Why We Fast - Pastor Scott Silcox

We lay out a three-week fast built on delight, meditation, and restoration, urging our church to trade hurry for presence and build real reserves of faith. Through priestly imagery and Jesus’ parables, we learn to trim excess, replenish oil, and carry faithful light into our city.

• Fasting as attention to God, not deprivation
• Delight reshaping desire at the year’s start
• Tending the flame: trimming wicks and filling oil
• Meditation over information for scripture intake
• Honest self-examination without condemnation
• Naming distractions that drain oil
• Waiting on the Lord as active strength
• Wise and foolish virgins: living with reserve oil
• Creating margin, refusing hurry and false urgency
• Practicing dependence on the Holy Spirit
• Moving from private devotion to public compassion

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Fast At The Start Of The Year
• 3:20 Fasting As Path To Intimacy With God
• 8:20 Delighting In God Recalibrates Desire
• 14:30 Keep The Fire: Priests And The Altar
• 20:40 Trim The Wick: Remove Excess And Noise
• 27:10 Practice Unhurried Presence And Scripture
• 33:50 Honest Self‑Examination Without Shame
• 39:50 Oil Must Be Replenished: Waiting And Strength
• 46:00 Wise Virgins: Build Reserve Oil
• 53:20 Create Margin, Refuse Hurry, Depend On Spirit
• 1:00:20 Declarations, Compassion, And Commissioning
• 1:01:30 Service Close And Ways To Engage

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv. Now join us for a message from Pastor Scott Silcox.

SPEAKER_02: 0:19

Listen, I've got great news. I've got great news. This is this is like like off-the-charts news. You have to have to pump it up like this. We're starting to fast next week. Yeah. You're like, oh. Not what you wanted to hear, probably. Not what you wanted to hear, but probably what you needed to hear. Right? Because nothing, nothing like a turn of the year, there's nothing like a turn of the year to help us recalibrate where we're going and what God has for us. Amen. I I just I just know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. I know that uh that this next few weeks, as we jump into a fast, again, it will start next Sunday, Monday, next week, but today, if it's okay with you, I want to talk to you about fasting. I want to get our hearts ready and prepared. Why? Because I think sometimes when we talk about fasting, uh immediately people automatically think, oh, it's it's weeks of things I can't have. It's it's it's an immediate go-to. It's like it's like, oh, oh, here we go. You know, it's not enough to take up an offering. They want us to not eat now. You know, it's like it's like weird weird conversation, you know, like you say this stuff in your head, you just don't let it come out because it's embarrassing. But the truth is you do think this way sometimes. You know, it's just like I'm starving. You know, like uh why would he ask us to fast in this season? But it is a great way to recalibrate our heart. And I just promise you this that there is something that happens in fasting that can't happen any other way. There's an intimacy with the Lord that that many of us pray for, but but we just we neglect some of the things that we need to do to get in position to have the kind of connection with the Lord that we're really looking for. And one of those things is fasting. It is. It's it's fasting. I I can promise you this, as one who has fasted and will continue, and and and I will say this one uh lifestyle that was modeled just religiously, if I can say it that way, through my my father, uh who would would go every single Wednesday, I think is what it was. Was it was it what day was it? Monday or Wednesday? Was it Monday? You can answer. Awesome. Boy, I tell you what, we gotta work on the family dynamics here. We gotta, you're here to help, my brother. Okay. Monday, Monday, Monday, he would spend every single Monday uh in fasting, and and as a kid, watching that play out uh for his entire lifetime has been fantastic. And recognizing that those those little sacrifices, which aren't little by the way, but they're they're they're the disciplines that then turn around and get us in a place where our heart is softened enough to hear what he has to say. Amen. Did anyone write down some resolutions? Yeah, our our goals. I can't say resolutions anymore, right? Right? Goals, desires. We tried to do this with our kids the other day. Remember, I was telling you, let's sit down, let's ask the Lord, what is he doing here? What was the past? What's the future? I did all of the things that I told you to do, and it was interesting because eventually our kids just came up with like a bucket list. And I was like, this is not what this is. This is not a bucket list of things you want and experiences you'd like to have. You know, when when I when when the Eiffel Tower made the list, I was like, what are we doing? We're not going to the Eiffel Tower. What are we doing here? I'm talking about how are you gonna get better? It's like, I think I can be better if I see the Eiffel Tower. You know, it's like that this is not the way the exercise is supposed to go. How many know it's fun to do though? Anybody else already been tested in 2026? Isn't that crazy? We're just a few days in. How many days are we in? Four. Four days in, raise your hand, you've just been already been tested. That's a half the room. I I ask you to raise your hands like that for a reason because I think it's important for each person to look around and see, hey, you're not alone. And to recognize that, hey, the devil isn't like on vacation. He's not in the gap. He's not sitting there in that little couple of weeks, you know, a couple of days between Christmas and New Year's and still just being like, I guess I'll just give him a break. No, man. I mean, it it's daily. He isn't, he has a plan to reroute your life. And what fasting does is the intentional putting on the brakes to say, no matter what he says, what temptation might come, what culture might want from me, what what fear might want to pull out of me in this season, I submit that to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And I'm gonna give him permission to speak into that plus. It's intentional. Come on, touch your neighbor and say it's intentional. It's intentional. Come on, Fayable. I hear you. I mean, I think y'all did communion today already. We're doing communion at the end, but I know y'all already ate that homemade bread. They do homemade bread for communion. Are you kidding me right now? Don't get used to that here. That ain't happening. We ain't baking loaves of rosemary bread for no, no, that's that. You gotta go to Fayable to get that leveled up communion. Leveled up. Isn't it weird? That's weird. It's good, weird, it's weird. But you guys are weird. You are the wild ones. And you love it when I call you the wild ones. The faeable people are jumping off the walls right now. We're the wild ones. They're just fun. Anyway. Here it is, 2026. Delight, meditate, and restore. These are gonna be three themes that we keep up over a three-week period of time. We're gonna go through all of these things, right? We're gonna go through those uh individually, through messages that are gonna be coming. I'm just gonna give you kind of an overview and a highlight of kind of where my heart is and where our minds need to be as we step into this for the new year. And because I do believe this, that if we'll get ready and we'll be prepared, God is always speaking. It's not about him speaking, it's about me listening. It's about tuning my ear to what it is that he has to say. Right? Uh I like, for instance, like uh 2025, I thought we did good not having to build anything at Christmas at my house until my wife ordered something that came in on the 2nd of January, which is a new year, which you shouldn't start having to build something. You usually build it at Christmas so that you can forget about it and how hard it was so that you can move on to 2026. No, we just started with chaos in our house. She bought a trampoline for my daughter and was like, I think you can put it together. So this is what you want, okay. Um I could put anything together because I was a I'm a man. Hello, somebody. Come on, where are the men at? You know what I'm talking about. You need me to put a trampoline together? How many times? Right? Like, what? Where do you want it? So I dove off into this project and it was amazing. What a great start to 2026. Until for about 30 minutes it was good, until I got all the help from all of my kids and the neighbor kids who were anticipating it to be done already, and so they wanted to help. How many know when you get many hands don't always make the work light? Sometimes the wrong hands in the project make 12 hours of work that is wasted because it's not right. That's how that's how that's how my 2026 started. I'm here to testify this morning. It's up. That's right. It's up. It's moderately safe. You know what I'm saying? Within the margin of error. You know what I'm saying? It's gonna be amazing. I've got three other things left to do on it this afternoon. It's fine. Without tiny hands of help. Like my son just wanted to help. So he's just hooking all the springs up. It's like you can't put it on like that. No, no, this is how it goes. You've put this together before, have you? No, so just try. I'm just trying to get you an idea of where I'm at in 2026 and why I need a fast. And I need to hear from the word of the Lord. I need to hear him. So delight, meditate. Okay, let's talk about this real quick. Fasting doesn't begin with removal, but with attention. We tend what we value. Tend what we value. So I want I want to get in this idea that to begin with is that before you launch off into the fast, you can't just walk in there willy-nilly. How many of us have started a fast that you're like two days in, you're like, yeah, that was this was this was a mistake. This is a mistake. I'm not called to fast. That's what I love that one. I'm not called to fast. I'm like one of the disciples. You know? I'm with Jesus now. I'm with him always. Right? But we have this, we tend to what? We tend to what we value. Here's one encouragement I would have is that you have to take this time to figure out what is it that we are valuing in this season? It's not not having food so that we can be on a diet, so we can lose the few pounds that we gained over the the bad decisions made over the last few weeks. No. No, this this is this is a stopping and learning how to delight in who he is. Let me show you in scripture what I'm talking about. Psalms 37, 4. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you what? Key word, delight in who? The Lord. The desires of your heart are wrapped up in how you posture yourself in the presence of God. When's the last time you really spent time to just spend time with him, not because you needed anything, but because you delighted in the communion, in the fellowship, in the sitting, in the just being in his presence, like you are with your fiance. You just love to be in her presence. It's just amazing. Right? The Lord also wants that time. And do you have that same like drawing into him as you have with the people around you? This is delight in the Lord. You want your heart to be full, find that. Therefore, Hebrews 12. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be what? Shaken. And thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Why is this important? In order for us to have the proper uh uh heart posture towards desire, you have to understand who He is. Now, I'm gonna use some imagery today that I think is important because I want to kind of bridge two worlds together. If you're doing the shred with us, those who have been going through the shred, uh, we just went through the book of Leviticus uh recently, and as I'm going through that, I'm reminded of what Moses does when God tells him to pull Aaron and his entire lineage aside and say, This is who you are. You're the priest, and this is how you're going to operate. And in doing so, he gets a job. His entire life gets a job. He gets reoriented and says, You're going to maintain the fire. This is going to be your job to make sure that the fire never goes out. What fire is that? That's what we're talking about. He is an all-consuming fire. Right? It's God that provides the fire, but we provide the what? Maintenance of that. And I want to show us today how fasting and caring for the temple are actually very, very similar. And I want to kind of bridge that world together for just a second. So we'll go to Leviticus 6, 12, 13. The fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it, it shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it. The fat of the peace offerings fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually, it shall not go out. That's a big responsibility. I mean, you saw me on the candlelight service. I tried to do that, and I stepped into one little gust of wind, and the candlelight service is over. Right? One little light couldn't shine in the darkness. There it was. Right? It's a tall order, but it's going to require some things. What's it going to require? First and foremost, it's going to require a trimming of the wicks. It's going to require, first of all, recognizing that there's a need for oil and there's a need for the wick and there's a need for light, but then you have to figure out there's got to be some trimming of the wicks, and we're going to talk about that in just a second. And then there's going to have to be a filling of oil. I mean, no, you cannot step into this fast without really confronting areas of your life that need to be trimmed back. Or maybe need a fresh filling. And that's what we're going to be talking about. So, how do we get there? Delight recalibrates desire. We don't fast to escape life. We fast to enjoy God more clearly. We don't fast just to get out of it, just shut it all down, get quiet, isolate, get in my home. Look, most of y'all want to do that anyway. Right? That's not why we do it. It is an intentional pull away to let the Father press in upon me what is needed in this season. Amen? Are you excited about a fast? You'll get there before we get out of here. I promise you. Delight recalibrates desire. Let's talk about practices that you need to have coming into that first week. I'd do this. Begin each day acknowledging God's nearness. This is not about you not getting to eat, it's about you acknowledging He is close. He makes Himself available. See, if you're just coming in and be like, when can the sun go down so I can put food in my mouth? No. I want to wake up with a recognition you were already waiting for me when I was asleep. Here you are. In my living room, at my bedside. Come on, somebody. On my porch, here you are. The nearness of God. If you go back and look at the Advent series we're talking about, that's one of the anticipations that we're talking about. That a God would leave heaven to come to us. Come on, somebody. Your God came to you. You didn't have to find him. He found you. Amen? The nearness of God. Second practice I want you to put in place. Replace hurried prayer with unhurried presence. Can I read it again? Replace hurried prayer with what? Unhurried presence. I don't want you to come into that week of fast and try to get through my. This isn't a shred in prayer. I know you shredding it two times the speed so you can get through the Bible, but I'm talking about when it comes time to actually pray, to stop and get unhurried for a second. I'm not in a rush with you. You know what's annoying? And I have to fight this sometimes because I have a pretty busy schedule. But you know what's annoying is to try to get somebody's attention who's in a hurry. Can I just get a word from you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they say things. They just say things, they just talk, they just jibber jabber around you, and they're always looking past your head. Right? Have you ever noticed that? And you you really have something to say, but this person doesn't have the time to listen. That can be frustrating, can it? What we don't want to do is carry that into our prayer life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. You want to do things. I mean, great, great, great, great. Hey, here's what I need. You need to help my wife. Come on, somebody. You need to help my husband. And he's like, yeah, I just I wanted to spend time with you. I'm sorry. Were we having a conversation about him today or about you? Don't get hurried, and I gotta get to work. I gotta get to business. I got things. People depend on me. God, you need to give me a break. I'll catch up with you this afternoon. It's like people depend on you. That that's that's a that's a phrase you want to give the Lord. People depend on you. Okay. Or yeah, I can promise you in 2026, it's probably not gonna work. Just like the last 2,000 years. Right? It just doesn't work, right? Let gratitude shape the fast before discipline does. Let gratitude shape what the fast is gonna be before you start trying to control the body and the hunger. It's not the discipline first, it's the heart posture towards God. Let the gratitude of your heart and who he is to you, let that resound. Amen? First week. I want us to read this together. If you can read it, I might have put it in a place where you can't read it. I'm sorry. I apologize. We'll fire that guy that does slides here. I promise you. For those who don't know it, I'm the one who does the slides. So, like, I think there's guests here, like, my gosh, I'm they are wild. They just fired people from the stage. No, talking about myself. Sorry, I should have thought through that. Could you guys read this with me? I think this is a declaration I want to give to you to take your first week of fast and for us to just have this in your back pocket, right? We're gonna be giving it to you. The whole fast is gonna be full of prayer journals, and we're gonna be giving you uh uh um, I mean, we've got times of special times of prayer that we're gonna be getting together. We're gonna be letting you scan the QR code stuff or the the chair behind you next week. It's got an entire uh uh prayer guide that we're gonna give to you every single week. But this is just something I want you to hold on to and maybe help yourself kickstart the day, and we'll read it together. It says tending the flame. It says, God, you are the one who lit this fire. We didn't create it and we don't want to rush past it. As we fast and pray, show us down, slow us down. I said show us, but I meant slow. Slow us down. Show us what needs to be trimmed. Take away what clouds the light you've placed in us. We lay aside what distracts us, not because it's bad, but because we want what is best. Help us care for what you've entrusted to us. Let our lives burn steady and true. Amen. Amen. Next one. What grows unchecked begins to smoke. Trimming restores clarity. Trimming restores. There's there's This delight, but the work has to begin week two. Right? The work has to begin. It's the trimming. Why? Because if you don't know this, do you guys remember seeing like they sell these like giant scissors with a little tiny little thing, and then so that you can reach in the candle and trim back the wick, and they have all the little things, right? Now, if you're like me, we don't have any of that stuff. Right? The wick is like that long, it's just flickering and flapping around. But if you know anything, once the wick gets too tall, it actually produces smoke. It's burning, but not actually producing at its best capacity. And it's important because if you have that, and especially in the way of, we're talking about candles, but if we're talking about an oil lamp, it really matters because it's a burning oil, but it's not putting off light. It's using excess oil and it's going somewhere, but it ain't going to what it was intended for. Sound familiar? Why is it important for us to do this? This is why. A couple scriptures to kickstart us on this. Psalms 1, 1 through 3 says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seed of scoffers, but he delights. What? Is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. This is a posturing, a positioning of ourselves to get this mindset. Psalms 119, 15, 6. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. It's important for us to meditate, spend time on, and to distill what God is actually trying to do. What is he trying to build in us? Matthew 6, 16 through 18, and when you fast, do not look gloomy, right? Like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces. Their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward, but when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others. But by who? Your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. Right? He's the one who rewards. It comes from him. So what are we doing here? Meditate on what shapes the light. Meditate on what shapes the light. You know it's the wick that gives the shape to the light. It's the wick. You have to meditate on what is it? It's the word, it's him, it's what God's doing in you, and there are things in your life that need to be trimmed away, the excess. Because there are things that are getting more glory in your life because they got your time and your attention. They're getting more shine than he's getting in his relationship with you and what he's trying to do in you because we've allowed those things to override this meditate on him. So what are we saying? Fasting helps us notice where excess noise or habit is draining oil without producing light. Can you ask yourself that? Where is the excess of my life? Where's the noise of my life? Where are the people and the things of my life that get all of the energy, but they're not producing the life-giving source, the light of the world inside of me? Is your work getting the best of you or is your family? Who's getting the best of you? Who's getting your time? Who's getting your attention? Who's getting your loyalty? Is it your phone? Is is has your phone in 2025 seen your face more than your kids? I was wondering if we could log that. I don't think anyone wants to log that. Except for Carter, probably. You don't even have a phone, do you? I don't think Larry French doesn't have a phone. He's infayable. He doesn't have one. I wonder how much time that we've put in and invested. Here's what we're trying to say. Listen to me. Are you serious? Hear me. Campuses, track with me. What is draining the oil without producing light? It's a real great great litness test. It's when I sit down before the Lord and He presses upon me and He says, here's an area that needs to be trimmed in your life. It's not so that He can take from me, it's that He can produce more out of me. It's so that my time is not wasted and there isn't a giant time suck around me. Come on, somebody. Do you ever just look down and you're like, where did the last four hours go? What God is wanting to do in this season is to sharpen and to shore up some things so that you shine brighter in this season. So that you have more to carry. Does that make sense? I hope you want that. That's what fasting will produce. Here's a couple of practices for week two. Scripture meditation rather than information intake. I want you to spend time meditating on a passage of scripture or a work of scripture and letting it transform you instead of just getting on a podcast and letting somebody's deep work transform you. I want you to exchange, I want you to exchange, I was gonna say names, but I'm not gonna do it. Do you hear me, Smith Lake? I don't want you invested into a podcast, I want you to invested into the presence of God, into your Bible, into your scripture. It's gonna be critical for you to understand how to feed yourself in this season. Oh. That's not popular, is it, Reese? It's not. But it's the truth, it's the truth, it's the truth. Like you have got to learn how to feed yourself. You know, we had a giant breakthrough in our house a couple of days last night. Thank you to the Sunday clan. My friends, my boys, my kids, my family. They're my family, really. My daughter ate hamburger for the first time last night. Huge, huge, huge, huge. Some of y'all out there are like, well, she wants to be a vegetarian, just let her. It's like, she don't want to be a vegetarian, she's just being bullheaded. We just gotta get more foods out there. And she tried it. And I'm talking about my house, it went in orbit. I'm talking about it's like, uh, uh, uh, as it's going up to her mouth, everyone's like, uh, uh, and then when it hits the tongue, she's like, we wait. Will it be rejected? Will it be received? Is the cow good enough? She looked back and she's like, mmm, everyone just lost their mind. Now that might not mean anything to you, but that means I get to eat at different places besides chicken restaurants. You know what I'm saying? As an adult, who would like to eat something other than a chicken tinder? Or a nugget, which we don't even know what part of the chicken that is. I'm so happy I can eat something different. Amen? Here's what our house is learning in this season, right? At some point, we have to learn the responsibility of eating healthier and trying other foods, right? You have to learn how to feed yourself. What we can't have is a body of Christ who doesn't know how to feed it herself in the word. That doesn't know how to, they're waiting for trial to come and then go to the Bible to find a solution. Fasting postures yourself and positions yourself for that seed to be planted before it's needed. What you need coming into 2026 as solutions, as God's word, as the Spirit of God speaking through you two situations is going to be found in the discipline of fasting so that when you are three months from now in need of something, it's already in the bank. This is this is the power of fasting and prayer. A lifestyle of prayer keeps me in a place where I'm never in a deficit, but I'm always ready. My dad used to tell me this as a young minister. He'd be like, he said, Scott, you have you cannot let up on the study. You have to be studied, not prepared for a sermon, just be prepared with him. And if somebody trips and falls and puts a mic in your hand, you've got something to say. Because of your time with him. Does that make sense? When when the need is pressed upon you, you aren't you aren't you aren't digging around in your notes file. I don't know. What did Pastor Britt say in her small group? No, it's in my heart. Yeah. Second thing during this one, honest self-examination without condemnation. In order for us to really respond the right way to the Lord, you have to know him as a loving father. Intimacy with him, time with him will help you to feel that and understand that. He is not here to judge you, hurt you. He is inviting you into a place of self-reflection without condemnation. Because the truth is, sometimes you just need to be corrected in something, and sometimes you just need to be enlightened on something. Sometimes it's not a correction, sometimes it's just like, hey, I know that you used to do this, but I think you're going to be better off doing this. Or, hey, God, I've been praying about what direction to go in my life. If you are spending too much time and self-examination where you're just condemning yourself, and you're allowing the enemy to come in and forfeit what that time is supposed to be. The enemy wants to distort it so you stay bound. God brings you into that place for complete restoration and healing. There are two different approaches that drive that self-made man side of you can start to feel like you're not enough. God's saying, you're right. But not in the way you're thinking and not in the way he wants to accuse you. You're not enough because not even your righteousness is good enough. But I got good news. I'm for you. And I'm gonna develop you, I'm gonna train you. Does that make sense? Right? So you've got to have this time. Last one, I love this one. Naming distractions instead of defending them. That's for them. They needed that. That whole section right over there. I can't even look at them because some of them know, and I know, we all know. I'm talking about them. I'm not. But I am talking about all of us. How many times we have done this? Right? To defend what our time's been going towards. Well, I'm busy. Well, I'm needed.

unknown: 31:27

Oh sorry.

SPEAKER_02: 31:29

Right? This is this is this is justified. My family needs me to do this. This is why I don't have time to be with you. I have to do this. To defend. This is an invitation to come off the defense. Take the gloves off. You don't have to defend your stance. He knows, and he's not afraid because he wants to just name the distractions for you. You know, you know that the Lord, if you let him, he'll name things you're not expecting. Right? You you just think it's great. That's just a good part of that's good discipline in my life. And he's like, right, right, right, right. You know, he did this with me on the gym a few years back. I was so diligent in getting to the gym. And I was, I was, I was saying, oh, well, I'll bypass, I'll I'm gonna pick, I'm gonna pick, I'm gonna, I got a half hour here, I'll just pick up that little Bible reading thing I was gonna do over here. But I I was right there early on the gym. Now that's a good thing, right? For your health. Problem was is I I had started to substitute. And then the Lord had to say, hey, I I'm gonna take the five o'clock hour from you. I'm I love your passion for five in the morning. I'm gonna meet you at five in the morning. And then you can fit the gym in after that. And I was like, but you know, God, you delight in routine, do you not? In the health of your son. He's like, right, the health of your son. The health of your son. What good, what good are you if your soul is not healthy? You can be as physically fit as you want to be, but if your soul is not is not healthy. Come on, somebody. But still go to the gym.

unknown: 33:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 33:24

I mean, I can't just say you don't go to the gym. You should be a your soul's healthy and you're slob. Don't do that. You don't want that. That's that's not the best. Week two declaration. I will read it. You don't have to read it with me unless you want to. How about you read it with me? That'd be great. Keeping oil in our lamps. God, we need you more than we admit. We confess that we often run on empty and call it strength. As we fast this week, teach us how to receive again. Fill the places that have grown dry. Restore what hurry and noise have worn down. We don't want borrowed faith or shallow devotion. We want hearts that stay ready and lives that stay awake. Fill us with your spirit and give us oil that lasts. Amen. Amen. Okay, last bit, last bit. Madison, you with me? Here we go. Last bit. Fast fact fire fades when the source is neglected. Oil must be replenished. Oil must be replenished. So great this morning. Just that little teaching on oil we got. We didn't even plan that. That's the Lord, right? So great. But that that crushing that comes of our lives so that there's oil to burn, right? Oil to give, oil to worship with, right? And so this idea that it has to be replenished. So let's let's look at some areas where that where that matters. John 6, 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall what? Never thirst never thirst. How many know that's the kind of oil we're looking for? That's what I'm in pursuit of. This right here, come to me. Come to me. You're not gonna hunger, you're not gonna thirst if you'll just come to me. It's it's getting in our minds that we have one natural step that we should be taking, and it's not to ourselves, it's to him. Fasting is the catalyst that helps us do that. This one right here, Isaiah 40, 31. But they who wait on the Lord shall what? Anybody else need strength? Where's strength come from? From the Lord. How do you get it? What? Come on. You're probably sitting next to somebody who cannot wait very well. Anybody got somebody around you who just can't wait? You just you got a you got an itchy trigger finger. You just ready to go. Doesn't matter if the first thought that comes up, I'm seeing, I see you back here. You know, just ready to go. First time. Like, first thought that comes up, let her rip, let's go. It's like, uh, can we just wait a minute and we think about it? In our house, that person is Brit. She she's she's a doer. She's a doer, man. She wants to go. And I'm I'm the guy that's like, hey, can we just can we just think about it? Can we just pray? Are we at peace with this? Who are we gonna mess up doing that? She's like, doesn't matter, the Lord told us to do it. It's like, whoo! Woo! You got a radical faith girl. What are we doing? Stretching me. Right? I I just I I want to try to, I just want I I I have this desire to just, you know, slow it down a minute. Hold up. No. We want to go. But what does the Father say? The problem is, is if that takes over your life, you lose, you lose a quality of the Christian faith that we're all really struggling to hold on to, and that is the power of waiting. Trusting the Lord to give you a clear call and a clear word for what's to happen next. Here's how we justify not doing that. We say, if he hadn't, if it's taken him too long to speak, we'll say things like, just go ahead and do what you've always done until he speaks. And that's good. But not all the time. You really have to pray through that. You can't just say, oh, we'll just keep doing the same thing we've always done. What if he doesn't want that? Let's wait on the Lord. How many know this? That you've never missed God waiting on him. I want you to just go back and look across your life. And can you say, man, while I was waiting on God, I totally missed him. I'd love to have that conversation with somebody. I was waiting on him, and he went by me. How many know this? When waiting is action, it's not in action. Waiting is actually something that you're doing, it's a doing. Waiting to do nothing. I'm doing nothing. I'm choosing not to move forward. That's an action so that you can speak. Okay. You'll get it. Week three of fast, by the time we get there, you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about. Because some of you will go through two weeks of fasting and say, I hadn't heard the word of the Lord. And so what you decided to do is just pull out the 2025 calendar and just re-up. I'll just do what we did last year. Guess what? You didn't like last year. And in two weeks, you're gonna be so hungry, you're gonna forget how much you disliked 2025. And you'll be like, yeah, let's just do that. I felt like we were doing good things then. No, no, no. Wait on the Lord. Trust him. His timing is good. Amen? Let me tell you about timing. Uh, Brad, you remember this picture. You and I talked about this in Fayevill uh when we were doing this. I actually have this uh picture from Ivanka. She is uh um an amazing artist. I've got a handful of her things, and it's just awesome, fantastic expression of this. But this is Matthew 25, 1 through 13, which most of you will know this is the wise and foolish virgins. Those who were prepared with oil and those who were not prepared. And I just I I want to I want to talk about this because in that third week we're talking about the oil has to be replenished. Now, now this is interesting because this discourse that he gives is the Olivet discourse. So this ought to tell us something. If you go back and read this in Matthew, this is the last time he does a public teaching before his death. When he does this teaching, he's not doing it for unbelievers. He's actually speaking to his disciples who are asking questions about the how it will all end. How's it gonna end? How's this thing? Going to play out? What can we expect? Jesus, what's this going to look like? And he begins to basically chop the tree in that. And in this discourse, he actually gives a parable of the wise and the foolish virgins. And I just think it's interesting because everyone in the parable has everything the same. They all have what? Lamps. They all have oil, at least initially. And here's something that's interesting that I think is something to be just considered. We don't talk about very much. But every one of them are asleep. Every one of them are asleep. It's not like we had a handful of them just ready to go. Nah, we will not. We will not rest until he comes. And I love that mentality, that drive. That drive. But the truth is, is everybody, what Christ is showing them is just for the record, like, you know, you guys are going to fall asleep on me in the garden in just a few. Right? Can you not stay awake with me but for a minute? Jesus already knows the answer to that. No. They're tired. They're tired and it's late. They don't have the capacity. They don't have the drive, right? But in this parable, they're all asleep. They all have lamps. Right? And here's the thing. They all are anticipating him to come, but it looks like he's late. He's late. For a very important day. Do you guys remember that? Alice in Wonderland? He's late. He's late. Anyway. I don't know why. Terry, don't judge me, man. What are we doing? I'm a 90s kid. What do you want from me? Alice in Wonderland was a thing. But they're all got the same things. Here's the difference, right? We know this. The difference is that when he does show up, and it's time to move forward with what he's doing, they've realized they don't have reserve oil. Reserve oil. What fasting does for you is build your reserves. When you say, I don't like fasting, I don't like doing that discipline thing. I don't like, I don't know why we have to do that. I'm telling you, it's in that place reserves are built. It's in that place where we we actually reserve the oil that God is in giving to us. How many know it's Him anyway? So what we have is faithful believers. What Jesus is trying to say is, guys, there are going to be all kinds of people who think just being close to me is getting oil. That's what he's saying to the disciples. Even you're going to feel like you getting oil just because of proximity, but it's not. There's work to be done. There's things that have to be done on your part, right? That's what Matthew 25 is talking about. So, what are we talking about? Restore the inner life. Fasting exposes how often we live on fumes instead of fullness. That's what fasting is going to show us. Week three, it's going to find out how many times I've been operating on just the fumes of oil. The little shred of it, and hoping it was going to be enough. And it should cause me to get hungry to get before the Lord again. So that I am not operating out of fumes. How do I know if I'm operating out of fumes? I can tell you, you don't have to look very far. I'm just telling you, I I I have been days where I've been on fumes. I can tell because my attitude is short. Right? My patience is short. Right? My patience for things that should just be normal. I have no patience for it. Usually when I'm driving. Come on, somebody, you know what I'm talking about? So you know, you can tell it. You can you can feel it. You can tell when you're in autopilot decision mode. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? You ever just been in there where you just make decisions? You're just making decisions. We're just like, fine, we're doing that. Like when you lead with fine, fine, we'll do that. How many know that's not a very confident decision? Hey, what are we doing as a family this year? Fine, we'll just do this. It's like, well, that isn't that doesn't help us. We don't, we want the confidence, that confidence comes with a reserve reservoir of oil. It has to be cultivated, has to be gone up. How do we do it? Week three. Creating margin for prayer and rest. The reason we don't have more oil, and if somebody can come and help me on uh the piano today, I appreciate it. You guys still with me, Faybles, still with me? Smith Lake, you with me, man? Pastor Spencer and Ashland joining us live from Smith Lake today. It's awesome. Cannon was one of those helping me with the trampoline, by the way. Big help. Thank you, Cannonball. Appreciate that. Just joking, it's not his fault. It was awesome. We had fun. Creating margin for prayer and rest. One of the biggest reasons we don't have that oil filled up is because we filled the schedule way too much. You've packed it in too much. Because you've said to yourself, productivity is more important than what? Presence. Productivity says to the world, I'm important, I'm busy, I'm needed, I belong. And yet, what your inner man needs to be restored is the presence of God who fixes the inner man. Once the inner man is fixed, once that guy's fixed on the inside, you are not manipulated by those people around you. They no longer have the power to drag you into problems because I already know who I am in Christ. I'm not so easily derailed off the mission of my life and my family's life when I have oil. Fresh oil. When I have that, I don't get derailed. And because that place causes me to be at peace with God, then I'm no longer just when the problems come or when my neighbor has an issue, I don't get drugged down into it. I have something to uphold my family and them at times. This is the oil he wants to give. How about this one? Refusing hurry and false urgency. Someone needs to write that down. You've been in 2025. You went all 2025 like your hair was on fire. You know? Urgency. The time is now. I have to do this, I have to save that, I have to go here. We have to make this, or we may never do this. If we don't do this now, then we then all of a sudden you you don't realize, but you'll go months, months, months, months, months. You can go a whole year under that kind of tension and that kind of pressure. You have to produce, you have to have this out, you have to write this, you have to do this thing. You can just you can live in that weightiness of that false urgency. I know that there are times where we have to be diligent in going. But I would just tell you, more times than not, there this is what we fall victim to. Running around like our hair is on fire. Refusing hurry. Come on. Practicing dependence on the spirit and not willpower. Week three, that's what we're gonna get. I'm telling you, it's coming. We're gonna get there. Week three, we're gonna remember this. You're gonna come back to you and be like, what? Right here. How do practice dependency and not just push through? It is a practice we have to learn. It's not it's not grip my teeth. It's not pull up your bootstraps. It's yieldedness. It's time spent with him. It's intimacy with the Lord. Just the word intimacy people check out, right? Well, why is it using that word? It's such a weird word. But the problem is that that many times when God is referring to, I never knew you. Like for instance, in Matthew, when he says, how is it that he they all have the same things, right? The virgins. The only difference is one doesn't have a reservoir of extra oil, right? But when he says, he says the harshest words ever said and quoted and given by Jesus towards his people, and that is, I actually never knew you. How is it they can be prepared, have everything look the part, everything is right? And then his his response to them is I actually didn't even know you. And the reason I didn't know you is that you didn't really know me, and had you known me, you would have been better prepared. That is hard because nobody, nobody wants to hear Jesus say, I didn't know you. But that's what he said. It's his parable. I can't take it out, guys. You have to you have to wrestle with how he responded. And it's not, listen to me, this is very important because in your psychology and in your head, you'll say God rejects men. But that's not what the parable is about at all. The parable is about preparation, it's not about rejection. The story is not some were rejected. No, it was there were people who are prepared. You can be those people. The invitation is to be prepared. It's not to expect rejection. Come on, somebody. Come on. How many know? Sometimes you, when you've been rejected face to face and in your life, you just lead with it. Right? You're the kind of deal where it's like, I know, they're already gonna leave me, they're already gonna fail me. Because you're putting expectation on somebody who could never meet it. This is why he invites us to a fast and to spend time with him. So that you no longer victimize people around you for their humanity. Instead, you lay your humanity on the altar. And let the fire of God burn in and out of you what is needed for this season, so that you can lead your family well, you can lead your life well. Practicing dependence. I need Holy Spirit. I need Holy Spirit. You, you, some of you got to get that prayer in your life this season. Holy Spirit, I need you. I don't like the Holy Spirit. I just want Jesus. Okay, great. But Jesus said he was leaving and sending Holy Spirit, so you're just gonna have to deal with that with him. You get mad at him for not being here. He left Holy Spirit. What do you want from me, man? Just look at it, read it. He said, No, the the I'm leaving Holy Spirit to be your comfort, your guide. And here's the here's the here's the benefit that you have. The Holy Spirit will never lead you outside of what Jesus has already done. So you don't have to be afraid. But but that's a prayer. You need the oil of the Spirit for 2026. The things I said earlier, the thing, the mandate that I feel like God has for this church, I do believe this. Fable, you need to hear me. Smith Lake, Madison, I believe God is going to use us to do dynamic things, but it won't be with empty oil vessels. If you hear that and it resonates, I want to be, I want to do this, I want to advance the kingdom of God. You will not be able to do it empty. You will not be able to do it when you have not really managed the wick. You will not be able to do it if you don't know how to delight in who he is. This isn't about you not getting to eat. This is about you seeing him for who he is and him reflecting the light of Christ on you, transforming you from the inside out. Can you follow that? Here's our last declaration. We'll say it together. Carrying the light. God, you have called us to be light in this world. Not perfect light, not loud light, faithful light. As we come to the end of this fast, lift our eyes beyond ourselves. Help us see people the way you see them. Help us walk with clarity and compassion. We choose to carry what you've given us into our homes, into our work, into our city. Let our lives point to you. Let the light remain. Amen. Would you stand with me? All campuses, would you stand with me as we come to a close today? This is just a little teaser. The next few weeks are gonna be dynamic weeks. Times of heartfelt, passionate prayer, soul searching. I'm excited about it. I'm excited about it. I believe God is gonna speak to some of you in ways you've been asking for for years. You just you just kind of hoped it was gonna happen. Don't hope it's gonna happen. Position yourself for it to happen. Don't just hope. Well, I hope he just kind of shows up in my car one day. How about creating an environment in your car for him to show up? I mean, have you thought about that? I'm talking like the kind of the kind of intentionality that's sort of like if you're a calendar person, if you're a schedule guy, get you a schedule guy up there, Tommy. You're a schedule guy. How about like putting on the agenda? But just go ahead and let everyone in your company know that you're busy on this hour. And when they ask why they can't have that hour, you let them know it's it's reserved, it's for the Lord. And you're like, you guys are radical. You are nuts. Yes. Yes, full-blown, crazy in love with Jesus. And we're we're not ashamed. We believe that we are our best when we've had FaceTime with Him. I am not at my best regurgitating old things to you. I'm at my best when I've spent time with the Lord. And when He's seen me and I've allowed Him to reflect on my life and I've responded. That's when I'm at my best. Right? I can respond the right way. I can speak the right way. This is an invitation over the next three weeks. It's gonna be fantastic. And yes, some poundage will be lost. Another great win. Right? Another great win. But that's not my purpose. My goal is inner healing. My goal is time with him. My goal is to delight in who he is, right? See him as he is. He is the way, he's the solution, his word has power. And then I'm gonna trim the wicks. And I'm gonna meditate on the Lord. I'm gonna meditate on who he is, meditate on the power of his word. I'm going to allow the word to press into me. Transform me. Last but not least, I'm gonna fill the oil. I'm gonna have a reserve. I'm gonna take this time to allow him to pour into my life what is needed, not just for me, but from our city. Do you know this? That the third week of this fast is not about you not eating, it's about the Isaiah, um, what's the passage? 58. This is the fast I've chosen for you, right? To care. We're gonna spend that third week just loving people, serving people. How many know you can't go two weeks with the Lord and not get his heart for people? Woo! You ain't ready. I don't want to care about people this year. Then don't do this fast. Because the result at the end of this is for us to see people not as people we can use, not as people we can manipulate, not as people who are a bother to us, but as Christ sees them. And again, what should come out of this, though we compassion. Deep compassion for the lost. And we're going for them. We're going for them. Right? This this is this is this is the fast that we're we're choosing for our church. And I'm excited about it. Are you? Can we do this? Can you just lift your hands where you're at? I just want to ask the Lord for a I I'm I'm asking for this. You you you can ask whatever you want at this moment. I'm just saying, I'm asking for a fresh anointing on my life and and a and a um an openness just to step into this fast with him. And I just feel like this, I feel like this this morning, what I want to do is that there's an invitation to journey with him for the next few weeks. So I'm just saying it like that. This is God's invitation for you to journey with him. And I'm asking for the courage and the grace to do it. Is that fair? Can we do that? God, I'm asking you today. God, at all of our campuses, for all of our pastors who are leading the congregation, fresh anointing to lead in this season, fresh anointing to hear your word today. Give us a fresh grace to spend time with you, not with agenda, but with one thought. Just to delight in the presence of the Lord. Let that be our word to delight in you. You're easy to love. You're easy to spend time with. You're easy to celebrate. You're easy to worship. God, we delight and we just give ourselves permission just to delight, not to bring anything in to that space other than awe and wonder of who you are. Give us a grace to trim the wicks. Prepare our lives to carry light. Prepare our hearts to be able to carry a kingdom message again. Not one that burns through the oil, not one that smokes but no flame. God, we don't want to be, we don't want to be, God, we don't want to be a light that smokes and is easily detoured because of the excesses and the chaos. But Lord, we want we want to be submitted, yielded to your Lordship in 2026 in a way that, God, we are steady trimming and preparing our hearts and our altars for the fire of God. So that you can do your part. You provide the fire, we provide the wood, the the the the the the maintenance of it, God. That's that's what you've required from us. And we we say yes to that responsibility. And lastly, Lord, we thank you for fresh oil in our life. We thank you, Holy Spirit. You've come to equip, you've come to encourage. You've come to shape and form us and transform us. You've come to give us a compassion for those who need you the most, God. God, I pray that you would break our hearts for what breaks yours. God, we ask that you do this at all of our campuses, God. That our cities will not be the same after week three. Oh Lord. Oh Lord, I can see, I can just see it. The love and compassion that goes out from this place in three weeks' time, God, I pray that it'd be transformational in a way that causes communities to God just to wonder, what is going on down there? What is this, what is this love? What is this, what's this compassion that we sense in our community? God, I pray that when it's asked, it's met with, it's only you. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. That's our heart's desire today. We thank you for this and so much more. In Jesus' name, everyone said, Amen, amen, amen.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:22

We hope and pray this message was encouraging and impactful. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m. You can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at the Rock Family. Have a Jesus filled week.