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Daniel Fast- Preparing Our Heart

February 25, 2018 Speaker: Ron Sebesta Series: Sunday Sermons

Topic: Fasting

DANIEL FAST

PREPARING OUR HEART

 

 

  1. When you have financial concerns. Ezra
  2. When you have persistent or besetting sin. Matthew 17

III. When you or the nation needs revival. I Samuel 7

  1. When you need direction in life. Acts 9
  2. When others have a greater need. I Kings 17
  3. When you’re dealing with depression and despair I Kings 19

VII. When you need health and healing. Daniel 1

 

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness[a]will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you always; Isaiah 58

 

And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epilepticand suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”17 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.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief;for assuredly, 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. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17

 

NOTICE! He calls his own believing disciples “faithless and perverse”

 

  1. You’re disconnected from God. Faithless/Unbelief Disciples

 

All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, everyone, to his own way; Isaiah 53:6

 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall directyour paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

 

  1. You’re connected to the World. Perverse

 

Perverse willfully determined or disposed to go counter to what is expected or desired.

 

"For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me--the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all! Jeremiah 2:13

 

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[d]is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. I John 2:16

 

Eve When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for foodand pleasing to the eye,and also desirable for gaining wisdom,she took some and ate it. Genesis

 

However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:21

BODY SOUL AND SPIRIT

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

 

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Psalm 43

 

III. Prayer reconnects you to God.

This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 1

 

Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. James 4:8-9

 

PRAYER

WORSHIP/LISTENING TO MUSIC

READING SCRIPTURE

SMALL GROUPS

LUNCH WITH BELIEVERS

SERVING

ART

 

  1. Fasting disconnects you from the world.

I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Romans 12

 

Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. I Cor 9

 

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear;

Then your righteousnesswill go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

 

THREE TIME A DAY MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT

  • READ THE WORD
  • PRAY
  • WORSHIP

 

PRAYER TOPICS

 

  • PRAY FOR OUR NATION, STATE, CITY
  • PRAY FOR THE CHURCH
  • PRAY FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY

 

Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Daniel 6:10

 

But I will call upon the Lord to save me—and he will. 17 I will pray morning, noon, and night, pleading aloud with God; and he will hear and answer. 18 Though the tide of battle runs strongly against me, for so many are fighting me, yet he will rescue me. 19 God himself—God from everlasting ages past—will answer them! Psalm 55:16-19

 

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