March 30, 2025 • 39 mins
In The Passion Project, Pastor Kelly Kinder explores the reality of feeling physically full yet spiritually empty—and how biblical fasting can reignite our hunger for God. Kelly, known just as Kelly when he dives into Scripture, draws from passages like John 4 and Matthew 6 to demonstrate that giving up physical sustenance positions us to receive the far greater nourishment of God’s presence and power.
Kelly begins by distinguishing fasting from merely “not eating.” Instead, it’s the intentional act of refocusing our attention on the Lord, echoing David Mathis’s insight that fasting is a tool designed to channel our “holy discontent” in a fallen world. Throughout history, from the early church’s twice-weekly fasts to present-day disciple-making movements abroad, believers have embraced this practice as a catalyst for revival. Kelly notes that such devotion cultivates an environment where we “partner with God to bring the kingdom into our midst.”
Digging deeper, Kelly identifies four key benefits of fasting. First, it creates opportunities for kingdom encounters, as seen when Jesus prioritized His Father’s will over food in John 4. Second, it carries a special reward. Drawing on Matthew 6, Kelly points out that Jesus promises God’s reward for those who fast sincerely. Third, fasting fuels spiritual power over opposition. Kelly highlights Jesus’ words about certain challenges that can only be conquered “by prayer and fasting,” illustrating how addictions, shame, and unbelief often loosen their grip when confronted with this discipline. Finally, fasting paves the way for the kingdom to expand beyond us. Kelly asks if our churches might remain stagnant because we haven’t tapped into the dynamism that comes from persistent prayer and fasting.
By weaving in practical considerations—like examining motives, choosing a specific type of fast, and clinging to God’s promises—Kelly paints a clear picture of how to step into this life-changing practice. The heart of the matter isn’t legalism but longing: are we hungry enough for God to temporarily forsake lesser appetites? As 1 Corinthians 4:20 reminds us, the kingdom is about power rather than mere talk, and fasting is one avenue God uses to unleash that power. If you’re yearning for deeper spiritual breakthroughs—for yourself, your family, or your community—Kelly challenges you to pick up this ancient practice and rediscover a form of worship that can reshape your faith.
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Episode Transcript
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Kelly Kinder (00:03):
God's doing some really great things, and over
these next 21 days, I just hopeyou have the same expectancy
that's in my heart.
God's going to do greaterthings, and a lot of the things
that he does are dependent onwhat we do, because he's looking
and waiting for us to respondto what he's already shown us
and taught us in his word.
Today, we want to talk aboutfasting, and fasting goes along
(00:28):
with prayer, and I don't wantyou to.
I can kind of hear those inwardgroans.
It's like, oh, this is hard andit is, but it's kind of this
idea that we're giving awaysomething of ourself to pursue
God himself, and so this is areally, really important thing.
I want us to pray and ask Godto help us in these next 21 days
(00:50):
.
Would you pray with me for that?
So, father, we're thankfultoday that we are here with you
and you're here with us.
Lord, we know that you'vecalled us to this purpose and,
lord, the things that you've gotin store for us over these next
few days as we pray and as wefast, not only for our personal
lives, but so many other thingsall the way, including to that
of other nations, lord, we askyou to do a work in us, lord,
(01:13):
don't leave us the same as wepursue the things you called us
to do.
Lord, just honor what ourresponse to your word is and
just reward us, lord, as we'regoing to see today, and Lord, we
ask for that in the mighty nameof Jesus, amen.
Well, let me ask you a question.
Have you ever finished a mealand felt physically full but you
(01:37):
weren't satisfied?
How often we sit and we havethat meal and we get done and we
go I want something else, andwe don't really always know what
that is.
We're just not satisfied, andyou know that can be true in the
physical realm, but that alsocan be true in your spiritual
life as well.
And what God does in us is hecalls us to have a hunger for
(01:59):
something that we don't oftensee, but we have a struggle
sometimes with food, andsometimes we call it emotional
or psychological eating, don'twe?
There's a reason that drives usto those things, and really
eating can really be thought ofin some ways as kind of an
anesthesia of sadness.
(02:21):
We don't know what that sadnesssometimes is, and in the same
way, god has caused us to havean emptiness in our soul that
makes us long to know what hewants to show us, and that's
more of himself.
He wants to have a relationshipwith each one of us, and you
know.
Question for you this morningdo you know that God has made us
(02:44):
hungry for Him, he's made youhungry for Him, and Jesus said
it like this blessed are thosewho hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall besatisfied, and that's a promise
from Him.
And I was reading a book thispast week, john Piper.
His book called A Hunger forGod, and if you let me recommend
(03:06):
that book to you.
You can find it online and it'sactually a free download, a
Hunger for God by John Piper,and he writes this there is an
appetite for God and it can beawakened.
I invite you to turn from thedulling effects of food and the
dangers of idolatry and to say,with some simple fast, this much
(03:28):
oh God, I want you.
Our appetites dictate thedirection of our lives, whether
it be the cravings of ourstomachs, the passionate desire
for possessions or power, or thelongings of our sports.
For God, our spirits for God.
But for the Christian, thehunger for anything besides God
(03:50):
can be an arch enemy, while ourhunger for God and Him alone is
the only thing that will bringvictory.
You know, and I think this timefor us is a really special time
.
So I don't want us to ignorewhat God has for us this season,
(04:10):
especially as we talk aboutfasting.
And in the brief time we havetoday, I just want us to
understand that biblical fastingreally what it is, and I want
us to talk about how thisbiblical practice can really
help us advance the kingdom, notonly in our lives, but in the
lives of this nation, community,this world.
So let's start with just asimple question what is biblical
(04:31):
fasting?
We hear people fast.
Fasting is common to allreligions and in a lot of places
.
But let me just give you thissimple definition going without
food for spiritual purposes.
Going without food forspiritual purposes and I would
just say that's not really quiteenough because we need to hone
(04:52):
that a little bit.
And the best definition that Ihave seen in my life is a little
bit more complete.
Let me read it to you.
This is by David Mathis.
He says Fasting is anexceptional measure designed to
channel and express our desirefor God and our holy discontent
in a fallen world.
(05:12):
It is for those not satisfiedwith the status quo, for those
who want more of God's grace,for those who feel truly
desperate for God.
This morning, I just ask youare you hungry?
Do you know what you're hungryfor?
And if you know what you'rehungry for, which is the God
that you can know?
Are you hungry for Him?
(05:32):
You know the thing that I'mrealizing now more than ever and
I shared on this message acouple of years ago, same
subject I'm just realizing howreally deeply significant this
spiritual practice is.
I didn't really.
I learned a lot this week as Iwas preparing for this message.
(05:53):
This is something that's highlysignificant, maybe more
significant than you've everconsidered.
It was and is for me.
I would go so far as to call ita secret weapon of
transformation.
Secret weapon of transformation.
And here's why Becausethroughout history, every
spiritual movement, from theearly church on through modern
(06:15):
revivals, it, has been fueled byprayer and fasting.
Think about that.
Every movement has been fueledby prayer and fasting, and
that's not just a, that's not acoincidence, it's a divine
principle in how God reallybrings about and Patty said it
this morning breakthrough.
Are you looking for abreakthrough?
(06:35):
It might be a breakthrough in astruggle that you have, or
relationship you have, or justsome something you're dealing
with right now that you can'tseem to get past, and if we can
just come to see the value ofthis practice, it holds and it
began to practice it more thanjust this 21 days.
This is just an emphasis, butit should be a lifestyle for us.
(07:00):
I think we can begin toexperience power, favor and
breakthroughs in our desire andour walk with Christ.
And when we combine it withprayer, biblical fasting, it
opens doors that are closed, itdemolishes strongholds that we
struggle with and it helps usdefeat the enemy, helps us
accelerate the kingdom of God.
So here's the thing, here'swhat I want you to get this
morning.
(07:21):
When we pray with fasting, wepartner with God to bring the
kingdom into our midst.
When we pray with fasting, wepartner with God to bring the
kingdom into our midst.
When we pray with fasting, wepartner with God to bring the
kingdom into our midst.
So let me just tell you fourways that this can happen for us
, and each of these kind ofhopefully will kind of get us
and allow us to get into theflow of God's grace, because
(07:42):
we're getting in a position forHim to do things in our lives.
As we look at this Number one,four ways, fasting brings the
kingdom.
Number one the purpose offasting is to propagate a
kingdom encounter.
The purpose of fasting is topropagate a kingdom encounter
and for my thinking this week,my mind is drawn to the story
(08:04):
that most of us have heard outof John, chapter 4.
And it's the example of Jesus'encounter, or rather the woman's
encounter with Jesus at thewell, the woman at the well in
John 4.
And many of us, as I say, knowthe story and what has happened
in this encounter.
And in verse 3 of chapter 4.
It tells us that Jesus and hisdisciples were traveling through
(08:25):
Samaria and they stop at thiswell, there, in the town of
Sychar, and it says they werethirsty.
Jesus wanted a drink and so didhis disciples, the woman it was
at midday and the only personthere was a woman, and women
didn't go out at midday togather water.
She was there because she had areputation in the town and she
(08:48):
didn't want anyone else aroundwhile she was gathering water.
But the disciples and Jesus showup and in verse seven and eight
, this marvelous encounter is inwhich Jesus sees this woman and
this woman's true spiritualcondition.
It's revealed to her by Jesusin verses 7 and 8.
Listen to this.
It says A woman from Samariacame to draw water and Jesus
(09:12):
said to her Give me a drink.
And then it says in parenthesesin verse 8, for his disciples
had gone away into the city tobuy food.
Underline that this was not anaccident.
Jesus let them to go get gold intown to get food.
He's setting something up, aswe'll see later on.
He let them go and he has thisprivate conversation with this
(09:33):
woman while the disciples are intown getting food.
In that conversation that hehas, it moves from the topic of
obtaining physical water toobtaining spiritual water for
her thirsty soul.
And in the course of thisconversation, jesus he sort of
reads this woman's privatethoughts and she's kind of
(09:53):
wondering how does he know allthis?
And he reads the thoughts bythe Spirit and he tells her she
talks about her husband andJesus said well, actually you've
had five husbands and the onethat you're, the husband you're
living with now, is not your own.
She's working on number six.
(10:14):
And in the course ofconversation, jesus is revealing
to her that what she has soughtto fill her empty soul can be
found, can be filled by thisliving water that Jesus offers
her, and he does that the samewith us.
What we give ourselves tosometimes makes us all the more
empty when the answer for us isto find our answer in a person
(10:36):
whose name is Jesus.
So she's attempted to fill heremptiness with failed
relationships.
Ultimately, she realizes thatthe answer to all her problems,
after they get to this end ofthe conversation, is standing
right in front of her.
And Jesus said I who speak toyou, am he.
Well, that's just the firstpart of the story, because
(11:01):
meantime, this woman withshameful reputation, she,
realizes that the one that sheneeds to find her answers in is
Jesus.
She leaves her water pot downthere and immediately she
carries her personal testimonyinto town.
And what is it?
(11:23):
Verse 25, verse 26,.
It goes on.
And she said come see a manverse 29, who told me all that I
ever did.
And she's gone into town withthat testimony and everybody's
going.
We have to come hear this, wewant to know all the details.
(11:44):
So they follow her back out oftown and back to the well, and
just about that time thedisciples come back in and they
go.
What in the world is going on?
And so, for our purposes.
Today, I want us to look at thissecond part.
It's kind of a backstory towhat Jesus has set up from the
beginning and, because it'srelevant to our topic here, it's
(12:05):
about this woman's encounterand the city's encounter with
Jesus, and it's the catalyst forthe encounter.
We read it in the follow-up tothese verses, in 31 through 38.
It says there when then, justthen, his disciples came back,
they marveled that he wastalking with a woman, but no one
said what do you seek or whyare you talking with her?
(12:25):
So the woman left her water jarand went away into town, said
to the people come see a man whotold me all that I ever did.
Can this be the Christ?
They went out of the town andwere coming to him.
Meanwhile and it's here I wantto focus the disciples, who have
now returned with a pile ofgroceries, were urging him.
Who have now returned with apile of groceries were urging
(12:45):
him Rabbi, eat something.
And he said to them I have foodto eat that you do not know
about.
And so they're wondering doesJesus have a peanut butter and
fish sandwich tucked in his robesomewhere?
Who brought him food?
We've got all this food, andwhy did he even send us into
town if it's not needed?
So what just happened here?
(13:07):
And, as I said, jesus issetting this up.
What has happened is Jesus hasset this up as a lesson for the
disciples.
They've totally misunderstoodwhat this was about.
This is not about physical food.
He says I have food you knownothing about.
Jesus is inviting thesedisciples to seek a deeper
(13:29):
understanding of who he is andhis mission.
He's drawing them in, causingthem to ask what is he talking
about?
And in the process he'srevealed where their minds were
and the level of their spiritualawareness.
And sometimes I think of thatwhen we think about these
disciplines of the Christianlife and think they don't really
(13:51):
matter that much, and I cankind of just lay those aside.
Jesus is teaching them and Iwant you to see watch as Jesus
realigns their focus tospiritual matters rather than
physical needs.
He says in verse 34,.
Jesus said to them my food isto do the will of him, who sent
me to accomplish his work.
(14:11):
And here it is that Jesus'words take a sort of an odd turn
.
Have you ever been reading aBible passage where you read it
and then it comes the next, verynext thing.
It says something that totallydoesn't seem to connect.
Well, this is where John istrying to show us something.
Notice what he tells thedisciples, because he ties this
(14:35):
object lesson of the woman tothe principle he wants them to
understand.
Verse 35, do you not say thereare yet four months, then comes
the harvest.
So what's he saying?
He said well, you know, ifyou're going to get a harvest,
you have to do the work firstCultivating the soil and
(14:58):
watering the soil and providingall that it needs to bring a
harvest.
Whatever you're doing, youcan't harvest without planting a
seed and you can't harvestwithout doing the work.
Corn just doesn't pop out ofthe ground without anything
happening.
You've got to do the work.
So he says look, I tell youverse.
(15:20):
Next verse, I tell you lift upyour eyes and see that the
fields are white for harvest.
And Jesus is basically going onto point out to them that he has
done the work.
He's gone without food and he'sprayed.
And while not directly relatedto fasting you don't see that
(15:41):
term we know that he's gonewithout food in order to do
something that God has donethrough this woman.
The whole town has come out forit and he's pointed out the
results of the fasting, andthat's why I say in this point
the purpose of fasting is topropagate a kingdom encounter.
When you look up the wordpropagate, it simply means this
(16:04):
in the dictionary to cause anorganism to multiply.
And I believe in our day, andfor this church especially, god
wants to bring us to a differentlevel.
He wants to multiply thingsthat he started and he wants to
do great and mighty things ifwe'll just learn the principles
that he wants us to learn.
To harvest the spiritual food,we have to sow the spiritual
(16:26):
seed.
That's the point, and thatmeans different things.
One of those is what we'retalking about today, but even
before we do that, we preparethe soil, and this is the hard
work.
This is the thing what we callprayer and fasting.
That it does.
Most of us, when we hear abouta prayer meeting, don't come
(16:47):
because we don't want to do thehard work.
But this is foundational to seethe harvest, do you get the
principle?
If we miss this, folks, we'vemissed it.
Prayer and fasting.
Prayer and fasting are thefoundational work to see the
kingdom come, and Jesus istelling us how this happened.
(17:10):
When we trade our physicalhunger for spiritual hunger.
We are, then, ready toexperience a kingdom encounter.
As an aside, think about this,since the disciples had gone
away to buy food.
How do we have the details ofthis conversation with this
(17:30):
woman?
Thought about that and I wouldsuggest to you.
It's because of the testimonyof this woman.
This has totally transformedher life.
Could you think that all ofthis might be because Jesus
prayed and fasted?
Fasting propagates a kingdomencounter.
(17:53):
Second thing I want you to seehow the kingdom, how fasting
brings the kingdom, is that thepromise of fasting is a kingdom
reward.
It's a kingdom reward.
We look for that in Matthew 6,in verses 16 and 17.
He says there, jesus talkingagain.
He says when you fast, do notlook gloomy like the hypocrites,
for they disfigure their facesthat their fasting may be seen
(18:16):
by others.
Truly, I say to you they havereceived their reward.
But when you fast, anoint yourhead and wash your face that
your fasting may not be seen byothers but by your Father, who
is in secret.
And your Father, who sees insecret, will reward you.
And I understand we're doingthis fast as a corporate thing,
(18:38):
but you know what?
No one is not eating for you ornot eating, not not eating for
you.
You have to choose thatyourself.
Right?
It's a double negative.
But no one's doing that for you.
You do that in private.
So you can still get the reward.
This personal reward, jesusoffers it to everyone who fasts.
Along with the other thingsprayer and giving he comes in
(19:01):
threes.
This is the third one.
And so do you see it?
Jesus has promised a rewardspecifically for this practice
of prayer and fasting.
Say, what's the reward?
I don't know.
I don't think it's somethingphysical.
Some versions say he willreward you openly.
(19:22):
Does that intrigue you, like itintrigues me.
Does it hold out the promisefor something you've longed for
and are not satisfied yet bythat?
God might just fill you andgive you something that would
totally transform your life orthe life of your family or your
(19:42):
kids.
I mean, this is fantastic whatthis promise offers.
You know the Bible says in 2Peter he has granted to us his
precious and very great promisesso that through them you may
become partakers of the divinenature, having escaped from the
(20:04):
corruption that is in the worldbecause of sinful desire.
You know, in total I found out,one accounting says that there
are 8,800 prayer promises in theBible.
8,800 promises in the Bible.
How many do we know?
And this passage in 2 Petersays a couple of things about
(20:27):
this.
All of them are great, someversions say magnificent, and
they're precious.
They hold inestimable value.
We can't comprehend the value ofthe promises when they're
attached to prayer and with theresult that what this is the
most significant thing byclaiming them in faith, it says
(20:50):
we participate, we share in thedivine nature.
That doesn't mean we become agod.
It doesn't mean that.
What does it mean?
What happens is that we get toexperience a spiritual
transformation where ourcharacter begins to look like
the God who made us.
We reflect the character of Godas we grab hold of those
(21:14):
promises in prayer and begin topray those things, because we're
praying according and in linewith His character.
And we wonder why our prayersdon't get answered.
Well, you have to pray in linewith His will, and so Jesus said
this for us 2 Corinthians 1.20,.
For all the promises of Godfind their yes in Him and that
(21:39):
is why, through Him, we utterour amen to God for His glory.
You can say amen, can't you, ifyour prayers are aligned with
the Almighty God, because youknow God's heart is with that
prayer.
I'm just telling you somethings that will help us as we
pray and go forward here.
But attaching our fasting andprayer with the promises of God
(22:02):
brings the kingdom, jesus said.
He said when he was taught.
The disciples said how do wepray?
And he said one of the firstthings he says that you're that
my, you know.
Pray, god's kingdom will come.
How often do you pray for God'skingdom to come?
Well, you attach it to apromise and guess what it
(22:23):
advances and accelerates thatprayer?
Well, there's a third way.
Fasting brings the kingdom.
And is this?
The power of fasting overcomesopposition to the kingdom.
We find this in scripture Jesus,full of the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan and wasled by the Spirit in the
(22:45):
wilderness for 40 days.
Here's one example beingtempted by the devil and he ate
nothing during those days andwhen they were ended, he was
hungry.
Well, I guess so Ever gone forthree days and you're hungry.
And I'll tell you when youstart your fast, you may not be
hungry, but by the third dayyour stomach starts to go.
I'm here, pay attention to me,and so we push down the self for
(23:12):
something greater.
And so we push down the selffor something greater.
We see this also in Luke,chapter 4, where Jesus.
We talked about this in thisscripture.
This was for Jesus when he wentinto the wilderness, a way for
him to overcome temptation, asthe enemy is bringing him
(23:36):
thoughts about things he coulddo as a son of God.
And it says he uses the word ofGod.
But we think of that as thepower only.
But it was also the fact Jesushad spent 40, he's spending 40
days.
This also gave him power overthe enemy, as God led him in the
wilderness to do what he neededto do, to strengthen him, to
resolve and fulfill and finishhis mission.
We see another example inMatthew 17, 21.
(23:57):
It's after the disciples hadtried in that occasion to cast
out an evil spirit out of thisyoung boy.
You can read about it inMatthew 17.
And they try and they are notsuccessful.
They fail and when Jesus isthere, they decide they're going
(24:18):
to consult him, which is whatwe usually do.
It's like, after all else fails, talk to Jesus about it, right,
that's usually how it works,isn't it?
See, jesus is waiting for us todo everything in our power
until we realize that we can donothing without him.
That's what prayer is Aconfession that we can do
(24:42):
nothing without him.
And so the disciples, they cometo Jesus privately.
They don't want anybody else toknow that they have failed.
That's kind of like us too,isn't it?
Let's talk about this, ourfailure, lord.
And they said why could we notcast it out?
And he said to them because ofyour little faith.
(25:05):
And in verse 21, which is insome of the versions, it says
this this kind can only come outwith prayer and fasting.
I think here in Matthew 17,.
Jesus, when he says that hekind of gets them for their lack
of faith and really it'sbecause the faith is expressed
(25:28):
through prayer, dependence onGod, and because they had failed
to depend on God, he kind ofgets them for their lack of
faith.
That's where that is and that'swhere that comes from.
So you know, in a practicalsense, there are some issues,
some kinds of issues addictions,rejections, even demonic powers
(25:51):
that can't be overcome withoutprayer, fasting and the faith
that Jesus is calling for here.
And I think there are manypeople here in this room that
struggle with what the Biblecalls strongholds.
It's the place that the enemyoccupies to mess with our mind,
(26:15):
to bring thought patterns orarrogant attitudes about what's
real and what's not real.
And it's through this idea ofprayer and fasting that we break
those things that the enemy hascome up against us with.
And many are living with thatbecause they're just okay, this
is, we've gotten comfortable init.
So how desperate are you to seespiritual breakthrough?
(26:38):
That's the question.
So, these stubborn areas and letme just give you some example
habits that you struggle with,feelings of shame, anxiety,
depression, addiction when doyou think those things come from
?
Jesus has given us a path outof this through something most
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of us want to just say oh,that's not important.
What about this?
What about people that you knowthat you'd love to see saved
but aren't yet?
Maybe your prodigal kids orgrandkids or friends or people
at work, who are blind to thegospel, and yet they just don't
see it.
(27:21):
They don't understand it, evenif you shared it with them.
They just don't comprehend it.
See, the Bible says Satan hasblinded the minds of unbelievers
, so they can't come to thetruth.
So all too often I just thinkabout this, this old story where
God comes to visit his friendand he comes up onto the porch
(27:42):
and the man is sitting in hisrocking chair and his hound dog
is laying up there on the porchand the guy sits down in the
rocking chair next to him andall the whole time through their
whole conversation, this hounddog is moaning and moaning and
moaning.
He said what's wrong with him?
He says is he sick?
He said no, he's laying on anail.
He just won't get.
(28:03):
He's too lazy to get off thenail.
And I use that as an analogy tosay we sometimes will remain in
the pain and sometimes we'rejust too lazy to do what Jesus
says to do, when he can bring usfreedom like we've never known.
(28:27):
So we've seen that this fastingstuff is important.
It's a significant weapon givento help us to overcome the
activity of the enemy in ourlives and in our churches.
Let's look now at the last way,the fourth way.
Fasting brings a kingdom andthat is the practice of fasting
expands the kingdom to others.
(28:48):
And one of the things aboutwhen I read the book of Acts, I
marvel.
When I look at what the earlychurch was able to do and what
they experienced.
It's fascinating and amazing.
What if the static, anemiccondition of our churches was
due in part to our unwillingnessto express our utter dependence
(29:10):
on God through prayer andfasting.
Do you wonder why the church isthe way it is?
Have we left out something thatis so essential?
Because we're busy, we lookgood on the outside, but there's
stuff going on inside that justneeds to be fixed.
(29:35):
So in Matthew 13, 31 and 32,jesus is teaching on the secrets
of the kingdom.
31 and 32, jesus is teaching onthe secrets of the kingdom.
He said the kingdom of heavenis like a grain of mustard seed
that a man took and sowed in hisfield.
It is the smallest of all seeds.
If you've ever seen a mustardseed, it's tiny, it's tiny, but
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when it has grown it is largerthan all the garden plants and
becomes a tree, so that thebirds of the air come and make
nests in its branches.
What is Jesus talking abouthere?
The point is that what startsout small and maybe
insignificant to us will growand multiply and expand when we
partner with God, and I thinkGod is just sitting back waiting
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for us to see if we willrespond to what he's already
told us.
So we sow the kingdom throughlittle things.
We have a saying in our dayfrom small acorns mighty oaks
grow.
That's kind of the same ideaGreat oaks form from little
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acorns right.
Same is true in the kingdom.
Something insignificant andsmall God can take, and he can
make it explode.
This is what happened in theearly church, and so let me give
you an example of how thisaffects the church in our day
and how it is affecting thechurch in our day when we talk
about prayer and fasting.
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Bobby Harrington he has a studydone on disciple-making
movements in churches, where Godis moving and growing the
gospel over there in ways thatcan't be imagined.
And here we're kind of going.
Why don't we experience that?
You ever wondered that?
Why don't we experience that?
You ever wondered that?
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He says this.
He says the reasondisciple-making movements
flourish around the world isn'tsimply cultural.
It's spiritual hunger.
These movements are powered bymen and women who spend hours
daily in the presence of Jesus.
They fast two to three daysevery week.
Their prayers are bold anddesperate.
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God, make my city hunger foryou like I hunger for food.
Make my neighbors thirst foryou like I thirst for water.
He says this intensity anddevotion stand in stark contrast
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to what we often see in thewest.
While we value prayer, werarely embrace fasting at this
same level.
But he says and he ends withthis but here's the truth if we
want to see god move in ourchurches, families and cities,
we need to reclaim this radicalpractice.
So is that kind of getting yourmotor running for this?
I'm wanting to motivate us tokind of consider this more than
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we ever have.
I know I have, and so I say weneed to come to the place where
we see fasting and prayer as alifestyle and not merely a
limited emphasis.
This is a start, but it's notreally the ultimate goal.
The ultimate goal is alifestyle.
Do you know that in the earlychurch?
The early church fasted twodays a week.
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They fasted on Wednesdays andFridays, and that habit was so
important to what the church did, and so we look at this as a
catalyst for kingdom movement.
Jesus said this.
He says for the kingdom, orPaul did, for the kingdom of God
is not a matter of talk, but ofpower.
(33:15):
Where does the power come from?
It comes from you and I beingon our knees, from.
It comes from you and I beingon our knees.
Don't forget this.
I've been praying for this fortwo years, for us to come to
this time and see.
I think God wants to elevatethis church to a new place.
Think of that word elevate andwhat he wants to do in your own
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life.
Let me quickly we have time fora couple other things.
Okay, so, practicalconsiderations Examine your
motives, why you do this.
This is not a diet.
It's not about losing weight,although that could be a side
benefit.
It's about connecting with Godand doing it for the right
reasons.
Don't do it because of anybodyelse but you but you and then
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have a plan.
You've got some handouts you'regoing to talk about and this is
on the website but things likethe type of fast that you're
going to do.
Consider what you can do.
Some people can do food and youneed to consult your doctor if
you can't, or you had questions,but there's different types of
fast.
You can fast one meal a day.
You can fast and do somethingwhere you pick a certain food
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that you're not going to eat.
I heard somebody saying they'refasting sugar.
That's a great one.
Somebody is fasting coffee.
Why would you want to do that,right, mark?
Right, I don't know?
Anyway, whatever has grabbedyou and sort of holds you and
(34:49):
you feel like controls you.
Can you give that up?
Or is yourself calling theshots.
This is what we find out in afast.
So if you've never fastedbefore, just start small, don't
go.
I'm going to go out and do a40-day fast.
No, start small and let Godteach you what he wants to teach
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you and then schedule it.
We've got handouts you're goingto talk about, but the idea
behind a schedule is just to beintentional.
You have to be intentionalabout this or it'll never happen
.
And then focus.
Thinking about this is likewhat burdens me the most, and I
put a circle up here of somethings Mark talked about this
(35:31):
past week Practicalconsiderations from personal
renewal about your families,about church, about community,
about this nation, the USA, andabout the nations.
Those are all great focuses andthings that we can pray and
fast over.
(35:52):
Here's another one Bind yourprayer to God's promises.
It's like prayer on steroidsPromises.
What are the promises, god?
Do you know any?
Attach your prayer and yourfasting to one of those promises
that really gets you going,things that are a burden to you.
(36:13):
God has great things that willhelp us there.
And then here's the thing,because at some point you're
going to say, oh, this is reallyhard.
I think I'm going to give upand quit.
Do what you can do, but don'tjust give up because you say you
can't.
You can do this and most people, believe it or not, can do it
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with food.
I mean, there are other ways tofast.
As I said, you can give up ahobby, you can give up your TV
or social media.
You can do other things thatare fasting.
But I would encourage you, ifyou can do food, do that.
And then, last, keep the focus.
As I say, this is not a diet,this is a way to advance the
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kingdom on our knees.
So those are some practicalthings.
Let me just finish up with this.
I think this is reallyimportant.
This is not about legalism,folks.
We're not trying to coerce ormanipulate God or trying to
twist his arm to get him to dosomething.
We're not trying to check off aspiritual box.
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What we're trying to do iscreate an environment for all of
us that we can allow the HolySpirit to work in ways he maybe
never has.
So don't think of this as aformula.
This is about our heart.
It's about our heart.
Well, I'll just share this.
(37:42):
It's just something that mademe think, you know, this past
week.
We work a commercial cleaningbusiness and one of the places
we went to this past week was inChattanooga and we drove all
the way to Chattanooga to cleanthis office space, got down
there and went to the gate andwe've been able to get in before
several, many times and gotthere and for some reason we
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couldn't get in.
Somebody had changed the codeon the lock and we'd driven all
the way there but we couldn'tget in.
Somebody had changed the code.
See, if you don't have the code, you can't get in.
We ultimately did.
We called somebody't have thecode.
You can't get in.
We ultimately did.
We called somebody who knew thecode.
(38:27):
What I'm trying to communicateto you is there is one who knows
the code and if the world sincethe early church has changed
the code, we need to find thecode again to get into the
kingdom things that God wants usto.
What if giving up what iscomfortable meant for you you
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could obtain what's invisibleand what are you willing to give
up?
That's temporary?
That would bring somethingeternal.
This is what fasting will dofor us folks, and eternal, this
is what fasting will do for usfolks, and I pray.
I pray for all of us.
We'll enter into this time,maybe in ways you hadn't thought
you would.
Let's pray, father, we'rethankful for what you're doing,
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what you're going to do.
We're grateful, lord, for youset the example for us.
You had, as you told thedisciples, food that we might
not know about.
Help us to know that food, lord, and to pursue it with
everything we have.
Give us a hunger for you, lord,and for these days ahead.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
God's doing some really great things, and over
these next 21 days, I just hopeyou have the same expectancy
that's in my heart.
God's going to do greaterthings, and a lot of the things
that he does are dependent onwhat we do, because he's looking
and waiting for us to respondto what he's already shown us
and taught us in his word.
Today, we want to talk aboutfasting, and fasting goes along
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with prayer, and I don't wantyou to.
I can kind of hear those inwardgroans.
It's like, oh, this is hard andit is, but it's kind of this
idea that we're giving awaysomething of ourself to pursue
God himself, and so this is areally, really important thing.
I want us to pray and ask Godto help us in these next 21 days
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.
Would you pray with me for that?
So, father, we're thankfultoday that we are here with you
and you're here with us.
Lord, we know that you'vecalled us to this purpose and,
lord, the things that you've gotin store for us over these next
few days as we pray and as wefast, not only for our personal
lives, but so many other thingsall the way, including to that
of other nations, lord, we askyou to do a work in us, lord,
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don't leave us the same as wepursue the things you called us
to do.
Lord, just honor what ourresponse to your word is and
just reward us, lord, as we'regoing to see today, and Lord, we
ask for that in the mighty nameof Jesus, amen.
Well, let me ask you a question.
Have you ever finished a mealand felt physically full but you
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weren't satisfied?
How often we sit and we havethat meal and we get done and we
go I want something else, andwe don't really always know what
that is.
We're just not satisfied, andyou know that can be true in the
physical realm, but that alsocan be true in your spiritual
life as well.
And what God does in us is hecalls us to have a hunger for
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something that we don't oftensee, but we have a struggle
sometimes with food, andsometimes we call it emotional
or psychological eating, don'twe?
There's a reason that drives usto those things, and really
eating can really be thought ofin some ways as kind of an
anesthesia of sadness.
(02:21):
We don't know what that sadnesssometimes is, and in the same
way, god has caused us to havean emptiness in our soul that
makes us long to know what hewants to show us, and that's
more of himself.
He wants to have a relationshipwith each one of us, and you
know.
Question for you this morningdo you know that God has made us
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hungry for Him, he's made youhungry for Him, and Jesus said
it like this blessed are thosewho hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall besatisfied, and that's a promise
from Him.
And I was reading a book thispast week, john Piper.
His book called A Hunger forGod, and if you let me recommend
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that book to you.
You can find it online and it'sactually a free download, a
Hunger for God by John Piper,and he writes this there is an
appetite for God and it can beawakened.
I invite you to turn from thedulling effects of food and the
dangers of idolatry and to say,with some simple fast, this much
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oh God, I want you.
Our appetites dictate thedirection of our lives, whether
it be the cravings of ourstomachs, the passionate desire
for possessions or power, or thelongings of our sports.
For God, our spirits for God.
But for the Christian, thehunger for anything besides God
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can be an arch enemy, while ourhunger for God and Him alone is
the only thing that will bringvictory.
You know, and I think this timefor us is a really special time
.
So I don't want us to ignorewhat God has for us this season,
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especially as we talk aboutfasting.
And in the brief time we havetoday, I just want us to
understand that biblical fastingreally what it is, and I want
us to talk about how thisbiblical practice can really
help us advance the kingdom, notonly in our lives, but in the
lives of this nation, community,this world.
So let's start with just asimple question what is biblical
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fasting?
We hear people fast.
Fasting is common to allreligions and in a lot of places
.
But let me just give you thissimple definition going without
food for spiritual purposes.
Going without food forspiritual purposes and I would
just say that's not really quiteenough because we need to hone
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that a little bit.
And the best definition that Ihave seen in my life is a little
bit more complete.
Let me read it to you.
This is by David Mathis.
He says Fasting is anexceptional measure designed to
channel and express our desirefor God and our holy discontent
in a fallen world.
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It is for those not satisfiedwith the status quo, for those
who want more of God's grace,for those who feel truly
desperate for God.
This morning, I just ask youare you hungry?
Do you know what you're hungryfor?
And if you know what you'rehungry for, which is the God
that you can know?
Are you hungry for Him?
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You know the thing that I'mrealizing now more than ever and
I shared on this message acouple of years ago, same
subject I'm just realizing howreally deeply significant this
spiritual practice is.
I didn't really.
I learned a lot this week as Iwas preparing for this message.
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This is something that's highlysignificant, maybe more
significant than you've everconsidered.
It was and is for me.
I would go so far as to call ita secret weapon of
transformation.
Secret weapon of transformation.
And here's why Becausethroughout history, every
spiritual movement, from theearly church on through modern
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revivals, it, has been fueled byprayer and fasting.
Think about that.
Every movement has been fueledby prayer and fasting, and
that's not just a, that's not acoincidence, it's a divine
principle in how God reallybrings about and Patty said it
this morning breakthrough.
Are you looking for abreakthrough?
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It might be a breakthrough in astruggle that you have, or
relationship you have, or justsome something you're dealing
with right now that you can'tseem to get past, and if we can
just come to see the value ofthis practice, it holds and it
began to practice it more thanjust this 21 days.
This is just an emphasis, butit should be a lifestyle for us.
(07:00):
I think we can begin toexperience power, favor and
breakthroughs in our desire andour walk with Christ.
And when we combine it withprayer, biblical fasting, it
opens doors that are closed, itdemolishes strongholds that we
struggle with and it helps usdefeat the enemy, helps us
accelerate the kingdom of God.
So here's the thing, here'swhat I want you to get this
morning.
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When we pray with fasting, wepartner with God to bring the
kingdom into our midst.
When we pray with fasting, wepartner with God to bring the
kingdom into our midst.
When we pray with fasting, wepartner with God to bring the
kingdom into our midst.
So let me just tell you fourways that this can happen for us
, and each of these kind ofhopefully will kind of get us
and allow us to get into theflow of God's grace, because
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we're getting in a position forHim to do things in our lives.
As we look at this Number one,four ways, fasting brings the
kingdom.
Number one the purpose offasting is to propagate a
kingdom encounter.
The purpose of fasting is topropagate a kingdom encounter
and for my thinking this week,my mind is drawn to the story
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that most of us have heard outof John, chapter 4.
And it's the example of Jesus'encounter, or rather the woman's
encounter with Jesus at thewell, the woman at the well in
John 4.
And many of us, as I say, knowthe story and what has happened
in this encounter.
And in verse 3 of chapter 4.
It tells us that Jesus and hisdisciples were traveling through
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Samaria and they stop at thiswell, there, in the town of
Sychar, and it says they werethirsty.
Jesus wanted a drink and so didhis disciples, the woman it was
at midday and the only personthere was a woman, and women
didn't go out at midday togather water.
She was there because she had areputation in the town and she
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didn't want anyone else aroundwhile she was gathering water.
But the disciples and Jesus showup and in verse seven and eight
, this marvelous encounter is inwhich Jesus sees this woman and
this woman's true spiritualcondition.
It's revealed to her by Jesusin verses 7 and 8.
Listen to this.
It says A woman from Samariacame to draw water and Jesus
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said to her Give me a drink.
And then it says in parenthesesin verse 8, for his disciples
had gone away into the city tobuy food.
Underline that this was not anaccident.
Jesus let them to go get gold intown to get food.
He's setting something up, aswe'll see later on.
He let them go and he has thisprivate conversation with this
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woman while the disciples are intown getting food.
In that conversation that hehas, it moves from the topic of
obtaining physical water toobtaining spiritual water for
her thirsty soul.
And in the course of thisconversation, jesus he sort of
reads this woman's privatethoughts and she's kind of
(09:53):
wondering how does he know allthis?
And he reads the thoughts bythe Spirit and he tells her she
talks about her husband andJesus said well, actually you've
had five husbands and the onethat you're, the husband you're
living with now, is not your own.
She's working on number six.
(10:14):
And in the course ofconversation, jesus is revealing
to her that what she has soughtto fill her empty soul can be
found, can be filled by thisliving water that Jesus offers
her, and he does that the samewith us.
What we give ourselves tosometimes makes us all the more
empty when the answer for us isto find our answer in a person
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whose name is Jesus.
So she's attempted to fill heremptiness with failed
relationships.
Ultimately, she realizes thatthe answer to all her problems,
after they get to this end ofthe conversation, is standing
right in front of her.
And Jesus said I who speak toyou, am he.
Well, that's just the firstpart of the story, because
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meantime, this woman withshameful reputation, she,
realizes that the one that sheneeds to find her answers in is
Jesus.
She leaves her water pot downthere and immediately she
carries her personal testimonyinto town.
And what is it?
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Verse 25, verse 26,.
It goes on.
And she said come see a manverse 29, who told me all that I
ever did.
And she's gone into town withthat testimony and everybody's
going.
We have to come hear this, wewant to know all the details.
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So they follow her back out oftown and back to the well, and
just about that time thedisciples come back in and they
go.
What in the world is going on?
And so, for our purposes.
Today, I want us to look at thissecond part.
It's kind of a backstory towhat Jesus has set up from the
beginning and, because it'srelevant to our topic here, it's
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about this woman's encounterand the city's encounter with
Jesus, and it's the catalyst forthe encounter.
We read it in the follow-up tothese verses, in 31 through 38.
It says there when then, justthen, his disciples came back,
they marveled that he wastalking with a woman, but no one
said what do you seek or whyare you talking with her?
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So the woman left her water jarand went away into town, said
to the people come see a man whotold me all that I ever did.
Can this be the Christ?
They went out of the town andwere coming to him.
Meanwhile and it's here I wantto focus the disciples, who have
now returned with a pile ofgroceries, were urging him.
Who have now returned with apile of groceries were urging
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him Rabbi, eat something.
And he said to them I have foodto eat that you do not know
about.
And so they're wondering doesJesus have a peanut butter and
fish sandwich tucked in his robesomewhere?
Who brought him food?
We've got all this food, andwhy did he even send us into
town if it's not needed?
So what just happened here?
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And, as I said, jesus issetting this up.
What has happened is Jesus hasset this up as a lesson for the
disciples.
They've totally misunderstoodwhat this was about.
This is not about physical food.
He says I have food you knownothing about.
Jesus is inviting thesedisciples to seek a deeper
(13:29):
understanding of who he is andhis mission.
He's drawing them in, causingthem to ask what is he talking
about?
And in the process he'srevealed where their minds were
and the level of their spiritualawareness.
And sometimes I think of thatwhen we think about these
disciplines of the Christianlife and think they don't really
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matter that much, and I cankind of just lay those aside.
Jesus is teaching them and Iwant you to see watch as Jesus
realigns their focus tospiritual matters rather than
physical needs.
He says in verse 34,.
Jesus said to them my food isto do the will of him, who sent
me to accomplish his work.
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And here it is that Jesus'words take a sort of an odd turn
.
Have you ever been reading aBible passage where you read it
and then it comes the next, verynext thing.
It says something that totallydoesn't seem to connect.
Well, this is where John istrying to show us something.
Notice what he tells thedisciples, because he ties this
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object lesson of the woman tothe principle he wants them to
understand.
Verse 35, do you not say thereare yet four months, then comes
the harvest.
So what's he saying?
He said well, you know, ifyou're going to get a harvest,
you have to do the work firstCultivating the soil and
(14:58):
watering the soil and providingall that it needs to bring a
harvest.
Whatever you're doing, youcan't harvest without planting a
seed and you can't harvestwithout doing the work.
Corn just doesn't pop out ofthe ground without anything
happening.
You've got to do the work.
So he says look, I tell youverse.
(15:20):
Next verse, I tell you lift upyour eyes and see that the
fields are white for harvest.
And Jesus is basically going onto point out to them that he has
done the work.
He's gone without food and he'sprayed.
And while not directly relatedto fasting you don't see that
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term we know that he's gonewithout food in order to do
something that God has donethrough this woman.
The whole town has come out forit and he's pointed out the
results of the fasting, andthat's why I say in this point
the purpose of fasting is topropagate a kingdom encounter.
When you look up the wordpropagate, it simply means this
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in the dictionary to cause anorganism to multiply.
And I believe in our day, andfor this church especially, god
wants to bring us to a differentlevel.
He wants to multiply thingsthat he started and he wants to
do great and mighty things ifwe'll just learn the principles
that he wants us to learn.
To harvest the spiritual food,we have to sow the spiritual
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seed.
That's the point, and thatmeans different things.
One of those is what we'retalking about today, but even
before we do that, we preparethe soil, and this is the hard
work.
This is the thing what we callprayer and fasting.
That it does.
Most of us, when we hear abouta prayer meeting, don't come
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because we don't want to do thehard work.
But this is foundational to seethe harvest, do you get the
principle?
If we miss this, folks, we'vemissed it.
Prayer and fasting.
Prayer and fasting are thefoundational work to see the
kingdom come, and Jesus istelling us how this happened.
(17:10):
When we trade our physicalhunger for spiritual hunger.
We are, then, ready toexperience a kingdom encounter.
As an aside, think about this,since the disciples had gone
away to buy food.
How do we have the details ofthis conversation with this
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woman?
Thought about that and I wouldsuggest to you.
It's because of the testimonyof this woman.
This has totally transformedher life.
Could you think that all ofthis might be because Jesus
prayed and fasted?
Fasting propagates a kingdomencounter.
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Second thing I want you to seehow the kingdom, how fasting
brings the kingdom, is that thepromise of fasting is a kingdom
reward.
It's a kingdom reward.
We look for that in Matthew 6,in verses 16 and 17.
He says there, jesus talkingagain.
He says when you fast, do notlook gloomy like the hypocrites,
for they disfigure their facesthat their fasting may be seen
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by others.
Truly, I say to you they havereceived their reward.
But when you fast, anoint yourhead and wash your face that
your fasting may not be seen byothers but by your Father, who
is in secret.
And your Father, who sees insecret, will reward you.
And I understand we're doingthis fast as a corporate thing,
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but you know what?
No one is not eating for you ornot eating, not not eating for
you.
You have to choose thatyourself.
Right?
It's a double negative.
But no one's doing that for you.
You do that in private.
So you can still get the reward.
This personal reward, jesusoffers it to everyone who fasts.
Along with the other thingsprayer and giving he comes in
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threes.
This is the third one.
And so do you see it?
Jesus has promised a rewardspecifically for this practice
of prayer and fasting.
Say, what's the reward?
I don't know.
I don't think it's somethingphysical.
Some versions say he willreward you openly.
(19:22):
Does that intrigue you, like itintrigues me.
Does it hold out the promisefor something you've longed for
and are not satisfied yet bythat?
God might just fill you andgive you something that would
totally transform your life orthe life of your family or your
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kids.
I mean, this is fantastic whatthis promise offers.
You know the Bible says in 2Peter he has granted to us his
precious and very great promisesso that through them you may
become partakers of the divinenature, having escaped from the
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corruption that is in the worldbecause of sinful desire.
You know, in total I found out,one accounting says that there
are 8,800 prayer promises in theBible.
8,800 promises in the Bible.
How many do we know?
And this passage in 2 Petersays a couple of things about
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this.
All of them are great, someversions say magnificent, and
they're precious.
They hold inestimable value.
We can't comprehend the value ofthe promises when they're
attached to prayer and with theresult that what this is the
most significant thing byclaiming them in faith, it says
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we participate, we share in thedivine nature.
That doesn't mean we become agod.
It doesn't mean that.
What does it mean?
What happens is that we get toexperience a spiritual
transformation where ourcharacter begins to look like
the God who made us.
We reflect the character of Godas we grab hold of those
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promises in prayer and begin topray those things, because we're
praying according and in linewith His character.
And we wonder why our prayersdon't get answered.
Well, you have to pray in linewith His will, and so Jesus said
this for us 2 Corinthians 1.20,.
For all the promises of Godfind their yes in Him and that
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is why, through Him, we utterour amen to God for His glory.
You can say amen, can't you, ifyour prayers are aligned with
the Almighty God, because youknow God's heart is with that
prayer.
I'm just telling you somethings that will help us as we
pray and go forward here.
But attaching our fasting andprayer with the promises of God
(22:02):
brings the kingdom, jesus said.
He said when he was taught.
The disciples said how do wepray?
And he said one of the firstthings he says that you're that
my, you know.
Pray, god's kingdom will come.
How often do you pray for God'skingdom to come?
Well, you attach it to apromise and guess what it
(22:23):
advances and accelerates thatprayer?
Well, there's a third way.
Fasting brings the kingdom.
And is this?
The power of fasting overcomesopposition to the kingdom.
We find this in scripture Jesus,full of the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan and wasled by the Spirit in the
(22:45):
wilderness for 40 days.
Here's one example beingtempted by the devil and he ate
nothing during those days andwhen they were ended, he was
hungry.
Well, I guess so Ever gone forthree days and you're hungry.
And I'll tell you when youstart your fast, you may not be
hungry, but by the third dayyour stomach starts to go.
I'm here, pay attention to me,and so we push down the self for
(23:12):
something greater.
And so we push down the selffor something greater.
We see this also in Luke,chapter 4, where Jesus.
We talked about this in thisscripture.
This was for Jesus when he wentinto the wilderness, a way for
him to overcome temptation, asthe enemy is bringing him
(23:36):
thoughts about things he coulddo as a son of God.
And it says he uses the word ofGod.
But we think of that as thepower only.
But it was also the fact Jesushad spent 40, he's spending 40
days.
This also gave him power overthe enemy, as God led him in the
wilderness to do what he neededto do, to strengthen him, to
resolve and fulfill and finishhis mission.
We see another example inMatthew 17, 21.
(23:57):
It's after the disciples hadtried in that occasion to cast
out an evil spirit out of thisyoung boy.
You can read about it inMatthew 17.
And they try and they are notsuccessful.
They fail and when Jesus isthere, they decide they're going
(24:18):
to consult him, which is whatwe usually do.
It's like, after all else fails, talk to Jesus about it, right,
that's usually how it works,isn't it?
See, jesus is waiting for us todo everything in our power
until we realize that we can donothing without him.
That's what prayer is Aconfession that we can do
(24:42):
nothing without him.
And so the disciples, they cometo Jesus privately.
They don't want anybody else toknow that they have failed.
That's kind of like us too,isn't it?
Let's talk about this, ourfailure, lord.
And they said why could we notcast it out?
And he said to them because ofyour little faith.
(25:05):
And in verse 21, which is insome of the versions, it says
this this kind can only come outwith prayer and fasting.
I think here in Matthew 17,.
Jesus, when he says that hekind of gets them for their lack
of faith and really it'sbecause the faith is expressed
(25:28):
through prayer, dependence onGod, and because they had failed
to depend on God, he kind ofgets them for their lack of
faith.
That's where that is and that'swhere that comes from.
So you know, in a practicalsense, there are some issues,
some kinds of issues addictions,rejections, even demonic powers
(25:51):
that can't be overcome withoutprayer, fasting and the faith
that Jesus is calling for here.
And I think there are manypeople here in this room that
struggle with what the Biblecalls strongholds.
It's the place that the enemyoccupies to mess with our mind,
(26:15):
to bring thought patterns orarrogant attitudes about what's
real and what's not real.
And it's through this idea ofprayer and fasting that we break
those things that the enemy hascome up against us with.
And many are living with thatbecause they're just okay, this
is, we've gotten comfortable init.
So how desperate are you to seespiritual breakthrough?
(26:38):
That's the question.
So, these stubborn areas and letme just give you some example
habits that you struggle with,feelings of shame, anxiety,
depression, addiction when doyou think those things come from
?
Jesus has given us a path outof this through something most
(27:01):
of us want to just say oh,that's not important.
What about this?
What about people that you knowthat you'd love to see saved
but aren't yet?
Maybe your prodigal kids orgrandkids or friends or people
at work, who are blind to thegospel, and yet they just don't
see it.
(27:21):
They don't understand it, evenif you shared it with them.
They just don't comprehend it.
See, the Bible says Satan hasblinded the minds of unbelievers
, so they can't come to thetruth.
So all too often I just thinkabout this, this old story where
God comes to visit his friendand he comes up onto the porch
(27:42):
and the man is sitting in hisrocking chair and his hound dog
is laying up there on the porchand the guy sits down in the
rocking chair next to him andall the whole time through their
whole conversation, this hounddog is moaning and moaning and
moaning.
He said what's wrong with him?
He says is he sick?
He said no, he's laying on anail.
He just won't get.
(28:03):
He's too lazy to get off thenail.
And I use that as an analogy tosay we sometimes will remain in
the pain and sometimes we'rejust too lazy to do what Jesus
says to do, when he can bring usfreedom like we've never known.
(28:27):
So we've seen that this fastingstuff is important.
It's a significant weapon givento help us to overcome the
activity of the enemy in ourlives and in our churches.
Let's look now at the last way,the fourth way.
Fasting brings a kingdom andthat is the practice of fasting
expands the kingdom to others.
(28:48):
And one of the things aboutwhen I read the book of Acts, I
marvel.
When I look at what the earlychurch was able to do and what
they experienced.
It's fascinating and amazing.
What if the static, anemiccondition of our churches was
due in part to our unwillingnessto express our utter dependence
(29:10):
on God through prayer andfasting.
Do you wonder why the church isthe way it is?
Have we left out something thatis so essential?
Because we're busy, we lookgood on the outside, but there's
stuff going on inside that justneeds to be fixed.
(29:35):
So in Matthew 13, 31 and 32,jesus is teaching on the secrets
of the kingdom.
31 and 32, jesus is teaching onthe secrets of the kingdom.
He said the kingdom of heavenis like a grain of mustard seed
that a man took and sowed in hisfield.
It is the smallest of all seeds.
If you've ever seen a mustardseed, it's tiny, it's tiny, but
(30:00):
when it has grown it is largerthan all the garden plants and
becomes a tree, so that thebirds of the air come and make
nests in its branches.
What is Jesus talking abouthere?
The point is that what startsout small and maybe
insignificant to us will growand multiply and expand when we
partner with God, and I thinkGod is just sitting back waiting
(30:21):
for us to see if we willrespond to what he's already
told us.
So we sow the kingdom throughlittle things.
We have a saying in our dayfrom small acorns mighty oaks
grow.
That's kind of the same ideaGreat oaks form from little
(30:43):
acorns right.
Same is true in the kingdom.
Something insignificant andsmall God can take, and he can
make it explode.
This is what happened in theearly church, and so let me give
you an example of how thisaffects the church in our day
and how it is affecting thechurch in our day when we talk
about prayer and fasting.
(31:04):
Bobby Harrington he has a studydone on disciple-making
movements in churches, where Godis moving and growing the
gospel over there in ways thatcan't be imagined.
And here we're kind of going.
Why don't we experience that?
You ever wondered that?
Why don't we experience that?
You ever wondered that?
(31:25):
He says this.
He says the reasondisciple-making movements
flourish around the world isn'tsimply cultural.
It's spiritual hunger.
These movements are powered bymen and women who spend hours
daily in the presence of Jesus.
They fast two to three daysevery week.
Their prayers are bold anddesperate.
(31:48):
God, make my city hunger foryou like I hunger for food.
Make my neighbors thirst foryou like I thirst for water.
He says this intensity anddevotion stand in stark contrast
(32:09):
to what we often see in thewest.
While we value prayer, werarely embrace fasting at this
same level.
But he says and he ends withthis but here's the truth if we
want to see god move in ourchurches, families and cities,
we need to reclaim this radicalpractice.
So is that kind of getting yourmotor running for this?
I'm wanting to motivate us tokind of consider this more than
(32:32):
we ever have.
I know I have, and so I say weneed to come to the place where
we see fasting and prayer as alifestyle and not merely a
limited emphasis.
This is a start, but it's notreally the ultimate goal.
The ultimate goal is alifestyle.
Do you know that in the earlychurch?
The early church fasted twodays a week.
(32:53):
They fasted on Wednesdays andFridays, and that habit was so
important to what the church did, and so we look at this as a
catalyst for kingdom movement.
Jesus said this.
He says for the kingdom, orPaul did, for the kingdom of God
is not a matter of talk, but ofpower.
(33:15):
Where does the power come from?
It comes from you and I beingon our knees, from.
It comes from you and I beingon our knees.
Don't forget this.
I've been praying for this fortwo years, for us to come to
this time and see.
I think God wants to elevatethis church to a new place.
Think of that word elevate andwhat he wants to do in your own
(33:38):
life.
Let me quickly we have time fora couple other things.
Okay, so, practicalconsiderations Examine your
motives, why you do this.
This is not a diet.
It's not about losing weight,although that could be a side
benefit.
It's about connecting with Godand doing it for the right
reasons.
Don't do it because of anybodyelse but you but you and then
(34:02):
have a plan.
You've got some handouts you'regoing to talk about and this is
on the website but things likethe type of fast that you're
going to do.
Consider what you can do.
Some people can do food and youneed to consult your doctor if
you can't, or you had questions,but there's different types of
fast.
You can fast one meal a day.
You can fast and do somethingwhere you pick a certain food
(34:26):
that you're not going to eat.
I heard somebody saying they'refasting sugar.
That's a great one.
Somebody is fasting coffee.
Why would you want to do that,right, mark?
Right, I don't know?
Anyway, whatever has grabbedyou and sort of holds you and
(34:49):
you feel like controls you.
Can you give that up?
Or is yourself calling theshots.
This is what we find out in afast.
So if you've never fastedbefore, just start small, don't
go.
I'm going to go out and do a40-day fast.
No, start small and let Godteach you what he wants to teach
(35:09):
you and then schedule it.
We've got handouts you're goingto talk about, but the idea
behind a schedule is just to beintentional.
You have to be intentionalabout this or it'll never happen
.
And then focus.
Thinking about this is likewhat burdens me the most, and I
put a circle up here of somethings Mark talked about this
(35:31):
past week Practicalconsiderations from personal
renewal about your families,about church, about community,
about this nation, the USA, andabout the nations.
Those are all great focuses andthings that we can pray and
fast over.
(35:52):
Here's another one Bind yourprayer to God's promises.
It's like prayer on steroidsPromises.
What are the promises, god?
Do you know any?
Attach your prayer and yourfasting to one of those promises
that really gets you going,things that are a burden to you.
(36:13):
God has great things that willhelp us there.
And then here's the thing,because at some point you're
going to say, oh, this is reallyhard.
I think I'm going to give upand quit.
Do what you can do, but don'tjust give up because you say you
can't.
You can do this and most people, believe it or not, can do it
(36:35):
with food.
I mean, there are other ways tofast.
As I said, you can give up ahobby, you can give up your TV
or social media.
You can do other things thatare fasting.
But I would encourage you, ifyou can do food, do that.
And then, last, keep the focus.
As I say, this is not a diet,this is a way to advance the
(36:57):
kingdom on our knees.
So those are some practicalthings.
Let me just finish up with this.
I think this is reallyimportant.
This is not about legalism,folks.
We're not trying to coerce ormanipulate God or trying to
twist his arm to get him to dosomething.
We're not trying to check off aspiritual box.
(37:20):
What we're trying to do iscreate an environment for all of
us that we can allow the HolySpirit to work in ways he maybe
never has.
So don't think of this as aformula.
This is about our heart.
It's about our heart.
Well, I'll just share this.
(37:42):
It's just something that mademe think, you know, this past
week.
We work a commercial cleaningbusiness and one of the places
we went to this past week was inChattanooga and we drove all
the way to Chattanooga to cleanthis office space, got down
there and went to the gate andwe've been able to get in before
several, many times and gotthere and for some reason we
(38:04):
couldn't get in.
Somebody had changed the codeon the lock and we'd driven all
the way there but we couldn'tget in.
Somebody had changed the code.
See, if you don't have the code, you can't get in.
We ultimately did.
We called somebody't have thecode.
You can't get in.
We ultimately did.
We called somebody who knew thecode.
(38:27):
What I'm trying to communicateto you is there is one who knows
the code and if the world sincethe early church has changed
the code, we need to find thecode again to get into the
kingdom things that God wants usto.
What if giving up what iscomfortable meant for you you
(38:49):
could obtain what's invisibleand what are you willing to give
up?
That's temporary?
That would bring somethingeternal.
This is what fasting will dofor us folks, and eternal, this
is what fasting will do for usfolks, and I pray.
I pray for all of us.
We'll enter into this time,maybe in ways you hadn't thought
you would.
Let's pray, father, we'rethankful for what you're doing,
(39:15):
what you're going to do.
We're grateful, lord, for youset the example for us.
You had, as you told thedisciples, food that we might
not know about.
Help us to know that food, lord, and to pursue it with
everything we have.
Give us a hunger for you, lord,and for these days ahead.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
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