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Seeking Help From The Lord | David Fisher

So good to have y’all today. I look out a lot of a lot of folks are are well who who were sick last week So it’s so good to have you All ready to study the scriptures together this morning ready for a new year Do you remember what it was like I mean do you really remember what it’s like when the Lord first opened your heart to believe in Him What a joy what a What a what a joy that brings maybe it’s just a relief Because we knew of the problems in the in the ditch. We were in I don’t know what what it felt like for you, but God does that But it’s also true that As we start growing as we start living The Christian life we often soon find ourselves falling into routines Where we do it because It’s our routine.

It’s expected of us to be here and you know, we expect Christians to be here we expect people got it. We have these expectations and it seems like we start losing the joy At some point in our walk sometime we just lose the hunger Just Lose the hunger of what it of that desire that that hunger of desiring to be in his presence and It just kind of becomes old hat Anybody ever felt that way before If we’re gonna be honest, we’re really gonna be honest That sometimes we just fall into that a routine and we just lose we get dry We we don’t get hungry anymore and we start losing our direction Just be aimless. I mean we we come we’re going through the motions for participating, but we seem to have lost that That unction that desire that burning fire in our hearts.

Have you ever been there? I Think it’s so important as we start this new year. It’s not just important as we start the new year It’s always important, but I surely want to focus on at the start of this new year of how do we get that new direction? I’m so glad Stacey mentioned about asking the inquiring of God because that’s exactly we’re going to talk about today is inquiring of God for direction Because you can have the greatest ideas of your own you can follow the the the regular old traditions and the Expectations and you just gonna find yourself aimless The question is is are we approaching God and inquiring of the Lord asking God? What is the direction that you have for me right now? We’re gonna go back to the same verse that we talked about last week in Acts 13 2 if you have your Bible We also have it up here on the screen in Acts 13 2 We have Saul and Barnabas He’s there two of the five teachers that are there in Antioch and they are ministering to God this To put it back in context Jesus has been alive Raised from the dead for more than ten years now Think of you going through your spiritual walk for ten years and maybe the the condition you might be in these these people Found the need and they were ministering they were ministering But this is the very first time in the book of Acts That something is recorded that took place and they may have been doing it for ten years. I don’t know the scriptures don’t say But we know here in Acts 13 2 as they ministered to the Lord you got that up there as they ministered to the Lord We talked about that leak last week as they ministered to the Lord as they served the Lord as they were in the position and of priests ministering to the Lord Not to people but to the Lord and what and fasted we mentioned that last week But I want to spend more time in it this week So I’m going to understand what that means and why they would be doing it It says and when they fasted the Holy Spirit said Didn’t say they got the feeling it didn’t say they got an impression.

It said the Holy Spirit said Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them first three Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them They sent them away and Saul and Barnabas began an amazing missionary trip and journey up into Gentile lands I Don’t know what was going on there in the church in Antioch But I believe they had a hunger and a need for God to give them direction It wasn’t just about teaching They were teachers teaching is good teaching is important. It wasn’t just about prophecy These were prophets and teachers prophecy is important But I’m gonna tell you we’ve got to have direction Don’t we I Need to know what my next step needs to be that’s ordained by God Not out of the creation of my own mind and my own initiative So we know that they are fasting. I believe they’re inquiring of God God What is the next step for us? We’ve been here in Antioch for a number of years and We know there’s more God, what is it that you want done and so they begin to fast It’s the third time in the book of Acts where the spirit directly spoke At least it’s recorded as having spoken The first time was Philip Philip as you’ll remember was a deacon And an angel told him to go to a certain road to a certain place But didn’t tell him to do anything else and as he’s there a man a eunuch a person who was from another country had been Worshipping in Jerusalem was driving back on their chariot and driving by and it said the spirit told him to go near the The chariot get up there and start talking to him and led the man to Christ He was reading the book of Isaiah, but he didn’t understand it.

But the spirit gave Philip Specific direction at that specific time The second time was with Peter Peter’s in Joppa and he’s praying up on the roof and the Lord gives him a vision He gives it to him three times of this sheep that comes down with unclean animals And he tells him to arise and eat and I’m gonna tell you it just confused Peter completely He said I don’t understand this. I don’t eat that kind of stuff You know, there were unclean animals that he as a Jewish boy or a man he just wouldn’t do because it was against the law of Moses and it says as he was Thinking about the vision now, he’s contemplating God. What were you trying to tell me? It said there the spirit said and spoke to him directly and gave him direction There’s gonna be some Gentiles coming He’s unclean people coming and I want you to go with them Specific direction and then here we have the third here in Acts 13 where the spirit said It’s important for us to study the word the scriptures are Vitally important they are the Word of God It is important to us for us to listen to the word of prophecy in Scripture and the prophecy in the church But I’m gonna tell you the most important direction you can get is direct revelation from the Spirit of God When the Spirit tells you to go do something and then do it There are teachers out there who say that that doesn’t happen I’m sorry.

The Word of God says it does it does But you know sometime it’s there’s a requirement upon us we’ve got to start asking them Sometime God won’t speak to you until you start asking God. What do you have to say? Sometime I go about my own business and I’m doing what I want to do and My wife’s teaching the kids a day so I can say it she won’t know You may watch the video and she’s speaking to me, but I’m doing what I’m wanting to do right this very second If I’m honest I heard her I just didn’t tune in You Know the Holy Spirit does the same thing he speaks to us and we get so busy in our own business In our own plans that we do not respond to his voice So important for us to learn to be available father speak Hike Samuel me God speaking to him says Lord. Here’s your servant speak.

I To give you direction This wasn’t just God just spirit just speak to me so that I can know stuff. It was no it was for specific direction and There are times you can read your Bible and it gives you important the Word of God But it just doesn’t give you these specific direction at the very moment the scriptures didn’t say Now send part Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I’ve called them. There’s no verse that said that But the Holy Spirit told him and the Holy Spirit made it very clear to him there’s direction when we inquire for God And there’s one aspect in one way that we can I believe the scriptures say that we can enhance Our Asking in our inquiring of God and that is through fasting That’s what I want to spend the rest of the service on Last week.

I asked you if y’all would participate with me during this month of January to begin fasting Because I believe it’s important for us to inquire of God to inquire of the Lord for direction We Can do good things Or we can do better things. I Want to do better things Then we can do better things when we hear directly from what the Lord’s telling us to do If what the Lord’s telling you to do, so I’m gonna ask you I’m asking you again for those who weren’t here last week That you will fast and pray during this month of January God’s already beginning to give me some understanding and some believe some revelation of direction, but I want to hear confirmation And I’m not going to share that until the end of the month But I want you to do that. I’m praying that you I’m asking I’m asking you to join us in that I have a few verses that that come from the Old Testament of where people were fasting There’s there’s a good many verses in the Old Testament a lot of times fasting is because they’re mourning Mourning like in crying.

They’re they’re sad. They’re mourning or they’re repenting Before God there’s lots of verses in there, but there’s some verses where they’re doing nothing but inquiring of the Lord’s direction And so that’s the specific if you need to fast and pray because of things you’ve been doing wrong And you need to get your heart, right? I encourage you to fast for that But I’m specifically calling for the fast that deals with inquiring of what does the Lord want from me? What’s the direction that he specifically has for me? So you turn I’m gonna have these three up here So I’m gonna go through them quick so you don’t have to spend time looking for him Bubba and so I know sometimes I go too fast. I go too fast.

So I got them up here judges 20 judges 26 If you’re making notes, you can write that down and look them up later And then the children this is this is when the children of Israel are having this conflict with the tribe of Benjamin And they don’t know exactly what to do and how to do it says then all the children of Israel That is all the people not just some of the people not just some of the leaders Not just some of the priests not just some of the Levites It says how many how many people were doing this? All all of the people all of the people went up and came to the house of God and wept How many times have we wept seeking God’s favor and God’s direction in our lives next verse They sat there before the Lord and they fasted that day Until evening until it got dark and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord And God gave him direction and told him exactly what to do Second Chronicles chapter 20 Verse 3 and 4 says and Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat was one of the Kings was one of the kings of Judah and he says and Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord See, he knew exactly where to go to get answers He set himself to seek the Lord and he proclaimed a fast throughout Judah He didn’t say for the preachers to go fast. He didn’t say for the elders to go fast He didn’t say for the just the Levites or the priests to go fast who’s supposed to be fasting All all of Judah his whole all of the people within his within his kingdom next verse So Judah, so they all did so were they responsive? Did they accept the call from the king? Yes So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord and from all the cities of Judah they came To seek the Lord they were participating. They’re asking for direction and the last one I have here is in Ezra Ezra was a Priest and after the Babylonian Captivity, he was one of the ones who led a large group of people and at this point in time the king the king Said Ezra I want you to take a bunch of money.

I want you to take a bunch of possessions I want you to take your people and I want y’all to go back to Jerusalem Leave Babylon go back to Jerusalem and begin building the temple of God again. Here’s here’s a bunch of animals Here’s a bunch of gold And so what is telling Ezra says I want you to go travel from Babylon to Jerusalem With all this money and with all this gold Can you imagine what that felt like? They didn’t have good streets. They didn’t have good highway patrol.

I mean he’s going off. He’s putting himself Completely at the mercy of who may be on those streets and who may be on those roads and who may be in the hills And who may be in the nooks and crannies and if you’ve ever Those of you who have seen video or who’ve actually traveled from from that area of the country going up to Jerusalem. It is treacherous Notorious for bandits y’all remember the story of the Good Samaritan.

That’s where that’s where he got beat up and robbed The Good Samaritan got robbed going up to towards between Jericho and Jerusalem He says and so I proclaimed this is Ezra speaking And I proclaim to fast there at the River of Hava That we might do what we humble ourselves before God and to seek from him what? the right way For us and our little ones and all of our possessions next verse Next one’s in 23, so they did what so they fasted They fasted and they entreated our God for this and God did what? He answered their prayer The truth was he was ashamed to go to the king and say hey Will you mind sending us some military escorts on the way because they’d been saying the Lord’s going to protect us So he’s now saying Lord Lord We need you I’m not going to rely upon the Babylonian military to take care of me We’ll take care rely on you to take care of me And they fasted There’s something about fasting that Is contrary to human nature? And he all like to eat We have fellowship dinners here every now and then y’all good cooks. We like to eat don’t we? I’m calling for a fellowship fast First to fast Not in the same room, but in the same time frames Now we spent some time fasting. I love to eat You wouldn’t know that and I love to eat I enjoy eating I enjoy eating Good cooking from good cooks My wife is a good cook as you can see I Love to eat But there’s something about fasting that changes and breaks your routine It makes you stop It makes you stop in it.

You know what it does it hurts It hurts Your stomach starts hurting Your head starts hurting And y’all ever done that you start fasting and it hurts You see somebody you see it don’t be watching TV and commercials and food commercials on TV. Oh, just it’s I Was doing fine until I saw that you know you see It hurts The Bible Old Testament talks about afflicting yourself it’s saying I’m going to purposefully stop eating Because I need to break my routine You know we get to the routine of just eating and snacking all day long. Don’t you? Especially when you’re bored What do you do? You just got to have a snack got to have a snack got to have a snack Something’s the crunch on so you just Any y’all do that? It’s our routine and I’m gonna tell you there’s sometimes we’ve got to say God.

I want to get out of that routine I’m eating junk food I’m putting junk into my life and I’ve got to break it I’ve got to break it and I’m gonna break it today. I’m gonna break it today. And so you choose not to eat And it hurts But I’m gonna tell you what it does I Think it renews and sparks a hunger for God that we didn’t have before Because if you’re always snacking on stuff you don’t ever really enjoy the big meal do you? My mama used to she wouldn’t let us have cookies during the day.

She wouldn’t let us have chips Our snacks were carrot sticks and celery This is I’m telling you all the truth, I mean it was a special day to get a small bag of Cheetos Should buy the big multi-pack and we’d all we’re five of us kids and we’d all get to pick two And you’d store it until a special time and you ate the snack other than that. It was carrot sticks and celery It’s all that’s all we that was our snack But I’m gonna tell you when it came time for dinnertime. I ate Because I was hungry I’m calling on us to fast to say God.

I Relationship with you to be a routine. I want it to be something special Because I need for you to feed me I’m feeding on junk. I’m eating junk.

I’m watching junk. I’m spending time with junk Father I need your direction and I need your I Need you to tell me specifically The one thing about fasting that I found to be true is you become sharper in your mind when you fast You become more spiritually attuned to his voice. I Have found that God gives more clear visions and dreams at nights After I’ve spent time fasting have any y’all had that experience any of you No Let’s go back to it.

Let’s get back to it Let’s spend some time where we’re inquiring of God and spending God saying God I am giving this up because I need something from you in what it’s not Possessions, it’s not money It’s not things what I need most of all from you is a word from you of Direction of exactly what it is that you want me to do so that I can be pleasing to you Is that a great way to start the year It really spend time doing it. I know fasting is I don’t know why It is but it’s foreign to most people in churches Isn’t it? If we’re real honest we don’t hear about that very often But I’m gonna tell you the Bible tells us if we’ll fast and we’ll pray God will answer and he’ll hear us And I want to hear from them Don’t you I Do too He babies cry when they’re hungry Maybe we’re not crying enough Maybe we’re sucking on spiritual pacifiers Not getting the thing that we need I’m gonna tell you what we need is we need the nourishment from God And you know what? It’ll satisfy every need of our heart every desire of our heart If we’ll just go to God said God, I want I want you to satisfy me All this stuff. I don’t need to satisfy me.

I need you to satisfy me. I need you I Need you to satisfy me I Hunger hurts and we get his attention and I believe that when we start denying ourselves And we learn we learn to start saying God. I want to hear from you We’re setting aside that time so that he will answer us You know fasting can get to be a routine to See folks in the Old Testament would fast and fast and fast, but they went about doing their own business Isaiah 58 talks about it a whole lot.

I’m not gonna get off into that That’s a whole nother lesson there. There were people, you know, the Pharisees fasted It’s not just the act of fasting It’s the act of fasting in the right way and for the right reason for the right purpose It’s not so that I can check off a box say I’m such a good Christian I fasted today or I fasted this week’s. I’m that’s not what I’m talking about Okay, it’s not just a spiritual discipline that oh now.

I’m I’m a better Christian now because I’m doing it People can develop a pride, you know, there were some people in the Old Testament that when they would fast Oh, they wanted everybody to know it They put on the ash cloth ash and sackcloth. Oh, it looked miserable How you doing today, brother Joe? I’m fasting today I’m serious. This is what how they were trying to Portray themselves as extra.

Holy is extra special because Jesus talked about it over over in in Matthew 6 Jesus said He told us how not to fast He says don’t when you fast don’t be like the hypocrites with a sad face Walking around fast and putting on a big show letting everybody well, you know, I’m sorry I can’t go out with you today. I’m fasting They disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting Assuredly, I say to you they’ll have their reward. Their reward is.

Oh, wow. They must be something special It’s but when you fast She’s talking about us when you fast Anoint your head and wash your face Go about you looking like normal. You know, what take a shower Hey, don’t go walk around your hair all sticking up.

Well, I’m fast and I’m fast. No good Look like you look lucky. Yep, you put together.

He says wash your face Anoint anoint your head and wash your face so that you do not appear to men to be fasting. I was it’s not about Telling them It’s about your relationship with God He says but to your father says So that you do not appear to men to be fasting but to your father who’s where in the secret place And your father who sees in secret will reward you Openly how many y’all want to be a reward have to receive a reward? That’s not many of you. I Want a reward And so I’m not I’m not throwing something out here to you just to do because it’s a holy thing to do I want you to get some rewards Are we talking to people here who want some rewards? and I’ve signed me up a Reward sign what Sign me up And I didn’t know there was a reward And if I knew there’s a reward I’d have spent more time looking for it lost dog reward $100 Lost dog Nothing which dog you gonna be looking for? I’m looking for the dog.

Just got a reward. How about you? I’m what I want a reward in it That’s and we’re not doing it because I want an award work. That’s just what comes with it What I want most of all is to hear a direct word from the Holy Spirit that says David I want you to do this and then when it happens man, what great joy because you say God’s using me today Is there a better feeling in the world when you know, the Holy Spirit has used you today He’s used you he wants to use you and he wants to give you direction if I’ll just listen I I Quit sitting here moaning and complaining just start saying father.

What is it that you want me to know? There’s something important about Fasting not I don’t know what kind of fast I’m Sherilyn says you got to tell them what kind of fast they’re talking about Yes, that’s kind of confusing. There are all kinds of fasts Okay, Moses did a 40-day no food and no water That’s not the one you probably signing up for Now it was a good one But I’m gonna tell you the Holy Spirit and the Lord had to nourish him because your body not gonna last more than three days Without water. Okay, there has to be some spiritual going on for that one to be sustained.

Okay, that’s just the truth Now I know people who’ve gone on 40-day fast of food. I’m gonna tell you that’s tough on people. It’s hard on people There’s the Daniel fast And so I’m not asking y’all to not eat for the rest of the month.

I’m just trying to make this very clear I’m gonna ask you to do that if God calls you to do it get after it But that’s not what I’m calling you to do. I’m calling you to spend some time fasting during this month The Daniel fast was with Daniel for 21 days did not eat anything desirable meaning good stuff to eat He didn’t eat any meat and he didn’t drink any wine during those 21 days Assume he still ate vegetables and other non-desirable foods Whatever qualified is non-desirable Broccoli, I guess he ate broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Now.

I don’t know what he ate We don’t know what he ate, but he limited his food was what we’d call a partial fast. He’s not eating. He’s not eating Meat, he’s not eating all of this stuff Some people as you saw there with the scriptures we read they just fasted that day They woke up that morning didn’t eat and they didn’t eat until it got dark And so they broke their fast What is breakfast brick? You’re thinking with that in the morning.

We have what? Cheerios that we said no. No in the morning you have we have breakfast break fast break fast and so Some people they just don’t eat breakfast. They don’t eat lunch, but they eat a dinner.

I Don’t know for some people they go a full day And they don’t eat a dinner. Just I have I generally spend Mondays doing that and My my dreams on Monday night are much more vivid to be honest with you. God seems to give me direction After I’ve spent a day fasting, but it hurts it hurts But I believe it’s a sacrifice that we just choose to make because we want To hear from him and if we choose to hear from him, he’s going to give us a reward.

Y’all want a reward. I do too We’re gonna go from fasting now to a feast They’ll get the we have the John is getting the foods the plates ready Y’all get them get them get the plates ready the fasting is important. It’s important for us.

It’s important for us to to Make that decision and I don’t want you to make a show of it. I don’t want you to Make a deal of it. You don’t compel other people to fast if they’re eating let them eat Don’t don’t put on a show.

Don’t it’s it’s a time for us to say God. I I want to hear from you Do you need direction in your life from the Holy Spirit I Do And this church does And my hope and prayers that that direction will come as we begin to learn to fast Y’all Remember when Jesus was tempted in the desert I’ll go ahead and pass start passing out the bread if you would Remember when Jesus was tempted in the desert One of the temptations is that he would turn bread into our stones into bread. I remember what G what Jesus said Jesus says man shall not live by what my bread alone, but by Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Where did that come from? Well, it came from Deuteronomy. It came from the Old Testament It came from the law where Moses was speaking to the people and I’m going to tell you what you can eat You can eat and you can eat and you’ll never be satisfied the only way that your life will ever be sustained Y’all hear me Only time your life will ever be sustained is when we begin to feast on the words of God in the things that he says Man shall not live my bread by the things we put in our mouth. It’s the things we put in our ears But everything that proceeds from the mouth of God When we fast It’s Important to spend time with his word And begin to substitute the physical food with the spiritual food spend time listening to His word Listening to what he says and I believe God will reward you for that.

I Believe God will reward you for it We all bring some up here This is a meal That Jesus began during the Last Supper it represented his sacrifice of his blood and of his body At an earlier time as ministry Jesus says it’s most assuredly I say to you that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and you drink his blood. There’s no life in you Whoever eats my flesh and he drinks. My blood has eternal life And I will raise him up on the last day means you’re gonna be resurrected with him For my flesh is real food And my blood is real drink and He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I and him As The Living Father sent me.

I Live because of the Father so he who feeds on me will live because of me This is the bread Which came down from heaven Not as your father’s ate the man on our dead He who eats this bread Will live forever And in that a great reward We proclaim his death, but we live in the power of the resurrection And he calls us he calls us to live in him because he wants to live in us So if you would let’s take his body Which is broken for you And he asks us to take and eat of it to make it you Become filled with him. I will tell you That may not be a big piece of bread But it is an important piece of bread It’s time for us to quit going hungry spiritually It’s time for us to be fed by the Spirit of God And he said I want you to take this blood the juice the fruit of the vine take and drink Cause this is the blood of the new covenant because there’s a new deal Those who trust and believe in me I’ll give them a new heart I’ll give them a new heart And because of that new heart will live with him forever That’s a great reward Those who hunger And those who thirst for righteousness will be filled by him I’m asking you to fast so that we put away some of the physical things in our lives and direct it back to him Because when he fills us with his spirit, you will always be satisfied And I’m going to tell you what in the presence of our father is the fullness of joy And he wants us to desire him and he wants us to seek him and he wants us to be joyful and Praise in his presence Amen Let’s stand together and let’s praise him Father I’ll just come to you right now. We praise you You are a great God and a merciful God and a compassionate God father we praise you for our health We praise you for our strength We praise you for the peace that you put into our lives father We praise you for the joy and father We just know that as we come together and praise you father your blessings Come forth and your rewards come forth because you desire to bless your people and father We accept it and we know it and we desire it father, I pray that in the mighty name of Jesus your spirit will fill each and every one of us that every every act of Fasting father will find rewards Every act of fasting father.

You’ll give us direction Give us Father your peace Your name is your son Jesus name. We pray. Amen