Sacred Spaces | Week 1 | Pastor Micah Sutton | Five Lakes Church

And today we're beginning our new series called sacred spaces.

And if you're a note taker, I really encourage you to take some notes.

There's an opportunity here on site, in your service guide to take some notes and online, you can download the note page as well.

And if you are not a note taker, I encourage you to take some notes.

I think that it will benefit you and bless you to be able to go back and remember what is being taught.

I do think that it is, uh, uh, will be a blessing to you.

So we don't use the word sacred in our world very often anymore.

Uh, you, you don't, you just don't hear it very often.

And I think it may be because,

Uh, there's,

There's just fewer and fewer things in the world that have arrived.

That

Is the status that's called sacred.

Sacred simply means set

Apart.

It means

Means that something is unique.

It has a, a unique place.

So unique part that it plays in life, in an individual's life and a community's life and a house and a particular home.

Uh, there may be sacred things that are in your home that maybe aren't so sacred in mine and, and vice versa.

These, these things are unique.

They're, they're set apart and it's not where something is physically set, but it's where it is emotionally.

It's where it lands on the level of importance in one's life or in one's community that it becomes unchangeable.

It, it becomes untouchable.

It's that thing that you don't, you don't mess with that it's special in some manner.

And when we're kids we're, we're told

What is sacred.

For instance, in my family, when we would go to nanomoles house, my grandmother's house, we would hear that, um, we would know that the China in her great big Hutch in the kitchen area that was like sacred space.

You didn't go and play with nettles, China, you just, you just, didn't now.

Not all loved us as good grandmothers, all doom.

They loved their grandkids and she would protect us.

Like when my father, when we would be doing something that we shouldn't be doing and my mom or my dad would, would start getting on to us, or they would discipline us.

Somehow my Nan all would, would often look at them and say,

Bobby, he's not bad, Karen, he's not bad.

And it seemed almost like nothing we could do would rise to the level of my mother or my father's disciplinary needs.

Uh, that just, that wasn't a problem at her house.

Not all his house was free and open unless you got near her China and then something changed.

She became an entirely different person.

And you knew that your world would end if you damaged her China in some manner, it was just, you were taught as a kid.

This was sacred, but as maturity comes, we, we understand that something being sacred isn't necessarily just a thing that's sacred.

It could, it can be a space that's sacred.

It can be a moment that becomes sacred and belief system that is sacred to you and idea that becomes powerful in your, in your life.

And it becomes a sacred idea.

Can even be a person.

You know, when I was growing up in school, uh, we would, you know, be in the locker room, changing and, and guys typically tell jokes.

And you know, I've been told through the years that I'm a funny person, but I'm never funny when I planned to be funny, it's always kind of an accidental, funny, in my opinion, because I've tried to like tell jokes and stuff like that.

And I'm not always really good at it.

And so, and, but, but guys will tell jokes consistently.

And whenever you're around guys and especially young guys, there's one kind of joke that always seem to come up.

Now, I went to a bunch of schools.

I went to 15 elementary and junior highs.

I went to four different high schools.

I am the King of new kid in school.

I I'm good at that.

And, but in every school, no matter where I went, this, this joke always came up and it was a, your mama joke.

It was your mama's.

So this, that, that is true.

And, and you know what I do not like your mama jokes.

I don't like them.

I didn't like him then.

And I don't like them now.

And inevitably I would be the new guidance school and be in the, the changing room in the gym.

And somebody would see the new guy and they would say, your mama is so, and I will.

I go hope, how badly do you want this fight?

Cause we're going to fight.

If you start talking about my mama, who you do not know, we're going to have a fight.

You and I are going to have a problem.

How big of a deal is it to you now after church, if you feel compelled to tell me your latest, your mama joke, how bad do you want to fight?

I still don't like mama jokes.

In fact, I don't like wife jokes either.

I don't know why.

I just don't like mama jokes.

And I don't like sister jokes.

You can tell them all day long.

That's perfectly fine.

But for some reason, momma and, and, and wife jokes that just, just do not like at all.

For some reason, my mama, I think rightfully so is sacred to me.

She said, she's the only mom I've got.

And so you don't talk bad about my mama.

You don't say negative things about my mother.

And so we, we, as we mature, we begin developing our own sense of what is sacred and what is not what we see as unchangeable untouchable special in some way.

And what we see is able to be touched and able to be discussed and changed if necessary.

That's how all of us work as humanity.

But as believers, as believers, we never are removed from the two tillage of our father.

Our father in heaven has declared some things as being sacred.

And as he has declared it sacred, he said, I created you.

I created this.

And I'm saying that this is sacred.

So even as we mature into our own understandings of what is sacred in our life, and to us, there are some things that he has just said, this is sacred.

It's unchangeable, it's untouchable because I've designed it that way.

I've declared it to be so, and our heavenly father, much like my earthly father really believes in the phrase because eyes.

Yeah.

And so you probably,

We've never heard that and you've definitely never said it to your own children, but my father believed in the words

Because I said so, and my heavenly father does too.

He said, this is my word.

And I've declared some things sacred.

And so in

This series, we're going to talk about some of the things that he has set a sacred and maybe some things that we need to adopt the sacred in our own lives.

We see this back in the old Testament and, and how we start interacting with that in the old Testament, whenever God begins to tell Moses how to build

The tabernacle, this is the

First time God's going to have a house where he, he lives with his people until the time of the tabernacle and Moses in the wilderness.

God didn't have a house with his people.

He would appear to them.

He would talk to them.

He would talk to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on.

And he would lead his people forward.

But now he said, I want to have a place where I can dwell among my people.

And so he said to Moses, and, and we read it through scripture.

He says, this is how I want you to build the tabernacle.

And I want it to be exactly like this.

And he, and he starts saying, this is how wide it's going to be.

And this is how long it's going to be in this.

How many rooms are in it?

And this is what the furniture is going to be made out of.

Not like, not like choose your own adventure.

No, it's going to look exactly like this is going to be made out of exactly this material, this much of this and that much of that.

And it's going to be laid this way and it's going to face that way.

And, and, and how you, uh, you know, how tall the wall's going to be, how long it's going to be, what fabric it's made out of every single detail.

If you want some fascinating reading, just go back into the old Testament and start reading about the construction of the tabernacle.

And you will find, well, some will find fascinating reading.

Others will wake up after a great nap and enjoy the rest of their day.

But it, it, he was very specific throughout the entire situation, in every single place and every single part.

And then he said, now that you've built it exactly, as I've told you to every time you set it up, you set it up exactly this way.

And every time you take it down, you take it down exactly this way.

And every time you transport it from here to there, you transport it exactly this way.

He said, I've designed it, I've declared it sacred to me.

And so now I'm going to be in charge of its construction of its function and of it, the protocol, when you deal with it, in every aspect, it's very, very specific and controlled.

And he wasn't passive about this.

Arguably the most sacred thing within this tabernacle was the Ark of the covenant.

It was in the Holy of Holies, and it was the place where once a year in this special room called the Holy of Holies, once a year, the, the, uh, chief priest would take the blood of the sacrifice and he would pour the blood over what was called the mercy seat.

And it has to do with the design of the Ark of the covenant and, you know, uh, Indiana, he found it and, and, you know, traced it down and stuff like that.

But I haven't seen it since then.

And so it was designed very specifically, and there was a seat on it between two cherubim, two angels that were, uh, on the top of the arch.

And that seat was called the mercy seat.

And the chief priest once a year, would go into the Holy of Holies and he would pour the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat.

And the presence of God would come down from heaven.

And it would sit on the top of the mercy seat and there would be the presence of God.

And then there would be the gold of the Ark of the covenant, but between the gold of the arc and the presence of God would be the blood of the lamb that had been slain.

And once a year, this, this special, unique monumentous moment what would occur.

And it was, it was arguably the most sacred object within this sacred space.

And so one time the Philistines actually stole it and they had it in their own temple and there, God kept falling over and breaking into pieces in front of the arch.

And so finally they said, and then some even worse things happen to them personally.

Um, interesting how, as long as it was happening to the God and the temple, they were cool.

But when they started breaking out in sores, they were like, eh, this isn't cool anymore.

We got to get this art back to Israel.

And so they put it on a cart and they send it back to Israel.

And when it comes across the border, Israel is excited.

They're like, wow, the presence of God is back in Israel again.

And this is awesome, but it's on an oxcart, which is not how God had said you need the transplant.

And so they're, they're going along beside it.

And the oxcart hit a bump and that it tipped, and it looked like the Ark of the covenant was going to come off the Ark and this young man by the name of us or Uzzah, however you want to say it.

He just reached up and he steadied the Ark with his hand, but he touched it unlike he was supposed to, he did it in not the right way.

And instantly he died.

And you might say, well, why would God do that?

If, if, why would God kill him?

He was just trying to do something good.

And the reason is because God said, I'm, I'm not kidding.

When I say, if you know what you're supposed to do, and you don't do it.

If you don't treat this arc as sacred unto me and treat it the way I've told you to, then there are dire consequences to not doing what I've said.

So this is serious business.

What is sacred is serious to God, and he's not passive about it.

Mark was sacred, but its time came to an end.

We don't have the Ark of the covenant today.

They, the people of Israel do not have the Ark of the covenant today.

And today it is no longer the most sacred thing.

The God, there's something more sacred than the Ark of the covenant.

In fact,

The new Testament tells it this way.

In second Corinthians, chapter six, starting in verse number 16, it says for, we are the temple of the living.

God, as God said, I will live in them and walk among them.

I will be their God.

And they will be my people therefore come out from among unbelievers and separate yourself from them, says the Lord don't touch their filthy things and I will welcome you.

And I will be your father.

And you will be my sons and daughters says the Lord almighty.

This is the new Testament.

This is the God of the new Testament.

There was not two gods.

I'm just saying, as God was relating to man in the new Testament, under the new covenant, under salvation, by grace, through faith, he's saying to them, Hey, you believers.

Those who have put their faith in Christ, Jesus as Lord and savior.

You are the temple of the living God.

And here's some things that you need to do.

You need to pay attention to.

Now.

It's interesting that that is second Corinthians chapter number six, but he spoke to the same issue in first Corinthians chapter number six, except instead of it being a wee, he makes it individualistic.

He talks about you at first Corinthians six 19.

He said, don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy spirit who lives in you and was given you by God, you do not belong to yourself.

You ain't yours.

That's, that's the Southern translation of that.

You ain't yours.

Uh, but for God bought you with a high price.

So you must honor God with your body.

So here's two passages of scripture.

Both of them, very particular, both definitively saying you as a believer are set apart to God.

You are sacred to God.

You are something that he looks at and says, that is uniquely.

And specially mine is not touchable.

It's not changeable.

I bought them.

They belong to me and now I dwell within them.

So here's our big idea today.

Our big idea is every part of my life is sacred to God.

If you're a believer, this statement is true about you.

Every part of your life is sacred to God.

It's set apart.

It's unique.

And you might say, wait a minute.

That seems kind of odd.

He says, come out.

He says, separate yourself.

He says, cut off.

He says all of this.

Doesn't that seem a little bit odd.

Doesn't it?

Isn't that just a little bit much.

Aren't you thinking just a little bit too high of yourself, pastor Michael Sutton, maybe you should be a little bit more humble.

Well, if I was saying to you, Micah Sutton is set apart unto God.

Then that would be pretty prideful.

But when God is saying you are set apart unto me, that's not prideful.

That's recognizing position.

That's recognizing the place that God has given you in your world because, and in his world, rather because you have allowed him to be your Lord and savior.

It's not thinking too much of anyone because just as the temple was Holy and sacred to God, and then subsequently the tabernacle was Holy and sacred to God.

He says in two passages that God dwells in you.

You are the temple of the living.

God, you in other places says you are the child of God.

So what is more sacred than that to God?

And I would say nothing is more sacred to God than that.

You fit the profile of one who is set apart to Jehovah God.

And with that understanding, I want to give us two declarations that we can make at the beginning of 2021.

Declaration.

Number one is this.

I am made Holy by God's presence in my life.

I am made Holy by God's presence in my life.

See the moment that you were saved, the moment that I was saved, you became Holy unto God, you became set apart unto God.

You became sacred to God and nothing that you can do.

Nothing that I can do can make you more.

Holy you've been sealed.

You've been filled and sealed by the Holy spirit.

Think about the Ark of the covenant, which I explained a few moments ago, how, how the, the mercy seat was there and the presence of God visibly that the whole cap could see the presence of God, like a cloud come down from heaven and sit upon the mercy seat.

They could see it descend on the tabernacle and then it would sit on the mercy seat.

But even in that, it is the gold of the mercy seat, the blood of the lamb, and then the presence of God, the presence of God didn't touch the mercy, the gold of the mercy seat itself.

The mercy seat never came.

The art never come in, came into direct contact with the presence of God.

But you, you and I, we, we step into a whole different universe because the lamb was slain from the foundation of the earth for you and for me.

And so you and I, through the sacrifice of Christ, we were covered by the blood of the lamb.

And now the, the Holy spirit, the, the presence of manifest presence of God does not sit on our life.

It fills up our life.

You can't get more Holy than that.

You are filled with the Holy spirit.

It's kind of like marriage

In marriage.

The moment you said I do to your now spouse.

And they said, I do to you,

You weren't married.

You

Can't get more married.

Even if you stay married for a billion and a half years, you are just as married after a billion years, as you were day one

Second one, you are married, completely married.

Now Christie is special to me.

We'll celebrate in the coming months.

We'll celebrate 24 years of marriage.

And I'm excited about that.

It's beautiful.

But if, if Kristi woke up yesterday and said to me, Hey

Micah, I just really, really want to be your wife.

I would be like, Oh, that's cool.

A little late to figure that out now.

But you know, cool

Today she had woken up and said, Micah, just my greatest desire in life is to be your wife.

Then I'd be like, Oh

Wow, that's really sweet.

Wow.

That's awesome.

But after about four or five days every day,

Hey her say, I just want to be your wife.

I just want to be your wife.

At some point, I'm going to say, what do you think you are?

You are my wife.

You've been my wife for years.

At what point?

At what point will you realize that you are my wife?

You're not trying to be my wife.

And I spent a whole lot of time in my Christian walk, trying to be Holy before God trying to do all the right things and say all the right things and try to earn my way if you will, into his graces, if you will.

And I wonder how many times God thought about me and said, Hey, stop trying to become what you all ready are big, become effective at living it out.

You are Holy.

You are my son.

You are the temple of the living.

God, stop trying to become that and just start living that reality out in your life.

So beginning 20, 21, I encourage us.

Stop trying to become something.

Be what you already are.

God, I want to be your child.

You are my child.

God, I just want to serve you serve me.

God.

I just want your grace.

You've got my grace.

I just want you to love your gut.

My love, I just want got it.

God

B

What you already are.

You are Holy set apart field.

By the Holy spirit.

You are a beloved child of God, sacred to God.

And that brings us to declaration.

Number two, I choose to live set apart

Sacred for God.

So I'm made Holy because his presence is with me.

But now I have a choice.

I have a choice to make every single day will I live sacred?

When I got married, I was set apart.

We've just covered that.

But now a daily.

I make the choice.

I will live set apart for Christie as her husband.

Let's read those passages of scripture.

Again, kind of in a little bit different light.

Second Corinthians, six, 16.

We are the temple of the living God, therefore, or for this reason come out from among unbelievers and separate yourself, come out and separate yourself.

That means you and I have a choice in this process.

Second, first Corinthians chapter six, your body is the temple of the Holy spirit.

So you must honor God with your body.

Here's, here's what you are now.

Here's the choice you get to make.

Here's what I've declared you to be.

I've done what you cannot do.

Now.

Here's the part that you must do in both scriptures.

Paul is declaring who we are and what we must do.

This is the same guy who tells us by grace through faith that we're saved.

It's it's the same guy who's writing to us.

That two thirds of the new Testament.

It's the same guy who's telling us all this wonderful thing, things about who we are and the authority we have and the peace that we have as believers.

And he's also telling us this, your body is a temple.

So you must serve God with your body.

Your you're, the Holy Spirit's temple.

So be choose to be separate.

Now that word separate in the Greek, it means to sever ties and every part of my being, I must sever ties with what is old and cleave to whether it's new.

I must let the old be the old and let it pass away and let all things become new in my life.

He's already declared it.

So now I need to remain it.

So not great English.

You get my point though,

It's our choice now,

Strength in six.

He, he takes us to another level, but I think he makes it a little clearer for us.

Verse 15.

He said, don't you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ.

So there's Christ, which we all love.

You're part of him physically.

You are part of him.

And we we've talked about this in previous lessons in actually January of 20, uh, 2020.

We talked about this very concept that you can go back and listen to that if you want to.

So you're actually parts of Christ.

Then he says, should a man take his body, which is part of Christ.

Therefore, Holy, therefore, righteous and join it to a prostitute.

Never, no,

I didn't know.

Maybe that the concepts of prostitution were in the scripture,

But it is.

And I'm going to,

I'll be delicate here.

Cause I know we have children watching online and we have children on here on site.

But a prostitute is one who is not set apart.

They're they're not set apart unto one individual.

A prostitute is one who is with many individuals.

So they're, they're not set apart.

Now.

Here's, here's the unique thing about it.

The person that they were in relationship with, they could be something special to that person, but it doesn't mean that they've taken on that identity.

In fact,

The scripture, you could even have something beautiful come out of the relationship between one person and a prostitute.

The scripture talks about the prophet Hosea and the prophet Hosea was told, go marry this woman called gold

Maher or Gomer.

There aren't too many women named Gomer today for good reason, but I want you to go marry her.

And she's a prostitute.

Now Gomer

Bears.

Hosea are a really great kid.

They have a child, something beautiful is born out of the situation, but there's tragedy and trauma.

And there's all kinds of that occurs in the book of Hosea because, because Gomer will not be set apart and she's always going after other people,

Other men she has

Is the ability to be set apart.

She doesn't make the choice to be, she has the calling from someone to be set apart.

She doesn't make the choice

To be,

You can be chosen as a bride, as a groom.

You can step into that relationship, but you have, you can even have a wedding, but you have to make the choice.

Every single day, I will be set apart.

God calls you to his table.

He saves you from your sin.

You are a child of God, and now there's a part for you to play.

Your story is not over you.

You have other things to do.

And part of that is living set apart for him.

And we're going to cover some of those things in the upcoming lessons of this series.

So I don't want you to really be sitting there taking a list of an OSS.

I need to cut this person out of my life and this person out of my life and that situation on my life.

If it's obvious, do it.

If it's obvious, if you know,

Then, you know, get her done.

But

If you don't know, take them beat and we're going to cover some of this in the next few lessons.

But understand as we start

2021, that number one, you, you are

Holy because of God's presence in your life.

Now make the choice to live separated unto him, set apart unto him, make a choice to live Holy before him to allow your life to be sacred

For him.

And it's not easy.

It isn't easy at all.

And

The world offers many distractions,

All kinds of distractions.

I told you earlier about Netflix and how their viewership is way up, but people are more, um, not quite as discerning in what they're watching.

More people watching more things and I'm talking Netflix, but that goes away

Across the board in what is entertainment today, because

There's just not much out there.

So we just got to take what, what is offered

Really?

Do we really have to take what is offered or do we have a choice in the situation?

Matthew chapter five, Jesus is teaching and it's a very famous passage.

He's he's giving the sermon on the mountain and in the sermon on the Mount he's he's giving what's called beatitudes and we called them.

That's not a biblical term.

It's he comes from a Latin turn.

Uh, the at us means blessed or happy.

And so, and so it's called the be attitudes because Jesus opens every single one of them with blessed are.

And he goes through this whole list of things that, that we've, if you do this, and if you live this way, then you're blessed in life.

And it's a great thing.

But then he moves past that into a more difficult thing.

It's not quite as blessed because now he's talking about the reality of our lives and, and the difficulties that we deal with.

He, he says things like, Hey, murder is not something you do on the outside.

Murder starts on the inside.

It murder starts in the heart and then it's acted out outside.

And he says the same thing about adultery and unfaithfulness in any area, it starts in the heart.

He says, marriage is a sacred oath.

And we stink at keeping sacred oath.

That's that's what he says.

I'm using the word stinks.

That's not really a biblical term, but you get my point.

And he, he says that we should do more than what is asked, not do the basic, but do more and go over and above what is being asked.

And we should actually offer love in places that we're not receiving any love from he saying all this.

And he says, after all, if you can do all this stuff, Matthew five 48, he says, therefore, you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect.

And the whole thing in Matthew five is about control.

If Jesus had a big idea in that sermon, it was about control, but it wasn't about how I control other people or other situations.

Amazon has over 80,000 books with the word control in it.

And almost all of them deal with how to take control of something else.

Because we, as humanity, try to consistently gain control.

We feel like we've lost control.

Uh, no one says I did that.

Like

They say, I did that like a boss.

I did like somebody who has control in the situation.

And so we idolized control.

If you five, Jesus is teaching about control.

And in fact,

All of his teaching about control deals with self

Control control you,

Somebody slaps you on one cheek, don't just lash out.

You control yourself and turn the other cheek.

Somebody asks you to carry something a mile.

You want to throw it down at the end of the mile, which is your legal rights.

Carry it too.

Instead control yourself.

The world

World is consumed with controlling others and Jesus has focused on control

Self.

And that's why we fast.

We're in

Staring into this time of 21 days of prayer and fasting.

And I do encourage you.

Don't just fast, pray and fast because we're, we're made up of three parts.

God is father, son, Holy spirit.

We are body soul spirit.

We are made in the image of God.

Our spirit comes first.

Our spirit is that part of us, which is connected to God, our father, it knows what's right.

It knows what's what to do.

It usually knows the will of God in our lives.

It's our spirit.

I believe that the conscience is tied to our spirit because even people who do very bad things for the most part, know what they should do.

They just choose not to do it.

I know that I've been, uh, no one else raised your hand don't even breathe or not, or blink.

I know that I have been in situations many times where I knew what was right and I didn't do what was right.

I believe that my conscience, Paul actually wrote about it too.

So I feel like I'm in, you know,

Company, but I believe the conscience is the thing that snaps to and says, ah, you know, what's right here spiritually.

But our spirit, our soul doesn't have to listen to our spirit and our body.

Sure.

Doesn't have to listen to our spirit.

Our spirit is that part of us, that in natural senses has the least amount of strength.

In some ways, then you have our soul.

Our soul, in my opinion, is our mind our will and our emotions.

That part of us that is mental heart and our soul is kind of subject and tied inseparably from our body until Jesus comes our body doesn't do anything that our soul doesn't okay.

First your body doesn't do anything that your mind doesn't tell it to do.

Now you can't always force your mind to tell it.

And there are some diseases that cause difficulty with this, but predominantly the body cannot live without the physical mind.

And it's triggered in the physical mind before it's triggered in the rest of the body.

So a decision is made.

So our soul is connected.

It's reliant upon the body.

So if our body gets hurt by something, we get a cut or a bruise, or we get burned.

Somehow our body says to our soul, Hey, that's a bad idea.

And so our soul says, Ooh, we will not do that again.

Or our body does something that's and it says, wow, that was awesome.

That felt really good.

That tasted really good.

Somehow that really benefited me.

And so our soul says, Oh, that's in the category then of things that we do again, no one in this room has ever been tempted to do something that your body did not like to knew that 50th piece of cake, your body enjoyed it.

Maybe your soul, maybe your mindset.

This is not a good idea.

Whatever it may be.

The spirit on the other hand is the weaker part.

Until we are safe, then it begins to gain strength, but our body and our soul maintain strength as well.

So sometimes what we have to do is break down the physical part of us in order to build up the spiritual part of us.

So that's why we fast.

We tell our bodies, no, in order to say yes to our spirit, this is why I say, if you're fasting, if you, if you do a, let's say you did a complete fast, Nope, liquids only, then your body is going to be super hungry.

And if you just fast, then you're just going to be hungry.

But if you add prayer to that, then what happens is your spirit gets stronger.

Even as your body gets weaker and suddenly you're able to make more and more spiritually focused choices because your body is being brought under subjection under control.

And you're your soul fish, man.

Your mind will, and emotions is listening more and more to your spirit.

This is why we fast.

I think it's interesting.

And we'll get into this deeply, but where this sits, this is chapter five in chapter four, Jesus is in the wilderness 40 days, 40 nights, praying and fasting.

He gets his body under control.

And then he teaches us to do the same in the next chapter.

We see it later on, whenever he's in the garden of a guesstimate about to go to the cross, his body doesn't want to go.

His spirit is saying, that's what you have to do.

And his soul is in the middle.

His body's sweating as it were drops of blood.

His spirit of saying, you gotta go to the cross and as soul is one, Hey, if there'd be any other way, please, please, please I'll take it.

And then the soul gives up and says, but not my will, but thine be done.

So when we fast, we are reducing the control of our body and we're increasing the control of our spirit.

We do not fast to gain points with God.

You can't get more safe than you are already.

You're saved you.

Don't fast in order to earn PowerPoints or to be saved.

We do fast.

Anytime we need to gain self-control and sensitize ourselves to the Holy spirit.

That's why we fast.

Then this year, I normally start every fast with seven days of liquid only, but this year recovering from COVID.

I'm not going to do that.

I may do it at the end of the fast.

If I feel strong enough to do it, the fast we call it a Daniel fast, the Bible says that Daniel ate no meats and no sweets.

So you can find a billion books with a billion different ways that that's supposed to be done.

I would encourage you not to overcomplicate it.

It really doesn't matter to me what you fast.

I would rather, and you just make a decision of what you're going to fast and then stick with it for 21 days.

And I promise you, within 21 days, you're going to have a design prior to eat or be a part of whatever it is that you're fast.

Here's my encouragement.

If you're thinking about joining us, overthink it, don't decide to try it, decide to do it in the beautiful words of Yoda do or do not.

There is no try.

Just make the decision and make it happen.

Invest more time working out the plan and working on the plan.

Invest more time in living out who you are in Christ versus trying to become something that you already are father in the name of Jesus.

I thank you for your people.

And I thank you for your word and these next 21 days, we just, we just give ourselves and our hearts to you.

We thank you for, for being our father.

We thank you for setting us apart, making us sacred unto you.

You've done what we could not do ourselves.

And, and now you're calling us to do the part that we can.

And so today we open our hearts and our lives to you tomorrow.

We begin this fast.

We want to break down our flesh so that our spirits can be strong.

We commit ourselves to reading.

And in times of prayer, I pray Lord that you would diminish my physical man so that my spiritual man can become stronger in you in 2021.

And that we could see your mighty hand at work in our lives, in a fresh and new and powerful way.

We trust you in that.

We thank you for that in Jesus name.

And let everybody say amen, let's stand our feet and let's close with this course.