February 11, 2020, SEEK 2020, Bible Study, Rev. Marc Lavarin

0:41 How is everybody doing tonight? Good. Well, it's good to see you all. You all have come here on a Tuesday night, and I've always said the real saints come to church on Tuesday night, amen. And so y'all are part of that number. We are preparing to get into and enter into our season of Seek 2020, where we're getting ready to go before God with prayer and fasting. And before we went into that, we wanted to make sure that we had an opportunity to help equip our congregation to know what they're getting themselves into. And before I even get into that, do we have any first-time visitors with us? Well, welcome. Can you help us welcome our sister here? Welcome, welcome, welcome. I want to welcome you on behalf of our pastor, the Reverend Dr. Howard John Wesley.

1:37 It's really a pleasure every time we add a new member or a new person here to Alfred Street. Show of hands, how many individuals participated in Sikh 2019 last year? Amen. Amen. How many people have ever fasted? Amen. What we're doing here today is going to give us a biblical introduction to fasting. We're going to go over Seek 2020. And what you'll notice is that this year's fast has, we took a lot of the feedback that you all gave from last year to implement and to make a more holistic fast. So there are a lot of new things that we're adding to the fast.

2:34 We're keeping a lot of the old that we previously did last year. But the intentions for us is to continue to grow spiritually during Seek 2020. So we're going to have an opportunity today to answer any questions. I want to make sure that you spread the news that next week we're going to be doing a special Bible study. We're going to be doing a Bible study on the Daniel Fast, which is going to be led by our culinary ministry. But then we're also immediately after, we're going to have a shorter Bible study, probably like 40 minutes. And then for another additional 30 or 35 minutes, we're going to be having a Daniel Fast taste tester. So downstairs in the multipurpose room, we're going to have an opportunity for you to taste A couple of the recipes and ingredients that you all can make during the fast, and a couple of recipes that we've included in our devotional journal workbook this year, so that you can see some of the recipes that you can make during the fast.

3:36 So it doesn't have to be a very mundane menu at home. You don't just need to eat fruits and vegetables, but you could be a bit creative, and that's going to be led by our culinary ministry next week. So make sure you attend, but actually make sure you invite a friend as well. So we're going to jump right on into this, and we're going to get into this conversation on what is a fast. Again, show of hands, how many people have participated in a fast?

4:10 All right, what's one of the—if you participate in a fast, you've probably realized that fasting ain't easy, right? Right? Fasting is a whole lot of work. Like, it's not something that... When I first started fasting, all I thought fasting was was just abstaining from food. Right? I thought it was just like, just, okay, basically, I'm changing my diet. Right? I'm not going to eat this food until a particular day, and then I just get back into the swing of things. You know, it took me not hearing what I wanted from God or not hearing anything at all for me to realize that wasn't necessarily the way to properly fast. Fasting, and the reason why we actually call this seek, is because it's work. Seeking is work. Trying to find something, trying to figure something out, trying to discern something takes work. And that's what we want to highlight, that this period that we're getting ready to enter into is work. We're getting ready to enter into a period of seeking God, but it's going to invite us all, it's going to challenge us all to put in some hard work.

5:32 And really, in layman's terms, the word, a fast is really, the fast is to abstain from food, And that's where we kind of get the word breakfast. It's to break a fast. It's literally where you break that period of abstaining from food. But what we'll learn is that today, that fasting doesn't just take on abstaining from food. We're going to learn about different ways and methods we can fast. One of the first things people often find difficult to understand or fathom is that, one, fasting is not specifically Christian. Christianity is not the only religion that fasts. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of other religions who fast, some far more often than Christians. I can tell you I got about one good fast in a year.

6:31 I got one good fast in me about a year. And there are many religions where fasting is a critical part of their everyday lives or yearly lives, that they're constantly fasting. And so I want you to begin this by saying that this journey that you're on, this spiritual discipline of fasting, is something that you partake with many individuals, not just strictly Christian, but many people who profess faith. So just to name a few, in Hinduism, fasting is critical. Some of these are probably new to you. Some of them are probably familiar. Some of you are probably familiar with Yom Kippur, or you might be familiar with Ramadan. But fasting is a part of many, many religions. And you'll be surprised that in Christianity, fasting is not a requirement.

7:36 Now, it's highly recommended. It's highly recommended. But you won't be able to go into Scripture and find where God mandates you to fast. Now, there are certainly some Scriptures that implies that Christians ought to fast. But there's nothing that necessarily mandates you to fast. So if fasting is not required, if Jesus doesn't say, in order for you to be saved, you need to fast, you're probably asking, well, why are we doing this? Why are we even embarking on this journey of fasting if that's not something that's necessarily required? But fasting is an opportunity, and specifically speaking to Christians, for people to practice the fruit of self-discipline. Discipline is one of the hardest things to master.

8:34 And we do this by abstaining from personal pleasures. We do this by abstaining from personal pleasures in order to fixate our entire attention on God. Now, I said to begin with that fasting is not specifically about food. Now, food, we often utilize food because our body craves food. You know, our body craves, we need to be fed. And what we do when we fast specifically from food, we're training our body, we're training our flesh, we're trying to subdue the flesh in order for it to have a different appetite. And the same thing is true spiritually, that when we abstain from things that primarily take up time where we could be connecting from God, we're trying to train our flesh to crave and have a different appetite. And so when we're fasting, what we're trying to do as a body of believers, we're trying to direct our attention from God.

9:42 If I were to ask you, what are some of the popular things that take up your attention? Phones, Instagram, sewing, what else? Television, reading, right? And here's the thing. Some of these things are inherently good. right? It doesn't have to be a negative thing, right? Food is necessary. Food is good, especially when it's soul food. It's great. Reading is good. You're not doing a bad thing. But what you're trying to do is you're trying to take away distractions or you're trying to take away things that you can put into putting your entire attention on God. And when we fast, what's really important about when we're fasting, and we'll get into this a little bit later, what we're fasting is we're trying to hear God.

10:39 And the mistake we sometimes make is assuming that God only speaks when we fast. No, the reality is God is always speaking, and it's not until we fast and silence other areas of our lives do we actually hear God. So what we're doing when we're fast is that we are also recognizing that there's other things that have taken the place of God or other things that have hindered us from hearing the voice of God. And so we silence the voices around us, whether it's reading, sowing, eating, whatever the case is, in order to hear God speak because God is always speaking, right? God doesn't just start speaking when they say, okay, well, Reverend Marcia is going on a fast, so now is the time for me to answer her prayers. No, God is always speaking, but in order for us to get a clearer understanding or in order for us to get confirmation of something, we make the decision to silence some other areas of our lives, no matter how good it is. Some are negative. Like, we don't need to always be on social media, right? Right? Ever since Apple came out with that Time Watch screen, you realize how bad your life actually is, right?

11:59 Like, I can't possibly believe that I spend six hours looking at this screen a day. Now, imagine what would happen if you switch that six hour of screen time to six hours of speaking with God. Imagine what would happen if during, you know, what we need to figure out for Seek 21, Mr. We need to figure out how we could get a screenshot of how many times you've been spending time with God. Right. What would it look like if you got a alert every Sunday morning before you came to church that told you how many times you spend time with God this week? you know what how many hours would you have said this week i spent with god and so what we're doing and when we're fasting is we're trying to recapture that right because some of how many people just have work is just crazy busy it's just everything there's always something right and we're not denying that god sent you to that place for you to work we're not denying that you're not called there. We're not denying that you're doing good work where you're at. You know, some of us are, you know, some of us are some hard workers, and we put in a lot of hard work in a lot of hours. We're denying those things. But fasting is an opportunity for us to make sure our priorities are straight. Make sure that we are almost recalibrating ourselves to make sure that God has our attention. And so we put some stuff in the back burner. We reduce the noise around us in order for us to hear God that is always speaking. I want to make sure I highlight that, that God is always speaking, that God is not waiting for you to fast in order for God to start speaking. What fasting ought to do, by the time you end, and some of this might be a conviction for many people, and if you did Seek 2019, how many of you started to pay attention to more labels,

14:08 what you were eating afterwards, right? There was a sense of conviction that I need to start paying attention to this more. And what fasting ought to do, especially if you're doing for a long period of time, like 21 days, it ought to make you more aware of the other things that are taking up more of your time. It ought to make sure, maybe you don't say, well, I'm never going back on Instagram, but maybe you do say, well, now I'm going to limit my time or how long I'm going to go back, even when the fast is done. Because those are, that's what, that begins to show that you're growing spiritually, right? This is a spiritual discipline. And a spiritual discipline is nothing short of, is a practice, is a habit that you do in order to recenter yourself back to God. And we'll get into spiritual disciplines a little bit later. I want to highlight what fasting is not. So fasting, as we begin to say, there's not a requirement, and fasting is a work. It's something we do. And one of the reasons we highlight that is because salvation is not, salvation isn't determined by how often you fast, right? Salvation isn't determined by how often you fast. It's a work, and therefore it's not capable of saving anyone. But what we're saying is that it's an important discipline of the Christian tradition if and when you're in need of hearing, discerning, and just wanting to get back to right relationship with God.

15:49 I also want to highlight this, is that fasting is not a way to maneuver or manipulate God. Just because you fast does not mean God is going to answer your prayers the way you want God to answer. As a matter of fact, there's probably many of testimonies in this room that said that you fasted and God gave you the revelation that this wasn't the way for you to go, right? And sometimes that's a hard feat and that might be difficult to swallow, but it's better to know that God answered your prayers, right? It's better to know in advance the direction God is leading you in instead of going into something blind, just hoping that God is going to bless this and what God really wants to invite you to say, no, that's not my will for your life. I'm going to veer you in this direction, right? And so fasting is an opportunity, and we're going to go over some of the biblical reasons as to why we fast, but you're going to, one of the primary reasons, and I could, and I could, I'll take a poll actually.

16:59 For anyone who's fasted, what was the reason for you to fast? Why did you choose to fast? Get closer to God? What else? You needed to hear God? What else? Give me one more. I'm going to go to her and I'm coming back to you. What is that? To ease a burden. I just felt called to it at that time. They're coming, preparing yourself. Okay, preparing yourself, that's good. struggling with a decision how many people got that testimony said lord is this the one is this the one god is am i supposed to take this job am i supposed to go in this direction am i supposed to do this right and fasting is one of the best ways to make that decision and biblically speaking that's one of the most prominent things that you will hear whenever there's a critical decision, whenever there's a critical decision to be made, you'll often see the people of God fasting. Because you want to make sure, you want to know that you know, God, this is it.

18:15 Right? You want to know that you know that, God, this is the direction that I am supposed to go. Fasting also is not a spiritual gift or a badge of anointing or boasting. And these are all three that Pastor Wesley spoke on last year. So if you were here last year around this time, Pastor Wesley mentioned these three as well. Everyone can fast.

18:39 I would recommend everyone should fast. Now, if you are a frequent faster, you may have a higher bandwidth with how long you can fast or what types of fasts you can get into. but I want to let you know that you don't have to be five years into Christianity in order to start fasting, right? You don't need to have a spiritual gift in order to start fasting, right? No matter where you are in your walk of faith, you can start fasting, right? And your fast doesn't have to look identical to someone else's in order to be effective, right so it doesn't matter how long like you know the bible says jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights without food or water god bless him that's not my testimony that's not my testimony i've never done that i struggled on the how many people did the water fast last year listen listen that water fast i was ready to call it quit call it quit six hours in that water fast was no joke And we only did it for three days, right?

19:53 We only did it for three days just going on water. I said, Lord, I want you all to know we've taken that out this year. There's no more water. There's no more water fast that is a part of Seek 2020. God bless that water fast. That won't make it into the... But also what fasting is not, fasting is not a diet. And I want to make sure that highlight that. because you may lose some weight during this process, praise the Lord, but fasting is not, the dieting is not the outcome, right? And you actually have to be careful because if you go online today, fasting has kind of taken a trend. So there's an intermittent fast, right? And so like Hollywood is almost wanting to adopt fasting into the South Beach diet, right? and make it, oh, did you see this celebrity is fasting for three days and doing this, this, and that, and they've lost 10 pounds in three days.

20:57 No, that's not the purpose of fasting. The purpose of fasting is to draw closer to God. Whether God answers your prayers the way you want to or not, draw closer to God. Whether you fail on your fast and you stumble, draw closer to God. One thing you'll hear on this, you'll read on your devotional booklet and you'll hear from here on our PowerPoint, fasting is not about perfection, it's about transformation. That you aren't, we don't want you to be perfect during this fast. You could have never missed a day, have written in your devotional journal every single day and have missed the point. because it's not about how perfect you were during the fast. I'd be willing to argue that one of the hardest things to do isn't to be perfect.

21:51 It's actually to get back to fasting after day 29 when you messed up. You know, it's day 15, and you're already two weeks in, and your body started to make some changes, and you had a moment of weakness, and you started, you know, going on Instagram. You had some soul food during the fast. And I would be willing to tell you that day 16 will probably be even harder. And so your ability to get back into things, even though you weren't perfect, will testify about the spiritual growth that you're actually having during the fast. Your desire to get back into it, your desire to see it through, even if you've fallen or stumbled, that is going to be some of your biggest transformational moments. The Bible talks about a fasting that pleases God. Probably one of the most famous passages about fasting is Isaiah 58.

22:52 And in Isaiah 58, I want you to mark that in your Bibles. in Isaiah 58, God judges and rebukes the people of Israel because they're doing a fast and they're having a fast, but they're allowing all these other things to continue to happen. They're allowing injustice to run rampant, and they're allowing the poor not to be taken care of. And God says, that's not the type of fast I'm looking for. God rebukes them. And here's a portion of it. It says, is not this the fast that I choose? To loose the bonds of injustice? To undo the thongs of the yoke? To let the oppressed go free? And to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry? And to bring the homeless poor into your house? When you see the naked to cover them?

23:48 And not to hide yourself from your own kin? fasting isn't about manipulating in order to get God's will done. Fasting is about determining and discerning what God's will is. And when you're able to determine and discern what God's will is, it's about taking that next step and decision in following God's will. And that's why I said earlier, it's possible to fast incorrectly. It's possible to get through your entire fast and not be transformed, not be changed by any of it. Even Jesus shows up on the scene in Matthew, Matthew chapter 6, and Jesus says, when you fast, don't fast like the hypocrites.

24:35 Right? There is a wrong way to fast. There is a wrong way to enter into fasting. And Jesus' is rebuke of the hypocrites are that they're fasting to be seen. You know, and what Jesus is really angry about is that they're making this thing of fasting, I think almost a badge of honor, you know, almost this, oh, I'm more pious than you. You know, I'm holier than you are. and I could fast for this many days and I can do this when I fast. And that's not what God is concerned about. God is not concerned about how many people knows that you're fasting, right? This is a little bit different because we're doing a corporate fast, right? We're doing a corporate fast and so many people will know that you're fasting.

25:29 But it's possible for you to fast in vain if you don't have your priorities straight. and we're going to get into how do we prepare for a fast. I want to tell you a story while I was at Northeastern. While I was at Northeastern was the first time I ever participated in a Daniel fast. So, y'all, it was bad. But it was the first time I ever participated in a Daniel fast, and I was looking for anything to add to food. Like, anything that I thought was going to add some flavor, give it a little flavor. Like, I was eating rice cakes for days, just rice cakes. That's all I was eating. And I forget what I wanted to add to the, I was eating a rice cake. I had added some like some peanut butter to it. And then I had asked my professor one area. She was our advisor of our Christian organization. And she asked me, Mark, are you, do you want to add this flavor?

26:24 Whether or not you can add it or not. I was asking, I was giving her permission. I was asking for her permission, whether this was permissible for me to, for me to add in the Daniel fast. And she told me something that really changed my perspective about fasting. She said, Mark, if you're adding it just to get more flavor, it's already in vain. that even if it's allowed in the Daniel fast, if you're just adding it to give it more flavor or to make you feel like almost to replace the feeling you would have had if you were eating a burger instead, it's already in vain. It's already in vain that the purpose isn't for you to try to mimic the thing. You know, Elijah and I, we have this conversation all the time, about one of the reasons why we don't really like the impossible burger is because it's basically trying to mimic the original thing. And for people who are vegan or people who don't eat meat, it's great. But for the reason like when you're fasting, it's almost giving you the facade of the real burger that almost makes it in vain. Now, I'm not telling you don't get impossible burger.

27:37 I might get impossible burger going this fast, all right? So, I ain't saying that. I'm not saying don't get an impossible burger on your fast. But what I am saying is you have to challenge yourself and ask yourself the difficult question. I'm saying, am I just doing this in order to try to satisfy something? And if you are trying to satisfy something, that already tells you that there's a greater need that needs to be filled. Right? It's not about what you're trying to satisfy here for your earthly body, but there's something that needs to be filled, and that's what you have to ask. What am I trying to feel? What am I trying to satisfy? And that's the point of fasting. The point of fasting is to take this very earthly example of denying yourself and abstaining from food to ask yourself some spiritual things. What do I crave?

28:33 what do I feel like I can't live without what do I go for comfort I'm how many I'm a comfort food eater right what do I run to to satisfy myself when things are getting too busy and I just need to watch some television what do I run to and so you're you you're supposed to be utilizing these very earthly tangible earthly things that we do every day to ask yourself some spiritual insights you know how much time do i actually spend with god in 24 hours i have 24 hours in a day and how much time do i spend with god how much of that time do i give to god and one thing one thing um i learned while at northeastern as well was this idea of the difference between praying and being prayerful most of us are prayerful, where we have God is on our heart throughout the day, right? Where we're conscious that we need to be making God decisions. We're conscious that we need to, you know, we may say a prayer while we're driving. All of these are good. All of these are good. I'm not knocking them.

29:45 But the difference between just being prayerful and praying is that when you're prayerful, you're always making requests, right? You're always just making requests, God, should I do this? Should I not? But when you enter into prayer, you actually spend some time listening to what God has to say. Where you receive the answer for what you've been praying for. And if you never spend time to sit and pray, you're going to keep just, your prayers will continue to be requests and petitions. You may even thank God for certain things. but it's not until you actually stop and hear God and hear what God is saying about a particular situation that you can really grow. the Bible gives us some biblical reasons to fast.

30:37 So we've mentioned this, a few people mentioned this, that during critical and despairing times, it's a time to fast. Like when a critical decision needs to be made, God, I got a job offer out of state, I need to know if I'm leaving my house. Right? I need to fast. Right? But also in preparation for things. In preparation for things, in assignments, in engagements. Ministers, how many times do you guys fast before you guys preach? Right? Especially when the assignment is really big. Right? And so it doesn't even have to be about that. It could be about you're about to get into a new job and you're preparing for a season. Maybe it's work. Maybe it's a relationship. Whatever it is, you could prepare yourself in order to prepare for something. And that's what we see with Jesus, is that before Jesus begins his ministry, it's preceded by 40 days of fasting.

31:37 That before Jesus even shows up on the scene to do a miracle, he prepares in prayer and fasting. So maybe you're discerning some things, or maybe you're already in a new season, prayer and fasting is a great way to start that. It's a great way to bring God into the new season, right? Because many of times we pray for a new season, God grants us the new season, and God doesn't hear from us about the new season until something goes bad.

32:14 Right? And that might be four months later, six months later, and God is like, man, had we been praying and fasting day one, I would have told you to look out for that joker before you even got there. Right? And so it's a way for us to bring God into this new season, but also it's a way for us to acknowledge that, God, you brought me into this season. As we mentioned, important decisions. So even in the Acts in the early church, many of times whenever there's a critical decision to be made, you'll hear that they say they committed themselves to prayer and fasting. They committed themselves of discerning what they should do. And then for spiritual strength, for strengthening, spiritual strengthening. Anyone ever feel like their spirit needs to be rejuvenated? Like you felt like it was just low? That's why we have revival, right?

33:07 is to revive us, revive our spirits, to revive our joy, revive our peace, right? To strengthen that. And many of you probably know about that passage. We'll talk a little bit about it later. But it's, you know, that passage when someone brings a child who's demon-possessed, they bring it to the disciples, and the disciples can't cast it out. And then Jesus casts out the demon from this little boy. And the disciples go back to Jesus and say, well, Jesus, why couldn't we have casted this out? And Jesus says, well, this kind only comes from prayer and fasting, right, in order to strengthen our spirits, to keep our spirit on high alert, to keep our spirit attuned with God. And here are some biblical outcomes. Some biblical outcomes of fasting is the ability to have a subdued flesh. You know, that passage in Paul, Paul says, the things I wish I did not do, that is what I find myself doing, right? And we all have one of those testimonies, all right, man?

34:14 We won't raise hands for that, praise God. But we all got one of those testimonies, right? And one of the other things Paul will say is that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And whenever, you know, yeah, right? And so whenever you have, whenever your spirit is really weak, right, your flesh will always win.

34:42 Whenever you haven't fed your spirit, your flesh is always going to win. Listen, your flesh wins when your spirit is strong. So it's certainly going to win when your spirit is weak. you strengthen your spirit, you discern the will of God, but you also can fast in solidarity with believers. How many people have ever fasted not for yourself, but for someone else? that's one of the most powerful things. And I think we're getting a glimpse of that as we fast corporately, is the ability to fast for other people. You know, when someone else has a big decision to make, and you say, you know, I don't want you to make this alone. So I'm going to join with you. I'm going to partner with you and pray and discern God's will.

35:39 and I'll share what I feel God has put on my spirit during this fast, you know, as some confirmation, right? So joining in solidarity so that you don't always need, you don't always need to have a need. It could come off of someone else needing, having a need. And you just, and you just saying, I'm going to partner with you on this fast. I'm going to pray alongside you. There's some people in my life, whenever I have a major decision, I call them to pray, right? How many people have that, how many people that you know God hears their prayers, right? Like, God, you hear their prayers. I know you hear their prayers. Like, mine, God, it might ricochet off a few things, but you certainly hear their prayers, right? It's the same way. Like, when you really need something from God, when you're really desperate for something from God, when you're desperate for an answer from God, you start asking other people to partner with you, and it's amazing.

36:37 How God will sync experiences together and someone will have a dream. Somebody will meet somebody. Somebody will just bring a scripture to you because God is working, right? God is working in that. And so that's one of the more powerful things we're excited about in SEEK 2020 is this idea that last year 4,000 people fasted at Alfred Street, right? And one of the greatest experiences we had, for those who are familiar with last year, we'll get into that in this lesson, is that last year we were able to bless students at Howard University. And last year, when we got into the room, one of the girls said, I was praying for a period of time, not knowing how I was going to get this balance paid off. and she was praying and Alfred Street was fasting and God linked us together in order to pay off the things she was praying for.

37:44 We didn't meet her before that. We didn't know who she was before that, but we just decided to be obedient to God. And we linked up together. We linked arms. Say that again on the mic. Can fasting be used in spiritual warfare? I would absolutely say that it can. I think scripture shows, even in particular, as I read with the Mark 9, is this feeling like this demoniac is wrestling with this boy, convulsing this little child, knowing that's spiritual warfare. and Jesus comes on the scene and Jesus says, the only reason why I was able to take this demon out is because I've been spending time in prayer and fasting. But the only reason why I was able to encounter this thing, this enemy was because I spent some time with God.

38:40 One of the things I love in things in scripture is this passage in 1 Chronicles. And in this passage in 1 Chronicles, it's the passage where we all hear, the battle is not yours, it's the Lord's. We all know that passage, right? But the thing is, the Bible says that King Jehoshaphat put a communal fast. The Bible says he feared, but he resolved himself to seek God. He then resolved himself to seek God and then called for a communal fast. He told the entire community to fast. As they were praying, God shows up and tells the battle is not yours. It's the Lord. Here's the shout, is that God then tells him where the enemy is going to attack.

39:29 Is that he tells them, when you go down to battle, go by the accents of Ziz, and there you're going to see the enemies. And they think it's going to be a sneak attack, but because I've already identified where they're coming from, you already know how to defeat them. right and anytime you start spending time in prayer and fasting God will begin to reveal the areas where the enemy's trying to attack you like especially those areas where you aren't sure of how it's coming into your house and how that thing is starting to deal with you start praying and fast and God will reveal some things you never even thought about and so I absolutely believe that it could be um it could be used for a spiritual warfare and spiritual warfare is the time to pray antifast. It's trying to pray antifast. we got election it's time to pray and to fast amen trying to get home and see what these uh new hampshire primaries are talking about One thing you'll also always see is the link between prayer and fasting.

40:40 That it's not just fasting here and praying there. As a matter of fact, usually you'll see the two linked together. That Jesus spent some time in prayer and fasting. because what fasting is, the thing that's important about fasting, it's not about subtracting. It's not about subtraction. It's actually about adding. It's not about how many things you give up. It's what you replace with what you've given up. So fasting is done in vain if you just give up food. It's done in vain if you just give up Instagram time. What you're supposed to do is utilize the time you would have spent doing one thing and including prayer and fasting as a substitute. Because if you, like I mentioned before, if you don't spend time in prayer, you won't get the answer, right?

41:40 One of my sisters, you said one of it is discerning with the will of God. Well, you want to hear what the will of God is. And that is spent in prayer. One of my professors blew my mind when I was in seminary, and he told me that prayer is 25% talking and 75% listening. That if you spend more time talking in prayer, you're missing what God is saying. That you need to just kind of silence yourself, and you'll be amazed how God will put things in your heart while you're silent. You'll be amazed how God will put things in your heart. How passage will just jump out of the page. Like it just starts speaking to your situation. You've read that Psalm the same, so many, all year. The same way.

42:34 And as soon as you started spending time and praying, that revelation just started speaking. You started really, oh no, that's what I'm supposed to do. Right? But you got to spend some time where you just steal. Yes, sir. Hold on one second. Gotcha. So I listened to you talk about all of it. I'm thinking, just kind of like a random question. Word I haven't heard is faith. So I'm wondering through this also, I mean, even though the ultimate goal is to spend more time with God, this also builds like a faith muscle. Because faith is, to me, faith is not about today. Faith is about forward. And it's a really, really hard thing to stay in. so once we kind of hit whatever milestone we're praying for we then have a track record we can look back and say i got from here to there so i know if i got from here to there god got me there i can get to the next point did everyone hear that say that one more time that's that's real good um which work the the track record oh um i i had mentioned that you know faith at least in my mind is not for today faith is for forward so it's a really hard thing to stay in when we're you know praying for something and it's not there.

43:52 But once we're able to get there, we're able to say, you know, God got me from there to here. So if he did that, I know he's going to take me far. But it's a muscle that we're building over time. So from a track worker perspective, we're constantly building and adding on top of the gifts that we've been given. That's good. That's good. That this experience of fasting, and in particular, if you raise your hand earlier and say you did fast in 2019, it should motivate you to be able to have a stamp and say, I know what God has done, right? And that should be able, you should be able, that should be an anchor, right? That should be like, if you were stamping a passport, that should be a stamp that you put on your passport to say, God did that then, right? And like you said, you're building this muscle to believe again, right? Because problems are going to arise and they're going to arise and take different forms.

44:46 and you don't need to go through the same thing in order to believe God, right? You just need to have gone through something in order to say, God got me through that and God can get me through this. That's real good. Thank you for that. so here here's how to fast we're going to get into a little bit about seek one thing about preparing to fast is you need to be mentally physically and spiritually i'd even ask emotionally prepared to fast do not decide the day before seek that you're going to jump in this because while that might be good maybe that's when god gives the inspiration sure if that's the case. But don't not think about this from here till March 1st and then see an announcement video and say you're going to make that decision. Start prayerfully discerning, God, is this my season? What am I looking for? Because you want to be prepared to succeed.

45:49 And most of the times our fasts fail because sometimes it could be a rash decision. Maybe you know you need to fast, but have you prepared for the fast? Right? It's one thing to hear and discern God say, you need to go on a period of prayer and fasting. But then it's another thing to answer that assignment and be obedient to that and say, here are the steps that I'm taking in order to be prepared and to succeed on what God has asked me to do. So some of those things are, is meal prepping. Any meal preps, folk? Meal prep? Go and get some Tupperware, y'all. Go and get some Tupperware. You're going to need it, right? Because, and it's also about taking some stuff out of your house. Maybe putting in a closet for another day. Whatever the case is, right?

46:44 Because if you, or maybe if you want to donate it, I think, I don't know if our church takes pantry donations, but if you want to donate, that'd be great too. But if you have chips just laying around in the house, if it's a habit for you to snack on that at a particular time while you watch a movie or go through your social media, you're just going to do it by habit. Not even because you're wanting to do it, because it's just a habit what you always do at that particular time. So preparing your thing. You know, I love, Mr. Elijah, I'm not going to call you on the spot, but I love what you did last year. Last year, I deleted all of my apps on my phone. I was like, no, I don't want this smoke at all. I know I'm going to fail. But last year, Minister Elijah, he put it on the very end of his phone, and then he tagged it, rotten candy, right? And so every time he had the tendency to go there, he would catch it, right? As he's getting there, he would catch it, and it could see, like, okay, maybe that's a chance where I could try to see what I'm trying to satisfy in that moment.

47:45 And so I'm going to do that this year. I'm going to do that this year. I'm not going to delete it. I'm going to put it all in the app, Rotten Candy on the side. I'm going to make sure that every time I'm about to click it, that I, oh, there it is again. Like, there's that tendency for me to do that again. You know, there's that habit. I keep doing this at this particular time. I would also recommend that we all, you set your purpose for it. In the devotional this year, which I do want to spend some time with. We have 10 minutes, but I want to spend some time on that. You need to set a purpose and an end date. We've done that for you because we're doing, well, we haven't done the purpose, but we've done the end date portion for you. Whether you continue, March 31st, Alfred Street is done fasting, okay? Whether you choose to continue, that's fine with you. but March 31st, Alpha Street is done. But send an end date so that you know, so you can track the progress that you have and what you're doing.

48:42 But you also need a purpose. What are you tracking? And so in the Seek booklet this year, there's a question that says, what are you believing God for in Seek 2020? What do you want God to answer? What do you want God to answer? What are you asking God for? What are you what are you tracking during this burn this particular fast? last year I want last year pastor Wesley introduced seek and I want you to know this is important as a congregation that the reason why we do this last year these were the four reasons one was to introduce the practice of an annual corporate fast the reason why we didn't do it in January because pastor Wesley felt led to make sure that we didn't just get into a habit of fasting but that every time we would change it up so that it's an actual sacrifice, right? It may be inconvenient in one season of your life, right?

49:41 I could have done well if this was in January. The fact that this is in March means I got to put in some work, right? In January, everyone's thinking about renewal and it's kind of cool to do it, right? But the fact that it's in March, the fact that you've already given up on your New Year's resolution means you got to actually put in some work. You got to put in some work this year. It was also to unify, have unity within the body as a church family to let everyone know that we're praying and we're fasting together. A preparation for the year. We wanted to make sure that we were hearing God in Seek 2020. So some sermon ideas that Pastor preached in 2019 came out of prayer and fasting. and then also for us to continue to practice personal spiritual disciplines within our walk. So let's get into, this was Seek 2019, but we don't have time for that.

50:36 We actually need to get into Seek 2020. Can y'all play, oh, there's a video from Pastor Wesley. A message from Pastor. Grace and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our resurrected, our risen, our reigning, and our returning Redeemer. I want to shoot a video just to remind you that something amazing is about to happen in our church. For those who remember last year, we went into a corporate time of covenant prayer and fasting called Seek. We were seeking the face of God, seeking the voice of God, seeking the will of God. And we had hundreds of testimonies of how lives were changed. Seek enabled us to do something that blessed graduating seniors from Howard University and set a trend of giving that others followed throughout the land. God did some amazing things in seek. You should know that we're going to do it again. Even in this period of Selah, I'm asking you to be mindful that our time of covenant, commitment, and prayer and sacrifice is on the way.

51:38 This year, rather than January, we sought the Lord and believed the Lord was calling us to seek in alignment with our season of Lent. and so for the entirety of the month of March, March 1 to March 31, we will be in Seek 2020. The ministerial staff and deacons will share with you some more details and specifics. We're going to follow some of what we did last year and add some new things that we believe God has called us to do. But what we do know is that at the end of Seek 2020, God is going to do some more amazing things. So come on, get ready. Pray with me, join with me. I'll be in seek with you, awaiting the amazing things that will happen when it's over. Seek 2020 is on the way. All right. Thank you, Pastor.

52:28 Seek 2020, as Pastor mentioned, March 1st to March 31st. The joy of the, I know someone said it, praise, dear God. Did someone say that? I was saying that in my spirit, dear God. That means that's additional 10 days from last year. We did 21 days. This year we're doing 31 days. I think the beauty of this year is that Seek aligns with our time of revival at Alfred Street. That means I want you, if you are participating in Seek, every Tuesday you need to get into Alfred Street. I don't want you to get into Alfred Street for who's preaching. I want you to get into Alpha Street because you want to stand in solidarity with everyone else who's fasting with you. So what we're doing is that we're going to be incorporating a special portion for Seek during March Gladness. We'll have a prayer that will be done for Seek to strengthen, specifically, those who might be having a dire situation.

53:30 So throughout the Seek, once you sign up, you're going to get an email that has a link for prayer requests. We'll be putting prayer requests on the screen, praying for people, interceding for people, believing with people. So I want you to make sure that every Tuesday throughout the month of March that you get to Alfred Street. All right? You get to Alfred Street. This year, there's also going to be an adult version and a youth version of the booklet. So that means we had people from our crossover, Kid Street, Higher Ground, Junior Gospel Inspirers get together, and they did exactly what the adults did. They had devotions. They made devotional videos. And that means what we're encouraging is that the entire family can fast together now. So there's going to be something for your children.

54:23 There's going to be something for you. And it won't be coming from the same booklet. There will be two different booklets coming out. What's new this year is that the booklet that you're getting is not necessarily a booklet. It's a workbook. It's a workbook. So after every day, there's going to be a question for you to answer. And it's geared on you trying to put into practice what you just read. Right? It's geared towards you to really write out what you might be hearing God asking you of a particular subject matter. And so it's a workbook. And so I want you to make sure that you come to church where you, this workbook is something that you can maybe even bring to church with you. You know, maybe it's something, you know, that was really on your heart and you're bringing along with you so that you can track what God is doing.

55:24 So after every devotion, there's going to be a devotion on a particular subject matter. And then you'll have a journal question. You're also what you're going to have online are devotional videos. So those devotional writers, the people who wrote it, also took some time to make a video that can further explain the subject matter. Because not everyone learns or not everyone receives from reading. Some people, it's video content that they can better understand. So we want to make sure that the methods of delivery can reach everyone. and then as last year, there are three components to the fast. This is the same, the physical, social, and financial. We'll break that down just a little bit. Another new thing that you're going to see is a Selah word of the day, and this Selah word of the day is directly linked to your devotional question, and what this is the reason why we incorporated this was a means for us to stand in solidarity remember like we were just saying with pastor wesley in order for us to say that while we're while we are seeking god for a particular thing in our lives we're also asking god to do it in the life of our pastor right and in in that same means while we're asking it to do in the life of our pastor, we're also asking God to do it in our lives as well. So for example, one of the subject matters, I forget what day it is, is on love, right? One of the subject matters is on love.

57:03 And the Selah word for love is rekindle. And we're asking God to, you know, to rekindle the flame of love in our lives, in Pastor Wesley's life. And then there's a devotional question that goes along with that, that invites you to seek what God is asking you to do. And the last thing that we've added this year, all of these things are perfectly laid out in your devotional booklet, but the last thing we've added this year is an emphasis on prayer. And so during week one, we're asking you to pray uninterrupted time.

57:44 All right? So week one, we're asking you to pray for 10 minutes uninterrupted. 10 minutes prayer. Then we're going to try to work our way up. Week two, 20 minutes. Uninterrupted time of prayer. Week three, 30 minutes. Uninterrupted time of prayer. Week four, 40 minutes uninterrupted time of prayer. Week five is a challenge. It's 50 minutes of uninterrupted time of prayer. Now, praise God, week five is only three days. March 29 to March 31. But we're trying to grow in our, we're trying to go somewhere. There's a target we're building up to. We're building up, we're raising the spiritual temperature of our church. Saying we're increasing.

58:41 It's getting harder, but we're believing that as we're getting closer to something, that we should be pressing deeper for something. So it's a challenge. I know it's a challenge. To pray for 40 minutes uninterrupted, right? Anything can happen. Your phone can go off, a notification. But we're asking you to find a time dedicated for it. Work on your journal. Pray, read scripture, sing songs where you can get uninterrupted time for you to grow. Pardon?

59:17 That's up to you. I was mentioning while in seminary, one of my professors said prayers, 75% listening, 25% talking. But that's up to you. You don't have to use that formula. But during this particular fast, what we are asking you to do is to pray for that 10 minutes in week one, 20, week two, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, to build something up. That's why we believe on that last day, March 31st is the last day of March Gladness, that there's going to be a lot of fire that happened in this place. But we're believing that God's going to do something special while we get here. So you definitely don't want to miss March 31st. And as always, these last two things, and I'm two minutes over, and I apologize, but the last thing is Seek 2020 is physical, social, and financial. So it's the same thing that we did last year.

1:00:10 You could choose to go on a Daniel fast. You can choose to abstain from food for 12 hours a day. Maybe that's 6 to 6, 7 to 7, 8 to 8, 9 to 9. If you're doing 10 to 10, you're basically just not eating, but whatever. Social, you can choose not to go on social media. You can choose to not have any TV or movies. Or you can choose to have maybe a total of one hour. Maybe that's too much for you. So you're going to choose to use one hour technology a day, trying to build up to something. And then for financial, we're asking you to refrain from daily routine purchases, those non-essential personal items. So like maybe you might buy a coffee every single day, or you might buy a tea, you might buy orange juice, whatever the case is, a newspaper. We're asking you to refrain from that because as you know, at the end of Seek 2020, we're going to be taking up a special offering for Hidden Halo. And what we're telling you is what Pastor always says, is that amazing things happen when we say yes to God.

1:01:14 Last year, God did amazing things with Seek 2019. And we're believing that God can use Alfred Street even greater than what God did last year. And so we're asking you to be faithful over that. You're personally fasting for yourself now, but that donation that you give and the way it's going to bless the life of someone else is going to be something that you would say you would do it all over again if you did it. I'm over time, but I want to pause if there's any last question. I believe this slide will be up again. I want to invite you again next week, January 18th. Daniel Fast. We'll be learning about the Daniel Fast, and we're going to be doing a special taste tester. If you're worried that you won't be able to eat good food on the Daniel Fast, come next week and be inspired.

1:02:11 Yes? This slide is going to be up tomorrow. I believe it should be up by 2 p.m. That's usually what it is. I have to send that, but I will send it. And it should be up by 2 p.m. All right. Well, thank you all so much for joining us tonight at Bible study. We're going to get ready to close out in prayer. As we always do, we're going to ask you to link hands with somebody else. more information on seek is going to be coming up you're going to be seeing on our video announcements on our website and so if you have any questions you can feel free to log on to our website Let's touch and agree and believe God. God, I want to thank you for each person here tonight. God, I want to thank you for each home that's represented here tonight.

1:03:10 God, we thank you because we're learning about your desires for our lives. We're learning how to take the next step in our faith. Regardless of what stage we are or what place we are in our walk with you, God, we're growing and we're moving in the right direction. So thank you for the faith of the congregation that is here today. And Lord, we believe that what you're getting ready to do in Seek 2020 is bigger than the need that we're asking you to meet in Seek 2020 individually. So God, take it and do what you can only do with it. And we humbly submit to your will, believing that you know what's best for our lives. Now God, we're asking you to protect us the same way you got us here to protect us going back. oh God, to protect everyone from every hurt, harm, and danger, to return to their home safely. And we won't be sure to give your name the glory and the praise. It's in Jesus' name we pray.