1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:01,880 Hey, good morning. We're alive. 2 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:04,640 Hey, we're so excited. You were here with us today. 3 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:07,160 Whether you're watching online or you're right here with us in 4 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:08,560 person. Stand to your feet. 5 00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:11,600 We are so expected of what God has for us today. 6 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:13,480 Let's worship him today. Come on, put those hands 7 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:30,760 together. I call you Maker, you give life 8 00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:37,480 an eternal spark. I call you Healer 'cause you can 9 00:00:37,480 --> 00:00:43,680 mend any broken heart. I call you faithful Father 10 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:46,920 'cause you finish everything you start. 11 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:53,320 My soul was made to respond, or respond. 12 00:00:53,320 --> 00:01:00,960 I know you might. 1000 days. You deserve every single one. 13 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:08,840 You've given me a million ways to be amazed at what you've done 14 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:14,920 and I am lost in wonder at all you do. 15 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:22,840 I know you buy 1000 legs and I'll sing them back to you 16 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:28,280 because you deserve the highest honor. 17 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:37,520 Your love is boundless beyond what I could dream. 18 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:44,800 Your grace is patient because you're never giving up on me. 19 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:51,040 And I call you Pondage Breaker because you're handing out the 20 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:58,160 prison keys. My soul was made to be free, be 21 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:02,520 free. I know you buy 1000 names and 22 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:09,440 you deserve every single one. You've given me a million ways 23 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:17,720 when ways do what you join and I am lost in wondered had all you 24 00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:26,400 do. I know you buy 1000 names now. 25 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:31,520 Sing em back to you. Sing em all back. 26 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:35,160 Sing em all back. Sing em all back. 27 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:38,800 Sing em all back. Sing em all back. 28 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:42,440 Sing em all back. Sing em all back. 29 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:48,080 Sing em all back. You are like Allegiance, the 30 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:55,080 creed I am. You are king forever, the 31 00:02:55,640 --> 00:03:02,520 beginning and the end. You are Lord and servant with 32 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:08,720 the Son of Man. You are dying of Jude. 33 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:19,000 I go the reason live the second. I don't need to lead us home. 34 00:03:20,640 --> 00:03:26,680 You are always glory now you feel with flesh and bone. 35 00:03:27,920 --> 00:03:34,040 You are ocean harder. You will make a way. 36 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:41,000 You are depth deep leader. You the reason from the Cray. 37 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:50,960 My full love of mercy. My rich in life what Jesus 38 00:03:51,520 --> 00:04:04,280 Messiah go on true God go you by 1000 days to serve every single 39 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:13,160 world giving me a million ways to be amazed to what you died go 40 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:19,279 you by 1000 ways deserve every single word. 41 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:28,440 Giving me a million ways to be amazed when you join And I in 42 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:39,200 the lost in wander had all you do all you buy 1000 days. 43 00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:46,720 No sing no back to you sing them all back sing them all back sing 44 00:04:46,840 --> 00:04:52,480 them all back sing them all back sing them all back sing them all 45 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:58,800 back sing them all back sing them all back sing them all back 46 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:01,920 sing them all back sing them all back. 47 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:14,160 I know you by 1000 names and you deserve every single one. 48 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:22,480 You've given me a million ways to be amazed at what you've done 49 00:05:22,880 --> 00:05:34,200 and I you're lost in wondered at all you do and know you by 1000 50 00:05:34,280 --> 00:05:39,120 names. No single pack to you. 51 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:43,840 Amen. Give him some praise this 52 00:05:43,840 --> 00:05:45,960 morning. Our God is good. 53 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:49,280 And I love that song because just thinking of so many ways 54 00:05:49,280 --> 00:05:52,760 that God meets me there. He's so worthy of our praise. 55 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:55,120 So let's lift him up. There is a. 56 00:05:55,240 --> 00:06:00,280 Sound I love to hear. It's the sound of the Savior's 57 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:06,760 robe as He walks into the room where people pray, where we hear 58 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:27,720 praise as He hears. There is a sound I love to hear. 59 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:33,280 It's the sound of the Saviour's roam as he walks into the room 60 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:38,720 where people pray, where we hear worship ears. 61 00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:58,560 Lift him up awake of my soul and sing. 62 00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:05,520 Sing his praise aloud. Sing his praise aloud. 63 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:17,320 Awake of my your soul and sing. Sing his praise aloud. 64 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:43,200 Sing his praise aloud. There is a sound that changes 65 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:49,640 things, the sound of these people on their knees, awake, of 66 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:54,160 you slumbering. It's time to worship him awake 67 00:07:55,080 --> 00:08:00,760 of my soul, and see. See his race alone. 68 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:10,480 See his race alive. Go away to my soul and empty. 69 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:19,480 Sing his praise out. Sing his praise alive. 70 00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:35,950 Mr. All now stands away. Merry Mom is is Amen. 71 00:08:35,950 --> 00:08:49,260 Make no mistake, the bounds of hell begin to shave. 72 00:08:50,240 --> 00:09:02,480 Hey, hey, hold up the king of Lorry. 73 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:10,040 Hey, hold down on your knees and work your way, hey? 74 00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:22,040 Pray as I come hold it. Hit this up today with one voice 75 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:29,640 to chorus awake of my soul and sing. 76 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:38,520 Sing his praise aloud. Sing his praise aloud with one 77 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:45,200 voice awake of my play soul, and sing. 78 00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:51,800 Sing is praise aloud. Sing is praise aloud. 79 00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:21,080 Only my sorrow ended in my sin. Lost without hope. 80 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:29,720 No please to be You were the made away. 81 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:39,880 Let mercy come when death was arrested by lightning. 82 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:56,080 Ash was routine only beauty means my working hard this point 83 00:10:56,080 --> 00:11:12,840 and grew quiet my feet rose to dance when death was risk my 84 00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:28,040 life being. So free washes over me you are 85 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:32,760 made me new now life begins with. 86 00:11:37,640 --> 00:11:41,160 The at least. From my chains I'm a prisoner no 87 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:47,320 more. My she was raised. 88 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:58,720 He cancelled my dead and he called me his friend. 89 00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:06,400 Winter was arrested. My life begins. 90 00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:18,800 Oh, you breathe, so breathe washes over me. 91 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:25,920 You have made me new now life begins with you. 92 00:12:29,760 --> 00:12:38,280 It's your realness of love pouring down on us. 93 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:45,200 You have made us a new now. Life begins with you. 94 00:12:49,360 --> 00:13:03,760 Oh, and I see who displayed on a criminal's Christ, and darkness 95 00:13:03,760 --> 00:13:06,520 rejoiced as though heaven allies. 96 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:10,800 Come on, this is the best part. What then? 97 00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:21,800 Jesus arose with our freedom. That's when Dick was arrested in 98 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:30,360 my IBA. That's when Dick was arrested in 99 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:34,480 my IBA. Come on. 100 00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:48,400 So free washes over. You have made me new now. 101 00:13:48,400 --> 00:14:03,600 Life begins with you maturing the lesson pouring down on us. 102 00:14:04,440 --> 00:14:10,240 You have made us a new now. Life begins with the earth. 103 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:20,480 Oh we're marine free. Remember when we come join the 104 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:23,800 song of all the Virginias went free, free. 105 00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:32,480 Remember Rain Man Winter was arrested in my life. 106 00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:39,760 Being in Oh we're Marine free. Remember when free come join the 107 00:14:39,880 --> 00:14:43,320 song. I'm all the genius. 108 00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:51,720 When free, free they were Amen. When Ted was arrested in my life 109 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:56,520 begin. When Ted was arrested in my life 110 00:14:57,280 --> 00:14:59,800 begin. That's when Ted was arrested. 111 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:02,320 My life begin Amen. Amen. 112 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:11,960 Let's give it up for God today. Man, if you experience the 113 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:15,120 freedom of God in your life, because if you have man, just 114 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:16,880 that message just resonates within you. 115 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:19,680 And maybe you walked in here today and this is foreign to 116 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:21,120 you. You don't know what that freedom 117 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:22,760 is. My prayer for you is, is that by 118 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:25,480 the end of the day that you recognize what God has done for 119 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:27,040 you. God is pursuing you, God loves 120 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:31,040 you and man, God wants you to be on mission, on purpose and just 121 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:33,040 be in the family God. So let's give it up for our God 122 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:36,040 one more time, can't we, man? Amen, Amen. 123 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:38,480 And I say this week in, week out, I just love your guys's 124 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:39,840 heart. I'd love to listen to you guys 125 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:41,400 worship. I know it's God honoring. 126 00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:44,160 I want you guys to know we have a lot of new people with us 127 00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:46,960 online and in person today. Can we show those guys some 128 00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:48,640 love? Give them a round of applause, 129 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:50,520 man. Thank you guys so much for 130 00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:53,160 choosing to worship with us. Hey, take 30 seconds to greet 131 00:15:53,160 --> 00:16:19,480 somebody around you. All. 132 00:16:23,970 --> 00:16:25,690 Right, you guys can go ahead and be seated. 133 00:16:25,930 --> 00:16:28,480 Hey, want you guys to know that you are sitting on something 134 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:30,200 awesome and that is a connection card. 135 00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:32,880 So this is for everybody. It's an all skate moment if you 136 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:36,120 call real life home and I love watching these things come in. 137 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:38,680 I get to see what you guys ride on there, whether they're a 138 00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:41,720 praise some God's, some you've been praying for and God's 139 00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:43,640 answered that or maybe you got a prayer request. 140 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:46,560 You want something to for the team to pray over because our 141 00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:48,880 team prays over these week in and week out. 142 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:51,600 So if you call real life home, take this opportunity to fill 143 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:54,080 out out and let us know if we want to stay connected with you 144 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:56,360 in your life. Hey, if you are new or newer 145 00:16:56,360 --> 00:16:58,960 with us, you're this is for you as well. 146 00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:01,600 I'm going to make a promise to you if you're if that's you and 147 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:04,040 you're new, we're not going to ask anything else from you 148 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:06,400 today. But this one simple thing we 149 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:08,520 love for you to introduce yourself to us. 150 00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:11,160 And the connection card is the best way that you can do that. 151 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:13,040 And if you fill that out, we're not going to do anything crazy. 152 00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:15,560 We won't show up at your door or anything, but we would love to 153 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:18,920 have a way to send out some information about real life to 154 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:20,480 you this week. So again, thank you so much for 155 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:21,720 being here. We'll let you guys know what you 156 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:25,119 do with those cards in a bit. And the reason that we collect 157 00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:28,440 those, whether you call real life home or new, is that is we 158 00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:29,880 are a church on a mission, right? 159 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:32,320 And if you've been here at any time, you've heard this message. 160 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:35,240 But we, we, we punched this week in and week out because this is 161 00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:37,320 the heartbeat of what God's called us to do. 162 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:40,920 And our mission is this is to see people far from God discover 163 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:42,760 the real life and purpose of Jesus. 164 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:45,400 That's the only reason we're here because we believe that God 165 00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:47,760 has something big for people because you spend the whole 166 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:50,840 week, maybe your whole life just being beaten and broken by the 167 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:52,920 world. And we know that the only answer 168 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:55,880 isn't in something you can buy something that you can lay your 169 00:17:55,880 --> 00:17:57,840 head on. It's only in the hope and the 170 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:00,800 gospel of Jesus Christ. And so in real life, we love to 171 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:03,600 connect people to that purpose and that's why we love for you 172 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:06,320 guys to stay connected here. So again, we would love for you 173 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:09,440 guys to be on mission with us and that least of us is we're 174 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:13,480 finishing up our series. It's called Lord teaching us to 175 00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:17,040 to fast and to pray. And so we're encouraging you 176 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:21,880 guys as as real life followers and gatherers here to be on 177 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:23,200 mission, take this step of faith. 178 00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:26,160 And as we talked about last week, fasting isn't just 179 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:29,520 something we give up. Fasting really is a spiritual 180 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:32,000 step just to get humble before the Lord, right? 181 00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:35,800 And what we do is when we we have this attitude of humility, 182 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,560 we believe that God can use that just to extend his Kingdom 183 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:41,120 further. So I can't wait for you guys to 184 00:18:41,120 --> 00:18:42,600 hear this next message in this series. 185 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:45,480 I want you guys to give a real life welcome to my son Logan 186 00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:53,560 Hardy. And that was a good balancing 187 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:57,240 act that you guys will show. Well, thank you all for being 188 00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:01,080 here today. I am just, I'm ecstatic to be up 189 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,240 here and have the opportunity to talk about fasting. 190 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:05,120 I'm ecstatic for a couple of reasons. 191 00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:08,120 Maybe first and foremost, because of the season we're 192 00:19:08,120 --> 00:19:10,880 getting ready to go into. If you're new here or if you 193 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:12,800 need a little bit of a reminder, we're going into an exciting 194 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:14,480 season here soon called Difference Maker. 195 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:16,280 We're gonna lead into the heart of God. 196 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:20,080 We're gonna be searching our hearts and try to open up our 197 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:22,960 ability to say yes to finding our first personal space. 198 00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:25,240 And in order for this season to go well, it's gonna be a 199 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:27,320 critical season, right? And in order for it to be 200 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:30,040 successful and for us to do the things that we need to do, we 201 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:31,760 need to be looking at life with spiritual eyes. 202 00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:33,720 And that's obviously where fasting comes into play. 203 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:37,720 And I'm also excited for fasting because it has been unique for 204 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:40,360 me. It has been uniquely profound in 205 00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:43,520 my walk with God there. There was a lot of hinge points 206 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:45,560 that have brought me from where I was. 207 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:48,080 I grew up in the church. I was very lukewarm Christian 208 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:49,760 for most of my life. And there was a lot of things 209 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:54,480 that played a role in hopefully me being a lot further than that 210 00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:56,840 now and not being so lukewarm anymore. 211 00:19:57,280 --> 00:19:58,560 There's a lot of things that played a role. 212 00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:02,000 I jumped back on the front of house team that forced me to be 213 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:03,960 here consistently and faithfully. 214 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:05,760 I wasn't allowed to come in halfway through the 2nd 215 00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:08,280 gathering, so I make it look like I was here, but really I 216 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:10,640 was watching YouTube in the back parking lot for 20 minutes. 217 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:12,040 I wasn't able to do that anymore. 218 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:15,160 I jumped on the youth team that forced me to get my Bible and 219 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:17,600 actually learn about God so I could teach about God. 220 00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:19,680 Forced me to be consistent in the scriptures. 221 00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:23,360 And I went on a mission trim that was also huge for me in its 222 00:20:23,360 --> 00:20:25,320 own way. But they all kind of pale in 223 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:27,840 comparison for what fasting is meant for me. 224 00:20:28,360 --> 00:20:30,440 It has been. It has been the thing probably 225 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:33,040 that most significantly changed the trajectory of how I was 226 00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:36,280 walking with God. And Simply put, I would not be 227 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:41,120 where I am in my life, in my ministry, in my walk with God if 228 00:20:41,120 --> 00:20:45,080 I did not pick up the fasting, in the practice of fasting, if 229 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:48,600 God did not grab a hold of me during this time of prayer and 230 00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:50,520 petition. That was a part of my story that 231 00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:52,640 I'll get into a little bit more in a little bit. 232 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:55,000 It was interesting, right? Because I'm talking about how 233 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:57,280 God changed my trajectory and he did a work in me. 234 00:20:57,280 --> 00:20:59,160 He did a work in my life during this time. 235 00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:02,920 And there's some works, there are some things that can't be 236 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:04,840 done apart from fasting, as we come to find out. 237 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:08,040 When you get into the ward and you look at Mark 929, this is 238 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:11,360 coming off of Jesus dispelling a demon from a kid. 239 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:12,520 And the disciples are asking him why? 240 00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:14,400 Why weren't we able to do that? What, what makes you different 241 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:15,680 than us? What did you do differently than 242 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:17,400 us? And Jesus said to them that 243 00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,080 this, this kind of change, this kind of breakthrough, it can 244 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:23,880 come by nothing but by prayer and by fasting. 245 00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:27,480 And I love this church. I think that we do a lot of 246 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:29,440 things well. I think, I think by and large we 247 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:31,440 are an on mission church. I think we're an amazing church. 248 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:33,720 I think, I think we excel in a community. 249 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:35,360 I think our life groups are on fire. 250 00:21:35,360 --> 00:21:37,160 I think our life group leaders are on fire. 251 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,800 I think we I think Sean has planted in a, an evangelistic 252 00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:42,200 intent. I think we're a Church of 253 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:44,520 evangelism. I think we we strive to see the 254 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:46,800 word furthered and to see people join our family. 255 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:48,960 I think we're a missions oriented church. 256 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:51,840 I think we're a friendly church. I don't know where Hannah and 257 00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:54,200 Wesley are in here today, but there's people that come in here 258 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:58,120 hoping for one people to say hi to them and 12/12 do it instead. 259 00:21:58,120 --> 00:21:59,280 Like we're, we're a friendly church. 260 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:01,440 We'd love to see new people come through our doors. 261 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:03,960 And I think by and large, more than anything, we're a real 262 00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:06,240 church. We're OK with meeting you where 263 00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:08,760 you are and we're OK with helping you get to where you 264 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:10,680 need to be. You don't come here, you don't 265 00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:13,400 come here perfect. We, we help you where you are. 266 00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:18,400 If I were to say that maybe 1 area we could improve is it's 267 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:21,120 probably fasting. Now that that might be that 268 00:22:21,120 --> 00:22:25,400 might be a microcosm of our American culture, but I like to 269 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:27,880 I like to qualify this message. It's not a message of of 270 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:30,760 reprimand. It is not a message of head 271 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:32,920 knowledge of me teaching down at you. 272 00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:34,440 It's not a message of holier than thou. 273 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:36,080 It's not a message of any of those things. 274 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:40,400 It's a message of encouragement. It's a it's a message of passion 275 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,080 that is bore from me seeing God move and I just me wanting the 276 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:45,880 same thing for you guys when you jump into fasting. 277 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,120 And this is a message for everybody in here. 278 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:50,040 But I wrote with a couple of people in mind. 279 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,400 I wrote this message it with the person in mind in here that that 280 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:55,960 feels far from God. I wrote it with the person in 281 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:58,200 here that may feels like they may be blind to seeing God's 282 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:00,040 works. I wrote it for the person in 283 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:02,040 here that feels unfamiliar with God's voice. 284 00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:05,080 I wrote it in here for anybody that wants to feel the heartbeat 285 00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:08,000 of God more tangibly and more and more explicitly, and they 286 00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:10,240 just feel like they haven't felt the heartbeat of God in their 287 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:13,400 lives in such a long time. And to find any of these things 288 00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:16,200 to bring yourself closer to God, it's going to require a couple 289 00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:18,440 of things, right? It's going to require us to be 290 00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:21,240 honest with ourselves and it's, we're going to require us to cut 291 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:23,400 all the clutter. It's got all the fluff and to 292 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:24,840 limit all the distractions in our lives. 293 00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:26,280 And that's where fasting comes into play. 294 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:29,760 And can I give you guys the, the encouragement that I tried my 295 00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:32,520 best, I tried to put as much elbow grease as I could into 296 00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:35,760 eliminating the clutter from this message to killing any 297 00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:37,280 distractions that might have fed into this. 298 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:39,000 I actually, I fasted for this message. 299 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:42,120 I, I, I wrote it Thursday night and I didn't eat from Wednesday 300 00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:44,920 night until Friday morning. I work concrete and we, we 301 00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:47,120 poured a floor Thursday. I haven't been at work that much 302 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:48,920 lately and I feel like I'm kind of getting out of shape. 303 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:52,800 And as I'm on my knees scrubbing these walls, some voice comes 304 00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:54,200 over the wall. They say, Logan, what do you 305 00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:58,640 want from Dairy Queen? I said, a tea. 306 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:00,560 A tea will hold me over. I'm feeling fine. 307 00:24:01,120 --> 00:24:03,360 An unsweet tea will just be just fine for me. 308 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:07,520 I, I did my best to put elbow grease into this. 309 00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:11,280 I really wanted you guys to hear from the Holy Spirit rather than 310 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:13,680 from Logan. And I guess after this message, 311 00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:15,720 you can tell me how successful this was. 312 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,640 But I really wanted this to be a message cut away from all 313 00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:21,840 distractions and all clutter. And I just wanted to get into 314 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:25,720 the heart of fasting. And and there's an elephant in 315 00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:27,920 the room. A lot of you and a lot of us, me 316 00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:30,520 included for a long time, probably rolled our eyes the 317 00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:33,880 minute I said fasting. There's an apprehension to 318 00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:36,120 fasting. We mentally checked out. 319 00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:38,480 It's it's not a popular practice, I think. 320 00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,120 I think if you take a look around America, if you take a 321 00:24:41,120 --> 00:24:42,680 look around the Kansas City area, I think it's pretty 322 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:44,080 evident we don't miss a lot of meals. 323 00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:47,680 I don't think we enjoy depriving ourselves from our food. 324 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:51,400 And it's so hard. It's so unpopular, I think 325 00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:53,560 because ultimately fasting is a second level practice. 326 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,120 You know, like practice like level 1, you add things to your 327 00:24:56,120 --> 00:24:59,320 life, you enrich your life. But level 2, it takes away and 328 00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:02,400 fasting takes away from your life in a way that is enriching. 329 00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:05,120 But it's hard. It's not easy to deprive 330 00:25:05,120 --> 00:25:07,560 yourself of food. It's not easy to deprive 331 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:10,360 yourself of comfort. It's not easy to deprive 332 00:25:10,360 --> 00:25:12,800 yourself of your cravings, of your natural desire. 333 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,840 It's it's not easy to deprive yourself of distractions. 334 00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:18,560 We live in distractions. That that is what defines our 335 00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:20,440 lives as we live distraction filled lives. 336 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:22,240 We we live for the dopamine rushes. 337 00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:24,680 We live for everything that is of no substance. 338 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:29,000 And it's in fasting is, is the antithesis to this. 339 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:30,760 It's, it's not supposed to be easy. 340 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:36,040 It's not supposed to feel natural, supposed to take your 341 00:25:36,120 --> 00:25:38,960 out of your comfort zone. And very rarely does the path of 342 00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:41,400 least resistance offer anywhere worth going. 343 00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,200 So I'm gonna encourage you guys to do here today is to say no to 344 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:46,840 the path of least resistance. I'm gonna ask some hard things 345 00:25:47,120 --> 00:25:49,360 and I'm gonna encourage you guys to lean into the harder things 346 00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:51,200 and embrace it and embrace the suck. 347 00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:55,960 I'm gonna ask you guys to fast this week from sun up to 348 00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:58,520 sundown, fast from food. It's the biblical way to fast. 349 00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:01,200 You can fast from technology as well as you want, but at least 350 00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:04,640 fast from food. Sun up to sundown this week and 351 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:07,000 then next week and the week after that. 352 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:09,960 And then make it habit and make it a rhythm, at least in this 353 00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:12,520 season. But hopefully on and on and on. 354 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:14,760 Hopefully this is just something we that we can lean into and 355 00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:17,200 there's an actual question that arises. 356 00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:19,640 There's, there's a question that when I ask you to do this, when 357 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:22,560 I ask you to fast as we're leaning into this season of the 358 00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:28,080 difference maker, why and what you know, why should I fast and 359 00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,400 what should I fast for? There are many reasons to fast. 360 00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:34,040 My first time fasting actually, and this is not what we're going 361 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:36,120 to lead into today, but my first time fasting was actually on 362 00:26:36,120 --> 00:26:39,040 behalf of somebody else. It was on, it was for somebody 363 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:40,400 in my youth group. I was wanting to see God do a 364 00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:42,040 breakthrough. And there's a lot of different 365 00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:43,560 reasons to fast. That's one example. 366 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:46,320 But what we're going to lean into today is that for all the 367 00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:48,280 many reasons there are to fast, we're going to lean into two. 368 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:52,080 We're going to lean into fasting for repentance and fasting for 369 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:57,360 closeness to God, fasting to abide in Christ, fasting. 370 00:26:57,360 --> 00:26:59,760 It's interesting as we're pointing it out in the Bible, 371 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:03,000 regularity in the Bible that is almost easy to miss. 372 00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:04,760 What? You know, when Sean kicked this 373 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,120 message to me and we were talking through and I talked 374 00:27:07,120 --> 00:27:10,240 about like what I wanted to do and maybe where I wanted to take 375 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:11,280 it. He was like, you know, you could 376 00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:12,880 talk about, you talk about the story of Jonah. 377 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:14,680 I was like, there's no fasting in Jonah. 378 00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,360 What are you talking about? But you get into it. 379 00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:19,920 You look closely when you're actually looking for fasting. 380 00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:22,280 Yeah, it's right there. And so for those of you that 381 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,200 don't know the story, Jonah, I'm going to skip through a lot of 382 00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:26,960 it. Jonah was a prophet, you know, 383 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:29,160 he was sent by God to preach to an evil city, and he was 384 00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:32,080 reluctant to preach to Nineveh. And he actually fleed from the 385 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:34,200 will of God. And after some time spent in the 386 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,000 belly of a fish, he changed his mind and he reluctantly made his 387 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:39,040 way to Nineveh to preach on the behalf of God. 388 00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:42,800 Much to Jonah surprise, the people of Nineveh actually heed 389 00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:44,800 his words. It's an evil city. 390 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:47,760 And they actually listen to Jonah and they repent and they 391 00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,600 turn from their wicked ways. And look at this passage. 392 00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:55,640 See the role of fasting, see the role of prayer, and see the role 393 00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:59,640 really of humility is what plays a strong role in Nineveh's 394 00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:02,040 repentance, starting in a Jonah chapter 3, verse 6. 395 00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:05,960 So when Jonah's re warning reached the king of Nineveh, he 396 00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:09,600 rose from his throne, he took off his royal robes, and he 397 00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:12,840 covered himself with sackcloth, and he sat down in the dust. 398 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:16,320 This is the proclamation he issued to Nineveh by the decree 399 00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:18,840 of the king and his nobles. Do not let people or animals, 400 00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:22,080 herds or flocks taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink, 401 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:24,880 but let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. 402 00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:27,200 Let everyone call urgently on God. 403 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:29,600 Let them give up their evil ways and violence. 404 00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:32,640 And who knows, God may yet relent and with compassion turn 405 00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:34,920 from His fierce anger so we will not perish. 406 00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:37,640 When God saw what they did and how they turn from their evil 407 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:39,520 ways, He relented. And he did not bring on them the 408 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,800 destruction he had threatened. There's a lot that sticks out 409 00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:46,640 there to me. And they never needed to repent, 410 00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:48,440 right? So what kind of posture did they 411 00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:50,480 take? They took a posture of humility. 412 00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:53,480 The king took off his royal robes and he put on his 413 00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:55,360 sackcloth. He made his dwelling in the 414 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:57,360 dust. They called out to God. 415 00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:02,360 They prayed to God, they fasted. Like I said earlier, there's 416 00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:04,320 some things that don't happen apart from fasting. 417 00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:07,240 Like there's some works that you just don't see happen. 418 00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:14,320 Nina, Nineveh, the most evil city on the face of the earth, 419 00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:17,560 doesn't just repent and they don't just turn away from God. 420 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:19,600 That's a miracle that doesn't just happen. 421 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:21,680 That's not something you see happen very often. 422 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,800 Some things are only happening when you humble yourself and you 423 00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:27,960 deprive yourself and you call out to God and you find 424 00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,240 closeness to God. And what it went in hand, in 425 00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:33,000 hand with the repentance of Nineveh was prayer and fasting. 426 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:35,440 There's powerful things that happen when you call out to God 427 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,160 and humility. And that's what we're gonna lean 428 00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:41,240 into. Touched again, put my left hand 429 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:44,920 behind my back. So we as a church, right, we're 430 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,960 entering a season where we're going to be fasting, fasting 431 00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:50,280 weekly. I'm going to talk about what it 432 00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:53,520 looks like to pray through those fasts to get the most out of 433 00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,800 your fast because prayer and it really unlocks a fast. 434 00:29:57,320 --> 00:29:59,680 You're praying and you're calling out to God is stronger 435 00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:01,360 than ever when you were in a fast. 436 00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:04,280 And if you are in here and you've never fasted before, you 437 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:06,920 have no idea what to pray. You have no way to, you don't 438 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:08,120 know what to say. You don't know what to do. 439 00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:09,360 Let me tell you what worked for me. 440 00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:13,480 Let me tell you about a time that I is, this is a part of my 441 00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:14,560 story. And I was telling you about how 442 00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:15,720 fast he meant everything for my wallet. 443 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,480 Let me tell you about the time where fasting took where I was, 444 00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:20,600 and I turned it the other way. And let me tell you about the 445 00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:23,480 prayers that helped. I'm gonna give you some context. 446 00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:28,560 Despite what Drew says, I'm not perfect, and I make and I make 447 00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:31,480 quite a few mistakes. And despite what Jana says, I'm 448 00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:39,440 getting better. I make, I make a lot of 449 00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:41,560 mistakes. I'm human, I fall quite often. 450 00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:44,760 Maybe the biggest mistake I've ever made happened a few years 451 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,040 ago. I'm not going to get into the 452 00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:49,040 details and I think, I think keeping it vague might hope you 453 00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,720 guys relate to it more than if I did get into the details. 454 00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:53,840 But I made a huge mistake a few years ago. 455 00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:57,440 It took a period of time that was far too long for me sitting 456 00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,560 on this mistake and grappling with the guilt I felt for this 457 00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:02,480 mistake. And I finally, after a couple of 458 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,960 years, really, I confronted myself to the point of 459 00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,280 confession. I told a couple of men that I 460 00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:10,280 trusted with my falling. I told them what I'd done and I 461 00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:12,360 told them I wanted to change it. I told them I wanted to make it 462 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:13,760 right. I wanted to do what I ever I 463 00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:15,400 needed to do. I was ready to, I was ready to 464 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:17,400 make it right. I was, I was tired feeling the 465 00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:19,280 guilt. I was ready to move forward with 466 00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:22,120 a free conscience. And so I told them, They told 467 00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:23,440 the men they trusted what I had done. 468 00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:26,200 And I told them that I sought to find action steps. 469 00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:30,360 There's advice given to me by these two men that before I did 470 00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:32,720 anything, before I talked to anybody, because there was 471 00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:36,080 apologies I had to make, before I apologize to anybody, before I 472 00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:39,160 made any calls, before I made any visits, I had to fast 473 00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:41,880 regularly. Because what had to happen is in 474 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:44,720 this whole process is that I had to be led by the Holy Spirit. 475 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:48,720 Because if it was Logan's words carrying these apologies, and if 476 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,160 it was Logan's hand, and if it was Logan's might carrying these 477 00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:53,880 actions, no good would have come about it. 478 00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:58,120 I had to be spirit LED. So they told me fast regularly 479 00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:01,440 before I do anything, before I make any decisions, before I 480 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:03,240 reach out to anybody, fast regularly. 481 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:05,360 And so that's what I did for a season. 482 00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,880 Upon making this confession. I fasted each weekend regularly 483 00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:13,480 and subconsciously during these fasts, I developed a rhythm of 484 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:17,880 prayer because I prayed all the time during these fasts and I 485 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:20,640 didn't realize it at the time. I didn't. 486 00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:22,440 I did realize it, but I didn't give it a name at the time. 487 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:24,960 But there was a rhythm that guided my prayer through these 488 00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:28,400 fasts and it was a rhythm that I can give a more adequate name to 489 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,320 and a more accurate description to after I discovered this song 490 00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:33,480 by a smaller artist called the BI Frost Arts. 491 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:35,320 It's called Take Me, O Lord, and I'd encourage all of you to 492 00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:38,840 listen to it's an amazing song. So I listened to the song and I 493 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,960 was just floored listening to it because when I was listening to 494 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:44,960 it, the lyrics took me back to where I was during these 495 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:48,000 fastings on the weekend. And they, they, they gave words 496 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:49,600 to the prayers that I never could have. 497 00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:52,840 I never could have thought so subconsciously, I prayed these 498 00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:53,360 prayers. They didn't. 499 00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:56,040 I didn't have the words at this time, but this was my heart of 500 00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:57,600 intent when I was praying these prayers. 501 00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,240 And these are the prayers that carried me through the during 502 00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:01,840 the fast, through the hardest time of my life. 503 00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:03,920 If you're taking notes, three of them. 504 00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:06,280 And I'd encourage all of you to pray these prayers as you take 505 00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:08,600 on your fast and as you're getting ready to lean into the 506 00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:11,480 season. Prayer #1 Lord, take me. 507 00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:17,280 Prayer #2 Lord break me. And prayer #3 Lord, shave me, 508 00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:20,440 shape me into something that more closely resembles Jesus 509 00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:22,760 Christ and bless resembles who I am and where I'm at. 510 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,560 And if you're thinking about taking on this fasting and 511 00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:27,880 you're thinking about praying these prayers, I'm going to give 512 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:29,720 you a warning. Hope you heed it. 513 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:31,000 Because these are dangerous prayers. 514 00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:33,280 These aren't, these aren't just prayers to pray lightly. 515 00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:36,600 Because if you pray out to God, you ask him these things, He 516 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,320 will take you and He will break you. 517 00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:42,360 And in that process, He will shape you closer to where you're 518 00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:44,560 supposed to be and further away from where you are right now. 519 00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:46,640 How many of you remember Bill Hardy? 520 00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:49,520 How many you know Bill Hardy? He was an amazing man, an 521 00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:54,120 amazing storyteller. He had one illustration that 522 00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:55,840 when I heard about it, I didn't hear it from him. 523 00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:58,280 I heard it from Sean. But the first time I heard this 524 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,720 illustration, it hasn't left me. And traditionally, this was an 525 00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:04,280 illustration that was told in the context of discipline, but 526 00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:05,520 it definitely applies to fasting. 527 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:08,280 And this is the illustration that he used to give. 528 00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:11,800 So ancient times, right? There are shepherds and other 529 00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:15,520 fox of sheep, and in these flocks there was always one or 530 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:17,239 two sheep that would stay away from the flock. 531 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:19,760 They would run off, they would do their own thing, they would 532 00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:22,120 disobey the shepherd, they would they couldn't stay together, 533 00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:25,840 they couldn't follow the rules. So the shepherd's had a habit of 534 00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:28,239 when these sheep were falling away from the flock and falling 535 00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:31,040 away from the shepherd to get them back in line, the shepherd 536 00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:35,159 would take the sheep, it would break the sheep's legs and he 537 00:34:35,159 --> 00:34:37,719 would throw the sheep over his shoulder and he would carry the 538 00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:40,960 sheep around wherever he went during the entire process of 539 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:42,960 healing. And there was something 540 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:44,400 significant that happened during this time. 541 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,920 The sheep with his broken leg hung over the shoulder of the 542 00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:49,880 shepherd. He became familiar with one 543 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:53,280 sound and with one noise more than anything else around him as 544 00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:55,120 he was constantly moving. There was one thing that never 545 00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:57,240 left. And he became familiar with the 546 00:34:57,240 --> 00:35:00,480 heartbeat of the shepherd that he was being carried by during 547 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:03,040 this time of healing and this time of being taken. 548 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:06,720 What happens when the sheep was carried by the shepherd is he 549 00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:09,520 became more familiar with the heartbeat of the shepherd. 550 00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,400 And the biggest reason that we fast, and the real reason that 551 00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,120 we fast is to become more familiar with the heartbeat of 552 00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:19,000 our Father, to become more familiar with our heart, the 553 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,320 heartbeat of our Shepherd. And these prayers, they line out 554 00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:26,240 like this illustration for us to allow ourselves to be taken by 555 00:35:26,240 --> 00:35:29,560 our Shepherd, to break our own legs so that he can take us. 556 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,680 And in this process of healing, to be shaped into something that 557 00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,840 more closely resembles Jesus and something that does not resemble 558 00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:38,960 where we are. Lord, take me, sling me over 559 00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:40,440 your shoulder, let me abide in you. 560 00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:44,880 Strip away all distractions. Take away some of the calluses 561 00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:48,080 that have formed on my soul. Take away the hardings of my 562 00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:49,360 flesh that need to be rooted out. 563 00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:51,800 Break me down. Let me break my leg so that I 564 00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:54,000 can be taken. Let me get rid of these 565 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:56,560 distractions so that you are able to actually pick me up. 566 00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:58,600 Because like I said, we, we love, we love distractions, 567 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:00,160 right? We love our dopamine rushes. 568 00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:02,040 We love everything that doesn't allow God to take us. 569 00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:03,440 We love to walk on our own 2 feet. 570 00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:05,640 But sometimes for healing to happen, you have to let God 571 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:07,720 carry you, and you have to let your legs heal. 572 00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:10,640 And fasting, like I said, it gives you the. 573 00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:12,520 Opportunity to break your leg and in this process, in this 574 00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:15,160 whole time, this whole thing, this is where the shaping 575 00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:16,920 happens. This healing. 576 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:19,600 When you allow yourself to be taken under God's wing and you 577 00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:21,920 allow yourself to not be walking on your own legs and give 578 00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:24,440 yourself time to heal, you're going to give God the 579 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,440 opportunity to shape you and to make your into something that 580 00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:29,360 was more close to the image of Jesus. 581 00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:33,200 And like I said these prayers, they they carried me through my 582 00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:36,840 fasts. They enabled my fast they 583 00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:38,320 allowed. My fast to be to be more 584 00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:41,960 powerful and be more enriching and more rewarding than I would 585 00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:44,280 have ever thought possible. Because when I took this on, I, 586 00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:46,040 I thought fasting was just something I was going to do 587 00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:48,080 because it was right. Like I was punishing myself. 588 00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:50,080 Like Logan, you messed up, you better not eat. 589 00:36:50,720 --> 00:36:54,840 But that's not what it was. The, the, the impact it had on 590 00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:56,600 my walk. It is so it is. 591 00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:58,600 It's still hard for me to wrap my head around. 592 00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:01,280 I told you all that I have passion for this. 593 00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:03,880 And and that's because fasting truly was a hinge point for my 594 00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:06,200 walk with God. The weeks following that 595 00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:09,520 confession I made to the men I trust, bar none, were probably 596 00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:13,240 the hardest of my life. I I felt disgusted with myself. 597 00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,960 I felt discouraged. I felt like I might have 598 00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:19,520 disqualified myself from any potential ministry that I wanted 599 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:23,080 to take part in. I felt like I was having a hard 600 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,120 time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel during this 601 00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:27,720 process, You know, during these weeks, the, the weekends that I 602 00:37:27,720 --> 00:37:30,400 was fasting and in this process that I was undertaking, it was 603 00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:33,040 hard for me to look ahead and be like, this is when it's going to 604 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:34,640 get better. This is when I'm not going to 605 00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:36,600 feel guilty. This is when all the apologies 606 00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:39,120 are going to go well and nobody's going to be mad at me 607 00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:41,400 and I will have made things right and I can move forward 608 00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:44,080 with a clean slate that felt further away than possible. 609 00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:47,040 And there was one of these instances during one of these 610 00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:50,520 weekend fasts. I, I still remember vividly that 611 00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:52,960 I can still go back to and it's like I can watch it like on a 612 00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:56,080 camcorder. I don't know. 613 00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:58,560 I don't know what took over me. I was praying my prayers in my 614 00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:00,760 room on my chair. I was praying, Lord, take me, 615 00:38:00,760 --> 00:38:03,640 Lord, shake me, Lord break me and something just wasn't 616 00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:06,680 cutting it. I was praying it, but it felt 617 00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:08,160 like I was just going through the motions and there was, I 618 00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:09,680 felt like there was nothing that was being done through the 619 00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:12,360 prayer. So I, whatever came over me, 620 00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:15,440 whatever compelled me to, I got out of my chair and I got down 621 00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:18,360 on the floor and I prayed face down on the floor and I 622 00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:19,920 continued praying my typical prayers. 623 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:21,600 I mixed in a little bit of Romans 7. 624 00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:24,680 How could I allow my flesh to overtake me in the way that I 625 00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:28,960 had? I lament what I did, and I 626 00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:31,440 wondered how I allowed myself to submit to sin in the way that I 627 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:33,760 had. And in this specific instance, 628 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:36,880 when I was down on the ground, I felt further away from the light 629 00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:39,280 of the end of the tunnel. I was talking about Romans 8. 630 00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:42,520 Felt that condom, that freedom, that condemnation that we are 631 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:44,600 taken away from us, that is given to us by Jesus Christ. 632 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:47,120 It couldn't have felt more impossible for me. 633 00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:51,240 I found myself in tears. I found myself wondering what to 634 00:38:51,240 --> 00:38:54,680 do, how I could ever be used. I felt disqualified. 635 00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:58,160 I felt I in that moment, my perspective was that of a 636 00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:01,280 Wretch, nothing to offer and everything to condemn. 637 00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:05,080 That was my perspective. That was that was the picture I 638 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:08,360 had painted for myself. That's where I found myself on 639 00:39:08,360 --> 00:39:14,040 the floor and, and in the midst of the fast and in the midst of 640 00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:16,760 those prayers, they, it silenced all the distractions. 641 00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:20,760 It took away all the clutter. There's nothing there to to, to 642 00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:22,320 take away. The only thing I could hear was 643 00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:23,840 God's voice. So why? 644 00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:28,280 Why I while I saw myself where I was broken and at the end of the 645 00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:31,080 rope with no more human will, no more power to exert. 646 00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:36,360 In that silence I could feel God saw something different. 647 00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:41,080 And I could see that He was less concerned with where I was and 648 00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:47,200 He was more concerned with where I was going and I was way down 649 00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:50,120 with who I was. He saw how he was going to how 650 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:51,640 he's going to how He's going to use me. 651 00:39:51,720 --> 00:39:55,000 And I say that in humility because I'm blessed to to serve 652 00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:56,760 on the youth team and I'm blessed to be on the front of 653 00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:59,640 house team. But if I had just moved on my 654 00:39:59,640 --> 00:40:03,240 own power and by my own ability, I would have disqualified myself 655 00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:06,480 from any of those roles so quickly if I did not allow God 656 00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:09,640 to work through my life. And in the midst of my fasting 657 00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:14,000 and in the process of my being taken, in my the process of 658 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,520 being broken and the process of being reshaping, I was slung 659 00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:20,800 over my father's shoulder. And I felt the heartbeat and I 660 00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:24,920 felt what he saw on me. And like I said, fasting, it 661 00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:27,440 meant everything. It meant everything to my walk 662 00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:30,320 with God at that moment was pivotal. 663 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:32,640 It changed the trajectory of my life. 664 00:40:33,240 --> 00:40:36,080 I'm not, I'm not perfect. I'm really the furthest thing 665 00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:38,760 from it. But I know what it's like to 666 00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:41,200 hear the unadulterated heartbeat of my father. 667 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:44,520 The people of Nineveh knew that the best way to get in front of 668 00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:46,960 the father was to humble themselves. 669 00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:50,640 And I'd ask yourselves real quick, you know, relate to the 670 00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:54,120 people of Nineveh. Do you have somebody to repent 671 00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:56,600 from? And what are you doing about it? 672 00:40:57,080 --> 00:40:58,560 Are you taking off your royal robes? 673 00:40:59,920 --> 00:41:01,200 Are you putting on your sackcloth? 674 00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:03,440 Are you, are you making your dwelling in the dust? 675 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:08,480 Allow yourself to get carried by the shepherd, Take on a fast, 676 00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:11,200 pray those prayers. You know some of you in here, 677 00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:12,800 like I said are relating to the Nineveh. 678 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,640 You're relating to me. It's it's time to turn away from 679 00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:19,520 your flesh and it's time to turn away from what you've done and 680 00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:21,520 it's time to towards turn towards God. 681 00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:24,200 Maybe some of you in here that that isn't your story. 682 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,040 Maybe you don't feel you're in a spot of repentance being needed, 683 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,000 but maybe you're in the the midst of a big decision. 684 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:32,280 And that's how it's really all of us as we're leading into this 685 00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:35,000 difference maker series. We all have a big decision ahead 686 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,080 of us. You have a decision that you're 687 00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:39,960 seeking the clarity of the Holy Spirit and the will of God. 688 00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:42,400 It's time to pick up a fast. Maybe you're in a time of 689 00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:44,840 struggle. Maybe things just can't seem to 690 00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:46,480 go right. Maybe things keep falling apart 691 00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:48,680 and and you're in need of God to make a breakthrough. 692 00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:51,400 You're in need of God to do a work that can only happen 693 00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:54,120 through prayer and fasting. It's time to pick up a fast. 694 00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:58,600 You know, maybe XY or Z. If any reason leads you to the 695 00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:00,840 conclusion that you were craving the heartbeat of God, it's time 696 00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:04,680 to pick up a fast. If you would all go ahead. 697 00:42:04,720 --> 00:42:09,760 And bow your heads and close your eyes, you know? 698 00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:10,880 I I'd wager in here that there's. 699 00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:14,040 A couple groups of people. There's a group of people in 700 00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:18,360 here that you. Know God, you know Jesus, but 701 00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:20,800 you can't say honestly that you know the heartbeat of the 702 00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:23,280 Father. You can't, you can't say that 703 00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:26,240 it's been any you haven't felt the heartbeat of the Father in a 704 00:42:26,240 --> 00:42:27,640 while, but you're desperate to hear it. 705 00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:31,880 Someone in here is envious of the sheep being carried by the 706 00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:35,000 Father to be forced into hearing the heartbeat of the shepherd. 707 00:42:35,720 --> 00:42:38,160 And that's you, If you, if you, if you want to hear the 708 00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:40,040 heartbeat of the Father and it feels like it's been too long, 709 00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:43,280 would you raise your hand? I see your hand. 710 00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:44,000 I see your hand. I. 711 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:45,560 See your hand. Appreciate your honesty. 712 00:42:46,680 --> 00:42:48,320 Thank you. Thank you for being honest. 713 00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:50,640 If that's you, it's time to give fasting a go. 714 00:42:50,720 --> 00:42:52,960 It's time to fast. It's time to put yourself on the 715 00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:54,600 shoulder of the shepherd. And it's time to get into the 716 00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:56,600 presence of God. If you don't mind, if that was 717 00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,320 you, I'd like to pray over you. God, you're good. 718 00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:02,960 We crave your presence. We need to hear your heartbeat. 719 00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:05,440 Lord, take us from our own and make us yours. 720 00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:09,400 Lord, break us of our flesh. Shape us into your image. 721 00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:13,160 We seek you, Father, we desire you more than we desire our 722 00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:15,760 cravings. God, open our ears to your 723 00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:19,640 heartbeat with every head, head still bowed and every eye is 724 00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:21,840 still closed. There's, there's another group 725 00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:24,240 of people in here. There's somebody in here that 726 00:43:24,240 --> 00:43:26,600 doesn't know the heartbeat of God because they don't know God. 727 00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:29,240 There's somebody in here that doesn't know Jesus. 728 00:43:29,240 --> 00:43:31,400 They don't know that he died on the cross for their sins. 729 00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:36,320 If that's you and if you're here, I hope you're just coming 730 00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:38,680 to the conclusion that like I didn't cut it. 731 00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:40,760 We ourselves, we just don't cut it. 732 00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:43,800 Maybe you heard something in here today that just clicked. 733 00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:46,520 Maybe you can relate to me in my stumblings. 734 00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:48,880 You recognize that a change is needed. 735 00:43:49,760 --> 00:43:51,040 Maybe you're ready for something new. 736 00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:53,240 Maybe you're ready for something different. 737 00:43:53,240 --> 00:43:54,480 Maybe you're ready for something better. 738 00:43:55,240 --> 00:43:56,760 Maybe you're ready for relationship with God. 739 00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:00,960 With every head bowed, every eye closed, nobody looking around. 740 00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:03,600 If that's you, if you don't know God but you're ready to start a 741 00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:04,920 relationship with Him, would you raise your hand? 742 00:44:07,040 --> 00:44:08,320 Father, you know the hand, you know the. 743 00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:11,440 You know the hearts, you know the positions. 744 00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:14,280 We're not perfect. We have all fallen short of the 745 00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:15,920 glory of God. There's nothing we can do to 746 00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:18,280 earn salvation. It's a gift given to those who 747 00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:20,840 believe that Jesus came to die for our sins. 748 00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:22,600 And God gave us that gift out of love. 749 00:44:23,080 --> 00:44:25,040 He yearns for all of his children to know him. 750 00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:28,120 And if that's you in here, and that's if you're ready to start 751 00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:29,800 relationship with God, pray this prayer after me. 752 00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:32,360 It's not the prayer that saves you, but it's your heart towards 753 00:44:32,360 --> 00:44:34,840 God that does. So God, I give you my life. 754 00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:38,040 I know I'm a Sinner in need of a Savior and I know that you sent 755 00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:39,960 your Son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. 756 00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:42,840 I surrender to your will, Father, my life is not my own. 757 00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:46,240 Thank you for Jesus, thank you for your love for me, and I'm 758 00:44:46,240 --> 00:44:48,800 ready to begin a new life being born again to the Father in 759 00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:50,720 Jesus. Name a man. 760 00:44:50,720 --> 00:44:52,800 Give it up for anyone. Anyone made that decision? 761 00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:56,480 This is. I. 762 00:44:56,480 --> 00:44:58,680 Appreciate you all so much. For giving me the opportunity to 763 00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:00,440 come in here and speak on fasting. 764 00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:02,240 I hope you took away something practical. 765 00:45:02,240 --> 00:45:05,120 I hope you took away a strategy to pray through your fast. 766 00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:07,960 And I hope maybe more than anything, I hope that you 767 00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:11,040 actually fast this, this season of difference maker. 768 00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:13,360 It means everything for our church, our church. 769 00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:15,840 It's kind of a fork in a road. We can go One Direction or we 770 00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:18,560 can go God's direction. And in order to take the right 771 00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:21,080 direction, in order to go the direction God's called for us, 772 00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:23,640 it's going to require us to be looking at life with spiritual 773 00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:25,680 eyes. So I hope that you all take on 774 00:45:25,680 --> 00:45:27,760 the Yoka fasting. And if you actually are going to 775 00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:29,640 fast, like if you're going to, will you raise your hand? 776 00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:32,160 Can I see, can I see that? OK, I'm holding you all 777 00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:32,880 accountable. This. 778 00:45:33,240 --> 00:45:35,160 I see all the hands, I see all the faces. 779 00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:37,280 I, I you're going to have to do it now. 780 00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:39,320 We made a we made a pact. So thank you. 781 00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:40,720 Thank you for the opportunity to appreciate it. 782 00:45:40,720 --> 00:45:42,040 I hope you guys got something out of it. 783 00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:46,160 And yeah, thank you. Come on, give it up for Logan. 784 00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:50,360 He killed it this morning. What a good word, man. 785 00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:55,120 Just just a reminder to yearn for the heartbeat of God to walk 786 00:45:55,120 --> 00:45:58,000 step in step with Him. Thank you for the encouragement, 787 00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:01,320 the accountability for us to fast this week and just to 788 00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:03,840 recognize that Jesus truly is all we need. 789 00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:06,880 And some of you recognize that today for the first time that 790 00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:10,040 Jesus is all that you need and you committed your life to 791 00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:12,360 Jesus. If that is you, we are so 792 00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:14,280 excited for you. We would love just to walk 793 00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:16,720 alongside you to resource you with a couple of things. 794 00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:18,880 So you can do that. If you grab that connection card 795 00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:21,320 that's on your seat and fill out the information there in that 796 00:46:21,320 --> 00:46:24,440 top section, but check that box that says I committed my life to 797 00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:26,160 Jesus. And you can drop that in the 798 00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:28,040 giving buckets here in just a few minutes. 799 00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:30,560 But by doing that allows us to get you a couple of things. 800 00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:33,360 The first one is this, it's a free book, it's called begin, 801 00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:35,280 it's a short read. It's a quick one, but it really 802 00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:38,080 will be a blessing for you and encouragement for you as you're 803 00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:40,280 taking these first steps with Jesus this week. 804 00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:43,240 And if you are here in the house today and you prayed that prayer 805 00:46:43,240 --> 00:46:45,720 and committed your life to Jesus, as you exit the worship 806 00:46:45,720 --> 00:46:48,400 center, there is a table with some red bags on it. 807 00:46:48,720 --> 00:46:50,280 Please feel free to grab one of those. 808 00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:53,360 Inside is a Bible for you and a list of some other resources 809 00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:56,240 that we know will just be a blessing to you this week. 810 00:46:57,200 --> 00:46:59,400 Hey, if you are newer with us here at Real Life Church or if 811 00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:01,560 this is your first time here, thank you so much for being 812 00:47:01,560 --> 00:47:03,160 here. We're so glad that you are 813 00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:04,760 spending your morning right here with us. 814 00:47:05,040 --> 00:47:07,480 We love that you're here. We've been planning for you, 815 00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:09,400 preparing for you, praying for you this week. 816 00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:12,080 And so we're so glad that you came to hear from God this 817 00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:13,680 morning. And we don't want anything from 818 00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:15,840 you except for this. And that's just to introduce 819 00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:18,400 yourself to us. You can do that by grabbing that 820 00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:20,400 same connection card that's on your seat. 821 00:47:20,720 --> 00:47:22,920 Fill out your information there, but make sure to check that box 822 00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:25,840 that says first time here and you can take that out to the New 823 00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:28,440 Year booth as you leave outside the worship center just to the 824 00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:30,400 right. And they have a free gift to get 825 00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:31,640 to you. Just our way of saying thank you 826 00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:33,600 so much for being here. And we'd love to see you back 827 00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:37,160 right here next week. And I want to take a minute and 828 00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:40,360 just say thank you so much to those of you who give here at 829 00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:42,520 Real Life Church. And thank you to those of you 830 00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:45,480 who maybe gave last week for the first time or maybe just the 831 00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:49,840 first time in a long time. We had 11 people commit their 832 00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:51,880 lives to Jesus last month in September. 833 00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:53,920 Huge. That's right, go God. 834 00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:57,840 So awesome, that's. Thanks to. 835 00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:00,680 Those of you who give here, I will you when you give, it truly 836 00:48:00,680 --> 00:48:03,240 does make a difference here in life church. 837 00:48:03,240 --> 00:48:06,800 And I know it's easy to say, man, I just don't have enough or 838 00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:08,160 I don't don't have everything in line. 839 00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:10,040 My budget. If you saw my budget, you tell 840 00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:12,240 me, man, it's crazy there. I can't give. 841 00:48:12,240 --> 00:48:14,600 There's no way I could give. But I want to share with you 842 00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:17,800 what we believe about money here in life church, how we see money 843 00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:19,320 here. And it's a simple principle, but 844 00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:21,600 it's called the funnel. And it looks like this. 845 00:48:21,600 --> 00:48:25,240 You give to God first, then invest 2nd, and then you live on 846 00:48:25,240 --> 00:48:26,760 the rest at the bottom of the funnel. 847 00:48:27,680 --> 00:48:30,280 And when you do that, when you give to God first, that honors 848 00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:32,040 God. It just says, Hey God, I see 849 00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:34,480 everything that you've given me as a blessing, and I'm going to 850 00:48:34,480 --> 00:48:36,440 return just a small portion back to you. 851 00:48:36,440 --> 00:48:38,080 I'm going to do that to you first, God. 852 00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:41,720 And then when you invest second, that builds resourcefulness. 853 00:48:41,720 --> 00:48:43,440 That really does put your money to work. 854 00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:45,920 It takes what God's giving you and multiplies it. 855 00:48:46,640 --> 00:48:49,640 And then when you live on the rest, it just builds contentment 856 00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:54,200 and saying, God, I trust you and I'm going to live on the drip of 857 00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:57,080 that funnel. And why do we talk about that? 858 00:48:57,080 --> 00:48:59,240 Why is it so important? And that's because of this. 859 00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:04,320 We are passionate about souls, about seeing people come to know 860 00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:09,160 Jesus, about helping people find their freedom only found in him. 861 00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:13,280 And we know here that as our generosity grows and our impact 862 00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:16,960 grows and our five year vision as a church is to see 10s of 863 00:49:16,960 --> 00:49:20,720 thousands of people across our city and across the world be 864 00:49:20,720 --> 00:49:23,200 able to say, this is where I found Jesus. 865 00:49:23,520 --> 00:49:27,040 This is where my life changed. This is where I was welcomed, 866 00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:30,120 where I was loved, where I was accepted, and ultimately where 867 00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:33,680 my life changed for eternity. And so if you call real life 868 00:49:33,680 --> 00:49:36,840 church, I, if you call real life church home, I invite you, I 869 00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:38,240 encourage you to take part in that. 870 00:49:38,240 --> 00:49:39,600 And there's a lot of ways you can do that. 871 00:49:39,880 --> 00:49:42,840 You can check out the screen, you can scan that QR code, you 872 00:49:42,840 --> 00:49:44,800 can text to give. You can head to our website, 873 00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:47,840 reallifechurchkc.com. You can drop cash your check in 874 00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:50,680 the giving buckets as they pass. There's also a giving box in the 875 00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:53,200 back as well, if that's more convenient for you. 876 00:49:53,200 --> 00:49:56,040 And hey, as always, if you or your family are in any kind of 877 00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:59,040 immediate need of food, of shelter, of clothing, whatever 878 00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:01,760 that looks like for you as these buckets pass here in just a 879 00:50:01,760 --> 00:50:04,880 couple of minutes, please reach in there and grab any loose cash 880 00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:07,120 that you see. I really do want to bless you 881 00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:12,800 and your family this week. Man, what an awesome day. 882 00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:15,400 Man who felt like they heard from God today. 883 00:50:15,760 --> 00:50:19,440 And can we give it up for God? It's such an honor. 884 00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:23,320 Just to be able to gather as as, as a body with you guys today 885 00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:26,960 and, and, and just worship God and prepare, prepare our hearts 886 00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:29,480 for what's coming next. And so that's my announcement 887 00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:30,880 for you guys today. As we get ready to get out of 888 00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:33,000 here, I want you guys to start preparing. 889 00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:35,120 Logan was talking about we talked about last week. 890 00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:37,800 We're going to a season and, and we're going to launch probably 891 00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:40,000 the most important series of our church coming up. 892 00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:41,720 It's called difference maker and you guys have already heard 893 00:50:41,720 --> 00:50:45,600 about it a little bit. But through this we are really 894 00:50:45,600 --> 00:50:48,680 going to put the. Point of the Sword on. 895 00:50:48,680 --> 00:50:52,240 On what we do right, our mission has always been the same to 896 00:50:52,240 --> 00:50:54,840 reach into the city, reach to the community, find people far 897 00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:58,760 from God and in in and in this next in this next series, what 898 00:50:58,760 --> 00:51:00,600 we're going to do is we're going to we're going to lead to what 899 00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:02,640 God has next for us. Pastor Sean is going to be back. 900 00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:04,360 I don't know if you guys saw him with the one arm. 901 00:51:04,560 --> 00:51:09,000 Can we give her Pastor Sean he healed, he survives, but pastor 902 00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:12,720 Sean's going to be to be leading in giving us what God has put on 903 00:51:12,720 --> 00:51:15,680 his heart for this vision of of making a difference in our 904 00:51:15,680 --> 00:51:18,520 community and and it's if you guys don't know it's with the 905 00:51:18,520 --> 00:51:21,680 purpose of moving into a permanent facility and the 906 00:51:21,680 --> 00:51:24,520 dangers this or the fear is this is like the church only wants my 907 00:51:24,520 --> 00:51:25,840 money. The only church wants, you know, 908 00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:29,360 to great build, you know, monuments and this not our 909 00:51:29,360 --> 00:51:30,800 heartbeat. That's not who we are. 910 00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:34,080 This isn't about building a monument, It's about building a 911 00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:36,200 movement. And what we believe is, is that 912 00:51:36,200 --> 00:51:39,360 whatever, whatever God gives us in the future will be a tool to 913 00:51:39,360 --> 00:51:42,000 reach people for God to meet you, reach people for the 914 00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:44,520 gospel. And So what this this series 915 00:51:44,520 --> 00:51:46,600 will do is it will it will grow your faith. 916 00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:49,160 And these steps that we're talking about of prayer and the 917 00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:51,760 fasting, that will be the encouragement that will be the 918 00:51:51,760 --> 00:51:55,360 fuel that we'll have that God will allow us to be and, and 919 00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:57,360 play a bigger part of his, his Kingdom. 920 00:51:57,680 --> 00:52:00,760 And again, I know he's my son and his flaws that he was 921 00:52:00,760 --> 00:52:03,040 talking about, probably more my faults than his. 922 00:52:04,080 --> 00:52:08,240 And don't laugh, Holly, But what I see is this is I see a 923 00:52:08,240 --> 00:52:12,360 community of real life that he was raised in and and that you 924 00:52:12,360 --> 00:52:17,080 guys have poured into him and he's one who's the next? 925 00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:20,200 I know they're already in here. And then who's the next after 926 00:52:20,200 --> 00:52:23,720 that? And so that process of of, of 927 00:52:23,720 --> 00:52:29,880 gathering men and women, sons and daughters, that is that. 928 00:52:29,880 --> 00:52:31,920 Is the goal. That is that is what we get to 929 00:52:31,920 --> 00:52:33,480 do. That is that opportunity. 930 00:52:33,680 --> 00:52:36,000 So not only does it grow our faith, it will grow our 931 00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:38,840 generosity because we live in a world that is take, take, take 932 00:52:38,840 --> 00:52:42,040 mine, mine, mine. And I love the heart of you guys 933 00:52:42,240 --> 00:52:44,520 is that you guys give and you guys give without thought. 934 00:52:44,520 --> 00:52:47,720 And so we'll grow our generosity together and we're going to move 935 00:52:47,720 --> 00:52:52,160 into a future that God will just take this difference that that 936 00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:53,840 he will allow us to play a part of. 937 00:52:54,320 --> 00:52:57,080 And I don't know what it is, but I know that it will be a 938 00:52:57,080 --> 00:52:59,320 beautiful thing. And is if you read the words of 939 00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:01,800 God, you read, you read through the Bible, you'll see a story 940 00:53:01,800 --> 00:53:06,160 after story of where a people became humble and they followed 941 00:53:06,160 --> 00:53:09,000 the voice of God and God showed up in a reckless way. 942 00:53:09,160 --> 00:53:11,640 And that's what I'm believing in this next series of difference 943 00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:12,880 maker. So mark your calendar for the 944 00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:15,000 next six weeks. Make an effort to be here for 945 00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:16,960 all six weeks. And we're just going to we're 946 00:53:17,160 --> 00:53:19,480 going to hone in on this as as as as a family. 947 00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:21,960 And we're just going to move forward to what God's got for 948 00:53:21,960 --> 00:53:23,240 us. So I'm excited to mark your 949 00:53:23,240 --> 00:53:25,560 calendars, invite your friends, don't miss out. 950 00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:27,560 If you need prayer for any reason, we would love to pray 951 00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:29,160 with you up here. Talk to you. 952 00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:31,840 Talk with a pastor as individuals, as a family. 953 00:53:31,840 --> 00:53:34,720 Can't wait to see you guys again next week at 9:00 or 10:45. 954 00:53:34,720 --> 00:53:38,160 And as always, remember, whoever finds Jesus discovers real life 955 00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:39,680 and purpose. See you next week. 956 00:53:45,910 --> 00:53:48,750 This is the end of this podcast. We hope you've enjoyed it. 957 00:53:48,950 --> 00:53:51,390 If you have, be sure. To hit the subscribe button so 958 00:53:51,390 --> 00:53:53,510 you don't miss another inspirational podcast. 959 00:53:53,750 --> 00:53:55,710 For more great content and updates, visit 960 00:53:55,710 --> 00:53:57,750 reallifechurchkc.com.