Discipline, Devotion, Revival | Sunday, September 21, 2025
September 21, 2025 · Pastor Miles DeBenedictis
In this teaching
Drawing from Jesus's words in Luke 5:33-39, Pastor Miles teaches that fasting—though not required under the new covenant—is a practical spiritual discipline and a weapon of spiritual warfare that disciplines the flesh, strengthens the spirit, and prepares believers for battle in an age of evident demonic activity and emerging revival.
- Jesus consistently broke the mold of first-century religion, and his theology and spirituality were exceedingly practical rather than high-minded head-knowledge.
- The new covenant is a new way of life, and those accustomed to the old way often find the new way challenging (new wine, new wineskins).
- Fasting is not required and is not primarily about repentance; under the new covenant it is a voluntary discipline and devotion.
- Fasting is a foil for the flesh, helping the spirit gain power over carnal appetites so we walk in the Spirit rather than the flesh.
- Fasting is a weapon of spiritual warfare—"this kind comes out only by prayer and fasting"—needed in a culture displaying clear demonic evil.
- The enemy's intensified attacks are a response to God's moving; revival is breaking out, especially among young people, so believers should get in the fight.
Readable is a lightly edited reading copy; Verbatim stays close to the spoken words. The audio and video are the record of what was said.
Then they said to him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?" And He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days." Then He spoke a parable to them: "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one... And no one puts new wine into old wine skins, or else the new wine will burst the wine skins... But new wine must be put into new wine skins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'" ()
Why Jesus's disciples didn't fast—and why those of us living in "the days when the bridegroom is taken away" should reconsider this forgotten discipline.
Jesus Breaks the Mold
As I contemplated this passage, I realized there are many ways we could approach it. We could talk about the new thing Jesus was doing that was unlike the religious Pharisees and even the followers of John the Baptist. That fits everything we've seen in .
At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus calls disciples to be with him. That wasn't abnormal for a first-century rabbi—a teacher would invite disciples close to learn his way of life. But typically a rabbi chose the smart, learned, trained ones who did well in synagogue school. Instead, Jesus invites fishermen. They weren't dummies, but they weren't the cloth other rabbis would have cut from.
Then he goes further outside the norm. He touches the untouchable leper—a terminal illness associated not just with sickness but with sin. He heals and forgives outside the religious structure, requiring no sacrifice or visit to the temple, forgiving a paralyzed man who was obviously a sinner. He calls a tax collector to be a disciple, then goes and eats at his house with many other tax collectors. Jesus is breaking the mold at every turn.
The Question About Fasting
Now his followers are breaking the mold too. A group—probably the more religious people of the day—comes to Jesus and essentially asks, "Why don't your disciples do what we do?" They saw Jesus doing very spiritual things: healing, casting out demons, preaching. But he wasn't doing some of the things they equated with deep spirituality, like fasting. "Don't you know you're supposed to fast? Remember John the Baptist—your friend? He fasted often, and so do the Pharisees."
The Pharisees were hyper-religious, committed not only to the law of Moses but to all the traditions of their fathers, and they fasted regularly. The problem was, they wanted everyone to know it. They would disfigure their faces and look mopey. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says don't do that. John the Baptist was not given to pompous display, but he and his disciples did fast often. Jesus and his disciples did not, and everyone watching could see it.
We could also dwell on the prophetic implications, because here Jesus prophesies that he'll be "taken away"—an allusion to his future crucifixion—and that in those days fasting will once again become a reality, since fasting is associated with desperate, difficult, and mourning times. Or we could focus on the newness of the covenant he was inaugurating. Those are all good approaches. But I want to zero in on something easy to skip over—and that maybe we'd like to skip over. Here we are in the future Jesus described, when the bridegroom is no longer with us. So we're going to talk about fasting.
What Fasting Actually Is
Fasting isn't something we often like to discuss. You may not have heard many Bible teachings on it, and you may not even know precisely what it is. In our day people say they "fast" from their phones, social media, or football. But in the historical and biblical sense, that's not really a fast—that's a discipline. Giving up a form of media for a time is fine, but it isn't fasting.
In the biblical sense, fasting most traditionally has to do with food: taking no solid food—and sometimes no liquid at all, not even water—for a set period, typically twenty-four hours or more, denying yourself completely. Even at that basic level, this is something we're not too interested in, because it seems too religious. Our church culture is non-traditional and casual. I wear a t-shirt and sandals; sometimes I'll wear shorts and really offend people. That would never fly in a Southern Baptist church, where it's a three-piece suit every week. We're not the hyper-stringent, religious sort, and some of you came out of rigid backgrounds, so fasting just feels like a Pharisee thing.
But we also avoid it because it's hard. I asked both services if anyone likes to go without—not a single hand went up. We don't like to deny ourselves. "Die to yourself" doesn't sound fun. We figure we didn't sign up for this; we came for the coffee, donuts, and an all-right message.
The Bridegroom Is Here
When Jesus is asked why his disciples don't fast, he gives a great answer: "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?" Obviously Jesus is saying, "I'm the bridegroom. These disciples are like the groomsmen. We're at the wedding." You don't go to a wedding to fast. A wedding is a celebration, a feast, a time of joy and rejoicing—not self-denial. Now is the time for feasting, not fasting.
His answer is wonderfully practical, and that reminds us how Jesus approaches everything. He is the most spiritual person who ever walked the earth, yet his spirituality was practical, not high-minded or out of reach. That's what the incarnation is all about. To Jesus, prayer, fasting, and other spiritual disciplines are good, normal, and should be regular parts of our lives—but they are not the be-all and end-all.
Point one: the theology and spirituality of Jesus are exceedingly practical. Being a Christian is not a headgame for brainiacs or merely the pursuit of knowledge. We can turn Christianity into nothing more than gaining doctrinal understanding and answering Bible trivia, but that's not what the Christian life is about. The earliest believers weren't called "Christians"—they were called followers of the Way. Jesus had a pattern of life and called his disciples to "follow me." Paul said, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." The Christian life is a way of life to be lived out daily, in communion with God. And since it's a life, it involves practical rhythms, practices, disciplines that become habitual—one of which is fasting.
Jesus Didn't Abolish Fasting
Christ's teaching does not set aside the religious practice of fasting that God's people observed under the old covenant. They fasted regularly, with set times on their calendar. Jesus didn't come to destroy that. "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" ().
Jesus exemplified fasting. After his baptism he went into the wilderness and fasted forty days and nights before his temptation (). He taught it in , saying "when you fast"—not "if you fast"—but warning against the hypocrites who disfigure their faces; instead fast privately before your Father who sees in secret. The early church in Antioch—where believers were first called Christians—fasted and prayed to send off Paul and Barnabas (-14). Paul says in that he lived "in fastings often."
Point two: the new covenant of Christ is a new way of life for his followers, and those who lived under the old way will find the new way challenging. That's the point of his parable—you don't sew a new, unshrunk patch onto an old garment, and you don't put new wine into old wineskins. When we first follow Christ, we discover that our old patterns, even religious ones, get challenged. We may feel we liked the old way better. But Jesus was doing something new—and better.
Nine Truths About Fasting Under the New Covenant
Point three: nine truths about fasting under the new covenant.
First, it isn't required. That deserves an amen. Under the old covenant Israel had set feasts around the three harvests—Passover, Pentecost, and the fall feasts like Yom Kippur, Tabernacles, and Trumpets. They also had set fasts, like Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when they fasted in recognition of their sin. The most religious would fast twice a week—remember the Pharisee in Jesus's parable boasting, "I fast twice a week." For the Christian, fasting is not compulsory. It's voluntary.
Second, it isn't primarily about repentance. In the Old Testament, fasts were often called because of sin, illness, death, defeat, or national crisis. Those remain valid reasons—there may still be times when we, a church, or a nation are called to fast. But that's not the primary thing under the new covenant.
Third, fasting is a discipline and a devotion. As Christians we develop habits we never had before: prayer, reading Scripture, fellowship, communion. Another overlooked practice is Sabbath rest—I have a hard time with that one, because I'm American, and we're workaholics. People in Germany and France told me repeatedly, "You Americans work too much." But God does call us to Sabbath, and he calls us to fasting. In , Anna served God "with fastings and prayers night and day." Antioch fasted as a regular part of worship.
If your devotional time feels dry or lacking, consider adding fasting. I recently spoke with someone whose prayers felt unanswered and whose Scripture reading felt dry and distracted. There's no way to grow without consuming God's word and spending time with him in prayer—and among these things, you might add fasting. These practices don't make you better or holier than others; that was the Pharisee's error. But fasting helps us draw nearer to God, align with his Spirit, and give our spirit power over our flesh. Paul said, "Bodily exercise profits little, but godliness is profitable for all things" (). Just as physical exercise makes us stronger, spiritual exercises strengthen our spirit over our flesh.
A Foil for the Flesh
Fourth, fasting is a foil for our flesh. To "foil" means to prevent from succeeding, and almost nothing is more destructive to the flesh than fasting. The flesh is our carnal nature—this body with its appetites and desires. Many of those desires are good. The appetite for food is necessary; the desire for sex is good in its proper context of marriage. But when we give in to every good desire for everything, we become like an American—seven out of ten of whom are obese—consuming and consuming, indulging every appetite.
If we're weak to the strength of our flesh, we're called to walk in the Spirit and build up the spirit. The psalmist said, "I humbled myself with fasting" (). Ezra proclaimed a fast "that we might humble ourselves before our God" (). Jesus was prepared for temptation by forty days of fasting.
This verse is important to me: "I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified" (). At twenty, a year into teaching the Bible, I weighed 305 pounds and was not healthy. I read that verse and thought, "I'm a young preacher; I want to be an old preacher, and the way I'm living makes that unlikely." Paul says he made his body his slave—so the spirit controls the body, not the reverse. At that point my spirit didn't. Between my twentieth and twenty-fourth birthdays I went from 305 to 175 pounds. I didn't start fasting until about a year and a half in—not to lose weight, but to have power over my flesh rather than my flesh having power over me. Then it became a regular part of my life.
Walking in the Spirit
Fifth, fasting helps us to walk in the Spirit. "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another" (). Every one of you has experienced what Paul describes in Romans 7: "The things I want to do, I don't do; and the things I don't want to do, I practice." I know I shouldn't eat that third piece of cake, but I have no self-control. "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
We live in a culture of hyper-abundance. Our pantry is like the snack aisle at a store, calling to me when I'm weak. I tell my wife, "Self-control begins at the supermarket—if you bring it home, I have no self-control." We live in perpetual feasting, and it's unhealthy for our bodies and our spirits, which are connected. If we're always feeding the flesh, the flesh grows stronger and we become its slave.
The works of the flesh are evident ()—not only adultery, fornication, and murder, but contentions, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, and dissensions. If you find yourself irritable, on edge, impatient, and snippy, it's an indication you're walking in the flesh. But as we deny the flesh and walk in the Spirit, the Spirit grows stronger and produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Remember the Lord's words: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."
Preparation, Mission, and a Temporary Practice
Sixth, fasting is a practice of preparation. Jesus was prepared to face the devil's temptation by fasting ().
Seventh, fasting is paired with prayer and mission. As we fulfill the Great Commission, fasting is one of the tools we use.
Eighth, fasting is temporary—for this time, until the arrival of Christ's kingdom. "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?" A day is coming when we'll be with the Lord, and one of the first events at his return is the marriage supper of the Lamb—a feast. I see no evidence of fasting in the kingdom of God. This is a temporary practice for now. And we can't ignore the health benefits, either—science increasingly shows fasting helps the body through autophagy, ketosis, and the removal of toxins. The Bible knew it long before science came along to confirm it.
A Weapon of Our Warfare
Ninth, fasting is a weapon of our warfare. In , a man brings his demon-afflicted son to Jesus's disciples, who had previously been given power to cast out demons—but they couldn't. A crowd gathered. When Jesus arrived, he cast out the demon, and afterward, when the disciples asked why they couldn't, he said, "This kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting." Fasting is connected to spiritual warfare.
This matters because we are living through very evident, wicked spiritual warfare in our culture. We often feel powerless or discouraged in the face of it. One challenge is that our culture has spent at least 150 years in an experiment of denying that there is a God—and along with that, denying there is a devil. There's a line from a 1995 film: "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist." We live in a culture that thinks the devil doesn't exist—until you see total, horrible evil in HD. I'm convinced that every manifestation of wickedness in the worldly realm reflects wickedness behind the scenes in the spiritual realm.
Consider the examples. On August 22nd, Iryna Zarutska was savagely murdered on a light-rail train in Charlotte; her murderer had been arrested fourteen times before, with a recent arrest following 911 calls claiming man-made materials had been implanted in his body directing him to do things he didn't want to do. He suffered from schizophrenia and was tormented by voices. I'm not saying every mental disorder is spiritual, but there are spiritual dynamics, and when you see something that demonic, it's an indication of evil.
Five days later, a 23-year-old fired dozens of shots into a Catholic church and school in Minneapolis, killing three children and injuring twenty-one. He suffered from gender dysphoria, and in his journals there was a sketch of himself looking in a mirror, seeing the devil, with words in Cyrillic that translate, "Who am I? When will this end? Help me." If that's not demonic, I don't know what is. The young woman who shot up the Presbyterian school in Nashville left hundreds of pages of journals; she saw herself as an apprentice of the devil. And we all witnessed Charlie Kirk's assassination by Tyler Robinson, whose worldview, by available evidence, was radically altered over the last five years.
Jesus said to those who wanted to kill him, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning... When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it" (). We are in a spiritual battle. tells us to put on the whole armor of God; says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God. I want to suggest that one of those weapons is fasting.
God Is Moving—Get in the Fight
Point four: fasting readies us for battle and strengthens us for victory. When we see the wickedness happening, it's easy to be discouraged and fearful. But the Scriptures say, "Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." I'm convinced that when the enemy moves—as he clearly is moving—it is in response to the moving of God. God is moving, and the enemy is trying to stop it. "The gates of hell will not prevail against the church." In ancient times the gates were where planning was done; the deceitful plotting of the enemy will not prevail.
Let me leave you an example. I graduated from Orange Glen High School in 1998 and played football on that field. Friday night I was back there because my son plays for Escondido Charter, and they were playing at Orange Glen. They lost—a bummer. But immediately after the game, my son, his coach, and some players led 200 students in worship right on the fifty-yard line. We have a video of it.
God is doing something right now. Hundreds of thousands will watch Rob's gospel message at Charlie Kirk's memorial—just one of many things happening. A recent report found that Gen Y and Gen Z now attend church generationally more than anyone else. Baby boomers, they're beating you. God is moving, the enemy is fighting to stop it, and this kind of thing is happening on campuses all over the country. You should rejoice—and you should get in the fight.
So I'm asking you to consider fasting. Don't declare a 40-day fast tomorrow—your doctor will call me. If you've never done it, start with twenty-four hours. Skipping breakfast isn't a fast; fast for a full twenty-four hours. Yes, it will be hard. Your flesh will yell and scream, your head and stomach will hurt, you'll be distracted the whole time. It's a discipline—and like working out, it isn't easy on day one. Start there. Do it once or twice a month, then add twelve hours to make thirty-six, then forty-eight.
I regularly build fasts into my life to break down a flesh that has too much power. My wife and I went on vacation, feasted, and got into the pattern of feasting—you know the pattern. I came home and fasted for five days to break it. Was it hard? Yes. Suck it up, princess. (I can say that in church because Pastor David Guzik said it to me first.) Get in the battle, or you'll be overcome by your flesh. You should be far less worried about the devil than about your own flesh. Think about it.
Closing Prayer
God, thank you for your word. It is living and powerful like a sharp two-edged sword. It cuts deep and sometimes it hurts; it divides between joint and marrow, soul and spirit, and discerns the thoughts and intents of our hearts. I pray you would challenge us to follow you and your pattern of life, and help us see the effects spiritually and physically. Transform us by the renewing of our minds, that we would follow your example and be able to say, like Paul, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." That's my desire, Lord—to say to others, "Follow me, just as I follow you." God, help us. We praise you.
And now may the Lord bless and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Christian. Good morning, everyone. Please stay standing for just one moment. I would like to ask you to do something with me.
I just checked a moment ago, and the memorial for Charlie Kirk on YouTube has 130,000 people watching right now. There will be nearly 80,000 people in attendance, and many more will be tuning in. My friend Rob McCoy is going to be delivering a message there this morning. He will be sharing the gospel message. Paul said in , "And for me, pray that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador." That is exactly what he is going to do today.
By the time the service actually starts, there will be many more people tuning in. This is just the ramp-up; it doesn't officially start for another two hours. So, let's pray for Rob this morning and for the others who will be sharing, as there are several people participating in the memorial.
God, we lift Rob into Your hands, and I pray that You would be with him. This will probably be the biggest message he will ever give. I pray that, as Paul asked for prayer, he would boldly proclaim the gospel. Lord, would You give Rob Your Spirit and an extra measure of Your grace this morning to speak the gospel clearly? We ask that You would bring in a harvest. We are praying for a revival in our nation, but not just in our nation—also in the world. We ask that You would move powerfully and mightily by Your Spirit. It is not just Rob and his words; it is Your Word and Your Spirit.
We ask, God, that You would do a great work today. Even though it is a sad occasion, it is still a reason to rejoice, knowing that Charlie is with You in Your presence. It is an awesome thing to know that many people are watching this and that many gathered there will be transformed and affected by Your grace today. We pray for a harvest today in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you for praying. Amen. Praise the Lord. Would you take out your Bibles while you're standing and open them to the Gospel of Luke? If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and an usher will bring you one. If you don't own a Bible, you can certainly keep whatever Bible we give to you. We will pick it up today in , starting at .
Then they said to Jesus, "Why do the disciples of John the Baptist fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees? But your disciples eat and drink?" He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days."
Then He spoke a parable to them: "No one puts a piece of new garment on an old one. Otherwise, the new makes a tear. And also, a piece that is taken out of a new one does not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wine skins. Or else the new wine will burst the wine skins and be spilled, and the wine skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wine skins, and both are preserved. And no one having drunk old wine immediately desires the new, for he says the old is better."
God, I do pray as we look into Your Word that You would continue the work that You are doing in each one of us, transforming us by the renewing of our minds, and that You would make us new. That's the amazing thing that You do by Your Word, by Your grace, and by Your Spirit. Holy Spirit, You do transform and sanctify us more and more into the likeness of Your children. I pray that this would be the outcome, at least a little bit more today, that we would be a little bit more like You and that it would be evident. It would be seen by us, but it would also be seen by those who are around us, especially those who don't yet know You. They would see the pattern of life; they would see the things in our life and say, "There's something clearly different, and I don't have that, and I desire that." Draw people to Yourself through the witness of Your church. We pray this today in Jesus' name. Amen.
You can be seated. As I contemplated this passage this last week, I think there are many different ways we could approach this section of Scripture. For instance, we could talk about the new thing that Jesus was doing during His time that was unlike that of the religious Pharisees and even the followers of John the Baptist. That certainly fits with what we've seen in chapter 5 as we've slowly made our way through the Gospel of Luke. At the very beginning of the passage, Jesus begins to call disciples, followers to be with Him. This was not an abnormal thing for a teacher, a rabbi, in the first century.
A following of people began to gather around Jesus. He invited disciples to be close to Him to learn His way of life. Typically, a rabbi would choose the smart ones, the learned ones, the trained ones—those who excelled in synagogue school. Instead, Jesus invited fishermen. This is not to say that the fishermen were uneducated; they certainly were not. However, they probably did not fit the mold that other rabbis would have chosen for their teams.
In the opening of , we see that Jesus calls these fishermen. He then goes even further outside the bounds of the norm by touching an untouchable leper—someone with a terminal illness associated not just with being sick but with sin. Jesus touches this unclean leper, which was way outside the norm. Beyond that, He heals and forgives without adhering to the religious structure. He does not require a sacrifice or a visit to the temple. Instead, He forgives a man who was obviously a sinner and also paralyzed, healing him in the process.
Jesus is clearly doing something unconventional in that situation. To go even further, as we studied last week, He calls a tax collector to be a disciple and a follower. This was problematic, but Jesus not only adds him to His team; He also goes and eats at the house of this tax collector, along with many other tax collectors. Jesus is breaking the mold.
In this passage, we see again that Jesus's followers are also breaking the mold. A group of individuals approaches Him; we do not know exactly who they are, but we can assume they are among the more religious of the time—those who regularly practiced spiritual disciplines like fasting. They come to Jesus and ask, "Why don't Your disciples do what we do?"
What they are observing is that Jesus is engaging in very spiritual and religious activities, such as healing people and casting out demons, while not participating in some of the practices they equate with being truly spiritual. They question Him, asking, "Don't You know that You're supposed to fast? Remember John the Baptist? Wasn't he Your friend? Some of his disciples are now Your disciples."
Follow you, and they've left John. But he fasted, and they fasted often, and the Pharisees fasted. So why do you not do these things as well? He wasn't acting like the most devoted people. I mentioned last week, if you were with us, the different social groups that are evident in the first-century Jewish world of the Bible. Among them were the Pharisees. They were hyper-religious, and we all know some people in our lives that are hyper-religious. These were the ones committed to following the Law of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. However, they weren't only committed to the Law; they were also committed to all the traditions of their fathers. They observed fasting regularly.
Now, one of the problems is that not only did they observe fasting often, but they wanted everybody to know they were fasting when they did. They would disfigure their faces and act very mopey. Jesus says, "You should not be like that." In the Sermon on the Mount, when he talks about fasting, he says, "When you fast, don't do that. Don't go around and have everybody say, 'Hey, would you like something?' 'Oh, no. I'm fasting.' No, don't do that." He didn't like their show, the pompous display of their deep devotion.
Now, John the Baptist was certainly not one who gave pompous displays of deep devotion, but he did fast often, and his disciples fasted often with him. However, Jesus and his disciples do not fast. It is clear to all who are watching that they are not doing what the religious people do. So they come and ask this question.
We could talk about all of that, or we could discuss the prophetic implications of Jesus's words. Here in this passage, Jesus prophesies that he will be taken away. Right now, he is with his disciples, but there will come a time in the future when he is taken away. The idea of being taken away is not that he simply dies or goes away, but that he is actually killed. He is alluding to his future crucifixion when he says, "I will be taken away." In the days that come after that, there will be fasting, which is commonly associated with desperate and difficult times and mourning. He says, "The days that are going to come after I'm taken away are going to be difficult times. Then fasting will once again become a reality."
We could talk about that prophetic significance, or we could discuss the prophetic significance of the...
The newness of the thing that Jesus was instituting and inaugurating is significant. Jesus comes to proclaim a new covenant, calling people to a new way of life and a new kingdom, following a new king. There is a prophetic nature to what is spoken of by Jesus in this passage. That is something we could focus on.
I want to remind you that we had it in the announcements: next Sunday night at 5:30 p.m., you don't want to watch any football games. You want to come here because we're going to talk about the end of the world. I will be discussing eschatology, the study of the end times, for about 90 minutes next Sunday night at 5:30. Make sure you come out to that.
There is a way we could approach this text, looking at the newness and the prophetic nature of it, and those approaches would be great. There are probably several other ways we could come to this text, but I want to zero in on something in that is easy for us to skip over and that we might even like to skip over.
In , Jesus is asked why the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but His disciples eat and drink. Jesus answers, "They will fast when I'm no longer with them in the future." Well, here we are in the future, and Jesus is no longer with us. So, we are going to talk about fasting.
Fasting isn't something we often like to discuss. In fact, maybe you have not really thought much about it or heard too many Bible teachings on it. You may not even fully know precisely what fasting is because we have kind of added fasting to a lot of different things. People in our day fast from their phones, social media, or even football. While they may say, "I'm fasting from these things," in the historical and biblical sense, that is really not a fast.
That might be a discipline. If I choose not to look at social media for a period of time, that is fine; I am not taking in that form of media. However, that is a discipline, not fasting. So, what exactly is fasting in a biblical sense? The most traditional association of the word fasting has to do with food. It means that you would not eat or take in any sort of food.
Solid food and sometimes no liquid at all, not even water, for a short period of time means taking in no nourishment of any kind for a set period, typically 24 hours or more. This is the basic definition of fasting. However, even with this basic idea, we find that many people are not too interested in fasting.
The reason for this lack of interest is that it seems too religious. We live in a culture, particularly a church culture, that is quite non-traditional. While we are connected with Calvary Chapel and have some ties to the Southern Baptist Convention, we do not fit under any strict denominational structure. We are pretty casual. For instance, I wore a t-shirt last week, and today I’m in sandals. We come to church in jeans and sandals, and sometimes I even wear shorts. This would never work in a Southern Baptist church.
Let me tell you, I have friends in Southern Baptist churches where it’s a three-piece suit and tie every single week. They’ve watched some of our YouTube videos for our services, and I sometimes get a text from a friend asking about my t-shirt. I just respond, "Well, this is San Diego."
We are not the hyper-strict, religious type, and some of you may have come from a Christian background with very set structures, which makes fasting seem too religious. It feels like something the hyper-religious people, like the Pharisees, do, and we don’t want to be associated with that. So, we tend to avoid thinking much about fasting.
Not only does it seem overly religious, but it is also not easy. In fact, it’s just hard. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to go without. Let me ask you, does anyone here like to go without? For the record, not a single hand is raised. You know what? In the first service, nobody raised their hand either.
Amazing! We don't like to go out without a purpose. How about this one? We don't like to deny ourselves. That doesn't even sound fun. Deny yourself? Die to yourself? We may not see the point of it. We may think it's not necessary. It doesn't mean we can say, "I didn't really sign up for that. I came here because I heard that the coffee and donuts were good and the message is all right." So, I didn't sign up for this whole fasting thing. We just don't get into these things.
When Jesus is asked, "Why do your disciples not fast like the Pharisees and the followers of John?" He has a really good answer. In , He said to them, "Can you make the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?" I love this answer. Obviously, Jesus in this text is saying, "I'm the bridegroom. These disciples of mine, they're like the groomsmen. We're at the wedding. You go to a wedding not to fast. A wedding is a celebration. A wedding is a feast. A wedding is a time of joy, rejoicing, and celebration. It's not a time of self-denial."
So, Jesus says, "I'm the bridegroom. These guys are like my groomsmen. We're not here to fast; we're here to feast." Oh, come on! Do we not all like Jesus? Yes, I like this. This is great! He continues, "This is the time of rejoicing and merriment and feasting. It's not self-denial." Jesus emphasizes, "Now's the time for feasting, and now is not the time for fasting. It's time for rejoicing."
This makes a lot of sense. His answer is very practical and reminds us that Jesus approaches things in a very practical way. Remember, Jesus is the most spiritual person that ever walked the face of this earth, and yet His spirituality is quite practical. It isn't high-minded or out of our reach; He brings it down to us. That's what His incarnation is all about. It isn't some super-spiritual pomposity that Jesus brings, even when it relates to practices like prayer and fasting.
To Jesus, these things—prayer, fasting, and other spiritual disciplines that we find in the Gospels—are good, normal, and should be regular parts of our lives. However, they are not the end-all, be-all of everything.
Point number one, if you're taking notes: the theology and spirituality of Jesus are exceedingly practical.
Being a Christian is not some sort of head game for brainiacs. It is not just the pursuit of knowledge, although there is a way in which we can turn it into that. We might think that Christianity is merely about gaining more theological and doctrinal understanding of the Bible or memorizing texts to answer questions for Bible trivia. However, that is not what the Christian life is all about. The word "life" is so important in this context; it is intended to be lived out.
We are not Gnostics seeking secret knowledge. One of the early heresies of the church, which emerged at the end of the first century and the early second century, was Gnosticism. This heresy pulled Christians in the direction of thinking that faith is purely a mental exercise. No, the Christian life is a life to be lived.
The Christian life does involve knowing the Scriptures and understanding the truth so that we might know God. We believe that here in the text is where God has revealed His nature and His will to us. We get to know Him through this. Therefore, knowing is a significant and important part of the Christian faith, but the Christian life is ultimately about living. It is even referred to as a way of life. The earliest Christians were not called Christians; they were called followers of the Way.
Jesus had a pattern of life and a path on which He was walking, and He called His disciples to do what? Follow Him. Early Christians like Paul said, "Imitate God or imitate me as I imitate Christ." He also said, "Note those who so walk and follow their pattern." Thus, the Christian life is a way of life that ought to be lived out on a daily basis. It is intended to be the abundant life. Jesus said, "The thief has come to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly."
The Christian life is a life to be lived in communion and fellowship with God. Since Christianity is a way of life intended to be lived out, it involves practical rhythms and practices that become a part of our lives—disciplines. We may not particularly like the word "discipline," but these practices are intended to become habitual and integral to what we do.
According to Jesus, practices such as fasting are to be a part of what we do on a regular basis. Remember, Jesus followed his bridegroom remark in this text by saying, "The days will come when my disciples will fast." I want to suggest to you that we live in those kinds of days. Even though this is probably something you have never really heard taught at a church, or something you haven't really thought about, or even when you have thought about it, you might have thought, "Ah, that's for other people. That's not for me."
Christ's teaching does not set aside or abrogate the religious practice of fasting, which was a custom that followers of God under the old covenant in the Old Testament observed. They observed it on a regular basis, and there were even set times in their calendar when they would fast as a people. Jesus did not come to destroy that or to get rid of it. He says that very clearly in : "Do not think that I came to destroy the law and the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill." He comes to complete the old covenant and to lead us into the new covenant, bringing the new covenant, but he did not come to abolish the old covenant and its practices.
In his life, Jesus exemplified fasting. The most clear representation of that is found immediately after Jesus was baptized. He goes into the wilderness and fasts for 40 days and nights just before he is tempted by the devil. You can read about that in . He exemplifies a pattern of life where he fasted and calls us to follow him. He taught that his disciples should fast in . He says, "When you fast," not "if you fast."
Now, he does add to that: Don't be like the hypocrites who love to disfigure their faces and make it seem like they are so distressed because, oh, I'm fasting. It's so miserable. Don't do that. When you fast, do it privately, secretly before your Father in heaven. Make sure that you do not appear to be fasting before men. Your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
So, Jesus exemplified fasting and taught that it should be a part of our lives as followers of Christ.
Christ. The early church in , and again in , provides examples of the earliest Christians in the city of Antioch. This is actually the first place that followers of Jesus were called Christians. They fasted and prayed to send off Paul and Barnabas to the work that God had called them to. It was a regular part of their worship and service as followers of God.
In , Paul describes his life and ministry, stating, "I have lived in fastings often." This indicates that fasting was clearly a part of his regular life. As Jesus discusses fasting in , he indicates through a parable that his approach to it will be somewhat new and different, and possibly not received or even rejected by those who adhere to the old way.
Look at of Luke 5: "Then he spoke a parable to them. No one puts a piece of new garment on an old one." If you're patching a garment, you don't put a new piece on an old one that hasn't been pre-shrunk. Otherwise, the new makes a tear, and the piece taken out of the new does not match the old. Additionally, "no one puts new wine into old wine skins, or else the new wine will burst the wine skins and be spilled, and the wine skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wine skins, and both are preserved."
Furthermore, "no one having drunk the old wine immediately desires the new, for he says the old is better."
Point number two: the new covenant of Christ is a new way of life for his followers. Those who have lived under the old way will find that the new way might be challenging. This is true for all of us. When we first begin to walk with Christ and follow him, we start to discover that our old patterns of life, even if they were religious, may present challenges. Suddenly, Jesus asks us to do things that we have never done before, and we might feel like we prefer the old way.
He recognizes that what he is doing and inaugurating is going to be new and different, and that we may struggle with this new way. This is likely why the question about fasting came to Jesus in the first place.
But he didn't follow all the normal norms. He didn't do things the way that everybody else was doing. He wasn't following what all the other religious leaders and teachers were doing because he was doing something new. I would suggest he was doing something not only new but better, calling them to a way of life.
So with that, what is new about this idea of fasting under Jesus's new way in the new covenant? If you looked at your sermon guide in the bulletin, you're going to see that we have a lot of things to fill in. Point number three: nine truths about fasting under the new covenant. I know it's a lot—nine truths. First, it isn't required. To that, I should hear an amen.
It's not required. Under the old covenant, the Jewish people had times of feasting. Their feasts revolved around the three harvests throughout the year: the spring harvest, where they would celebrate the Passover; the summer harvest, where they would celebrate Pentecost; and the fall harvest, where they would celebrate feasts like Yom Kippur, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Feast of Trumpets. They had seven feasts throughout their year.
Now, you and I are not really under that system, but we have cultural feasts in our culture, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. We have these feast times, but the children of Israel also had set fasts. One of them was Yom Kippur, which we are currently in the season of, right around this time, the Day of Atonement. They would fast in recognition of their sin as they celebrated the atonement that deals with their sin. That was one of the set fasts for the people.
There were other times that they would fast on a regular basis. Some of the most religious people of the day would fast weekly. Jesus later tells a story about the Pharisee and the tax collector who go up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee stands by himself and prays, "God, I thank you that I am not like all the riffraff, the wicked people like that tax collector over there. For I fast twice a week," is what he says.
For the Jewish people under the old covenant, fasting was a regular part of the year and their life. But for the Christian, fasting is not required.
Fasting is not compulsory; it's voluntary. Second, it isn't primarily about repentance. If you do a study on fasting in the Old Testament, you'll find that many times a fast is called or observed because of sin, illness, death, defeat, or a national crisis. There would be a national crisis, and someone would call the people to fast. We need to come before God with fasting and mourning, afflicting our souls, which is really what fasting does.
Now, those reasons are still valid. There may still be times in our lives, in the life of a church, or even in a larger group, like the nation, where we might be compelled or called to fast because of illness, sin, or some sort of national crisis. Whatever it may be, those are all well and good. However, under the new covenant, that's not really the primary focus of fasting.
Third, fasting is a discipline and a devotion. When you become a Christian and begin to walk in the way of Christ, you start to develop certain disciplines and habits—things like prayer, which you may not have done before you were a Christian. Now that you're a Christian, you start talking to God and reading the Scriptures. We believe that God speaks to us through His Word and by His Spirit. So, talking to God through prayer and reading the Scriptures are essential practices we develop.
One of the other practices that is often overlooked, and maybe we'll have to talk about this in the future, is the practice that was mandatory under the old covenant. There are many arguments among Christians in the Protestant church, especially about whether or not it should be observed by us. That's the practice of Sabbath rest. I'll tell you, I have a hard time with that one, too. I'm one of those people who just can't seem to stop going and doing all the stuff all the time. That's because I'm American.
Listen, we Americans have ADD and we're workaholics. I've traveled all over the world, and when I was in Germany, France, or England—well, England's a bit like us—they told me multiple times when I would ask them, "What do you think of Americans?" They'd all say, "You guys work too much. You guys are workaholics." And we would respond, "Yes, we do." It's like, "Well, maybe they have a point. I don't know." But God does call us to rest.
One of the other practices that we find in the scriptures is the devotional practice of fasting. In , we are introduced to a woman named Anna. Anna was an older widow who came and blessed Christ the child when His parents brought Him to the temple. When we are introduced to Anna in , it says that she served God with fastings and prayers day and night. This was a regular part of her devotion to God.
The church at Antioch, the place where the body of followers of Jesus were first called Christians, also fasted as a regular part of their worship and service, as seen in and . If you find your devotional time with the Lord to be dry or lacking, it might be worth considering adding fasting as a part of your devotional practice.
I was having a conversation recently with someone who told me that they don't feel like their prayers are answered and that they feel very dry when they go to read the scriptures. They mentioned that there is not a lot there, or they feel distracted when they are reading. Their attention is constantly being interrupted. Perhaps you should consider adding fasting to your disciplines if you have not developed any devotional practices in your life. If you are not beginning to add prayer to your life or spending time in God's Word, I would encourage you to do so. There is no way to grow in your walk and your faith without consuming the Word of God and spending time devotionally with God in prayer. Among these practices, you might consider adding fasting.
Now, I want to clarify that these practices do not make you better or more holy than other people. This is the wrong thinking of the Pharisees, who would say, "I fast twice a week; I am so much better than that terrible tax collector." However, these practices, especially fasting, help us draw nearer to God, align more closely with His Spirit, and give our spirit power over our flesh. These can be considered spiritual exercises.
Paul, in , says, "Bodily exercise profits little." There is indeed a benefit to going to the gym, walking regularly, hiking, and engaging in various physical activities. If you want to be physically healthy, these activities are important.
It is a good plan to develop a rhythm and a pattern of exercise that should be a part of your life. When we do this, we become stronger and healthier physically. If you want to become spiritually stronger and healthier, then you need to develop spiritual exercise. Bodily exercise profits little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having a promise of life that is now and that which is to come.
The spiritual disciplines and exercises of prayer, reading the Word, fellowship, and even fasting strengthen the power of our spirit over the power of our flesh. This leads me to number four: fasting is a foil for our flesh. What does the word "foil" mean? It means to prevent from succeeding. I would say there is almost nothing more destructive to your flesh than fasting.
Now, I have to answer the question: what do you mean when you say "the flesh"? Throughout the New Testament, we read about the flesh. Paul talks about it quite a bit. The flesh refers to this carnal nature, this physical, tangible body and its appetites and desires. Not all those appetites and desires are bad; in fact, many of them are really good. The appetite for food is necessary because you need food to live. If you go without food for an extended period, you will die. The desire for sex is also a good thing in its proper context—marriage is the proper context.
These appetites are good things, but when you give in to these good desires for everything, you become like many Americans. Seven out of ten Americans are obese, which indicates that we are consuming and consuming, giving in to every appetite that we have. If we find ourselves weak to the strength of our flesh, then we are called to walk in the Spirit and build up the Spirit. I would recommend that fasting is a part of this.
The psalmist in says, "I humbled myself with fasting." Ezra, in , proclaimed a fast to the people of his time as a nation so that we might humble ourselves before our God. Jesus was prepared for temptation.
By 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, the Apostle Paul emphasizes an important principle in . He says, "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." This verse is significant to me, and I would like to explain why.
When I was 20, just starting out as a Bible teacher, I had been invited to teach the junior high ministry at this church when I was 19 years old. So, I was a year into teaching the Bible, and I vividly remember the summer of my 20th year in 2000. At that time, I weighed 305 pounds. I was not healthy, and I did not deny myself in any way. I read this verse and thought, "Lest when I have preached to others, I myself will be disqualified." I realized that as a young preacher, the way I was living would make it less likely for me to be an old preacher one day.
Paul's words, "I discipline my body and make it my slave," resonated with me. I understood that I should not be controlled by my body; rather, my spirit should have control over my body. At that point in time, it was evident to me and everyone else that my spirit did not have that control.
Between my 20th birthday and my 24th birthday, I went from 305 pounds to 175 pounds. I didn't just fast; I actually started fasting about a year and a half into that journey. My motivation was not solely to lose weight but to gain more power over my flesh, rather than allowing my flesh to have power over me. I incorporated many other disciplines, such as running and going to the gym, before I began fasting. Eventually, I came across this verse again and thought it should be a regular part of my life, and it became just that.
This concept is closely connected with the idea of walking in the Spirit. Paul wrote in , "Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." He explains that "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish." I am absolutely certain that every single one of you has had this experience that Paul describes.
In , it is described, "The things that I want to do, I don't do, and the things that I don't want to do, that I practice." Has anyone ever experienced that? I have. Sometimes our flesh is weak, and we know in our soul and spirit that we should not eat that third piece of cake, but we have no self-control. The things that I want to do, I don't do, and the things that I don't want to do, that I practice. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? That's what it says in . All of us have experienced that.
We live in a culture where there is hyperabundance. We have a huge pantry at our house, and when you walk into the pantry, it feels like the snack aisle at a store. It's overwhelming. It calls to me when I'm weak in my flesh. I've told my wife many times, "Self-control begins at the supermarket. If you bring it home, I have no self-control. Don't do it." But I go in there, and it's like, "Oh my goodness, I think there should be a lock on the door. She should probably just lock that and keep me out of there." Oh, wretched man that I am!
Now, I want to tell you, there are times of feasting. Does anyone like the time of feasting? Man, we're coming into the time of feasting. Tomorrow is the first day of fall, and this is my favorite time of the year. However, what's really bad about this time of year? I guarantee you that within a few weeks, and now that I've said this, Pastor Nick will probably do it this week. He will grab one of those big bags of candy from Costco. You all know the ones with assorted candies that include Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
Now listen, the last time I brought up my weakness for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, I received five bags of them. Please stop doing that to me! But he's going to put one of those big plastic bowls on the table in the office, and you know how it goes. You walk by and think, "Well, it's just one." Then you walk by again and wonder, "Is that just one?" By the end of the day, it's like twelve. Then you start to plan your walks by the table.
So, we have hyperabundance in our culture, and here's the problem. We live...
In perpetual feasting, it is not healthy—not just for our bodies, but for our spirits. These two are connected. We have become an unhealthy culture, both physically and spiritually. If we are always feeding our flesh, what will grow stronger? Our flesh. We will become a slave to our flesh, governed to do what it wants and not what the Spirit of God, working with our spirit, wants. We will be walking not in the Spirit, but in the flesh.
The works of the flesh are evident, as Paul says in . He lists a number of these things. You might say, "Well, I would never do that," referring to adultery, fornication, or murder. But how about these? Contentions, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, and dissensions. If you find yourself irritable, on edge, unable to be patient with people, or kind of snippy, I know none of you ever experience that—especially not in the first service—but if you ever find yourself in that place where you lack self-control, it is an indication that you are walking in the flesh. Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
However, as we deny the flesh and walk in the Spirit, as Paul tells us to do in this passage, the Spirit grows stronger and produces what? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. I love the sound of rain. Remember the words of the Lord: "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."
Now, I need to kick it into high gear. Number six: it is a practice of preparation. Jesus was prepared to face temptation and confront the devil in through the preparation of fasting.
Seventh, fasting is prepared with prayer and mission as we fulfill the Great Commission. This is one of the tools we use in this walk. Eighth, fasting is temporary, lasting only until the arrival of Christ's kingdom. Jesus said, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?" There is a day that will come when we...
We will be with the Lord in His presence. One of the first inaugural events of the Parousia, the return of Christ, is the marriage supper of the Lamb. There will be a feast with the Lord. I don't see any evidence for fasting in the Kingdom of God, but who knows? This is a temporary practice for now, as far as I can tell.
To say nothing of the health benefits of fasting, which is very fascinating, there is an increasing body of science showing that fasting is very helpful for the body. It aids in processes like autophagy and ketosis and helps remove various toxins and issues. The Bible knew something way before science, actually a lot of things, and now science comes along and confirms that these practices have health benefits.
This leads us to number nine, which I think is very important. Fasting is a weapon of our warfare. I want to emphasize this because it is crucial. In , a man brings his demon-afflicted son to Jesus, but Jesus isn't there—only a group of His disciples. Jesus had previously given them power to cast out demons, so they figured they could handle it. However, they couldn't, and it caused quite a scene. A multitude of people began to watch, wondering why they couldn't do this and where the Master was.
When Jesus shows up, the multitude runs to Him and explains, "We brought this man to you because his son is demon-afflicted, but your disciples couldn't help him." Jesus has a significant conversation with the man, which you can read in later. One of the things He says is, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." The man responds, "I believe; help my unbelief." That's a great prayer. Jesus then casts the demon out of the child.
Afterward, His disciples come to Him and ask, "Why couldn't we do that?" Jesus replies, "This kind comes out only by prayer and fasting." Fasting is connected to spiritual warfare, and this is very important. I want to suggest to you, and I think you will agree, that we are living through very evident wicked evil spiritual warfare in our culture right now. It is very clear, and sometimes we feel overwhelmed.
Not powerful in the face of that or discouraged in the face of that. Fasting, I want to suggest to you, is a weapon in our warfare as we stand against the enemy when he comes against us.
One of the challenges for us is that we live in a culture that has been involved in this experiment for at least 150 years of denying that there is a God. Along with denying that there is a God, there is the denial that there is a devil. There is a movie, which I do not recommend, that came out in 1995 with Kevin Spacey called "The Usual Suspects." One of the most memorable lines from it is when his character says the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist. We live in a culture that thinks the devil doesn't exist until you see total, horrible evil in high definition.
I am convinced that every manifestation of wickedness and evil that we see in the temporal, worldly realm is an indication of wickedness behind the scenes in the spiritual realm. Many of the wicked things we are seeing in our culture are demonically motivated.
Let me give you an example. On August 22nd, Irana Zerutsko was savagely murdered in North Carolina while riding on a light rail train in Charlotte. Her murderer had been arrested 14 prior times. His most recent arrest in January of this year came after repeated calls to 911, claiming that man-made materials had been implanted into his body, directing him to do things he didn't want to do. He clinically suffered from schizophrenia and was frequently tormented by voices in his head.
Now, I am not saying that every mental health disorder like that is spiritual, but there certainly are spiritual dynamics to these things. We live in a culture that doesn't believe in those things, so we just say, "No, it's just a mental issue." It might be some spiritual issues as well, but when you see something as demonic as that, it is an indication of evil.
Five days after that, on August 27th, 23-year-old Robert Westman fired dozens of shots into the Church of the Annunciation, a Catholic church in Minneapolis, killing three children who were part of the Catholic school there and injuring 21. The murderer had changed his name to Robin. He was suffering from gender dysphoria and had written a lot about his experience in his journals.
People found some of his journals online in his YouTube videos. One of the pages was a sketch of Robert looking in the mirror with a gun over his shoulder, and in the mirror, he sees the devil. The words that you see around there are written in Cyrillic. When translated, they say, "Who am I? When will this end? Help me. I don't want to kill myself." If that's not demonic, I don't know what is.
The young woman who also experienced gender dysphoria and shot up the Presbyterian school in Nashville had hundreds of pages of journals with very similar entries that you can find on the FBI's website. I don't recommend that you do, but they all say many of the same things. She saw herself as an apprentice of the devil. That's not demonic.
Then we all witnessed Charlie Kirk's assassination by Tyler Robinson, who, from all available evidence—though not yet confirmed—experienced a radical alteration of his life and worldview in the last five years. This also included aberrant behavior and a romantic relationship with a man who was seeking to transition to a woman. I could go on. There are tons of these things. These things are demonic.
There was a group of people that wanted to kill Jesus, and Jesus spoke to them in . He said, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
We are in a spiritual battle, and you must be engaged in that spiritual battle. tells us to put on the whole armor of God. Second Corinthians chapter 10 says, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are powerful in God." I want to suggest to you that one of those weapons is fasting.
Point number four, and I'll try to close: Fasting readies us for battle and strengthens us for victory. Now, when we see the wicked things that are happening in our culture, it's easy to be discouraged. It's also easy to become fearful. The Scriptures tell us, "Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." And I want to leave you with this.
I'm convinced that when the enemy moves, as the enemy is clearly moving in our culture, it is in response to the moving of God. Let me encourage you: God is moving. The enemy is trying to come against that and stop it. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. What does that mean? The gates of hell are where the planning and deceitful plotting of the enemy would be done in ancient times. The enemy's schemes will not prevail against the church. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
I want to give you an example of this. I grew up here and graduated from Orange Glenn High School in 1998. I played football on Orange Glenn High School's field. On Friday night, I was back on that field because my son plays for Escondido Charter. They don't have their own football stadium, so they play at either Orange Glenn or Escondido. His team was playing at Orange Glenn High School, and they lost. It was a bummer.
However, immediately following the game, my son, the coach of his team, and some of the other players led 200 students in worship. We have a video of it on the 50-yard line. God is doing something. It's happening right at this moment while we're sitting here. Hundreds of thousands of people are going to watch Rob's message. That's just one of many things that are happening.
A report came out recently showing that the generations who attend church more than anyone else are Generation Y and Generation Z. Baby boomers, they're beating you! Praise the Lord! God is moving, and the enemy is seeking to stop that fight. This kind of thing is happening on campuses all over the country. You should rejoice in this, and you should get in the fight.
I am asking you to consider fasting. Don't say tomorrow, "All right, that's it. I'm going on a 40-day fast." No, don't do that. Your doctor will call me!
And be like, "What did you do?" Listen, if you've never done it, you need to start with 24 hours. Don't do one of these, "Well, I'm going to skip breakfast." No, that's not a fast. Fast for 24 hours. You can do it. Yes, it will be hard for your flesh. Yes, your flesh will yell and scream at you. Your head will hurt. Your tummy will hurt. You'll be distracted the whole entire time. It's a discipline. If you've ever worked out, it's not easy on day one. So, you have to start somewhere. Start with 24 hours. Work at that. Do it once or twice a month, and then add 12 hours to 36 and add 12 hours to 48.
I, on a regular basis, will develop fasts in my life. Many times, I do this to break down my flesh that has too much power. My wife and I went on a vacation. We feasted, and I was in the pattern of feasting. Does anybody know the pattern of feasting? Yes. I came home and I fasted for five days. I broke it like that. Was it hard? Yes. Suck it up, princess. Now I can say that in church because the first time I heard that, Pastor David Guzik said it to me. So now I can say it to you: Suck it up, princess. Get in the battle, or you will be overcome by your flesh. You should be far less worried about the enemy, the devil, than your own flesh. Think about it.
Let's stand in prayer. I'm just going to close. Christian God, thank you for your word. It is living and powerful, like a sharp two-edged sword. It cuts deep, and sometimes it hurts. It divides between joint and marrow and soul and spirit. It's a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of our heart. I pray, God, that you would challenge us to follow you and your pattern of life. Help us to see the effects spiritually and also physically. Transform us by the renewing of our minds that we would follow your example.
That we could say, like Paul, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." That's my desire, Lord, to be able to say to others, "Follow me just like I follow you." God, help us. We praise you. And now may the Lord bless and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of...
His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
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