This Does Not Go Out Except by Prayer and Fasting — Shane Idleman

Prayer and Fasting as a Means of Seeking God

This sermon is probably one of the biggest areas in my life that I've seen God move through this area of prayer and fasting. As you'll see, the sermon title come up soon. This does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

Jesus Teaches Prayer and Fasting in Matthew 17

And if you have your Bibles, you can turn to Matthew chapter 17, verse 14. Matthew 17, verse 14, and let me read beginning at 14. And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on me.

Or actually, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.

Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour.

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why could we not cast it out? So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, for surely, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.

Verse 21, however, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. And that's where I wanna stop for a minute. This kind does not go out except by prayer and by fasting. And if you remember, if you were here last week, I talked about the different translations of the Bible.

And the reason I did that was because some translations actually don't include this verse. And if you're reading the NIV, or maybe the English Standard Version, or a few newer versions, they don't include this verse.

And I'm not gonna rehash everything because we did last Saturday. But if you weren't here, go listen to that message. I talked about where the new translations, such as the NIV, the English Standard Version, the New American Standard Version, all the newer versions, they come from a different school of manuscripts.

And then we have the King James, the New King James, it's called the Majority Text, from Byzantine. And this one's from Alexandria. And they come from different schools of manuscript. However, the truth is not off at all.

The truth is consistent. However, there are minute details, prepositions or words that are omitted, and the manuscripts don't quite agree. And if they did, we'd have a perfect Bible. And we worship this perfect Bible, and every jot, every tittle is absolutely perfect.

Now the truth is perfect. The truth of God is perfect. But there are different, they call it variances in the manuscripts. In the manuscripts, there's different variances. This group is very similar, and this group is very similar, even though they have some differences.

So that's where the new translations come from. And they're just, they're not new, as far as whole chapters being omitted, and truths being changed. They're both very consistent. However, this group, the King James, New King James, where it came from the school of manuscripts, has this verse in it.

However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. But the newer translations don't because their manuscripts don't. So let's unpack that for a minute before I get to the message. What I normally do in a situation like this, you'd say, well, Shane, what do you think?

Comparing Matthew and Mark's Accounts

Well, a couple things. There's something known as the synoptic gospels. If you're familiar with that, the word synoptic often means similar. So Matthew, Mark, and Luke are synoptic. They're similar. So often we can read the stories and see if there's any different contrast, see if there's any different light that we can glean from that.

And then you have Matthew, Mark, Luke. You have John that's different. Not different as far as the gospels, but he brings in a whole new light on Christ. Well, if you look at Mark chapter nine on this topic, it says this.

And when he had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast it out? So he said to them, this kind cannot go out by nothing but prayer and fasting. So we see that in the same text as Matthew, we see also Mark is recording the same thing.

And Mark was the first of the three gospels, and Matthew and Luke came later. And they're saying the same thing. They're synoptic, they're similar. So that's what I would do. I would look at other stories in the Bible and see if there's any difference there.

And they're both saying the same thing. The next point on this is the early church fathers. The early church fathers add credibility, but they don't add truth. And that's key to remember. Early church fathers, people like Tertullian, Augustine was a little bit later, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Polycarp.

These were church fathers that came the first century, the second century, the third century, the fourth century church, the beginning of the conception of the church. And if you look at their writings, do they mention this verse, or do they not mention it at all?

And one of the theologians, a recent theologian said, his name is Jonathan Borland, said no church father explicitly opposed the verse. In other words, the church fathers writing in about 175 AD to 200 AD to 250 AD, they actually quote this verse in their commentary.

And they come before this school of manuscript, if that makes sense. They're writing even earlier than that commenting on the verse. So that's why I think it adds another level of clarity for us and confirming that this verse is in the text.

Early Church Commentary on Fasting and Demons

Here's what Tertullian said. They're hard names to pronounce sometimes. He said about Jesus, he prescribed that fasting should be carried out without sadness, for why should what is beneficial be sad?

He also taught to fight against the more fierce demons by means of fasting, for it is surprising that the Holy Spirit is led in through the same means by which the sinful spirit is led out. And that last sentence just stuck with me this week.

The Holy Spirit is led in through the same means by which the sinful spirit is led out. Through prayer and fasting, you can have a deeper relationship with the Lord as the Holy Spirit is led in. And then that evil influence can be led out by the prayer and fasting.

The Reality of Demonic Influence

So as the Holy Spirit, the power and presence of the Holy Spirit is coming in, this evil spirit presence goes out is what he's commenting on, it's his commentary. Now on this point, people ask, well, do you believe in demons?

Absolutely. This isn't pixie dust and unicorns. This isn't Disneyland. This is the Bible talks specifically. If Jesus dealt with them, you don't think we'll deal with them today? They'll be present today?

Now granted, I don't think we see them in our country nearly as much as if you travel in the mission field in India or Africa where there's witchcraft and all kinds of voodoo and different things. There's a lot of people have opened themselves up to the demonic and it's a very real realm.

Actually, Paul says we don't even wrestle against flesh and blood. Your battle, what you're going through is not physical. You're not gonna win it with your nine millimeter. You're not gonna win it with a baseball bat.

You're not gonna win it by yelling and screaming. You're not gonna win it. Our battle, the battle, Paul says, your battle is not against flesh and blood. It's against principalities. It's against evil spirits that come and do harm.

That's why he goes on to say you have to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ to come against these strongholds. So yes, there's a demonic realm. It is very real. It is very scary and you better be careful with it.

We can open ourselves up to the demonic or you can also close yourself and surround yourself by the word of God. And on that note, I see a lot of times in young adults, especially when they're opening themselves up to the occult or these movies that are, I mean, I can't even watch the trailer.

I mean, there's just so much darkness and occult, the witchcraft and vampires and all this stuff. And they're actually, the reason I'm bringing it up is because they're opening themselves up to this demonic influence.

And any time darkness begins to entertain you, you're on a slippery slope. Because darkness should not entertain. It should repulse. The Holy Spirit and a believer should be repulsed by darkness. They should not be entertained by it.

So when I see Christians as just loving all these new, you know, American Horror Story and all these films and all this stuff that is just demonic at its core, you have to wonder what spirit's guiding you.

What is leading you? And I just met a while back a girl we prayed for that opened herself up to that with the Ouija board and having many demonic type dreams and waking up at night and can't sleep. And so that's a real realm.

It's the demonic realm, the spiritual realm is real. Actually, Jesus was dealing in the spiritual realm, casting out demons and healing people. We walk in the physical, we live in the physical, but there's a spiritual realm.

Spiritual Weapons in the Battle

So how do you do battle? You do battle with spiritual weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself.

See, a high thing wants to exalt itself. That's what the spiritual realm wants to do. It wants to exalt itself. And we have to bring down that exaltation to the obedience of Christ and say, no thoughts.

You're coming captive. You're not taking me captive. You're not taking me down. The spiritual realm is against me and coming against me, but I'm holding you captive and I'm fighting. And that's really the point I want to get across is there's a fight, people.

There's a battle. Life is not a playground, A .W. Tozer would say. Life is a battleground. It's not a playground. And Christians come into the battle unarmed, unprepared and untrained. And the devil says, hey, take your best shot.

And they go down week after week after month. There's a spiritual battle and we're losing spiritually. Husbands and fathers, contend for your family spiritually by praying and fasting, not by yelling and being dominating and all this stuff.

You do it by praying and fasting and seeking God. That's how you pull down these works of darkness. So it's very interesting here. Jesus said that this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

Prayer and Fasting in Early Christian Commentary

And another early church father, Origen, said this. And some of these guys that did some questionable things and infant baptism and just things that, you know, that's why we don't look to the early church fathers as perfect people.

We look to them, though, with the writing sometimes. You can gleam a lot from Augustine, especially in his confessions. Augustine wrote confessions later in his life on areas of doctrine where he changed his view from when he was younger to where he's older.

And so it's a good resource. Tertullian has good commentaries on the Bible. Justin Martyr, Polycarp. Early church fathers have good commentaries. And it's interesting to see what they were thinking 1 ,900 years ago.

1 ,900 years ago. And this is so true. The more fierce the demons, the more fierce the fasting. For it's surprising that the Holy Spirit is led through the same means by which the sinful spirit is led out.

That was Tertullian. Now reading the next one, Origen. That those then who suffer from what is called lunacy sometimes fall into the water. And they also fall into the fire less frequently. Yet it does happen.

And it is evident that this disorder is very difficult to cure. So that those who have the power to cure demonics sometimes fell in respect to this. And sometimes with fasting and supplication, which is prayer, and the more toiled they succeed.

See what they're noticing here is Jesus's words that this kind, that there's a demonic element, there's a demonic realm sometimes that doesn't come out except by prayer and fasting. The stronger the battle, the stronger the reaction.

When the enemy comes in like the flood, the spirit of the Lord is gonna raise up a standard against him. There is an onslaught, there is an attack. Sometimes you get the devil in onslaught, sometimes he's just dripping.

Just a little drip. And even the drip can bug you, can't it? Hear that sink at night? Didn't I not turn that off? It's a little thing. So he can come in in many different areas. And also about this, however this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

Fasting as a Biblical Pattern

I don't know why it's omitted in some of the manuscripts other than I do know this, it's a spiritual truth. It's so crystal clear throughout the Bible that you can't miss it. Ezra said, so we fasted and asked God and he answered our prayer.

We fasted and asked God and he answered our prayer. I actually talked about hearing God through fasting exactly a year ago on our website. Hearing God through fasting. I believe the closer you draw towards God through spiritual disciplines, the better you can hear his voice.

Tell a young adult to kick the alcohol habit and stop watching MTV and start getting into the word of God and praying and fasting. What voice do you think they'll be better able to hear him doing that?

Or following the trend of the world? Following God requires spiritual disciplines. And in that sermon a year ago I said this, Moses received the word of God after fasting. Jehoshaphat, King Jehoshaphat experienced victory after fasting.

Esther received protection after fasting. Elijah was restored after fasting. Daniel experienced the supernatural after fasting. Ezra received direction after fasting. Nehemiah was strengthened after fasting.

Joel offered the cure for judgment and it was fasting. It's funny, Joel, the prophet Joel comes on the scene and God says, I'm gonna judge the nation. Joel says, just come to God in sackcloth and in ashes and in fasting, basically in repentance.

Come to God in repentance with a broken, humble heart and fasting is just a sign of what's going on in the inside. When we fast, we're humbling ourselves before God. That disarmed all of God's judgment in the book of Joel if they would just call the solemn assembly and prayed and fasted and sought God with all their heart.

Denying the Flesh Through Fasting

Because isn't that what fasting is? You're denying the flesh and you're feeding the spirit. You're saying, basically, can I be honest and frank? Flesh, shut up. Flesh, shut your mouth. Oh, you want, and I told the first service, I put in my notes, I was hoping I remembered what I did, so now I can tell you.

But it's almost like the flesh drives our car. We leave here, I'm hungry, I wanna go buy In-N-Out Burger, I wanna go buy Panda Express, I wanna go buy Starbucks and then we go to bed and then our flesh wakes us up at midnight, doesn't that ice cream sound good or that cake or that, and it's late, and then we, okay, flesh, you're right, let me eat this.

Then we wake up, oh my gosh, I ate too much, I'm feeling kinda overweight. And then let me go to Krispy Kreme and get a donut and a coffee and I'll start tomorrow and the flesh drives us there. The flesh says, aren't you tired?

Shouldn't you take a nap? Yeah, I should. And then the flesh says, oh, now you need to go here and get a frappuccino and a cappuccino and all different kinds of things. Yeah, now what are we gonna do for dinner?

Let's go to Little Caesars. And the flesh just drives us everywhere. It just drives us, doesn't it? At some point, you gotta say, shut your mouth, flesh. You're not driving this car. Wanna make the flesh really mad?

Go home and just drink ice water tonight and say, Lord, I'm gonna seek you with all of my heart. I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna fast. I don't care what the flesh says. I'm going to submit, Lord, to what you wanna do in my life.

And when you say, oh, that sounds good right now, but in about five hours? But really, it comes down to how bad do we want it? Because I could give testimony after testimony on the power of fasting, the power of prayer and fasting.

And I truly believe that's one of the reasons God has blessed Westside so much is just from those of us who fast. I try to do it every Saturday. Many of you know that. I just go Saturday, just water only.

And it's difficult. But sometimes you gotta tell the flesh to be quiet. You're not controlling me. I'm controlling, you sit under me. You sit under me, flesh. I don't sit under you. And we don't see the benefits of fasting sometimes.

Daniel's Twenty-One-Day Fast

I would encourage you, read Daniel chapter 10 tonight. Just sit there, read Daniel chapter 10. The angel was sent to Daniel the day he began his fast. The Bible says that he ate no pleasant food, meats, wines, nothing, nothing pleasant.

And the angel was sent that day. But then he was held up by the prince of Persia for 21 days. He couldn't get to Daniel for 21 days until Michael the archangel came and set him free. And then he went to Daniel and delivered the message.

So Daniel, 21 days, probably going, what's going on here? This is not paying off. But the minute he began, he set his heart towards God to fast, God began to bless that decision. And that's even a hard fast.

No pleasant foods. Have you ever tried that? In other words, whatever you wanna eat, don't eat. And I actually am doing that this week to prepare for this message. No sweets, no meat, no coffee. Basically just plant, ask my wife, just plant-based, healthy food.

And it is a nightmare. It's not, you think, oh, I can eat, it's no big deal. We had a church potluck last night. Five pounds of carne asada. Homemade chocolate chip cookies, and then afterwards, the root beer float comes out, and I'm sitting there with my salad and quinoa.

It's like, what is going on here? This is ridiculous, for about an hour. But then when I got home, I was so encouraged. I just felt lifted up. I got up in the morning. Instead of desiring a coffee, I just desired something healthy and just sat my whole day.

I have a big breakfast in the morning, then tomorrow, I'll eat again tomorrow morning. That's my 24 hours of just water. But I got this morning and just felt filled with the Spirit of God. And when you make choices in the little things, it adds up later.

If your flesh can get you in the little things, he's gonna try to take you down in the bigger things. Once the flesh wins in this area, then he wants to win in this area, and then he wants to win in this area, and then he keeps taking you down this path.

That's why at some point, you've gotta tell the flesh no more by prayer and fasting. So if you believe that scripture is still in the Bible, which we do, there's an element sometimes that this does not come out except through prayer and fasting.

Fasting in the New Testament

And I also forgot this in the New Testament. Jesus was empowered through fasting, wasn't he? Did you know that Jesus fasted? So why do we think we don't need to? Just write down the index card for me and drop it in the offering why we don't need to fast and Jesus did.

Oh, that's a New Testament thing. Prove it. You can't. Because Jesus said when you give, when you serve, and when you fast. That's assuming. Well, who would say we don't give anymore and we don't serve anymore?

Jesus, when you do these things, and that's why, see, you think I'm miserable right now? Well, maybe a little food-wise, but not at all spiritually-wise. Spiritually-wise, I'd feel wonderful because of that starving the flesh all day.

Pains around 11 o 'clock. 1 .30, oh man, 3 o 'clock, I need to get to church because when church starts, your mind gets off. And then I get home around 8 .39, it all starts over again. But there's a victory there.

The spiritual man has built up the Word of God. You think I want to go home and watch Desperate Housewives or read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? This isn't rocket science. This is very simplistic. When God says these are spiritual disciplines that draw me closer to you, we see them throughout the entire New Testament from provision to safety to power to everything.

Paul was called after he fasted. Jesus went in the power of the Holy Spirit after he fasted. Peter received confirmation from God after he fasted. Cornelius, his entire household, would save after a big gluttonous meal on the weekend?

After he fasted. God says, Cornelius, your prayers and your fasting have reached to heaven. I will hear your prayers. Listen, guys, I promised God a long time ago I'm not gonna come here and play church.

I'm gonna shoot you straight. I'm gonna tell you this is what will lead to a deeper walk. I don't care if people don't return. I don't care if they, oh, that guy, Shane, he's hardcore. You can call me lukewarm.

You can call me a holy roller. You can call me Jesus freak. You can call me extreme, but don't call me lukewarm. I mean, that's the heart of God is to get us in a desperate state for him, more of him.

That's who I'm really talking to, if the truth be told. I'm talking to those who are desperate for more of God. Those who aren't just tuning you off. Oh, he's on the radio? Let me tune that out. That church, I'm not going there because they're not desperate for more of God.

Spiritual Disciplines Against Nominal Christianity

Many times we want a pleasant Christianity that doesn't change anything. Go take a survey. That's what most people want is this nominal Christianity. You better not change my eating habits. Don't touch my drinking habits.

Don't change my lifestyle. Don't change anything. We wonder why we're dying spiritually. We wonder why God seems distant. We wonder why we have no passion for the things of God. It's because of these areas.

There's no spiritual disciplines taking place. But let's backtrack for a minute. They said, why could we not cast this demon out? Now, this could be a whole nother sermon on the demonic, and I truly believe I've seen people possessed, not a lot, and I've seen demonic influence, but as a believer, I don't believe a Christian can be demonically possessed.

And actually, the Bible uses the word he has a demon, not necessarily possessed. It's an English word. But I believe that Christians can be harassed. They can be influenced. They can be pestered. They can be, oh, my goodness, let the hound of hell loose on a Christian, and there's turmoil.

So how are you going to battle against that? Five-minute prayers and a Bible that's growing dusty and church attendance twice a month? Did you know that's a new national, across the board nationally, people are coming to church twice a month now?

It went from every week 40 years ago to now twice a month. Everything else is too important. Now, actually, God is an afterthought, not a priority, because when it's a priority, it's a priority. When it's an afterthought, you fit it in whenever you can.

When it is the priority, you make everything else fit around it when you can. It's a big difference to see where God's at with our heart. But they ask this question, why could we not cast it out? And I don't think we should dismiss this easily when Jesus said, because of your unbelief, because of your unbelief, for surely I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible.

Unbelief, Fear, and the Answering of Prayer

So on that note, unbelief, here's what unbelief is. It's allowing fear to influence and dominate. When fear comes in and it influences you and it dominates you and it leads you and as you make different choices, not according to God's word, that's where unbelief begins to sidetrack us.

And haven't we all experienced unbelief before? I don't believe God can do that. I don't believe that would happen. I don't believe this, and God can't do, and that's, so there's a portion here. What's interesting, though, is in Luke 9, I believe it's chapter one, Jesus gave the disciples power to cast out all the demonic demons out of the people.

And they came back rejoicing, saying even the spirits are subject to us. And Jesus said don't rejoice because of that. So if you look at the historical context and you look at the flow of the gospels, this is coming after that incident.

So these mighty men were filled with the spirit to cast out demons, now they can't, what's going on? Well, obviously, we get a little gleam into what's going on when Jesus says because of your unbelief, because of fear and not trusting in me and not believing in me and who I said I am and who you are in me, and all of us can experience that, but what you do with fear and doubt is what makes the difference.

See, all of us get that fear and doubt, but do you take that fear and doubt captive and do you say this is not a correct thought, this is not from God, you're not influencing me, I'm gonna influence you, and you take that thought captive.

Or if you play into fear and doubt's hands, then that's how it leads us astray, and that's how it pulls us down as we get caught up in it. And fear grows, doesn't it? You fear this, and then you fear that, and then your unbelief, and then now you're just a mess.

I need therapy. What started a week ago could have been brought under control real quick, but over the course of time, we allow that to come in. And also, I like what he, nothing is impossible for God.

Nothing. Now, is he talking about a physical mountain? No, he's talking about nothing is impossible for God. If we're in God's will, if we're praying or fasting, and we're in God's will and we're seeking his will and what's best, whatever we ask, I believe can happen if we're praying according to God's will, because you're not gonna pray for an $80 ,000 Lexus.

You're gonna pray for your neighbor to come to know the Lord. You're not gonna pray for a big house up on the mountain over there by the water tanks. You're gonna pray for your spouse to finally come to the Lord.

And you're praying for things that are according to God's will. He can move a mountain with just a seed, a little mustard seed. That faith grows, and it grows, and it grows. So I believe that both of these things play a huge role in the answering of prayers and spiritual power.

Unbelief and fear and different things, they play a huge role. However, Jesus said, this does not come out except by prayer and fasting. So here's what I got from that. A strong attack requires a strong defense.

Resisting the Devil Through Spiritual Discipline

When the enemy comes in like a flood, a strong attack requires a strong defense. So sometimes, sometimes you're gonna need some prayer and fasting. A five-minute quick little prayer on the run is not gonna cut it.

You're gonna need to deny the flesh and say, Lord, I want this so bad. I'm gonna deny my flesh. I'm gonna pray, and I'm gonna fast, and I'm gonna seek you. Because as a spiritual attack comes in, the greater the attack, the greater the resistance.

And how do you resist the devil? Resist him, and he will flee from you. How do you resist? With spiritual armor, with the weapons of our warfare that aren't carnal. They're through God, praying and fasting and reading the Word of God.

All the things we know to do, we just don't wanna do them. We know to do, we just don't wanna do them. Why? Because it's hard. Well, welcome to life. This is a battle. We are in a battleground, not a playground.

And I thought of this example earlier, and I brought it to the first service. But when I was back in construction, I remember there was a little car being pulled by another little car. It had a little tow rope on it.

And the little car kinda drifted off the road and went into the mud. And that little car couldn't do anything. It was just spinning its tires, and it was stuck. There was no getting it out. So I brought over, I had a big piece of equipment, a backhoe, and I put a chain on there and just almost yanked the front end off of it.

It just flew out of the mud. But what was the difference? The power, right? The power that pulled it out. I needed something different. That little car wasn't gonna cut it. The same thing in the spiritual realm.

Sometimes this little thing isn't gonna cut anymore. What's been working, great. I got my little 10-minute devotional. I got my little church thing going on. I got my little this. I got my little cappuccino with the Romans open, the Romans study.

That's good. But sometimes it's gonna need a little bit of extra strength. Sometimes you're gonna need to pray and fast and pray and fast and lead by example because there's a warfare going on in the spiritual realm we can't see.

How else can you explain that in Daniel 10? The actually the prince of Persia, tells me there's principalities over certain areas, held back the answer to Daniel's prayer, held back the angel from being dispatched for 21 days as Daniel prayed and fasted and prayed and fasted.

So that reminds us that a strong attack requires a strong defense. I found this from a website, Setting Captives Free. If you struggle with any form of addiction, this is a good website, Setting Captives Free.

It's a 40-day study. It says every temptation we face, hear this, hear it loud, hear it good. Every temptation we face is designed by the enemy to cause us to disobey God and bypass our own cross. What it means by that is when you carry your cross, you are dying to self.

Temptation, Self-Denial, and Carrying the Cross

God calls us, see it's interesting, God calls us to carry our cross. He calls us to die to self. But we wanna paint this glamorized picture of Christianity that doesn't exist. Just follow Jesus, you'll be a millionaire soon, there'll be no problems, you'll meet a trophy wife, trophy husband.

Now that what some story has now, this shirt that says trophy on it. You know, it just came out a couple weeks ago. I saw everybody's wanting it on Facebook. I'm like, oh my Lord. But that's every temptation is designed by the enemy that causes us to disobey God and bypass our own cross.

In other words, a temptation, when it comes, you have to carry your cross. You have to say no, I'm carrying my cross, I'm denying the flesh, I'm denying myself. And then Satan's design is for us to give in and disobey rather than to resist and offer our bodies as living sacrifices.

Romans 12, hello, hello brethren, Paul says, actually he goes, I beg you, I beseech you brethren to present your bodies as living sacrifices. Now if you look at the scriptural course, you'll start to see real quick that the Sunday morning television idea of Christianity is not the Bible's idea of Christianity.

And that's why I think so many people get frustrated. They go on this thinking this is gonna be a joy ride. This is gonna be a party. This is gonna be, what is going on? It's a battle, it's warfare, I have to carry my cross, I have to deny myself, I have to fight the flesh.

This isn't fun, no, it's not supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be warfare. But see, here's the interesting, joy and peace follow. Everybody wants joy and peace immediately, but it follows obedience, it follows discipline.

Joy and peace comes later after the spiritual disciplines. Every temptation we face, and you know what it is, lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life. That's where he's coming at you right now.

One of those three ways. Lust of the flesh, what your flesh craves. Everything from food to pornography. That's a temptation. He's gonna tempt me right when I leave this service, because Panda Express is gonna look really good.

That's the form of temptation, lust of the flesh. Whatever your flesh craves, he's gonna find temptation there. And the lust of the eye. Who wants a nicer vehicle? I have to fight wanting a nicer house every month.

I always want to be on acreage, and I get a little track house with a backyard I could, you know, my daughter can throw the ball farther than our backyard. And it's like, oh, it's like, lust of the eye, look at that.

And the eye goes after these things. Shouldn't you drive that? Shouldn't you go there? Look at that building over by the mall. Church building, wow, 10 times bigger than your building. You know, lust of the eye, we want, we want the eye, crave, we crave, we crave through the eye.

Because of, look at all the media, what they're promoting. Lust of the eye. Drink that, you'll get that girl. Not drink that, you'll end up in rehab and lose everything. They don't show you that, it's market, all marketing is designed, the marketing is designed to hit those three areas.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. New Lexus commercial, look it, you'll be driving that. Look at how good you'll look, everybody will think you're the man, you're the woman, you've arrived.

Man, look, he pulled up in that Lexus, and it just, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. Pride also is dangerous. He comes in at pride, your ego, my ego, wants to wound us, wants to hurt us.

He'll go in through pride, there's a temptation. Are you gonna snap back? Are you gonna, are you gonna go back at that person? Is your pride being hurt, being offended? This is funny in marriage, does it happen all the time in marriage?

Please shake your head. So I know it's not just our marriage, right? Right, pride has to be killed on a daily, if not hourly, on a daily basis. These things have to, so that's how the enemy's coming in.