I'm gonna start by talking about
One
Of my favorite things in the whole wide world, and that
Is food . We are a culture that loves food. Like there's something about food that, that we just dig it. We use food for
All kinds of different things that there's the
Basic, obviously we use Food for survival. If you don't eat, you eventually die. But way beyond that, we use food for
So
Much more. We use food for pleasure. Like,
Like right now, if you think of that thing that you like to eat more than any other thing, like,
You know, the feeling when, whether it's
Ice cream or whether it's chocolate,
Or whether it's fill in the blank. Maybe it's a steak, maybe it's barbecue. Like there's something about eating
The right meal
At the right time that just feels
Amazing
That we use food
For entertainment.
That sometimes you go to a place, sometimes people go on whole
Trips
Purely for the food. Like, why are we going there because of the food? And we use food for social connection. It, it would be weird to have a
Gathering at your house and not have
Some type of food that
You are putting out.
There's,
There's just something about food
That draws us together. We use food to celebrate. You go to a wedding and there is
Wedding cake. You have a birthday and you celebrate
With some sort of food. We use food for
Tradition probably at Christmas time. There are certain foods that you make at Christmas time, like, we
Always
Do this, or we make
Sugar cookies or,
Or fill in the blank. As a side note
Food is
Also connected to culture. And I'm, I'm now going on five years in Colorado. And here's the question that I, I like
To ask people
That I've never heard a good answer for. And that is,
What is Colorado's food? Like? You think of Texas,
You think of Tex-Mex, you think of Louisiana, you think of Cajun food. You think of New York that they have their own steak named after them. Chicago's got their own style of
Pizza. But, but Colorado, like if someone's come to Colorado and say, okay,
You get one Colorado meal,
This is
What that meal should be, and I know what you're gonna say. And no Rocky Mountain oysters are not it. That's not, it's not allowed to be the answer for the thing. Now
Also, the
Other common answer I get is Green Hatch chili, and yeah, that's New Mexico's thing. We, our thing can't be
Like the worst
Version of somebody else's thing. All right? That can't be the answer. So if you're a chef in here and you wanna go into that domain, I think it's, I think it's wide open. I don't think we have one yet.
So it's culture, it's tradition. We eat food for,
For comfort. Like you're having a bad day, like,
Oh,
Hey, I'm gonna get this kind of food.
Well, we eat food out
Of boredom and maybe your kids in the last couple weeks, they weren't at school and they, they just get bored. And so they go to the cabinet, they, they get snacks. Well,
We have food for security. Like I,
I guarantee you there's somebody in this room that, that you
Are
A doomsday prepper.
Like you've got,
Maybe you've got a bunker in the mountains that's deep down and you're just waiting for that day.
You got your go bagg ready. Like you're, there's a part of you
That's hoping may any moment now I
Get to go. And, and what is
Part of a doomsday prepper's preparation? Food. Not good food, by the way. It's like styrofoam food, but it's gonna last the next a hundred years. And they are ready because food is a source of security, so much of who we are. And our culture revolves around food. A lot of our personal choices revolve around food. Like, like to put food a different way. Think about this, that when we are stressed, what's the answer? It's food. When, when we're celebrating, what's the answer? It's food. When we're bored, the answer is food. When we're sad, the answer is food. When we're nervous, the answer is food. When we're lonely, the answer is food. Sometimes those go together like I'm sad and lonely food. And so food is the epicenter in so many ways of who we are and how we operate and what life is all about, which is why this sermon is gonna seem so radically crazy because we're gonna talk about food now, now, now, before we do, let me point out this, that food isn't a bad thing.
Food is a gift from God. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing. But the Bible has this spiritual discipline called fasting. And, and fasting is the opposite of food. It's abstaining from food. And, and maybe if you're hearing you're brand new, you're like, wait a second, you're gonna talk about fasting. You're talk about not eating. Like that sounds cultish and crazy and wild and out there. But, but here's what I would challenge us with that. Fasting is a practice that we see all through the Bible. Like the Old Testament. We see fasting over and over Moses fasts and David fasts and Elijah fast. And there are different times where, where the nation comes together in order to fast. And then the New Testament, Jesus fasts, and then his disciples fast. When the Holy Spirit comes down at Pentecost, it says that they're gathered together. They're praying, and they are fasting.
That, that, for most of church history, fasting was a regular practice that people participated in. And it's only in the last, I don't know, 50 to a hundred years that slowly fasting came out of style. So we're gonna unpack this concept of what it is, why it's important, and why scripture would give it to us as a gift. If you've never heard of this concept or idea of fasting if you look it up on Bible gateway's dictionary that they write, this fasting is abstaining from food and possibly drink for a limited period of time. Now, now, biblically fasting is always abstaining from food. We're, we're gonna bring it into some other categories, but biblically, like the definition of a fast is to abstain from food. Culturally we're gonna talk about abstaining from, from social media or some other options so that we can all participate. But, but that word fast, that that's what it means. The, the word breakfast means to break your fast break that the nighttime of abstaining from food. Now, I love the way that the Bible project defines it.
They say
Fasting is a way
To pray with your whole body.
It's temporarily restraining your physical
Appetites
In order to connect with God in a posture of surrender, remembering that only
God
Can satisfy
Your deepest
Longings. And now if you're in here and you're like, well, hey, I've, I've never fasted before in my entire life.
Here's
The good news, you're not alone.
Probably the vast
Majority of the people in the room have never fasted. And and definitely the vast majority of the people in the room
Don't use it as a regular
Practice in our lives.
Which, which I think
Is why it's important
To
Dive in and figure
Out what does scripture teach us
About it and why is it important? Up until a couple hundred
Years ago, it was a very regular
Practice inside
The church. John Wesley is the father of the Methodist
Tradition, and he talks about fasting and, and it's kind of comical because
His
Expectation, he's scolding people for not fasting enough. And this is
What he says.
And I fear there are now thousands of Methodists,
So-Called
Both in England and Ireland, who following the same bad example, have entirely left
Off
Fasting, who are so
Far from
Fasting twice in the week as
All the stricter Pharisees did, that they do not fast twice
In the month. And probably for most of us, you're reading there like
Fast
Twice in the month. I mean, I, I didn't fast twice
Last year.
I'm not sure I fasted twice in my entire life,
Which is why I I think it's worth
Digging into. If you've got a Bible turn with me to Matthew chapter
Six.
Matthew chapter six, and we're gonna look in verse 16. Jesus is talking and he
Says
This, and when you
Fast,
Do not look gloomy like the
Hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their
Fasting may be seen by others.
Truly, I say to you, they receive their reward. But
When you fast anoint your head and wash your
Face, that your
Fasting may not be seen by others,
But by your father
Who's in secret and your father
Who sees in secret will reward you.
Now, now I wanna point out a a a couple things. One,
Culturally Jesus
Is talking to a group of
People that were very
Familiar with
Fasting. The Pharisees are characters that they show up all over the
Gospels. And we typically
Look at the Pharisees as the bad guys because
They're, they're constantly fighting with
Jesus.
But in the first entry, they wouldn't have been seen as the bad guys. They
Were the religious leaders.
They were considered righteous. They were considered like,
Like the good guys, the,
The awesome guys.
But Jesus is specifically
Talking in that context about something that everybody was familiar with. The
Pharisees, they fasted twice a
Week, every Monday and every Thursday
From
Sun up to sundown. They was
Fast.
And, and Jesus
Is, is specifically talking about that group when
He says, when you fast,
Don't fast in this way where
Everybody knows that you
Fast. Otherwise
You're ruining the point, the intention about what God wants to do on the inside with the fast. And now, I I wanna point something out that Jesus is assuming that his followers would one day fast. Because because notice what he says, it's not if you fast. It is when you fast. So, so there's an assumption if you're a follower after Jesus, Jesus just assumes that that's something that we are going to do when we fast. Here's the right way to do it. Now, I'll also pause and, and give you at least a little bit of relief. There's no command in scripture for you to fast. There's kind of an expectation, but there's not a, Hey, you must fast, thou shall fast. And so the last thing that I wanna do today is, is cause anybody to walk out with any more spiritual gift excuse me, not gift guilt.
I do want you to walk out with spiritual gift. I do not want you to walk out with spiritual guilt. Like, like probably you carry enough spiritual guilt already. And what I don't want you to do is be like, oh, great. One more thing. I'm not good at one more thing I'm failing at. Like, that is not the point. It's, it's meant to be a gift to us when used properly. But the danger that we see in this teaching is that what can happen, we can use it wrongly. That's what the Pharisees were doing. They were, they were going through the motions, and yet they were missing the point. So, so Jesus says there are some dangers to fasting. So, so what are some things that fasting should not be or, or what fasting isn't? So fasting isn't a way to earn God's love or forgiveness.
Th this is not a merit bath based faith. That, that God loves you and loves me, and nothing that I can ever do or accomplish will cause him to love me more. The forgiveness that I receive from God is a free gift from God, not based off of my works. It, it's completely grace. So fasting is an out not about earning God's love or favor. If fasting isn't a way to force God to do something, it's not that, okay, if I fast for seven days straight, then this prayer that I've been praying for so long, finally it's going to come true because I've done this. It doesn't work that way either. Fasting clearly is not for public show. That's what he warns against with the Pharisees. Fasting also isn't for self-harm or poor health choices. And, and let me, let me pause and lean in.
I, I recognize that, that maybe some of you, that that food and and body image that that's been something of a sore subject in the past. And, and so, so maybe you're somebody that has struggled with something like anorexia or bulimia. If that's the case, that fasting is something that would not be healthy for you to do and you should stay away from now if you're pregnant or if you're nursing, you should not fast. Kids should not fast. And so if you are considering leaning in, in this next 21 days and doing some type of a fast you need to look at your health first and foremost. You might need to have a conversation with a health professional. So it's not for
Everybody, but the spiritual
Practice and principle
Can be achieved by
Everybody in some way, shape
Or
Form. Fasting also isn't a replacement for loving our neighbor.
We see that with the Pharisees.
It's not like, well, hey,
By, by
Being a good
Fa
It means I don't have to worry
About these
Other things like being kind to people and being, giving that No, it goes along with that.
So if, if
All these things are not what
Fasting is, why should we fast? Like what's
The point of fasting?
What's the purpose
Behind it? Flip,
If you're in your
Bible in Matthew six,
Flip over a
Few pages to Matthew chapter nine.
Look in
Verse 14,
It
Says, then the disciples of John came to him to Jesus saying, why do we in the Pharisees
Fast, but your
Disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, can the wedding guests mourn? As long as the bridegroom is with them, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will
Fast. I, I love Jesus' answers
To questions because most of the time in the moment, it makes no sense whatsoever.
So, so like, they're, they're, it's a very practical question there. This
Is John the Baptist, his
Disciples,
And
They're like, Hey, we fast.
And, and the Pharisees, they
Fast, but
Jesus and his disciples,
They aren't
Fasting. And so,
So they walk up like, Hey, how come, how come your guys don't fast?
And then instead
Of saying, well, hey, here's why he gives this, this whole example about a bridegroom.
And they're probably just
Like, yeah,
That makes
No sense. But okay,
I mean, like, I, I I don't know what to do
With that.
So, so here's the point of what Jesus
Is trying to connect with.
Jesus
Is saying that our fasting is connected with our longing, which
Is
Why he says, when the bridegroom is with you in, in, in this illustration, he himself is the
Bridegroom.
He said, as long as
The bridegroom, as long as Jesus is present,
He said, right now the feast is going on. So they don't need to fast. But he says, when the bridegroom, when Jesus is gone, then you fast.
Why? Well, well, while Jesus is there, they
Don't need to long for Jesus. They're
With Jesus.
But when Jesus is gone, they need to constantly be reminding themselves
Of
The need for
Jesus
In their life. And John Mark Comer ha
Has a great book called
Practicing The Way. He
Talks about
Spiritual disciplines. And, and in his teachings on spiritual disciplines, specifically on fasting, he does
This really good job of
Putting things into these two different categories.
That one
Category is, is like
Our primal immediate
Desires.
And then the other
Category is our deepest desires.
So, so think about our
Physical desires that the, one of those physical desires is food. If I don't eat,
I get hungry.
If I haven't
Eaten in a few hours, at some point, my body will start telling me, you
Should have
Food. If I don't drink,
I get thirsty.
My body starts reminding me, you need to drink something.
There's also these other desires I have. LUT
Is a human desire, a natural desire that can be a godly
Desire,
But can also be taken outta context and become a sinful desire.
All of my
Wants
Are physical desires.
Coming on the heels of Christmas, there's a lot of wants. If
You've got kids, it's I, Hey,
I want this and I want this and I want this and I want this. And, and now we're we're
Only few weeks
Past Christmas and some of those things that they we're
So excited to want
And desire, they open it and they play with
It for three
Days. And then what happens? The one starts to fade
Away.
Same thing happens to us as adults.
Like, I
Want a new phone. And when I get the new phone, I'm so excited about the new phone
Or, or the bigger tv
Or the nicer car, or the nicer house or the second house. And those things make me really
Excited
In the moment.
But but do they
Fulfill that need? No. No. At some point I start wanting something else.
Like,
You're not gonna get to a
Place where, Hey, I've just got
All the things and I I don't have any more wants anymore. We
Always
Have these wants. And by, by nature, by definition, tho those type
Of physical wants,
They can ultimately never
Be
Satisfied. They can be appeased for a moment,
But they can't fully be satisfied. Those are our
Strongest desires,
But they're
Different than our deepest
Desires. Our deepest
Desires are things like belonging and feeling loved, and feeling a part of something that
Our deepest
Longings and desires
Are
Spiritual needs that connect us to
A desire
And a need for
God, which is why all these
Physical, strongest desires, they ultimately always end up empty.
But our deepest desires, our spiritual desires, they're
Pushing us towards a relationship with
God. So
Jesus is saying that fasting is connected to our longings. That, that I'm trying to suppress
These
Physical longings in order to lean into
These deeper spiritual
Longings and
Desires.
I I think one of the challenges that exist inside of the
Christian faith is that there's this, this
Tension between willpower and effort and also
The free
Gift that comes through the power of
The Holy Spirit. So
There are certain things in our relationship
With God that, that
They do in fact require
Willpower
And effort. It, it
Requires willpower to practice spiritual disciplines,
Spending time in prayer, spending time reading my Bible, spending time fasting, that that requires willpower. And yet at some point there is an end to willpower
Where I have to rely
And surrender to
The Holy
Spirit. I I need
The power of God
To change in and through me,
Which is why
At New Year's,
You see a lot of this, like, like
Probably most people in this room, you did not make New Year's resolutions. And here's what the data
Would say that the older you are, the less likely
You are to make New Year's
Resolutions. Why do you think that is?
I probably, if you're one of the older people in the room, you're like, it's 'cause I've tried. It's 'cause I've been down that road. I, I've tried over and over and over again, and it does not work. And so I just figure might as well not start my my year with disappointment. So I'm just not gonna make any resolutions, okay? Because discipline, willpower, that can be a challenging thing. And sometimes we take willpower and we put it on things that are impossible by ourselves. So addiction can be one of those things. Like maybe you're coming into New Year and you've got some type of a sin that you've struggled with over and over and over again, maybe for decades. And you turn the page on New Year and you're like, this is the year. I'm just gonna try harder. I'm gonna do better. And there are certain things that without help without other people, without the power of the Holy Spirit transforming in my life, I can't just try harder.
Trying isn't enough. Growing up, my dad used to tell these stories and most of the stories made no sense, but some of the stories were about some type of a life application. And one of 'em was about trying, because we use, trying as an excuse all the time. Most kids do. So you'd be doing homework and you hadn't finished your homework. Hey, have you done your homework yet? I'm trying, I'm trying over here. Hey, hey, have you done all your chores? No, I'm, I'm trying. I just haven't done it yet. And so then, then he told us this story that became a staple story that, that he told multiple times in my childhood. And this is the story. He said, Kurt, Steven, Marie Beth, that was my siblings. He said it was a football team. Timmy was a football player. He's sitting on the bench.
He hadn't gotten to play their team's getting killed. The offense is just scoring over and over and over again against their defense. And so the coach walks down the line, he comes up to Timmy and he says, Timmy, I want you to look out there on the field. Billy's our cornerback. Billy's getting beat every single time. They're, they're wide receiver. They're just picking on him. They're, they're going to him every single play. So Timmy, I need you to get in there, replace Billy, and I need you to be better. And Billy stands up, he looks at the coach in the eyes and he says, coach, I'll try. And the coach shakes his head. He says, Billy, sit back down or Timmy sit back down. Billy's trying. That's it. That's the end of the story. And you're like, what, what does that mean? And I didn't know at the time, like my dad, my dad said it like a drop the mic and just walked off and we're like, what?
What, what just happened right there? But, but then all of a sudden that phrase became this phrase that we started using in our family. So someone would use the excuse of, well, hey, I'm trying. And then my dad would look over and he'd say, Billy's trying. I have used that story with my kids. It's, it's now a generational story. And anytime my kids use that excuse of, Hey, well, I'm trying. I look over, I say, Hey, Billy's trying. Well, what's even better and more annoying is that if my older two kids say something with a phrase of I'm trying, then their 7-year-old sister will say, Hey, Billy's trying. So like, it's become a thing that, that, that the point being, Hey, don't try do. So sometimes trying isn't enough. You've
Got to accomplish
The thing. If you've got your Bible open,
Flip back to the left. Always
Look in Isaiah
Chapter 58, Isaiah chapter 58,
Starting in verse six.
God gives us the, the pathway of what
Fasting is
All about. Isaiah 58, verse six
Is not this
The fast that I choose. God is talking
And God is saying, this is the
Fast that I choose
For my
People to lose
The bonds of wickedness, to undo the
Straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go
Free and to break
Every yoke.
Is it not to share
Your
Bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house? And when you see the naked to cover him and not to hide
Yourself
From your own flesh, then she, your
Light break forth
Like the dawn. Pause for a second. 'cause That
That visual is just so powerful,
Like God is saying that, that when he gets
A hold of our life and, and
Starts doing in our life, what
God wants to do, that the result of that is that his light breaks forth like the
Dawn and your healing shall spring up speedily.
Your
Righteousness shall go
Before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call and the Lord will answer.
You shall cry. And he will say, here
I am.
If you take away the
Yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you
Pour yourself out
For the hungry and satisfy
The desire of the afflicted,
Then shall
Your light arise
In the darkness. He, he points out this
Ability for our light
To break forth in the dawn, and then he
Gives us
A description of what it looks
Like for our life to rise
In the darkness and your gloom to
Be
As the noon day
Verse
11. And the Lord
Will
Guide you continually and satisfy
Your desire
In scorched
Places
And make your bones strong.
Pause
For a second and just rest there on that phrase.
The Lord will guide
You continually and satisfy
Your desire that, that
God is connecting this idea
Fast with the desires that we have, our physical
Desires that can ultimately never be
Satisfied.
They can be appeased, but they'll come back and come back and come back and come back. He, he's saying instead
That
God wants to, the Lord will continually
Satisfy our
Desire in scorched
Places,
Making our bones strong. And you shall be
Like a
Watered garden,
Like
A spring of water
Whose waters
Do not fail. Now, maybe you're walking into to 2026 tired. Maybe you're walking into 2026
Saying,
Reflecting on what's been and saying, okay, what
What could it look like for it to be different? What,
What God's presenting this picture
Of is this ability for us
To live in this
Life with these physical
Desires that can never be appeased. And yet
Despite
That, have a garden that
Have
Living
Life. What
Does that
Look like?
He's saying, replace those
Physical desires with this spiritual
Longing that only God can fulfill.
Instead of
Just going into 2026 and saying, well, I'm gonna try harder than I did
Last year or the year before, the year
Before. It's never worked
Before, but this year I'm just gonna try harder. The invitation from God is, Hey, you can't do it by yourself, but
If you allow me to come alongside you through
The power of the Holy Spirit,
What can we accomplish together? So, so
Here's what
God's trying to get us to understand. The point of a fast isn't an empty stomach.
Like,
Like if you go into the next 21 days and you say, okay, I'm gonna fast a little bit, and and you don't
Pursue
God alongside that, then you're just hungry. That's not the point a fast. It's about an honest heart.
It's
About changed habits. It's about a transformed life. It's about inviting God into
The place
Of that absence. So the way that the fast is supposed to work is if I'm, I'm choosing a fast from food
That
I, I normally have breakfast at, at eight o'clock, seven o'clock in the morning and, and I don't have it. And so all of a sudden at nine o'clock, at 10 o'clock,
I start
To feel hungry. The
Goal of the fastest
Is that hunger reminds me just as my body
Physically
Needs food more so does my spirit need God.
And so I replace that
Food with a yearning, a longing for God.
So I try and fill that,
That need, that longing, that desire with something like prayer
Or scripture
And something that is pointing me back to and reminding me or reminding my soul that I long for Jesus. I need Jesus in my life. One of the early church
Fathers
John Christus, and
He writes this,
Fasting is the change of every part
Of our life because the sacrifice of the
Fast is not the abstinence, but the distancing from sins. Therefore, whoever limits the fast
To the
Deprivation of food, he is the one who in reality abhors and ridicules
The fast.
He says, fasting should help us to turn away from sin and to focus on God. And if I turn my fast into just not eating food, then, then I'm missing it. I I'm missing the point of what
God
Is trying to do. We're gonna do something as a church, just a challenge. And that is on your way out, we're gonna give you this. It's a 21 day guide of prayer and fasting and devotional. We also have a, an adapted guide that we're giving our kids. We're not asking kids to fast from food, but we give them some other options so your kids can walk through a 21 day devotional while all of us are walking through a 21 day devotional. And here's the challenge, like, God, God
Talks about this
Garden, and maybe you're struggling coming into the new year, but
What would it look like to start this year collectively as a church by just wholeheartedly
Pursuing God?
And
We see over and over and over again in scripture, this idea James four eight, draw ear to God, and he will draw near to you. Like, if I'm pursuing God, there
Is this,
This promise that God has that he's pursuing us
As well.
And so this guide is just a tangible way
To say, what does
It look like for me to
Take baby steps towards
Pursuing that?
So, so here's at the very beginning of the guide, it talks about, here's the goal.
What are we asking God for in the next 21 days?
The first is to draw us
Closer to him. Very simply,
How do you pursue
A relationship by spending time with somebody? We wanna draw closer
To God. The second is to deeper
Our hunger for his word
And
His presence. The third
Is to, to heal what is
Broken in our hearts, our homes, and our church. And maybe you've got a specific thing that you say, this thing has been broken. Maybe it's a relationship and maybe it's your marriage.
That, that what
Would it look like for the next 21 days to pray for that thing, to fast for that thing to renew our love
For Jesus, just
To remind us of our first
Love,
Our passion for him.
It also helps us
To align with his
Purpose
For the coming year.
So, so as you leave,
You'll get a 21 day devotional. And and it
Talks at
The very beginning about fasting. And so here's the definition from this book that we
Wrote. Fasting
Is voluntarily laying aside something good, most often food
For a set
Period of time in order
To seek
God in a focused way. Fasting says, Lord, I need you more than I need this meal discomfort, this screen. I am making room to hear you. And now, now biblically fasting is abstaining for food, but but that might not be the right next step
Or the right first step for
You. Like my recommendation is not, Hey, for the next 21 days, don't eat anything I've never fasted before in my entire life. I'm gonna fast for 21 days straight. Like I, I don't want you to hear that. That's the recommendation. You need to start
Evaluating
Yourself and figuring out, hey, hey,
What if, if the
Point is a nearness to God, the point is to replace a longing with the presence of God
What could help you accomplish
That? And so maybe if you've never fasted before and you're
Physically able, maybe you
Say, okay, I'm gonna try to fast a single meal every week. Or, or maybe you're fasting for a single day every week. Or maybe you
Say, well, hey, I've
Fasted before in the, in the past, I'm gonna try two
Days a week. So a
Full fast
Is to
Abstain from food and only drink liquids. A partial
Fast would
Would be something like, Hey, I I'm just going to fast my breakfast every single day. So
You're,
You're choosing some piece
Or, or a lot of church history, they would fast
From sun up to sundown.
So they would, they would fast
While the sun was
Up, but they'd, they'd
Have breakfast in the morning, they'd have a dinner at night, but while the sun was up, they wouldn't eat. A selective fast would be to choose something to fast from. You could say, Hey, I'm gonna fast from coffee or soft drinks or from, from sugar and desserts. But, but to do that and not replace it with something misses the point. It's every time you have a longing for that thing, it's, it's how does that urge or that longing remind you of the need for God? Maybe physically you can't do any type of a food fast. You could also do some type of a media fast. That's what we're gonna encourage our kids to do. Anybody under the age of 18 should not fast food. But there is a way to say, okay, what is something in my life that gets a lot of my attention and a lot of my focus?
Like, how crazy would it be for someone in this room to say for 21 days, I'm not gonna look at the screen. Probably impossible. You couldn't even come to church, I guess. But what, what if you said, for 21 days, I'm not gonna do social media or 21 days, I'm not gonna watch TV at home, or 21 days. And then you replace that thing with a longing and a desire for God. And, and so when you leave, you're gonna get one of these. But right now the way we're gonna in service is I want you to spend a moment praying about your why. Like, like it does you no good to just go through the motions of a 21 day devotional without starting with the question of why, why would I go through a 21 day devotional? Why would I try to pursue God?
And then as we end service and we look to the, the beginning of a brand new year we're gonna do what we do at the beginning of every month. And that is, we're gonna go to the Lord's table. We're gonna take communion together and, and communion in, in First Corinthians chapter 11, Paul gives a warning that's very similar to the warning that Jesus gives to the Pharisees about fasting. He says, it's not just what you're doing on the outside, it's about what you're doing on the inside. And so when we go to the Lord's table, there's, there's a few practical things that we need to do. One, we need to repent of our sin. We need to confess the sin that we have so that we're going to the Lord's table with pure hearts, and we need to remember why we do it.
That, that the, the Lord's Table communion is about remembering that Jesus died in the cross of his body, given his blood poured out for our sins, that he paid a price so that I could have a relationship with him. There's a tangible cost associated with it. And so I remember that if you've never taken communion with us before, we do it a little bit different. We've got tables that are all across the room. If you're in the balcony, they're up at the stairs. And so in a moment, we're gonna, we're gonna sing a song of worship during that song. When you've prayed through and, and you feel like your heart is ready, then you'll just stand up and you'll make your way to a table. The closest table might be behind you. It might not be in front of you. You'll wait in line.
Then you'll receive the elements from one of our, our volunteers or pastors or elders. Then you'll take the communion elements back to your seat, all come back up. We'll all take communion together as the body of Christ. But the heart behind this is to remember the cross and ultimately to long for Jesus. Don't just go through the motions. Let's do it with the right intent and the right purpose. Heavenly Father, we give you this time, God, I pray that as we go to your table, we won't just go through the motions, but instead, remember the sacrifice that was made for us. God, I pray it could help us to just rekindle that fire, that passion for you. We have so many strong physical needs that that can overwhelm our senses, and yet our deepest needs are those spiritual needs that only you can fulfill. We seek you now in this place. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
