Matthew 6:16–18Scripture
We are nearly halfway through what I have called a dethroning ceremony. And God is basically asking or inviting us off the throne of life and reminding us who should rightfully be there. And so he talks to us about our giving, which tends to be for the applause of men. The prayer of hypocrites or Pharisees in the day which tended to be for the applause of men.
Now he moves to fasting which tended to be for the applause of men. Notice how you can be busy with religious activity and be glory grabbers. Just because you do something to religious doesn't mean that it's for the right reason. And if you were honest this morning, if you did any kind of reflection, reflecting this morning on your life at any period of your life, there have been many probably times in our life where we have done things, we have participated in religious activity for the sake of self.
I mean, and I think there may be some of us here today who initially we did it for the Lord, but somewhere in the process, our desire, our hunger began to shift towards the applause of men.
If you get a reward for a certain behavior, stands to reason that by nature you will repeat that behavior for the reward. It's kind of just by nature what happens. I'm not calling you a dog
Introduction
when you're training a dog, okay? I'm not calling you a dog. But by nature, we have a tendency to run towards reward.
And then it begins to instruct how we live our lives. If I want to teach my dogs to do something, all I have to do is have a little snack pack with me. It's amazing how smart they become when the snack pack is near. They act confused like they don't speak my language. No espanol. You know what I mean? Like they don't speak my language at all. They're confused. But when I have a snack pack near, it's amazing how well they perform.
When it talks about hypocrites here, the actual word means to put on a mask and to perform a play before men. That's literally the definition.
And I spent the first half of ministry up to this point now trying to help students understand what it is to get real. We would actually say that it's better for you to live authentic lives than to perform before men. Drop the masks.
Be real before God and before men. That's easier said than done because
Some of us don't even really know who we are because we have lived a majority of our life in the masks we have chosen for ourselves.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 3:19
How many of you could testify to the fact that there are different versions of you? They're the version that shows up at the party and the version that shows up at church and the version that shows up at work and the version that's at home. There are different versions of you. Which one is the real you?
Which one is the real you? Do you know who you are? So God is then cautioning us to be authentic, to be our authentic self and to not live to perform before men. And I and I'll say this before I get to Scripture. Well, we'll read Scripture and then I'll say what I please. Okay? So verse 6 verse 16–18 says this. And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
For they disfigure their faces and their fasting that their fasting may be seen by others. Notice there's not necessarily a declaration that they are gloomy. Stop acting like you are possibly when you're not. For Pete's sake, they only fasted on the they were only supposed to fast once a year by command in Leviticus. But they chose to do it twice a week, right?
I'm I'm just telling you, there's no reason to be super gloomy when you miss a couple meals. You have to put that on. Sometimes I get so busy. I miss a couple meals and I've lost track of time. You understand what I'm saying? Some of you like, I don't know how that's possible, man. Now, my wife would not know how that's possible. She's like a regimented She's regimented, right? She's like dinner time, breakfast time, lunchtime, like she's but I tend to lose myself.
But I think that there is some element of them putting on glooiness or maybe they are a little gloomy, but maybe they exaggerate it to get attention, disfigure their faces, and their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you that you've received your reward. But when you fast, everybody say fast. Anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your father who is in secret and your father who's in secret will reward you. We live in a fasting culture.
If you go to the bookstore and you look for the fasting section it is enormous. We can talk to you probably quite extensively even those that don't have a medical degree quite extensively about the benefits of fasting. We may not know much about it spiritually. We may not be able to talk about what happens in Scripture regarding fasting but many of us understand the benefit benefits of fasting. We talk about intermittent fasting. Why do we talk about this?
Because we need to lose a pound or two. Or we have seen the benefits of what it does to your blood sugar, what it does to your health, how your organs begin to restore themselves just by missing a couple meals.
It is healthy for your physical body to fast.
The point of fasting here is not to make you healthy physically.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:11
It's to make you strong spiritually. It is to do something for your health spiritually, not physically. I will say that the church has been guilty of turning spiritual disciplines and attaching it to theological words and kind of disrupting its meaning. The word fast literally translated in the greek it is nest which means to not eat food. That's what it means. Not give up social media.
Not put down your phone and you know not any of those other extraneous things that the church has instructed us to do and said that it's fasting. It's not that matter of fact there's nowhere in the Bible that tells us to give up those things. When you see people fasting it's food and there's a reason for that.
I'm not saying that it wouldn't be beneficial for you to do a giving up of your social media. I think that's probably some spiritual discipline that's healthy and helpful for your life. I think it'd be helpful. It'd be helpful to give up the news for a few weeks. That'd be helpful for your emotional state of being. It'd be helpful to then exchange that time and begin to pursue the Lord and read the word. That'd be helpful. But it ain't a fast.
It's not. It's not a fast. And we've substitute that which is easier. And we said that it's instructive. And it's not. There's something specific that is accomplished in the lives of men and women when they give up food.
Yeah.
It may not be easy to give up social media, but it's easier than giving up food.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:38
And it just does something to you different everywhere when you give up food. Now, I want to say something to you. Some of us wonder why we enter into seasons where we are spiritually weak, peaked, spiritually anorexic. It's because your body eats better than your spirit man. That's why.
And sometimes it is so satiated and full and at the same time your spirit man is starving to death for bread and you never feed it.
And you wonder why you can't overcome temptation. And you wonder why you're weak. You wonder why your attitude is the way it is. And you wonder why you don't see anything positive in life. And you wonder why you don't feel like you can hear the Lord when you open Scripture. And you wonder why your prayers seem to hit the ceiling. And you wonder and you wonder and you continue to wonder why.
But
Your body eats better than your spirit man.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:05
And we feed it and we feed it and we feed it. And it's full and is satiated. And all the while your spirit man is anorexic. It's weak and it cannot overcome the things of the world because you're too busy feeding your flesh those things. So God calls us, listen, and I'll say this too, a couple of things instructive wise for us to understand. He only commands it one time in Scripture, which is in Leviticus, and it's attached to the day of atonement, yak yam kapor, however you want to pronounce it. And it's for the sake, listen, it's for the sake of your sin.
And they're longing for a day when a savior will come where they don't have to make these sacrifices every year. Did you know that when the disciples walked with Jesus, they criticized the disciples and they criticized Jesus because they did not fast.
Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to fast, but there is an expectation that we will as believers. So then if there is no command but there is an expectation we need to begin to understand why is it then that a believer fasts and for what purpose does a believer fast. He says that Jesus responds to them when there was crit criticism about the apostles not fasting, the disciples not fasting, and he says, "Why would you fast when I'm here?
When the bridegroom is here, why would they fast? But when I'm gone, my people will fast, longing for me to return." Yeah. So that's why we fast.
We fast to create a longing. Check with me here. A hunger in our spirit man for his kingdom to come to earth as it is in heaven.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:16
That's what we ask for.
And let me tell you ever been full? You ever been full? You ever sat down at the table and be like, "Oopsy daisy, I ate a little much there and then you gone to bed and you laid down on the right side as a mistake. Don't ever lay down when you're full on the right side. Let me help you. Let me help you here. Lay down on the left side." Something about your stomach and stomach acid. This is the way to go if you're full. Left side, right? Just help you right there. I know from experience. This side, a little bit of throw up. This side, you'll survive.
You with me today? You know what you don't want when you're full? To eat more?
Could it be that we're spiritually starved because we're overly satiated physically?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:20
I don't need no more. I'm satisfied. I don't need no more bread today. I've had enough bread today. I've had the bread of the world. I don't need the bread of the spirit. You don't want to put anything else in. And he says that when I'm gone, Jesus says, when I'm gone, they will hunger.
They will long for me to return. You know, the best way to have some hunger in your spirit, man, to starve your flesh, man. Amen. He's teaching us how to hunger for the things of God. Well, when should we do it and how should we do it? Well, it's giving up food. And you should do it when you want.
Real simple. Well, how long should I do it? There's all kinds of different ways they do it. There's all kinds of different foods they give up there. There's all kinds of different time frames and lengths of time. You should probably do it until you start hungry for the things of God. For some of you, you're satiated enough that might take more than a day. Right?
Are you with me today? For my wife, it'll take literally 30.2 seconds, right? Because she's on a regiment. And it's different for her. It's going to take me three days for my spirit man to hunger at the same level as my flesh. It's going to take that long. It's going to take some of you shorter amount of time.
But don't just wait till you get hungry and then be like, I'm out. That's where when you get hungry, when you're hungering for the things of God, when you feel that switch happen, that's when you stay a little while. Right. Right. That's when you stay a little while. So I think it's before we talk about doing something before the applause of men, we should talk about fasting. So that's what we talked about what it's not. We talked about it what it is that helps us. Maybe it's a little bit instructive. Okay.
But let us not regardless of all of that starve for the applause of men. Right? We do this for the Lord. Now they the hypocrites, the Pharisees, what they did was we talked about Yam Kapor. They were only supposed to instructively from Leviticus do it once a year, but they decided, hey, you know what? We're going to do it twice a week, which was the second and the fifth day of the week. And they really overspiritualized this.
They said, "Well, it reminds us of when Moses went up to get the law." And then when he came down on the second and the fifth day, that's what they said. But there are a lot of Jewish writings that instruct us that it may have been something else because these were the days the market was open. And in the city there in Jerusalem, lots of people would come to the markets.
Guess what day they would come to the markets on the second and the fifth day. I think that's fascinating. And over 30,000 people would descend upon the markets.
Upwards of a 100,000 people were there. But it was a very busy day. And if there was ever a day to be pious and to be seen by men and to put on a display of how religious you are and how wonderful you are and how much you're sacrificing for God, if ever there was a day to be gloomy and put ashes on your face and have your hair disheveled, if you had some, then this would be the day because more people from the city would see you while you walked around the pocket.
You put on display of your religious piousness before men. So Jesus is confronting this religious theater and he's saying, "this is just nonsense, man. This is nonsense." Now, some of you are like, "I'm glad we've made it to fasting because I ain't never done that." And I'm off the hook today. He's talking about an attitude of the heart, not necessarily the actions of men. And this can manifest in a multitude of ways. For some of you, it might be fasting so you can be seen by men. For some of you, it might be titles in the church that you can be seen by men. We want to be appreciated.
We don't know how to serve in silence.
It's hard to be invisible, but God is trying to teach us you could be hidden in a closet and still be seen by him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:48
Why is that not enough? Why are his eyes and being seen by him not enough? Why do we need to be noticed by men, by our spouse? I understand. Listen, I understand we're communal. I get it.
And I think we should honor one another. But you know how quickly honor can turn into glory robbing.
Point 1When hunger becomes performance
Number one, you're like, "Wow, that took a while." It did. It did really take a while to get here, but I promise I see the time back there, and I'll do my thing, and we'll get done quick. When hunger becomes performance, Jesus says, "do not look gloomy like the hypocrites." In other words, stop acting.
There is a version of Christianity that is more concerned with being seen than being sanctified.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:06
The more public your ministry is, the more at risk you are of religious piousness.
The Pharisees did not fast because they were desperate for God. They fasted because they were desperate to be admired. And this takes some soulsearching to see this. And I'll be honest with you. This quietly infiltrates your heart in ways you would not imagine. You can love the Lord. And this is not a question of your love or loyalty for the Lord. This is a question of we are infinitely carnal.
There's an expectation that we should be evaluating oursel constantly to see if we have slipped into this type of behavior. And it happens often.
Hear me carefully.
You can deny your body and still feed your ego. Oh my goodness, man. You can skip meals and still crave applause.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:13
You can look spiritual and be spiritually hollow. When hunger becomes performance, devotion becomes deception. Now you're living a lie before men. You're presenting a version of you that ain't even you, man. It's not even you.
And some of you are not seeking God. You're curating you're curating an image. We live in a generation where everything is documented. This is problematic. Quiet time is photographed. Track with me. I've done this, so I think I can speak candidly regarding this. How many of you, without raising your hand, have ever taken a picture of your Bible time?
Quiet time photographed me and Jesus hashtag hashtagme and Jesus plus the whole world now that you photographed it and put it on social media. You with me today? Could it be we are happy that we're worshiping at the throne of Jesus and we want the applause of men?
Could it be that it's both? But could it be that God doesn't care because he's jealous? Some of us should consider what we're doing. It's easy to get all up in arms about the Pharisees and their disheveled hair and their gloomy faces, but the reality is
We are a full-time marketing director for our own lives.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:18
Our fasts are announced, sacrifice is posted, discipline becomes content that sells and creates a following.
But heaven is not impressed with your content. I know. It's shocking. I know. It's shocking. Notice they didn't hit the follow button. Notice they're not on your list. You know what I mean? There's no likes from Gabriel. Just notice. It's amazing. I know. I know. Shocking. Notice Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They saw the fire. You went through. They're not impressed.
That didn't even want my notes. That was awesome. Sorry. Heaven is after your consecration. Jesus is not condemning public faith. He's condemning performative faith. That's right.
There's a difference, listen, between shining your light and staging it so people can celebrate your light.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:34
One glorifies the father, the other glorifies the flesh. And we are professional and proficient at satiating fleshly things. When hunger becomes performance, the audience replaces God. And whatever you perform for will eventually own you, right? It will own you. It will work you like a marionette and dance you where it wants to dance you and bow you where it wants to bow you and tap you into whatever season it wants to tap you into.
Whatever you perform for owns you. If you fast so people will think you're spiritual, people become your reward. And Jesus says you already have it. No intimacy, no deeper authority, no reward from the father, just applause, temporary, shallow, and empty.
Let me say it plainly. Some believers are more disciplined in public than they are in their devoted private life. Strong in front of people and weak in front of God. And when hunger becomes performance, you're not pursuing transformation. You are protecting your reputation. And then Jesus confronts that like he is here. Because
God is not looking for actors in the marketplace.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:22
He is looking for sons and daughters in the secret place. And there is a difference between the two of those. If your hunger needs witness, it's not hunger for God. It's hunger for validation. And validation will never sanctify you.
Point 2Feasting without fasting becomes slavery
Only surrender can do that. Number two, told you we would try to get through here. FA feasting without fasting becomes slavery.
I'm going to encourage you today. Begin to implement fasting into your life. Well, Sean, I need instruction. Just give up food and replace it with feeding your spirit man the word of God.
Replace feeding your flesh with feeding your spirit man. It's that simple. Feasting without fasting becomes slavery.
What if your spiritual dullness is not because God is distant, but because you're constantly full?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:25
You're full of food. You're full of noise. You're full of stimulation. You're full of entertainment. You're full of scrolling. You're full of options. There is no room for longing. When you never deny yourself anything, your appetites start disciplining you. Feasting without fasting becomes slavery. You will become a slave to that thing because whatever you refuse to deny will eventually dominate you and rule your life.
That's a fact. We live in a culture of constant consumption. Eat when you want. Watch what you want. It don't even matter if you're in the church. Watch what you want. I'm free. Grace, watch what you want. Don't matter. Don't affect me. Feed me. Feed me. Consumption. Yay. Feed me. No restriction. I'll watch that rated mature show. It doesn't matter. Feed me.
It'll rule you. It'll rule you. Buy what you want. Indulge what you want and then we call that freedom. It's not freedom. That's slavery. It is training your flesh to expect obedience from you. Comfort doules calling.
When life is built around ease, the soul grows soft. Modern Christianity has become allergic to discomfort.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:22
Man, I'm just telling you right now, especially in America.
I've been traveling a little bit now overseas. I watch what keeps people out of the church in America. A monsoon could come, a flood could happen, and I've seen it. Two feet of standing water inside the tabernacle with no seats, no air condition, and nothing pumping the water out. And I can watch them worship with water up to their knees because they love the Lord. And comfort doesn't prioritize everything in their life.
That's right. But in America, an inch would be too deep in here.
Comfort over God.
It is training your flesh to expect obedience from you. When life is built around ease, the soul grows weak. We design services for convenience. We avoid sermons that confront. We build lives that require no sacrifice. But
The kingdom of God was born in deserts. It was strengthened in prisons and it was purchased on a cross.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:56
The cross not so comfortable.
It ain't a tempropedic yo. And disciplehip is not designed around convenience. Fasting reintroduces discomfort with a purpose.
This is where the kingdom invades. Now, I know we live in a word of faith generation and we want to pray to escape, but sometimes God instructs things that bring discomfort on purpose.
See, some of you want to turn fasting into a means to get a breakthrough. Little do you know that when you fast, you realize that the way he breaks through is through breaking you.
I want a breakthrough in 2026. Well, the spirit of God is in you. And if you're going to be a light to the world around you, and you're a vessel of clay, cracking required.
Okay. Oh wow. Okay. Fasting reintroduces discomfort on purpose. It reminds your body that it is not in charge. It declares, "my body does not own me. My cravings do not define me. My comfort does not control me."
Here's something important.
If you cannot tell your stomach no, you will struggle to tell sin no.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:02
This is helpful fasting because it's equipping you with the type of discipline required to tell sin no because discipline and the small things build strength for the greater things.
Notice that Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights before the devil tempted him. And noticed that fasting gave him the strength to endure that temptation. Could it be we don't stand as strong as we ought because we don't fast as much as we ought? It's instructive. Some believers are mastered by appetite while claiming to be mastered by Christ.
But Scripture says you cannot serve two masters. So then the question becomes, who rules you? Your cravings or your king.
Fasting without feasting without fasting does not make you strong. It makes you dependent. And anything you cannot deny
Point 3Fasting exposes your real master
has already begun to enslave you. Number three, fasting exposes your real master. Fasting reveals how fragile your self-control actually is. Oh man, I can't even say no to cookies. But I'm going to stand in the face of persecution and say yes to God.
Cookies. Death. Cookies. Can't.
You say you would stand firm under persecution, but you cannot stand firm under skipped pancakes.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:01
You say you would suffer for Christ, but mild hunger makes you irritable and uncristlike. You say Jesus is enough, but your mood shifts when your appetite is denied. It's called hangry, in case you were wondering. It has a name. Hunger reveals your master. Whatever you cannot say no to owns you. And some believers are mastered by appetites while claiming to be mastered by Christ.
Listen. Listen. Fasting is a war against the tyranny of your appetite. It is rebellion against the dictatorship of comfort. Last point, private altar, public authority. Jesus says, "Anoint your head, wash your face." In other words, stop advertising your devotion.
This is not about the crowd. This is about the father. Your father, it says in the Scripture, who sees in secret will reward you.
He sees what nobody else sees. That's good news, folks. I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel forgotten. But he sees you. That's important. Yeah, I don't you don't get pastoral moments like this really a lot. So this he sees you. That's important. He sees what nobody else sees. That's important because if he sees it, then he cares about it. Because you can't detach a God who's loving from seeing from caring.
That means he's probably doing something. He's at work. The reality is we want to avoid surrender. We want public authority. We want influence. We want impact. We want power.
But we avoid private surrender.
We want platforms without prayer, anointing without obedience, and authority without sacrifice.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:36
But heaven does not anoint. Heaven anoints surrender. Before Jesus had a crowd, he had a wilderness. Before demons obeyed him publicly, he obeyed the father privately. If there is no private altar, there will be no lasting public authority.
You cannot carry public weight without private depth. Some want to be used by God, but they have no secret history with God, no hidden discipline, no unseen obedience, no private hunger. Public authority is expensive and it's paid for in secret and with pain.
Do not chase platforms, chase presence. Do not build a brand, build an altar. Yes. Because
When Christ rules you in private, heaven can trust you in public.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:57
At the cross, Jesus said, "I thirst." The one who created the universe and put all of the water in the seas is thirsty. The bread of life felt hunger in his body. Why? Why? Because he came to break the power of sin and the appetite over humanity. He did not die so you could remain mastered by cravings. He died to set you free from them.
And now he calls you to deny yourself, to pick up your cross and follow him and deny cravings.
Not to earn salvation, not to prove spirituality, but to align your appetite with your calling.
Some of you are bound by small appetites. Sugar owns you. Screens own you. Attention owns you. Comfort owns you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:10
And you call it freedom. But whatever you cannot say no to is already ruling you. Listen, fasting is not punishment. It's training. It's a declaration, declaring Christ is my king, not sugar.
My flesh is not mastered by anything but Christ. My comfort is not my God. I can be in prison and worship him. I can be in the desert and worship him. I can be in the storm and fix my gaze on him. Comforts not my Lord.
Do not starve for applause. Starve for God. Do not perform hunger. Pursue him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:14
Build a private altar in your home. Let hunger purify your motives. Because the father who sees in secret is not looking for actors in the marketplace. He is looking for surrendered sons and daughters in the private place. And when private hunger burns long enough, heaven responds. When Christ rules you in secret, authority follows in public. So the question this morning is this.
Who rules you? Your appetite or your king?
36:16
34:03
40:58
43:06
38:28
36:29
53:31
46:21
50:56
50:14
50:59
50:16
50:33
1:01:14
55:11
58:45
48:40
53:36
50:01
48:24
46:58
53:46
48:09
47:47
48:22
48:05
49:51
44:16
43:00Now playing
36:15
31:13
52:55
50:14
58:33
49:41
46:19
44:54
43:02
38:08
30:23
45:14
45:45
44:48
38:14
45:30
43:08
26:04
47:18
37:25
30:49
43:11
47:01
40:41
44:50
33:29
53:32