REVIVE: Broken people seeking a faithful God — Seeking God through fasting.

Pastor Tony Liuzzo (Lead Pastor) - Matthew 6:5-15 (Philippians 3:3 & 19; Romans 7:18; 8:8; Matthew 5:6; 6:6-7 & 16; 26:41; 17:20-21 Galatians 5:16-17; Luke 9:23; Colossians 3:2; Jeremiah 29:13; James 1:22)

 

Can you feel it? Can you feel the spiritual condition of the world around us? To be honest, it is not just the condition of the world around us, but the condition of our own hearts. Is it possible that we could be so used to going through the motions of the Christian life that we have slowly adapted to a powerless and passionless life? Are we missing something? Could God be shaking us right now to awaken His people to the life, passion, and power that we were created to live out? What if we stopped, listened, and responded?

This world might be in a mess right now, but God is not finished! We might be broken, but our God is still faithful! God greatly desires to REVIVE His people to the power and purpose that we were created to accomplish. Together, let’s take a journey to seek God and ask Him to Revive our hearts!

If prayer is so powerful, why don't we pray more? Have you ever thought about this? We often blame the Devil when we are not doing the things we know we should be doing. But the Devil often gets blamed for things he did not do.

The Bible tells us that we have opposition that pulls us away from spiritual things....things like prayer and reading our Bibles. The real opposition is us...our flesh. But there is good news! God has given us a spiritual exercise to counter our flesh, it's called fasting. A word mentioned more than practiced.

If it is in the Bible, we need to know why and we need to obey it. In this episode, we will study what it means to seek God through fasting.

 

REVIVE: Broken people seeking a faithful God

Seeking God through fasting.

 

Our flesh is...

1. corrupt

2. weak

3. at war with the Spirit

 

I. Fasting is resisting our flesh

A. fasting is confronting our flesh

B. fasting is telling our flesh "NO" (it's a spiritual discipline)

 

II. Fasting is how we amplify our prayers

A. fasting puts our focus on God

B. fasting is coming to God with a heart of surrender

 

III. Fasting is part of the Christian life

 

Types of fast:

1. absolute fast: abstaining from all food

2. partial fast: abstaining from a particular food

3. liquid fast: abstaining from all solid foods

4. alternate fast: refraining from Netflix, social media, screen time, playing video games, etc.

 

Keys for fasting:

1. have a plan

2. pray about doing it

3. remember: it is about your heart and desire

4. just start