we can't see. I'm here to tell you, God has called you to a higher level and is always calling us to a place to be closer to him. Sometimes there will be blind spots in life that only God can fill in. Your mind can't fill in all the blind spots. You might be able to see, but there is still something missing, God says, “I can fill it in.”

On April 24^th I left with a team here from Ginghamsburg for Haiti and we stayed there a week and came back the following Saturday, May 1. It was one of those bittersweet trips. When I got back on Monday morning it finally hit me that I was physically drained, mentally drained, spiritually and emotionally drained. I was in one of those stuck positions. I couldn't move forward. I felt depleted, and part of that was because of what we had witnessed. We had seen street after street after street of devastation, and it seemed like it was everywhere and it didn't seem like anything was changing. We realized that 230,000 people had lost their lives. I couldn't get these pictures out of my head. And if that wasn't bad enough, there were tent cities everywhere. The tent cities were meant to be temporary, but you could tell by the way they were arranged, they were going to be there a long time. This was going to be their home for years. Man, it went from bad to worse and looking at the faces retelling how they lost loved ones, was just overwhelming. When I got home those were the only pictures that I could remember, and I remember feeling drained so my mind tried to fill in the blind spot of what I was missing there.  So when I sat down to eat my 3^rd serving – let me give you a clue - if you're still hungry after two servings, then it's really not the food you need. I couldn't eat it anyway. I tried to run it away.  Normally that works for me.  That didn’t work; the blind spot was still there. I tried to talk it away and that didn’t work, so I increased my daily prayer efforts. That helped a little bit, but it still wasn't doing it. So I said, “God, I need to be better than I am managing to be right now on my own.  And nothing else will do.”  I went through a food fast, and after a 24-hour fast for me, I started feeling a little better.  God didn't speak to me in a verbal sense, but I heard God tell me, “Brian, the battle is not yours, it's the Lord’s.” God knows your language.  God knows what you need to hear, God knows the blind spot.  That was my blind spot and he filled that in and then I got it. I was trying to carry the weight of Haiti on my shoulders, and God said, “No, I've got Haiti.  I've got people like you and you and you and you, and I want to fill you so you can go out and fill the world because I'm up to something.” Then God put all these pictures in my mind to remind me of some of the impossible things I did witness while I was in Haiti.  They may seem little, but all of the little things were actually impossible things that God brought together.  Nothing is little or big in God's eyes, it's all stuff that God's doing. 

God reminded me of the elderly gentleman’s house we were working on and how the construction   would give him more space. When looking at his face, you could tell he was thinking that here are some folks who paid to come, they purchased the bricks for my house, and now they're building it. You could tell he was trying to figure out what could motivate somebody to do that. 

We were also a part of this massive wedding, for six couples. Shirley Dearing and Donna Weiket got the idea to provide wedding dresses, I told them I didn’t know how many weddings there were going to be.  They brought 6 dresses, and it just so happened that was the amount that we needed.  There on the side of the mountain, seeing these brides in their dresses they never imagined that they would have for their wedding was phenomenal. It started in the evening and went late into the night.  The husband and wife of one couple were both 80 years old.  They had never, ever been married before but they had seen these Christ followers working in the lives of other folks, in the lives of that community and they said, “You know, we want some of that and we need to do this because that's what God is calling us to do.”  We went to that 80-year-old couple’s house; the wife was handicapped, walked with a cane and had bone problems. They had lived in this house for over 30 years, with wind and rain coming in. God reminded me that somebody from this church, Nicole, said, “I wish we could do something.”  My God, those few words resulted in this couple, married now, walking into their brand new home for the first time.  It might not look like much in this picture, but to them it was the Hilton.  They now had more room, and they were protected from the elements. 

I don't know what you're going through. I don't know what God is calling you to do, but I know God has the answers to get you there.  I know God desires for you to get there.  And when we spend time with God, take that something away and create this space for God, God fills that space so you are able to be better than you can be, better. When this thing is calling you, nothing else will do.  Then God fill us and after we are filled we go out and we take part in the true fast.  Isaiah put it this way, “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen?  To loose the chains of injustice and untie the chords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”  Whatever yoke is in your life, I'm here to tell you that God is there to break it.  And when we spend time with God, it's not long before we see Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.  Where does this power come from?  Read that tonight in Matthew 6:16-18, and you'll see that God says, “I will reward you when you spend time with me.” I'll tell you, nobody can reward you like God. “I will reward you with that thing, with the power to become more than you think you can be.” Where does this power come from? One day Jesus was with his disciples and he said, “It's time for me to deny myself.  They're not going to take my life; I'm going to lay it down.  I'm even going to deny myself because I have the power.  I'm going to deny myself the ability to call on a legion and army of angels to protect me; I'm going to deny myself.  Then he took the bread, gave thanks to God, and broke it.  He said, “This is my body of the new covenant, so that whenever you need me, power will be available for you to receive it.  Take and eat.”  That same night he took the cup, gave thanks to God and then gave it to his disciples and said, “This is the cup; this is the blood of the new covenant, for the forgiveness and the remission of sin.  No longer do you have to live in bondage from where you've been or what you've done.  You are free to receive this brand new power.  Take and drink.”  As our communion servants come forward at this time, in a moment you're going to be invited to stand, exit out of the right side of your row, come forward to the closest communion station, take the bread dip it into the cup and then return to your seat. I want to invite you during that time to pause for the one who really refreshes and think about how you can create time and space for God this week. To receive that which only God can provide. Let's pray. God it's all about You. We thank You for being available and the power released in the life, death and resurrection of Your son, Jesus. Fill in the blind spot. Allow us to be more than we thought we could ever be because, God, nothing else will do. In Jesus’ name, amen.