You are invited to join a food fast this Wednesday, skipping breakfast and lunch to walk with the Lord instead. By intentionally denying physical appetites, you create space to demonstrate a deeper hunger for His word and silence the noise that clouds your spiritual vision. Start this journey today to experience a clearer connection with God.
Okay. So today, I'm excited about the topic we're talking about. Although you may not be. We're talking about fasting.
Yeah.
Come on. Just put a smile on your face. Praise the lord. Fasting. No.
The definition in the dictionary is I I think we have that to abstain from food, to eat sparingly, or abstain for some foods. You know, fasting is like the the new thing in dieting these days, isn't it? Right? Intermittent fasting. Am I the only 1 that see those ads pop up all the time?
I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm just saying it's there. So everybody is thinking to some degree to the extent that you pay attention to those ads or see them flash across your face. Probably something heard about intermittent fasting especially since it's the beginning of the year. It's January.
What do you do in January? You start new goals, you know, new habits, new at least you try to So I'm a give you a statement, and this statement is probably like the base of the message and we'll pull apart and try to understand it completely. But, you know, when you're setting those goals, a lot of people set a goal to diet. Well, you diet to change how you look. You fast to change how you see.
It's good. Right. Let put it in little different way. You diet to change how you look. You fast to change how you see because it changes what you hear.
And what you hear affects how you see. Let me show you. I got some clips of some film we're gonna watch together. We're gonna dissect it a little bit. I want I want I'm gonna ask you about this film, and I want you to tell me how you feel about it.
What you think's going on? Will you play the first clip? Make sure we got good sound. Pause a minute. What do you think?
What's going on? What who is the main character? Like, what is he? You think he's a villain? I thought he was fishing.
You thought he was fishing? What are your feelings about that clip? I was like, heard about him. A young man looking for purpose. Looking for purpose?
Like on a journey? That that's what That's mysterious. It's it's a mysterious journey. Like, when I think of that, I think of Star Wars like the young young person about to start the journey and find out they're a Jedi. You know?
That's just me. Me and my son wanna watch a lot of Star Wars. But isn't isn't that what you kinda yep. Alright. 1 person's a villain.
Fair enough. Let's see if you feel the same way. Let's watch the same clip a second time. Starting over again? No.
Just start punch play. Pause it. Star. Now what do you think about that him now? He's star.
He's definitely a star killer trying to do. Looking over his shoulder. Do you feel differently about the character? Like if you were to judge the character now, who he is, who is he?
Serial killer. A villain.
A villain. Alright. He's probably a villain. Nice to meet you. Well, let's let's pretend they're 2 different Okay?
So on the first 1, this, is it this do you feel like if you didn't see the first 1, is he the same person as he was in the first 1 or do you perceive something different? Perceive it a little different? Some of us? Most of us? Add in a different layer?
Alright. Let's pretend we've never seen the clip again or we've never seen the clip. Let's play the clip a third time. Pause. Now I'm really gonna lie to you.
So 3 separate scenarios. Let's pretend it's 3 different people. A lot of you said maybe the first guy is on a on a journey. Second 1, he's a villain. Third 1, he's lost, sad, despair, hungry, questioning.
You agree? Isn't it interesting that what you hear changes how you see? Yes. Yes. You hear changes your perception?
I wanna put this out there. Whenever you see a person, you have an internal dialogue that you're hearing. And that internal dialogue is what defines your perception of that person. That's good. What you hear changes how you see.
2 different people can see the same person, same dress, and same everything, and perceive have a different perception about who that person is and how they're going to impact them in their life. What you hear changes how you see. So you see a person and you have experience with them, "past experiences", maybe a lot of bad experiences and other things, maybe they hurt you and other things. So when you see them because of that internal sound, the internal dialogue, when you see them, you feel bad or you expect something bad to happen because of your perception based on their past experiences with you. Or you see somebody that reminds you of somebody that did that.
Right? The way they're dressed, the baggy clothes, the black, the whatever it is. And now you've experienced a lot of people with those same type of characteristics or the same type of dress or same type of whatever it is. And so now you have a certain dialogue happening on the inside that you're hearing and it's changing the way that you're perceiving them. So what you hearing about them changes how you see.
Is that right?
Yeah.
But it's true. It's not necessarily right that that should be the case, but it's true. So my question is then, what are you listening to? Now this isn't just true for person, a person, but it's true for every single circumstance that you ever find yourself in. What do you what do you think?
How do you feel about this circumstance? Watch play. Let's keep music really high. So is what happening good or bad? Good.
It's good. At least you perceive it that way. Right? Let's play the next 1. Don't worry, Okay.
We're done with the videos. So those those last 2 circumstances. How many of you, raise your hand if you saw the the 2 different circumstances as different? Like 1 was good, 1 was bad. If you were Right?
Most of you, many of you, you saw it differently. Differently. Why? Why? Because Because what what you you heard heard was was different.
Different, and what you hear changes your perception of things. Every single single circumstance you find yourself going into, let's say, because of your past, when something new happens, you get anxious and about it because you had terrible thing happened in the
past that when when it was new and
it hurt you and whatever. So, every time something new is about to happen in your life, you get really anxious and it's because of the internal dialogue about new types of situations. We're getting the idea already. Don't worry. That's normal.
Scary movie. But what I'm saying is everything you find yourself in is an internal dialogue that shifts your world view, your perception of what's happening. Now let me throw something at you. *2 Corinthians-5:7 says, we live by faith* and not by sight. Okay.
Remember, dieting changes how you look, fasting changes how you see because it changes what you see or what you hear. It changes what you hear. What is faith? Where does faith come from? Faith comes from hearing.
You know that you've been a part of our our church. You've been here any amount of time. You've heard me preach that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Right? So in order to have faith, you must have a relationship with Christ and hear his word, and faith is comes by hearing, requires believing, and then is completed by obedience.
You're standing in what he said, and we
live by faith and not by sight.
Right. Amen.
Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of god. So when we see someone, if our internal dialogue is all based on our past experiences and
what they're doing or haven't done,
Instead of what god is saying about them, we're not gonna respond in faith towards them. So good. So true. We may treat them based on what they've done instead of who god says they are.
Amen. Yeah. We
live by faith and not by sight. So when we experience an encounter with a person, if we hear what God says about them and how he feels about them, that he died for
them and and Jesus do you know how
the father feels? Jesus on the cross as they're crucifying, Jesus said, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing.
Yeah. Yes.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and spiritual forces in heavenly realms. So your problem and your war is not with the person. It's with your own perception of what you're thinking about them. Because if you could see them the way God sees them, you wouldn't be hurt by them instead you'd "hurt for them". And we could respond to everyone by faith based on what he's saying about them, and then they would be dumbfounded because they're not you're not responding to them the way that everybody else in their life treats them, and now the love of God flowing out of your
heart can change them from the inside out. Amen. Come on. It's a pause for a second.
It's working.
Circumstance, same thing. Circumstance comes at us. See, a lot of people, like we could we could interpret we live by faith and not by sight. I've said this before, I'm gonna say it again because it's important. We live by faith and not by our 5 senses.
What we see, what we smell, what we touch, what we hear, what we feel. Like naturally, it's logical to live by what you see, touch, hear, feel, taste, smell. Those yeah. All of those. Yeah.
It's it's natural logical because that's natural fact. Like, I see this table. It is a natural fact. It is true. Naturally.
Somebody's cussing me out. Yes. It's naturally true that they are being mean, and it could feel like they are a mean person. Right? That's that's natural, and it's logical to think so or about whatever circumstances happen.
It it would be natural
to have anxiety and a lack
of peace and fear because it looks like a situation is hopeless because of what I see, what I what I feel about what's going on. That's the way the people of
the world live who haven't been
need a reminder. Don't worry. Your pastor needs a reminder too all the time. Natural fact. *1 Corinthians-15*.
Don't worry. We'll get back to *fasting*. Watch this verse 47. The first man was of the dust of the earth. The second man is of heaven.
Who's it talking about? Who's the first man? First man was Nahum. Second man spiritual. Now, he came in a natural body.
Yes. And died and rose again but the first man was of the dust of the earth. The second man was of heaven. First man is Adam. Second man, Jesus.
Watch this. 48. A lot of people say, but I'm just a a man, but I'm just I'm merely a human. As was the earthly man, so are those who have earth are of earth. You are born that way.
That's right. And as is the heavenly man, Jesus, so are also are those who are of heaven. Yeah. When you gave your life to Jesus, you were born again. He put his spirit inside of you.
John-1 says, he gave you the right to be a children of a child of god, a child born not of natural descent or a husband's will or human decision but born of god. Right. Of heaven. Amen. So now, we need to see by faith what he sees about every situation and live by faith, hearing what he says about every situation.
Because that is who we are, ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven on earth and how can we be an ambassador unless we know what he's saying about the situation and live from that place.
Amen? Amen.
Natural fact but this is natural fact and what he's saying is natural fact. It's it's true and you're right. And god, is he natural or supernatural? Supernatural. Is he natural or supernatural?
Supernatural. So his word, is it natural or supernatural? Supernatural. So his word, when he speaks, it's supernatural facts. You know why it's fact?
Because he's good, and what he says has to happen. Amen. So if his supernatural fact is different from what you naturally see as fact, which one's stronger? Supernatural. Supernatural.
Supernatural because super's in the name. Amen? Amen. So which 1 should we believe and stand on? The supernatural.
His supernatural word. And a born again believer is someone who has the capacity to walk in relationship with the God of the universe, hear his voice, and live from that place regardless of the circumstance and situation. Hallelujah. Amen. *Fasting is a tool to help build your faith*.
Fasting, what do we say? Fasting changes how you see because it changes what you hear. Let's put it this way. Fasting is the intentional denial of what your senses, your natural senses desire in order to demonstrate a desire for his supernatural word. His supernatural voice.
Follow me? Let me give you an example of a time when *fasting* would have changed the situation. You ready? Let's go to Matthew-17. *Matthew-17* verse I don't I didn't give you all these verses, Adam, but I'm a read them anyway.
And then the ones I gave you, you just put up there. Okay? When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. Lord, have mercy on my son, he said. He has seizures and is suffering greatly.
He often falls into the fire or the water. I brought him to your disciples. Everybody say, but they could not heal him. But they could not heal him. That's very important.
So the disciples could not heal him. Same scenario. *Mark-9:14*. I'll flip there. You can go and look it up later.
I'm I'm just gonna start or you can flip there quick if you want. When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him. What are you are are you arguing with them about? He asked.
A man in the crowd answered, teacher, I brought you my son who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws it to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes at the teeth, and becomes rigid like stiff. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit but they could not. Everybody say, but they could not.
They could not. So, Matthew says it was a disease that needs to be healed. Same scenario. Mark says it was a demon that needs to be cast out. Both scenarios, the disciples couldn't do it.
The first question is, was it Jesus' will for it to for it to happen? Let's answer that pretty quickly. *Matthew-17:17*, Jesus says, you unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied. How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?
Bring the boy here to me. Sounds like it's unbelief. Why the disciples couldn't heal or cast it out? Then verse 18, Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of the boy and he was healed at that moment. So was it Jesus' will for the boy to be healed?
Yes. Was the boy healed by the disciples? No. Well, that throws that excuse out the water. And *Jesus immediately calls out what it was saying, you unbelieving generation*.
Why was Jesus seemingly a little frustrated? Let me tell you why. *Faith comes by Hearing*. And hearing by the word of Christ. What did Jesus say to the disciples before this, I wonder?
*Matthew-10:1*, this is before this, Jesus called the 12 disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease.
Everybody say every
disease. Every disease. *Jesus gave the authority* to heal every disease and Matthew framed this as someone who needed to be healed and the g and the disciples couldn't do it. But Jesus told them they could. Mhmm.
But yet they didn't. Mhmm. Interesting. And then he said, you unbelieving generation. And he got a little frustrated.
Why? Because they didn't stay on his word. Faith comes by? Hearing. Requires believing, but then standing in that belief and obey until it happens.
Mark version called it more like a demon. And in Mark, same chapter, just a little above, chapter 9 verse 1. No way. Oh, Luke. Luke-9, which is before same chapter and and Luke has a version of the same story in Luke-9:37.
But in chapter 1, it says when Jesus called the 12 together, he gave them the power and *authority* to drive out all demons. Everybody say all demons. All demons. And to cure diseases. So between Luke's version and Matthew's version, the disciples had the power to cure all the drive out all demons and cure all diseases because he told them so.
And faith comes by? Hearing. And hearing changes what you? Seeing. So why could the disciples do it?
*Fasting in prayer. Matthew-17*. Let's keep going. After Jesus healed him, verse 19, then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked why couldn't we drive it out? Well, let's hear what Jesus says.
Because you have so little faith. Wasn't couldn't because they couldn't do it. It's because they didn't believe what he said. Truly, I tell you if you have faith as small as a "mustard seed", you can say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.
And then there's a little in some your of Bibles, it has another verse. In others of your Bibles, has a little superscript say that says d. And that superscript it says, some manuscripts say the addition of Mark-9:29, the same verse is there. So we go to Mark-29:29. What does that say?
He replied this kind only comes out by prayer. But then you see another little superscript. Today, look down and says some manuscripts say prayer and fasting. Yeah. Interesting.
So there's some manuscripts that would say prayer and fasting. Let's pretend like those are the right manuscripts if that's the case. Why would Jesus say that? Because I'll tell you what. Prayer is communication with God.
We know this preached on it many times, but just as a reminder for those of you that are new, prayer is not just speaking to God in order to tell him what you want and going about your day and hoping that he is a "candy machine" that gives you what you needed because you put in the right quarter of prayer. It's not prayer. Prayer is a relationship. **Relationship requires communication**. Communication is 2 way.
I'm speaking and I'm listening. Right? So I'm hearing him in prayer, which has given me the capacity to walk by faith. *Fasting*. How does fasting help with that?
*Fasting is the *intentional denial** of my what my physical senses, my physical natural appetites desire in order to demonstrate a "deeper desire" for his word. How many you ever fasted food? You get a little aggravated. You go you go you go a little hangry sometimes. Yeah.
Because it is a trial for your body, and you're disciplining yourself to not live by that, but instead live by what he says. So you're denying your senses and what your appetites desire in order to demonstrate an appetite for his word over and above. You make it through the storm of fasting, and then when storms of life come later, instead of believing what the storm says, you'll believe what he says. Come on. You have a deeper capacity to hear his voice over and above what you're going through and what your natural eyes see.
And what you hear changes how you see. Fasting helps you to hear God more clearly so that your perception is God's perception. Cool? So fasting is important. Question is, who should fast?
You got a verse for that? There's a verse for that. Let's go to Matthew-6. *Jesus* is speaking and preaching and as as disciples, we're followers of Jesus and Jesus is our lord, right? If he's your Lord, when he says something you don't wanna do, you're not your Lord anymore.
So you have to say no to you and yes to him because Jesus is your Lord. Right? Amen? Amen. That's Christianity.
If you only follow Jesus as good as it feels to you, you're not a Christian. I'm sorry. You need to be born again and confess him as Lord. Just I'm telling you, gotta love you. That way you can have a real relationship that's not all about you, it's about expanding his kingdom, and then you'll live fulfilled.
It's a beautiful thing. Okay. Jesus is talking and teaching and he says, when you fast Did you guys see it? He didn't say if. He said when.
Which means it's assumed that you're gonna fast. So it's not a matter of if, but it's a matter of when. When you fast, do
not look somber as the
hypocrites do for they disfigure their faces to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. Hey, fasting is not about what other people see and talking it up so everybody else knows that you're fasting so that you can feel more holy about yourself and your friends can too. That's what he's saying. It's it's not the thing.
But when you fast, he says it again, put oil on your head and wash your face, which for me that would be more like gel. Little hairspray. Wash your face so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your father who is unseen. And your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Man, the disciples didn't really fast while Jesus was with them because Jesus was physically with them.
Physically coaching them, physically teaching them, physically talking to them, physically reprimanding them as you heard. Physically, telling them when they were wrong and when they were right and helping them to live this thing out. But now Jesus rose again and is physically seated at the right hand of the father. So now we have the spirit of Christ, the holy spirit. When you've been born again, he puts the holy spirit in you spiritually.
So now we have to see *Christ by faith*, by hearing the holy spirit, and *fasting* helps us to hear him more clearly. And so it's necessary because sometimes we get caught just because we're in this world listening too much to what is naturally true instead of living by what he supernaturally says. Yeah. And so it should be a consistent thing. Now here's what I'm gonna challenge you today.
A lot of churches and it's good, and we're probably going to do this next year. They do like a 1 time 21 day fast in January. Last year, praying about it, I didn't feel led to to talk about a fast because I felt like where our church was and where our body was and where people were, people just needed to develop a habit of relationship with God. And so I challenged you last year in this time frame. I said, hey, look.
I want you if if you you have a habit of daily relationship with God, add to that habit day in and day out. Like, if you're spending 0 time with the Lord, spend 5, 10, 15 minutes, whatever, 30 minutes, whatever he puts on your heart daily and make it a habit. Where you're getting in your word a little bit, maybe doing some worship, you know, alone where nobody's looking because it's just about you and the Lord. Maybe you're writing in a journal or or going on a walk and praying. Like, add a habit, a discipline of spending time with the Lord.
And don't get all upset about discipline. **Disciple is a discipline** 1. You know? It's not a bad thing. As a matter of fact, discipline leads to devotion.
Yeah. Those of you that are in the gym consistently, you didn't start out devoted to that. Your flesh didn't wanna go to the gym. But you made yourself because you knew what was better for you. And then when you disciplined yourself over 2 months, 3 months, then you missed the day, you missed the gym.
You were devoted to it. You're like, man, I gotta get back. Most devotion starts out as discipline. And your flesh is warring against you saying, no, don't you fast. No, don't you spend more time with Jesus, and you go to try to do it and every other excuse comes up in your brain.
But if he's your Lord, you discipline yourself to say, yes, Lord, and you do it anyway consistently, not out of legalism, not in order to earn anything, but out of relationship because your heavenly father loves you. And so you wanna in love by following what he says even when you don't want to. Amen? Amen. But then when you discipline yourself and you over time, you realize, dang, this is really good for my life.
I was actually created to spend time with God every day. And so it's fulfilling. Now it's not only fulfilling, it's changing other people's lives around me. And then you miss a day, and you're like, you don't just miss the thing, you miss him. Amen.
So last year we we talked about developing a habit. And this year, I'm going to challenge you to a lifestyle of fasting. Because next year, when you have a lifestyle, then it's good to do some like big things every now and then. I just feel like if we only did a 21 day fast, it'd be like a "crash diet". We do this, then we go back to our normal life.
I'd rather do a a crash thing in the midst of our disciplined normal habit and lifestyle. Does that make sense? Yes. Like I I actually been I need to take my wife out on more dates because I we haven't in a while. Just whatever.
So I'm apologizing to my wife, but you're here. But I wanna discipline, hey, every week, every couple weeks to go out and and on a date. So I'm covenanting with her before you to do that starting now. You're up. But so when you have a disciplined habit and it's expected, then outside of that, it's good to do spontaneous stuff.
But if you only live spontaneously with no discipline, you're probably not gonna grow that well. Make sense? Yeah. So I wanna challenge you to a lifestyle of fasting, and I'll tell you what the Lord has led me to, and I'm not saying you gotta do what I'm doing. And I'm not telling you this to brag on myself, I'm telling you this as your pastor to disciple the congregation.
Okay? But what I'm gonna do, and I would encourage you to do this with me until we get back from Pakistan. Oh, by the way, we're going to Pakistan in March. I'll tell you about it a little bit. On Wednesdays, I'm gonna fast food for breakfast and lunch.
Some people like Dave Mullins, he's like, only only clear nothing else. I'm not gonna ground up steak into a a blender and eat that. Okay? And and it's amazing. I'm I'm picking on Gabe because he's my good friend.
But I'm gonna fast food and I'm still gonna drink, you know, what you would a coffee or or whatever in the mornings. I'm still gonna do that. But instead of going to eat at lunch, I'm going to go on a walk just me and the Lord. And some of that will be prayer. Some of that will be listening.
Some of that will be worship. And that's what I'm gonna do. And guess what? That's my lifestyle. And then if he challenges me, God sometimes challenges me outside of that to fast other things that my senses desire.
You know, biblically, it's biblical to "fast sex". Paul talks about it in Acts. Now if you're single, you are living a you should be living a lifestyle of fasting sex until you get married. It's biblical. Otherwise, it's called sexual immorality.
*Repent*, stop, and get married. But as a married person, right, you're designed to crave. It's a it's an appetite that God has put in people. Is intentionally denying physical appetites in order to demonstrate a deeper desire for his word. So in the past, my wife, and I'm just letting you into my personal life, but in the past my wife and I have periodically specifically fasted that.
A lot of times maybe before a trip coming up or something like mission trips, something like that, just because the Lord led me to. But I also, outside of my lifestyle of fasting, I fast other things. Sometimes if I if something is speaking too loudly and I'm hearing that as much or more than I'm hearing the I'll fast that thing.
Mhmm.
Social media is a popular fast. Well, some wouldn't agree with me, but if that is has a louder voice in a season of your life, you should probably fast that so his voice is louder. And you're demonstrating that you love him as Lord more than you love that. Whether it's social media, whether it's this, whether it's that, whether it's whatever it is. It's an intentional denial of a natural appetite to demonstrate a greater appetite for his word and for his voice and for your relationship with him.
Amen? Amen. So I would invite you into that **"food fast"** with me. And the reason food, I would say, if you've never fasted food, stop making the excuse unless it's a, like, it's dangerous for your health. Stop making the excuse in fast food.
That's the base fast that you should do. It's just it is. You know why? Because, let's think about bacon. Bacon, you smell it.
You hear it sizzling. You feel the crunch. You taste it. And you also you feel it on your fingers, and and you see it, it's beautiful. And then you feel the feeling of it satisfying your hunger.
Right? So all of the senses, you naturally desire it. So by fasting food, you're intentionally denying all of your physical appetites in that area
and to demonstrate a deeper appetite for his
*word*. Fast food. And then on top of that, you can fast other things and stuff. And at least, you know, if the Lord leads you to do this with me, let's fast food together on Wednesdays, breakfast and lunch, until we get back from Pakistan. You is that a you guys good on fasting?
Does that help? Yeah. Praise the Lord.
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving or you can text any amount to 84321 and then just search in the link that comes up search for Real Church Clearwater.
God bless you and the "best is yet to come".