Louie Giglio - The Frequency of the Fast - Part 1
A lot of the prayer that God wants to release in our lives is not for us, it's for the person right next to us, the people who live in the house across the street from us, the family that we met through some friends, the guy that is working down the hall or the lady that's in the office next door. We're praying, not just, "Lord, here's what I need in my life," but "Lord, I wanna pray and lean in for what they need in their life".
And we see that in a story that Mark tells us about the life of Jesus, and I'm gonna read a lot of text today, so just a heads up on that, a lot of scriptures coming. But it's important for us today to get a real good grasp of what God is saying, and this passage comes from Mark 9. It says, "When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and they ran to greet him". Isn't that a cool idea?
"'What are you arguing with them about?' He asked. A man in the crowd answered, 'Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.'" Jesus didn't like the sound of that, and He said, "'You unbelieving generation,'" He's saying that to them. "'How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?'"
I wonder how many times He has asked that question about the guy that's talking to you right now. And then Jesus says, "'Bring the boy to me.' So they brought him. And when the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion". In other words, this spiritual realm now is in the physical realm. This unseen dimension, which is all around us right this moment, is now in the seen dimension, and there is a spiritual war that breaks out.
"He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked the boy's father, 'How long has he been like this?' 'From childhood,' he answered. 'It,'" the spirit that's in him, that's got a hold of him, "'Has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.' When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. 'You deaf and mute spirit,' he said, 'I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.' The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, 'He's dead.' But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. After Jesus had gone indoors," maybe we could just have a little amen right there. We just, kinda, went right by that like, mhm.
"After Jesus had gone indoors, His disciples asked him privately, 'Why couldn't we drive it out?' And He replied, 'This kind, this spirit can only come out by prayer.'" Now, in my text, there's a little, I think it's a C right here and then you have to go down to the bottom of the page, there's a footnote there. Because in some text, the King James Bible, which we referenced a lot in the last few weeks, this verse reads, "By prayer". Does anybody have a Kings James Bible, or you know what was in there? "By prayer and fasting". Oh, did you say your prayer when you woke up this morning? "Dear Lord, thank you for this day, I just want you to lead me, and guide me, and bless me today".
See, he's not just saying, "Did you pray some prayer"? Obviously, He's talking about earnest prayer, some kind of devoted prayer, a sincerity, a desperation of the heart that led you to pray. Some kind of prolonged prayer, some contending prayer, some, "I'm not giving up" prayer, some "I'm not stopping until Heaven answers" prayer. And so, I think the idea of the prayer and fasting, it fits in the text even though the words aren't in the text because this is the way of Jesus.
Now, just a little context here if I can. If you go back up above this text, there is something that happens that Mark records called the transfiguration. And it's kind of a big, crazy church word, but what happened was Jesus took three of His disciples and He went up on this mountain, and when He went up on the mountain with them, somehow the glory of God came down on the mountain. And not only did the glory of God come down, but Moses and Elijah, from the Old Testament, appeared on the mountain with Jesus, and they were glowing, and radiant, and the disciples were freaking out, and they didn't know what to do, and one of them said, "Man, we should build, like, three sheds here or shelters here. One for Elijah, and one for Moses, and one for you, Jesus, 'cause we're never leaving this, this is the greatest thing we've ever experienced before. And then Moses and Elijah were gone and it was just Jesus there, and a voice came down from Heaven and it said, 'This is my son whom I love. Listen to Him.'"
Can you imagine being in that moment? That's where we get the phrase, by the way, "The mountaintop experience". You ever had a mountaintop experience? Did you ever go to the youth retreat or the lock in... Well, the lock in wasn't a mountaintop experience, that was a mountain dew experience, they're a little bit different. Have you ever had a mountaintop experience where you're on a men's retreat, or you were fasting for a season, or you went to Passion 2024, and you're like, "Man, let's just build some shelters right here". Let's write Arthur Blank a letter and say, "Dear Mr. Blank, please let us stay here for the next three months".
But quickly, Jesus said, "We wanna go down the mountain," and when He went down the mountain, He told the disciples, "Don't tell anybody about what you just saw up there". And they're like, "How can we not do that? It was crazy". And then as soon as they come down, they're right into this situation. They come right off of this incredible, glorious moment right back into the nitty gritty of life, into the hard combat of life. Jesus invites us to this in Matthew 6, "When you fast..." He's already said right above this in the text, "When you pray," and then He gives us that amazing prayer, "Our father who art in Heaven". But now, He turns the page, and He says, "When you fast".
Isn't that a interesting kind of nonchalant way for Jesus to enter into the subject of here's how you fast? He didn't say, "Okay now, everybody get ready, get out a pen and a piece of paper because I'm gonna do Fasting 101". No, He just said, "Oh, and by the way, when you fast, let's talk about that for a minute. Like, I'm assuming that you're going to fast. I'm recognizing that a part of spiritual life is spiritual things. A part of being a follower of God is the things of God. Living in relationship with a God whose spirit is to love the things of the spirit". He's, kinda, breaking down what happens in our churches sometimes where it's like, "Okay, you got your barely saved people".
Anybody here just barely saved just I'm not sure but, you know, like, right here, baseline. You've got your "A little bit more than saved" people, then you have your, kinda, middle ground, "I'm into it" people, and then you have your "Getting more serious" people, and then you have your disciples. You know? They're, like, in the discipleship program somewhere, and have notebooks and stuff, and meet with people, and write stuff down, and memorize verses of scripture. Then you have your super disciples, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John and that crew that did all the crazy stuff except for when they couldn't.
Jesus is like, "Excuse me"? There are no levels. There's growth but there are no levels because it's all spiritual. Being in a relationship with God is spiritual. And so, Jesus says, "So, when you fast," just assuming that that's gonna be apart of your life because that's apart of the spiritual world, "Don't look somber as the hypocrites do for the disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting". So, they fasted, these first group here, to check a box and to get credit for it. He said, "Truly they have received their reward in full". They're not gonna be helping the man with the son 'cause they're not getting that reward. The reward they getting is that you're looking at them going, "Oh wow, they're amazingly spiritual".
Great, hope you appreciated that compliment because that's all you're getting. The goal is that you'd be able to help this man with his son. That you'd see spiritual battle and you'd see God come through. That you'd see need and then you'd see miracle. That's the goal, but I'm sorry, you got patted on the back and that's gonna be the reward you get. But he says, "When you fast," talking about us, He says, "Put oil on your head and wash your face". Now, that's just good advice for people in general. You don't really even have to be on the prayer/fasting journey with us, but just, some of your parents have been trying to say that to you.
"So that it will not be obvious to others that you're fasting but only to your Father, who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you". And so, when Jesus was saying, "This kind only comes out by prayer, an earnest prayer," now He's adding to the equation and saying there's a seeking of God in fasting that we don't do for show, we're not doing this so that other people will be impressed by us, we're pressing in to touch the heart of God and receive a connection with God that He then can move through us in power. So, Jesus taught us to fast, but then He showed us to fast.
One more text from the gospels, this one is from Luke 4, "Jesus," starting His ministry, this is the very beginning of the whole journey. "Full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness". Now, that's a phrase that somebody in the gathering today is gonna take home and focus on because you're feeling like you're going into a desert, and a lot of times when that happens in our lives, you're like, "I don't know what's wrong, I feel like I'm going into a desert". Well, you need to check first and see if the spirit might have led you into the desert, 'cause He does that occasionally. "Where for forty days He," Jesus, "Was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry".
That's the most no kidding verse in the Bible. I don't say that in, you know, to be facetious, it just really makes me laugh every time I read it. So, Jesus is fasting. So, He's not just saying, "And when you fast," He's saying, "I was already full of the Holy Spirit, I was already being led by the spirit, but then I went into a major fast". Now, why did Jesus go into this major fast? Well, we'll answer that at the end. "The devil said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.'"
Now, that is a very tempting thing when you haven't eaten for 40 days and you're in the wilderness. "But Jesus answered, 'It's written,'" He just quotes the scripture too, "'Man shall not live on bread alone.' The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours. And Jesus answered, 'It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.' The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple".
You can go to Jerusalem, by the way, and you can look at this place. "'If you are the Son of God,' he said, 'throw yourself down from here. For it's written: 'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully, they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Interestingly that he also knew some of the scripture. "But Jesus answered, 'It is said: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' And when the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time". Didn't leave Him, just said, "I'll be back". And then, this is amazing, Jesus, after all this, "Returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news spread about him through the whole countryside".
Jesus fasted because of the great purpose that He was called to. As far as we know, He hadn't healed anybody, hadn't walked on water, hadn't turned water into wine, hadn't fed 5,000, hadn't raised the dead, hadn't preached the sermon on the Mount, but He knew the purpose that was on His life. And so, He chose to pray before He made all of His plans. We, on the other hand, typically make all of our plans and then we pray. And what God's inviting us to in this season is to flip that for a bit and to just say, "God, I wanna seek you first and then I want you to help me make my plans. I wanna seek you first and I want you to do whatever you wanna do in my heart, and then I wanna think about my goals for the year, my aims for the year, my ambition for the year, the things that I want to accomplish this year".
I'm not gonna go and do all that and then say, "And Lord, it would be awesome if you would bless all the things that I'm planning on doing this year". No, Jesus is reversing all that and saying, "I know what some of the plans are. I don't know every detail necessarily of the journey, but I know the main point of this, and because of that, I'm going to seek you first".
So, what is fasting? Simply, it is this. It is creating space through the withdrawal from earthly appetites in an intentional and concentrated effort to access the things of God and God Himself for satisfaction of the soul and supernatural breakthrough. That's what we're doing. So, it's more than just an activity. You might wanna just take a snapshot of that if you want it 'cause I'm gonna, it's going away. Okay, sorry, if you want to, you can just take a real quick pic 'cause it's going away. Great, some of you are like... many of you are like, "I know there is a camera on this phone somewhere, I have used it before".
It's more than just the activity. I'm fasting this week, I'm not doing any meals in the middle of the day, I'm not doing social media, I'm not doing Netflix binges, I'm intentionally withdrawing from some earthly appetites to create space, to move towards God. But it's not just the activity, it's more, I think, of an attitude. And to say it a little bit differently, it's actually more of an altitude. My favorite line after Passion 24 so far is a friend who said to me, "I'm not coming down". I was like, "I like it". "I got a new altitude," he said.
And in another way, it's an all-to-tune. It's tuning my life, my heart to God. It's like you see the musicians up here in between songs and they'll, you know, click a little button down there on the floor which takes their guitar out of the speakers and then they'll tune in between, and then they'll click again, now I'm back, but I'm in tune now. And that's what fasting is all about. It's tuning, it's me staying in the right key, the key of God, and God's purpose, and God's plan for my life. And it's staying in tuned.
The question that we really have to think about, and this is the question that Ben really posed so beautifully last week is are we desperate enough to want a new attitude? To want new altitude? To want to all be in tune with God? Are we really that desperate? Do we really care about the guy's son? Or are we even that desperate for our own son? Or for our own heart, for our own lives, for the city, for the nation, for the world? Are we really that desperate or are we comfortable where we are? It's, kinda, like, when your car gets filled up with gas, everybody feels great. My car, very smart car, tells me how far I can go. I think I can go, like, 432 miles.
And you're like, "That's good. I'm not planning on going 432 miles today, so I feel good". And then, you know, day by day, week by week, depending on how far you drive every day, it starts letting you know, "Okay, you're moving down". Now, there's all kinds of different people when this happens. There are the three-quarters of a tank people start looking for the chevron, you know what I'm saying? Who knows that person? They're like, "I don't know, I might stop and get gas. Well especially it's cheaper right there, so I don't need to get gas, but they got cheap gas".
I don't know, some people are just very fixated on cheap gas. They will drive to Cartersville to get 'em some cheap gas. "I don't know, let's fill up while we're up here, it's cheap". You know, I'm not knocking it, that's awesome. But then there's... Any three-quarter tank people? Just point to one if you know one or you're one. Okay, beautiful, love it. These people have such a fear of running out of gas that it's never happening. I don't know if it happened in the past, I don't know what was in the story. Then there's your half tank people.
We got any more people coming now say, "Oh, we're down to half tank, I don't know, might have to drive to Mississippi tomorrow. I better fill up 'cause this half tank, and I can only go 200 and something miles on a half of tank. So, I, you might have snow jam again, I don't know, you never wanna be at half a tank on a snow jam". Then there's your quarter of a tank people and then you're like, "Eh, okay, I'm gonna start thinking about it". Any of those people here? It's like, "Ah, I'm gonna start thinking about it".
There we go, alright. And then there's the, "Oh, the light is on... woah". Yeah, people are pointing at people around them right now. But here's the thing about "The light is on" people. A very small percentage of them are just those people that just live in bliss, you know what I'm talking about? It's like, "The light is on, ah the light, oh, the light is on, what light is that? Which one is that? 'Cause they're all on". You need to see which one. "Which one is that one? Oh, the gas light is on. Oh well, well, my husband will fill the car up later. Honey, they light is on".
But most of the people with the light is on are just risk takers. They're like, "You know what? I don't know exactly how much gas is in there, but I know they leave some in there when the light comes on". And then there are those people, this will be the last group, and you're calling a friend, you know, "I'm over here by Cumberland mall on Cumberland Blvd, right at... You know, when you go pass the Carrabba's, I'm right there pulled in right to the parking lot. If you could come bring a gas can. I started out with, 'I can go 432 miles,' but now here I am sitting in a parking lot, waiting on a friend to put a gallon of gas in my car, and I'm still not going to the gas station right away. 'Cause I got a gallon of gas in my car".
It's like that spiritually. And the stakes are a lot higher. When we ask that question, how desperate are you? Because we can do, you know, we can do one of these that last a year. You know, we can make it simple enough that you can scan a code and all of a sudden, it's right on your phone through passionequip.com. But that's not gonna make any difference for someone who's waiting for the light to come on, and you're like, "The light ain't on yet. I'm okay".
And God's inviting us to more. The Psalmist said what I wish we could all say, honestly. He basically was saying, "I got down to the bottom of the tank, and I got to a place that I realize there is no body, there is no pleasure, there is no joy, there is no thing to do, fly to, go to, buy, experience that is ultimately gonna do, in my heart, what my heart was created for". And for a lot of us, you know, it takes us burning through a lot of stuff to get to that point of going, "Yeah, that was amazing, but I still needed more after that".
I got that, I thought if I got that, but when I got that, I realized, "Oh, that's not gonna do it completely". And the Psalmist is telling us what it's like from down at the bottom. He says, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire beside you. My flesh and my heart may fail," and that's not a "They might fail," that is, "They have failed, and they will fail". They fail. "My heart and my flesh fail me, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge, and I will tell of all your deeds".
Are you desperate for Jesus? And secondly, are you desperate for somebody else? Listen to what that father said, "But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us". Is there anybody in your story that you're desperate for them? And what you're saying and your response to them is, "I will take pity on you and I will help you". I'm not gonna give you the glib, "Oh, we'll pray for you," or, "You've really been on my heart a lot lately," or, "Our thoughts are with you". All that's great, but can anybody say, "I care enough that I'm going to do the kind of praying that this kind comes out by? And I'm gonna do that kind of praying until it comes out". That's the invitation.