Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Morning everyone.
[00:00:06] I feel like it's been a little while since I've had the opportunity to speak to you all this morning, but I'm absolutely delighted to be carrying on our series of Luke at the moment. So if you've got your. Wave your Bible at me. If you've got your paperback Bible with you. Oh, some lovely Bibles. That is a lovely Bible. That's a love. Oh, look at that. Stunning. Yeah, get, get a paperback Bible. If you haven't got a paperback Bible, honestly recommend that. They are an absolute game changer. Just scribbling notes and there's something about having a paperback which just takes away some of that distraction that we get from being on phone and technology. They're great resources, but just having that paperback really helps in terms of distractions. So if you have your Bible with you or your phone and you want to use that, could you go to Luke 5, 33, 39 for me? We've been going through the book of Luke as a church and if you've missed any of the teaching parts of our Sunday services, you can catch up on our Spotify and have a little listen back. So we're going to be looking at the story of when the Pharisees and the crowds begin to ask Jesus why they're not fasting. But before we get there, I just want to recap as to where we are in the story. As we've began to see, Jesus has begun to recruit some of his disciples. He's performed several miraculous healings which have left those here and those witnessing the healings with their lives inevitably changed. When we experience the power and the compassion of Jesus for ourselves, our lives change, dependent on where our heart has been left. So we'll either discover the fullness of God or our hearts will become hardened against what the Spirit is doing. And I'm going to talk a little bit about this later on. And when I talk about this, I mean last week we were looking at the story of Levi the tax collection and how Jesus was invited to Levi's house and the Pharisees really didn't like this and they asked him, why are you eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners? To which Jesus replied and said, I have not come to call the righteous, but to sinners. Which would have really irritated the Pharisees. That idea of the Pharisees hearts were so hardened that they weren't able to have their lives transformed by what Jesus was doing for the people around them in that moment because they were so focused on their own activities and agendas. And so this is where we find ourselves in the story of Jesus, is that Jesus has just had this big dinner with Levi, with the other tax collectors, and the crowds have started to gather. You've got John's disciples in that crowd. You've got the Pharisees as part of that crowd.
[00:02:35] And we find this passage of scripture not just in the book of Luke, but you can also find it in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and it's pretty much word for word in Matthew and Mark. So we can trust that this conversation really happened and trust that it's something worth looking at this morning. So before we read this passage together, I'm just going to pop this slide up for you. If you're someone like me and you like to do a bit of extra reading or a bit of listening around, things that are chatted about on a Sunday, you can take a little picture. This is what I've used over the past kind of few days and weeks preparing for this. There's some really interesting podcasts, particularly up there for young adults, which I highly recommend. I've been plugging the Handlebar podcast like nobody's business to our young adult group, so they'll be sick of me badgering on about it. But I do really recommend them.
[00:03:23] So what I want to talk about today is I want to talk about the importance of fasting and why, as Christians, we should be living a lifestyle of fasting. But I also want to talk a bit about the heart of the Pharisees and how, by fasting, it can help us to train our spirit to remain actively seeking a relationship with God rather than falling into the trap of religion.
[00:03:47] I'm just going to pray, and then we'll read the passage, and then we'll go from there. Is that okay? You guys with me this morning? I feel like I'm just talking to, like, a. Yeah, thank you. That's all good. Yeah. Father God, we just give you thanks for who you are. We thank you that you are compassionate and kind. Lord, we thank you that you come alongside us in our brokenness, in our weariness, in our fatigue. God and I just pray that you would give us fresh revelation of who you are this morning. If there's anything that you do not want to say this morning that's been prepared, I pray that that would just fall away really naturally. And I just pray, Holy Spirit, that you would speak to each and every one of us this morning that we would learn together what it looks like to seek you in a deeper and more meaningful way in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Cool. So, passage on fasting. So we're going from verse 33. And it says this, they said to him, john's disciples often fast and pray. And so do the disciples of the Pharisees. But yours go on eating and drinking.
[00:04:44] Jesus answered, can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them. In those days they will fast. We are living in those days now where Jesus has ascended into heaven. He died, he rose again, he's gone back to the Father, but he is coming back for a glorious battle, right? And so we are in this in between period of history where we are waiting for the Messiah to come again, but we don't have him with us in person in this moment. And so where it's saying, in those days they will fast, Jesus is saying to us today, as followers of him, that is in these days, that we should be fasting. The passage goes on, it says, he told them this parable, no one tears a piece of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise they will have torn a new garment. And patch from the new will not match the old. No one pours new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new. For they say the old is better.
[00:05:57] The first thing I just want to speak about is that those in the crowd, including the Pharisees and the followers of John the Baptist, they'd begun to notice that there was a difference between themselves and the disciples who were following Jesus. They'd begun to notice something different about them just from the fact they'd been hanging out with Jesus. And we know that the disciples, they hadn't actually been with Jesus for very long. This was right at the beginning of Jesus ministry. Jesus hasn't even finished calling the rest of the disciples yet. We don't get to that until chapter six. But already people are starting to notice a difference between those who are following Jesus and those who are not. When we encounter the presence of God, when we encounter Christ's salvation for ourselves, those around us should be able to notice tangible difference that we've been spending time with Jesus.
[00:06:48] In Acts 4, verse 13, it says, when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled ordinary men, they were astonished. And they took note that these men had been with Jesus. My prayer in my own life is that when I'm at work, when I'm with colleagues, when I'm just doing my day to day, that people would notice that I have been with Jesus. And the only way for people to notice that I have been with Jesus is to actually spend a bit of time with Jesus as well. Not just coming to church on a Sunday, not just going through the motions, but actually digging deep and saying to God, God, I just want to give you space for what you want to do in my life and I want to hear what you want to do. Our lives should radiate the fact that we have been spending time with Jesus. It should reflect to a broken world that we have peace and courage in the trials, not by our own positive thinking or strength, but because we have been spending time with Jesus. And this Jesus, oh, he's amazing. He's the author, he's the perfecter of our faith. He's the God who went to the cross and rose again three days later, having beaten death itself. The God who offers healing and restoration for the broken. As we've been reading about over the past few weeks, the fear of man and the fear that other people might think you're different will prevent those around us from seeing and hearing the gospel for themselves. And we're more likely to conform to the agendas, beliefs and behaviours of our culture rather than aligning our hearts, minds and souls with the ways of Christ.
[00:08:15] In this instance, the difference which the crowds are noticing is that the disciples are not fasting. Those in the crowds are aware that the Pharisees and the followers of Jesus believe in God and that they're fasting as their per traditions and religious practice. And yet those who are following the one who was literally called the Son of Man a few verses earlier in Luke 5:24, they're not fasting. And I completely understand why the crowds are asking this question as to why are they not fasting when all their traditions and all their practices that have been passed down from generation to generation. And then you see Jesus who's rocked up and starts performing all these miracles. He says he's got the power to forgive sins, which only God can do. And then his followers are not even fasting along with the rest of the religious leaders.
[00:08:59] I'm a big believer in questions, as if we do not question the why behind why we do what we do as followers of Jesus, we're really likely to become caught up in stagnant traditions, rituals, routines, and we will lose the awe and wonder for what the Spirit may be trying to do amongst us, we will lose that awe and wonder for God himself.
[00:09:21] If we do not investigate the why for ourselves in the Scriptures, we're likely to copy doctrine and values which feel right to us, rather than what is in the truth of God's word.
[00:09:32] So everything that I'm kind of speaking on today, I really encourage you, go and read it for yourself. Go and ask the Spirit, does this sit right? Because I might not have the right understanding of it. I hope I do, because I've spent a lot of time with God on this. But I really encourage you, go away and spend this time with the Spirit and asking, what are you trying to say through these passages of Scripture?
[00:09:53] And I feel this is maybe where the Pharisees got a bit stuck in that. They knew the Scriptures, they knew all the sacrifices that were needed at the time for their sin. They followed the processes and commands of the law to the letter. But they were so caught up in making sure that what they were doing, they were doing what God had said 1500 years ago, that they were missing out on what God was trying to do right in front of them, that he was coming to save and redeem the lost and the broken, which is what they've been praying for all this time, for this Messiah. And they were missing out on it because they weren't able to see that Jesus was who he said he was. So I want to talk a little bit about this parable of the bridegroom. And Jesus illustrates his point. So a parable is like a story. It's a story which helps us understand a deeper meaning. And so this is what Jesus often uses, was these parables. And so on the screen, I've got a few scriptures which refer to Jesus as the bridegroom and refers to his church as the bride, just to help us reflect. I don't have time to go through them all, unfortunately, at the moment, But I remember there was this beautiful moment a few years ago at our wedding, and the doors at the back of church kind of opened. And you're very aware that everybody's eyes are on you. And I was also very aware that I had not practiced walking in my wedding shoes, which were quite high heels. And so I was kind of panicking about the fact I'm going to have to walk down the aisle. I'm going to trip over. Am I going to fall over? Is James even going to have remembered to put a flower on his.
[00:11:18] I can't remember what it's called, like a jacket. And There was all these kind of worries and fears, things that I'd been preparing for, things that were in my control. And I remember that when those doors opened and I saw James at the end of the aisle, everything else just kind of faded away.
[00:11:34] When I saw James, all my worries, my fears, my planning, it all kind of went away. And I remember there was such a joy as I walked down that aisle. And I remember I was looking at this man who I'd met a few years previously, I'd decided to spend my life with, and he was watching me come down. He had a really big grin on his face. You know, you've got a good one when they're grinning at you as you walk down. And I have to say, James, hats off. You still look at me like that when I've got hair everywhere first thing in the morning. A little bit, you know, knackered from the days I. The weeks gone by. But what was really lovely, and this is the point I want to make in this, is that when I got to the bottom of the aisle, my mum is hard of hearing. She teaches at a deaf school and she taught James how to sign beautiful with your hand. And when I got to the bottom of the aisle, you can't really say anything to each other because you haven't done your vows and stuff yet, but he just signed beautiful. And when it makes me think of that, if you've heard the name of Jesus and you're wondering why we're so interested in who he is, he is the bridegroom and we are his church. And he looks at the fact you very exist and signs you're beautiful. He signs, I love you. He's the one who knows your deepest hurts, secrets, flaws and signs you're beautiful when you reach the bottom of the aisle to him. If you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord, please don't wait your whole life to get to the bottom of that aisle. There is joy and fullness of life that he has for you.
[00:13:06] And Jesus answers this question as to why the disciples are not fasting by saying, can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them. And in those days they will fast. This is my final story about our wedding because I did have to ask James for permission to share this story, as it's a story about our honeymoon.
[00:13:28] Not that kind of story about our honeymoon, but when we went away on honeymoon, we had the most amazing week leading up to the wedding. We had all our friends around. We were spending time setting up the venue with our friends. We were having late nights, having DMCs of all our friends. All our favorite people were kind of in the room. Here you go. Here's a little picture of some of our favorite people.
[00:13:51] And we kind of had the wedding day and it was such a beautiful day. All the kind of love and affection from our favorite people was there. And then we went to this little B and B. It was a bit of a grotty B and B, James, wasn't it? And it was a bit of a grotty B and B. We were knackered from the day before. And so we woke up the next morning having gone kind of straight to bed. And we were like, we've missed breakfast. And it was like 11 o'clock we woke up and we'd missed breakfast. And we ended up, I think we binge watched Stranger Things or something like that for a few hours. And then we were like, we're actually really hungry. So we went off for a drive. And James had been, oh, it's gone really loud. James had been really quiet for a lot of this drive, going around trying to find food. I just said to her, james, what is the matter with you? We've just got married and this is like meant to be the happiest week of our lives day of our lives, all the rest of it. And you're really, really quiet. And he just goes, I'm really lonely.
[00:14:48] And bless him. As for a wife, that was not the easiest thing to hear. But then James started to unpack that and he started to explain it to me in that we'd been surrounded by our friends and family for all those days and that he was feeling the absence of them not being there because we'd spent all that time with him. And I believe this is what Jesus is trying to say in this moment, is that while James was feeling the absence of his friends, that he'd been their sole focus. When his friends were not physically there in person. James was missing the intentional and joyful time he'd been having with his friends. Jesus disciples didn't need to be fasting in order to make space for God to come and move. Because God was already amongst them in the flesh and moving.
[00:15:31] When we're fasting, it's about creating space in our lives to say, God, is there anything you want to do or say? Here's the space. We're not trying to create a space to twist his arm into doing anything for us, but it's all about creating intentional space to prioritize him so that we might experience more of him. John 3:30 says, he must become greater and I must become less.
[00:15:56] So I'm going to talk a little bit about fasting. I'm aware of time, so I'm going to try and whiz through this. But I didn't know much about fasting until I started preparing to teach on it a few months ago. I was very aware it was a spiritual practice in church, but it wasn't something I was able to participate in growing up for medical reasons. And it wasn't something which was really taught in youth group or church very often. It was just something that people would go, we're going to do a week of fasting. And I was like, great. What's that? So we're going to talk a little bit about what fasting might look like, what we think biblical fasting might look like, and kind of the difference between fasting and abstinence as well.
[00:16:33] So there isn't a set of instructions for how to fast in Scripture, but it's definitely a spiritual practice, which is not a matter of if we fast, but a matter of when. So when Jesus is teaching the Sermon on the mount in Matthew 6, there are three whens that Jesus gives us. And he says so he does. When we give to the needy, which we're called to do as Christians, we're called to help those that are less fortunate us. We're called to help those that are in need. He says, when we pray. I hope we all pray. We really should if we're not, but it's when we pray. And the other third one he gives us is when we fast. And he says this. He says, when you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head, wash your face so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen, and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Fasting for Christians, therefore, is not a matter of if, but a matter of when. So when should we be fasting, and how should we do it?
[00:17:44] So I believe fasting is abstaining from food to train our flesh to be obedient to the spirit. Spirit, I'm going to say that once more. I believe fasting is abstaining from food to train our flesh to Be obedient to the Spirit. And throughout Scripture, fasting seems to always have something to do with food. So in the Old Testament, you've got Queen Esther, who called her nation to fast so that she could go to the king and beg for their lives. You've got Moses, who fasted food and water for 40 days and 40 nights on Mount Sinai. Do not fast for 40 days and 40 nights without food and water.
[00:18:17] That God was literally there, like in his glory, sustaining Moses in that moment. Don't recommend you have instances, such as the people of Nineveh, if you know the story of Jonah, where the Ninevites fasted to repent from their wicked ways. And even Jesus himself, who we learned about a few weeks ago when he was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, he went for a period of 40 days and nights of fasting and being tempted. And they're just a few examples of Scripture. But in these instances, fasting is always paired with prayer.
[00:18:49] Fasting without prayer is just a hunger strike. If you don't pray whilst you are fasting, you are depriving your body of sustenance for either the wrong reasons or for no reason at all.
[00:18:59] James Aladorin says this. He's one of the founders of Prayer Storm. And he says, when we fast, we starve our flesh to feed our spirit.
[00:19:08] When we fast, we begin to feed our spirit. Our lives begin to become led by the Spirit rather than the desires of the flesh. And in Galatians 5, 16, 18, it says this. It says, so I say live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The passage goes on to say, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. And Paul talks a lot throughout his lessons about this war between flesh and spirit. And I had it described to me the other night about how if you have two dogs that you're planning to pit against each other in a fight, as a church, we do not agree with pitting dogs against each other in a fight, starving them all the rest of it. But if you imagine you've got two dogs which are planning to have a fight with one another, and you're choosing to feed one dog, and you're choosing not to feed the other dog, which dog is going to win that fight, it's the dog that you fed. It's the dog that you have been sustaining. It's a dog that you've been giving strength to. And the one that you feed is the one that prevails. If we feed our spirit, then our spirit will be the one leading our lives. But if we allow our flesh to be more fed than our spirit spirit, then we're going to struggle to submit to the Spirit when temptations come our way, or when God is trying to lead us into a new thing.
[00:20:37] Jesus says this in Luke 9:23. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me. Fasting every day is not a feasible practice. If we didn't eat ever, we would die. That's basic science.
[00:20:56] But this is where I believe the practice of abstinence becomes pertinent. Practicing abstinence is also a great way to participate in fasting if you're not able to fast for medical reasons, as they're both forms of consecrating ourselves. And consecration is quite a big word. And what consecration essentially means is the act of making something holy, making something more righteous. And so I often hear people say things like, they're going to fast caffeine or sugar or social media or tv. And I think the language that we use around this is really important because although abstaining and fasting both lead us to consecration, I believe fasting food is the realest form of starving our flesh that we can do. But some examples of abstinence in the Bible, you've got the Nazirites who were called to abstain from drinking wine and cutting their hair, as this would keep themselves set apart from God. Samson was a Nazarite. You had Adam and Eve that were told to abstain from eating the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And we saw what happened when they didn't do that. John the Baptist was told to abstain from eating bread and drinking wine. And there are things that scripture tells us today to abstain from. In 1 Peter 2, verse 11, it tells us to abstain from the passions of the flesh. And I believe that this is where kind of abstaining from things like caffeine or sugar or social media can really benefit ourselves. I so often hear people say things like, I can't function without my morning coffee. I'm not calling anyone out here, but number of people I hear say, I can't function without my morning coffee, or, oh, I really need to check. First thing I do is I need to check social media to see if anything's happened overnight that I just didn't know about. And I'm speaking to myself here with that, as I'm very guilty of turning over in the morning and the first thing I look at is Instagram. But we don't say the same thing about the Lord. How often do we say, I can't function unless I've prayed and spent time with the Lord, or the first thing I have to do in the morning is read my Bible or the rest of the day is going to be awful?
[00:22:51] I think the reality for us today is that so often we allow things of the flesh in our lives to sustain us, rather than the fullness of the spirit.
[00:23:00] My favorite verse in the whole of scripture is John 10:10, and it says this. It says, the thief comes to kill, to steal, and to destroy. But I have come that you may have life and life to the full. I'm not saying social media is going to kill you. I'm not saying your morning coffee is going to destroy you. But what I'm saying is that if these things are taking up a greater priority in the space of our daily rhythms and routines, then perhaps this is something the Lord may be calling you into a season of abstinence on so that we can train our flesh to deny itself and yield to the will of the spirit. We are fasting to train our spirit to not allow our flesh to rule over us. And so I'm just going to quickly pop some. These are going to be Ellie's top tips on fasting, my little acronym of spirit, spirit up there. I've not actually made any notes on this bit, so I need to turn around and see what I'm doing. Schedule in your diary when you plan to fast. There's not a set time in scripture about how long you fast for or when you need to fast. But we are told it's when and not if. So if you've not tried fasting before, maybe just start to pray even now and just say, God, can you reveal to me what a lifestyle of fasting might start to look like for this year, for my life? And this could change, too. The second thing, when. Oh, hello. When you fast, pray.
[00:24:15] A fast without prayer is just a hunger strike. It's one of. It's an old saying. I couldn't find where it came from. But make sure you pray when you fast. Otherwise you're kind of denying yourself food and sustenance for no real reason.
[00:24:29] If you break a fast by accident, you can start again. God is really, really gracious he does not condemn you if you eat the donut when you said you weren't going to eat the donut, you know, he just wants to be part of what you're doing, and he wants his spirit to indwell in you and to train your flesh. And that's what fasting kind of starts to do for us, remove distractions. If you're fasting and saying, I'm not going to eat food, but I'm going to watch loads of TV when I would have been eating food anyway, then you're not making space for the spirit to speak into your life because you're swamping yourself with loads of distractions.
[00:25:04] I invite the spirit into the process.
[00:25:09] The only way that the words in this book in the Bible begin to spring to life is by inviting the spirit to speak to us through it. Every time I pick up this book, there is something new that I learn. Every time I chat to the young adults, every time I chat to people within the church about what they've been reading in the Word, it's something new, it's something fresh, but it's all God breathed and it's all good, good.
[00:25:33] And finally, t train your flesh to obey the spirit.
[00:25:39] And the final parable I want to look at that Jesus talked about was this parable of the wine skins. So if we go Back to Luke 5:36, it says this, he told them this parable. No one turns a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. No one pours new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out, and the wineskins will be ruined. No new wine must be poured into new wineskins.
[00:26:12] In those days, the wine containers were often skins of, like, animals. So if you had a new animal skin, it would have this level of elasticity and stretch to it. So when you poured the new wine into that wineskin, as the wine would begin to ferment, it would let off this gas and release this kind of pressure within the wineskin. And because it was a new skin, it would grow with that pressure. Whereas when you were pouring new wine into an old wineskin, those old wineskins would become hard and brittle, inflexible. And so if you pour new wine into an old wineskin, it wouldn't have that same elasticity. Instead, it would just burst and shatter and break.
[00:26:49] Esther spoke last week about the Pharisees and how they were this religious sect who were well known and looked up to because they followed the law and carried out very strict religious practices. And everything they did was incredibly legalistic. Which is why throughout the gospels, you often see the Pharisees trying to catch Jesus out with questions about the law. So when he asked Jesus about, well, Moses let us have divorce, so what do you say about that? Or, oh, if you are, if you say this, then what does this mean for the law? They're always trying to catch him out of questions. And in a way, I kind of admire the Pharisees in their discipline to observing the law and their religious practices and that devotion of trying to make themselves holy. But I think they were so caught up in observing the law and religious practices that they missed out on the fact that the God who gave them the laws in the first place was walking amongst them. They were so caught up trying to appear to others to be righteous and holy that they missed out on a fresh revelation of the grace of Jesus that would have been able to attain that level of holiness and righteousness they sought after. Ephesians 2, verse 8 to 9 says, for it is by grace you've been saved through faith. This is not from yourselves. I'm sorry to break it to you. Your salvation has got nothing to do with what you've done. And what you do, it is all to do with Jesus. And he says, not by works so that no one can boast.
[00:28:10] And so this picture of the wineskins, it reflects that accepting the grace of Jesus is the only way that we can be saved. We can go to church every Sunday, we can live our lives trying to be nice people, but it's only by accepting Jesus that we can be saved. I believe Jesus was saying with the picture of the wineskins was that he was the new wine, and that he had not just come to fulfill the law, but to bring a new covenant to his people. He hadn't come simply to patch up the people of Israel, but he was bringing something fresh. And if the Jews were not going to be able to comprehend and participate in what God was doing, their whole purpose for their religious practices was going to end up shattered, just like the old Wineskin. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Jesus didn't want the wineskins of religious practices to be shattered and burst. Instead, he wanted to give them himself a new wineskin with new wine. He wanted to give them himself, Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life, and the only way that we can access the father, Isaiah 43, verse 18 to 19 says, forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing now. It springs up. Do you not perceive it?
[00:29:28] Fasting gives us space to look for what the spirit may be wanting to do and also to train our spirit to lead our lives rather than our flesh.
[00:29:39] There's a couple of things I want to give space for. I've rushed through that quite quickly and I'm quite pleased we have, because I want to give space for a few things. Matt and Band, if you guys could just start slowly coming up, that'd be amazing.
[00:29:51] The first thing I'd like us to do together is just start to ask the Lord, when do you want me to fast? We heard earlier there's not a length of time to fast or regular guidance on when, but just start to invite God to prompt you now to think about what a lifestyle of fasting might look like.
[00:30:10] There may be things in your life you feel you may need to abstain from for a while in order to make space for God in your life.
[00:30:18] There's lots of passages in scripture, and there's one thing I'm just going to touch on just because I feel like it's not in my notes, but it talks about abstaining from sexual immorality and how sexual immorality and sexual sin is something which robs ourselves because it's an inward sin, it's not just an outward sin. And it's the only sin where we're told to literally flee from it, to abstain from it. And I just want to encourage you that if this is something that is going on in your life at the moment, give the spirit space. And as kind of we go into a bit of time of just speaking to God, let the spirit just start to come alongside you in that he wants to heal you, he wants to clean you out, and he wants to fill you back up again with his spirit. So start to ask God, what does a lifestyle of fasting look like?
[00:31:03] When do I need to fast? Maybe start putting some dates in your calendar, even now on your phone.
[00:31:09] Is it going to be for three days at a time? Is it going to be for a whole week? Are you going to eat in the evenings? Are you just going to eat in the morning? What's this going to look like? What's God calling you into at the moment?
[00:31:26] Yeah.
[00:31:28] And the second thing that I want to just touch on, and it's something that I've been thinking about a lot over the past few months, particularly with Coming onto leadership team at church and things is there's a lot of things that we do as a church. And I think Phil and Esther are the most incredible leaders. They're filled with the spirit. They want to see the spirit of God moving in new and Abbott. And I just. I found myself at times thinking that I was just coming to church for the sake of it and that I was just going through. Sorry. I just felt I was going through the motions of just putting my hands up in worship because that's what we're meant to do. Or I'm just going through the motions of praying with people just because it's part of my role.
[00:32:09] But I think what's so beautiful about the Spirit is that there is complete freedom from what I would call a little bit of like a Pharisee, like, spirit within us. This idea that sometimes we get so caught up in just attending church and going through the motions or hearing the Word and then going home again or reading our Bible even just because we feel like we have to, because we know it's a good thing to do. But really in our hearts, we're not even wanting to. It's an effort to pick up the Bible and to read it for us. And I think sometimes we can become so stagnant and complacent in our walks with God that we lose the awe and wonder of who our God really is. I'm really tired of religion for the sake of religion. You hear the really cheesy line about how Christianity is not about religion. It's about a relationship, guys. It's so about the relationship. If I didn't spend time with James, he'd be really grumpy with me and we wouldn't get on. I want to spend time with my father, God. I want to spend time with Jesus, who's the bridegroom. I want to spend time with the Holy Spirit, who is my best friend. Because if we neglect these relationships, these friendships, then we are not going to be open to what the Spirit is wanting to do in our lives. We're not going to be able to see his kingdom come here on earth, which is what we're praying for and believing for. I'm sick of hearing people saying we want revival. But we're not going to allow God to revive ourselves without the Spirit to guide, stir and restore us and influence our worship. We're going to miss out on the new thing that God is wanting to do. See, I am doing a new thing. Thing. Do you not perceive it?
[00:33:39] I want to have a genuine Heart, which puts God above all else. I want to have a spirit led life where I'm not worried, where I'm not thinking about what everyone else might think about me, but instead I'm just worried about pleasing the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
[00:33:55] If it's felt. It's felt a little bit today in my spirit, even being and worshiping and things, it's felt a little bit like I'm just going through the motions and it might just be me and I'm okay if it's just me, but actually, why don't we just give the spirit some safe space and just have a real honest conversation if that's you as well. You know, I'd love to pray for you. I'd love for some of our team to be praying with you. But I believe the Spirit is wanting to give us a fresh revelation of who he is and the grace he wants to bestow upon us in order to get out of this rut of religion that we find ourselves in sometimes and into the fullness of life that Jesus promises us in John 10:10.
[00:34:29] Yeah. Yeah. Should we stand and I'll just pray and then we'll. We'll just make some space for this because I think it's important.
[00:34:37] Yeah. God, yeah. Holy Spirit, we just give you space. We give you room.
[00:34:45] Lord, would you start to speak to us now about what a lifestyle of fasting might look like? We ask that you would prompt us, guide us. Let us want to do these things because we love you, not because we have to do them.
[00:34:59] If we have questions, Lord, would we ask others? Would we seek your word for the wisdom and answers in them?
[00:35:05] Lord, I pray that we would be like new wineskins, ready to receive a fresh revelation of who you are. We repent of when we've become so focused on keeping up with our own comfortable practices and agendas of church that. That we have not invited the Spirit to renew and revive us.
[00:35:23] Yeah. Lord, we're so sorry for when we've made it about ourselves, when we've made it about the I, Lord, I hear so many songs, so many people talking about it. It's about how we feel. And it's not. It's all about who you are. How we feel is irrelevant. God, how we feel is irrelevant other than the fact that we want to love you, Lord, stir our hearts to love you. And Lord, I pray that our worship would cost us something.
[00:35:48] In two Samuel David says this. He says, I will not offer the Lord that which costs me nothing. If your life that you're living at the moment is not costing you anything, then it's not a life that's laid down for the sake of the gospel. It's not a life that is laid down for the sake of Jesus. Your life, your worship has got to cost you something in order for it to mean anything.
[00:36:07] Our lives are not our own. They are all for him. All for his glory.
[00:36:12] Yeah. Lord, just help us now in our hearts. Lord, would you stir? Would you prompt. Would you just. Would you just come? Holy Spirit, we just give you space.
[00:36:22] If there's anything you want to say, anything we want to do, even now, Lord, would you clean us out and would you fill us up?
[00:36:29] Yeah, clear us out. Fill us up. Lord Jesus name we pray. Amen.
