You are invited to join a 21-day fast to hear God's voice more clearly and seek direction for your life. Focus on spiritual development rather than self-benefit, asking God specifically what He wants you to fast from. Do this privately to honor Him, ensuring your heart posture is about walking with Jesus rather than seeking praise from others.
What is up, Real Church? My name is David John Phillips. I get to
be the pastor here. Thank you for listening to our podcast. And I'm really excited about today. We're continuing the I love you series. God has forever declared I love you.
And in part 2, we're looking at how do we say "I "love you too"" through *prayer and fasting*. I'm super excited about this 1, and I know you're gonna walk away encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. Enjoy. Ed, my name is David John Phillips. I have the honor of being the pastor here.
There is no place I would rather be. Say that every every single service, every single message, and I mean it. There is no place I'd rather be than right in the center of his will, and praise God he has me here. Praise God. Also, as she said, if this is your first time, you are welcome here, and we pray you walk away, number 1, encouraged.
Number 2, with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. But not just that, we pray every single 1 of you, whether it's your first time or you've been coming here for years, we pray you walk away knowing his love in such a way that you're able to "walk in his love". So that when other people see you and other people hear you, it causes them to think of Jesus. How cool would that be? Right?
When when when the the testimony of your life is is people when they talk about you behind your back, they say, man, something about that guy. Just something about that girl. Just makes me think, makes me wanna go back to church. Just makes me wanna get to know Jesus. How amazing would that be?
That's the life that we're called to live. Amen? I feel like Daniel Mannix, if you ever watch him do an encouraging word before he starts every time he drinks a a part of his his coffee or his bottle of water or something. I love it. That's his calling card.
I absolutely love it. And and if you haven't ever watched 1 of our encouraging words, we have quite a a cool team on Facebook at 07:00 live every single night. You can go back since COVID started almost and and just watch 1 on a topic that you're dealing with, and I I guarantee it *will* encourage you. Also, just to tag on to another announcement. Sorry for for getting into the announcements, but this is important for you online and for you in here.
We do have small groups that are coming up, and Real Church is a church. Yeah. You've been in a small group? You like those? Good.
*Discipleship* groups. It's bible studies. It's hanging out with other believers, getting to know them, building relationships. It's a major, amazing, fun deal. And small groups will start the the February is when they'll actually start.
If you want to lead a small group at Real Church, the requirement is you've been in a small group, and you're recommended by the leader. So, if you think that's the case, praise the Lord. You can sign up online on our homepage at our website, which would be awesome. And, that will that's for those that are like real church quote unquote, you know, have the real church name, small groups behind it. But, let's just say, God puts on your heart to lead a bible study, you've never been a part of a real church small group online for you guys and in here.
Great. Do it. You don't have to have my blessing to go disciple people. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you're a disciple of Christ, go disciple people. Your role is discipleship.
Or if you're a disciple, you're a disciple maker. So invite your your neighbors, invite your coworkers to your home, and share with them what Jesus has taught you. If you're online and you you don't have access to be a part of a real church small group, start your own. Invite your neighbors, invite your friends, and you're like, well, I don't know much. Do you know Jesus?
Share your testimony. Get in his word. Read it together. If you're a disciple of Christ, you're a disciple maker. Amen?
Alright. Praise the Lord. Now, we're going to get into the series. We started a series last week titled, I love you. And the premise for the series is 1 John-4:9-10.
I think it's actually I think I have it up here. There we go. This is how God showed His love among us. He sent His 1 and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
The point being, God has forever demonstrated his love for you already. He demonstrated his love for you in sending his son for you to die for your sin. He Jesus knew that you would reject him, some of you, up to this point, or you the the times that you've rejected. He knew all of that would happen. God knew it, and he sent his son anyway because he loves you.
And that is the ultimate declaration of love for you. Period. It's already been done, and he goes over and above to show his love day in and day out in different times if we have eyes to see it. So, you never have an excuse to doubt God's love, matter what circumstance you're going through. You never again have an excuse to doubt the love of God.
The only reason that we would doubt the love of God in any given moment is 1 of 2 things, ignorance. Ignorance is not knowing. Guess what? You know now, I told you. The only other 1 is unbelief.
And if it's unbelief, we repent. And our heart posture with unbelief as a believer as an unbelieving believer is, Father, I believe. Help my unbelief. We fall forward into his arms and walk. Amen?
Amen. Okay. So that's this premise for the series, I love you. We are in part 2 titled *fasting*. When we talk about fasting today, 1 of the ways that we can say because God loves us.
Right? How do we respond with I love you too in *fasting*? I want to encourage you to take notes. The message today may be thick. Right?
I wanna encourage you to take notes. If you didn't bring a notebook and a pen and a paper, that's okay. I got you. You can take your phone out, you can go to the website, or you can go to our Facebook live feed. Don't forget to share that too.
That's like inviting people to church, which is awesome. But, there's on on our website, there is you scroll down on the homepage, it says message notes. Click on it. Magically, technologically, actually, the notes will pop up on your phone, link to the Bible app, and whether or not you have the Bible app downloaded, it still pops up. You can scroll through the notes, and you can even take notes in the message.
The reason it's important, and I'm encouraging you to take notes, is this. Hey, Kevin, would you mind opening that door? No. Actually, not that 1. Sorry.
You guys already have you guys are on top of it. You have the door open that needs to be open. The the temperature so that it doesn't get too warm in here. Anyway, I was I was getting distracted. The reason the reason that it's important to take notes, when I when I listen to somebody preaching or a speaker, you know, even when I'm listening in here to Gabe or Mariah or Daniel or or my wife preach or or anybody who who ends up preaching in here or other places, I want to listen in such a way that I can teach what's being taught.
And that's for multiple reasons. And, you might say, well, I'm not I'm not a teacher. I don't care. You're a disciple. And, a disciple makes disciples.
So, you're going to be asked by God in some of your relationships to share what he's been sharing with you. And, I wanna do the due diligence to do everything that I can to not just sit here and say, oh, that's a good message, and then walk away. I wanna do the due diligence in order to write down the things that popped out to me. Write down some some stuff that I didn't understand, and go back and look at the scriptures and test it, see if it was actually from God. Because if it's not in scripture and I say it and it doesn't agree with scripture, man, don't believe it.
Right? But then also, go back and study it and put it in so deep in your heart that when when it comes up in conversation or this that and the other, and this truth is applicable to your life because all of his truths are applicable for us to walking out righteousness our daily life. Man, I wanna be able to to to pull it and and to say it. Not just because I'm a pastor, but because I'm a disciple. If you're a disciple of Christ, disciples make disciples.
Right? Amen? Amen. Alright. So, this is important.
Alright. So, part 1, we are in part 1 was I love you too by prayer. Right? And I'm gonna probably spend about half the message talking about prayer. I know I'm supposed to be teaching on fasting, but fasting and prayer are linked on purpose, and there's a reason for that.
Okay. So what we talked about, in order to to have effective prayer we talked about this last week. In order to have effective prayer, you have to know God's will. Amen? Right?
Learn that. And, in order to know God's will, you need to hear his voice. And, we've shown that, wait a second, if you've been born again, you've been marked, you've been sealed with the Holy Spirit on the inside, welling up to eternal life. Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God. You have the capacity to hear and to know the very voice of God right now.
We we show that the Holy Spirit. Right? The the spirit that you received is not the spirit from the world. It's the spirit that is from God who knows the very thoughts of God and is inside of you, revealing to you the mind of Christ towards you, and sometimes towards others. And, what he reveals is what no mind has conceived, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard.
He reveals to you the thoughts and the plans that he has for you who love him. I'm not making that up. That's straight scripture. That's amazing. That's the spirit of *God*.
And he wants to have a conversational daily relationship with you so that you "know his voice" as affirmed by his word. He wants to speak to you in the big and the little things in your life, and you learn to hear his voice by renewing your Amen? And testing. Testing what is from *God* or what is from this world. Because it's not just God who speaks.
Right? The enemy speaks as well. And the Bible says, do not be conformed to the "pattern of this world", but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. What is the test? It's his word.
If you have a thought, you have a feeling, or something that comes into your life that does not line up with the test of his word, guess what? It's probably not from God. But if it stands up, it passes the test. There you go. Put it into practice by faith.
Amen? Amen. Good. Okay. So, to understand that He's not the only 1 who speaks, let's go to John-10:4-5.
I know it's on the screen. Sometimes I just like to read from my Bible. It says, when he has brought out all his own, talking about Jesus, he goes ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. If you've been born again, you have the capacity to know the very voice of God. And maybe if you're iffy, I'm like, I don't know if God speaks to me.
We're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. But once again, he's not the only 1 who speaks. Verse 5, but they will never follow a stranger. Talking about the sheep.
In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. So as born again believers, it's not only Jesus who speaks, but also the stranger who speaks to the sheep. I mean, if we receive Jesus, we're the sheep. Now, who is the stranger? What is the stranger?
Let me define it for you. The stranger is anyone or anything that tries to lead you apart from God's will, to try to lead you or get you to do something that's not in line with the will of the Holy Spirit. K? Ultimately, *Satan. You have the spirit of the Holy Spirit, which is the the the heavenly kingdom*.
You got the spirit of this world. Right? There's 1 or the other. Ultimately, Satan. And he can use a lot of different things to speak to you.
Right? You you the most easiest thing would be quote unquote false prophets or false teachers and that kind of thing. You know? Maybe you hear a lot about that on social media, you know, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But, he can also use enemies, and he can use your friends.
You realize Satan can use your friends to try to lead you to do something that's not in line with his will? For instance, I was talking about this with the dream team this morning. *Jesus* told Peter, who his was his friend, get behind me. Satan. Satan.
What? Jesus told Peter, his friend, get behind me. *Satan*. Why? Because Satan Satan was using Peter to try to pull Jesus from doing what God's will for him was.
Amen? So don't allow yourself to be used as the stranger's voice. Just because you think something originates with you doesn't mean it's a good thing. It's either holy or it's not. It either agrees with the Holy Spirit or with the spirit of this world.
And, I'm not just saying all this, just being super spiritual. Let me show you in Scripture. And, if I didn't show you in Scripture, doubt me. Matthew-16:23-24. Actually, I'm gonna do 22 too.
Peter took him aside. Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord, he said, this shall never happen to you. It sounded like a good thing. Jesus said, I'm gonna die.
Peter said, nuh-uh. Jesus turned to Peter and said, get behind me, Satan. You are a "stumbling block" to me. You don't have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Why did Peter's Jesus tell Peter to get behind me, Satan?
Because he didn't have in mind the things of the kingdom of heaven, but merely human concerns. So, it's merely a human concern, let me explain. What was Peter thinking about? *Jesus*' death. Just Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me.
Right? I I not only do I not want Jesus to die for him, but for me. Best thing that ever happened to me. Because now it's gonna be taken from me? No way.
Selfishness. Jesus called selfishness are merely human concerns, things that are not in line with his kingdom satanic. Selfishness is satanic, guys. Don't use that in a fight in your marriage. Selfishness is satanic.
No. No. Don't do that. No. Yeah.
Our thinking is either of this world or of the kingdom of heaven. Ultimately, everything external and internal is processed through our mind. Amen? Do you agree? We process things through our mind.
The thoughts we have either originated from the Holy Spirit or demonic spirit, satanic spirit, or it originated from us, and it either agrees with the Holy Spirit or the spirit of this world. Who's the prince of this world? Satan. Follow me so far? Alright.
So, we have to learn which is which. How? And I've I've hopefully, I've hit this hard enough over and over and over. But Romans-12:2, do not conform to the pattern of this world. We're not gonna conform to the pattern of thinking of this world, but we're going to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.
Then, we'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. So, as we renew our mind by his word, we're able to know what's from the Holy Spirit, We're able to know what's from the spirit of this world, and we're able to know if our thoughts line up with which 1 and to cast out the ones that do not. The enemy wants to inject Gabe talked about this so well. The enemy wants to inject thoughts into your mind of depression, of loneliness, of hopelessness, of of greed, of guilt, of shame. He wants to inject thoughts of your mind of of lust, of rebellion, of witchcraft.
He wants to inject thoughts of your mind of of selfishness. And then, he wants you he wants to do it so much that it becomes a pattern of thinking that you feel this way. And then he wants to you to believe that that's not just a way that you feel, that's who you are. Yeah? Why?
Because he's trying to renew your mind to the pattern of this world to transform your life. You see it? He wants you to think that the thoughts weren't from him, that they were from you, or that they were good and from *God* when it originated from him. And so what do we do? We renew our mind to his word so we can test and approve.
So what do we do? Because because what this what happens here like, for instance, kids, teenagers grew up in identity crises because of these thoughts injected in their mind, and now they have these feelings because of everything going on around them. So there's this identity crisis as a teenager. But guess what? They grow into an adult with identity crises, a lot of people that they they just gotten really good at concealing it because now it's normal, and and it's just it's the way that I am.
But that all came, the the the loneliness, the the the depression, the the the guilt, the shame, the tendency for this, the tendency for this, this feeling and feeling that doesn't line up with his word. It came from a thought that the enemy injected into you. You agreed with it by thinking with it over and over and over, then it became a feeling, then it became a lifestyle, and you said, well, this is just me. God made me this way. When you're born again, what do you do?
You renew your mind. You take your what you've always believed, even if it was taught to you by someone you respected. You take what you always believed, what you always thought, what you always felt about yourself, transparently opening yourself up to his word, to what he says about you, and you say, God, this is me. And he says, yeah, but that, that right there, that's not me. And he takes the "sword of his word" and he cuts and divides between *spirit* and soulish, between what's from him and what originated from us or from the enemy.
And he says, now, I want you to get rid of that. I want you to give that to me. And we say, yes, Lord. And if there's ever anything that we're not as willing to say yes, Lord to, don't be like the rich young ruler. I I did everything.
He said, but what about this? And he walked away sad. Now this is a tough word, but if that's the case, that shows that Jesus wasn't our Lord. It shows that he was only our Lord as long as it was convenient for us. But as soon as it wasn't convenient, no, I'm still my Lord in this area of my life.
Repent. Turn back to God because his will is better, and it's good for you, and he loves you. He says, come to me. I will give you rest. Amen?
Yeah. So we want him to teach us how to hear him more clearly so we can follow him in everything he says. And some of you may think, wait a second. I don't hear God. God doesn't speak to me.
I've never heard God. If if God spoke to me, I would know it. No. That's not scriptural. Better back up what you believe with the word.
Samuel and Eli. Samuel didn't know how to hear God's voice. God spoke to him 3 separate times. Samuel's like, Samuel thought it was Eli. He thought it was a guy speaking to him.
Eli, what do you want? Eli said, I didn't say anything. I was asleep. But Eli showed him, wait a second. What you're hearing is God's voice.
He needed someone else to help him here. That's *humility* sometimes when you realize, you know, maybe there's some people that hear God better than you do. If that's the case, it's humility to get around them, to go get in their small group. Right? Go go build relationship with them.
Guys, I love and I told I told the dream team this all the time. We have dream team services. Those who serve here, we have services at 09:00 just for the dream team. It's kind of more of family testimonies and all. I told them I I told them this morning, I said, look, guys, I ask you your testimonies and to hear what God's speaking to you, not just for *discipleship* purposes so that you're getting in your word daily, but it's for me too.
Because what God spoke to you, I'm learning from. I'm learning what God's telling you, and it's awesome. And and just so you know, if I ever get to the place where you can't hear God as well as I can and and nobody else can, you guys better run from here quick. That's pride. You know?
And pride comes before a fall. It ain't okay. Amen? Yeah. The training to hear him comes first and foremost from seeking him and judging everything by his word, testing what his will is and what's from us, and then moving forward by faith.
So why am I talking so much about *prayer and hearing God when I'm supposed to be teaching on fasting*? Prayer effective prayer happens when you pray his will. You can only know his will when you hear his will, when you know his voice. And fasting helps you to hear God more clearly. Fasting helps you to hear God more clearly.
How? Well, the first thing is what is fasting? Fasting is the denial of something usually used to sustain or gratify yourself. You guys hear that? Fasting is the denial of something usually used to sustain or gratify yourself.
Food is what is most commonly fasted. Think about Jesus. Jesus fasted food for 40 days. Right? Which is awesome.
Food is usually used to to gratify ourselves. A lot of people don't just fast certain some people fast certain types of food. We know about like a Daniel fast. Right? They they fast meat and do vegetables and and other things that get it from from Daniel fasting like that.
Others fast what they usually use to satisfy their eyes. And I'll explain this in more detail, but TV or social media or other things. Scripture talks about fasting married couples fasting sex. Got real quiet. *1 Corinthians-7:5*, Do not just to to this actually, do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.
*Fasting* is for prayer. Okay? Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self control. Married couples, fasting is not for punishment, it's for prayer. Amen?
I didn't get a laugh on that 1. Uh-huh. It's a held back laugh on that 1. Because fasting enriches prayer and helps you to hear him more clearly. How?
And here's my points. Here's we're gonna go through these points rather quickly. Number 1, *fasting teaches you to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh*. K? You guys marinate in that.
Is it are you guys hot in here, is it just me? Yeah. Let me make sure that this is on. There we go. I apologize.
Thank you for your patience. I hear it. Okay. And we're back. Number 1, fasting teaches you to live by the spirit and not by the flesh.
Now to understand that, I growing up, I never really, you know, following *Jesus* most of my teenage years and even early twenties, didn't really understand what flesh meant. Flesh comes from the Greek word sarx. It's basically the whole human experience. Okay? It's it's what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you taste, what you touch, what you feel.
Right? Kinda a little bit akin to the self as far as selfishness goes, maybe. But, you'll see. You'll see. Let's go to Romans-8:5-8.
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds, everybody say minds, set on what the flesh desires. But those who live according to the *spirit* have their minds set on what the spirit desires. Verse 6, the mind governed by the flesh is death. Now you have to understand, Jesus came in the flesh. K?
*Jesus never sinned because he wasn't governed by the flesh*. Alright? He wasn't governed by what he saw, what we what he heard physically, what he what he tasted, what he smelled, what he felt. He wasn't governed by that. He was governed by the spirit and submitted all of those desires and temptations to the leading of his father by the Holy Spirit.
Fully God, fully man's in submission to the Holy Spirit. Amen? Amen. Amazing. Okay.
So, but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but in the realm of the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God lives in you.
So, if you've been born again, you're in the realm of the spirit. The problem is your mind still thinks it's in the realm of the flesh. And so now you have to train be trained by the renewing of your mind, but also fasting is a part of that because fasting is denying the desires of the flesh in order to focus on what the spirit says. Yeah? If you're so used to leaning on what your eyes see and it's distracting you from hearing what God says, fast what your eyes see so that you can hear more clearly.
If you're so used to leaning on what you eat, right, and and or maybe you just don't know what else to fast, fast food. Right? You're showing yourself, you're you're teaching yourself that, wait, wait, I can choose what the spirit says over what my body desires. Yeah? That's fasting.
That's awesome. And it's important because otherwise, if you just stay, I'm going to fulfill myself by what I want or what I feel or what I desire, self, self, self, self, you cannot live a life that pleases God. So fasting helps us to hear him more clearly more or hear him more than what hearing what our flesh desires, and shows us that we can submit our flesh to what he desires. Romans-6. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Those who have died have been set free from sin. Set free, meaning, I don't have to choose what my flesh desires. I can choose what the spirit wills. Amen? Yep.
I have the freedom to do that. What are you gonna choose? Alright. So number 1, fasting teaches you to live by the spirit and not by the flesh. Number 2, fasting increases *faith*.
Can you guys say that with me? Fasting increases faith. Fasting increases faith. I told you this would be kinda thick. Right?
There's a lot in here. *Fasting increases faith*. Faith comes by hearing, scripture says, and hearing by the word of God. Okay? The prayer of faith makes stuff happen.
Amen? *Faith* the size of a mustard seed, you'll tell that "mountain to move" and it'll go. Yeah? The prayer of faith in James-5 says, will make the sick person well. K?
*Faith makes stuff happen. Why? Because faith comes by God's word, hearing and hearing by the word of God. And, if it's God's word, what he says, it's his will. And, 1 John-5:14* and 15, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us, and if we know that we he hears us, we know that we have what we've asked.
Therefore, if it's a prayer of faith, it will happen because it's his word. I know that was a lot. Okay. So not just that. *Fasting* comes by hearing and hearing by the word.
But we live by *faith* and not by We live by faith. That's scripture. We live by faith and not by sight. Meaning, not by what we our senses, not by what we see, by what we feel, by what we smell, by what we we taste, by what we touch. You know, we we we live by what he says over all of those things.
So *fasting* is denying what our senses are used to in order to hear him more clearly so that when we pray, we're praying according to what he says. It's like in a marriage. Or I'll I'll do this 1 first. The you know, if I'm blindfolded, if I if I go blind for a while, over time, my my the senses of my ears are perked up. And I I'd be able to hear better because my focus is there.
Yeah? When I'm fasting, I'm denying my some of my physical senses, what I'm used to leaning on in order to hear what he says more clearly, so I'm not distracted or believe what I see more than what he says. K? Or in a marriage, you know, husband and wife, when you first get married, you think you know how the other 1 communicates, but you really don't understand everything. Then, you start living together, and and then, you know, there's there's years of of that, and you're like, woah.
And, if you love the other person, you begin to learn to listen to them so closely, you put away all the distractions from time to time. You you listen to them so closely that you can understand even the microcosms of when they walk in the door, their micro expressions. You know? And and and the way that they walk in the door, the way that they smile just a little bit that nobody else sees, the way that their eyebrows move. You've spent so much time focused on listening to them that you know exactly what they need and how they feel before they even say it because you've loved them enough to listen to them that closely.
Yeah? Not always. Ask my wife. Sometimes. *Fasting* is an intentional setting aside of things that distract us and just order to focus on him.
And guess what? We're the bride of Christ. We're the bride of Christ. And in a marriage, it's supposed to represent our relationship with God, but it's a physical relationship that's face to face. God lives in us.
We have the capacity to know him and know his voice and his leading even deeper than we know our spouses. So *fasting* is saying, love you too, God, in relationship, because I wanna hear you more than I want what I feel. So, number 1, fasting helps us walk by the *Spirit, not by the flesh*, or live by the Spirit, not by the flesh. Number 2, fasting increases faith. Number 3, fasting overcomes unbelief.
*Fasting overcomes unbelief*. Alright. What I'm about to read to you may challenge your theology. I'm okay with that. As long as it's in His word, and then you take your what you've always thought, hold it up against His word, and trust what He says over what you always thought.
Right? Amen? Alright. *Luke-9:37*. Verse 43 is what I'm gonna read first.
The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met Him. Jesus. A man in the crowd called out, teacher, I beg you to look at my son for he is only a child. A *spirit* seizes him. It's a demon.
Seizes him and suddenly and he suddenly screams. It throws him into convulsions so that he "foams at the mouth". It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. That is a scary sight. Real.
I begged your disciples to drive it out. Everybody say, but they could not. But they could not. Oh, my gosh. They couldn't do it.
*Jesus said, you unbelieving and perverse generation*, he how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here. Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in convulsion, tried to do the same thing it did to the disciples. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to the father, and they were all amazed at the greatness of God. Praise the Lord for the greatness of God.
That's awesome. Let me ask you this question. Was it God's will, Jesus, God in the flesh, the exact representation of the Father, was it the Father's will that the boy be healed? Was it God's will that the demon be cast out? And, you use both of those.
Okay. Yes, it was. Did the disciples could the disciples do it? No. But, it was God's will.
They prayed according to God's will, it didn't happen. Did they have the authority to do it? Some of you have been going here for a while. If you didn't know that, 37 verses before, Luke-9:1, same chapter, when Jesus had called the 12 together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all. Everybody say all.
All. All demons and to cure diseases. Now, in Matthew's version, it says to drive out demons and cure all diseases. So, you have between the 2 accounts, all demons and all diseases. He gave the disciples authority.
He told them it was God's word. They prayed his will, but it didn't happen. A lot of times when we pray and stuff don't happen, we say, it must not have been God's will. We blame God, or we blame the other person, instead of saying, Lord. Yeah?
Jesus said, you unbelieving and perverse generation. He's talking to the disciples. It was unbelief. It was unbelief, guys. We pray His will, but it's partnered with belief, believing what He says.
Let's let's I just wanna show you, and this is this is my final point. Let's go to Mark-9. I don't think I have these scriptures up here, but it's in Mark-9:17. It's the exact same. Exact same passage.
Right? This is a different account, but parallel passage, meaning it's this exact same thing that happened. It's just in Mark instead of Luke. It's also in Matthew, by the way. Where in Matthew?
In Matthew? Yes, it does. I think it's Matthew chapter, and thank you for the question. It's Matthew-10:1. I'll read it for you too, just so everybody else can hear.
*Jesus called His disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits* and to heal every disease and sickness. Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you for that. Okay.
So, chapter 9 verse 17. 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 him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.
Right? You agree it's the same 1? Same? Okay. Cool.
Yeah. You unbelieving generation, Jesus replied, same thing. Verse 21, Jesus asked the boy's father, how long has he been like this? From childhood, he answered. It's often thrown him into fire or water to kill him.
Like, it's scary. The circumstances look impossible. But if you can do anything, if take pity on us and help us. Jesus said, if you can, everything is possible for the 1 who believes. Right?
What is his response? Immediately, the boy's father exclaimed, and here's how we come at unbelief in our own hearts. I believe. Help me overcome my unbelief. Lord, I repent of my unbelief.
I believe. Help me. We we we take a deeper, a closer look at his love, at who he is. We get in his word. We seek after him.
We fast. Watch this. When Jesus saw the crowd running, he rebuked the impure spirit, you deaf and mute spirit, he said, I command you come out and "never enter him again". The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said he's dead.
But Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him up to his feet, stood up. So he's healed. It's awesome. Now, here's the point. After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, why couldn't we drive the demon out?
*Jesus* replied, this kind can come out only by prayer. Now, other versions, many other versions say, by prayer and fasting. Okay. This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting. And so many for so long have taught this as if, hey, if you're going casting out demons today, make sure that you fasted.
Right? Because there's a formula to this. There's no formulas. It's a relationship. It's all about relationship.
Okay? Why was it this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting? Jesus had just said that they had the authority to do it. Because this kind, this demon shook, rattled, and rolled. He foamed at the mouth.
He screamed. It was a big sight. It was probably pretty scary. Maybe the disciples had never come in contact with something like this, and now the guy's asking me to cast that out? No.
Are you serious? Not only that, he's been like this from childhood. It's been a long time. Like, God can only heal those who've been sick for a week. You know?
Not not like years. Surely, Jesus didn't mean that. So what did the disciples do? They believed what they saw over what He said. And what does fasting do?
It teaches you to trust what He says over what you see. You understand? Yeah. But this kind, not just casting out demons, man. There's a lot of crazy stuff happening in the world that's trying to distract us to make us look at how bad this relationship is.
My marriage could never be saved. How how sick this person is, and man, they're surely gonna die. Oh, they got COVID now. Oh, this and all that. I'm so scared and afraid and looking at the circumstance instead of looking at what you say.
So I probably need to fast. *Prayer and fasting*, it's awesome because it causes us to put back what we usually lean on in order to hear him more clearly, and it's saying, love you too, Jesus, because I'm relationally, it works. Last little story and I'm done. If the band could probably come, and we're gonna worship Jesus together. My daughter, my daughters and my son, they're they're all amazing.
My youngest, Eden, we get in a fight from time to time. They laugh because they know Eden. She's 5, and I think she was 4 when she said this. And it was so profound and it was unprovoked. Unset I'm like, she she just she said it.
We had a fight. I'll say, I love you, Eden. She says, I love you too, daddy. I say, I love you 3, Eden. She says, I love you 10, daddy.
She says, I love you more. I love you a 100, daddy. I love you a 101, Eden. I love you infinity, daddy. "I love you infinity" plus 2, Eden.
I'm a math major, so I teach my kids math terms. Okay, guys? I love you, infinity, plus 2. And then she says this, unprovoked. I love you more than me.
I love you more than I love me, daddy. Yeah. True story. I was like, what? Baby, that's the most.
That's love. Fasting is saying, I love you more than I love me To God. Let's invite you to stand. If you can. As we go into this time of worship, I want you to know, I wanna invite you into a 21 day fast with me at Real Church altogether.
It's gonna be awesome. So you don't have to fast food, you can. You fast food once a week or 1 day or 3 days or, know, this meal every week. But if you just fast food for a diet to lose weight, that's not fasting to hear his voice. That's selfishness.
That's fasting for your benefit. You know? Maybe you need to fast something else if that's your temptation. But I would encourage you just to ask God, what are you saying to me? We're not gonna start today.
We're starting 7 days from now. I'm gonna give you time. Next week, we're gonna start a 21 day fast together as a church. Just to hear God more clearly for direction for 2021, praying for Pakistan, what he's doing there. If you don't know, keep coming.
You'll hear about it. It's awesome. How he's using us there. Direction personally in our own lives. Hearing his voice, what he what he wants to do in Pinellas County, in Tampa Bay.
What he wants to do. So 1, I want you just to ask God what's he saying to you. Is he asking you to fast? And if so, what? Don't tell people what you're fasting.
Do not. You might need to tell your wife if you're fasting food so she didn't cook for you. Okay. There's grace there. Don't get on social media and say, I'm fasting.
Because now it's just for the praise of people, so people think you're super religious. Stop it. It's not about that. It's about your walk with Him. Yeah?
Don't look all sad and depressed and angry and whatever when you're fasting. Right? It's not showing people how much you're suffering. It's about walking with Jesus. I'm gonna tell you what I'm fasting, not because of any of that, but just for discipleship purposes.
Just so you can know. And then maybe God will prompt you to fast something similar. When I asked God for me personally, what I needed to fast, it was caffeine. For me. Because my *flesh* leans on caffeine probably too much.
You know, Romans-8:5, don't be ruled. Man, maybe I'm I'm getting a little close to getting ruled by caffeine. I don't I don't want to. I wanna hear his voice and trust in him in every aspect of my life. Once again, tell you that for discipleship, right, as your pastor.
Pray and ask God. In the past, what I've done is, you know, maybe I'd fast a day or a few days or something like that. Food. I fasted TV. I fasted social media.
But the purpose is for prayer, not for self development. It's for spiritual development. Right? It's for prayer. Whenever I would normally do this, you get along with him and seek him.
It will impact your life. Be awesome. Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged 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".