parenthetical Christmastime. We have looked at several different things related to Christmas. We're back to subjects that Christians avoid. Subjects that Christians avoid. Obviously, you didn't do that this morning because you're here. But as we look at this, my approach today as we look at the topic of fasting, is that we're going to be looking at this from a general overview perspective. Now, I realize when I say that it's like general overview, that sounds so exciting, okay? Well, this is one of those things where I just can't jam everything into one message. This is not just preliminary stuff, but it's some building blocks types of ideas. It's important. And also, I think that as we go through this, there is going to be some genuine encouragement in relation to fasting. The topic of fasting is something we want to cover, not because it's controversial, because that's sometimes why we avoid things, but it's because we don't necessarily actively avoid fasting. Like, you know, I'm not going to do that. I just don't think it comes up. I believe that for many of us, we're rather uninformed about fasting. I could be wrong about that, but it's also a private matter, and it's something that is a more passive subject. And so what I want us to do is I want us to gain a better understanding of fasting over the next couple of messages. Now, we're going to cover this, as I mentioned, in two messages. Today leans more toward a fact finding mission in the scriptures and then the next time we meet, which is two weeks from now, so you're going to have a little fast from fasting. All right. We'll revisit again and we'll talk a little bit more about it. Ironically, we're going to talk about fasting on the carry-in meal today and then we have a meal two weeks from now. But hey, you know, it's just how God times things. So as we look at this, the first thing I want to do is just ask the question, what is fasting? Fasting is the simple act of deliberately abstaining from food. Now, if you didn't know what that was, if that was a shock to you, then everything else is going to be gravy, okay? But the bottom line is not eating can be for health reasons. It can be for bringing attention to issues. Some of you have probably heard of a hunger strike or something like that where people will fast. for something that they believe in. It's also for religious reasons. Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims all practice fasting, and I'm sure that that's not all-inclusive. So there's various reasons we might do this. We're going to consider the biblical reasons for fasting, and we're going to do that a little bit later. But we're including fasting in our series, again, for a couple of reasons. And the first is because this is an area of scripture that isn't often covered. And when it is, sometimes it's an explanation of an immediate context where you're talking about one small aspect of fasting and not getting a greater overview of it. The second is that there are those who would abuse and manipulate this topic, and so it's a bit of a warning against that. Some, they see fasting as a measure of spirituality. It's something that ventures over into what we call asceticism, where I'm doing without, therefore I'm more holy than you are, all right? The other one is that some people claim that fasting is kind of a special key to spiritual growth or to spiritual experience. That's not altogether wrong, but when that is what we're primarily focused on in relation to fasting that's going to get us skewed in the wrong direction. Which leads us then to an important question. Is fasting for today? Now again, we're going to be looking at an overview. There are many other scriptures related to fasting that we could look at. For time's sake, more than anything else, we're going to be looking at the ones that I had planned for us. But the first one, and as we relate to this, we are going to be looking at a lot of things that are earlier in the New Testament at this point. We'll explain that. But the first one is Anna. If you remember, we talked about her at Christmastime as she was anticipating the coming of the Messiah, and he did come. And then after he was then presented in the temple, she saw him and says, now there was one Anna who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And we're gonna talk about her a little bit later, but we're just acknowledging she fasted and it was on a regular basis. Jesus, we know, fasted, Matthew 4, verses 1 and 2, and then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterward, He was hungry. The Gospel accounts make it clear that Jesus was tempted for 40 days in the wilderness. The Holy Spirit directed Him into the wilderness right after John baptized Him. What we have recorded are the three specific temptations at the conclusion of his 40 days of fasting and of separation. We aren't told anything else about what Jesus did in the wilderness, and we're not really told about how Satan tried to entice Jesus beyond the three things that we have recorded. But we know that Satan was attacking Christ any way he could through Christ's humanity. But what we do know is that Jesus fasted for 40 days. God's Word also records that Moses and Elijah fasted for 40 days, and some would even draw some parallels between Moses fasting primarily and Jesus fasting. But in all of this, because if you remember, Moses fasting was when he was in the presence of God. And he was going to be given the law. Here's Jesus now preparing to fulfill everything about the law, and he was going to be then sacrificing himself for the sins that the law showed forth. So in all of these things, we see this taking place in Jesus' life. Also, Jesus recognized fasting was taking place during his lifetime. Just a snippet of Matthew 6.16. Moreover, when you fast, Now that when you fast, that's what we're going to get to in a couple of weeks, okay? But he's assuming that fasting is going to take place. Jesus assumed his followers would fast after his return to heaven. Luke chapter 5 verses 34 and 35 say this, And he said to them, Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. In this context, the Pharisees were questioning the depth of the disciples' spiritual devotion because they didn't practice fasting. They even talked about John the Baptist's disciples, because if you remember, prior to Jesus coming, because he pointed them to Christ, he was the one who was telling them, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand. Have a change of heart and mind, look ahead, the Messiah is coming. And so they were his disciples, his followers, not in the sense that he was the Christ, but they were pointing him to the Christ. And so basically the Pharisees are like, well, his disciples are fasting, we fast, what's wrong with your disciples? Which implied then what's wrong with you and your teaching, right? Well, we see the response that Jesus gave, but he basically explained that there was no reason to fast while he was with them, but that they would fast when he was gone. It's worth noting that Jesus said this early in his earthly ministry. This wasn't at the very tail end, this was earlier on when he was saying there's a time that's coming. There are other accounts of fasting in Acts. The last time fasting, abstaining from food, is mentioned in the New Testament is Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, and we'll get to that instance in just a minute. So is fasting for today? What I will tell you is there is no teaching to say that it is not. Oh wow, that sounds so definitive. Well, that's the nature of this subject. So with that we can follow up our previous question, is fasting for today, with the next question which is, are Christians required to fast? We're not told explicitly not to fast, but are we told that we must fast? So it's not asking the same question. This question is, are we commanded? Although there are some examples in the Old Testament when fasting was required in certain circumstances, there is no requirement to fast in the New Testament. There is no direct commandment to fast, to abstain from food. Now, we have a possible way of tracing this just in case someone were to say to you, to me, whatever, if you don't fast, there's something wrong with you spiritually, right? you're lacking. I think there's a way that we can work through some scriptures to draw some comparisons and you get to work with me on this one but I think it's going to be helpful. The church in Antioch fasted and prayed when they sent Barnabas and Saul, who even in that context says later on, also known as Paul, when they set them out as missionaries. And that's in Acts chapter 13, verses 2 and 3. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul. So as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, as they the church, okay? It says, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. So as we're looking at this, the occasion that we're talking about is, for sake of a better term, appointing those who serve. We might call them leaders, that's fine, but it's appointing those who serve in some way. Because they also laid hands on the first deacons, Acts 6, 6 tell us, whom they sent before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them." If you remember, there was a controversy that took place right in the very beginning of the church. I think it was actually the first controversy. And there were certain widows that were being ministered to, and as the church grew, there were some widows that were being slighted. that was presented to the apostles at the time who were the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. And they said, this is not our job. You need to appoint some people deacons, which means servant, and then they will take care of this task. And so that's where we not only get the office of deacon, but we also see that they prayed and laid hands on them. But there's not a mention of fasting. Now, if we go back to the previous context that we were just looking at, Acts 13, verses 2 and 3, we need to take note that their fasting was not directly related to the Holy Spirit's appointing Paul and Barnabas. They were already doing it. This was not in relation to something that was going to happen. They weren't trying to make something happen by their fasting. They weren't making a request. None of that was taking place. They were simply what? Ministering to the Lord, doing the work of the ministry, and fasting. So fasting was not an element of the sending. Now in another account they prayed and fasted after Paul and Barnabas appointed elders. Acts 14, verses 21-23, so we're just a little bit farther than what we just read. And when they had preached the gospel to the city, that's Derbe, that city, and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples. So as they were on their first missionary journey making disciples, they went back to strengthen these disciples, and what did they do? exhorting them, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying, we must through many tribulations under the kingdom of God. So when they had appointed elders in every church. And prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. So this was in relation to appointing elders, pastors. in the various churches. Now, remember, this is early on in the ministry of the church. These are brand new congregations that are forming. Most of them, if not all of them, probably house churches at this point. They're in these different cities, and Paul is not going to leave them leaderless. As a matter of fact, if you remember, he's going back to follow through and follow up with these churches. But then we move ahead to Paul's mentoring ministry of Timothy, who was a pastor, he says a couple of things to him. Do not neglect the gift that is given you, which was given to you, which is in you, which is given to you by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the eldership. And then he also warns them a little bit later on in First Timothy, his first letter to Timothy, Paul says, do not lay hands on anyone hastily. In other words, don't commission someone to the ministry before their time. Make sure that they're established and they know what they're doing and they're not a novice. But there's nothing in here about fasting. So what we kind of have here is a little bit of a ping pong effect, right? They're fasting and praying, they're praying, they're laying on hands, in other words there's a variety going on. There are several other New Testament accounts about laying out of hands. That's not our subject this morning. But the point is, these are commissioning events, some of them. There's other reasons why the laying out of hands took place. But there's no mention of fasting taking place with them. This indicates that even in this very important exercise, of commissioning, which is what that signified, you laid hands on them, you were approving of them, you were commissioning them to service, fasting was not required or not important enough to mention. Now, did I say it wasn't important? No. It was either not required, it didn't happen, or it wasn't important enough to mention. But regardless of all of that, fasting is described in the New Testament, but there is never an account where it's prescribed or directed to be done. It happened, but there was never a time where it's like, you must do this. So, okay, let's fold up our Bibles and eat. We can look at probably other topics like this that are – I shouldn't say topics like this – topics that are explained like this or treated like this in the scriptures and seemingly just wash our hands of it, or we can say, wait a minute, what was fasting all about? And that's where I want to take you, because, again, I'm just giving you an honest appraisal of where we're at in Scripture, okay? But as we kind of delve into this a little bit more, we're now going to look at the purposes of fasting. This is going to be both Old and New Testament. Old and New Testament. Now, remember, what Jesus talked about, and by the way, the Gospels are really a bridge from the Old to the New. Jesus was introducing the New Covenant. And he, as the scriptures tell us, was not doing away with the law, he was fulfilling the law. There's a difference. And so even when we're looking in the Gospels and in the early part of the New Testament, there's some relevancy to previous moments of fasting in the Old Testament that we can draw from. We're also told those things are back there for our learning, for our instruction, for our encouragement. So in all of that, that's kind of where we're at. So I hope that this is more of an encouragement to you to consider fasting, even though my previous words might not have sounded that way. I'm just giving a, again, trying to validate what the scriptures say about it, particularly in the New Testament. So what are the purposes for fasting? The first one is a show of repentance. And by the way, this is not an exhaustive list. There are probably some other niche areas there for time's sake and other things. I think this covers a lot of it. The first thing I want to look at here as we look at a show of repentance is the children of Israel under Samuel. We'll explain this a little bit, but this is one verse, folks. 1 Samuel 7, 3. Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel saying, if you return to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you and prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve him only. And he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. Now, we're gonna get into the fasting in just a moment, but I wanted to give us some background first. We often think of Samuel as a prophet, and he was, but he was also the last judge of Israel. He bridges the judges' period with the period of the kings. So, this is a time immediately before the kings begin to reign. The children of Israel were suffering attacks by the Philistines because they were worshipping false gods. They were openly worshipping idols and rejecting the Lord. Well, what did God tell them he would do? Remember, this was a unilateral, I'm sorry, a bilateral two-party covenant. If you do this, I will bless you. But if you do these things, you're gonna be cursed. So he's just following through with what he promised because they didn't follow through with what they promised, all right? So just to make that clear. What's wild is during this time as they were being attacked they actually took the Ark of the Covenant and hauled it into the battlefield. The children of Israel so far removed from the Lord that they saw the Ark as their rescue. the ark as their rescue. Of course, it was merely a representation of the presence of God. But it's almost like it was this giant golden lucky charm. If we can just take this and we take it into battle, we're going to win because we have the big amulet, right? We have this power. No, it's just representing who has the power. That's how far removed they were. So they lost the battle and they lost the ark. Now, the story surrounding that and how they got the ark back and everything is fascinating. We can't go there today, but let's just say that the Philistines were really sorry they took it. Okay. But Samuel urged the Israelites to repent and get rid of their idols. All right. Which then brings us to the next several verses. Verses four through six, same context for Samuel 7. So the children of Israel put away the bales and the astreths and served the Lord only. And Samuel said, gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord for you. And so they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water and poured it out before the Lord. That was a form of offering. And they fasted that day and said there, we have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah. All right, so what's the picture that we have here? The people had a proper response to their sin. They realized, albeit a little too late, what they had done. They realized their foolishness. More importantly, they realized their sinfulness. They admitted to it and they repented. But along with this, they fasted. This type of fast was an outward display of what had happened in their hearts. It was a fast based upon repentance. Now, here, Old Testament, they were called to do this, but the point is they responded. Now, again, like I say, there's many other examples, but I want us to go now to Jonah 3, verse 5. Jonah 3, verse 5. Many of you already know where we're heading here. as we look at the people of Nineveh. The prophet Jonah was obviously sent to the Assyrian nation. He was to go and preach to them. We'll get into that in just a moment. We know that, and again, the story's pretty familiar. He decided to take a significant detour and gave his reasons for it, alright? We can't get into all that this morning, but we can read verses 5 through 10 out of chapter 3. So here's what it says. So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe. Folks, this isn't just, you know, one of our presidents setting aside a suit coat. All right. This was symbolic of I'm not in control. OK. He laid aside his robe. covered himself with sackcloth and satin ashes, and he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his noble saying, Let neither man nor beast heard nor flock, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish?" And look at verse 10. Now, again, this is an outward showing This was something that was told for all of Nineveh to do, but it was an outward showing of what had happened in their hearts as they heard the message of Jonah. What's crazy about this is that I'm now going to give you Jonah's message. A very powerful gospel message here. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. And then he cried and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. That's it. That's all we have. Did Jonah say more? I don't know. But the Ninevites knew enough about Jehovah that they responded the way they did and obviously God was doing a work in their hearts. All right. So Jonah's blunt, harsh, and according to what he said himself, purely obligatory message, right? He did it because he had to, brought amazing fruit, and we know their sincerity partly because they fasted. So that is a fast as we're speaking about showing repentance. And there's also what I've kind of labeled this a petitionary fast. Petition, making a request. This type of fast accompanies people requesting something. Most accounts involve difficult circumstances. And again, there are many. But as we look at one of them, or a couple of them, this one in particular, I just love this story. It's a story of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20, verses 1 through 3, and it says this. It happened after this that the people of Moab, with the people of Ammon, and others with them, besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat. Well, if they battled against Jehoshaphat, they battled against his people as well. It wasn't personal. Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria, and they are in Hazazan Tamar, which is in Gedi. And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. Judah was about to be attacked and the king was afraid. Probably had every reason to be. The righteous King Jehoshaphat's response by turning to the Lord and proclaiming a nationwide fast is what we're seeing here. Fasting was probably an outward sign of both their distress, but also the intensity of their crying out to the Lord. So they weren't repenting per se, they were petitioning. Another account of this and folks in my studies this one surprised me, this one fascinated me. I thought this was really amazing. What I want us to do is turn to Psalm 35. I know we've already read that earlier today but I want to take a look at this passage Again really fascinating, starting in verse 11. David is speaking of enemies that are against him and he is basically talking about the Lord as the one who is going to avenge him and avenge his people. But look at what we have in the middle of this psalm. What this means is that he had a mind over and over again to pray for them. I paced about as though he were my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one who mourns for his mother. But in my adversity, they rejoiced and gathered together. Attackers gathered against me, and I did not know it. They tore at me and did not cease. With ungodly mockers at feast, they gnashed at me with their teeth. We'll stop there. Alright, so what I want to see here, not the entire psalm, what was David's response in relation to his enemies? Part of that had to do with fasting. I humbled myself with fasting. In relation to what? In relation to his concern for his enemies. Now, certainly there are times when David speaks, and there might even be some occasions in this psalm where he speaks, and we don't, frankly, we don't know what to do with these. But when David's calling basically judgment, you know, down upon his enemies, but here we see this glimpse into a compassion that David also had for his enemies. While he's under attack he is actually praying on their behalf and this prayer on their behalf, this petition that he was making for his enemies was accompanied by abstaining from food to show the intensity and the sincerity of his heart to God. Well, there's a lesson there, isn't it? Kind of goes back to the first hour if you were here, and how we're to consider our enemies. We also see that fasting was a sign of mourning. There are a number of times when fasting is a part of mourning in the Old Testament. I've said this too many times already probably, but we're going to look at two of those this morning. They do happen to relate to David. The first one is from 2 Samuel 1, verses 11 and 12, and it says, Now, putting ourselves back in this context, This is the account of when David found out that Saul and Jonathan had been killed. What was Saul's relationship like with David? Kind of goes back to what we saw in the 35th Psalm, right? And I do understand that Jonathan and David were besties. I mean, they were fantastic, amazing friends. A lesson in friendship. But he includes Saul. And this isn't just David showing some false piety here. He is truly grieving because the one that God at one time had appointed to be over Israel and who had just gone completely off the rails had now died, he had been killed. And so he again proclaims a time of mourning and mourns himself and fasts along with that. And then a little bit later on, we see another example of this. And I just want to note first, before we even get to this passage, that this is an account of revenge during the time of David's transition, his transition into power. It wasn't pretty. There are some really terrible things that took place between Saul dying and David fully having the kingdom under his control and authority. And it was the murder of Abner. So turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 3, 2 Samuel chapter 3. I have their 27 to 27 because my fingers are funny. It's 27 to 37. Now, I'm just going to tell you there's some graphicness to this, but God doesn't hold back. He says it like it is. And we'll start with 26. And when Joab had gone from David's presence, he sent messengers after Abner, who brought him back from the well of Sirah. But David did not know it. Okay, so David is unaware of what's going on here. Now, when Abner had returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him privately, and there stabbed him in the stomach so that he died for the blood of Asahel, his brother." Whose brother? This is Joab's brother, right? They were not on the same side at this point. This was Saul's people against David's people, and now they're supposed to be one. But Joab didn't like that. So 28, afterward when David heard it, he said, my kingdom and I are guiltless before the Lord forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner. Let it rest on the head of Joab and all his father's house, and let there never fail to be in the house of Joab one who has a discharge, or is a leper, who leans on a staff, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread. So Joab and Abishai, his brother, killed Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gideon in the battle. Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him," notice he said this to Joab directly, Tear your clothes and gird yourselves with sackcloth and mourn for Abner. And King David followed the coffin. So they buried Abner in Hebron. And the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner. And all the people wept. And the king sang a lament over Abner and said, Should Abner die as a fool dies? Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put into fetters. As a man falls before wicked men, so you fell. Then all the people wept over him again. And when all the people came to persuade David to eat food while it was still day, David took an oath, saying, God do so to me and more also if I taste bread or anything else till the sun goes down. And all the people took note of it. And it pleased them, since whatever the king did pleased all the people. For all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king's intent to kill Abner the son of Ner. So as we, you know, kind of bookend that story a little bit and you see what happened, what do we see? We see David's mourning for Abner. And he expresses that in part by abstaining from food, by fasting. The other way that we can show that we can fast is a purpose for it is an expression of devotion, an expression of devotion. Here's where we go back to the story of Anna. And we've already looked at this a bit this morning. But basically, we know that she was a prophetess. We know that she was a a widow for many, many years. And we know that she had a ministry at the temple. And it says here in the middle of the passage that we have, but serve God with fastings and prayers night and day. So after the death of her husband, Anna had devoted herself to worshiping at the temple and abstaining from food consistently. And that accompanied her prayer life. Now I can't say for certain that they're giving her connection to the Christ child but I believe her prayers included a desire for the Messiah to come. I've told you before I am very careful about reading into the text too much. But her relation to the Messiah coming and that seemingly being a gift to her, I believe that part of her prayer life, part of her devotion was awaiting the coming Messiah. In Acts 10, verses 30-32, we read this earlier about Cornelius the Gentile, and I just wanted to highlight this again. So Cornelius said, alms are rendered in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa and call Simon here, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon of Tanner by the sea. When he comes, he will speak to you." We know what happened when Simon Peter came to speak to him. But he was fasting and praying to the Lord as a part of worship. And again, I believe that there was something anticipatory about it, but there was also a great amount of devotion that was related to this to the point where he laid aside eating. He did not eat at certain times because he was showing his devotion to the Lord. And then in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and 11, we have a couple of passages here, and this is about Paul. We're taking these two instances out of times where he listed all the different ways that he was persecuted and suffered greatly. All different kinds of things, not just direct persecution, but many things he suffered. So it says, in stripes, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings. Then in 1127, in weariness and toil and sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. So we see in 2 Corinthians 11 27 that Paul draws a distinction between suffering hunger and fasting. Suffering hunger is involuntary. For whatever reason you're not able to eat. But then there was the voluntary abstaining from food and yet he was doing this as he suffered many many different things. So I do believe there could have been other reasons for his fasting, but part of it was just expressing his devotion to the Lord. What an amazing man. I mean, you know, when we look at this list, we think to ourselves, oh, man, he was beaten and, you know, all these other things that took place. And, you know, he's nearly dead sometimes. But then again, we just have sprinkle in here and, oh, I fasted during that time, too. He didn't lose sight of what he was about. And what's interesting is there are a number of scholars that relate these aspects of fasting to 1 Corinthians 9.27. And you ask, well, what does 1 Corinthians 9.27 say? I'm so glad you asked. For I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, okay? I bring it under control, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. So part of what he was doing out of his devotion, out of his obedience, he was saying, hey, I still got to keep control over this. And all these other things, I'm not going to miss the fact that I've got to keep control over my bodily appetites. Folks, that's devotion. That is dedication to service to the Lord. Again, in the middle of what could be sometimes just some extreme situations. So where does this bring us this morning? Although we do have instructions for proper fasting, which we'll look at in a couple of weeks, there is no explicit command in the New Testament that Christians are required to fast. But we've considered some important reasons why someone should fast or might fast from the food that we eat from time to time. So as we consider our purposes for fasting, we need to circle back when the church leaders were recognized and appointed to serve. At times, fasting was associated with these appointments. It could have been to accompany requests or it may have been a demonstration of their devotion to God and faith in him. In other words, boy, we're doing this very important thing, we're going to fast about this. At other times they were just simply fasting when it happened. But our takeaway this morning is that there are several good reasons why we may choose to fast. Fasting is a physical demonstration that accompanies the intention and seriousness of repentance, of making requests, of mourning loss, and of expressing devotion to God. Now in one sense, fasting doesn't require a lot of preparation because you just simply don't fix your meals. But in another sense, there is a mental and emotional and spiritual preparation that you need to go through in your mind to say, I'm going to set aside for however long, we'll talk about that in a couple of weeks, I'm gonna set aside eating to express my seriousness, my intentions, whatever it might be in regards to my own sinfulness and my turning away from that, my sorrow of rent in something that is really burdening me. when I've had times of loss or some other type of sorrow, maybe related to someone dying or something like that, or expressing my devotion. Folks, I don't say this to try to sound spiritual because we're going to see in the instructions coming later that this is supposed to be a private thing, but I'm trying to be somewhat instructional. I have not fasted often, but I have. Sometimes it's a short period of time. I've had one or two fasts that have been a little bit longer. I can't tell you that partway through it, it was all of a sudden it was like I hear this, you know, the angels singing and, you know, the light comes down and all of a sudden I had this wonderful enlightenment. But I also can't tell you that some of that didn't happen. You see where I'm going? In other words, there's something about abstaining. There's something about setting aside food. Focusing more intently on the Lord for whatever reason. and just what happens with all of that. It's not magical, okay, it's intentional and that is what we see. in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, we see with Christ and with his followers or with righteous people in the Old Testament. All right. So that is the message that I want to leave with you today. We're going to look not only at how we're to fast, which is going to kind of bring some of these things together, but I also want to give you some practical ideas, some practical principles next week, some of which will be in printed form. We're not going to go through them because they're a little more on the technical side, but it's just some helps, all right? And so that's what we're going to be looking at in two weeks, actually. I think I might have said next week, but in two weeks. And so, again, as we consider this, I hope that you'll just get a glimpse right now of, hey, this might be something I need to consider. Today? Not necessarily. In two weeks? Maybe not. But again, there might be something that is really burdening you, and you have presented to the Lord, and you want to add the aspect of fasting along with that. Let's work on the principles with it, too. But let me just forewarn you, David fasted and his child still died. All right? So again, like I say, this is not some magical locking key where if I fast, God will do what I'm asking. But there are other times when we see that that did take place. OK. So it still goes back to the will of God and his purposes. David was not going to get out of his responsibilities and consequences from his affair and his murder. All right. But at the same time David did abstain from food. All right. Let's look to the Lord. Heavenly Father you have given us some important things to think about and maybe Lord there are some here who have had a little bit fuller understanding thus far in relation to fasting. I pray Lord that we would see this as another aspect of what it means to serve you and even as we look in a couple of weeks of then how we are to do it correctly that when we employ it, when we put it in place, That is something that is good for us and that is beautiful and worshipful to you and we ask all of this in Jesus name, Amen.