Zechariah 8:14-17, 20-23 (MSG)

^14-17“In the same way that I decided to punish you when your ancestors made me angry, and didn’t pull my punches, at this time I’ve decided to bless Jerusalem and the country of Judah. Don’t be afraid. And now here’s what I want you to do: Tell the truth, the whole truth, when you speak. Do the right thing by one another, both personally and in your courts. Don’t cook up plans to take unfair advantage of others. Don’t do or say what isn’t so. I hate all that stuff. Keep your lives simple and honest.” Decree of God.

^20-21“People and their leaders will come from all over to see what’s going on. The leaders will confer with one another: ‘Shouldn’t we try to get in on this? Get in on God’s blessings? Pray to God-of-the-Angel-Armies? What’s keeping us? Let’s go!’

²²“Lots of people, powerful nations—they’ll come to Jerusalem looking for what they can get from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, looking to get a blessing from God.”

²³“At that time, ten men speaking a variety of languages will grab the sleeve of one Jew, hold tight, and say, ‘Let us go with you. We’ve heard that God is with you.’”

After being in exile for 70 years, the people of Jerusalem and Judah received a promise of God’s incredible blessing: God will be with His people!  But also along with (and because of) that, people from many powerful nations will come from all over to receive God’s blessing through them.  But there is a condition; they are to live as His people in truth and honesty.

Today, we are able to live in a greater realization of that blessing through the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through His work on the cross, we have the Holy Spirit living in us!  But we are also called to live as God’s people.  And as God’s people, we are called to worship Him with the whole of our lives. This is then reflected in our relationship with others.

Responding to the transmitted message:

True fasting and worship will naturally result in hearts that are close to God. It will also result in healthy, joyful, and abundant communities, where people will come because they hear that God is with us and with us, they are loved and taken care of.  Let’s pray that God will continue to give our communities hearts that desire to worship Him with the whole of our lives let’s ask Him to continue to build our communities into places where people are loved and taken care of.

Isaiah 58:6-12 (MSG)

^6-9“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

^9-12“If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.

We all want the latter half of the above verses, lives that are full of God’s blessing, prosperity, and abundance.  But as we try to live out the verses, we discover that having the blessing of verses 9-12 requires more than just knowing, agreeing, and doing verses 6-9.  The LORD desires ALL of who we are.  The above verses mention the workplace, how we handle finances and possessions, how we live behind closed doors, how we spend our time.  True fasting doesn’t stop at correct behavior or actions, but requires all of our lives, hearts, thoughts, ways, and desires.  We were created to worship Him and this is how He created us to do that.

We can live this way because He has already given us ALL of who He is and His Holy Spirit.  The LORD is so generous with us.  We are the apple of His eye, dearly loved by Him, and He withholds no good thing from us.  Our natural response to this truth, and to His Spirit who lives in us, is to sing, pray, and declare “LORD You can have ALL of me, I’m yours.”

Responding to the transmitted message:

Let’s spend some time offering all of who we are once again to the LORD.  If there is an area in our lives (workplace, finances, possessions, etc.) that hasn’t been surrendered to Him or that we’re have difficulty with, let’s offer it to the LORD, trusting in His truths and promises over us.  Let’s pray for our missional groups, campuses, and churches that He would continue to help us and bless us with “well-watered gardens” and “springs that never run dry”- communities that are full of His Spirit, presence, and love.

Matthew 7:21-23 (TNIV)

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Our culture seems to be enamored by the lives of the “rich and famous.”  Websites, magazines, articles are all dedicated to inform us on details of our favorite athlete or actor’s accomplishments and everyday lives.  We can know all we want about that particular person: their stats, what kind of car they drive, even their favorite foods, etc.  And with all the wealth of information about that person, we could fool ourselves in thinking that we really know them.  But the question we really need to be asking is, “Do they know us?”  In this passage, Jesus talks of those who think they know Him.  They seem to know the right prayers to pray, and the right things to do, but once they meet him face to face, Jesus will reveal that they were never known by Him.

Responding to the transmitted message:

As we continue to work hard for the Lord’s kingdom, the temptation is to carry along in light of what we think ought to be done or what we think may seem right in the Lord’s eyes.  But we need to ask ourselves, are the things we’re doing of/from the Lord?  Where is His heart in the midst of these things?  Are there things He’s asking of us that we are not surrendering/obeying?  Spend some time reflecting on these questions.  Ask the Lord for His passion, courage and love to live in the obedience that He’s calling us in our churches to for this generation.

Zechariah. 7:8-14 (TNIV)

⁸ And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: ⁹ “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. ¹⁰ Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

¹¹ “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. ¹² They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.

¹³ ” ‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty. ¹⁴ ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’ ”

The above verses come immediately after the Israelites asked the Lord if they should continue to fast or not. The LORD answered them with a question: “Was it really for Me…?” and then told them what He was really looking for.  For the past seventy years as the Israelites fasted, the LORD wasn’t looking for those who could simply faithfully execute a religious activity.  He was looking for a fast that resulted in true justice, mercy, and compassion for others.  Their ancestors paid no attention to what the LORD wanted.  Their stubbornness resulted in judgment and desolation.  These verses are a warning from the Lord for the Israelites to learn from their ancestors’ bad example and that He means what He says.  His word is true and all that He says will surely come to pass.  For us, His children, this truth gives us great hope and comfort.

Responding to the transmitted message:

Let’s spend some time declaring that the Lord’s words are true.  His promises and truths over our lives, missional groups, campuses and churches are “yes” and “amen”.  With thankful hearts, declare to the LORD our trust and belief in who He is.  Pray that we would quickly and continually turn from any stubborn ways, thoughts and habits and instead be filled with love for Him and mercy and compassion for His people.

Zechariah. 7:1-7 (TNIV)

¹ In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. ² The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD ³ by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

⁴ Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: ⁵ “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? ⁶ And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? ⁷ Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’ ”

In this culture full of staged advertising and marketing, we are bombarded with a strange notion that flowers can fix almost any problem in a relationship.  That if we say something wrong or may have messed up along the way, a fresh bouquet of roses will do the trick to repair the damage.  Of course, the reality is not this simple.

As outrageous as the bouquet of roses may seem, the people of Bethel had a similar idea in their minds.  They were seeking the Lord’s favor, so it seemed the obvious thing to do was to fast since that was always their solution.  What they didn’t understand was that God was after their hearts, not their seeming acts of devotion.

Responding to the transmitted message:

The Lord knows everything that we are doing for Him, but more than the mere act of doing, He desires our hearts.  Take some time to think about all the things that the Lord is allowing us to take part in: prayer, fasting, missions, ministry, etc.  In all these things, spend some time asking the Lord if your heart is where He desires it to be.  As the Lord speaks to you, ask Him to fill you and our churches with His joy and love as we live out His calling together as His church.