RESET: Factory Settings

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.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you, church.

I'm so, so um honored and humbled to be with you today.

And I'm so grateful that you would come and worship with us today, as Pastor Mike mentioned earlier.

Um, if there is a need, if there's anything that we can do to serve you and your family, we would love, we would love to hear about it.

Maybe God's been doing some things in your life in this season.

Maybe you've seen just the activity of God.

We would love to hear about it.

You can simply text connect to 25101, and that's a great place for us to share testimonies.

It's also a great place for us to share prayer.

Maybe you have some things that you want the people of God to come alongside you and pray about.

Please reach out to us and let us know.

It's our honor and our privilege to come alongside.

We believe here at Celebration Church that we truly are a family.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in Isaiah chapter 43.

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

We're gonna we're gonna hit a couple of passages.

So if you don't, it's fine.

Just write down some of the scripture references and and go back and and read it in just uh a little bit later this week.

But but my hope is that you can you can stick with us because we're entering into an amazing season here as a church, a season of fasting and prayer.

We've we've kind of titled this season a season of reset.

That's kind of like the theming or the series or the thought process that we have because we believe that it's a great opportunity for us to kind of reset, get back to doing things the way that God had intended it.

So looking here at Isaiah 43, verse number 18 and 19, it says, Do not remember past events, pay no attention to the things of old.

Verse 19, look, I am about to do something new.

Even now, what is coming, do you not see it?

Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Jumping over now to another prophet, Joel, uh chapter number two, Joel, Joel, uh, chapter number two, looking at verse number twelve, uh, another passage that kind of speaks to the season that we're in.

It says this, even now, this is the Lord's declaration.

Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.

And now we're going to conclude our our journey through scripture by looking at Matthew chapter number six.

This is the words of Jesus instructing his people as they're engaging in what worship looks like.

He says, But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face so that your fasting isn't obvious to others, but to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

If I could summarize those three passages, I would put it this way that God is doing something new.

But it requires us to turn to him with all of our hearts through a season of fasting and prayer, and we can be amazed at what we watch him do as a result of it.

Today I want to kick off our series and our season of fasting and praying with a message that I believe is going to help us to reset our minds, reset our hearts, and even reset our hands so that we can be in calibration with the things of God.

And I've entitled this message, if you're writing it down, Factory Settings.

Factory settings.

Let's let's pray and let's see what it is that God wants to speak to us today.

Lord, we're so thankful for your word.

We're thankful for community, we're grateful for moments that we can come together and to worship.

Your word tells us that that when two or three are gathered in your name, that you're in the midst of it, Father.

So whether we're in our homes, in our cars, here in the facility where we are right now, God, no matter where we're engaging this, we believe that you're in the midst, and when you're there, God, we know that you can do anything.

So, Father, I pray over the next few moments that you give us open eyes that we can see you, open ears that we can hear your truth, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

You know, I I love the fact that we live in a world that is filled with so many luxuries and conveniences.

Specifically, when I think about things that that we used to have to do in a very archaic way, now we have resources that make it a lot simpler for us.

In fact, I I remember the days before we had smartphones.

And before we had smartphones, it was like the good old days when when you actually needed to get directions from somewhere, you had to like log online, you had to like go to mapquest.com.

Is mapquest still out?

Like, is that still an active website?

But you had to go to mapquest.com, you had to like print in your directions, and then you had to print it out.

And then you had to take it with you.

And God forbid if you missed a turn, God forbid if there was a detour, because you're just out of luck.

I noticed some of our young millennials in here are like mapquest, what is that?

Just go back, it's probably in the Smithsonian, look it up.

But I remember there was a season where you just didn't have access to the resources where you have everything in the palm of your hand that allows you to navigate so seamlessly.

Nowadays we have all these things that allow things just to be so available to us.

We can do everything from the palm of our hands, we can multitask.

It's wonderful.

I can order groceries, I can, I can order stuff from the store, I can I can order some new J's because God knows that I need more J's.

You got you got you have access to all these things.

I don't have to stand in line and do some of these things that that we used to have to do in times past.

So I am a big fan of technology that simplifies streamlines and allows me to multitask as all of us are.

But I remember several years ago when when this technology was out and there was this idea that was presented that said, like, hey man, like you have your phone, but it has some limitations to it.

If you really want to tap into the full access of your phone, if you really want to tap into the full potential of what your phone can do, you need to jailbreak it.

Now, the rest of this illustration will be one of two things.

Because I heard that if you jailbreak your phone, it's illegal.

So if that's the case, then I did not jailbreak my phone, and this is all hyperbole.

If it is indeed not legal, then it's then I didn't do it.

But if it is not illegal, then we'll go on and carry on.

So here's the story.

So when someone told me that it's possible to jailbreak your phone, to take the restrictions, the limits off of your phone, because you can download some apps that the regular app store won't let you get a hold of.

You can you could do some things with your phone because there's always something beyond a threshold of what you have that you have a desire to do.

So when I found that out, I'm like, well, let's go, hypothetically.

So I found a way to jailbreak my phone, to unlock my phone, to give it the full freedom that it was supposed to have.

And man, when I first did it, it was exhilarating.

My wife, she's a rule follower, so she was looking at me with judgment, kind of how she is right now.

She was like, Are you sure you're supposed to be doing it?

I'm like, hey girl, I got this.

I Googled it, that means it must be right.

So now here I am.

I jailbreak my phone, and now here I have all this access to things that I never knew was available.

There's these features that were great, and at first it was absolutely amazing, but then there was this moment where the phone started to slow down.

There was this moment where the phone stopped functioning the way it was supposed to function.

That was, it was, it was turns out that I was being exposed to viruses and things like that was actually messing my phone up.

So now I'm stuck because I don't know what to do with it.

I don't know how to get out of the situation I found myself in.

And so I had my last ditch effort was to go back to the Apple store.

There's nothing more intimidating than knowing that you break the boundaries that Apple has set for you and you have to go to the genius bar and let them judge you and ridicule you for your stupidity in doing something that they tell you not to do.

But nonetheless, I approached the genius bar and I'm talking to the gentleman that's there and he's looking at me, he's like, Hey, did you jailbreak it?

And I said, Well, hypothetically, possibly, something happened, but but maybe maybe I did.

He said, Okay, see, the problem is that when you jail broke it, you took the restrictions that the creator had intended off of it, and now you've exposed yourself to things that you weren't supposed to be exposed to.

That those parameters were actually put in place to protect you because there's a filter that prevents certain things from getting onto your phone, but when you remove those filters from it, now it allows pure access to things that are going to corrupt your phone and your device.

What we're gonna have to do is we're gonna have to like wipe your phone out and reset it back to factory settings.

In order for it to function the way it's supposed to, we're gonna have to go back to the way that the factory, the way that the manufacturer had intended it.

See, it occurs to me that that life is very similar to that.

That there are times when we look at the restrictions that we have in life and we're always looking for something beyond the boundaries of maybe what God's word and what God's will is.

And what we do is we begin to jailbreak things, we begin to find shortcuts and ways that we can access things that God never intended for us to access.

But the the consequence of that will be that possibly we're gonna have some things that are now connected to us that the manufacturer that our creator never intended for us to have.

See, this is why I love seasons like this because it brings us back to those moments where we can bring our broken condition back to the manufacturer and reset back to the way that God had intended for us to function.

You see, remember with Adam and Eve, they're in the garden minding their own business, and God gives them this instruction.

He says, Hey, you can eat from any tree that you want, have at it.

Just avoid that one tree right there.

And what does the enemy do?

He shows up and he begins to say, you know what?

God's putting restrictions on you.

You know what you need to do?

Jailbreak your life.

Go go head over there to the tree of knowledge and good and evil.

You should be able to determine what's right and wrong on your own terms.

You should be the one who can tell what's right and what's acceptable.

If God, God doesn't want you to do it because he feels like you'll become too powerful.

Does that sound convenient?

Does that sound convincing?

Does that sound familiar?

Or there are moments when we look at God's word and we're very clear what he expects from us, what he wants from us, but the temptation that shows up is always leading us to do things on our own terms.

The consequence of that is the same thing that we found with my phone is that you end up inheriting things that God never intended for us to carry.

You see, when I when I think about the season that we find ourselves in, God never intended for us to carry some of the stuff that we're carrying.

God never intended for us to be exposed to some of the things that we're exposed to.

See, the Bible says that our creator had a vision for us.

It was vision for us to move forward, it was visioned for us to be fruitful and to multiply.

I love what it says here in Jeremiah 29, 11, where it says, For I know the plans that I have for you.

This is the manufacturer's settings.

This is a declaration from God.

Plans for your well-being, not for disaster, but to give you a future and a hope.

That's the plans that I have for you.

That's the way that I, that's the purpose I created you for.

I created you so that you can have value, purpose, and to move you forward.

I didn't, I don't want to hold you back, but you have to do things according to my will.

However, life can sometimes create a traffic jam in our soul and it makes it difficult for the plan of God to flow through it.

We can sometimes add life hacks and shortcuts and hopes that it'll be sufficient, but but it actually makes us more vulnerable and it slows us down because we've got off track of the way that the Lord had intended us to function.

This is why when we come into environments where we can worship God, it's our version of bringing us back to our manufacturer, back to our creator, and it resets us back to the way that God wants us to function.

Worship is a powerful thing because it allows us to reset our focus on Him instead of our problems that we're facing.

Prayer is a powerful thing because it resets our minds and recognizing the power of God.

The word of God is such a powerful thing because it resets the way that we think, the way that we function and do things.

And honestly, fasting is such an important demonstration of our faith because it resets our filters.

It allows us to properly come into alignment with the way that God wants us to function.

I like to say it this way: fasting resets us back to our creator's settings.

See, fasting is not a weight loss strategy, but it is a way to get rid of the things that weigh us down.

Fasting is not a way that you get what you want.

That's actually a hunger strike.

What fasting is, fasting is the way that we offload those apps that we've downloaded, those things that have been weighing us down, those things that are not in alignment with God's word.

Fasting is a way that it resets our minds, our hearts, and our hands to God's intended purpose.

Fasting resets us to our Creator's settings.

And here's what fasting is fasting simply means to abstain.

It simply means to abstain from something.

Now, typically it's abstaining from food, but but it can it can be a myriad of things that you're choosing to abstain from.

I'm choosing to abstain from from social media for a season because I recognize how how it's able to pollute my mindset, get too deep into my heart.

I'm fasting from certain music for a time period, I'm fasting from going to certain places, you're making a choice to abstain from something for a season.

Spiritually speaking, what it means to fast is it means that you're setting aside activities and reducing what you do and replacing it with activities that are meant to exercise and strengthen your faith.

Because we know that when we say no to something, we're also saying yes to something.

And when we say yes to something, we're also saying no to something.

So when I'm saying no to this, I'm also saying yes to more God.

When I'm saying no to eating out, I'm saying yes to God.

When I say no to not listening to secular music for this period of time, I'm saying yes to listening to more worship.

It's this idea that I'm saying no to one thing so I have more space to say yes to God in this season.

It's these things that that help to strengthen us.

The New Testament word for fasting, it literally means to be empty.

This idea of someone who empties themselves so that they can be a blank canvas for the Spirit of God to function.

I like to think of fasting as like a tune-up for your soul.

Any people in here that are familiar with the way that cars function, you recognize when your car is in need of a tune-up.

You recognize when your car is in need of getting adjusted.

But here's the thing fasting allows us to go back to the manufacturer because grace is our warranty.

Oh, that was good, Mike.

I didn't even have that in my notes.

That's the spirit of the Lord.

Oh, hey, shut up.

Okay, so what fasting does, it allows us to go back to the manufacturer.

I'm gonna write that down, Mike.

That's too good, man.

I'm gonna write that one down because grace is our warranty.

It allows us to go back, but here's the thing: it helps us to take off the aftermarket parts.

Because I know that there are certain seasons of my life when I had to get my car worked on.

I was like, man, that's that's too expensive for me to go back to the manufacturer.

So I'm gonna go to this guy down the street and let him put some aftermarket parts on there.

What fasting does because we have the adequate warranty, is we can go back to the manufacturer and get the proper parts back into our engine so we can function the way that we're supposed to function.

That's what fasting is supposed to do for us.

And what we see in scripture, we see there are the moments in the people of God's lives where they where they begin to seek God through prayer and fasting in order to move them forward.

An example of that is Nehemiah.

We preached on Nehemiah earlier this summer.

And with Nehemiah, when he learned about the destruction that had happened in the city, the Bible says his response was to turn to God through a season of fasting and prayer.

We're familiar with Daniel, which is where we get the Daniel fast from, but in Daniel chapter 10, we hear about how he went through 21 days, which is where we get 21 days of prayer and fasting, where he abstained from rich meats and from any alcohol.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

He he set himself apart.

And it was in that time that he had this incredible experience and encounter with God that gave him perspective.

He was able to see something that no one else could see because he went through a season of fasting and praying.

What I believe is that when we make a decision to abstain from something so that we can engage more into the presence of God, there's some incredible things that take place as a result of that.

I have three things that I want to share with us that I believe that God wants to do in all of us over the next 21 days as we're in this season of fasting and prayer.

My hope is that you'll write these down because I think it can be encouragement as we're going into this new year.

Here's the first thing I want you to write down Fasting gives us clarity.

Fasting, it gives us clarity.

I want to read a passage of scripture to you and then I'll unpack the context of it.

But here in Exodus 34, verse number 28, it says this that Moses was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights.

He did not eat food or drink fasting.

He abstained.

He was he was in the presence of God.

He did not eat food or drink water.

He wrote the Ten Commandments, the words of the covenant on the tablet.

Now let me unpack what's happening right here.

What's happening here is that the people of God have been in bondage in Egypt for over 400 years.

They've finally been liberated and set free.

But now that they're beginning this journey to go to the promised land where God was calling them to go, they they didn't have any context.

They really didn't have much perspective of who God really was.

You have to understand in Egypt they were exposed to a very polytheistic belief system where there were gods literally for everything.

So generally, when you look in the when you look at the plagues that God issues in Exodus, that's actually God's response to all of the false gods they believed in.

Y'all don't even know that God was battling people back then.

He was battling these false spirits, but everything that he did, it was a response to the thing that they placed hope in.

So so they were aware there were all these paganistic belief systems, but now they're setting out on this journey, and God wanted to make sure that they were connected to him.

They viewed him as their only source.

But the problem was they didn't have much context, so he pulls Moses aside, he takes him to the mountaintop and he begins to reveal himself to him.

Moses is in a season of 40 days and 40 nights of fasting, being in the presence of God, and it's while he's in God's presence that God begins to unpack some things about who he is.

God begins to unpack some things about the next step for the people of God.

He begins to unpack some things about his nature and his character.

This was so unheard of because back then, with all of these false gods, they had no true interaction with the God that they believed in.

So they never knew why their God was mad.

They never knew if their God was happy, they just constantly were in this place of being uncomfortable with their worship.

But what God wanted to do with his people is he wanted to make it clear who I am.

He wanted to make sure there was a clear distinction.

So as you're following me, as you're worshiping me, I want you to know this is my expectations of you.

How many of us know how great it is when we have clear expectations of what is needed from us?

Whether it's in a work environment, I know exactly what's expected of me.

I know what I can expect from you.

This is the moment where God was bringing clarity to Moses and the people of God so they could understand what they could expect from him, but also what he could expect from them, that he got clarity as a result of this.

There's this moment where Moses says to God, Lord, show me your face, show me your glory.

We actually just sung about it today.

And this was his idea of saying, God, I want to see your face, but but God says, You really can't handle that.

But here's what I'll do I'll I will pass by you and I will let you see my backside.

And as I go by you, I'm gonna reveal to you the way that I have done things.

In other words, watch this.

What God was saying, as I pass by you, I'm gonna reveal to you who I am by showing you what I've done.

Many believe that when God showed Moses his backside, that Moses had a perspective of how God did creation, that Moses had perspective of the way that God began to speak things into life, that Moses finally got clarity of the way that God did the things that he did, which is why he was able to write the first five books of the Bible.

When Moses was separated in a season of prayer and fasting, he got a revelation or he got clarity of who God is.

He recognized that the same God that said, Let there be light, is the same God that could bring light into the middle of my dark situation.

But it was revealed in a season of prayer and fasting.

The same God that pulled together Adam and Eve from the dust of the ground is the same God that he knew he could neatly pull their situation together, the same God that breathed life on an inanimate object, but it came a living soul, is the same God that was breathing on his situation, that Moses got a revelation that as God was passing by, that God was making the distinction of what you can expect from me.

See what I believe in seasons of fasting and prayer, that it brings clarity about who God is.

It allows us to separate the things that are God and the things that are not.

One of the things that I used to love to do when we would go shopping from time to time is I would love to go to the perfume and cologne section of the store.

And what I used to love is like just smelling all these different fragrances.

But back in the day, they used to actually have like coffee beans there.

You guys ever notice like they had the coffee beans there?

The reason why those were there is because they're recognizing that sometimes the aromas all start to smell the same, so you can't even make a distinction between one versus the other.

So the idea is that you smell the coffee grounds and it kind of like resets your palate so you can make a distinction between one smell versus another.

See, when we fast, it allows us to make a distinction between the things that are God and the things that are not.

Because we live in a world right now where everyone is claiming a verse and everyone's claiming to be God, and we can sometimes lose sight of what really is God and what really isn't.

But when we go into a season of fasting and praying, it gives us a little bit of clarity where we can begin to recognize, no, I I can sense and see that this is God.

I can smell and see that this is truly God.

That right there is not.

That's why for Megan and I, we never make any major decision without going into a season of fasting and praying.

Whether it's buying a car, buying a house, anything that we know is a major decision, we never want to make that decision on our own because here's a crucial principle for us.

We want to be led by the Spirit and not driven by our flesh.

We want to make sure that we can make a distinction because a lot of times we'll see a lot of open doors.

But one of the things that I've learned is that just because your gift makes room for you doesn't mean that you're supposed to be in every room.

And sometimes we can look at an open door and say, oh, that's clearly got to be God, but sometimes it's just your gift that made room for you.

And if we don't go into seasons of fasting and praying, we find ourselves entering into places that God never intended us to be in.

What I believe fasting and praying does, it allows us to separate the things that are God and the things that are not, so we can have absolute clarity.

Here's the other thing that I believe that fasting does.

Fasting, it gives us strength.

Fasting, it actually strengthens us, it strengthens us spiritually.

I want to read this passage to us in Esther chapter 4.

Esther 4 · chapter mention

It says this that Esther sent this reply to Mordecai Go and assemble all the Jews that can be found in Susa and fast for me.

Don't eat or drink for three days, night or day.

And I and my female servants are also going to fast in the same way.

After that, I will go to the king, and even if it is against the law, if I perish, I perish.

Let me let me unpack this for a moment.

What that means is that back in those days, that the people of God were under attack.

That literally a law had been passed that for the people of God that they were supposed to be destroyed and killed.

So you can only imagine the anarchy, the fear, the anxiety that's happening in this environment.

But then Esther, she had she was married to the king.

She was actually Jewish, she was a follower of God, so she was in a position that she had proximity to the king, that she had.

The ability to possibly influence where they were.

But she knew it was illegal for her to go into the presence of the king if she hadn't been summoned.

But what the Bible says is that her response to this was, I know that I'm supposed to do something about it, but I'm going to put my life on the line.

I know that I'm supposed to do something about it, but if I step into this situation, it'll be detrimental for me.

But nevertheless, she persisted.

And what the Bible says is that she decided to fast and pray.

And it says after that, she had the strength to move forward.

See, what I believe that happens a lot of times is that when we go into seasons of fasting and praying, it gives us the strength to move forward, even if it looks like a sacrifice.

It gives us the strength to take that step, even if it's uncomfortable.

It gives us the strength to endure some of the things that we're facing because in our own strength we know we can't do it.

I think we all can recognize moments where it seems as if we come to the end of ourselves and we know that in our own strength we can't move it.

But maybe in a season of fasting and prayer, it can give you the spiritual strength that you need to step forward and take the step that you're called to do.

See, I think a lot of times it's in moments when we're facing resistance.

We have two options to fight or to have flight.

Even as Megan and I felt that tension on Wednesday when we were in DC, that that tension of, okay, do we need to get out of here?

But the Bible says that you were put here for such a time as this.

What if the place that you're in where you're facing the most resistance is because you're supposed to stand there with truth and pray, because you're in a position that you can actually activate change.

I wonder what would have happened if Esther didn't step up and didn't fast and pray and wasn't strengthened in her faith.

What would have happened to the people of God?

For some of us, I think our default could be to escape something that's uncomfortable, but maybe God placed you where you are, and a season of fasting and prayer will give you the strength to be the catalyst of change.

My mother is a woman of prayer and fasting.

She'll pray and fast at the drop of a hat.

Like anytime we face anything, anything that's going on, say, hey, I'm fasting and praying for you guys.

She raised us that way.

That's just kind of the culture that I was brought up in.

I remember several years ago that our family had faced this dilemma that was incredibly uncomfortable.

It came to our attention that that one of our family members had been abused.

And I remember this moment of all of us being devout followers of Christ, asking all the questions as we all ask, how did this happen?

What did we do wrong?

What are we going to do?

We need to go find this person.

Like all the emotion, all the things that are going on inside of our minds was right there.

And you can kind of feel this tension where it was going to get out of hand.

We had a family meeting, and what came from that family meeting is you know what?

We need to go into a season of fasting and praying.

Because we need God to give us the strength to endure what we're about to face.

We're going to have to go to some court trials.

Thanks be to God that in that season of fasting and praying, we're able to resolve and anchor ourselves in the things of God, and they gave us the strength to get through that very difficult situation.

I think some of us are facing some challenges right now, and if we're honest with ourselves, we're thinking of the things that we could do in our own strength.

But I believe that a season of prayer and fasting, it can give you the spiritual strength and the endurance on how you need to navigate through this season.

But maybe God's planted where you are for such a time as this.

Don't shrink back.

This world needs to see more of the people of God than ever.

Don't run away from the environment that you're in, but maybe the strength that you need is going to come from a season of fasting and praying and recognizing that greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.

It's a season of fasting and praying.

It's a season of recognizing that those that are, though I may feel like I'm surrounded, but greater is those that are with me than those who are against me.

It's that moment where we recognize that God before me, and if God before me, who can be against me?

It gives us perspective and strength that no matter what we're facing, that God has got our back.

I believe a season of fasting and prayer, it can give us the strength to endure.

I believe that fasting for the believer is like spinach for Popeye.

It gives us the strength to endure whatever it is that's bullying us.

What are the things that are bullying you right now?

What are the things that are that are that are dominating your mind right now?

Maybe the response to that is you going into a season of fasting and praying and allowing God to strengthen you in that season.

Here's the third and and final thing.

Fasting brings us closer to God.

I believe that fasting it draws us closer to God.

I want to read a couple of verses to us here in Matthew number four.

It says here, starting at verse number one, that uh that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And he had fasted for 40 days and forty nights, and he was hungry.

Understandably so.

Then the tempter approached him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.

As the story goes on, the enemy continued to tempt Jesus.

He continued to try to get Jesus off a track, he tried to get Jesus to take a shortcut.

Let's look at this for a moment.

Jesus is, he's abstaining, he's separate, he's off in the wilderness right now.

And what the Bible says is that when he is his weakest, when he's the most vulnerable, that the enemy shows up and it begins to tempt him.

Does that sound familiar?

That moments when you feel the most vulnerable, possibly the most exposed, is when temptation shows up.

And I want to give you the context of this temptation.

Because what temptation really is, is the temptation to remove God from the equation.

That's what that's what the enemy was trying to do.

Trying to remove God from the equation.

And we live in a world now where that temptation is always around us.

Let's look at a couple examples of that.

That temptation to remove God from the equation, to get wealth without stewardship, to have sex without the covenant of marriage.

Let's remove God out of the equation, to have influence without submitting it to God, that temptation to remove God out of the equation.

But Jesus was fasting, Jesus was praying.

In other words, he was so intrinsically connected to God that when the temptation came, he began to speak the word of God as a response.

I want you to notice that Jesus' response wasn't a strategy.

Jesus' response wasn't three points that he got from a podcast, that every temptation that the enemy threw his way, his response came directly from the word of God.

This is the power of the influence when we're so connected to God in seasons of prayer and fasting that when the enemy shows up, we begin to speak and declare as God's word and not our thoughts and our strategies.

Jesus began to declare God's word.

This is why the prophets in the Bible, they would always say, Thus saith the Lord.

It was their way of saying that I'm not speaking on my own authority.

I'm not speaking in my own strength.

I'm speaking because of God's word tells me this.

This is the power of influence of a season of prayer and fasting.

Have you ever been so close to someone that you can almost answer on their behalf?

That you know, you know the way that they speak, you know their thought process, and you can speak on their behalf because you're so connected.

Husbands and wives have this, siblings have this, where we're so connected to one another that I already know what your thought process is.

Which is why when someone introduces something that doesn't quite sound right, we say, Man, that doesn't sound like something she would say.

That doesn't sound like something he would, it sounds so odd because I know you, I'm so close to you that it actually doesn't, it actually doesn't resonate.

What fasting and praying does for us, it allows us to be so close to God that when the enemy comes in and says, Hey, if you are the Son of God, wait a minute, you don't have to question what I know what God's word says about me.

It gives you a sense of confidence because you're so intrinsically connected to the presence of God that you can speak on his behalf.

I believe that what we need more than ever is for us to be people who are anchored in God's word, or we won't allow the enemy to tempt us to take the shortcut and to remove God out of the equation because we're so close to him, it allows us to speak what God is telling us to speak over our situation.

I think we are looking at scenarios where we're speaking in our own strength, we're speaking our own thoughts, we're speaking what we see on the news media, we're speaking what we see on social media.

But what if we began to speak God's word when you go through a season of prayer and fasting, it allows you to be so close to God that you're speaking on his behalf because the word of God is the thing that has the ability to change everything.

I want to close with this because I realize that depending on what your upbringing is, that the fasting can seem a little extreme.

I remember over 20 years ago when when Megan and I fasted for the first time, we didn't have a full grasp of it, but our church that we were part of at the time was was saying it's a great time to strengthen your faith, it's a great time to draw closer to God, it's a it's a great time to get more clarity, and we were excited to do it.

And that first week, man, it was it was challenging.

It seemed like the temptation that was in front of us, it met me every single morning.

Because the moment that you make a decision to abstain from something so that you can be filled with activities that are going to strengthen your faith, it seems as if the enemy shows up in that very moment.

I'll tell you something.

You guys have heard me talk about this before.

I'm not a big fan of Taco Bell.

In the season of prayer and fasting, I'm like, bro, if you don't give me a Baja blast and a chalu, like you give me everything that's available because the moment that you decide to abstain from something that you're making a decision to give to God, that that very thing now, everything looks attractive to you.

So I remember when we're in that season of prayer and fasting, and we were kind of like in what I call the fasting fog, where like your body's going through like this detox, so to speak, where the things that you used to crave are not no longer the way that you're nourishing yourself.

You're you're you're you're supplementing things.

And I remember just that that odd feeling.

I'm like, man, I don't I don't know if I'm gonna make it.

Man, I'm two days in on this fast, man, and I am starving.

Mind you, I very rarely eat breakfast, but when I'm fasting and praying and my mind knows it, seven o'clock, I feel like I'm about to drop dead.

Don't don't be surprised that the you're doing things that you always do, but the moment you give it to God, that's the moment that the enemy decides to show up.

That's just kind of how it works.

But once I got past day number five, I kind of got into what I call the fasting zone.

You kind of get into this zone where things are just so clear, you feel so good.

It it kind of reminds me of, I'm not sure if you guys knew this or not, but I'm a big fan of the movie The Matrix.

So it reminds me of this part where where Neo he had this calling on his life, he had this purpose that he was supposed to fulfill, but he was waiting for affirmation from man.

He was unclear of himself, then he dies.

But then love brings him back to life.

Mike, I'm trying to tell you the matrix will preach itself.

Love brought him back to life.

Ha! What I'm saying is that he died, but when he was risen, he had a different perspective.

Many of you remember that scene where he could see things differently.

You many of you remember that the things he used to run from, he no longer ran from, that the things that used to defeat him, he was now able to defeat with one hand.

What I'm saying is that he got into a zone where things that used to defeat him were just child's play to him.

And what I truly believe happens when we go into a season of fasting and prayer, we begin to see things clearly.

I could see what God says about this situation.

So I'm not gonna be consumed about what the enemy says.

I know that these things that I used to run away from, I'm now gonna anchor myself into things of God from because I'm in this fasting zone.

I know for Megan and I, it radically changed our lives that we said, for this point forward, we're gonna be people that dedicate our lives to prayer and fasting because there are seasons that I need to offload these things so I can get back to factory setting.

God's intention has always been for us to function in alignment with his word and with his will.

My prayer for all of us in this season is to fully engage in prayer and fasting with us.

It's not a magic bullet that fixes everything, but I do believe that it will bring clarity to areas where you're trying to distinguish what is God and what is not.

I believe it'll give you strength to endure whatever it is that you're facing.

I truly believe that.

I believe that with all my heart.

I believe that it has the ability to allow us to discern the voice of God.

Seasons of fasting and prayer will strengthen and enhance your faith.

For the next 21 days, this is what we're gonna be doing as a community.

And some practical things I want you to do to successfully fast in this season is simply this make a decision.

What are you gonna be fasting from?

For some of us, we're gonna be fasting from social media, others are gonna be fasting from certain types of food, others are gonna be fasting from from wine, whatever it is, make a decision on what you're gonna be fasting from.

Because I know that if we don't make a decision first, the next day we'll always be modifying our fast to fit our feelings.

But make a decision.

I'm going to, I'm gonna set this aside.

I'm not going to, I'm not gonna engage in these things for the next 21 days, or you can you can adjust it from the week.

The second thing is make a plan.

Make a plan.

I promise you, you will not be successful if you don't plan to be successful.

So, so if you're gonna be fasting from certain type of food, plan for it.

What is what it what are you gonna eat?

What is your meal prep gonna look like?

Make a plan.

That's what's gonna help you to be successful because the enemy loves for us to make a decision, but we don't have a plan, and then we fall back to our default.

Make a plan.

But then lastly, make adjustments.

My son Caleb's birthday is January 14th.

It's always smack dab in the beginning of the fast.

And so I remember for us, we're like, okay, so how do we navigate that?

Like it's his birthday, he's about to turn 17 this week, and we're we're excited about it as we are every year.

And so we're saying, okay, so do we do we continue to fast?

And and every year it's like, hey man, I'm glad it's your birthday, but no birthday cake for you.

Good luck.

Or or do we make adjustments?

That's the beauty of grace.

So on his birthday, I didn't want him to be raised by looking at his day as being a day that we couldn't celebrate.

So we still celebrate on his birthday.

We just adjust our fast to fast from other things on that day.

It's not meant to be this legalistic thing where you're you're suffering in such a way that you can't celebrate the seasons that you find yourselves in.

So make a decision, make a plan, and make adjustments as as situations come.

But more importantly, stay committed, don't back away from it.

Because it's inevitable that one day you may slip up, it's inevitable that you may find yourself engaging in something that you said you weren't, and then what often happens is we just, oh man, I'm gonna give up.

Don't give up.

Grace, it resets it, it's okay.

But I promise you, from the depths of my soul, if you can abstain from some things and create some more space for God, it will bring you clarity, it will, it will bring you strength, it will draw you closer to God.

Will you pray with me?

Lord, I thank you so much for your word.

I thank you for seasons of prayer and fasting where we have opportunities to engage your presence.

God, we're believing more now than ever that we need a revival.

Father, we're believing, God, that in this season, for such a time as this, that your people who are called by your name are gonna humble ourselves, we're gonna turn to you with prayer and fasting, and we will be able to discern the new thing that you want to do in us, God.

We're asking for you to reset our minds, our hearts, our hands so we can be in alignment with the factory settings, getting back to functioning the way that you've called us to function.

I pray over your people right now in the name of Jesus.

For every person that is making a decision even now to go into this season of prayer and fasting, God, that you give them discernment and wisdom and strength and the capacity to do it.

Begin to speak to them now the things that you want them to abstain from.

Some people need to abstain from social media, some people need to abstain from watching the media altogether because they recognize that it's toxic in the way that it affects the way that they see one another and even themselves.

If that's what they need to abstain from, give them the wisdom to do it.

For others, it's gonna be abstaining from food and there's such a myriad of other things, but God, whatever it is, reveal it to us.

Allow us to make a decision, allow us to make a plan, and then allow us to make adjustments as your grace allows us to do.

Father, I just pray that in these next 21 days, starting tomorrow, that the people of God in this community, in conjunction with so many other communities all over the world, that you're gonna hear the cries of your people, that you're gonna move on the behalf of your people, and that we will be able to see the new thing that you're doing amongst all of us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

Before we go back into worship, I would be remiss if I didn't take an opportunity to speak to a a different set of people.

Some that may be in this room with us right now, some that are probably watching online, and some that are listening to us even a little bit later.

But I'm speaking to those who are away from God right now, those who who aren't in relationship with God right now, that if you were to take inventory of your soul, you would say, Keith, I'm I'm not in a relationship with God right now.

We want to create a space for you to simply say yes.

I I want to draw closer to Jesus, that today is the day of salvation.

Today is the day that I'm gonna say yes to Jesus, if that's you.

You know, the Bible tells us that that if we confess our faults and if we believe that Jesus came and he died on the cross and that he rose from the dead, that that and that gives us that gives us this relationship that Jesus died to give us, that He He lived a life we could never live, He died to death we could never die, and He was risen again, which gives us hope.

There's hope in Jesus.

And what I want to do is I want to create space for all of us to be able to respond to that hope that has been extended to us.

So if that's you, if you're in this room with us, if you're watching online, with every head bowed, we'll keep this space a little a little sacred for us right now.

But with every head bowed and with every eye closed, I want to pray alongside you.

So would you lift your hands up on the count of three to simply saying, Yes, I'm ready to return back to the creator to get reset back to factory settings on the count of three.

One, two, three.

Hands up, amen.

Amen.

Amen.

I see hands up in the back, amen, amen, amen.

God bless you, amen, amen.

I am blown away.

Church, can we celebrate with everybody that is making that decision to come back to the creator and get reset back to factory settings?

Let's stand to our feet.

We're gonna go back into a time of worship, but I'm gonna pray for those who are giving their life to Jesus, possibly for the first time, believing that God is transforming some things on the inside.

We're gonna we're gonna worship together, we're gonna seal in what God's doing.

And Pastor Mike is gonna give us some instructions in just a few moments.

Stick with us, but let's pray all together.

Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for everyone that has raised their hand, that has made that decision to say yes to you.

Your word declares that if we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts, so even in this moment, if you raise your hand up, that belief, that confession, just simply saying, Jesus is Lord, if we confess with our mouths, that we shall be saved.

So, Father, I pray for everyone that is making that decision, everyone that is responding to the message of the gospel, Lord, that you begin to stir their hearts and that a transformation begins to take place.

Allow them to get connected to a strong community, allow us to be able to resource them and give them the tools they need as they're on this journey that can radically change their lives, Father.

Reset their minds, reset their hearts, reset their hands, Father, reset them back to doing things the way that you've called us to do it.

Not with the way that we want to jailbreak our lives on our own terms, but getting back to our factory settings, functioning the way that God has called us to function.

I speak a blessing over your people.

And it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

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

Thanks again for listening.

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