Turn if you would to the gospel of Matthew chapter 17 the gospel of Matthew chapter 17 and We're going to continue on from last Wednesday's subject and that is fasting fasting and we're going to just briefly refresh our minds and hearts and souls and spirits and We're going to read our scripture reading first. So we pray that this will be a help to us in our daily lives. Fasting is something that children of God ought to do. It's in the Bible. And I've said before that demonic spirits didn't go away because it's the 21st century. And fasting didn't end because it's the 21st century. And so we want to look here in Matthew chapter 17. We'll begin at verse 14. And this is a tremendous occasion of which took place. And we're going to read here these verses down through verse 21. And it says, and when they were come to the multitude, There came to him a certain man kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic and sore-vexed. For oft times he falleth into the fire and oft into the water, and I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon, or the devil, and he departed out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said, Why could not we cast him out? Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove. Nothing shall be impossible unto you, albeit this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting. Now, just a few thoughts here. Again, this is a popular section of verses that is taken out of context by many false religious people today. Some people, they'll say if they pray about something or if they ask God for something and it doesn't happen, they'll say, well, you must not have had enough faith. You never hear anybody say, well, it wasn't God's will for that to take place. And oftentimes, people who want God to remove a mountain or something of that nature, they often ask a mist, they're asking to consume it upon their own lust. And I've never heard anybody say that when they want to be like the Lord, they typically don't refer to, as Jesus said, the foxes have holes and these have dens to lay, but the Son of Man hath nowhere to lay His head. Nobody means that when they want to be like the Lord, do they? They want all the comforts of this world that they think they're afforded. But this is not what this verse is speaking of. Prayer is not a blank check. Prayer changes people and things, but not God. And it often changes our will. When we come unto His throne and we're seeking Him and petitioning Him, oftentimes the mountain that is moved is our own will, isn't it? And God conforms us into what He desires and He wants. And so he is speaking here in this fashion in verse 21. He says, Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. This was a tremendous occasion. An individual was possessed by a demon and the Lord with supernatural power casted him out. And his disciples said, how come we couldn't do this? And he tells them why. First of all, they had unbelief. Second of all, he said, this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. And this is a principle teaching that teaches us that there are certain things that prayer and fasting must go before something's accomplished. And again, I want to reiterate what we said last week, and that is prayer and fasting are not some lucky rabbit's foot. It's not something you go to to rub and say, okay, now I'm going to get what I asked for. That's not what it is. Fasting is to refrain from eating food and or water to afflict oneself for a spiritual need. I told someone the other day, I said, I preached on fasting Wednesday, and I'm going to preach on it again this Wednesday, and he said, he goes, boy, I really need to fast, rubbing his belly. And he was a larger gentleman. That's not the fasting that the Bible's referring to. It's not about weight loss of a physical kind. Fasting is seeking the Lord and seeking to know God and His will in a deeper fashion. There were multiple occasions of which God's people fasted in the Old Testament. And the Old Testament was written for our admonition and our learning. There are multiple occasions of which the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament fasted. As he said here, there are certain things that will only go out but by prayer and fasting. So before I end up preaching last week's message all over again, let's note tonight's point number one. I'd like you to turn over, if you would, to Matthew 6. And that is, the Lord gave us some rules for fasting. Rules for fasting. And yes, I know folks like to say, well, I'm not under the law, I'm under grace. Well, grace has rules. And there's rules for fasting. First of all, as we look at these verses, we'll read verses 16-18, and you'll see here that the Lord is rebuking hypocrisy. He's rebuking hypocrisy. In verse 16, He says, Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Now you'll notice here that Jesus says, verse 16, moreover when ye fast, not moreover if you fast, but when ye fast. So we find here that the Lord is commanding and expecting His people to seek Him with fasting. Now, you'll notice here in Matthew 6, you'll find here that the Lord lists a few things. In verse 1-7, verse 1, He speaks of almsgiving. And again, you read that, He says, Take heed that ye do not your alms before men. So again, He's expecting us to do alms, isn't He? He's expecting us to do good unto our fellow mankind. And we have Galatians 6.10 which says, that as you therefore have opportunity, do good unto all men, especially unto the household of faith. So we're supposed to do good on all men. And I reiterate that the greatest good that we can do is to tell them the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the greatest good you can do. Remember there, Peter and John, they went up to the temple to pray in the book of Acts? And they said unto that man, he was a beggar there at the beautiful gate, and he was begging for alms, and they said, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. Boy, that was far better that they preached the gospel to him than if they had just gave him silver or gold and walked on by. It's far better that they shared the Gospel with him. And so he speaks about almsgiving. Verse 5, And when thou prayest. So again, he's talking about you're supposed to do alms, you're supposed to pray. We have the model prayer beginning here in verse 9. And then, in verse 16, he talks and speaks about fasting. Isn't it interesting that almsgiving, prayer, and fasting are all mentioned right here? And then in the next verse, verse 19, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. And then he skips to verse 33, if you would, Excuse me. Verse 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the moral, for the moral shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." So, he's talking about almsgiving and prayer and fasting, and then in the next verses he's talking about not laying up on this earth and seeking the spiritual things, isn't he? There's a connection between all that, isn't there? You see, the Lord rebukes this hypocrisy. Back there in verse 16, He says, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites. Here, He's talking about a private fast. There were public fasts. Remember we said last week there were times when kings would proclaim a fast. When Jonah went into Nineveh and he preached that three days or forty days and Nineveh would be overthrown. And a fast was proclaimed to repent. And God, He turned from destroying them, didn't He? And so, thanks buddy. That's a big cup. I'm sorry, the bathroom's back there. You can go that way or you can go that way and you'll eventually get to it if you have to yell and there's a water cooler right around the corner. Help yourself. So we have here that he speaks about a private fast. A private fast. There's public ones. There's ones when days passed and gone and maybe they need to be days current and happening. when churches would have a fast together. I don't know if this church has ever had a fast. But the Bible tells us here that they're not supposed to. He says, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance. When you fast, don't be walking around, oh, I'm so hungry, but I'm fasting. They disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. You know, that they would put dust upon them. Because that was a sign of sorrow over sin, and it was done as an outward of what the inward was done. And the hypocrites, or the Pharisees, the religious people of Christ's day, they would do that, and yet they had no inward sorrow. He said, Christ says, don't do that. When you fast, don't be like the hypocrites. I told my wife Wednesday, I preached on fasting. I was going to preach on it again tonight. She says, are you planning to fast? I says, not while I'm in Kansas. Brother Dale's cooking barbecue. But you know when you fast, unless it's a proclaimed public fast, and I don't know if we've ever had a president or a governor or anybody who's ever proclaimed one in our nation, and you know we have a national day of prayer, why not a national day of fasting? They used to have those in nations. But when you fast, you don't do it to men, you're doing it unto the Lord. The Pharisee in Luke 18.12, when he prayed, he said, I fast twice in a week. He was boasting of his fasting. God warns us through the Scriptures about outward fasting only. It does not please Him. He is not pleased with that show of religion. These Pharisees and hypocrites adorned themselves and went into the street to be seen of men." When you have a private fast, you know what you're supposed to do? You're supposed to be at home in your prayer closets, seeking the Lord. That's what you're supposed to be doing. Secondly, about fast, this point, managing private fasts. Verse 17-18, But thou, when thou fast, anoint thine head, and wash thy face. You know what the Lord is saying? Keep it private. We're not told how often to fast. One writer said, Circumstances vary, and wisdom is profitable therein to direct. The Holy Spirit directs our spirit and our hearts by His Word when we ought to fast. One of the things about managing a fast is the Lord does not abate the reality of the fast. And by that I mean He doesn't say, go ahead and take a little something. That kind of sounds like Satan, doesn't it? Oh, thou shalt not surely die. The purpose of fasting is to afflict our souls. When Christ was suspended between heaven and earth upon Calvary's hill on the tree of the cross, there was no abating the reality of our sins that were put upon Him, was there? God didn't lessen our sins upon Christ, did He? They were in full force poured out upon Him and God's wrath was also not abated. And so there's not a take a little meat or a little drink or a little cordial and then keep on going. No, let the body suffer. Lay aside the show of appearance of it. appear with an ordinary countenance, as fasting is the humbling of the soul. Your outward appearance shall not be any different from when you're not fasting." That's how we're ought to fast. And then in verse 18 of Matthew 6, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Religious fast, if rightly kept, will shortly be recompensed with an everlasting feast. He'll reward us openly. Now, that again is, as we noted there in our first point this evening, rules for fasting. Keep it private. I mean, some people, they might rent a billboard and say, you know, if it was me, the way they rent a billboard says, I'm fasting today, Nate Hilley. You know, or post on Facebook or social media. Pray for me, I'm fasting today. Well, let's look secondly at types of fasting. Types of fasting. There are different types or kinds of fast revealed in the Bible. Matthew, Henry, he stated, each are used as a means to curb the flesh and the desires of it and to make us more lively in religious exercises. as fullness of bread is apt to make us drowsy, each kind of fast is an act of self-denial, and mortification of the flesh, and holy revenge upon ourselves, and humiliation under the hand of God." Fasting is abasing ourselves. Now I'd like you to observe first of all, if you'll turn over to Luke chapter 4, under the types of fasts, I'd like you to know, and these names that I'm going to use are arbitrary, okay? They're man-made names. The first here I want to look at is called the normal fast. And if you want to call it by some other name, that's just fine. And if some other preacher calls it some other way, that's fine too. I found this in a Bible dictionary. I said that's a good way of dividing them up. But the normal fast. And here in Luke 4 verse 1 and 2, And Jesus, being full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan, and this is after he was baptized, You that are when the Lord saves you, and you seek to be scripturally baptized, and you become a member of His church, that might be a time to fast. You know, what do we do as Baptist churches? Hey, we better have a fellowship dinner. The Lord saved somebody. The Lord fasted after he was baptized. Luke 4, maybe we ought to fast for that person. Luke 4, verse 1, "...and Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit, He turned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil, and in those days He did eat nothing. When they were ended, He afterward hungered." Now, we call it a normal fast, and this is a total abstinence from food, but not water. This is the most common fast. And our Lord did it for 40 days. You can live without food for 40 days. I remember I had a medical issue last year and the doctor, he put me on a liquid diet. You know what he told me? He says, you will be hungry. And he was not lying. If you fast, You will be hungry. You're going to be hungry. It's going to happen. Understand that. That's part of fasting. You're going to be hungry. But you're not going to eat because you're going to go afflict your soul. You say, oh, I couldn't do that. Maybe that's the problem we have today. We're not willing to follow the Lord and do without. But he, it says, when they were ended, he afterward hungered. I bet. I bet he was hungry. I usually get hungry every 4 hours, let alone 40 days. I don't know if you can tell, I like to eat. Turn over if you would to Acts chapter 9. Secondly, types or kinds of fast. Acts chapter 9. Verse 9. This is an absolute fast. An absolute fast. Acts 9 and verse 9. Here is the occasion. Saul of Tarsus was saved on the road to Damascus in an amazing Jesus Christ was baptized and then he fasted while he was being tempted of the devil. You ever been under a trial or a temptation of the devil? You ever think about fasting during that time period and seeking the Lord? Well, I haven't. That's kind of eye-opening, isn't it? How about this? Saul of Tarsus after he's saved. Remember what he said there in verse 6? And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? What did we say fasting was? It was seeking the will of the Lord, wasn't it? So what do we find in verse 9? And he was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink. What do you think he did for three days? I think you sought the will of the Lord, don't you? He went three days without eating or drinking. An absolute fast. Here he was, after the Lord saved him. Remember what Paul said, we read it last week, that he was in fastings often. There in 2 Corinthians. Fasting is often. You know what the word often means? It means seldom. Frequent. Or not seldom. It means frequent. He was fasting frequently. I eat frequently. We do, don't we? So here he was in an absolute fast. Three days. You know, you can go three days without drinking. you can physically go three days without drinking. Now I want you to understand, this Paul was not out digging ditches while he went without food or drink for three days, was he? People make that mistake. They go to work or they go to their job or they're working around the house or something like that and they're fasting and they get sick and they say, well, I've got to eat or I've got to drink something. I bet you do. You know what Paul was doing? He was probably on his knees in prayer. See, that's the problem is we try to do our normal activity and fast and it cannot be done. During that time, one is supposed to be seeking the Lord. And I understand we have daily things that we have to do. You know what? That laundry can get done the next day. And it's not like you're going to have any dishes to do, because you're not cooking, because you're not eating. You understand? You're afflicting your soul during that time. Then if you turn over to Daniel chapter 10, in the Old Testament, still applicable, Daniel chapter 10, we have here a partial fast. A partial fast. And again, we got Christ, About to be tempted of the devil. We have Saul of Tarsus after he's saved. Remember what Jesus said about Saul of Tarsus? I will show him how great things he must need suffer for my name's sake. No wonder he fasted often. Here we have Daniel. You know where Daniel was? He was in captivity. In Daniel 10, verse 1, In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar, and the thing was true. But the time appointed was long, and he understood the thing, and had an understanding of the vision. In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. You know what he was mourning over? The sins of Israel. That's what he was mourning over. The sins of God's people, the sins of His nation. And our nation has a lot of things that we should be mourning over. There's a lot of sin happening in our nation. I don't need to tell you. It's wrong to murder people. It's wrong to murder innocent people. It's wrong to murder those in a womb. It is. That's a national sin. And it doesn't matter how great people want to tout about our economy, until that gets fixed, this nation will never be blessed of God. It's not going to happen. That's not right. The things that are going on in Washington D.C. and all the backdoor deals and all the other stuff they got going on. It's not right. You know the purpose of government is not to provide all of these things for people. You know what the purpose of government is? To uphold the laws. To uphold righteousness. That's it. It's laid out in Scriptures. The government is supposed to say, you know what, you over here, you're oppressing these people over here and you have to stop that. That's government. That's what government is supposed to do. But here Daniel had a partial fast. Three full weeks. The next verse, I ate no pleasant bread. Pleasant bread is the best of bread served in king's courts. It's of the finest wheat, hot and fresh bread. I'm sure maybe everybody here has had homemade bread or something. My wife will still make some homemade bread. And I tell you, it doesn't last through the meal. It doesn't. It's hot, it's soft, My mom's dad, I never met him, but his wife, my grandma, she would make homemade bread. She'd make like eight loaves at a time, and then she'd freeze them to get through to the next Monday, and she'd make eight more loaves. And then, you know, store-bought bread came out, and he called that air bread because it was so light, he didn't care for it. But homemade bread, You know what it's like when it's all hot, comes out of the oven. If you haven't had that, I'd recommend you find somebody who will make you a loaf. Dana said, I didn't eat that bread. I remember we were out on a field trip. I was in school and they had hardtack. You know what hardtack is? I remember watching some shows in the Navy and they'd have bread and it would be hard as a rock and they'd tap it and the weevils would come out. That's not pleasant bread, is it? Daniel said, I ate no pleasant bread. He went on into verse 3. They said, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled. He didn't anoint himself as far as that with oil and different things of that nature. He didn't eat meat and he didn't drink wine. All of these things were afforded him in the king's house and we know Cyrus was a big fan of Daniel. But you know, the Scripture tells us that Daniel denied himself. And if you look again, verse 2 and 3, it tells us he was in mourning. And you can read down, the Lord gave him a vision of what was going to take place. I'm not going to read it at this time. But that was a partial fast. He was still eating. He was still drinking. But he wasn't eating those delightful things. What did he do? He was mourning for three weeks, wasn't he? Three weeks. I mean, sometimes we can't even pray for three minutes. He was mourning for three weeks. So those are the types of fasts. Let's look thirdly at the lengths of fasts. There are different lengths of fasts recorded in the Bible. We already read in Luke 4 verses 1 and 2, the Bible says Jesus fasted 40 days without food. I do not recommend that you start out with a 40 day fast. I wouldn't recommend that. But the human body can go 40 days without food. What's the goal of fasting? It's not to get sick or to pass out or to go into the hospital. It's not to become dehydrated. The goal is to seek the Lord. Draw closer to Him in spiritual things. In the book of Acts chapter 27 verses 33 and 34, You remember there, that storm, I believe it was called Euroclide, and it came up and the sailors that took place there, they thought they were going to die. And remember we said Paul, he was in long absence and he came out and he said, I told you not to leave, but good news, if you abide in the ship, not one soul is going to be lost. And in Acts 27 verse 33 and 34, they went fourteen days without taking anything, any food. Fourteen days without any food. When it comes to an absolute fast that is no food or drink, three days seems to be the maximum length in the Scriptures. With one exception. Turn over to Exodus 34. Exodus 34. Exodus 34 verse 28. Again, an absolute fast. No food or water. And again, if you go to fast, if you're burdened by the Lord to fast, Again, you need to understand the purpose is not for you to get sick. It's not for you to get dehydrated. There is an affliction. You will be hungry. You will be thirsty. If you do a partial fast as Daniel did, guess what? You're going to crave meat. You're going to crave, you know, I remember the kids in school we grew up with and they do Lent. And they give up Pepsi and drink Coke. They craved what they didn't have. It's kind of like a New Year's resolution, you know? That's not what fasting is. In Exodus 34 verse 28, And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. This is Moses now. He did neither eat bread nor drink water, and He wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. Forty days and forty nights without food or drink. Somebody says, that is humanly impossible. And you know what? That's exactly right. It is humanly impossible. You know what also I've never seen before or never heard of except for in the Bible? Where people's clothes lasted for 40 years in the wilderness. And that happened too, didn't it? God is able to do these things, isn't He? The problem is, some fool is going to say, I'm going to fast for 40 days and not eat food or drink. Well, listen, if God calls you up to a mount to give you His law, then yeah. But Moses was no fool, was he? You'll probably have delusions of grandeur and think you saw God. Kind of like when, what's his name, the start of the Church of Latter Day Saints, was drunk off his rocker and he came out of a tavern and he saw an angel. No kidding. But three days seems to be the length of an absolute fast. You don't have to do it for three days. You don't have to do a normal fast of no food. You don't have to do that for 40 days like the Lord did. In closing, here are some things that help for fasting. Again, first of all, this is a spiritual work. done in a physical way. Remember Brother Duke? He came and preached and he said, it's the physical that feeds the spiritual. How'd you get to church tonight? Your body went and got an automobile and you drove here using your five senses. You walked into the door and now for what? So you can be fed spiritual. You're using your physical ears to hear, aren't you? If God burdens you with fasting, then fast. Perhaps you fast during your lunch hour. Instead of eating during lunch, you fast during that lunch hour. Maybe you eat breakfast at home and you go to work and you don't have a lunch and you don't eat until you get home for supper. And you fast during that time. And anytime you begin to get hungry, you go to the Lord. And you fast one meal. You go to your knees in prayer and truly pray. Maybe the church is having revival services. Maybe you're having problems with your spouse. Maybe you're having issues with your child. Maybe your child's going wayward or starting to go wayward or is already wayward. Maybe they're just lost and undone and you fast for them. And maybe you take that hour of lunch and instead of, you know, as I have, we're at a job site, and instead of going off the job site, you go over there by yourself and you pray over all the things that you're burdened with. It doesn't have to be one thing that you're fasting about. It could be the spiritual condition of the Lord's church. It could be this church. It could be the church that I left in Kansas that needs a pastor. It could be other churches that need pastors. It could be your marriage. It could be your children. It could be something in your life. It could be your neighbor who's lost and in need of a Savior. It could be a fellow saint who's got cancer. When fasting, and I thought this was a wonderful idea, when fasting, every time you think about food, pray. Boy, I thought that's just good, isn't it? Because again, you will be hungry. You will be thirsty. When fasting, don't go about your daily routine. Again, it's going to get hot out there, isn't it? Don't go about your daily routine, be out in the sun sweating all day, and come in, and you're dehydrated, and you gotta be in the hospital, and they say, when's the last time you drank something? Well, yesterday, because today I'm doing a fast. And they look at you and say, you went out and dug ditches, or like Brother Crowder, put 20 bags of mulch around your house today, during a fast? That's not spiritual, it's stupid. Now, he didn't do that. But it is, isn't it? When you fast, what do you do? You're seeking the Lord. Seeking the Lord during that time. I told you last week I know a young man who he was going to ask a girl out on a date for the potential of courting her and he was fasting about even asking her on one date. Because he wasn't going to date anybody, he wasn't planning on marrying. And he said, he goes, this is a big decision. I said, you're darn right it is. Now, if you're going to fast, it's your fast, isn't it? It's not your spouse's fast. It's not your children's fast. It's your fast. may come a time when we as a church may need to fast, isn't it? You know, there's some churches that'll have prayer, and they'll have a sign-up sheet, and it'll be, Brother Crowder, you're going to pray from 6am to 7am, and then Brother MacDonald, you're going to pray from 7 to 8, and then Frankie, you're going to pray from 9 to 10, and so on and so forth. And they have this whole, the whole church is in prayer for the whole day. Sometimes people have to get up in the middle of the night to cover their 10 minutes or 15 minutes or 30 minutes or an hour. Sometimes churches will fast together. Maybe the church is having revival services and you're so burdened that the church would be revived. But it's your fast. You know, if you say, I'm going to fast three days and you only make it two days, don't say, oh, I failed. Because you just fasted two days. You think God says on that third day, you know what, I'm going to go back and I'm going to unhear all your prayers over those two days because you said three. And you didn't make it three. But I'd also be careful how many days I'd say I'm going to fast too. But don't say I'm a failure. That'd kind of be like, you know, well I didn't read scripture reading yesterday, so you know what? I'll just wait until January 1 and start over. That's kind of like people do with their diets. You know, it's Monday morning. Oh, I went off my diet. I'll start next week. Well, you got a meal coming up in four hours. Start over then. Well, if you're fasting and you go two days and not three, you just fasted two days. You just afflicted your soul for two days and sought the Lord for two days. Don't go beating yourself up because you didn't go a third day. God will honor those two days. You know, two days is better than zero days, isn't it? And it's not about the days, is it? It's about the time with the Lord, isn't it? So, as we Just follow the Lord. Remember the Bible says when the bridegroom's here, how can the children of the bride chamber fast? Well, he says, when I am gone, then they'll fast. Well, again, he's been gone for almost 2,000 years, hasn't he? So, there's supposed to be some fasting from time to time. Maybe you don't do it often. Again, there's no thing that says, You know, it's kind of like I knew a church that they said, we're going to observe the Lord's Supper seven times a year. No less, no more. I thought, well, where did that come from? There's nothing that says you have to fast X amount of times a year. But again, it is commanded. We read that. God is expecting His people at some point to fast. Now, don't run home tonight and, you know, we're going to fast tomorrow. I mean, you ought to consider the Lord. But there's rules in all of these things as it's outlined here with fasting. It is a spiritual affliction of one's soul to seek the Lord in His will. You know, in the Bible, there was a man by the name of Cornelius who did alms and prayers and I'm sure fasting. He was a lost person. He was a Jewish proselyte. And he was fasting. But you know, and I'm going to say this with all sincerity. You can do all the religious rites and all the religious works recorded in this book, but unless you have repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, you will not be saved. That's the only way to be saved. And if you are saved, you need to follow Him. Walk with Him. And that's where the fasting comes in. Seeking Him and His will. Drawing closer to Him. Boy, why would you not want to draw closer to Him? Paul said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Jesus taught us to pray, not my will but thine be done. That's what we do in fasting. You know, maybe one, as Paul wrote in Hebrews about those besetting sins, maybe in fasting you'll be able to cast that off. Remember, certain things only come out by prayer and fasting. Maybe that sin of pride or that lust, which is, you know, sensual and non-sensual things, Maybe that sin, maybe that sin of self-righteousness, or whatever it is that is your besetting sin, maybe that will go out with prayer and fasting. I don't know. But here's some more thoughts on the subject. And as Paul said under the church at Ephesus, I commend you under the grace of our Lord. I can't tell you when to fast. That's not my place. That's the Lord's place. So again, if you're burdened, here's some thoughts about it. And again, you will be hungry. At the first sign of hunger, you don't quit fasting. But you're not supposed to starve yourself to death. You don't have to go 40 days. You don't have to go three weeks. Like I said, maybe you fast one meal, or from lunch to supper, or you fast from breakfast to supper. You fast from lunch till the following breakfast, and you afflict your soul through that time. So, I can't do that. I have medical problems. I get that. You know, probably everybody's got some pill to take, don't they? But you know what? I mean this with all sincerity. I'm not one of those faith healer people, but I do believe God heals people. He still does today. Maybe you fast over that medication and get rid of it. God will heal you. I don't know. I'm not advocating that. I'm advocating seeking the Lord. Some people say, well, I have to have this. Well, what if we treated spiritual things like prayer and fasting, like we did medication we took three or four times a day, like we had to have it. What if we did what God said, and we acted like it was essential to our life, because it is. Again, if you're here without Christ, no amount of works are going to save you. You can fast until the Lord comes, and you'll die and go to hell. If you repent and believe the gospel, you'll be saved. And then follow the Lord. So while we stand, we're going to have a prayer, a series of prayer, Brother Crowder and then Brother McDonald.