Recap:

This morning we had the privilege of welcoming Zach Nash from Circuit Riders. Zach came all the way from Huntington Beach, California, and he’s part of a movement that sends young people onto college campuses and into cities across the nation to preach the gospel—much like the old Methodist circuit riders who rode horseback into forgotten towns where no one else would go.

And God is moving.

Zach shared that in just the last eight weeks their teams have gathered over 35,000 students and seen nearly 4,000 give their lives to Christ. Not because there’s anything special about their teams, but because the gospel is the power of God for salvation. There is a real hunger in this generation for the authentic presence of God.

So, here he is:

I am so honored to be here with you this morning. What an amazing church, what an amazing community, and what a gift it has been to be with you this weekend. I love what God is doing here. I love your pastors, I love your team, and I really believe the Lord is moving in this house.

I came here from Huntington Beach, California, and I have to tell you, I was not prepared for the tornado sirens. Pastor Andy texted me, “Welcome to Kansas,” and I asked, “Should I be worried?” He said, “Not until you need to be.” I still don’t totally know what that means, but I made it through, and now I’ve got a story to tell.

My wife is back home with our four kids, and she is the real hero. We’ve been married 10 years, and I’ve been in full-time ministry and missionary work for about 15 years now. Over those years, I’ve seen God move in villages in the Himalayas, by the Ganges River in India, in South Korea, and in so many places around the world. And what I’ve learned is this – the gospel is for everyone. There is no person too far gone, and there is no place too hard for the gospel.

And I want to encourage you this morning – America is ripe for the gospel.

Over the last eight weeks, we’ve had around 20 different teams going out onto university campuses and high school campuses around the world, preaching the gospel and holding evangelistic gatherings. In those eight weeks, we’ve gathered around 35,000 students and seen close to 4,000 give their lives to Christ. That is phenomenal. Not because there is anything special about us, but because the gospel is still the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.

There is a hunger in this generation. There is a desperation for the authentic presence and power of God. We are seeing the stirrings of something profound, and I am grateful to be a small part of it.

This morning I want to talk to you about fasting. The title of my message is The Gift of Hunger.

At its simplest, fasting is abstaining from food for a spiritual purpose. And if you’re anything like me, you love food. I’ve already had some of your Kansas City barbecue, and let me just say, I understand why people talk about it. Jack Stack, Joe’s – I am still thinking about it. I even have a smoker at home, and getting that smoker changed my life in Jesus’ name. Tri-tip, ribs, ribeyes – taste and see that the Lord is good.

I remember one time I had some leftover smoked tri-tip in the fridge, and I had a plan. I was going to make a smoked tri-tip quesadilla when I got home. I was looking forward to it all day. I got home, opened the fridge, and it was gone. My wife had eaten it. And spiritual warfare entered our marriage that day. I’m still recovering. Hope deferred really does make the heart sick.

But that moment points to something deeper. We live in a world where almost anything we want is right at our fingertips. We can order what we want, stream what we want, buy what we want, consume what we want almost instantly. And while there are conveniences in that, it also trains us in immediate gratification. It trains us to believe we should never have to wait and never have to deny ourselves.

That is why fasting matters.

Dallas Willard said, “Fasting helps us learn to remain sweet and strong when we do not get what we want.”

That is such a powerful line, because fasting is not just about going without food. Fasting is about realigning our hunger so that God becomes our deepest satisfaction. It is about retraining our hearts. It is about teaching ourselves that we are not ruled by every craving, every impulse, every appetite.

So I think one of the great questions fasting asks is this: Can I tell myself no?

Solomon gives us a sobering warning in Ecclesiastes. He says, “Everything I wanted, I took. I never said no to myself.” That posture is lethal for a follower of Jesus. Because when you never say no to yourself, your appetites start leading your life.

The truth is, we were created for delight. We were made with a capacity for joy, enjoyment, satisfaction. God created us with that. But the cultural lie of our age says, “Delight yourself in you. Give yourself whatever you want. Follow every impulse. Protect your autonomy at all costs.”

So many people want the blessings of the kingdom without surrendering to the authority of the King. We want peace, joy, purpose, righteousness – but we do not want anyone telling us how to live. And when we live that way, we become enslaved by the wrong appetites. We start drawing from the wrong source.

That is exactly what happened in the Garden. The first sin involved a disordered appetite. Adam and Eve listened to the wrong voice and reached for what they were never meant to take. Their hunger got misdirected.

That is why fasting is so powerful. It helps reorient our hunger back to God.

And I am passionate about this because I have experienced the power of the presence of God in my own life.

I grew up Southern Baptist. I knew the Bible. I knew verses. I knew Christian language. But I had not really encountered the Author. Then I ended up in a Pentecostal drug rehab after overdosing on 2,000 milligrams of OxyContin trying to end my life. I was broken. I was hopeless. I should have died.

And I remember being in that place, trying to repent for everything I had ever done, when the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “Zach, you don’t know how forgiven you are.”

In that moment, everything I had heard growing up became real. The gospel came alive. I encountered the presence of God. Men gathered around me, prayed for me, and I can only describe it this way – it was like darkness had to leave and light flooded in. I tasted and saw that the Lord is good.

And in that moment I realized that everything I had been chasing – drugs, relationships, parties, all of it – had been my attempt to fill a void that only God could fill. I had tasted what the world had to offer, and now I was tasting the presence of Jesus, and there was no comparison.

That is what fasting does. It helps us return to the right source.

Psalm 42 says, “As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” That becomes the cry of the heart in fasting. Lord, I want to hunger for You again.

Jesus said in the wilderness, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” And Richard Foster says it this way: Fasting is feasting.

When we fast, we are not just giving something up. We are making space to feast on God.

But hear me clearly – if you fast without intentionally connecting with God, you are just dieting. Biblical fasting is not merely self-denial. It is an intentional reordering of your life around the presence of God.

And one of the things fasting does is expose what is really inside us.

It shakes the soul. It’s like a snow globe. If it’s sitting still, you don’t notice everything inside. But once you shake it, suddenly everything starts moving around. Fasting does that. It surfaces things – irritation, impatience, fear, unhealthy attachments, hidden dependencies, coping mechanisms. And when that stuff rises, it doesn’t mean fasting is failing. It means fasting is working. God is revealing what He wants to heal.

Sometimes it is not even bad things that need to be dealt with. Sometimes it is good things that have taken the wrong place in our hearts.

That is why I think of Abraham and Isaac. Isaac was the promise. He was the miracle son. But then God told Abraham to take Isaac up the mountain. And A.W. Tozer paraphrases God’s heart in that moment like this: “Abraham, I never wanted you to kill the boy. I only wanted to remove him from the throne of your heart so that I could reign unchallenged.”

That is what fasting does. It removes things from the throne. Even good things. Not because God wants to rob us, but because He wants to reign unchallenged in our hearts.

As I look back over the last 15 years of my life, some of my greatest moments of clarity and spiritual strength came through seasons of fasting. Not because fasting itself is magic, but because fasting positioned me before God in a way that allowed Him to reorder my desires and strengthen my spirit.

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and after fasting, He came out in the power of the Spirit. That is my prayer for you – that in this season of fasting, you would come out weak in yourself but strong in God. That you would come out with greater clarity, greater hunger, greater discernment, and greater spiritual power.

I know many of you are carrying real things this morning. Battles. Questions. Pain. Disappointment. Confusion. Burdens you may not even know how to put into words.

And that is why I love the story of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20. A massive army was coming against him, and in response he called a fast. He prayed and sought the Lord, and then he prayed one of the most honest prayers in Scripture: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”

Maybe that is where some of you are today. You do not know what to do. You do not know how this is going to work out. You do not know how the answer is going to come.

Then let fasting become your way of fixing your eyes on Jesus.

God answered Jehoshaphat and said, “Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. The battle is not yours, but God’s.” And as the people worshiped, the Lord moved on their behalf. Their fear gave way to praise. Their battle turned into blessing.

They ended up in the Valley of Berakah – the Valley of Blessing.

And I want to encourage you with that today. As you step into fasting, as you humble yourself, as you deny your flesh and fix your eyes on Jesus, I believe God can move you from confusion into clarity, from fear into worship, from weakness into strength, from battle into blessing.

So do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. Take your position. Stand firm. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

And let me leave you with one final encouragement: one of the most vital means of grace is other Christians. There are blessings God has for you that may come through the people around you. The breakthrough you need may be sitting a few seats away. The encouragement someone else needs may already be in your heart.

So in this season of fasting, do not neglect that nudge from the Holy Spirit. Send the text. Make the call. Pray for someone. Encourage someone. Speak life when God puts someone on your heart.

Because I can tell you from my own story, when I was broken and hopeless in a hospital room, it was someone sitting beside me, putting a hand on my shoulder, and saying, “Zach, it’s going to be okay,” that helped attach hope to my soul.

So as you walk through this season, may your hunger be redirected toward God. May your appetites be reordered. May your eyes stay fixed on Jesus. And may the Lord meet you in such a way that what begins as fasting becomes feasting on His presence.

Group Questions:

Icebreaker Questions (Pick 1 – 2)

  1. Zach joked about Kansas tornado sirens and Kansas City barbecue. What’s one food you love so much you would struggle to fast from it?
  2. If you had to fast from one comfort item (food, phone, streaming, etc.) for a week, which one would be the hardest?
  3. Zach talked about seeing God move around the world. Have you ever experienced a moment where you clearly saw God at work?

Key Scripture

Psalm 42:1
 “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.”

Matthew 4:4
 “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Discussion Questions

  1. Hunger and Desire

Zach said fasting helps realign our hunger so that God becomes our deepest satisfaction.

  • What do you think it means to “realign our hunger” spiritually?
  • What things in our culture train us to expect instant gratification?
  • What appetites or distractions tend to compete with your desire for God?
  1. Learning to Say No

Zach asked an important question: “Can I tell myself no?”

  • Why do you think self-denial is so difficult in our culture today?
  • How can saying “no” to something help us say “yes” to God?
  • What is one area where God may be inviting you to practice self-discipline?
  1. When Fasting Reveals What’s Inside

Zach described fasting like shaking a snow globe—it reveals what is really inside us.

  • Have you ever noticed emotions or struggles surface when you slow down or remove distractions?
  • Why do you think fasting can expose things like impatience, fear, or unhealthy attachments?
  • How can those moments become opportunities for healing rather than discouragement?
  1. Removing Things from the Throne

The story of Abraham and Isaac reminds us that even good things can take the wrong place in our hearts.

  • Why do you think God sometimes asks us to surrender things that are actually good?
  • What might it look like to keep good gifts from becoming ultimate priorities?
  • How do we know if something has moved into the “throne” of our hearts?
  1. Fixing Our Eyes on God

In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat prayed:
“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”

  • Have you ever experienced a moment where you didn’t know what to do?
  • What does it practically look like to fix our eyes on God in difficult seasons?
  • How can prayer and fasting help bring clarity when life feels confusing?
  1. Community Matters

Zach ended by reminding us that God often brings encouragement through other people.

  • Can you remember a time when someone’s encouragement helped you spiritually?
  • Why is it important not to isolate ourselves during difficult seasons?
  • How can our group become a place where people experience encouragement and prayer?

Application Questions

  1. Is there something God may be inviting you to fast or lay down during this season?
  2. What is one practical way you can create more space for God this week?
    (Prayer, Scripture, silence, fasting from media, etc.)
  3. Is there someone God may be prompting you to encourage or reach out to this week?

Prayer Time

Close by praying for one another using Jehoshaphat’s prayer:

“Lord, we don’t always know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”

Pray for:

  • renewed hunger for God
  • clarity in confusing situations
  • strength during fasting or spiritual disciplines
  • encouragement for one another