Fierce Church Sermons
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Fierce Church Sermons
15 Year Vision Update: Unblock the Well
What does it take to see God’s Kingdom thrive over the next 15 years? 🌍 In this sequel to our 15 Year Vision sermon https://youtu.be/lp871Vw0HAI, we explore how prayer, fasting, and repentance equip us to be faithful stewards of His Kingdom. This isn’t just about what’s ahead—it’s about what we do right now to align with God’s way and ensure the growth He desires.
✨ What you’ll take away from this message:
The Power of Prayer and Fasting: Seeking God’s direction and strength.
Repentance as Renewal: Realigning our hearts with God’s purpose.
Living the Vision: Practical steps to steward His Kingdom and fulfill the call for growth.
📲 Next Steps:
Join us in prayer and fasting this week.
Be part of the 15-year journey: Learn more at [church website link].
Share this video to inspire others to partner in this vision!
✨ Together, we’ll see God’s Kingdom flourish—let’s keep building!
Hey, what up? It's Mark Carter. I'm the pastor of Fierce Church. Welcome to our podcast. I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today. I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1:There's a story that Martin Luther told, kind of a parable, and he was trying to demonstrate what is the gospel, what is the big message that God is trying to get across to us in the scriptures? And the big message he said is there's this king who marries a prostitute. King loves her, loves her so much she knows she's a prostitute, so she knows, like, I don't belong in a palace, I'm totally dirty, I don't belong with this great king. And yet he marries her anyway. And when he marries her she becomes a queen. Now it's a little bit difficult for her because she still has thinking of not a queen. She still thinks in her old ways. She's even sometimes tempted toward her old ways. But it really doesn't matter what happens to her in life, or even how she starts to think again, or even where she goes. It doesn't change the fact that her king said this is my body, it's given up for you. That's what the king says to her and to you. See, when Jesus gives us himself, he doesn't say I need you to earn it first, I need you to be really good and then maybe I'll let you into the palace. He says do you see my broken body? It was given for you. It's literally for you, just like a wedding band might be for you. I was given for you and that means when you get me, you get everything. I have everything that I am, and so really, you don't even need your own perfect obedience, because I have perfect obedience. So just come with me and now you have perfect obedience. You don't need your own righteousness. Just come have my righteousness. You don't even need your own wisdom, because it's never going to ultimately work with everything you need to work. So come to me and enjoy my wisdom. That's what the bridegroom, the king, says to us. I need us to hear this entire message through that lens. You need to hear it's not something you earn, it's not some chore. He wants you to go do. He's teaching all of us how to know the king and love the king and really be more of that heavenly queen of Jesus, that he wants us to be in our character.
Speaker 1:Now, sometimes we get clogged up a little bit. So I've got I'll live with daughters all of their lives, okay, that's been over 20 years now, and so we've always had sinks that would get full of hair and pipes would get clogged, and most of the time, I'm the guy that has to go try to fix that. Now you'll notice there's a little irony here. It's rarely mine, okay, but so I'm cleaning out these pipes from time to time, and you know what it looks like, you can imagine. There's not only hair, there's makeup, there's all kinds of stuff that I don't use, but nevertheless, I got really excited, though, because one day I found online hey man, here's a stopper. I don't know if you can see this. It's a little stopper. Okay, you put this in the sink and then it catches all the hair before it even goes down. I'm like, yes, this is like one of the greatest inventions ever, and so I got it in, and you know, it's probably not two weeks, and here's what I found out this thing's clogged. Now. I still got to clean it. I don't have to clean it quite as much, but there's still something clogged and there's still something that needs cleaned. Here's what I found out about.
Speaker 1:If you're someone who trusts in Jesus Christ, we all get clogged up. We get clogged up with sinful habits. We get clogged up with pain that causes hard-heartedness. We just get clogged up with the gunk of the world. And what I want to do today is I want to give us a tool that will help us clear out that junk all the time, every day, for the rest of your life. You'll have this tool to use and it's going to bless your life. Here's what we're going to say Endless living water when we unblock the well. Endless living water when we unblock the well. So I want to talk to us. We're going to talk a lot about revival today and we're going to talk about times of refreshing in God's presence.
Speaker 1:Now, when we talk about that, there's individual revival. We'll get to specifically what I mean in a minute but there's just individual unclogging that we can all experience. But then there's even just like groups of people, where that group of people can be unclogged, so to speak. Maybe a family has family sin that is really stopping up what the presence of God wants to do in that family. There can be national sin. There's just stuff that is so clogged up that it's going to take it might take a great awakening to get rid of it, but it's just a clog, and God wants his spirit to come and he wants to move on the people and cause radical prayer and repentance. And, as that happens, that clog comes right out and what God can do then is he can release a greater magnitude of his blessing and his power. Now, the king always wants to do that with the bride. He always wants to do it, but she gets clogged up, she forgets for times who she is, and all we need to do is get that thing unclogged. If we can do it and we're going to be able to do it Once you get it, guys, you can do it every day for the rest of your life and it just increases the presence and the closeness and the fire and the love of Jesus Christ in your heart. And I'll tell you, baby, it's better than any drug you'll ever take. I promise you that Several months ago, we just had a talk called the Next 15 Years and it's about hey, what's the vision for our church for the next 15 years?
Speaker 1:And we took several months. Hey, we're going to pray. We put out little table tent cards and we're going to pray over those things. And some of us you went into fasting, maybe, and that was all great. And we're actually coming down to the final month and I thought we needed to check in and talk about the next 15 years.
Speaker 1:But, going into the final month, I really want us to pursue some unclogging. We're to unclog us, but then we're going to unclog us by the grace of God, if he'll allow us to. And the reason I want to do that, guys, is because God's actually dropping hints to me, to the elders, maybe to some of you about hey, here's the things that you guys probably ought to take a look at and do in the next 15 years. However, before we even really paint the picture of that, I feel like it would be even better than that of us just going to do it. Why don't we all get right with God and all get right with one another and going to do it? Why don't we all get right with God and all get right with one another, and then it just might be purer, it might be that there's more power through it, there might be more of God's anointing and favor and presence and, by the way, you can say amen whenever you want, because I know I'm not the only one who thinks that's a good idea.
Speaker 1:But we started in the previous message, paul and Barnabas. They were already God followers. They were already setting themselves apart for God's purposes, and so they went into a time of prayer and fasting and then they were set apart to go do the mission of God. That's what the people around them said hey, we see that God wants you to do this. Go, go do it. And that was kind of one of our catalysts. Hey, we want to get God's opinion of what he wants us to go do. But there's something before they ever got there and it was. They came to their knees in repentance before Jesus Christ and they asked God, I need you to fill me in the way that only you can. And so I want to go back to the very beginning of the church and we're going to jump right into the action, kind of like you just jump into the action in Avengers, age of Ultron. That movie starts and you're just in the action and we're going to start right in the action.
Speaker 1:A great miracle has just taken place, okay, and now a crowd is beginning to gather around. Let's read what it says Acts 3, 11. While the man held onto Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them. In the place called Solomon's colonnade, there's this radical healing dude they know gets up after not being able to walk. When Peter saw this, he said to them fellow Israelites, why does it surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness, we made this man walk?
Speaker 1:The God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, your ancestors he's saying the ones who all the promises came that you're still waiting on and kind of bummed that the promises haven't all come yet. That's the God has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the holy and righteous one and asked that a murder be released to you. Now you got to know not everybody there literally was present to ask for Jesus to be crucified. They weren't all in on the game, so to speak, but he's still saying it was them. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this by faith in the name of Jesus, this man, whom you see and know, was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you all can see Now. Fellow Israelites, I know you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders, but this is how God fulfilled what he foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Now, here it is. Here's today's big deal. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you. Even Jesus, he's been appointed for you. Let's just pause there for a second. He's been appointed for you. Even Jesus, he's been appointed for you. Let's just pause there for a second. He's been appointed for you.
Speaker 1:When I first became a Christian, I was about 18, myself and several other friends, we got really excited about Jesus. We were like on fire, you would call it, and we were chasing after him and one of the guys that was with us he was super excited. In fact, he had been a Christian before in his life and so he kind of like knew some of the ropes and he was teaching us a little bit. But the time came, his heart started to get hard and he started to turn away. Now, as he did that, we're like hey, bro, what are you doing, man? Why aren't you expressing the same zeal that you did? He said you know what? I've got my own way. I don't need to do it the way that y'all are doing it. I don't need to do all the. I don't need to, like, read the Bible, I don't need to go seek Jesus, I got my own. He called it his system. Now he said it in kind of a funny way, but also in like a disturbingly serious way. He was like I got my system, I'm just going to meditate and whatever I feel is morally right in the moment, that's what I'm going to do, that's my system. Leave me alone. I got my own thing. And some might be like oh, that's great for him. Actually, it's not great for him. Here's why Because God didn't appoint a system.
Speaker 1:He appointed for you a Messiah, even Jesus. That was God's solution to the sin problem. So you can't solve the sin problem with a system or with any system that we invent. And I felt bad for the guy. But, bro, that didn't work. And you know what happened. He got madder and madder Like. He got angrier and angrier at life because he had tasted the king of life, and yet he's traded in for a stupid system that he knocked together with Legos and my friend.
Speaker 1:All I want to tell you is God didn't appoint any other savior but Jesus. He didn't appoint any other Messiah who can save but Jesus. He's the solution, he's the one God says. I picked this savior out just for you. It's Jesus, I think some of us. I want to encourage you that there's a step beyond that, though. See, you know, jesus is Savior. You're like Jesus is my Savior, yeah, but there's a deeper level of friendship. Can you open your eyes, your mind, your heart to the idea that there's a deeper level of friendship that we could go to and experience him more personally? I really believe that's what he wants for us today.
Speaker 1:So let's talk first about the benefits of revival. You'll experience, thank you. You'll experience times of refreshing. May come from the Lord, times of refreshing, times, not even just a time times, Times of refreshing from the Holy Spirit of God, who brings this renewal and this refreshment to everybody who did the preceding thing, which was repent and return, but he's going to bring times of refreshing and what that's like, guys. It's times of returning strength. I mean, most of you know what this is like. Okay, you're super tired, you've had a day of it or a groggy morning, and you go and you find your friend, the coffee, and you drink that and you don't even just get a little coffee you get. You're like I am back.
Speaker 1:That thing happening spiritually is revival. That thing happening spiritually is revival. That's refreshing of your spirit. That is the but not, but not caffeinated way, in a like whoa, me and God are like tight. Right now. I'm walking before him in closeness, I'm experiencing his love, I'm experiencing his power. I'm thinking about him all the time and my heart there's just like there's a fire within it, but it's also like it's not chaotic, it's restful. There's a sense of like he's always comforted. He's like hey, it's going to be okay, like you don't have to worry about any of the things because it's really going to be okay.
Speaker 1:Now, when you notice three things about revival first, it is from God. Like we can't stir up revival just so. Everybody knows. It doesn't matter how many times we preach on it. We can't just like make revival happen. It's got to be from God. Secondly, it can't be like it's not automatic. You're not going to like stumble into revival just well, you know it's like every other day I just get revival.
Speaker 1:That's possible maybe if you're constantly seeking God and constantly repenting and returning. That is a version of it, but if you just kind of walk as you go, it's not going to come, but it leads to refreshing, like it does. It leads to replenishment, it leads to increased strength. You know what it leads to. It leads to a washing of the spirit again, and we see things that we didn't even know were there. They were always there, we just didn't see them. It releases this sense of and this is what happened to Paul and Barnabas in the later chapters. It releases mission. Okay, now that I'm aligned with him, now he can be like.
Speaker 1:Now I want you to go do what I want you to do. I really didn't want you to go do that before, though, because there's all kinds of stuff you didn't see. There's all kinds of stuff actually we weren't even in agreement about. So you go do stuff that doesn't even really represent me, even though you might think that it does, and there's personal revival, there's church revival, there's entire regional revival and we want all of it. We want all of it, man. We want to pray for all of it. We want to go after all of it. Here's what you might not intuit about revival is it reveals secret sin. Now don't let that scare you too much, because we've all probably got secret sin. We wouldn't want anyone to find out about it. But it's more than that. It reveals sin that you don't know you have.
Speaker 1:When we go into a time of seeking and returning to God and say, God, I want to repent for everything, but I also want to know what else you want me to repent for. See, we kind of think we'll always be sensitive. I'll just know whatever God wants me to. I found that to not be true at all, like as we seek and actually ask God. What's on your mind about this?
Speaker 1:I had a season where I had to go repent to a whole bunch of people. I was a part of a church where there was a church split and I made some mistakes and I had to go repent to a bunch of people. Now I didn't really believe that at first. I was like these you know they did all the things it was their fault. And while there was truth in that. I wasn't taking a good look at me, and so I went into a time of praying and fasting. Okay, god, look, I just want to be right with you. I don't even care what happens, I just want us to. I want to know that you and me are right, even if they say you and me are wrong.
Speaker 1:And then I began to ask and began to seek. He began to lay things on my heart of, like, al, actually you did this and I need you to go repent for this, and I'm not going to not bother you until you do. See, there's a version where God like, starts to, he starts to just lean on you a little bit and he's like no, you're going to go apologize for that. No, you're going to. I'm like no, I ain't, I'm going to sleep. No, I will wake you up until you agree that you're going to go do this. And, guys, that's one of the things we're inviting. When we go into a time of seeking personal revival and church, we're saying God, reveal to us the things that we're not even really aware we're doing anymore.
Speaker 1:Now, what's hopeful about this, why this is such a beautiful treasure and such a beautiful tool is, guys, you begin to learn. No matter what Jesus uncovers, you're safest when you're absolutely naked before God. See, god already knows everything, and we're afraid, I'm afraid someone will know. I'm afraid someone will find out. I'm afraid I will find out. And once you do find out, though, and you realize, jesus' strong kingly arms, are around you and he says I just wanted us to agree. I'm not going to slap you around, I'm not going to embarrass you in front of a bazillion people, I just want us to agree and check it out. Even in the midst of that sin, I ain't never letting you go. Do you think I didn't know about that? I know all your things, and now you're more aware of how many things there are that I still love you through.
Speaker 1:So what it produces, my friends, is as we practice this. It produces a sense of safety. It produces a sense of like. My Savior really is that great. My Savior just won't let go. He'll keep on keeping on with me and check it out. This promise, it never expires.
Speaker 1:So you can do this day one. You can do this 18,000. I think there's like 18,200 and some odd days in 50 years, so you can just do it all the time, every day, you can return to Lord, and this is really what it's got to look like. It's got to look like oh, I'm aware that I sinned in that way again Instead of oh, better do better for the rest of the day. Well, better do better for the rest of the week. Well, better do better for the rest of the next month. Okay, do better, that's fine, but don't wait at all.
Speaker 1:The moment that you're done, the moment you stop sinning, the moment you realized oh my gosh, I was just harsh with the kid. That was super wrong. You repent to the kid and you repent to Jesus now, you take care of it now, you return and repent now. Why? Because, why wait? You can have times of refreshing right now. Why? Because, why wait? You can have times of refreshing right now. And, my friends, what I've found is, if you keep a heart that keeps on returning and repenting, those times of refreshing are very, very often and very, very common, and you're experiencing greater closeness to God, greater sense of his leading. You're still getting a ton of stuff wrong. You still need a ton of wisdom, you need a ton of counsel, you need all kinds of other stuff, but you have him in deeper and more powerful and more meaningful ways.
Speaker 1:And when we don't, when we just be like, ah, that's not a big deal. How many of you have sinned in some way? You knew it was a sin but you're like, ah, it's not a big deal. That's not a big deal. Let me remind you, your spiritual enemy is trying to tell you all the time that that was not a big deal, because he knows that sin will clog your spiritual arteries. He's trying to kill you by just getting everything clogged up.
Speaker 1:And you're invited to this. Now, this isn't a law. The king isn't saying, okay, go do this to be my queen. The king is saying I want to invite you, I want to give you this tool that you can use every day to make sure that we are as close and as tight as possible, despite your propensity to sin. And if you'll value it like that and it really is something to value you'll have rivers of living water running through you. But the Bible's so cool with its different metaphors because it is rivers of living water, but it's also fire. It's a burning fire on the inside that gives us a sense of God's immediacy. Do you know how? Okay, just think about how much better you'd feel if you could feel God's presence 30% more than you do right now.
Speaker 1:But some of us, we've just said well, that's never, that's not, that's not for me, that's never going to happen. Well, what if it could, though? What if it could? I mean, have you asked? Have you asked, have you returned and repented? Have you said I need to get rid of everything I possibly could so that I can walk in the presence of Jesus in a more powerful and immediate way? Now, I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I'm not trying to make you feel like you're missing something, although it's possible that you are missing something, and so maybe we just got to get more specific and believe. I know it's gone one way, but maybe you could be a whole lot closer. Why? Because endless living water is there. When we unblock the well, it's endless.
Speaker 1:So now the journey to revival. This is what happens. It's repentance, refreshing. We repent, then we get refreshing, and then the mission of God is released as we have repented. Now, there's some negative effects for not pursuing God in this way. If you say I'm not going to be that kind of Christian, I'm just going to be a guy who goes to church, I'm going to sit there, I'm going to be around, I'm going to listen to K-Love, I'm going to put on some songs yes, I'm going to do all that, but I'm not doing any of this. Repenting and returning stuff, that's totally your choice. I have to tell you as a Bible teacher. Here's some things that're going to have a hard heart and lose sensitivity to God. That's Hebrews 3.13.
Speaker 1:Second this is maybe the most scary one there comes a point where, as we resist the Spirit of God and we say, leave me alone, I don't want to talk about it, he begins to what the Bible calls in Romans 1, turn us over to our sin. What that means is he stops helping us not disobey and he's just like well, good luck, man. See what happens with that? And we grow harder and we grow blinder. That's why you can meet somebody at one stage and they're like man, they're just like sharp spiritually, and then all the time goes by and it's like they forgot everything that ever happened. Probably, in one sense, it's possible that they decided to keep hardening their heart. And, guys, I'm not trying to offend anybody, but they get dumber, like they get spiritually used to know things that you no longer know. And I'm not condemning them. I'm just afraid for me.
Speaker 1:I just don't want to go there and the darkness gets deeper and deeper and there's unfruitfulness because the very things God wanted you to do. Now you're really not paying attention enough to be able to be directed in that way. Maybe, like Jonah or, even worse, like Samson Dude, you can miss the entire purpose of God for your life. You just can't. That's what happened with Samson. This dude just never got around to it. He was always chasing some chick. He was always with the very people that God had assigned him to pursue. That's real man. That's in the Bible for a reason.
Speaker 1:What do we do? Well, we always unblock the well. We always run as soon as possible. We always trust that revealing my sin or repenting my sin before the Lord is a good idea, even if I find out secret stuff. And what I want to do right now is I just want to list just some things. Just just open your heart for a second. Nobody's condemning you. Remember, if you've trusted Christ, you're already the queen. You're not trying to get back into the palace, you're already in the palace. This is going to unclog some pipes, though, as as we look at this. So I'm just going to rattle off some ideas that maybe, as you go into the next month, praying God, help our church, help us to grow in purity and that kind of thing. Maybe these will be some of the things that you already know, but some of them might be things that you learn on the way.
Speaker 1:Is it possible that there is a self-importance and a resisting of humility that's been happening in your heart? What about holding grudges and resentment? I'm sure I've got chambers of my heart where all of these have existed in the past 48 hours. What about a persistent, impure thought life that you don't cast down, you just allow it to run rampant? Or unhealthy desire for wealth and possessions? How about? You're just kind of discontent because other people have cool stuff that you want and for some reason you didn't get a portion of that. Here's another one that is rampant. I feel like it used to be just in the church, but now it's everywhere About self-righteousness.
Speaker 1:Viewing yourself I am morally superior to pick one Prayerlessness. What about just not valuing God's word the way he's asked you to? Are you cold toward others? Or maybe are you just not intentionally not cold to others? How about? Okay, I know that most of us are like well, I don't really lie.
Speaker 1:Okay, what about misrepresenting the truth, because that's lying, that's lying. What about acting unfairly toward others or just not taking care to make sure people feel treated fairly? It's all love and it's all what the king has asked the queen to do. Remember this, guys. Why did he make you a queen? Well, one because he's in love with you, but two, because he wants a helper to serve the people. He wants someone else to take care of everybody with him. He wants a partner to go make everyone else's lives better, not just make our own life better. So what are we going to do? With God's help? We're going to seek God's direction for like a capstone month.
Speaker 1:See the Lord, I feel like he's been speaking to me all about our values, about things that he wants us to do. Okay, I'll tell you some of them. He wants us to reach people. Part of our DNA is we care about lost people. We just always have. We want more and more people to come to know Jesus Christ and know that he loves them. He doesn't condemn them, he's not against them. There's also a rescue component to our DNA. We want to just help people that are in trouble. There's a digital call.
Speaker 1:I feel like if we're going to really keep reaching people, we've got to get not only in here but in other online spaces as much and as powerfully as we can over the next 15 years, and there's a burden to develop leaders to go into those next 15 years and not just go here but go to different places in the world. I got to tell you guys the vision that I feel like the Lord has given me. I've shared this with the elders, I've shared it with some others of you. It needs to be refined over the next month, so I'm not giving it away yet, but I'm just telling you it's way beyond us. It makes me balk at it, if not by faith, and yet that's the kind of thing that I would want. That's what we're asking for. I'm not asking for something we can do. I'm asking for God's mission and vision.
Speaker 1:But if we're going to get the best version of that, then we've got to begin with going low. We've got to begin as a church of crying out and saying God, we humble ourselves before you, because there might've been some things that you did wrong, but there might be some things in here or with the people online who've been a part of this community. You sinned against them and you just kind of like ignored it and you never put it back together. And so that's still like here, though that's still under the surface. It might be that it's not only interpersonally. It might be that there's things that this church, or some iteration in history of it, has done wrong as a church and it wasn't pleasing to the spirit, or maybe it was just a church that you were from, but somehow that residue is still on you, and so we want to go and we want to ask God would you reveal to us not only what is my secret sin? What is my sin that I'm not aware of that? Maybe I sinned against someone else among the people, and then what is the organization just done wrong that is not in alignment with your heart and your spirit?
Speaker 1:Is it possible that there's been division? There was gossip in the church and I didn't stand against it. Division there was gossip in the church and I didn't stand against it. Is it possible that there was abuse of authority in both ways? Were there times where people didn't really honor godly authority and were there times where ungodly authority didn't honor and lead well and shepherd in loving ways. What about has there been different seasons of materialism, of just having stuff is going to be the most important thing, or neglecting the next generation and neglecting people, far from God. See, all of us.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you to come with us. Come on, man, you're part of this, people. Let's just let's see what happens. Aren't you a little bit excited? I mean, what would happen? What if we're missing like 30%? What if there's something God will reveal in your heart and in my heart and in the life of our church when he says oh, I got a lot of church, but y'all serious now? Are you serious? You're so serious You're going to like repent, you're going to go apologize when you don't really feel like it.
Speaker 1:Dang, why would we do it? Well, I'll tell you why. Because there's endless living water when we unblock the well. What if there's endless living water for us if we just unblock the well? So how do we participate? Well, you can go home and just pray in general about what we just said. You could do that. I want to invite you.
Speaker 1:So the elders and I pray and fast every Wednesday. We've been doing that for about a year now and we've seen God move powerfully in different ways in our church, I believe largely as a result because we just got a bit serious about that. I want to invite you to come with us on Wednesdays. If Wednesday's a day you could do it. I want to ask you to do it on Wednesday If you just want to like do another time during the week and just say Lord, count this as Wednesday, please. Like that's great too, but there's a power in unity. Okay, and for real, if you can't do it Wednesday, I'm just kidding with you. That's not a big deal. But fasting guys, so just prayer, is great, but if you add fasting, here's what it does.
Speaker 1:Some of you racing people you know what nitrous oxide does for a car right Like it takes it temporarily and shoots a whole bunch of energy, like 200 more horsepower, through that car and suddenly it can go a whole lot further, faster and seem like a way better car than it is. That's what fasting does. Fasting tells God, god, we're serious. It says God, I want some nitrous in this thing. It's really an expression of faith because you're so believing that God's actually going to do something that you're willing to go without one of your favorite things food, like. Do you see how that's faith Like. It's not merit. It's not that I'm like convincing I'm so good, god, now please do this thing for me. It's saying I so need you to do this and I'm so convinced you will that I'm going to go without food just to show you I really believe you will. God, I really believe it. So I want to ask you to commit and let's go through a little simplified.
Speaker 1:Everybody can fast or not fast, but if you fast, here's some ways to do it. Let's talk them through real quick. You might have a little sheet on your chair there. Let's put it on the screen. If you're online, feel free just to take a screenshot of that and you'll have it. Or maybe someone in the host can drop that in the chat. Here's some different kinds.
Speaker 1:Okay, there's a regular fast. You can do any of these that you want if you feel like God is leading you into this step. This just means you know, just don't eat except for, like, maybe water or juice or something like that. There's a partial fast. This is where I think this is one of the better ones. To start with, you take a meal and you say I'm not going to go, I'm not going to eat that meal and instead I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray for my church, I'm going to pray for us. I'm going to pray that God helps us see and confess our secret sin.
Speaker 1:There's just a liquid fast. This is where you really can drink stuff. You're just not physically eating anything. Now check it out. There's a full fast and sometimes people they just don't know Don't do a full fast, guys. I'm asking you please don't do it.
Speaker 1:Okay, in the Bible, full fasts are miracles. That's when you don't eat or drink anything. It's not like, it's not healthy. You can't, your body shouldn't be able to do that, so don't do it. Okay, I'm not asking you to do that unless you're Moses or well, that's what that is.
Speaker 1:So good luck, um worldly desires. This is, you know, this is the thing that your flesh likes and will miss. If you get rid of it for a little while, whether it's a day or a week, whatever it is, I'm gonna miss that. I'm gonna think about that and that thinking about it is my trigger. No, jesus, you are my coffee. Jesus, you are my social media hit of dopamine. You are the thing that I'm seeking in that, and instead I want to ask for your help to do these things on our behalf and on my church's behalf.
Speaker 1:So we're going to do this for this month and then we're going to come back and you're going to get a survey before that ends, and here's what you can do. It's going to ask all kinds of questions about some of the things you might have experienced, and it's going to give you a slot for you to just say anything you want, anything that you feel like the Lord might have spoken to you, anything you're like I think this whole fast sucked. Like, whatever you want to say, you can say it. Because why? Because I want us all to participate, because, yes, myself and the elders, we get, like the big idea vision, but you get to speak into that big idea vision and sometimes even just produce a whole extra chunk of it that nobody saw coming.
Speaker 1:What, carter? What if I'm not enough, though, see, I don't have this zeal. Like you talk about hearing the other 30%, you talk about fasting and all that's just that's insane to me. Like what if I don't have that Great question? Here's the great news. It's the great news of the king. The king, the disciples remembered and they said of Jesus. Zeal for God's house consumed him. Jesus had all the zeal that you and I won't have. So think of all the places you're lacking in zeal, you're lacking in seriousness, you're lacking in fasting.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying don't aim at it, but just understand. You don't need a perfect record of that, because Jesus is the rest of your record for that. In fact, he's the whole record for that. So what you can do then is you can have this as an opportunity to say I know I'm not going to do this perfect, I'm not going to do great, I might break my fast, and you know, it's okay, dude, it's just okay. Just pick a goal and go for it, and if you break it, check it out. You have Jesus, and that just makes it just fine. Grace, grace, grace, grace, grace.
Speaker 1:Here's what I want to do. I want us to close this thing in prayer. I'm going to ask our sound people to put on a little bit of background music. I'm going to give some instructions right before that, but I just want to invite you to. If you need to think this through, ask the Lord, is there a goal you have for me in this? Ask the Lord, is there someone I already know that I need to go, make things right with.
Speaker 1:If you want to do business with God down here as this thing ends, feel free to do it. We're having revival prayer. That's often back in the back of the church there, but we're going to have it right down here. If you want to check that out. That's going on for the next four weeks right up here and maybe you want to join in action. That's what they've been praying for. Pray for it with them.
Speaker 1:However, you guys, whatever feels right and natural to respond to the Holy Spirit, I say just do it. And everybody else, dude, you're not less spiritual to just go home because that's what it's time to do. There's also gonna, as always, there's gonna be the gym's gonna be open, the cafe's gonna be open, all the things. The parenting workshop is gonna happen right after this. But I feel like we can't talk about all this and not give God an opportunity to speak into it. Amen, let's bow our heads and I'm just going to invite us and when I say amen, you can do any of those things, including go, if that's what it's time to do.
Speaker 1:Father, I pray for everybody's, whatever step they're on. I pray that you'd grab their hand and gently invite them up to the next step. Lord, I pray for our church in this month. We're not all gonna participate in the same way, but I pray. Whatever way we participate, we pray there will be spirit and truth unto you. We pray that it would cause us to be closer to you personally. We pray that it would cause us to be closer to you as a congregation.
Speaker 1:I got we're trusting you that as we do this, to whatever degree we participate, you're going to honor your word and times of refreshing are going to come from your throne. And, lord, I really I'm asking for courage. I'm asking that our people would do exactly anything that you're asking them to do. They would repent for that thing that they've been trying not to that they would make it right with a friend that they haven't talked to for years. That they would go and begin to have compassion on someone they know they've been avoiding, but who really needs it. Whatever that step is, god, would you lay it on their hearts and begin today? God, we would be used by you in any capacity you want, and we're asking that you use us mightily, but we don't want to do that without being right with you and right with one another. So come, lead us, holy Spirit, amen. Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1:If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being his witness in our generation, check out FierceChurch. We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person. Also, if you're looking for leadership development-related content, don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry. It's because of you that this is possible. You can click on the link in the description to give now, or visit fiercechurch for more information. If you enjoyed this podcast, why not subscribe? Share it with your friends, click on the share button, take a screenshot and share it on social media or wherever you would share such things. Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it. Don't give up. Hang on to Jesus. He won't let go of you. Jesus loves you so much and we love you. I hope someday we get to meet in person. Thanks again for listening.