Day 2 | 40-Day Lenten Fast & Devotional

Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:17-18

Good morning. Good morning. Grace and peace be unto all of you my father's children.

I'm excited. It is, in fact, day two and our official full day, the launch for our 40 day, Lenten fast. I just want to say, first of all, bless each and every one of you who are taking this journey with us as we continue to grow closer to Christ.

So I want to open up and kind of pick up where I left off. If you're with us. On last night at Ash Wednesday service, we had an opportunity to look into Saint Corinthians as well, Paul's Paul's letter, uh, Paul's understanding as he spoke specifically to that church in Corinth, as he was getting them prepared.

So for the remainder of this week, I really want us to concentrate on consecration. That as we begin to get ourselves prepared to hear and be open to the Lord, there's some things that we want to ensure that we've done and consecration took place a lot different ways.

Earlier in biblical antiquity, we looked at consecration as a way to set animals apart specifically for sacrifice, and things of that nature. And it's no mystery that even we ourselves have to be set apart and during that period, that's really what the fasting experience and this Lenten spirit is supposed to be, it's supposed to be a setting apart.

So I want to take a look 2 Corinthians, chapter 6. I want to take a look really quickly at verse number 17, "Therefore come out from and be separate, says the Lord, touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters. Says, Lord Almighty."

This is a really great declaration that allows us as that what God is doing is pulling us out of something, coming out from something that literally means to detach from things that we held closely to, and in this season, God is calling you to come out from. It's a hard notion when there are certain things that we've been attached to that we're not only used to, but we consider to be so much a part of us that we're not sure what the identity looks like, separate from, uh, friends that we may have, that that that ultimately don't serve a purpose, or even areas and spaces we like to frequent, that no longer serve the purpose of building us to be better, building us to be stronger.

So on today, I want us to consider those things that God is calling for us to come out from. Consider those places even if maybe it might be just conversations. We think that there's no harm in it, but even allowing yourself to be in the presence of areas of conversations that are not healthy, that are not uplifting, that are not God driven, and they're not God sent.

So I want to call and come and join you in today, day 2 of our Lenten fast. Take an examination of your life and ask yourself, "what is God calling me out of?"

I pray this has been a blessing to you. I love each and everyone of you. Have an incredible, incredible Thursday. We got some things coming down. Um, I know that there's men's breakfast on Saturday, so keep that in mind as well, but looking forward to seeing you again on tomorrow morning. God bless you.