Why Fast?

time we're going to go ahead and dismiss our kids to little District um as they are heading out if you will look around you you will see these little um 4x5 whatever size they are prayer cards um what I would love for you to do is throughout the sermon throughout the message throughout our time together this morning um that you would fill it out all right so right I don't care if you've been a member here for several years or if this is your first Sunday we would love for you to fill this out put your name on there put your information on there and

put a prayer request because we pray for these we we take these cards each week and we pray over them um because again we believe in the ministry of the word and we also believe in the ministry of prayer and we want to um intercede on your behalf we want to go to the Lord for you as well um and just accompany what you're dealing with in your life what you're walking through whatever it looks like we want to bring that to the Lord um in prayer and so uh take the time to kind of fill that out even if as we're walking through the

sermon maybe that even prompt something for you as well and you're like yeah I need prayer in regards to that specifically um just again take your time fill it out at the end of the service you'll just drop them off uh back at the black table um next to the soundboard um in the back of the room all right introducing topic for today we are kicking off a new series uh beginning today we just closed out our grow to go series um where we are specifically uh asking kind of of the Lord but also asking of our people we want to see 25 people Faithfully

share the gospel so that we see 25 baptisms by the end of this year that's what we're praying for as a church that's our goal as a church and everything we do is going to be towards that end because again that's why we exist as a church is to see lost get saved like that's what Jesus is continuing to do that's why Jesus has not returned yet is because there are still lost people to be saved that is his purpose and his goal is to help restore people back into relationship with him because in their sin they are separated from him and we want to

bring the good news of the Gospel to them and so Gro too is all about what our individual callings and purposes are as people as Christians as members of the church in order to take the gospel don't let it end with you but to take the gospel Beyond you in order to bring it into um the relationships that you're involved in and so that was kind of our big question was what might it look like if you were to take risks in your relationships to bring Christ into them and so Groo was was very much about that but at the same time we didn't want

a vision to just be about the district church when you look at the scriptures the the the vision for the disciples wasn't just for the 12 disciples so when Jesus is taking them on the Mountain at the end of Matthew and he's saying look like basically look out over everything he's saying Hey I want you to go and make disciples what I've just done for you for three years I want you to go and do the same thing in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth Luke gives a different perspective of it in Acts 18 when he says um Jesus

told them I want you to be Witness is I want you to go and take the gospel what you've seen what you've heard what you've experienced if Jesus has done anything good in your life I want you to take that and I want you to be a witness of it I want you to share it with other people so that they can become Witnesses and experience the same Grace and the same Mercy that God has bestowed to us and so grow too was all about that so that the mission of the district Church is not just to see 25 baptisms here in Indianapolis by the

end of 2025 but to also begin seeing the gospel spread out Beyond Indianapolis to the rest of our country as well as a long-term goal of over the next 30 to 40 years for the district to be able to say an unreached people group was reached because today we got serious about our discipleship we got serious about our calling that God has for our lives for each one of us individually because the reality is is that we will not grow if you do not grow we will not spread the gospel as a church if you do not spread the gospel as an individual and so

sometimes what we like to think is whenever God moves then I'll move and that sounds biblical that sounds principled but what we have seen throughout that series is that God calls us to step into the water as he did the leaders in um with the the people of Joshua as they were about to head into the promised land they have to cross the Jordan River God can part the waters all he wants but the first thing he asked them to do was step in faith into the waters that were raging and then he stopped the flow of the waters the same thing with the woman

the Widow in second K kings 4 God can provide all of her needs just like that but instead requests of her I want you to go out to your neighbors and I want you to borrow jars in order to bring in not too few go get as many as you want bring them in and then start pouring the one jar of oil that you do have and the jar of oil did not stop flowing until she got to the last jar that she borrowed again if she did not take the step of faith and go out and borrow jars God would not have filled all

of them the same thing is with us as a church we're praying believing God that he's going to save 25 people this year and we're already two in to that 25 that we've baptized between January and February we're believing God to finish it out and baptize them but guess what it is not going to happen if we as a church don't take seriously our discipleship Our Calling to take the gospel into our relationships take the gospel into our neighborhoods take the gospel into our workplaces and take that step of faith we know it's scary we know that can be terrifying and can be nerve-wracking at

times and that's why again we said last week as we were closing out grow to go before you get to Joshua 3 and them stepping into the Raging Waters of the Jordan River in order for God depart it before they got there he gave them Joshua 1 19 which was do not be scared do not be discouraged be strong and courageous for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go and so when you're walking into your co-work or into your work space when you're walking into your neighborhood when you're walking into the relationships of the people you already know who don't know Jesus

and you're a bit nervous he tells you be strong and courageous because I'm with you when you open your mouth and you start speaking good news to them and you start telling them what Jesus has done for you when you start asking them questions about what their church history has been like what their Church experience has been like when you start asking them do they know Jesus what do they think about Jesus what's been their kind of view of him do they just think he was a good teacher 2,000 years ago do they know why he died on the cross they may know he died

on the cross but do they know why he died on the cross when you start asking those questions the Lord is there with you and is working in their heart in their mind to help them understand that as we're sharing this good news they need the good news because there's also bad news that they're separated from him that they're sinful that they need their sins forgiven and only Jesus can do that and so that's what we were talking about and as we are um shifting gears from talking about growth in order to go to be able to take the gospel to an unreached people group

we need to take that mission and that um that action that responsibility that we have as a church we need need to also bring it and place it before the feet of the Lord because we know at the end of the day our efforts without his presence means nothing so even though we spent seven weeks talking about how all of this is the responsibility of the church at the same time we can exhaust all of our efforts trying to reach as many people as possible but if the Lord is not turning the faucet on if the Lord is not intervening in their hearts and in

their minds as we are proclaiming the gospel if he is not providing his transforming presence when we preach the gospel then it's all in vain we need God answering when we step in and so because of that that's why I believe one of the things one of the disciplines that God gave the first church is the discipline of fasting and to be honest with you I think fasting is probably one of the spiritual disciplines that is um most underrated and underutilized in the current day and age of Christianity the church I just believe that I think again we focus so much on the ministry of

the word and prayer and absolutely we do that like we this is God communicating to us like that's what the Bible is it is the that's why when you look at the early church the ministry of the word and prayer were Central because it is how God communicates to us and it is how we communicate to God and that's why as a church we preach expositionally we preach through books of the Bible because we want to know what God has taught us when you look at Joshua in Joshua 3 right as they're about to cross the Jordan River what does he say to the people

as God is installing him as their new leader he tells all the people come and hear the words of God I mean that's the job description of every Pastor come and hear the words of God well if we don't ever open this you're not hearing the words of God come and hear the words of God and at the same time we need to speak back to God we need to talk to him we need to commune with him and that is the ministry of prayer but there is another discipline that again I think goes underutilized and it is fasting and that's why we wanted to

enter in not because we're Catholic and lent is starting on Wednesday with Ash Wednesday it's not because we're Catholic that we're diving into this but we do Loosely follow the lurgical calendar why because the early church as they were setting up the lurgical calendar were using it similar to how when the Israelites got to the other side of the Jordan River and if you know anything about the story they had a worship service and they set up 12 Stones in order to remember what the Lord just did and so the lurgical calendar was designed in the first three centuries of the church to be reminders

of what God has done reminders of the life of Jesus reminders to to keep us anchored to all that Christ has done and provided for us so that as we reflect it and as we we image it in our daily lives it keeps bringing us back to this is who Jesus is and this is what our lives are all about and so again as we enter into 40 days of prayer and fasting starting on Wednesday it has nothing to do with whether or not it gets you into heaven there's no obligations for that but what it is is a good discipline to remind us that

Jesus spent 40 days in a wilderness fasting and praying with the Lord and communing with him and then built that into the spiritual rhythms and disciplines of his disciples that I'm going to show you today and I'm going to show you basically the the the the the structure for it kind of The Secret of what um fasting is as well as the structure for fasting and then essentially once we get down to it what was the third one the spirit of fasting so you have three SES for you again um but that's what we're going to walk through so that as we enter into this

on Wednesday it's not just hey we're doing lent it's not about what you give up it's about what you gain in this season so that hopefully when we get to the end of the 40 days when we arrive at Easter and we move past that you start to build this into your normal routines and rhythms because you've seen how much you gain in fasting versus just what you gave up and so the big idea behind biblical fasting is you are giving up something temporary in order to gain something Eternal that's the big idea just throwing it out there right out of the gate you're giving

up something temporary in order to gain something Eternal that's the purpose in our material culture if I was to kind of preface this a little bit um the principle would be giving up something small in order to gain something Greater Giving up something small in order to gain something greater for example the average household in America spends between 100 to $350 per month on TV cable and streaming platforms the average household so if we were to just kind of put that in the middle somewhere around the $250 range on a monthly basis if you were to give up TV cable whatever you will for 20

years which you're like okay we're talking 40 days I'm not doing 20 years here but if you were to give up that $250 a month on TV and just read books at night I'm just throwing this out as an example not saying you have to do this and you were to take that money and invest it in the stock market with average gains of anywhere in the 8 to 10% range over each year at the end of 20 years which for most of you you'll be in your mid 4S by that point the rest of us not so but um but most of you you'll

be in your mid-40s you will have ACR around $200,000 by just saying hey let's read books instead of watch TV it's nice little ntic it's because in the moment you're giving up something that is relatively small in order to later gain something that is greater but what may seem so easy or simple in reality is much more difficult for us to engage in and the question I want to ask is why is that why is the idea of fasting giving up something small in order to gain something Greater Giving up something temporary in order to gain something Eternal why is that hard for us to

do as a society why is that discipline not come natural to us well for starters it's in the language we use we're giving up something we don't like that which means it's a it's a desire that we are no longer getting to engage in we we create a narrative in our mind that we're depriving ourselves of something that we need which to an extent we do some things we need like food for example we'll get to why they fast from food in a moment when we get to the scripture but it's still that's not the point the point is that our culture has discipled us

like if if you might just think that discipleship is a biblical term or a Christian term but it's not your discipled every single day from everything you engage in it's the reason why when you drive this way you see signage all over the place because they're trying to disciple you that what you need is a Big Mac right over here on the corner what you need is to go to getg go in order to get gas they're discipling you by the message that they're putting out there that's why Nike they have a message behind what they do just do it just do it if you

just do it you'll be happy you'll have a fulfilling life every organization has mission statements and values built in place in order to disciple people why they need their product or why they need to engage in their plan whatever it might look like and when it comes to our culture our culture has discipled us that our well-being our happiness is the utmost prior PR ority and we must achieve it as soon as possible you need it now you need it now will a new car make you happy go into debt and get one will a bigger house make you happy go into greater debt and

get one will a facelift make you happy spend ridiculous amounts of money now in order to get one this is why Banks and credit card companies are thriving and always have always have but this is not the way God designed us to operate he did not design us to have what will satisfy us now immediate gratification or instant satisfaction it was never meant to be that way and that's why building in fasting has been a different place play that God allows us to see that things that matter things that have worth things that last take time to develop but the reason why we believe this

is because the ideology of individualism you are your own God you are your own Sovereign you are your own identity you are the captain of your life and therefore you do you is that not what the culture is teaching us right now whatever makes you happy do it right now do it go buy it invest your time in it Circle the friends around you who are going to support whatever that is change whatever you need to change that's going to make you happy right now any sane person would understand that if all we do is seek to gratify the desires of our hearts or act

upon our immediate feelings no one would ever be successful in all tress like no one would ever be successful because we would avoid hard things if it's hard it's not going to make me happy right now so we're going to avoid hard things we would never make sacrifices because sacrifices hurt we'll never give up things if what we believe is that we are to pursue happiness now instead of later how many of you have ever exercised before hopefully you all raise your hands how many of you exercise right now uh you don't have to raise your hands on that one but you know you should

um I'm guessing that there are plenty of days when you don't feel like working out now remember what cult yeah amen remember culture is telling you you do you you do what makes you feel happy right I'm sure there are days we don't feel like working out there are plenty of days when you don't feel like waking up early there are plenty of days when you don't feel like eating a certain way so why don't you just listen to the world and do you be what you feel because as Brian lorit says in order to get to the greater happiness that you want you have

to let go and give up some lesser happiness and that's the idea behind fasting I mean to be honest I'd be happy to sleep in longer but I'd be even more happy if I got up earlier and started my day off with a workout or a good book or taking time to pray before the three little anarchists in our household get up and start destroying things fasting is saying no to receiving the bread of today in order to receive the bread of life that's what fasting is about and I want to show you that so turn with me to Matthew chapter 4 Matthew chapter 4

we're going to look at verses 1 through 4 which is honestly there's the foundation here for fasting Matthew 4 starting in verse one says and this is just to kind of Orient you in scripture this is right at the beginning of Jesus's Ministry just after he was baptized by John the Baptist the spirit of God leads Jesus Into the Wilderness in order to be tempted by the devil and so this is where we find him fasting for 40 40 days and 40 nights look at look at the reason for this then Jesus was led up by the spirit Into the Wilderness to be tempted by

the devil and after fasting 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry I mean i' I'd be hungry have you ever fasted 40 days and 40 nights we're like man it's going to be hard to fast for like one day that's tough but 40 days and 40 nights like we know he's God but he's also still 100% man so he feels when he misses a meal he feels it the same way you feel it all right 40 days and 40 nights now why did he do that and the tempter came and said to him if you are the Son of God command these stones to

become loaves of bread here's what the devil's going to do the greatest Temptation the devil is going to tempt you with is instant gratification for your immediate desire that's what the devil is going to do the devil's also discipled a lot of other Angels those other Angels those other demons that are moving around we just refer to them as the enemy that are real alive and active their strategy is simply to observe You observe you see what you're starting to hunger for and then let's give it to you as as quick as possible let's put it right in front of you as quick as possible

instant gratification for your immediate desire are you hungry here's a 100 fast food options it's not what you really want because you want something that's good for you right but you can have it now and you can have it in about three minutes is if there's not a line maybe a minute if you're at Chick-fil-A are you Desiring sex here's a hundred pornography sites for you are you wanting more money here's a credit card Jesus has been fasting from food for 40 days and the first thing the devil tempts him with is food food instant gratification for Jesus's immediate desire but he answered it is

written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God and that church is the recipe for fasting we are choosing to give up food in order to replace it with the word of God that's why again like when we think about um fasting I don't want you to just think about it in the sense that we're going to give up something for a time we're giving it up so that the cues that remind us that we are now lacking in whatever that thing is is now driving us and pointing us to filling it with the words

of God in scripture rather than running and grabbing a snack so it's not just that man I'm hungry because I missed breakfast on Friday and then I get to lunch and I'm like dude now I'm like starving even though you're not starving but I've gone without two meals now and I'm getting hry and then you get to dinner and you're just like all right now I'm just numb I'm a I'm angry I'm frustrated I'm irritable because I haven't eaten I'm feeling a little bit of weak but you know what now I can go to sleep at night and man I fasted for the day I

did my thing I did did what I was supposed to do no if we're not replacing it with the word of God and we're not spending time in intimacy with him then we didn't fast you did a you just did a physical worldly fast it was just intermittent fasting it's got to be replaced with the word of God in order to actually utilize this moment for deeper intimacy with him deeper intimacy with him and that's why I want to give you three encouragements to help you create a framework for fasting in the next 40 beginning on Wednesday the next 40 days so the first one

is the secret of fasting even though even though we are doing this publicly as a church which means we all know we are each going to be fasting starting on Wednesday now you're not act you'll see in a minute um when I give you the structure for it um but even even though we know we're are going to be engaging in fasting over the next 40 days um does not mean that the whole thing is going to be public there's going to be secret intimacy that's going on here um so that we're not all just running to one another and being like um hey did

did you fast how was your I mean we we can ask you know but the point isn't to brag about how you fast and that's what I want to show you in Matthew 6 just turn over a couple of chapters here real quick Matthew 6 look at at verses 16- 18 and again I love this because when when um Jesus is talking to them it's as if it's an expectation an assumption that they are going to be fasting and that's why he starts out and says and when you fast so again this is this is built-in spiritual discipline of the church all right this isn't

hey um if you fast make sure you do it this way no no no this is a when you fast which is why we need to make sure this isn't just the time of Lent each year but that we're building it into daily may maybe not necessarily daily but monthly rhythms and routines throughout our years so that again we're giving up something temporary in order to gain something Eternal we're giving up something physical and in order to gain more time and intimacy with our Lord and so looking at verse 16 and when you fast do not look gloomy like the Hypocrites for they disfigure their

faces that their fasting may be seen by others I mean that's just hilarious right they they put mud on their faces and makeup on their faces to make it look like they've gone 40 days and 40 nights without food to make it look like they're skeletons I mean you're talking they're putting on Halloween style decorations in order to make it look like like how look how weak I am right now I'm so holier than thou that I've not had a meal in for them probably 2 hours but they're making it look like it's been 40 days again they're missing the point of why they're fasting

and Jesus says truly I say to you uh they've received their reward and they're not going to like it verse 17 but when you fast I love this anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your father who is in secret don't go bragging about your fasting make it look like you're actually fully healthy like you're not missing meals you got a little bit of extra pep in your step when you're going through this that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your father who is in secret and your father who sees

in secret will reward you what that means is that your fasting is just about your time with the father that's it it we want you spending more time with your father the goal isn't to brag about what you gave up the goal isn't to look holier than thou the goal is to be with your father in secret it's deeper intimacy with Jesus the goal is to be in the spirit and to be led by the spirit in this season the goal is to stop walking with the world and instead walk with God when you give up something from the world in order to gain something

from God Jesus calls that a reward a reward and we want you to be rewarded in this season for that so the secret of fasting is that fasting is to be done in secret all right that's just it the secret of fasting is that fasting is to be done in secret again it's not meant to just be what you give up for the 40 days um that's why I love like picking up the Catholics lent is just about what you give up for 40 days um which is why on Tuesday they Feast before they fast that's why it's called Fat Tuesday Man live it up

eat as much as you possibly can because we're giving up food for the next 40 days or we're giving up chocolate or we're giving up whatever it might be again they Feast before they fast our purpose of fasting is so that we can Feast so that that we can be with the father so that we can receive a great reward in that so that that intimacy and that desire that we have for him continues to increase and grow that's what we're engaging in and so you will be rewarded for that period so what do you do then what does fasting look like structure of fasting

in acts 9:9 right after the Apostle Paul gets saved he lands in Damascus and for three days it says that he was without sight and he fasted he neither ate nor drank that's the biblical view of fasting and so I know currently we get real clever with fasting we're like man I'm going to give up social media for 40 days um I'm going to give up you know just uh entertainment for 40 days I'm going to we look for different things that that again are good things to take time away from absolutely but food has a very specific reason for why we choose to fast

from food and for why I believe the Bible has given us the reason to fast from food is because food has a unique design by God because our body physically provides cues for us when we desire food hunger like when you go without social media for a while you'll actually find that you don't hunger for it I mean actually you'll start to see that man I actually don't hunger for it I I don't long for it it's actually something that I don't that I don't want and desire food is a different thing many of us wouldn't necessarily say we hunger for social media or we

hunger for television or entertainment we desire those things but those desires are more subtle where our desires for food are literally physical stomach growling for example that empty feeling in your stomach low energy or fatigue maybe even headaches if you aren't getting enough sugar or caffeine that you're addicted to irritability that's why I said hangry or difficulty focusing constant thoughts about food or Cravings triggered by your environment the smell of coffee in the morning baked bread for all of our sourdough women in this church popcorn which is not a temptation of mine because I hate popcorn um but fresh cookies is man if I smell

fresh cookies baking I might have one or three there's a cookie exchange I'm expecting a box to come home with Kelsey there are more cues associated with hunger and food than there are any other sensation literally you can see a burger on a billboard and your mouth starts to water well at least mine does you can hear fajitas sizzling in a restaurant and think I should have ordered that instead of whatever I got you can smell like I said coffee brewing or I mean the Lord's food controversial but bacon in the morning crackling I mean come on what doesn't like you're out of bed at

that point food does this to us it it it it draws on our cravings and I think that's one of the biggest reasons why when they were looking for something to draw our attention to our creator for the Lord food was a good indicator that let's give this up in order to have something greater and every time we have a cue that reminds us that we need it that's a cue to remind us of our greater need that we have from Our Father which when looking for a term I think that's one of the reasons why Jesus says I am the bread of life now

for sure bread was their number one food option back in that day but at the same time it's same for us I mean like right now I I'm joking about the sourdough craze but there's there's there's something behind this idea that we long for it we love it we want it and when we give it up and then start to turn our attention that yeah we do long for this lesser thing but we actually long for something greater and so we want to fast from this for a season in order to make it cue and remind us of this greater substance that actually provides for

us more satisfaction than an immediate fix that we get from food and that's why again Jesus says man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the Lord and so fting from food is is essentially you saying um no to something that feeds your physical being and instead saying yes to something that feeds your spiritual being and that comes to the spirit of fasting the third one here as humans F food does fuel our life but as Christians fasting fuels our mission I want you to see this turn over me to Acts chapter 13 Acts chapter 13 I want to

show you how fasting was built into the rhythms of the first church when I say first church I'm talking about the first century of the church um this is written around 60 to 70 AD and so this is close to 20 to 30 years um after Jesus's resurrection as the church has shifted and moved operations from Jerusalem to Antioch as it continues spread through the through the persecution that was happening uh the church in Antioch grew and had an incredible amount of leaders but as they were also engaging in the word and prayer they were engaging in fasting and that provided the environment for them

to discern and dictate what their next steps were to discern what God was calling them to do to discern when it was time for them to begin multiplying and sending people out and so look at this story in Acts chap 13 looking at verses 1-3 now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers Barnabas which is the same Barnabas that was in the first church in Jerusalem who sold a portion of his land and was very generous to the church he's the son of encouragement he's the partner with Paul on the journeys that's that same Barnabas Simeon who was called Niger Lucius of

sirene Manan a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch and then Saul which is our Apostle Paul as well while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting the holy spirit said to them set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them then after fasting and prayer they laid their hands on them and sent them off couple of things it says they were worshiping the Lord and fasting according to the Bible worship is always done in spirit and in truth so it's always going to be led by the spirit empowered by the spirit directed from the spirit to Jesus and

to the father but at the same time worship is always going to be done in truth and so because of that we know that when it says that they were worshiping and fasting we know that that's involving the word of God that's involving the scriptures in order for them to hear from the Lord what he is calling on on them what he is expecting of them what he is driving them into in order to continue growing and maturing sure absolutely but also seeing the mission of God continue to advance so while they were engaging in the word and fasting at the same time it also

says while they were fasting and praying so you see there again as we saw in Acts 6 when the helenistic Jews arose a complaint that they weren't getting provided for in the distribution of all the goods of the church the disciples said we need to create the role of deacons because we need to make sure we continuing with the ministry of the word and prayer and so often times people will say that's all the church needs to do is the ministry of the word in prayer well when you come to acts 13 when the center of operations has shifted to Antioch and they're about to

send Paul and Barnabas out on the next three missionary Journeys that is really actually been executing the the the the the word of God getting to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the Earth when they get to Rome and and then from there Asia Minor and just continuing on it's happening with fasting as the central pieace because what was mentioned twice when the others were only mentioned once while they were worshiping and fasting while they were fasting and praying and so fasting is just as Central to the ministry of the church in order for the church to be able to discern with

Clarity where we are to go next and what we are to do next and so if what gets us there is giving up something physically in order for us to have cues to remind us hey it's more important for us to spend time with our father right now than it is for us to eat food then that's important and we need to build that into our rhythms so in their rhythms it wasn't let's wait till lent because the early church hasn't installed that yet it was a part of their natural rhythms as a church of their leadership that hey if we feel called to take

the gospel to the ends of the Earth because they have at this point for several decades they still know the mission go and make disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and I'm with you to the end of the age they got that mission they also know based on acts 18 12 chapters earlier that we are to be Witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and the ends of the Earth and that the holy spirit's going to give them power they believe that fasting is a discipline

or a means that helps them connect to the power that also is then driving them and helping them discern and dictate exactly what their next play is and so what I would like to say to you in regards to that is if you find yourself in your life at a place where you're like I'm not sure what to do here I don't know what to do with my family I don't know what to do with my job I don't know what to do with my neighbors next door again we've been beating it into your brains and into your hearts you need to grow in the

word of God so that you can tell them what God has said and you need to grow in prayer because you need to rely on God to intervene at the same time we need to fast so that we have Clarity on how to take the word of God in prayer and Infuse it into that specific situation it's what and which is kind of what it's crazy in fasting is you think when you're preparing for an event like if you're going to be a marathon runner what do you do the night before you car load right because I need this energy in order to go and

execute what God's called me to do what God does with fasting is he actually starves us so that we can actually be filled up with what we need in order to then execute the marathon that he's called us to run so it's not I mean again the Bible has talked about this in other places where it's like hey some physical working out and so forth is beneficial for your body but what's greater than that is making sure that you are spiritually healthy spiritually healthy and so actually depriving your physical self in order to make your spiritual self more whole is the purpose of fasting it

actually matures you even though physically it looks like it's breaking you down and that's the spirit of fasting fasting helped the church at and its leaders discern and determine what their next steps were as a church in order to continue their efforts the same thing is going to happen for us it's going to happen for us and that's why starting on Wednesday um when you head out these doors which that won't be on Wednesday that'll be today when you head out these doors um if you did not receive it last week we have a lent guide for you it's called lent and missions which you're

like I don't know how those things go together um lent and missions we know what God has called us to do preach and proclaim the gospel in Indianapolis the rest of our country and the ends of the Earth we know that we need to fast and prepare ourselves spiritually to get spiritually healthy over the next 40 days so that it begins to build our strength and confidence and so what this lint guy is going to do is starting on Wednesday it's going to provide for you every single day a scripture passage to read it's going to provide a little bit of a prompt it's going

to explain a little bit of the connection of that scripture passage to God's Great call for your life that the gospel was never meant to stop with you but when God saved you he had someone lost in an unreached people group on his mind as well that when he saved you and you continue to make disciples that through that multiplication the ends of the Earth will be reached that's a daunting task right and so we got a lot of work to do I'm sure the disciples thought the same thing we're just uneducated fishermen Tax Collectors how are we possibly going to reach the ends of

the Earth well they need to get into the word of God they need to rely on God through prayer and they need to prepare prepare themselves spiritually they need to exercise their Spiritual Beings through fasting in order for God to equip them strengthen them to send them out and so the way that the guide and this is where I'm going to give you two options when it comes to fasting and I would like for you to do both options so they're not two options they're two commands um but here's what I would love for you to do the guide is going to have you fast

every Friday okay so every Friday we would love and it gives some options in there for food it even talks about if you're nursing or if you're pregnant you can't fast from food okay um you need that so you got to get creative with how you're fasting but for the most of us that are not pregnant nor nursing um we fast from food okay the other 40 those are Fridays the other 40 days days and the 40 days does not include Sundays okay um so if you're like trying to do the math it doesn't work out that way but I would like you to Steward

your life in a different way and what I mean by that is uh usually around this time let's see if it's even happened yet yep 50 minutes ago you got your weekly report of what you average on your phone per day all right mine is 1 hour and 11 minutes which is skewed because it's a a new phone um you're thinking dude how does he do that I had y'all food there for a second usually mine's about four hours okay and and I want to get that down okay because I know if I'm tied to it four hours out of the day I only have

roughly 12 hours of awake well 16 hours of awake time on any given day I don't want a fourth of it on my phone I want to reinvest that time I want to Steward that in a wiser way and so yeah there's going to be some things throughout the rest of those 40 days that I want to do differently with that that's going to be a form of fasting from it same thing might be with television or entertainment if you have nights where you binge watch for four hours maybe you binge watch for two hours and you pick up a book for two hours or

you have conversation with that other person in your home for two hours or you play a board game together or you invite someone into your home during that time all right I want us to relook at our lives over the next 40 days to see what is like stirring up cues and then we're diving into these things but do we really want that what's something we can give up in order for something greater that we actually want and and so fasting on Fridays but also fasting throughout the other 40 days with something that is other than food all right and you can get creative with

whatever that might look like but tell somebody what it's going to be all right so that there is a bit of that accountability tell your spouse if you have a spouse boyfriend whatever tell them and and we'll go from there sound good sound good all right good it's what enables us to say no to instant gratification and immediate desires and instead say yes to Greater gratification and deeper desires that we actually have all right let's pray together this morning Father we thank you so much for your word we thank you that you give us opportunities to engage with you we thank you that you have

provided for us your word which is greater than any physical substance that we can consume it's greater than any other entertainment that we binge it's greater than any Earthly relationship that we have because your word reveals to us who you are and how you relate with us how you pursue how you love how you forgive how you cherish how you grow us how you provide for us and we want to know more of that and so we're thankful for your word we're also thankful for prayer we're thankful that it provides for us a way to be able to commune with you to talk to you

to tell you how we are doing on a daily basis prayer also aligns with you th with you it anchors us in your will it anchors us to how you operate and do things in in our [Music] world it allows us to be able to bring our anxieties the things we struggle with on a daily basis when you tell us that you are always with us and that you never leave us nor forsake us prayer reminds us that that is true because we get to pause and we we get to stop and we get to speak with you and we know that you welcome our

prayers both the correct ones and the wrong ones you welcome our prayers and you thank we're thankful that we have that and God we know that at the same time we want to grow in our spiritual maturity we want to exercise our spiritual muscles and the way that you've set that up is through the process of fasting giving up something temporary in order to gain something Eternal giving up something small in order to gain something great and so father