Podcast Summary:

Victory Church: Paul Daugherty
Episode: FIX YOUR FEED | PAUL DAUGHERTY
Date: January 4, 2026

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode, delivered by Pastor Paul Daugherty, focuses on the critical role of spiritual “feeding”—the content we consume, both literally and metaphorically—in shaping our lives and our year ahead. Using the motif "Fix Your Feed," Pastor Paul urges the congregation to be intentional about what they allow into their hearts, minds, and spirits, starting with a season of fasting. The message connects biblical stories, particularly from Ezra, Daniel, and Kings, with modern challenges such as digital media, cluttered lives, and misplaced desires. Ultimately, it’s an impassioned call to reroute one's spiritual appetite towards God for a victorious 2026.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Starting the Year with Spiritual Focus

• Pastor Paul emphasizes that a victorious year begins with God at the center.
  • "If you have your best year spiritually, you will have your best year financially, you'll have your best year relationally, you'll have your best year emotionally if you get Jesus." (00:24)
• He points to Ezra 8 as a model for realigning life through fasting, humility, and seeking God’s guidance.

2. Fasting: Beyond Food

• Fasting isn't just about abstaining from food, but about cultivating spiritual hunger and sensitivity.
  • "Fasting is not just about giving up food. Fasting is about stirring up spiritual hunger...a fast is about getting you in a place of sensitivity to the Lord." (01:11)
• Examples from the Bible and personal anecdotes (e.g., his children’s playful misunderstanding of fasting) add relatable humor and context.

3. "Fix Your Feed": What Are You Consuming?

• The concept applies to both literal food and all forms of input (media, conversations, influences).
  • "What are you feeding yourself this year? Because what you feed on will determine what your future looks like." (02:52)
• The analogy of taking back the "remote control" of one’s desires and distractions sets up the practical challenge.

4. Spiritual Alignment Impacts Every Area

• Pastor Paul asserts that changes in spiritual intake have a cascading impact on the rest of one’s life.
  • "If you fix your feed... if you fix the pride that you've been feeding yourself...we need to humble ourselves. God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble." (05:38)

5. Guarding the Gates: Biblical and Modern Contexts

• He draws parallels between biblical ‘city gates’ and the gates of our eyes, ears, and minds.
  • "The eyes and the ears are important gates to our body. What goes in the gate...guard your gates, guard your feed, guard what's coming into your eyes on that iPhone screen." (13:45)

6. Daniel's Example: Set-Apart Diet, Set-Apart Life

• Daniel refused to eat what everyone else was eating in Babylon—a call for intentional, countercultural living.
  • "If you don't change your feed, your feed will change you. If you don't curate your feed, your feed will begin to curate your character." (17:03)

7. The Power of Decluttering and Focus

• Using analogies of too many open phone tabs and post-Christmas clutter, Paul connects spiritual clarity to decluttering both physical and spiritual environments.
  • "We have way too many apps open. You have way too many tabs open...it's draining your battery. And I hear the Lord saying, it's draining your spiritual battery, too." (09:19)

8. Six Practical Ways to Fix Your Feed

1. Daily Bible Time: Engage in a reading plan; feed on God’s word.
2. Daily Prayer: Treat it as a two-way conversation.
3. Be Planted in Church: Stay surrounded by a worshiping community.
4. Surround Yourself with Like-Minded People: Eagles not chickens—choose friends intentionally.
5. Be Intentional About Your Feed Every Day: Focus on faith, not fear. Unfollow digital and conversational negativity.
6. Partner in a Fast: Commit to a season of giving up what distracts you most.

• "If you don't plan your year this year, this year is going to go by, and you will miss out on the momentum of a new year...Be intentional this year." (27:00)
• "Unfollow every account that's stirring up comparison, that's stirring up anxiety, that's stirring up fear." (29:35)

9. Guard Against Spiritually Empty Consumption (2 Kings 6–7)

• He recounts Samaria’s famine, emphasizing how failing to guard one’s spiritual input leads to desperation and unhealthiness.
  • "When you don’t eat the right stuff, you start settling for all the wrong stuff...you start consuming all kinds of crud." (34:55)
• Hunger (both physical and spiritual) is a catalyst for movement and breakthrough.

10. Hungering for God Over the World

• Paul calls the congregation to a deeper hunger for God, using scientific and biblical references.
  • "Would you get that hungry for my word? Would you get that hungry for my presence? Would you get that hungry for a move of God in your life?" (37:25)
• He closes with a story about a man rediscovering literal treasure in his Bible after returning to God, a metaphor for spiritual riches.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Fasting and Spiritual Hunger:
  • “A fast unhinges that remote control. It pulls out, it says, flesh, you don't own me this year.” (04:12)
• On Influence and Consumption:
  • “Your feed goes with you everywhere you go. I see your feed in everything you do. Your feed is in what you wear. Your feed is how you talk.” (16:23)
• On Intentionality:
  • “If you don’t curate your feed, your feed will begin to curate your character.” (17:06)
• On Decluttering Life:
  • “You got too much stuff going on. Clutter. Clutter...A fast is what's going to declutter your life of all of this stuff.” (09:39)
• On Discernment:
  • “Just because you can eat it doesn’t mean you should.” (16:06)
• On The Power of the Bible:
  • “Jesus said, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word from God. It feeds you.” (42:35)
• On Spiritual Hunger:
  • “Starve the flesh, feed the spirit.” (37:50)
• On Being Rerouted:
  • “God saying, would you hand me the remote control?” (47:26)
• On Worship and Surrender (closing song):
  • “Set a fire down in my soul that I can’t contain, that I can’t control. I want more of you, God, I want more.” (53:07)

Important Timestamps

• Opening Challenge/New Year Mindset: 00:08–02:52
• What is a Fast?: 01:11–02:25
• Fix Your Feed: Spiritual Consumption: 02:47–06:20
• Impact of Your Feed on Children & Family: 07:25–08:57
• Clutter & Decluttering Analogy: 09:19–10:32
• Daniel's Diet, The Power of Choosing Your Feed: 13:45–18:37
• Six Ways to Fix Your Feed: 24:01–30:10
• Setting Your Feed Forward/Not Living in the Past: 29:15–30:05
• Guarding the Gates, Famine in Samaria: 34:01–35:44
• Spiritual Hunger & Breakthrough: 37:25–39:00
• Story: Finding Treasure in the Bible: 42:35–44:43
• Altar Call, Worship, and Prayer of Surrender: 47:26–54:10

Summary & Takeaway

Pastor Paul delivers an engaging, practical, and heartfelt message as a spiritual “reset” for the new year. The central call is to be intentional and discerning about all forms of consumption: food, media, relationships, and spiritual inputs. Through stories, biblical teaching, humor, and worship, he challenges his listeners to fast, declutter, and re-center their appetites on God—trusting this will bear fruit in every area of life. The final invitation is clear: Surrender the “remote control” of your life to God, fix your feed, and prepare for your best year yet.