Will you pray with all your power while we try to preach the word? All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round you Slumbering on the brink of woe Death is coming, hell is moving Can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and our mothers And our children sinking down Brethren pray and holy manna will be showered all around. Amen. We'll sing some more in just a moment. Our missions moment we're gonna We've got the. The young family sent an email. It was either today or yesterday. Was it today. Hey man. All right. So some of y'all got that we're going to read that and pray for the young family today and we're also going to pray for Brother Romeo he's. He's working on trying to get that visa right now. His appointment for the interview is set for May 17th, 2024. And so we're praying that they can get that expedited. We expedited a letter to the embassy yesterday, day before day before yesterday, had to pay $70 to have it expedited to it's a one page letter, but it's going to far away, yeah. So, we've sent an email to the embassy, we've also sent that, and he's working with an agency there that tries to help you get it expedited, so pray that that'll work out. So, from the Youngs, do you have that written thing, or did you put it back there, the written letter? Okay, I never did read that. Let's do that. While I'm reading this, you get that, if you'd like to give If you'd like to give the missions you can bring it on down put it in the missions box here, but he says praise the Lord We have made it to Nigeria. We arrived on August the 13th at 430 in the morning and and have been busy setting up since then. Our first weeks here have been full of visits to the bank, exchangers, car lots, potential houses, immigration, road safety, New stores and church. Things are moving along. We have. Bought a car already and are hoping to sign on a house we like within the week. Says we have been welcomed here with open arms. We have enjoyed getting to know the city, meet new people and begin serving here. There is much to learn this week. Truth Baptist Church hosted SMITE. That's an interesting name for something to host at a church. Hosted Smite. We have enjoyed observing this teen camp that focuses on disciplining, no I'm kidding, training young people to reach children with the gospel in their area. Evangelist Tunde and Pastor Adewale, Adewale? Says have done a great job with this. We are Encouraged by the ministry we have seen already going on here the Holmes family Has been used of God to see many people saved trained and churches started We want to thank the Holmes and the Christian Christians and families for all they have done to help us Olivia and I are have repeatedly said to each other that we don't know what we would have done without them. They have given us their time and resources. God has truly blessed us by putting them along with two other missionaries, two other missionary families here in our paths. We look forward to working together to reach Nigeria with the gospel. Thank you for praying for us. Thank you for sending us here. The need is great. Would you consider coming here, too, with the gospel. God bless Graham and Olivia Young. And I'm going to go to the printable version and print it, but we also have a written letter here from them directly to us. So that letter went out to all of their supporting churches and so we have, and I'd like to Try to remember to pray for the Roberts next service. And we'll talk about next service in our announcements. I forgot that we had booked a missionary for Sunday morning. And so anyhow, he'll be here, praise God. We'll talk about that. But anyhow, this letter here from them says, Dear Glory Baptist Church, we have made it to Nigeria. We praise the Lord for his work in our lives and for the work he has laid before us to accomplish in Nigeria. We feel strongly that without your church, there may be no letter to write announcing our arrival, nor would we have the ability to do ministry to the extent we do in Nigeria. You are truly partners in the ministry. Thank you for your generosity of support. Thank you for taking seriously the commission given to us by our Lord to reach the world with the gospel. Thank you for your prayers. Please remember us and continue praying. We look forward to reporting the fruit that will be added to your account as well as hearing about how God is using you where you are. God bless Graham and Olivia Young. And they just had an anniversary two weeks ago, week and a half, two weeks ago. I sent that copy to the printer. It'll be back there for for later posting. But anyhow, so we're going to pray for them. And amen. Amen. So let's open in prayer. Brother Wilhelm, why don't you open us in prayer. Pray for the young family. Father, we thank you for the life and glory that we have in your house. Father, we pray for the young family. Nigeria, Lord, we pray that they get everything that they need to be able to work for, that they work in the mountains, and all the people see them, and they need to be able to work, and they try to see that they are working. We also pray for Romeo, Father, to get everything that he might be able to come to the United States for. We pray, Father, for the lovers in Haiti, Lord, that they get their paychecks, that they get a job, that they get an airport for. Amen. 495, if you close your hymnal, we're going to sing the third verse. Actually, the ladies are going to sing the third verse. If you can turn these mics on, and I'm going to mute mine for right now. And we'll play through that and then pause for just a second so I can unmute my mic. Or I'll let you handle that. How's that? So you can mute my mic and then unmute it once the third verse is over. All right. All right, ladies, sisters. Sisters. All right, everybody on that last. Let us love our God supremely. Let us love each other too. Let us love and pray for sinners till our God makes all things new. Then he'll call us home to heaven. At his table we'll sit down. Christ will gird Himself and serve us with sweet manna all around. Amen. Put your finger there in that page and close the book on your finger gently and have a seat. We're going to do our announcements, but we're going to come right back to that point there and we'll sing that next song over on the right. Announcements. Amen, so Sunday morning. We have a missionary coming so brother Chris Russell he is he is a missionary of helps and He has helped us Amen, so if you if you will notice many of the hymnals that you have there are right here. They are an indirect blessing of Brother Chris Russell. So, it actually says here, this hymnal belongs to South Point Baptist Church. Now, some of them we bought, okay, and some of them were donated to us. Now, they weren't directly from Brother Russell. Long story. We needed some fellowship hall furniture. And the Lord provided chairs from Victorious Life Baptist Church. Down in Shelbyville and we were praying for tables for the fellowship hall. We needed something kind of like what we have Which is great And so we were praying about it and I put something out there on our on like the Facebook pastors. I brotherhood, friendship, connection, whatever they call it. And what is it, ministry connection? Something like that. Anyhow, so it's like the Baptist Craigslist, yes. So, no, I just said we're praying for tables for our fellowship hall, and he sent me a private message and said, I have tables for you. I said, really? He said, what do you need? And I said, and I told him what we needed. And he said, come and get them. He said, now, no, he said, I can bring them up there, such and such. You know how he is, those of you that know him, you know how he is. He brought, so here's how we got to know him. We needed pews, and I sent out a message on that group back then, and I said, we need pews because we're changing our sanctuary and we're gonna have a wider sanctuary and we need more seating and we've been using like some pews and some chairs and this and that and so on and different size pews and shape pews and all and he said he sent me a message and he said I have you covered and I said okay he said what size do you need and I said this size he said I've got it I said okay great well come to find out he had it in a warehouse in Georgia, and he lives in Tennessee. So he drove down to the warehouse in Georgia and picked them up, took them back to his place, and then brought them from his place all the way up here to Indianapolis, spent a whole day assembling them and installing them in our church building, cleaning them, getting them all ready and everything, and then drove back home. Pretty awesome. Well, he was gonna do something crazy like that to bring tables to us and and I said brother I'm coming down know the first your second week of November for a missionary conference down in Alpharetta, Georgia, and so I can just swing by and pick up Pick him up, you know because he was like kind of stories about an hour out of the way But but you know, I mean all things considering considered, you know, rather than him driving up six or seven hours I'll go an hour out of the way and it'll work So he said, all right, great, great. Let's see if anybody in the Indy area has anything that they want to send out for church planters and things like that. So we put out a blast, and there was a church right down the street here that had hymnals that they wanted to donate, a truckload of hymnals, like my pickup truck full of hymnals. And I saw these, and I was like, hey, you mind if we take those? And he was like, no, take them, that's fine. I wouldn't have known about that if it wasn't for Brother Russell trying to help out other missionaries. Y'all remember our original pews? They were like 10,000 pounds each, and solid oak pews, they were massive. Anyhow, he took those, when he brought us the ones that he brought, and they ended up there at some church plant in Mexico. Somebody, what's that? Except for one of them that's over over on in the Concord neighborhood Holding down a porch over there. So actually they ended up with a couple of the pews over there at grace of Indy and anyhow, so He's he's connected he's got lots of ministries going on I don't know if I'm allowed to say it or not, but he's got a printing ministry in a country in the 1040 window where they set up a full printing press and they're printing Bibles and Gospel literature and things like that in the language of that country and getting it distributed out. Pretty awesome. I mean, he got that set up. He's done a lot of ministry in Haiti and he's doing stuff all over the world. Now, he's not like a church planting missionary. He is an enabler. And he's good at it. And so praise God. He's also a lineman for the local utility company down there. So he works full time and does all this stuff. And so it's pretty awesome what the Lord's doing. So I was excited. I was talking to him a few months ago and I was like, brother, we really need to just have you come and like officially meet our church during a church service and tell us about what the Lord's doing. in your work there. And he said, OK, that'd be fine. And so we worked it out for this Sunday, which was like a really bad plan because it's right before the tent meeting. And anyhow, I wasn't thinking, but it worked out for him. So I said, perfect. And so when he mentioned Brother Graham or the Grahams, which we always do when we're talking about the youngs. because Graham is a last name and a first name and a cracker. And so, which we all love to enjoy with some juice and milk and stuff. So anyhow, I've thought about Brother Graham, Brother Amos Graham, who's the pastor down in, that's how my brain is like, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, and all these thoughts and ideas and things, and oh yeah, that guy, and then this thing, and yeah, oh yeah, Brother Russell, and he's going down and he's gonna stay on Saturday night at Brother Amos Graham's church building in their prophets chamber so that he'll be local and and so that worked out praise the Lord for that so amen all of that for an announcement we have a missionary on Sunday and so y'all y'all jump into the spiderweb that is my brain and yeah just experience all the crazy uh so anyhow um don't forget the cookbook ladies are gathering uh recipes for get that out uh the other thing we have so if y'all didn't know we have a temp meeting coming up It's it's gonna start here pretty soon The tent meeting up in Minnesota has extended However, they are closing it down. They're finishing it up. I think tomorrow or maybe yesterday Yeah, man, she found it. All right, so they're finishing it up and then Sunday they're having brother Chris actually perform some baptisms for folks that got saved and that's cool. You know that that pastor there is a Delegating that to him and so then they're gonna head down here and brother Brother freed is heading up from Georgia with the Flyers. I Tomorrow he leaves and he'll be here sometime either late tomorrow night or early Saturday morning and for our visitation it's going to be kind of hodgepodge kind of thing for this week. I would really like to still have some sort of local outreach. So see Pastor Gimlick to coordinate that, okay? But beginning at noon until about 8 or 9 p.m. there will be people at Victory Baptist Church stuffing those door hangers. No one has to go and spend from noon to like 9 p.m. but there will be people there throughout that time so if you can pop in for an hour you know from noon to one or from one to two or whatever just go on over there it's it's uh if you need to know the address it's over off of i-40 i-40 u.s 40 um 40 and 400 what's that right past Cumberland. So it's technically Greenfield, just barely. And so 40 and 400, it's like 3,800 some odd something US 40. So it's Victory Independent Baptist Church, if you're Googling it. But you can go out there or you can text me, I'll get you the info. But they'll be doing that from noon until 10 o'clock. About nine and so if you can't get if you can't get with pastor gimlet to figure out something for bus ministry and maybe Maybe it might be best to do like Bible study and then a couple things and then get a few minutes or so hour to whatever in for bus ministry and then we just those that can't make it for that go on to do the the Bulletin stuffing thing. I understand that there is a conflict there of scheduling The teens have an activity on Saturday evening at the Inman's house. 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. bonfire fellowship and and so on some preaching and some good discussion and things that need to be considered and figured and all that so that is this Saturday all those things so many things going on oh yeah and I didn't forget but there's a activity happening in the morning on Saturday for the ladies if you're if you it's probably too late to say that you're interested no I think it's not you don't have to register right you just go Okay. Amen. So if you want to go, and you're a lady, see Sister Adams about the Ladies' Conference at El Bethel Baptist Church. It's just, I don't know, 15-20 minutes away from here to the west. And then the canvassing, or the bag stuffing thing, the evangelism prep is only maybe 25-30 minutes away. to the east, and I'm pointing the wrong way, east, west, there we go. And so, anyhow, so that is all Saturday. Sunday we've got the preacher, Sunday morning, and we've got the other preacher Sunday night, and then next week, Monday through Saturday of next week is the work week for the tent revival. So, what that means is, Most of what is going to happen will happen during quote-unquote business hours during the day, but probably not for most of us. Some of us will be working during the day, and we would like to get out there after that, like later in the afternoon or evening. So Monday through Wednesday will be kind of the crux of that, and it's door tagging, putting flyers on the doors all around the area for the tent meeting. Thursday, they are raising the tent while we're having church. I told them, I'm sorry, I'd love to be there, but I'm sorry. And so Friday, we'll also have that, and Saturday, trying to clean up, getting the rest out. The other thing is they're doing another thing this year. They're going to set up a 12 by 12 tent for gospel tent information. They'll man that though. There will be opportunities to man that tent from noon until the tent meeting Every day that we have the tent meeting that way people don't have to walk all the way to the tent If you pull security you can man that During that time we will also need security for the tent meeting lots of things about the tent meeting I'm excited about it. There's there's a lot gonna happen. I believe the Lord's gonna work but that that will be that informational tent will also be like a It'll be a great opportunity for some gospel preaching. And so, matter of fact, it's going to be set up close enough to where folks there, you can sing songs, you can preach the gospel, you can holler at people driving down the road and try to get them to come over. I mean, it'll be a great opportunity and it'll be a good place for those who are directing traffic in. to have if it's raining to stand under so they're not getting drenched. So lots of stuff going on with that. And then the fall program begins next Sunday, not this coming, but the following. Yes. Ah, Wednesdays, right? Wednesdays during the tent meeting. So, this coming Wednesday, and then following, probably through all of September, our church is feeding the team. And so, Melissa has all the details on that. With like the number of people and all of that So there's gonna be a quick meeting after church tonight For everybody who can be of any assistance to that. Okay, if you're like I can buy candy bars or chips Stay for the meeting So man, woman, child, whatever, but let's keep it productive as far as the meeting goes and start planning out either themes or whatever it is that you're gonna do to provide for the feeding. For those folks, that'll take a huge burden off of Sister Hewitt because she was cooking for 50 people for, yeah. Yeah, yeah, so one church has Monday night, one church has Tuesday night. We've got Wednesday night. True Light, I think, has Thursday night. I think McGregor Road's got Tuesday night. Friday night, somebody else. So it's each night, there's a different church that's sponsoring it throughout the tent meeting period. And we'll talk about details with that. We don't expect people to go out with their own bank accounts and buy food. We'll use ministry funds for that. No big deal. There's that fall program will kick off with kickball. We may have three guest preachers on that day. I haven't decided yet. I'm praying about it. And so we'll see. We'll see. So we'll have the tent meeting that evening. So we'll do the fall. the kickoff kickball tournament game thing and then everybody run away and meet back at the tent for the evening. That'll be international night for the tent meeting. Not serving international food, but we're serving international people. The gospel. Giving them the gospel. Amen. So, serving them with the gospel. Anyhow, that will begin Sunday the 4th. And so we will be excited about what the Lord is doing there. I'm excited about it. Praise God. Amen. If we do have guest preachers, we will divvy them up between the teams for the kickball game. And y'all can cast lots over who gets Brother Rooster if he ends up being here. He was going to go into professional baseball, so that might be helpful. It doesn't mean he can kick. It means he can run. It means he can run. I think he's fixed. He's not allowed to preach Thursday night for us. I asked Brother Hewitt, because he's trying to line up preaching opportunities for the other preachers that are coming in. He's not allowed to preach Thursday night for us because he says, I need his arms for driving those stakes. And so, that's how that's going. Amen. Well, I think we've talked about enough. There's probably three or four things that we're missing. We'll bring those up some other time. We have a missions conference coming up sometime off in the distant future, and we're lining up some things for that. We've got a few missionaries, local and abroad, that we're trying to have be a part of that. So, amen. Alright, let's go ahead and make ready for the offering. We're only going to sing one more hymn, by the way, y'all. We're just going to sing channels only, and we'll get into our study for tonight. Alright, Brother Travis, why don't you lead us in prayer. Lord, thank You for today. I thank You for everything You've provided for us. You gave us this world. Thank You for so much that You have going on through our territory. So it's outreach planned, Lord, and I just pray that You make that happen. Today, Lord, I thank You for that. to be a part of what you have going on here, Lord, and wherever you may be searching here for it, too. God, we praise your name, God. Just bless the giver today, bless the offering, bless the service of our Lord. We pray you may be glorified, hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Amen. Turn in your hymnal to 496 if you closed it. If you've been holding it open, then you know where you are. One other thing that I was going to mention is we'll have kickball Sunday for the kickoff, and then the following Sunday, so that you can prepare for it, we're going to have Remember Our Heroes. And so that will be the following Sunday. And then we're going to have Warhead Sunday. And then we'll talk about the rest as we get along, chili cook off and all that kind of stuff. So excited. I'm excited. Amen. It's going to be a good time. Praise the Lord. 496 channels only. Y'all know what we're singing about. We're not talking about TV channels. All right. Anybody? What are we talking about here? Channels only. What's this? What's this? What is this? You're singing. Amen. Amen. Being a channel of blessing. Right? Amen. Alright. A vessel, a channel, something that, as you're going to see in the chorus, something that allows the flowing blessings of God through you to others. Amen. How I praise Thee, precious Savior, That Thy love lay hold of me. Thou hast saved and cleansed and filled me, That I might Thy channel be. Channels only, blessed Master, But with all Thy wondrous power, Flowing through us, Thou canst use us Every day and every hour. Emptied that Thou shouldest fill me, A clean vessel in Thy hand, With no power but as Thou givest, Graciously with each command. Channels only, blessed Master, But with all Thy wondrous power, Flowing through us Thou canst use us, Every day and every hour. Witnessing Thy power to save me, Setting free from self and sin, Thou who boughtest to possess me, In Thy fullness, Lord, come in. Channels only, blessed Master, Bought with all Thy wondrous power, Flowing through us, Thou canst use us Every day and every hour. Jesus, fill now with Thy Spirit hearts that full surrender, know that the streams of living water from our inner man may flow. Channels only, blessed Master, but with all Thy wondrous power flowing through us, Thou canst use us every day and every hour. amen that's good stuff amen y'all know God blesses a channel or a funnel better and more abundantly than he blesses a bottle or a bucket. You see, the point is that you become a vessel that allows God's blessings to flow through, in and out. And we're not talking about when pastors preaching in and out. We're talking about in and out. Right? And so you become a vessel that distributes the blessings that you get. Y'all know what happens when you hold on to them? Oh, you're full, that's all you get. But as you let them pass on to others, you get more, and more, and more. And the more people you find to pass those blessings on to, the more God gives you to pass them on. Amen? And the more you're blessed. Amen. Grab your Bibles, turn to Luke chapter number 18. Stand with me, please, as we honor the Lord. I believe the Lord's already come into our presence, and we've honored Him as we stood at the very beginning. But now as He begins to give us a message here, we want to again honor Him. So in Luke 18, we're just going to look at verse 12, which is actually a bad example of fasting, but the concept is mentioned and it kind of opens up the discussion a little bit here. But in Luke chapter number 18, the Pharisee says, I fast, verse number 12, I fast twice in a week, I give tithes of all that I possess. Let's pray. Father, we thank you Lord for your word. We thank You, Lord, for just letting us be a part of Your work. Lord, we thank You that You didn't just leave us to wallow in the flesh and the world and sin, but You rescued us and redeemed us so that we might be vessels. unto honor and be able to be used of you help us Lord to possess our vessel properly and help us Lord to To be disciplined in that we pray father that you bless our time together We pray Lord that you just speak to our hearts and help us Lord to commit Father to serve you and to follow you no matter what it takes in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated Alright, we're looking here tonight at fasting. We're dealing with the subject of soteriology, which is the doctrine of salvation, or the teaching or study of salvation. And this last lecture that we've been dealing with is on prayer and fasting, because these are great privileges of salvation. Now, you might say, wait a minute, fasting, how could that be a privilege? Well, we're going to talk about that a bit tonight. So the subject of prayer and fasting is one of the least understood and practiced aspects of the Christian walk. Many think that fasting, they think of it as medieval or monastic or masochistic. or any other big word that you want to throw, I'm just kidding. They think of this as, oh, that's like, you know, old times they did that. And, oh, you know, it's maybe, you know, over, you know, in the monkeries, you know, where they have the monks, right? They do that kind of thing, right, in their monastery, you know, monkery, monastery, anyhow. Or you only do that if you hate yourself, and you just won't like pain and suffering Many religious groups have abused fasting even like the Pharisees here They fasted more for the for the visual effect than they did for the spiritual effect, but it cannot be Rejected as a valid practice on these grounds it can't be So we're going to look at first, I'm going to try to like fly through this. I want to finish this either this week or next week, if the Lord will allow, so that the following week we can be, well not the following week, but when we get back from the tent meeting, we can be in the next book. And so if you need to order the book, let me know. After service, we'll try to get a list of folks that need to order the book, and we'll take orders for book number four. It's the last book, and it's going to be good. It's going to take a long time, but it's going to be good. It's going to be good stuff. So, what is biblical fasting? So, first of all, the general terms. Fasting simply means abstinence. Abstinence to abstain from something usually this means going without food and it may be done for medical reasons prior to surgery right anybody ever have it like a Surgery where you had to be under general anesthesia, and so you had to fast you couldn't eat Before that took place or a procedure that you had to do or sometimes you do a fasting blood draw, right? And so those are medical reasons or health reasons. Sometimes we fast to lose weight Or it can be done for spiritual reasons and I know we put that at the end but it really ought to be done for spiritual reasons first and then medical reasons second and or health reasons second and third and so on. But number two, in specific terms, there are 98 references to fasting in the Word of God. Fasting usually involves abstinence from food. In the book of Esther, we have an example there. Remember, and I'm going to try to just describe each one of those so that we don't spend the time for everybody to try to find it. Your homework will be to look it up on your own and study. for yourself, but in Esther 4, verses 15 and 16, remember what happened, how Mordecai, he says to Esther, he says in so many words, God's put you in this position for such a time as this. You are the wife, or the bride, of the king. this wicked Naaman wants to destroy all of the Jews, you're going to get destroyed with them, and so you need to do something about this. And so Esther ends up deciding, okay, fine, I'm going to do something about it. And so what I'd like for you to do is I'd like for you to fast for me for I believe it was three days. Please fast and pray so that when I go before the king, he doesn't kill me. and He'll listen to what I have to say." And I believe God answered that prayer. You definitely see that prayer answered in the fact that Israel is still around today. Right? Naaman didn't kill them all off. In fact, you read the whole thing, God did quite a task there, quite a great thing. The second thing here, letter B, says, fasting can also include abstinence from other things, such as bathing and sleep. And some of y'all are really good at fasting from bathing. Stop. Go ahead and break fast, clean yourself. Amen. But the idea though is, and I don't know, some of the kids might disagree, but a nice warm shower is nice, isn't it? Not just nice because you're clean, but it's nice because it's nice. It's nice. It feels good to feel clean, right? But there's some times that you need to stay awake and you need to pray instead of sleeping. And I'm not saying that you need to stay awake for days and days and weeks on end. No, no, no. But every once in a while, maybe sometime here soon, we ought to have an all-night prayer meeting again. Not one where you stay up all night and pray and then sleep all day, because then you didn't fast sleep. You just didn't sleep at night, you moved it to daytime. So real fasting for sleep would be not sleeping and then staying awake all day. And then you say, how in the world? Don't drive, okay? Be safe. Go do things that you can do with only no sleep, okay? So don't get yourself into a dangerous scenario. What's that? So, anyhow, falling asleep, falling out on us. Fasting may only involve abstinence from certain foods sometimes, right? As Daniel gave us an example there in chapter 10. Fasting can also involve abstinence from other normal physical needs, as referred to in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Between a husband and wife, there's sometimes fasting involved for not only food and whatnot, but there's fasting involved in the marital relationship. Biblical fasting is the act of subduing the flesh in order to accentuate the spirit. It says you can look at 1 Corinthians 9, verse number 27. Let's do that real quick here. 1 Corinthians 9, verse number 27. Quickly. 1 Corinthians 9, verse number 27, Paul says, But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Now let's talk about that for just a moment here. Let's talk about that for a moment. We live in a time that everything is all about giving me what I want. That's right. Everything's all about you getting what you want. So, when you ask most people, what will make you happy? Most people will say, yeah, some people say, nothing. You can't make me happy. No matter how hard you try. Repent. Anyhow, most people will say, having what I want in life would make me happy. like accomplishing these certain goals, or getting to do this, or have this, or whatever. And it's mostly about really fulfilling the lust of your flesh. I'm not talking about necessarily the sinful lust of your flesh. I'm talking about just fulfilling the desires that you have. Let's say, for example, you would like to have a nice cup of cookie frappuccino. or a nice cup of vanilla chai latte, or you want to have a nice ribeye steak cooked right to the exact temperature and texture with all of the juices and the spices and whatever sauteed thing that you want along with it. And maybe you want a potato, or maybe you want this, or some certain vegetable to go along with it, or some certain soup that you've just been, your mouth's been watering for. Is any of that sinful? Not necessarily. Not necessarily. What's that? That cookie frappuccino? I had one today, it was good. Amen. Nestle Toll House cookie frappuccino. Pretty good. 560 calories. Yeah, it's great. That's why I'm not preaching sitting down. So, and I might run the aisle, get some calories burned off, amen. So, those things aren't all in and of themselves bad. Okay, now if you had a cookie with the cookie frappuccino, you've gone too far. I only had a bite, I'm just kidding. Sometimes, you know what, and this is, I'm not a masochist, okay? I am not. But sometimes, I just have to see that I want something and say, nope. And I'll sometimes randomly do that, just to be mean to me. Say, what? Why would you do such a thing? Discipline. That is really the crux to fasting. If you want to be a strong disciple of Jesus Christ, you must learn to tell your body to do what the will of God says to do with your body. And sometimes you have to exercise discipline to say, you know what, that's not wrong, I want it a lot, but no. Not right now. Not today. You're going to have to exercise some discipline and hold off and wait on that. Right? Anybody ever seen those studies? They sit like a six year old kid at a table with a marshmallow in front of them and they say, I'm going to leave the room and when I come back, if you didn't eat any of that marshmallow, you'll get another marshmallow. You'll have two marshmallows. I'm not going to tell you how long I'll be gone, but I'm going to leave the room and They leave the room for six days. No, I'm kidding. No, they leave the room for a little while and they come back and it's got video on the kid, you know, and he's like looking at the marshmallow. And some kids are like looking away, not going to look at it, not going to look at it. Right. Or, you know, and then you get one, you know, the kid's like, well, a little nibble. And they'll grab it and they'll just nibble a little bit off of it, you know, and then put it back. It's like, it's all good. You already ate some, just eat the whole thing. You ruined it, go for it. The idea, though, is to, the study is to determine And there's a whole big technical aspect to it too, like the difference between IQ and EQ and these different things and stuff. And so the difference between thinking basic logic and action reward to delayed reward for greater good or whatever. And so, anyhow, it shows you how disciplined that person is. Instant gratification, that is what we like here in America, isn't it? Instant gratification, right? It's like, oh, candy, mine. Right? I was in my office today and I saw this bag with various sweet and sour things in it and I was like, hmm, maybe I should try it. Nope. Close it up, put it away. I try to exercise discipline in a lot of ways. Like, y'all know, just in case anybody wondered, okay, I do not like unsweet tea. I don't. I don't like it. You know what I order when we're at a restaurant, besides water, if I'm not having water, you know what I order? Unsweet tea. Why would I do such a thing? What's that? Sometimes I'm just like, yeah, it actually makes sweet stuff taste better, I think. And yeah, reset your palate. I don't know, you know what, I do it because I'm like, okay, we're gonna have some flavor, even if it's bad flavor, I'm just gonna go for it. And I've got to the point where I can tolerate it. At the beginning, when I started drinking, so I quit drinking soda with sugar in it and stuff, you know, I quit drinking pop. soda pop with sugar, and then I would drink sweet tea. And I'm like, there's more sugar in this than there is in that. And then I'm like, okay, gotta cut that, gotta cut that out. And then the first time I started drinking unsweet tea, I'm like, oh my goodness, that's nasty! What is going on here? And now that's not to say, now listen, I am undisciplined in the area of, okay, I'll drink an unsweet tea, and then I'll eat an entire Cheesecake. And I'll feel good about it because I didn't have a sugary drink But okay, I'm working on it. All right, so Maybe the other day my wife made angel food cake and she's like check this out and I was like, that's mine And I grabbed I grabbed the pan of angel food cake and I went in my office and I kept on working I was working with brother Bella and I was like just I mean, it was like this big, you know Okay, I just ate the whole seven hundred and seventy five thousand calories All just is gone. It was good. Then I had heartburn. I'm like, why do I do this to myself? You know, sugar can do that to you. But anyhow. Fasting. No, no. No, it wasn't brownies. It wasn't brownies. It had angels in it. No, I'm kidding. It wasn't brownies. It was angel food cake, okay? And so me and an angel, we sat there and ate it. It was great. Actually, I ate both portions. You just had to watch. But anyhow. Fasting is about discipline. It is about discipline. Yes, I know, I said we're gonna go through this, and we are. We're gonna get through it. But it's about discipline. It's about learning to tell your body, you're gonna do this. And your body says, no! Yes. Yes. And then your body says, I want that. And you say, no. Your belly, it's screaming, it's grumbling. Some of y'all tonight, right now, tonight, y'all are like, Pastor, stop it! I haven't eaten since 11 o'clock this morning. Amen? Some of you, maybe, no? I don't know, maybe you ate on the way here. I know Brother Travis usually doesn't eat till after church on Thursday nights. But, it's like, quit! But, Travis has learned to be very disciplined with that whole thing, because he does that. That's his business. So, anyhow. We have those desires, and some of them perfectly fine to have the desires, right? To want to eat dinner, to want to have food, you know, to want to nourish your body. And that is a normal, natural desire. However, and fasting isn't just about that, but that is the most common thing that fasting is about. And there are lots of health benefits for that as well. but the point is somewhere along the line you've got to be able to say no to even the okay things. And you begin, as you learn to do that, you begin to do that in other areas of your life. There are things that you do that aren't necessarily wrong by themselves, but because you do those things, you cause other people to go further and end up in sin. Because you're like, it's not wrong. I can do it. No, it's not. But what it will cause others to do is wrong. You say, why do I have to think about that? Because you are your brother's keeper. Okay, unless you want to be Cain, murderer. You are your brother's keeper. So, you've got to look out for those things. If another person struggles in a certain area, you need to stay away from that area at least while they're around, at the very least while they're around. Best case scenario, They should not be able to ask you, what do you think about this? And then you say, well, you know, I do this once in a while, whatever. I eat candy bars once in a while. And they're like, oh, I can eat candy bars. I'm diabetic, but I'm going to kill myself eating candy bars. And I'm making it super simple. But it could be music. It could be because we talk about music and we're like, what's right? What's wrong with music? Well, there's there is a line of what's right and wrong. But then there's also an area within that that is that there's allowance for liberty. But if we exercise that liberty to a certain point, then other people are going to exercise that liberty beyond its ability to be exercised all the way across the line into sin, because they say, well, you're doing this. And so when you learn to say no. to the quote-unquote enjoyable things that are not wrong, then you learn to say no to the things that you don't have to say no to, but saying no to them will help others grow. Another thing, you also learn to say yes to things that you don't want to say yes to, and you don't have to necessarily say yes to, but you know that saying yes to those things is going to work out better for the long term. Make sense? All right. So, for example, there are some things that you can do above and beyond that you don't have to do necessarily. You should, maybe, but you don't have to necessarily. All right. Like, you know, give some specific extra time for something. Maybe it's outreach. Maybe giving out more tracks or something. Or maybe it's going out and trying to talk to certain people in the neighborhood. Now, listen, we're commanded to do those things. but how much of our time we put toward it, we might say, well, you know, I put already, you know, 12, 15 hours a week into specific outreach, trying to reach people with the gospel, you know, whether I was at the store, or at the gas station, or at work, or whatever, and I've spent a lot of time doing that, but I kind of feel like that, and so and so, you know, they're kind of on the cusp, they're like, I don't know what I'm gonna do this afternoon, and you kind of have this wild thought, well, maybe we could go door knocking, Let me tell you something, the devil didn't put that thought in your mind. So, what do you do? Go door knocking. But my feet hurt, I was working all day. Suck it up, buttercup. Go. Go. Get a bicycle. Don't wear a white dress shirt though. No name tags. So, there are some things that you have to force yourself to do that you don't want to do. How many have always loved to get up early in the morning to go to the gym and work out. You've always loved to do it. There's never been a time that you're like, oh man, why? Why? I'm preaching to myself right now because I don't get up in the morning and go to the gym. And I'm not saying everybody has to go to the gym, okay? But everybody should do some exercise, okay? Some form of exercise, whether it's, you know, running up and down roofs or something, you know, you should do something to keep yourself in good physical health. And honestly, I believe that if you don't do something to keep yourself in good physical health, you are sinning against God. Just as much as if you decide to go drink some bleach or something. You're sinning against God by destroying the gifts and the tools that God's given you to serve him. And so you should, it is a matter of obedience or sin related to your health. Neglect. Yeah, amen. Go to jail. Body neglect. So people say, well, you know, I mean, yeah, you can take some of these things. You know, people say it's wrong to drink alcohol. It's wrong to smoke cigarettes. It's wrong to do drugs. It's also wrong to overindulge with food. It is also wrong to overeat with sugar. It is also wrong to neglect your body when it comes to physical exercise. It does profit a little. So do it. Amen. And you're welcome personal trainers. If you need help, see those guys. But we don't always like to do those things until we get into the habit of doing them. And getting into the habit of doing them requires telling your body to shut up, quit whining, and do it. Right? Yeah. Sometimes you don't want to study. Sometimes you don't want to do your devotions in the morning. You're tired and you're grumpy and whatever. Sometimes you just want to get up and you want to drink your coffee and you want the whole world to just shut up and leave you alone. And guess what you need to do on those days? What's that? Cry. No. Probably need to spend some extra time on those days making your body do what it doesn't want to do. Every day when you get up in the morning, you ought to spend time with God, whether you like it or not. Guess what? When you do, you'll find that it's great. And it sets you up good for the day, right? There are some days where I'll work real, real late and then I've got to sleep in so that I get some reasonable amount of sleep, at least four or five hours anyways. And like this morning I got home, what time I dropped, you left at like three in the morning? About 3.03, okay, so I got home about 2.57 this morning. We were running claims up in Chicago and got back and got home about 2.57. Talked to Aaron for, what, 45 minutes probably about different things. And then did my night, did my devotions. And went to bed about 4.30 or so this morning. And then I was getting phone calls, man, I don't know, what, seven? Usually I'll ignore those phone calls because I want to spend time with God before I spend time with other people. And so, you know, I'll text back and say Bible time or whatever, or if it's something else, I'll just ignore it and call back later. Still, you know, I did sleep in today. I slept till like 10, 30, about 10 o'clock. Did my devotions. And then, what was that, six hours? Five and a half hours, anyways. But sometimes, it's the way it works. Sometimes there are days that you have to, that you go to bed real late or real early in the morning. And I've had times, most Saturdays I'll go to bed at maybe midnight, one in the morning, sometimes two in the morning. This last Saturday, it was about two in the morning, and I get up at 5.30 every Sunday morning, no matter what time I go to bed. If I go to bed at 4.30, I get up at 5.30, because it's what I need to do. Say, well, you're gonna kill yourself. I'll get sleep someday. I'll sleep when I'm dead. I'll be laying in a grave. Long time. I catch up on all that. All that sleep I miss. Now listen, I'm not saying that we get to the point where we're actually abusing our bodies in that way either. There's a balance, right? need to get sleep, right? Everybody, it's a little bit different for everybody, right? But you need to get enough to where your body can repair itself and heal and so on and move on for the next day. And so there are some days where I'm like, okay, I'm sleeping 12 hours a day. Happens about once every three, four months. Or 34 months. But anyhow, you've got to say no to self. By the way, The answer to overcoming sin is learning to say no to self. The answer to overcoming sin is learning to say yes to God when self says no. That's like the key to everything. And so why not practice that by doing trivial things like not eating sometimes? See? This fasting thing. That's right. Yeah, mortify the deeds of the body and you shall live. But why not practice that by trivial things? You know, there sometimes it's like, oh, you know what? It'd be nice to have no. I'm just mean to me sometimes, you know, just just mean to me, I will go on a gas station, I'm like, I want one. And sometimes, you know, sometimes I'm like, I'm gonna eat 14 hot dogs. You know, I'm gonna die. Or I'm gonna eat two hot dogs, which is like 1,400 calories, or 1,100 calories. Bad, bad, bad. But sometimes I go in, I'm like, oh man, I think I'll have a hot dog, or I'll have a cheeseburger, or I'll do this, or whatever, and I'm like, nope, nope, not today. Get a protein bar. Like, oh man, maybe I'll find one that tastes good. And then they got nothing. It's like, and then they get, all they got is those five, not five or one, but the one bars, you know? And you eat it and it tastes like you're eating like old moldy soap or something with some flavor in it. It's like, oh man, 21 grams of nasty. And so, anyhow. I'm not hungry anymore, I'm good. Roll on down the road, keep on. When I get on the roof, I'm like, I'm starving to death. Anyhow. And I understand, sometimes you have a more physical job. You've got to make sure that you fuel that machine to be able to do the work and so on. Yes, I understand that. But there are days that you can say, OK, I'm going to fuel the machine, but I'm not going to fuel it too much. I'm gonna cut back on this, or I'm gonna say, okay, look, I've gotta put food in my body so that I can get the work done for the rest of the day, but I'm gonna have something that's not necessarily what I wanted to have. I'm gonna eat something that will do the job, but not necessarily satisfy all my desires right now, right? I'm not gonna go to Cheesecake Factory, have a steak, some taters, and some nice greenery and stuff, and then, you know, whatever greenery you like, asparagus or broccoli or salad or, you know, What's that? Verde sauce, I guess that's green, yeah. Or whatever, and then I'm gonna have a big ol' piece of cheesecake, or I'm gonna have this or whatever, you know. Some days you just need to say, nope, I'm just gonna have a salad. Just gonna have a salad. Add some extra spinach for protein or something, you know. Right. Or throw some bugs in there, it'll be fine. There you go. Make sure that that's for you. This thing, yeah. Oh, it's not going to do good? I'm sorry. Alright. So, anyhow. Discipline. It's about discipline. And I came away from the notes to emphasize that on purpose because we get really We get really selfish in life. And if we don't stop and say no to self on a regular basis. And we don't say no to self for the sake of saying yes to self, like the Pharisees. Oh, I fast twice in a week. Look at me, everybody! I do this and I do this and I do that. Now, that does not mean that no one can know you're fasting. If you're married, men, tell your wife you're fasting so she doesn't make a meal and then get upset you didn't eat it. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about don't fast so that everybody can know. And that's your reward. It's okay for other people to know, but if you do it so other people can know, then you're defeating the purpose of doing it. So, wash your face and don't look like you're fasting for the sake of trying to appear to be religious. Instead fast because it says when you fast right? It's this is an expectation that you're gonna do it So why why should biblical fasting be practiced and I know I talked about this a lot and that's why I'm just gonna I'm just gonna read through it here. It says because we are detached from Christ's physical presence remember when he said when when someone came to him and said why do The disciples of John fast often, and your disciples don't fast. What's up with that?" He said, well, because I'm with them. No need for them to fast right now. But then, interestingly also during that ministry time, he accomplished things that they couldn't accomplish because they weren't fasting. He's not here physically with us anymore. And so it's time for us to fast from time to time. Um, I mentioned fasting, putting it on the calendar back there. Um, I failed to put it on the calendar, but I was, uh, there's been a few times that I haven't. Um, but, uh, plan to fast and pray for the tent meeting specifically for our fall program. Pray that God will use you during that program, that God will grow you, that he'll stretch you and strengthen you and make you a better Christian during that time so that when the program's over, you can keep on with it. so that it isn't just for the fun, it's also for long term, right? And the other reason is because we are expected to fast, as I just mentioned. Jesus said, when ye fast, not if you fast, when you fast. Right? You say, oh I can't fast, I've got medical this and that and whatever. I am telling you, brother and sister, you do still fast. Even if you have diabetes, your doctor will sometimes have you come in for a procedure and tell you not to eat. So how do you deal with that? How do you deal with that? Well, you just do what your doctor says, right? There you go. So what do you do? What do you do? How can you fast? Well, you can, again, you can fast other things if you still need to make sure your blood sugar stays leveled and all that. You still check your blood sugar, keep it where it needs to be and all that. But last I checked, and I've talked to a few people who have had diabetes, fasting is helpful, if done right, when you have diabetes. If it's done right, it can be helpful. But we do so because we're expected to. And again, it doesn't mean that you don't eat for three days, all the time. Sometimes you fast something else. You know, a favorite soda pop, a favorite, or whatever you call it these days. Everybody call it Coke, soda, pop, Mountain Dew, whatever it is. Yeah. Trash, is that what you said? Amen. That's right. The devil's nectar, no. That's what, that's what Brother Delp used to call it. Anyhow, so give something like that up. Give up your entertainment. Give something else up. By the way, start fasting entertainment and never look back. Keep on. Amen. Fast your social media from time to time. Right? If you're using it for good, use it for good, but fast it when you're not. Right? Why else should biblical fasting be practiced? Because we have a wonderful promise from God. Turn to Matthew 6. Matthew 6. We're going to be done here shortly. Verse number 18. It says that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. We have a wonderful promise from God that we will be rewarded for fasting. As long as we're not doing it for public effect. We'll be rewarded for fasting. Number four, because we are in good company. We're in good company. Amen. That's a good reminder. Everybody make sure your phones are on silent. Even if somebody's sending a prayer request. Alright, we're in good company. Anybody else in the Bible fast? Moses fasted, Hannah fasted, David fasted, Elijah fasted, Daniel fasted, Esther fasted, Ezra fasted, Nehemiah fasted, Anna fasted, John the Baptist fasted, the Lord fasted, Paul fasted, and there's plenty more. Yes, plenty more fasting going on. We're in good company. It's not like, oh, we're the only people in the world, Glory Baptist Church, we're the only people in the world that ever fast. Ever have, ever will. It's just that Pastor Campbell, he's crazy. He makes us not eat sometimes. No, by the way, I don't make you do anything. You've got to make that decision on your own. We're in good company though. We're not the only people who have ever fasted. By the way, when you look at other people who have fasted, what does God do? answers prayers, removes demonic influence, deals with healing problems that the people are facing, sees souls saved because of it. That's why when people fast and pray for revival and souls to be saved, it happens. It happens. But we love our bellies, and we tend to say, ah, it's not really going to make that big of a deal if I don't. You know, it might be you that's holding back the blessings of God. It might be you that We can pray. I'd like to pray that God will save at least a hundred souls between the tent meeting and our fall program. At least a hundred people make professions of faith. And I want them to be solid professions of faith. I believe it is way, way doable that God's arm is not shortened and His hand is not shortened that He cannot save. I believe that God is capable of saving a million souls in the next month and a half, two months. I believe He's capable of doing that. But sometimes there are things that we have to be willing to sacrifice so that we can go and seek the Lord and see Him do amazing, miraculous, impossible things that can't be done otherwise. There's a reason that there are some things that are limited to prayer and fasting and not prayer alone. Because somewhere along the line, it's got to be more important for us to see somebody rescued from hell than it is for us to have a nice meal. Sometimes it's got to be more important for us to see somebody rescued from hell than it is for us to enjoy some little piece of entertainment. Sometimes we've got to give up the things that we like, or the things that we love sometimes. You know, oh, I love this to eat, or I love this show, or I love this such and such activity, or whatever. Sometimes we've got to say, you know what? I'm going to give up what I want and what I like so that I can ask for God to do something that He wants. We're going to talk next week, if the Lord will allow. about when biblical fasting should be practiced. When it should be practiced. And we'll try to close out this book here next week. We'll look at when it should be practiced and how it should be practiced. And it'll be a good old time. Amen. Let's all stand just for a moment, heads bowed