September 30, 2017 - Church at Worship

The 1980s was often billed as the decade of conspicuous consumption. Some of you will remember that. On nationalreview.com, Richard McKenzie writes: “Worrying that the 1990s would be the decade in which the bills of the 1980s would come due, a Time magazine reporter declared, ‘The past decade brought growth, avarice, and an anything-goes attitude,’ and then glibly summarized the 1980s with five words: ‘Get rich, borrow, spend, enjoy.’” (http://www. nationalreview.com/article/211063/decade-greedrichard-mckenzie) Those who lived through the 80s will have to decide whether or not McKenzie is correct. My point here is not to decide that, but rather to point out that we are not far off reality even today, several decades later. Many among us are deeply in debt, often for things we neither can afford nor need. We have grown accustomed to buying based on what we want rather than on what we need. We have become consummate consumers. Maybe even conspicuous consumers. In the midst of such, we hear the call of Jesus: “Come, follow me. Be my disciple.” And we come to this, a church where our focus is on growing disciples. And one of the questions we have to ask is, What can I do to foster discipleship growth? Our current sermon series, Holy Habits, is focused on the kinds of habits that followers of Jesus can develop which will aid us in our discipleship growth. And today we focus on a habit that is very out-of-style: fasting. In a world focused on consumption, the disciples of Jesus can benefit and grow from restraint and self-denial. While such concepts tend to be very unpopular, they are central facets of how athletes train and of how disciples grow. Consider with me, then, the discipline of fasting. Randy Roberts, Senior pastor