Righteous Rewards: Fasting

Well, if you have your Bibles, hope that you do

turn with me to Matthew the Gospel of Matthew chapter six.

We're gonna pick back in our series in the Book

of Matthews. We've been in a series called Righteous Rewards.

Matthew chapter six will pick back up there. As you're

turning there, I want to give you a few resources

this time of the year. Every year, as people are

starting out New Year's resolutions and kind of getting back

into routine and structure, a lot of times people are

starting new devotions and we want to help you find

maybe a new devotion for twenty twenty five. So I

always like to recommend some So I've got a few

books for you. One devotion, first of all, is a

book by Charles Spurgeon. It's called Morning and Evening, and

so this is just a classic by Spurgeon. It's a

brief one passage of scripture and a devotion that goes

along with that. So this is a great one to get.

It's probably one of my all time favorites. And so

this is a great one for you to pick up.

You really for a new devotional a lot of time.

So I also wanted to share with you just a

few resources. As a pastor, I get a lot of

questions about pastor what do you think about this? Or

what will you do about this? Or how do I

handle this? One of the questions I get a lot

is about anxiety is something that's really plaguing our world

mental health today. And so in anxiety and depression are

the two most common issues are struggled with mental health.

And so probably the best book I've read on anxiety

is a book called Running Scared by Ed Welch. And

so this is a comprehensive view on just anxiety and fear.

And so if you maybe you don't even struggle with

anxiety or depression, if you just said, hey, I've got

a loved one that does you probably do. All of

us have someone we know that battles with this. This

is a great book for help you understand kind of

what's in what they're struggling with, how they feel, and

also just a biblical approach that so this is a

great book for you. And then lastly, the last book

I have for you today is today we're going to

talk about fasting. There's not a lot of books on

fasting out there. This is a really good one by

John Piper called a Hunger for God. So there's a

few resources for you. If you have any questions about

these later on, you know, I'll have these. I'd love

to share with Thos, But I encourage you there's are

great resources. And my main encouragement is that you're in

the Word every day. It's important for us to draw

near to the Lord. The scripture tells us that we'll

He'll draw near to us. This morning, as we look

at this seared righteous rewards, are reminded of another book,

and I'll have it with me this morning. But it's

a book by doctor Gary Chapman. He wrote a book

called the Five Love Language. You ever heard of that book,

it's a marriage book. In that book he described what

he called five love language and his thesis of his

book is this that every individual, all individuals give and

receive love in different ways or what he would say,

different languages. And he in his book he describes these

five different love language and how we give love and

we receive love. He identifies these five love languages as

words of affirmation, acts, as service, receiving gifts, quality time,

physical touch. And in his marriage book, he's helping couples

identify what ways are they giving love to their spouse?

What language are they speaking love to their spouse? And

he's really encouraging spouses or couples to just refine what

is the love language your spouse and make sure you're

giving that love or expressing your love to your spouse

in a way that they can receive it well and

helping them to better express, really better express their love

to one another. Now, if you think about that for

a minute, his supremacist book is that we express our

love and receive love in different ways. Have you ever

thought about how do you express your love to the Lord?

Gary Chapman's book is focused on how you express your

love to your spouse. Have you ever thought about how

do I express my love to the Lord? I mean,

you can't really wash the dishes for the Lord, can

you right? That's not really going to express your love.

There's different ways, though, we express our love to the Lord.

And in January we started this series called Righteous Rewards,

and that what Jesus is teaching in Matthew six. Jesus is,

by the way, in Matthew six, it's one of his sermons.

It's a sermon on the mount, and I would say,

there's no greater teacher that teaches how to express our

love to the Lord like Jesus. Right. And in Matthew six,

the gospel writer Matthew is Jesus is teaching on the

mountain of the sermon on the Mount. And in this sermon,

Jesus is dressing how we express our love to him.

And he does that. And I'll read the first verse

of Matthew six if you want to turn there with me.

And he he uses the idea or uses the topic.

He's to describe how we express our love to him

as practicing righteousness. Looks at what Matthew one says six

' one beware of practicing your righteousness before other people

in order to be seen by them, For you have

no reward from your Father is in heaven if you're

not with it, if you have not been with us

in our series this righteous rewards. Let me just remind

you what that word righteousness means. The word in the

Greek righteousness can be translated to do righteousness. It's the

idea that you and I will do an act, an

external act. In this external act, it will express our

individual devotion to the Lord. Right. So it's an external

act that we can do just to express our for

us believers, to express our love to the Lord. So

just as if you go back to my original thought

with Gary Chapman's book, just as a husband might buy

his wife flowers to express his love to her, which is,

you know, one of the love languages receiving gifts. Jesus

says as a believer that we should do certain things

to demonstrate our love for him. And then Matthew chapter six,

he outlines three of these and then our series we've

been walking you through one by one each of these acts.

Really and I'll just be totally transparent with you as

we started out and just planning out the sermons series

we started this year out with this because we really

as a church and as you're a pastor, I really

want to help you grow in your love for the Lord.

That's my goal as a pastors, help you love the

Lord better, grow in a deeper love for the Lord.

And so what was the greatest way I can help

you do that is show you what Jesus taught to

how you should love the Lord, how you should express

your love to the Lord. And this is what Jesus

is doing here, we looked at those last few weeks.

How do we express our love to the Lord? He

gives us through three ways. In Matthew six, he says,

we express our love to the Lord through the righteous

act of giving to the poor. And we looked at

that the first week. Last week, Devin did a great

sermon on how we to demonstrate our love to the

Lord of the righteous act of praying. You know, our

praying to the Lord daily is a way we express

our love to the Lord. And this morning we come

to the to the third one that Jesus outlines in

Matthew six, and he talks about the righteous act of fasting.

He actually encourages believers to fast as a way to

demonstrate your love to the Lord. It's great that Tanner

just led us through a song I'm desperate for you.

And this is the idea that fasting will lead us

to a place when we get hungry, that instead of

becoming desperate for food, will become desperate for our Lord.

And Jesus is teaching on fasting this morning. I want

to look at that together. I want to look at

kind of several different parts of fasting. This morning kind

of examined fasting as a unit this morning. First, I

want to look at what is fasting. Second, I want

to look at when should we you and I should fast.

And then lastly I want to look at what Jesus

says this morning of how we should fasten, how we

are not to fast. So let's stand and we'll read

Jesus's section on fasting on Matthew six sixteen through eighteen,

and we'll walk through this together. Stand with me in

the reverence, reading God's word and the word of God

says Jesus spoke these words Matthew six sixteen. When you fast,

do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure

their faces. That they're fasting might be seen by others. Truly,

I say to you that have received the reward. But

when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,

that you're fasting may not be seen by others, but

by your father, who is in secret. And your father,

who is in secret, will reward you. Father. I thank you,

Lord for this morning. I pray today Father, that the

words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

will be pleasing. Lord, to you Lord, that this service,

this message would be pleasing in your sight. We come

together as a body believers and God, just as you

spoke on that mountain, God, we want you to speak today.

And Lord, that's something that I cannot manufacture or create.

That's only a work of you God. So Lord, may

your spirit feel me that you might, Lord, pour out

from me your word. And Lord, I pray for the

hearers or today, I pray they would surrender, Lord to

your working of your spirit, the working of your word.

And Lord, I pray that they would respond Lord to

you today. Lord, we love you, We thank you that

we get to sit in your presence today. Lord, May

we draw near to you, and may you draw near

to us. Father and your name, we pray, Amen, you

may be see. So first, let's just look at what

is fasting. Fasting in the scriptures going back as far

as the Old Testament, we see that fasting was something

that was commanded. Actually, in the Old Old Testament, fasting

was commanded by the Lord. In the day of Atonement.

There was one time in the Old Testament we see fasting,

and we're gonna look at it a little bit. We

see fasting kind of throughout the Old Testament, different places,

but there was only one time that God commanded actually

two times, I'll take that back, two times that God

commanded fasting. One he commanded his people Israel the fast

before the Day of Atonement, right, And then the second

time he asked his people to fast was in Zachariah seven,

when they're in exile, he asked Israel to fast. And

so there was times where God commanded fasting in the

Old Testament, and we see God's people fasting, but we

also saw the times where they volunteerily fast for different things,

and we're gonna look at those and just a little bit.

In the New Testament, the Pharisees would fast, and they

wouldn't the Old Testament and the Day of Atonement that

was kind of a once a year thing. Zachariah was

kind of a special of God to fast and zacharias

time during the exile, but it wasn't a regular part

of every week type thing. In the New Testament, we

see that the Pharisees instituted a regular fast, and the

Pharisees would fast two times a week. They were typically

fast on Mondays and Tuesday. And in these fasts, you

would say what is fasting. Fasting was fasting from food,

maybe stating the obvious, but they would they would refrain

from eating, or they would drink and they would drink water,

different things, but they would referring from eating any food

during a fast. And so that's what we were looking

at fasting. We're talking about refraining from food for the

Lord for a period of time, and so that's what

fasting is. That's the basic premise of fasting, is to

withhold from food in order to kind of dig in

deep and surrender to the Lord. So you asked the question, Okay, Well,

in the Old Testament, when did they fast and when

should we fast? As in the Old Testament we see

different times where people would fast. Just walk you through

different ones. When should we fast? First? We should fast

over sin. One of the common times where we see

in the Old Testament of people volunteering fasting saying God,

I'm going to withhold from food just because i want

more of you, Jesus, I'm desperate for you, I'm lost

without you. So therefore, God, I'm gonna I'm refrain from

eating for a period of time. And we see that

in regards to sin in the Old Testament. We see

in Leviticus there was the command of the day of

the Atonement, they were to commanded by God to fast

from food because of their sin. And Leviticus sixteen or

read this with you. In twenty nine through thirty one,

the month you shall afflict yourself, you should you shall

do no work, neither the native or the stranger of

the sojournal among you. And on this day shall the

Atonement be made to cleanse you. You shall be clean

before the Lord of all your sins. Is the Sabbath

of solemn rest for you. And you shall afflict yourselves.

This is a statue for yourself. The word there humble

yourself is the idea of commonly understood as refraining from food.

So we know in the day of Atonement it was

a they would the family would come together and the

family would take a hard look at their sin individually

corporately as a family, and they would fast. They would

refrain from food, They would humble their souls to evaluate

the sin in their life. We see this also in

different times in scripture. Nehemiah Saumus writer and psal I'm

thirty five thirteen talks about being sick of her sin.

He says, but when they were sick, I wore sack clothed.

I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed with my head

bowed on my chest. I remember my first time as

a kind of a paid staff member. I was and

I was in college. It was my last year of college,

and there was a church that was just down the

street from the school I went to, went to North

Greenwood University, and they were needing a part time pastor

and youth pastor, and so I talked with them and

became their youth pastor. It's called Camp Creek Baptist Church.

And I did serve there long. I was only there

one more year before I graduated college, but I formed

some special bonds with the students there. And I will

never forget. I was young, I mean in my twenties,

but I never forget. One night, I got a phone

call from a parent of one of my students had

a close relationship. The mom was upset. I think it

was a mom to dad. I can't remember. I just

remember one of the parents and they asked me to

come to the house. And so, I, you know, left

my little apartment and went into pulled into their house

and walked in the door, and they explained that they

had found pornography in their son's vedroom, and I remember walking.

I'll never forget this. As long as ill of this

vivid memory, I can remember it just as it was yesterday.

I remember walking into the room of that little teenage boy,

and I remember seeing him. I could tell you he

was on the left side of the bed, sitting near

his little nightstand, and he had his head just down

in his chest and he was just weeping. And I

remember going by and just sitting next to him. And

he wasn't upset that he got caught. He was broken

over his sin. He felt like pornography had a chain

around him and had him in bondage, and he was

broken over his sin. You ever been there, You ever

come to a time where you just felt like you

were so trapped in your sin, You're so tired of it.

You feel like, you know, I'm trying, I want this

sin to be out of my life. But you could

just continue to fall into that sin over and over,

and you feel like you're trapped. You feel like you

can't get out of it, and you feel like the

sin is just dragging you threw the mud, and you

just wish you could just wish you could just break free.

You just wish it didn't have a hold over you.

You see in the Old Testament, when God's people came

to the place where they were so broken over their sin,

they were so fed up with their sin. They're so

tired of their sin, They're so tired of being the

chain of their sin. They would come to a time

where they were just fast and say, God, I need you, God,

I need your cleansing in my life. God, I need

your forgiveness in my life. God, I need you to

break the chains of sin in me. That's when they

would fast, would do it. The day of Atonement, we

see the psawmist describing that when I bowed my head

of her sin, they would be broken over the sin

of the world that they would call fast. I love

the passage of Daniel chapter nine, and he's seen the

sin and the destruction of sin in his world, and

he he fast because he's so broken over what sin

is doing in his world and what it's done to

his people. He says, I turned my face to the Lord,

and Daniel nine thirty three through five, I turned my

face to the Lord, seeking him by prayer and please

of mercy. With fasting and sackclothed and ashes. I prayed

to the Lord, my God, and made confessions, saying, Oh, Lord,

great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love

with those who love him and keep his commandments. We

have sinned, and we have done wrong. We've acted wickedly,

and we rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.

It was the last time you just fastened over your sin?

Talking to someone here today, and you feel like you're

You're just like that teenage boy, James. It may not

be pornography, it may be something else, and you're tired

of it, sick of it. When was the last time

you just took some time and fasted, said God, I

need you, I need your forgiveness, and I need your cleansing.

I've sinned against you. God. They were not only fast

and we should fasten times of sin, but we should

fasten times of mourning. There was times where God people

would volunteerily fast because of grief. Second Samuel one to twelve.

After Saul died, saw a wretched enemy of David had

pursued him, but David loved him. And after Saul died,

the Bible says that David and his soldiers fasted for

the death of Saul, and they mourn and wept and

fastened until evening for Saul, for Jonathan his son, and

for the people of the Lord, for the House of Israel,

because they had fallen by the sword. We see Jesus

telling his disciples that there was coming a day where

they would need the fast, and that day that was

coming was the day of his death. Jesus would say

these words, he says in Luke five thirty three through

thirty five. Jesus said them, the disciples of John fast

often and off of prayers, said the disciples of the Pharisees,

But yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them,

can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom

is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom

is taken away from them, and they will fast in

those days. Jesus said, Hey, while I'm with you, let's rejoice.

But there's coming a day that I will not be

with you, and after my death you'll fast. There's times

when the grief of sorrow of loss, there's times where

it's perfectly appropriate to take time to fast in our grief.

I remember thinking about this in preparation for this sermon.

I remember a couple. It was my first church, a

senior pastor. I was in my thirties. I don't know

why I keep telling you my age this morning. I'm

just making myself feel old. I guess they were. She

was ninety three and he was in his nineties. They

had been married for seventy five years, Blanche and Raymond cold.

Blanche had had a terrible stroke and was rushed to

the hospital. The time I got to the er, she

couldn't speak, she couldn't respond, and it's his daughter was there,

and she looked at her daddy, and she said, Daddy,

now you need to eat. And I'll never forget standing

beside them and hearing him say if she don't eat,

I don't eat either. He was so full of sorrow.

She died just moments not long after that. That day,

he was so full of sorrow. There was no earth

on this world, in this earth, no food on this

earth that would satisfy his longing of grief. Got I

tell you there's times where we're so full of sorrow

that the only thing we need at that moment is

the Lord and sometimes it's appropriate for us to fast.

We should fast in times of preparation and the decision.

Jesus fasted before he started his ministry, and Matthew four

just before Jesus starts his ministry, he's tested for forty

days and forty nights, and he was in the wilderness,

and in that time he fasted. We should fast in

times where we're looking for God's direction. We see in

Acts we've just been studying through the Book of Acts

and Acts thirteen. The church is looking for a direction

from the Lord on what the direction the Lord would

have the church go. And the Bible says that the

church came together and they fasted together. And while they

were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit says,

set apart from me, Paul Barnabas, and saw for the

work which I've called them. And then after fasting and praying,

they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

There's times where we should fast over our sin. There

are some times that we should fast over sorrow, and

there's some times that we should fast when looking for

God's guidance and direction for us as a church, for

us individually, we should look to the Lord, we should

look for him in guidance and direction. Or heard the

story of a pastor he was preparing for a revival

in Korea. His name was doctor Kim. Doctor Kim was

preparing for this great revival. There was expected to be

one million Kreean that this revival, and he was preparing

for them. Around that time, the government came to him

and said they were not going to allow them to

have the crusade. And so as a result, just before

the meeting, there was about six months before the crusade

was to start, Kim took a bunch of his associates

and they went onto true story, They went on to

the mountain and they fasted and prayed for forty days.

Forty days, after forty days of fasting and praying, that

came down the mountain and they went right to the

police station, and the police says, hey, where you've been,

We've been looking for you. I'll let you know that

you can have your crusade. People. So many people came

to know the Lord through that crusade. But the pastor

Kim knew the importance of individually incorporately as a church,

fasting and praying in preparation for God to do a work,

fasting and praying for God's leadership and a decision. I

encourage you as believers. There's times where as your praying

through something, you should take some time maybe a day

to fast and pray over it is God wanting me

to do this and pray over. As you're praying about

going with us on a mission trip this year, maybe

take some time to God, do you really want me

to be a part of this? Fast over it? Take

a day to fast and pray over pray in preparation

for big things in your life. I think is be

appropriate to pray before you get married, big day that

God's bringing two together. Give God prays and honor God.

Move in our us, prepare us. Pray before you go

to college? What college is the Lord want me to

go to? Pray? Prepare, pray before you fast, and pray

before you change jobs. Whatever the Lord's leading you, take

some time to pray and maybe even fast. God, prepare

my heart and make sure my will is aligned with

your will. Lastly, as we finish up this morning, I

want to look at together not only what is fasting

and when should we fast, but how not to fast

and how to fast and that's really the subject of

Matthew six through six I mean Matthew six sixteen through eighteen.

Let's look at the passage together. He says, when you fast,

you know verse sixteen, and also verse seventeen. But when

you fast, you know, I'll be totally honest with you

this morning when we come to this passage of scripture,

this passage at times is not relatable to us. And

you know why it's not relatable. It's because we don't fast.

You see, in this passage of scripture, we're going to look

how the Pharisees fast, and they would fast to be seen.

The reality is we come to a place that many

believers have never fasted ever in their life, never taken

one time to fast for one meal or whatever it

may be. O ver sin, over sorrow, over direction or preparation.

Never fast. Now, I explained to the very beginning, Jesus understood.

There's different ways we express our love to him, acts,

giving to the poor, praying, and fasting. Can you imagine

Jesus comes back, He's there before you. How would you respond, Lord,

I never loved you enough to fast for you? Have you?

Isn't it when you said, when you fast. But I

thought that was just for the New Testament church. I

just thought that was from people of the long time ago.

I did think it was really for me. I thought

I was the perception. God calls us to take some time.

Now I understand, and within here there's those of you,

or maybe with your health that you may not I

would could encourage you to find different ways. Maybe talk

to your doctor about, hey, I want to do this.

How can I do this? What would be a healthy

way to do this? But I encourage us to think,

through God, how can I honor you? How can I

express my love to you through this act? This righteous act?

He says, here's a how not to fast? He says,

how not to fast. We're not too fast. Don't fast.

I have a hunger for the praise of men. And

this passage scripture, and we see all through the Old Testament,

Old Testament and New Testament, people would fast, and they

would humble themselves, and they would pray. And we see

even in Jonah's time, you're remembering, if you remember that

passage of scripture, the whole the king called for cas

mean fast. He called everybody put sackcloth and ashes, And

we understood that they would wear certain clothes, they would

put ash on them to symbolize brokenness. And in this

passive scripture, look what Jesus says, don't lay up, I

mean sorry. In verse sixteen, when you fast, don't look

gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that

they're fasting might be seen for it by others. He says,

there's some people and they're disfiguring themselves. They're putting on

the clothes, they're putting on the ashes, and they're only

doing it that others might see them. The other might

see that they're fasting, and others might see them fastings. Oh,

you're just such a man of God. Look at your

fasting day, man, I know God is proud of you.

All right. Man, you're such a godly man. You're such

a godly woman. Of how you're fasting for the Lord

is I just admire you. You're just such a godly person.

And Jesus says, the only reason and you're fasting is

that people would see you, and people would look at

you that you're godly. People would praise you for being godly.

And he says, in turn, you're not godly, you're actually

a hypocrite. You're portraying one thing, but inwardly, I'm telling

you your heart's far from God because what you want

is not me. What you want is the praise of people.

And what I'm saying to you earlier is this is

not relatable because this is not something we do. You

don't put clothes on when you're fasting. You don't put

ash on your face when you're fasting. You don't go

out your workplace with sackcloth and ashes and you go

to work. People look at you and say, oh, I'm fasting,

give me praise. That's not something you would do. It's

not something we would do. But that's something that did

in this time. But I will tell you this, there's

one hundred percent all of us at times will do

things for the Lord only for the praise of man.

And that's sometimes that's in regards to what we do

in our service to the truth, nurture, in the service

of our prayers, or whatever it may be we may

pray for. Just say, if someone can tell how good

that prayer that may be, whatever it may be. There's

times where we do things simply for our own praise

or our own gratification. John Paper in his book called

a Hunger for God says this few things more feel

more gratifying to the heart of a falling man than

being made much for our accomplishments, especially our moral and

religious accomplishments. We want people to like us and admire

us and speak good of us. He's right, isn't it.

There's nothing more than we like than a good old

pat on the back. Man. You're good. You're a good man.

You're a good person. You're a good spiritual person. And

Jesus says, we should not fast out of a hunger

for a man's praise. We should not do it because

we want to be recognized, we want to be seen,

or we want that to be my mind by others.

How should we fast? We should fast out of a

hunger for God. This is the way, he says, verse seventeen.

But when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face,

that your face. Fasting may not be seen by others,

but by your Father is in secret, fast out of

a hunger for God. Think about it just for a minute.

Fasting is refraining from food. So when you get hungry,

because you're withholding yourself from any food, you're saying in

that moment, God, more than physical food. I hunger for you.

I want you, God, I desire you. And Jesus says,

when you fast and you're fasting out of a hunger

for me, don't hunger for the praise of men, hunger

for me. Have a longing for me. Have a longing

for me that would cleanse you from your sins. Have

a hunger for me that will fill you in your sorrows.

Have a hunger for me that might lead you and

prepare you for what I have for you and for

my will. Have a hunger for me. And if you

have a fast, that has a hunger for him. When

no one knows, when no one's looking, the Bible says,

Jesus sees this is verse but verse eighteen. When you

fast fast, he may not be seen by others, but

by your father, who is in secret. Lastly, we should

fast for God's reward. What's the reward we're looking for.

It's not the reward of praise for other a reward.

It's Him, the Lord. You say, pastor, why should I fast?

Because you love him and because you want to be

with him. Period, God, I hunger and thirst for you.

You know, the Bible in Matthew five. One chapter before this,

Jesus did his sermon on the Mount, and it's called

the Beatitudes. Were blessed or happy are those who what

who are poor in spirit? Whatever? And you remember what

he says, Blessed are those who want hunger and thirst

for righteousness. Blessed are those who have a hunger for God,

who have a hunger to show God. I love you God.

I don't want the things of this world. And it's

not the food, and it's not the material things of

this world that satisfies my soul. God is only you

that satisfies the longing of my heart. And I'm willing

to take some time to demonstrate my hunger for you

and my desire for you. God. I am with this.

I have many several dogs. We have three dogs. And

first dog I got many years ago was a lab

and ten are you guys can make your way. I

had a lab and he was a hunting dog, and

I duck hunted and a bird hunted. So I got

me a bird dog, a lab. He was six weeks old,

and I wanted to train him. And there's a book

a great training Brook. I didn't bring this for you today.

This Cold Water Dog. And in that book, it teaches

you how to train a dog. You know, there's different

principles of training. And you've probably watched TV. You've seen

people who have dogs that do tricks. Right. You ever

noticed that some people on TV they have dogs that

do tricks and have a little pouch on their side, right,

and the dog does a little trick and what the

day they reach in a little pouch and they give

them a treat. There's a lot of people who teach

dogs training by treats, right that I will get the

dog to obey me, and when they obey me, I

give them a treat. Right. The book that I read

called Water Dog taught against such training. He explained that

if you teach a dog to obey you for a treat,

then the only time to obey you is if you

have to treat, because really what they want is not you,

They really want the treat. Right. So he says, when

you teach a dog, you should teach the dog that

you're the reward. So he would say, if you were

using the command to set, you know, there's something that

would say you would tell the dog to sit, and

when the dog was sit, you'd reach out. We used

to some would treat with hot dogs. We did. Some

people don't like that, but that's what we used to do.

You take the hot dog and you would give him

the treat. When the end, what does he want? He

really wants the hot dog that's in your pocket, right,

He really doesn't want you. The guy who wrote water

Dog says, when the dog comes up, you don't rub him.

You don't show him any attention. You don't show him

any You don't do anything with the dog until you

tell him to sit, and until he lishes you to set.

And then when he sits, you rub him, and that

shows him that when he obeys, you're the reward. You say, pastor,

why are you telling me about dog training, because many

times we're a lot like the dog trainers. Many times,

really the only reason why we pray and fast, or

give to the poor, or do anything for the Lord

is we really want something in return. We really want

a treat. God, I'll pray to you if you'll fix

my marriage. God, I'll pray for you if you fix

my finances. God, i pray to you if you'll fix

my work. God, I pray to you if you'll fix

the problems in my life. God, I pray to you

if you'll fix the sin of my life. I pray

to you for the reward for the treat and saying, God,

I'll pray to you, I'll fast, I'll give the reward.

And God, I don't want anything in return. I just

want you, God. I just want to be with you.

I just want to fellowship with you. God. You are

my reward. God, and I don't want anything else. And God,

I love you, and I want to pray. I want

to fast. I want to give, not for something, but

for the one who's given the whole things to me

because I love you and you are my reward. Today.

Can I tell you your father says he loves you,

he wants to be with you, and he says, listen,

come for me. Let me be your reward. Love of you.

Pray with me. Stand together, we're going to sing. Lord.

I pray this time if invitation will be a time

that Lord, even in our worship, we don't sing today,

and we don't lift our voices to be heard, but God,

we lift up our voices and praise because of our

love for you.

So Lord, may this time be a time when we

express our love for you. Father, Lord, I pray we

would be moved today by your word, and we would

consider what ways Lord, we're expressing our love to you,

whether that is prayer or how we are seeking you

in prayer right now in other areas that giving to

the poor fasting. Lord, I pray you'd lead us. Lord.

I pray there'd be some today that would be broken

over the sin and just maybe come to this altar

and just lay some things down before you. Some they

just are praying about the decision, Lord, and maybe they

come to this altar and lay it to you. Or

maybe Lord, there's some today that are struggling with some

situation wa and I pray they'd be those who would

will come and lay their hearts before you at this altar. Lord,

however you lead us, God, I pray that you would

do that. Lord, If you lead some that I can

pray with, I pray them do that. I pray for

some today that doesn't know you as Lord and savior

of never put Lord, their faith and their trusting you

for salvation. I pray they be those today that would

trust in you as a savior, who'd believe that you

died on a cross for their sin, who would admit

today that they're a sinner, and today they would confest

you as the Lord, confess they need forgiveness and would

place their trusts for their salvation in you today. Lord,

I pray you lead those to find salvation in You

today through prayer, or however you lead us, or may

we surrender to you now in your name, we pray

Jesus