When You Pray & Fast

So happy to be with you. Thanks for joining us. (audience applauding) I'm really looking forward to the message today. We're wrapping up our foundation series. And in this series, our hope and our prayer has been that your spiritual roots in your walk with the Lord have grown deeper and that we've equipped you with some tools that will continue to help you grow deeper in your walk with the Lord, that your roots in Jesus, that your roots in his word, walking with his spirit would grow deep so that you could bear much fruit in Christ. That's our prayer for you. And so I'm looking forward to putting a bow on this series today by talking about two things. Prayer, something I love to do often and fasting, something I love to do less often. (audience laughing) I like to eat, man. I like to eat. I'm from the south. I can eat breakfast for every meal. I can eat biscuits and gravy all day. I don't care that I feel like there's a cement block in my stomach, biscuits and gravy are phenomenal. Like whenever my mom would leave for a trip, it was me and my dad, it was biscuits and sausage and gravy for every meal. It was an awesome breakfast and champions. I love to eat fasting's tough for me.

I mean, I think it's tough for all of us, but I met some people, I'm like, you fast way too much. Come on, you really love God that much, really. But fasting's tough, it's tough. Prayer's a little easier, I think. It doesn't require much of a sacrifice to go, "Hey God, I need you." That doesn't take a lot. But for me to prove to myself that I need God by abstaining from something that my body needs on a daily basis to live, that's a different level. And so I wanna talk about both of those things today. The title of my message is, "When you pray and fast." When you pray and fast, you might think that the operative words there would be pray and fast. It's not, actually the operative word there is when. I didn't say if you feel like praying and fasting. And here's the thing, I didn't come up with that word. We're gonna look at a scripture right now where somebody else, way more powerful, way more authoritative than me, used this particular phrasing when you pray and when you fast. So if you have your Bibles, I want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter six. And as you turn there, I wanna give you some historical context as to what's taking place in this particular account. Jesus is teaching, as he oftentimes did.

And he's preaching his most famous, most prolific sermon, it's called the Sermon on the Mount. It takes up three whole chapters. It's Matthew five through seven. It's the greatest sermon ever given. Jesus is the greatest preacher of all time. And he's preaching through multiple subjects, divorce, adultery, murder, hatred. And he comes to these two subjects of prayer and fasting. He's doing some comparison and contrast work here. And he starts by saying, don't be like the Pharisees when they pray and when they fast and don't be like the heathens. So Gentiles, non-Jewish people by birth who pray because they babble so much. They think that if they pray longer and they pray a lot more words that one of their gods is gonna listen to them. If they can just say enough words, one of their gods, maybe not all of them, but one of them will finally listen to them because they've gotten their attention. They've annoyed them enough. They've worn them down enough. And he starts showing you what and me, what not to do. He goes, the Pharisees when they pray and when they fast, they pray loudly on the street corners so that everyone can hear them. And then when they fast, they look disheveled and they want you to see that they're fasting

so that you'll ask them, hey, are you okay? What's wrong? Oh, I'm just fasting. I'm just being holy, I'm being righteous. You know, it makes me think about whenever I read the Lord's words in Matthew 6 about that, that behavior from the Pharisees who were grown adult men who studied the word for daily, for their living, they studied it for years, but they behave like that. comes and goes, dad, I'm so hungry, I'm going to throw up, I'm so hungry. I have to eat right now, or I'm literally going to die. That's what I think about when I, when I read Genesis of words about how the Pharisees behave, they would walk around just going, oh, oh my gosh, I'm so exhausted, but what's going on? I'm just fasting, I'm getting close to God, and I just, I'm going to pass out, but thanks for asking. Like, that's the imagery, grown adult men, they're, they're man sick. That's what it is. They're man sick. That's how they're behaving. And Jesus starts Matthew six with this comparison, this contrast, and I want to pick up, we're, we're going to look at three different verses. I'm not going to read the whole thing. I just wanted to break it down for you because it's a lot of scripture, which I love reading a lot of scripture, but it would take a little more time. So I wanted to explain it to you. If you got your Bibles now, I want us to read together Matthew chapter six, starting in verse six, then we're going to jump down to verse 16 and 17. Jesus has again just said, this is what the Pharisees do.

Now he's going to tell you and me what we should do. He said, but when you pray, journey, church, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen, then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you, skip down to verse 16. When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do for they just figure their faces show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full, but when you fast journey church, put oil on your head and wash your face so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your father who was unseen and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. The first thing I want you to see journey church is that when you pray and fast, God sees you. God sees us when we pray and fast. One should write that down. God sees you when you, when we pray in fast. Jesus has told us this. He said, my father who you don't see, when you pray and fast the way that I'm telling you to, he will see you. Now what I don't want you to hear me say is that God only sees us when we pray and fast. If you're a follower of Jesus, you have your father's eye every moment of the day. He knows when you get up, he knows when you lie down, he knows when you walk out of your house and when you come home, he knows the number of hairs on your head, he forms you in your mother's womb. He knows everything about you. You have his attention. If you're covered by the blood of Jesus, you have your father's favor every single second of your life. His eyes are on you. He says actually in the work book of Isaiah, you are the apple of my eye. So we're not trying to get God's attention, but what Jesus is trying to show us here is

that God recognizes when his children are seeking him. It's all about motive too. Jesus wasn't getting onto the Pharisees because they prayed and fasting. He got onto them because of why they were praying and fasting. They were praying and fasting not to be righteous, but to look righteous. That form of righteousness isn't righteousness at all and it has no power and it has no authority. It definitely has no good fruit. The only fruit that it produces is rotten, spoiled fruit. The Pharisees thought that because of their own righteousness, because of all of the good things that they did for God, thought that it made them right with God. But Jesus is clearly usurping that lie in this moment. And he goes, no, you don't get my father's attention by praying and fasting. You can get people's attention. That's okay. And if that's the reward you want, you can have it. You get to choose whether people here and see you or whether God hears and sees you. And if you want to do things my way, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go in. And I want you to go into your home. Listen to these pronouns that Christ is using. Your home. Close your door. And then your father, he didn't say my father, he said, "Your father." And he's not just talking to anyone. He's talking to people who put their faith in him. Then you have the right for God to be your father and say that he's mine. Christ is showing us how intimate this is.

Prayer and fasting, although it might be something that is talked about publicly and that you might even, when you pray and you fast, you might share with somebody that you love to hold you accountable and encourage you. That's okay. Jesus is saying, though, that the purpose, the fruit, the result of praying and fasting, his way is intimacy. I'm going into my home. I'm closing the door twice that I'm not interrupted. That means I'm in today's terms. I'm putting my phone down. I'm turning the TV off. I'm logging out of my email. I'm closing the door. I'm saying, "God, I just want to spend time with you." I want to spend time with you. I want to talk with you. Prayer. I want to talk with you. And I want you to talk with me. More importantly than me talking, I want to hear what you have to say. Because I know that when I come to you with a right heart, you see me. And there's a dual meaning there. It does represent physical visibility. Yes, because God sees everything, of course.

We know that. But it means more importantly, more importantly than that, it means that God sees the most inward parts of you and me. When we come before Him in prayer, we're vulnerable. Like when our hearts are fully vested, when we're all in and we're locked in with God, He sees where our hearts really are. They're laid bare before Him. And when we come to Him openly and humbly, He can speak to us in a way that we need Him to speak. What fasting does, fasting accelerates your ability to hear. Not God's ability to speak or to move, but your ability and my ability to hear and see Him speak and move. In Scripture, fasting always has the removal of a source of food for a certain period of time, so that the person fasting would tell their appetites, no, their carnal appetites, although it's necessary to eat to live. I understand that. But Jesus quoting the Old Testament, whenever He was being tempted by the enemy in Matthew 3 in Luke 3, He said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." What fasting does, it's fasting is similar to tithing. Whenever you tithe your first and best 10%, you're saying, "God, you're my source." Even before I pay my bills, I'm trusting you. Fasting to saying, "God, I love you more than food, more than it's something that I need to survive. Actually food that you gave me, I'm laying it aside because your words are actually what I live on." And so fasting, it doesn't get God's attention more. It's not like God was ignoring you before you go, "Oh, they're fasting. Now I see them." That's not what's happening.

Fasting tells your flesh, "No," and it tells God's spirit, "Yes." And when you tell your flesh, "No," you say, "God, I just want to hear from you." God, Jesus just told us, "When you pray and fast His way, God, your heavenly Father, who is unseen, sees you and He sees what you're doing to get closer to Him." Not earned brownie points. That's not what we're talking about here, to become more like Christ and you're willing to sacrifice and you're willing to lock it and to close the door. Nobody even knows what you're doing. No one knows the price that you're paying. Your heavenly Father looks down and goes, "I see Him. I see Her. They get me. They're doing it my way." Jesus promises us that, that when we pray and fast, God sees us. [BLANK_AUDIO] We've already read it, but I want to read it again, okay Once you look with me again, we're gonna read the same passage of scripture again, okay Matthew chapter 6 verse 6 See if you can guess what we're going next But when you pray go into your room close the door and pray to your father who is unseen Then your father who is who sees what is done in secret will reward you And then let's drop down to verse 17 and 18 But when you fast put oil on your head and wash your face so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting But only to your father who is unseen and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you It's progression here. I wonder if you see it The second thing that happens whenever we pray in fast is that God rewards us God rewards us when we pray in fast and Hebrews chapter 11 the writer there says That they who come to God must believe two things Number one that he exists

But number two he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him God wants to bless you He does Well John Michael, I'm not in it for the blessing. That's okay. I'll take your blessing. That's fine. You can give it to me. That's all right What are you talking about JM, what do you mean blessing? Is this prosperity gospel jargon? Nope We're not talking about bitlies and Rolls Royces and houses God can let you have one of those that's fine. There's nothing wrong with having a big house It's the only problem is is if the big house has you And if the big house becomes the idol and If I'm only seeking God for the big house There's nothing wrong with having stuff stuff is just stuff. It's not evil in and of itself It's what I do with it or what I let it do to me that can become evil We're not talking about Necessarily financial blessing it can't include that because God is able to do what he wants when he wants for his kids Let me paint it for you like this. I have two amazing daughters and as the father and the older more response one more mature person in in in that scenario with both my daughters I Know that I have a responsibility to pursue them to spend time with them to play with them my to have tickle fights and pillow fights and Go out to eat and take them on little dates and go get coffee and Sit there paint painstakingly as they Walk me through their latest haul If you don't know what a haul is It's when you go to Target or Hobby Lobby or the mall and you buy a bunch of stuff with my money And then you show me how you wasted it with all the stuff that you bought okay? My daughters are fantastic at giving hauls dad. Let me show you my newest haul, okay, and Okay, babe. I can't wait and They pull the bags out and they just start pulling these pants on and these were only 435 dollars. It wasn't a great deal

Totally kidding my kids have never bought anything that cost four and thirty five dollars It just feels like that when they pull the stuff out. I'm just raking it up in my mind. I'm like, okay. There we go You're not going to college, so It's my responsibility to pursue them And I love doing it one of my greatest joys in this life There are moments when my daughters Come to be a good dad Can I spend time with you? Yeah Yeah, what do you want to do I don't care Can we sing out? Do you know what that does for me as a father It fills me with so much joy and pride I Don't mind pursuing my I love pursuing my kids. There's it's not it's not a chore for me It's a joy. It's a privilege. I love it. I'm so I'm so grateful that God would trust me with all of my failures and all of my Insecurities and all the things I lack as a man and as a father. He would trust me with two I cannot believe I get to do that. But for them to reverse the role and pursue me, they can have whatever they want. (audience laughs) Marr is so full of joy and pride. Go, you get it. You just want to be with me. And if I'm that way, as a broken flawed man, how much more when you and I show up and we're praying and we set aside food for a season time ago, God, I just want to be with you. I'm going to turn the TV off. I'm going to stop scrolling Instagram.

I'm going to stop comparing my life to somebody's highlight reels. And I'm going to shut all of it off because I just want to be with you. I don't want a new house. I don't want a new job. I don't want a new car. I just want to be with my father. (audience applauds) When we do that, Jesus says my father, actually your father, he sees you and he cannot wait to reward you. Can I tell you, Journey Church, the reward isn't a thing. The reward is him. God sees you and he meets you. And he speaks and when you open his word, stuff just begins to jump off the page because again, when you fast, you begin to see things you've never seen before. Why? Because every time your stomach begins to crumble, it's a reminder, I need you. I need you. What I'm hungry, I want food. I want food, but I need you. And Jesus says, when you put those two things together, they are an unstoppable force. And he was speaking from experience. Remember, Jesus didn't even start his public ministry

until he spent 40 days praying in fact, 40 days. It's hard for me to go 40 minutes, 40 days. That does something to you, not only spiritually, but physically, that changes you. So Jesus wasn't just speaking from his ivory tower. He had lived this out and he knew, oh yeah, it's tough, it's hard. It requires sacrifice. Oh, but the reward is so much greater. Your father sees you and he can't wait to bless you. He can't wait to reward you. What does that reward look like? I have no idea. I don't know what God wants to do in your life. I can tell you this, it's better than what you could come up with. It's better than what I could come up with. Once you're gonna do it, I don't know, but I can tell you this. His timing is impeccable. It's perfect. It's perfect. I wonder if, praying and fasting, I wonder if that process of seeking God, I wonder if the prayer and the fasting itself, not the thing that God does for me at the end of it. I truly wonder if the prayer and fasting itself is the reward. (audience member speaking) Why? Because I realize that I can't make it without him. More importantly than that, though,

it's, I think it's easy to know that we need God. But what if the reward is the process of going God? I know I need you, but more important than that, I just want you. More than the air that I breathe, more than the water that I drink, the food that I eat, I want you more than all of that because you're that good. Jesus says, when we come to God with that heart, God sees us and God rewards us. But the story doesn't end there. Something happens to us in us, and then through us when we fast. I want you to turn with me right now to Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah 58 verse six. God says, there's not this kind of fasting, oppressed free and break every yoke. Is it not to share your food with the hungry to provide the poor wonder with shelter when you see the naked to clothe them and to not turn away from your own flesh and blood? Maybe you've never read that before. It's a fast, though. That's the results of fasting. Fasting's not a diet. It's not me earning brownie points with God. It's saying no to my carnal desires and saying yes to the desires of God's Spirit. And the desires of God's Spirit are what we just read right here, to set the prisoner free, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to not turn away from those who are right beside us, to set those who are oppressed free, to break every yoke. That's what real fasting looks like and what it produces. It doesn't just change me.

It should change me so much so that the world around me changes because I have exchanged my heart for the heart of God and now I am wrecked and I'm never the same. That's what real fasting looks like. It's when it changes every facet of who you are, of how you think, of how you speak, of how you act. This is fasting. Then I want you to look with me now at Acts chapter 13. I gave you an old Testament example, now I want to give you a new Testament one. Acts 13, this is the Apostle Paul and it says in verse two, they're in the city of Antioch. It says while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, so we don't just have prayer and fasting, we also have worship and fasting. The Holy Spirit said, "Set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them who Paul and Barnabas and sent them off. There's a lot happening here in Isaiah 58 and in Acts 13, what's happening? There's a change that takes place. See, in Isaiah 58, God is rebuking Israel for fasting the wrong way. And when if you looked at the law, they were doing what the law told them to do. They were obeying every letter and they were obeying exactly the time of day and the exact amount of food and the type of food and God was going, "I don't care about that because your heart hasn't changed. Stop. If you're not going to let me change you, don't fast. It doesn't matter if that's all that you're worried about, then you're fasting for the approval of man, not for my approval. You're fasting for the reward of people thinking that you're righteous because you look righteous instead of receiving your full reward. For me, your Heavenly Father, who's unseen, who will reward you with my presence." If you don't want that though, don't fast.

Don't do it. And then you have here in Acts, you got the believers praying and Paul and Barnabas are there with them. The idea of Antioch, which is where the very first place where the name Christian appeared and it's a pejorative term, it means "little christs." We were first called Christians as a people in Antioch and our spiritual ancestors in the first century church were like, "We like that. We're going to keep that Christian. You call me a little Christ. That's the greatest honor you could ever give me. Thank you so much for that. That's where they are right now. They're in that city and they're praying and they're fasting and they're doing it God's way." Now, here's the interesting thing in Acts 13. Jesus told us in Matthew 6, "Pray along fast so that no one knows, but here we have the early church. They're praying and fasting together. Aren't they going against Christ's Word? No, remember, it's not about who sees, it's about motive. They weren't competing spiritually. No one was talking about, "Well, how much did you pray today? Awesome. How much did you pray?" "How much did you fast? Did you fast every meal I did?" No one was talking about that. They were worshiping, praying, and fasting together. It was a corporate time of prayer and fasting and they're seeking the Lord for whatever He wants to do.

They didn't know, they just, they didn't know what it was. They just knew they wanted to be a part of it. And then the Holy Spirit said, "Get Paul and Barnabas. Bring 'em here. What happened? They were changed. That's the third thing I want you to see, Jerry Church, is when we pray in fast, God changes us. God changes us when we pray in fast. His way. Isaiah 58, God is telling the prophet Isaiah, if you actually fast and you do it my way, you won't be the same. You will see injustice around you, real injustice. You will see it and you will go fix it. You will see a homeless person and you won't wait for the next person to take care of them. You will take care of it. James, the half brother, Jesus, tells us that true religion is feeding the poor and taking care of orphans and widows. That sounds a lot like Isaiah 58 to me. And then we see it here in the New Testament being lived out. Paul and Barnabas, are they praying? They're doing a work in Antioch and God's going, I'm not done yet. I'm changing you. I'm changing your assignment. You're not staying here. You have to go around calling you. When you pray in fast, you are making yourself a candidate for God to change you from the inside out. So if you don't want it, don't pray in fast. And here's the thing, Paul and Barnabas weren't the only ones that changed.

Those people in Antioch, those were their friends, more than, they were family. That's the family of God. For them to release Paul and Barnabas, they had to let go. They couldn't hold them close, they had to go, okay, Lord, it hurts us. It's painful to see our friends go, but we want what you want. And if you're calling them to a new assignment, who are we to stand in their way? We release them to you, Lord, have your way. Everyone was changed in that moment. Why? Because they just wanted to be with God, and they just wanted what he wanted. When you pray in fast, no changes you. That's the goal. It's to become less like me and more like him. And when I am more like him, I will speak and act like him. And when I do that and when you do that, the world takes notice and goes, "What's different about you?" How are you able to forgive that person who hurt you like that? How are you able to move forward? Even though you just got laid up from your job and you don't know how you're going to meet your bills this month, how are you able to have joy right now? Oh, because my Heavenly Father, he sees me. My Heavenly Father rewards me. My job doesn't reward me. My Heavenly Father does. He's gotten me, and he changes me. He makes me more like him. So journey as we look at Scripture, as we look at Christ's examples, we look at the example God gives in Isaiah, and then how we see it play that next 13 with the Apostles. How do you and I possibly live this out practically on a day-to-day basis? How do we do this?

Starting tomorrow, we're calling the entire church to a church-wide fast for three days, the next three days, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We're asking you to fast, and there's a purpose behind it. There's actually multiple purposes behind it. There's some different focuses that we have this week, because on Thursday, October 1st, we're going to have Code Red, and here's the thing. We're not looking for an experience. We're not looking for hype or energy. We're looking for an encounter where God, I don't care what you do, just as long as you do it. We want you. There's nothing wrong with hyper emotion. I'm not saying that, but that can't be the only fruit. It can't be the only result. The result has to be that we were changed because we encountered His presence. We grew closer to Him because we encountered His presence. As we fast as we're focusing on, in fact, I have a couple of things I want to share with you, because we're asking everyone to fast something, and maybe you're like, "John, Michael, I've never fasted before. How do I do this?" Well, I'm going to give you a couple of things to equip you. We've got that slide over the different types of fast. Let's go ahead and put that up right now. We have a few different types of fast. he also wants us to be wise regarding our health. So if you have any health concerns, dietary restrictions, please talk to your doctor first, your nutritionist, whoever you need to talk to, because we don't know what those are. So you figure that out, and that's okay,

like God's not gonna be mad at you, if you can't do the same fast somebody else is doing. Again, this isn't about brownie points, it's just about being obedient. So if you can't do this kind of fast, don't feel guilty, that's okay, there's grace for that. But if you are physically able to fast, we're calling you to fast with us. Now, we have two focuses, number one is for Journey Church. We're asking you to pray with us, our number one focus. As a church is to make disciples rooted in Christ and serving others in love. So we're asking you to pray with us over the next three days that God would continue to give us as a staff strategy for how to best do that. So we need your prayers, we can't do it on our own. We pray about it a lot, and we have a lot of good ideas, but we wanna make sure we have God's ideas. So please pray with it, we're asking you to pray with us about that, 'cause you're a part of that solution. So God may highlight something for you that you're supposed to do, as you pray in fast with us about this need. The second thing is, we want you to focus on a personal area of your life. Can we go back to that for just a moment? I'm so sorry, that last slide, thank you so much. It says, "What is God leading you to fast for your life?" There might be an area of your family, your finances, your health, a personal desire you have

in your own heart that nobody else knows about, but you and God, and you wanna seek God about that during these next three days of prayer and fasting. That's great, write it down. What are you believing God for? 'Cause we're gonna be praying with you this week as a pastoral staff. We're gonna be praying, even if we don't know what it is right now, we're gonna be praying with you about that that God would move in your life. So, a corporate focus of praying for making this, about making disciples, and then a personal focus for you. What are you believing God for in one area of your life? Now, here's a few different types of fasting. Maybe you're like, "John Michael, I've never done this before. "What kind of food should I fast? "How long should I do it?" Well, here are just a few examples. You could do a full fast, where you drink only liquids, and you can establish the number of days. Maybe like, "John Michael, I don't know "if I could full fast for three days, but I can do one." That's okay. And if you're just starting off fasting, I would not suggest doing a full fast. We're not trying, there's no competition here. This is what the Lord is leading you to do. I'm just giving you some examples. Number two, there's a Daniel fast. Eat no meat, no sweets and no bread.

Drink water and juice, eat fruits and veggies. Okay, for three days. There's a three day fast. This can be a full fast, annual fast, or you can give up at least one item of food. So, we're doing a three day fast, obviously. All of these apply to those three days, but with that, we've got a partial fast, which is one from particular time to another. For example, you might do 16 to 3 p.m., or sun up to sun down, or you might just fast lunch for the next three days, or breakfast and lunch. However you wanna do it, you pick the fast that God is leading you to do. Don't worry about what everybody else is doing. What is God calling you to do? And then I put up there some scriptural references for fasting. You can take a quick screenshot of that. And then I think we've got one more slide with a few more references of scripture. Yeah, so, scriptural references for prayer and reading the word while you're fasting. And then scriptural references for corporate fasting, which is what we're doing. We're calling the whole church to a corporate fast for the next three days. So, there are some verses there for you. Take a screenshot of that. And the last thing we wanna equip you with today is this card.

You're gonna get whenever you leave your campus today. On one side, it talks about prayer and fasting, what we're doing. And then for the next three days, it gives you just a different prayer focus that we've got. Tomorrow at every campus, every campus is gonna be open from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. for prayer. We pray every Monday, 9 a.m. for, as a staff at every campus, we pray. And if you're able to join us when a lot of people have a work, that's okay. But if you can, we'd love to have you join us. And then Tuesday, this is where maybe you fast a meal or a coffee and you use that money. Even if you bring your lunch for work, what's that money that you would have used to pay for your own meal or your coffee that day and pay it forward to somebody else? Remember, real fasting produces life change. Isaiah 58 said, go help somebody else. So, we're gonna live that out on Tuesday. And then on Wednesday, you're gonna pray the way forward with somebody. Now, you might be going, John Michael, what do you mean pray the way forward? Well, that's the other side of the cards. We spent time praying over this and asking the Holy Spirit to lead us and to guide us. And this is something we're gonna pray

every day as a church for three days. It's a simple prayer. But if we're united and God's purpose for us as a house, man, what could God do? And so this is how we're gonna walk this out as a church for the next three days. And then we're gonna come together at the end of that fast for code read on Thursday, here at the Eve on campus, and we're gonna seek God together. It's gonna be amazing. We're believing God to move in a way that only he can. We're so excited, but here's the thing, journey church. Jesus didn't say if you pray it fast. He said, when, why, it's for our benefit. Because when you pray it fast, God sees you, God rewards you, and God changes you. (gentle music) (gentle music) You