This Changes Everything | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

All right, Church.

How's everybody doing?

You guys doing good?

Okay, that's a little bit better than a nine o'clock service, but y'all slept in, so I think our energy should definitely at least at least match theirs.

So let's try again.

Church, how you guys doing?

You guys doing good?

That's what I'm saying.

I want the nine o'clock service to be jealous.

Um, I know we shouldn't have that, but I think it's healthy uh competition.

So I love the the energy that's here in the room.

Um and and I want to do a couple of things before I jump into uh today's message.

The first thing is I I realize that when we have these moments where we're on platform and we're sharing um the multitude of things that's going on at our church, it can sometimes be uh a little bit overwhelming, it can be trying to figure out our schedules.

And and here's um here's my heart's desire behind all the things that we share with you guys.

I I recognize that we all have things that we're juggling and responsibilities.

And so the goal is everybody doesn't have to do everything, but I believe everybody can do something.

So with the things that we share, just look and see what you can, and it may require a little bit of a sacrifice, but what you can indeed lean into, and I do think that that could be um what your next step is.

For those that can attend everything, by all means lean in.

If you can't, that's perfectly okay.

Um, but our heart's desire is really just to create opportunities for everyone to be able to engage and to continue uh to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Uh, the other thing I want to take a moment uh uh to celebrate um and acknowledge is um man, yesterday was my son Caleb's birthday.

Caleb, stand up and wave to the people.

Caleb, stand up.

Don't make me man.

So so yesterday was was Caleb's birthday.

He he's 19 and man, I'm just so so proud of him.

He typically works on Sundays, but occasionally he does get a chance to come and worship with us, man.

Let's do this.

Let's sing happy birthday really quick and make him feel super, super, super awkward.

Okay, one, two, three.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday, dearest Kayla.

Happy birthday to you.

Yes, yes, yes.

19 years old.

I remember when I was 19, um, and I had to start paying bills.

So, son, welcome to adulthood.

Um, and then and then the last thing that I wanna that I want to take a moment to to celebrate is of course tomorrow um is Dr.

Martin Luther King Day.

And and I want to pause to acknowledge that um for a very, very serious moment.

As you guys look around uh this church, there's a good chance.

Let's actually do that.

Just look around for a moment.

So I did this exercise last night, just off the top of my head, with the people that I know.

With the people that I know, our church makes up over 25 different nationalities, different countries, different backgrounds, and that's just of the ones that I know.

And what I recognize is that there was a time in the not so distant past that that would have been an impossibility.

But it's because of of people who who who fought to bring equality, such as Dr.

Martin Luther King, that our church like ours that looks like heaven is even possible.

So we have an opportunity to just kind of pause and reflect the progress that we've made while simultaneously acknowledging um the journey that we still continue to be on.

And so what I typically do um to honor Dr.

Martin Luther King is one, continue to engage and participate in a community that I honestly believe fulfills a portion of the dream that he has.

The other thing that I typically do is I on that day, I'll I'll take a moment, I'll I'll listen to the I Have a Dream speech.

I'll sometimes read it.

Another thing I'll do is I'll often will read um the letters from the Birmingham jail.

Um I'm I'm encouraging you guys just to not look at this as a day off for those who are off, but take a moment to reflect the community that we're a part of that I believe is a reflection of that dream, but also what it looks like to be a person who has courage to go against all the opposition, but still be a kingdom-minded person to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So can we put our hands together and celebrate the legacy of Dr.

Martin Luther King and how we're able to benefit from the hard work that was done before us?

Amen, amen, amen.

If you have your Bibles, um would you join me in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter four?

Matthew chapter uh number four.

We're in week two of our of our sermon series that we've entitled The Way.

But it's not just uh a series, but it's also going to be kind of like the season for us as a church.

And it's it's really built on this idea that's found in John chapter 14, verse number six.

John 14 · chapter mention

I'll read it to you so you can have context.

But Jesus says these words, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Um, that Jesus was ultimately communicating that, hey, I am not a way, I am not a truth, I am not a life in a world where we have so many choices and options and things that we can engage in.

But but Jesus was making a very strong statement by what he was saying.

I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.

He says, No one can make it unto the Father, no one can experience heaven's benefits unless it goes through me.

So Jesus was not communicating to us that he is an accessory that we put on and take off as it's convenient for us.

He's a way of life.

He he was saying that I am not a cosmic life coach, that you come and you just kind of find three points to make you feel better about the next week.

That is not what he's saying.

He says, I am a way of life.

And if we expect to see the things of Jesus produced in our life, it requires us to adapt the lifestyle.

And so ultimately that's what this series is about, and that is what we're going to be spending our time talking about today.

And so today we're going to be looking at one of the things that are part of the ways of Jesus, a part of his lifestyle.

Um, and that is a season of prayer and fasting for us as a church.

Starting here at verse number one and Matthew 4, Jesus is is coming out of a season of waiting 30 years before he launches his public ministry.

You'll find that in in in in the earlier chapters uh of Matthew, but specifically Matthew 3, we see that he gets baptized and then it kind of ushers him into his time of going into his public ministry.

Can you imagine that Jesus is the word made flesh?

Can you imagine that that Jesus from the time that he's developing understands what his calling and purpose is, but actually doesn't step into it until he is 30 years old.

Some of us will be at jobs for two weeks and we're wondering what our promotion plan is.

But Jesus, because he knew he was called, was able to be patient.

He was able to wait it out, he was able to deal with the being sitting under leadership that didn't always understand his word appropriately.

But when the time was right, he stepped into it.

So he was modeling what patience and diligence and seasons look like.

Starting here at verse number one, here's what it says that then Jesus was led by the Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.

For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became hungry.

And during that time the devil came and said to him, If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.

But Jesus told him, No, Scripture says, People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple, and he said, If you are the Son of God, then jump off.

Scripture says, He will order his angels, and they will hold you up by their hands, so you won't even hurt your foot on a single stone.

And Jesus responded, The Scripture also says, You must not test the Lord your God.

Next, the devil took him to the peak of the very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

I will give it all to you if you will kneel down and worship me.

Verse number 10 Get out of here, Satan, Jesus told him, for scripture says, You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.

Then the devil went away, and the angels came and took care of Jesus.

There's so much nuance here that I wish I had the time to get into it, but we're going to do our best over the next 26 minutes.

Um, and what I want us to do is as we look at these words, and maybe some things stood out to you as you were reading this, maybe there's some things that are stirring in your heart right now.

I want you to lean into those moments.

But but today I want to speak specifically about when Jesus went into the wilderness, that place that was filled with with fear and discomfort and for many people a place of anxiety because they just didn't know what was going on out there.

Jesus goes out there in a season of fasting and praying to kick off his ministry and it changed everything.

I believe the same could be said of us when we enter into a season of fasting and praying.

So if you're taking notes, and of course, at Celebration Orlando, we do that.

We take notes, we lean in.

I want you to write this message title down.

This changes everything.

Let's pray and let's get into it.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

Um, we thank you for this incredible community.

And and Father, I pray over the next few moments that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear your truth, and open hearts to receive what it is that you want to impart into us today.

Holy Spirit, have your way.

This is your service, this is your moment.

I decrease and ask for you to increase in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

Um, family, I I I want to share a word with you that I've been enamored with um over the past uh a couple of weeks.

And that word is synchronization.

Sync, synchronization.

And what synchronization is it's something that we're all familiar with and engaged in, even if we don't use that vocabulary.

But what it really is, it's the process of communication and coordinating of actions across multiple devices and platforms that fosters cohesion and efficiency.

You can tell I got that from a dictionary, so let me make it plain.

It's it's the process of how multiple things can be happening at the same time, but they are all in sync.

They're all on the same page.

And so for us, we have the benefit of having cloud technology where we're able to pull from a single source, but even if you have an iPad, if you have a desktop computer, maybe you're on your phone, that everything somehow stays in sync.

And so there's a lot of things that benefits from this idea of synchronization.

So if you've ever watched a movie or a TV show and you've seen that the words don't match up with the audio, that means that something is out of sync.

So there's some part of it where the actions aren't matching up with the words.

Something is out of sync.

So synchronization is necessary to make sure that what you're seeing and what you're hearing is is matching up with what you're seeing.

Another thing that's important to be in sync are are databases.

There's a lot of times we're pulling down information, like your bank is a database, and when you log into your bank account, you're pulling down information from a database and you're hoping that it's in sync so you're getting accurate information.

Teams, when whenever you're on a team, whether it's at work or or even here, I look at us as a church, that we have a lot of activity on any given Sunday that requires us to be in sync.

Imagine if if if Lindsay is up here and she wants to sing Oceans, but but but Vinny is singing Refiner.

Both are powerful songs, but things are out of sync.

There's no cohesion and it can cause confusion.

So the idea of making sure that things are in sync, that synchronization, that we're all on the same page, even when we're using files.

And we have these cloud-based systems now that you can be working on a document on your phone, you can be working on a document on your computer, and as long as they're in sync with one another, it's almost like effortless integration.

The Bible software that I use for my message prep, and even for when I write my messages, it's one of those um databases that benefits from that technology.

So I may be in a grocery store, have a thought, and I can pull out my phone and add that thought into my software.

I can also be at home working on my desktop and I'm able to add some components and research into it.

And then I can do the same thing for my iPad.

I love when everything is in sync.

Um, and so I have a very specific rhythm in the way that I do things and how I engage so that I'm able to stand on this platform and encourage you guys every week.

And I remember this one time specifically that typically um by Saturday I'm done adding to the message.

It's a it's a process, but by Saturday I'm done.

I I rest, I I wake up on Sundays, I pray through it, and then I'm ready to get out here and share it.

But on this one particular Sunday, um I wake up on Sunday morning and I feel like God has given me some other thoughts to kind of take it into a different direction.

So I pull out my desktop computer, I start typing these adjustments in there, I close the computer, I grab my iPad, and I come here to church.

So as we have these moments where I come up on platform, I'm I'm introducing everybody, we put our hands together for our online team and all the things that are going on.

I open up my iPad to look at it in preparation to share the word of God, and my screen is completely blank.

Yeah.

And I remember that moment where it's like everything slowed down.

And as I'm looking over at this screen that should be populated with scriptures and highlights and things that are kind of nudging me and making sure I don't forget to say certain things, which should be filled with content and direction is completely blank.

So now I'm here on this platform basically trying to figure out if we're gonna turn this into a makeshift worship moment.

Hey, you know what?

I feel like the Spirit of the Lord is moving.

Um we're I hear you, Lord.

We're gonna go back into worship right now.

Like you're trying to find ways to try to cover because my mind goes blank, the screen goes blank, and what I realized happened is I was working on my desktop and that had the most recent information.

And while it was trying to synchronize to add to the cloud, my iPad didn't get the download, so my iPad was stuck in this buffering space where there was nothing there.

It was out of sync.

And what I think can happen a lot of times with us is that we can be spread in so many different directions.

We can have so many different things going on.

And and if we're not careful, we'll get out of sync with God, and now we're recognizing that the words that we say are matching our actions.

That we can get to a place where we're on the same team, but it doesn't seem like we're in sync with our spouse because somehow we're not using the same information in order to move us forward.

That sometimes we can find ourselves out of sync with the way that we live our lives, and unfortunately, because of the busyness, we can find ourselves out of sync with God Himself.

You see, what fasting is meant to do, fasting is meant to slow us down so that we can catch up with God.

What fasting is meant to do is to put us in a place where we can get back in sync with God.

See, what fasting is, fasting is a spiritual discipline that you find from the old and the new testament.

And I realize that it's a fad and it's very trendy now, even in the health spectrum where you can see people that are saying how fasting has benefited them, intermittent fasting and all these different things that people do in an effort to make their body stronger.

But the actual intent of fasting always was to produce spiritual fruit.

The idea of fasting is simply looking and saying that I'm choosing to do something in my body that's going to benefit my spirit.

Fasting is when I slow down so that I can catch up with God.

It's a spiritual discipline.

And what spiritual disciplines are, to put it quite frankly, is when I'm choosing to do things in my natural that are going to strengthen me spiritually.

So when we come to church, that's a spiritual discipline.

Because my natural body may not want to, but I'm choosing to do it for the benefit of my spirit.

When I come in and I and I lift my hands during worship, it's not even my favorite song.

I don't even know the words.

This is a new song, but I'm choosing to do it anyway because it's going to benefit me spiritually.

When I choose to live a life of generosity, there's a lot of different things I can do with this money, but I'm choosing to do this because I know it's going to benefit me spiritually.

That's what spiritual disciplines are.

And fasting is right in alignment with those very same things.

Fasting is choosing to voluntarily give up something in your normal body for the sake of spiritual activity.

And what we see in scripture is that there's so many different examples and motivations behind people that go into seasons of fasting and praying.

Scripture tells us that Moses had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights as he was spending time in the presence of God and he received the word of God.

Let me tell you why this is such a big deal.

This is so significant.

Because of all the false religions, false gods that were out there, they never quite knew what their God wanted.

So even when you look at scripture, and even when you look at extra biblical literature, there was never a true understanding of what their God wanted.

So they would create these varying crazy rituals and routines, hoping, well, maybe if we do this, our God will respond.

You'll see that fully expressed with Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

You'll see that kind of expressed like, what does it take to get my God's attention?

So when God comes on the scene and he begins to engage the people of God and he provides a word for them, that was actually a relief because now, for the first time in human history, man understood what God wanted from them and then also what we can expect from God.

It was actually meant to be a place of safety because now I fully understand how to serve God, but also what I am can expect from the God that I serve.

Moses spent 40 days in the presence of God and he desired nothing else.

That's what happens when we go into seasons of fasting and praying.

David was going into a season of fasting when he found out that his son was sick and he went into a season of fasting and praying in hopes of getting comfort and even changing the hand of God.

We see that actualized in scripture.

Daniel fasted after he had this profound vision and he wanted to get more strength and clarity for things to come.

We see that Daniel went into a season of fasting where we pull the Daniel fast concept from.

Esther went into a season of fasting and praying when the people of God were about to be eradicated from the face of the planet, and she needed the courage to go before the king to negotiate their freedom.

She went and asked for courage and support.

It was a corporate fast that we see that Esther had engaged into.

And even Paul, the apostle Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, that when he had his encounter with Jesus and he he comes to, he goes into a three-day season of fasting and praying because he had to reconcile.

And fasting is one of them.

To be clear, fasting is not a spiritual hunger strike.

But when we fast, it does get heaven's attention.

But we don't just fast to get God's attention, we fast to put our attention on God.

It's how we can slow things down so that we can adequately engage the presence of God.

And what we see in Jesus is that Jesus is a man who fasted.

Not only do we see that in Matthew chapter number four, but we also understand because he is a Jewish man that he was raised in the customs of fasting.

There are at least three feasts that would have been a requirement for the Jews to fast.

And so Jesus was raised with this discipline of disconnecting from the world and making sure that I slow down so I can make sure that my physical world is in alignment with my spiritual world.

It was seasons of fasting and praying.

For Megan and I, whenever we're in periods of time where we need to make a big decision, I typically don't make a decision that's really significant without going into a time where I disconnect and I'm fully engaged in the presence of God because I don't want outside things to influence a divine decision.

Fasting and praying is a great way to make sure that I'm dialing in that frequency so I can hear more clearly from God.

I realize that our church is multi-generational, so there may be some that may get this reference and some that may not.

So y'all stick with me, millennials.

But does anybody remember the radios when you had to actually like dial in the frequency?

You would get a little static.

Anybody old enough to remember that?

I mean, I feel like I'm telling on myself.

Because as you're traveling certain areas, the antenna, there may be some instruction, so you have to turn it in so you can get a little bit more clearly.

What fasting does is the way that we turn the dial so that we can dial in a little bit more clearly so that we can hear adequately from God.

And what we see in this passage in Matthew 4, there's so many things we can pull from it, but for the for the sake of time and simplification, I want to break down three things that I think that we can pull from this that can help encourage us, but also build expectations on what it looks like when we enter into seasons of fasting and praying.

Here's the first thing I want you to write down.

Fasting, it changes our appetite.

When we fast, it changes our appetite.

Fasting absolutely changes our appetite.

Let me let me break it down for you.

So we are we are beings that are made up of body, soul, and spirit.

Our body is how we engage this physical world.

Our soul is our mind, our will, our personality, and then we have our spirit is how we engage God.

So my body is how I engage the world, my soul is my mind, my will, and my emotions, and my spirit is how I engage God.

And so what happens is whatever you feed will succeed.

So as I'm feeding off of things in the world, my soul begins to be the beneficiary of it.

So the things that I take in, the things that I absorb, the places I go, it begins to shape my personality.

The same is true of when I choose to engage things in the spirit.

It begins to influence my personality, and so whatever you feed will succeed.

What the Bible says is that when Jesus goes off into the wilderness, this isolated location for a time of prayer and fasting, that the enemy shows up and says, If you are the Son of God, then turn these stones into bread.

Jesus replies and says, But man should not live by bread alone.

He he lives by everything that comes out of the mouth of God.

Let me let me break down what's happening here.

So so the enemy is watching Jesus.

He has a general idea of Of who Jesus is and what Jesus is supposed to accomplish.

And when Jesus makes the commitment to separate himself, to go into the presence of God so he can prepare spiritually, the enemy is there and begins to tempt him.

I want you to hear me, church.

That when you begin to make commitments to God, don't be surprised when the enemy shows up to tempt you in the very thing that you said you wanted to give to God.

The very thing I'm gonna start, I'm gonna start going to church this year.

This is gonna be the year I go to church.

Don't be surprised when the temptation of every reason why you can't go to church begins to emerge.

This is the year that I'm gonna be more generous than ever.

I'm gonna actually begin to partner with God's vision and seeing his kingdom come on earth.

Don't be surprised when you start facing temptation in every single thing that you decided that you want to do that will glorify God.

The enemy's goal is he can't create anything, but he wants to corrupt what was already created.

He he shows up in an effort to try to say, if you if you really want to be satisfied, do things your way.

My life, my way.

But but Jesus responds by saying, But man shall not live by bread alone.

Jesus actually says that it's my my will is to do the will of the Father, and that is what nourishes me.

What you feed will succeed.

See, the truth of the matter is the more that we spend time in the presence of God, our appetite becomes more for the things of God.

But you still may have cravings for the world.

See, there's a difference between an appetite and cravings.

So you can have an appetite, and that's just a desire to eat.

Cravings are things that just pop up out of nowhere.

Like you can be a person that you're on this 21 days of prayer and fasting, and you're good, and and I know for me there are certain food places I don't ever go, just in general.

But when you're fasting and praying and quite frankly, hungry, food that you would never eat all of a sudden becomes so desirable now.

Man, I would never go to this restaurant, I'll even drive by it.

I will cut through traffic to avoid riding by this restaurant.

But man, that roast beef sandwich looks so good right about now.

Never eaten it before, but something about it.

And I want to prepare us that when we begin on this journey of living out the ways of Jesus, and even though we're spiritually strengthening ourselves, those cravings can sometimes begin to pop up.

Things that you thought that you were over begin to pop up.

Paul talks about this tension that we have.

He says, I don't know what's wrong with me, because the things that I want to do are the things that I don't do, but the things I don't want to do are the things I end up doing.

What Paul is saying is that my soul is the battleground and my flesh is fighting a battle, my spirit is fighting a battle.

And if we don't go into a time of fasting and praying and disconnect from the things of the world to weaken our flesh and strengthen our spirit, unfortunately, our carnality can always win.

But when I go into a season of fasting and praying, it builds me up spiritually where I'm able to have an appetite for God more than it is a craving for the world.

It may not go away, but the desire is for us to have strength in our spirit that can overcome the temptation of the flesh.

That when we go into a season of fasting and praying, that our appetites for the things of God actually begins to change.

Here's the second thing I want us to write down.

Fasting clarifies our audience.

It clarifies our audience.

And let me give you a little bit of context.

What happens next is that the enemy takes Jesus up into Jerusalem and he shows them all this, the the kingdoms that are there in Jerusalem.

This is a place of influence.

And he says to him, If you are the Son of God, here's what you got to do: jump off this temple, and then the angels are gonna come and they're gonna swoop you up, and then everyone that sees it will know that you are the Messiah.

That's gonna be a great way to launch your ministry, Jesus.

It's fascinating to me that the enemy literally is quoting the Bible to the living Bible.

Prepare your heart.

The enemy knows the word, do you?

Because he'll begin to take it and use it out of context, and when we don't understand it, we can find ourselves looking at something in scripture, applying it the wrong way, and walking in a complete opposite direction of what God is calling us to do.

The enemy literally uses a scripture out of context to convince Jesus on why his ministry needed to have such a large public display.

Launch your Instagram account, do everything you can.

Let's get all these followers, let's get this thing going.

But that was not the will of God.

Because we understand that for the ministry of Jesus, that he had to go through some difficult times where people questioned who he was.

He he dealt with some opposition, he dealt with some challenges, but that was all a part of building his kingdom that God was establishing.

What the enemy was offering was a shortcut so that he can get the crown without going through the cross.

And what I think can happen for some of us is that if we're not careful, we'll do the same thing.

What is the shortcut to success so that I don't have to go through the disappointment of suffering?

So I don't have to go through the so that I don't have to go through the pain.

Because we all wear many hats and we just want to do our best to leverage and steward our influence.

But if we lose ourselves in trying to impact others, we can get applause from man, but miss the well done from God.

But when you know that I live for an audience of one, you can be at peace knowing that there's going to be things that God may lead me to do that everybody may not be happy about, but I live for the audience of one.

That there may be some people that that may not like your post when you decide to post that you went to church, but they have a lot to say when you're doing everything except for God, but I but I live for the audience of one.

What fasting does is it allows us to recognize that I'm called to live for the audience of one and let everything flow from that.

Jesus said that, man, like I am not going to engage in the things that the enemy is tempting me to do.

I will not take a shortcut.

God has given us all influence and we all wear many hats.

I know for me, I am a husband, I'm a father, I'm a pastor, I'm a son, I'm a I'm an uncle.

I have all these things that God has given me.

And of all the things that God has given me, there's responsibilities and expectations connected to all of them.

And if I'm not careful, I can lose myself trying to satisfy the crowds instead of living a life where I know that I'm living in honor of the King.

What fasting and praying does, it allows me to reduce all the distractions and say, what does God want me to do in this?

And then allow my actions to go in sync with that.

What fasting does is it clarifies the audience that we have.

We're living for God first, and everything flows from that.

The third and final thing I want to share with you guys is fasting, it reinforces our authority.

Fasting reinforces our authority.

Did you know that that when God created man in his own image, that he created us to function with dominion?

That word dominion ultimately means power and authority in action happening simultaneously.

But we forfeited that dominion when sin entered the picture through Adam and Eve.

But thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus, he reestablished that dominion, that authority, and now we have delegated authority through Christ Jesus.

This is why in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus says, These are the signs that will follow those who who follow, these are the signs that will follow those who believe in me.

In my name, they shall cast out devils.

In my name, they shall take up serpents and not be harmed.

In my name, they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.

What he was saying is, you have delegated authority in me to do some powerful things in my name.

But if we're not careful, we can live our lives not functioning at the full capacity of what God has called us to do.

I remember in the varying seasons of ministry and recognizing how God began to open doors and broaden the influence that He's given us and being in rooms and bringing an old mentality into a new room.

Because before I'm in rooms and I'm a contributor, but now I'm in a room and God has asked me to be the leader of it.

And if we're not careful, you could find yourself living in the same space that I am where I'm not living up to the authority that's available to me.

It took me a while to understand the authority that was connected to what God was calling me to do.

When the enemy came to Jesus and began to probe him and tempt him and to bypassing all these other things, what Jesus did, he says, Get behind me, Satan.

He exercised his authority and said, Why am I going back and forth with the enemy when God has given me dominion over him?

What fasting does is it strengthens our spiritual resolve where we can recognize that I have authority over the enemy.

So why am I going back and forth with the enemy, having these debates with him?

The Bible says that he is under my feet, and my life is going to begin to reflect that because I'm in such a sync with the power of God that I'm walking in the authority of God.

This is why when Peter walked by, that his shadow was able to heal people.

This is why when Paul wiped the sweat off of his brow, that the sweat was able to heal people, because he was in such sync with God that the power of God was flowing through him because he had power and dominion.

What if we became the people of faith that were in such sync with God that instead of us crying whenever something happens, we say, No weapon that is formed against me shall prosper.

We will overcome this.

We are victorious.

We are more than conquerors.

God before me, so what can be against me?

Yes, in this world we will have trouble.

But take heart, friends, God has overcome the world through Christ Jesus, and that same dominion and authority has been passed down to me.

I'm talking to some people right now who have unsaved loved ones.

I'm talking to some people right now that are dealing with sickness in their body.

I'm talking to some people right now going through financial strain, but I'm talking about tapping into the authority that God has made available to us and beginning to pace ourselves in victory, beginning to walk with authority, beginning to understand the anointing, understanding the grace that God has made available to every single one of us.

When we go into seasons of fasting and praying, we get so stirred up in the spirit that we're no longer asking the enemy for permission, but we're commanding him to go.

You got to get out of my home.

You got to get out of my marriage, you got to get out of my family.

I'm functioning with the dominion of God.

Can we put our hands together for the goodness of God and the authority that He's extended to us?

It reinforces our authority.

The Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from us.

The enemy came to Jesus and he said, If you, if you if you will just worship me, then I'll give you everything.

And that brings us to the crux of the matter.

The enemy's desire is for us to live our life, his way, for the enemy's glory.

But if we can be people that says, My life, God's way, our story for God's glory, that's how we begin to live lives of victory.

Jesus won where Adam lost.

Adam was in the wilderness, so to speak.

Adam was away, so to speak.

And while he was there, the Bible says that he faced temptation and he failed and then ushered in sin.

The children of Israel, they spent 40 years in the wilderness, but Jesus won where they had lost.

Jesus confronted the very things that people that have gone before us has failed at, and he was victorious in it, so we can experience that victory through the work of Christ.

So fasting for us, it allows us to come into an alignment with Jesus where we can begin to walk in that authority, we can begin to walk in that anointing, we can begin to function the way that God has called us to function.

Fasting is about bringing us to a place of freedom.

Isaiah 58, verse number six says this This is the kind of fast that I want to free those who are wrongly imprisoned, to lighten the burden for those who work for you, to let the oppressed go free, to remove the chains that bind people.

We see in this passage that fasting is directly connected to bringing freedom.

And what I recognize is that there's not a single person in here that doesn't have an area where we want to experience more freedom.

There's not a single person among us that there's not an area where we don't feel a little bit of restriction where God is calling us to be free.

What fasting and praying can be for us is an opportunity to lean into the presence of God in such a way that what if after the end of these 21 days, what used to be chains now becomes a halo of freedom because God has set you free because we consecrated ourselves before Him.

You know, I think about that moment when I looked at my screen and it was completely blank and I'm literally processing what the next steps are gonna be for this service.

About five minutes into me thinking and processing and engaging with the community that's here, I looked over at my screen and all of a sudden it was populated with all the content that I thought was gone.

And and for me, I'm thinking to myself, like, my God, it's a miracle.

Like I was stuck, but the Lord came through.

I was gonna have a whole powerful testimony.

And and maybe there's a version of that, but just real practically speaking, my iPad hopped onto the Wi-Fi, connected to the cloud, downloaded the content, and I was ready to rock.

But I do think that there is a very practical revelation in that.

That initially the screen was blank because it was disconnected from the source.

But when it connected to the source, I was able to get that download so I was able to continue to move forward.

My hope is you can see the picture that I'm trying to paint.

That there are areas of our lives where maybe there's blank spots, areas of our lives where things are out of sync.

But this season of fasting and praying slows us down so we can catch up with God, slows us down so that we can get a fresh download from heaven so we can get in sync with God and we can move forward with the vision that He is giving us.

See, there are all types of fasts, and I know that it can be a little bit overwhelming, but we want to make it simple for you.

I want to share a couple things with us as we prepare to go into a time of prayer and worship.

First, is we have this fasting and prayer guide that is available to you guys.

This is a free resource that the team did a phenomenal job at putting together, specifically Lindsay.

So glad that she's back from maternity leave.

But but she pulled this incredible resource together in partnership with one of the local churches here.

And and this resource is amazing.

Not only does it break down um what fasting is, great tips on it.

It tells you the different types of fast that you can engage in, which could be everything ranging from some type of food fast, total fast, liquid fast, Daniel fast.

It gives you a breakdown of the different kind, but one of my favorite kinds is a soul fast.

And that's really where we choose to disconnect from things that just we need to get freedom from.

If we're honest with ourselves, sometimes we watch the news and it's just not good for our soul.

Sometimes we engage in social media and it's just not good for our soul.

So it even offers suggestions on the things that we can disconnect that's just not good for our soul.

I can't be the only one that sometimes you just turn the TV on and you're like, My God, is is is anything good in the world?

Like everything is bad, everything is despair.

I'm not talking about putting our heads in the sand, but what I'm saying is, man, where is the goodness of God in this?

Where's the redemptive power of grace in all of these things?

And so sometimes we just need to stop allowing our souls to be bombarded with bad news and celebrate the good news.

So a good soul fast allows us to disconnect from things that can be such a distraction.

That could include social media, that could include secular music, that could include a lot of different things that could sometimes be a distraction and pull us away.

So a good soul fast is another thing that's available to us.

The other thing I want to highlight in here is that literally, if you choose to do a Daniel fast, there's there's recipes in here.

There's even a grocery list in here.

What we're trying to do is remove every excuse on why you can't do it.

It is it is so easy right now.

It is open it up.

Meal plans are there.

It's trying to make it so easy.

And it's not to remove the sacrifice that is required of us, but it's to remove the barriers that can sometimes keep us from moving forward.

When you leave here, just grab one and take it with you.

Read over it with your family, begin to process through.

What kind of fast are we gonna do?

Are we gonna do a soul fast?

Are we gonna do a combination of a food fast?

What is that gonna look like?

And let us commit to doing this together as a family and as a community.

And I think collectively we can begin to experience revival.

But but the other component about fasting and and praying is not just about what you stop doing, it's about what you choose to engage in while you've stopped doing it.

So, what we also want to make available to us is is there's Bible reading plans in there that we're all doing collectively.

But I want to share with you the importance of journaling the process and the things that God has been doing in your life.

So we're having this journal that's available.

Now, this does have a cost to it.

Whenever we sell something or make something available to us that has a cost associated with it, we always sell it at cost.

We never mark up the price ever.

So the price for this is$8.

It's an amazing um journal that you can see when you go out into the foyer and out into the courtyard that we want to make available to you.

But we're also doing this now.

Anytime that we make something available to our church, I feel like God put it on my heart to also create the opportunity that if you want to give above and beyond that, anything you give above and beyond that goes towards our building fund.

Because we know that the vision that God has given us is for us to secure our permanent location.

So if God moves on your heart to get a journal and you choose to give above and beyond$8, just know that profit all goes towards our building fund.

But the thing that's so important about journaling is I'm a person that loves to journal.

And one of the things that I love about journaling is when I get three months down the road, six months down the road, or even a year down the road, I'll look back at the things that I was writing a year ago.

And you know that there's times that we have prayer requests that we forget about, things that we may casually write down, moments of frustration that we may articulate, and then we get so far removed from it that we forget to celebrate God's deliverance and all of it.

So, what journaling does is it allows us to write down the activity of God in our lives while being able to look back and recognize how far God has brought us.

I want this to be a year where we as a church collectively begin to journal.

You know, the Bible is filled with these statements.

Remember, remember, you'll see it from Old Testament to New Testament, the new covenant when Jesus established it, do this in remembrance of me.

That remembrance was taking a moment to pause and to reflect on the goodness of God.

And journaling is a great way to do that.

The reason we do 21 days of prayer and fasting is because 21 days turn something into a habit.

90 days turn something into a lifestyle.

Six months you begin to see tangible results, and one year you can see transformation.

You can use that same concept with people's weight loss journey as well as adjustments they're making in their lives.

What if we as a church said, for the next 21 days, we're gonna be fully engaged in the things of God?

We're gonna come to church, we're gonna we're gonna stay engaged, we're gonna read the Bible, we're gonna do these things until that 21 days it turns into a habit.

And that habit then turns into a lifestyle.

That lifestyle begins to produce results.

And then a year from this very moment, you're able to look back in the journal that you have been writing in the entire year and see, look at what God has done in my life over the past year.

I almost don't even recognize myself anymore.

Changes that I used to have are no longer there, struggles that I used to have are no longer there.

The things that I used to be bonded to are now the things I'm encouraging other people through.

But it starts right here.

When we fast, it changes everything.

My encouragement for us is whatever your next step is, fully engage in it and participate and watch what God does through it.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to pose a couple of questions to us.

You know, when when Jesus is being baptized, what scripture says is that the voice of God comes down and says, This is my beloved son, and whom I am well pleased.

Those are the words that Jesus heard before he started his public ministry.

Then he goes into the wilderness, and the thing that the enemy came to his ears with was, If you are the son of God, then do these things.

If you are the son of God.

So we have God on one hand who already confirmed who Jesus was before he did a single thing, and we had the enemy saying, If you are who God says you are, then you have to prove it.

What a contrast from the voice of the enemy versus the voice of God.

The voice of God affirms you and moves you forward.

The enemy challenges you in an effort to move you backwards.

It's an invitation right now, family.

And the question I want to pose is, are you a child of God?

It's available, but it starts with us living a surrendered life and acknowledging that Jesus is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life.

So if you're in here and if you're joining us online, we want you to participate in this moment as well.

But but if Jesus is not Lord of your life and you know that God is calling you, you are his child, and it's an invitation for you to come home.

On account of three, I want you to boldly lift your hand up so we can celebrate with you and we can get some resources to you, and we can see the power of God begin to start.

One, two, three.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Yes.

Church, let's put our hands together and celebrate with everyone that's saying yes.

It's I'm repositioning myself.

It changes everything.

The next question I want to pose really quick is maybe as you were listening to this message, you know that, yes, I'm gonna lean into this fast.

I'm gonna lean in.

There's some things and some areas of my life that I want to experience the freedom.

There's some areas of my life where corporately I want to see revival amongst all of us, that I'm leaning into this season of prayer and fasting.

And you may not have it all figured out, but you know that you are gonna commit at some version of making sure that you engage in this fast.

If that's you, I simply want to pray that God's strength can be with all of us as we corporately enter into this sacred time of seeking God.

You don't have to have it figured out, but you have to make a commitment.

Want to count a three?

If you're with us, just raise your hand.

One, two, three.

I'm seeking God.

I'm putting it into God's hands.

I'm gonna pursue God.

Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen.

Church, let's put our hands together as we corporately are choosing to engage God.

Let's let's stand on our feet.

We're gonna go into a time of worship to kind of seal in this sacred moment.

I'm gonna come back and give us some instructions.

But the Lord, I pray.

That as we go into this time of worship, Lord, that you begin to stir our hearts, that you begin to strengthen our resolve, and we recognize that in you we have freedom, that in you we have wholeness and hope.

We acknowledge and declare that your way is better.

So as we engage in this time of worship, I pray that your spirit comes down, begins to fill us, orders our steps, and gives us peace.

So in the name of Jesus, Father, we acknowledge that your way is better.

Have your way in Jesus' name.

Come on, church, let's worship all together one more time.

Thanks again for listening.

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