To Confess Your Need

Fasting is hard because it’s a form of self-denial. We suddenly become aware of our weakness, frailty, and imminence. It’s a reminder that our bodies need sustenance to survive, and without food, we’ll eventually die. But just like our bodies need food for life, our souls need God. David knew this well when he fasted and pleaded with God in Psalm 69. As he denies his body food, he learns to confess his needs before God and redirect his trust back towards Him. Like David, we too are powerless to accomplish our deepest desires and weak when it comes to uprooting the deepest sins in our lives. We all have needs that only God can meet — prayers we need answers to, sins we can’t overcome, and decisions we need God’s will revealed for. To help us redirect our trust in God and to confess our needs, we fast.

You can take interactive notes here. At the end of the message, you can email the notes to yourself.

 Saint Augustine of Hippo,   📍 he was a fourth century theologian who wrote an autobiography called Confessions.  In Confessions, he details his journey of transformation in Christ. It’s a large read, but a wonderful read. In one instance, Augustine details a moment he had when he was with his friends.

And when he was with his friends, they decided together to steal pears from their neighbors Garden as you do upon reflection. He had no practical reason to steal the pears. It’s not like he was out of pears. His garden had plenty. It’s not that they were even better pears like they were good to the taste.

In fact, his own were even better. He also doesn’t put the full blame on his friends because it was his friends who brought up the idea. No. Instead, he confesses that he Stole the pears because of his sheer sinful delight in breaking the law his view on sin Represents Christian thought throughout the centuries.

Yes, there is sin done to us. And yes, there is sin done around us. And yes, part of the issue with Augustine was that he had bad friends who pressured him to do evil. But, Augustine could not deny his own personal responsibility. It was his sin that put him there. Contrast that story with Jean Jacques Rousseau, who represents modern Western thought.

Rousseau is a 18th century philosopher   📍 who wrote an autobiography with the same name. Confessions.  But in this one, he details an enlightened human view of his condition. Rousseau, he never mentions Augustine outright, but everybody knows this was a tip of the hat, or really a parody of Augustine’s version 1, 400 years prior.

Rousseau, he also details a story, not stealing a pear, but of stealing asparagus, because his friends pressured him to do so. In his reflection, he realized he didn’t have greed in his heart while he stole it. He was just trying to help a friend. And he did not do this because of his delight in breaking the law.

Unlike Augustine, Rousseau put all of the blame on external pressures. Carl R. Truman summarizes the differences this way, quote,   📍 Augustine blames himself for his sin because he is basically wicked from birth. Rousseau blames society for his sin. Sin because he’s basically good at birth and then perverted by external forces.

  We live in a day and age where Rousseau is far more influential than Augustine, and as a result,   📍 Confession is not only seen as rare, but it’s viewed as wrong.   I wonder if you’ve noticed this cultural shift. This cultural shift has reshaped how you and I think about the good life. Instead of confessing our own sin and surrendering to God’s sovereignty, our hope and our purpose, at least is what it’s sold to us, is what Andrew describes as either the pursuit of discovering your inner genius.

Or achieving a heroic action quickly. A quick word on each inner genius. Today we are told we don’t have to confess our desires. We have to celebrate them. We respond in rage at the world. If people don’t applaud us for all of our disordered desires and sins. That we find most enjoyable. This whole idea is be true to yourself.

Again, however harmful it may be to you and to those around you, still be true to yourself. That’s a lot of people’s pathway to the good life. Not confession, but just making your own desires as the best and everyone should celebrate. The other side of it is some of us realize that maybe hope in life is through heroic action.

In other words, it’s not through surrendering to our human limitations, it’s by overcoming them. And some of this is good, but of course, some of this is bad. What this does is it puts us on this hamster wheel. Andrew Root describes this and he says that we are put to perform on the world stage and we’re always exhausted because we’re seeking to outperform others, but even to outdo ourselves.

And we never take a break for fear that competition would catch up. With all of that in mind. Have we not realized, no matter how much we celebrate our sin or deny our limitations, the haunting grip of condemnation never goes away. Maybe St. Augustine was right all along, that freedom begins not in self discovery, but in surrender.

It’s not improving ourselves, but in confessing our need. So Is there a practice from the way of Jesus that empowers us to embrace this kind of freedom? Is there a practice that leads us away from the illusion of self sufficiency and into true dependence on God? Yes, and it’s through the practice of fasting.

To put another way,   📍 In a world fixated on self-expression and self-exertion, we fast to practice self-denial.  And this type of self denial we’re talking about today is not just denying ourselves of food, which bravo if you’ve been doing that this week, but more importantly, it’s denying us of the illusion of control.

Let’s read even more from Psalm 69. We actually don’t have much context. If you remember Psalm 63 last week, we knew the whole backstory. All we know about Psalm 69 is that it was King David who wrote it, and it was a plea for rescue. Uh, many describe this psalm as a psalm of lament. We can look at David’s story, and there are many times where he was lamenting.

So really pick your story. We’re not quite sure which one is explicitly this chapter. Now, it’s important for us to remember, before we read through a lot more of these verses, In the ancient Near East culture that David found himself in, kings were actually treated as gods. And so it’s astounding here that David does not seek to be treated like a god.

In fact, it’s the exact opposite. With his biblical worldview, he is quick to confess his own sin and shortcomings. And the idea for the Hebrews was, if our king admits his flaws, who are we to hide our own? And that is the path to the good life, confessing our needs. You’ll see it all throughout Psalm 69.

Let’s pick a few of these verses, it’ll be on the screen. I encourage you this week to study this entire chapter. Verse 1 though. Save me God, for the water has risen to my neck. I have sunk in deep mud and there is no footing. I have come into deep water and a flood sweeps over me. We have to remember this is literature.

It’s likely not that he was literally in some type of flood. This is a metaphor where you and I probably have felt this in different times throughout our lives. Verse three, I am weary from crying. My throat is parched. My eyes fail looking for my God. Jump to verse five, God, you know, my foolishness and my guilty acts are not hidden from you.

Now verse 10 again, I mourned and fasted, but it brought me insults. I wore sackcloth as my clothing and I was a joke to them. Those who sit at the city gate talk about me, which by the way, if you remember. Absalom was one who sat at the city gate to talk about him and eventually rebelled against him. So there’s some context clue there.

And drunkards make up songs about me. But as for me, Lord, my prayer to you is for a time of favor and your abundant, faithful love. If you were here last week, Chesed, this faithful Everlasting love, God, answer me with your sure salvation. Rescue me from the miry mud. Don’t let me sink. Let me be rescued from those who hate me and from the deep water.

Don’t let the flood water sweep over me or the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit close its mouth over me. The pit representing ultimate destruction and death. Answer me, Lord, for your faithful love is good. And keeping with your abundant compassion. So he is reminding God of his own character. Keep with, you are abundant in compassion.

So keep with that. And in so doing, turn to me. Verse 17. Don’t hide your face from your servant for I am in distress. Answer me quickly. Let’s jump to verse 29 now. But as for me, poor and in pain, let your salvation protect me, God. Notice how needy he is. It’s God who is doing the rescuing. I will praise God’s name with song and exalt him with thanksgiving.

That will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with horns and hooves. The humble will see it and rejoice. You who seek God, take heart, for the Lord listens to the needy and does not despise his own who are needy. Prisoners. Now there’s a lot here, but my simple question is what is David doing in this psalm?

First of all, we see that he’s fasting, but why? I want us to recognize David here is not afraid of reality. In fact, he runs. That’s a major reason for you and I to fast today because point number one   📍 fasting defines reality.   Fasting has this way of opening up our eyes to the truth of our condition. What I want to mention here is fasting opens us up to reality both positive and negative and also both present and future.

So first, we Positive. Look at David again in verse 16. Notice his positivity here, knowing what’s true. Answer me, Lord, for your faithful love is good. In keeping with your abundant compassion, turn to me. So he mentions all sorts of issues he has, but instead of just staying in his pity party, he remains focused on what is true.

He is saying, I feel like I’m dying. But God, your love endures forever, and that is my focus, and I’m asking, according to your character, to come rescue me. Even Jesus, when he was tempted in the wilderness by the devil in Matthew chapter 4, he was actually at his peak strength. Many people don’t recognize that.

We think after 40 days and 40 nights he is completely weak. Yes, in the flesh, but he is strong in the spirit. And that is why when the devil comes to duel with him, he is able to respond on what is true. He knows what reality is because those whole 40 days and 40 nights He wasn’t just not eating. He was meditating on God’s word.

That’s why in Matthew 4, 4, Jesus responds to the devil saying, it is written, man must not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. What does fasting do? It clears away the lies, helps you detect deception, and empowers you to define, to define reality for what is actually true.

Now at the same time, it also clears your vision, not just to see what is positive, but also what is negative. Look at verse 5 again, God, you know my foolishness, and my guilty acts are not hidden from you. I love this psalm because David is not saying, answer me because I am righteous, and he’s saying kind of the opposite.

God, I am not righteous, but I’m still asking you to bless me. And this is what fasting does. It quickly shows you all of your flaws. Honestly, just fast a few times, and you will quickly see the flaws in your character rise to the surface. I’ve actually had people this week tell me, They can’t fast. It turns out they’re not pleasant to be around when they fast.

And what’s funny is that’s precisely the point. Here’s what fasting does. You see it in scripture, but you also see it throughout church history.   📍 Fasting reveals what the flesh has concealed.  What the flesh loves to do is to hide your sin and act like everything’s okay. It paints our vices with virtues.

What it does, it reveals what’s always been deep down inside of us. So if you struggle with bitterness, when you fast, bitterness will come to the surface. So funny, if you struggle with anger, fasting amplifies those frustrations. You know the best part about having children is their tattletales. Uh, this was not in my notes, but this happened right before service began and I just have to mention it.

It happened to be on the day that I was fasting that Jordan’s dog, note, Jordan’s dog, not mine, Jordan’s my wife if you’re new here, Jordan’s dog, Ate up my New York Yankees hat one week into me owning it now a lot of you are applauding for that Dino, you couldn’t have a bigger smile But I will say I was fasting that day and I did not respond with godliness and contentment I wanted to get rid of the dog Well, apparently she’s telling people in the courtyard just how mad I was this week when our dog ate my hat So there it is That’s what fasting does.

I repented five minutes ago. Now, Richard Foster, wait, I thought that was private. I didn’t think my kids saw my anger. Richard Foster, who’s actually one of our recommended reads, he puts it this way. This is maybe the longest quote I’ve shared in a sermon, but it is that good. So lean in with me.   📍 More than any other single discipline, or we would use the word practice, fasting reveals the things that control us.

This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.   📍 We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting, these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. David said, and it’s the psalm we’re looking at today, quote, I humbled my soul with fasting psalm 69 verse 10   📍 anger.

Bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear. If they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first, we will rationalize that our anger is due to our hunger. Anybody else done it this week? Don’t raise your hand right then. We know that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us, but we can rejoice in this knowledge because we know that healing is available through the power of Christ.

  📍 Put simply, fasting reveals what the flesh conceals, but what the Father can heal.   Now, if fasting, all it did was show you how bad you are and leave you there, we should all stop fasting. But if it reveals in order to heal, then you and I should lean in. And that’s why fasting, without confessing, is just a diet.

Confession is the backbone behind fasting, which is why it’s our focus today. So fasting, again, it helps you define reality, both positive And negative, but also it helps you define your present reality. Second Chronicles 20, we don’t have time to read the full context. Again, I really encourage you to read it this week.

Judah was being invaded, and they weren’t sure what was going on, and how they should respond, and so, rightly so, they responded by fasting. But look what the Lord says in verse 15 of chapter 20. And He said, Listen carefully, all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat, This is what the Lord says.

Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast number, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. How did they figure that out? It’s because they fasted. Fasting has this way of clearing your head and seeing what’s right in front of you. A couple weeks ago, I bought this New York Yankees hat in New York City, and that’s where we were, and it was Woefully cold, but what a joy to be with my wife.

Now, typically, for my rhythm, I fast on Tuesdays. Uh, but this was the last day for us. And also, I have been blame blaming Caleb for this because in the guide he’s saying, don’t be like the hypocrites, right? Fast on Wednesdays, and so it was our last day and so I did all this rationalization. I’m used to fasting on Tuesdays, but it’s the last day in New York City and my wife keeps having these amazing bagels and I want to try one for the first time.

And all these other excuses. So it’s This whole story, Caleb, is your fault. But anyway, so, I decide, you know what? To the glory of God, I’ll fast while we’re traveling all day. Which was not a fun idea, okay? Talking about things coming to the surface when people cut you off in line at Southwest and they act like they’re B and they’re really C.

Anyways, we’re moving on. So I have a bagel, and it’s wonderful to the glory of God. While I was in New York City, I actually discovered I like mochas, which is like a lot more coffee than I’ve ever had in the past. I’m growing up, I know. So, I have a large hot mocha and this really big bagel, and we quickly discover the worst part about New York City is bathrooms aren’t just readily available.

They’re not just like anywhere, like you have to Google Map. Where is the next clean public restroom to go to. And so all of a sudden we were like nature calls. And so for both of us, we’re like, we need to tinkle down now. Okay. And so we Googled where can we go? And it turns out 30 rock, Rockefeller center has a wonderful bathroom.

And I said, Hey, we were there yesterday. It is actually clean. Let’s go there. So, we’re heading out. Remember, I am belly full because I’m not fasting because of Caleb, right? So, we are walking to the Rockefeller Center. And right before we go in, which by the way, all the doors in New York City are those, uh, what do you call those things?

Revolving doors. Fun and annoying all at the same time. And so as we’re about to go into the revolving door, which, once you commit, you gotta get in. Right? You can’t just, you’ll, you’ll lose an arm. Okay? So you gotta go in or stay out. And there’s these two people saying, Hey you! To me and Jordan, Free tickets!

Come right now to the Kelly Clarkson Show! And I’m built to just not trust anybody when I’m in a city that’s not my own. Well, I’m just not built to trust. Anyways, none of us trust each other. Let’s move on. So I’m thinking nothing’s free. What’s the catch? She’s probably a pagan. You know, all of these things coming to my mind.

It’s a Kelly Clarkson show. I’m pretty sure I’ll be the only dude in that entire, you know, audience. And so I’m thinking, no, Jordan’s kind of like, well, wait a minute. What Kelly? I said, no. So we were mean. She literally. said, Why did you say no? Nothing is free. And then the revolving door shuts. And I’m thinking exactly.

That’s why I said no, nothing’s free. So we go in, we go to the restroom, so we’re okay there. And then we go back. We wound up having a good day. So we were going to a taco place at night. And I told Jordan, I said, go find us a seat. But then I said, and I didn’t want her to look it up. I had just said, I wonder who was interviewed today in the Kelly Clarkson show.

Not wanting her to look it up because then we’ll live and regret the rest of our lives. So I’m thinking she’s not doing that. So I’m going getting the taco. I need to make this fast. I ate all day, by the way. I did not fast that day, right? So I come back, give her the tacos. And she said, I’m not saying this to blame you.

I’m not mad at you. I’m like, what is happening? Like we’re in the middle of New York City. What is truth is she about to drop on me? I don’t know. Do you know who Kelly Clarkson interviewed that day? Lorelei Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls for the 25th anniversary. This is a running joke at our church. We have been watching it.

We’re on the very last season. I couldn’t think of a better guest to go watch. And we missed it because Caleb told me to fast on Wednesdays and not on Tuesdays. All that to say, a really lame illustration to show you. There is something about when you fast. It helps you see your present reality.  Now, fasting not only defines your present reality, but also your future reality. Look at Acts chapter 13, verses 2.  As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Notice this happened as a result of fasting.

And so then, after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off. Anytime you and I are stuck, we are called through the example of scriptures to fast, to ask God for direction. We fast to seek his face and plead for his guidance. Sometimes the answer is almost immediate. You’ll see here.

It was during the prayer gathering. The Holy Spirit spoke and said, okay, Barney. Okay, Paul You’re going to continue the mission elsewhere And other times it takes years or it takes weeks I know for us when we decided to go from one service to two. I fasted 40 days before finally making that decision.

But here’s what I found. It wasn’t just some like voice in heaven. In that particular instance, every day as I fasted for wisdom and clarity, I started to recognize God was giving me courage. And that understanding of courage, we can do this, was my discernment process of saying, okay, God is calling us to take this step, which turned out to be a wonderful step for the life of our church.

But hear me. Fasting doesn’t just help you see reality for what it is.   📍 Fasting defines your reality and invites God to deliver you through it.   This is such an important part of the fasting process. And this part, if I’m honest, requires a whole lot of faith. Let’s look at David’s plea in verse 13. Verse 13 says, But as for me, Lord, my prayer to you is for a time of favor.

Let’s just really recognize how confident you have to be in the goodness of God to ask for favor. Who among us thinks we are deserving of favor? Look at David’s life. It’s not like he was perfect. But yet fasting. And prayer, wed together, gives you this courage to ask for deliverance. It keeps going. In your abundant, faithful love, God, answer me with your sure salvation.

Rescue me from the miry mud. Don’t let me sink. Let me be rescued from those who hate me and from the deep water. See David, I think this is so important to recognize. In verse five, he mentions his helpless condition, his sinful condition, but he doesn’t stop there. He sees the reality of who he is, but then he sees the reality of who God is and how he can deliver him.

And that is the heart of fasting, calling on the name of the Lord to deliver you of the reality that you likely started in the first place. And so here’s the reality, reality, reality. Here’s the reality here is that we can pray and ask God to deliver us without fasting. I think there’s instances in scripture where that’s true.

But, there is something powerful about fasting that seems to grab the ear of heaven. Arthur Wallace, in our other recommended read, it’s also in our merch box, if you want to grab that book on your way out, says the following.   📍 Heaven. It is ready to bend its ear to listen when someone prays with fasting.

When a person is willing to set aside the legitimate appetites of the body to concentrate on the work of praying, they are demonstrating that they mean business, that they are seeking with all their heart and will not let God go unless he answers.   Here’s the tension here, and there’s so much tension in all of theology, two things can be true at the same time.

Like what we said last week, hear me loud and clear, fasting does not earn us God’s love. But at the same time, fasting does seem to make our prayers more effective. I don’t have a perfect summary of how that works. But that’s just what seems to be true. A great example of this is the Ninevites. These were some incredibly evil people who hated the Jewish people, which is why Jonah, who was sent as a prophet to the Ninevites, didn’t even want to preach the gospel to them.

That’s how much he hated them. Jonah chapter 3, though, starting in verse 4, gives us a wonderful illustration of how God responds to fasting. Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished. Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least.

When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. Then he issued a decree in Nineveh. By order of the king and his nobles, no person or animal, herd or flock is to taste anything at all. They must not drink, sorry, they must not eat or drink water.

So this is a total fast. Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth. This is symbolic of repentance and fasting. And everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing. And I love verse 9. Who knows? God may turn and relent. He may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.

So God saw their actions. that they had churned from their evil ways, so God relented from the disaster He had threatened them with, and He did not do it. What did the Ninevites do? First of all, you’ll see they defined their reality. They didn’t say, well, God, I am not deserving of death, I don’t like this gospel.

No, they, like Augustine, recognized their own sinful condition, and they were deserving of death. But they also confess their sins and fasted, pleading for God’s mercy. That maybe, just maybe, God may relent. And what do we see? God granted it. But again, notice, verse 9. Who knows? God may turn. And relent. You can actually see the same phrases here in Joel chapter two, which Joel is the people of God, and so not only are the Ninevites far from the kingdom repenting of God responding, but they’re saying maybe he will, maybe he won’t.

The same is true in Joel, Joel chapter two, the people of God fasted, and they said, this is no guarantee. We’re going to fast anyways, and that is what’s so crucial here as we continue to journey through this process of fasting, fasting. It’s not a way to manipulate the hand of God. God is God and we are not.

His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And so again, let me be loud and clear from our understanding of the biblical text, fasting is not a formula to get whatever we want, but it is a posture of confession and surrender to God’s will. While asking for his deliverance, while pleading for a certain type of outcome.

See, when we fast in genuine repentance,   📍 God delivers us in one of three ways. Either by rescue, by refinement, or by resurrection.   Now due to time I don’t have the ability to lay out a full biblical theology behind this Maybe that’s what pastor Caleb and I will do on a formed by Jesus podcast this week And what I mean by that is pastor Caleb will I’ll say that’s what I meant, okay?

So that’s the idea. Make sure you go to formedbyjesus. com. Now, for now though, let me just explain a few things I’ve seen to be true in my own life, but also in the scriptures. First, rescue. David in Psalm 69, one of the words that’s mentioned more than any other word is that phrase rescue. Rescue. Rescue me from the miry mud.

Rescue me here. Rescue me there. And here’s the reality. Sometimes, God completely rescues us from a burden, or an illness, or a situation. Right? The tumor miraculously disappears, the family really does reconcile, the chronic pain does go away. And we believe this to be true and that this can be something God does and it’s our job to plead for that and to rejoice and give God glory when He does exactly that.

But at the same time, our faith has to be stronger than just waiting on God to rescue. We must trust Him that oftentimes He answers us with refinement. Looking at my own past, most of my prayers for this church have been rescue prayers, if I’m just completely honest with you, and yet most of his answers have been that of refinement.

Looking back, I’m so glad he’s refined me in the fire rather than rescuing me from the fire, although I keep asking him to rescue me instead of refine me. But I am always glad after the fact, just never in the middle, anybody else. I know, for example, for me, I wanted a lot of times in my prayers, in pastoral ministry, what I was really asking for was an emotional high, but God in His grace and His favor was instead instilling within me emotional maturity.

In that moment, I needed refinement more than I needed rescue. In the same way, I’ve been pleading and asking God just for easy friendships, where we never have issues with each other, where we just enjoy each other’s company. But for the most part, what God has granted me is not easy friendships, but what He has done for me is allowed me to experience forgiveness, both in giving and receiving.

I am glad God didn’t just rescue me from bad friendships. He has refined me in the middle of it, and I know so much more about forgiveness, not because I read it in a dictionary, but because I had to experience it in real life. And so the answer that I have found from God tends to be refinement because as Dallas Willard puts it, the most important thing God gets out of your life is the person you become.

Sometimes we need rescuing, but so often what we truly need is refinement. And still, and this is the hard part, God sometimes doesn’t answer with rescue. Or refinement. And I love that we serve a God who takes his own medicine. When Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, he pleaded with God. His full humanity and full deity were on display in the garden.

He, he said to God, the father, if you remember, it says, if there’s any other way, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will. but yours be done. And we know because we can look back. God didn’t rescue Jesus from the cross because if he did, he could not rescue you or me. It was through the cross, through his death that you and I have life.

That’s also true for you and for me. Sometimes the answer isn’t rescue or refinement. It’s always ultimately in resurrection. Just yesterday we were Doing a memorial service for someone in our church, and I’m just reminded all of us will die. Even if we were to pray and fast for healing, we plead for God to answer with rescue and refinement, and I will never apologize for that.

But even if you and I do get healed of something, death will be on the way. Even the most miraculous stories you know of people who have been healed. They will too lay in the grave. And so our greatest hope cannot be in rescue or refinement. Although we are so grateful for those answers when we fast, our greatest hope is in the promise of the resurrection.

Yes, we are grateful and we rejoice in the victories in this life, but our greatest aim is the next one. But as a pastor, this is hard to say to people who are in pain and who are hurting, and who are angry at God. And I have found it’s my job just to sit there and grieve with them. See, it doesn’t feel this way, but in the kingdom of God, it’s a win win win.

If He rescues you from something, we give all the glory to God and we share that story for the rest of our days. If we are refined through something, we leave space to grieve. At the same time though, we give glory to God. and celebrate what he’s done in our character and the type of person we’re becoming, but if neither occur, we grieve.

We grieve with those who grieve. We are sad and we give glory to God for the resurrection, knowing that our ultimate hope was never found in this life, but in the next one. And Jesus is the first fruit. He is proof. He has risen again, and he’s promised to give that resurrection to all who believe. Even just this week, we have so many members who are hurting.

So many members struggling, gripping with death in front of them. I had to remind some of them, in the life of Christ, sorrow and joy can exist together. And we experience that when we fast. So that’s what I want to invite you to do this week. We’re going to invite you to fast now. Confessing of needs could be all sorts of things.

Sometimes it’s confessing our need for saving because of our own wickedness. Other times though, it’s circumcised, uh, circumstances outside of our control. And so we just have to confess those needs. So I am so encouraged by the way, before we go into the details of what our groups will do this week, I’m very encouraged by the interactions.

Uh, I’ve heard that some of you are actually literally fasting every day, every weekday. Showing me up. I’ll tell you that right now. Um, it’s such a joy to hear that others of you have fasted for the very first time others are picking that up, picking it back up again, but with different motivations. Some of you doing the full 24 hours.

There’s so beautiful to see a picture of the church and how we all have our own way to practice this fasting. Let me show you, this is what we’ll do this week, four things we’re going to encourage you with. And also, if you haven’t gotten the guide, we do still have, uh, these literal hard copies that Pastor Caleb wrote over on the welcome table in the lobby.

We’re going to, uh, challenge you with four things in this week’s guide.   📍 Number one is to choose one or two days to fast this week.   If it’s Tuesday, keep it to Tuesday. You never know what good thing might happen, okay? Number two, during your fast, pay attention to what comes to the surface. Are you reaching for your phone more often?

Are you actually replacing it with consuming more TV and media? Maybe you’re actually, uh, distracting yourself from what God really wants to unearth within you. Are you more irritable and angry towards those around you? Um, all of those questions, allow them to come to the surface because Number three, confess your need.

Whatever comes to the surface, don’t be ashamed of it. Don’t worry. Just give it to God. Just present it to the Lord. Because it was there already. All you’re doing is allowing those things to come to the surface. And don’t be afraid to just define your current reality. It can be negative. Confess all of those needs.

And lastly, when you experience a hunger pain, allow it to remind you of your frailty and dependence on God. It’s not a bad thing to remember that you are nothing without the Lord. That every breath we breathe is a gift from God. And so how I actually want us to respond today, it’s perfect because it’s week three this month, is to respond by communion.

So we’re going to have a song of response and during that song of response, I invite you to start making your way to the front, uh, not yet, but when we all sing together, go ahead and start doing that. And this time we always kind of do it different. We just ask you to partake while you’re at your seat on your own or with your family.

I actually wanted to meditate. On verse 18 of Psalm 69, I think this is a great verse for us to meditate as we approach the Lord’s table. Verse 18 says, Come near to me and redeem me. Ransom me because of my enemies. Quickly, redeem is a word that means to be rescued. To be delivered. Ransom means a payment has to be made in order to secure that freedom.

David was looking forward, but you and I can look back. The cross is how he redeemed you and I. How he ransomed us. But notice that phrase, because of my enemies. That phrase can mean a lot for King David. He had a lot of literal enemies. But for us today It is not a leap for us to use this verse to remind ourselves of our greatest enemies of sin, Satan, and death.

We have an enemy called sin, sin done by us, sin done to us, and sin done all around us that has led to our division, destruction, and our decay. We have a Satan who seeks to divide and devour us through his lies. We have death who is coming for all of us, who seeks to cut us off from eternal life. But at communion.

We celebrate that our hope is not in being perfect or sinless. We rejoice that we actually confess all of our shortcomings, and because of Jesus, He redeems us and ransoms us through the cross and the resurrection, setting us free from all of our enemies. When we partake in communion, in just a moment, if you’re a follower of the way, we are declaring sin has lost its power.

That Satan has been defeated, that death has lost its sting. This is what you and I declare in the midst of heartache and pain. We are still rejoicing that we have a king who has conquered and is rescuing us, refining us and will ultimately resurrect us. So we just want to leave space for that. Maybe you can wait a little bit, confess your needs before God, before coming forward.

Maybe you grab the elements and then begin that confession. But let us not believe the lie of the enemy. Confession is not embarrassing. Confession is the pathway to life and forgiveness that Jesus so generously has on offer. Let’s pray.