Fasting: A Delight, Not Drudgery — Shane Idleman

Fasting as Spiritual Hunger and Delight

The message this morning is fasting over forks, part two. Fasting over forks, part two. I thought we'd only have about 50 people here this morning when I mentioned that we're having part two. So I know, though, that a lot of people are spiritually hungry.

I'm assuming you want more of God. And I kind of put a subtitle on here, delight, not drudgery. And fasting is a delight. It doesn't have to be drudgery. And here's the reason why. You have two wills competing in your body and it's hard for them to be on the same page.

They can't be on the same page. So you have the will of the flesh, what your flesh wills, and you have the will of the spirit, what your spirit desires, the things of God. And they are fighting the entire time.

Throughout your life, these two wills are fighting against each other. That's why when people say, I'm just powerless, Shane, I want to remind you, you're not powerless. You give either power or strength to the flesh or you give power or strength to the Holy Spirit residing in you.

The lust of the flesh prevails or the desires of the spirit prevail. And that's why fasting is so important. I could just sum it up in a couple sentences. It would be this, fasting starves the flesh so you can be filled with the spirit of God, closer to God.

Because any time you starve the flesh, the lust of the flesh, the spiritual side of you is strengthened and it grows and there's a deeper relationship with God. That's basically it in a nutshell. But I know you want more, so I'm gonna keep going, right?

Choosing God Over Lesser Desires

What happens with these desires? I liken it to a Dodger game. Say I was planning a Dodger game for two years and going to see the playoffs. It was already planned. That was my desire. But then my daughter decides to get married on the same day.

What desire is going to prevail, right? I hope you answer the wedding, correct? Right? I know some of us would, well, can you reschedule that? We've got the Dodger tickets and things. But see, that's what it's about.

It's giving up one desire for the other. It's putting the good down and focusing on the best and seeking after God. The motivation behind fasting is to seek God more fervently, to give up the good for the best.

And that's why I mentioned it's a delight, not a drudgery. Because some people look at fasting as, oh, I'm gonna get hungry, I gotta do this, it's gonna be difficult. And we look at it with the wrong focus.

If we look at it as starving the flesh and drawing closer to God, it's a very good thing. And it's interesting, anytime I talk about the subject of fasting or putting the flesh at bay and starving the flesh and the food we choose, people will often say, brother, it's just about Jesus.

Right, it's only about Jesus. Just focus on Jesus. But I wanna remind you that this is focusing on Jesus. Fasting and starving the body of things from time to time, of fleshy things, draws us closer to Christ.

And I read this week that the Obesity Action Coalition said this, it's estimated that every pound of fat requires one extra mile of blood vessels. That means more work for the heart. So every pound I gain leads to the body increasing the vessels that deliver the blood, the oxygen, by a mile.

These little blood vessels, if you straighten them out, it's amazing how many miles and miles and miles of blood vessels we have. And you're probably saying, what does it have to do with this? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Stewardship of the Body and Spiritual Discipline

Because fasting is about being good stewards of the body, the gift that God has given us. When I'm, if I'm overweight and I'm eating too much and drinking too much, and I will not wanna go to the hospital homes, I won't wanna preach, I won't wanna pray with you, I wanna go home and nap.

I'm just telling you right now, it affects how I live my life. It affects how I father my children. It affects what type of husband I am. It affects everything because energy, mood, how you live your life is affected by this area.

So anytime God calls us to physical, spiritual health, it also runs into and overlaps into physical health. So if I'm healthy spiritually, I'm often healthy physically. Now often that's not the case too, as we know.

We can be sick physically and not doing well, but our spiritual man or woman is growing and thriving. So that's not always the case. But more often than not, the spiritual and the physical run parallel, run close.

For example, if you're able to fast and put the flesh into submission, you are growing spiritually. You are doing well spiritually. So they interlap with each other. Fasting disciplines the body, prayer fights the enemy, and the word of God gives us wisdom.

That's why we use all three of these. If the battle is with the flesh, I mean, I'm assuming most of you know that, right? Is your greatest battle within or without? It's within. The flesh always wants things that are contrary to what God wants.

So if the flesh is the greatest battle, why do we give it the most power? Why do we give it the most amount of attention? And the flesh leads us around, and at the risk of being repetitive, that's what I said last week, right?

The flesh tells me what time to get up in the morning. If we're not careful, doesn't it? You look at your clock, I could get up and pray right now, or I could go back to sleep. What prevails? 11 o 'clock.

You guys are a tough one again. You know what prevails. Do I get up and make that organic smoothie with greens and broccoli and drink it, or do I go to Krispy Kreme, pick up half a dozen of donuts with a huge coffee?

What am I going to do? Now I'm getting irritated because the service is taking long. The flesh is hungry. I'm not gonna stay in fellowship. I'm not gonna go to prayer. So my flesh wants me to go and stop and get something, and then a couple hours later, the sweet tooth.

Have you heard of that? That starts calling your name, right? Whatever that sweet tooth is, or that sweet drink, or I've gotta get, and your flesh just begins to control your life in more ways than you think.

So fasting is a time to tell the flesh, be quiet, shut your mouth. I'm going to control you. You're not controlling me. So that's the point of fasting, is really to resist. But we hear in this world, be yourself.

Embrace your longings. Cave into your desires. Right, it's everywhere we look. Carl's Jr. commercials, Taco Bell commercials, car commercials, just be who you are. Just cave into yourself. If it feels good, Nike.

If it feels good, do it. So you would be, yeah, that's right. If it feels good, do it. I'm gonna stop by Carl's Jr., and pick up that Double Bacon Western Double Cheeseburger, a big fry and a big shake, because it feels good.

Just do it, Shane, that's right, I can do it. And we have this entitlement mentality, and the Bible actually says the opposite. Don't be yourself, crucify the old man. Don't embrace your longings, flee from them.

The wrong longings, right? The bad, fleshy longings and desires. Flee them. Cave into your desires. No, the Bible says fight your desires. And the reason is because this war that's within us, the Bible says the carnal mind is at enmity with God.

The mind, the carnal nature, the old man, inside of you is at war with God. I don't know how I can be more clear on that one. There's something inside of you. That should cause all of us to sit up a little straighter in our seats, right?

And what was that? There's something in us that is at war with God. You either give that power, or you begin to take that power from it. And fasting is a wonderful area to do that in. First John 2, 16.

The Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life

I'm gonna share a verse with you that I learned many, many years ago and has helped me greatly. We wonder sometimes, is this of God? Is this of the devil? Is this right, is this wrong? Is the Lord leading me to do something, or is he not doing me?

Where's the enemy going to attack? Are you ever on alert? Like, where's the enemy trying to attack? Here's where he's trying to attack. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.

These are not of the Father, they are of the world. Now, notice it's not the, it's the lust of the flesh. So, food is good, it's God-given. But it's the lusting for it. Sleep is really good, right? I told Brant, go home right now, after this second service, and go get some sleep.

That's really good. But the Bible also says the lust of that. You're like, what is the lust of the sleep? Oh, it's in the Bible. Have you ever heard the word lazy or sloth? Go to the ant, oh sluggard, and look how even the ant works.

So, something that is wonderful, and actually, sleeping is where your body rejuvenates. Sleeping is where disease is fought. Disease is where your body heals itself. So, when you're sleep-deprived, and you're on caffeine all day long, or all these other things that kill your rapid eye movement, your deep sleep, I get real technical if you want, and I'm sure you don't want me to, but let's just say, if your sleep is being ruined and depraved in this area of sleep, especially kids and things, your body's not healing.

You should wake up with a deep sense of, I had a deep sleep, I feel good because my body rejuvenated itself. Instead, we fall out of bed, we drag ourselves over to the coffee pot, and we put, oh no, it's pre-programmed now, actually.

So, it's already ready to go, and we, ah, I feel great, and then a couple hours later, I don't feel great, and we're asleep. And so, the body is, sleep is a wonderful thing, but if you get too much, right?

Message to the 18-year-olds or 19-year-olds out there, or 20-year-olds that just wanna sleep in 12 hours a day and not do anything, that actually, you cross the line from laziness, and you go into laziness and slothful living, and it makes for a very unproductive life.

Because that, you can also fall into a routine. Lazy video games all day long. If I could go in and shoot Minecraft, I would kill that game, and never have a, if you don't have kids, you know what I'm talking about.

But these things, it just makes for lazy, lazy, lazy, unproductive, well, Shane, how do I know, really? How do I know? Look at the attitude of your kids. How are they acting? What's coming out of them?

What are we putting in, what's coming out? So just, that was a whole rabbit trail. I know it didn't happen at the first service. But for some reason, the second service needed to hear that. Many Old Testament rebukes were because of gluttony and indulging the flesh.

Many, go throughout the Old Testament. We think of Sodom and Gomorrah, right? What sin do we think of? Okay, keep it to yourself, you know, right? We know the sin that we think of. But if you read it, God was, that's obviously prevalent, but that way, he was also very upset at their drunkenness, their debauchery, their wickedness, their gluttony.

You're full, he'd always say, the prophets would say, you're full. You're full, but you're empty of God. You're full of these fleshly desires, but you're empty of the things of God. This fullness, and I, these types of sermons, believe it or not, you might not believe it or not, or you might believe it, but they're hard for me because I don't want people to feel condemned.

I don't want people that struggle in this area. And I was, I've struggled with this when I was younger and growing up, people called me names and Fat Pig and all these things. And I can gain weight quick if I need to.

I know chocolate has my name, right? And double servings have my name. It's just this, but I know that people can be set free. I've seen people, I've seen hundreds, yes, hundreds of diabetics give up their medication in a month or two.

I saw it firsthand. Give up heart medication. All these things when they put the body in proper alignment with how God created us. So wouldn't I be foolish and stupid to not help people in this area? It would just, to me, it doesn't make any sense.

We pray for healing, but we don't sometimes go to the root cause of why we're sick. As if God's saying, okay, I'll overlook the gluttony, I'll overlook the abuse, and I will heal. And he does, I believe nobody eats perfectly, nobody has this down.

But I also believe that some disease is created because we don't take care of this wonderful gift that God has given us, and it's all about stewardship. Trust me, when I'm taking care of the body, I'm much more effective.

Ask my wife, trash is out, dishes are done, vacuuming the house instead of just laying around the house watching click, click, click, click, click, because I'm too full to do anything. Fullness is not always good, because it leads to the cravings being fulfilled.

Fasting in Christian History and the Early Church

Leonard Ravenhill said the early church had an upper room with fire. Now we have a supper room with smoke. And it's interesting, so many times, if people would just read the Bible, and look at the 77, I'm not sure on that, the mentions of fasting, and fasted, from all throughout the Old Testament, end of the New Testament, you would see that it's not talked about much in the church today.

I remember I would go to church for years, never heard about fasting. I can name the churches right now, never heard about fasting, unless you stumbled upon it, right? Okay, let's hop over that word, let's get to the context, let's not talk about that word.

And it just wasn't talked about. Then I start reading the Bible more, reading the early church fathers, reading just people that came before us hundreds of years ago that we look up to, and fasting, I was fasting.

George Whitfield's journals, spent the day fasting. Well, that's weird. John Wesley spent the day fasting. All these people, where's the disconnect at? I think, and I don't know for sure, but I think it's just something we don't wanna talk about because we don't wanna do.

And if you're not doing it, you don't talk about it, right? If you're bound in this area, you're not gonna talk about being free. And a lot of, I believe pastors in this area need to be the example. We need to have this area of our lives in order.

And to see somebody who doesn't have this life in order in this area preaching the word, it sometimes rubs people the wrong way. And that's, my heart is to help in this area, not to hurt necessarily, but it hurts first, right?

And then it helps because, oh, okay, I see how this is a benefit. So that was my experience. Fasting was not in the Bible. I mean, it was in the Bible. It wasn't in sermons. It wasn't on TV much. It wasn't, and then I started reading a lot of books and different things, early church history, and it's all over.

It's everywhere. It's part of our Christian faith. When you give, when you pray, and when you fast. And so if you bring back that missing element, it's very important. What fasting also does, it applies pressure to the flesh.

Spiritual Warfare, Persistence, and Breakthrough

You know how you apply pressure to something and it eventually gives? That's what fasting does. Arthur Wallace said, often pressure has to be maintained before there is breakthrough in the heavenly warfare.

Pressure has to be maintained before there is a breakthrough in heavenly warfare. Because I don't know about you, but I rarely get my one-minute prayers answered. Right, it's days sometimes, or weeks, or months, or years.

And you're applying this pressure, applying this pressure. It's like Popeye, that's all I can stands. I can't stands no more. Right, that works two ways, though. The flesh will eventually say, that's all I can stands.

I can't stands no more. He's not feeding me. I'm going to be quiet and go into submission while he's filled with the spirit. Or the flesh keeps badgering us and we say, that's all I can stands. I can't stands any more.

Hand me that pill. Hand me that drink. Hand me that you know what it is. And you go back into bondage. You go back into slavery in this area because I can't stands any more. Have you ever, is that pride English?

I can't stands. I don't know, it sounded funny. But do you feel that way ever? I can't take this any more. Nine AM's a lot more honest. I better start here. Amen's, right? I can't stands any more. I can't take this any more.

So what fasting does is you apply pressure back. So what's applying pressure on you and pushing you and I gotta run to this next thing. I gotta run to this fix. I gotta run. I can't stand it any more.

You begin to apply the pressure back to the flesh in this area of fasting. That's what fasting does. It strengthens you spiritually. Actually, there's studies out. I wish I would give you more articles and handouts than you could read if they would let me on this area.

People, they recommend kicking any type of addiction. Alcohol, caffeine, pain meds, all they recommend fasting. Now there's some secrets there because withdrawals are hell unless you're prepared and there's ways to do it.

But fasting begins to starve all the appetites, even sexual appetites. Shane, can you talk about that in church? Sure you can. God created it, it's supposed to be wonderful. That's the whole point of it.

But the lust of that and when it gets out of control, it becomes perversion and it gets dangerous. Fasting brings all of those bodily appetites into submission to the Holy Spirit. And you begin to control your appetites instead of your appetites controlling you.

Discipline, Grace, and the Christian Life

And I don't want to get too far on this area of discipline and you gotta do this and it's all about rules. I believe in the grace in God and the mercy of God and the Holy Spirit changing us, but I also believe in a lot of scriptures that talk about bringing the body in submission.

Paul said, I discipline my body daily. How does he do that? I discipline my body daily and I bring it up under my control so that when I preach to others, I myself will not become disqualified. Because you can't preach to others if you yourself are becoming disqualified because the bodily appetites are controlling you.

I mean, would you, what would you? I don't even know if I should go here. But if I'm like coming, oh gosh, I blew the fast again this morning. I had six donuts and pizza last night. I can't even stay on a fast.

Last weekend I got drunk. I mean, this is, I'm just, I'm not watching. I watch that new rated R movie out at the movies and I just keep, you guys be like, and you're gonna preach to us? I mean, yeah, okay.

Because you know. Now we all struggle, right? I've been open about that before. These things are a struggle. I wanna see a good movie, right? Fast and the Furious is out. No, I'm not gonna go there. But my flesh wants to see it because I like fast cars, right?

And you see these movies and these things that draw us into because the flesh is wanting to dominate. The Bible says resist the devil and he will flee from you. Let me go back to that point for a minute.

I think it's important. When Paul said I discipline my body and I bring it into control, into subjection, what's he doing? What's he disciplining? His bodily appetites. Not to sleep too much, eat too much, drink too much.

He's bringing those into subjection. So when you begin to work on those things, you give them up to the Holy Spirit of God to change you. Because I don't really believe you're changing yourself. I believe the Holy Spirit changes you as you submit to the work of God.

Works in conjunction. Now there's two sides on that too. You have all the law side, right? You gotta do this, you gotta do this, you can't do this. You can't go to the movies. You gotta wear pants down to your ankles.

Actually, women can't wear pants. And you gotta wear a suit and tie, Shane. And you got all these rules. Don't ever drink coffee. That's the church down the street. Don't eat pork. And you got all these rules and all these rules.

See, here's my big list of rules you gotta follow, okay? If you don't follow these rules, you're not spiritual. Like, uh-uh, that's not a good thing. There's freedom in Christ, right? And different things.

I would avoid eating pig and stuff though, right? But then this side's all grace, all mercy. All grace and all mercy. That's it. Don't worry about all that other stuff. Don't worry about doing things.

It's just grace and mercy as you're being led as the lamb to the slaughter, right? Because the flesh is leading. Because there's no, you don't have to say no to anything or discipline your body at all because it's just all about grace.

Actually, you realize if you've been walking with Jesus a long time, you'll realize this. That grace actually means you live under a higher standard. Not a lower standard. So when I embrace the grace of God, it makes me want to live up to a higher standard and not do certain things and honor God and live like he wants me to live.

So grace actually increases my love for the law of God. So when should you fast? Well, is there a desire to resurrect dead prayers in your life? Have you been praying for something that you believe it's not gonna happen now?

No. I've noticed that God will often kill a dream before he brings it to fruition. He'll put, you'll put it on the altar, you'll give it up and then he, it's, because he's not on our timetable. He's actually, his sovereignty is on a specific timetable and it's not our timetable.

It does, they never go together because we want quick, now, and fix it. We have all these things. But if you need to resurrect dead prayers, you've been praying for family members and you've given up.

You've been praying for your marriage to restore or be restored to somebody else's and you've given up. There are people I've been praying for, for their marriages to be restored at least for a year or two and they're not happening and I am apt to give up.

Or if you have older kids and they've walked away from God, they're not serving God. Let me first give you a word of encouragement that often they go that route until their pride is killed and they're humbled by God and then they come running back.

So oftentimes they will test those waters. But don't give up. If you wanna resurrect dead prayers, consider fasting. And I wish I had time, I could walk you through different fasts and what they look like, but start with giving up a meal.

Saying, Lord, I'm not gonna eat lunch today. I'm gonna pray, I've got a list of things, I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna seek you and boy, you're gonna see how hard it is. You'll see how strong the flesh is really quick.

But it begins to submit. Because I remember when I started four or five years ago, I'd miss the first meal, I'd just miss lunch. Oh, woo, you know, it's like bad moods and anger. It's like, where's this coming from?

The flesh, right? And then I'd begin to miss two and then I'd begin to miss the whole day. And now the flesh knows to keep its mouth quiet now. It'll be quiet, we're not going there, you're waiting until tomorrow.

It's like a little whimpering dog. When you begin to bring it into control and you begin to bring it into submission, that's what this whole point is about. Are there strongholds that have been gripping your life?

Is there something, is there a stronghold that's been gripping your life? You just can't, you can't kick it, you can't get rid of it, you can't, I'm giving up, this has got me. Well, it's time to fast.

It's time to break that stronghold, break that bondage. And many times, how we get into bondage is we get out of something and then as we're out of something, we begin to say, oh, I can handle it now.

I can, I've mastered this. And we go back into it and it begins to bring us into bondage again. And if you're in that area, consider fasting. Do you desire a deeper walk with God or increased spiritual hunger?

Yes, most of you here, I think that's why you're here. We figure that out now. That's the good thing about West Side Christian Fellowship. As I know, you guys are hungry for more of God. You're not playing church.

It's not on your checklist. If it was on your checklist, you wouldn't be here because you go to one that gets over quicker, right? Your quick one-hour service, close to my house, they'll just tell me what I want to hear, click, you know, just check off my church marker, your calendar.

But most of you are hungry for more of God. You want a deeper walk with God, so considering fasting. Do you need a breakthrough? Do you need direction in your life? Do you need peace? Who doesn't need direction?

Where should I work? Where should I go? What should I do? What should I, Lord, I need direction in this area. And instead of seeking God and fasting, we just keep filling our bellies up with food and, oh, I'm too tired, I'll do that next week and next week.

I know people who said they'll start fasting and like a year later, yeah, I've got to do that. Yeah, it's got to do that. And they just, but I have no direction, I have no peace because they never take that time because it's spiritual warfare.

Folks, this is challenging. It's a battle. I don't want to minimize it. I want to prepare you. It is challenging, but the fruit outweighs the difficulty. Remember how I've often said it's either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

One or the other, you are facing one or the other. Do you want to live your whole life never fasting, never putting God first and foremost in this area? It's difficult but rewarding. So start with a meal and see what God does.

Start with two and see what God does. And that's why I don't push legalism on it. I don't tell people you have to. I just allow God to prompt it and God to show them if he wants them to do that. Is all hell breaking loose in your life or in your family?

Then fast and pray. Really, the point of fasting is to pray. The power's in the prayer. It's not the fasting, it's in the prayer. So you fast, you starve the flesh, and you go to prayer. Matthew 7, 14 says this, and when they had come to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down to him, saying, Lord, have mercy on my son.

Prayer, Fasting, and Demonic Oppression

So picture this. Have you ever had children that are having seizures? Or that are going through a lot of pain? It breaks your heart as a parent, right? So he's having seizures. It says here, he's 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. So see here, we have one instance and many more if we had time of demonic oppression causing certain illnesses and injuries. And there's something in the church, well, let me give you the two sides again, because I like doing that.

This side is where it's all about the demons, right? You got the demon of bad breath. You got the demon of, you know, just whatever. They just put a demon on everything. So instead of taking responsibility for my actions, I can just blame a demon.

That demon of Coors Light again, he just planted that thing right in the refrigerator. That demon of marijuana, that just showed up right in my doorstep. And we just, everything's a demon. Everything's a demon.

Gotta cast out that demon. You gotta vomit up that demon. It's too much emphasis. But then the other side where, don't mention demons. Don't, mm, that was back in Jesus' time. It's just, we're not going there, right?

We're not going there. Because number one, they don't know how to handle it. Number two, it seems odd. Number three is the church is probably dead spiritually because the church is living vibrantly. It will have demonic attacks come against it.

It's just there. So the biblical account of demonic possession, demonic influence, is that it's very possible. Jesus said he healed that woman that was bent over like this, probably. Can you imagine living 17 years like this?

And she was bent over and walking around. And Jesus came and he healed her. He said, woman, thou art loosed from your affirmaties. And she stood up. And he said, why should this daughter of Abraham, who was bound by Satan, not be loosed?

So we just, well, she needs to go to a chiropractor. She just needs to have surgery, right? The disc one, disc two, all these things. See, this is out. And see the x-ray there? That's what's happening.

So you need surgery. That's what we run to. But some of these things might be of demonic influence, of demonic nature. Jesus said, those who believe in me, these signs will follow. They will cast out demons in my name.

They will cast out demons in my name. So we still believe, as a church, we believe in that. We don't get fanatical, but we believe. And often I'll start there. I'll pray with somebody and I'll say, is there any demonic activity in your life?

Have you opened up your door to it? Let's start with that. And you just use wisdom and see where God leads. And a very good thing is to ask people, right now, say, Jesus Christ is Lord. And they cannot say it if they are possessed or if they've got a demon.

Really, it's what the Bible says. They are demonized. And believers can be influenced by demons, not possessed, but they can be influenced. They can open a strong, you go get drunk tonight, you'll watch what door you open.

It's called spirits for a reason. Because you give yourself up to this demonic influence and now you're no longer controlling you, yourself. The Holy Spirit's not controlling you. What strength have you just given yourself?

You've given your strength, you've opened the door to that demonic realm, and it begins to do things that you normally wouldn't do, right? You can't walk or talk right. That's not, they say, that's not them.

I know such and such, that's not them. Then what have they done? They've given it up. They've given themselves up to that demonic influence. So what we did at the first service, I'll even do at the second service, we want to, the prayer room is opened for that.

If there's a demonic stronghold in your life, if there's something demonic that you know you're struggling with, come back there for prayer. We believe in the power of prayer. We believe in the gospel to set people free.

The devil and Jesus Christ are not co-equals. We believe in the higher power. They say that, right, my higher power. Well, you better have the right higher power, right? You better have Jesus Christ as your higher power, if you want to call him that.

I avoid that term at all, anytime I can, because it's not a higher power, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The demon, actually, the devil has no, the devil has no authority in this place.

There are people who come into this church and they want to be disruptive. They're filled with the spirit, the wrong spirit. They've got a demonic spirit, and I don't care. You are not going to affect the preaching.

You are not going to affect the worship. The devil himself has to sit here and bow to the foot of the cross. So that's spiritual authority. You take those things, you pull down those strongholds, cast down those arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

And I know, I can tell in services, when there is demonic influence, that somebody is here that doesn't necessarily want to be here, and it's okay to call that out. It's okay to pray for that person, because you're not going to be disruptive.

You're not going to take this in a different direction. God has given us a platform to preach his word. That was a long rabbit trail. So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him. This is interesting.

Faith, Unbelief, and the Authority of Christ

This passage, I've looked at it all week, and it's interesting, because Jesus, it's not like, hey, guys, you didn't quite believe enough. You know the guy who said, I believe, but help my unbelief? Sometimes I'll have, man, I'll pray for somebody at the hospital, and something's coming up in me that's just, I don't think, God, where's that unbelief coming from?

It's part of the Adamic nature. It's part of that, so you just fight that off. You say, in Jesus' name, I believe, but he's not saying, look what he says here. Then Jesus said, you faithless and you perverse generation.

So if I told the prayer team, Shane, we're praying for this guy, I said, you're faithless and you're perverted. What? Pastor Shane, that was so mean. But then he goes on to say, how long shall I be with you?

How long am I going to pray in this prayer room with you? You're perverted, you're faithless, I can't stand to be in this room with you and pray with you. Right, something's happening here. That's my point.

It's not just like, something is happening in these disciples, the carnality has came in and crept in their lives, and these people, I believe, it's the Idelman commentary, right? I believe that this is not just a little bit of unbelief.

The faithlessness, a perverse generations, how long will I bear with you? How long will I be with you? You're driving me crazy because of your carnality. So Jesus said, bring him here, and Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour.

That's why I said, if you need prayer in this area, if you feel there's a demonic influence in your life and you want to run from prayer instead of run to it, I would encourage you to go to prayer after the service.