All right, if you get your Bibles out to Isaiah 58, Coach Ritter's going to like this because we're talking about discipline today. We're talking about prayer and fasting. Isaiah 58 is the core passage in the Bible about fasting. Now, don't get all worked up and say, well, you know, Jesus did a 40-day fast. Yes, He did. Elijah did a 40-day fast and so did Moses. I do know a few people who have. I don't see anywhere in scripture where it says thou shalt have a 40-day fast. Aren't you glad? Fasting can be a meal. It can be a day. It can be for a period of time. It can be away from a phone, away from Facebook, away from a computer. There's a lot of ways to fast, but the purpose of fasting is to have God do a work in you. It is not so that I say, well, God, I fasted. Why don't you do what I told you to do? That's not the point. The point of fasting is to say, God, you're the creator. Creation and I'm here to learn from you and I'm gonna deny myself so that you can teach me Okay, does that does that make sense? That's that's the process now. We live in a world It's always telling us what's good for us and what's bad for us what to eat? What not to eat how to live what to do, but I want you to know it's not always so clear-cut Here's the guy that invented the treadmill died at 58 Here's the guy that invented bodybuilding, dead at 41. Here's my hero, he lived to 94. Alright? Alright? Just something to think about, guys. Just something to think about. Alright? A rabbit never stops, runs around, hops around, goes crazy his whole life, lives two years. My friend, the turtle does nothing 200 years. That just gives you a little bit. Sometimes the world's ideas are not always right. So what we're going to talk about today is the difference between religion and relationship. And the difference is a thousand miles apart. Religion is man's desperate attempt to find meaning and purpose in any way they can. And it might be in sexual issues, it might be in animal rights things, it might be in church, it could be any number of ways, but religion is man's attempt to find meaning. Jesus came into the world, God in the flesh, so that you and I could have a relationship with the Creator God. We're not stabbing in the dark. We are grabbing hold of the greatest gift that God's ever given us. And so many people I know, and I used to be one of those people, I was so content with religion, following the rules, going through the motions. But that's not what God made us for. He made us so that we could have a relationship with Him, and then when you have a relationship with Him, what are you to do with it? You take it in and you give it out. Does that look like a cross to you? You take it in and you give it out. And as Isaiah is writing this chapter, the people thought, well, they were religious. They were tremendously religious. They followed all the rules and they fasted. I looked this up to make sure I was telling you the truth. The Jewish people at that time fasted one day a year. for 25 hours. On the Day of Atonement, on the day that the sacrifice was made in Jerusalem for the sins of the people, they would not eat for 25 hours. That's it. All right? It's not like they went a month. It's not like there was a great sacrifice. But they thought because they did that one 24-hour fast, that God should turn everything around in their lives. In fact, Jesus talks about it in Matthew 6. He says, we'll start with prayer. He says, when you pray, don't pray like the hypocrites who love to be seen by men. Because if you pray to be seen by men, you've already received your reward. What was your reward? To be seen by men. Man, look how religious that guy is. But he said, If you want to be rewarded by God, you go into your closet and you pray, and your God who sees in secret will reward you in secret. And then he says, win you fast. Not optional. He says, win you fast. He said, don't do it so men will see you. Let me tell you how the Jewish leaders did it, okay? On the Day of Atonement, they would put on their very worst clothes. They would get dirt and they would rub it all over their shirts. They would rub dirt all over their face. They wouldn't take a bath for a couple of days. They would mess their hair up. And people would go by and go, oh my goodness, that guy's so religious. And then they got mad at God because God wasn't impressed with that. Because it had nothing to do with their heart or their relationship with God. Stand out of respect with God's Word. We're going to read Isaiah 58. Just let God's word speak to you. They asked God this question. They're mad. They're mad because they fasted for 25 hours out of their whole life. and God didn't flip heaven and earth for them. Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed? Yet on the day of your fasting, Jesus said, or God said, you do as you please and you exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife and striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fasting that I've chosen? Only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast? A day acceptable to the Lord? Now here's where God says, is not this the kind of fasting that I've chosen? To loose the chains of injustice. The word here is wickedness. To loose the chains of wickedness and to untie the cords of the yoke that bind people up. To set the oppressed people free and to break every yoke. He's not done yet. Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide for the poor, wanderer with shelter? When you see the naked, to clothe them and not to turn away your own flesh and blood. Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear. Then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer you. You will cry for help, and He will say, Here I am. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and the malicious talk, and if you spend yourself on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always. He will satisfy your needs in the sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations. You will be called repairer of broken walls, restorer of streets with dwellings. You can be seated. So here's the deal. Religion plays games. Relationships connect people to God. That's the whole purpose of the Church of Jesus Christ, is it not? We are here to help you connect with God. You're watching online, you're in Palm Bay, you're in Deland. Maybe you woke up this morning and you did not have a good night last night. And you're not where you need to be with God. God's here to build a bridge with you. God's here to connect with you. The whole point of Jesus coming to earth was so that we could connect with God. Religion always plays games. And religion usually has a lot of theater to it, a lot of theater, a lot of pomp, a lot of circumstance, where relationship just cuts right to the heart. Relationship is when you're just sitting with somebody and you're crying, or you're sitting with somebody and you're laughing, or you're sitting with somebody and you're connecting over their problems. The relationship that God talks here is the key. It's always about connecting. But again, so they fast, but while they were fasting, they were using it to hurt people. They weren't sitting there. They were saying, I'm fasting. Look how special I am. And God said, no, what I want you to do is fast and say, oh my, how wretched am I? And how blessed am I? And look at my neighbor, and look at the guy that works for me, and look at my friend that lives next to me. They don't have shoes. They don't have clothes. They don't have food. And the introspection that goes on during that time of prayer and fasting is to change how you treat people. And to these people, they had done just the opposite. They had used it as a time for self-righteousness rather than seeing how wonderful their Creator God was. Listen, do you know how bad hell is? I understand we live in a world where a lot of people don't believe in hell. A lot of bad preachers don't even believe in hell anymore. But I just want to run you through this real quick. Why is hell so awful? It was created for Satan and demons. So why would God, why would an all good God send people to hell? He doesn't. You choose it. If you don't choose Jesus, you choose hell. Hell is an absence of God. In fact, hell is a total separation from God. Just keep them coming. There's no air in hell because God is the breath of life. There's no peace in hell because God is the prince of peace. There is no comfort in hell because God is the comforter. And there is no love in hell Because God's love. Now church, that's why we do what we do. That's why we do shoeboxes. That's why we support missionaries. That's why we do trunks for treats to get out into the community. That's why we have orphanages in Mexico. Everything we do is to help somebody somewhere in town around the world make that connection with God. All your religion will do is separate you from people. You know people that are religious, don't you? And when you're around them, you go, you know what? I don't want to be around you. You don't want to be around religious people. They are no fun to be around. But people that have a relationship, well, they've already got this going on and they naturally reach out to you. Now listen, you see those lighted trees? This really works well. It says in there that when we do what God tells us to do, that we will have our lights immediately turned on. In each one of those trees around the room, there are cards where you can get involved. You want to be in a small group, you need to be in Celebrate Recovery to help you deal with addictions that you're struggling with. You need to be in Grief Share. You just need somebody to pray for you. Gene Kirk is out in the lobby. He's got a table. Gene is in charge of our nursing home ministries. And since the COVID thing has kind of calmed down, nobody wants to go to the nursing homes, but the nursing homes are begging for churches to come. And so we're going. But we need people. And listen, you're like, well, I don't sing. He's got a karaoke machine. Even I can get by with the karaoke machine, all right? And most of the people are old. They won't know whether you can sing or not. It's all right. But what do you do? You go and love on people. Because we're in the people business. And we connect people to God. But the second part, religion always likes to talk about rules. Always. Relationship is pragmatic. Now, I get in trouble for this. Pastor Cord says I'm the most pragmatic guy he's ever met. But it's real simple for me, okay? It's real simple. Jesus said if you see somebody that's hungry, do you need to know the Greek or Hebrew or Latin word? No. No. I went to church for years where we would study that. Well, the Greek word says this, and it says that. What seems like to me, you take a can of ravioli and you hand it to a guy. That's just not all that complex. Just to let you know, thanks to your generosity and our other campuses, we are now running, besides our three food pantries at the church, we are running food pantries in 24 different schools in three different counties. All right? So, thank you. But here's what's cool. When people say, why do you do this? The question is, why wouldn't we do this? Because relational, relational connection with Jesus immediately puts us into the pragmatic zone. When I fast, I'm denying myself and that allows me to What's going on around me? I'm not running a business right now. I'm not coaching a basketball team right now. I'm not preaching right now. When I'm alone with God, God said, hey, you thought about your neighbor? Did you forget she lost her husband? Maybe you need to go help next door. Did you remember that guy you saw the other day? His family's really struggling. Got three kids and they need food. You see how pragmatic this is? Ironically, what you read there in Isaiah 58 is almost exactly copied by Jesus in Matthew 25. When he said, you see somebody in prison, you go visit them, you see somebody who's sick, you help them. It's a very pragmatic relationship. In Galatians 1.13, this is Paul talking about himself, the Apostle Paul. He said, for if you heard of my previous ways of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and I tried to destroy it. Went out of his way. He went out of his way to try to hurt the church. But what was he? Oh, he was religious to the core. If you go on and read that passage in Galatians or if you go to Philippians 2, he said, I fulfilled every single rule that Moses laid down, but yet he had no relationship with God because the relationship is always pragmatic. Now, some of you get uncomfortable. I know I push you hard. But you know what? There's 5,000 or 6,000 people that are listening. And you say, Joe, you've tapped me out. I've done all the shoeboxes I can do. Well, praise God. Thank you. But some of you, I haven't even started to tap yet. So it's okay. It's all right. We want to do 7,000 shoeboxes. Think about that. 3,500 kids, if those numbers are accurate, and they are from year to year, if we do 7,000 of these shoeboxes, 3,500 children will walk into heaven and give you a high five when they get there. All right? That's why I push you. If you think I get a cut of anything, it doesn't work that way. But Christianity is pragmatic to the core, and yet most churches never do that. You say, well, what do you guys do? Well, we have church. What do you mean you have church? Well, we sing some songs, we listen to some teaching. But how do you listen to teaching and then not feed people, and not clothe people, and not visit people, and not care for widows and orphans? Because isn't that what it says in the book? But we've reduced it to religion, where you come and talk about it, and you get encouraged, and you say, my goodness, was that pastor good-looking and funny? And then you leave. That was last week when Shane was up here. That was last week. That was last week. That was last week. But the point is, no, no, it says the fast that God is looking for is when you and I get an introspection of who we are, We know who we are, we know who God is, and then that motivates us to take the grace that God's given us and help somebody else connect with the grace of Jesus Christ, for them to get saved, and then for all of us to pragmatically turn and help other people along life's journey. That's how the church works, is it not? That's how we look out for each other, and that's why it's so important that the churches be in unity throughout the community. because the only way Ormond Beach is going to be changed is when the churches work together. Daytona, Port Orange, any city, when the churches quit fighting each other and realize we're all on the same team. In fact, I want to take a minute, all right? I used to do this all the time. We're going to just Steve Worstie, call time out. Just give me a 30 second. Thank you. Just a 30 second. Okay. I used to do this every week, but I want you to stop and I want you to pray. You pray just quietly. I'm going to pray out loud. I want you to pray for your home church. You pray for another church in this community. I stopped by this morning at Oasis to say hi to my friend Marcus, who preaches up there. Just pray. Lord, I pray for the church to be one. You could not have been more clear, Jesus, when you said, I pray that the church will be one so that the world can be one to Jesus. So I pray today for Oasis Fellowship, for Riverbend Community, for my friends at Coquina Presbyterian, for Calvary Christian Assembly, And all these other churches and pastors that are being lifted up to you right now. Because when the church is won, then we can win this city for Jesus. Thank you God for hearing our prayers. Amen. So that's just a good practice. That's just a good practice for all of us. Now we get to the end of it. We like to quote, I like to quote Isaiah 58, 8. I've used it many, many times in my life. It says that God will be my rear guard. It means that God's protecting the backside of me when I can't see what's going on. I like that verse, but you need to take very careful look at the scripture. He says, after you have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, taking care of the sick. And listen, not forgotten your own flesh and blood, your mom, dad, your grandma and grandpa. I don't know what that means for you, but it's there, isn't it? He says, after you've been pragmatic, he says, now he said, I'll be your rear guard and your light will quickly shine. Man, isn't that good stuff? And he says, you will become the repairer of broken walls, the restorer of relationships, and my, do we live in a culture, think about this, all right, I'll just throw out a few, all right? Afghanistan, total destruction. Syria, total destruction. South Africa's a mess. Ethiopia's starving to death. Haiti, beyond description, what's going on in Haiti. We live in a culture where we have children being sold into sex slavery. We've got abortion that is rampant in our culture and nobody's saying anything. And what really bothers me is not, I expect one side to think the way they think, but when I talk to Christians and they'll be like, well, personally, I think this is right, but you know, I just, so you're a coward is what you're telling me. When are you going to take a stand for what's right? It says we are to be called restorers of the broken walls. Who's going to define marriage if the church can't do it? Who's going to define sexuality if the church can't do it? Do you see what I'm getting at here? I knew this would get real quiet when I got to this part. We are to be the ones who restore the biblical pathways. You cannot expect non-Christians to do it when the church hasn't gotten it right. We've got to take the stand first, then we can change the world that's around us. All right, two more things. Carl Sagan, sorry to pick on Carl. Carl's in hell, and he chose to go to hell. And I promise you, if Carl could speak today, he would beg you to come to Jesus. He would beg you to accept Jesus, because he rejected him. And this is what he said about Christianity. He said, an extraordinary statement like Christianity would have to have some mighty, extraordinary facts to back it up. And I would just like to say, I'll give you two, a virgin birth and the resurrection from the dead. That would be my two facts, and I think that would be the two that Carl would share with you today. So if you've not accepted Jesus, we want you to know Jesus died for you. You're online. Maybe you just woke up. You need to know Jesus died for you. We want you to get right with Jesus. If you do know Jesus, then it's your job to get right with him so that you can reach out and connect with other people. Here's my last statement. The three verses that scare me most are in Matthew chapter 7. And the guys that talked about, we preached in your name and we did miracles in your name. And Jesus said, when it came to eternity, get away from me. I never knew you. So I want to tell you how I started praying. I start my prayers this way. Hey Jesus, I want you to know who I am. You're old enough to remember All in the Family when Archie Bunker would pray? And Archie would say, Dear God, this is Archie Bunker, and then he'd give his address in Queens so God would know who he was. That's what fasting and prayer does. It's where we strip away all the baloney, all the foolishness, say, God, I want you to know me. the good, the bad, the ugly. I want you to sort it out, clean it up, and then put me to work pragmatically. That's a tough thing to pray. It's a whole lot easier to be religious. It's a whole lot easier to go through the motions and play games than it is to say, God, I want you to know me, and then I'm going to help other people know you. Let's pray. Father, I don't know what needs to happen today. There are people here that need to accept Jesus as their Savior. Others need to quit playing the game. Some of us have decided that the religion and feeling better than other people is the goal, rather than being transformational. So God, whatever you need to do, May we be people of prayer and fasting that get blessed by you as we do it in the closet. In Jesus' name, Amen.