You can be seated. We've been going through lately in Sunday school spiritual disciplines for the Christian life by Don Whitney. And if you've been reading together with us through this, you will realize that today's really pretty out of order. The past three Sunday schools we did, I think they were chapter 10, 11, and 12. And now we're on chapter 9. And I've been told there's no reason for it. It's just a scheduling conflict thing. Anyway, so we are on fasting. And I'm going to be looking at a bunch of different scriptures today. it would be absolutely impossible for us to turn to all of them. There's an outrageous number of scriptures in the Bible on fasting. There are 77 different verses on fasting. In comparison, there's 75 on baptism. So there's more verses about fasting in the Bible than there are about baptism. Now, that's not to suggest that fasting is more important than baptism. I don't believe it is. However, it is perhaps worthy to state that because I think fasting is often ignored. Now today I'm talking about Christian fasting. Now there are non-Christian fasts, and non-Christians do fast. And non-Christian fasts, you know, just abstaining from food for a period, they can have health and wellness benefits, but they are of no spiritual value. Our book is about spiritual disciplines for the purpose of godliness. It's not for the purpose of losing weight or feeling better or going through detox or anything like that, but it's about seeking after God. Don Whitney defines Christian fasting in this way. It is a believer's voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes. And he makes it very clear in the book that he chose each one of those words deliberately. Christian fasting is a believer's voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes. Now sometimes, in broader evangelicalism, they want a wider definition of fasting than what I just put forth. They want the ability to fast from other things. And so a really common saying that you might hear among evangelicals is, right now I'm fasting from social media. And, you know, people sometimes fast from a variety of different things as well. And the argument is that if something in your life is exerting an ungodly amount of influence in your life, fast from it. And Lord willing, this will help to reorient the activity to godly use. And I don't have any problem with that. And I think it's good advice. But the Bible never uses the word fasting that way. Every single time the Bible speaks of fasting, it's with reference to food, and sometimes food and water. Biblical fasting, I believe, and you might disagree, but I believe it's the most misunderstood, it's the most dreaded, and it's the least practice of the spiritual disciplines among like-minded Christians. And when I say like-minded, I mean Reformed Christianity. And there's a few reasons for this, and I think I have two reasons that I think are big ones. First of all, Reformed Christianity came out, historically, of law-based religion, where external religious authority dictated when to fast, and this is contrary to New Testament directives. Now, the Old Testament had one fast that you had to obey year after year by divine appointment, and this you find in Leviticus chapter 23, and it was regarding the Day of Atonement. But with the advent of Jesus Christ, he fulfilled the law, leaving the Lord's Day as the only biblically recognized holy day. Fasting, however, as a spiritual discipline, did not expire with the Old Testament. Jesus actually tells us in Matthew chapter 6 that just as he expects us to pray, he likewise expects us to fast. And even in the Old Testament, It's not this rigid following of the ceremonial law when people were fasting, but it was usually an expression of heartfelt natural religion. Now, as Roman Catholicism rose to power in the Middle Ages and held the Church of God under its influence, it introduced a very heavy yoke of bondage to Christians, mandated holy days. Now, my position is the same as our church's confession in 1689. In chapter 21, which is the chapter on Christian liberty and liberty of conscience, part of that chapter says, quote, God alone is Lord of the conscience, and he has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are in anything contrary to his word or not contained in it. So that to believe such doctrines or obey such commands out of conscience is to betray true liberty of conscience. And so Catholics teach, as do some other faith traditions, such as the Lutherans or the Anglicans or the Orthodox, that you absolutely must follow their prescribed calendar. You must observe their holy days, and you must fast during certain seasons. And you're in sin if you don't. They would go that far. And the big one here is Lent. And Lent is that season leading up to Easter, and Catholics are famous for their fish fry Fridays. And the reason that they have that is because they believe it's a sin to eat meat on Fridays, to eat red meat. Why is that? Well, it's because their church told them so. They don't point to a biblical passage. It has to do with the authority of their magisterium. One of the chief reformation controversies early on among the first generation reformers was when Ulrich Zwingli held what came to be known as the Affair of the Sausages. And his argument was, since we're not bound by that calendar, my church is free to eat whatever we want during Lent. And so they ate meat, they ate sausages on Fridays. It almost sounds silly to us, but it was absolutely scandalous back then. All this to say, the reason I'm bringing this up, is that when fasting comes to mind, we are right to protest against the Catholics in this manner. However, we shouldn't have it in our subconscious mind. Ugh, fasting, that's what the Catholics do. That's a Catholic practice. It's not a Catholic practice. It's a biblical practice. It's a Protestant practice. It's for us. It's a faithful Christian practice, and I'll bring out Bible verses to give a positive case for that soon. But the second thing that I think leads us to be a little bit wary of the practice of fasting is that we are Americans, and we're so affluent, and we're so wealthy, and we have an obesity problem, and we start speaking about fasting, it's, ugh, do I have to? Worldwide, many cultures fast. The poorest Muslims fast during their holy month. But you won't find the typical American, even the average Christian, who fasts even on really rare occasions. It's because we're so used to food, and America does have a gluttony problem. And I do think that this highlights why we neglect fasting. Wealth is not bad in itself. However, wealth and influence often gives us an occasion to greater temptations to the Christian life. And wealth, I believe, has resulted in us losing the practice of regular fasting. Fasting, I believe, is therefore especially important to us in our current moment. You know, if you were to look at the early church, they really highly valued the practice of fasting. But I believe it's perhaps more important now than ever that we recover the practice of fasting because we, right now especially, need to be materially humbled before God. So having already discussed some common errors with regards to fasting, I want us to look at three more things. First of all, the types of fasts that we see in the Bible. Secondly, the purposes of fasting according to the Bible, and thirdly, just some practical exhortations to leave off with. So firstly, the types of fasts. The first and most common fast that we see in the Bible is what Don Whitney calls a normal fast. A normal fast is when we abstain from food, but we continue to drink. We continue with water. This is likely the kind of fast that Jesus was doing when he was in the wilderness for 40 days. Matthew 4 says, and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry. Now the Bible specifically points out the fact that he was hungry. It doesn't say he was hungry and thirsty. And there's really no additional explanation that he was in some sense supernaturally sustained. There are some people who indeed can go 40 days without food as long as they're making sure that they are good on their water intake. Now this is the most common that we see in the Bible, and it's the most common that seems to be practiced today and throughout history. The Bible also speaks of partial fasts. A partial fast isn't an outright abstinence from food, but it's a limitation on the kind of food that we intake. And the best example of this is the fast that Daniel participated in. In Daniel chapter one, he ate only vegetables and he drank water. An additional example of this is with John the Baptist. His fast looked like eating locusts and wild honey. And so if as a Christian you say to yourself, you know, today I want to participate in a partial fast, the question is what might that look like to you? And some people it might be, you know, I'm going to still drink water, but I'm going to cut back on the coffee for a bit, or I'm going to cut back on the sugar, or I'm going to eat just more simple foods. Then the Bible speaks of absolute fasts, and this is no food and no drink. In Ezra chapter 10, it speaks of Ezra saying that he ate no bread and he drank no water because of the guilt of those from the captivity. So he did this as a way of humbling himself before God and for mourning for the sins of his people. In the book of Esther, when she speaks to Mordecai, she says in Esther chapter four, go, gather all the Jews who are present in Sushan, and fast for me. Neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. So she was seeking the protection and the favor of God in this moment with an absolute fast. The thing is, she probably, or I shouldn't say probably, it's possible that she perhaps wanted to fast for a longer period of time than three days, but she really only had three days. She was desperate that God would hear her. So in that desperation, it was no food and no drink. We also see this in the New Testament as well. In Acts chapter nine, when Saul meets Jesus on the Damascus road, We know that he was blinded, but we often don't remember as well that when he was blinded for those three days, he also went without food and drink. When people come to Christianity, when people are converted, we see all these signs of the new birth within them. We see, you know, they have these new prayer habits. They have this joy. They have the desire to tell other people about Jesus. But when was the last time you heard about somebody becoming a Christian? One of the first things they did is they said, I'm gonna fast. You know, that's just not something we do. And I think if fasting was a more common practice in our culture, we would see that. The last category that we see in the Bible is a supernatural fast. And a supernatural fast is something that's not repeatable. And these were instances, I believe there's only two in the Bible, of where divine intervention upheld the person who was fasting. Moses, speaking in Deuteronomy, says, when I went up into the mountains to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. Now, maybe you can go 40 days without food, 40 days without water, and you're dead. The only way Moses was able to do this is because God supernaturally upheld him by his power. He gave him, if you want, the gift of fasting. Elijah likewise went with no food and no water for 40 days according to 1 Kings 19. Do I want to say this? I'll say it. Charismatics have a whole bunch of gifts and anointing that they claim for themselves. Speaking in tongue, healing. Never heard of the gift of fasting. So those are the types of fasts we see in terms of diet. There are also biblical distinctions between who is involved in your fast. The most common kind of fast, in terms of who's involved, is a private fast. And this is just between you and the Lord. When Jesus teaches us about fasting in Matthew 6, this is what is assumed. I'll read what Jesus says in 3 verses, Matthew 6, verses 16-18. Our Lord says, Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret, will reward you openly." So what Jesus is speaking about here is a private fast. It's between you and the Lord. You don't go running around telling people, yeah, I've been fasting lately, just like you wouldn't do the same thing with prayer. You don't run around saying, oh yeah, I've been praying lately. Isn't that real good of me? Jesus says, no, that's absolute hypocrisy. Just as we pray in secret and we seek the Lord in secret, we read our Bible in secret, fasting should often be a secret thing as well. But there's also a biblical precedent for group fasts. And the Bible identifies a couple different groups that did this. One of those was a congregational fast, a church fast. And in Acts chapter 13, a church fast was done to set apart Paul and Barnabas for the ministry. Acts chapter 13 verses two through three reads, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then having fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and sent them away. So I think it's a really good practice as a church that as we ordain our officers, our elders and deacons, that we would have a time of fasting to seek the Lord's favor, because it's not us, ultimately, who choose the leaders of the church, but it's God who appoints pastors. The other example that we have in the Bible, the other example, is a national fast. A national fast, it's when the ruler of a nation says, As a nation, I ask my people that they would fast for the good of this country. In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, we have King Jehoshaphat calling for one. In the book of Jonah, the people of Nineveh, when they repented in Jonah's time, they called for a time fasting. In Jonah chapter 3 we read of it, the Word of God says, So the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed they fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Then the word came to the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd 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. National sins often call for national repentance. Common theme we see throughout the Bible is repentance through fasting. National fasting, I think is a really foreign concept to us. Has such a thing ever happened in our lifetime? And if it did, how do you think it'd be received? If our president called for a national fast, or our governor called for a national fast, do you think people would listen? Or do you think it's more likely that they would be mocked for even suggesting that? You want us to not eat the entire country for one day? But it's... Important to remember that God does appoint our representatives as ministers for good. And the concept of national fasting for the purpose of seeking the face of God is not absent from this nation's history. President Lincoln, during the Civil War, he called for three different national fasts. Other presidents as well, early on in our history, President Adams, President Madison, they also held times of national fasting. And our prayer, I think, ought to be that our nation, now more than ever, needs repentance. We need to turn to God. We need forgiveness. And our prayer needs to be that our leaders would be awakened to their duty to promote godliness in this nation. Oh, that there would be another day of national fasting for our sins. Now, when I read Dr. Whitney's chapter on fasting, saw all his different categories, I felt like there was one category missing. My question was, what about fasting as a family? Is that legitimate? Is that illegitimate? And I couldn't find any Bible verses that speak to an exact example of, here we see a family fasting together as a family. And so I think that's why Dr. Whitney left it out, is I think he was trying to be as rigorously biblical as possible, and you can't point to a single explicit Bible verse to say, here it is. But if it's not given by example, Do we still have any reason to think that this still might be at least biblically consistent? I believe yes. Here's my argument. Evaluate it for yourselves. Since kings, pastors, and fathers hold God-given authority to promote godliness in their respective domains, they therefore have the right to call fasts for their subjects. Therefore, heads of households can call for fasts for their whole family. One of the applications of this, I think, is that as a matter of discipleship, parents, just as you teach your children to pray, just as you teach them to read the Bible, just as you teach them a host of other spiritual duties, so too it is excellent if you were to teach your children how to fast. So all that being said, all the different categories that the Bible has, the most common kinds of fasts that people participate in are normal fasts, no food, but water's still allowed, and private fasts, just between you and God. That should be what is most regular for your life. It's what we most commonly see in the Bible, and it's most commonly practiced. So my second point. the purposes of fasting according to the Bible. We already read Matthew chapter six where Jesus says, when you fast, it's expected of us. Fasting is not really an optional Christian discipline. But the question ought to be raised as to the length and the frequency of fasts. And frankly, there's no explicit biblical answer. A lot of it just comes down to the leading of the spirit. It comes down to, you know, prayer, you know, asking God how long, what should it look like? and using your personal reasoning. You will find lots of people that have an exact answer for you, though. People really want to bind your conscience in the area of fasting. I don't know what it is, especially about fasting, but people want to tell you this is exactly how you have to do it. John Wesley, for example, he absolutely refused to ordain any man to ministry unless he fasted every Wednesday and every Friday. That's worthy of just rolling your eyes at it. But we should, I think, be fasting more than we do now. As to the length, the Bible's examples range from a partial day fast to a full 40 days. The minimum length for a fast is at least one meal. You know, you can't really say, well, I fast between lunch and dinner. I fast three times a day. That doesn't count. It has to be at least one meal. And anything beyond that needs to be determined through prayer and reason. Fasting is about deprivation. Now it kind of defeats the purpose if you anticipate not eating by eating extra before you fast, or you're so hungry after your fast is over that you just gorge yourself with food after. Christian fasting is all about cultivating the spiritual fruit of self-control. Control yourself. Now Muslims, when they fast, they fast the entire month of Ramadan, it's usually about 30 days, and they do no food, no water, from sunrise to sunset. At the end of the 30 days, the average Muslim, and this is well known, the average Muslim gains weight. And the reason for that is they know they're not gonna eat all day, so they eat a big meal in the morning before the sun comes out, and they eat a big meal in the evening after the sun goes down. And so they gain weight. Completely, in my opinion, destroys the purpose of a fast. They did not cultivate self-control. This spiritual discipline, fasting, is like all spiritual disciplines. If it's not pursued in a way that honors Christ, it can even have a negative effect. So that is your warning. Beware about it. Fasting must be purposeful. Now, Whitney writes, without a purpose, fasting can be a miserable, self-centered experience about willpower and endurance. You need a conscious reason about fasting. And it can't be vague and undefined. It can't be, you know, well, I'm fasting for spiritual reasons, or I'm fasting because the Bible says so. You need something more concrete than that. Because what's gonna happen is this. You're gonna start fasting. You're gonna get hungry. You're gonna ask, well, why am I hungry? Oh yeah, I'm fasting. Why am I fasting? Well, you need to be able to say, I'm fasting for the purpose of, whatever your purpose is. So without a purpose, fasting becomes an end in itself. You just become consumed with watching the clock. I've been fasting so long. When's it over? When's it over? When's it over? But if you're constantly reminding yourself, I'm doing it for this spiritual reason, it will be fruitful. So Whitney gives us 10 biblical reasons that are worth pursuing in a fast. First of all, to strengthen prayer. Whitney quotes the following. Fasting is calculated to bring a note of urgency and importunity to our praying and to give force to our pleading in the court of heaven. The man who prays with fasting is giving heaven notice that he's truly in earnest. Not only so, but he is expressing his earnestness in a divinely pointed way. In the book of Ezra, Ezra 8.23, we read, So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and he answered our prayer. It strengthens our prayer. It shows our Lord that we are really serious about what we're praying for. Please answer us. We are desperate to be heard. And this is the most biblically emphasized purpose of fasting. So many times when you read of fasting, it's likewise paralleled with prayer. Fasting and prayer, fasting and prayer. One thing to keep in mind though is we do not fast to earn God's favor. If you are in Christ, if you're united to him by faith, you are fully accepted in the eyes of God. There is nothing you can do. to lose God's favor, and there's nothing more you can do to make you more accepted in the eyes of God. And so fasting is not a way to manipulate God's favor. We are not like the false prophets of Baal, who, you know, they had to cut themselves in order to get their God to hear their prayers. He ultimately didn't. And we're not like medieval ascetics who would whip themselves to earn God's grace. No, we're not like that at all, but fasting is about increasing our devotional experience with God in a manner that he delights in, and he is pleased to bless our prayers through it. The second purpose, to seek God's guidance. Acts 14.23 says, so when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. And so we have in this verse, Paul and Barnabas prayed and fasted concerning the appointment of new elders. When somebody's ordained in ministry, we recognize this is not just a human endeavor, but ideally it is the Lord who is appointing them. Purpose three, to express grief. In the Bible, when we read about the news of King Saul's death coming to David, we find that David mourned. In 2 Samuel 1, the Bible says, David took hold of his own clothes and he tore them, and so did all the men who were with him. And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. There is biblical reason for us to grieve for the sins of others through fasting as well. In 1 Samuel chapter 20, the Bible says, So we can express grief because just a regular expression of grief. Somebody we know and care for has died. We can grieve for the sins of others. And Whitney argues that it would be such a wonderful idea if we grieve for our own sins through a time of fasting as well. Grieving is a difficult thing. It's a difficult subject. And we often find that when it's time to grieve, we often don't know how. And sometimes we even feel so pierced to our soul that we don't feel like eating. And my advice to this would be, that is natural. That is natural. That's a way that God delights in and he often blesses us through it. Purpose number four, to seek deliverance or protection. Now, I already sort of discussed how Queen Esther did this and also King Jehoshaphat. So I'm not gonna reiterate those examples. But the right response that we should have as Christians, how do we respond to persecution? It's not fleshly retaliation. But when we are persecuted by our enemies, when we're being wronged with offenses, often what's best is a somber time of prayer and fasting, that God would help us in our time of need. We read all throughout the Psalms, you know, when the psalmist is crying to God for help, that God answers. And we ought to do that through fasting. Number five, the fifth purpose, to express repentance and return to God. We see this in Joel 2.12. Now therefore, says the Lord, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So it's often an expression of repentance. And an important thing to remember is just like our prayers can often be empty, even futile, if we have unrepentant sin in our life, if we have gross sin that we've chosen to ignore or even indulge in, fasting likewise can be vain if not accompanied by repentance. Do we have sin in our own camp? Number six, to humble yourself before God. So in prayer, sometimes the Bible speaks of different postures you can have in prayer. Kneeling and prostrating are the main two. Fasting is a way that we can likewise humble ourselves before God. In Psalm 35, verses 12 through 13, the Bible says, they reward me evil for good to the sorrow of my own soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled myself with fasting and my prayer would return to my own heart. Fasting is not humility in itself, but it's an expression of humility and it's a means by which we gain humility. Fasting is about humility. It brings us, it humbles us before the Lord. But there's a way to be self-righteous about it. There's a way that it can have the exact opposite effect. And Jesus warns us about this in Luke chapter 18. It speaks of the righteous Pharisee, self-righteous Pharisee. The word of God says, also he, Jesus, spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So just as we don't pray as a means of self-righteousness, fasting cannot be that either. Number seven, to express concern for the work of God. Nehemiah did this in his book. Nehemiah chapter one, verses three through four said, And they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down and its gates are burned with fire. So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. So the work of God in that moment was about rebuilding this wall in Jerusalem. and they pray that God would bless this new work. Number eight, to minister to the needs of others. And we see this most prominently in Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58 speaks a lot about invalid fasts and especially what our heart ought to be focused on. In verses six through nine, Isaiah writes, speaking for the Lord, Is this not the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out? When you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring forth speedily, and 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. We often don't think of that as one of the purposes of fasting, to minister to the needs of others. You know, I think some of us often struggle with hospitality. Hospitality is difficult. It's something that we often really need to work at and strive for and pray that the Lord would help us in this, because it just doesn't come naturally. If you fast as a way of saying, God, help me in this area, he delights to answer that fast. Ninth purpose, to overcome temptations and dedicate yourself to God. And we see the greatest example of this, I believe, in Matthew chapter four, when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Now, granted, I believe that this passage is primarily about showing that Jesus Christ is the true and better Adam. Adam failed in the garden when he was tempted by Satan, but Jesus succeeded in all the ways that Adam failed in the wilderness. But as a secondary application, I believe that Jesus leads us by example in our spiritual war with the adversary. If we resist the devil, we are told that he will flee from you. You can fight him with fasting. It's one of the weapons that you have in this war. Pastor Derek preached recently out of Mark chapter 9, and in verse 29 we read about The disciples had failed to cast out a demon from man, but Jesus was successful. And so they proceeded to ask Jesus, why were you able to do it, but we weren't able to exercise this demon? Jesus replied by saying, quote, this kind can only come out, I'm sorry, let me start that over. This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. And so, I think what this is getting at is these are not just pragmatic techniques to spice up your devotional life, but fasting has real spiritual power to it in a way that in a lot of ways we don't understand how important it is. And the last thing I want to talk about, the final purpose, is to express love and worship to God. Now I hope I really hope that today I didn't give you some sort of wrong impression about fasting. It's not always about dire circumstances. Luke 2, for example, speaks of Anna and her good testimony, which reads, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayer night and day. Fasting must be done as an act of worship and from a heart of love. It's not fasting as fasting which pleases God, but fasting as an expression of joy and love to your Heavenly Father. Zechariah tells us in chapter 7, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seven months during those 70 years, did you really fast for me? For me? This is the Lord speaking. Did you fast for me? God may press that upon you the next time you fast. Did you really fast for me? So my exhortation to you would be labor to present yourself holy and blameless before God, to be able to sincerely say in your heart and to the Lord in prayer, yes, God, I fasted for you because I am so thankful for what you've done and continue to do in my life. I thank you so much for saving me through your son, Jesus. And the last thing I want to briefly talk about is just a few bits of advice. First bit of advice is to know yourself. Different people can handle different kinds of fasts. Now, someone who takes medication, they need to be more careful. You know, it would be way too easy for me to say, everybody needs to fast, and everybody needs to do big fasts. Now, I mean, you know your limits. I don't know everybody's limits. If you take medicine that interferes with food, or requires food in order to work, obviously don't forsake your health in an unhelpful way. But most of us, if not all of us, can skip at least one meal. Right? I mean, the purpose of the study isn't just to give you a whole bunch of information and get you to nod your head and say, you know, I think we've got what the Bible says about fasting right. I'm not here to just give you information. I want to encourage you that you really ought to fast. And if you don't have a regular practice of fasting, you should use this Sunday school as an occasion to do one soon. Because it's on your mind now. And if you don't plan to do one, you'll probably forget about it, because it doesn't come naturally. So I do want to inspire you to fast. I hope I was successful in doing that today. If this is your first time fasting, my other exhortation would be don't go crazy. Because I think a lot of people become like, oh, it's my first time. I'm going to do a big one. It's going to be great. I'm going to go a full week with no food and see what happens. Be realistic. Set a reasonable goal. Maybe start with just one meal. Because if you set a bad goal and then you fail at that goal, you're going to feel guilty about it. You'll be like, oh, I tried to go seven days, but I only went four days. I'm such a failure. Be reasonable about it. On the other hand, if you do know yourself and you're like, look, I know that I can go a full week without food. I know this will be good for me. That's fine as well, but my other caution would be to do a little research on it. Personal note, I once fasted from food for six days. And then when I broke my fast, I got sick. And the reason I got sick was I didn't know you had to wean yourself back onto food. You can't go a bunch of days with no food and then go back to three meals a day. You'll get pretty sick. So do a little bit of research if you want to do something that's more extreme and more heavy. Fourth, this is a spiritual discipline. And therefore, like all the other spiritual disciplines, expect spiritual warfare. Have you noticed that the sleepiest time of your week is sometimes during the Sunday sermon? Or have you noticed that your phone seems to get the most texts and the most notifications during your daily prayer? Well, that's because the devil is active. And if you fast, when you fast, you will notice that suddenly, special temptations arise. People you don't regularly eat with suddenly want to grab lunch with you. Grandma's gonna break you fresh cookies. Surprise! During your fast. There will be temptations to distract you. So be on guard with prayer. And commit yourself, there will be nothing to distract me from this spiritual duty. And the last thing that I want to end with is that God wants to bless you through fasting. He wants to bless you. You know, this isn't just something you need to do out of duty. This isn't something that, you know, I want to guilt people into or say, you know, Bible says, you know, have you done it? But God wants to bless you through it. We have all these promises of God hearing people's prayer and hearing people's fasting. It's an act of desperation and God gives us ample promises all throughout his word that he has good things prepared for his people and that we do not have because we do not ask. And so the question remains, when we ask, are we asking in the right way? Have we humbled ourselves appropriately? Have we repented? And so I think that's where I want to leave us, I hope that this was helpful today, fasting for the purpose of godliness. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, God you are so good and so righteous. We thank you for how much you've loved us, and we thank you, Lord, for the multitude of ways that you've given us to seek your face. We ask, Lord, that we would not neglect to seek you while you may be found. God, we ask that you would increase our faith and cause us to delight in fasting, cause us to want to fast, and cause us to see what a joy it can be. God, you've given us so many good, perfect, and gracious gifts. And God, we ask that even today, you would increase the greatest gift that you've given us of all, that you would increase our gift of faith, that we might see Christ in all of his glory. God, prepare our hearts now to receive the word of God during this morning worship. We ask that you would be with our pastor and that the Holy Spirit would inspire him as he brings the sermon. Please be with us today and may Jesus Christ be exalted for it's in his name that we pray these things, amen.