Why Hunger for God?

We are going to study a fascinating area of God's Word - BIBLICAL FASTING. How is your appetite this morning? I'm not referring to the consumptive society in which we live where more food is thrown out each day than half the rest of the world has to eat. No, I'm talking about your hunger for God. How is it?

1. In the Old Testament we see biblical fasting is an urgent call to get serious about knowing God.

2. In the New Testament we see biblical fasting is an ancient spiritual discipline to reschedule one's life with God at the center instead of dining, relaxing, amusing, accumulating, advancing, securing, and a multitude of other things that are not wrong - just deadly to intimacy with the Almighty.

3. This morning we narrow our focus to this one thought: How did the early Church of Acts and the Epistles demonstrate this hunger for God? We shall see that their hunger shaped their lives, their ministry, their worship, and their outreach. In the early Church we see biblical fasting is a powerful way to yield every part of one's life to God's supremacy.

4. So we can study and learn about biblical fasting in God's Word: in the Old Testament, in New Testament, from the early Church, and tonight as those who live for Christ in 21st Century America. Today we see biblical fasting is an immediate way to declare your allegiance to God's way and glory in every day of your life!