[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Way Community Church Podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our mission is to show people the way to life with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Darahal and I am the pastor of the Way Community Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you would like to join us as a member or if you simply need prayer or if you want to worship through giving, you can find the links and the transcription of this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to look at the life of Christ in his example of how he was forced into a season, by the Holy Spirit, that we would otherwise try to avoid, and we'll consider how the spiritual discipline of fasting helps us to lean into the seasons we wish we could go around.
[SPEAKER_00]: The fact of life is we cannot avoid the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to encourage you to grab your Bibles, join the Book of Matthew chapter 4.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can find these notes in the Bible app.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's study together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew is where we're going to be today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew chapter four, there are two verses to launch us into our conversation for the next couple of weeks about fasting.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is our all-in-all and we want to fast and pray to stay in the narrow way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew chapter four is where we're going to be and there are two verses there.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word of the Lord says then Jesus was led up by the Spirit
[SPEAKER_00]: into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
[SPEAKER_00]: And after he had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, he then became hungry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna talk today with this thought at mine going nowhere fast, going nowhere fast, going nowhere fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray together.
[SPEAKER_00]: God and heaven, we honor you for you are God and you are our all and all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for sacred space we share together in a virtual capacity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for how you have blessed our church to have the ability to pivot two weekends in a row to continue to join together, even in this space.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thank you God for your people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray now for them earnestly, publicly.
[SPEAKER_00]: that they would be well, that they would be warm, that you would bless them and keep them where they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you say the sign, we look forward to our time to reconvene.
[SPEAKER_00]: in person, but for now we are thankful because you are good and you are worthy of our praise.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray not just for the weather, we pray for this nation, the temperature in this nation.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray for the things that are burdening and grieving the hearts of your people, both near and far, that you will show yourself to be mighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray now for the person who has cabin fever in the supernatural and the spiritual wham who feels like they're going nowhere fast, who feels stuck in place that you threw your spirit with mediate wisdom to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you Jesus for your love and worship in Jesus' name we pray in Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to encourage us to fight the urge to always be moving as proof that we are doing something worthy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes the wordiness of what we will do next is protected in a season of now where we may have to pull back.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're in the dead of winter and you didn't need me to tell you that two straight weeks of winter storms inhibiting our in-person worship have brought to bear the reality that here in Georgia we are in winter.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we get the threat of a storm or one inch of snow or a smidget device you know like I know we can be shut down for a day or for a whole weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it could feel like as a church, we've been going nowhere fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely you like I anticipate it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That on the weekend, we would cap that weekend off.
[SPEAKER_00]: We worship here at the way and stay in the flow and on the go for all the things that we have planned.
[SPEAKER_00]: However,
[SPEAKER_00]: winter is upon us and the truth about winter is that winter is a season where you're going nowhere fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you noticed that it gets dark earlier and winter then it does.
[SPEAKER_00]: Other seasons of the year is stays dark longer.
[SPEAKER_00]: that the frigid temperatures make us rethink outside activities or that when you look around at trees and bushes that used to be full of life and greenery now all you see is the after effect of what has fallen off in the previous season.
[SPEAKER_00]: The truth is winter is the season that looks like nothing is going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: When in reality, the season of winter is really preparing the earth for spring, when all the new growth will prove with the cold and darkness of winter, try to hide.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know that your maturing in God, when God can force you into an experience, you do not like, but you do not fight back against God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, you lean into what it means to go nowhere fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: By now, you probably have picked up that the title of my message is a play on words, that phrase or that colloquialism, going nowhere fast, implies putting in a lot of effort, but making little progress, you know, for example, you can go to the gym and you can run yourself into a sweat.
[SPEAKER_00]: but still just be right on that signed trade meal going nowhere fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is reminiscent of the jarble that had pet jarbles as a kid and in the jarble case, there's a wheel and whenever the jarble feels the need to exert or burn off some extra energy that jarble will get in that wheel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they will run as fast as they can.
[SPEAKER_00]: But truth is, going nowhere fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or perhaps you've been in Atlanta traffic.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know how it is in Atlanta people think they can drive but really can't.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you got somebody behind you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see them darting in and out of traffic.
[SPEAKER_00]: Switching lanes and all you telling yourself and praying, lower please, don't let this idiot cause me and the cars around me no issue.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this car we use and bounces through traffic.
[SPEAKER_00]: only to be stopped by traffic that is bumper to bumper that they could not see.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of that for nothing going nowhere fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: The reality of life is that sometimes we will do a lot and get a little in return.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the truth about favor is that all you gotta do is a little, but favor will give you back a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's easy to preach about favor.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to preach about the acceleration of the little I give for the lot God gives me back, but it's maturing and necessary to have a conversation about the seasons where I do a lot, but it seems like in return I get a little.
[SPEAKER_00]: help us lower about a power of your spirit to lean into the seasons like this one where it feels like we're going nowhere fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this play on terms is not just the energy I exert for the the lack of progress I get in return.
[SPEAKER_00]: This going nowhere fast is drawing our attention to the spiritual discipline, a fasting.
[SPEAKER_00]: fasting is a spiritual discipline that we practice in order to deepen or hone or purify as it were our connection with the Almighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Matthew chapter 4 we see that Jesus our Lord fasted and that turn it means literally to abstain from food or drink.
[SPEAKER_00]: for the purpose of a spiritual exercise.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this fast that Jesus is on happens to be a supernatural one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the text tells us, he eats no food and drinks, no drink for 40 days and for 40 nights.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we need to appreciate about Matthew 4 is the longevity of his fast is descriptive.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the fact that the Son of God fasted is prescriptive, which I mean, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It says he fasted 40 days to describe his unique experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't mean we should try it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it tells us, as God in the flesh, that Jesus did fast, therefore, as follows of Jesus, we should it too.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you can fast for short amount of time, or you can fast for several days, these single day or short fast or capture.
[SPEAKER_00]: And passages like Matthew 6 verse 16 through 18 or chapter 9 verse number 14 in this same book, a few chapters later.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then you have more acceptance of fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like the one that's captured in Matthew chapter 11, verse number 18.
[SPEAKER_00]: But right here in Matthew 4 at the beginning of this gospel narrative that lays out the life of our king and his establishment of God's kingdom, we find that from the outset of his ministry, Jesus, he fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now to appreciate what's going on in the wilderness while he is fasting in preparation for a fight and in preparation to fulfill God's call on His life, we got to look back at chapter 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 3 was a high moment in Jesus' life.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says that He goes down to the Jordan, which is a river in that territory and He finds He's cousin there, John the Baptister, and John the Baptister and Jesus are cousins by nature of Mary and Elizabeth's
[SPEAKER_00]: However, their relationship extends beyond the biological into the spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: For we know that John is this voice of one, crying out in the wilderness, the forerunner as it were, the prophet before the Messiah, who comes to peak people's interests and get them ready to receive the one who baptizes in fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, Jesus goes down to John the Baptist and He tells John the Baptist, baptize me.
[SPEAKER_00]: John the Baptist says, no, no, no, no, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you and I both know your true nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as a result of that, you don't need to be baptized.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to be baptized in me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, I don't deny my true nature, but it's right for me to be baptized.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's do this to do the right thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So John, Aquiasis, he baptizes the Son of God in the Jordan River, and this might be one of the highest moments in Jesus' life, pre-resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus comes up out of the water,
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit descends as it were like a dove upon him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then God gets on the PA system of heaven and says, for everybody to hear this is my beloved son.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am well pleased in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I delight in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: This high-public moment, right after that, the same Holy Spirit that the sins like a dove, grabs Jesus and whisks him away, not to paradise, not to a beach vacation, not to a few days or relaxation, is soon as God approves Him in public, the Holy Spirit snatches Him away
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we learned from Matthew 4 is this, that God allowed the devil to tip Jesus after God had just publicly affirmed him to prove that Jesus was obedient to God as an example of all who will follow him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we learned is that fasting then benefit it God's son by making him more aware of his dependence upon spiritual resources.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me say this way, here's our big idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to think about this, not just today, but in the days to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's our big idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fasting, ready's my spirit to fight temptation and fulfill my assignment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna say that again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fasting, ready's my spirit to fight temptation and fulfill my assignment and Jesus exemplifies that for us right here in Matthew chapter 4.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are two thoughts I want to lay at your feet and I hope these thoughts can influence your private time to the Lord this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first is this, fasting makes me ready for Satan's attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fasting makes me ready for Satan's attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fasting y'all is a means of spiritual readiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the truth is, we need to be spiritually ready because some things will happen to us not because we have sinned, but because God is proud of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 3, God says, this is my son.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so proud of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 4, the Holy Spirit says, going the wilderness so Satan can tip you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If we zoom out of Matthew 4, pan left into the Old Testament, stop at the Book of Joe and zoom in on Joe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 1, verse number eight, you will find these words in the New American Standard Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant, Joe?
[SPEAKER_00]: for there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we see in the life of Job and Jesus is you gotta be ready for Satan's attack because sometimes the attack will come, not because you've seen, but the attack will come because God is proud of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is so proud of the fruit that you will bore.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is so proud of the maturity he sees in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is so proud of the obedience that's been cultivated in your heart that sometimes you can obey your way into satanic activity.
[SPEAKER_00]: So fasting is needed to be ready for Satan's attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a major key, Jesus was sinless.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's still fasted, and he's still face-a-tanker-tanker-tanker.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna add a forefoot.
[SPEAKER_00]: He also took Holy Communion like we will hear in a minute.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was sinless, but he got baptized.
[SPEAKER_00]: He fasted, he face-a-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker-tanker
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes when we're deep in saying as believers, we misuse spiritual disciplines as if they will work that could redeem us.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you mean, Ra, here's what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you got a saying issue like we all do, the way to deal with saying is to repent and rest in the grace of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't manipulate spiritual disciplines as religious work.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you know you've been walking with the lower and you start to feel Satan attack you, don't mistake Satanic attack for something you did wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could have done something right to lead you into Satanic attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then don't use a spiritual discipline like fasting to show God how sorry you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're sorry, repent, Lord, I acknowledge my sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I did.
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't align with your will.
[SPEAKER_00]: You convicted me by your spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree with you that it was wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna turn in my manner of living.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I rest in your grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm only safe because you love me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't fast because we're saying because Jesus didn't say him, but he fasted.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't get baptized because we sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus got baptized and never sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't take Holy Communion to fix our sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus took Holy Communion and had no sins to fix.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get baptized for public allegiance to God through Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Baptism is our sin out in public.
[SPEAKER_00]: I belong to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Baptism is to the believer, what a wedding ban is to somebody who married.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just for the public to know about my private covenant.
[SPEAKER_00]: We fast, not to feel better about our sin, but we fast to increase spiritual sensitivity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fasting is that private moment where we deny what we need to focus on what we know we need more.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is to emphasize spiritual need over practical need, or physical need, and we also face satanic attack because we're on our way to divine purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to start to read and discern what's happening in your spiritual life without the guilt or burden or shame of sin skewing the way you understand what's happening around you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus had no sin!
[SPEAKER_00]: but still when in the womb it's still falsator, still had to fast, still got baptized and ultimately still took holy communion.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not our sin that brings this to bear.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is our vulnerability that brings this to bear.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus had not sinned, but Jesus was vulnerable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because to be human, is to be vulnerable.
[SPEAKER_00]: And look what Matthew says, Matthew chapter four, verse number one through two.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to read the saying passage again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Watch it in the message Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says next, Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the test.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look what it says, y'all, the devil was ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: The message Bible says.
[SPEAKER_00]: To give it, give what the test.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, prepare for the test by fasting, 40 days and 40 nights.
[SPEAKER_00]: That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger.
[SPEAKER_00]: The text says, Satan was ready, so Jesus had to get ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fasting makes us ready for the attacks that Satan has ready for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: See the blessing of fasting is I don't know what Satan got around the corner, but I don't need to know.
[SPEAKER_00]: All I need to know is God is my resource and the discipline in this moment to draw closer to God and spiritual sensitivity is going to make me ready for whatever Satan think he got ready for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we got to be careful here's a major key.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got to be careful of the low private moments that follow high public moments.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he said you don't just have an attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that he attacks his win.
[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit took Jesus into the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gets out there in this desert place.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing around.
[SPEAKER_00]: Satan could have attacked him on day one, but he didn't do it on day one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus fastened 40 days, saying could attack, attacked him anytime with their next seven weeks span, and that six weeks span.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't attack him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He waited until Jesus was physically hungry, and zapped of all energy and virtue, then he came to attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus was at his lowest in private, after he just had this high public moment, went out of prove to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the truth is the same way the devil attacks Jesus is the same way he attacks us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The devil tempts God's children with sin when we are in a state of low strength or virtue that comes right after a high public moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the Lord does something great for you, and it's a high season, a high public moment, you get some great news, you on cloud 9, that don't mean be afraid of what the devil is going to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just means to be ready in case he decides he want to bus him move when you hit a low moment after the high moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: so the devil lunges his attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is already fasting in order to be prepared or ready for Satan's attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the devil comes to Jesus and gives him three different temptations.
[SPEAKER_00]: And each time Jesus categorically denies him and then quote scripture in order to stand on God's word, he does this to show us how as believers who are vulnerable, this is the path to victory through Satanic attack and temptation.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's interesting to me is not just that he attacks, but what part of Jesus he attacks.
[SPEAKER_00]: He tells Jesus in the second temptation, the text says, he takes Jesus to the top of the temple and tells him, jump down.
[SPEAKER_00]: The angels are gonna catch you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, scholars are split.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sumbly, he literally took Jesus to the top of the temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: and literally told him to jump down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some believe it was figurative all of his mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in the third temptation says he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: That third temptation, we can surmise, was more in the mind and in the emotions than it was in reality.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which means what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Say in a way to a lone virtue moment after a high,
[SPEAKER_00]: public moment and attack your mind and emotions to have you thinking, believing, seeing things in a way that God didn't intend for you to see.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what fasting does is fasting gets you ready to fight in the very place Satan wants to fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says that this way in Ephesians 6, we don't war against flesh and blood, but we fight against principalities and powers in high places.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says in Corinthians that we cast down every imagination that tries to exalt itself against Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So fasting.
[SPEAKER_00]: disciplines to body, so the spirit and emotions in mind are ready for satanic attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in number two, and I'll be done, fasting makes me ready also for God's assignment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fasting has a dual readiness to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It readies me for Satan's attack, but it also readies me for God's assignment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause what happened in with Jesus is, he's just got publicly affirmed and he's about to launch into a three-year assignment.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in between affirmation and assignment, there's wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the true child of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will not go directly from affirmation to assignment without a wilderness in between.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God, don't hate you by allowing you to go in the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's proving you by allowing you to go in the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you mean, Reff, here's all I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit leads God's children into the wilderness to be tested and proven before we can be trusted with power.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever trusted somebody with power?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's unwise to trust somebody with power until you test and prove if they were within that power.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once you have tested and proven that they're worthy of that power, then you trust them with the power that you want to give, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all core news.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cording is testing and proving.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before I give you the power to share my name, before I give you the power, to share my money, before I give you the power, to share what I live and sleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before I give you the power, to influence my life more than any other human being will, I got to test you in.
[SPEAKER_00]: and prove you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what fasting does is while we're in a wilderness, it gets us ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: It proves us before God launches us into His assignment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because God has an assignment, I want you to drop it in the chat.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has an assignment for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I genuinely believe that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know how I believe that?
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that because God is no respecter of persons.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all my life, all I thought of myself as was just his regular dude from Atlanta.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't think it was not supernatural, no respect, tackle her about my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was good at everything, great at nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was just kind of like a little bit above average.
[SPEAKER_00]: Until the Lord got a hold of my life and I started to see the influence that He was entrusted to me with, then I realized, that's what God does.
[SPEAKER_00]: He takes nobody's, He gives them His anointing that He used them to tell other people you could be somebody in God too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not the only woman in the assignment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just the one with the microphone right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody under the sound of my voice has a divine assignment, and fasting can already you for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you won't get there without going through the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the wilderness will force you into a fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus gets into the wilderness, y'all.
[SPEAKER_00]: That term wilderness literally means there's nothing out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So even if he wanted to eat, he couldn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: because a Holy Spirit put him in an environment where fasting would be something he would have to do by nature of context.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why the Lord will allow us in a Caesar well for just some reason you know things aren't clicking for some reason doors aren't open it, for some reason way has been closed before you and you're trying to interpret and discern you gotta deal with your emotions, because I love me, I got hate me, I just got baptized and dedicated my life to the Lord and instead of shooting me into my zombie God,
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, God, I put you in a nothin' season, so your real eyes can't not even keep you but him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, he'll put you in a wilderness where there's nothing around you to sustain you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you know the only way I made it through these 40 days is because the Lord had sustained me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I lean into the moving nowhere fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: And fasting helps me to embrace my true spiritual resource by increasing my spiritual sensitivity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the last question I'm gonna ask you before I bid you a do.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you do when God is quiet while you're being tested?
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, and Matthew 4 verse 1 through 11, while Jesus is in his wilderness, God says nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll hold me for 40 days, God don't speak.
[SPEAKER_00]: say in tip to him, three real temptations.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not fake temptations.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are real temptations.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he tips Jesus in an area that Jesus will be uniquely vulnerable to.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first temptation was turning his stone in the bread.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you'll honger, but it's not just that you'll honger, I know you able.
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you discipline your ability to glorify your father or will you use your own powers to benefit yourself when your father is quiet while you be interested?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not just hungry, you able.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can do some about this, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus could say, no, to turn his stone to bread, just like he could say, no to getting down off the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I could have called down six legions of angels right now, but I'm not going to do that because I'm not choosing the easy way out.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second temptation, he tells Jesus, throw yourself down, because the Bible says in Psalms that he will send his angels to bear you up.
[SPEAKER_00]: He won't let your foot be dashed against the storm.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tempts Jesus to prove that what God just said about him at the Jordan River is true when he falls from the temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus says, now I don't need no more proof than the proof I already got.
[SPEAKER_00]: For it is written, thou shall not put the Lord thy God to a test.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have to make my Father proves that He loves me.
[SPEAKER_00]: My Father's already proven that He loves me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, hey, if you bow down and worship me, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now what Satan is doing is fabricating the promise that God made to his son back in Psalm chapter number two.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I'll give you the earth and all the kingdoms.
[SPEAKER_00]: Satan says, I'll give you the world and all the kingdoms.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's giving him a fabricated version of what God has promised.
[SPEAKER_00]: These temptations are real.
[SPEAKER_00]: But these temptations bring him to a point of humility where he's resting in God's strength even though God is quiet.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've come to talk to the believer who loved the Lord and know the Lord, love you, but you've been throwing a tantrum because God been quiet in this season.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to hear me when God is quiet, that is not the time to lash out at God, that's the time to lean on God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because throwing a tantrum won't expedite the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: It'll make you have to go through it for another 40 days.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord is quiet, because He's got confidence in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows He's already put enough in you for you to survive this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may be scary, and I know it's real, but it will not overtake you, just hold what you got and lean on the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Jesus shows us the real way towards victory, and what He really shows us is, He refuses to take the easy way out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You gotta be careful with Satan that's tempting you.
[SPEAKER_00]: to alleviate the stress of the wilderness, for the wilderness is there to prove you before God gives you power.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, we're prepared as a church for a congregational action item.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of us together, I want to encourage us to prepare for a fast that's going to start on Ash Wednesday, which is February 18th.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to continue to teach on fasting if the Lord says the same, we'll pick this up with the story of Esther in the next couple of weeks.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we do, we're preparing for a church while I fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to take what you fast from or how you fast, but I'm going to call you too fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I don't know where you may be, and the wilderness season personally, I know where we are as a nation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can sense prophetically where God is revealing, and that we as his children want to respond as a microcosm of the kingdom that's represented here in this nation.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't know what's going on in your life, but I want us as a church to be ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ready for what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Any attack that Satan may bring, and any assignment that God may give.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so together, we'll fast begin on February 18th, and in the next few weeks, I'll give you more information about what that fast shouldn't tell.