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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
Welcome to the Sandals Church podcast. My name is McKay, and I'm a part of the online team here at Sandals Church. We are so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this message with pastor Matt, teaching from our series, the gospel of Matthew. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. Now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Hi and welcome to Sandals Church. I'm pastor Matt and if you saw that video and and weren't moved, there is something wrong with your heart. Can I get an amen? Amen. Come on, man.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's just so powerful. This start last weekend for the five twenty offering, and God is moving and and God is moving in the hearts of our people to give over and above their regular tithes and offerings to make a difference in East Africa, specifically in the country, called Tanzania. And there's just so many rural areas where people are starving. People are hungry. People need a helping hand.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I just was so moved by the generosity of our church. I'm gonna share one story. There's a some kids at our Woodcrest campus. I kid you not. They sold lemonade.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They sold lemonade for the five twenty campaign. And listen to this. They raised $520. Can we give them a shout? Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Come on. So may maybe $520 is just that's just you know, that's like rent money. I I get that. But we can all do something today. And so I want you to know this Tuesday is the last day.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so we're gonna pull all the money together, and we're gonna send it away to Convoy of Hope and to some of it's gonna go to our missions team here as they meet needs around the world. But this is just an awesome testimony. You know when Sandals Church started we were a bunch of kids, but you know what? We're growing up, we're maturing, and we're becoming adults, and we're thinking about things other than just ourselves and we're ministering to the world. So I'm very very proud of you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So we're not talking about starving today. We're talking about fasting. K? And some of you are like, I don't even know what that is. Some of us, if we don't eat, we go a little cray cray.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? Anybody? Amen. Remember one time I was doing daddy daycare. What that means is I was in charge and my wife was gone.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And my kids were going nuts. And I was like, I don't know what's wrong with you, but I need you to go in that 07:11, and I need you to get something. It needs to have sugar in it, and I need you to come back here, and we will exorcise the demons. Amen? Remember the old Snickers commercial where you got a friend that's just turning into a diva and you just, you know, hand them the Snickers bar and all of sudden it's Ted again.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Remember that? I used to love those commercials. But sometimes when we don't eat, we change who we are and it's unintentional. But in Jesus' day and age, it was intentional. People, they became a diva on purpose.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They exaggerated it. They, enhanced it, and they acted. So we're gonna talk today about how fasting can help my faith. Some of you've never done this in your life, so prepare. I'm gonna challenge you at the end of service today to try it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know how you're gonna try it. I don't know what you're gonna do, but all of us can do something because there's something here for us that Jesus wants to teach us. So if you have your bibles, let's open to Matthew six sixteen through 18. Two verses that are gonna rock your world and make your stomach growl. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's pray. Heavenly father, we pray in the name of Jesus that you would teach us how to fast in the right way and why to fast. Lord, help us today understand this complex issue. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So let's take a look at Matthew six sixteen. This is a powerful powerful text. Let's look at it up on the screen. Jesus says, and when you fast So the assumption is what? You're fast.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're fast. Somebody like, oh, didn't get that. Now get that. It doesn't say if. It doesn't say if you pray about it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The assumption is you're gonna fast. So in Jesus' day fasting was a normal religious process for Jewish people. It's just something that they did. So the problem wasn't that they had never fasted, the problem was how they fasted. He said this, and when you fast, don't make it obvious.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay? As the hypocrites do for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their what? Do you see it? Fasting. So here's the thing I want you to get.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There has always been social pressure to be better than you actually are. Okay? And in in Jesus' day and age, they didn't have Instagram, but if they would have, people would have been like fasting again, you know, every five minutes giving us an update on how spiritual they are. And so here's the problem. Jesus, when he says this word hypocrites, we're gonna look at it in the Greek word.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So it is k? It's sound, you can almost hear it, hypocrite. Now this is a very very broad word but Jesus means it here to be insulting. K? He means to offend you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He means to rattle you. What he's saying is don't be this. So let me give it to you in the Greek. Twenty times it can be just translated as actor. So what Jesus says is a bad thing, we give awards to.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? Oh my gosh, you were so fake. Here's an award. It's gold statue. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, if it's a war movie, it's like it's just like you were there except they weren't. Those weren't real bullets. Okay? Those weren't real bombs. Sometimes it's this, a stage player, a dissembler.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. Listen to this word, a pretender. So here's what Jesus is saying. When you do your religious things, don't act it out. Actually live it out.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So Jesus cares. We said this a couple weeks ago. Not just about our action but our intention. And here's the thing in Christianity, it's really really hard to know who's an actor and who's a believer. It's hard to know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And oftentimes it takes time. So the next word here he says, he says, and when you fast don't make it obvious as the hypocrites do for they try to look miserable and just settled. Let's look at this word in the Greek. Now this word is a fun word, k? It's not at all, it's awful.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Occurs many many times, but what it means is to deprive, to render unsightly. This is how a teenager wakes up naturally in the morning. Right? You're like, you're gonna go out like that? And so what they would do is look, they wouldn't bathe.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's like junior high camp. Amen? Any counselors getting ready? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Call me on Tuesday. You're gonna smell it. So they wouldn't bathe. They wouldn't wash, they wouldn't clean themselves. What they were trying to do is make themselves look miserable so people would go, oh my gosh, you're so spiritual.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're so spiritual. And here's the thing you need to know. Our world is full of people on social media who are much better actors than they are believers. And you all soak it up. Oh my gosh.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That was so good. Oh my gosh. That was so true. And it's amen. It's amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's amen. And they're not living for Jesus. They're living for likes. And some of us, we we And then we feel guilty. Oh my gosh, I wish I was like that person.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And Jesus is like, an actor? A faker? A pretender? One who intentionally dishevels themselves? Who renders themselves unsightly?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And some of your translations will say this, disfigure. Wow. And I don't know why you have to do that if you're fasting, amen. Because when I'm fasting, don't have to work on being miserable. I already am.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean look at my nose. When I don't eat I can smell what the neighbors are cooking. I'm like, oh my gosh. I I smell food everywhere. I mean if you don't know how food smells stop eating it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you're like, is that a hint of salt? I think so. You're like, oh, it's just the ocean. Oh, okay. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's overwhelming. But listen to what Jesus says. He says, I tell you the truth. That is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Then no one will notice that you're fasting except your father who knows what you do in private. If you're new to Christianity, here's how you know where your Christian walk is. Whoever you are privately is who you is who you are really. K? It's not public.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's not public persona. Who are you privately? As I age, as I grow old, here's what I define success as. Do my wife and kids love and respect me? It's not can I preach?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what I never ask my kids? How was the sermon? I don't ask my wife because I do not want that feedback. I do not want that feedback. She'll be like, I took some notes today.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Speaking of, You know? I'm like, it's still raw, it's still wound. Know? She's like, I'm gonna throw some salt on that. But I don't ask my wife how the sermon was.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't ask my kids. I ask how am I as a father. Am I reflecting Christ? And I'm not perfect. Don't don't don't get it don't get it wrong.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't get it twisted. But I wanna know do they love and respect me? And so here's the thing. Many of us are more loved and respected by people who don't know us than the people who do know us. And what Jesus is saying is let's close the gap.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's close the gap. Okay? He says, and your father who sees everything will reward you. What are you living for? The reward of the likes of others or are you living for the reward of the like from your father?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:From the father. Yes. All what we all wanna be living for as Christians is what does God think? How does God feel? So let's talk about this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What is fasting? What is fasting? Now some of you maybe had to do this. If you're getting older like me, you gotta drink this shake, you gotta fast so you can poop it out so everything is right ready for the doctor. You know?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's awful. Getting old is awful. So some of us have fasted medically. You ever shown up for an appointment and forgot that you were supposed to fast? Then you do what your pastor does.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You lie about it. Oh, yeah. Totally. Haven't had anything to drink since midnight. It's terrible.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? Do you know the two people that our culture lies to the most? Pastors and our doctors. What could go wrong? You're gonna go to hell and die of cancer.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? That's what could go wrong. But so sometimes we have to fast for medical reasons. Sometimes we, you know, we fast for dieting reasons. That's not what Jesus is talking about here.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:K? He's not talking about your waistline. He's talking about your connection line to the father. So don't get it twisted. This isn't this isn't an exercise in getting sexy for Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's not what this is. So what is to fast? K. It's a verb, which means it's something that we do. To abstain from certain foods and drink for religious reasons.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's the point of fasting. Okay. So why should I fast? If you're taking notes, please write this down. I think this is the most important reason to fast, to gain spiritual strength over physical desires.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:How many of you have physical desires? Raise your hands. K. If your hand is not up, you are either dead or a liar. Those are your choices.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We all have physical desires. We all have desires. Our body all aches and longs for things that we know is not good for us. It's just true. We all have temptations.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There are things that we face. And so why do we fast? To gain spiritual strength over physical desires. I had a preacher tell me when I was a kid, I asked him, I said, why don't we fast? This is what the preacher said.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus never fasted. I was like, well, whoops. Let's take a look at Jesus in specifically in well, hold on. Here's what Jesus says. I'm getting ahead of myself.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Matthew twenty six forty one. He says, keep watch and pray so that you will not give into temptation for the spirit is willing but the body is what? Weak. It's weak. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's weak. Got ahead of myself. Sorry. Next, he says Paul says this, I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And some of you are like, I'm not an athlete. Paul is like, you should be. Should be. So I say no to myself so that I can have more capacity to say yes to God. K?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's what we're doing right now with five twenty. The five twenty campaign is we're saying no to ourselves, no to maybe some coffees, maybe no to a vacation, maybe no to something that we've been looking at and eyeing on Amazon or or, you know, at our favorite site to to buy a new outfit. And we're saying, you know what? I'm gonna say no to myself and I'm gonna say yes to these kids in East Africa. That's what fasting is.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We say no to ourselves so we have more capacity to say yes to God. And this is so important. Okay? So when when is it a good time to fast? When is a good time to fast?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is actually a good question because a lot of us don't know. When should I fast? How should I fast? And here's the thing I want you to know. You are in good company because this is one of the questions Jesus was asked.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:In Mark two eighteen, look at this. One of John's disciples, now this is John the Baptist and the Pharisees, these are like the religious elite. These are the navy seals of Judaism. K? These are the ones who are serious about their faith.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And they have a question. And here's the question. They came up and they said to Jesus, why don't your disciples fast like John's disciples and the Pharisees do? You see, in Jesus' day, everybody fasted. And they're like, we don't see you fasting, but you are drinking a lot, you're eating a lot, and I thought that was a hooker that was with you on Friday night.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay? They don't like Jesus. And here's what Jesus says. He says, you don't fast at the wedding when the groom is there. Now, if the groom is kidnapped and killed, that's a good time to fast.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And what he says is, when the groom is gone, then you will fast. You will fast. Okay? So why do we fast? Number one, to overcome temptation.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:How many have ever been tempted? Come on. Now you're more honest. You're getting more honest. I can't see you at the campus is but in here they were honest.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Even if you're a grandma you need to raise your hand. You weren't always 85. Amen? So here's where I was supposed to say I had a pastor one time say that Jesus never fasted. Here here it is.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Matthew four one. Jesus was led by the spirit. So I want you to see this. This is God's intent. This is God moving in the life of his son.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness. He didn't stumble. He didn't get lost. This is God's divine providence. To be what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you see it? Tempted there by the devil. So what does he do? For forty days and forty nights, he what? He fasted.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He prepared. What was he doing? He was gaining spiritual strength to overcome physical weakness or temptation or desires. So fasting was readying him for the desire. Because here's the thing, when we say no to our bodies, our bodies fight back.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And they say, you know what? This isn't right. And Jesus says, no. No. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Gotta choose God's will over my own will. Now he did this for forty days. Now I've never fasted for forty days. I had a friend of mine that tried, got to about seventeen days, and had to go to the hospital. So I'm not suggesting this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't want you to run. I don't want here's not the sermon. I'm not gonna eat for a month and, you know, two weeks. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is we need to integrate this process of saying no to ourselves so we can say yes to God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen. So for forty days and forty nights, he fasted and he became very hungry and Satan was there. But here's the thing, Jesus wasn't weak. Listen to me, this is what some of you miss. He was ready.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He was ready. He had already said no to his growling belly day one, day five, day 10, day 20, day 30, day 40. And then here comes Satan with some Subway bread. You ever walk by that? Trying to cut down on your carbs.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's not even bread. Just keep walking. Just keep I don't know what that is, but it's not bread. Unless you own a Subway restaurant, please give it $5.20. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's the thing about a big church, you can never make fun of anything because somebody works there. First Corinthians ten thirteen, listen to this. Temptations in your life are no different. See, here's what Satan is. God's unfair.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's picking on you and no one's ever experienced this or struggle with this. That's what Satan says. You're all alone. Your experience is unique. Now, we all face temptations.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We all face this. But listen to this. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience and God is faithful. Amen? But listen to this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He, God, will not allow temptation to be more than you can stand.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:won't. Even when Jesus was tempted, you know what happened? The devil was sent away and angels came and ministered to him. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So the reason that we fast is to overcome temptation. Some of you are battling temptation. Some of you are losing your battle with temptation. And here's the thing, it's everywhere. It's everywhere.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Every single day when we get up, there's sexual temptation, there's financial temptation, there's food temptation. Oh my gosh, anybody ever walked by Krispy Kreme? I mean that's just Satan right? Those donuts are just rolling off. And they're so tiny and dainty and cute.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'll just have seven. It's easy, isn't it? The same thing is, but I want you to hear me, fasting helps you learn the discipline to say no to your body when it rises up and wants to do something you don't agree with. That's the practice. That's why Jesus practiced for forty days before he was tempted.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Isn't that crazy? He had practiced saying no to his own desires. Okay? Next, we can fast, look at this, to digitally detox. Does anybody need this?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh my gosh. Every single morning. Can you imagine if you read the Bible like you scroll on social media? Like, could you imagine if you just woke up every morning like another page, another page, another page, another page, another page, another page. Oh, advertisement.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I have to wait. Another page, another page, another page, another page. Right? Can you imagine if you scrolled the Bible like you scroll the Internet? Some of you need to digitally detox.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We have my grandson, he's four months old. Do you know what that dude is drawn to? Screens. You could have a screen 75 feet away and what's amazing is he can't see four feet away. His eyes don't focus yet, but he sees that screen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you know what he does parents? Locks in. Locks in. It's mesmerizing, it's intoxicating. It gives him his little body a dopamine release and he's like, oh.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I like that. And I was lying to myself because I FaceTime him and I'm thinking, he wants to see grandpa. No, he just wants to stare at the screen. He doesn't know that's grandpa on the other side of the screen. But some of us are the same way, we're like a four month old and we're just focused on screens.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're focused on social media. We're focused on our TVs. The other night Tammy and I sat down and I like movies over television shows and here's why, I don't like commitment. I just just don't like commitment. We are right now watching a show, we're in the sixth season and I cannot wait for it to be over.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm just like, for the love of God cancel this show so I can move on with my life. You know if it's a movie you wasted like two hours max. Amen? You know you're just like, you know what Lord, I'm sorry. Moving on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But here's the thing. I I I want you to hear me. For some of you are like, why I don't hear from God? And God's son is speaking to my life. I want you to look at this verse.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is in Acts eighteen nine. One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, don't be afraid, speak out, don't be silent. So God speaks to Paul in a vision. Now, the Bible's written in Greek and then it's translated into Latin. It's called the Latin Vulgate.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The Latin word here for vision is a Visio. Anybody heard of a TV named anything like that? Maybe you're not getting a Visio from God because you're getting it from the world every single day. And some of you guys, you just need to shut it off and go take for a walk. Go outside.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Go to the ocean even if you're afraid of sharks. I don't think there's ever been a shark attack by somebody going like that. I just think you can do it. You might get a sand flea but you'll recover. I want to challenge you guys, fast from TV.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You really need to do this. Now young people are like, I don't watch I don't watch TV. Okay. Social media. You're addicted.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing is you you you gotta get over this and it's consuming. And so many of us were more aware of what's happening around the world. And I get it, it's it's hilarious to see people do stupid things, isn't it? It's pretty funny. And you know why we like it?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because we're not the biggest idiot on that day. That's why we like it. Look at this guy. So I wanna challenge some of you to pull back. Some of you need to do a hard cut, no TV.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Maybe that's what God's calling you to do. Okay? Some of you need to just do a hard cut from social media. And here's the thing, it's not always about abstinence, but as a Christian it's always about temperance. You're like, what does that word mean?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What that word means is we're controlling what we're into. So here's why we fast. Look at this next one. To fight addiction. Anybody ever been addicted?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. No hands. I got crazy addicted in the eighth grade to asthma medication. In the eighties, you know what they gave you for asthma? Meth.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're like, I'm breathing fine, this is great, alright, let's go, wow. Now it wasn't math, but it it was a thing that it amplified my heart rate, and I got addicted to it, and I couldn't break it. I couldn't break it. You know what I did? I I I told my youth pastor, and he took me on a weekend retreat, and we went cold turkey.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was shaking and sweating all weekend long, but that's what it took. My brothers and sisters in Christ came around me to help me get free of this because you know what? I wasn't having asthma attacks, but I was taking it every day. So I've been there and I get the shame and I understand how powerful things are over us. But listen what the apostle Paul says.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:First Corinthians six twelve. You say, I'm allowed to do anything. I'm just exercising my Christian freedom. Okay. That's what he says.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You say I'm allowed to do anything but not everything is good for you. Right. Even though I'm allowed to do anything, I must not become a slave to anything. I did not think I had a problem with sugar until I tried to give it up. I wanna challenge you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You'll be in front of C's candy shop just like, you know, can I get a dollar? Can I get a $2? You know, hey, I'll wash your windows. I'll wash your windows. Telling kids, go in, buy it for me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Come on. But listen to me, as a church, can you drink wine? Yeah. As long as it's just a drink. But some of you, you can't live without the buzz.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's a problem. That's a problem. Amen. Some of you are addicted to sugar. Oh my gosh.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was in Chicago last week. They're gonna die of sugar, man. I'm telling you. They serve cake for lunch. Who serves cake for lunch?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I and I mean like I I mean like like it was like a slice, man. It was crazy. I'm like you got you all got a problem. The guy next to me, a pastor, he said well you're not gonna eat yours. You know what he did?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He ate mine and his. Listen. It's crazy. We're addicted. Some of you guys are addicted to sports.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can you imagine if you grieved over our culture like you do your team? Oh my gosh, Lord. People are getting saved. All these guys, I don't worship. Touchdown, you got a point.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh, man. You just get so excited about your team. People always tell me, well that's easy because you don't care about sports. No, no, I used to care about sports too much. Too much.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I remember one time screaming at the TV and I looked and my girls were in the corner crying, dad's got a problem. You know what? Dad did have a problem. Some of you care more about your team than the people who get paid to play on the team. Addictions to social media which you already covered.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What are you addicted to? What has power over you? What do you need to take a break from? So here's the thing with addiction, Addiction's power lies in its shame. I had to tell my youth pastor, I had to show him a bottle of pills and I said, I got a problem with this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know how to stop taking this. And here's the great thing, listen to me, Sandals Church, you know what my youth pastor said, no problem. He was from the seventies, they all did drugs. Have you seen people in the seventies? You know?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But you know what he did? He didn't shame me, he didn't guilt me. He said, we're gonna break this together with prayer and community. Now for some of you, you're so addicted, you can't do that. And I get that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It can't have a real physical hold on us. If you try to do that, you might die. So you need to involve a hospital and doctors to help you through this. But here's the thing. Satan wants to keep it private and to keep you in shame.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What Jesus wants to do is set you free. So I wanna challenge you to do that. Next, this one is we're we're gonna kinda transition here. Why do we fast? And this is really really important.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look at this. To join with a prayer need or request. Okay. So fasting is often married to prayer. So I want you to think about that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So when when I wanna be heard from God, when I want God to hear me, when I want God to know that it's important. You see sometimes God doesn't take your prayer seriously until you do. Listen to me. Sometimes God only cares about your prayers as much as you do. And so what you do is you say, you know what Lord, wanna be heard and so I'm gonna fast.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So in the bible there's this book called Ezra and they wanted to hear from God. They wanted God's divine protection. They wanted God's mercy. So check out what they do. So we fasted and earnestly what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Prayed. You see the marriage? They fasted and they prayed. There's a purpose. Why do we fast as Christians?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's not to lose weight. It's not so that we can be healthier. We fast so that we can connect with God. So they married it together. We fasted and we earnestly prayed that our God, listen to this, would take care of us and he what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He heard our prayer. Amen. Now you gotta be real careful with this because sometimes what Christians do is we'll fast to to manipulate God. So if I fast, then God has to do this for me. K?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And this is so easy to do. If you have a King James Bible or an older translation, oftentimes in the New Testament, you will see prayer and fasting together. And in the early manuscripts, it's not there. But copyists over the centuries, when their prayers weren't answered, they wrote in that word fasted and eventually it got added. It's not in the scripture.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We cannot twist God's arm. We cannot manipulate God. Sometimes we can pray and fast and God, because he's God, can still say no. So we don't fast to manipulate God. We fast so that we can focus on God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's why we do it. So check this out. The king of Israel, David. David replied so if you don't know the story, David had an adulterous affair with a woman named Bathsheba. He killed her husband to cover up for his sin, and then Bathsheba became pregnant because of their adulterous affair, and so the child was ill because God had said he was gonna judge this affair.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so David prayed and fasted asking God to save the child. Listen to this. David replied, I fasted and wept while the child was alive for I said, perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me and let the child live. Here's the thing, the kid died. David, the king of Israel fasted and prayed, listen to me, and he didn't get his way.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you know why? He was the king of Israel but he wasn't the king of kings. He wasn't the lord of lords. So we can't manipulate God. Next, to get help with big decisions.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:How many guys ever had a big decision in your life? Raise your hands. Okay. Should I go to college? Should I take out loans?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Should I date? Should I get married? Should I try to save my marriage? Should I take that job? Should I buy that house?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? We are confronted with huge decisions all the time. And here's the thing, we blame God when the decisions goes bad and God's like, you never involved me in the process. Years ago, Tammy and I, when we first planted Sandals Church, we put down a deposit on a house. It was a big house, and we thought we could do all this ministry in it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We had all the reasons why we thought God wanted us to do that. But before we bought it, we decided to pray, and we decided to fast. And it wasn't a long fast, it was like lunch, you know what saying, like we skipped lunch. We were we were young. But you know what God said?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't buy the house. Now that was hard to hear, but we didn't buy the house and it was the best decision we ever made. Acts fourteen twenty three, look at this verse. Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church, do you see it? With prayer and fasting.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I wonder this week when they selected the new pope if anybody fasted. You got a bunch of rich dudes? I'm guessing they had some good eats, it was in Italy, you know what I'm saying, you know, some good food there. I wonder if anybody fasted before they picked the leader of a billion people. I don't know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The bigger the decision, listen to me, the more serious we need to take it, we need to pray and fast. So why is fasting so important? And I I want you to catch this. Fasting helps me me clarify my motives. K?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Even as I'm preaching, even as I'm leading, even as I'm I'm preparing for this message. Right? There's God's will and there's my motives and they're doing this. And anybody who thinks their motives are not involved are completely blind to their motives. So we gotta know, God, is this your will or my will?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God, is this your direction or my direction? And the truth is, it is really difficult sometimes to sort that out. So what do we do? Listen to what James says. James says this, the half brother of Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? He says, you don't have what you want because you don't ask for it. You don't ask God for it. Listen to me. God does not answer prayers you do not pray.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Me say that again because there's no amen in here. God does not answer prayers you don't pray. Amen? Amen. You gotta pray it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You gotta ask it. But here's the thing. Some of us are like, well, I asked and I didn't get it. Listen to what James says. And even when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We can go to God for bad things. We can go to God for selfish things, and God's gonna say no. Listen to what James says. You want only what will give you pleasure. So see what fasting does?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Fasting is saying no to myself so that I can hear from God clearly. Look at this. So it clarifies my motives and then I can hear more clearly from God. How many of you guys would say there's ever been a time in your life where you needed to hear, listen to this, more clearly from God? Raise your hands.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay? We we we all need this. Fasting helps us. I'm not guaranteeing an answer, I'm just saying it improves your hearing. So let's take a look at Acts thirteen two through three.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:One day as these men were worshiping, so what were they doing? Do you see it? Worshiping. They're worshiping. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now I grew up Baptist. We never did this. We worshiped in eight. You know what I'm saying? You know?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So these guys were worshiping the Lord and what? So they weren't what? They weren't eating. So one day, the leaders of the church are worshiping the Lord and fasting and the Holy Spirit said, so they're worshiping and fasting and God spoke. Do you hear that?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God spoke. And listen to what he says, appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them. This is so good. So look at this. So after more fasting and more prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Ain't that crazy? The bigger the decision, listen to me, the more you need clarity from God. The bigger the decision. And here's the thing that I find, the more important the decision is, the more we stress and the less we pray. And so I wanna encourage you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Where is something that you need to fast from? Where is something that you need clarity from? Let me ask it this way. What part of our culture has gotten a grip on you that you need to break from? I wanna encourage you this week to fast somehow.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:K? I don't want you all on social media, oh, I'm fasting because pastor Matt at Sandals Church said we're so spiritual. Because based upon what Jesus said, what do we know? You're not. You're not.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is just between you and the Lord. That's right. And it could be you could fast for a meal. You could fast for a day. Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I would encourage you to start there. I don't want anybody like jumping in the deep end. I'm going forty days. Okay. But let's start somewhere.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you, you need to fast from some screens. Right? You need to fast from the Visio and you need to get a vision. And you say, God, I wanna hear from you. So here's my challenge right now.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:In just a second, I'm gonna pray for you. But I want you to be able to answer this question. This week I will fast from what? Can be food. It could be social media.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It could be it could be anything. What what what has an ugly hold on your life? And what do you need to break free from? What is it that you need to be set free from? I'm gonna pray over you right now, and I'm gonna ask that Jesus would show you what it is, and that you would answer his call, and you would fast from it somehow, some way this week.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I pray that you get a word from God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we ask right now, right here, that you would help us. Lord, we don't want be like the hypocrites. God, we we don't want to be people who disfigure ourselves, but God, we want be a people that genuinely seek you and genuinely want to hear from you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So God, guide us in this process and show us something that we need to eliminate this week, maybe that has an unhealthy hold on us. Maybe it's something that's addictive. Maybe it's something that's sinful. And I'm going pray right now specifically in our church for someone like my youth pastor that I was able to share. Hey, need I need to get free from this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Maybe it's a friend in their community group, maybe it's a pastor, maybe they need to come forward for prayer after church and just say, have been battling this secret all alone. I need to be delivered. But God help us to learn to fast so that we can gain spiritual strength over physical desires. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Thank you guys so much for joining us today at Sandals Church online and we pray this week that God's grace would go with you as you learn and practice saying no to yourself and saying yes to God. You know, one of the ways that we're saying no here at Sandals Church that pastor Matt mentioned is through the 05/20 campaign. And so I wanna encourage you, even if you don't attend our church, and you give elsewhere, maybe pray about how you wanna support the work that we're doing because we not only love sending our messages around the world, we love to support people around the world, and we're doing that through the five twenty campaign. So to help us, you can go to sandalschurch.com/520 to join us. Grace and peace.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Thank
Morgan Teruel:you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have the YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to sandalschurch.com.