Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. We do have a family room that's
right across the square. If you got a little
one who is getting rambunctious, who's getting
noisy, who's just tired of hearing me preach,
all right, that space is over there for you.
We do live stream over there for that very reason,
because we know that you don't want to miss part
of the service. So that's over there for you
to utilize. Please do at any point in time along
the way. But it is good to be in God's house
and it is good to worship with you. Heard you
singing back there this morning, worshiping,
praising his name. That's what we come together.
We come together to lift up the name of Christ
and to worship him every single time and chance
that we get. But I am excited to preach this
morning. And I got to tell you this, I have long
been fascinated with how things work. how something
functions, how it goes together, how it comes
apart, what's on the inside that makes it work
on the outside. I've always had this curiosity
of what makes something tick. And sometimes that's
a mechanical thing. It could be all kinds of
things. It could be a structural thing. It could
even be in relationships. And even since my early
childhood, I've had this kind of fascination
with those kind of things and been curious enough
to just dig around and look inside and take something
apart to find out how it functions. Now, I cannot
confirm this, but my mom, whom I trust, told
me that when I was about four years old, I was
left alone in a bedroom for a period of time
and completely dismantled an alarm clock. while
I was in there. Don't know how that worked. And
by the way, I'm not a prodigy. I did not put
it back together. I only took it apart. But I
do like to know how things work. How it works
is important. Whether it's an item, a thing,
an inanimate object of some kind, whether it's
a system, whether it's a relationship that we're
maybe in at the time, we want to know how it
works and what the dynamics are. But I think
even the bigger question when it comes to how,
the bigger question is why something works. The
greater question to ask is why something is there.
Why does something exist? As important as how
is, why? Why is even more important because why
defines the purpose of whatever it is we're talking
about. Whatever you're investigating, it is the
why that gives you the purpose. The why of anything
will actually answer the how. It will actually
answer the who, the what, the when, the where,
and even the how it works if you answer the why.
Knowing the why even extends beyond the who,
what, where, when, and how, and it will change
your motivation. If you understand the why, it'll
cause you to engage in something or to withdraw
from something. If you know the why, it'll change
your attitude towards something. If you know
the why, it'll shift the level of resources,
whether that's money, time, or energy that you
put into something just by knowing why. Why is
powerful. It's one of the most powerful questions
you'll ever ask is why. And if we don't understand,
how many of your children do that all the time?
Why, right? They hit that stage, they ask 5 ,500,
some of them are like, yeah, 500 times, you know,
why? And if we don't understand the why, we just
won't engage. If you don't understand why it's
important to eat properly, you will not eat properly,
right? If you don't understand why you should
read God's word daily, you know, we talk about
that here in scripture. We talk about getting
into God's word daily. We talk about giving you
tools to do that all along the way. But if you
don't understand the power of it, why it is so
powerful to get in God's word, you may or may
not engage in that. You will not engage in worship
or giving or praising necessarily if you don't
understand why you're doing it. So this message
today, I want to answer a why in a particular
area of a Christian walk. And I want to answer
the question, why in the world should I fast?
All right, say fast. Why in the world should
I fast? Seriously. Why in the world would I skip
a meal or multiple meals, right, for spiritual
reasons? It's a legitimate question. especially
if you happen to love food like I do. You need
to know the why. Anybody with me? Come on. All
right, it's a serious thing to skip a meal, right?
Sure, I'll fast for other things, right? We know
to fast before we go into surgery for something,
and we understand the repercussions of that can
be severe. If you get under anesthesia and you've
eaten a bunch of food and your body reacts and
you're out cold, you can throw up while that's
taking place and during the surgery, and you
can aspirate that back into your lungs, and it
can be all kinds of things. But we understand
that, but I don't understand sometimes for spiritual
reasons. A lot of people don't understand. spiritual
reasons why I should give up pizza, why I should
give up steak, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls,
anybody ready for lunch? Come on, right? What
are the repercussions there spiritually? What
spiritual benefit possibly could be gained by
starving myself from the next meal? I know that
was a little dramatic, right? Missing out on
a daily dose of chocolate. Right? Skipping the
bagel that has this cream cheese and the butter
all over it, lightly toasted to a golden brown,
I might add. All right? Can skipping all this
actually produce spiritual value in my life?
And why should I do that? So my goal this morning
is to give you some good explanation of why in
the world we should gain into fast. So if you've
got your Bibles, you can turn to 1 Samuel 7,
verse 5. I am going to jump around through God's
Word today, so you'll be flipping fast. Or if
you're taking notes, you can get ready to write
that down and check it out later. And of course,
it'll be up on the screens as always. But as
you're turning, I really want to give you two
things. The timing of this message is important.
I'm bringing this message to you now. Because
we're going to do something here at LifeHouse.
We're going to call a week of fasting for the
whole church. And I don't know if you've ever
been part of a church that does that, but we
want to take a week and we want to set aside
seven days where we're saying, hey, as a church,
we're going to fast together. March 22nd through
March 29th, coming up here soon, leading up to
Palm Sunday, we're calling and declaring that
a week of fasting. As we approach Easter, as
we approach Holy Week, we really want to talk
about what it means to fast, to pray and set
aside food. set aside distractions so that we
can get with God. And then secondly, I want to
pray over the word this morning so that your
ears will hear what's being said. Father, we
thank you for this day. I thank you for each
person, God, that came this morning, lifting
up your name. And Lord, we ask that you would
guide us, direct us. God, help us to see the
why of fasting. Help us to engage. Help us, Lord,
to make a commitment, Lord, that we'll walk this
out as a spiritual discipline in our lives. And
God, that we'll see the benefit of why we should
fast. We ask this in Jesus' name, and everybody
say it together. Amen. Amen. Number one, I'm
going to give you number one. Why in the world
should I fast? And the answer to that is to repent.
To repent. One of the invaluable benefits of
fasting is that it always seems to lead to a
heart of repentance. Always. Somehow pushing
away food. You know, pushing away from the table,
pushing away from the snacks, pushing away from
whatever, denying myself, humbling myself enough
to push away from all that and not eat leads
to a couple things. It leads to confession and
then repentance in my life. It really does. It's
one of the reasons it's so important because
repentance is one of the steps, biblical steps,
I believe one of the pieces within the Bible
for healing in your life. One of the steps to
getting to healing in your life, and I believe
that spiritually, that can be mentally, it could
be emotionally, and even somewhat physically,
is repentance in our life. And repentance should
always follow confession. Confession is what
I speak out. Repentance is more about what I
do. If I confess some kind of sin, right, there's
pride in my life. I got envy in my life. I got
jealousy. I got lust going on. You know, whatever.
I got thievery in my heart of some kind, you
know, and some reason I'm in rebellion to God
in his commands, in his righteousness. I should
immediately confess. Confessing is saying it
out loud, right? If you make a confession, like,
you got to name it. You can't, God can't heal
what you won't name. So if you've got a sin in
your life, you confess it. But then after that
step of confession is repentance. Repentance
is different than confession. And I'm going to
give you a couple of scriptures to bear that
out a little bit. First Samuel 7, 5 says this.
Then Samuel said, gather all Israel to Mizpah
and I will pray to the Lord for you. So they
gathered together at Mizpah, drew water. poured
it out before the Lord, and they fasted that
day and said there, we have sinned against the
Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel
at Mizpah. So you can see at this point in time,
Israel is sinning against God. Samuel calls them
out on it. They come together, they fast for
a day, they pour water out before the Lord, and
they begin to confess their sin to God. The nation
of Israel does. Now let's jump to Joel 2 .12.
It says, Now therefore, says the Lord, turn to
me. Say turn to me. Turn to me. With all your
heart, with fasting and with weeping and with
mourning, so rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness,
and he relents from doing harm. These two scriptures.
Highlight what I'm talking about. One is confession
to God. You're speaking out what it is. And the
other is repentance. It's repenting. It is turning.
Turning away from whatever you're engaged in
and turning to God. Repentance really virtually
means I was walking this way. I was heading in
this path. I was going down this direction of
sin. And I stopped. I changed my mind. And I
go back the other way. It's really unfolded in
these scriptures. Repenting is this. It's a fundamental
change of mind, of heart, and direction involving
a sincere turning away from sin and turning towards
God. It goes beyond regret or godly sorrow. That
kind of all takes place. Regret and godly sorrow
are kind of all part of that process of leading
up to confession. But repentance is a visible
change in actions and in fruits. It's behavior
that aligns with the will of God. It really is.
Repentance is just exactly what I said. I was
going this way, now I go that. And there is something
about pushing away from the table, fasting, that
causes me to pull up close to God, and it begins
to expose in my life this sin. You know, there's
something about when you push away from the table
and you focus on the Lord and you spend that
time that you slide into the light and it starts
to expose the flaws. It really does. When I was
younger, really young, I was a young teenager,
and I got this curiosity. again, about how things
work. And I worked for a guy for an entire summer
to learn how to paint cars. My dad knew this
guy. He painted cars on the side. And I wanted
to learn how to paint cars. So I went and worked
for an entire summer for free just so he would
instruct me and teach me. And one of the things
that he did, you know, when he got a car and
there was a scratch or there was a dent or there
was a hole that was rusted out, we would patch
that thing. And if it was a hole, you'd get metal
and put on it. And then they used this stuff
called putty. And it's either a fiberglass resin
that you put over it. and then this softer putty
that you put over, and you put that on, and you
form it. You sand it smooth and straight so that
when you spray the car with paint, it looks exactly
like it did from original. And one of the ways
he would check your work, one of the ways that
you learn is you would sand it, right? You'd
get the putty, and you'd put on, you'd sand it
down, and you'd put primer on it. You'd spray
primer on, and they do this process called wet
sanding. You take water and really fine grit
sandpaper. It could be 800 grit, 1 ,000 grit.
And you take it, or 600 grit, and you begin to
sand it. And you're kind of squeezing water on.
And at the same time, you put a light right over
it. And as you sand and that water flows over
and the light shines on it, you see every imperfection.
If there's a divot in the putty, if it's wavy
because you didn't sand it straight, if there's
some flaw there, it all comes to light. It actually
enhances it with the water and the light that
shines on. And that's exactly what happens when
you begin to fast. When you begin to fast, the
light of God begins to shine in your life. And
all of a sudden, those little flaws that were
under the surface begin to come to the top, right?
All of a sudden, those things begin to get exposed
in our life. And the water of the Spirit begins
to wash over, and the light of God begins to
shine on it. And all of a sudden, you see, ah,
man, there's a dent there, right? There's a dent
of pride in my life. There's this thing. And
you might think, well, this sounds terrible.
Why would I ever want to see the flaws in my
life? Why would I ever want to see all the things
that aren't lining up with God? It's not terrible.
It is absolutely beautiful. Because in Jesus,
in the relationship with God, when you're in
communion with God, in your relationship with
God, all that thing that comes to the surface
and all that light that exposes those things,
it's not to condemn you. It's not to place you
in judgment. It's so God can remove it from your
life. It's to raise you up. Because how many
know if you leave rust under the surface, what
happens? I don't know if you've ever seen something
that's painted, and it starts to begin underneath.
It doesn't take long until you start to scratch
it off, and there's holes, and there's decay,
right? And things begin to fall apart. And the
beautiful process is when you start fasting,
you start sliding up. God starts shining a light.
The Holy Spirit begins to pour water on you.
Things start to come to the surface. You start
to see the flaws, and you start to confess, and
you start to repent. And all of a sudden, God
washes you clean and takes you to another place
in him. It's amazing. Repentance. Repentance.
Say number two. Why in the world should I fast?
To overcome evil and temptation. At the very
beginning of Jesus' public ministry, at about
age 30, Jesus goes into the wilderness. The Word
of God says that the Holy Spirit drives him into
the wilderness, and he spends an extended amount
of time. praying and fasting, 40 days. And we
read in scripture that as he's there, he begins
to be tempted by the devil. And if you look at
this, and we're going to read it in just a moment,
if you look at this whole scene with Jesus and
the devil tempting him, it begins to help you
understand how to overcome evil, how to overcome
the enemy, right? Sometimes as a pastor, I need
to remind you, you have an enemy. His name is
Satan. And he has demonic force that goes out
across this world. Millions of demonic forces
going out across the world. And there's evil
in the world. Anybody look at the newspaper lately,
right? Anybody look at the news lately? You wanna
find some evil, just take a look at the news.
Just pull it up on your phone. Just begin it.
Anybody read a newspaper anymore? I don't know
if anybody reads a newspaper, right? But you're
gonna see it somewhere on a screen. And we've
got an enemy who is out to get us. He is against
God. He's always been against God. And he is
out to get you because you are made in the image
of God. He's after you. And evil is dispersed
on the earth. And we've got an enemy. We have
to know how to overcome the enemy. We've got
to know how to be empowered to do this. We need
to know that it's the word of God, right? That's
why we got Bible recap. That's why we keep talking
about getting engaged in that. It's the word
of God plus the spirit of God. And if you couple
that along with fasting, I'm telling you, you
can overcome the enemy. You can overcome evil.
We do not overcome Satan and legions and legions
of enemies and the presence of evil just in our
own way. See, fasting helps you get out of your
own way and get into God's way. It really does.
A lot of times when I've engaged in fasting,
it gets me out of the way and I start to get
engaged in God's way. That's what fasting will
do for you. And in this portion of scripture,
you're going to see what I'm talking about. Matthew
4, 1 says this, then Jesus was led up by the
spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the
devil. By the way, if Jesus was tempted, how
many know we're going to be tempted by the devil?
Amen. Come on, he was the son of God. And when
he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, afterward
he was hungry. And now when the tempter came
to him, he said, if you are the son of God, command
these stones to become bread. He hasn't eaten
in 40 days. But he, Jesus, answered and said,
it is written, man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds out from the
mouth of God. Then the devil took him up into
a holy city, set him on a pinnacle of a temple,
and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw
yourself down, for it's written, he shall give
charge over his angels, his angels charge over
you, and in their hands they shall bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against the stone. Jesus
said to him, it is written again, you shall not
tempt the Lord your God. Again, the devil took
him up into exceedingly high mountain, showed
him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And he said to him, all these things I will give
to you if you will fall down and worship me.
And what Jesus said to him, then Jesus said to
him, away with you, Satan. For it is written,
you shall worship the Lord your God and him alone
shall you serve. Then the devil left him and
behold, angels came and ministered to him. Jesus
fasts 40 days, 40 nights. And the devil takes
his best shot at Jesus. He comes with three different
types of temptation to Jesus. And I can tell
you, you can learn one thing just looking at
this. The devil will always come to you when
you're weak. If you've not eaten for 40 days,
how many know you're weak, right? Your body is
depleted. Jesus' body was depleted. Satan will
come to you when you're weak. When you're tired,
when you're hungry, when you're frustrated, when
you're stressed out, the enemy knows you're in
a weak spot. That's when the enemy begins to
slide in. You've got to be aware of that. And
that's exactly what happens here. The enemy comes
in. Jesus hasn't eaten. The enemy knows that.
He comes in. And he comes with three primary
approaches, right? Lust of the eyes, lust of
the flesh, and pride of life. And I don't got
time to unfold all that. Lust of the eyes. The
eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
Those three different ways the enemy is going
to come in. And because Jesus fasted and because
Jesus drew near to the Father, he saw right through
Satan's tactics. He saw the enemy, right? Fasting
will enhance your spiritual vision. You will
be able to see. You will help you identify when
the enemy is sneaking up on you. When he's sliding
around in the dark, when you're at a weak spot,
it'll help you see what's taking place. It kind
of gives you night vision. It really does. You'll
see the enemy coming in the darkness when you
normally wouldn't see him. You'll recognize his
tactics. You'll get a spiritual radar about you,
and you will begin to see what's happening around
you. The way you overcome the enemy, any enemy
that you have, is to know their tactics. To know
their approach. How is the enemy going to come
in and attack you? When is he going to attack
you? Where is he going to attack you? All those
things, when you fast, all that heightens. All
that awareness becomes higher. There's a spiritual
radar that begins to take place. And Jesus was
there. He was fasting for 40 days. He saw the
devil coming a mile away. He knew exactly what
the tactics were going to be. He knew that this
was how he was going to come in and try to tempt.
And while he was weak, he was going to try to
get Jesus to lose it, right? Just fall off the
wagon and completely sin against God the Father.
Jesus saw it. Fasting will give you night vision.
And Jesus hammered Satan with something as soon
as he saw what he was doing, right? He hammered
him with the word of God. As soon as Satan came
at him, Jesus didn't get into an argument. He
didn't give how he felt about the whole thing.
He didn't discuss any of that. He comes back
to him with the word of God. The word of God,
coupled with fasting, is your ammunition. Say
ammunition. Come on. You've got to have ammunition.
You want to get locked and loaded as a Christian?
You want to get ready to fire on the enemy? We
don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle
against principalities and powers and forces
of evil. The word of God tells us that. You want
to get locked and loaded and ready to go against
the enemy? You start fasting. You start getting
in God's word. You start praying, right? So we
fast so we see in the dark clearly. We fast so
we see the enemy when he sneaks up. We get locked
and loaded. Say locked and loaded. Turn to your
neighbor and tell him, get locked and loaded.
Come on. Locked and loaded this morning. You
want to get locked in. You need to be ready when
the enemy sets you up. You need to understand
how the enemy is going to try to take you down
and have you fall. Because he will. You have
to have this kind of radar. You have to engage
in this. Because the enemy is going to try to
take out you. He's going to try to take out your
children. He's going to try to take out your
relatives. He's going to try to take out your
friends. He's going to try to take those close
to you. And you need that spiritual radar just
going around. I know what he's doing. I know
how he's coming in. I know how I'm going to fight.
Amen? Say number three. Number three. Why in
the world should I fast? For godly direction.
Godly direction. Acts 13 says this now in the
church. That was at Antioch. There were certain
prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who
was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manian, who
had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch,
and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and
fasted, ministered to the Lord and fasted, the
Holy Spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas
and Saul for the work to which I have called
them. Then having prayed and fasted, laid hands
on them and sent them away. The Holy Spirit is
given to us as a work in every believer to guide
us, to give us wisdom, to help us in decisions
that we need to make. He is the teacher, the
guide, the counselor. I've preached this over
and over here at LifeHouse. And the Father sent
this. Jesus first, and then when Jesus left,
the Holy Spirit second, so that we would have
this guide. And he will nudge you and shove you
the right direction. He will give you the bump
the right way. He will shove you the right way.
He'll give you the commands. He'll give you the
conviction to go forward with what God wants.
And fasting does something in particular with
all this. It positions us to hear God. Fasting
positions us to hear the Holy Spirit. I can hear
you better, and you can hear me better if we
get in the right environment. If we're in the
right place in the right space, I can hear you
well, and vice versa. If we go to a coffee shop,
and we go into a corner booth, and we're just
back there in this little booth, and we can talk
with one another, right? But there's other environments
you can't hear so well. My wife, Dixie, when
her relatives come to our house for a family
gathering, and it's a holiday, They have this
strange thing. They all like to sit at the same
table, no matter how big the table is, right?
It could be this big. They'll all, 50 of them
will sit around this table. You know, they'll
all sit around the table and they all talk at
once. There's 15 conversations going. And it's
across the table, sometimes to the end of the
table. And it's all going across, firing back
and forth. And when they come and they do that,
do you know how much of that I catch? Nah, maybe
10%. Maybe. It's just this mess all the time.
And it's just the noise of crescendos until they
leave, and then it goes back down. And it's just
the whole time they're there. But I've sat with
all those family members in a room one -on -one.
I've had conversation with each one of them,
sitting across looking eye -to -eye, and I catch
everything that they're saying. I hear their
heart. Why in the world do you fast? You fast
so you get yourself in an environment where you're
going to hear God and you're going to hear him
clearly. You get yourself out of the noise. You
get yourself out of the fray, right? It's kind
of almost like getting in a coffee shop with
the Holy Spirit. It's just you and the Holy Spirit
in this coffee shop. There might be some background
noise, but you're just looking across the table
and it's just you and him talking together and
listening together, right? And clearly communication
and dialogue taking place. We need that. We need
to fast. We need to set ourselves aside. We should
teach our children to do this. And you might
say, well, I don't want my children skipping
a meal. I'll let that up to you. And if you've
got medical reasons not to skip a meal, we're
going to give you information about that and
how to do this. There's another way. But we should
teach our kids to push away from some kind of
distraction, right? Get them off the iPad for
30 minutes. Come on, 15 minutes, right? Get them
off for 15 minutes and teach them to kind of
coffee shop with God. Get alone and hear God.
Push away from something so that you can connect
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And you need to do
this. Parents, you need to listen to me. I parented.
My children are grown. I now have five grandchildren.
I got at least a little bit of experience in
this area. And I worked probably over a decade.
It was actually over a decade as a youth pastor.
Hear me in this. The greatest skill you will
teach your child is to hear God. The greatest
spiritual gift you will ever give them is to
teach them how to hear the Holy Spirit. Because
while they're little, you have a wild amount
of influence over them. You can corral them whatever
direction you want them to go in. You can tell
them no. And for the most part, they'll listen,
right? But you can keep herding in the right
direction. But I'm telling you, when they turn
teenagers, when they come into those teenage
years, your influence begins to go from here
to here. You cannot believe that. You can't believe
that if you want to, but I'm telling you the
truth. And all the other voices are going to
start to come into their ears in the world around.
They're going to start to filter and figure out
where they're going and what they're going to
become in life. And at that moment in time, you
want the Holy Spirit speaking because your influence
is going down. You want his to go up in their
lives. Get them in. Get them in circles where
they're hearing the word of God. Get them in
influences where they hear the word of God. Get
them to church. Get them to youth group. Get
them to children's, right? And don't ask them,
tell them. I know some of you might email me
after this. Just go ahead. I'm going to ignore
it anyway. Because I've been there, done that.
Right? What did somebody say? My parents used
to drug me to get me to church. They drug me
to church on Sunday. They drug me to church on
Wednesday. Just take them. Don't ask. You got
to get them around godly influence. Because there's
going to be a time in your life when your voice
is going to start to diminish and other voices
are going to rise. And they need to hear the
Holy Spirit. By that point in time, they need
to know how to coffee shop with the Holy Spirit.
My parents, I remember, man, when I was 16, I
didn't care what my parents said. Come on. Amen.
Yeah, you act like I'm the only one. Come on.
Right? Like, what can I do to avoid my parents?
They better be hearing from the Holy Spirit.
I remember the Holy Spirit's conviction at 16,
17, 18, 19, 20, hearing his voice. Amen? It's
true. Come on. Coffee shop. Coffee shop with
him. Number four, as the worship team comes,
worship team, if you'd come. Why in the world
should I fast? So I make a difference in the
world around me. I want to have spiritual impact
with a lost world that surrounds me. I want Jesus
to help me make that happen for him. I want the
power of God active in my life. So that I have
some kind of impact in the world. So it's one
day when I stand before the King of Kings and
the Lord of Lords, I have something to lay before
him. I have something to lay at his feet. My
heart's desire, I hope it is yours as well, is
to one day walk in the kingdom of God and hear,
well done, good and faithful servant. Enter in
to the joy of the Lord. I want to hear those
words. And I want to have something to give God.
If you look at Isaiah chapter 58, verse six,
it says this, is this not the fast that I have
chosen for you? This is God speaking, right?
To lose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the
heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and
that you break every yoke. Is it not to share
your bread with the hungry and to bring to your
house the poor who are cast out when you see
the naked, that you cover them and hide not yourself
from your own flesh? Then your light shall break
forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring
forth speedily and your righteousness shall go
before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your
rear guard. Then you shall call and the Lord
will answer. You shall cry and he will say, here
am I. God's looking for fasting that is not just
a spiritual heap it on myself kind of thing,
right? I just need some stuff for me. It's so
God can break us. for break our hearts for someone
else so that we can be effective ambassadors
for Jesus Christ. So we wake up every day thinking,
how can I help the next person undo a heavy burden
in the name of Jesus? How can I help somebody
break the yoke of the enemy in their lives? Somebody
who is bound and caught up either in their mind,
in their heart, in their physical body in some
way. How do I help break that in their lives,
right? If you take a look at that verse, you'll
notice a bunch of times it says, you will do
this. God empowers you, but you're going to break
the chains. You're going to lift the burdens
in his name. You're going to feed the hungry
and clothe the naked. And you can be physically
hungry and you can be physically naked or you
can be spiritually bankrupt, right? You can be
spiritually naked and starving in a spiritual
way. It says, God, then the light will break
forth like the morning. It'll break forth like
the morning. We fast. So that we have power over
the enemy. We fast so we can make a difference
in the world around us. And as we draw near to
God. As we come into the light and the water
of the Spirit washes over us and we get hearts
of repentance before God, as we step into that
and as temptation begins to flee, as we overcome
the darkness and the enemy's tactics are no longer
now hidden under the surface and we begin to
see, right? When all those things begin to take
place, we start to become a powerful weapon against
the enemy in the hands of God to make a difference
in the world around us. And I'm giving you just
a couple reasons for fasting. There's more. And
God's where I'm asking you to stand. Thank you
for tuning in to this message from Lifehouse
Church. We pray that you were impacted powerfully
by this message. If you have been personally
affected by our ministry and you would like to
partner with us as we love God, love people every
day, visit our website at