From the smoke came locusts on the earth and they were given power like the power of scorpions on the earth.

You see the same thing happen with the color red in Uh the book of exodus in hawaii the wildfires not really wildfires.

It was space lasers Just got to work and on my way someone caught me off.

I just still led to pray for them because jesus loves them, too Hey friends, it is so good to be here with you this weekend.

Always honored when I get the opportunity to speak.

And I got a question for you as we start off.

Have you ever ghosted God?

Now, don't get me wrong.

I am not encouraging you to go and do something like this.

I'm just wondering, have you ever done that?

Because I was doing that a lot this last year.

Here's the story.

About a little over a year, a year and a half ago or so, I launched a business and I began to sense that God was saying, you know, Dawn, I'm really calling you into a season of fasting to really fast and pray over your business.

And I remember thinking, hey, that's a great idea.

I should really do that.

And then I just continued moving on.

A few weeks later, I got the impression again, the Lord was like, Don, I'm calling you to fast.

I'm calling you to fast and pray.

And I was like, you know what?

I really got to put that into my calendar.

God, that's a great idea, Lord.

And then I just would just move on.

And the God was doing it over and over and over in my life, calling me to fast.

And I just kept having excuses or being busy, but I wasn't even giving him the excuses.

I just told him, oh yeah, I'll do that.

I'll do that.

But I never did that.

So it's Last August, I am at a leadership retreat, and I get an email from Taryn, who assists Pastor Jeff.

In this email, it says, hey, are you available the weekend of November 16th and 17th to preach?

If you are, there's a document down below.

You can open it up.

You can scroll through, and you can find out what the topic is for the weekend.

I love to preach, and I'm always honored to be asked.

I was super excited.

I checked my calendar.

I was completely available, not traveling anywhere.

So I was like, this is great.

Yeah, I can do this.

And I went to the document and I opened it up.

I scrolled through to see what my topic is.

And the topic staring me in the face was fasting.

And I remember sitting there and I got to be honest, at first I was a little irritated at God.

Like, are you kidding me?

And then I just started laughing.

Like I was by myself, probably look foolish, doesn't matter.

I was just laughing because it was like, all right, God.

All right, God.

you got my attention.

He sort of had me cornered because here's the deal.

I love to preach, obviously.

And I think it's always a great opportunity and I'm humbled by it, but I am not going to preach on something I'm not doing.

And so I'm sitting there like, okay.

And the Lord's like, Dawn, it's August.

The message you're going to give is going to be in November.

You got time to fast.

And so he put me into this path these last few months of fasting.

Now I had fasted before in the past, but it was just for whatever reason I was ghosting God.

Well, today we are continuing in this series on hidden holiness, and we are going to explore fasting.

Now, we're just going to scratch the surface, okay, because this topic actually could be a series all in itself.

And I really want to encourage you on this is simply ask the Holy Spirit what He's saying to you.

What does He want you to do with what you hear today?

Don't worry about your neighbor.

I know sometimes when I think about fasting, I'm like, well, I think so-and-so should fast too.

And what about this person?

It's what God does with them is none of my business.

It's actually all about each one of us doing what the Holy Spirit calls us to do.

Now, it's ironic that we actually have this topic today because, you know, once this is posted online, we'll be less than two weeks out from Thanksgiving, like our biggest feast day of the year.

Where I read, I believe that the average American consumes over 4,000 calories on Thanksgiving.

Now, don't take that as a judgment.

I love feasting, and you know what's cool is in the Bible, there are lots of feast days.

And Jesus was into feasting, right?

And actually, that's a way of discipline as well.

It's the discipline of celebration.

And some of you might be like, why can't we talk about that discipline today?

That's a topic for another day.

But here we are, not far out from Thanksgiving, but we're gonna talk a little bit about fasting.

Now, before we can actually move into this, though, we need to get some context on discipline.

Now, my initial thought when you give me the word discipline, I begin to relate to it as like when I would get in trouble.

as a kid.

Like I would have these flashbacks, right?

Flashbacks of being in the car with my brother and my sister and we're driving somewhere and I don't know what we're arguing about in the backseat, but we're arguing and I'm the oldest.

I got a younger brother and then a little sister and we're sitting back there and whatever we're fighting over, we're driving our parents upset, just crazy.

And then my dad would always say, I'm gonna pull this car over.

I'm gonna pull this car over.

And we knew he's not gonna pull the car over.

And he wouldn't pull the car over.

We were right.

But what he would do is once he'd had enough, my dad had these huge hands.

He wasn't a very big guy.

He was actually not very tall at all.

But he wore a size 12 ring on his finger.

He was a huge hand.

And before you knew it, that hand was swinging to just whatever child he could grab right behind to discipline, to get us to stop.

And I, you know, I pushed my little brother or sister in front of the hand.

That to me is a lot of how, what I think about when I first think about discipline.

But I remember my pastor teaching when I was growing up that discipline brings freedom.

And here's what he would say.

He always wanted to be able to play a piano song.

I guess it's called Moonlight Sonata or something like that.

Anyway, so what he would do is he would get the different notes down on that and he would just play and practice that all the time until he could play that song beautifully.

But he never practiced his scales or did anything else when it came to piano.

And so he didn't have the freedom to sit down at the keyboard or a piano to play because he had not been disciplined in regular practice.

Anybody who has been disciplined, like in our worship team, they've been so disciplined in how they learn their different instruments.

And because of that, they have the freedom to go and to pick up the bass guitar, the electric guitar, the keyboard, and they can play on it because they were disciplined.

Discipline is actually really good for us.

It's a good thing.

So why are the disciplines necessary?

Well, first of all, let me just say that if you've never read, there is a book that I am pulling a lot of information out of, and it's called The Celebration of Discipline.

It's by Richard Foster.

And I actually, I personally believe every Christian needs to read this book.

It's fantastic on spiritual disciplines.

And in this, Richard talks about this.

He says, hey, we are saved by grace through faith and not by works.

Pastor Jeff talked about that last week.

We don't.

earn our salvation.

It's not by works.

So we are saved, but we are still in need of some transforming, still in need of some maturing.

Because the reality is, yeah, we're saved, but we still struggle with things like envy, anger, hostility, people pleasing, different things like that that get us.

And we want to be transformed.

And we're like, well, how can we have our character transformed?

And Richard Foster says it's.

that it's transformed when we are walking along the path of disciplined grace the path of disciplined grace it's grace because it's free right unmerited favor but it's disciplined because there actually is something for us to do and the way that he explains it is that it's almost like you're walking on top of a ridge line and you need to stay on the ridge line and not go to the right or to the left now a couple of times in the in my history of backpacking and hiking and such, I've been up to Yosemite, and one of my favorite hikes is to do clouds rest.

In fact, there's a clip that I have for you that I want you to take a look at because you're walking a ridgeline very high in the air, and it's going to help to illustrate for us what it looks like to walk the path of disciplined grace.

Take a look at this.

All right, here we go.

Going across the narrow spine of clouds rest.

You can look straight down that's abdomen.

down to Yosemite Valley.

And if you look on my other side, you can see down, let's see the, I think it's the Yosemite Wilderness Area.

I'll use the Merced River in the distance, and the mountains there.

All right, let's climb this thing.

I'm at about 9,000 feet, maybe a little over that.

See people down there at the end.

Crazy, right?

Like it was drop-offs to the right, drop-offs to the left as we're climbing up there.

Absolutely stunning.

Absolutely beautiful.

And in this illustration, we want to stay on this, this path of disciplined grace, because to the one side you saw in the video, to the one side, you'd slide down and you'd be down in Yosemite Valley, down by the bottom of Half Dome.

To the other side, you'd end up in another part of the Sierra.

Well, in this, in our spiritual disciplines, when we step off to the right, one side is like moral.

bankruptcy through human strivings for righteousness.

This is think like religious legalism.

Think rules.

Think regulations.

When you're trying to do it all in your own strength, when you step into that, you step off the path of disciplined grace and it just slides down.

On the other side, you have moral bankruptcy through the absence of human strivings.

In other words, think lawlessness, doing whatever the heck you want.

hedonism right just whatever you want to do if it feels good you're going to do it and that just throws you down the other side instead we are to walk on this ridge which is a path and this path is where the disciplines of the spiritual life are and these disciplines lead us to inner transformation and healing disciplines like prayer meditation study confession celebration fasting.

You see, we're not severe to the right or to the left, and the path itself can be quite challenging.

Just like in that video, it wasn't like it was this smooth path.

You were walking and having to step up and having to climb over things as you were on that ridgeline.

And the same thing happens in our own life.

But the path also has tremendous joy.

It's not all hard.

It's also quite joyful.

And one thing that's really important to remember and to understand is the path does not produce the change, okay?

The path is not magical.

Rather, it places us in the place where change can occur.

See, when we turn the disciplines into laws, like you've got to do this and all of that, it's not going to lead to life.

It actually leads to death.

You see, we can easily, if we're not careful, turn them into laws, and then we use them to manipulate and control other people.

Boy, do we like to manipulate and control people.

And I'm preaching to myself.

as somebody a recovering control freak what happens with this is it then turns into pride and fear pride because we think we're all that and i don't even know if it's cool to say it this way but anymore but all that in the bag of chips right that we just think we got it all together because we do all these disciplines rah rah look at us that's prideful and fear because we're afraid of losing control if we really want to keep the disciplines a blessing we need to lay down the heavy continuous burden of always needing to manage other people.

We need to get to the place that we truly believe that inner transformation is God's work, not ours.

Only then are we going to rest from trying to set other people straight.

It's not our job to set somebody else straight.

It's our job to take care of our own lives and actually walk this path before the Lord.

Now, also understand that the disciplines are not...

works righteousness, all right?

We're not earning something from God.

It's not some self-help manual or like worshiping our own will and our own, you know, oh, I'm so self-disciplined, look at me.

In fact, the purpose of the disciplines, as I said earlier, it's to place us before God, and then God produces these virtues inside of us.

We experience then the formation of our heart, soul, and mind, the formation that we long for.

We grow up.

We mature and it's all by grace.

God invites us into these spiritual disciplines.

And as we step into these places as a living sacrifice before him, God goes to work in transforming us.

And it's Christ that is formed in us.

You see, we can't even form Christ in ourselves.

You cannot in your own strength become like Jesus.

We just can't do that.

What we're called to do is die to ourselves, follow Jesus.

And when we do that, Christ is then...

formed in us by the Holy Spirit.

And when we're talking about like, you know, walk as Jesus walked, we have his practices and Jesus was one who fasted.

So the disciplines, they liberate us from slavery to self-interest and fear.

So let's take a look at this discipline of fasting and why it's so important for hidden holiness.

So what is fasting after all?

And we're not talking about dropping pounds.

Sometimes people hear, I'm going to fast.

great, I'm going to lose that, you know, that extra five or 10 I'm carrying around.

That might happen, but that is not the purpose of fasting.

We're not talking about the numerous fasts that are out there that many people do for health.

In fact, I know a lot of you probably, or maybe not a lot, at least some of you might practice intermittent fasting and, you know, that might be good for you health-wise and that's awesome, but we're not talking like that.

We're not talking about a hunger strike, right?

Where we try to force God's hand, God, I'm not eating until you do this for me.

It's also not about earning brownie points with God or checking off some box.

The classic definition or the classic understanding of fasting is to not eat food.

And if you ever hear somebody talk about an absolute fast, what they're talking about there is also to not drink water.

Now, let me just say this.

You can live quite a while without eating food.

You're not going to last very long without water.

An absolute fast would probably be an incredibly rare fast to take part in.

You definitely want to use a lot of spiritual wisdom along those lines.

Now, some people will talk about fasting also, and they'll say, well, what about fasting social media?

Now, people are going to be on the spectrum on this, a different side.

Some are going to say, no, fasting is food only.

Others are going to say, no, you can fast other items.

We're not going to be legalistic here.

Technically, fasting is about food, but I've got to be honest, sometimes doing a fast, or some would say being abstinent from, if you will, social media, is actually a very healthy thing to choose to do because we are so addicted to our phones and that dopamine rush.

So.

If you want to apply it there and that's how you want to live it out and that's what the Holy Spirit's telling you, hey, that's great.

But in many ways, fasting really fulfills what Romans 12.1 is talking about when it says we are to offer your body as a living sacrifice.

The word there for body is soma.

You're not offering your mind.

You're not offering anything else.

You're offering actually your body.

It's a bodily discipline where you are basically whole body hungering for God.

And it is always about spiritual purposes.

And so in our text, our main text today comes out of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter six, verses 16 to 18.

It says, when you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting.

Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But when you fast, Put oil on your head and 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, remember this is hidden holiness, will reward you.

You see, what's most important here and what Jesus is getting at, it's not some special technique for fasting, but actually his underlying message is that we would seek the reward of God and not the approval of God.

people.

And we actually need to apply this to every act of righteousness that we practice today.

Whether we are giving to others or we are praying, anything that we're doing, serving, sacrificing, it always needs to be done as to look to the Father for approval and not for people.

And that's why Jesus is talking.

He's just like, hey, you need to anoint your head, wash your face.

Basically, he's saying, take great care to groom yourself normally.

It should not be obvious to other people that you're fasting you shouldn't have a long face right the pharisees would make it really clear they were fasting and some things i was reading when i was studying sometimes they might smear ashes on their face or you know and just sort of you they would just look all somber instead we could just should just like a regular normal day with nobody else knowing what we're actually doing because in most the time most cases it's just one-on-one you could do a corporate fast and that's awesome and we'll talk about that in a minute but oftentimes it's you and god it's between the two of you which is why it is hidden holiness so let's just take a quick look at the old testament and uh you'll see just how many times actually fasting came up there and actually this is not exhaustive i'm just going to bring up a few and first of all actually the first time you see somebody fasting in the bible is moses that's the first time he's fasting or the first time you actually see fasting and as you move forward through the old testament you will see that most major biblical characters fast at some point or another.

Here's some examples of fasting, just quickly.

In Leviticus 23 7, you see that on the 10th day of the seventh month is the day of atonement.

That was the only time when the Israelites were called to come together in a corporate fast.

It says in Psalm 35 13, David says this, yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting.

David fasted.

He did it and he humbled himself.

Fasting will humble you like nothing else.

but also he was using it to intercede on behalf of a friend.

In times of national emergencies, we fast.

Joel 2.15, blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.

Then when there's like a problem going on, like an invasion, we've got Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20, verses one to four.

He was told a vast army is coming against you from Edom and from the other side of the Dead Sea.

It's already in some place I can't pronounce, and it's also known as En Gedi.

Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.

Then you got Ezra.

He had to travel all these miles to go back to Judah.

And it says, there by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for our children.

and all our possessions.

So he fasted for safety.

And then there's fasting for favor and deliverance.

Most of us know the story of Esther.

The Jews were going to be annihilated, and she was going to go in to talk to the king, and he could basically take her head for coming in without being summoned.

So she says, gather together all the Jews in Susa and fast for me.

Don't eat or drink.

That was an absolute fast.

Night or day, I and my attendants will fast as you do.

When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it's against the law.

And if I perish, I perish.

So fasting is all throughout the Old Testament.

What about the New Testament?

We won't look at specific scriptures, but you can tell by the reading of the gospels that you see that John the Baptist fasted on a regular basis, as did his disciples, as did the Pharisees.

We know that Jesus fasted for 40 days.

You see that Anna was praying and fasting in the temple area in Luke 2.37.

You see a lot of fasting taking place.

And then in the early church, in the book of Acts, Once again, you see fast being called.

The church would basically call a fast when they were sending out missionaries.

They were praying and fasting before choosing them and sending them out.

Or when they were appointing leaders in the church.

You find that in Acts chapter 14, verse 23.

Basically, the burden that drove them to fast was where do we go from here as a church?

And so they were asking for the Holy Spirit to give them direction and mission.

Fasting was all throughout the Bible.

In the early churches, well, throughout like in the Middle Ages and all of that, fasting took place on a regular basis.

In fact, what the early Christians used to do for centuries up until modern times, Christians would practice fasting twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays, from sunup to sundown.

So it wasn't a 24-hour fast.

They would fast from like, I don't, before the sun gets up, then they would maybe, maybe they'd have breakfast when it was still dark.

I don't know, but they didn't eat until the sun went down.

Wednesdays and Fridays.

In fact, John Wesley, who lived during the 18th century, was an incredible man of God.

He would not ordain any man to the ministry who did not fast twice a week.

That's amazing.

We are so different today.

Fasting is so important.

But why?

Why is it important?

Is it commanded?

And there's no command given by Jesus or in the New Testament or anything to say that you have to fast.

But It is assumed.

In that passage we read out of Matthew chapter six, it doesn't say, you know, if you fast.

In fact, if you even go farther back in there, it talks about when you pray, when you give alms, which is like taking care of the poor, giving for that, and when you fast.

It doesn't say if.

Now we automatically know, well, yeah, it's assumed that we're gonna pray.

And we heartily say, well, of course we should pray.

We're followers of Jesus.

When it talks about giving to the poor, We say, well, of course we should take care of the poor.

We understand that.

But then when it gets to say, when you fast, there's oftentimes silence.

What do you mean when we fast?

In fact, Jesus was asked because, I think Jesus fasted for 40 days, but then later his disciples weren't fasting and people were confused by that.

The Pharisees, John's disciples.

And so they came to Jesus and they said to him in Luke chapter five.

John's disciples often fast and pray, as do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.

And Jesus answers, can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?

But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them.

In those days, they will fast.

So Jesus is assuming that believers will fast, yet it is the single most neglected neglected discipline in the Western church.

And I do say Western church because it's not neglected in parts of Africa and other parts of the world in the church.

It's very much a part of their discipleship process.

But in the West, it tends to be neglected.

And why is that?

There's a couple of different reasons out there.

One would be that, you know, over the centuries at different times, fasting was practiced in such a way that it became quite legalistic and excessive.

and it was confused with mortification or asceticism.

And so basically what had happened is these people had turned it into a religious law.

And if you remember our path of disciplined grace, they stepped off that path.

And people were just like, hey, that's just a bunch of religious legalism.

We're not called to be like that, which is true.

We're not called to be legalistic.

But other reasons perhaps fasting has sort of fallen off is that in our society, We believe, and I know I've fallen prey to this belief, that if we do not have three large meals a day plus some good snacks, we're going to starve.

And it's just not true.

I know for me, part of my pushback sometimes with fasting, and I've had seasons where I've fasted, but oftentimes, like, what I feel inside is I don't want to turn it into some type of transactional situation with God, you know?

Okay, so...

sometimes i've heard people talk about well i needed this so i fasted so god would give it to me as if there's some transaction and i just don't believe we do that with god and we don't um but i gotta be honest probably the real reason that i was ghosting god and at times have not always fasted is just i don't like to be hungry and just being honest and uh fasting will humble you like nothing else and so so why do we fast why would god call us to this why would jesus assume that we would fast why would i mean we want to follow his practice he fasted well i'm going to give you i believe i've got four points here these are things you might want to write down this is why we fast and the first is this this is primary this is foundational it all goes back to this when we fast we do it to offer ourselves to jesus First and foremost, it is about seeking Jesus, seeking God, pressing into him.

It is all about him.

It's not about what we're trying to get from him.

It is being open to him, being present to him.

It is pressing into him.

It's about being that living sacrifice before him.

It's where we are hungry for Jesus.

And our hunger for Jesus is the main reason that we should fast.

It is not a transaction.

It's not trying to get something from him.

Fasting needs to be God-initiated and God-ordained, and it must be centered on God, always centered on God.

And what it does is it reminds us that we are sustained by God.

You know how Jesus said, the man does not live by bread alone.

Also for us, what we are sustained by is him.

He is our living bread, and it is all about intimacy with God.

So when you go into a fast, remember that first and foremost, it's intimacy with God.

It's pressing in with God.

That's first and foremost.

Now, besides that, when we fast, another reason for fasting or a byproduct that comes out of it is it causes us to grow in holiness.

Remember, we're in a series called Hidden Holiness. We want to grow in this.

St.

Augustine said this, fasting is sometimes necessary to check.

the delight of the flesh in respect to licit pleasures to keep it from yielding to illicit joys.

It's pretty powerful if you think about that.

It helps to check the flesh.

Richard Foster in the book Celebration of Discipline, he goes on to say this, fasting reveals the things that control us.

This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting, these things surface.

And boy, do they.

In my younger years, another time when God was calling me to fast and I was giving them a little grief over it, sort of talking back to God.

I'm not recommending this.

I'm just being honest.

And so my family, my father, my parents have both passed on to be with the Lord, but my dad, he was a type one diabetic.

And so obviously he gave a head up insulin shots and all of that.

My mom had blood sugar issues as well, hypoglycemia.

And so now, mind you, I'm not a diabetic and neither have I ever been told I have hypoglycemia.

But I would, when it would come time to something to fast, I'd be like, well, Lord, you know how irritable I get.

This is before anybody used the term hangry.

All right.

And I just get irritable.

And I know you don't want me to be that way.

And I remember the Lord just stopping me up short and just said, Dawn, do you think?

that perhaps in parts of the developing world where they don't have much food that some of those people sometimes are susceptible to getting irritable i'm like well yeah he said do you think that they're actually responsible for their behavior like yeah so why do you think you should have the right to because you have resources numb up and cover up that part of you that needs to be transformed just because you can keep your belly filled with food it really humbled me Because the reality is, is that when I don't eat or when I fast, one of the things that does come up for me is irritability.

And that is, and what that begins to show is actually other things in my life that still are in the process or need to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so when we fast, it reveals what controls us.

Things come up.

And what happens is as those things come up.

We can then confess those things before the Lord and surrender to him.

And then the Holy Spirit goes to work on transforming us and forming Christ in us.

Fasting reveals our true condition.

It reveals what controls us.

It addresses the self-defeating cycles of sin and shame that are killing us, whether we have awareness around them or not, because sometimes we keep them quiet just because we keep ourselves distracted.

and well-fed and we aren't really in tune with what's happening inside of us.

But trust me, these things that we are sort of stuffed down in, they come out in other ways in our relationships.

When we fast, it sanctifies our soul.

It sets it apart as holy and dedicates it to God.

Fasting gives us strength against sin.

It helps, I like to say it this way, it helps to build our no muscle.

So I was at the gym this morning and I work out with friends who are a I don't really love lifting weights.

I just know strength training is important, so I do it.

And my friends push me, which is awesome.

And the beauty in that is increased strength.

More and more, I get stronger and stronger and stronger.

So also, when we are fasting, we learn to tell our body no when it's craving latal teca chips and salsa or Handel's ice cream, which I've seen a lot of you from one and all over at Handel's, which tells how often I've been there as well.

But when it's craving something, whatever it is, being able to tell the body no, I'm building up that no muscle, which then I have seen personally in fasting, where then I begin to be able to say no to people pleasing and other things in my life that maybe have still been strongholds that need to be broken.

Fasting is powerful for that.

It helps to repress evil desires.

It repels temptation.

It humbles pride.

It cools anger.

and it just builds some really good stuff within us john mark comer says this he says that fasting weans us off the pleasure principle which is doing what i want to do when i want to do it right feeling good in the moment i'm amazed like even recently because obviously when god called me out in august about fasting i've had an opportunity to do some fasting over the last few And it's amazing to me how absentmindedly I'll walk into my kitchen, I often work from home, walk into my kitchen and I'm pulling open a cupboard to get something out to snack on.

It's just become ingrained habit.

And then I catch myself like, wait a minute, you know, I'm fasting.

And it's just calling me out on things where I just unconsciously will just do the different things that are going to bring me pleasure and make me feel good.

It also, as John Mark Homer would say, it reorders our desires, where we go, no, like basically minimizes our desire to sin.

And what happens, is the desire to actually be a person of love, a person who serves, a person who sacrifices, begins to come to the top as we continue to have this time of practicing fasting.

Fasting causes us to draw on God's power to overcome sin.

Therefore, once again, when we're fasting, we're not called to draw attention to ourselves and to look miserable, because the truth is, is that when we draw attention to ourself, So everybody and their brother knows that we're fasting, right?

And so we are looking good in front of others, like some IG moment that we want.

What happens is we're stepping right off that path of disciplined grace and the benefits of fasting are actually not going to be found in our life.

The third thing that fasting does is it amplifies our prayers.

Prayer and fasting go together.

It cuts through the noise.

When we fast, it cuts through the noise and the distraction of our lives.

so that our minds are more open and alert and we can better discern the voice of God as well as His will and direction.

Even in the last couple months, as I think about the couple of different fasts that I've done, and just like the ability to hear God and to discern God has just been huge, like in those moments as I've been pressing in on various things that I was praying through.

It helps us to activate God's power.

there is something mysterious not magical but mysterious about prayer and fasting when they are linked up because at that point when you're praying and you're fasting it's like a tipping point where you break through walls and you actually see god's kingdom established on earth how it happens i don't know that's why i say it's mysterious not magical but when we're called to pray and we're called to fast breakthroughs take place and they're powerful and practice The practice of fasting also brings us in touch with our weaknesses and not our strengths.

So that's when we're praying, it puts us in touch for our need for God, and He gets all the honor and all the glory as we're leaning in, and it's amplifying our prayers.

And the fourth thought on this, on why fasting and what it does, is it also enables us to stand in unity with the poor.

This is huge.

You know, when we fast, we and our bodies, you know, feel the hunger.

We can begin to feel what it's like to not have, right?

To not have access to our kitchen or our refrigerator and all the different things it's filled with.

Like, what's it like to have to actually go without?

And we begin to see compassion developed within ourselves.

We begin to become more considerate towards those who are hurting.

Fasting and giving like this then go together.

So one of the things you can do when you fast, when it comes to particularly the poor, is whatever money you would have spent on whatever meals you are fasting or whatever groceries you would have purchased, use that money to give to the poor.

And then what I read that some folks have done, I've never done this, and I think it's actually a really cool practice, is if you're doing a fast, conclude your fast by actually going and serving.

I got a local soup kitchen or something like that.

And after you serve food to the poor, go and break your fast by having a meal with them, being in community with them.

What a beautiful way to break a fast.

And...

don't let them know you were fasting remember it's hidden holiness so putting this all together saint basil the great from the fourth century he said this fasting gives birth to prophets she strengthens the powerful fasting makes lawgivers wise she's a safeguard for the soul a steadfast companion for the body a weapon for the brave and a discipline for champions fasting repels temptations anoints for godliness she's a companion for sobriety the crafter of a sound mind in wars she fights bravely in peace she teaches tranquility fasting is powerful so then how do we do it like let's make this really practical where would you even start let me first say this When you're going into a fast, resolve at the very beginning that you're going to abandon all outcomes to God.

In other words, you're not looking for something specific at the end.

You could be specific in saying, Lord, this is what I'm praying and fasting about, but then let God take control of that.

Abandon those outcomes.

Remember, this isn't some magic bullet.

It's mysterious.

And the purpose on this is to be deeply aware of his presence, and you'll experience wonder that comes out of prayer and fasting.

So here's some practical steps to get started.

First of all, start small.

Like I don't recommend you go off and even like a three or seven day fast or something like that.

Start small.

Maybe you're going to fast one meal.

And now if you're like, well, I already skipped breakfast.

I'll just fast that one.

I'd say no, no, no, no.

Remember this year you're coming in.

It's a sacrifice.

So whatever that might be for you, maybe you're going to start with a meal.

So maybe you're going to have breakfast and then you're going to fast the rest of the day until dinner.

I don't know.

You choose.

It's between you and God.

Maybe once you've done that a few times, you can sort of build up.

It's just like going to the gym.

I didn't start off going to the gym, lifting what I lift now or running what I run now by just starting right at that spot.

I built up to that.

It's the same thing when it comes to fasting.

Start small and begin to build.

Maybe from going from one meal, you could go to fasting from sunrise to sunset.

And you might, my brain goes here.

It just shows you where my brain goes.

My brain goes, okay, let's do that in the winter when the sun comes out late.

goes down early.

But whatever that is between you and God, right?

Maybe you do a 24-hour fast next.

Maybe you take on a three-day.

Or maybe you decide you've heard of Daniel fast.

Remember, we're not going to be legalistic here on the types of fast.

Daniel fast, a lot of folks do that at the beginning of the year.

And that's where you're just eating, what, like fruit and vegetables, and, you know, no meats or milk products.

And I know you can research that, and you can set something like that up if you'd like to do that.

Or maybe for you, it is a social media fast.

Like I said, I think probably most of us could use some social media fasting and break our addiction to that dopamine that we've got going on or not inside of ourselves.

Now, some of you, let me just say this.

Some of you may have had either now or in the past an unhealthy relationship with food.

You may have suffered with an eating disorder, something along those lines.

So let me just say this.

Or you may be like my father.

You might be a diabetic.

And fasting like this is not something.

that you should practice because it would not be good for you.

If you suffer with any type of like an eating disorder or anything along those lines, if you haven't already processed that with someone, I'd actually encourage you to get together with a therapist and process that and work through what's at the root of that.

And I would not recommend fasting food as something for you.

You get some counsel and wisdom from people in your life on what that might look like for you instead.

Maybe it is social media or the TV or whatever that actually might look like.

Same thing with diabetics or people like that.

What might be something else that you can do?

Yeah, always be wise along those lines.

When you fast, also, make sure you're drinking a lot of water.

Unless you're doing an absolute fast, which, like I said, that's very rare.

But you're drinking a lot of water along with it.

Now, ideally, when you set up a fast, choose a time when you can actually slow down your schedule and really be present and not rushed.

And now...

this would be something I would use sometimes as an excuse with God.

I'm too busy to fast right now.

Well, what I needed to do then was take a look at my schedule and cut some things out to make the space for fasting.

Because you want to be able to really be present because one of the things that's powerful to do when you're fasting is to take the time that you would have been, you know, eating and spend that time in prayer and meditation, in focused prayer and meditation.

And so if you can already have a bit of a slower schedule to really lean into what God's doing.

It's really powerful.

Now, also note, if your body begins to feel sluggish, if you're fasting maybe a day or two or a couple of days and you feel it, that's normal.

So that's just part of what the body goes through.

I have never done a very long fast.

I was listening to some reports on that.

People actually find that after a few days, their mind actually becomes clearer, sharper, energy returns.

And from what they described, it sounded like a pretty amazing experience.

When you fast...

Don't be shocked if it feels like you're regressing when it comes to like your character, like irritability begins to rise, because what's happening, this is actually perfectly normal.

The items that have been kept numbed out by food and busyness and all of that are rising to the surface so that you can now present those before the Lord for healing.

So don't be surprised by them.

Don't give excuse for being that way.

You're still responsible for yourself, but bring them to the Lord for him to bring healing into your life.

And then resist the urge to judge the experience, because it is all about drawing near to the Lord.

Now, with this, let me just say this before I close out.

There are times when we fast with others.

There might times when a church calls a fast, and that's great.

And I'm not saying it's ever wrong for somebody to know you're fasting, because sometimes you might invite a couple of friends to fast with you, or your community group, you guys might decide you're doing some type of a fast.

The point is that we're not doing it to draw attention to ourselves, right?

So quite often, it might just be you and God, or it might be you with a few friends.

But you're not, like I said before, you're not...

throwing it up on Instagram.

You're not making a big deal about it.

It's between you or your small group and God.

You see, so I'd encourage it.

Try fasting.

You're like, you know, maybe before Thanksgiving, maybe it's after the holidays.

I don't know.

That's between you and God.

But hidden holiness is developed as we walk along this path of disciplined grace.

You see, when I was ghosting God, I was actually missing out first and foremost on deeper intimacy with Him.

and on breakthrough and transformation in my own life.

Now, like I said earlier, I have been fasting and I don't really want to go into the specifics of what I've done over the last few months, but I want to tell you that it has been amazing.

There have been times when it's been hard.

It has revealed some things that I didn't want to look at, but there's also been breakthrough and it's been really powerful.

My friends, fasting is an invitation.

It's an invitation that I pray that we each accept.

And you can be assured that when you accept this invitation from the Lord to fast.

It's going to create in you space for the Holy Spirit to develop hidden holiness within you.

Let's pray.

So Father, I pray, Father, by the Holy Spirit, that you would just speak to us, God, through this and call us individually to what you are calling us to do.

And as we do that, Lord, we will be a living sacrifice before you.

Be honored, Lord, in this sacrifice.

Speak deeply into our hearts.

But first and foremost, Lord, what we want is you.

In Jesus'name, amen.

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