Isaiah 58:1-14 Give Me Your Heart (Time)

Isaiah 58:1-14 Give Me Your Heart (Time)

Isaiah 58:1-14 Give Me Your Heart (Time) is a sermon about giving Jesus your heart by giving Him your time.

When you think about this chapter, you think about fasting. Fasting is denying myself something for physical pleasure so that I can concentrate on what God wants me to do. Fasting is giving God my time. In this passage, the key is that I can love God through the way I give my time.

I love God through the way I give my TIME

The problem was that the people of Israel were giving their God empty time.

THE WRONG WAY TO FAST: WITH AN EMPTY FAITH

““Cry out loudly, don’t hold back! Raise your voice like a trumpet. Tell My people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins.” (Isaiah 58:1, HCSB)

They committed a transgression, a sin. What was it? They were not properly giving God the time He expected from them. Here are the various ways they were showing empty faith in their fasting:

Going through the motions… (58:2)

“They seek Me day after day and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not abandon the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.”” (Isaiah 58:2, HCSB)

Everyday, they would come to God and seek His face. It seems like they were doing right. The problem was that they were going through the motions. They were going to church. They were attending Sunday School. They were acting the way they thought they were supposed to. They were going through the motions.

You know how this works. I am supposed to go to church. I am supposed to put some money in the plate. I am supposed to sit and listen to the pastor. But there is no result from the time spent “doing church.” God doesn’t like that. He wants you walk to match your talk. You can’t just go through the motions and get away with it.

““Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people, to be seen by them. Otherwise, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1, HCSB)

God knows your heart. You need to show it. Stop going through the motions. This leads to the second way that I give God empty time:

Acting one way to God and completely different to others (58:3)

““Why have we fasted, but You have not seen? We have denied ourselves, but You haven’t noticed!” “Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast, and oppress all your workers.” (Isaiah 58:3, HCSB)

I spend time with God show that I love Him, but then I don’t love others. I treat completely different than what a Christian should do. I love God, but I don’t love others.

First, on the same day that they fast, they seek their own pleasure (v. 3b). Like the revelers on Fat Tuesday in New Orleans, they gorge themselves just before Ash Wednesday of Lent when they give up something in repentance for their sins. Second, they contradict their pious act of ritual by exploiting those who work for them (v. 3b). Third, their true motive for fasting is to prove themselves holier than others (v. 4a). As fasting leads to hunger, hunger leads to irritability, and irritability leads to strife. God expects rituals in His name to be unifying experiences for His people. Any ritual that causes division in the Body is offensive to God. Fourth, contrary to the spirit of reconciliation that God intends as an outcome from spiritual discipline, the fasting of the ritualists in Israel results in the wickedness of physical violence (v. 4a). One can imagine the division between factions in the large assembly of Jews as some claim to be more spiritual than others. Quarrels lead to threats and threats lead to fist fights. All in all, they profess to be pious, but in reality, they are a mean-spirited group.¹

Fasting and praying to God, but fighting with your neighbor (58:4)

“You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today, hoping to make your voice heard on high.” (Isaiah 58:4, HCSB)

There is a direct correlation between how I treat other people and whether God hears my prayers. If I am not willing to love others, why should God listen to me? This is the flip-side of the problem addressed in the previous verse. You don’t treat God with respect when you are supposed to fast, and you don’t treat other people with respect. You are still fighting with others, instead of forgiving them.

Forgiveness feeds a fast.

Fasting can be seen by others. You can fake it with others. But God knows your heart.

Fasting with a proper outward appearance, but the improper heart (58:5)

“Will the fast I choose be like this: A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?” (Isaiah 58:5, HCSB)

It doesn’t matter if you are starving yourself, if your heart isn’t right. You can look like you are praying and you can show that you are praying, but the heart inside can be acting wrong. You have to address that. How do you give your heart to God when it comes to my time?

FOUR WAYS TO FAST WHEN I GIVE MY HEART TO GOD

When people think about fasting, it is like this: I deny myself something (food, chocolate, time watching television, internet surfing) so that I can pray to God and listen to Him. God tells us an additional way I can fast and give my heart to God.

Fasting from my desires to show God’s love to others (58:6-8)

“Isn’t the fast I choose: To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to ignore your own flesh and blood? Then your light will appear like the dawn, and your recovery will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the Lord’s glory will be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 58:6–8, HCSB)

God’s idea of a fast is very different. True fasting means putting ourselves out to serve others: releasing people from injustice and oppression; sharing our food and home and clothes; and helping our relatives.² These verses describe the fast the Lord wanted to see—one that sought to alleviate another’s misery rather than parade one’s own spirituality.³

Dorothy C. Bass in her book Receiving the Day said:

In an era when many of us feel that time is our scarcest resource, hospitality falters.… “In a fast-food culture, you have to remind yourself that some things cannot be done quickly,” said a wise Benedictine monk. “Hospitality takes time.”⁴

I can fast from something so that I can focus the love God has given me to share it with others. Instead of spending time on things I want to do, I fast from that so that I can share God’s love with others. This is about fasting my time, not my food.

I can fast my time.

Fasting from my unloving attitudes toward others in order to receive an answer to prayer. (58:9-10)

“At that time, when you call, the Lordwill answer; when you cry out, He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you get rid of the yoke among you, the finger-pointing and malicious speaking, and if you offer yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted one, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.” (Isaiah 58:9–10, HCSB)

These positive acts of compassion were much more important in God’s eyes than denying oneself physical sustenance⁵

Notice all of these conditions. If I do this, I do that, then God will reveal light in my darkness. What does this mean? It means that some prayers are conditional. Remember that Jesus said that some things can only happen because of prayer and fasting?

“And He told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer [and fasting].”” (Mark 9:29, HCSB)

The disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast out a demon? Jesus said that this kind of “loving others” work could only happen if we have spent time praying and fasting. The reverse is also true. God won’t listen to your prayers if you “love others.”

Am I saying that praying is conditional. Yes. Some of your prayers will never be answered until you restore relationships.

Fasting from my leadership to follow God’s lead in wherever He takes me (58:11-12)

“The Lord will always lead you…” (Isaiah 58:11–12, HCSB)

When I fast, I have to deny myself of my selfish desires. When it comes to God and His desires, I have to give up leadership – I fast from my leadership in my life. I have to give it up to Him. He will ALWAYS lead me if I give it up to Him. He can be trusted to lead me.

Look at the this last way of fasting. It is about time and resting in God.

Fasting from time for myself to take time to rest in God (58:13-14)

““If you keep from desecrating the Sabbath, from doing whatever you want on My holy day; if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lordhonorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, seeking your own pleasure, or talking too much; then you will delight yourself in the Lord,…” (Isaiah 58:13–14, HCSB)

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was designed to teach me that I need to rest. It was designed to teach me that I have fast from my time and give it to God. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day – not because He needed to rest. He did it to show us that we need to rest. The problem today is either we work too much. Or we take off too much time. However, when we take off our time – our free time, we don’t give God any of it.

God wants me to fast from my free time and give it to Him so that I may enjoy Him.

Jonathan Edwards, the eighteenth century American theologian and pastor said:

The enjoyment of [God] is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied.… Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends are but shadows, but enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean.⁶

The fact is that we were designed to enjoy God. He put it on our timetable. He gave us a Sabbath for the specific purpose of spending time with Him and enjoying Him.

Have you thought about giving God your free time? God says give Him 1/7 of your time. That is 14% of my time. We take 28.5% percent of our time and rest for ourselves. We take the weekends and use it for ourselves. We are selfish. We won’t give it to Him.

There are consequences to this kind of behavior. When we don’t give time to Him, don’t you notice that time slips away. I have problems with other people, my moods gets messed up, I can’t handle what I am supposed to do – all because I did not take time to delight in God. However, when I take time to delight in God, He gives me the time I need to do what is necessary.

However, it takes giving my heart to Him. We will soon celebrate Valentine’s Day. The idea behind this holiday is to give your heart to someone. I should think about giving God my heart during this Valentine’s Day season. What a difference it can make in my relationships when I give God my heart.