Fasting - Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from

Lifehouse Church. We do have a family room that's

right across the square. If you got a little

one who is getting rambunctious, who's getting

noisy, who's just tired of hearing me preach,

all right, that space is over there for you.

We do live stream over there for that very reason,

because we know that you don't want to miss part

of the service. So that's over there for you

to utilize. Please do at any point in time along

the way. But it is good to be in God's house

and it is good to worship with you. Heard you

singing back there this morning, worshiping,

praising his name. That's what we come together.

We come together to lift up the name of Christ

and to worship him every single time and chance

that we get. But I am excited to preach this

morning. And I got to tell you this, I have long

been fascinated with how things work. how something

functions, how it goes together, how it comes

apart, what's on the inside that makes it work

on the outside. I've always had this curiosity

of what makes something tick. And sometimes that's

a mechanical thing. It could be all kinds of

things. It could be a structural thing. It could

even be in relationships. And even since my early

childhood, I've had this kind of fascination

with those kind of things and been curious enough

to just dig around and look inside and take something

apart to find out how it functions. Now, I cannot

confirm this, but my mom, whom I trust, told

me that when I was about four years old, I was

left alone in a bedroom for a period of time

and completely dismantled an alarm clock. while

I was in there. Don't know how that worked. And

by the way, I'm not a prodigy. I did not put

it back together. I only took it apart. But I

do like to know how things work. How it works

is important. Whether it's an item, a thing,

an inanimate object of some kind, whether it's

a system, whether it's a relationship that we're

maybe in at the time, we want to know how it

works and what the dynamics are. But I think

even the bigger question when it comes to how,

the bigger question is why something works. The

greater question to ask is why something is there.

Why does something exist? As important as how

is, why? Why is even more important because why

defines the purpose of whatever it is we're talking

about. Whatever you're investigating, it is the

why that gives you the purpose. The why of anything

will actually answer the how. It will actually

answer the who, the what, the when, the where,

and even the how it works if you answer the why.

Knowing the why even extends beyond the who,

what, where, when, and how, and it will change

your motivation. If you understand the why, it'll

cause you to engage in something or to withdraw

from something. If you know the why, it'll change

your attitude towards something. If you know

the why, it'll shift the level of resources,

whether that's money, time, or energy that you

put into something just by knowing why. Why is

powerful. It's one of the most powerful questions

you'll ever ask is why. And if we don't understand,

how many of your children do that all the time?

Why, right? They hit that stage, they ask 5 ,500,

some of them are like, yeah, 500 times, you know,

why? And if we don't understand the why, we just

won't engage. If you don't understand why it's

important to eat properly, you will not eat properly,

right? If you don't understand why you should

read God's word daily, you know, we talk about

that here in scripture. We talk about getting

into God's word daily. We talk about giving you

tools to do that all along the way. But if you

don't understand the power of it, why it is so

powerful to get in God's word, you may or may

not engage in that. You will not engage in worship

or giving or praising necessarily if you don't

understand why you're doing it. So this message

today, I want to answer a why in a particular

area of a Christian walk. And I want to answer

the question, why in the world should I fast?

All right, say fast. Why in the world should

I fast? Seriously. Why in the world would I skip

a meal or multiple meals, right, for spiritual

reasons? It's a legitimate question. especially

if you happen to love food like I do. You need

to know the why. Anybody with me? Come on. All

right, it's a serious thing to skip a meal, right?

Sure, I'll fast for other things, right? We know

to fast before we go into surgery for something,

and we understand the repercussions of that can

be severe. If you get under anesthesia and you've

eaten a bunch of food and your body reacts and

you're out cold, you can throw up while that's

taking place and during the surgery, and you

can aspirate that back into your lungs, and it

can be all kinds of things. But we understand

that, but I don't understand sometimes for spiritual

reasons. A lot of people don't understand. spiritual

reasons why I should give up pizza, why I should

give up steak, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls,

anybody ready for lunch? Come on, right? What

are the repercussions there spiritually? What

spiritual benefit possibly could be gained by

starving myself from the next meal? I know that

was a little dramatic, right? Missing out on

a daily dose of chocolate. Right? Skipping the

bagel that has this cream cheese and the butter

all over it, lightly toasted to a golden brown,

I might add. All right? Can skipping all this

actually produce spiritual value in my life?

And why should I do that? So my goal this morning

is to give you some good explanation of why in

the world we should gain into fast. So if you've

got your Bibles, you can turn to 1 Samuel 7,

1 Samuel 7:5

verse 5. I am going to jump around through God's

Word today, so you'll be flipping fast. Or if

you're taking notes, you can get ready to write

that down and check it out later. And of course,

it'll be up on the screens as always. But as

you're turning, I really want to give you two

things. The timing of this message is important.

I'm bringing this message to you now. Because

we're going to do something here at LifeHouse.

We're going to call a week of fasting for the

whole church. And I don't know if you've ever

been part of a church that does that, but we

want to take a week and we want to set aside

seven days where we're saying, hey, as a church,

we're going to fast together. March 22nd through

March 29th, coming up here soon, leading up to

Palm Sunday, we're calling and declaring that

a week of fasting. As we approach Easter, as

we approach Holy Week, we really want to talk

about what it means to fast, to pray and set

aside food. set aside distractions so that we

can get with God. And then secondly, I want to

pray over the word this morning so that your

ears will hear what's being said. Father, we

thank you for this day. I thank you for each

person, God, that came this morning, lifting

up your name. And Lord, we ask that you would

guide us, direct us. God, help us to see the

why of fasting. Help us to engage. Help us, Lord,

to make a commitment, Lord, that we'll walk this

out as a spiritual discipline in our lives. And

God, that we'll see the benefit of why we should

fast. We ask this in Jesus' name, and everybody

say it together. Amen. Amen. Number one, I'm

going to give you number one. Why in the world

should I fast? And the answer to that is to repent.

To repent. One of the invaluable benefits of

fasting is that it always seems to lead to a

heart of repentance. Always. Somehow pushing

away food. You know, pushing away from the table,

pushing away from the snacks, pushing away from

whatever, denying myself, humbling myself enough

to push away from all that and not eat leads

to a couple things. It leads to confession and

then repentance in my life. It really does. It's

one of the reasons it's so important because

repentance is one of the steps, biblical steps,

I believe one of the pieces within the Bible

for healing in your life. One of the steps to

getting to healing in your life, and I believe

that spiritually, that can be mentally, it could

be emotionally, and even somewhat physically,

is repentance in our life. And repentance should

always follow confession. Confession is what

I speak out. Repentance is more about what I

do. If I confess some kind of sin, right, there's

pride in my life. I got envy in my life. I got

jealousy. I got lust going on. You know, whatever.

I got thievery in my heart of some kind, you

know, and some reason I'm in rebellion to God

in his commands, in his righteousness. I should

immediately confess. Confessing is saying it

out loud, right? If you make a confession, like,

you got to name it. You can't, God can't heal

what you won't name. So if you've got a sin in

your life, you confess it. But then after that

step of confession is repentance. Repentance

is different than confession. And I'm going to

give you a couple of scriptures to bear that

out a little bit. First Samuel 7, 5 says this.

Then Samuel said, gather all Israel to Mizpah

and I will pray to the Lord for you. So they

gathered together at Mizpah, drew water. poured

it out before the Lord, and they fasted that

day and said there, we have sinned against the

Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel

at Mizpah. So you can see at this point in time,

Israel is sinning against God. Samuel calls them

out on it. They come together, they fast for

a day, they pour water out before the Lord, and

they begin to confess their sin to God. The nation

of Israel does. Now let's jump to Joel 2 .12.

It says, Now therefore, says the Lord, turn to

me. Say turn to me. Turn to me. With all your

heart, with fasting and with weeping and with

mourning, so rend your heart and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious

and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness,

and he relents from doing harm. These two scriptures.

Highlight what I'm talking about. One is confession

to God. You're speaking out what it is. And the

other is repentance. It's repenting. It is turning.

Turning away from whatever you're engaged in

and turning to God. Repentance really virtually

means I was walking this way. I was heading in

this path. I was going down this direction of

sin. And I stopped. I changed my mind. And I

go back the other way. It's really unfolded in

these scriptures. Repenting is this. It's a fundamental

change of mind, of heart, and direction involving

a sincere turning away from sin and turning towards

God. It goes beyond regret or godly sorrow. That

kind of all takes place. Regret and godly sorrow

are kind of all part of that process of leading

up to confession. But repentance is a visible

change in actions and in fruits. It's behavior

that aligns with the will of God. It really is.

Repentance is just exactly what I said. I was

going this way, now I go that. And there is something

about pushing away from the table, fasting, that

causes me to pull up close to God, and it begins

to expose in my life this sin. You know, there's

something about when you push away from the table

and you focus on the Lord and you spend that

time that you slide into the light and it starts

to expose the flaws. It really does. When I was

younger, really young, I was a young teenager,

and I got this curiosity. again, about how things

work. And I worked for a guy for an entire summer

to learn how to paint cars. My dad knew this

guy. He painted cars on the side. And I wanted

to learn how to paint cars. So I went and worked

for an entire summer for free just so he would

instruct me and teach me. And one of the things

that he did, you know, when he got a car and

there was a scratch or there was a dent or there

was a hole that was rusted out, we would patch

that thing. And if it was a hole, you'd get metal

and put on it. And then they used this stuff

called putty. And it's either a fiberglass resin

that you put over it. and then this softer putty

that you put over, and you put that on, and you

form it. You sand it smooth and straight so that

when you spray the car with paint, it looks exactly

like it did from original. And one of the ways

he would check your work, one of the ways that

you learn is you would sand it, right? You'd

get the putty, and you'd put on, you'd sand it

down, and you'd put primer on it. You'd spray

primer on, and they do this process called wet

sanding. You take water and really fine grit

sandpaper. It could be 800 grit, 1 ,000 grit.

And you take it, or 600 grit, and you begin to

sand it. And you're kind of squeezing water on.

And at the same time, you put a light right over

it. And as you sand and that water flows over

and the light shines on it, you see every imperfection.

If there's a divot in the putty, if it's wavy

because you didn't sand it straight, if there's

some flaw there, it all comes to light. It actually

enhances it with the water and the light that

shines on. And that's exactly what happens when

you begin to fast. When you begin to fast, the

light of God begins to shine in your life. And

all of a sudden, those little flaws that were

under the surface begin to come to the top, right?

All of a sudden, those things begin to get exposed

in our life. And the water of the Spirit begins

to wash over, and the light of God begins to

shine on it. And all of a sudden, you see, ah,

man, there's a dent there, right? There's a dent

of pride in my life. There's this thing. And

you might think, well, this sounds terrible.

Why would I ever want to see the flaws in my

life? Why would I ever want to see all the things

that aren't lining up with God? It's not terrible.

It is absolutely beautiful. Because in Jesus,

in the relationship with God, when you're in

communion with God, in your relationship with

God, all that thing that comes to the surface

and all that light that exposes those things,

it's not to condemn you. It's not to place you

in judgment. It's so God can remove it from your

life. It's to raise you up. Because how many

know if you leave rust under the surface, what

happens? I don't know if you've ever seen something

that's painted, and it starts to begin underneath.

It doesn't take long until you start to scratch

it off, and there's holes, and there's decay,

right? And things begin to fall apart. And the

beautiful process is when you start fasting,

you start sliding up. God starts shining a light.

The Holy Spirit begins to pour water on you.

Things start to come to the surface. You start

to see the flaws, and you start to confess, and

you start to repent. And all of a sudden, God

washes you clean and takes you to another place

in him. It's amazing. Repentance. Repentance.

Say number two. Why in the world should I fast?

To overcome evil and temptation. At the very

beginning of Jesus' public ministry, at about

age 30, Jesus goes into the wilderness. The Word

of God says that the Holy Spirit drives him into

the wilderness, and he spends an extended amount

of time. praying and fasting, 40 days. And we

read in scripture that as he's there, he begins

to be tempted by the devil. And if you look at

this, and we're going to read it in just a moment,

if you look at this whole scene with Jesus and

the devil tempting him, it begins to help you

understand how to overcome evil, how to overcome

the enemy, right? Sometimes as a pastor, I need

to remind you, you have an enemy. His name is

Satan. And he has demonic force that goes out

across this world. Millions of demonic forces

going out across the world. And there's evil

in the world. Anybody look at the newspaper lately,

right? Anybody look at the news lately? You wanna

find some evil, just take a look at the news.

Just pull it up on your phone. Just begin it.

Anybody read a newspaper anymore? I don't know

if anybody reads a newspaper, right? But you're

gonna see it somewhere on a screen. And we've

got an enemy who is out to get us. He is against

God. He's always been against God. And he is

out to get you because you are made in the image

of God. He's after you. And evil is dispersed

on the earth. And we've got an enemy. We have

to know how to overcome the enemy. We've got

to know how to be empowered to do this. We need

to know that it's the word of God, right? That's

why we got Bible recap. That's why we keep talking

about getting engaged in that. It's the word

of God plus the spirit of God. And if you couple

that along with fasting, I'm telling you, you

can overcome the enemy. You can overcome evil.

We do not overcome Satan and legions and legions

of enemies and the presence of evil just in our

own way. See, fasting helps you get out of your

own way and get into God's way. It really does.

A lot of times when I've engaged in fasting,

it gets me out of the way and I start to get

engaged in God's way. That's what fasting will

do for you. And in this portion of scripture,

you're going to see what I'm talking about. Matthew

4, 1 says this, then Jesus was led up by the

spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the

devil. By the way, if Jesus was tempted, how

many know we're going to be tempted by the devil?

Amen. Come on, he was the son of God. And when

he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, afterward

he was hungry. And now when the tempter came

to him, he said, if you are the son of God, command

these stones to become bread. He hasn't eaten

in 40 days. But he, Jesus, answered and said,

it is written, man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word that proceeds out from the

mouth of God. Then the devil took him up into

a holy city, set him on a pinnacle of a temple,

and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw

yourself down, for it's written, he shall give

charge over his angels, his angels charge over

you, and in their hands they shall bear you up,

lest you dash your foot against the stone. Jesus

said to him, it is written again, you shall not

tempt the Lord your God. Again, the devil took

him up into exceedingly high mountain, showed

him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

And he said to him, all these things I will give

to you if you will fall down and worship me.

And what Jesus said to him, then Jesus said to

him, away with you, Satan. For it is written,

you shall worship the Lord your God and him alone

shall you serve. Then the devil left him and

behold, angels came and ministered to him. Jesus

fasts 40 days, 40 nights. And the devil takes

his best shot at Jesus. He comes with three different

types of temptation to Jesus. And I can tell

you, you can learn one thing just looking at

this. The devil will always come to you when

you're weak. If you've not eaten for 40 days,

how many know you're weak, right? Your body is

depleted. Jesus' body was depleted. Satan will

come to you when you're weak. When you're tired,

when you're hungry, when you're frustrated, when

you're stressed out, the enemy knows you're in

a weak spot. That's when the enemy begins to

slide in. You've got to be aware of that. And

that's exactly what happens here. The enemy comes

in. Jesus hasn't eaten. The enemy knows that.

He comes in. And he comes with three primary

approaches, right? Lust of the eyes, lust of

the flesh, and pride of life. And I don't got

time to unfold all that. Lust of the eyes. The

eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

Those three different ways the enemy is going

to come in. And because Jesus fasted and because

Jesus drew near to the Father, he saw right through

Satan's tactics. He saw the enemy, right? Fasting

will enhance your spiritual vision. You will

be able to see. You will help you identify when

the enemy is sneaking up on you. When he's sliding

around in the dark, when you're at a weak spot,

it'll help you see what's taking place. It kind

of gives you night vision. It really does. You'll

see the enemy coming in the darkness when you

normally wouldn't see him. You'll recognize his

tactics. You'll get a spiritual radar about you,

and you will begin to see what's happening around

you. The way you overcome the enemy, any enemy

that you have, is to know their tactics. To know

their approach. How is the enemy going to come

in and attack you? When is he going to attack

you? Where is he going to attack you? All those

things, when you fast, all that heightens. All

that awareness becomes higher. There's a spiritual

radar that begins to take place. And Jesus was

there. He was fasting for 40 days. He saw the

devil coming a mile away. He knew exactly what

the tactics were going to be. He knew that this

was how he was going to come in and try to tempt.

And while he was weak, he was going to try to

get Jesus to lose it, right? Just fall off the

wagon and completely sin against God the Father.

Jesus saw it. Fasting will give you night vision.

And Jesus hammered Satan with something as soon

as he saw what he was doing, right? He hammered

him with the word of God. As soon as Satan came

at him, Jesus didn't get into an argument. He

didn't give how he felt about the whole thing.

He didn't discuss any of that. He comes back

to him with the word of God. The word of God,

coupled with fasting, is your ammunition. Say

ammunition. Come on. You've got to have ammunition.

You want to get locked and loaded as a Christian?

You want to get ready to fire on the enemy? We

don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle

against principalities and powers and forces

of evil. The word of God tells us that. You want

to get locked and loaded and ready to go against

the enemy? You start fasting. You start getting

in God's word. You start praying, right? So we

fast so we see in the dark clearly. We fast so

we see the enemy when he sneaks up. We get locked

and loaded. Say locked and loaded. Turn to your

neighbor and tell him, get locked and loaded.

Come on. Locked and loaded this morning. You

want to get locked in. You need to be ready when

the enemy sets you up. You need to understand

how the enemy is going to try to take you down

and have you fall. Because he will. You have

to have this kind of radar. You have to engage

in this. Because the enemy is going to try to

take out you. He's going to try to take out your

children. He's going to try to take out your

relatives. He's going to try to take out your

friends. He's going to try to take those close

to you. And you need that spiritual radar just

going around. I know what he's doing. I know

how he's coming in. I know how I'm going to fight.

Amen? Say number three. Number three. Why in

the world should I fast? For godly direction.

Godly direction. Acts 13 says this now in the

church. That was at Antioch. There were certain

prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who

was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manian, who

had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch,

and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and

fasted, ministered to the Lord and fasted, the

Holy Spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas

and Saul for the work to which I have called

them. Then having prayed and fasted, laid hands

on them and sent them away. The Holy Spirit is

given to us as a work in every believer to guide

us, to give us wisdom, to help us in decisions

that we need to make. He is the teacher, the

guide, the counselor. I've preached this over

and over here at LifeHouse. And the Father sent

this. Jesus first, and then when Jesus left,

the Holy Spirit second, so that we would have

this guide. And he will nudge you and shove you

the right direction. He will give you the bump

the right way. He will shove you the right way.

He'll give you the commands. He'll give you the

conviction to go forward with what God wants.

And fasting does something in particular with

all this. It positions us to hear God. Fasting

positions us to hear the Holy Spirit. I can hear

you better, and you can hear me better if we

get in the right environment. If we're in the

right place in the right space, I can hear you

well, and vice versa. If we go to a coffee shop,

and we go into a corner booth, and we're just

back there in this little booth, and we can talk

with one another, right? But there's other environments

you can't hear so well. My wife, Dixie, when

her relatives come to our house for a family

gathering, and it's a holiday, They have this

strange thing. They all like to sit at the same

table, no matter how big the table is, right?

It could be this big. They'll all, 50 of them

will sit around this table. You know, they'll

all sit around the table and they all talk at

once. There's 15 conversations going. And it's

across the table, sometimes to the end of the

table. And it's all going across, firing back

and forth. And when they come and they do that,

do you know how much of that I catch? Nah, maybe

10%. Maybe. It's just this mess all the time.

And it's just the noise of crescendos until they

leave, and then it goes back down. And it's just

the whole time they're there. But I've sat with

all those family members in a room one -on -one.

I've had conversation with each one of them,

sitting across looking eye -to -eye, and I catch

everything that they're saying. I hear their

heart. Why in the world do you fast? You fast

so you get yourself in an environment where you're

going to hear God and you're going to hear him

clearly. You get yourself out of the noise. You

get yourself out of the fray, right? It's kind

of almost like getting in a coffee shop with

the Holy Spirit. It's just you and the Holy Spirit

in this coffee shop. There might be some background

noise, but you're just looking across the table

and it's just you and him talking together and

listening together, right? And clearly communication

and dialogue taking place. We need that. We need

to fast. We need to set ourselves aside. We should

teach our children to do this. And you might

say, well, I don't want my children skipping

a meal. I'll let that up to you. And if you've

got medical reasons not to skip a meal, we're

going to give you information about that and

how to do this. There's another way. But we should

teach our kids to push away from some kind of

distraction, right? Get them off the iPad for

30 minutes. Come on, 15 minutes, right? Get them

off for 15 minutes and teach them to kind of

coffee shop with God. Get alone and hear God.

Push away from something so that you can connect

with the Lord Jesus Christ. And you need to do

this. Parents, you need to listen to me. I parented.

My children are grown. I now have five grandchildren.

I got at least a little bit of experience in

this area. And I worked probably over a decade.

It was actually over a decade as a youth pastor.

Hear me in this. The greatest skill you will

teach your child is to hear God. The greatest

spiritual gift you will ever give them is to

teach them how to hear the Holy Spirit. Because

while they're little, you have a wild amount

of influence over them. You can corral them whatever

direction you want them to go in. You can tell

them no. And for the most part, they'll listen,

right? But you can keep herding in the right

direction. But I'm telling you, when they turn

teenagers, when they come into those teenage

years, your influence begins to go from here

to here. You cannot believe that. You can't believe

that if you want to, but I'm telling you the

truth. And all the other voices are going to

start to come into their ears in the world around.

They're going to start to filter and figure out

where they're going and what they're going to

become in life. And at that moment in time, you

want the Holy Spirit speaking because your influence

is going down. You want his to go up in their

lives. Get them in. Get them in circles where

they're hearing the word of God. Get them in

influences where they hear the word of God. Get

them to church. Get them to youth group. Get

them to children's, right? And don't ask them,

tell them. I know some of you might email me

after this. Just go ahead. I'm going to ignore

it anyway. Because I've been there, done that.

Right? What did somebody say? My parents used

to drug me to get me to church. They drug me

to church on Sunday. They drug me to church on

Wednesday. Just take them. Don't ask. You got

to get them around godly influence. Because there's

going to be a time in your life when your voice

is going to start to diminish and other voices

are going to rise. And they need to hear the

Holy Spirit. By that point in time, they need

to know how to coffee shop with the Holy Spirit.

My parents, I remember, man, when I was 16, I

didn't care what my parents said. Come on. Amen.

Yeah, you act like I'm the only one. Come on.

Right? Like, what can I do to avoid my parents?

They better be hearing from the Holy Spirit.

I remember the Holy Spirit's conviction at 16,

17, 18, 19, 20, hearing his voice. Amen? It's

true. Come on. Coffee shop. Coffee shop with

him. Number four, as the worship team comes,

worship team, if you'd come. Why in the world

should I fast? So I make a difference in the

world around me. I want to have spiritual impact

with a lost world that surrounds me. I want Jesus

to help me make that happen for him. I want the

power of God active in my life. So that I have

some kind of impact in the world. So it's one

day when I stand before the King of Kings and

the Lord of Lords, I have something to lay before

him. I have something to lay at his feet. My

heart's desire, I hope it is yours as well, is

to one day walk in the kingdom of God and hear,

well done, good and faithful servant. Enter in

to the joy of the Lord. I want to hear those

words. And I want to have something to give God.

If you look at Isaiah chapter 58, verse six,

Isaiah 58 · chapter mention

it says this, is this not the fast that I have

chosen for you? This is God speaking, right?

To lose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the

heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and

that you break every yoke. Is it not to share

your bread with the hungry and to bring to your

house the poor who are cast out when you see

the naked, that you cover them and hide not yourself

from your own flesh? Then your light shall break

forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring

forth speedily and your righteousness shall go

before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your

rear guard. Then you shall call and the Lord

will answer. You shall cry and he will say, here

am I. God's looking for fasting that is not just

a spiritual heap it on myself kind of thing,

right? I just need some stuff for me. It's so

God can break us. for break our hearts for someone

else so that we can be effective ambassadors

for Jesus Christ. So we wake up every day thinking,

how can I help the next person undo a heavy burden

in the name of Jesus? How can I help somebody

break the yoke of the enemy in their lives? Somebody

who is bound and caught up either in their mind,

in their heart, in their physical body in some

way. How do I help break that in their lives,

right? If you take a look at that verse, you'll

notice a bunch of times it says, you will do

this. God empowers you, but you're going to break

the chains. You're going to lift the burdens

in his name. You're going to feed the hungry

and clothe the naked. And you can be physically

hungry and you can be physically naked or you

can be spiritually bankrupt, right? You can be

spiritually naked and starving in a spiritual

way. It says, God, then the light will break

forth like the morning. It'll break forth like

the morning. We fast. So that we have power over

the enemy. We fast so we can make a difference

in the world around us. And as we draw near to

God. As we come into the light and the water

of the Spirit washes over us and we get hearts

of repentance before God, as we step into that

and as temptation begins to flee, as we overcome

the darkness and the enemy's tactics are no longer

now hidden under the surface and we begin to

see, right? When all those things begin to take

place, we start to become a powerful weapon against

the enemy in the hands of God to make a difference

in the world around us. And I'm giving you just

a couple reasons for fasting. There's more. And

God's where I'm asking you to stand. Thank you

for tuning in to this message from Lifehouse

Church. We pray that you were impacted powerfully

by this message. If you have been personally

affected by our ministry and you would like to

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