Read-along
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Good morning, Rock Point. How's it going? Yes.
Hey. I I don't know what what what you guys are like in your relationship to like eating and exercise, like the diet and exercise. I and you know, because they say to be in good shape and good health, it's it's diet and exercise. I, on the other hand, am a diet
versus exercise type of guy. Anybody? Anybody there with me? It's it's it's it's more like a football game. It's my exercise is battling against my eating. And and and when I was younger, I I I had a stronger offensive line than the diet did. But now the there Diet's
offensive line is way too big for me now. And and I I I it's I'm losing the battle at times. And I and I realized this a couple years ago, because I used to call myself break even bill. Like, I could work out enough to break even. I wasn't breaking even anymore.
And just a few years ago, I was sitting there and I started gaining weight in the wrong places. And and then and I'm like, what is going on? Normally, don't just gain weight like this. And and I had to think about it, and I I kind of
it didn't take long to figure out the culprit is I realized it's probably has something to do with how many times I'm getting up at like one o'clock in the morning and going downstairs and eating cereal.
And I had to put in the work, man. I had to walk down the stairs. And and and and and it wasn't I'd go and and at first when I was doing it, I was trying to make it as healthy as possible, if you if you might say. I'd go there. I would just pull out a bowl. I'd pull out this this cereal. It was usually like Captain Crunch Berry or whatever my kids had. You know, I just pour it in there. And and then I'd grabbed our skim milk at first, you know. So that's a little bit. And I'd go and then I would just put it away, and then I'd eat my one bowl. Well, it kinda progressed
because I didn't wanna sit there with the one bowl because you couldn't get the milk to cereal ratio right. You had to be perfect in that first pour. So then I started sitting down and bringing the milk and the cereal,
and and then you'd go, alright. There's a little bit of milk left. I should put some more cereal. Uh-oh. I put too much cereal in for the milk. I could put more milk. Uh-oh. I gotta put more cereal in. So it was escalating. And and and Man, some of you are judging me right now.
Some of you are looking down in shame because I just described your last night. But then you think that's bad. It gets worse. Because here's the problem with milk. The dairy industry is is is is is like drug dealers.
You know, because skim milk is a scam. That is water pretending to be milk. So then I realized, wait. You know what?
There's whole milk in the refrigerator. I'm gonna go for that. And I was drinking that. Then all of sudden, I looked one night as I'm pulling this stuff out, and I didn't realize my wife there was half and half.
So now I grabbed the half and half, which was even creamier and good. It it it it paired well with the cereal. And then one night I opened the refrigerator and I realized my wife had started buying heavy whipping cream to use as creamer in coffee. And I'm like, I think that will solve the sogginess problem.
And it did. Your cereal does not get soggy if you pour heavy whipping cream on it. And so I was pouring that on it, and I'm like, have you ever looked at what a serving size is? It's measured in tablespoons.
My wife would come down in the morning and go, who drank all the heavy whipping cream? I bought that to bake some stuff, and I'm like, I downed it in a night and a half, like two nights. And and then I looked at the calories and I go, I guess maybe my my my my ability to exercise and my metabolism is not the problem.
The problem was when I added it up, I was eating twice as many calories in cereal and whip heavy cream then I ate in food all day. I was tripling my caloric take in, and then went to bed, and I'm like, this is terrible. I mean, and it was all because I kept moving
scale the of the milk, because you know what, it's it's it's that it's it's milk is a gateway liquid. It it just it moved me right to the bad stuff, and I I understood that, and I so I decided I have got to like cut that off for while. I gotta abstain. I I've just gotta take a break on this. And I did.
And here's what I discovered. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be. And it wasn't harder because I expected to be I'm gonna be hungry and fight some hunger pains. I realized I was not even fighting as much hunger pains when I was waking up. I was waking up because I was never really fully asleep.
And I started into when I when I cut it off and I and I abstained for a while, all of a sudden, reality became clear. I sought for what it was, and I started to understand there was a pattern to when I would go down and eat the cereal. And the pattern wasn't really about hunger. The pattern was about stress.
And I discovered that it was the only reason I was awake at that time and went down to eat is because it was all the nights I never really fully fell asleep, because my brain wouldn't shut up. Anybody ever has a brain that shut up? See, look look at how my mouth won't even shut up. Imagine what my brain can be like.
It's like my be my mouth might stop moving, but my brain just sometimes doesn't stop.
And when I get overthinking, and I just get into my head, and then I and I'm going through anything stressful, and I'm worried about this, I'm worried about a church budget, I'm worried about that, I'm worried about and I started to just carry the weight of the world, I realized that's when I was getting up and doing this.
It wasn't, oh, I just have to eat. It was an emotional thing that was driving it. I wouldn't have realized that probably until I had diabetes or or something, But I realized that it was more than that. And the only way I had that realization was because I took that moment to stop and abstain.
See, that's the same way it works spiritually for us. And that's what we're gonna look at in this series, I Me Mine. Talking about Matthew chapter six where Jesus has been in this sermon
called the sermon on the mount. In chapter six he stops and he starts taking some of these practices that we're called to do. He expects to do that. Here's some things we do as followers of Christ, but he's repackaging. It's not about the practice, it's about the platform. Why are we doing it?
Because he says he's comparing it to these religious leaders that are putting on a performance for people and for God. They've made it about a performance, so there's lot of pressure in that. They have this pressure to do that, and they feel like they're getting they're pressuring, and it's all this stuff. And and what's happening is Jesus says, no, that's not gonna work. When you just do this for a performance, for a show, for others, for God, even for yourself, and you don't get real with and honest with God and where you're at,
this doesn't do anything. The only reward you get is people just see, hey, they look spiritual. In other words, Matthew chapter six, he's talking about the life of how we act as a disciple in order to live and actually experience the life that Jesus wants to give us. In other words, chapter six is about not spiritual
activity, it's more about spiritual honesty. See a phrase that never says it straight up in the Bible, but all through the words of Jesus in the Bible, it's constantly saying this, reality is our friend. That's one thing that if I'm gonna grow as and really find true life, and not always struggle,
and always let other things control me, and always just run after things that are never gonna provide what God brings to us, you and I have got to get real and honest and realize that we have to look at reality and truth, and the clearest reality of what truth is found in God's word, and in the person of Jesus Christ.
And the way we get there is by being in God's presence. And that's why he saves. He's talked about how do we do this? Why do we give? How do we pray? And now he talks about this thing called fasting.
And then we're gonna explain that and go what does this really mean? Because it's something we don't look at, we don't talk about. But what we're gonna see, the big idea is fasting is about presence not pressure.
It's about presence not pressure. It's about it's about stepping away from something that is a good thing, a necessary thing in order to actually be in the presence of God. It's not the pressure to do it to perform. It's not the pressure to perform in front of people. It's not the pressure to perform in front of God. It's also what many of us do is we do these things. I give. I pray. I'll fast.
And and we do these spiritual activities. Some of us do it because we feel pressure like, well, guess that's one more thing for the list that God's telling me I have to do, or he won't love me and I won't
we flip it around. We're like, I do these things to put pressure on God now to give me what I want. Look, I did the things. I did the things, now you gotta hold up your end of the bargain. And that's why this I, me, mine kinda kingdom thing he's attacking is so insidious,
and it sneaks in there into us in ways we don't even understand. Most of us say, that's not me. But if you really take your life and you look at why am I doing something, why am I avoiding something, why is I realize for me, and I think I'm pretty normal like you guys,
that's another way for saying I'm just as messed up as you guys.
I think we all tend to have a natural tendency even trying to be a Christian, even coming to church to have a I, me, mine, kingdom mentality rather than it's his kingdom, His will be done. His kingdom come. And what does that look like with fasting? Let's see. What I wanna do is I just wanna read these few verses here.
And what we're gonna see is saying it's not me trying harder. It's trusting deeper. It's not it's surrender not self improvement. It isn't achieving. It's abandoning some things.
So starting in verse 16 to 18, he says, and when you fast don't make it obvious as the hypocrites do. For they try to look miserable and to shell so people admire them for their fasting. What are they like hardcore Presbyterians or something? I tell you the truth. That is the only reward they will ever get.
And what he's saying is the only reward you'll get is if people go, oh, look at them. They love God so much. They're so spiritual. It says, but when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. That's also good advice for going to work. Then no one will notice that you're fasting
except your father who knows what you do in private and your father who sees everything will reward you. The giving, the praying, fasting, all have the same format. Don't perform. It's about being in the presence of God.
And that word for reward seems the same thing about the first reward is paid in full, you're done. That's it. The only thing you're gonna get out of doing the spiritual activity and acting spiritual
because you think it's it's it's a show for God, for others to look spiritual, or to show God how spiritual you are so you can expect something from him. He says you're not getting anything. The only thing you're ever gonna get is what people think of you, and that's it. Paid in full. In other words,
your life won't be different. You won't have the peace that surpasses all understanding, and it's why so many Christians end up giving up on this thing called falling Christ because he goes, it doesn't work. Well, it's because we're not trusting.
He says when we do it his way about being in the presence of God and letting reality be our friend and letting God sitting with him and letting him reveal to us where our weaknesses are and what our issues are and letting him transform us from the inside out.
He goes, then you will get rewarded by God. But once again that word for reward doesn't mean what you think it means. The word for reward there means the reward is his presence. Because his presence then changes us. It might not change our circumstances, but it changes us in our circumstances. And so
he talks about that. So what does this really mean for us? So how is fasting in this presence really what does it mean and how how does it work? Well, first of all, four things I wanna walk through right out of these verses. And the first thing is it's it's it's expected,
but it doesn't mean what we think it means. Like I've already been in it doesn't mean we think it's a striving, not a surrendering. We think it's I gotta improve myself. I fasted. I cut this thing out. And then look God, look I'm better. I'm a better person. No. It's not about improving yourself. It's about inviting God to transform transform you.
In other words, presence through fasting is how you tell your soul, I'm done feeding any false comforts or false ideas. I'm also done with letting my feelings control my life. Because feelings are real, but they're not often right.
You don't have to follow your feelings. And if sometimes a fasting, a prayer is a thing to refocus is to step away from that and don't let feelings because here's the thing, feelings describe how you are. They don't define who we are. And we forget that. We forget that all the time. That's why we need God's presence.
And that's what fasting is about. Now in this point, this passage, fasting is literally talking about food. The word for fast means to abstain, and they would abstain from food.
And the leader the people he's talking about that did it, that would look all disheveled and all that, what he's trying to say is they're just playing the spiritual activity game. They're like they're doing the same to impress people to look good before God and and try to earn something, and and the reality is they would fast every Wednesday, and they wouldn't comb their hair. They walk around. They look miserable because like, look at me. I'm so miserable for the Lord.
And and and then people go, oh, they're so spiritual, and look up to them, and and they were picking a day. Well well, the idea is for for them fasting was food. Fasting doesn't have to just be food. For some of us, it might be, but it's what it does have to be is it does have to be something that is not necessarily
it it it does it it can be a good thing, a necessary thing, honestly. I mean, some of you, you know what I'm gonna pick for a fasting from. You can't just pick something that's obvious horrible.
I mean, why would you like you can't sit there and go, you know what? You're right, Bill. I need to fast. So for the next month, I'm gonna fast from cheating on my spouse.
You know that that that makes no sense. What are you gonna do at the end of the fast? How do you break the fast? So you're like, alright, God. I really got a lot closer to you why I wasn't cheating on my spouse, but I'm glad that's over with. And you go back. That you run away from. There's certain things that you don't
it's obvious sin that's destroying your life, you run from that. Always. Fasting is actually taking something that is a necessary and even good thing or a neutral thing, and setting it aside so as not to make it the thing. You see, the the the Bible's real clear. Like it's it's it's when you take anything,
even a good thing, and put it in the God thing place, now that's a bad thing. So fasting is you take something that might be distracting you from God, or you're using it in place of God
and set it aside. Because when you do it and you realize how hard it is, and you freak out, you're gonna realize, oh, wow. I don't really trust God right now. And that's who we need. We need him, not something else. And I love how it says it's expected because he says he says, when you do this.
He wasn't legalistic. He didn't say I to have to do this. He's like, when? But he assumes that we're gonna do this. Because he knows that that's a way to get into his presence in an in a very focused way. And it gives him the room to move in our hearts and transform us. Transform us. Because
the second thing is it's prayer it is prayer with your whole body. When he says anoint your head and wash your face, that's not about hygiene.
He's talking about hide the performance so your heart stays pure. It's not about something out there. It's not about performing for God. It's not about trying to perform in front of people. It's not trying to look spiritual. It's not playing this game.
It's your whole body's in a When you give something up that you think is good, and it is good, it's necessary, but you say, I'm just gonna purposely not do this for a certain period of time, it does reveal your whole body is
praying. Now when I first tried to physically fast from food, I didn't understand a lot of these points. And it wasn't I didn't feel like prayer with my whole body. It felt like absolute complaining with my whole body. And and because I just didn't realize how much I relied on it.
In other words, what this means is it's a sacrifice that creates space. It's a hunger for whatever it is that you set aside that creates honesty. It creates honesty. It brings you to reality. What do I mean by that? Third point is because it exposes the coping mechanisms that have become unhealthy.
See there are some coping God gives us some stuff to to cope with life that's good for us. That's not the problem. It could be a very good thing. There's some some good things he gives us to to to
cope with. Like exercise is really good for managing stress and and helping you live a healthy life. The Bible says exercise is of some value, but godliness has value in all things. So if you are someone that exercise is your only go to for stress,
you just go to that only for stress, and you never go to God. You never spend time with him. You you might show up at church, but you don't actually spend that time in solitude and all that, and all you do is poor and exercise. You probably should choose to take a fast so you can get the focus. Because if you're like, I can't give that up at all, then now you know you got a problem.
It's basically like you've taken your coping mechanisms and put them in front of God. He's like you benched God. He's supposed to be your starting pitcher. And instead you got exercise in there. You got whatever. Throw something else in there of, you know, success.
And and so he's saying, hey, it'll expose a coping mechanism. Because anything that even a good thing that you make it the God thing is a bad thing. And that is the reason why we rarely do pick something to fast from. Because I think we deep down know what it's gonna reveal sometimes and we don't wanna face it.
We don't wanna face it. Because deep down we know that we really are Grover in the Sesame Street book, the monster at the end of the book. You guys all know that? Like a 10 year old in service last night goes, yes. Think it's the same one that said that before. And
you know, hears there's a monster at the end of the book, and the whole book is him trying to stop from the pages turning, and guess what's at the last page? He is. I think the reason we fight that sacrifice to create space is because we already know what's at the end of the book.
Deep down in, we might not know with absolute clarity, we're afraid to find out. And that is why it's good because it reveals that maybe my faith isn't really about God's kingdom and his love. And maybe my faith is more about I'm trying to perform before God. Maybe not people but you're performing for God,
and that's where the pressure comes from. So when you hear a message about something like hey here's what God's asked us to do, this is what it means to live in a healthy life following Christ, and it gives you like heartburn. It could be because you're stuck. You're stuck.
For example, the first thing he talked about was giving. The idea of the Bible talks about tithing. I preached on it a few weeks ago. The Bible is really clear of what God wants us to do with our money and why. It's a good thing. Tithing when you get paid is the one of the best gifts God has ever given us.
It's not an oppression, it's not a you better if, it's a gift for us. You know why? Because tithing is basically like a frequent chosen fast. When you tithe you are fasting from materialism, and you are fasting from self dependence. You are fasting from from greed.
You are fasting from that fear of my I need money or else my life won't work. You are consciously choosing to say, I am going to give this in order to experience the fact that I know that God will take care of me. And that's why most people won't do it. It's not how much money you have. It's you're afraid to find out
how little we actually trust God. We're afraid. And the reason I'm saying it is because I'm that way. And I know it. I know it. Those times when I know it. In other words, what fasting does, it always reveals to us. The thing it reveals to us in these moments is, it shows us that we may believe in Jesus,
but we aren't believing Jesus. And those are two different things. What he's trying to say is these religious leaders and a lot of the people that are following them is, they believe in God, but they just don't believe God.
And that's what giving is. It's a form of fasting from these things so you can focus on this. That's what praying is. I'm gonna fast from spending my time on other stuff, and getting all of my advice and all my knowledge from something else, and be in the word and spend time talking to God about it. But we have live in a society where I said feelings, man. We trip we think our feelings are our faith, and we have to follow them. So he's like, I won't do something God wants me to do till I feel it. If I don't feel it, it must not be right. Half the time what you feel is what you shouldn't do.
And we get caught in the feeling and the fear, and then when we make that choice, guess what? It makes us face the fear. It makes us reveal. It reveals really what's going on in our heart. In other words, what Jesus is trying to say is, guys, you could say just believing in God is a very experiential feeling oriented faith.
It it seeks out a worship service that just makes you feel a certain way. Doesn't challenge you to do anything, just makes you feel a certain way. And it's like, didn't feel it, so I don't like it. I didn't feel that, I don't like it. And we get feeling oriented, we get experiential
oriented, we forget about obedience, because the bottom line is the only way to live out the life that God gave us is don't believe in him. Believing in him has all the feels. The problem is do we go from believing in him to believing him? Believing him is where the peace that surpasses all understanding comes.
Believing him is where peace and contentment and joy despite your circumstances comes from. You know why? Because you didn't make it happen. You chose to believe God. You chose to be in his presence and listen to his voice. And now the life that he died to give you is now being transformative inside of you.
I hope that makes sense. But it's why a lot of us don't do it because it's expected, but it doesn't mean what we think. We get caught up in the pressure thing, and then you hear everything. Some of us in this room here's my my prayer all the time.
I am not the holy spirit. I'm not God. He chose me to use my mouth and use my words. I always am fearful that my words are not enough, which they aren't. It's gotta be the Holy Spirit that talks to you right now. Because a lot of you, what you heard me saying is, alright. So now I need to stop doing some stuff. I should tithe. I should do this. And now you feel all this pressure.
You're hearing the exact opposite of why you should do this and what it's all about. It's to release the pressure of trying to make your life work. And to release the idea that your faith has become all about you. It's to release the idea that you have an idea of what you want your kingdom to look like,
and your fear is you're pretty sure God doesn't want that kingdom for you. But I don't believe His plan will be as good as my plan.
And that's the problem because now we hide. We don't live in reality, and reality is always our friend, whether we like it or not. We understand that. Most of us probably have a mirror somewhere that's full length near the front door of your house. At least I know most women want that.
Guys sometimes will walk out like a schlub and don't care. But why do you have that mirror there? I better take one last look before I walk out into the world. That mirror's reality, and you're happy if you find, oh, I get food in my teeth, toilet paper sticking out of the back.
I've almost left before I left one time and I was in such a hurry. I I it was during the summer, so you know, wear shorts a lot. I started to walk out of my boxer shorts. I go, I never put my shorts on. Glad I looked.
But yet, spiritually, we'll do that with our lives every day. We'll walk right out of our our into our life spiritually ill prepared.
See, it exposes those coping mechanisms. Expect it doesn't mean when we think it's prayer with your whole body. It is hard. It's a sacrifice that creates the space and the hunger that becomes honesty so God can now do something because it really exposes those things that we're putting in the place of God. In other words, fasting exposes what's actually weakening us.
That's our we can't give it up because we think we need it for strength, but it's actually weakening us.
It's like this. When when when my dad taught me how to pitch, he made me do this drill, and he made me do this. And like, you know, you're young and you wanna pitch, what you really want is just give me the ball, let me get on the mound, let me just throw it. And you think just constantly throwing the ball is gonna make you better. Show me a curveball. Let me do that. He's like, here's what we're doing first. And he goes, alright. Take your wind up like like you've tried to learn and show, and let me see your wind up. And I just you know, go to the wind up, and then he goes right here. He goes, stop. He made me stop right here.
I didn't look like that the first time I did it. I was like, make me. I fell over. And he goes, there's your problem. I go, what? He goes, you got no balance. You haven't even gotten ready to throw the ball. All everything's already going the wrong direction. And and so it's called the balance drill.
You know, and and then it's sometimes it just just start right here. That's how I had to learn to do it. First, start here, and you just stand. See, I can still do it. I'm an old man. Don't make me do it the left foot. We'll have to get medical in here.
I've just done it so much and coached it. You stand here like this because this is where it all begins. What happens is your hands come down, that breaks, and that break of the hands is what takes that hip. You step forward because baseball is a sides way sport. You step with your
your shoulder, your elbow, your club going towards your target, and then right when you get there, you have the power to cut through and it'll pull your arm powerfully through and at what you're targeting. If you have a problem with accuracy, you have a problem with your balance.
Nobody wants to do that. They just wanna throw the ball. I mean, I would do that when I was a coach. I made them do it. They get mad. They just wanted to go and thought it would like be better. And you're like, wonder.
Did anybody ever learn this drill as a pitcher? Any pitchers in the room? Alright. Any pitchers in the room that never learned this drill? Yeah. That's why you didn't go anywhere.
Just kidding. He's like, I played for the Dodgers. Yeah. See? You went nowhere.
My wife told me that was really mean when I said it last night, so I just tripled down on it. I'm sorry. Maybe I should fast from that for a while. It exposes the weakening in us. But guess what? My dad taught me that. It was hard. I didn't like to face the fact. But then I was able to listen to him.
And my last year of college, I may not have been the greatest pitcher. I didn't throw the hardest. It wasn't but I did throw 87 innings pitched and only walked one batter. And I ended my college career with a school record of 27 consecutive shutout innings, throwing a mediocre fastball
because I pitched with balance.
Our faith is the same. Fasting is stopping and seeing how stable you are. And you can do the good karate kick if you want, karate kid kick if you want.
Why? Because in the end the last thing it does is it exchanges self reliance for God reliance. Like I said, the reward is his presence. It lets us slow down stop and realize and see reality and sit with God and we can then say I can't fill myself. I can't fix myself. I can't satisfy myself. I surrender, you take over.
I'm done just believing in you in an experiential feeling type of way. I'm gonna start believing you in an active faith kind of way.
But a lot of us we avoid, we have a hard time with it. And when I said those, it sneaks up on us. We fill our time. We we fill our time with coping medicine, busyness,
and and and and the things that already lift pressure and weigh us down. There was a woman who went to a therapist, Jonesy was telling me this, saw the article. And she couldn't figure out why every day when she was in the shower
she would have a massive breakdown, just lose it. Ball hysterically. And then be alright and then go on with her day. Every day. And she goes, I don't even know why it's happening.
And as she went through the process of unpackaging what's going on in her life, it turned out she found out she had all these pressures. She was successful at working, but she was also a mom, and they all had sports, and then this, and then when they weren't doing all that, she had these hobbies of her own. She was doing this and this and this and this, And she was always either doing something she had to be at or doing something that she decided I wanna do that just because I have to do all of that.
And what it finally realized is the reason she broke down in the shower is that was the only fifteen minutes of uninterrupted by any other distraction she had of the day. So everything flooded in all at once in that fifteen minutes of being in solitude.
I've had so many people nodding when I've said that, especially women, every service. They're like, there's my life. Fasting, praying, the things with God is about how do I find a moment to get alone and let that reality come out instead of filling it. There's the things you feel you have to do.
And then sometimes we fill it with other nonsense to try to fight against what we have to do. The coping mechanisms are not necessarily bad, but we've left God out of the whole experience. And that's where we get stuck. Because we need to get back to reliance on God, not on self.
So how do we do that? How do we break the I Me Mind cycle?
You go fast. I go fast, mom. Look at me. Go fast. So how do we go fast? Right up here. Take a picture of this on the screen there. Simple simple to see and do. I'm not it's simpler to understand than actually do.
What you do is is is identify your comfort idol. What's the thing that maybe is a distraction even if it's a good thing? In other words, get alone and ask yourself this question. What's the thing that I reach for first whenever I'm stressed, tired, lonely, bored, or insecure? What is your go to thing in that moment?
And if they're whatever the go to thing is that isn't the Lord first, that's what I would start with as a fast. And and and see you go without it for a time period. Don't pick air. That's a bad idea.
Here's the hard part. Replace the comfort with communion. This is part I had to learn. Don't just subtract substitute.
What you're replacing with that time, and what you're replacing is is is is time with the Lord. I just tried to fast to be spiritual. Well, God says I should do it. Maybe it's gonna change my life, but I didn't read my I didn't pray. I didn't I just just tried to not eat. And that just made me angry.
It didn't really help. It's like I didn't take the time. What you're supposed to do is if you're fast every time you wanna do that thing, like if it's food, every time you wanna go to the refrigerator, go sit on the couch and pray for five minutes. Every time you wanna do and and see what comes up as you do it.
And then the final thing is expect resistance. That's not from other people. It's from yourself.
Because you're gonna get to the end of the book and realize you're at the end of the book. And and it's gonna be most of the resistance is I'm fighting myself. The if you are terrified of you already kinda know that thing, and you are terrified of giving it up, guess what? You already know what the problem is.
That's probably why you come to church and your your attendance is erratic, you're not as involved, you feel a little bit blah in your faith, you feel and you think it's all about, maybe I need another church, maybe I need this, maybe I need that. No. That's not what you need.
You need the very presence of the living God with you and him alone is what you need. It's because it's what we all need. Because he's the one that changes us. He's the one that transforms us. What would happen if we decided to fast from that doom scrolling of social media,
from emotional eating, from the mental noise, from caffeine dependence, from shopping impulses? Amazon is so easy. And if I get twice as much, it'll be here today. And then this time of year it doesn't come there that day, and then you feel robbed. Why? You don't return the other thing, you keep it anyways.
Constant busyness, avoiding silence and solitude, video gaming, That's for teenagers and any 35 year old males.
Productivity obsession. What would happen if I took that and did this? Because often the things we run to are the very things we need to run from for a period of time in order to get the presence of the God solidified back in our hearts and our lives. In order to go from believing in him to believing him.
In other words, let me let me finish with this. I don't know if any anybody ever heard of a guy named Sir Ernest Shackleton?
Alright. This is the dumb service. No. No. No. Let me rephrase that. You don't like history. Alright. Let me show you a picture here. It's a little collage. That's Ernest Shackleton down on the left there.
And and and there's a book about his journey that his boat was called the Endurance, so they called it Endurance. He was an Antarctic explorer back around the turn of the nineteen hundreds, you know. And he he wanted to go down and do this exploring,
but two people had already been to the South Pole. So it wasn't just get to the South Pole. He had this idea to be the first person to actually traverse
by land all the way through the middle of Antarctica from one side to the other. So they were gonna stop halfway, know, get an old fashioned selfie, hold still for five minutes, and then and then go at the South Pole, and then continue on. His journey and the book about it is considered the most epically successful
failure of all time. They never even got to Antarctica. Yet they are remembered, and he is remembered as an incredible leader.
Why? What happened? Well, as you see that negative picture there, it's like not negative like it's negative. That's their boat, they took it at night. It's like it's an overexposed picture, but you know, they were trying to filter even back then. But
it it's it's that's the endurance. See all the ice that's stuck in? There they are walking around trying to pull their boats when they're traveling because they got stuck in the ice.
And they got They spent six weeks trying to get to Antarctica, and they got stuck in the Waddle Sea and the ice, and it finally locked up so much they were just stuck there. And they were stuck there for ten months in that ice. In that ten months they pretty much got low on food.
They were just eating. The only thing they did have is ice to drink. They had plenty of water. They just had to melt it. And they knew that they weren't gonna be able to sit there and wait till the boat got free now because so many months in they started to realize the ice was crushing the hull of the boat.
So at one moment they knew that we're not waiting here. We can't wait here till this ice thaws completely because that boat is just gonna sink. Is what it did. So they had to make some decisions.
They knew that they had to take the other boats, start crossing the ice and heading because the ice had already moved them further away from Antarctica. They knew the goal of getting to Antarctica wasn't gonna happen. They said the only way this became a survival mission, not an expedition mission.
And they knew that there was this little island called Elephant Island that they could try to get to. So once they realized that boat wasn't gonna make it, they started to have to pack up and they started to head towards why the ice was still thick. They're not even on solid ground. They were gonna start moving
as fast as they could towards this place, knowing that the ice would break up at some point and there'd be enough sea that they'd have to get in their boats and row to try to get to it.
And so one of the decisions they had to make early on was once they realized they were getting to where they were gonna have to start rowing the boats, their dogs that they brought and that they loved
were eating more food than they had and they weren't gonna serve a purpose. And so these dogs they loved, they needed energy to be able to row like they were. They had to eat their dogs. And now some of you are not gonna listen to the rest of the story now because I told you that.
But what happened was finally after the ten months on the ice and pulling where they could, ice floes started to break apart so you can get these little boats in the water, and they had to row furiously and be very careful because they move.
And they had to pay attention because they could smash together and kill them at any moment. And then if it got dark,
they would have to find as it's getting darker and harder to see, they'd have to find a piece of ice that was flat enough and low enough that they could climb onto it, pull their boats up, sleep for a few hours till it got light, and then do that again. They spent six days straight doing that.
They finally got to this little island, Elephant Island, and it's a little rock. There were at least with some seals and stuff so they could try to hunt, get some fish. They could find some food, but it was really sparse. They're just eating blubber, and if they, and that's about it.
And and But they could live, but they also knew that nobody knew they were there, and they're gonna eventually die if they just stay there. So what Ernest Shackle did in is he picked his navigator and three other guys,
and they took all of the boats. They took the most seaworthy largest one of those little rowboat kind of boats, and they took the other ones apart, and they put a covering on it and built a sail mast so they can sail, And then the uncovering was because it was horrible seas. You get rainstorm, terrible seas. So when everyone's out there trying to steer and keep track with the sail, they would take turns rotating and they'd climb up under there and just try to rest and stay as dry as they possibly could. And they were trying to target there's a little island, South Georgia Island that would had a whaling station. It was 750
miles to the north.
In the worst seas ever in this little boat. And their navigator would try to take a reading to sail by the stars, but most of the days it was too cloudy, so they were dead reckoning trying to sail with a compass and just hope they hit it. If you know anything about sailing going that far, you're off by a little bit, you missed the whole island.
That's their only chance. So they did that for for for like I said, what was it? Six days? I said I think I said that. Sixteen days they were sailing. And when they finally got to this island, there was a hurricane. They were in a hurricane in that little boat.
And they were sick, and they were exhausted, they were starving, didn't have any food. And and and and and they're looking for a place to land, and the South Georgia Island is basically a mountain out of the ocean. Little teeny steep tall little mountain range.
And it has a bay on one side, a bay on the other. The only place where there's flat land where you can get a boat in. One side had the whaling station. The other side had nothing. Guess which one was the only one to the hurricane they could get to? The one on the other side of the mountain from the whaling station.
They landed, all they had was some rope. They took the boats apart and pulled nails out, stuck it through their shoes down so the sharp part would stick out so they could have a little bit of traction. And they became mountain climbers with no food in horrible weather.
And they had to climb up these mountains to try to get to the other side to save everybody.
As a matter of fact, they were at the one of the highest spots and they were trying to find a way down because it was stormy and cold and they knew that if it got any colder, they couldn't stay at the top. The wind, they were gonna die. And they finally came to a spot where they saw they could look at it. It kinda had a little bit of a slant. And it went down like this, like maybe we can just slide down this like a human toboggan.
But the problem is it disappeared into clouds and storm and blackness. They had no idea where it went. But they did it. Fortunately, it slid down into a little valley. They slid like, I think it was like a half a mile or more. It would have been a fun ride if you knew where it ended.
They made it through that mountain range in thirty six hours. They didn't sleep thirty six straight hours. They got to the whaling station. The one boat that was there said, no. It's too dangerous. The ice is too bad. We're not going down there. So they waited. And another boat came. They finally agreed.
They went down. It took three tries to get through that ice. It had been almost six months since they left. He finally got back and that's that last picture.
That's a picture they took on shore. One of their photographer took a picture. That's all the men waving it. That's the little landing boat coming to get them. You can't see the main boat. And they're waving to get rescued.
Ernest Shackleton was in the front of that boat stand. You could barely see someone's he he was right in the front.
He loved the Lord and he was praying, dear Lord, please let them all be there. And he counted and he counted again and he started crying. Because after that whole experience where they spent five hundred days not even on any land, just on ice floats. This was almost a two year trek of living on this ice in this way.
Not one man had died. Not one. And when they asked them, they all gave credit to Shackleton and his faith and his leadership. Because they said what he said right in the beginning is the only reason we're all alive. He said reality,
he said something tough, he said like, we gotta eat the dog, they didn't wanna do it, but they trusted him. And he said, we gotta head to this island. They trusted him. But before they left that boat, their one thing of safety, he had said, we need to abandon books, gear, equipment, the dogs.
And this was the phrase they all repeated. He said he looked at us and said, men, if we are gonna live, we have got to be ruthless with everything that weighs us down. Ruthless, if it weighs us down, we won't make it. And if we put it aside, we're all gonna live through this. Look what they lived through.
They're remembered as the one of the greatest adventures, and they never even got their plan. They never even stepped foot on Antarctica, but they remember that trip is like, wow. We never got where we were going, but we survived one of the most epic tracks that's ever existed. How about you and your faith?
That's what fasting is. That's what's trusting Jesus is. We have got to be ruthless
with the things that weigh us down from being in the presence of God. And and and it doesn't matter what circumstances we're in. He promises his life through this. He promises we'll end up in an incredible place in the end. And most of the time, it's just like that story. Your plan, your Antarctica,
your plan to cross this kinda might not ever happen. That's the thing about the presence of God. And I, me, mind faith says, I am only content if God gives me my plan. You're gonna die on the ice. If you trust him, I'm telling you, there are some of us are sins, many of us are in this room. In your life, in your spirit,
in your heart, you feel like them. You feel like you are trapped out on a frozen tundra with no solid ground beneath you, not enough resource, you feel like you're out in the cold and you're alone and you're isolated, and you said, But I wanted to go that way. I wanted to go that way.
And Jesus says, Come with me if you want to live. Because that is the reward He promises, that you will have life even in that frozen tundra, that you will head towards something, even in it involves climbing a frozen mountain, even if it involves sliding down in faith into something you can't see where it ends.
That's the adventure. That's the true meaning of trusting Christ. And I'm just gonna tell you, you're never going to get there if you just come here and say, I believe in a Jesus, and look for the feeling. You have got to get ruthless with what's weighing you down, what's weighing me down. We have to. And just say, Jesus,
I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you that you do love us more than we love ourselves. And my prayer is simple for me, everyone in this room, and anyone watching online that we would believe you, that we would pursue your presence, not out of pressure.
We would go fast in our lives and we would experience that life that you died to give us. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Thanks for joining us online today. Stay connected with us all week long on our app and our social media.