Be A Penguin | Pastor Steven Soon

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your tea.

I just want to start off with a little National

Geography or Discovery Channel fun fact. All right, so you

can show your first slide penguins. Every time I think

about penguins, I think about Benedict Cumberbatch the way he

pronounced penguins penguins. For some reason, this famous actor can't

pronounce penguins. It's very funny. You can look it up

on YouTube. He was doing us a sort of like

a documentary or something like that, but every time he

say penguin, he'll say differently. It's very funny. But anyways,

these are emperor penguins, all right. It's one species, one

type of penguin. I just share a little fun fact

with you. Number one, when they give birth to their

young's true x, all right, and they only give birth

to sort of like lay an ache at only one

and one go. So it's very precious, very precious. And

every time an egg is laid the male and peror penguin,

what he will do is he will be with the

egg and not move. I want to guess how long

trow number nine months? Wow, it's like a human baby anymore.

Six months, three months, very close, it's actually four months.

Do the math. There's how many days one hundred twenty days,

one hundred and twenty days of not moving and guess what,

not eating. So the father actually stays with the egg

for four months to keep it warm until it hatches.

For four months, very precious because it's the only for

the season, and the father is very protective over that agge.

And for four months all of love for the little one.

The father abstains himself from eating because he couldn't live.

But that's what the father does. Now, what does this

have to do with our message? Ef A penguin can

spend one hundred to one hundred and twenty days not eating,

all of love for the little one. You know what

I'm hating with this?

Ready?

I think we can fast a bit for Jesus, all

of our love for Jesus. One the guests, was the

title of my message? Some of you don't need a guess.

You saw my Instagram story. Well, I want to guess

what was the title of my message? I say, I

say it's okay, don't have answer. You can say so

penguin be a Penguin. Yes, that's the title of my

message today is be a pang Gwin. And of course

we are in a season of U Turn and it

is just a little fun little title to help us

remember the message. We're in your season of you ten,

Today's day, what day sixteen? Today's day sixteen of you Turn.

So in ex Church we do corporate fasting together fasting

and prayer where we do it twenty one days leading

up to Good Friday. Of course, for some of you

are visiting for other churches, you know, you know some

maybe your church practices forty days, forty days of land

leading up to is leading up to Good Friday. In

ex Church we do twenty one days and we call

it uten. Why do we call it uten because it

is a time that we want to turn back to God,

you know, take this time to really focus in, to

really zone in onto God and to you turn our ways, youth,

turn our thoughts, youth, turn our plans to God's plans,

God's ways, God's thoughts. And we are in this season

right now. I'm really really treasuring this season, and so

it's really a time when we do it, we can

really sense our SENSITIVT towards the Holy Spirit, towards God

really heightened in this season and therefore today the message

that I would like to preach about in line this

season is on fasting. It's on fasting, just to share

right prior to coming to ex Church, So I came

to ex Church when I came down to study for university.

So in my first year, I cameo Exchange, but prior

to that, I was in an Anglican church for twenty years.

So I grew up in an Anglican church setting, very conservative,

traditional and yeah, Anglican churches observe forty days of length

of fasting, but funny enough, I never fasted in that

twenty years. I learned about fasting when I came to

ex Church because I think in ex Church, back back

when I was in my home church, in Anglican Church

back in Binang, it's not talked about that much. It's

sort of like if you want to do it, you can.

There's no program, but you can do it, and we

encourage you to do it. But in Exchange, I'm really

grateful that I came down. That's sort of a program

meaning you can sign and you can sort of sign

up to follow a devotional and we do it together, right,

And we also have small groups where we talk about it.

We call it homes In a home setting, we will

talk about it. We'll encourage one another. We will say, hey,

how's your fast going. Are you okay? And sometimes you

go like, oh, man, I miss the caffeine, because some

of you may be fast in caffeine, right, miss the caffeine.

Then a brother or sister will encourage you go, I

also miss it too, but it's okay, let's do it together, right.

So in extras we really encourage doing this together and

this fast thing only you know, is it only limited

to the twenty one days? No, we actually encourage the

practice of fasting throughout the year. Anytime, any point of time,

you feel that you want to grow close to God,

you won't draw near to God, you're singing God for something.

We encourage all of us to fast, all right. It's

just that in these twenty one days we get to

do it together. And there's power of corporate fast thing.

There's power in corporate prayer. That's why we do it. Now.

Just want to share a bit. What is fast thing?

Is the first point we want to talk about this.

What is Fasting a fast thing. It's taught in the

Bible as a very crucial and important spiritual discipline in

our work. We've got it is important. I've come to

recognize this for myself now and now that I've participated.

I've done fast thing in the past ten years during

uten season and other situations on my own when if

there's something I am praying for, I would fast. I've

recognized that it is an important spiritual discipline because it

causes me to grow liaps and bounds when I fast.

So what is fast thing really? So I've got a

little definition. First thing is choosing to abstain from a

food or an activity so that we can focus in

on God. Simple definition for you, all right, That's how

I define whether you know it's a certain male that

you're fasting for, or it's just it's it's you know.

One famous fast nowadays amongst our young people is social media, right,

And it's actually important because young young ones are always

on social media. I'm always on social media, confession right,

So by fasting social media, you realize actually we free

up a lot of time to actually spend time with God.

You know, fasting social media. I know some of us. Yes,

fasting sugar, there's a tough one, really tough one. But

doing that so that we can actually spend more time

and have that desire to pray more, to worship more,

to read the Bible more. This discipline of fasting helps

to strengthen our faith. It helps to strengthen our spirit

and to be able to hear God's voice more clearly

because destructions are put aside, all right. And I also

have to say this, okay, Spiritual fasting is always paired

with prayer. Spiritual fast thing without prayer is merely dieting. Okay,

it's just dieting. So if you're fast thing, you say

you're fasting or I'm fasting for the Lord, but you

don't pray, You're just dieting. There's no power. The only

power you see is probably you lose weight. That's it.

That's it, all right. But if you want to have

a breakthrough in your spirit when you do a fast,

you ought to pray. You have to pray. It's very important.

It goes hand in hand, it goes together. That some

history of fasting, I'm just gonna share with you some

key biblical people, historical figures. The first record Lot off fast.

Thing ever mentioned in the Bible is done by Moses,

all right, So what basically happened was Moses went up

Mount Sinai to seek the Lord so that he can

hear direction from the Lord on how to lead the Israelites. Okay,

And of course he went up for forty days forty nights.

He did not eat. He was just in the presence

of God. And it's pretty cool because I think this

is first record in history that we know of God

actually writing downwards himself. God actually, in case he wondered,

you thought Moses was the one that heard from the

Lord and he was inscribing on stones. It wasn't God himself.

You'd read the Bible, God himself wrote on the tablets.

I'm very curious of God's handwriting. It must be very

really beautiful because no one was confused with the commments

that he was given. So that was the first record

of ussing. And of course after that, do you guys

know what happened? The tablet was broken because the Israelized

did something Celila, and then Moses was angry, and I

can imagine God going like, hey, I just wrote this

for you can never mind you come up again. All

right for you again. And God actually did that. So

Moses went up for another forty days all right, fasting

and meeting with the Lot, having conversation with the Lot.

Uh.

Really, and then you also know, right when he came

back down, he actually had to wear a veil over

his face because he was We've got so much that

his face was glowing. Well, have you ever seen people

who are close to the Lord. You look at them,

there's just certain condeness upon their face. He says, Wow,

this person has a glow on the person's face. Uh.

And I would I say this, I would say this

is very real, because that was what happened with Moses

forty days with the Lot, and his face was glowing

because there was nothing, It was just the Lord with him. Right,

So that was Moses' true fast thing. For forty days

he received from the Lord the ten Commandments, which until

today we still talk about and we try our best

to observe. The next person I want to talk about

is Daniel. Daniel and his friends shed mischak ebanago. All right,

so what did they fast? They did the Daniel fast

that you know it as the Daniel fass. So basically,

what happened was they were brought to Babylon as captives,

and the king saw, King Nebu saw that these men

are of good quality. I want to give them education,

I want to trade them up so they can be

of use in my kingdom. Right. So of course when

they were there, they were so privileged to be offered

the king's delicacies. Whatever the king aid these group of people.

It's not just them, there were others as well who

were help captive. When Babylong conquered, right the different lands.

They get to share the king's food, all right, and

we all know if you're eating the king's delicacies is

got to be good. But what did Daniel and his

friends there? They say, we shall abstain. We shall abstain

from the King's delicacy. Is the wine, the meat, right

to abstain from the indulgences of the world. I think

at the time when they fasted, their heart is purely

I'm just imagining. They were probably just thinking, man, I

don't want to get so much of the world in me.

I need to remember that I belong to the Lord.

So they chose to abstain from the food and delicacies

of the king and I see it as a symbolic

thing because they're choosing to abstain from the indulgences that

the world offers. And how many of y'all know that

after that, they actually came back ten times stronger than

the rest that partook in the King's delicacy, right, So

that is I just wanted to share a little testimony

of my own related to this. I have got them

proof that the ten times stronger thing is real. It's

reel and some of you I've heard this story before

a few years ago when I was I think there

was two years back when I was doing sort of

like a liquid fast that means no solid food. I

was still working out at that time. I actually, on

the how many days, On the the teenth day, which

is the second last day of my liquid fast, I

went to the gym and I actually lifted the heaviest

I ever lifted prior to that. It does not make

any sense. That's not because I haven't eaten any food.

And that was almost God like telling me what that

new experience. I'm not telling you that it's true and

it's possible because it's spiritual. I understand when we do

spiritual fast, strength does not come from the fe world.

Strength comes from the Lord, and I the privilege to

go through that for God to tell me. I want

you to know this is very real. Any time you

feel weak, anytime you want something, look to the supernatural God,

because I can provide you what that does not make sense,

the strength to overcome whatever you need to overcome. So

it's very real, friends, I experience it, and I'm here

to testify that the whole ten times stronger thing is true.

When you fast onto the Lord, when you seek him,

supernatural strength comes upon you. Another person in scripture that

I want to bring out is Esther, Queen Esther right,

So what happened here is basically it was a time

where the King wanted to wipe out the Jews, basically

all right, they wanted to wipe out the Jews, and Esther,

in desperation one thing to save the Jews of Susa.

She told the Jews and said, hey, let's fast and

that I'm going to go and plead my case with

the King so that we may be spared. And because

they fastered, their destruction was spared. They weren't. There was

no destruction upon the people. They were spared. The Lord

delivered them true their fasting unto the Lord. So is

there a situation they're going through that you feel is

very dire? Can I encourage you fast fast and seek

the Lord. Fast and seek the Lord, because the Lord

can deliver you right. And the fourth figure that I

want to talk about is Jesus himself. Jesus fasted for

forty days and forty nights being in the wilderness before

he started his ministry. And if you look at the Bible,

there weren't much reasons that were mentioned why Jesus did that.

But I would believe that he wanted to draw near

to the Father before he started his ministry so that

he can be equipped to go on. And of course

we know that in that season for the Days and

for the Knights Bible. The Bible actually mentioned that Jesus

was hungry at the end of it, and that's where

temptation came, right. Satan came to tempt Jesus. And you know,

Jesus overcame the temptation. I believe it was because he

drew near to the Lord and he found strength in

the Lord, and there was such clarity of the word

of God in his mind. Of course, he himself is God,

but he himself is also one hundred percent human. I

won't go into that, there's a whole theological study on that.

But basically, even with the needs that he had he

was experiencing, he was able to overcome temptation because he

drew near to the Father. So this is a story

of how Jesus himself faster for forty days and forty nights,

and true that he was able to also overcome temptation.

Is that temptation or something that is binding you down

that you find very hard to let go of social media? Maybe, ah,

the temptation of to scroll your social media before you

go to bed, right, all the temptation of all your

love desert so much that you have I have a joke,

I have no self control and comes to donuts and

some some of you know that I love donuts. Right,

So I didn't have to fast to overcome that, Thank God,

Thank God. But if there's something that you find yourself

struggling with, something that is holding you down, fast fast,

and God will give you the strength to overcome the temptations,

all right, then the question is we talk about what

fast thing is? We talked about who in the Bible, faster,

history are fasting. Let's talk about why why fast? Why

is fasting such a big deal. The first point I

want to give to you is Jesus himself faster. So

if Jesus himself faster, don't you think we should follow us?

Because Jesus himself came to earth to be a blueprint

how we live alife. He came to earth to teach

us the ways of the Kingdom, which he himself practiced,

and many times he showed it to his disciples. He

showed it to people that these are the ways of

the Kingdom by practicing it himself. So I feel this

itself should be a good enough reason for usopathic and fasting,

because Jesus himself did it. Now, another thing that the

Lord showed me, revealed to me about fasting is say,

we're gonna look at scripture Matthew seventeen fourteen to twenty one.

If you can flip up on your Bibles Matthew seventeen

fourteen to twenty one, I'm gonna read from the NKJV translation,

here is what the Word of the Lord says. And

when they had come to the multitude, a man came

to him kneeling down to him, saying, Lord, have mercy

on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely,

for he often falls into the fire and often into

the water verse sixteen. So I brought him to your disciples,

but they could not cure him. Wow, even with Jesus'

closest disciples, they weren't able to deliver this man's son

Verse seventeen. Then Jesus answered and said, all faithless and

perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How

long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me?

Now thak Lord. The disciples were there, and I believe

Jesus was also addressing the disciples. It would make sense

in a bit verse eighteen. And Jesus rebuilked the demon

that's within that child, and it came out of him,

and the child was cured from that very hour. Then

the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why could

we not cast it out? We prayed, we tried, but yes,

we are not able to cast it out Verse twenty.

So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, For

because of your unbelief, or surely I say to you,

if you have faith as a master seed. You will

say to this mountain, move from here to there, and

it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you

verse twenty one, or this one verse twenty one. Some

of the translations do not have it all right, But

NKJB says, however, this kind does not go out except

by prayer and fasting. It seems when you first read

it the first round, it feels very detached. How for

a moment, Jesus was talking about how you have no faith,

you know, because if you have the faith of master city,

you'll be able to move mountains, basically saying, if you

have the faith of mastercy, you will have been able

to rebuild this demon. But you couldn't. And Jesus then

goes and say, however, this one cannot happen unless you

fast and pray. It feels very detached at first, but

God revealed this to me, actually this whole thing. Jesus

was saying that you disciples have unbelief, but hey, if

you fast, it will help you with your unbelief. There

was a revelation that caught from the Lord that fasting

and slight that will show fast thing helps us with

our unbelief. If you find yourself in a season that

either you are wrestling with certain understanding towards God, or

you find yourself as if stuck in a certain place

where you are not able to draw near to God,

or you find yourself struggling to believe God on certain things,

certain areas in your life. Can I encourage you fast?

We don't understand how it works. This is a Kingdom

spirituals principle, but I just want to say it works.

It just works. A right of first, I can give

you a lot of different explanations why you work, because

number one, when you fast, and we'll go in to that,

you come into a deeper dependency. And I am going

ahead of myself. But basically, if you feel that you're

in a season of unbelief, I want to first assure

you it's okay, Okay, it's okay. It's not that you've

committed a mighty sin that the Lord cannot deliver you. Right.

Even in scripture, there was one guy that you know

Jesus approached Jesus for healing and Jesus say, all this

will happen if you believe. And then the man said

to Jesus, Lord, I believe, and the next thing is

it help me with my unbelief. And how many of

you know after that the miracle did happen. So it's

okay to tell the Lord Lord, I have unbelief. But

the second part is very important. Help me Lord with

my unbelief. Don't allow me to stay in this unbelief.

Move me, Lord from a state of unbelief to a

point of faith. And when you do that, minracles happen.

How do I know because that happened in scripture right

after that the breakthrough came for the men, right. So

there's an encouragement to all of us if you find

yourself struggling with certain unbelief. Firstly assuring you it's okay.

We all go through that. You know, even past us

and elders will sometimes have that when we're putting in

situations where we just don't understand, or certain tough times

that we are going through, like God, why is this happening?

We do go through seasons of unbelief, but know that

every season of unbelief is not meant to tear you down,

but the season of unbelief is meant to propel you

to greater faith, because when you overcome, you come into

a greater level of faith knowing that, Wow, God, understand

now why I went through that, Because I get to

see how you delivered me. I get to see how

you help me. I get to see the impossible happen

right before my eyes. So, if you are in a

season of unbelief, I want to encourage you to fast

because fasting helps us with our unbelief. There's this saying

by this person, Macrina with a car. She is of

the Catholic faith, she has passed on. But I really

love how she talks about her experience with fasting. Now

she says, this fasting makes me vulnerable and reminds me

of my frailty. How is that so? It reminds me

to remember that if I'm not fed, I will die

standing before God hungry. I suddenly know who I am.

I am one who is poor, called to be rich

in a way that the world does not understand. I'm

one who is empty, called to be filled with the

fullness of God. I'm one who is hungry, called to

taste all the goodness that can be mind in Christ.

Very very profound words. And this actually puts into words

my own experience with fasting. Because when we fast we

go through if you're fasting food or males, we go

through physical hunger. But it is true physical hunger. I'm

expounding on what Macrina shared. The late Macrina is shared.

When we go through physical hunger, we suddenly realize actually

we need food without fudah, very tough and eventually can

die on right. We realize that we are actually very

vulnerable and true that understanding. Sometimes it humbles us to

recognize that we are not God, that we are mere

human beings. When we talk about mere human beings, I

always remember the Sin and Avengers where the heart takes

on Loki as puny God. But we are truly puny humans.

When we compare ourselves to God, puty humans. And sometimes

if you're not careful, we come to a place where

we are so confident in ourselves that we may not

recognize that we are purely leaving by the mercy of God.

That is only by his mercy that we are able

to wake up this morning. It's merely by His mercy

that we are able to have consciousness and wake up

and go like, oh wow, I'm alive. But yet sometimes not.

Sometimes many times we take it for granted, We forget

that God himself is sustaining our heartbeat and causing our

hearts to beat. There are some mysteries in human physiology

until today that we are not able to comprehend true science.

How the heart on its own functions and beats right.

People who experience heart failure sometimes doctors will have to

put a device that is powered still by something to

cause the heart to be. But yet our heart on

its own is able to be. Where is that coming from?

I really believe it's the Lord. The Lord is the

one sustaining us. The Lord is the one causing us

to function. When we come into fasting, we recognize also

that through the deprivation of certain areas of our life,

we can also find fulfillment in the Lord. We recognize

that no matter how deprived we are of certain things,

no matter how you fast, whichever area that you fast,

as you seek the Lord, you come to realize the

Lord will fill up those parts. That's why I believe

Jesus is able to say my food is to do

the will of the Father, because it's true fulfilling his

purposes in the Lord, that he feels fulfilled and he

is fat. Fast thing is profound in a way we're

not just. It makes us realize that we are mere humans.

It also helps us realize how good God is and

how much of our dependence is on the Lord, and

how much is he Jehovah Jidah in our lives, our provider,

the one who sustains us. When we fast, we come

into a place of vulnerability which we will never experience

from a place of abundance. So fast thing is sort

of like you cause yourself to not eat when you

could have eaten. But you see, in the place of abundance,

you will never recognize number one again, your frailty as

a human being, because right now you have everything right.

You're not starving. You can eat, you can drink. You know,

you can entertain your cravings for dessert anytime, every time.

Probably the only thing stopping is thinking about your health.

But the truth remains that if you want, you can.

But yet, when we fast, we recognize then that actually

we need God. It's only in a place of vulnerability

that we will be reminded. It's not that in a

place of vulnerability only you need God, and in a

place of abundance you don't need God. I hope we

have established the fact that God keeps you alife. So

whether you're in abundance or you are in lack, the

truth is God is the one keeping you alive. But

whether we realize it, I've come to understand that it's

only in a place of vulnerability that we will be

able to acknowledge and recognize that we need God. Many times,

in abundance we won't have that perspective. So fast Thing

causes us that he Fasting facilities that process to put

us in a place of vulnerability. For myself, fast Thing

makes me remember that I am human and I need God.

When I mentioned this that He is the one who

sustains and provides. You know when Moses, I hope this

also gives you an evidence. When Moses was on Mount

Sinai for forty days without eating, right, who do you

think is sustaining him? It's the Lord? Right, he didn't eat,

all drink and we all know that without water for

a short few days you'll be in critical condition. But

yet here is Moses, not eating nor drinking, being in

the presence of God. Clearly the Lord is the one

who sustains him. I want to bring you to effect

into something right. The first thing right, you won't die on,

especially when you're fast towards the Lot. Because even Moses

not eating, not drinking for forty days, God sustained him.

He come out still have the strength to be angry.

You know what israelize. Let me tell you that's how

strong yours angry, scolded them, threw the tablet down, still

went up the mountain. Okay, God, here I am again,

look like your people. Okay, Lord, give me the tablets skin.

He was still able to still carve out the stones

are by the way, if you read Bible, it wasn't

just any rock he take. And then God just inscribed

he actually had to carve up tablets for the Lot

to write on. So he still had the strength. So

again I hope there is evidence to you again that

fast thing doesn't mean you will be weak and your

life will be endangered. Which later I were going to

be sharing a bit more. When we talk about how

do we fast? When we fast, we are also this

is I hope you can catch this. When we fast,

we are putting aside something that either we enjoy doing

something that we need. We're putting it aside saying I

will not touch this because I'm doing this unto the Lord. Essentially,

what you're doing is you're setting aside a part of

your life. And when you do that, you are basically

acknowledging that He is God. I am not. I cannot

touch the same principle as tights and offering why we

give tights? The Lord says one tenth we are Essentially,

God is not interested in the amount. It's interested in

your heart. Because when you set the side one tenth,

you're essentially saying this belongs to the Lord, it's not mine.

He has the right to this. I don't basically saying

that He is God. I am not. So sometimes if

you don't remember, if you just we get through the

motion of fast thing, we forget actually the power of

fast thing, all those things that are happening in our

spirit and in our minds. Right, So this says, why

do we fast? Now? How do we fast? For those

of you here? Like I mentioned to you twenty years

growing up in the Anglican Church, I did not learn,

but when it came to asks, I was very thankful

that I was taught how to fast. There are different

types of fast thing. I'm just gonna run through different

ones for those of you who are new to acts

or have never learned about this. I'm gonna share with

you a list, but this is not a fast thing.

That's not limit to that list, Okay. I just want

to share just a general overview of the types of

fast that you can practice. Firstly, one male fast, This

is very common. That means you fast one meal a day,

all right. Again, when you're first, is not just your

fast and then just don't eat or anything. When you're fast,

you're supposed to seek the lot, all right. It's supposed

to be pat with prayer, reading of the word, waiting

on the worship Lord. I'm here presenting our prayers to

the Lord, all right. One male fast. In other way,

it's partial fast, all right, which is for period time.

Is very similar to our cousin faith. Right, that's what

they practice, right, partial fast, certain amount of time. One

the common one is seven am to seven pm. But

not limited to that. Okay, so you can you can

adjust accordingly, all right. Daniel fast consuming only vegetables, fruits

and water. Not a lot of us actually say we

do Danil fast. But to be honest, it's actually vegetable fast.

It's not actually Daniel fast. Right, Daniel fast means that

you only eat vegetables, fruits, and water. It's very stricent

what Daniel and his friends did. But again we are

not legalistic. Okay, so it's okay. So even if you're

doing a vegetarian fast, it's fine. So it's one of

the fast, all right. So this is what that means.

You also have stained from metla and they reproducts. There's

Daniel Fast, all right. Next, liquid fast consuming only liquids solids,

all right. So there is a difference between liquid and

total fasts. Okay, liquid fastest to share. People who do

liquid fast will also consume like juicer soup, all right.

So that's liquid fast. For total fast, that means you

only do water throughout fast, all right. So no food,

no other forms of liquid, just water. Now there are

other fast also there. I just want to share for

your reference, all right. Again, not limited to this list.

All right. There's sugar fast. I know Grace is doing

that really, big props to her. I know it's not

easy for her. Sugar fast. Caffeine. You know, some of

us here caffeine is our god, really, because we say

caffeine sustained as without coffee, we can't function, right, So

some of us really dependent on caffeine, so some would

actually abstain from caffeine all right, certain activities that consume

consumer time or that we enjoy, right, I know, use

that abstain from game They choose to not play games

during the season, or abstain from movies or any form

of entertainment. I have a good friend he's now in

ex Edinburgh, Gabriel. He one of the fast that he

always does is entertainment fast. That means no music only

only only gospel music. Yeah, no movies, no shows, no games. Right,

so he would just not so that a lot of

free time. No, or then why I respect him? Then

he worships colar. He takes off his guitar and in

those times that he would do all this, he will

worship God. So there's one form entertainment fast, and they

are a get not limited to this. Again, the principle

of fast is something that you enjoy doing or you

feel that you need to do, and you put that

aside and say God, this this time, I using this time,

I will seek you, I will seek you. All right.

I do also have to share a few thoughts that

I had to learn. Next light says this first thing

is not a competition. It's not who here can faster

the most. You are God's most precious. No, first thing

is not a competition. First thing is not about trying

to one up yourself every year. I used to do that,

you know, in my naiveness, I used to think, oh

d Y already did this faster. Next year has to

be more challenging. It has to be more challenging. Then

the following year has to be more changing. No, it

shouldn't be like that, you know. I used to have

this mindset that the more I suffer for the Lord,

the more I get to show God my devotion unto him.

I used to honest truth, I used to think that way.

But it's not true. God is not interested in that,

all right. That is actually pagan thinking. And you know

cults actually do this. Suffer, suffer than you will be

God's chosen sounds familiar. The colts will do that. But no,

we are not a coult right. God is not interested

in seeing us suffer to prove our devotion, all right,

That's not what the Lord wants. And I want to say,

self denial when we fast is actually a form of

self denial. We are denying ourselves of certain things that

we enjoy. But self denial is not self harmer. Self

denial is also not self destruction. So please do not

fast in a way that you feel yourself you will

lend yourself in the hospital. Okay, there's no power in that.

I just want to say that, right, fast in a

way that you know will draw you near to the Lord. Okay,

and actually fasting sometimes we feel dawn'e thing, especially if

you have never done it before. But I want to

tell you this. It's fasting is not It's not as

crazy as you think. One dione, one dione. All right, again,

provided you have no pre existing health conditions. Okay, I

also have to put this out there, all right. If

you have other pre existing health conditions and to say no,

you have to eat, please do that all right, and

don't say it past to Steven told me not to eat,

and then you lend yourself in the hospital, and then

I get in trouble. Okay, No, all right. I also

want to say this, all right, if you love food

like me, I have to eat this order. It's not

a form of this order. You guys can get the job,

never mind, Okay. I came up with that man. Never mind,

it didn't work. But yeah, so that's how we fast.

That's how we fast. Fasting. It's not about trying to

prove our devotion to the Lord. It comes from the

heart of one thing to draw near to God. Full stop.

Your desire to fast has to stem from one thing

to draw near to God. Not just oh I need

a promotion and I didn't minuner promotion, therefore I fast. No,

that's a saying, and this is something we really believe

in next church. When we fast and pray, we are

not twisting God's am and say I've done my part. God.

Now I demand you to do your part. No. Fasting

and prayer is realigning our heart to God. That's why

we call it yuelton. Not my wate, lot, not my thoughts,

not my will, but yours lot. Help me to see

your plans, help me to obey. And many times you

will see people who have breakthrough through their fasting. Are

those so they have actually a mindset shift. I faster,

the Lord showed me I need to change my way

of living. I faster. The Lord showed me I need

to change this habit faster. And the Lord showed me

I have certain destructive mindsets that I need to remove.

And it is true that the transformation comes. So remember

fast thing is not twisting God's arm demanding a lot

to do its part. First thing is aligning our hearts

to his. And as I close, you know there is this.

There are different studies talking about habit formation. I just

want to bring us tough. There some of you who

are like productivity gurus, you would know this. Okay, how

does this relate? You'll see later. Okay, five minutes a day. Actually,

if you spend your time doing something five minutes a day,

it's enough to start planting seeds of change in your life. Well,

I feel like motivational speaker now right, shap mindset. So

do that for five minutes a day, fifteen to twenty

minutes a day. This is what many researchers have found

that this is the sweet spot for transformation. That means

you span about fifteen to twenty minutes a day doing

this doing something. You begin to rewire your thought patterns,

You begin to absorb new perspectives, and you begin to

habits that actually stick. Provided you do this daily, all right,

thety plus minutes daily. This is where deep work happens

this level of time investment accelerates change that can lead

to more lasting embodied transformation. So like emotional healing, spiritual growth,

the changing of world views. Right, this is what happens

when you spend the t plus minutes. Now this is

again a field of where there are different researchers done,

and I compoul this into this all right, now, I

got a question for us. Right, so this is how

habit formation people believe. This is what happens when you

do five minutes fifteen to twenty minutes the day plus

minutes daily. Now I have a question for us. How

much time do you spend scrolling social media the day

plus minute? Thank you for sharing. Honest me too. Sometimes

uh my phone will remind me how much time I

spend on certain apps and I'd be so convicted. Oh

my gosh, Yeah, I spent so any minutes and hours

doing this when I could have done something else. But

why I ask this question is you know social media

is plagued with bad news. We all know this. We

all know when we read social media there's a lot

of negativity. I hope I don't sound like, oh I'm

saying this. I think this is the truth that we

can all recognize it's true. This is one of the

biggest tools of the enemy today to use social media

for his own kingdom, to distruct the world. But yet

we spend so much time there. Maybe we need it

for work. Understand, understand, understand, But the truth remains is

that daily, many of us actually spend more than thirty

minutes on social media. And if we follow back to

the research, that means you're actually conforming to the worldview

that's been broadcasted to you. Again according to research. I'm

just linking habits and research together. Now, since you're going

to be spending so much time on social media, why

not spend thirty minutes reading the word of God? If

thirty minutes is a struggle, why not try fifteen to

twenty minutes to pray, to worship, to read the word

of God. If fifteen to twenty minutes is a struggle,

you have not done that long before. Five minutes daily

to read the Word of God, Because according to research,

that actually is in line with what God teaches us.

Meditate my word and my commands daily, Right, the Lord

has sought us that it's backed by science. Guys, if

you do that daily, you'll start to see your top

patterns rewiring. You'll start to see things from God's perspective

instead of the world's perspective. I want you to put

a comparison of your time spent with God, reading the Word,

you know, praying, fasting, versus your time spent on social media.

No wonder we're not having our breakthroughth No wonder we

are stuck because by simple mathematics, it already doesn't align.

We are not spending more time with God. So fast

thing helps us to be able to draw near to

God more. And I want to encourage us fast thing.

It's not just a tradition or a routine or that

we want to do. Fast thing is a Kingdom principle

that aligns us to God. There's power when we fast.

And as I end, I just want to say this,

take this season to seek God for what is truly

in your heart. If some of you don't feel like

you're actually in a good place, trust me when you

seek the Lord and say, God revealed to me my

heart the things of my heart. God will start showing

you what you need to start praying for personal testimony

because there were seasons of life and he actually I'm okay,

but the moment I say, God, actually, what else do

I need to work on? Why is it you want

to tell me? Oh Man, suddenly, God open the doors. Tada.

These are all the things you should be praying for,

all the things you should be seeking me for. And

then now I come with a greater hunger and realize, actually,

I don't have it all. There's so many things I

need to pray for. Why are you believing for what

you're praying for? Praying for salvations of a salvation of

a love one. Fasting is powerful. You're praying for healing.

Fasting is powerful. You're praying for financial breakthrough. Fasting is

powerful again, not by the main fact that we are

twisting God's arm, but it's helping us align to God.

And when we align to God, all these things will flow.

We're in the midst of uton. I don't know how

many of us are participating. My desire is that all

of us will participating in this. For those of you

who call Extra your home, we are in day sixteen,

but hey, they are five more days ago. Not too

late to start. You can start today if you need

today to pray or go what do I fast? It's

okay you got Monday until Friday. Not too late, too fast,

do something that you'll know will cost you, but remember

it's not meant to harm you. All right, there's my

encouragement to you. Not too late to fast, all right,

our you can get out. We actually have devotionals and

all that even telling you what to pray for corporately

for our different global church plans. And there are some

powerful questions in the devotionals that can help you to reflect.

So I want to encourage you. You know, go on

the link x or O n L slashoots and you

can get our devotional their ecopy, but participate. Try never

try and never know Okaya book book, but Blum try

Ballum Tao, try Harry Harry mao ah, So try it.

If you never try it, try fasting. Experience the power

of God true fasting, right, don't miss out on such

a big blessing that God has prepared for us in

the form of fast thing. You're missing out if you're

not fasting, because it's a key spiritual discipline. So that's

my encouragement to you. Can invite all of us to

stand as I pray for us. If you forget everything

I've said, I hope by remembering this, you remember the

world of God. Remember be a penguin. Be a penguin.

If the penguin can fast out of the love for

the little one, I think we can fast out all

the love for the love.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit acts church dot org.

We are also acting on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing

that this week is going to be a good week,

a hit for you. God bless