Fasting: Discipling Our Desires, Phil Chan

I was uh had coffee with Bob and I was

just telling him all the trauma that we

went through through the fires

evacuating while 9 months

pregnant I'll share more at sometime but

it was probably one of the hardest three

weeks of my life I broke down at least

two or three times but my wife was just

a rock through that somebody's got to be

strong somebody's got to be strong okay

some days it's me it was her so thank

you Esther great job I realized five is

a lot of fun but I realized the last

couple months the first difficulties of

having five we were going to one of our

favorite

restaurants in and

out great value Great

Value you know we get our burgers and

stuff and we're about to sit down and I

realize we no longer fit at a

booth so we occupied two booths

we are officially a two Booth In-N-Out

family a that crazy so something I put

on my resume nobody

cares hey I want to start off the

message with a question um that I'm a

little embarrassed to ask but I'm going

to ask it what was your thing you did

before you were a Christian that you no

longer

did I'm going to share mine just think

about yours it's a little embarrassing

but I became a Christian 20s something

years ago but before I was a Christian

I used to listen to really bad hit

hip-hop and it was really interesting

because um I love hip-hop as a genre

this is not a knock on the genre but how

many of you guys know that art has

spiritual power you know uh you listen

something and it can change you for good

or for bad I got my hands on Eminem's

breakout album Marshall matters LPS

anybody know what you're talking about

sorry aging yourself young people just

know it was history that's where we get

the word stand from by the way if you

say you're a fan of somebody you're a

stand it was from that album that's how

iconic it was and it was an album

riddled with cursing drugs all that jazz

and here I am I grew up in a decent home

I had two parents were still together

listening in my room just Eminem just

you know and something I don't know if

you ever had the experience something

began to change you know I was just

listening those lyrics just started

teaching me and before you know it I

started cursing too I started talking

like that I started having this Darkness

I also was into Hard Rock which is a

related you know genre and I don't know

if you have the EXP I started getting

angry at life I started getting mad at

my parents for no

reason and I I changed as a result of

that at some point I Found Jesus

somebody told me about the good news of

Jesus and I gave my life to him and one

of the really cool things when you start

following Jesus is that the things you

do start changing

it was this really interesting

phenomenon somebody said it really well

once when you become a Christian you

find that the things you hate to do you

start loving and the things that you

love to do you start hating I started

doing these wild things like reading the

Bible I started going to church as a

young guy every week I started talking

to God you know and suddenly I started

changing as a person and it came full

circle in the moment where that room

where I was listening to this crazy

hip-hop I start instead of listening to

that I started listening to worship

music and I still remember even as a

young kid just the presence of God

filling the room and just darkness gone

from my life and experiencing God's

goodness and joy and going this is what

life is

about how many of you guys know that

when you start following Jesus he

doesn't just change your behaviors he

actually starts changing your desires

he starts he wants to change the things

that you like and enjoy and you find

that this journey of being a Christian

is all about changing our desires and

I've learned in my 20 years plus years

of being a Christian that God is very

interested in changing our desires at

our core he's not just here for rot

obedience he wants to change the very

core of us because if he changes our

desires he changes the outcome of Our

Lives because what you desire is what

you end up

pursuing and before I became a Christian

I had desires for anger rage you desire

some of you guys have this story you

desire drunkenness you desire infidelity

you desire all these things and you

desire those things you have no choice

but your outcome of your life is to go

in the direction where your desire is

pointing desire is like an arrow from

your heart and your feet have no choice

but to

follow and I've learned that for my

Christian Life God is trying desperately

to change my

desires but how many of you guys

know that changing your

desires is not easy come on it is not

easy it is

difficult I have even as a Christian

wrestled with addiction I have wrestled

with misplaced desires for pleasure for

wealth for power my my feelings for God

vacillate day to day you know they can

blow like the wind and I was reminded of

what Paul said in Romans 7 he says I do

the things that I don't want to do the

things that I want to do I can't do he

says a Wretched Man I am desire is such

a challenging thing some of you guys

sitting here know exactly what I'm

talking about even now you are wrestling

with Desires in you they are pulling you

have conflicting desires pulling you

this direction and that direction and

this direction and the question is is

what do we do with

that what do we do with that how do we

align with what God wants to do in us to

shape and to change our

desires it's not easy to change our

desires I think some of us have tried I

just want to change this desire to go

this way and I realized at some point in

my life I think we actually don't

understand how desire is formed and

shaped in

us we don't know how it is manipulated

we don't know how it is given birth we

don't know how it

starts and it led me on a journey to

understand how desire actually works in

the heart and this journey led me to a

small town in Tennessee not that I went

there but there's

a actually never been there maybe one

day but there's a really interesting

story that is kind of gut-wrenching um

there's a small town and in this small

town it's it's poor and there what's

known in that town is that they drink a

lot of

soda they drink more soda than they

drink

water and what's interesting about this

town is there is act a phenomenon called

Mountain Dew mouth you ever ever heard

of

that I just had to show it I want you to

have the viseral experience of what

Mountain Dew mouth is it is their kids

drink so much Mountain Dew that tooth

decay is so prevalent there that they

are known to have Mountain Dew mouth

they just sit around all day and

drinking soda and then it clicked to me

it

clicked that what they drank they began

to desire and it became this cycle this

reinforcement cycle they would drink it

and then they would desire it and it

would just over and over and over again

and this is the key about desire that I

want you to get today that you might not

have OD and definitely is not taught in

America so much of what we think about

desire is that what we consume is a

result of our

desire but what we don't realize is that

what we desire is a result of what we

consume actually what you

eat changes what you end up

Desiring what goes into your mouth so

for these people they drank Fountain Dew

and they ended up liking it and they

just kept drinking it and it became this

reinforcement cycle isn't it wild that

what you actually eat and drink in your

life forms and shapes your

desires what you let through your

ears shapes ands your desires what you

let through your mouth shapes ands your

desires what you let your eyes

see shapes and forms your desires

this message is not one that I would

preach

normally but I this was a wild story I

was a week into my paternity leave uh we

have a newborn we're just trying to get

sleep we're just trying to

survive and one night we got a newborn

the Lord wakes him up at 3:00

a.m. and says you have to preach this

message to

Frontier this is where the birthplace of

this message and the message message

that I feel like the Lord wants to give

us today is that if you do not disciple

your desires your desires will disciple

you if you do not master your desires

your desires will Master you this is

such an unamerican thing to say I love

America but one of the tenants of

America I mean I grew up watching Disney

and one of the tenants is you have to

follow your heart because there's

Desires in there that you follow right

you just as Christian often makes fun of

you just Let It Go like ad Melle right

you look what's inside and you let it go

but that's not in the Bible the Bible

actually says that there are desires in

you that can actually kill

you proverb says there is a way that

seems right to man but in the end it

leads to death leads to death Jeremiah

17 says the heart is wicked and

deceitful Above All Things who can

understand it there are desires that can

actually kill you and and we can look at

this small town in uh Tennessee and go

man why didn't they just listen to the

doctors didn't they have like uh maybe

the healthc care was the issue maybe

they didn't like they went to the

doctors and they just like listen to

them you don't think they had doctors

that told them you got to stop drinking

Mountain Dew it's because when desire is

strong desire overcomes

logic when desire is strong it

overcomes any sense of what health is

meant to be that is the power

of desire and wrong desire if you do not

disciple your desires your desires will

disciple

you some of you guys are in here and you

know exactly what I'm talking about

there are desires in you right now as we

speak that's pulling your life towards

destruction and Decay and you don't know

what to do with it this message is for

you and so the question is like what do

we do with these desires

um as Christian put in the email this

message is about

fasting this is a

really unpopular subject for obvious

reasons we're in Los Angeles I just went

last night to eat my face

out you have everything you could eat

under the sun here this is the town of

pleasure of amazing things and I'll be

the first to say it was really funny why

I needed to preach this message because

I actually hate

fasting I hated fasting you know I was

one of those people that um when I had

like really Godly friends and they would

tell me hey Phil I'm g go on a 7-Day

fast you know and you know what I would

say to that

friend you know you do you

guy you do you you know you do but ask

for me in my house

I'm going to eat this chicken

sandwich you know I I hate it fasting um

I was also I don't know if this is

resonates with anyone else that's tried

fasting I was like one of those that

secretly downgraded their fasts when I

decided to do

fasts so I'll explain what I mean like

this I would be like man God I want to

fast for you the whole day you know I'm

like feeling so good about feeling so

Juiced about it and then 9:00 a.m. rolls

around you can

smell somebody got avocado

toast you can smell that buttery melted

on that sourdough

bread and nobody knows I'm fasting so in

my head I'm like all right

God I'mma break fast after

dinner all right it's not going to be

till tomorrow Let's do let's do 5:00

p.m. we'll do we'll do 6 p.m. all right

God and then 11: a.m. rolls

around some of your co-workers start

eating and then you start getting hungry

and they bring out it don't even look

good it's just like a nasty baloney

sandwich you

know and you say to and I say to God God

you know what you know I love

you let's do 3 p.m. I'm a break fast at

300 p.m. God so I was a

Perpetual fast downgrader you know cuz I

hated the feeling of hunger and it was

painful how many of you guys with me

nobody get

hangry I've never been hry in marriage

I'll just tell you that right now this

never ever happened all right so I was a

Perpetual fasting downgrader a couple

months ago God began teaching me about

fasting and I'm going to teach you guys

today it it happened a couple months ago

I was trying to spend time with God and

how many you guys ever have foggy brain

when you try to spend that with

God I'll tell you I'll just be really

honest with you I was on YouTube way too

much just been scrolling away and you

know how sometimes when you scroll your

your mind starts to

melt nobody else okay it's just me it's

just just glazed over you're just like

this is the time for you Lord and you're

just like and how many times you you

guys try to spend time with God like I

am not feeling it there's just like a

disconnect you know it's like sometimes

I come to church on Sunday like yeah

that's amazing and sometimes you're at

home it's like I'm not not feeling it

and I I was just like honest like

reading the Bible and I was like

I don't this is not resonating at all

you know it's like actually kind of

boring like just talking to you it's not

coming nothing's working

God and the Lord began to speak to me

and he says Phil you know why he says

he's like Phil am I boring he's like no

you're not boring says yeah you're right

I'm not boring your spirit is

Bored your

desires are

broken you don't even know what it's

like to taste

anymore you think I'm boring you're

bored your spirit is

broken and this is when I began to get

Revelation about what fasting is and why

it's so important

fasting is God's spiritual

discipline to reset our

desires this is such an important

message I feel for our church in our

time that we're living in in 2025

because we are

bombarded with input in our

lives and some of us I felt like this

please don't be offended when I say this

but I feel like the Lord say some of us

came in here and y'all got Mountain Dew

Spirits you don't even know people from

the outside can see your Mountain de

Spirit but you don't even know it that's

the thing about the desire you don't

even know when your desires are

broken and we are living in a time when

we are bombarded with content and

content did you guys know on YouTube

there is so much content on there that

you could sit down and watch every video

it would take you 99 plus lifetimes for

you to sit down and watch every video on

YouTube this is not even including

social media all you ticktockers and

your Grammar and all the stuff that's

coming out in the next 10 years the

amount of stuff that's bombarding us is

pervasive and will not stop whether you

know it or not your hearts I know for a

fact is being formed and shaped by the

things we watch and listen to Jesus said

that the eye is the lamp of your life

and if it is dark your whole body is

dark Mountain de

Spirit Mountain de Spirit fasting is how

God resets

our desires it is the Forgotten practice

of our times I felt I'm going to give a

challenge to us that I felt but please

don't be offended when I say this some

of you guys walked in here and yall got

foggy brain y'all be foggy brain y'all

can't focus and I feel like the Lord is

saying you need to start fasting in your

life some of you guys have conflicting

desires all the time some of you guys

are struggling right now with addiction

and I feel like the Lord is saying you

need to start fasting as a spiritual

practice some of you guys are struggling

with misplaced desires for people not

your

spouse it isn't just because of that

person is because your desire your

center of desires are broken you got

Mountain de Spirit and the Lord is

inviting us to make fasting a regular

part of our spiritual practices because

that's how we reset our desires I want

to bring us attention to a Bible passage

that has been speaking to me about

fasting there's a lot of fasting is all

over the Bible but when Jesus talks

about fasting we need to pay attention

because Jesus often corrects

misunderstandings of spiritual practi

and he gives insight into them so do we

have um Mark 2 up Eric there he is ah

yes amazing okay this is one of my

favorite passages about fasting so

John's disciples and the Pharisees were

fasting and some people came and asked

Jesus how is it that John's disciples

and The Disciples of the Pharisees are

fasting but yours are not and this is

Jesus's explanation of what fasting is

Jesus answered how can the guests of the

bridegroom fast while he is with them

they cannot so long as they have him

with them but the time will come when

the bridegroom will be taken away from

them and on that day they will fast so

Jesus is so these Pharisees are coming

up to Jesus and they fast okay so

Pharisees fast but they do it

religiously they do it for the the

reason of checking off a box and Jesus

is changing the definition and the

reason of fasting it's so interesting he

puts it in the context of a wedding in

other words fasting is done with with

the spirit of love it's done for the

purpose of love and in this in this

Parable in this metaphor the bridegroom

is taken away Jesus is the bridegroom in

this in this metaphor and he says in

that time they will fast in other words

Jesus's absence is meant to cause

longing inside of our hearts for his

presence again in in other words fasting

is meant to create longing again for the

things of God

it is meant to put it is meant to have

our Spirits go like put drown all the

noise in our lives all the things going

on in the rest of the wedding it says

don't you notice that the bridegroom is

missing in your life and is meant to

draw our attention back to the missing

Jesus in our

lives you know what fasting is it isn't

just resetting our desires

what I learn is fasting is resetting our

desires so that we can taste true

pleasure and that pleasure is is is

himself the pleasure is God himself how

many of you guys know that God is not

boring if God is boring we're doing it

wrong when you look at just our world

the beautiful mountains the oceans the

cosmos and all the things that came from

CRE and and if something in our heads go

that God who made that is

boring that's just like in congruent if

I spend time with God and I go this is

this is boring I'd rather go watch

Netflix right

now I'd rather go listen to my favorite

pod something's broken about

that our desires are broken fasting is

how we reset our desire so that we can

taste true

pleasure I was talking with Daniel

Phillips last night he was talking to me

about fasting he's like dude when I

fast I just feel God's

presence I'll tell you um when I fast

there's just

like a tenderness that grows in my

heart you know when you like I start

reading the Bible again like it just it

feels weird like it's like something

starts working again like you know like

the Machinery of my heart was broken and

when I fast I like read the Bible and I

go it like makes sense that the words

begin jumping off the page to me I like

when I pray like I can feel God's

presence it's like desires the Machinery

of desires are actually functional again

it's like an amazing experience and I'm

so excited for some of you guys going to

try that some of you guys are trying to

spend time with God and it's like I

there's just like this wall this barrier

and I feel like once you guys start

fasting this barrier is going to

lift I'll share a touching story that um

that means a lot to me my one of my my

mom uh about eight years ago um she's

aging she beautiful woman uh but she

starts getting cataracts in her

eyes and the problem is that it's just

the cataracts are getting worse just

slow enough where the vision is getting

worse but it's not like urgent enough to

do anything about it you know what I'm

saying and over the years it just slowly

gets worse and worse you know a fall

here a trip here and they got so so bad

that um you know like you be like

standing in the room next to her and

she'd be squinting and you could tell

she has no idea who she's talking

to and something with age you know um

sometimes you get a little prideful you

know and she didn't want to admit that

she needed to get something done you

know all my siblings were like you got

to get it's like a simple surgery just

do it and you can you know you can see

again you know but there's just a little

bit of Pride there and didn't do do it

and finally she was spending time with

it started getting worse and worse and

one time she was visiting and spending

time with me and the lord gave me a word

for her uh even though she's not a

Believer um gave me a word for her that

finally changed her mind I said Mom do

you know how much Beauty you're missing

out in the world because you can't

see and for some

reason like that really struck a deep

nerve within her she's like I'm missing

so much Beauty so praise be to God she

ended up G the surgery and she was

really grateful for it and she keeps

telling me that and one of the big

turnaround moments was you know my mom

is her favorite pastime is taking out uh

taking a walk in the summer and looking

at the beautiful display on the sky

after that she got the surgery she told

me Phil I went

outside and this is the first time Phil

in years that I could see the moon

and she was like I'm so grateful you did

that this was the analogy I thought

about for our people

today that we don't even know what the

Moon looks like

anymore because our Center of of our

desires are so convoluted with

junk I'm inviting us to make fasting a

regular part of our Lives because

there's so much beauty that God wants to

show

us some of you guys are going to just

see God for the first time and I have a

question how long will you live with

spiritual cataracts over your

eyes when we fast god rightly orders our

desires make no mistake Christianity is

not dig in a hole and forget about the

world the world is beautiful but what

fasting does is it correctly orders our

desires when you have God at the center

of your desires and you put everything

else after that

life it just works it just makes sense

you know and life is way more fun that

way all right have I convinced you

already all right some of you guys are

be like I'm ready to fast 40 days

Phil I'm going have to us just pass up

the liability forms right

[Laughter]

now all right um it would be remiss of

me to not talk through some practicals

before I let us respond okay so just

bear with me I'm going to be a little

more professor likee and I'm going to

talk through some practicals because I

actually want to get you guys started

this week is that cool all right so um

this is just for you if you want to get

started this week this is everything you

need to know okay I'm going to answer

three questions first is when and how

long should I fast I'm going give you

some tips okay for my own life number

one is uh start small okay don't do

something huge one of the things I

learned about spiritual practices is

that spiritual practice are meant to

serve you not the other way around if

you're doing in a way that enslaves you

and and hurts and kills you you're doing

it wrong okay start small for me I'll

just share for my own life it it's not

very impressive but it is and it does

what it is I'm just doing every other

week as you know me I have these things

called micro Retreats every Saturday

morning I do just half a day where I

just spend half the time just fasting

and it's just enough for me to help keep

my spirit sharp you know what does it

look like in your family if your spirit

was sharp guys what does it look like

for you to go back to your day jobs if

your spirit was

sharp God has a purpose for your life

you need to keep your spirit sharp so

start small start with a meal start with

half a day you know it's just something

you can do and feel and get used to okay

start small do it regularly because

regular regularity is is important

because as I said your desires can get

out of whack and you don't even know it

that's why it's called discipline

discipline are things that you do

because the propensity and the

proclivities of your soul is to go the

opposite way so it has to be regular so

when and how do it regularly start small

okay next one

is okay what's what should I expect okay

um I this is really this was like really

great Revelation for me that helped me

because I'm a person that I hate doing

things that that I don't understand

anybody else and once God taught me how

fasting actually works I'm like it

clicked and I was willing to embrace the

pain okay and and it was really funny

because the analogy he gave me was I

don't even know how it works but how

many you guys have heard like a thing

called like a juice cleanse you guys

ever heard of that is that like a

California

thing okay don't tell me don't raise

your hands I don't know I I don't want

know how much money you got all right

because I know those things are like 30

bucks a little I don't know anyway but

basically the point is like you like

remove the toxins is that right and then

you like introduce the Juicy Juice is

that right

and then you're like you get cleansed

right is that the thing anybody okay

I'll just just assume that's how it

works okay I mean the premise is

basically you remove what you don't want

you introduce what you actually want and

in the end hopefully something changes

that's it right so that's what fasting

is like you are getting

hungry that is like just starving the

things that are inputting in your spirit

the second one is this is what I call

seeking it's really interesting you're

you're I feel that once you get hungry

at some point your spirit starts seeking

it's like it starts looking it's like I

haven't been fed in a while you know and

it starts looking you know starts

looking and then that's the point at

which you feed it we'll talk about the

next slide you start feeding it Bible

prayer and all that jazzz and you start

feeding it what it should be doing

you're like retraining your spirit like

you should actually desire this and once

it's seeking you feed it that's when the

transformation happens the body accepts

it and goes I accept this is my new

desire now and then you do this combine

it with time your spirit actually

changes over time does that make sense

mechanically so this helped me embrace

the pain of hunger because I realize

okay I'm hungry and the next phase is my

heart will start seeking out and then I

input the things that I want it to

desire and at some point the spirit can

shift so so that's what to expect number

three is what should I do during my fast

okay this is the difference between some

of youall do intermittent fasting I want

to say that's not biblical fasting okay

biblical fasting is both famine and

feasting it's not just starving yourself

you must starve the things starve your

spirit of the things of everything but

then you must Feast on the things you're

meant to Feast on so it's important that

when you when you Feast you're feasting

on the things of God so for me when I

was young

I was at work I would just fast during

my lunch I would just be in the parking

lot reading the scriptures I want to

feed what I wanted to desire so this

includes Bible reading do worship do

start journaling start praying you start

feeding those things I'm telling you

right now you start doing this your

heart's going to come alive it's like

it's like eating vegetables like for the

first time it's like it's like really

good for your spirit it's amazing I'm so

jealous for you guys a great place our

old meeting spot pie hop just sit there

if you if you work can afford it you

know it's fasting is both famine and

feasting and when you find that the

heart begins to change so I went through

some really quick practicals to get you

started if you have questions you can

ask one of our pastors um but I've

explained basically fasting is how God

resets our desires and this is so

important in our age where we're just

bombarded with all this

stuff um actually that's my whole sermon

that's

it short and sweet right can I get

worship team

up uh let's

stand I have a couple of invitations

that I felt led to

give my first invitation is for those um

sorry this is advanced stuff but for

those who actually have never followed

Jesus before

you're listening to what I'm saying and

you go man that sounds amazing I came in

here and I'm completely dissatisfied

with life can I just share with you that

if you're listening on the stream that

you have a god-sized hole in your heart

that only God can fill and that you life

will never be complete until God send

God fills it and that God calls us to

repent of our sins the things that we

have done wrong that separate us from

him and to make Jesus our lord and if

that's something that you want to do

today we have prayer ministers here to

the right after the word they would love

to talk with you about how to get that

started others of you I've shared

this and you have long had a strong

desire for God and today is an Awakening

for you because you know that God is not

your first desire you love wealth more

than you love God you love power more

than you love God you love comfort more

than you love God you love positions you

love your family you love your marriage

you love your girlfriend more than you

love God and those things are not wrong

but you have this wrongly ordered

desires right

now can I invite you to repent before

the Lord

[Music]

today the third group I had for you is I

want to make fasting a normal spiritual

practice and you just need God's grace

to help

you I want to invite you to get prayer

from one of our prayer ministers they

want to pray for you they want to give

you Grace

he want to speak blessing over you to

make fasting a regular part of your

life and so that's one of you three we

have a prayer people over to my your

right would love to pray for

you but we're going to respond and

worship because the Lord is calling to

have more of our hearts he's

interested in wooing and capturing our

desires

thank you Lord that you're the best

taste

[Music]

Lord forgive us for the ways that we've

let our spirit

go just the mess that is in

there I'm responsible

God I let myself watch that I let myself

he

that I want to get my spirit right

before you Lord

[Music]

I want to get my spirit right before you

[Music]

God so if you're fre to come worship if

you're Fe to come K prayer let