Appetite Adjustment | Ash Wednesday Experience | Dr. Dharius Daniels

um man i'm so excited to have you worshiping with us tonight man this is our virtual ash wednesday service we will be doing this if we were congregating in person we would be doing this in person putting ashes on your foreheads but we believe watch this i want you to catch this that all ashes are are a symbol and as long as the spirit of god is where you are you don't need a symbol you got the substance you got the real thing that's the spirit of god and the anointing of god i'm excited about tonight well listen family i want to take a few minutes and uh i'm going to take my time tonight i am and i want to teach i mean i preach sunday i'm preaching this sunday but i want to teach tonight because i really want to kind of explain and i want to spend some time doing some teaching because why power is stronger than willpower if there's going to be sustained change a person's got to know why so i want to make my case a little bit but then i want to spend time kind of unpacking and really explaining what we're going to be doing together as a spiritual and extended family over these next 40 days all right so there's a scripture this this scripture is kind of the the foundational scripture of lent lint was introduced was introduced uh probably second third century uh third or fourth century sorry um but this is the scripture they talked a little bit about at the council of nicea in 3 25 a.d matthew chapter 4 verse 1 this is what it says it says then jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil after fasting 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry the tempter came to him and said if if if you are the son of god if you are who they say you are if you are who you think you are tell these stones to become bread jesus answered it's written man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of god i want to give i want to give a subject to this scripture and i want to teach from this topic tonight an appetite adjustment and appetite adjustment family this passage exposes us to an experience that possesses a powerful principle that i want to articulate in this axiom you may have heard you may have heard the phrase your attitude determines your altitude you may have heard that that's significant that's important but i thought of a phrase that's a cousin to that one and it's this not only does your attitude determine your altitude your appetite don't miss this determines your advancement your attitude listen to me determines your altitude but your appetite determines your advancement watch this and affects your assignment listen to this family the truth of this statement is seen in this story with jesus now matthew 4 begins in a very with a very interesting introduction it says the spirit of god led jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil that's the text now this is prior to jesus's public ministry god leads him into a season of preparation now watch this this is really important because the text says the spirit leads jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by satan this is matthew's recording of this story i want you to catch this but watch this what satan was about to use to try to tip jesus god was using to train jesus let's say that one more time what satan was using to tempt jesus god was using to train jesus see there are certain things god allows when he sees what he allows is going to be an asset in your life catch this god only allows assets so if he allows it it's because he wants to use it to add value to your life in a way that didn't exist before you went through it now sometimes it takes living in it and living through it long enough to see the value that it adds but if he allows it it's because he intends to use it because whatever he allows he wants to use as an asset did you hear what i just said now i want you to i want you to catch this now so he leads him into this wilderness 40 days 40 days jesus has not opened one blind eye he's not built his team he's not taught the beatitudes jesus the son of god goes into the wilderness 40 days prior to public ministry god prepares him trains him because god is obsessed with preparation he's obsessed with it because he knows preparation is our protection he says you want to get there quick i want to get you there ready he says even though the preparation may cause some agitation i want you to have the revelation that preparation is for your protection because you think you want to get there fast but what you really want to do is get there ready because if you get there fast and you're not ready you won't stay but if you get there ready not only will you get there you'll stay there you'll thrive there you'll prosper there you'll be blessed there because to get to god's intended in unprepared turns blessings into burdens you do know blessings feel like burdens when you're not ready and i want you to catch this what god what we think we need to be ready for is what we can see stay with me i'm preaching the text what god is getting us is getting us ready for is what we can't see that's why us and god often have two different assessments of when we're ready we're like god i'm ready now he's like no you ready for what you know about you're not ready for what you don't know about okay let me see if i can help let me see if i can make sense of this in this wilderness jesus is tempted and tested by the impulse of the flesh in the garden of gethsemane he is tempted in the same way when he says if it be possible remove this cup from me but nevertheless not my will your will be done see it's easier to do it in the garden when you learned it in the wilderness are you hearing what i'm saying it's easier to do it in the garden when you learned it in the wilderness because god uses the wilderness to prepare you for a garden you don't know you're going to go through you think you're going to go from the womb to the cross and god's like no we got to make some pit stops in some places that you are unaware of so i'm preparing you for pit stops you don't know you're gonna have to sit in for a season so we got two different assessments of when you're ready so let me do my thing and prepare you i need to prepare you and god's like i need to prepare you with preparation you can only get from me not not a mentor not just school i i i need to what i'm going to add to your life what god wants to add to our life to prepare us for what's prepared for us cannot be learned by repetition of a certain uh skill or it cannot be learned by consuming information god's like this school is the school of hard knocks you gotta get this through experience so he takes he takes jesus into the wilderness 40 days and the bible says i want you to check check this out the bible says and jesus was hungry now maybe at another this is ashwin's but maybe at another teaching we'll revisit that jesus was hungry because being hungry is human there's spiritual hunger there's emotional hunger there's relational hunger there's physical hunger hunger's human and we don't have a healthy theology of humanity you confuse humanity with divinity and you start demonizing legitimate needs [Music] yeah you want somebody to tell you you did good doesn't mean you're weak it means you're human am i making sense all right so so this he's hungry and the bible says that the enemy comes to him and the first thing he does this is so interesting he doesn't immediately go to jesus hunger he goes to his pride he goes to his identity he goes to his sense of self if you are the son of god prove to me in in other words in other words it's not enough for you to know who you are i need you to prove to me who you are to prove to yourself who you are because some people don't believe who they are unless somebody else believe it did you hear what i just said i said that there are some people they don't believe who they are unless somebody else believes it someone else has to co-sign it this is interesting if you just if you who you say you are which means you possess the power i want you to misuse and mismanage your ability i want you to use your power to feed you instead of feeding others i want you to use your power to address your own hunger instead of trusting god to legitimately satisfy that longing and jesus responds with these words he says it's written that's that's a completely different lesson there in other words the governing authority regarding the decisions i make will not be my emotions it will be god's instruction he says no matter how hungry i am it's written it's rich satan because i realize watch this you're trying to do to me the second adam in the wilderness what you did to the first adam in the garden you got him to eat from a tree and you're trying to get me you you're trying you're trying to get me to do the same thing because i realized something you know who i am [Music] and so what you're trying to do is to get me to make a decision to do to me what you can't because you know who i am and you know who you are so if you could destroy me you would but you can't and you know you can't so the only thing you can do is try to deceive me into making the decision that'll destroy myself so uh so the serpent couldn't kick adam and eve about the garden and he knew that so he deceived them and they're making a decision that got themselves kicked out he can't destroy you he can only tempt you and me to make decisions that will cause us to destroy ourselves but watch what jesus said man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of god this is what he's saying family i want you to catch this he didn't deny his hunger he was hungry for food but he was more hungry for his assignment so he said i'm willing to live without what i'm longing for if i have to because i know what is ultimately going to satisfy my longing is not this thing that's only going to satisfy me temporarily um i love my assignment so much that i'm more hungry for what god has prepared for me than i am for what the enemy is attempting to use to distract and to tempt me and the only way so so are y'all ready for this are you just too real so there are so many christians trying to pray away they hunger and it hasn't worked has it yes it makes me wonder about the spiritual life of those that keep telling us to do that because i'm like are you telling us to just keep praying away the hunger because you haven't found a healthy way to manage yours and so you feel obligated to address it but because you don't have an answer you keep reverting to prayer maybe prayer is not your conviction may be prayer maybe you're not saying prayer because you're convinced not that prayer isn't important prayer is incredibly important yet even though we should always pray we have to do more than pray [Music] what do i do about ambition pray he can't pray away hunger what do you there has to be a hunger see there are times you know i think i think i think there are times when i'm going to be honest here can i be honest okay brothers i want y'all to stay with me i think there are times where um brothers men men don't acknowledge that we complicate it too we come you know sometimes you say you can't figure sometimes like you can't figure a woman out you know i i admit i'm complicated we kind of hard to figure out too you understand yeah it's it's like is it we can be confident we can be complicated like what what's wrong with you we could be moody too just we can be um yes sometimes we can just be talkative and just affectionate just all in your face and then there are other times it's like leave me alone i just have to watch and we can be we can be complicated i don't know if you already hear this i'm getting a lot of eight mans in this studio though i want you to know and there have been times where i've been hungry and something was ordered or my wife said because you want something even like yeah and something is ordered or cooked and i go downstairs and i'll look at it and i come back upstairs and she say uh you know how i noticed this man because my 13 year old does the same thing and it's just like rather than eat what i don't want oh i can't believe i'm putting myself out here like this weatherman rather instead of eating would i rather not eat i'll just go hungry she'll be like what's wrong with you i was like i'm just gonna drink some water something are y'all hearing what i'm saying no that's not healthy that's confusing that's weird but i think it serves a point that i want so that's terrible naturally but it's helpful spiritually are you hearing what i'm saying because there there has to be y'all got a kiss there has to be some stuff that you look at and say even though i'm hungry i don't want that so i'll just drink some water did you catch the metaphor i'll just get in this present yeah i'll just are y'all following me here that their needs if we're gonna manage moments like this and we will have them we will have them we'll have them i'm not just talking about physical contemptation i'm talking about way more than that you understand what i'm saying the message here is hunger right it's hunger and so they're going to be opportunities and you know we'll be hungry so here's the issue the issue is i don't know if it's possible to manage my activity the way jesus managed his if listen to me i don't have the appetite that jesus had i think the only reason he's able to get out of that remember every temptation he overcame he overcame in his humanity not divinity because he did that to be our example right of what what's possible with a spiritually empowered life and so so i want you to catch this i think the only way i can manage that moment the way he did with my activity is is that i have his the appetite that he had because it's his appetite that enabled him to manage that moment properly so this means we all need an appetite adjustment where we really hungry for advancement more where we really are like god i want you more because we're not always there right because if we're always there then prayer is not a problem if we're always there study a scripture is not a problem we'll do that easily regularly consistently but sometimes it's like i want to relax more i want to sleep longer i want to talk to someone else more i'm more hungry for that see now that's honest now is this too honest there needs to be an appetite adjustment and that's what lent is about family lent is a time and space where god adjusts our appetite see some people think you have to have an adjusted appetite to properly manage lent what i'm telling you is that god uses lent to adjust your appetite the word lent has latin roots and it and it means 40th that's what it means the lent simply means 40th and the number 40 is used regularly throughout scripture and i'm not a numerologist and things of that nature but i am i try to be at least objective and if i look at the bible objectively you just you just see 40. right um mount sinai when moses went to mount sinai to receive the ten commandments he stayed with the lord forty days and forty nights children of israel wandered in the wilderness forty years before they were prepared for canaan elijah walked forty days and forty nights to the mount to the mountain of the lord mount horeb another name from mount sinai and most importantly right here in matthew chapter 4 jesus prayed 40 days and 49 in the desert before he began his public ministry so the number 40 family represents seasons that's all it represents it represents seasons it represents what god can do in a season did you hear what i said see it might just be days to you it's a season of god god can change your season in a season i'm going to say it again god can change your season in a season i mean one more time he can change your season in a season your life may be heading in a certain trajectory you may feel like the bottom's falling out things are falling apart you may feel like you've been in this prolonged season i want you to know god can push you in a season that can change your season and lent is a season that can change your season because god can use this season to help change you lent family is a period of 40 days not counting sundays sundays are excluded a prayer sacrifice good works in preparation for the celebration of easter it is a time where people reflect on listen to me the passion of christ so that they can renew their passion for christ got me it's the time where they reflect on the passion of christ because it's 40 days not count sunday leading up to easter so it's a time where they watch this reflect on the passion of christ his passion that his passion for us that led him to that cross and that causes us to renew our passion for christ i want you to catch this it dates back lent dates back as far as the 300s way before there was ever any of the christian streams that lent is now associated with right because when we started doing this that was a pushback we got that's catholic it's like the catholic and protestant church that division didn't happen to the protestant reformation until after martin luther tapped that 95 theses on that door that church door there in wittenberg the land existed way before then after that certain streams just decided to keep certain traditions but just because it was kept by them doesn't mean it began by them and it doesn't mean it belongs to them now here at this church this is what we believe we believe just because we disagree with certain people certain tribes about some things doesn't mean everything about them is wrong we know how to eat fish and throw out bones over here at chain church so we see that the lent season is useful and is necessary because we all know what it's like in relationships with our kids our spouses our friends and with our god to put to hit cruise control [Music] we know what that's like right now this is what happens when samson's strength is gone that's when the philistines attack [Music] the devil times he had time he didn't come to jesus on day one of the fast he came at day 40 because the enemy wants to attack when you're at your weakest have you ever noticed that you have the faith to fight back and so this lent season family is a time where we renew intentionally our passion for christ as a way to honor the work of jesus by actually designating a period of time to intentionally and aggressively try to be more like him it's a way to prepare for easter beyond easter egg hunts and new outfits it's a commitment to say i'm way more concerned about what's happening to me internally than i am about what i'm going to wear externally and so ash wednesday period as wednesday family is historically the beginning of the lent season and ash wednesday gets its name from the historic practice of placing ashes on the forehead of people watch this as a sign of mourning repentance listen to this and rekindling because you don't get ashes without fire whenever you see ashes that's evidence that's something caught on fire and i'm and i'm telling you over these next 40 days we believe in god to set some stuff on fire did you hear what i just said we believe in him to set some stuff on fire we believe in him to set your heart on fire and that your heart would not be consumed but we're believing him to set some other things on fire that you walking into lent with but you walking out of lent without them there's some things we believe god is going to burn away in these 40 days you're going to look back at that worry and you'll see ashes you're going to look back at that depression and you'll see ashes you're going to look back at that heartache and you'll see ashes you're going to look back at that habit and that addiction and that vice and you're going to see ashes because god can use the lint season to burn some things away how pastor because god can do more in 40 days when you're focused than he can in four years when you're distracted it's that simple you know sometimes couples don't like each other then they go on vacation they come back they like each other again what happened what happened focus something happened that couldn't happen in the normal humdrum of life where there's distractions and work and and and unable to engage with one another in a healthy wholesome way let's the same way with god he said you give me 40 days were you really leaning into me watch what i can do with you and i'm telling you god's gonna set you on fire i'm telling you guys gonna set you on fire this last season he's gonna burn your heart and burn some things away so for us three things here we're gonna do this year number one lent's gonna be a time of focus number one it's gonna be a time of focus what what does this mean pasadeeris it's a time of intentional spiritual focus now watch this this is the way i teach focus focus is the fruit of what you decide to not look at did you hear what i said why to do it like i'm gonna love jones or something no focus is the fruit of what you decide to not look at if i say focus i'm telling you to not look at some things because a person can have vision so i vision i can see this whole room you can have vision and not have focus so when i decide to look at this confidence monitor when i decide to look at this camera i'm deciding to not look at the crowd here it is what are you not going to look at during lent [Music] jesus said if my eyes offend you pluck what are you not gonna look at i don't know what that is for you that's contextual that's customized that's between you and god but it's a time where you spiritually focus intentionality it's like okay intentional about what i look at what i allow to enter me intentional about what i listen to so you lean in in a different kind of way and say i'm really not gonna listen to a lot of negativity right see everybody and you gotta be honest with you okay you got to be honest about the season you in you got to know god loves you just the way you are too much for you to stay that way but just the way that you are there's there's nothing you can do to make god love you more so it's okay to be honest because it's only when you're honest that you can identify what you need to not look at [Music] without feeling bad about you or what you don't need to listen to does that make sense so if you know your your mood and your disposition your emotional state is fragile you know if you know you can go dark quick and go low fast instead of denying and saying i don't feel like i'm weak just acknowledge that's where i am right now so i can't be around a bunch of negativity because it's going to take me low fast does that make sense i know i have to be that way when i'm in the middle of seasons when i'm making big faith steps i have to be around faith people and i got and all of us have all types of friends but all our friends not faith friends [Music] right and so that means that they're not your friend it's just me i can't talk to you as much during this season because i need faith friends this is gonna be a time of focus like what are you listening to what are you watching you're monitoring that am i making sense okay number two it's a time of fasting it's a time of fasting fasting is an intentional abstinence from any form of physical gratification to achieve a greater spiritual goal fasting is an intentional abstinence from any form of physical gratification to achieve a greater spiritual goal now change church historically what i've done is i've said hey you choose whatever it is that you want to fast from this year i've i've been saying this for the past for the past few weeks i feel very strongly about this uh i know we need to do better at this i feel like the past year the lord dealt with me about this i had to get a revelation on this i think it's important for us you're going to choose what but to fast watch this now the only too fast it's not the only way to fast but it is the primary way they fasted in scripture and that's from some sort of food you pick but watch this this is what sam storm says about this he says fasting is in denial fasting is pursuit fasting is a way of seeking and asking with unique intensity and passion fasting isn't about abstaining from food it's about feasting on god so if i'm abstaining from food but i'm not in the word more i'm just dieting [Music] right so so when we see all of the the promises attached to fasting and they don't happen in our lives we got gotta ask ourselves just like we can pray amiss we have to ask ourselves am i fasting amiss because fasting without feasting is not [Music] fasting so fasting isn't about this what storm says isn't about denying yourself but satisfying yourself with only that which can satisfy you it is a way you reassert your dominion over your flesh it is the way you remind your flesh you're not in charge so for 40 days i'm done y'all i got one more point for 40 days starting the day i want you to pick a food that that you're going to abstain from and don't do anything that threatens your health but we haven't done this much as a church and and i want to kind of just share i want to share this here's the thing that revolutionized my life when i got this revelation i got this that fasting is asking fasting is asking when i fast god sees my fast as i ask did you hear what i just said my god sees my fast as i ask he sees it as an intense ask he sees it as an urgent ask he sees it as a serious ask he sees it watch this not as me just suppressing desire but pursuing something i desire more than food is saying god i want this more than that am i making sense fasting does not put god in our debt but our wholehearted pursuit of him compels him to respond this revolutionized my life i struggled faster until i saw that and there are a number of different things we can fast from but if you're joining us in this lent journey i mean i'm encouraging you to join us by picking the food and then last so focus fasting number three feeding there's a saying you are what you eat in other words we're impacted by what we ingest so we talked about identifying what i'm not going to look at what i'm not going to listen to what i'm not going to expose myself to um but what are we going to ingest and digest peter says in first peter 2 1 therefore rid yourselves of all malice deceit hypocrisy envy and slander of every kind and like newborn babes crave spiritual milk that you may grow up in your salvation there's no growth without feeding and many believers listen to me god loves you just the same but you're malnourished [Music] male nurse good person but male nurse and so we want to help you with your diet because that's a that's that's a completely different um i don't know i just feel like maybe that's what change church is all about to change church like one of the things churches have to do is to equip people with markers on how to identify what to eat i'm talking about spiritual food now does that make sense it's like you shouldn't have to have a seminary degree to know that's not good food for me because somebody's feeding me something that's candy it's going to give me a sugar high that's only temporary and then i'm going to crash and i'll deal with frustration because i'm going to be expecting something from god that somebody i taught taught me somebody i trusted taught me but it's not true so now i'm mad at god for not responding to my faith for something that was taught to me by somebody i trusted that god never obligated himself to perform and so you have people defecting from the faith and walking away from god because of something someone they trusted taught them so we want to help you if you're part of this spiritual family or if you're not and you you trust us as a as a trusted source of spiritual nourishment we want to help you so each year we just create our own we write our own we create our own lit devotional and so our theme this year is called reimagine our devotional this year is reimagined 40 ways 40 days to simplify to multiply and we make this available to people who are part of our spiritual family or people all over the world absolutely free it's available right now you can go to our website www.lifechange.org and you can download it right now it's got devotionals for you for every day during the lent season and we get testimonies every year of people who had an anemic devotional life who come out of the lent season with a strong consistent devotional life because they developed the spiritual habit of reading the lent devotional so we want to give you food to feed you this lent season and we believe this devotional is gonna be a log that god throws on the fire that's burning on the altar of your heart now typically during this time of ash of ash wednesday we would consecrate or set aside these 40 days by the administering of the ashes what i want you to know is you don't need ashes to experience this anointing so i want to pray a prayer of inauguration and consecration of your fast and of this lent season because what are you doing you're saying to god all my life is yours but over these next 40 days i'm giving you me in a different kind of way [Music] and do with me what you will over these next 40 days so i i want to i want to pray this prayer of inauguration of dedication of consecration as we begin to leap into this lent season where god is going to set you on fire i want you to hear me the scriptures filled with examples of god turning people into versions of themselves that's the exact opposite of who they used to be a liar a trickster named jacob becomes israel a prince with god impulsive fragile um unpredictable simon becomes peter a rock steady stable consistent reliable bold same person but just a version of themselves that's the complete opposite of the old and some of you you don't believe you can change and i'm telling you you can't but god can and a season can change your season every year i come through lent a little bit different than i was going in it's my prayer for you i want to pray this prayer father i just i pray right now for each and every person that's made a decision in their heart they're going to journey with you for these next 40 days we thank you for the revelation that 40 represents seasons and i just pray that this season will change their season god we consecrate we dedicate we inaugurate these next 40 days leading up to easter to you we lean into you in ways that we have not before we give ourselves to you in ways that we have not before and we pray in the name of jesus that you would touch that you would anoint that you would heal that you would set free we pray that you were set on fire and we pray as we come out of this our heart comes out on fire but there are some things we pray that get consumed in the fire where we had pain we will see ashes where we had hang-ups and habits we will see ashes [Music] the weak will say i'm strong and the broken will be made whole in jesus name amen come on just take a moment right where you are just worship the father you

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Length: 44min 29sec (2669 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 18 2021