00:18-00:22
Open up your Bibles with me please to Matthew chapter 6.
00:23-00:28
This is part 3 of a 3-part message from Matthew 6 that we started I think in January.
00:28-00:33
And next week we will be back in Revelation for 2 months and finish that book.
00:33-00:38
And that will take us all the way to July when we have the Fantastic Four coming in and preaching.
00:39-00:43
So people from our own church will be bringing the messages in July.
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In Matthew 6, "When you fast..." And the key to all three of these sermons is really Matthew 6.1.
00:52-01:23
Jesus said, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." That word for "seen," reminder, is the Greek word "theotomi," which is where we get the word "theater." Jesus is saying, when you do religious actions, for lack of a better phrase, so that people see you doing them, not for God, but so that people see you, Jesus said you're putting on a performance.
01:24-01:27
You want applause, you want pats on the back, you want attention.
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And specifically, Jesus goes after three things that God's people are expected to do.
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And the first one is giving to the needy, right?
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I don't have to give much of a sales pitch for that, do I?
01:38-01:42
We see someone in need, it's our responsibility to give to the needy.
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And the second one is praying. I don't have to give much of a sales pitch for praying, right?
01:46-01:48
God's people are expected to pray.
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But the third thing on the list is fasting.
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And I gotta be honest with you, I feel like I'm playing from behind here.
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Because while people recognize that giving and praying are normal things for Christians, fasting? Like, really?
02:04-02:05
Well, look at verse 16.
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Jesus said, just his first phrase here, but look at his phrase, this is huge.
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Jesus said, "And when you fast," same phrasing he used for giving and praying.
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And it's just as expected.
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Fasting is just as expected as giving and praying.
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We're going to talk about fasting and what it is and what it means, and it's going to be easy for people to tune out.
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But I want you to see what the Bible actually says about fasting, all right?
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It's a hard sell in this culture, because we are absolutely obsessed with food in our culture.
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True or false?
02:44-02:45
We're obsessed with food.
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We don't like to eat something unless we first take a picture of it.
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Like, "Oh, this alphabet soup looks so alphabetty." And I know my friends want to know that I'm eating alphabet soup.
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And we take pictures of it.
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And look, if that's your thing, I'm not criticizing you.
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I'm just saying true or false, that's a reality of our culture.
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Don't we do that?
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We do that.
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That's only the thing that completely baffles me about our culture, eating contests.
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And I think, you know, one time I think it was on ESPN, there was an eating contest.
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And I'm like, this is a sport really?
03:22-03:27
And what must other countries where you have starving people what must they think when they see that?
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Like we don't have enough money to feed our, or enough food, excuse me, to feed our family.
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But these people are having eating contests.
03:36-03:39
I looked this up this week, 'cause I'm familiar like you are.
03:39-03:44
We're probably most familiar with the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, right?
03:44-03:47
How many of you have at least heard of the Hot Dog Eating Contest, right?
03:47-03:50
Most of us have heard of the Hot Dog Eating Contest.
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But you know, that's not the only eating contest that we have in our culture, our food obsessed culture.
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There's a taco eating contest.
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There's a chicken wing eating contest.
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There's a guyoza eating contest.
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Does anybody know what a guyoza is?
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I had to look this one up.
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It's a meat and vegetable filled dumpling.
04:11-04:18
There's a gyro eating contest or gyro for the cultured among us, I guess.
04:18-04:22
Okay, how about the, there's an oyster eating contest.
04:22-04:26
Oysters, Matthew Gates, how many oysters do you think you can get down?
04:26-04:29
Three, oh, zero, I thought you were like three.
04:29-04:31
He's like, no, no, no, this is the part you look at.
04:32-04:33
I was like, wow, that's three more than me.
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Okay, deep fried asparagus.
04:36-04:38
There's a deep fried asparagus eating contest.
04:38-04:42
And there is a slug burger eating contest.
04:42-04:44
And I know what you're thinking.
04:44-04:45
What is a slug burger?
04:46-04:47
You look that one up on your own time.
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I don't care to know.
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But there is a slug burger eating contest.
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But of all these eating contests, here's the one that really got my attention.
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There's an eating contest for the consumption of a 72 ounce steak, a 72 ounce steak.
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And I read of this individual who took this challenge, a woman, oh, it gets better, a 120 pound woman.
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Yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second, Pastor Jeff.
05:15-05:19
You're telling me that 120 pound woman ate a 72 ounce steak?
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I'm not telling you that, she ate three of them.
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Oh, no, no, it gets better, it gets better.
05:26-05:27
You're like, "She ate three 72-ounce steaks.
05:28-05:32
She ate three 72-ounce steaks in 20 minutes." Oh, no, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait.
05:33-05:36
I'm gonna give you time to get your gasp out like for all of it.
05:36-05:47
She ate not only three 72-ounce steaks in 20 minutes, but with that, she ate three baked potatoes, three shrimp cocktails, three salads, and three buttered rolls.
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Yeah, we have a food-obsessed culture.
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They're like, "We're gonna talk about fasting today." You're gonna talk about what?
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We have so many TV shows about foods.
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We have TV shows about people that just travel around and eat stuff.
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Look, again, I'm not criticizing if this is your thing, but have you ever sat and watched somebody else eat?
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It's disgusting.
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And we watch people traveling around, you know, eating these weird things.
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And then we have all these TV shows about people that make cakes.
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And so we have this one channel where people are traveling around and eating and they're making all these, you know, cakes the size of a Buick.
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and we have on that channel.
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And then we wonder why the other channel has a TV program on it called "My 600-lb Life" about people that, sad people who can't stop eating.
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America is taught that life is about consuming, not refusing consumption.
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And then we open our Bibles for a word from Jesus, and he says, "When you fast." Notice he didn't say, "If you fast," right?
06:50-06:51
He didn't say that.
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He said, "When you fast." assuming that his people were going to fast.
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And we're going to see what Jesus says about fasting.
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The real question isn't even if you fast, the real question is for God's people, how you fast.
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That's the real question.
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Let's all get on the same page definition-wise.
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What is fasting?
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Fasting is abstaining from food and/or other things for measured periods of time in order to heighten my hunger for the things of God.
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Okay, so we're abstaining from food and/or other things, we'll talk about that in a second.
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For measured periods of time, why would I do such a thing?
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This last phrase is huge and you've got to get this or you're going to miss the whole sermon.
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In order to heighten my hunger for the things of God.
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There's different kinds of fasts.
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There's a partial fast where you, maybe for a season you just have vegetables and juice.
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There's the absolute fast where you say, "I'm not going to have anything at all." There's corporate fasts where we are going to fast together.
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Now yes, it is true that you can fast from other things.
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Look, I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV.
08:02-08:09
I'm not a doctor, so I can't give you medical advice if you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I have this health condition.
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I'm not sure it's good for me to fast." Talk to your doctor about that, okay?
08:13-08:21
But if you have a health condition that you're like, "I absolutely cannot go without eating," you can certainly fast from other things, okay?
08:21-08:27
But primarily today, with that said, primarily today, we are going to talk about food.
08:27-08:33
Because that's what Jesus is talking about, and that is really the most common expected kind of fasting.
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Through the Bible, fasting is connected with prayer.
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We have so many examples throughout Scripture.
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Jesus Himself fasted.
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It's mentioned over 77 times in God's Word.
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Fasting, various occasions.
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Maybe it's repentance from sin.
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Maybe you're in mourning over the loss of a loved one.
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denying yourself to give to others.
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That's Isaiah 58 type fasting.
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Seeking God's wisdom at critical times.
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That's what the early church did in the book of Acts, chapters 13 and 14.
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We need God's wisdom and direction.
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So we're going to church, we're going to fast.
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And right now, somebody's thinking, I came to church on the wrong day.
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I don't know where he's going with this because fasting is never commanded in the New Testament.
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And that's true.
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fasting is not ever commanded in the New Testament.
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But Jesus just assumed that we would.
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You can't get around that.
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Jesus said, "When you fast." And the Greek tense of that phrase is habitual, customary.
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Jesus says, "This is going to be part of your life.
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So when you do it, our Lord expects that we're going to fast." And the early church did, okay?
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So fasting is not, let's talk about that.
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Fasting is not, everybody say fasting is not.
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Fasting is not, first of all, if you're taking notes, fasting is not self-punishment, okay?
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Like, oh, I was really bad and I committed these sins and I'm going to fast and like it's some sort of a self-punishment thing.
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That's not what fasting is.
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All of the punishment that you deserve, Jesus Christ took that on himself on the cross, okay?
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There's no more punishment to be doled out if you're a born-again believer in Christ.
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So fasting is not self-punishment.
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Fasting is also, it's not, everybody say not.
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Fasting is not self-serving.
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Meaning somebody could hear a message on fasting and say, "Hey, you know what?
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I could stand to lose a couple pounds.
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So maybe I'll do a fast and there are some health benefits." And that's absolutely true.
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There's tremendous health benefits from fasting and you might lose some weight, but that's not a motivation to fast biblically, okay?
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We're talking about spiritual reasons for fasting.
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And if you're like, well, two birds with one stone here, I'm just saying you gotta check your motives there.
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It's not about self-serving.
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The focus is on seeking the Lord.
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Now fasting is not, everybody say not, it's not a bargaining chip.
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Fasting is not a bargaining chip.
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Like, all right, God, look, I really need this job.
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And I'm going in for this job interview.
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So I'm going to fast.
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Now you make sure I get that job.
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Almost like we're bringing some offer to the table and God's like, "Well, I guess I gotta get him that job because he's fasting." That's not what fasting is about.
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It is not a bargaining chip.
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Like, "Look, God, you have to cash in for me because I'm doing something for you." That is not what fasting is about.
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Fasting is not, everybody say not.
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Fasting is not something that makes you holy, okay?
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Fasting does not make you holy.
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Just a little bit of review from last Sunday.
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Jesus Christ makes you holy.
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He gives you his holiness.
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You know, what was the sermon? He was raised for our justification.
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So this idea that fasting makes me a holy person, it does not.
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Jesus Christ makes you a holy person.
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Fasting does not... Everybody say "not." Fasting does not get God's attention.
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Okay, catch this. Fasting is not, "Hey, notice me, God!" Fasting is about me noticing God.
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Fasting doesn't make your prayers more powerful.
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Fasting makes you more focused.
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So that's what fasting is not.
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Here's what fasting is.
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Here's what fasting is.
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First of all, fasting is saying no to the flesh and yes to the spirits.
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It's a way of preferring God over the gifts that God has given.
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This is so important.
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Fasting is, write this down, fasting is a means to an end.
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Fasting is not an end.
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In other words, we don't fast just for the sake of fasting.
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They're like, "Well, then why do we do it?" Because we sort of give for the sake of giving, and we sort of pray for the sake of praying.
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Why don't we fast for the sake of fasting?
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Fasting is a means to an end.
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What end is that?
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Well, here's our problem, Christians.
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Mine too, all of us, individually, Christians.
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We want to focus on God in our lives, right?
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Don't we want to live a God-centered, God-focused life?
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We all want that.
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But the problem is oftentimes, myself included, We want to focus on God, but we want other things more.
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The question is, what do I do when what I want, which is a God-centered mindset, what do I do when what I want isn't what I choose because of all this other stuff?
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Well, fasting is the answer.
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Fasting is stopping the feeding of ourselves with other things in order to focus on our relationship with God.
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Because you only have the capacity to consume so much every day.
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You only have so much capacity for satisfaction.
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So, that was a really long introduction.
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But that's okay, because the sermon is one question.
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One question to evaluate your fasting, because like Jesus, I'm assuming that you're fasting.
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So one question to evaluate your fasting, and we're going to look at the question in two parts, as Jesus presented it.
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Number one, first question is, "Am I hungry for attention?" "Am I hungry for attention?" Look at verse 16.
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Jesus says that when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.
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Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
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See, fasting was a part of Jewish culture.
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It's certainly not part of ours.
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You're like, well, then how relevant is this stuff?
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And I would suggest to you, maybe a little more, because since it's not a part of our culture, Even more so today, people who fast are going to stand out.
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Then we become tempted to fast with the wrong motive.
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Like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on a second.
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Jesus said, "Don't look gloomy like the hypocrites." I have a question about this. Why in the world is this hypocrisy?
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Okay, like, if you are fasting, and you look like you're fasting, how in the world is that hypocrisy?
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Because fasting is supposed to be about seeking the Lord.
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Fasting is not supposed to be about seeking attention.
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That's the hypocrisy.
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Let's be honest. We love the attention.
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Let's be honest. We love attention.
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That's the whole basis of social media.
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That's the whole basis of selfies.
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We love attention from people.
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How many likes did I get? How many shares did I get?
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How many comments did I get?
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Look, I'm not condemning it. I'm just saying this is a reality.
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And Jesus knew this is a reality, which is why He taught what He taught.
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One of the problems with hypocrisy is how successful it is.
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I mean, we've all been there.
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Someone makes a comment about how devoted we must be to the Lord, and we're so proud of ourselves.
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We're walking around the rest of the day like, "Yeah, I'm like the greatest thing since the Apostle Paul to ever happen to Christendom." And we love the attention.
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And the people in Jesus' day, boy, they made it a show.
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That's why Jesus said, "Don't look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces." Their fasting may be seen by others.
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"They disfigure their faces." They, with their facial expressions, wanted people to know that they were fasting.
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Okay?
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So I want you to turn to your neighbor right now and make your best, "I haven't eaten in six hours and I'm starving to death" face.
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Go ahead.
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Looks like some of you have been practicing this week.
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But Jesus was like, "Don't be like these people, they walk around..." "What's the matter with you?" "I'm fasting." "Oh, why are you making that face then?" But Jesus said that's what they did.
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In fact, I read this week that a lot of Jews would actually take ashes and smear ashes on their eyes when they were fasting.
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It's like, "Dude, why do you look so horrible?" "Because I'm so spiritual, that's why." Jesus said when you do that, when your goal is to make sure that people know that you're fasting, and they notice, there's the reward.
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There's the reward.
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"What's the matter? You look sickly. You look like you're dying." "I'm fasting for spiritual reasons." "Wow, that's really cool." And there it is. There's your reward.
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Yay!
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Pretty lame, right?
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Isn't that lame? It's lame.
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But it's like giving, and it's like praying.
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If you do it to be seen by others, and they applaud you, they pat you on the back, that's all you get. Enjoy that.
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You're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hang on, Pastor Jeff.
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You said there were examples of corporate fasting, like the church fasting.
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I mean, when you're doing that, other people obviously have to know about it." Right on. Right on.
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There are New Testament examples of that.
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Again, Acts chapter 13, Acts chapter 14, you see the church fasting.
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They're like, "Ha ha ha ha, other people had to have known about that." Yeah, but you see, it's not about whether or not they knew, it's about whether you wanted them to know.
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You see the difference?
18:02-18:05
It's not about whether they knew, it's about whether you want them to know.
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In other words, it boils down to your motive.
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What's your motive?
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There's a difference between being seen fasting and fasting in order to be seen.
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Huge difference.
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When I fast, I tell Erin.
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Why would I tell Erin?
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Because I want her applause, right?
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Now, next week we will have been married for what, 17 years?
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And I know at this point she's not going to applaud me.
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She deserves applause.
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When I tell her, I'm like, "Hey, I'm going to be fasting starting on Monday." It's not for her attention or her applause or her to, "Oh, let me get on my social media and tell..." It's not that at all. Why would I tell her that?
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Because she feeds a family, right?
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and it's going to get really awkward the next few days if she's making a meal and I'm trying to concoct some sort of excuse why I'm not going to eat it because I don't want her to know I'm fasting.
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She's like, "What's the matter?" I'm like, "Um, all of a sudden I don't like pizza." No, I tell her that because, not for applause, but because she feeds a family.
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It boils down to the motives, church.
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Just like giving, just like praying, applause for man equals no reward from God.
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All right?
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So am I hungry for attention or secondly, am I hungry for God?
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Am I hungry for God? Look at the next two verses.
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Home stretch here. Jesus says, "But when you fast..." Oh, there it is again. That assumption that you will.
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"But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret.
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And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." So Jesus makes a contrast. Instead of making yourself look sickly, "I'm so gloomy and disfigured." Instead of doing that, Jesus said, "Anoint your head and wash your face." In other words, don't leave any physical clue, okay?
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He wasn't, let's say you want to picture this as somebody might misunderstand this and think, "Okay, instead of the sign of a disfigured face, the sign that I let people know that I'm fasting is I'm just constantly washing my face." Like, what are you doing?
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"Oh, Jesus said to do this when I'm fasting and that's exactly what I'm doing because I'm so spiritual.
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No, that's not the point.
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To draw attention to your fasting, the point is, as far as anybody else knows, nothing's different, everything's the same.
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The obvious point, right?
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Like giving, like praying, we've already studied.
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Make fasting a secret between you and God.
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And He sees, and He rewards.
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Again, reward does not mean, "God, You owe me.
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I did this for You, now You have to do this for me." That's not what the reward is.
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Because you know God never works like that.
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Everything that God gives is grace. Everything.
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God never, ever, ever works on some kind of a reward system.
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God doesn't show up at a swap meet and say, "Here's what I'll give, now here's what can you give." God does not work that way.
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So when Jesus says God rewards, we're going to talk about what that means, but it's not a swap meet.
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Your salvation, the gift of the Holy Spirit, your growing sanctification, all of that, It's a gift from God.
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And the reward for fasting is connecting with God.
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You see, with fasting, God is the reward because you are seeking Him in a very deliberate and focused way.
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And you say, well, you're telling me that something spiritual happens if I choose not to eat or if I abstain from something else for a season.
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And instead, I use that time and I use that appetite to seek the Lord.
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You're telling me if I do that, something spiritual is going to happen.
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Yeah, that's exactly what I'm telling you.
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And if you've never done it, it's very hard to understand somebody talk about it.
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But you will understand it better after you do it, if you do it for the right reason.
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And I want to encourage you to try it.
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And you say, "You know what, this week I'm going to skip lunch.
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and instead I'm going to spend that time praying instead.
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You try that for a few days, and tell me there's not an awesome reward of connecting with God during that time.
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Or maybe you say, "You know what?
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I'm going to go one or two days this week with nothing but water, and instead of eating and mealtime, I'm going to spend some time in His Word, and I'm going to spend some time praying for my family." If you do that, and you will see that there is no greater reward that God can offer than the reward of Himself.
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The reward of an experience of sweet fellowship with Jesus Christ that you don't normally have because we're so used to filling ourselves up with this other stuff.
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And pardon the pun, but food is a sacred cow in our culture.
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And as soon as you talk about fasting, some people say, "I just don't think I can skip a meal.
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I hear what you're saying, and I don't have any health issues, but I just don't think I can go without eating for a day or two." I'll do respect.
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If that's what you're saying or thinking right now, that might be a commentary for what appetite really controls you.
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I ask you, are you hungry enough for God that you're willing to forego consuming food and consuming other things to focus solely on seeking Him?
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Are you that hungry for God?
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If you're in a season of your life right now where you've been finding that, you know, focusing on my walk with Christ has been so difficult.
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It's just, there's so many distractions.
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at work and at home and I have sick parents or sick grandparents and my kids require 24 hour attention and there's just so much stuff happening in my life.
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I just feel like in this season of my life, my walk with Christ has not been what I want it to be.
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I'm just gonna be honest, I haven't felt like I've had this appetite for prayer.
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I haven't been seeking God in this season of my life.
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If that's you, I got some wonderful news for you today.
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God has given you a gift to help you get back to a place of sweet fellowship with Him.
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He's given you a gift that allows you to redirect your appetite.
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So when you give, don't blow the trumpet.
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When you pray, don't make it a performance.
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And when you fast, don't look like you're dying.
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Jesus said, don't let the left hand know what the right hand's doing.
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Jesus said, go into your room and shut the door when you pray.
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And Jesus said, "When you fast, wash your face." I gotta confess something to you.
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When I was preparing these messages, maybe this is considered cheating, I don't know.
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I just have to confess this to you.
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With these Matthew 6 sermons, I basically just gave the same sermon three times.
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Just swapped out giving, praying, and fasting.
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You swap out those words.
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But I basically just gave the same exact sermon three times because in all of our religious actions, It's in the text.
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It follows the same formula.
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Jesus said, "If you give pray fast to be seen by others, you're going to miss God's reward." Same formula with all three.
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But same formula, "If you do these things in secret, then God sees and God rewards." And there are rewards, church.
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There are rewards for a faith that says, "I'm not looking for man's applause.
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I'm getting alone and I'm getting real with God And fasting brings the greatest possible reward, and that's drawing closer to God Himself.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we thank you for the gift of fasting.
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You've given us the gift of giving and the gift of prayer, but Father, we confess in our culture the gift of fasting seems very strange.
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But I pray, Father, for ears to hear.
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These things are spiritually appraised.
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And Father, I know that I have some brothers and sisters right here who are in a period of their life where they feel like they're in a desert place, that their walk with you has been dry.
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They feel like you've been absent when we all know in our heads, God, that you promised to never leave us or forsake us, that when you feel absent, that's on us.
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Father, I pray that we would be a people who fast with pure motives.
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And Father, I pray for the people here that are sitting here right now and say, you know, I need to get closer in my walk with Christ.
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I need to fast.
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Father, I pray that this week they would see the fulfillment of Your Word unfold before their eyes.
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When Jesus said, "Your Father who sees in secret will reward you," I pray they experience that sweet fellowship this week.
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And they might not understand it now, Father, but I know that they will understand it because of the integrity of Your Word.
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They will understand it after they do it.
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Manifest Your glory.
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Draw us closer to You, Father, and teach us how to fast.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
