Joy Crucifies Gluttony

Most of us probably wouldn’t consider ourselves “gluttons.” But when we look at how we spend our free time, how we respond to boredom or hardship, or what we do for “rest,” we likely find ourselves giving into excess and impulse. By definition, this is gluttony: consumption without contentment. To find happiness or satisfaction, we often chase cheap impulses, or what some call “pseudo-joys.”

But this problem isn’t new. Jesus calls it out when the crowds followed him after they ate the five thousand loaves and fish that he gave them. “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” Instead Jesus reminds the crowds, and us, that He is the Bread of Life that satisfies our deepest desires. This is the fruit of joy.

By practicing both fasting and feasting, we can slowly train ourselves to resist gluttony and instead embrace the true joy that Jesus offers us.

You can take interactive notes here. At the end of the message, you can email the notes to yourself.

 We’re going to be. Reading Galatians chapter five Starting in verse 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious sexual immorality moral impurity promiscuity idolatry sorcery hatreds strife jealousy outbursts of anger selfish ambitions dissensions factions envy Drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar.

I am warning you about these things, as I warned you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. And self control. The law is not against such things. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that this day we would just experience your presence. Lord Jesus, I pray this day we may take up our cross and follow you. And Holy Spirit, I pray this day you would fill us and cause your fruit to ripen within us of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

Amen. You may be seated. You are a glutton. I’ll never forget when my spiritual director, just a gentle man of 83 years, told me this over Zoom. At first, I was offended, because honestly, I always equated gluttony with a body type, and I did gain a few pounds that year, but I thought he was jumping the gun.

But for the next 45 minutes, he slowly and gently, but yet persistently, connected the dots of my story to the sin of gluttony. For example, as a child, I often looked for happiness in Happy Meals. That’s my confession for the day. I enjoyed McDonald’s and Taco Bell and Jack in the Box. My family, I grew up here in Queen Creek.

Nothing was here in Queen Creek except this school. And so we had to drive into Gilbert for everything. And as a result, we’re always way too busy to sit down and have a good time. Decent meal. So we were always on the run eating terrible food and it created a craving in me that continued into adulthood, especially if it’s a hard day.

My first resort is to go to the worst kind of food to take the edge off. I thought he was done. Good point, doc. Let’s move on. He says, you’re not just a glutton for food. You are a glutton for fun. And I said, isn’t that what’s best about me? Uh, no. In college, I looked for happiness at the happiest place on earth.

California Baptist University, where I went to college for four years to get my degree in theology, was only 35 minutes away from Disneyland. And so I made a record, at least at CBU, I went at least two to four times a week. Now, it wasn’t all day. When you’re local, you can go for 30 minutes and that counts.

I’m just saying, so I’m not as crazy as you think. But, if I was worried about finals, I would grab my iPad, load This was back in the day. This was like 16 years ago. So, I was like so cool. I figured out how to get PDFs onto an iPad. I would go in line for Splash Mountain and study for finals. And then cover it with all my life as I went down to Splash Mountain and got splashed.

That’s how I Past my finals if I was anxious about my future, you know existential crisis when you’re at that age trying to figure out what to do with your life I would just go to Disneyland. The problem is I actually never learned to endure any hardship by talking to God I just talked to Mickey now my gluttony didn’t stop there.

I was a glutton for food I was a glutton for fun and it continued even after college The main story that my spiritual director pointed out that I couldn’t, uh, couldn’t deny was when my hero and my grandfather passed away. I vividly remember the dreadful phone call, and to my shame, after my immediate reaction was not to go to a quiet place and talk with God about my grief through prayer.

Instead, I went to a quiet theater and watched Godzilla and drowned my grief with popcorn. And this was clearly a problem. My spiritual director, from his point of view, gluttony was a keystone killer in my life, especially when it came to joy. I was struggling to find it, but never could because I was looking in all the wrong places.

And at this moment, not too long ago, I finally confessed to God the sin of gluttony. And this is what makes all these sins so deadly. The seven deadly sins are hard to detect and they’re even harder to resist. That’s why we’re going through this together as a faith family. We’re anchoring these truths in the word of God, but we also desperately need the Holy Spirit.

We need fourth soil hearts to receive it, but we also need. And that’s my hope. Leading up to Easter, our church, not just on Sundays, but throughout the week, we are participating in what church throughout history called Lent. This season where we don’t just talk about sin in general, but we talk about sin in particular.

And we’re also contrasting that, if you haven’t noticed, with the fruit of the Spirit. So last week was greed, and we said that love crucifies greed. This week, let’s talk about Gluttony. Now, we see gluttony all throughout the scriptures. We do see it here in Galatians chapter 5, of which I just read.

Galatians 5, towards the end of his list of the works of the flesh, I think would be considered the category of gluttony, when he says, quote, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. So for our time today, I want to invite you, and if you don’t bring a Bible, I encourage you to start doing that. If you don’t have one, let us take care of you and get you one.

But go to John chapter 6. We’re going to be in the Gospel of John the rest of this time. We’re going to look at three different teachings of Jesus anchored in that Gospel. One of my favorite Gospels. Now as you’re turning there, allow me to give you some quick context of John chapter 6. First of all, John 6 opens with an incredible miracle.

Jesus feeds 5, 000 with five loaves. And here’s my favorite part about Jesus. He has 12 baskets left over, so the feast was overflowing. That’s my kind of Jesus. He loves to throw a party, and he loves to bring more than what is needed. But it turns out, as you continue to read John 6, he created a crowd that followed him because of the food.

And so we will see this warning of what happens, because these, this group of people, and it could be true for us as well, they were so choked out by the sin of gluttony. That they missed out on the Son of God. John chapter 6, starting in verse 24. When the crowd, this hungry crowd, right, saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

Why spend this time cooking if you could just find the guy who keeps doing the miracles? So that’s what they’re doing. Verse 25. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus answered, truly I tell you, you were looking for me. Not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

Quickly, this word, signs, has a theological weight to it. Signs is, the Jews would have understood this, but we kind of need some context, and that’s okay. Ever since the Garden of Eden, our world is not as it should be. It’s filled with Sin, Satan, and death. It’s divisions and decay and everything has gone wrong, but the promise immediately in Genesis 3 and all throughout the Bible is that a coming kingdom is on its way, that a Messiah would usher in a new kingdom filled with joy and filled with not death and wiping away every tear from their eye.

And so Jesus is saying, I’m giving you signs. I’m allowing this new kingdom breaking through in the here and now because in the kingdom of God, nobody starves and the kingdom of God, people don’t have illnesses or ailments. So these are signs. These are moments that Jesus is trying to point them and say, I’m the Messiah and the kingdom of God is here, but they missed the point.

Why? Because they just thought it was about food. Verse 27, don’t work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the son of man will give you. Because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him. Jesus here is exposing what’s true for all of us. Whatever is feeding you is leading you.

Jesus is telling the crowd, You’re not following me because I’m your Christ. You’re following me because I’m your cook. You are looking for me because of your appetite for food. Not because of your allegiance to the Father. This idea, whatever is leading you, uh, feeding you, is leading you, is key to Passion Creek Church.

We call this formation. Everything is forming you or feeding you to become a person of love, joy, and peace. Or if it’s the wrong thing you’re feeding on, it’s helping you become a person of bitterness, emptiness, and selfishness. The question is, what are you eating? And Jesus is pointing out, you’re looking at the wrong food.

And here’s what’s really important. It’s always helpful. I love how we have our attender versus disciple framework. I think it constantly helps us understand scripture even more because here’s what’s really key. Whatever is feeding you is leading you, yes, but even more so, whatever is feeding you the most is leading you the most.

So you could have interactions with Jesus at different times. Let’s say one hour a Sunday. Well, what do you do with the other 167 hours of the week? If you’re just feeding on the bread of life for one hour, the other 167 hours are forming you and feeding you and leading you more than Jesus is. We don’t say that to condemn.

We say that to invite. Let’s grow together. Let’s enjoy this journey together. There’s grace, and we can’t fill up all 168 hours. We do have to sleep, right? It’s not all non stop walking in the presence of God, but actually maybe we can get there if we keep giving ourselves grace and do it along the way.

So Jesus is showing us that contrast, and he’s giving them a dose of reality, and he really wants them to see what’s true. Look, verse 34. Jump down just a few verses. Then they said, Sir, give us this bread always. I love it. They’re like, cool, cool, cool, whatever you say. But can you like keep feeding the 5, 000 every day?

That would be wonderful. But his response, of course, is genius. He says, I am the bread of life, Jesus told them. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. Now, is he talking about actual physical hunger? I remember when I was in junior high, in these hallways, and I was reading this and thinking, I follow Jesus and I can’t wait for lunch.

This is a metaphor, talking about the fullness, to be fully satisfied. Something that’s way more important than the filling of food. And no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. So this is what Jesus is pivoting and just so brilliantly bringing before the people. Whatever is feeding you is leading you.

But are you sure it’s filling you? Jesus said, you want bread that is here today and gone tomorrow. It only fills you for a moment. Do you want that temporary fix? Or do you want something that will genuinely fill you for eternity? See, that’s what makes gluttony so deceptive. Gluttony is killing you while telling you it’s filling you.

So we must have the wisdom to discern. One way to describe gluttony. Is consumption without contentment. This has been helpful for me as I studied this idea this week. Consumption without contentment, I think it’s helpful because I think it certainly includes food and drink. But especially in our modern context today, there is so much you and I can be gluttons.

Over. For example, binge watching a show like Severance. That is fun, also very confusing, right? But it can leave you feeling empty, or at least like, what is life, right? It’s just a strange show. But binging has this allure, like, if you just watch this, you’ll feel better. But anybody else, you just feel just as exhausted, if not more, at the end.

What about eating that perfect dessert that just feels like heaven? What a joy. But moments later, it just feels really heavy. Or like doomscrolling for dopamine hits, it leaves you, again, more exhausted and tired than when you first began. Neuroscientists are even showing there is a huge correlation. The more you doomscroll, the less happiness you have.

You cannot be happy and be on your phone at the same time. Now, let me make sure we pump the brakes just a little bit. The problem isn’t that we enjoy food, entertainment, or technology. We’re not that kind of church. Severance is cool, okay? We’re not. But It’s that we overindulge in them. And even more so, we expect those things to give us the kind of happiness that is only found in God.

And that’s really helpful for us to remember. God is not against your happiness. He’s against happiness that’s gluttonous. And that’s a really good thing. One way to read John chapter 6 is to assume that Jesus is a killjoy. Come on, Jesus! Keep giving them bread! It’s easy! You could just say, God, give it to them!

You are God! Just say, bread! And it will come into existence. What’s the harm in feeding these hungry people? But of course Jesus knows he’s not going to be there forever. He won’t even be in that region forever. He is going around sharing the gospel. And he’s on the road to Jerusalem to the cross. To die for our sins and raise again to bring new life.

No, he wants to give them a deeper satisfaction. He, like any good parent, is saying, Sure, you could have this, but I’m withholding so that you can have something. See, what he doesn’t want for them or for you or for me is happiness that’s gluttonous. Now, the Queen Creek Version, I figured out how to define happiness that’s gluttonous in six words.

Are you ready? More, more, more. Now, now, now. That’s gluttony. That’s looking for happiness, but it is gluttonous. You always want more, more, more. Now, now, now, now, if you are more educated than me, I did go to Queen Creek education, Gregory the Great, he would call it excessive and impulsive. I’m a fan of more, more, more, now, now, now.

Now in our Western worldview, it’s hard to imagine more and now ever being bad for you. Like think about it, more and now, that sounds like heaven to me. However, the Bible consistently shows if we have that mentality towards all sorts of things, it winds up having very devastating consequences. The first.

Example to obviously think of is about the Garden of Eden. For those who know the story, God created Adam and Eve, and they said you can have any of the fruit except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, of course, you tell me not to eat something. That’s the one I want to eat, right? So, honestly, I always struggled with this throughout my childhood, even up to today.

Why would God put a tree In the first place, that you’re not allowed to touch. Just give me all the other good fruit. Why give me that temptation? Theologian Jeff Cook, I think he really helps here. He has a book on the seven deadly sins, and he talks about this tree. How it wasn’t just about, it wasn’t just created for obedience.

Although that’s a reason enough. It was about love and enjoyment. In other words, every time Adam and Eve chose not to eat, they were affirming their trust in God. Look at his quote as the following. Refusing to eat the fruit. Which Adam and Eve may have done for many years, right? We don’t know how long Genesis 3 was.

We tend to believe he, he created on the seventh, uh, sixth day. They rested and then boom, uh, send. We don’t know. There is a time of space. Okay, so which Adam and Eve may have done for many years had been the primary demonstration of their love for God. By declining the poisoned fruit, Adam and Eve affirmed daily, what a beautiful gift, daily, that the world God had made was good.

But they desired inclusion in the life God gave them and that they cared for their maker. And so abstinence was a sign of faithfulness and commitment. See my gluttonous worldview that I didn’t know I had grew up thinking how silly that God would put a tree that we couldn’t eat from. Now I’m a Christian so I never said that out loud, but it’s always puzzling to me.

But then I would say, God, you know, you’re higher than me, it doesn’t matter if I understand it or not. But, as I even reflected on it this week, the more I apprentice under Jesus, the more I realize it is such a gift to say no to more, more, more, and to say no to now, now, now. Now, thankfully, the Bible has a word for this.

The Bible has a word for happiness that isn’t gluttonous. Do you know what it’s called? It’s called joy. Paul tells the Galatians in chapter 5 that joy comes when we walk by the Spirit. It’s something that comes along the way as we follow Him. Jesus teaches His disciples often that He came to bring us joy, and I love it, joy to the fool.

And so He doesn’t want us to settle for happiness that’s gluttonous. Let me just say quickly, I’m not here to vilify the word happy. I think happy is also all around the biblical text, and that’s a good thing. But joy does help us anchor the reality of life. Understanding there is a way to be happy on temporal things.

Joy is a way to be happy on eternal things. Now turn with me to John chapter 15. John chapter 15, one of my favorite chapters in all of scripture. Fun fact, we’re going to be studying John 14 through 17 in detail all summer long starting in June. This is Jesus in the fourth quarter. Okay, he’s in the fourth quarter with his disciples telling him what’s most important before getting crucified.

So for now, I want us, I want you to know about this. This is just called the, uh, the, the all of it discourse. It’s his last teachings before his crucifixion and he teaches them a lot about the Holy Spirit and he also says a lot about joy. Let’s look verse one in John chapter 15. Jesus says the following, I am the true vine and my father is the gardener.

Every branch in me that does not produce fruit, he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken. To you, even notice right away, our question would be like, what is fruit? Well, we have the Bible to interpret the Bible.

So Galatians 5 is an obvious example of what the fruit is. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. It’s so hard to say that list without it being quick, but you guys get the point, right? So that’s some of the fruit. But even notice Jesus is already referencing pruning.

Pruning is a essential process to discipleship and bearing fruit in one’s life. And pruning, gluttony has no category for. A glutton does not understand the purpose of pruning. Let’s continue though, verse 4. Remain or abide or dwell in me and I in you, just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine.

Very simple word picture here. Neither can you unless you remain in me. So I’m the vine, you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me. Very strong words here. Ties back to the point of Galatians 5 as well. We said last week the fruit is not of the human spirit.

It’s of the Holy Spirit. This is all a gift from God that comes when we dwell with Him. Verse 6. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.

My Father is glorified by this. That you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples might be the best way to summarize our goal for this year Is to produce fruit and to be his disciples verse 9 as the father has loved me I’ve also loved you remain in my love if you keep my commands You will remain in my love.

There’s so much there We’ll talk about it this summer just as I have kept my father’s commands and remains in his love But look at this fun verse next I have told you these things, everything he just said, so that my joy, not just any joy, the joy of Jesus may be in you and your joy may be complete. One translation puts it this way, I’ve told you these things so that your joy, so that you’ll be filled with joy.

Yes, your joy will overflow. Again, there’s so much here. I understand there’s a lot here in John 15 that I’m having to glaze over quickly. We’re going to study it in detail in the summer and I can’t wait. But for now, what is Jesus teaching us about joy? First of all, joy is a byproduct of communion, not consumption.

Notice the sequence of his argument. Stay with me, you’ll produce a lot of fruit. Go away from me, you’ll produce nothing. Stay with me. Follow me, you’ll experience my love and also as a result, you’re going to have a lot of joy. It’s going to be overflowing in your life. So joy is something that comes from God, not only comes from God, but it comes when we are in the presence of God.

One of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 1611 says, you revealed the path of life to me in your presence is abundant joy. A huge heartbeat of our church is we do whatever it takes to stay in his presence. We hope that as you become disciples with us, we rearrange our days to become exactly like him to experience his joy, which is Dallas Willard.

He said, of course, guys, it’s a Trey sermon, Dallas Willard’s here. Let’s see what he says. He says, quote, you must arrange your days so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy and confidence in your everyday life with God. But here’s what I have found to be true. If we don’t find our joy in Jesus, we will find our joy in something else.

Jim Wilder wrote a great book called The Other Half of Church. He’s a Christian neuroscientist. And so he does this great juxtaposition looking at the scriptures and then how science backs the scriptures specifically about things like joy. And he argues our brains are literally hardwired for joy. And our culture though, is happy to provide a million different.

counterfeits. He puts it this way, quote, when our brain looks for joy and does not find it, because we would argue it’s only found in Christ, we become vulnerable to pseudo joys. These are substances and experiences that trick our brain to temporarily shut off the unpleasant emotions, but they are non relational and ultimately unsatisfying.

This is all gluttony can offer. A temporary shut off that’s not relational and always unsatisfying. But this lie of gluttony, hard to detect, harder to resist, tells you, you can’t have joy. Just consume. And marketers are counting on it. What’s the data? You see like a hundred ads before you even go to work.

Like, uh, over and over we are told, consume, consume, consume. In this book, he gives a bunch of different examples of things you and I are tempted to consume. He said things like food, which is the obvious gluttony, but there’s so much more. Social media, shopping, alcohol, pornography, drugs, and sugar. And we could go on and on.

And here’s what’s really sad. We often package our discipleship to Jesus as something to consume rather than someone to commune with. So if that’s our paradigm, because everything else we consume, so if we look to Jesus and just consume, we have no framework for when God prunes us. Because the only framework we have, what we’ve been raised to believe is happiness, is more, more, more, now, now, now.

And God does His greatest work when He doesn’t give us more, more, and more, and He doesn’t give it to us now, now, now. So that’s key for us to understand joy. It comes from communion, although the world will tell you it comes from consumption. But let’s look at chapter 16. For me, it’s still on the same page of John 16.

Jesus picks up on this theme of joy yet again. Take a look with me. John 16, starting in verse 20. Truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful. He’s talking to his disciples, but your joy will turn to, sorry, but your sorrow will turn to joy. Now, in immediate context, he’s talking about, he’s about to get crucified.

So it’s going to be a really bad Saturday. Everybody’s going to be happy except you, but that’s okay because Sunday’s coming. The tomb is empty. You’re going to have all sorts of joy. That’s the immediate context. Stick with me, there’s a way to apply that to you and me as well. Now, verse 21. When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her time has come.

But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world. So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy from you. In that day, you will not ask me anything.

Truly, I tell you, anything you ask the Father in my name, He will give you. Until now, you have asked for nothing in my name, but here goes that line again. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete, or to the fool. What is happening here? In the same way, so Jesus is saying I’m going to be resurrected so you’re going to have joy again, we can take that same promise.

Now we do have more joy because the tomb is empty, but even more joy because the promise is He was resurrected. When we believe in Him, we too will be resurrected. Our greatest joy is not in this life, but in the next one. He’s going to redeem all things. One of my favorite lines from J J. R. R. Tolkien is that everything that is sad will one day become untrue.

That is true for us who believe in the resurrection of Jesus. He’s going to wipe away every tear from our eyes. He’s going to resurrect our bodies. So there’s a lot there to talk about with joy. But I want us to notice just one key line here about endurance and joy. Look at verse 21 one more time. When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her time has come.

But when she has given birth to a child. She no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world. Jesus is teaching us a really important thing about joy. Joy is deepened through endurance, but cheapened through indulgence. Now, can you imagine having a baby right away?

I can’t imagine having a baby, so let me just be clear here, right? Because I am a man, alright? But also, what a gift that there’s like a nine month runway. I mean, hopefully. I know ours was like eight months. You in the front row, you’re like seven and a half months, but whatever, right? But thankfully, what does that do?

Especially for new moms and new dads, it helps you change. You learn, you learn in those seven months and nine months waiting. Oh my gosh, my whole house is just a death trap for kids. You have to cover all the electrical outlets, you got to get ready, you, there’s this thing called nesting. What a joy, but all of it, you know, I think it’s fun.

It’s not too fun for the mom, right? Things are happening, right? And there is suffering along the way, especially the day of giving birth. Jesus is giving us this illustration, but he’s saying, Once you have the baby, you forget all of the pain that was leading up to it. It’s nothing but joy. There’s a great sense of accomplishment.

It would kind of just be crazy if you find out you’re pregnant and the next day you have it. No, there is something about that endurance. But then the joy is even more to the full because you endured. Time and time again, the biblical writers connect joy with endurance. James does it, the half brother of Jesus.

Chapter 1, verse 2 of the book of James says the following, Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces Endurance, and let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature and complete. There’s that phrase again, lacking nothing.

In other words, if you want joy to the full, it means you have to endure. We cheapen our maturity and enjoyment when we indulge rather than endure. Rebecca de Young, she has a great book on the seven deadly sins, she’s really helpful here to talk about the glutton. She says the following, quote, When the gluttonous feel need or emptiness, they do not want to have to depend on God or wait on God to fill it.

We prefer vending machine Christianity. The pleasure of food is not only readily available multiple times a day for many Americans, but it is something we can use to quell our own feelings of need and longing. With food, we can comfort ourselves, fill ourselves, provide pleasure for ourselves, if only physically, and if only for a short while.

The glutton’s pursuit of fulfillment depends on what he can do, not on what God will give him. So the encouragement here is if we endure long enough, you and I will be amazed at what God gives us. Chief among them is joy. Recently, as in like this week, I received some news that kind of was devastating or at least disappointing.

And so those closest to me that I let in, I let them know about the situation. And as a result, they kept checking on me now to their surprise and honestly to mine. I really wasn’t that sad. Like, I was looking at the data and thinking, yeah, this probably, I deserve at least Dairy Queen after hearing this news, and I’m doing fine because we’re linting, so I can’t have Dairy Queen yet.

But I was genuinely okay. And so some of my friends that I reached out to, they would call me like, no, how are you really doing? Because they thought I was lying. I said, honestly, I I think I’m normally not do well, but I’m doing okay. Everything is great. I even told my wife just a couple nights ago, I was saying like, man, this is weird, but I called my previous self yestertray.

So I was like, yestertray would have just been destroyed by this, but I’m doing okay, you know, and so we were talking about it and And so, we were just, uh, finally got to the point where we realized this isn’t me, this is God, like, God’s at work. God is working in a way where yesterday Trey would have crumbled, but today Trey is doing great!

And, and we were talking about it, and honestly, Jordan knows this, like, my go to in this order is to freak out, to have a panic attack, and then have ice cream, in that order. And that’s how I deal with hard news. And yet, I was fine. And I was thinking, of course I am doing okay, more than ever in this season, especially as we lent.

I’ve been trying to lean into his strength more than my own. I’ve been saying no to more, more, more, now, now, now, and it has been sustaining me. And I’ve been able to see in my own life this week, Nehemiah 8, 10 to become true. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Christian scientist Jim Wilder again said the following about joy that I think is really helpful.

Joy helps us regulate our emotions and endure suffering. Joy does not remove our pain, but it does give us the strength to endure. So this is what I find fascinating. You’ll see all throughout the Biblical text, endurance gives us joy, and joy has a way to give us endurance. They feed off of each other. So if joy is deepened through endurance, not through indulgence, How do we, as a faith family, cultivate that type of endurance in our daily lives?

In other words, is there a practice, from the way of Jesus, that deepens our joy through endurance rather than cheapens it with indulgence? Is there a cadence or a rhythm that we can establish in our lives that fills us with the Spirit rather than settling for filling up our stomach? Can we, Passion Creek, train our bodies to wait on God?

rather than cave to the cravings for pseudo joys that never ultimately satisfy. I say yes, and it’s to the practice of fasting and feasting. When you look at the life of Jesus, he constantly did both and so did his followers. You see Jesus fast, especially for 40 days. And at the same time, if you read the book of Luke, one commentator said if you’re reading the book of Luke correctly, you’re always hungry because Jesus either left a meal, is at a meal, or is going to a meal.

My kind of Jesus, praise the Lord. He loved to feast so much, Luke 7, 34, his critics called him a glutton. The very thing we’re preaching against. Of course, they were wrong, but they were being exaggerative. But it did kind of seem it, because Jesus loved to feast. This is what I love about New Testament Christianity.

We can do both. Yes, there is a time and place to say no to more, more, more, now, now, now. But in its proper measure, there’s a wonderful time to feast, especially in community. So this week in your groups, you’re going to talk about what does it look like to begin to establish that rhythm in your life of fasting and then feasting.

J. W. Richards, he’s one of our recommended reads for fasting, such a great book. On just the role of food in our lives, he talked about the tradition of church history was this following rhythm. Regular eating much of the time, fasting some of the time, and feasting every so often. And that is a rhythm we’re hoping to impart into our church.

It’s a rhythm that Pastor Caleb and I have been seeking to engage in for years now. And so, this is essentially it. This is how it looks for me. I fast twice a week. I feast at least once a week. Sometimes more but that’s okay, right? I feast once a week where it’s in community. It’s intentional We’re having dessert to the glory of god And then the biggest thing that’s harder for me that i’m trying to learn is to eat moderately in between When I find myself disciplined in this rhythm I really do.

I don’t look for food when I need to be looking to the Father. I really am able to be settled when things are seeking to devour. It’s an incredible gift. Now hear me though, like all these practices, it’s not the the practice in itself that has any power, but it trains us to receive the grace of God that’s fully on offer.

And so I just want to invite you to be in your group this week or in your family and begin to trace out your calendar, your weekly rhythms, Where is God calling you to crucify gluttony by embracing the everlasting joy that comes from him? So I love the way for us to respond today is by communion, by taking in the bread of life that does satisfy.

So will you stand as we respond?