Discipleship Through Fasting (Matthew 6:16–18; Isaiah 58)

On Valentine’s Day weekend, guest speaker Chris Ochoa opens with a reminder: you are not alone—Jesus loves you and is with you. From there, he teaches on fasting as one of Jesus’ core spiritual disciplines (alongside giving and prayer). Chris frames fasting as a practice of spiritual formation—training that leads to transformation—so believers become the kind of people who look like Jesus in both body and spirit.Using Matthew 6 and Isaiah 58, Chris clears up common confusion: fasting isn’t a Christian “hack,” a detox, or a way to earn God’s favor. Instead, fasting is about intentional communion with God, paired with prayer, that deepens faith and reorders desires. He highlights biblical patterns of fasting (mourning, petition, response), warns against “false fasting” that’s self-centered and produces quarrels, and points to God’s heart for fasting that produces righteousness, justice, and generosity.Chris closes with practical ways to approach an upcoming church-wide week of fasting, and he connects fasting to communion and the gospel—Jesus’ final meal, His thirst on the cross, and His victory that makes us His redeemed people.