Holy Habits | Week 1 | Fast for Lent, Feast for Easter

Elite athletes have learned that peak performance requires two things: brutal training that pushes the body to its limits, and intentional rest that allows for recovery. You can't do one without the other. As it turns out, that rhythm of suffering and renewal isn't just good sports science; it's wisdom built into creation by God himself.

In this opening message of our new Holy Habits series, we turn to Ecclesiastes 3 and the reminder that there's a time for everything. We are the sum of our habits, and the question is whether those habits are leading us toward life or away from it. As followers of Jesus, we're invited to live by the rhythms of grace, walking in step with the Spirit.

This week, we explore two of those rhythms. Fasting focuses us on God through suffering, intentionally setting something aside so as not to be noticed by others, but to connect with the Father in secret. Feasting focuses us on God through gratitude, celebrating his goodness through shared meals, good company, and joy. We need both. Fasting without feasting becomes a burden; feasting without fasting loses its meaning.

Whether you've never fasted before or you're looking to build new spiritual rhythms into your life, this message offers a practical and hope-filled place to start.

Scripture referenced: Ecclesiastes 3; Galatians 5:16; Matthew 6:16-18; Jude 12; 1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 19.

Transcript

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Well, good morning. So glad that you're here with us today. So uh this is uh British middle distance runner Keeley Hodgkinson. That's that's her on the left. That's her her training partner, uh Georgia Hunter Bell. Both run for England, for Great Britain. Uh Keely does the 800, typically Georgia does the 1500 meters. Those of you that are into track and field. Now, Keely is the Olympic gold medalist, as well as just recently she broke the world record for the 800 meters for the indoor. Unbelievable athlete. I watched Keeley being interviewed talking about her training regimen. Uh, I'm interested, I'm curious, I always like to be in the know on what are today's athletes doing to train in order to perform uh in a way that's just quite honestly unbelievable if you've kept an eye on or aware of just the the records that that have been broken over the years regarding people running and the sports performance. It's it's it's incredible. Keely was talking about her training regimen, and uh she was talking about in an interview about something that she does that she we there's videos of her doing called threshold training or lactic acid training. How many of you are familiar with that? Threshold training, lactic acid. So what that is, is that it's training where you push yourself to the limit where your muscles begin to fill with with lactic acid. Lactic acid is the byproduct of all the processes. I don't want to get into all the chemistry, but basically lactic acid is what causes your legs to burn, the muscles to burn, and eventually gets to the point where they can't function anymore because they're just too much lactic acid within them. And so lactic acid training is pushing yourself to the level where you are at the just kind of dealing with pushing the how much lactic acid you can can tolerate and how quickly getting more efficient at getting rid of it. Because if you can do that, it means you can tolerate pain for longer, which translates to the fact that you can run faster as well. So it helps performance. And so they showed Keeley running some of these sessions. Uh just she was running 10 400 meters sprints, so that's a quarter mile, that's one lap in 66 seconds, with one-minute breaks between each lap. That's ridiculous. That's like running from the corner of our church building to basically the corner of the school building in West Clement and back in 66 seconds, taking a minute break and then doing it again, back and forth ten times. Now, in the video, they they they showed her. I mean, she gets to the point where she just collapses. She's laying there, she says she sees black spots, she may even black out. Uh, she gets sick, she said, and I when I get sick, I throw up and I hate to throw up, and and and and all that, but then she gets up and does it again, and it's like unbelievable. And you're listening to her tell this, and and and then you you begin to wonder why. And uh in the interview, Keely's like, yeah, you might be asking why I do this. Am I a glutton for punishment? Do I love the pain? Do I have some psychological problem with me? That I just like to suffer so badly. And and the answer is, well, we can joke about it, but the truth is that no, she doesn't do it because she loves the pain. She does it because she loves to win. She does it because suffering in training leads to the joy of winning races and breaking records and being successful in a career. And so you see that the modern athlete is now beginning to learn how to train to levels with science and chemistry and all that stuff that's behind it, to train to levels where they can push the body to places that you never thought the body could go. Now, on the flip side, what has also become very strong in training, specifically the elite athletes, is is training where they appreciate the power of recovery. Very much part of training regimens of the modern-day high-performing athlete is that they rest hard. They train hard, they rest hard. Recovery, they say, is is as important as training. I mean, I think it's uh LeBron James, he sleeps 10 hours a day. I'm like, that'd be nice if you could do that. Because the brutal training has to be matched with intentional rest. Top athletes commit themselves to getting the max amount of sleep they can get. They eat as well as they can for the best fuel to nourish their bodies for performance. Because if you want to be the best, you both have to have the pain in training as well as the renewal from rest. And I think this is a principle that actually is a principle that comes from God, the Creator, that's instilled in creation. In the wisdom literature, we call the Ecclesiastes, it's found in the Old Testament uh section of your Bible. So if you have a Bible, you know, pages, a book, Bible, I know some of you are like, well, I'll just pull out my iPad and look at that. That's one thing. But if you have a book, and I encourage you to get the book Bible version, pick that up, open it up right in the middle, and you typically will land in the Psalms, right? The Psalms are typically right in the middle of our Bibles. And then you just kind of scoot over like to the right, and you'll come to come to Proverbs, and then you'll come to Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon. Solomon was the king, son of the King David. He was King Solomon, and he was blessed with wisdom like nobody else. And it's thought that Ecclesiastes was written at a time where not only did Solomon have wisdom, a gift from God, but now he was middle-aged. He writes Ecclesiastes, so now he has experience. He has the ability to look back on life and say, you know, I've lived life, I've tried all these things, I've tried to live wisely with God, and here are all my reflections. Here are the things that I observe. He says in chapter 3 that God's creation moves by seasons. He observes that there are rhythms, that there are patterns, that there are habits that we live by. This is what he says. He says there's a time for everything. Ecclesiastes 3. There's a time for everything, a season for every activity under the heavens, a time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. You see, you and I are the sum of our habits. How many have you ever heard that? Ever heard someone tell you that? You are the sum of your habits. All of us move by seasons, all of us move by things that we do on a regular basis, and it's the habits that we live by that determine where we go in life. We are the sum of our habits. And the question is, is are your habits moving you towards life? Are your habits moving to you towards things that honor God or are they moving you away? Are they destroying you? I believe that if you're a Jesus follower, you're called to live by the rhythms of grace. You're called to live by habits that honor God and bring life. You're called to submit your life to habits, to rhythms that put you in line with the seasons that that God leads you through. And there are practices. There are things that we can be committed to in our day-to-day that that God has made known to us in Scripture that that help us sync our lives, if you'd like, to the habits, to the rhythms, to the seasons that God is working through in your life. And so Paul says in Galatians 5, so I say walk by the spirit, is describing the Christian life. Walk by the Spirit, and if you and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. This concept of working, walk by the Spirit. If you think about this, using your imagination, he's saying, walk together in life of the Spirit. Well, what's required with that? Well, it's required that you learn the Spirit's cadence. It's required that you learn how to cooperate with the Spirit in your life. It's a thing about rhythm, it's a thing about habits, about working together cooperatively. And so this next sermon series, we're calling holy habits. We're going to be working through over the next three months. We're going to be talking about rhythms of grace. We're going to be talking about holy habits, things that are revealed in Scripture that God calls us to participate in that align our lives with God's Spirit so that we might have life. This month we're going to be talking at the practices of fasting and feasting. Then in July, we'll talk about the habit of giving, the holy habit of giving, the holy habit of making part of your life routine, generosity. And then in August, we're going to talk about applying the holy habit of worshipful rest or Sabbath. We live in such a rush-rush world that many times we lose our souls. We lose what's most important to us because we're so busy. And so we're going to talk about a time in August, how to take a time to rest. So let's begin with fasting and feasting. Fasting is a practice that we see the people of God engage in in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It was typically accompanied by prayer. Whenever you see fasting, it's usually prayer and fasting or some demonstration, some activity that involves prayer. Simply, fasting is intentionally denying yourself of something that's routine, something that's daily, like eating, in order to use the time and energy that's set free from that routine to focus on God, to connect with God. We typically think about fasting as something that we remove from our lives, but the truth is that fasting is removal and replacement. Fasting as scripturally prescribed is has to involve replacement, and that replacement is a commitment to connect with God. And so on the basic level, it's choosing not to eat for a designated period of time in order to focus on God. Jesus taught on fasting in a Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6. He says, when you fast, now he's talking to people that are interested in the sermon that he's preaching about what it looks like to be a part of the kingdom of God. If you want to be living for God, this is some of the things that will describe you, Jesus said. When you fast, so you it's assumed that you're going to fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do. The word hypocrites means two-faced, people that put on a show, right? Do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces and show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put on oil in your head. You know, uh when when I read that, I think about, oh brother, we're out with the, you know, the Dapadan hair, hair, hair pomade. Anyway, uh, when you fast, put on oil in your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you're fasting, but only to your father who is unseen, and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. So Jesus is saying, look, the purpose of fasting is to connect with God. Don't fast in a way so that you can kind of project, you can, you know, send the uh virtue signal to others around you that you are a spiritual person and that you're fasting and you're doing this to connect with God. No, he says no. People should know you're fasting. Why? Because the purpose of fasting is for you to connect with God who is unseen, so do it in such a way where you're not promoting yourself, but instead use it to focus on your relationship with God. And so, what does fasting what's fasting? I say it this way: fasting focuses you on your relationship with God through suffering. Through suffering. Now, I you might be like, suffering? Really? And I I I wrestle with saying the word suffering in this context. I thought maybe I should use the word sacrifice. It seems a little nicer. But then I thought about, well, let's be honest, Dee Dee. When you fast, it's a time in which you go without food and you do like to eat. And right now, Shannon and I are kind of doing like a three-day a week, three days a week where we're avoiding uh simple carbs, i.e. sweets, cookies, bread. Oh, I love bread, sourdough bread, especially, right? So we're choosing to do that. And so what happens when you choose to take a break from something that you enjoy? Well, you see it everywhere. I mean, the days that I'm like fasting from simple carbs, guess what? That's the day someone brings cookies to the office. Or Shannon says, Oh, look, I have this bread. Or, you know, why don't you try this, this, these brownies? You know, someone comes in and says, Hey, want to taste one of my brownies? And of course, there's donuts everywhere. It's hard, it's suffering. It's not easy. And so I think I'm gonna stick with the word suffering because I think suffering implies that it's something that is personal. That when you fast, you take away something that's personal and meaning to you, that causes about pain so that you can focus. It's not tormenting, it's pain in order to focus. I like how one author put it. Fasting makes me vulnerable, reminds me of my frailty. It reminds me to remember that if I am not fed, I will die. Standing before God, hungry, I suddenly know who I am. I am one who is poor, called to be rich in a way that the world does not understand. I am one who is empty, called to be filled with the fullness of God. I am one who is hungry, called to taste all the goodness that can be mine in Christ. Now, if you go into scriptures, you'll see there's a number of examples of fasting contained in the pages of scripture. You see people fasting for repent for confession as as they become aware of a sin before God and they want to go to God for for forgiveness. You see them repenting by fasting and praying and pleading to God. You see times in which people will fast when they're in a season of mourning, when there's loss in their life, right? Uh they they cry out to God for his mercy and his grace and and his presence through fasting. There were times when when when individuals would fast as they prepared for ministry. God had placed a calling on their life, and so they would spend time in preparation, praying and fasting in order to fulfill the calling of God on their life. Jesus did it 40 days, Moses did it 40 days. And then there was a time in which the church, leaders in the church, would fast in order to commission individuals within the church to ministry. He would say, you know, the elders came and with prayer and fasting, they they laid hands on these individuals and sent them on into ministry. Fasting can be applied in various things to our lives for various reasons. But the common denominator is that fasting is a practice that that the people of God use to intensify their focus on God through suffering by denying themselves food. And of course, we're going to talk about other things you can fast from as well. And so here's the question: how do you incorporate the practice of fasting into your daily rhythms? I would say first and foremost, start slow. Start slow. Now, some of you may have medical issues, uh, may uh be diabetic, and it's not a good idea to go without food or anything like that. Be aware of that, be mindful of that. But that's why I say start small, start with one meal, perhaps. Take one meal, skip breakfast, and then maybe you could say, well, breakfast time, I'm not going to eat breakfast. I'm also not going to prepare breakfast. And so the time I would take to eat my breakfast, to prepare my breakfast, I'm going to go to God. And maybe you can go to God in confession. Maybe there's a sin issue or a struggle that you're having, a bad habit that you want to bring to God, and you can do that at that time. Maybe you can fast and acknowledge some of the pain in your life. Maybe you're mourning. Maybe you have grief. Remember, grief, grief cannot is not only grieving for someone who's past that you love, but you can be grieving the loss of a friendship. You could be grieving a loss of good health. You can be grieving a loss of an opportunity. You could fast and pray as you prepare to begin a new phase of life. Upcoming wedding, birth of a child, start of a new job, going back to school. Finally, you can fast in order to ask God to bless the work of the church. I wanted to give you a little teaser here. We got some big things coming very soon here at Mount Carmel. Some big things that we as a congregation are, you know, going to be facing, and we're going to ask you to step up with a faith that will stretch you in doing that. And I'm going to tell you more about it as the month goes along, but uh I'm going to ask that this will be a time where you could begin to fast and pray for the church. We've challenged you to reach out to one. We said, look, uh, the challenge for Mount Carmel this year is that a thousand Mount Carmel people will share their faith in Jesus with one person by the end of the year. Well, you could spend some time. Don't eat breakfast, pray and fast for your one that they may come to know Jesus. Here's a story that I love that that maybe will give you an idea regarding fast. I came across a story about a family that decided to adopt a TV fast. Jill and Christian Winger. They live on a 67-acre homestead in Wyoming with their three kids, uh, 13, 10, and 7. That was a couple of years ago. Now, they didn't watch really watch a lot of TV. The kids would watch maybe a show, uh, one show for an hour and a half each afternoon, and then because of the long winters, they would then find themselves after dinner sitting in front of the the TV, just watching to kind of deal with that that that period of time. And so Jill, she asked her family, hey, what would happen if we did something different other than watching TV? And so they made a decision. They were going to go on a TV fast. Three months, December 1st, 2022 to March 1st, 2023, they would watch no TV. They said, let's just experiment and see what happens. Together, the family discussed what to do with the time. Remember, because fasting is not about removal, it's about replacement. And guess what? They began to engage in activities that brought life. They started to read books together, they started to take on new hobbies, they learned to play chess, they began cooking, they began to become more engaged in the farming process, the homestead activities. When they came to the end of their fast, March 1st, sat down to talk about what had happened, and surprisingly, everyone agreed they wanted to continue. They said, okay, we will set a time once or twice a month to watch a movie as as a family, but we're going to keep this practice, this newfound free time that we've learned from fasting for hobbies and creative pursuits. You know, I think we talk about fasting from food, but I I think what's perhaps more addictive, which has which is which will probably be harder and provide more suffering to more people within this congregation, is taking a fast from your phone. I mean, some of I mean if you I know how it is. If you don't have your phone on you, you're like, I gotta go back home. I forgot my phone. Where's my phone? I left my phone somewhere. Can you can you call my phone? Because I need to find it. And there's like a panic. I'm like, it's just you know, what's going on? No, that's usually me saying that to Shannon, but uh maybe it's time to to learn how to to connect with God or replace the time you would you would spend on the phone scrolling and mindlessly wasting your brains away. Take a fast. Replace that time to love God and to love people in your life. Now, there's another way you can learn the practice of fasting, and and that's to participate in in all church fasts that come from the traditions of the church. Throughout this series, I'm going to be pointing to holidays that we practice as part of our rhythms, not only as a church, uh Christian holidays, but also some of the national holidays that actually could be good reminders of these holy rhythms, these holy habits, these rhythms of grace that we can participate in. So it's not long since we celebrated Easter. And before Easter comes what what does anyone know before Easter, what's the holiday? Lent. Does someone say Lent? Who said Lent? 50 points for you. Well done. Okay. What is Lent? Well, here's Lent. Lent is a 40 day solemn Christian season of prayer, fasting, and giving. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends before Easter. It's observed in preparation for. Easter and admarries the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness. There are three commitments that we're called to make in Lent. First of all, is fasting, that you give up, not only you can give up food, you can give up a luxury, you can give up a habit to learn to replace that with focusing on God. You can spend time in prayer, dedicated time of reading scripture, reflection on the season, as well as, and this is maybe new to you, fasting is also traditionally a season where you go above and beyond in your giving, where you give of your time or money or talents to help those in the need. And so, telling you, if you you're considering fasting, you're like, okay, let's do this, mark your calendars. February 2027, February the 10th is Ash Wednesday, which is traditionally the beginning of Lent. Maybe you can consider practicing Lent, thinking about Lent. Maybe you as your family can do something for Lent together. Why? So you can learn fasting as a rhythm for your life. Now, fasting focuses on your relationship with God through suffering. Feasting, on the other hand, is a practice that focuses on your relationship with God through gratitude. Through gratitude. And it's important that you have both, right? Just like, just as in training, you need the threshold training, the pushing to the limits, the suffering to help you grow. You also need the joy of rest, the joy of recovery. You know, we're going to go through this as we go through the series. There were seven feasts that the people of Israel were encouraged to participate in, all of them focusing on remembering God's goodness. Right? So, you know, they were called to remember God who brings new beginnings and new life when they celebrated the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. They were called to remember God who provides for our needs during the feast of first fruits and the feast of wheats, God who forgives sin in the feast of trumpets and the feast and in the day of atonement. God who promises, I will never leave you nor forsake you. They celebrated that in the feast of booths. Fasting is like threshold training. Feasting is like taking a recovery day. Taking a day to rest, to relax, to eat well, a day to take inventory of the good things that God has in your life. I once read of a preacher who asked another preacher friend, dude, Trevor, the way you're walking around, the way you're conducting yourself, is your God gloomy? And I wonder about many of us in the church, because I think many times we do our faith a disservice because we walk around gloomy. We talk about our Christian faith as a burden. We're all sad sex. You know, it's so hard I'm fighting. And we come to church and we we don't think it gets serious until we start getting crying and we were pouring on our hearts. And look, there's a place for that. There's a place for suffering, there's a place for confession, there's a place for repentance. But let me tell you this there's more of a place to celebrate, there's more of a place to have a parta. I'm using vernacular now, right? So Trevor had been working with pessimistic with people that were suffering, and that was his ministry, and it was beginning to infect him. He was dealing with people who were struggling in life and folks that were struggling with pain, but in his desire to connect with them, in his desire to honor their hardships, he began to forget that he also had the opportunities for resurrection joy. You see, the Bible tells us that God is a God who suffers with us, but he's also a God of joy. When you look at the life of Jesus, he's described as a prophet, a man of many sorrows. But when you read about his life and the stories of Scripture, what do you see? You see that Jesus delighted in fun, in shared meals, in good wine, and playful children. He embraced moments of joy even in the midst of the hardship of his own life and the serious needs he saw around him. Jesus showed that the simple joys can happen even in serious times. In the face of death, Jesus encouraged his disciples. He said, Look, if you remain connected to me like the vine is connected to the branches, you will have joy. He said, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. Now I've encouraged you about fasting, and I've said, look, fasting is focusing on God through suffering. And I said, look, consider Lent. But think about Lent. Lent is seven weeks. And it's seven weeks where you're fasting. But guess what Lent is also? That season also involves seven Sundays. And you don't fast on Sunday during Lent. And the last Sunday of Lent is what? Easter Easter. And what is Easter? A celebration. Thank you. We've got some interactive people out here. That's good. Right? I've encouraged you to do these things. So I want you to remember that God's pattern is that we need to take, yes, we need to take times of fasting. And sometimes that fasting can be burdensome. Sometimes that fasting can be a need for dealing with weighty matters. But also we need to take time to ensure that we practice joy. That we have good food and good company and good fellowship. Theologian N. T. Wright said that as Jesus followers, our mission is bringing fragments and flashes of new creation to birth in the midst of the still darkened and sorrowing world. Think about that. So what opportunities do you have to celebrate God's goodness with a feast? What little Easters can you celebrate now? You know, Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, in the midst of life's hardships and struggles, you read Ecclesiastes, you think, man, this is so depressing. Everything's meaningless. Life's not worth it. I tried everything and didn't find any fulfillment. Look at what he says. He says, I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in all their toil, all the days of the life God has given them under the sun. Feasting has to be a rhythm of the church. It's the reason why we gather to celebrate. There's an interesting passage of scripture. You're gonna be like, well, this is a strange passage of scripture, Dee Dee. I may not have even heard of it. There's a letter called Jude. It was written by the brother of Jesus, his name was Jude. And the letter is dealing with weighty matters. It's addressing the problem of false teachers in the church. But he says something in Jude 12. There's only one chapter, it's a short book. He says something in verse 12. He says, These people, he's talking about these false teachers, he says, These people are blemishes at your love feasts. What's a love feast? What's he talking about? A love feast. What's a love feast? Well, understand that the church in the early church didn't meet like we meet. Didn't go to a church building in order to participate in church services, right? There was no going to church there. No, what they did was that they gathered and did life together in small groups in each other's homes. And then on Sunday, which was the day of celebration of the resurrection, they would gather together in a place as best they could where they all come together and celebrate what God was doing in their lives. They would celebrate, it says, by having a love feast. And the love feast, you could say, well, that's that's taking communion. And yeah, I guess, yes, you would be right. That would be a good assumption. They took communion together to remember the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what they would do. But we see that there's hints of more than that. They just didn't do communion. They had what we would call good old-fashioned church potluck. How many of you remember good old-fashioned church potluck? Isn't that great? When everyone would bring a dish and then all the ladies would be watching who how much of their dish was eaten. Not that they were competitive. And there would inevitably be like this whipped jelly, gelatin something was usually green, and I loved it. And they're like, oh boy, I would eat that stuff. And of course, fried chicken was always there. Uh you've got to have fried chicken. It's not a church dinner without fried chicken, that's for sure. But that was kind of how it is. And so as we think about Lent, we think that it ends in Easter. We think about God's design, right? Lent is a season of fasting, but it's a season that's that's that's marked by celebration, and Sundays are celebrating the resurrection. And Easter is the Sunday of Sundays where you celebrate the resurrection from the dead. And how did they do that? They did that with love feasts, right? Easter is the Sunday of Sundays celebration of resurrection from the Jesus from the dead. We find in Peter, 1 Peter, he says this. He says, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That is what should motivate us when we gather together and we celebrate God's goodness. And one of the means of celebration of that is feasting together. So let me encourage you. Maybe you can consider, not only as you consider this practice of fasting, but maybe you can consider as a family, as a small group, as with your friends at church, take the opportunity to feast because Jesus is alive. And maybe you can do it on Sunday. Remember the days when we used to do Sunday lunches, family dinners on Sunday? Some of you could still do that. I know schedules and things are different, but maybe you can't do it every week, but maybe you can do it every now and then. Get together, feast. My small group is gathering tonight, and we're going to feast together. Just because. Why? Because God is good and he's alive and he's bringing life to us. You can do it as well. So get together, make a feast, enjoy food, take the time to count your blessings, give thanks for God's goodness, celebrate that God has been that God has raised Jesus from the dead. So in a moment, I'm going to ask you to take out your communion package. You know, we do communion every week, and sometimes I think we forget that communion comes out of a feast. You remember what that feast is? It's called the Passover feast, when then when the Israelites gathered together, remembering what God had done in the past when they were slaves in Egypt and freed them from slavery by having the angel of death pass over their homes when they covered their homes in blood. It was a celebration. And that celebration wasn't somber. If you're familiar with what they did in a Passover feast, you'll know that they had lamb, they had different kinds of foods, they celebrated with different meals, they had games for the kids where they recounted the story of Exodus, the Bible story. It was a feast. And so our communion time, while we we we focused on serious matters, the blood of Jesus, we focused on his death, his broken body. That's why we eat the bread. Yes, it's serious. We also need to recognize this is a time for us to celebrate. It's a love feast, it's an opportunity to give thanks, it's an opportunity to give praise and thank God for being raised from the dead. You know, Jesus said, whenever you do this, do this in remembrance of me. And the implication there, he says, I will not take of this again until the kingdom comes. Some people think that's that refers to his resurrection, but also it refers to his return. See, we remember that Jesus died on the cross, that he was buried, he rose again, and then he went to the Father. And he said, I'm gonna come back one day. I'm gonna come back one day and I'm gonna take you all to me, and I'm gonna conquer death once and for all. You with no more tears, because of pain and sorrow and death. I'm gonna come back one day, and it's gonna be a great party. In fact, the language describing the return of Jesus is a wedding feast. Revelation chapter 19. Then I heard what sounded like great multitude, like the roaring rush, roaring roar of rushing waters, and like loud peals of thunder shouting, Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns, let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory, for the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. The wedding of the Lamb. Jesus is the Lamb, and the bride is the church. Jesus is gonna come back. He's gonna come back. And those who are dead in Jesus will raise from the dead and join him. And those of us who are still living, if we're still living, will be transformed and will follow suit. And it will be a celebration, a feast. Like a big old wedding feast. Now, I've done weddings for a long time. You know what always there's always a feast before the feast? Can anyone tell me what the feast before the feast is? I know it because I I had two sons and I had to pay for it. Uh we all have rehearsal dinner, right? And rehearsal dinner is one of those weird things because you get people together, they're all together for the same purpose. They're all together because they're because of the wedding. They're all together because they're connected to the bride and groom and they're celebrating it. But many times there are people getting together that have never met them, met before. Sometimes it's the first time the families have ever met and all that. And you know, it's an important time. And and and the rehearsal dinner, we know isn't necessarily the wedding feast, but it's pretty good, right? It's a taste, it's a it's a it's a it's a promise, it's an anticipation of better things to come. We celebrate rehearsal dinner. Well, you know, Jesus asked us when we uh take communion, he asked us to participate in a feast. And I like to think about this as a rehearsal dinner. It's a rehearsal dinner, it's a taste, it's a reminder. Now, we would say this is not much of a feast, this piece of bread, yuck. Anyway, uh, but but it's tokens to remember that we're not only called to fast, but we're called to feast, and that we need both. And we need to be engaged in the practice of both because both gives life. We can't go to the extreme, one or the other. We can't be feasting all the time because that is not healthy and not right. We can't be fasting all the time because that's not not good and right. You can't be training all the time as an athlete and never resting. You can never be resting all the time because you'll never run. You need both, a rhythm that brings life. And communion reminds us that we're this is the this is the wedding rehearsal dinner. And in that we we remember that Jesus died on the cross and that his body, let's take the bread out, his body was broken, was given up, his life was given up, so that we can be made right with God through faith in him. Let's take it. And we drink of the cup, the cup of joy and celebration. Though it is bitter, though it cost Jesus his life, it's a benefit and a blessing to us because God so loved you that he gave up his one and only Son. That because you believe in him, you will not perish but have everlasting life. Let us take and enjoy him. At this time, I'm gonna ask this. We're gonna pray together. And if you've taken in communion and and you've given thanks, instead of taking a moment of prayer, instead of praying for things that you need, I just simply want you to give thanks to God for his goodness. To feast, and let's offer up a feast of praise to God because he's alive and we have life, and the promises that he makes are sure and can be and give us life. And so I'm gonna take a moment, I'm gonna take, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna let you be quiet for a second. You can offer up your praise. You can say it out loud if you want, if you're bold. And then I'll pray, and then we close after we close. We'll have folks up here who will be available to pray with you if you have any needs to talk to you about any steps. If you have a gift, uh an offering to give, a generosity to give, uh, you can stop by. There's an information center there. You can do it online, all the options are available. Let's take a moment right now and give thanks to God for the top three blessings of your life right now. Let's go. Of gratitude that is marked in quiet prayers by this group of people who give you thanks for your provision. We celebrate. We we thank you for the opportunity that in the midst of struggle we can we can give thanks. In the midst of struggle, you allow us through resurrection power to look up and to count our blessings. We thank you for the gift of feasting and the gift of fasting. I pray, Lord, as we go through this and as we think about our habits, our rhythms, you know, a lot of us, Lord, are living by rhythms that that we're we're allowing others to dictate. We live by schedules and and habits that are enforced on us and are leading us away from you and not giving us life. No wonder we're worn out, no wonder we're joyless, no wonder we are uh addicted to things that are sapping uh the best of us. I pray, Lord, that you would help us by your spirit to break free of those habits, those rhythms, and to give ourselves to holy habits, to give ourselves to things like fasting and feasting because of Jesus. And it's his name we pray. Amen. God bless, have a great Sunday.