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Well, happy New Year, Echoes Church. How are we doing? Man,
what an honor and a privilege it is to get to be with you. If we have not had the chance to meet yet, my name is Daniel. I'm the lead pastor here, and we're just we're so honored that you would join us for the first Sunday of twenty twenty six. Again, we're we're a pretty new church. Our one year anniversary is coming up here in a couple weeks, and we hope to have you back. It's gonna be a party.
But it's been it has been unbelievable what God has done in our church in the last year. Had you told me for our first, like, official Christmas service that we would do seven services and see 5,500
people show up, I would have told you that you were crazy, yet yet here's what God has done. And we just believe that what we've seen is just the beginning of what God is doing. And so I hope you showed up today with hearts full of expectation because I believe that 2026
is going to be a year where God just absolutely blows our mind with what he's gonna do in us and through us. Amen?
Amen. I hope you have some time to think and reflect and thank God for all that he did last year. I just wanted to also take a second and just say thank you guys so much for the privilege of getting to be your pastor. It is the greatest joy of my life. It is an honor to get to do it, and so excited to see what God is gonna do in us and through us. You should have gotten
one of these on your way in. It's a little bracelet that says pray first. This is really as I was praying and seeking direction from God. I think that this is the motto that God wants us to build into us this year. If you didn't get one, there are some outside. We'll have them next week as well. You can grab them. But our motto this year is gonna be pray first. We wanna be people before we act, before we react, before we post, before we spend, before we do anything,
we're going to pray first, but I promise you, it will not be your natural default response. We're gonna have to begin to train ourselves to have the approach of going, oh, we're gonna we're gonna pray first. We're gonna start a series today. Spend the next four weeks talking about what does it mean to be people who pray first. So if you have a bible, open them up to Matthew chapter six.
We're going to look today at the greatest teaching that Jesus gave us called the sermon on the mount. It's probably the most important teaching that we have of Jesus, but he's gonna talk about three things. He's gonna talk about praying,
fasting, and giving, and you can just let the tension relieve. I'm not gonna talk about giving today, but we are gonna talk about praying and fasting. So you turn there, I'll pray for us, and we will jump in. So father,
God, is with hearts that are already stirring with expectation that we gather this morning. Father, we thank you for the privilege and honor that it is to get together here in a country where we can freely worship you. So father, we ask right now that you would speak to us and through us. In Jesus name, all God's people said,
amen and amen. Again, I I I'm pretty vocal about it. I talk about it pretty often. If you don't know, the greatest basketball player of all time, his name was say it with me. It was Jordan. Michael Jordan. Come on. If you said LeBron James, you gotta find another church in the name of Jesus, alright? His
name was and always will be Michael Jordan. K? Next week, we'll go through an exercise of different greatest of all times in different sports but bar none, the greatest basketball player of all time is Michael Jordan but the interesting part is Michael Jordan, when he was drafted in 1984,
came in with more expectation than almost any basketball player in human history yet he again, he set the rookie. He became the rookie of the year. He set scoring records, he he did all types of impressive things for the first few year of his his career
but the problem was is he couldn't win a championship. First seven years, he never won a championship and people started to say like maybe he's he's spectacular but he seems kind of stuck and the reason that today Michael Jordan is the unequivocal greatest of all time is because the Bulls ended up drafting a guy by the name of Scottie Pippen, okay? And it's funny if you listen to Michael Jordan when he does interviews today talking about his career,
he doesn't like to admit it but Scottie Pippen joining the Bulls was the pivotal turning point for Michael Jordan's career and together, the two of them would go on to win multiple championships and the legacy of the dynasty of the Chicago Bulls was was born. The reason that that I start there is it's important to remember and it's a principle that we see all throughout, you know, the the world is that there's there's power
in dynamic duos. Right? Batman needs Robin. You know what I mean? Like peanut butter needs jelly. Michael Jordan needed Scottie Pippen and just like those things, what I want to talk to you today about is the powerful combination of prayer
and fasting. Prayer by itself is unbelievable. Fasting in and of itself can be incredible. You take prayer and fasting and you put them together and I'm telling you what begins to happen is supernatural
breakthrough. What we're going to do as a church is we're gonna spend twenty one days and we're going to pray and we're gonna fast together,
okay? Again, it's kind of weird timing wise how it's gonna work but we're gonna start it next Monday. When you come to church next weekend, we're gonna give you a physical guide. It's gonna have twenty one days of prayer and fasting. It's gonna be a daily thing that you can follow and for twenty one days, we're gonna seek the heart and the face of God and then the weekend at the end of the twenty one days is gonna be a total worship weekend, a special service that we're gonna do and here's what I'm telling you is going to happen right now. I can guarantee you, God is going to show up in unbelievable
ways. There are people who are here today that are desperate for a physical miracle and God is going to deliver. There are people who are here who are desperate for the God of the universe to restore a relationship
and God is going to move. There are people here who are praying for prodigal children to come back to the faith and I'm telling you what's going to happen is God is going to move powerfully in our our midst. As I look at my own life, as I look at my own life, only reason I'm standing up here on this stage is because of intentional seasons that I've sought the hand in the face of God through seasons of prayer and fasting. When I was in college, I was trying to figure out what I was gonna do with my life. I was supposed to be a lawyer because that's what my dad did. I was getting my degree in political science and then I got saved. I gave my life to Jesus and I felt like everything was starting to change and I started to feel this call into ministry but I didn't know what to do. Didn't know if I was gonna like disappoint my dad so I I spent a week and I prayed and I fasted and God confirmed my calling into ministry. I then started dating this girl and I was like, I was over the moon with her. She didn't really like me that much but I thought I was gonna marry her and so I sought God's heart and I prayed and I fasted and God literally audibly spoke to me. Two times in my life, I've audibly heard the voice of God and one of them was him telling me that Ashley was going to be my wife. It took her a little bit more convincing but God told me pretty quickly.
Then we started, I got a job as a youth pastor but it felt like after a season that God was kind of nudging us to do something else and so together as a family, my wife and I began to pray and fast and God made it clear that we were gonna move to Arizona and I took a job out here. I was on staff at a church for seven or eight years and then I felt like God was stirring us to something else and again my wife and I through prayer and fasting sought God's heart and Echo's church was the byproduct of that. I say all that to say
as I look back on my life, the most pivotal moments of my life have come on the other side of intentional seasons of prayer and fasting. This will be a regular rhythm of our church in the month of January where we will give God our first,
we will give God our best and I believe that God is gonna show up in powerful, powerful ways. If you're here,
if you're here this morning and there's some area of your life you need a breakthrough and I'm telling you, you're not here randomly. God has you here for a purpose. So Matthew chapter six, I wanna start today. Again, today's gonna be a lot. It's gonna be more of like a lecture hall, lots of verses, lots of scripture to give us a foundation of why the powerful combination of prayer and fasting is so important for us to understand.
Matthew chapter six verse five, Jesus starts his teaching on prayer like this. He says, when you pray. I love Jesus. He just jumps in. It doesn't give us like a, hey, here's why you should pray. Just says, hey, when you do this, the assumption is that as a follower of Jesus, you're a person of prayer. Prayer is the lifeblood
of a person of faith. Without prayer, I would argue you don't have much with God. So Jesus says, when you pray, not if you pray but when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on Instagram, right?
Don't do it on on street corners or in synagogues where everybody can see them. He says, I tell you the truth, that's all the reward that they will ever get but when you pray, here's the instructions, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you and pray to the father in private.
Then your father who sees everything, here's what he'll do, he will reward you. Here's Jesus' instructions to a bunch of people who have believed that it's all about this public image that we present to other people, that that's the goal of this whole life is just to have this perfectly curated image that we present to the world of who we're trying to be. Let me just remind you as we start 2026,
friends, God cannot and will not bless the person that you're pretending to be. He can't do it. He won't do it. It is outside of the character and the nature of who God is
but here's what's the beautiful holy invitation from heaven to all of us this morning, is that you know what God can bless? You know who God wants to pour his favor out on his grace, his mercy, his compassion?
It's who you really are but it requires us to have a bit of a reckoning with the truth that inside of all of us, especially the fact that we live in 2026
where we have this thing called social media that forces us to almost present this this ulterior version of who we are and we spend so much of our life presenting this curated idealistic version. We get the the right picture with the right filter and if we're ever gonna read our bible or pray, we gotta make sure we get the right picture and post it online so that people
people think we're spiritual and what Jesus does is he comes in and he gives us the most important teaching that we have about how the kingdom of God operates because it has actually it actually has almost nothing to do with your your your public persona
that the power source when it comes to following God is what you're doing in private and I know that often when we think about, okay, sees what I'm doing in private, we often think about all the sin, the the bad things that we're doing that we know we shouldn't do that God is seeing and yes, that is true. There are there are no sins that you're getting away with. You're not tricking God. God knows what we do in the secret but he can forgive us of that stuff but what Jesus is reminding us is that God also sees what you do in the kingdom
in the private as well and I promise you if you want some things to be different in your life publicly in 2026, you've got to make a decision today to do some things different privately in 2026.
He says, don't worry about what everybody else is thinking. Go into a room, close the door and spend time with God. Begin to connect to his heart. Let him speak to you. Let him remind you of who you are. Let him remind you of the things that matter and that so much of this life is just a it's just a facade, it's just a show, it's just a it's just a game but there's a God in heaven who made you,
who loves you, who has plans for your life and if you will make a commitment to seek him, you will find him the scripture says. If you knock, he will open. When you pursue pursue God, you can find find him and he says that God in heaven, when you pursue him privately,
he will reward you. What Jesus is telling us is that even when it feels like God's not moving, I'm telling you he is and so often the reason that feels like God isn't doing what we think he should do is because God's timeline isn't always our timeline and God doesn't always work when we think he should work but Jesus' promise from the beginning is that when you pray,
heaven moves. God begins to move on your behalf but what he's reminding us all of this morning, here's kind of what I want to get across to us. So often, I think the reason that we struggle with continual lives of prayer is because we we we tried prayer before.
Like man, I I tried to pray when my mom was sick or my my my friend got cancer or I was struggling financially. I tried to pray and it didn't work because we've been told that what God is, who God is, is he's basically like this big cosmic vending machine in the sky and what you do is when you need financial breakthrough, that's b seven. You walk up to the cosmic genie God and you press b seven and because I pressed the right number, God is supposed to produce what I told him he's supposed to produce and we think that prayer is about influencing the hand of God but Jesus reminds us that it has less to do with influencing God and has more to do with just
being with God. I'm here this morning to remind us the purpose of prayer. The purpose of prayer is connection with God.
Why should we give God our first and our best this year? Because I'm telling you the thing that you need more than anything else, more than that relationship restored and your marriage fixed and the finances healed, the things you need more than anything else is a thriving,
intimate relationship with the God that made you.
If you go back to Genesis chapter three, you'll see God's original design for humanity before the fall, before sin, before sickness, before disease, before fighting, before financial stress. It says in Genesis three that God would actually step down into the garden, he would walk in the cool of day with Adam and Eve
and I often wonder like what did they talk about?
Like, they didn't have kids that were stressing them out, they had no in laws to navigate the holidays with, there was no jobs and bosses that were frustrating them, there was no mortgages, there was no tension inside of the marriage. Like that's usually what we bring to God because we've been told that you go to God as kind of a last resort when everything else has fallen apart. You've made a mess of it all. Then you go to God, you phone in a friend and then he fixes it all, right? But yet Jesus begins to tell us from the very beginning we see the model, no no no. Prayer is about connection with God and so often we we just want God to change things and we miss the greatest gift that God wants to give all of us which is
a thriving and intimate relationship with him. What's amazing is Jesus when he was on this earth, again, was God in human form. He literally was God. Knew God's heart more than any of us yet what Jesus would do often
is he would leave the hustle and bustle of things like this where there was public services and there was there was miracles happening. There was ministry all over the place and he would leave that. He would often leave crowds of people who were desperate for a miracle. He would leave that just to spend time alone with God. Like why would Jesus need to spend time alone with God? I don't think he needed to as much as he he wanted to. See at some point in our faith journey, prayer has to move from a discipline to a desire.
It's okay to let it start with discipline but eventually God has to win the affections of your heart. If not,
I'm telling you all faith is is just this this white knuckle thing that we're trying to get through and all of sudden it feels like man, I I keep going back to who I used to be and I I have these moments of faith where I make a couple steps forward but then I have 12 steps backwards and I'm here to tell you today
that the invitation from heaven to all of us as we start this year is that God can begin to change your desire
and you can begin to spend time with God and enjoy it with him. You get to a spot where you go, man, I just spend so much time in prayer and not what most of our prayer life is which is like, yeah, I think I prayed for twelve seconds in the last like six months, know, like it was things were going bad and I just I phoned up a prayer real fast like, we've gotta begin to realize that there's a there's a purpose to this prayer. I wanna show you in John chapter 17,
this is Jesus's prayer in one of these moments where he spent time alone with the father. It's amazing to me to think that Jesus prayed for you and I. He prayed for every single one of us and this is what his prayer was for us. John chapter 17 verse 20, he says, I'm praying not only for these disciples, the one that he was the ones that he was with, but also for all who would ever believe in me through their message. He's talking about us. Any person that would ever give their life to Jesus through the message of the disciples,
Jesus is praying for you. Verse 21, I pray that they will all be one. Do not forget that the greatest prayer from Jesus was the church would stay united
and I know it's easy for us to figure out all the things that we disagree about but it's it's really hard to stay united and committed to the the main things. Jesus knew from the beginning what will tear the church apart, it's not external threats but it's it's internal ones. I pray that they are one just as you and I are one. As you are in me, Father, I am in you and may they be so in us that the world will believe that you sent me. What was Jesus' prayer for you and I?
His prayers that eventually you would begin to realize that prayer has not, it has nothing to do with influencing God and has everything to do with just spending time with him and learning his heart and getting to to learn with him. If you're if you're taking notes, write it down this way that prayer is not about informing God. It's not about influencing God. It's about experiencing
intimacy with God. I love the idea of intimacy. It's into me you see. Like God wants you to know his heart. God wants to download his purpose on this earth to you. God wants to begin to reorient every single part of who you are to understand
his purposes on this earth and so often the reason that we struggle with things like purpose and significance is because we spend no time in prayer.
We just go through the motions. We're too busy. We're too hectic. We can watch two seasons of Netflix of a show in two days but to find 10 to pray, it's like man, who's got who's got time for that?
And I'm here this morning, it's just a gentle reminder to go, let's let's set the intention of our year to go, God, the greatest gift that you have for every single person here is a relationship with you beyond their wildest dreams
and I know that there are people who are in here who who are desperate for God to move powerfully. I know that sitting in this room are finances that are on the brink of failure, that there are marriages that are literally on their last leg.
There are people here who are who are literally pleading for God to come through for them in some area of their health and I'm here to say that I'm believing and praying that God would do all of that stuff, but what I'm believing and asking God for more, if I could give you one thing this year,
it would be a relationship with Jesus that is more important than any of all of those other things and we would begin to realize that all of that stuff is all ancillary secondary benefits to getting to know God.
Mother Teresa is probably like the the queen of prayer. Like if there was a queen of prayer, it's Mother Teresa. She prayed on most days four to five hours, right? If you're kid, you'd say six or seven hours, right? But
four to five hours every day she would pray. When was the last time you prayed for five hours in a month, right? This lady would do it every day and she talked about how there was decades of her faith journey where she felt spiritually empty and
dry. It wasn't like it was always this powerful time. She felt like there was times that it was empty yet still she said that the fruit of prayer is the joy of knowing Jesus. Why do you spend four or five hours in prayer every single day? Because it's how I get to know God
and you know what's amazing to me? It still baffles me that God would use a knucklehead like me to fulfill some type of his purpose on this earth. It is baffling to me. It would not be my choice to use me or you, but it is it's God's choice. It's how God impacts this world. Friends, you and I are plan a and there is no plan b and what will begin to happen as you sit down with God, spend time with him, allow him to download his heart to you, share your heart with him,
God will begin to show you what his will is on this earth and I'm here to tell you this morning that you have a significant role to play in the kingdom of God. That God wants to use you. You're not here randomly. You were not born into this specific
moment in culture and this moment in history by chance. God chose you for such a time
as this and the only way you'll begin to realize why you're here, the way you begin to reorient yourself to your purpose and why you're in the job that you're in, why God has entrusted you with the resources that he's entrusted you with is when you begin to spend time with him. What will begin to happen. Here's the if the purpose of prayer is connection with God, here's the promise of prayer. Okay. The promise of prayer is that God's will will be accomplished through God's people. What will begin to happen when you spend time in prayer, why should we care about any of this? Because you gotta realize that I believe that you and I right now are about to experience probably the greatest spiritual awakening
that our country has seen in probably a hundred plus years. Now, I would love to sit here and say, the reason that Echo Church is growing so fast is because of all my brilliant strategy.
The truth is, the truth is that I think Echo Church is growing in spite of me. I think Echo Church is growing in spite of some of the decisions that we've made. I think that what we are a part of right now, what we are seeing is that we are a glimpse into
what God is doing on the earth today and what a holy privilege that we've been invited into. I'm just telling you, don't sit on the sidelines when there's an invitation to be on the field in a move of the spirit of God on the earth today. You have a role to play and maybe,
maybe God is waiting for you to raise your hand and say, God, use me. Take my life, take my marriage, take my family, take my resources, God, wherever you want me to go, wherever you want me to be, my life is no longer my own.
It's yours. I'm willing to go. I will sit with you and let you download to me what your purpose is on the earth today. Again, if you keep reading in Matthew six, you'll see Jesus gives us the, it's called the Lord's Prayer. He gives us a model of how to pray. I'll teach us through it all next week. It's kind of the greatest prayer of all time, but at the end of the Lord's Prayer, Matthew chapter six verse 10, here's the conclusion
of Jesus' teaching on prayer. He says, may your kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Here's what Jesus was teaching the purpose of prayer is. The purpose of prayer is connection with God but the promise of prayer is that God will begin to download his purpose to you on the earth today
and we get to be the people that call back into alignment the things that are out of alignment with God's will in our life today. Why do we pray for supernatural healing in people's bodies today? Because we believe that physical
sickness, disease, cancer, all of it, it is actually out of alignment with God's original design. The original design, there was no sickness and disease. There was no marital stress. There was no financial tension,
so what we're doing as prayer people is we're calling back into alignment the things that are out of alignment with God's will. What we get the privilege of doing is calling God's kingdom to come on earth as it is into heaven. God, not my will but yours be done. We get the privilege and the honor of getting to do that. A couple of the church fathers, Saint Augustine said it this way, says that without God, we cannot. That you and I, we can't do anything without God but here's the part we often forget. He says that without us, God will not. This is idea that maybe what God is waiting for is he's waiting for a willing participant inside of your family line to finally step up and say, God use me.
That there's generational curses that you could break off of your family line if you just began to go, God, here's my life. You can have it. I'm no longer Lord, I'm no longer king, I'm submitting my life to you. Without God, we cannot but without us, God will not. John Wesley, the guy that started the Methodist movement said that God does nothing but by prayer and he does everything
with it. Here's the purpose I belabor this morning to you, that your prayers matter more than you could ever possibly imagine.
If you could see what was happening in the supernatural realm as you began to pray, I'm telling you, you would pray, I would pray way more than I do today. James chapter five verse 16 reminds us that the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
Here's the decision you've gotta make today. Here's the declaration I implore you to consider making in 2026 because I'm not saying that this will be a year without problems.
I'm not saying this is going to be a year where everything goes perfectly and finances won't hit moments of tension and our marriages won't be stressed and sickness still won't come. Now, all of it's going to happen because we live in a fallen and broken world but here's the invitation of what we're trying to do. We're setting the intensity of our prayer lives in the beginning of the year to say, God, this year, the intensity of my problems will never outpace the intensity of my prayer. I will not be led by my problems, I will let the intensity of my prayers set the cadence and the direction
of my life and the problems that I encounter, they're gonna have to submit to the prayers that I'm gonna pray. I refuse. This is not a statement that I can just believe for you. This is a declaration you have to declare over your life that the intensity of my problems,
they will never outpace the intensity of my prayers. Here's what I'm asking you to consider today.
As you go through these next few weeks, as you go through this year, if you get sick, pray. If you're blessed, pray. If your marriage is struggling, pray. If your marriage is doing great, pray. If finances are strong, pray. If finances are struggling, pray. We are gonna be a people who make a decision to pray first,
why? Because it's through prayer that God connects with us, it's through prayer that God meets our needs, it's through prayer that God comforts us, it's through prayer that God strengthens us and guides us and convicts us and cleanses us and heals us. It's through prayer that God teaches us to understand his word. It's through prayer that God shields us from the anxiety and the worry of this life. It's through prayer that God continually
fills us with the spirit of God that we need. It's through prayer that God will give you your assignment on this earth. It is through prayer that you and I will make an impact on this world. We are going to be people who pray first. Amen?
But just remember, prayer is only one side of the coin. There's another side. Scottie Pippen still has got to come and that's that is that is fasting.
Jesus transitions from prayer to teaching on fasting. Again, if you skip down with me, Matthew six verse 16, he says it this way. Says, when you fast, again he just makes an assumption guys, this is what we do. This is who we are. We are people who pray we're people that fast. When you fast, do not make it obvious as the hypocrites do for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting.
I tell you the truth, that is the only reward that they will ever get but when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face so that nobody will notice that you're fasting except your father who knows what you do in private and your father who sees everything, he says it again, he will reward you.
Jesus doubles down on the idea that your father in heaven knows what you do in the private and the power in the public. I'm telling you, the power source that is available to you in the public is disguised as a private life of prayer, a private connection with God and if the times you spend with God are only in public atmospheres like this, I'm telling you right now, 2026 is not gonna be any different than any year you've had before,
but the invitation of heaven is that if you can make a commitment to pray and to fast and spend time alone with God, God will move on your behalf. We look, the purpose of prayer is connection with God. God promises that he will move. He will download his will to you and here's the thing that I I've struggled with because I've I've heard for for years and years, okay, praying and fasting. Prayer is how we connect with God. Fasting is how we disconnect from this world and we we need both but it's always like, why pray? What or why fasting? Like, what does fasting practically do for us? And here's what I think is disguised or is is kind of cloaked in what Jesus just taught in Matthew six. I think he gives us the purpose of fasting. Why should we fast? He he says, don't don't do it for everybody's approval. Right? Don't do it outside and let people go, oh man, you're so spiritual because you're fasting. He says, if anything,
make sure people aren't aware that you're fasting, that the only person that knows you're fasting is God because God will reward you. What is he talking about? You realize that the greatest obstacle obstacle to to God God moving moving in in your your life, life, the greatest barrier between the blessing that God wants to pour out on your life, it's this thing called pride that every single one of us has. You realize the scripture says that God opposes
the proud. He's actually opposed to the proud but he gives grace, the scripture says, to the humble and I think what fasting is, is an invitation to voluntarily submit to the process of humbling ourselves and we're people who don't really like this. Again, if you're taking notes, I think the purpose of fasting is humility.
The reason that we take prayer, we combine it with fasting is because it's the posture, it's the way that we position ourselves to begin to receive supernatural breakthrough from heaven. The purpose of fasting I believe is is humility.
Again, it's something you can see all throughout the scriptures but Psalm chapter 35 records a time where King David,
he's seeking the face of God. He's seeking the hand of God for the nation of Israel. The people that he was entrusted to lead. It says this in Psalm 35 verse 13, it says, yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and I humbled myself, how? With fasting.
See, King David knew that the nation of Israel needed God to move and so what did he do? He said, the only thing that I know to posture myself, to position myself to receive the blessing and favor from God is God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble. How can I humble myself?
Well, it's not going around and telling everybody, man, I'm the most humble person you've ever met. I'm so humble, it's incredible like it's mind blowing how humble I am. He says, no, that's not how It's the irony of humility that the only way that we can humble ourselves is to make a decision to deny ourselves things that we we we kind of deserve like your body actually needs food to survive but fasting is making a decision to go, God, no, no, no. I need you more than I need anything else in this life
and I'm going to withhold from something because I need you more and I'm gonna position myself, I'm gonna posture myself to receive your favor, your grace, your mercy, your compassion. God, I need you to move in my life and I'm telling you right now that life has a way if you don't humble yourself,
life has a way of humbling you and often when God has to do the humbling, it's usually connected to shame and humiliation but there's something about the pride in you that has to be killed. It has to be destroyed so that God can begin to move in us and through us. Fasting
is an invitation to submit to the process of being humbled. Jesus said in Luke chapter 14 verse 11, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled. If you make a decision to just completely continue to exalt yourself, I'm telling you at some point, you will be humbled and those who humble themselves,
they will be exalted. When you make a decision to humble yourself before God, you position yourself for breakthrough. You position yourself for exaltation. Think about who's the first created being that made a decision that he was gonna exalt himself above every other being? His name was Lucifer.
Eventually, what happened is he was thrown out of heaven and he was humbled and then we see the the contrary. We see the opposite. We see another human being that was born two thousand years ago who literally was God in human form who could have because of his position, he could have claimed all the authority on the earth but what did he do instead?
He chose to humble himself. He came as a servant. He would wash his disciples feet. He would constantly do the things that were reserved for servants showing us that the pathway to understanding who you really wanna be in this life is not through self exaltation but it's through a process of humbling
yourself. I love John Wesley, the guy that started the Methodist movement. He wouldn't even ordain a Methodist pastor unless they were willing to fast every single Wednesday and Friday and I'm like, praise God I'm not Methodist, alright?
He said this, he says, I'm persuaded that if a Christian has understood the need to fast and does not practice fasting, he will backslide just as surely as a Christian who has understood the need to pray and does not pray.
Our commitment this year is we're gonna pray and we're going to fast believing that the powerful combination of prayer and fasting begins to change things. So practically, what is fasting? This is something that I don't think we fully understand
because most of us are like, see my friends, they do social media fast. Okay, that's that can be helpful but that's not biblically what fasting is. Okay, fasting if you're taking notes, it's abstaining from food
for a spiritual purpose.
Okay, fasting is singular in nature and that it's connected to food. Now again, we're gonna start next Monday. We'll have a guide that takes you through this whole thing. We'll put all the support on social media and all the stuff and I'm not necessarily saying that you should just not eat at all for the next twenty one days. Okay, some of you will die if you try to do that
but there are multiple different ways to fast. You've got a week to do research, you've got a week to think about it. I'm not saying you can't start this week but as a church, our twenty one days will start next Monday. Here's a couple different types of fasting that you can consider. One of them is like a juice
and water only fast. Some people will do a liquid only fast and it's amazing, people will get a cheeseburger, blend that thing up in the blender and like that's liquid in the name of Jesus, alright?
You could do what's called a Daniel fast. It's gotten really popular in the last couple years. This is where you cut out everything except vegetables and fruit. You could do a fast that says, I'm gonna do no meats or no sweets.
You could do one where you just go, I'm gonna remove a certain meal of the day. You could just go, I'm not gonna eat breakfast every day. I'm gonna spend time with God in the morning and then at lunch, I'll break my fast and I'll in the morning, I'll set my intention to spend time with God. I think what I'm doing, I'm still not completely set on it, but what I think I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do this one, which is no eating until sunset. We make a decision every day. God, I'm seeking you. I'm spending time with you. Every time the hunger pains come, every time I think about food, it's a reminder to go back to the God that made me, and then at sunset, you break the fast and you have a big meal, but again, here's the purpose. Here's the why. Here's why we're doing this. First Peter chapter five, God opposes the proud,
but he gives grace to the humble. So here's the instructions, so humble yourself under the mighty power of God and at the right time, he will lift you up in honor. If the purpose of fasting is humility, here's the promise of fasting. The promise of fasting is breakthrough,
and again, I know I've said it already that there are people who are in here who are desperate for a breakthrough this year. You're desperate. I don't know what it is but I know that there's something that you are desperate for God to change in your life. I don't know if it's an addiction that you've struggled with for years that you're trying to finally let go of. I don't know if it's a marriage that has been on the brink of failure for a long time.
I don't know if it's I don't know, again, don't know what it is, but I do know here's where breakthrough comes. When we position and posture ourselves before God, we get ready for the breakthrough. We do it through fasting and through prayer. Last verse that I have for you, second Chronicles chapter seven verse 14.
This is a promise that we can take to the bank. Jesus or the scripture say that then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins and I will restore their land.
This is God's word to us. I think this is a prophetic word to us sitting here today that there's a promise that God will hear us. He'll forgive our sins and he'll restore our lands. But do you notice here there's four actions that God asks us to commit to? There's four things that he says you've got to do and if you do these then God will do his part. Look at what they are. He says, you've got to make a decision to humble yourselves.
How do you humble yourselves? Through fasting. Fasting is an invitation to humility. So if you will fast, if you will pray,
if you will seek my face which is this, it's corporate worship, It's seeking God's face together with the body of Christ. If you will fast, if you will pray, if you will worship, and if you will turn from your wicked ways, this is repentance.
It's not enough to just fast and pray. You then have to be willing to allow the spirit of God to convict you of some things and you've got to be willing to go, God, I'm I'm willing to change my mind on some things and God, there's some things that I've been doing my own way and I'm willing to submit to your way. This is the beautiful
holy invitation to this thing called sanctification where you you start the process broken
and messy and full of sin and the spirit of God will begin to indwell inside of your soul and over time, God will begin to change you from the inside out. But you've got to make a decision to trust Jesus more than you trust yourself. You've got to make a decision to believe God at his word more than you who are in control.
I'm telling you the invitation to the life that you want in 2026 is disguised in this thing called surrender. Why prayer and why fasting? Because it is the fastest, it is the best way for us to submit ourselves to surrender to the spirit of God. To go, God, whatever you wanna do, wherever you wanna go,
whatever you're asking for in my life God, you can have it because I know that your ways are better than my ways. I know the scripture say that there's a way that makes sense to the man but in the end that's what leads to death and God I I need your plans not mine. I need your will not mine. I need your thoughts not mine.
And I'm here to tell you today, if you want 2026 to be the greatest year of your life, I challenge everybody at Christmas, give God one year of your life. Give God one year. Seek him through prayer. Seek him through fasting. Start the year with an intention to go God for twenty one days,
we'll guide you through it. We'll hold your hand through the process. I'm telling you, there is breakthrough
that is available to you. So here's my challenge. I I want you right now. Take out something that you can write something down with. Well, there's a piece of paper. You could use your phone. You could use a note app on your phone, but I'm gonna ask everybody to do this. I wanna ask you right now.
What is it that you're praying for in 2026? What are you believing God for right now? If I told you that God was here right now and he could do a miracle in your life, what would you need God to do? Write it down.
Take a moment. I want you literally to write it down. Put it on a piece of paper. Put it in your phone. I'm gonna have you in a second. I'm gonna have you hold it up, and we're gonna prophetically declare that God is gonna begin to move in us and through us. So take a second and write it down.
So tell God, God this is what I'm asking for you to move, and this is where I'm asking you to move in. And then here's your homework. The second question that I have that you need to answer over the next week is what are you fasting from?
What does the fast look like? Because again, you've got a week to prepare yourself. Eat all the donuts. Eat all the junk this week because next week, man, we start twenty one days of prayer and fasting as a church. And I'm telling you right now, you can take it to the bank. God is going to move in powerful ways in us and through us. And I don't know what it is that you need God to move desperately in, but I'm here to remind you that there's still a miracle working God that cares about the things that are burdening your hearts this morning.
Here's what wanna ask you to do. As we close, I want you to take whatever it is, a piece of paper, your phone that has that thing on it, and I want you right now to hold it out in faith. I wanna pray for every single one of these things as we close our service today.
Thank you for your trust. Thank you for being willing to feel kind of silly for a second. Just hold us up and father right now, God we take every one of these requests that God I could never know, but we trust that you do. And father, I know every hand lifted is a heart that is connected to something that is burdening them. That God, there are there are marriages that need reconciliation.
God, there are prodigal children that we're praying for them to return to the faith. God, there are addictions that need to be broken in the name of Jesus. Father, there are generational cycles that need to be ended in the name of Jesus. Father, there are financial breakthrough that are needed. God, there are jobs.
There are there are sicknesses, and father, we know right now that you are more than capable. But God you care about the things that burden us, and so father, we trust you with all the things right now that are too heavy for us to carry, that are too hard for us to hold.
Father, we trust you with every single one of these needs. In the mighty and holy precious name of Jesus, all God's people said. Amen and amen. Thank you guys so much for letting me yell at you for a couple minutes.