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Hello, Gotrich Family. I'm Lara and I'm with Pastor Matt Hattabo.

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I am happy to be here. Hi, everybody.

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Hi, and Gilbert.

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Hello, everyone. Hey, Lara.

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Hi.

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I'm really glad to be back and it's been a very fun month and it's a very important subject for us

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because the more we get into it, the more we realize how much we need to be doing this on a regular basis.

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If we plan on going forward as individuals, as a church, it's just so important.

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I'm really glad that we reached week three and I'm sure everyone has a lot of questions

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because in week one, we talked about the meaning of fasting.

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In week two, we've talked about the method of fasting.

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And here we are, week three, we're going to talk about the rewards of fasting.

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I know that probably a lot of us are saying, oh, you talk about the reward, the reward, the reward.

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Pastor Matt's talking about it so much. What is it?

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It's not a ribbon.

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It's not a ribbon.

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So yeah, we're going to get into that.

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But I just want to recap for a couple of minutes what we've covered so far.

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So in week one, we've talked about the meaning of fasting.

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So what is the meaning of fasting?

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The meaning of fasting is in a nutshell, quieting our flesh, quieting our souls,

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so that our spirit can supersede those things.

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Like we saw in 1 John chapter two, verse 15, the instruction is,

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do not love the world nor the things in the world.

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And in contrast, if we do love the world or the things of the world,

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then the love of the Father is not in us.

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And so we are using fasting in order to turn away from being too attached

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to the world or the things in the world.

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You know, our flesh is in the world.

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And our fleshly desires, our soulish desires are worldly

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if we are not renewing our minds on a daily basis.

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So, you know, Romans chapter 12 says,

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do not be conformed to the patterns of this world,

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but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

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If we don't fast, it's very easy that we just go with the flow, we conform.

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You know, we go down the stream of life, it takes us where it wants to take us.

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But when we fight that or when we actively resist the flow of life,

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we allow ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds,

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which is a continuous process.

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So the renewing of our mind is a continuous process.

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And the fasted life is a continuous process.

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It is something that we constantly, continuously want to be doing.

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And we went on in week two to talk about the method of fasting.

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And in a nutshell, it's not a set of rules.

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It's not a set of religious practices.

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It's not limited to food.

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And it is not specifically defined.

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I mean, Jesus does not emphasize nor focus what to fast on, how long to fast on,

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what are you not supposed to do, what are you supposed to do,

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what are you supposed to say while you're doing it,

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what are you supposed to tie it to, and are you supposed to do it necessarily

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when other people are doing it.

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But those things are not the focus.

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The focus is how you act when you're fasting and what is the outcome of the fast.

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And this is what brings us to week three.

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The outcome.

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The outcome or what Jesus called the reward.

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Yeah.

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It's fascinating to me that he uses that word reward and he specifically says open.

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Open reward.

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And, you know, we were talking about if you want to be strong spiritually,

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start doing spiritually healthy things.

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Thanks.

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Right.

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Well, talk about a reward.

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A strong spirit is a reward.

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Proverbs chapter 18 verse 14.

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I love this verse.

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It says the strong spirit of a person sustains them in bodily pain or trouble,

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but a weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear.

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That's the amplified.

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If when we and everyone faces hard situations, when we find ourselves in a time of trouble,

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specifically trouble in our flesh, we need to have strong spirits to sustain.

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What do we mean by strong spirits?

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I mean, the greater good.

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I mean, the greater one lives on the inside of me.

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That's true.

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And that's true for someone that says yes to Jesus, right?

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Because we don't earn things from God by fasting, but through fasting, we become spiritually dominant.

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We let our, the real us, our spirit man dominate us.

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By turning down the volume of our flesh and our soul.

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So the first reward we can see to fasting is the strong spirit of a person.

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We become strong in ourself and we'll come back to that in just a moment.

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And I'll talk a little bit more about it, but that, that is a reward that we need to have.

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That is a reward that is displayed openly because when you, you recognize strength in times of test.

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That's really good.

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Praise the Lord.

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Wow.

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So when I get my flesh and my soul out of the way, the spirit gets stronger.

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Yeah.

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It's like taking weeds out of a garden, right?

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And letting the thing that you want to grow, grow.

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See parable of the sower.

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That's right.

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Yeah.

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Wow.

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That's so good.

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Also, since we're in Proverbs, I actually wanted to read Proverbs chapter four.

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Proverbs chapter four is exactly the passage I want us to look at because this is, well, go ahead and read it.

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Sure.

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I'm going to start in verse 20 and I'm going to keep going.

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And pastor Matt's going to cut me when he wants to make comments.

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I hope.

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My son, give attention to my words, incline your ear to my sayings.

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Do not let them depart from your eyes and keep them in the midst of your heart for their life to those who find them and health to all their flesh.

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Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life.

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So I just want to, I want to go back to this part in, in verse 20.

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My son, give attention to my words and incline your ear to my sayings.

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Yeah.

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So I've heard it, Todd, that when you incline your ear, you're moving out of the position of comfort closer to where your ear needs to be.

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It's well said.

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To hear something, you know?

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And so fasting is like getting yourself out of the place of default and inclining yourself.

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Look at the verb in that sentence though.

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Give attention.

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So today, right now, if you're listening to this, you're giving some attention to this podcast.

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That's something that you decide to do.

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We can give attention to whatever we want, but Gilbert, you made this comment a couple of weeks ago that we have a finite amount of attention in any given 24 hour period.

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There's only so much focus at some point.

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You just become like, okay, I'm done.

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I can't, I can't focus anymore.

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I'm, I'm finished.

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And if you have spent all of your focus on the wrong thing, then you can't focus on what is necessary.

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We're talking about fasting.

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So let's talk about food.

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If at lunch, instead of enjoying a reasonable portion, you had too much pasta.

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And if you're going to have pasta, then I'm going to have some bread to go with it.

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And this bread is really good.

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So I'm going to have too much bread.

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Say gelato.

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And obviously afterwards you have to balance out.

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Julie loves to say this.

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My wife loves to say, well, if you have something salty, then you have to have something sweet to balance it.

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Sorry, Julie.

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But we'll see if Julie listens to the podcast.

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But, you know, after that, you have too much gelato.

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Do you know what you're going to find is happening to you in the afternoon?

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Sleep.

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They call it a food coma, right?

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I mean, you're just, it's not really funny because it can, for the, you know, people can't actually slip into an actual coma as a result of the food coma.

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They're in an actual coma as a result of their blood sugar being so jacked up.

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But my point in saying that is we have a finite amount of focus.

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What do we want to give our attention to?

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The fasting and the fasted life actually allows us to on purpose say, you know what, I'm not going to give all my focus and energy to digesting two kilos of pasta this afternoon.

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Instead, I'm just not going to eat as much as I want.

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And I'm going to read all of Romans.

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I would take my nap in the afternoon.

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I'll take that, you know, 45 minutes.

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You can read, I mean, if you read really slow, you can get to the eighth chapter of Romans in about 45 minutes.

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But you'd be surprised what you can get done if you just start giving attention and focus to it.

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Yeah.

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And that's really good.

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Guess what that is getting things done. That's part of that reward.

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Yeah, that's really good.

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I want to go back to what we talked about in week one, which is why do we fast?

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We talked about this in bits and pieces, but I do want to pull out some examples and we're going to go back to the subject of reward.

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So we said that.

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So why do we fast?

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We said that, you know, Jesus tells us to fast.

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You know, this is he says when you fast, it's something that is expected of us as a lifestyle.

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And we tend to see a need to fast when we want to strengthen our attention, our focus on God.

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You know, it's not like we need to fast so that God speaks to us.

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That's not what the Bible says.

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You know, the Bible says that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God.

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It doesn't, you know, the Lord will lead us.

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I mean, this is his promise.

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This is his way of operation with us.

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It doesn't change based on what we do.

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Fasting won't make God speak to me.

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But if I take the cinnamon roll out of my ear, I might be able to hear him better.

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We talked about a lot of desserts today.

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It's a dessert day.

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Yeah, it's true.

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Yeah. I mean, the idea is that we are making room to receive what he's trying to say to us.

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And, you know, to stop being so loaded with the assumptions of where I should go, what I should do,

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and how I should live and make no room for correction or change.

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And so I mentioned this, which to me helps me a lot, is that we fast when we recognize a need for a change or growth.

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Or we fast when we need a refocusing.

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So I'm going to read this passage in the story, which I really like in the Old Testament, which is in 2 Chronicles chapter 20.

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And I just I want to point out a couple of things here.

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So it starts in verse one, and I'm going to read a few verses.

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So verse one, it happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon and others with them,

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besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat.

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Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, a great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria.

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And they are in Hazeson, Tamar, Wiches and Geddi.

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Verse three, and Jehoshaphat feared.

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And then he said himself to seek the Lord and proclaim the fast throughout all Judah.

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So at this point, I like that there's a connection between the fast and he set himself to seek the Lord.

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You know, this is obviously the intention that now we're stopping commerce.

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OK, we're stopping messing around.

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We're stopping like hobby stuff right now.

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We're stopping our focus on the day to day life, and we are all setting ourselves to seek the Lord.

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Yeah.

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You know, it's not like the Lord doesn't have a plan already for that nation or for those people.

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He does. But the fact is now we're listening.

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It shouldn't be that when an army comes against you, now you listen.

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That's not the fasted life.

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You know, that is a big events based thing.

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But we should always be ready to hear from the Lord.

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We should always be ready to be sensitive to the Lord.

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But what you see here, and my point is this, that they recognize the need for refocus.

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And so they basically he proclaimed the fast throughout all Judah.

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If you read on in the story, you see that there is an answer from the Lord.

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I don't want to say an answer because that's the wrong implication.

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But when they're seeking him, the Lord speaks to the people and he gives them certain instructions about what to do, how to do it.

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And eventually there is a supernatural victory for those people of God that they because they took the time to listen to him, he was able to get it through to them.

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But what we do see clearly is that they entered the fast expecting a result or expecting something out of it.

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And so the result of the fast was victory.

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The result of the fast was that the Lord directed them to do exactly what he needed them to do to walk in victory or to come out of this victorious.

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And so in many situations and many stories, including Acts chapter 13 verses one through to three, which is our key scriptures, we see that there is a fast and people go in to a situation, fasting and come out with a reward or with the result or with a change.

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And, you know, you've used this word a few times, focus.

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Yeah.

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So in Acts 13, also here in second Chronicles, when it says that they went into the time of fasting, time of fasting, think about in Acts chapter 13, it says, and when they had prayed and fasted, they laid their hands on Paul and Barnabas and set them apart for the work, which God had called them to do.

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Now, wouldn't that be silly if what they fasted was, you know, they had, they'd eaten lunch.

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Then they went to the church building, which is a cut into the side of a mountain there in Antioch.

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Julie and I got to go up there and see that. It's amazing.

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I just stood there and cried.

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You can imagine.

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But, and then they were there for about 45 minutes, had a nice service, very tight, three songs.

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The pastor of the church in Antioch maybe spoke for eight minutes.

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Then they had Paul and Barnabas up there.

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They laid hands on them.

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And then they said, okay, let's finish.

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And then they went to eat.

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They would just exclude the word fasting from that.

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They would have just said, and when they had called them up and prayed, laying their hands on them, they sent them out.

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No, it says that they fasted.

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We can see there and we don't know exactly how long, but there's a period of time where they gave prayer their focus.

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And that's what I want you to take away from this time of studying about fasting.

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Fasting is giving focus to the things of God and taking that focus away from the flesh.

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I'm going to take focus that I normally would give for my own self.

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And I'm going to give it to this spiritual, healthy habit.

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We go back to Proverbs chapter four.

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Give attention.

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Don't let these words go out.

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Incline your ear.

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Move out of the place of comfort.

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Why?

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The end of verse there, he says, for out of your heart flow the issues of life.

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And that one translation says for out of your heart forms the channels like a river.

241
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Your heart forms like a channel that points the direction you're going to go.

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So which direction are you going to go into the place of victory and into all that God has for you or just whatever happens?

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Yeah.

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So you know, this is like the car illustration that you mentioned.

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Like, you know, when we were talking about the series and you had prompted everyone to pick up fasting in the month of January.

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And it's like, OK, you want the car to turn.

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I mean, the first thing you do is turn the wheel.

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You don't get out of the car and start kicking the wheels until they go right.

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You turn the wheel and then the whole thing turns.

250
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And you also don't just keep going the wrong way and say, well, I guess this is just this is my direction.

251
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That's right.

252
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And that's that's kind of what fasting does.

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I mean, fasting is designed to help you change your direction, change your focus.

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Like we keep I keep going back to that.

255
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But that's that's this is literally it.

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You know, we are we are helping ourselves go a different direction by turning the wheel, by by doing something with ourselves, by creating room within ourselves.

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And, you know, there are so many different places in scripture where we see fasting or we see an attitude of fasting.

258
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It's not only like, OK, now there's a fast proclaimed across the nation or across the church.

259
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But there's an attitude of focus required or refocus required.

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And we see that there are rewards on the other side and they include a development of godly character.

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So when we choose to fast in a time of difficulty, you know, we say that, OK, whatever is coming my way, I'm not going to yield to it.

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I'm not going to take the wrong decisions.

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I'm not going to respond based on fear.

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I'm not going to this and I'm not going to that.

265
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You're effectively taking a stand against your own flesh or your own emotions.

266
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And I'm going to I want to read James chapter one verses two through to four.

267
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And he says this.

268
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My brother and counted all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith reduces patience, but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.

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And you you may not see fasting in there, but it's in there because the fact is we talked about this last month, but there is joy in action.

270
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You know, you don't necessarily feel like rejoicing, but by faith, I'm going to rejoice and I'm going to, you know, with with with joy, I'm going to draw out of the wells of salvation and I'm going to receive the promises that God has for me by with true joy, with joy, by joy.

271
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And the fact is, you know, when you rejoice, you are putting the flesh under you are humbling your emotions. You are you are telling yourself. No, you don't have room to worry right now.

272
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You don't have room to think you don't have room to fear.

273
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No, we are rejoicing right now.

274
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And the fact is, when you put that, you know, that action, which is contrary to emotions, contrary to your flesh into action, you start seeing that the testing of your faith produces patience and then patience has a perfect work so that we are perfect and complete lacking nothing.

275
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This develops character in you and it helps you exercise your faith up until the point where you are lacking nothing.

276
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So the reward of rejoicing in the situation is lacking nothing.

277
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It is receiving everything.

278
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It is having everything that you need.

279
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And that can look different in different situations.

280
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The whole point is that there is no specific reward for a specific thing, but there is an outcome of the right decision that you took going into a fast.

281
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:18,440
So that can look like development and godly character that can look like supernatural answers that can look like, you know, a refocus of priorities that can look like a breaking of addictions in your life that have been holding you back from the beginning.

282
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That has been holding you back from taking a step because you've been so afraid to disconnect from little habits and little patterns in your life that pull you away from God.

283
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You know, it can look like it can look like growing in faith.

284
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And this is something we're going to talk about in our Bible illustration.

285
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And there are so many benefits that come from fasting and each and every single one of them is the reward that you will receive.

286
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And not only that, like Pastor Matt said, the Lord rewards us openly.

287
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So that growth and development and the direction that the Lord wants you to go is going to be manifest in your life. It is going to be visible. It is going to allow the Lord to use you in bigger ways, in greater things.

288
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And it's going to allow him to promote you into places that he's always wanted you to be in.

289
00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:26,440
Yeah, that's absolutely true.

290
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:42,440
You know, you mentioned the Bible illustration and in the grow groups this week, I want to look at the the verse of the story of the little boy that was healed.

291
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We see the story in Matthew, Chapter 17.

292
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And it's also in Mark, Chapter nine.

293
00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:59,440
This occurs right after the Mount of Transfiguration.

294
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Jesus, James and John come down from the mountain and they, for the sake of time, I'll just kind of share it.

295
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:16,440
But they're walking down and they see this great crowd of people that are gathered.

296
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:26,440
There's a lot of noise going on and Mark, Chapter nine, Verse 14 says, And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them.

297
00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:38,440
And the scribes were questioning with them and straightway all the people when they beheld him, greatly amazed and running to him and saluted him or said, Hi.

298
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:50,440
And verse 17 says, And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto you my son, which has a dumb spirit.

299
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:58,440
Matthew, actually, Matthew 17 says, My son is a lunatic.

300
00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:11,440
And the King James seems kind of unkind, but says, He says, Sore vexed and oftentimes falls into the fire and into the water.

301
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:32,440
Some other translations of this, we might get the idea that this child suffered from what today we would have called epilepsy or the symptoms of that this child is suffering are similar to what is medically called epilepsy.

302
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:51,440
But the scripture here says that this is the work of a devil. Verse 18 of Mark nine says, And wheresoever he takes him, he tears him and he foams and gnashes with his teeth and pines away.

303
00:27:51,440 --> 00:28:00,440
And I spoke to your disciples that they should cast out this demon and they could not.

304
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:06,440
Verse 19, Jesus answered him and said, Oh, faithless.

305
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:13,440
Notice that word faithless. What does faithless mean? No faith. No faith. Right.

306
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:20,440
Faithless generation. Notice it didn't say, Oh, generation that doesn't fast.

307
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:29,440
Hold that in your mind. Oh, faithless generation. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him to me.

308
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:42,440
And they brought him, the child, and when the child saw him straightway, the spirit tore him and he fell on the ground, wallowed and foaming.

309
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:51,440
So look at the scene here, get what's happening. Jesus, James and John have come down, reunited with the other disciples.

310
00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:55,440
There's a big crowd of people and in the middle of this crowd is a problem.

311
00:28:55,440 --> 00:29:05,440
The problem is a father who has brought the child who has been suffering from these demonic attacks.

312
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:13,440
And it is not just, you know, it's it's endangering the child's life.

313
00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:22,440
The father is wanting to see his child delivered. And as soon as the child sees Jesus, what happens?

314
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:29,440
He begins this attack. This attack is very violent from the description we have from the father.

315
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:36,440
It's sometimes he falls into a fire. Sometimes he falls into a body of water.

316
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:43,440
He is moaning. He's rolling around on the ground. He's gnashing at his teeth.

317
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:52,440
In other words, this is loud. This is very, this is getting a lot of attention.

318
00:29:52,440 --> 00:30:05,440
This is happening right in front of Jesus, right in front of the father, right in front of all the disciples and the crowd of people, right, that are all standing around.

319
00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:14,440
And Jesus asked the father, how long ago since this came unto him?

320
00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:22,440
So so this is happening. This this child is is in is having a seizure, right?

321
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:33,440
He's he's seizing and Jesus reaction is to turn to the father, to the boy's father and say, how long has he been like this?

322
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Do you know what I what I see when I read that is confidence.

323
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:45,440
The complete lack of fear.

324
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:59,440
Notice it doesn't say Jesus suddenly knelt down and began, you know, rendering aid.

325
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:10,440
He's not in a hurry. It is. It's a good lesson to remember that the devil doesn't set our schedule.

326
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:19,440
Yeah, it's good. And when when crisis decides to throw a fit in front of us.

327
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:27,440
We don't have to say, oh, wait, this is now the most important thing.

328
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:33,440
The child's father says he's been like this all of his life.

329
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:39,440
And oftentimes it's cast him into a fire and into waters to try to destroy him.

330
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:48,440
And then the father says, if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.

331
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:56,440
Verse 23, Jesus said, if you can believe all things are possible to him that believes.

332
00:31:56,440 --> 00:32:06,440
Now, verse 19, generation without faith, verse 23, if you can believe.

333
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:09,440
So this isn't we're not talking about God's ability.

334
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:16,440
We're talking about can you believe, believe.

335
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:23,440
All things are possible to him that believes that verse is said by Jesus.

336
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:34,440
Jesus says those words over the noise of that little boy that is having this fit.

337
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:43,440
The father, he says, and straightway, the father of the child cried out and said with tears,

338
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:56,440
I believe, help my unbelief, which is a great, honest and it's an honest statement.

339
00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:59,440
You know, like I believe.

340
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:03,440
And if there's part of me that doesn't believe, help me.

341
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:10,440
And I like that because he's not saying I've got it all figured out.

342
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:15,440
Verse 25, when Jesus saw that the people came running together.

343
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:22,440
Now, he's not willing to let the devil get, you know, have have the headline.

344
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:23,440
Came running together.

345
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:27,440
He rebuked the foul spirit saying in him, you dumb and deaf spirit.

346
00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:33,440
I charge you to come out of him and enter, enter into him no more.

347
00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:43,440
Verse 26, so after Jesus said that the spirit cried and rent him sore.

348
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:45,440
That's what it says in the King James Bible.

349
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:53,440
That sounds violent, loud and like the opposite of what Jesus said.

350
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:54,440
Right.

351
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:55,440
Yeah.

352
00:33:55,440 --> 00:34:00,440
Because what Jesus said was come out and it actually.

353
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:05,440
Verse 26, it looks like it just got worse.

354
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:10,440
And came out of him.

355
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:18,440
And he, the child was as one that was dead in so much that many that are standing around said he is dead.

356
00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:25,440
So this kid falls down, has what we would today consider a seizure.

357
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,440
We would, we would think that he was having a seizure.

358
00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:30,440
But this is the work of a devil.

359
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:33,440
Jesus has the devil out.

360
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:35,440
It looks like it gets worse.

361
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:44,440
And then it appears that the child is dead and everyone around says the child's dead.

362
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:56,440
Verse 27, but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and the child arose.

363
00:34:56,440 --> 00:35:05,440
And when he came into the house, his disciples asked him privately.

364
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:08,440
Malim.

365
00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:10,440
Hey boss.

366
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:14,440
Why could not we cast him out?

367
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:16,440
That tells us a couple of things, right?

368
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:20,440
First, they had had success in the past.

369
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:23,440
We know that from Matthew chapter 10.

370
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:28,440
We know that from Luke chapter nine and 10.

371
00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:33,440
They even came back to Jesus and said, even the devil's listened to what we say.

372
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:34,440
Yeah.

373
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:37,440
So they want to know.

374
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:39,440
Look, you told us we could do this.

375
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We did what you said.

376
00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:41,440
It didn't work.

377
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:45,440
Then you come down and it worked.

378
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:49,440
Why couldn't we cast him out?

379
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:58,440
And verse 29, somehow all this talk about face.

380
00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:10,440
Has been changed to, ah, well, this kind comes forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

381
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:21,440
And somehow people take the takeaway here is you can do everything with faith except for certain kinds of ministry.

382
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:26,440
And in that you have to really earn it from God by prayer and fasting.

383
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:28,440
But that's not biblical.

384
00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:32,440
That's actually totally against the context of the scripture.

385
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:45,440
In fact, Matthew chapter 17 verse 20 in response to the disciples, Jesus said unto them.

386
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:48,440
So in response to the question, why couldn't we cast him out?

387
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:53,440
Because of your unbelief.

388
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:55,440
He's still talking about the same thing.

389
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:59,440
So where does prayer and fasting come in?

390
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:12,440
One way we could read this just to make it to shorten the time in our discussion here on the podcast is this kind of unbelief, because the devil was already gone.

391
00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:17,440
This kind of unbelief comes out by prayer and fasting.

392
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:25,440
What is the reward of fasting?

393
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:30,440
Go back there and stand with Jesus.

394
00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:40,440
Stand just between Jesus and that boy's father.

395
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:42,440
Look at that scene.

396
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:43,440
There's a crowd of people.

397
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:46,440
Everyone's looking, questioning.

398
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:54,440
And this boy is bad and it looks like it's getting worse.

399
00:37:54,440 --> 00:38:03,440
And Jesus is absolutely confident.

400
00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:09,440
He's not letting the crisis drive him.

401
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:12,440
He's in control.

402
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:16,440
What is the reward of fasting?

403
00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:22,440
In the midst of crisis, strength.

404
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:24,440
Yeah, that's pretty good.

405
00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:27,440
Because here's what happened.

406
00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:31,440
This is clearly, it's repeated over and over again.

407
00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:37,440
The father says, this is what happens when this spirit attacks this child, my child.

408
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:39,440
This same thing happens.

409
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:41,440
It's repeated over and over again.

410
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:43,440
Do you know what that tells me?

411
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:48,440
That tells me that when they brought them to, you know, which disciple was it?

412
00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:50,440
Probably Thomas.

413
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:53,440
It was Thomas, doubting Thomas.

414
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:54,440
Poor Thomas.

415
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:56,440
Oh, this is going to hilly after me.

416
00:38:56,440 --> 00:39:04,440
But when they brought them to the disciples, what happened is the same thing that happened when they saw Jesus.

417
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:07,440
When that devil saw Jesus, what happened?

418
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:13,440
The kid starts to have this epileptic seizure.

419
00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:18,440
And the disciples, I don't know what to do.

420
00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:20,440
I'm really sorry.

421
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:22,440
Normally it works.

422
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:23,440
I don't know why it didn't work.

423
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:30,440
If you just stand around here, the boss will be coming back and we can ask him.

424
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:37,440
So what happens when we have a time of prayer and fasting?

425
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:45,440
Our soul and our flesh get quiet and we become spiritually dominant.

426
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:55,440
Our spirit dominates us so that when things look like it got worse after we prayed, we're not moved.

427
00:39:55,440 --> 00:40:07,440
And when everyone says it's over, it's dead, we just reach down and pick him up and say, come on.

428
00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:09,440
What is the reward of fasting?

429
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:15,440
It's 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 10.

430
00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:21,440
It says, the God of all grace.

431
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:23,440
That's what we started talking about, right?

432
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:28,440
We don't earn things from God with our works.

433
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:39,440
We receive by faith all that he's given to us by his grace.

434
00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:48,440
The God of all grace who has called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus.

435
00:40:48,440 --> 00:41:06,440
After that you have suffered a while, make you whole, established, strengthen and settle you.

436
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:09,440
What is the reward of fasting?

437
00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:17,440
To be whole, established, strong and settled.

438
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:28,440
So when it looks like things are getting worse, I just declare, nope, because I know.

439
00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:33,440
I know him and I'm not moved by what I see.

440
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:44,440
And I've already told my soul to be quiet and my body is already used to me telling it to hush.

441
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:48,440
So this little thing, it's nothing for me.

442
00:41:48,440 --> 00:41:51,440
It doesn't move me.

443
00:41:51,440 --> 00:42:09,440
My prayer and my heart for the Go Church family is that we all together emerge into this place where the natural realm is our servant.

444
00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:23,440
Because we recognize that we have been seated with him in heavenly places and we act like what he says is true about us.

445
00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:31,440
And as we respond to situations, we have come through that time of fasting and prayer.

446
00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:36,440
And that kind of unbelief has gone forth from us.

447
00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:45,440
And now the thing that is left is strong, is settled, is established.

448
00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:50,440
And we're not moved by circumstances.

449
00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:54,440
That is the reward for fasting.

450
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:55,440
That's so powerful.

451
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:59,440
It makes me want to look forward to, it makes me look forward to...

452
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:08,440
...pasting....pasting. To putting this into practice and allowing my spirit to be strengthened.

453
00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:14,440
Well, there's a scripture in Isaiah 64-7.

454
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:20,440
I love this verse and we probably won't get to this in the grow groups.

455
00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:33,440
But Isaiah 64 says, there is none that calls on the name, on your name, and stirs up themselves to take hold of you.

456
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:48,440
Isaiah in this passage is lamenting that in their nation, there's no one that stirs up themselves to take hold of the Lord.

457
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:52,440
But that's not true in Beirut.

458
00:43:52,440 --> 00:44:15,440
And my challenge and prayer that we would not get so focused on the natural, but that we would stir up ourselves to set the natural aside and press in to Him for our nation.

459
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:18,440
I say our because I live here too.

460
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:19,440
Yeah.

461
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:30,440
That we would press in to Him for all that He has for Lebanon for these days.

462
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:37,440
It should be, because we are here, it should be exactly the same thing that's said in Joshua 24.

463
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:43,440
It should be said about here, about Beirut, Lebanon, about the whole nation of Lebanon.

464
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:46,440
There failed not one promise.

465
00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:47,440
Yeah.

466
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:49,440
There failed not one promise.

467
00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:50,440
Why?

468
00:44:50,440 --> 00:45:01,440
Because there are people here who will stir themselves up and take hold of the perfect will of God for this nation.

469
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:30,440
So my challenge to all of us is come out of January, the Fasted Life series with a fasted life and make a practice of telling yourself no and reaching into that eternal realm and taking hold of the perfect plan and will of God for all of us.

470
00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:36,440
So that Go Church emerges to the place God would have.

471
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:37,440
Yeah.

472
00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:39,440
That's good.

473
00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:44,440
With that, I'm going to close our time here.

474
00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:47,440
We look forward to being with you in our next series.

475
00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:51,440
And we look forward, of course, to the Grow Group discussions.

476
00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:53,440
And I want you to be active.

477
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:55,440
But don't let this be a subject.

478
00:45:55,440 --> 00:45:58,440
Let this be a mark.

479
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:03,440
That stirs you up to press into him.

480
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:05,440
We love you.

481
00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:07,440
And we're praying for you.

482
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:10,440
God bless you.

483
00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:13,440
Thank you for listening to this message.

484
00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:20,440
We want everyone to experience the unconditional love of God, grow in his love and go with his love to the rest of their world.

485
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:24,440
We invite you to connect with us at one of our groups for our next gathering.

486
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:29,440
And if no one told you yet today, we love you and believe God's very best for you.