1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:14,920 Hello Go Church family, I'm Lara. I'm here with Pastor Matt Hataba. Hey everyone. And 2 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:22,400 Gilbert. Hey everyone. Welcome. We're so glad to be back after an amazing big Sunday. And 3 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:28,880 we're excited to get into our series called The Fasted Life. We're going to look at this 4 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:35,880 over the course of this month in January. And I'm sure that as we build our faith on 5 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:42,080 this subject, on the Word of God concerning this subject, we're going to be able to experience 6 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:48,440 fasting and use fasting to a greater degree in our lives in order to move forward. I'm 7 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:55,120 really excited about that. I mean, today is week one out of week three for our Jan series. 8 00:00:55,120 --> 00:01:01,040 And we're going to focus on what is fasting. Or let me say it this way, just to make it 9 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:09,200 easier. We're going to focus on the meaning. And so let me ask this first question. What 10 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:17,080 does fasting mean? Well, that's a very good question. Lara, what do you think? It's not 11 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:24,820 just abstaining from food. That's very important. I think that this warrants the discussion 12 00:01:24,820 --> 00:01:30,280 because the word fasting literally means to close the mouth. We see that fasting in the 13 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:39,480 scripture is deliberately tied to abstaining from food. And you can see that throughout 14 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:49,120 the Old Testament, particularly in the Old Testament, there's times where the Bible uses 15 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:58,720 this term to afflict oneself. And that sounds very Old Testament. And the words may be a 16 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:09,600 little complicated. Afflict just means to make hard, to make hard or to make heavy, 17 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:17,760 and then yourself. Sometimes people would do it in the Old Testament for morning or 18 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:30,440 during a time of sadness. But Nehemiah and also Daniel, we see that they fasted, they 19 00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:38,720 abstained from food for a time because of the situation that was around them. And what 20 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:44,160 I like about that and what I want to bring into the New Testament is here's something 21 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:51,480 that they did in response to the situation they found themselves in, in order to see 22 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:58,480 change. And they understood that that change first had to start with them. And so what 23 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:09,240 is fasting? Fasting is not something dietary, but it is a spiritual act that happens in 24 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:15,240 the natural. I'm quoting Gilbert so you can correct me if I get this wrong. It's a spiritual 25 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:23,140 act that happens in the natural, but it affects us. Like I'm not going to impress God with 26 00:03:23,140 --> 00:03:29,560 how much I fast, but I am going to change me in the process of doing it. 27 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:35,760 Yeah. So I like what you're saying there. And I think it also circles back to what Lara 28 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:44,520 mentioned, which is it's not only about food. And the fact is, we can, so like Pastor Matt 29 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:52,080 said, fasting is a spiritual exercise, which is acted upon in the natural. And if abstaining 30 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:58,480 from food is a spiritual exercise and you're treating it as such, then it is fasting. But 31 00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:06,560 it's not only limited to that. And I think that in a sense it can include abstaining from, 32 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:14,120 or not participating, deliberately cutting out specific activities, specific hobbies, 33 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:21,520 specific habits that are maybe not even necessarily bad, right? In the absolute, I'll give them 34 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:26,760 just a random example, like watching Netflix. It's not like, okay, obviously depending on 35 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:27,760 what you're watching. 36 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:30,280 Definitely depending on what you're watching. 37 00:04:30,280 --> 00:04:34,800 Let's say you're watching a nice documentary about, I don't know, mountains or something. 38 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:41,280 It's not really harmful, but it is something you're doing. And it's something you can deliberately 39 00:04:41,280 --> 00:04:46,320 choose to not do and replace it with something else. 40 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:53,720 I would say it this way. This is kind of at the center or at the beginning of our discussion 41 00:04:53,720 --> 00:05:04,600 to define what fasting is. Fasting literally means to close your mouth. We talk about that 42 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:14,680 from a food perspective, but what does food do? Food ministers to your flesh, right? If 43 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:22,800 you go without eating long enough, something will happen to your body, but not your spirit. 44 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:27,920 Your spirit doesn't actually get anything out of natural food. So we could say that 45 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:34,600 food is something that is ministering to your flesh. And there's a verse in Proverbs, Proverbs 46 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:44,400 chapter 27, verse 20, it says, hell and destruction are never full. So the eyes of men are never 47 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:54,920 satisfied. And what you find, you don't have to live very long to realize the only thing 48 00:05:54,920 --> 00:06:01,160 better than having one cupcake is having two. The only thing better than having one of Julie's 49 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:11,480 cookies is having 18 of them. So as a kid, I used to measure cookies by how much milk 50 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:16,280 I had. So if I had a full glass of milk, then I needed certain number of cookies. I don't 51 00:06:16,280 --> 00:06:27,400 remember what the ratio was, but no one eats one cookie. That's ridiculous. So if we take 52 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:36,280 that from Proverbs, the eyes of men are never satisfied. So let's look at what is it, like 53 00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:41,160 you said, it's not necessarily bad, but what is it that is ministering to our flesh? But 54 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:51,080 isn't helping. It's not helping us grow spiritually. And let's say no to something specifically 55 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:58,400 on purpose as a spiritual exercise. What is fasting? Fasting is taking something that ministers 56 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:08,120 to my flesh like food, but it could be something else and say no. Now I said flesh and spirit, 57 00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:13,880 but what about the soul? We know that we are a spirit. We have a soul and we live in a 58 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:24,040 body. Well, I'm going to mix soul and flesh here a little bit. You, I think last week, 59 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:33,080 Laura, mentioned about social media and studies have shown that scrolling on social media 60 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:41,960 actually affects the brain chemically. And what's interesting is the chemical reaction 61 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:50,720 is similar to that with addictive drugs. It's not exactly the same thing, but it's the same 62 00:07:50,720 --> 00:08:02,800 kind of chemicals. And saying no to that, for example, saying no to watching silly cat 63 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:16,200 videos on TikTok or funny dog videos on Instagram means that you are telling yourself, I'm not 64 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:25,320 going to do this. And as long as then you do the other part of fasting, which is prayer, 65 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:31,440 then you are, you're making that spiritual exercise in the natural. Yeah, absolutely. 66 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:36,700 So I would, I would liken that to, you know, remodeling your room. First, you need to take 67 00:08:36,700 --> 00:08:42,320 things out and because you're expecting to put other things in there. You know, you're 68 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:46,560 not, you're not expecting to just tear down your room and make it non-functional. Obviously 69 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:51,760 that's not what you're trying to do. You know, you're, you're definitely trying to remove 70 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:57,500 some old, make space for some new. And that is, that is also the essence of, of what we're 71 00:08:57,500 --> 00:09:02,080 doing in fasting. I do want to, I do want to lay a little, little bit of foundation 72 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:10,920 and talk about this, which is grace versus works. I know that if you've ever been around 73 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:16,160 at a service and you've heard a call to action, you've heard the gospel, you've heard the 74 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:23,320 good news, which is God wants a relationship with you and God did everything necessary 75 00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:29,080 to have that relationship with you. You don't need to do anything on your part, but receive 76 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:37,760 what he's done for you. That is the essence of grace, the grace of God. And they're saved 77 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:43,880 by grace. That's right. So actually Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine says, for 78 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:49,240 by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift 79 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:56,320 of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So obviously you see here that there is a, 80 00:09:56,320 --> 00:10:05,360 an opposite between grace and works. And as believers, we need to stay away from a works-based 81 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:12,560 mentality like it's the plague. I mean, not to say that the Lord doesn't want us to do 82 00:10:12,560 --> 00:10:20,520 good things, do good works, but that our works do not define who he is to us, who we are 83 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:28,320 to him. Rather, it's the other way around because he has created us. This is verse 10 84 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:38,040 of chapter two. He's created us for good works in his grace. And so fasting is a good work 85 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:45,320 and it should mark our life, but it is not something that I'm doing to earn something 86 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:54,560 from God. It's me doing something to me. That's good. That's really good. And so I put this 87 00:10:54,560 --> 00:10:59,280 note down and I think it's quite funny, but it's important that we, you know, if it's, 88 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:05,440 if it's clear, it's clear. I said that fasting is not a hunger strike. Right. I mean, we 89 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:11,880 don't, we don't fast to get God's attention. You know, in fact, it's not like any of our 90 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:18,720 actions are going to move God. I mean, these things are not what moved him. His love for 91 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:24,120 us before we knew him, when we were still sinners, already moved him to do everything 92 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:30,040 that he was ever going to do for us. And there is nothing more that he could possibly do 93 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:37,160 for us that is not already found in the gift that he freely gave us in Jesus Christ. But 94 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:46,920 basically, like Pastor Matt said, we do not get God to move based on our works, but we 95 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:55,360 are allowing ourselves to be molded into the image of God. And what, you know, we just 96 00:11:55,360 --> 00:12:02,240 talked about last week about, you know, bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness profits 97 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:11,440 much, profits a lot more. And the fact is that we are using our fasting or our actions 98 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:17,520 in fasting to allow ourselves to be molded into that image. So Philippians chapter two 99 00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:26,920 verses 12 and 13, I'm just pulling that up. It says this, therefore, my beloved, as you 100 00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:33,800 have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work 101 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:41,080 out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will 102 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:48,960 and to do for his good pleasure. I see so much in verse 12. And what I really like here 103 00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:56,220 is he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. It's just literally means 104 00:12:56,220 --> 00:13:03,280 allow the salvation that God put in you to work outwards, to allow it to work outside 105 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:06,080 of you. And you realize that you're supposed to take the action. 106 00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:12,560 Yeah. So there's a work, but it's not to get something. It's as a result of what I have 107 00:13:12,560 --> 00:13:18,200 received. Because I have received something, now I have a work to do. 108 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:27,560 Yeah. Yeah. So I'll go back to that line that we just said, fasting is a spiritual exercise, 109 00:13:27,560 --> 00:13:35,880 which is acted upon in the natural. So any action that we take that we call fasting has 110 00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:46,360 a spiritual root or has a spiritual motive. And ultimately the motive is to say no to 111 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:53,000 certain natural things, to allow the spiritual things to get into place. 112 00:13:53,000 --> 00:14:01,200 Yeah. And I'm on purpose making fasting here pretty broad. We mentioned social media, we 113 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:07,280 talked about different things, we'll talk a little bit more, but here's an easy way 114 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:22,760 to know if you're fasting. Are you hungry? And so if you stopped watching Netflix documentaries, 115 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:28,600 I'm going to stop watching Netflix documentaries, but you actually never watch Netflix documentaries. 116 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:34,520 That's not your thing. You don't enjoy watching documentaries about mountains. And that's 117 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:41,540 not fasting, right? But if you say, I'm not going to have anything that has sugar in it 118 00:14:41,540 --> 00:14:50,680 for the next week, the next day, your body will let you know you're definitely fasting. 119 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:56,120 This is it. Tell me about it. Yeah. When I just got out 120 00:14:56,120 --> 00:15:02,200 of Bible school, or no, sorry, I had just gone out of the first year of Bible school, 121 00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:14,120 I was in between my first and second year at Ramah. I felt like the Lord led me to fast. 122 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:23,360 I'm like, okay, Lord, I'm going to do this. And before I could say, I'm going to just 123 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:33,240 fast for this. I just had this on the inside. The Lord told me not to drink milk for a week. 124 00:15:33,240 --> 00:15:37,640 I say, the Lord told me I didn't hear an audible voice, but I just had that on the inside of 125 00:15:37,640 --> 00:15:44,640 me. He said, okay, I'm going to not drink milk for a week. I, you know, this was a long, 126 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:52,200 long time ago, but I used to drink milk all the time. And so, okay, I'm not going to drink 127 00:15:52,200 --> 00:16:02,680 milk for a week. I have never in my life wanted milk so bad. It was crazy. I imagine this 128 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:07,600 is what it would feel like to be in the desert, just parched, you know, water never tasted 129 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:17,000 so poor to me. I just, like, I couldn't get satisfied. What is that? That's my flesh that 130 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:24,960 did not like being told no. So fasting is not a hunger strike, but it is also telling 131 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:34,560 yourself no, something that your flesh wants. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I like in Galatians 132 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:42,160 chapter five, verse 24, Paul says we should crucify the flesh. Yes. That's hard language. 133 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:48,920 That's not easy language. It's deliberately, he deliberately uses that word crucify. And 134 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:58,320 it is in the first century, that's the most horrific way to be executed. You know, this 135 00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:07,040 is, that's top of the list because crucifixion does not result in immediate death. It's not 136 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:12,200 the same thing as like beheading. You know, a lot of people would say, well, I would die 137 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:22,600 for Christ. Right? Great. That's noble. But how about living for him? And crucifying means 138 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:29,720 being nailed to a cross and then not being able to breathe for hours and hours until 139 00:17:29,720 --> 00:17:36,000 you die of exhaustion. That's how people died when they were crucified. And when Jesus was 140 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:41,720 crucified, no one believed that he could already be dead because he hadn't been on the cross 141 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:54,000 that long. Yeah. So the term crucify the flesh is deliberately brutal. We should be very, 142 00:17:54,000 --> 00:18:02,060 very hard on ourselves. Not on each other, but your flesh will do just about anything 143 00:18:02,060 --> 00:18:12,160 you let it. Yeah. Tell me more about those desserts. We haven't talked about ice cream 144 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:16,320 in this, this on this podcast yet. I'm sure we will by the way, before the end of this 145 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:23,000 month, Pastor Matt is going to say something about gelato. Yes. But this, this is so, so 146 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:29,240 real though, that, you know, we fast in order to quiet our flesh and quiet our soul. And 147 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:36,540 I can tell you for me personally, quieting my soul is a lot more challenging than quieting 148 00:18:36,540 --> 00:18:41,080 my flesh. I'm not going to say that, you know, a one is unnecessary and one is important, 149 00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:49,600 but I, I do realize that sometimes the most challenging things for me are telling my emotions 150 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:59,040 no so that I can focus on what my spirit is trying to get me to focus, stay focused on. 151 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:06,160 And I mean, obviously, you know, crucifying the flesh is super important, but also there 152 00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:16,520 is, there's a point where, you know, we fast in order to refocus what our emotions have 153 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:21,060 been given, been giving so much attention to, or what our minds have been giving so 154 00:19:21,060 --> 00:19:28,880 much attention to. And I remember like, you know, I told myself over one weekend, I would 155 00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:36,360 cut out watching some TV shows and stuff like that. And when I took that decision, like 156 00:19:36,360 --> 00:19:42,960 I can't begin to explain how difficult it felt to not want to just turn Netflix on if 157 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:48,200 I watch a TV show and I'm not even a TV show guy. Like this is not, I think that you just 158 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:53,240 watch TV all the time. Right? No, I don't. I mean, I'm the guy who probably can't watch 159 00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:56,600 something for more than 20 minutes on end without just getting up and saying I'm a little, 160 00:19:56,600 --> 00:20:03,080 a little bored now, a little fidgety. But the reality is that there was, you know, after 161 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:09,760 a while, like maybe a day and a half later when it's like, you know, my mind is over 162 00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:17,840 saying, oh, you should just sit and do nothing and just watch this. I've filled it with deliberately 163 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:23,320 and vocally praising God. I know that sounds a little, you know, hyper spiritual. That 164 00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:29,480 sounds like me, you know, saying, you know, this is awesome. Yeah. But the reality is 165 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:39,760 at some point it took my emotions from somewhere just very neutral and very passive to somewhere 166 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:44,440 where I was genuinely excited. Like I spent time with the Lord a day and a half later. 167 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:47,440 I'm just like, praise God, praise God. Then all of a sudden I'm like, praise God. I'm 168 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:52,320 like, wow. Like now I'm, now I'm excited all of a sudden. And you know, at some point the, 169 00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:58,480 the emotions switched off from the habit that was just taking so much of my time and it 170 00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:04,400 switched on towards the Lord. And it's just, it's amazing. It's amazing when you do that. 171 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:10,760 Well, I would take that a step further and say, if, if all you're doing is the, is the 172 00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:15,320 negation, all you're doing is saying, I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to eat 173 00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:21,040 this. I'm not going to watch this. That's behavior modification. Yeah. The spiritual 174 00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:28,920 aspect is when you, when you do the thing that you just said, you fill the gap with 175 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:37,840 prayer, with praise, with spending time with the Lord, pressing into him. Otherwise it's 176 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:46,080 really just dieting. Yep. Can we say replacing what we were doing with prayer? Absolutely. 177 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:53,320 Nothing on the word. I'm just so thankful. First of all, that I don't have to do anything 178 00:21:53,320 --> 00:22:01,560 to make God to do something for me. Yeah. So my question is fasting puts me in what 179 00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:08,040 position exactly? Like you're, I'm positioning myself when I fast to receive, to quiet down 180 00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:15,320 the flash and receive more. Can we say that? Yeah. I would, I was thinking about this, 181 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:25,560 you know, recently Julie and I traveled and if, if you've ever spent time flying places, 182 00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:34,160 sometime in airports, it means you spent time standing in line. And one time Julie and I 183 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:42,200 were flying, we were flying through Paris and our flight was delayed. So we had to go 184 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:49,800 stand in line and it's us and a bunch of other people who, their flights were also delayed. 185 00:22:49,800 --> 00:23:00,320 And there was this, there was this young family and they had two small children, one probably 186 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:08,880 three years old. One was, you know, a year old, four, three or four years old. And they 187 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:18,160 were not having fun. I wasn't having fun. Actually, I felt like those little kids. They 188 00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:23,960 let everyone know they were not having fun. They were yelling. They were, if they weren't 189 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:34,920 yelling, they were running around and their parents were, you know, please stop, be quiet. 190 00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:43,560 And it occurred to me that while I understood the situation and like I said, I felt just 191 00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:51,220 like those little kids did. It was a little too late to change the way those kids behaved 192 00:23:51,220 --> 00:23:59,980 right then because some of what we were all seeing, we in that line were all seeing is 193 00:23:59,980 --> 00:24:09,800 how those kids act all the time. And I would say fasting is a lot like that. In problem 194 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:18,520 situations, in pressure situations, your flesh will act the way you let it act most of the 195 00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:29,600 time. And so it's good to take the opportunity now at the first of the year to start putting 196 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:37,920 our flesh under and get your get our bodies, get our flesh, get our souls used to being 197 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:45,080 told no, no, you're not going to act like that. No, you're not going to have that opinion. 198 00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:55,400 No, you're not going to share that opinion. Because invariably, there will be pressure 199 00:24:55,400 --> 00:25:01,640 situations. And before we arrive at those pressure situations, we can actually train 200 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:14,960 ourselves in times deliberately to make ourselves spirit dominant. Yeah. That's so good. 201 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:25,000 I find it so important to see that fasting is done with the expectation of an outcome. 202 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:33,920 The expectation of like my flesh or my soul being quiet, quieted so that something else 203 00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:39,760 or more specifically someone else can have a bigger voice in my life. And I want to read 204 00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:47,160 this the scripture and first John chapter two verses 15 through to 17. So John says 205 00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:53,680 this, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the 206 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:58,680 love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, 207 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:04,120 the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. 208 00:26:04,120 --> 00:26:09,640 And the world is passing away and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides 209 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:17,920 forever. And up until yesterday, literally, I never saw this in connection to fasting. 210 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:25,240 But the truth is, the reality is that our flesh and to some degree our soul, for the 211 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:33,620 most part our soul is located on earth, in the earth. And the word of God commands us 212 00:26:33,620 --> 00:26:41,880 not to love the world nor the things in the world. And fasting helps us disconnect from 213 00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:48,880 the world and the things in the world or disconnect parts of our being because we are a spirit, 214 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:55,760 we have a soul, we live in a body. So disconnecting the body, disconnecting the soul from the 215 00:26:55,760 --> 00:27:00,840 world and the things of the world creates more room for the things of God. Because there 216 00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:09,960 is a direct, you know, we only have X amount of focus. And if most of the focus or all 217 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:15,720 of the focus is going towards the world or the things of the world, by default, we are 218 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:21,920 not able to focus on the Father. We're not able to focus on God and the things of God. 219 00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:30,920 And so I would encourage or I would invite this perspective, which is when we fast, it's 220 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:37,040 because we recognize a need for a change or a need for a growth or a need for refocusing 221 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:47,320 in our lives. And that is actually the key scripture we talked about. The Church of Antioch, 222 00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:51,640 the leaders in the Church of Antioch, they got together and ministered to the Lord and 223 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:56,960 they fasted and they prayed. And there was something that came out of it. The fact is 224 00:27:56,960 --> 00:28:01,960 they went in there expecting to hear from the Lord, expecting to hear a next step or 225 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:06,840 what is going to happen or what needs to happen or what the Lord is trying to do in the Church 226 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:11,040 or what the Lord is trying to do through them as individuals. And they got an answer. And 227 00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:23,240 that in, I mean, ultimately that answer changed the world. I mean, that answer allowed Paul 228 00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:31,240 to come into the position that he came into and to keep walking with the Lord and to keep 229 00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:37,560 focused on the Lord when surely there were tons of distractions in his life. I mean, 230 00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:43,120 you would talk about relationships that he would have missed or he would have lost. You're 231 00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:51,000 talking about things that he must have said no to. You're talking about people that he 232 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:56,840 may not have wanted to have relationships with that he would end up, these are God ordained 233 00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:01,480 relationships, going to places that he may not have wanted to go to, leaving his house, 234 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:07,240 leaving his comfort, leaving the known things, going into places where there's hostility. 235 00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:15,000 And the fact is step by step by step by step, he had to say no to his flesh, no to his emotions 236 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:22,880 and yes to the Lord. And so it wasn't just a one time prayer and fasting. But after that 237 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:27,440 one time prayer and fasting, there was a fasted life that he lived. 238 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:35,160 That's exactly right. That's very well said. And why are we doing this series, Fasted Life? 239 00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:43,520 Why are we focusing on that? Everyone that accepts Jesus, everyone that enters into a 240 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:55,680 life of following Jesus can agree, yes, I need to pray. Yes, I need to put the Word 241 00:29:55,680 --> 00:30:06,080 of God into practice. And then that word, but, comes to the surface. But I have trouble 242 00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:17,880 practicing, but I have never been good at reading, but I just can't seem to find time 243 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:30,280 in my day because I'm so busy to actually pray. All of those very common excuses can 244 00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:38,200 be easily answered with fasting. I like, I've been in positions where I've 245 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:42,560 seen Pastor Matt have conversations with people who have said things like that. And 246 00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:50,440 he looks at them and he's like, easy, change. That's true though. But when I say it can 247 00:30:50,440 --> 00:31:00,160 be easily addressed, whatever excuse we want to give to practicing God's Word, the answer 248 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:09,640 is very simple. Just change. And I can't change. Yeah, you can. And one way you can practice 249 00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:16,280 changing is by attacking something that your flesh really likes for a couple of weeks in 250 00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:23,320 January. We can do it all together as a family in the church and just say, no, I'm not going 251 00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:31,720 to do that. Yeah. So I want to read, I want to refer to the Bible illustration that we're 252 00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:38,520 going to talk about in week one. So this week of Girl Groups, remember today we're talking 253 00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:45,360 about the meaning of fasting. And so we want to look at this passage of scripture. So actually 254 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:52,160 I'm referring to the, it's quite a famous passage of scripture in the gospels, the gospels 255 00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:59,800 of Matthew, the gospel of Luke. And it's about the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness 256 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:08,600 where the Holy Spirit led him out and he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and the devil just 257 00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:16,040 tempted him. And so let me read verses one through to three. And you know that Jesus 258 00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:22,480 wasn't fasting social media in this case, because it says he was hungry. Hungry for 259 00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:31,200 scrolling. So Matthew chapter four, verse one, and you can also find this in Luke chapter 260 00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:37,120 four, verse one, then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted 261 00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:44,000 by the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry. Now 262 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:49,320 when the tempter came to him, he said, if you were the son of God, command that these 263 00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:55,560 stones become bread. I'm going to keep reading in verse four, but he answered and said, it 264 00:32:55,560 --> 00:33:01,040 is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth 265 00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:08,240 of God. And I'm going to stop reading here, but there are two more exchanges between the 266 00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:18,400 devil and Jesus. And there's a similar response that Jesus gives to the devil and those two 267 00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:26,480 exchanges. But I want to go back and look at this in verses one and two. Jesus was led 268 00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:32,240 up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted 269 00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:37,800 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry. Now there's so much there and there's so much 270 00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:44,400 we could talk about, but really we want to talk about this from, or in the context of 271 00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:51,840 fasting. What does fasting mean? What does fasting look like in this case? It's pretty 272 00:33:51,840 --> 00:34:03,400 obvious, but also why was Jesus led to fast? Was this fast spiritually motivated? And how 273 00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:10,720 did Jesus respond to the temptation? And is the way that Jesus responded connected to 274 00:34:10,720 --> 00:34:18,020 the fact that he was fasting? I mean, from my perspective, and I'm not going to say very 275 00:34:18,020 --> 00:34:23,520 much because it's more fun to have a discussion in the girl groups, but I like to see that 276 00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:29,320 Jesus was so focused on the spiritual that he was only hungry 40 days later. So it says 277 00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:35,720 after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, then he became hungry. Like you see that he 278 00:34:35,720 --> 00:34:44,200 was so engrossed in the spiritual things that were happening. And at the end, the devil 279 00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:50,880 was trying to tempt Jesus in the natural, like from the outside. So, you know, I bet 280 00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:56,160 you're hungry, you know, hey, look at all this, you can have all this. Hey, you should 281 00:34:56,160 --> 00:35:00,560 jump off here because you are somebody and God's going to do something for you because 282 00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:06,720 you are amazing. And these are like outward temptations. But the fact is, Jesus was not 283 00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:11,880 focused on the outward, on the natural. He was focused on the spiritual. And the fasting, 284 00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:18,760 I truly believe, I truly see that the fasting or the period of fasting helped him cut out 285 00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:24,920 the natural and be deliberate in that period, in that moment about cutting out the natural 286 00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:33,480 to focus on the spiritual. So although fasting is hard on your flesh, or in this case, it 287 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:39,240 must have been hard because you know he was hungry, it made it so much easier to resist 288 00:35:39,240 --> 00:35:44,160 the devil in that moment of temptation. I know that we're going to talk about this a 289 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:48,560 lot more. So I'm going to leave that right there. It's going to be a great discussion. 290 00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:54,360 And a great discussion. And I want to, yeah, it's also important to point out here that 291 00:35:54,360 --> 00:36:10,080 Jesus, the sinless lamb of God, the incarnate word of God, did not exempt himself from fasting. 292 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:17,320 Yeah. Now, later, the Pharisees who had a practice of fasting twice a week came and 293 00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:28,160 accused Jesus and the disciples of not fasting regularly. And Jesus turned it around to relationship. 294 00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:36,400 But this is an important point here. Jesus didn't exempt himself from fasting. There's 295 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:42,000 actually several instances throughout the Gospel accounts where we see Jesus fasting. 296 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:49,840 This is just the first one. If Jesus wasn't exempt from fasting, me and you aren't either. 297 00:36:49,840 --> 00:37:01,400 Yeah, that's right. But then also, I believe they're still alive, but I knew this person 298 00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:06,560 and they made a decision that they were going to fast for 40 days and 40 nights, and they 299 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:20,280 wound up in the hospital. So a key to this is Jesus was led to do this. Yeah. So don't 300 00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:29,200 focus on the 40 days part. That's been built into a religious event. And that's the opposite 301 00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:33,920 of what we want to talk about. We want to talk about this becoming a lifestyle. A lifestyle 302 00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:45,480 that's related to our relationship. But I'll just close that off there. Jesus wasn't exempt 303 00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:54,140 from fasting, so me neither. Yeah. So in closing today, I do want to read one more verse, which 304 00:37:54,140 --> 00:38:01,160 is in Hebrews chapter 12, verse one. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great 305 00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:07,060 a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares 306 00:38:07,060 --> 00:38:14,280 us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. So I'm focusing on 307 00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:22,560 this word here. Let us lay aside every weight. Obviously, fasting is not let us lay aside 308 00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:26,640 every sin, because like Pastor Matt said, you know, we don't fast off sins, we just 309 00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:31,400 stop doing them. You don't want to be doing those things. You know, it's not like, oh, 310 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:35,160 in January, I'm not gonna lie, or, you know, whatever that looks like, I'm not going to 311 00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:43,000 go further and give you guys ideas. But the fact is, you know, living a godly character 312 00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:50,480 is one thing, but laying aside every weight, and weights don't necessarily mean they're 313 00:38:50,480 --> 00:38:56,680 bad things, or these are things that, you know, are bad in the absolute, but they are 314 00:38:56,680 --> 00:39:04,560 bad for me right now, because they are taking me away from my full ability to run this race 315 00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:08,960 with endurance, they're weighing me down, they're holding me back, they're limiting 316 00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:15,480 me and they're affecting my ability to move forward. So it is important that we see fasting 317 00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:22,400 in that light, that we are laying aside every weight which is preventing us from going forward. 318 00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:27,280 If you made it this far today, and no one has told you, we're not just praying for 319 00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:32,720 you, but we're actually praying and fasting for you, because we love you, and we want 320 00:39:32,720 --> 00:39:37,200 to see y'all's richest and best for you. We'll see you next time. 321 00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:41,800 Thank you for listening to this message. We want everyone to experience the unconditional 322 00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:46,560 love of God, grow in His love, and go with His love to the rest of their world. We invite 323 00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:51,520 you to connect with us at one of our groups for our next gathering. And if no one told 324 00:39:51,520 --> 00:40:12,400 you yet today, we love you and believe God's very best for you.