Travail Before You Prevail — Shane Idleman

The title tonight is, and I got this from Psalm 6, so if you have your Bibles, you can turn to Psalm 6, and also if you have your prayer journals, I don't know if that's working out well for you, going through the psalm, writing down the prayer notes.

We still have a few journals left. The title is Travail Before You Prevail. Travail Before You Prevail. And what does travail mean? Well, it means toil, sweat, exertion, labor, effort. And what I found over the years, I don't know if you found this out yet, but in order to prevail in prayer, there is travail.

I mean, I love, I have them, I have the five minute devotional, but it's not gonna cut it in these dire times. Microwave Christianity is not going to cut it in the time we live. When the enemy, the onslaught, the enemy has just come against our families, against the church, you have to get back to that point of travailing in prayer in order to prevail.

Distress and Earnest Prayer in Psalm 6

Now, it's interesting about Psalms 6, it's a prayer of faith in time of distress. Now, here's what's interesting. If you look at it, and as we read it, is he dealing with sickness? Is he dealing with enemies?

Is he dealing with difficulties? We don't know on this Psalm, and that's good because you can put your situation into this Psalm. Anybody have any enemies out there? Oh, that's pretty good, not really.

Just me, huh? Sickness, difficulties, anybody experiencing demonic attack this week? There we go. How do you know it's demonic attack? Well, that would be for another sermon, but rest assured that you know that this is, what is going on?

Because when God begins to move, guess who else begins to move? Satanic forces. We see that when Jesus went to the cross, we see that when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, we see that throughout ministry, is when God is moving, so is the satanic forces.

So let's begin, Psalm 6. Oh Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your hot displeasure. Have mercy on me, oh Lord, for I am weak. Oh Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled.

But you, oh Lord, how long? Now, I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty serious. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know if your bones have ever ached. Have you ever been in that much turmoil?

Broken marriage, loss of a child, or loss of a loved one, or watching your kids or family members reject Christ, and when life just begins to just come upon you, you feel that way. But he's saying something here that's interesting.

Do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your hot displeasure. But again, we don't know. There's no confession of sin. We don't know if God is chastising him. Did you know that God rebukes those he loves?

He gets out the spanking paddle. God will spank me, yes he will. And it's not fun. It's not a physical spanking, right here, but it's a spiritual spanking. It's circumstances, it's humiliating. God will wake up his children because he loves us enough.

However, if you cross-reference Psalm 38, I think we actually have it up here. Watch how close this is. Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Your arrows have pierced me and your hand has come down on me.

Because of your wrath, there is no health in my body. There is no soundness in my bones. Why? Because of my sin. My guilt has overwhelmed me, like a burden too heavy to bear. And this is one of the challenges, I'll just tell you, being a pastor, is we want to encourage people.

I want to encourage people. You don't want to beat them up with the Bible. You want to encourage them. And you want to love them. You want to restore and help and support. But you can't ignore the clear teachings in the Bible that God deals with sin.

That sin can lead to misery. Sin can lead to depression. Sin can lead to anxiety. Sin can lead to mental anguish. He's saying it right here. That there's no health in my body. There's no soundness in my bones.

Because of my sin, my guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. So what kind of pastor would I be if I didn't tell you the other half of this equation? That sometimes we need to look. Is there unconfessed sin in our life?

Is there besetting sin that we've been playing with? Have we opened the door to the demonic realm? And that is causing this depression or this weight that is on us? Have you ever felt that weight before?

Have you ever been caught in sin? Are you happy? Not at all. I could read this and go, yeah, I can relate to that. And so the first point that I want to make here is in order to prevail, prevail in prayer before you prevail, we must approach God with a clean heart.

A Clean Heart and Unhindered Prayer

If you want to prevail in prayer, get this settled right now. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Bible says, he will not hear me. And he goes on to say that his hand's not short, his ear's not heavy, but that your sins, your iniquities have separated you from your God.

And the reason I love this point is because I've seen people radically change in this area of a boring prayer life to a passionate prayer life. When? When sin is dealt with. When besetting sin, let's say it's a judgmental, have you ever known anyone, or maybe yourself, you struggle with a judgmental, critical heart?

Do you know they exist in the church? You know, it's in here. I've dealt with this before, I've went through seasons, but a judgmental, critical, bitter heart, you think prayers are gonna, you're gonna be on fire to pray?

Or other besetting sins, and God wants us to cleanse our heart of these areas, what does it do? It opens the line of communication between you and God, between me and God, that's the first, we have to start there.

We have to start with looking at the heart. And he said here, ask for mercy, ask for mercy. Did you know that's okay? God loves it when we say, Lord, beats on his chest like in the Gospels, oh God, have mercy on me, a what?

A sinner, crying out to God, and Lord, hear my prayers, God, hear me. Have you ever been in a point where you're crying out to God and people have tried to shut you up? Don't look to God, be quiet, that's not your problem, you just need to do this, you need to do that, but you know in your heart like the blind beggar, oh, son of David, have mercy on me, and what did the people tell him?

Be quiet, be quiet, Jesus is walking by, be quiet, don't do that, and he cried out even more, oh, son of David, have mercy on me, God, look upon my affliction, see my heart, see my brokenness, and I told you last week or the week before that God runs to a broken heart, he runs to the cries of his children, he hears the broken heart crying out to him, oh God, have mercy on me, I need you, because I've noticed it's in the brokenness that that's where the strength comes from, it's in the humility that God begins to move in a powerful way.

One of my prayers that I hope God answers, and I pray, God, thank you for giving me this boldness, but I also want to be known for my love, oh, Shane, that guy, he's bold, but he loves, I'm not there yet, but I'm getting there, finding that, because when I see the boldness with love, it's the power of God wrecks a life, that's effective preaching, when you can preach about hell with tears in your eyes, when you can preach about sin, and understanding that I love you, and I want to offer you grace and restoration, but you got to turn, you got to turn back to God, and you underscore the boldness with the love, that's how we're going to see a nation changed, that's how we're going to see revival in our land, and I thought, oh, how many blessings are waiting at the brink, how many promises yet to be fulfilled, how many prayers are being hindered because of this area?

Listen, this is serious stuff, the children of Israel could not go into the promised land because of sin, prayers are hindered because of sin, God couldn't move in many cities when Jesus went into cities because of sin, so this has to be dealt with right off the bat.

Did you know this? The blessings are waiting at the brink, promises yet to be fulfilled, God wants to answer prayers, and prayers are being hindered in the cases of many people, and then verse four, remember, I'm sorry, return, return, oh, Lord, deliver me, oh, save me for my mercy's sake, or no, for your mercy's sake, for in death there is no remembrance of you, in the grave, who will give you thanks?

Isn't that funny, how he's reminding God, hey, listen, if you kill me, who's going to give you thanks? It reminds you of Moses saying, hey, if you kill these people, they're going to make fun of us, because God couldn't get his people through, and he reminds God, and you know what?

This isn't for God's recollection, this is for the person's recollection. When I remind God of his promises, I do that for my benefit. God, remember, your word says this, he's not going, that's right, thank you, Shane.

I almost forgot about that point. So it's a spot of, and on demonic attacks, it's so funny, I don't know what is and what isn't, but I'm doing fine all week, and then I have terrible congestion Sunday, and now tonight, it's like, I can name 10 other things.

If you think a church like this is without fighting in the demonic realm, you have another thing coming. This is not smooth sailing. If you knew half of what goes on, because whenever we're building up, somebody's trying to destroy.

Whenever marriages are starting to come back together, here comes the enemy. And it's just this constant battling, and this constant fighting, and I do remind God, oh, save me for your mercy's sake. And here's something you need to know.

Discouragement is Satan's tool to knock you off track. Discouragement is Satan's tool to get you out of the prayer closet. Discouragement is what Satan uses to have you stop praying. Anybody like praying when you're discouraged?

But it's also, what I've noticed, it's also God's magnet to draw us to him. Because if I take my discouragement to the cross and to the prayer closet, that discouragement will turn into an overpowering or an overwhelming empowerment of who God is and what he's going to do in my life, and I flip that discouragement back on Satan's head.

Discouragement always comes in. So to quench the flame of discouragement, pour on the mercy and the grace of God. Remind yourself of who God is. And also remember that God often crushes our pride to open our ears.

Might wanna highlight that one. God will often crush our pride to open our ears. This actually might be a message you wanna get the CD of and listen every now and then to bring us back to this point of remembering how powerful prayer is.

So here's actually where I wanted to get to tonight on travail before you prevail. This next verse, verse six. He says something very interesting here. He says, I am weary with my groaning. All night I have made my bed swim.

I drench my couch with my tears. Have you been there? A fractured relationship, a difficult season in life. I've got up before, even pastoring this church, I've got up before and I just can't get back on track because of what's going on.

The difficulties, the hard seasons and you get up from a hard night's sleep and you go back into the day and here we go again. It's gonna be a difficult season. And he's talking here, my eyes wasted away because of grief.

It grows old because of all my enemies. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. So we have a clue here that maybe, maybe there are enemies now. He's referencing that that's where all this is coming from, this uprising against him.

And you know what, one of the biggest things I've learned, I've shared this before but I can probably frame this in a different way, I was shocked. And that's an understatement. When I first came back to the Lord, I'm loving God, moving forward, I didn't realize that sheep bite.

You know who attacked me more? Most are Christians. Some of you saw the video we shared on my comments about John MacArthur's comments about Beth Moore, 20 ,000 views in two days. That means a lot of negative stuff.

The national media caught it up and half the stuff's positive, half the stuff is I'll never listen to that guy again, he's a false teacher. Really, I'm a false teacher, according to what scripture? Now granted, I don't read 99 .9 of them but those who come against, often Christians, especially these kind of messages are either the Pharisee or the lukewarm Christian who don't want to be convicted.

Or the Pharisee who's convicted by their pride. And Christians have a just, if they're not filled with the spirit of God, and I've been there, so I have a lot of sympathy there, most Christians are quenching and grieving the spirit of God.

And so they lash out at other Christians. They lash out at other people, they try to pull them down so they look better. And there's just a constant pressure in the ministry because you'll never please.

And I wonder, I often wonder, does God give us these areas that we're not real clear on or that we might disagree on to see if our Christian character rises to the surface? Or if arrogance and judgmentalism rise to the surface?

I think God has given us these differences to see how do we treat one another, especially if they're not essentials, right? If they're not essentials, those things, you know, you have to agree on the essentials.

I shared with some of you, I had a two-hour conversation Monday with a Jehovah Witness and his friend in my house. It was the most exhausting two hours of my life, mentally. Like, holy smokes, these guys got it down.

They are brainwashed. They can twist that stuff. Just mentally challenged. And they said, well, Shane, the word trinity isn't in the Bible. And I said, well, the word Bible isn't in the Bible. But the concepts there, God reveals himself.

We don't pray to Jesus, we pray to Jehovah. All these, so many things just draining me, draining me mentally. And you feel this weariness and this, like this grief and this weariness. But then he says something interesting.

For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. How does he get to this point? That's what I wanna know. How does he get to this point of God hearing?

He has heard my voice. Wouldn't you like to say that? And most people don't ever get to experience that. Well, here's the key. The man or woman listening to God, obeying God, and wanting to be used of God will hear from God.

Though the vision tarry, wait for it. Well, Shane, that has to do with Habakkuk in the Old Testament. I know, but it's a wonderful principle. God said, I'm gonna judge the wicked. Don't worry, Habakkuk.

When I say something, when I promise something, though the vision tarry, wait for it, for in the end it shall speak and not lie because I am the Lord thy God. My words will not return void. When I speak something, I will see it through.

I don't waver or go back and forth. I don't relent and change my mind. The giftings and callings of God are irrevocable. God will promise something, he will do it. So when God says, I've heard your prayers, your travail has reached up to heaven, and they've been answered, that is a powerful thing.

Burden, Anguish, and Laying Hold of God

Well, Shane, how do I know? I'm glad you asked. Now we can get to the main part of the sermon because this is so important. See, and I've loved to study this topic because I would read, you know, I have a lot of books and I read old books from 100 years ago, 150 years ago, 200 years ago.

My family, my mom says and my grandma said that my lineage can be actually traced to the first baby born on the Mayflower in Cape Cod Bay, peregrine white, but also traced to Methodist circuit riders.

Remember a letter from my great grandma, I think in the early 1900s, being part of our lineage coming from the Methodist circuit riders and reading the Methodist journals, John Wesley, there's something many times they would say that we don't say today or we don't communicate today.

And it goes something like this. No matter where you're reading, it's something like, I laid hold of God and he heard me. I held hold of God until the answer came. And that doesn't happen in five minutes.

That's not a quick 20 minute prayer. There's a laying hold of God until the answer comes. But Shane, what about if that takes a month? Well, hold on, I'm getting somewhere. If God stirs our heart, in other words, if there's a burden to pray, it's a sure sign that God wants to answer.

I might get a little excited on this point because I love this point, if there's a burden. See, I used to apologize for my burden. Not anymore. Not anymore. If God has given me a burden for our nation, a burden for our valley to see revival.

See, something's going on with the sound. I'm not doing anything. What are you, Jason? No, just, is it this mic? I can use this one. Maybe I'm too close to it. Anyway, I have a burden, don't many of you?

So if God gives me, God's not gonna give a wasted burden. It's this pressure of seeing revival and God wanting to move in our area or our state or our nation. I don't know, I just know there's a burden like Isaiah and the prophets would fill the burden.

They would actually say, the burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord is upon me. And a chapter later, a couple chapters later, the burden of the Lord is upon me, meaning they had to speak what God says.

And there's a video clip, it'll bring you to tears. The title is A Call to Anguish by David Wilkerson. A Call to Anguish by David Wilkerson. And he said when God desires to recover a ruined situation, he baptizes someone in anguish.

See, out of that anguish, out of that pain, out of that heart cry for our nation, heart cry for the murdering of children and how far we've drifted from God and carrying this burden. I feel like Christians sometimes in the Pilgrim's Progress, you're carrying the burden, but this is a good burden because this is a burden that God puts on my shoulders.

Why? Because so I'll get on my knees before him and I'll cry out, I might end up on the floor. I might end up on the aqueduct crying my eyes out saying, oh God, would you move? And I'm gonna hold on to that promise until you do something.

I'm gonna hold on to God and then after that season, there's a peace, there's a joy, there's a boldness to go and proclaim the truth of what God has given us because you spent time with the master. You have to deliver the message.

When I get orders from headquarters, I've gotta deliver them. There's a burden of the Lord. The problem is many don't have a burden. So we're not seeing prayers answered. You have to develop that burden.

Praying Through and the Assurance of Answered Prayer

Well, how? How? Well, first, here's the key. There's actually a book, Praying Clear Through, written about 100 years ago. See, they used to pray clear through. It would go something like this. There's a prodigal son, there's a prodigal daughter we've been praying for here.

We're gonna meet. We're gonna meet tomorrow morning at 5 a .m. And we're gonna pray clear through. So that doesn't mean, it's over at 5 .30. Okay, by six o 'clock, we gotta be out of here. Praying clear through is you're gonna be on your face until God answers.

And God's not gonna go, just sit there all week, I don't care. He hears the cries of His children, the burden He gives them and then you get up of that altar, tears, and you say, God has heard my prayer.

I have that assurance. See, I wonder, are we not spending enough time with God? Is that why prayers are not being answered? No, don't get me wrong. If you pray a five-minute prayer on your way to work, God, please help me today at work.

He's not going, nope, that was long enough. Try again. Most prayers in the Bible are short. The prayer of Jabez. Oh God, bless me and lengthen my territory and make sure I don't cause harm and do harm to others.

That's a good prayer. Jesus' prayer, they were short, they were powerful. The prophet's prayers were short and powerful. We don't need long prayers and I'm not actually talking about a long prayer. What this is, this is heart travail.

This is a woman giving birth, but imagine in the prayer room you're giving birth, you're travailing and I just, it doesn't, you can't make this up. I remember I told Pastor Abraham, I was on the aqueduct just yesterday and I can't stop crying.

I can't stop weeping for our valley and the sex trade and the abuse in our homes. And what's going, I just, what is going, God, I'm just crying, I hope nobody drives by. I'm just, what is, where's this burden coming from?

He goes, son, when you lay hold of me, I'm gonna give you a burden and out of that burden's gonna come a fire where you change your community because without a burden, there's no passion. Without a passion, there's no desire.

Without a desire, there's no movement. Without any movement, there's no results. You have to have the burden of the Lord and it begins to weigh on you and you begin to pray in that direction. But you have to be careful.

Faith, Presumption, and the Spirit's Evidence

Have you ever heard of the word presumptuous? Boy, have we made mistakes. Because there's a clear line between faith and presumption. What's the difference? Faith steps out on the promises of God knowing he's going to answer.

Presumption says, well, I hope God answers. We're presuming. And this has been a struggle for many years because where do you find that balance? And then I read something. I'm glad I highlighted it. Many years ago, I wanted to share it with you.

It's by Oswald Smith. Again, an author probably 100 years ago. He said, presumptuous faith believes without the evidence of the Spirit. What are you talking about? Well, this is important. This is so important.

You Bible-believing, Spirit-filled believers know exactly what I'm talking about. There's an evidence of the Spirit that cries out, Abba, Father. There's something in your spirit that says this is of God.

You spent time with God. The Holy Spirit, there's evidence there that God is gonna do something, that this is a profound move of God. It's just not faith in nothing. It's knowing that God is going to move.

So presumptuous faith believes without the evidence of the Spirit. Genuine faith believes with the evidence of the Spirit. Well, Shane, what does that look like practically? You have to spend time with God.

Because when you're filled with the Spirit, you have clearer direction from God and what he wants to do. I wanna read a quick excerpt from a book called The Revival We Need. The Revival We Need, about praying through.

It's an incident that is told in a place called Philae. Think about this. In the early days of the Methodist movement, to which preacher after preacher had been sent, but they all failed. So they went to the city called Philae.

I think it was Scotland, I'm not sure now. And the demonic stronghold was too great. And have you ever been to a place where you just feel the opposition and you can't, I mean, you can't plant a church, you can't see anybody come to cry.

It's just, there's just, it's like a block. Well, I've preached at some places before. When I used to travel and preach, you could tell that it just closed off. Something is going on. So they were going to, this village had a stronghold of satanic power, and each one, each pastor had been driven out that tried to make a difference.

But just before the matter was finally settled and they closed down their outreach into this, the now famous, he's now famous back then, his name is Praying Johnny. He was, anybody, if you got that name, you know something's good's coming up.

So he begged for the conference to send him to this town. They agreed, and a few days afterwards, John set out on his journey. On his way there, a person knew him and asked him, where are you going? He said, to Philae.

And he said, where the Lord is going to revive his work. As he drew near the place, close to Philae, suddenly a view of the town burst into sight, so intense were his feelings that he fell upon his knees under a hedge and wrestled and wept and prayed for success on his mission.

See, it didn't, five minute prayer was in there. We have been told, oh, I'm sorry. We have been told by a person who was on the other side of that hedge that he heard a voice, and Praying Johnny was saying this, oh God, don't make me a fool.

Oh God, don't make me a fool. I told them, I told them that you were going to revive your work, and if you don't, I will never be able to show my face again. And what will the people say about you then?

He continued to plead for several hours. The struggle was long and heavy, but he would not cease. He made his very weakness and his inefficiency a plea. That's a secret right there. Make your weakness a plea to God.

God, I'm weak in this area. I can't move in this area unless you move. I'm limited by my words. I'm limited by my capacity. God, make your weakness a plea. Show him your inefficiency. That's okay to do.

And at length, the clouds dispersed. The glory filled his soul, and he rose up shouting, it is done, it is done. Phily is taken, Phily is taken. But it wasn't. And taken it was, though, the book says, and all in it, and you can research.

I've read up on this revival. And make no mistake. Fresh from the mercy seat, he entered the place, and he began singing on the streets. Turn to the Lord and seek salvation. A crowd of fishermen flocked to listen.

Unusual power attended his address. Hardened sinners wept, strong men trembled, and while he prayed, over a dozen of them fell on their knees and cried aloud for mercy and found it. So you have all these pastors going in for decades and decades, we can't touch it, but you get one praying man who takes God as his promise, and he holds on to that until he feels the evidence of the Spirit saying the burden has been lifted, the fire has fallen, I'm full of God's grace and all of God's glory, and I'm gonna walk into a place with the promises of God, and I'm gonna call down heaven.

The boldness, the audacity to take God at his word. But see, there's a registering of the Spirit that has to happen. Many of you don't know this, but, I don't know if Ray's here, he's here somewhere, he's one of the security, he was actually security at the college when I spoke there and talked about this in front of the students, and it was, days leading up to it, there was a lot of nervousness.

You know, there's a lot of, oh man. So I fasted, and I got down, and I prayed, I looked over God's word, and there came a point, I don't know, maybe two hours, three hours, over my message, and there, I can't even explain it.

All I can tell you is something came over me to where I got up and said, this is going to be a success. Nobody's going to thwart this, no protesters, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna walk in the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit, and from that moment, I walked into the college, here's your, no, not many butterflies, and I just spoke what God put on my heart.

But had I not done that, see, and many times I'll go to preach, I'll get up, I remember when I spoke at that big church in Bakersfield, my wife and daughter came with me, and I got up in the hotel in the morning, four in the morning, and just looked over that sermon, took a long walk for about an hour, and just prayed over it, prayed over it, and something happened, it's like it just, oh, this registers, this burden, that my prayers have been filled, God's gonna answer today, and you go up there with that power and that boldness because you spent time with God, and that time in the prayer closet is where you're able to go out and do what God's called you to do.

Clean Hands, a Pure Heart, and a Stirred Burden

Prayer is a secret weapon many of us are missing. You live as well as you pray. Well, let me get to another point here in the scripture. So I'm assuming many of you want to prevail in prayer. Let's recap a few things.

Number one, clean hands, clean hands. You have to go into the prayer closet with clean hands. Many mornings I'll go, before I pray, I'll say, Lord, I should have spent more time with my kids, or I shouldn't have said that mean thing, or I should have done this, and I get right with God, and from that, there's a flowing, there's a freedom that takes place, there's a cleansing.

You know the scripture, who has clean hands? Or, I'm sorry, who may ascend into the heel of the Lord? Is there an actual heel that you're gonna walk up? Or is it who may ascend into the heel of the Lord or stand in his holy place?

Who's going to hear from God? In other words, he who has clean hands and a pure heart and has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor has he sworn deceitful, in other words, Lord, I'm gonna lift up holy hands, clean hands.

Yes, I might have sinned this week, but I'm coming to you for grace and mercy with a repentant, broken heart that's sincere. And God says, oh, I hear the prayers of clean hands and a pure heart. Because he's not holding onto that besetting sin.

And then number two, I said earlier, you have to have a burden. Has a burden been stirred? Has a burden been stirred? Even to build a mighty fire, you have to light the flame. Could it be that the prayer life and the lives of many people are dead and down to nothing because they haven't stirred that flame?

Stirred the pot, in a good sense. Kindled that fire, blow on that fire, and you stir that burden. Hmm. Leonard Ravenhill rightly noted that the Cinderella of the church today is the prayer meeting. Do you know what that means?

The prayer meeting, if she exists at all, is regulated to a dark corner somewhere in the church on an off night so there is little expectation that anyone will pay her any attention. She goes about unnoticed, unloved, and uncelebrated, yet she is the one that keeps the house clean.

And I think it's time for Cinderella to go to the ball, get dressed for our king, and celebrate what he has done. See, that's why we had to learn this lesson the hard way. Did you know that prayer drives the engine of this church?

People ask often, what is God doing up there? How, what's going on there? Prayer drives the heart of this church. We have the early morning prayer meetings. We get on our face before God. We start today with prayer.

There's prayer going on. That's the engine that drives the church. It has to be. If not, you just have a social club. Now, number three, it's not what you want to hear, but it's what you need to hear.

Fasting and Spiritual Warfare

Fasting. Fasting silences the voice of others. It silences, I'm sorry, it silences the voice of the flesh when you fast. Do you have a lot of competing voices out there? I don't know. Let's see if I can give you an illustration real quick.

If we put on, let's say we put on a song that you're trying to hear. I don't know if this is gonna work. We're gonna try it here. Give you an illustration. Or you could imagine. Let's say if there's worship going on.

All right, turn up a little more.

There we go. A little bit more. Let's turn it up a little. I raise a hallelujah Let's go to Psalm seven. How about Psalm eight? In the presence of my enemy Okay, here's what the Lord says. He said this.

I raise a hallelujah Okay, I think we get the point. Now, you could hear me, right?

Is that gonna work? The problem with many of us is we have too many voices. Too much going on in the minds. So when we fast, like the Bible says, we can do a whole sermon on fasting if you'd like. I'd love to.

But when the fast, you silence the voice of the flesh. Listen, I'm just gonna tell you. My wife can tell you. Ask her, is Shane really serious? I started doing something called intermittent fasting. So I usually go about 18 hours without eating every day, including today.

Or maybe not. But it's not about that. What it's about is I get up in the morning, and guess what I want? A donut and a venti. And for 10 minutes, I argue with King's Stomach. Because I want sugar, I want caffeine.

I want, I gotta have that. And when I silence the voice of the flesh, it's been the most powerful mornings I have ever had. Worship begins to bring tears. The messages come together. Actually, when I go out running, I can run farther and more energy.

Because it's silent, saying, shut up, King's Stomach. I need to hear from God. But it's not some legalistic kind of, the way the monks used to go in the desert and beat themselves up. And you know that, I don't remember the name of it, but they would actually cut themselves.