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Fasting! – Matthew 6:16-18 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 14, 2019 There are some Christian disciplines that have gone by the wayside in our day and age. Of course becoming a hermit and forcing every bit of personal contact out of your life is not what Jesus meant when he said for us to “go into all the world”. And I confess I like zippers, buttons, and running water. However the disciplines of giving and prayer should be practiced. Today we are going to look at the discipline of fasting and why Jesus spoke about it. I remember the first time I led a group of youth to fast. After the first four hours some of them were already going into fits about being hungry and that it was not such a good idea for them to do. We did it to focus on world hunger and our fast was only for 24 hours. You would have thought it was for 24 days! Let’s discover what Jesus taught about fasting… READ: Matthew 6:16-18 We have to understand why Jesus mentioned fasting here and what it meant for the Hebrew people befo...

Return to the Lord! - Joel 2 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 15, 2016 Coming home is often never easy, especially after you have left and wanted to make it on your own and then you have to return and make amends. A good example of this is the story of the Prodigal Son that Jesus related to his followers as found in Luke's Gospel. Yet each of us could probably recount tales from our own lives at how we ran away when we were young or left home as young adults only to return and have to make some kind of amends or correction with those we returned to. The Prophet Joel related to the Israelites that they had to return to the Lord whom they had forsaken. Whenever the Israelite people faced trials or threats the priests were to call the people out in order to gather them for whatever purpose was needed. Sometimes it was for battle, sometimes for a public announcement, and sometimes it was for spiritual purposes. Here, I believe it was for the later. The Israelites needed to return to the L...

Following God includes trust, understanding, and risk! -- Esther 4:1-17 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 28, 2013 AM Tyler felt that after his call from God he should have been given a clear sign. When he sought the advice of others, they cautioned him as to his calling. Most did not see that God was actually calling Tyler to be a pastor. In fact, one of the deacons in the church who taught at the local seminary bluntly told him that he needed to work on his interpersonal skills first. Tyler went ahead, signed up for seminary, and soon was working at a nearby church. Within the year, Tyler had quit seminary and was let go from his church position. Occasionally folks expect God to do everything and then blame Him when things in life do not turn out the way they think they should; this is not only unrealistic, it is unbiblical. Whatever had been Mordecai’s reasons for not bowing to Haman, he was now in great mourning. His feud with Haman, whether legitimate or not, had caused a gre...

Isaiah 58:1-11 – Fasting for the Lord! By Pastor Lee Hemen March 3, 2013 AM I can remember my mother telling us, “How many times do I have to repeat myself in order to get you to listen?” Then she would admonish, “Do not make me repeat myself!” We knew were supposed to listen the first time and do what she had told us to do. Why is it that we often do the very same thing in our relationship with the Lord? We are supposed to listen to the words of the Lord and then do what He has told us to do. We forget that this is part of our lives of fasting for the Lord. Fasting for the Lord is more than about not eating or drinking. Fasting for God was and is about personal sacrifice. The Israelites of Isaiah’s day were a lot like many in our nation today. They had enjoyed success and years of religious and financial growth. So much so that many thought that they were blessed of God because of their success rather than the relationship they were to have with Him. God had been trying t...