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. . Well, good evening, everyone. Welcome back to Mount Baptist Church. Take your song books and turn to song number 97. Song number 97 in your song books. We'll sing I Need The Every Hour. Song number 97. I need Thee, O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby. Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh. I need Thee, O I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee, O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, enjoy Your pain. Come quickly and abide. Life is vain. I need Thee, O I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee, O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour. Only One, O make me Thine indeed. Thou blessed Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee, O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. All right, let's open the service in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, again, Lord, we just want to thank you, God, for this awesome Sunday you've given us. Thank you for the sermon that we heard this morning, also for the souls that were saved this afternoon and throughout last week. I pray, Lord, now that you would again receive all the honor and glory out of everything that's said and done, for it's in Jesus' name we ask all of it. Amen. All right, you may be seated and turn your songbooks to song 119. Song 119, we'll sing Till the Storm Passes By, song 119. In the dark of the midnight have I off hit my face, while the storms howl above me and there's no hiding place. Mid the crash of the thunder, precious Lord, hear my cry, keep me safe till the storm passes by. Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more, till the clouds roll forever from the skies. Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand, keep me safe till the storm passes by. Many times Satan whispered, there is no need to try, for there's no end of sorrow, there's no hope by and by. But I know Thou art with me and tomorrow I'll rise, where the storms never darken the skies. Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more, till the clouds roll forever from the skies. Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand, keep me safe till the storm passes by. When the long night has ended and the storms come no more, let me stand in Thy presence on that bright peaceful shore, in that land where the tempest never comes. Lord, may I dwell with Thee when the storm passes by. Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more, till the clouds roll forever from the skies. Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand, keep me safe till the storm passes by. Amen. Welcome back to Mount Baptist Church on this Sunday evening, and just some church announcements here, but let me get the soul winning numbers here. So before we get started here, what did we have earlier this week as far as salvation? One Monday, and then one Wednesday, one Thursday, so three. And then did Brother Jim have one? I was trying to search on my phone to see where he sent that at. Well, let's be conservative right now. So that's three, right, for the week, and then what did we have for today, right, because our car had three, and then your van had one, right? Does that sound right? So seven for the week. I'll put that down. That's conservative, obviously. If Brother Jim has one on there, maybe if we find where he did, then we'll put it on next week or something. So keep up the good work with the soul winning, and on the announcements here, we have the Wednesday evening service at 7 p.m., so everything's on schedule as far as the service times there. We'll be continuing through the book of Exodus, and then our soul winning times for the week, we have tomorrow, so Monday and Wednesday, Brother Charles and Brother Ritchie leading those up respectively there, and then we have this week, we moved the men's prayer meeting to this Friday, and then the women's prayer meeting will be on this Saturday, so in the morning on Saturday, but then that evening, we're going to be having a firework display at Robinson Ridge, and so we'll send out on the WhatsApp an address and as far as how to get out there, and maybe we'll send some directions with that, but coordinates. I mean, honestly, the GPS should get you there. Just make sure you have it in your GPS before you get out there, okay, because no promises that it'll pop up, especially when you're on Little Bingaman Road. There is no reception really there, so yeah, watch for the smoke signals. If you come to Mannington, you've gone too far, so and with that, obviously, we're going to be providing all the main food there, but if you want to bring any type of dessert, if you want something to go with the hot dogs and the hamburgers and stuff like that, we're going to get chips and stuff like that, you know, as far as sides, if you will, but if you, if anybody wants to bring brownies, they want to bring anything else that's like up high, it will not be denied, so that is all welcome, but we'll have drinks, we'll have all that stuff ready to go there on Saturday. Psalm 16 is our chapter memory for the month, and then Ecclesiastes 10.1 is our memory verse for the week, and so you'll see that on the back of your your bulletin there, and then we got through the birthdays, we have, I got the anniversary, and obviously congratulations to Miss Catherine and Miss Rachel. How many babies do we have now? Like, yeah, I know, I mean, I know that we've, we've passed the 50 percent mark of like children to adults, but there's been a lot of babies that have been born recently, so we're gonna have to tally that up. I need, we need to figure that out. We don't need to, I just want to know, but I know we have, especially in that realm of like two, like one, two, three, four, five, and six range, there's just like, that's where the mean kid area is at right there, so, but awesome stuff there, and then be in prayer for Miss Joyce, and excited there for another pregnancy, and be in prayer for the Murphy family there, and that they have enough butter for brother Chris. You know, I'm preaching, I'm preaching, I'm preaching on fasting tonight. This is so fitting, you know, like it's gonna be about fasting on olive oil and butter for some odd reason that I'm gonna have to preach on. Just kidding, but that's all I got for announcements. Who's reading tonight actually? Okay, so brother Anthony is going to be reading, what did I have you read? Jonah 3, Jonah 3, and so brother Dave's gonna sing one more song, and then we'll read Jonah 3, and then we'll get into the sermon. Okay, so it's eight. Did you text him, or did you find that? Okay, cool. I'm gonna turn it off, you're gonna hear me singing. It's beautiful. All right, take your songbooks and turn to song 351. Song 351, we'll sing Tell it to Jesus, song 351. Are you weary? Are you heavy-hearted? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. Are you grieving over joys departed? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Do the tears flow down your cheeks unbidden? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. Have you sense that two men's eyes are hidden? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Do you fear the gathering clouds of sorrow? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. Are you anxious? What shall be tomorrow? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Are you troubled at the thought of dying? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. For Christ's coming kingdom are you sighing? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. All right, take your Bibles and turn to Jonah chapter number three. Jonah chapter number three, and we'll have brother Anthony come and read that for us. Jonah chapter three, the Bible reads, and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying arise go unto Nineveh the great city and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly exceeding great city of three days journey and Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey and he cried and said yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even unto the least of them. For the word came unto the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes and he calls it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying let neither man nor beast heard nor flock taste anything let them not feed nor drink water but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God yea let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not. Let's pray. Dear Lord thank you for your word and thank you for this afternoon that we can gather back and just continue to study from it. I pray it should be with our pastor fill him with your Holy Spirit and help us all to learn. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. So you're there in Jonah chapter 3 and I'm going to be doing a sermon on the purpose of fast fasting. So the purpose of fasting and there's a lot of ideas or I guess this kind of goes into prayer as well but the idea of like why should we fast what's the purpose behind it and I believe there's actually more than one purpose but the ultimate purpose is to get close to God you know the idea of humbling your spirit humbling your soul if you will to get close to God and so it's really to get you know a hold of God or get his attention in this chapter here in Jonah 3 we see that fasting is what got it got God's attention when it came to wanting to get hold of God to say hey we're going to humble ourselves before you okay. So look at Jonah 3 and I know we just read the chapter but basically Jonah comes into the city and he said in 40 days Nineveh shall be overthrown in verse four there but notice in verse five he says so the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast so the first thing they do when they realize oh you know God's going to destroy our city in 40 days and is they proclaim a fast and it says they put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them for the word came unto the king Nineveh and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe upon him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes and it says and he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree the decree of the king and his nobles saying let neither man nor beast heard nor flock taste anything let them not feed nor drink water. So simplest terms here what is a fast? A fast is basically where you don't drink food in some cases where they'll hold off on water as well but most time you're dealing with not eating okay you're not eating for a certain period of time. Now obviously you can fast from certain items but usually in the bible what you're dealing with when you're dealing with fasting is fasting holistically from food you're just not eating okay and this is a way and I believe this this helped them to not have God's judgment now notice they keep reading there it says in verse eight it says but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth cry mightily unto God yea let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands so they're proclaiming a fast and it's funny in this story it's not just the people they make the animals not eat too so I don't know about you but I always just think that's funny but they take it that far that they're just like animals aren't eating either you know obviously it doesn't when it's talking about fasting it's not talking to animals it's talking to people but they took it so far like I don't care we're gonna we're gonna make sure everybody is ready to go on this and you know what I think that's great I think that that you know when it comes to that it's good to have an extreme stance if you're gonna be like all the land needs to fast that means everything's fasting that means the animals everything and they even put sackcloth on the animals and all this stuff so holistically the whole country is basically the whole city is fasting and in verse nine it says this who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not and obviously we know the story here in verse 10 it says and God saw their works that they turn from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not so one reason to fast is to maybe thwart God's judgment when it comes to like something that's going to come upon you if you think about let's say you were to commit a sin or something like that fasting may be the way I mean think about David when David obviously sinned and had Uriah killed and then Bathsheba had their child the child died but remember while the child was still alive and you know about to die he didn't eat right he just fasted and he was basically trying to get God to change his mind on the judgment that's coming on him so fasting in some cases and especially in this case with Nineveh is a way to basically seek God's mercy right seek his mercy in your life so there may be a time where maybe you mess up uh it's it's probably time to to fast to fast to afflict the soul and go to uh go to Psalm uh 35 Psalm 35 and verse 13 there's so many passages on fasting in the old testament about people fasting for certain reasons but a lot of it a lot of it just has to do with just to be honest just uh to be in God's favor right you're trying to fast get a hold of God and to uh seek out his mercy and his grace okay it wouldn't be nice if our country would just like fast to get a hold of God you know and to seek out his mercy especially when you think about all the babies that have been murdered uh with the abortions and uh praise the Lord you know this this uh Roe v Wade is uh is overturned and hopefully uh the states step up and uh basically ban it uh in as many states as possible and uh it doesn't undo all the babies that have been murdered but let's stop it at some point um because it's just tallying up but you know with the God we'd have a nation that would maybe say hey we need to fast and get a hold of God and and uh you know seek out his mercy but in verse 13 it says but as for me when they were sick my clothing was sackcloth i humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into mine own bosom okay so he's talking about his enemies in this passage he's basically stating like you know they basically were uh rewarding the evil for good but he's like you know what when they were sick i was i was fasting for him essentially but notice that it says he hum i humbled my soul with fasting so you think about like the purpose of fasting but what does it do like what what's the what's the reasoning for fast fasting right to humble your soul it makes you humble okay when you're hungry and you know you're depriving your body of that it's a humbling experience okay and the idea idea the idea is to humble yourself before God and fasting is a way to do that um go to Daniel chapter 9 Daniel chapter 9 and Daniel chapter 9 is dealing with a prayer that Daniel has uh for the nation of Israel obviously they're in captivity and it's been 70 years of captivity and he's basically praying um but notice here that he's seeking the Lord with this fasting in order to ask for forgiveness and that God would actually that God will fulfill what he said he would do as far as bringing them back into their their land okay notice what it says here in Daniel chapter 9 verse 3 it says and i set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes so notice obviously prayer and fasting are used and we'll get to those verses you know we're talking about prayer and fasting but fasting is basically an attachment if you will to getting a hold of God okay you want obviously praying in general as a way to get a hold of God but if you want to add some emphasis onto that prayer that's where fasting comes in you're humbling yourself you're getting a hold of God it's basically if you think about it if you're coming to God and you haven't eaten for like a couple days and you're coming to him with prayer it's going to add a little more gravity to that prayer does that make sense like God regards that as like hey this is serious this isn't just some flippant prayer you know that person that woman that that man is literally not eating because they want you to hear this prayer okay and so uh it's being attached to it um it says in verse 4 it says and i prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said oh Lord the great and dreadful God keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments we have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing my precepts and from thy judgments neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets which spake in thy name to our kings our princes and our fathers and to all the people of the land i want you to think about this he's fasting as he's praying this prayer right and in this passage you know this is where it's like 21 days and and then the angel comes as i've been fighting with so and so i there in chapter 10 i believe it talks about that but basically he's coming with this prayer to God about bringing them back in but what i love about this is notice the personal pronoun that he's using there he's attaching himself to this i mean think about it Daniel was a kid when all this i mean he was a child coming in and i mean he almost have to be for now i mean he made it out of the captivity for 70 years he was in captivity but notice how he says we have sinned right it says uh neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets that shows humility there right he's attaching himself he's not just saying hey you know they messed up will you forgive us you know will you forgive them so that i can go back into the land no he's like we've sinned we've messed up forgive us you know that he's attaching himself to it and it shows that humility and i believe that humility that fasting brings that in there where you're you're not high and lifted up on your high horse you're you're basically saying i'm a sinner too we messed up i'm you know i'm in there too and he's not trying to disconnect himself from those that actually caused this to happen okay now when it comes to fasting the interesting thing about fasting is that uh it has a lot of health benefits uh when when it comes to you know when you think about what God wants you to do a lot of times he's doing he's telling you to do stuff that's for spiritual reasons but a lot of times it has great physical attributes to it as well as far as i mean think about door-to-door soul winning and just the health benefits of that right as far as the exercise and everything else that goes along with that but in fasting uh here's just a few things that help with fasting okay decreased resting heart rate decreased blood pressure improved pumping action of the heart increased insulin sensitivity reduced l l i'm sorry ldl cholesterol fasting insulin and inflammation and you lose weight okay but obviously those things all tie together there but fasting obviously is for a spiritual reason right but some people fast just to lose weight some and there's a lot i don't have this as far as health benefits but i've heard a lot of things about how fasting helps with you know just certain diseases like how it kind of like works with your stem cells and all these different things to kind of reactivate things and just the idea of how that actually helps physically and so when you're thinking about fasting know this is that it's not unhealthy there's actually a lot of healthy things that come with that so on top of getting that spiritual health of humbling yourself before God and trying to get God to answer a prayer there is health healthy things that are happening to the body there as well okay and so you know it's always interesting you know God's not like telling you to basically hurt your body right as the the other versions use in 1st Corinthians 9 you know i beat my body and make it my slave you know like self-flagellation it's like King Henry you know the eighth is like beating himself and like like God's telling you to do that like just to like inflict pain and punishment on yourself no but the Bobby the but man i cannot speak tonight the bible does state that i keep under my body and bring it in subjection and that's what fasting really is it really keeps your body in subjection okay when it comes to eating there's a lot of willpower that has to be taken into account to not eat certain things or just to not eat okay and it's interesting how how this works when it comes to the relation of the physical aspect of fasting and the fact that the longer you fast the temptations start going away and you don't have as many fleshly desires now you may not have maybe done long fasting but maybe you've done diet right where you take out a lot of food and a lot of calories and you're just kind of like running on empty all the time you're getting a little bit of food but but you're just kind of running on empty and how that correlates with like the decrease in like fleshly desires if you will and how that kind of correlates with why you would fast right you fast so that you can get closer to god and humble yourself and just get in the spirit if you will you're humbling your spirit you're humbling your soul and getting into that mode if you will now go to luke chapter 17 luke chapter 17 i believe fasting increases your faith okay because you may ask yourself like how do i increase my faith you know as far as obviously we know it's just by faith that you get saved but there are people that have more faith than others as far as like being a you know believe you think of thomas right he was a believer but i would say he was lowest on the totem pole for having faith okay he doubted so when you're dealing with is having confidence and not doubting and just having faith that god's going to do what he said he's going to do in all aspects of your life having mountain moving faith or you know sycamore moving trait uh faith i'm gonna speak right tonight eventually it's the heat it's that golfing it was that 18 holes of golfing yesterday that we did it's taking it out of me i'm like dead tired right now luke 17 here notice in verse 5 it says in the apostles said unto the lord increase our faith and the lord said if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed you might say unto this sycamore tree be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea and it should obey you so what does he state here he says they say increase our faith and he's basically saying if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed so he's it's kind of like increase our faith but he's kind of stepping him back like just know that your faith isn't as big as a grain of mustard seed at the moment okay but what i think is interesting is go to matthew 17 matthew 17 so notice that he's stating about the faith of the grain of mustard seed they're asking to increase their faith in this story in matthew 17 is where this man and his son he wanted this uh you know this devil to be cast out of him but his disciples couldn't do it and notice what it says in four uh verse 14 there so matthew 17 verse 14 it says and when they were come to the multitude there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him and saying lord have mercy on my son for he is lunatic and sorvax and oftentimes he fallas into the fire and off into the into the water and i brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him then jesus answered and said oh faithless and perverse generation how long shall i be with you how long shall i suffer you bring him hither to me and jesus rebuked the devil and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour then came his disciples to jesus and said why could not we cast him out and jesus said unto them because of your unbelief so it's because of their lack of faith right it's not that they're not believers but they they lack in faith it's kind of like the man that says i believe lord i believe help thou mine unbelief but this is because of your unbelief for verily i say unto you if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed you shall say unto this mountain remove hence to yonder place and it shall be and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you how be it this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting so he's saying it's your unbelief the reason that you couldn't do this how do you so here's the thing how do you what increase that faith right how do you increase that faith prayer and fasting so james chapter 2 talks about how you perfect your faith right how you kind of complete it and perfect it you want to have that that faith like abraham had you do the works right how do you increase it how do you get it higher right prayer and fasting so those are two ways james chapter 2 is one way to kind of increase the and perfect it if you will and that goes hand in hand with prayer as well because prayer there's there's elements to prayer if you want your prayer answered one adding fasting to that helps out a lot but also keeping the commandments help out a lot okay and go to matthew chapter 21 matthew chapter 21 and verse 18 because when it comes to prayer you need to have faith with your prayer okay what what i'm going to show you here is that you can't pray and not believe it's actually going to happen or that it's able to happen because here's the thing what i'm going to be getting into is that it obviously has to be according to god's will there's factors that that are at play right if you say ask and you shall receive it's not saying like i asked for ferrari but he didn't deliver on that promise okay there's certain elements that have to be in that asking that you may not be getting it if you're asking that way but in in matthew chapter 21 verse 18 it says now in the morning as he returned into the city he hungered and when he saw a fig tree in the way he came to it and found nothing there on but leaves only and said unto it let no fruit grow on the henceforward forever and presently the fig tree withered away and when the disciples saw it they marveled saying how soon is the fig tree withered away jesus answered and said to them barely i say to you if you have faith and doubt not you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree but also if you shall say on to this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea it shall be done and all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing you shall receive notice how all these things are linked together because it's saying that you couldn't cast this devil out because of what unbelief but then he's saying that well how do you how do you increase that prayer and fasting but if you're going to pray you need to have faith with that prayer right so not doubting so another way of saying is don't doubt not doubting but believing okay so go to james chapter one james chapter one i don't know about you but when it comes to life i want to have confidence you know and the opposite of having confidence is doubting about everything and you know just being uh you know afraid that you're wrong about something right or you're afraid that you know and that you just get into fear at that point but i want to have confidence in what i'm doing and not doubting and when it comes to biblical doctrine i want to have confidence in that when we go out sowing i want to have confidence when we go out you know praying for boldness and yeah another word for confidence would be boldness but having boldness as a lion uh is is getting into the aspect of having faith and not doubting and there's a lot of christians that are saved but they lack faith they lack faith they have a lot of doubt and just like thomas had a lot of doubts even like that man that says i believe help thou mine unbelief you still like having trouble believing uh maybe what god was going to do in this situation or whatever but in james chapter one and verse five knows what it says if any of you lack wisdom wisdom let him ask of god that give it to all men liberally and a bright is not and it shall be given him but let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that waver it is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the lord so notice that you're supposed to ask it in faith and basically if you don't don't expect to get it right not wavering that'd be kind of doubting right you're kind of tossed to and fro whether that's going to actually be able to be done you just need to have confidence the lord is able to do this you think about shadrach nishak and abednego and the fact that they said our god is able to deliver us but if not be it known unto thee that we will not serve thee and they're not saying they're not doubting whether he's able they just don't know whether he's going to do it right so when you're praying you should be saying we know that god is able though we don't know whether he's going to do it does that make sense and that's a great example of how you should be praying no doubt he's able just pure confidence he's able to do this but you know not sure but you can still not be sure whether he's going to do it okay and so um don't get into this pentecostal realm was like well if you just had enough faith it would happen it's not true it's just not true that's not what the bible teaches on this it has to be also according to his will go to first john chapter five first john chapter five so you could be praying with all faith that he's able to do it but it's not according to his will it's not what he wants to happen okay so as much as you know when it comes to praying and things that i want to happen i still not my will but thine be done you know the idea there is that you know better than i do and putting it on god to do that and knowing that hey it might not get answered because maybe it wasn't god's will that that be done okay some people don't get their prayers answered because they don't ask and some people don't get their prayers answered because they don't have faith that god's able to do it and or they don't you know they need to increase their faith that god's able to do it in order for those prayers to be answered and and the way to increase that faith is by fasting okay you want to increase your faith fast get a hold of god and that'll increase your faith in the lord it'll get you closer to the lord and uh this is just something that i can't really i can tell you what the bible says on this but until you do it you don't really know okay you just have to do it to know how it gets you closer to the lord okay uh and where did i have you go first john five yeah first john five verse 14 it says and this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he heareth us and if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him notice the confidence that if we ask anything according to his will he here with us and basically if it's according to his will and you have that confidence it's going to happen that's where it's like ask and you shall receive no doubt if it's according to his will you ask for it with faith boom it's happening okay but don't like ask for something like for example in james chapter 4 verse 3 it says you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you might may consume it upon your lusts that's where the ferrari comes in okay that is not according to his will okay so you you you may not be getting because you know you have not because you ask not right so don't blame god for not giving you something if you're not asking for it but second of all you may be asking for things that have nothing to do with his will it's not something you need it's not something that he wants you to have and you're asking for it just to consume it upon your lusts okay and just so you know the lord's very gracious because there's a lot of things that the lord gives us that we can consume upon our lusts as far as like cinnamon rolls and and like awesome food that we don't particularly need and it's not the most nutritious thing in the world but he still allows us to have it and you know going on from that but the idea here is that if i prayed for for god you know lord i just pray that i don't go a week without cinnamon rolls i just every week i must get a cinnamon roll that's not valid you know that's not something like that's the will of god right there for your life that you eat cinnamon rolls every week and that's a silly example of consuming something upon your lusts but it's kind of like that in the fact that you can't expect that to be coming true just because you want it okay it's the question is does god want it and uh go to first john chapter 3 and verse 22 like i said when you're dealing with increasing your faith remember james 2 deals with the fact that abraham perfected his faith you know and and by his works was his faith made perfect right that's not how he got saved but that's how he increased it that's how he perfected it by offering up his son isaac upon the altar and he was called the friend of god because of that but why because he did the works he kept the commandments okay if you love me keep my commandments and you're my friends if you do whatsoever i command you but notice what it says here in first john 3 22 it says and whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight how about this you know it says in john or james 5 16 says confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much and you say well how does fasting help me do the works right keep the commandments like i said there's something interesting about fasting that obviously you think about dieting or fasting and how like your cravings start going away especially after day three like day three of like a diet like a hard diet it seems like you know the first three days you're just like this is horrible i want to eat everything like that i've been eating this is bad but then you get past day three and you're just like ah it's not that bad and then and then it gets to the point where you're just like i just don't really care i'm just eating for sustenance and it's not you're not eating anything because it's out of pleasure you're just like oh that's chicken breast all right i'm going to shove that down my gullet and be i got my protein for the day and you're just going on with life and not caring about how it tastes not caring about like anything other than just i need energy okay but it's interesting on how those cravings go away physically but also spiritually speaking those like maybe sinful lusts or different things like that they diminish as well which help you keep the commandments which help you walk in the spirit okay these things work together okay prayer fasting increasing your faith and how that all works together to get a hold of god okay now go to ezra chapter eight ezra chapter eight now this one uh i feel like is abused a lot in baptist churches but the idea of a fasting so that god will show us the right way okay and i do believe this is a principle found with fasting but not to the extent that people take it okay i fasted that god would show me what country i should go to uh and where i should go you know on this mission you know like this like where i should be a missionary or whatever and i fasted him the holy ghost told me this it's like the holy ghost didn't tell you anything okay unless it's chapter and verse that's what i want to get to here is that i do believe there's a principle here as far as like fasting it's for god to show you which like the way to go and show you things that are right but it's always going to be in the bible it's always going to be like chapter and verse like in the word of god that that's how you're going to know where to go but know this is that the holy ghost the anointing which you have received with him abideth in you and you need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teaches you of all things and so fasting is really you know obviously the the body is the temple of the holy ghost and when you're fasting you're obviously linked with the holy ghost there with your body and the fact that how that's going to affect how well the holy ghost can teach you okay and when it comes to anything in life if you came up to me like should i buy this house should i do this or should i do that really only thing i can give you is biblical principles on things right i'm not going to give you some extra biblical like revelation be like well the holy ghost talked to me last night and he said yes you should buy that house and he's not going to do that to you either okay and every choice that you make you're going to have to say okay here's some biblical principles and see if this makes sense and all that and go that route but god can point you to certain passages and can help guide you to read certain things and as you're reading through your bible the holy ghost can take a hold and say and show you something that would maybe be applicable to your certain situation that you're trying to deal with okay and this has happened many times where i'm reading through the bible and there's certain something that i'm thinking about something i have to try to fix or do or whatever and there'll just be a passage that you would never even think would be a passage on that subject but somehow it ties into that and you're like oh okay there's a biblical principle there on how to deal with the situation okay and but in in esro chapter 8 verse 21 it says then i proclaimed a fast there at the river of haiva that we might afflict ourselves before our god to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance so you can understand like where he's coming from they're they're going to afflict their their you know cells before the lord and talk about afflicting the soul you know when you're fasting and all that uh to seek of him a right way for us it says in verse 22 for i was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way because we had spoken unto the king saying the hand of our god is upon all them for good that seek him but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him so we fasted and besought our god for this and he wasn't treated of us now what you have to understand first of all is in esra we're dealing with a different time where god would actually speak to the prophets audibly right god who at sundry times in a diverse manner spake unto our fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son where we do live in a different time in the new testament it says that he's spoken unto us by his son the word of god and the holy ghost is going to teach us it says that the holy ghost isn't going to speak of himself but he's going to bring to remembrance all things which jesus said and so uh we we are living in a different time on that as far as like this audible voice that's coming out of the sky as far as what right way to go go to psalm 119 in verse 105 and like i said i believe that god can show you the right way to go through his word okay and there's just certain things in life that you're just not going to get a direct answer from god on what you should do what car should i buy what uh what suit should i buy you know like what you know like you know like when we bought these chairs that you think that you know god told us like buy those chairs those colors you know like there's first of all there's a lot of liberty in christ to just do certain things um but when you're dealing with things where it has maybe major repercussions or whatever obviously you should try to get a hold of god as far as fasting and and hopefully god will show you maybe maybe through council maybe like you'll talk to a brother in christ or your pastor or something like that and he'll give you good bible principles and that'll help you uh figure out the answer okay but it's not going to be this audible voice not in the new testament okay not where we're at right now because now we have the holy ghost inside of us and the holy ghost will teach us through his word notice in psalm 119 in verse 105 it says thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path so the word of god that's the lamp that's the word that's going to show you the right way okay uh you know the bible says in proverbs 3 5 it says trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths it says in psalm 37 23 the steps of a good man are ordered by the lord and he delighted in his way now go to acts chapter 13 acts chapter 13 so what you have to understand is that god spoke in different ways in different times right and in the new testament it's stating here that he hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son but know this is that the apostle paul it says he was the last to see jesus so i don't believe jesus is appearing to other people right because if you're going to take that verse to the t you'd be like well what if jesus came to me and started speaking to me then that would make then that would contradict what the bible says that paul was the last to see him okay so if that's the case after the apostles that means that there's no extra biblical revelation that's going on right now what we have is the word of god and just so you know back in ezra's day they didn't have all of this okay we actually have it a lot better than they did because you mean ah man i wish i could you know i wish i could be back then where he would speak to them what you have to understand too is that we don't know how often that was that he was speaking to them audibly and you know what the space of time between that was and they'd have obviously bibles here and there and the word about here and there we have a complete word of god and i i actually would rather have that with the holy ghost inside of me any day of the week so you can look back and be like that's the golden age i wish we were back then no i'd rather have it we have the flashlight of the new testament with the holy ghost inside of us teaching all things that's way better okay and you say well you know but i'd have more faith if i heard the voice would you though we're going through exodus you would think that they'd have all this mountain moving faith from when they see the the red sea being parted all those plagues and all this other miracles that that god's doing through the wilderness they get it seems like they keep lacking faith over and over again so i believe actually we have it better right now for this to be the case for god to show us through fasting the right way to go in areas you have the word of god at your fingertips you have the perfect word of god the whole bible at your fingertips to to have god show you what the right way is don't take it for granted and be like all we have is the bible that's ridiculous you should be saying we have the bible they didn't have the complete you know 66 books of the bible back in ezra's day okay and i'm not saying they didn't have the information and that i obviously they had the gospel they had all that but they if we're looking through a glass darkly in the new testament how much more darkly were they looking through it in the old testament when they didn't have the new testament it didn't have it at their fingertips so uh in act chapter 13 notice what it says here in verse 2 it says as they ministered as they ministered to the lord and fasted the holy ghost said separate me barnabas and saw for the work where into i have called them and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away okay so notice that the holy ghost is saying this to them obviously this is there's apostles in these days they're like you know obviously paul the apostle but there's other apostles that are there as well like i said in the new testament jesus says that the holy ghost shall not speak of himself but only which the sun set right so you would have to say if you were to get some voice you're like i had a dream you know god told me this you'd have to say that jesus told you the holy ghost is relaying this to you but jesus told you this at that point i'd have to say what chapter and verse do you have for that because i do not believe in this extra biblical audio type of voice is coming out of the sky uh now obviously that can happen in the future i'm not saying that god can't talk out of the sky anymore or anything like that but what we're dealing with now is after the apostles are all gone we have the new test we have the old new testament we have the whole bible here we have the holy ghost inside of us i don't understand why we need that and i don't believe we need that and people are obviously wanting that for a sign they want to know they want to hear that voice or whatever but when people tell me that god told them to do this i cringe every time i hear it because you're adding to the word of god the bible says every word of god is pure he's a shield unto them that put their trust in him add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar and uh that you know that even it's in baptist churches as well dealing with that faith promise which is a missionary giving thing and i'm not saying like people that do faith promise that it's inherently wrong or anything like that but how you go about to figure out how much money you're giving there's always this like well let god tell you what you should give how am i supposed to do that like explain that bring that on the bottom shelf for me how do i get that number well you need to pray that god shows you do i see it in a vision is it gonna pop up like am i supposed to be eating that that cereal that has numbers and and letters in it and it just like pops up in my cereal bowl like that's the number i need to give every month like how bottom shelf how do i know what number well it's gonna come to you is it a feeling is it a burning in my bosom what's going on right i want to know the bottom shelf tell me exactly how this is going to happen and i think it's ridiculous okay because what happens is someone's just like praying they're just like well i could probably give forty dollars a month or something like that all right i'll put that down god told me to put forty dollars in that's what happens just to be honest that's what's happening like someone's like i can spare forty dollars let's do it but what they tell you with that is like well it's not what you can spare it's what's god telling you so if he tells you to give a thousand dollars a month then you need to do it and god's going to provide and we don't know how he's going to do that you may get a check in the mail for fifteen thousand dollars or something like that you never know i've heard these type of sermons before where it's just like you know just give what god tells you to do but yet how did you figure that out and no form of fasting is going to give you this booming voice out of the sky or this vision that's going to tell you how much money to give okay that's one example of this when it comes to how i don't believe that fasting and prayer and fasting is going to cause like god to tell you something that's outside the bible he can point these to some biblical principle that's in the bible but how about this biblical principle when it comes to giving don't give that what you don't have the idea the bible says in first or second corinthians is that he doesn't want others to be eased and you uh burdened don't get beyond your means in other words but what if god you know what if i saw on a dream i had a dream that i was supposed to get more than what i actually even make let alone pay my bills i mean if that really worked i'd be like i'm giving a million dollars a month i'm gonna test the lord on this one i better just like somehow get a whole bunch of money and then it doesn't happen to be like well you must have not really been it must not been god you know what this is it's charismatic stuff is what it is it needs to stop we need to stop saying that god told me to do this when it's not in the bible we need to stop saying that god said this when it's not in the bible i think brother shane was telling me that there was some some first baptist church here in pheromone or something like that that was basically saying love everybody god chapter and verse where does it say that where does it say that and i'll say that that person is a liar there was a sign in terra alta that says come as you are and it had god at the end of it i'm like that wasn't god that was kirk cobain and he's dead he killed himself now i'm not saying that you know like sometimes these phrases may be okay phrases that they use but do not put god beside that in quotations if it's not a chapter in verse if it's not out of the bible so don't tell me that god's god told me to go do this chapter and verse where did he tell you to do that well he told me that to get married okay well the bible says you know you know that he will that the younger women marry bear children god the house okay that's biblical principle i'm with you yeah it's not good for the man to be alone that's fine right if you're saying like god wants me to get married okay god said he wants me to marry that guy george i don't know i'm just no he didn't say that okay so do you see what i'm saying here like there's biblical principles that god could be leading you to they're like well do you think god wants me to do this well it's like uh do you think god wants me to go witness to this guy yes okay but there's biblical principles obviously you know like you know preach the gospel to every creature you know going into all the world preach the gospel every creature but he didn't say go to that guy like he did with philip with the ethiopian eunuch does that make sense like there that's not happening right now and so i just wanted to kind of park it there real quick that yes god can lead you in the right way with fasting but it's always going to be through his word it's going to be through biblical principles in his word and it's not going to be specific things like that that wouldn't be in the bible okay now look at esther chapter four esther chapter four when i think of fasting i always think of esther and the interesting thing about this is that people you think about fasting so you can get a hold of god so you can get a prayer answered and automatically we're kind of thinking like what do we want god to do for us but fasting can also be for other people okay where you're fasting to get a hold of god on the behalf of someone else right it could be fasting so someone gets saved right you're like i want this person to get saved i'm going to fast get a hold of this person or maybe this person is like in deep trouble with some kind of drugs or something like that and you're like i'm fasting so that we can try to figure out a way and get a hold of god to where we can get this problem fixed right and this is a case with esther where she wants people to fast for her right for on her behalf so so basically she doesn't die okay in verse 13 it says then mortice commanded to answer esther think not within that with thyself that thou shalt escape the king's house more than all the jews for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall their and their enlargement and deliverance arise to the jews from another place thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this then esther bade them return mortice this answer go gather together all the jews that are present and shushan and fast ye for me and neither drink or neither eat nor drink three days nor night or day i also and my maidens will fast likewise and so will i go in unto the king which is not according to the law and if i perish i perish so mortice went his way and did according to all that esther had commanded him so if you know the story obviously if she does if she comes in and she's not bidden to come in and he doesn't raise the the king doesn't raise up his scepter then she's put to death okay so it's obviously a risk that she's taking to go in there when she's not being uh you know uh asked to come if you will and but notice that he's saying go find everybody and shushan and fast ye for me and she's like i'm gonna fast too and my maidens are gonna fast so you can have it could be a collective fast for somebody right to where you're trying to get a hold of god so that someone will be delivered out of a situation okay so it doesn't have to be just for you it's something that you want but here's the thing are your prayers just for you are you praying for other people as well right so obviously when if prayer can go for things for you and for other people then so can your fasting as far as getting a hold of god for on the other for the sake of other people okay so esther is a great example of that as far as the purpose of fasting in that case obviously that she doesn't perish that she doesn't die okay for her safety if you will um the bible talks about fasting obviously being toward the lord to afflict your soul i kind of already hit on that uh so i kind of want isaiah 58 touches on this um i'm just going to read a little bit of it for you um you can turn there if you want but it says in isaiah 58 verse 3 it says wherefore have you fasted say they wherefore have you fasted say they and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our soul and now take us no knowledge behold in the day of your fast you find pleasure and exact all your labors so they're basically saying wherefore have we fasted and you're not seeing it right it's kind of like you're they're basically asking we're fasting to you we're not seeing it but he's saying yeah but in your fast you're finding pleasure okay this gets into the idea that fasting is supposed to be a time of affliction it's not supposed to be a fun time okay this is why you get into 1st Corinthians 7 where it talks about uh you need to come together with your spouse except it be for prayer and fasting okay because the idea there is that if you're praying and fasting then it's not there's not to be any pleasure it's supposed to just be like a hard time you're not enjoying yourself when when this is going on okay so it kind of gives you another level as far as like okay what do i do when i'm fasting basically you're probably just doing your work you're trying to do what you need to do to survive or whatever but you're not having a good time it's not like oh i'm fasting but i'm going to go out and have fun you know do this or do that we're going on this trip or whatever no fasting should be a time of affliction of the soul or you're getting close to god okay it says in verse 4 it says behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness ye shall not fast as you do this day to make your voice to be heard on high so basically they're saying why aren't you hearing us we're fasting you're not seeing it and he's saying you know you're you're fasting and finding pleasure in that meaning that you're you're not really afflicting your soul right you may not be eating right but at the same time it's not just about not eating okay the idea is that you're kind of in this uh steer state where you're getting basically humbling yourself before god that you're not having a good time okay but you're willing to do that to get a hold of god okay so it's kind of like they're not eating but they're still doing a bunch of fun stuff they're finding pleasure and whatever right but then he's they're stating that you're not fasting it's not like they're fasting to get a hold of god they're just fasting so they get the bait and strife and do all this other stuff they're doing it for the wrong reasons right uh and go to zechariah chapter seven zechariah chapter seven zechariah chapter seven verse four it says then came the word lord of hosts unto me saying speak unto all the people of the land and to the priests saying when ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those 70 years did ye at all fast unto me even to me they're getting called out right here right because like i said in isaiah 58 it's kind of stating like you fasted but you didn't first of all you're finding pleasure while you're fasting and you're fasting for strife and debate you know you weren't they weren't doing it to get a hold of god they weren't doing it to afflict their souls to humble themselves before the lord because it's kind of like they're doing it on the surface right it's like i'm not eating i did what you told me to do but they're missing the whole point of fasting right the whole point of fasting is that not eating is going to make you feel really uncomfortable not eating is painful you know the thing about not eating is that it's a pain that's there continually okay it's like when you think about dieting and exercise exercise is so much easier than dieting because exercise is like well here's 40 minutes or an hour i'm just like hitting it hard it's gonna be painful but then i can rest the rest of the time i don't have to worry about it fasting or dieting is something that's just a constant pain you know i you don't have to i don't need to raise the hands but who here has gone to bed early just because they don't want to have to think about the hunger pains that they have they're just like it's time to go to bed because at least when i'm sleeping i'm not thinking about it okay many times i'm just like it's eight o'clock time to get some old shut eye it's like it's in the middle of summer sun's still out kids are out there playing but you're just like i i'm so hungry the pain you know all that now that's what the bible is teaching here is that they weren't doing it for him notice in verse 6 it says and when ye did eat and when you did drink did not ye eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves should you not hear the words which the lord hath cried by the former prophets when jerusalem was inhabited in prosperity in the cities thereof round about her when men inhabited the south and the plain and the word of the lord came unto zechariah saying thus speak of the lord of hosts saying execute true judgment and show mercy and compassion every man to his brother and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless the stranger nor the poor and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart so when it comes to this what it gets to in isaiah 58 which i didn't get to for sake of time here is the fact that they were fasting on the surface but then they were just like oppressing everybody they weren't doing what they should be doing but it's like on this surface they're fasting but they weren't doing it for the lord it seems like oh we were fasting you know we're we're fasting to you lord but know this is that god can see the heart and they were fasting but yet they were not judging the cause for the fatherless and the widows they weren't doing righteous judgment and it's for a show which is my last point here we see the purpose of fasting is to obviously humble yourself to get a hold of god to have prayers answered to increase your faith to to help get a hold of god so you can maybe help others from either perishing or maybe helping others maybe someone gets saved you're just like praying and fasting for that person that you should be doing it to the lord and not for yourself not having pleasure while you're doing it but also when you're doing it that it's not for a show and that's really what if you think of isaiah 58 and zechariah chapter 7 they're doing it for a show they're doing it to be seen of men and thinking that well god look i'm fasting i'm not eating but yet they're finding pleasure in what they're doing yet they're fasting so they can have strife in the babe yet they're leaving off all this judgment and they're not doing what they should be doing in all these it's kind of like they're tiding on mint and and an anise and all that but then but then they're leaving the weight of your matters of the law right it's like tithing all that little stuff too and tithe but you know what faith and judgment and mercy it's more important okay matthew chapter 6 and verse 16 the last thing i'll show you here obviously a lot of you probably know where i'm going with this as far as what jesus says here in the sermon on the mount dealing with fasting it says in verse 16 moreover when ye fast be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance but they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast fairly i say unto you they have their reward but that but thou when thou fastest anoint thine head and wash thy face that thou appears appear not unto men to fast but unto thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly so when we're and notice that it says when ye fast it doesn't say if you fast it's assuming that you're going to okay and it doesn't tell you how often it doesn't say you know every month doesn't say every week doesn't say every year doesn't say every two years doesn't say every decade doesn't say it just says when you do it this is how you do it or how you don't do it anyway and the idea is that you're not supposed to put on sackcloth and ashes okay when you're doing this now obviously if you're if you're in deep mourning like maybe that's something that you do at home just to show lord hey i'm getting a hold of you but out openly you're supposed to basically look like a normal person you're not telling them that you're fasting you're not you try not to be grumpy i know this is the probably the hardest one is not to be of the sad countenance okay but you're not just moping around like like eor what was me you know you just need to suck it up and act like nothing's going on okay it should be that no one even knows you're fasting that's what it should be like no one even knows now when it comes to this i don't believe that if you tell your spouse that you lose your reward okay i think you actually need to tell your spouse okay so if you're going to do like a long fast or you're going to do something of any type of distance more than like 12 hours or something like that you probably need to tell your wife about it you know why didn't you eat my my food you know why didn't eat dinner i just didn't feel like eating that you know then you might be in another world probably like you never eat what i cook you never like what i cook you you know if you just told her like hey i'm fasting you'll be like oh okay you know but there's reasons why you should tell your wife and all that but besides that you know sometimes my kids will ask and i'll have to tell them because they're in your home right they're gonna ask why are you not eating what am i supposed to say i gotta answer them right but i'm not proclaiming it on facebook i'm not texting the mountain baptist group be like hey i'm fasting guys pray for me this is horrible and i keep sending text messages on how much i hate it like that's like a i've lost my reward and you know what uh that's just not what the bible says we should be doing all that now i hope that helps with the purpose of fasting okay very simple fasting and prayer increases your faith fasting is attached to that prayer right think about you you have prayer all the principles that apply to prayer attach fasting as like you want to really get a hold of them fast or prayer you're getting a hold of them fasting you're like i really want to get a hold of them okay and you know obviously uh there's reasons why we should do this there's health reasons that even the physical health reasons are good reasons to uh so you're killing two persons one stone you know uh you're getting a hold of god you're getting that spiritual uh you know healthiness that's there but you're also getting the health benefits that are there with it as well now um when it comes to fasting i'm not saying to go on a 40-day fast here okay the bible never shows anything more than 40 days you know i think that would be the piece that you'd ever want to fast okay but i'm not talking about a 40-day fast you can fast for a day you could fast for 12 maybe you just start for 12 hours you're like i'm gonna fast for 12 hours something like that and you do a day or you two days or you three days you know and i think all those are legitimate fasting okay it doesn't have to be the 40-day period of fasting be like i have never fasted because i haven't gone 40 days okay there's there's obviously different time limits and and and all that and obviously if you have health conditions and stuff like that i'm not a doctor they say well you know the doctor told me i need to eat this or i'm going to die and pastor told me to fast though um you know obviously there may be health conditions there that you need to take into account i'm not your doctor but for a normal person that's not like has like crazy health problems or something like that that this listen it's not going to kill you okay to miss a meal i know it feels that way that's how i feel you know i miss a meal i'm like i'm gonna i'm wasting away and brother dave constantly reminds me that that's not the case so i move on with my day but i hope that helps the purpose of fasting i think it's just something that we need to get just see the ground the bottom shelf level why we fast why we should fast it to get a hold of god the humble your your soul before god to get uh to increase your faith and you know what it's something that we should be doing and i'm not going to be asking people who's fasting you're not going to be asking me if i'm fasting but there may be cases where there's something going on as far as like maybe our church is under persecution for something it's just probably gonna be a well-known secret that people are fasting during that time but you know i don't think that unless there's like some crazy thing where i'm saying hey fast for me but you still don't have to tell everybody you're fasting right if i said hey if people at the church could fast for this you still don't have to tell anybody right you could just do it okay so let's end with the word prayer the heavenly father we thank you today thank you for your word thank you for the souls that were saved out uh both today and this past week and just pray that you'd help us uh to get closer to you help us to have times where we would afflict our souls and to fast and to to get a hold of you and lord and to increase our faith lord uh just pray that you'd help us to do that and uh and lord to be with us in that help us to not do it for pretense or for show but to ultimately get closer to you and lord we love you pray else in jesus christ name amen so brother able come and sing one more song and then we'll be dismissed all right song 198 in your song books so 198 if you would stand we'll sing joy unspeakable song 198 i have found his grace is all complete he supply every need while i sit and learn at jesus feet i am free as free indeed it is joy unspeakable and full of glory full of glory full of glory joy unspeakable and full and full of glory oh the half has never yet been told i have found a pleasure i once craved it is joy and peace within what a wondrous blessing i am saved from the awful gulf of sin it is joy unspeakable and full of glory full of glory full of glory joy unspeakable