Skip to content Stand Alone Messages: I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE Jan 4 · 49 min ...more
Stand Alone Messages: I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE
January 4, 2026 · 49 min
What if the key to deeper faith lies not in religious activity, but in wholehearted surrender? Through Joel's ancient words, Pastor Jeff reveals how true allegiance to Jesus starts with genuine repentance—not just saying sorry, but allowing God to transform us from the inside out. Drawing from personal stories of fasting and ministry breakthroughs, he shows how responding to God with resolute obedience, even without guaranteed outcomes, leads to authentic spiritual growth. Whether you're seeking direction for 2026 or longing for spiritual renewal, this message illuminates the power of representing Christ with reverence in every area of life. Don't miss this timely challenge to pledge complete allegiance to Jesus through repentance, resolve, and reverent living. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church January 4, 2026 · 49 min · BRAVE Church
What if the key to deeper faith lies not in religious activity, but in wholehearted surrender? Through Joel's ancient words, Pastor Jeff reveals how true allegiance to Jesus starts with genuine repentance—not just saying sorry, but allowing God to transform us from the inside out. Drawing from personal stories of fasting and ministry breakthroughs, he shows how responding to God with resolute obedience, even without guaranteed outcomes, leads to authentic spiritual growth. Whether you're seeking direction for 2026 or longing for spiritual renewal, this message illuminates the power of representing Christ with reverence in every area of life. Don't miss this timely challenge to pledge complete allegiance to Jesus through repentance, resolve, and reverent living. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less What if the key to deeper faith lies not in religious activity, but in wholehearted surrender? Through Joel's ancient words, Pastor Jeff reveals how true allegiance to Jesus starts with genuine repentance—not just saying sorry, but allowing God to transform us from the inside out. Drawing from personal stories of fasting and ministry breakthroughs, he shows how responding to God with resolute obedience, even without guaranteed outcomes, leads to authentic spiritual growth. Whether you're seeking direction for 2026 or longing for spiritual renewal, this message illuminates the power of representing Christ with reverence in every area of life. Don't miss this timely challenge to pledge complete allegiance to Jesus through repentance, resolve, and reverent living. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Well, happy new year to all of you. Would you help me welcome all of our brave campuses that are worshiping with us today? So good to be with all of you. If you're new to our church, tomorrow0:11 starts our 21 days of prayer and fasting. Feel free to pick up 1 of these devotions on your way out. This is just to help you in your time with the Lord over the next 21 days. Let me say a0:23 couple things. We do 21 days of prayer and fasting as a church because we believe in praying first. We believe that seeking the face of the Lord is the most important thing. We had fasting to it. We'll talk about that a0:34 little bit in the message today, but it's an invitation. You do not have to fast. If you've never fasted before, please do not try to fast for 21 days. You will not be able to do it. Okay?0:46 What I would encourage you, fasting is really setting aside food for the purpose of instead of fueling fueling yourself physically, to set that aside to fuel yourself spiritually. If you're pregnant or have a0:57 medical condition, you can't fast, then choose something else that takes your time and allegiance like maybe social media or movies or screens, set that aside for a period of time to seek the face of the Lord in prayer.1:09 We're just inviting you to pray with us so that we as a church can seek the face of the Lord. Now to do that, we are gonna be gathering on all of our campuses on Monday through Friday at 7 o'clock right1:21 here in Westminster every single day for an hour of prayer, and then on Saturdays, we'll gather at 9 o'clock. You're welcome to join us for any and all of that. There's also a QR code inside this devotional. I'll have1:33 videos going up every single day to help you to pray. You can go to pastor jeff dot com, and there'll be other materials there for you as well. But we just want you to be able to seek the face of the Lord and enjoy him.
1:45 Secondly, would say this, all the men, our warrior summit's coming up February the 20 eighth. We have nearly 1000 guys that are already signed up. Sign up now. Okay? This is the last week of the early bird special.
1:57 You're gonna wanna sign up. I'm as excited about this year as I've been about any year we've had. Still working on a couple additional items for that day. It's gonna be great. If you're 16 years or older, you
2:08 want to be here. So wives, make your husbands come. Girlfriends, make your boyfriends come. It's gonna be well worth the time that we get to spend together. So sign up for the warrior summit now. With that, let's
2:19 continue our worship this morning as we go before the Lord and get ready to hear his word among us. Would you pray with me? Our father in heaven, we give you glory. We give you honor. We give you praise. What a privilege
2:29 it is to start off our new year in your house to give you all the glory and praise that you so rightly deserve. Lord, remind us today of how central you are to our lives and what it is that you want to do and
2:40 accomplish through each and every 1 of us. And Lord, we just wanna tell you that we're so grateful as a people that we get to gather here today because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and
2:51 accurately proclaimed that it is you who are speaking. So our collective prayer this morning is speak Lord for we are ready to hear. And so now for all of you who have gathered, who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ
3:01 speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen. Amen.
3:13 Many of us grew up saying the pledge of allegiance. Many of us grew grew up in a school where they'd say, please rise, and we place our hand over our heart, and we would start with those 3 words, I pledge allegiance.
3:25 The pledge of allegiance was written in 18 85. It was ratified in 18 92 to commemorate the 400 years since Columbus had come to the new world, and it was during a time where there was factions
3:37 and disunity so they could bring the nation together and pledge allegiance to shared values, to loyalty and surrounding ideals that everybody would have.
3:49 And so as a Christian, it's okay to pledge our allegiance to the nation that God gave us because God placed us in the nations that we're in. However, we need to understand this. Nations rise and fall. Empires come and
4:01 go. Our full allegiance can never be to the nation in which we serve. Our full allegiance always has to be to Jesus Christ and his coming kingdom. Amen? That's where we go. So, it's okay to say the pledge of
4:13 allegiance. It's okay to sing the national anthem. It's a good thing to do. It unites us around a a shared set of values. At Brave Academy, I can tell you, we do the pledge of allegiance every single day. But what's a
4:24 higher allegiance is our allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we as individuals or when we as a nation experience things in our world that are out of sync or not working right, how
4:36 do we give more allegiance to Jesus than what we're currently giving to him? As we start 20 26, this new year, it's for many of us a time where we look at, you know,
4:48 our health or our finances or our relationships, our marriage, our family, and we talk about goals and what we want to improve on. And I would tell you all those things are good things provided that
4:59 the central part of all that is how do I give my best to the Lord Jesus Christ? And what I wanted to talk to you about this morning is how do you pledge allegiance to Jesus? How do you not only do it for 20 26, how do
5:11 you do it for the rest of your life? Like what is it that God requires of you as you're thinking ahead to this year, as you're thinking ahead to all that the Lord has, how do you give your allegiance to Jesus? When you
5:22 say I pledge allegiance, what is it that he wants you to pledge pledge allegiance to and how is it that he wants you to pledge allegiance? And to answer that question today, we're gonna be in the book of Joel. Joel's an
5:32 old testament book. We're gonna be in chapter 2, starting in verse 12 and reading through verse 17. And if you have your bibles, I'd encourage you to follow along. Joel was written as a prophet to a nation
5:44 that was in shambles. When you read the book of Joel, you're gonna learn a lot about locusts. I think of locusts, I think of 1 kind of locust, but in the bible, there's many kinds of locusts. There were gnawing locusts
5:56 that had eaten everything, and then there were swarming locusts that came, and then there were creeping locusts, and then there were stripping locusts. Basically, the whole nation was eaten bare. They didn't have what
6:05 they needed, and it was in shambles, and Joel the prophet is calling people back to the Lord. In case you're wondering, if you read through any of the old testament prophets, what's this about? It's always about
6:16 imminent judgment and ultimate restoration. It's always about what God is doing to get your attention now and ultimately what he wants to do to restore his people, and the book of Joel is no different. And so in this
6:28 section we're gonna look at now is where the prophet is calling the people to return and pledge their allegiance to the Lord, and here's how he tells them to do it. Joel 2 chapter 12, he says, yet even now declares the
6:39 Lord, return to me with all your heart and with fasting, weeping and mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and
6:51 compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil. Who knows whether whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, even
7:03 a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? Blow a trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a fast. Proclaim a solemn assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the
7:15 elders. Gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the bride out of her bridal chamber. Let the priests of the Lord's ministers weep between the porch
7:27 and the altar and let them say, spare your people, oh Lord, and do not make your inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they among the people say,
7:39 where is their God? And here is Joel is exhorting the people of Israel at the time. We can glean much about how God wants us to come to him afresh every single
7:50 year, but every single day as well. And I wanna talk to you this morning about I pledge allegiance. We're gonna pledge allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. What does he want us to pledge allegiance to and how does he
8:01 want us to pledge that allegiance? And the first way is this, if we're gonna pledge allegiance, we need to return with repentance. We need to return with repentance. I have good
8:13 news for you this morning. No matter how far you've drifted from the Lord, no matter how bad you think things have been, no matter how far you think you've gone that he can't extend grace to you or how nominal
8:24 you've been in your faith, just going through the motions, there's a way back. There's a way back, and the way is to return with repentance. Amidst all the things that were going wrong in Israel, he starts with these 3
8:36 words, yet even now, declares the Lord. Like even in the midst of all of this, even in the midst of this disaster, even in the midst of your sin, even in the midst of your malaise, even in the midst of your
8:48 melancholy, even in the midst of your just going through the motions, here's what the Lord declares. Return to me with all your heart and with fasting, weeping and mourning
9:00 and rend your heart and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil.
9:12 Here's why you return because of God's character. You return because of his character. He's slow to anger. He's loving kind. I mean, 1 of the things that the enemy does in the life of a believer when they sin, and I can
9:23 say this on good authority because I've had many years of experience sinning, is when we sin, he tells you what you need to do to improve before you can go to God. Like, if you sin like really bad, you better start
9:34 reading your bible more, You better start praying more. You better start doing something. Go to church first, but don't come to God. Just do religious activity. And here's what the Lord says, return to me. Like
9:46 immediately come to me no matter where you're at. If you're just kinda nominal in your faith right now or you've drifted so far, you're you're starting 20 26 out because you're coming to church and you've never really
9:56 been. Here's what he says, come, like return. Like, there's an invitation back. And here's the invitation. The invitation is with repentance. He says, come to me with your whole heart. He even says this, rend
10:08 your heart and not your garments. Israel was known they would they would rend their garments like you would see the high priest tear his robe. It was an outward expression of the grief he was feeling on the inside. And
10:20 And here's what he's saying, rend your heart, like, tear your heart, not your not your robe. Like, I'm concerned about what's in here. I'm not concerned about the religious activity you're doing. I'm not concerned about
10:30 your lip service. I'm not concerned about your promises of how much you're gonna attend church anymore. I want your heart. I want all of you. Like, don't be so concerned about changing all the things on the outside. I'm
10:41 concerned that you let me change what's on the inside. So here's what he says, come to me, but here's how you're gonna return. Return with repentance. Repentance is different than confession.
10:54 Confession means I've sinned and I agree that that's sin. That's confession. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Repentance is a whole change of
11:04 mind. And when you your mind has changed, your attitude change, your behavior change, everything changes when you repent. Repentance is not just, oh, yeah, I got caught. Repentance is I'm wrong and I
11:16 want God to change everything and I don't care who knows. In second Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 10, he says it like this, for the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a
11:28 repentance without regret leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. Worldly sorrow produces death. Worldly sorrow is this. Oh, yeah. I was
11:39 wrong. Oh, yeah. I got caught. Oh, yeah. I probably shouldn't have done that. Oh, yeah. That was probably pretty bad. That that's worldly sorrow. Godly sorrow is I'm standing before the holiness of God, and I'm
11:51 wrecked, and I'm ruined because I realize his standards here, and I've been living here, and I'm feeling the pain of that, and I want Jesus to change me no matter what it takes, and I don't care what it
12:03 takes. I just wanna have a relationship with God that's right. Here's how repentance looks different than confession. Repentance is ongoing. Remember what Jesus said? Keep with fruits and bear with fruits and
12:15 keeping with repentance. You wanna keep on repenting. Let me just tell you something. If I ask you, have you repented and you take me back to your salvation decision and that's the last time you ever repented, you you're
12:25 not repenting enough. Yeah. I repented. I repented when I was 18. I'm I'm in. No. Repentance is this ongoing, I can't change me and, God, I need you, and I don't care who knows.
12:38 See, churches become this self help therapeutic TED talk curriculum where we think it's our job to get ourselves right with God. If you could get yourself right with God, then Jesus Christ died
12:50 for nothing. Jesus Christ not only died so that sinners can be saved, he died so that saints can be made holy. You can't change your bad behavior. You can't change your bad
13:01 attitudes. You repent and say, God, I can't change me, but I want you to change me. Would you make me more like you? That's repentance. And when people are truly repentant, here's what you know about
13:13 them. They don't care who knows. They do not care who knows. As long as God sees their heart. I've seen sin of every kind. I've
13:25 counseled people with every kind of sin. I've sinned all sorts of different kinds of sins. But you know, when there's a couple that's had an adulterous affair, I mean, you can tell what repentance looks like and what
13:35 repentance doesn't look like. Because I know when I'm sitting down with a couple and somebody says, yeah, I was wrong. I probably shouldn't have done that, but she or yeah, I was wrong. I shouldn't have done it, but he
13:46 I'm like, there's no repentance here. Because here's what repentance looks like. I was wrong. It's all me. It's not her or it's all me and it's not him. And I gotta change and I'm wrong and I'll do
13:58 whatever you tell me to do. And if I lose the relationship, I understand because I'm the 1 that blew it. I don't care who knows in the church. I don't care who knows anywhere. Just show me how to get right with God.
14:07 Because if I have God, I have everything. I just wanna be right with him. That's repentance. And then that gets played out over time where you see that played out over time that person says, as long as I have Jesus and
14:18 can walk with him and be obedient, that's what I want. That's repentance. Somebody's saying they're sorry. I'm repentant. That's not repentance. Repentance is seen over time. Repentance is seen when
14:30 you see your actions align with your words. So how are we to return to Jesus? Not with just confessing, yeah, God, you got me. I I probably shouldn't do that this year. Yeah. That's a bad habit. I should probably
14:42 stop that. Yeah, I know that's sinful that I look at porn. I probably shouldn't do that. That's not repentance. Repentance is when you bring all your sin to the foot of the cross and like, Lord, this is me. This is what
14:51 I'm doing. And I know it doesn't please you. Would you change me? Because I can't change me. Like, you didn't come to church so you can work on your anger issue. You can't fix it. If you could, you would have already
15:02 done it by now. You can't fix your immorality. If you could, you would have already done it by now. You can't fix your bad language. If you could, you would have already done it by now. God has to change your heart.
15:11 That's why he's like, rend your heart to me. I mean, the disciples and everybody in those days were always worried about what was what was, you know, what people were saying, what people were doing. And Jesus was like,
15:21 I'm concerned about the heart. This is where everything happens. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Every sinful behavior happens here first. Give me your heart. I want your whole heart. I want
15:32 everything about you, not just part of you, not just the profession of your faith, not just your attitude. I want your heart. So when you return to the Lord, only to begin 20 26, but every day of your life going forward,
15:44 return with repentance. I mean, even when David sinned against Bathsheba and he's crying out to the Lord and asking him to cleanse him and create him a clean heart and renew a right spirit
15:56 within him. At the very end of that chapter in Psalm 51 verses 16 and 17, he says this, for you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt offerings. The
16:07 sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise. And in the book of Isaiah chapter 66, second part of verse
16:19 2, but to this 1, I will look to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word. Where does God go to work? God doesn't go to work because you know he's God and because you know he can do things.
16:30 God goes to work in the heart of the person that's humble before him that says, you can change any part about me. My life is yours. I can't change me, but I wanna be like you and I wanna love what you love and I wanna
16:41 hate what you hate and I wanna walk with you, but God changed me, make me different, make me new. That's what church is for. Church is for hearing the word in such a way that we want to align our lives with who Jesus
16:53 wants us to be. And so we return not with promises, not with commitments that we won't even keep until we get to our car. We return with repentance, brokenness, and the
17:04 Puritans called repentance the gift of tears. It's it's that it's that area where you realize I can't change me and it breaks me, but it's also so soothing at the same time to know that the
17:16 Holy Spirit can take every bit of my brokenness and turn me into someone new. Friends, the Christian faith is such great news because it not only saves sinners who couldn't save themselves, but it
17:28 sanctifies or makes holy people that couldn't make themselves holy. You don't become holy by commitments. You become holy through repentance. Repentance is a dependency upon the Lord. There's a humility
17:40 before him. It's where we talk about returning with repentance. We're talking about we bow without entitlement. We're not we're not coming back to Jesus because, oh, that's what God does. If you come back, he gives
17:50 grace. We're not coming back to get something. We're not coming back because he gives grace. We're coming back because his character is graciousness. That's just who he is and we just want him. We wanna be around
18:01 him. Mean, in James chapter 4, we read about how God opposes who? The proud, but he gives grace to the humble. He wants a humble, contrite, wholehearted
18:13 repentance in our lives. Amen? I mean, it's the story that Jesus told of the Pharisee and the tax collector, where he said 2 men went up to pray, 1 a Pharisee, 1 a tax collector, and the Pharisee prayed. He prayed
18:25 very spiritually, very theologically correct, but he also prayed, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like all the rest. I fast, I tithe. Here's what I do. Let me let me give you my spiritual resume and thank you that I'm not
18:36 like other people. But then the tax collector who knew he was guilty because he spent his life robbing people and extorting them, stood at a distance and beat his chest and said, Lord, save me a sinner. And what does
18:47 Jesus say? I tell you the truth. That 1 went home justified before the Lord. Your lip service and promises and commitments and look at me does nothing. Your repentance of Lord, I need
18:58 you afresh again today does everything. And God can tell the difference between a whole heart and a half heart and a little bit of a heart and only you know, because we've learned enough Christianese, we can fake it in
19:10 the church. We can tell people what we're doing and what we've done and how we've done it. Repentance doesn't go out and tell people what they've done. Repentance just gets in front of God and does it. Now, here's some
19:20 telltale signs you'll see with people that are unrepentant. It's true every single time. You'll see it in unrepentant people. Unrepentant people, when sin gets pointed out to them, they go into what I call face saving
19:31 mode or image management. Yeah. Yeah. You're right, but let me explain some other things. Let me let me tell you why we ended up this way. Let me let me tell you how that worked. They'll never just own the sin. And if
19:43 you continue down a process where you point it out to them, they'll get a little more frustrated with you. If that sin has some sort of punishment or discipline that comes along with it, they'll say that your punishment
19:53 or discipline is way too harsh. And if you follow through on that, then they'll live a life of blame. They'll blame you. They'll blame the church. They'll blame your job. They'll blame the teacher. They'll blame the
20:04 they'll blame anybody. They live in a sense of blame because they can't own the fact that it's them who is sinning. But repentance doesn't look like that. Repentance is like, I'm wrong. I know I'm wrong. I
20:15 don't care who knows. I want God to make me right and I praise God that He will. So return to the Lord with repentance. Rend your heart, not your garment. Don't come to him with all your spiritual activity in 20 26. Say,
20:26 God, I'm committing this year to be in church every Sunday. God, I'm committing this year to be in a cadre. God, I'm committing this year to tithes. God, I'm committing forget about your commitments. Just tell God this,
20:35 God, I'm giving you my whole heart and anything in my life that needs to change, I want you to change. You have everything. If there's something I'm blind to, Lord, especially during this next 21 days where I'm gonna
20:45 spend time praying and fasting as I seek your face, Lord, If there's something I haven't seen in me, speak to me about me. Be gracious to me. Show me where I've been blind to the things that you've been
20:57 wanting to change. I mean, it's symbolic of waving that white flag. Repentance is like surrender, like I'm giving I'm giving you all authority. You have all authority over my life,
21:09 Lord. I'm I'm not in charge. I'm not I'm not telling you what you need to do. You're in charge of me. I mean, we see this all throughout the scriptures, even the prodigal son after he goes away, we know that he's
21:20 repentant because he comes back to his father. It's not just his 3 point sermon he rehearsed where he said, I'm gonna go back to my dad and tell him I sinned against heaven and against earth, and I'm no longer worthy to
21:29 be called your son. He gets up and goes. He runs right to the father, and here's the truth. No matter who you are and what you think you came to church for today or what's going on in your life, here's the number 1 thing
21:39 God wants you to hear. No matter where you are, he wants you to seek him and press into him. He wants more of you. He knows everything about you. He wants you to know everything about Him. So no matter who you are, press
21:50 more into Him and don't come to Him with all your platitudes and commitments. Come to Him with a postured, heart saying, Lord, I'm yours, afresh again. Show me anything in my
22:02 life. And let me just tell you something. There are seasons in our life. It you may be in this season now during the next 21 days, you're just in a good season. Lord, show me anything in my life that's off. And he's
22:11 like, got nothing to share with you right now. And if you're having that season, great. Just know it won't stay that way forever. Because then there'll be another season where the Lord's like, yeah, you weren't ready to
22:19 hear that yet, but now you are ready to hear that and here's some other things I need to deal in you in your life right now, right? And that's what the Lord wants to do, and it's not so that you can commit to making
22:28 changes your yourself. It's so that you'll align yourself with the authority of God and let God make the changes in and through you. Amen. So if you're gonna pledge allegiance to Jesus this year, then return with
22:40 repentance. That's where you bow without entitlement. Then do the second 1. If you're gonna pledge allegiance, then do this. Respond with resolve. Respond with resolve. Now he
22:51 ends verse 13 by saying, he's slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil. That word evil, there's calamity or judgment that oftentimes when God sees a humble heart, he he doesn't follow through on
23:02 everything he was gonna do. He shows mercy and grace and doesn't. But notice what he says this next. He says, who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him? Like, who knows? Like, I I
23:14 don't know what God's gonna do. Anytime we say we know what God's gonna do, we're wrong. Did you know that? We don't know. Because sometimes we'll tell people, hey, you repent, God will restore your marriage. Hey, if you
23:24 repent, then God will bring you the kid that you've been praying for. Hey, if you repent, you'll get that promotion at work. Hey, if you repent, your health's gonna be fine. Hey, not a guarantee. Who knows? You might
23:34 repent and do everything right. Your marriage still may break up. You might repent and do everything right. You still may not be able to have kids. You may who knows? Like, don't turn God into a formula just because
23:43 God's good that he owes you. Right? If we're gonna bow without entitlement, then to respond with resolve means we obey without guarantees. We don't obey so that God will bless us. We
23:55 obey because that's where we're gonna experience the greatest joy and give God the greatest glory. We're gonna be obedient because we we love Jesus. Resolve obeys without certainty, without
24:07 promises, and it also obeys without delay. It means for some of us here, God's been speaking the same thing to us over and over. And even though I'm preaching from Joel chapter 2, some of you are hearing other verses in
24:17 your heart because it's what God's been telling you for a long period of time. He's like, this is what I want you to do. So be obedient. Do what God wants. He's like, who knows what God's gonna do? Maybe he'll leave
24:29 a blessing behind him. He says even a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God. Now what he's talking about here, he's not asking for food. The grain offering and the drink offering were a way of
24:40 worship. Everything was so torn out of the culture. They didn't even have anything to bring to worship. Maybe God will give us enough that we can come worship him. Wouldn't that be great if we could just come worship the
24:50 Lord again and give him our whole heart? We've we've forsaken the gathering. We've forsaken the worship. It'd be so great if we could just return to God with repentance and just resolve to be obedient, and God would let
24:59 us worship him again because I know what it was like when I'm fully worshiping the Lord with the saints and community. There's a power that takes place, and that's what we want. Like, God, we just wanna worship you.
25:10 Lord, I wanna resolve this year that when you put things on my heart to do that I'm gonna do them when you tell me to do them. I mean, I pray the same prayer every time before I preach that you would hear the Lord, you'd
25:20 believe what he says, and you'd put into practice what he shows you. That means go do the work God wants you to do. Amen? I mean, we see this all throughout the scriptures. James 1 22 says, but prove yourselves to be
25:30 doers of the word, not merely hearers and delude themselves. It's great that you go to a church that preaches the word. Always go to a church that preaches the word. If they're not preaching the word, go to another
25:39 church that preaches the word. But it's not just so you hear it. It's so you hear it and you hear Jesus saying, now, go do this with what I just showed you. Go put it into practice. Go
25:51 go work on this. Because as you do, that's how you grow in strength in the Lord. It's not just hearing and knowing his word. That's the start. But now that I know I'm gonna go put it into practice, and that's where faith
26:03 becomes a reality. Well, I don't know how that's gonna work out, and I don't know how that works. Great. We'll just go be obedient and then you'll learn. Right? We always wanna know the end and then we'll take a step of
26:13 faith and God's like, no, you heard me. Faith acts just because God's worthy, not because outcomes are assured. Every good step of faith I've ever taken, it was unassured that it was ever gonna happen. Whether it was
26:24 starting a ministry, starting this church, getting married, what whatever, every step of faith. There's no assurances that if you do this, I promise you there's none of it. You take a step of faith and you trust. Right?
26:36 And when it works out, you praise God. And when it doesn't, you say, was there something I did wrong? Or was this just what you're doing in my life? Is this a trial? What do need to know? But I'm gonna keep taking steps
26:43 of faith and Lord, I'm gonna keep obeying you. And here's the reality. In our lives, all of us are gonna have a choice all the time for what the next step of faith looks like. I mean, we see in
26:54 the book of Joshua at the end of his ministry, at the end of his life, as he was talking to all the people in Joshua 24, he said, choose this day whom you will serve. And he goes on to talk about all the different
27:06 gods of the Amorites and all the others. He said, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You choose who you're gonna serve. You've seen God do all the conquering. You've seen God do all the miracles, but
27:16 you've gotta make a decision. Are you still gonna walk with him or not? But it's already been resolved in my heart, my family and me, we're gonna serve Jesus. Amen? Or how about Daniel? When he resolved
27:28 before the king, he wasn't gonna eat all the king's choice foods. He was gonna do what the Lord wanted him to do. And he chose that not knowing what the outcome would be. Or Abraham, when he obeyed God and went not
27:40 knowing where he was gonna go. I mean, that's what God is looking for. It's like if you've served in the military, when they give you orders, they don't explain every order. They kind of expect you to know, hey, that's
27:51 authority and you go do it. God is our authority. We're under His authority when He says, this is what I want you to do. We sometimes learn what that means when we just obey. God, I need you to explain that to me. Why
28:02 can't I be this? Why can't I do? He's not gonna explain it to you. He's gonna say, because this is for your good. Like when God sets up rules, they're for our good. They're to keep us from harm. That's what God wants.
28:14 Right? I mean, this is what God is saying here, and notice what he says next. He says, blow a trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn
28:26 assembly. Now trumpets are used all throughout the Bible. Trumpets warn. Trumpets sound an alarm. That's why you don't see, hey, play the sax. Alright? Because it'd be too soothing. Right?
28:38 It's blow a trumpet. Like, let them know. I mean, that's why Revelie is not played with a, you know, a bassoon. It's played with a trumpet. It alarms. It's sending an alarm. He said, sound the alarm.
28:50 Let the nation know they're in trouble. Let people know that have drifted, they're in trouble. It's a big deal if you don't know Jesus, you're in trouble. You need to know that you need to repent and believe him.
29:01 You're also in trouble if you're a believer, but you're not living a repentant lifestyle and letting God grow you. You're also in trouble. You're you're in danger of God becoming stale in your life and stagnant and
29:13 losing your joy and losing the desire to bring him glory. So sound the alarm, like blow the trumpet in Zion. He was saying, blow the trumpet in Jerusalem. Let everybody in the nation of Israel know. And then he says
29:25 this, consecrate a fast, consecrate a fast. Now that's the second time in this section we've talked about fasting because at the end of verse 12, he said, when come return to me with all your heart and with fasting,
29:36 weeping and mourning. Now where's this fasting? He he was instructing the nation to come and fast. Nowhere in the New Testament do I see anywhere where a believer is required to fast, you have to fast, but it's
29:48 assumed that you will at some point in time. Jesus in the sermon on the mount doesn't say you have to fast. He says, when you fast, here's how you should fast. Now fast is simply this. It is setting aside physical
30:00 nourishment to seek spiritual nourishment. That's what it is. Some of you because of your medical condition, you can't set aside food and do that. I get that. So you set aside something else that's taking your attention
30:10 to give more focus to Jesus. That's what a fast is. We're setting it aside. And fast is really a strange word. It should really be called not fasting, but slowing. Because when you fast,
30:22 everything slows down. It's really slowing your process with Jesus. It's being more intentional about coming before the Lord. It's being more intentional in reading the word and being more intentional in prayer, being
30:33 more intentional in journey journaling or being more intentional about the very things that you're asking for. That's what fasting is. So when we do 21 days of prayer and fasting to start our calendar year here as a
30:43 church, there is no mandate. You don't have to go around and, well, I'm doing this and I'm doing nobody cares. It's between you and the Lord. You you choose whatever the Lord has you do. If you've never ever fasted
30:53 before, I would strongly encourage just pick 1 meal out of the next 21 days and use that meal instead of eating that meal, use that time to seek the face of the Lord. Now let me tell you something. If you've never fasted
31:05 before and you do that, you will be famished whatever meal you pick. Okay? I heard about fasting when I was part of a ministry called Campus Crusade for Christ. When I was in college, they were gonna have a day of
31:15 fasting. I never had fasted. I didn't even know what fasting was. I didn't even know if it worked. I didn't even know if it was a good thing, but it was coming the next day and I asked them, well, what do you do? And
31:24 they told me this, they said, just skip breakfast, skip lunch, and during breakfast and lunch, just read your Bible and pray and seek the face of the Lord and you'll be so refreshed and then just eat dinner. I'm
31:36 like, it doesn't sound too hard. I woke up at 7 o'clock, I've never been more hungry in my entire life than I was that morning. I mean, was famine. I'm not usually hungry in the morning, I was starved, and all I could
31:48 think about was food. And so I began to read my bible, I began to do my devotions, and all I was doing was thinking about smelling bacon and eggs. That's all I thought of. I didn't get anything out of the word. I tried
31:58 memorizing scripture, I tried doing some things, it just wasn't a good experience. Lunch rolled around. All I was trying to do was just fight hunger. I wasn't really see, it didn't feel good like they told me it was
32:08 gonna feel good. And I remember I was supposed to eat dinner at 5. I'm like, forget this. It was like 3 in the afternoon. I just had cookies and candy. I ate as much as I could. And I was like, I'm the biggest fasting
32:17 failure in the world. Right? But what I've learned is I just wasn't trained well. What what somebody should have told me is, hey, you pick whatever meal you want, just pick 1 and maybe instead of eating lunch at noon,
32:29 eat lunch at 11, but skip breakfast. You're gonna be starved. You're gonna be super hungry, but just devote that time to the Lord and then go do something else. I just didn't know, which is why I tell you if you've never
32:38 fasted before, not commit to 21 days, you will not make it. Right? But I didn't know fasting worked. I mean, I certainly didn't know in college, but I was persuaded. I was over in Czech Republic in
32:49 2003. I told you a story last week about the horrible meal that I had with egg and beer and all that kind of stuff, but that's not why I started fasting. I was over there and I saw a video from Jim
33:01 Simbela who pastors Brooklyn Tabernacle, and it was about a 45 minute video that he did at a conference, which was all about prayer and fasting, and I remember being so moved at what he said that I said, I need to
33:13 try this again. I need to start fasting. And I was in a season of my life, just so you know, I graduated from seminary. I went to a church planting residency because I felt like God had called me to plant a church.
33:23 Everything fell through. Went through a broken engagement. I was totally torn up. I didn't know what the Lord had for my life, and I was praying to the Lord like, do you want me to stay in ministry? Do you want me to
33:32 preach? Do you want me to go coach football again? Do you want me to get in the business world? I'll do whatever you want, God. You have me, but I don't know what you want me to do. And so I started fasting, asking the
33:41 Lord, you have to be clear to me if you want me to preach. You have to be clear to me if you want me to preach. And I was scheduled to preach when I got back home at my pastor's church, pastor Cal's church, Northwoods
33:50 church in Peoria, Illinois. And they teach and they used to teach more from themes rather than books of the Bible. And there was a theme that they had sent me and said, here's what we want you to preach. And I prayed
33:59 about it. And I sent back and said, I'm not preaching that I'm preaching this. Because God showed me just go preach the gospel. Just make it super clear. Just preach the gospel. And I was like, okay. I said, God, do
34:10 whatever you want, but you have to let me know that this is what you want me to do. And if I preach this message and I don't see fruit, I'm not gonna ever preach again. Okay? Because I'm and so I started fasting and
34:21 praying. And I remember rolling into the church, they did Saturday night service and 2 Sunday morning services, and I'm rolling in on Saturday night. And I heard that voice in my head. You know, the voice that you hear
34:30 in your head? And the voice was telling me this, everybody in this church already knows this message and you're gonna sound like a fool. Everybody in there is already a Christian and you're gonna tell people how to
34:39 become a Christian. You're a fool. This will be the last time you ever preach. But I didn't care because I was like, cool. Then I'll know I'm not a preacher. No problem. And so I had told the people I'm gonna preach the
34:50 gospel. They would do things called yes packets. So people said, yes, they could get some different materials to help them grow in their faith similar to what we do. And so I told them, just have some yes packets ready.
35:00 And so I preached. It was Saturday night. Now, didn't feel any different unction than I normally feel. I didn't feel like the spirit come all over me. I it it was the same as I always preach. And I preached and I shared
35:09 the gospel, and then I invited people to stand similar to what I do here sometimes. And when I invited people to stand on Saturday night, about 250 people stood to their feet. Now, it was pretty cool. You can clap for
35:21 that. So I'm walking off the platform. Somebody comes racing around. They're like, hey, we only have 40 yes packets for the whole weekend. Go back out there and
35:33 explain to people what they just did and all the gospel. So I did. And they're like, we're we're gonna be doomed tomorrow. We don't have any more left. So I preached 2 services the next day and over 500 people on Sunday
35:44 came to Christ. So it was nearly 800 people that came to Christ that day. Now, when I stepped down off the platform, I was talking to people. I had people telling me stuff like this. I'm Lutheran. I've always been
35:55 Lutheran my whole life. I've believed in Jesus. I've always known all the facts. But like today, I know that I know that I know that Jesus died for me and rose, and they started just weeping. They're like, thank you for
36:04 sharing that. And a guy standing there weeping. He said, was supposed to be a pilot on United flight 93 that would have flown into the twin towers. And I got pulled out that day and somebody else flew that plane. And
36:15 I've been wondering why God spared my life. And I've been flying now with this atheist who tells me Jesus is just all made up, and then he just started weeping. He's like, now I know why he didn't have me fly into that
36:24 tower because now I know who he is. And all was hearing story after story after story. And so I'm not a rocket scientist, but I went home and said, okay, you want me to preach? I'll preach. Right? But it was
36:36 fasting. And when I fasted, I didn't feel anything. I I would tell you this day, I mean, I listen to a lot of people talk about fasting. A lot of people say, when you're fasting, you're so close with the Lord, you're soShow more
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