Holy Habits

Speaker 1: 0:00

Now, how many of you have something specific in your life that you're hoping to change? You're hoping to see a change in some area of your life. Okay, you can think about it for a second. But I think for the most part, all of us kind of have that one thing, one or two things that we want to change. I'm guessing for some of you it may be hey, I want to be out of debt, I want to handle my resources better. Maybe for you you say, man, I want to improve my marriage or my relationships. Maybe you're in here and you say I want to get a promotion at work, I want to work a little bit harder, get somewhere in my life in that way. Or you're saying I want to be more organized. That's a good one. Or maybe you're in here you say I'm hoping to be more disciplined. I don't know what it might be, but you're probably hoping in some area of your life to experience some kind of change.

Speaker 1: 0:54

Now what I want to tell you is this Hope is good. It's good to hope for change. It's good to have hope in your life. Hope will set you apart when other people are ready to give up and throw away. Hope will be able to say I'm going to keep pressing forward Because you want to know what hope does. Hope can lead you to have healthy habits. Hope can lead you to have healthy habits Because hope is good, but hope alone won't change your life. Habits will, habits will. Hope is what should lead you to good habits. Now I hope you have hope. Hope is good, I hope you have it. But even more than just having hope, I hope you have the right habits, because hope alone won't change your life, but habits will. I'll try to illustrate this a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Here you go. Think about this for a second. Do you remember what you did last Wednesday morning? All right, okay, think about it. You probably do remember a little bit. Now. You probably remember what you did last Wednesday morning, and the reason why you probably remember what you did last Wednesday is because you probably did the same thing last Tuesday morning and you probably did the same thing last Thursday morning. You probably did the same thing. You probably did something along the lines when your alarm went off, you either snoozed it. Come on, I snoozed it today. I was a little cozy today. I said snooze. Okay, you either snoozed it or you instantly got out of bed and you're ready to take on the day. And then you probably did the same thing as you did before.

Speaker 1: 2:23

You know, when you wake up, probably the first thing you did was what? Go to the bathroom. That's what most of us do, I think. And then you probably did something like this you probably grabbed your phone and looked at Instagram, maybe checked out Facebook, or maybe, if you're super spiritual, you open the YouVersion Bible app first, come on. Good job for you.

Speaker 1: 2:44

But you probably did something similar that you did the day before. Maybe you took a shower that's always a good thing to do. If you didn't, but maybe you took a shower the day before, so that the night before that's good. If you didn't do either of them get in the habit of taking a shower. It's a good thing, okay.

Speaker 1: 3:02

And then you probably went and had something to eat which was probably similar to the thing that you ate the day before. You probably got dressed at some point. That's a good thing to do, you know. And then you probably drove to work. Or, if you're like my wife who works remotely, you just grabbed your computer and went to the kitchen and started work, you know. So that's what she does. But if you drove to work or if you drove your kids to kid drop off, you probably drove the same exact way that you do every day. And then, when you got to the front of line of Kid Drop-Off, you think to yourself I don't even remember getting here Because you drove on autopilot, which is kind of scary. I don't know, have you ever done that before? You're like how did I get home? You're there, but what this does is it illustrates that most of us, most of what you normally do, isn't a result of hope, but it's a result of habits, which is in routines.

Speaker 1: 3:54

We have routines that we go through, because hope alone won't change your life, but habits will. In fact, there's a fascinating study that shows over 40% of the actions you do daily are not the results of decisions that you make, but are the results of habits. You're in a flow, you're in a rhythm. You just do the same thing over and over again. So much of what we do every day isn't the result of us making a conscious decision. It's the result of our habits, of our routines.

Speaker 1: 4:21

So if you want to change your life, if you're looking to change your life, if there's some area in your life. If there's an area of your life that you're hoping to have change in, you're believing for something better. If you want to change your life, well, you got to look at your habits. You got to look at the things that you're doing repeatedly. So how do we develop? This is the question I want to ask us today. How do we develop holy habits? Because we can read some self-help books and that might help you for a little bit. You can listen to some videos on YouTube and that might pump you up. But for real, if we want to become more like Jesus, how do we develop holy habits, habits that are pointing us towards Jesus and towards the person he is calling us to be? So we're going to look at this. I want to show us today the power of developing just one holy habit, just one habit. Okay, we're not going to do a whole bunch of them, just one habit. And what can one holy habit do to change your life? Okay, here you go. We're going to look at our Bible study today. We're going to look at Daniel 6. And I want to give you the context of Daniel 6 before we jump into the story.

Speaker 1: 5:31

In around 567 BC, king Nebuchadnezzar that's a good name to have Nebuchadnezzar, you know. So, king Nebuchadnezzar, he was a bad dude man, he was a bad guy. Though Him, the Babylonians attacked the people of Jerusalem, god's chosen people, burned their temple completely, destroyed everything they could, humiliated the people of God. King Abrakanazer took some of the best of the best people of Israel captive, because what he wanted to do was he wanted to take their top leaders, their top young people predominantly, and he wanted to indoctrinate them with Babylonian ways, with Babylonian culture, and perhaps to create better leaders in the future. And there was one Israelite who stood out among all the others, and there was this kid named Daniel. There's this kid named Daniel who stood out, you know, amongst the others.

Speaker 1: 6:20

The king started to try to manipulate Daniel and train him in the ways of Babylonian culture. And it would look like, just from the offset, that Daniel had no chance, like he had no chance of surviving, he had no chance of sticking to his faith. He had no, he was going to. The king hand selected him to, you know, to train him and to work with him, you know. And so things weren't looking too good for Daniel, okay, so here you go. He was a prisoner under the control of an all-powerful king. He really didn't have a chance.

Speaker 1: 6:49

Then, one day, the king has some really weird dreams. He must have ate some nachos before he went to bed. That happens to me. And then all of his and all of the king's spiritual interpreters couldn't figure out what the dreams meant. And then Daniel, though Daniel heard about this, and then God gave Daniel wisdom and the ability to interpret these dreams, and that's what Daniel did. So he was like hey, king man, I heard you're having some weird dreams. But hey, god told me, this is what your dream means. This is what it means. And the king, when he heard Daniel's interpretation of the dreams, was blown away by the power of God through Daniel, so much so that King Abrakaneser bowed down and worshiped and said Daniel, your God is the one true living God.

Speaker 1: 7:41

This is a powerful story. This is a powerful story, but that raises the question how did God do something so big through Daniel? I want you guys to get this. This kid. He is in captivity, his homeland is gone, he doesn't have much hope, he doesn't have much things to look forward to, he's on the rule of this Babylonian king, but then he feels God tells him this thing, he steps out of faith, it ends up working out. How does Daniel do this? Why would Daniel do this? And this is what I want to say.

Speaker 1: 8:11

The answer is this God often does big things through small habits. Let me say that one more time God often does big things through really small habits. See, the problem is we live in a world that's all about the grand and everything's so great and big and we got to have the latest and the greatest and all this stuff. People used to I think they still do it but people used to camp out in front of Verizon stores and T-Mobile stores to get the newest iPhone. They might do that I don't know if that was like a pre-COVID thing, but people do this kind of stuff. Right, I want the latest and the greatest, but God, but God has this way sometimes of working through the small things, working through the things that other people deem as unnecessary, working through things that aren't the sexiest things, aren't the best things, aren't the oh my gosh kind of things, aren't the things that you can tweet about and Instagram about and tell everybody about, but the small things, and somehow a big God uses the small things to do big things. Here you go. Let's continue, let's continue.

Speaker 1: 9:14

Let me give you the backstory a little bit more. Daniel has found favor with the king, and the king wanted to promote Daniel, and so the king's key leaders were like, no, uh-uh, no, this little Hebrew boy trying to take our spot. They're jealous of Daniel, they're jealous. And so all the Abed-Kanezer's key leaders are like, hey, we got to come up with a way to get this guy in trouble. We got to find something. There's got to be something wrong with his character. There's got to be something wrong. Daniel must have some kind of issues. We're going to bring it up. We're going to dig through his past Twitter feed and find something that we can use to cancel him. That's what they did back then. And so they got to find some flaws in his character. We got to find some weaknesses to point out to the king, so we can do it. And then the problem was the problem was they looked at Daniel's life and they couldn't find anything. They couldn't find any flaw in his character. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Daniel 6 says this. Finally, these men said we'll never find any basis for charges against the man Daniel unless uh-oh, unless it has something to do with the law of his God. Okay, all right. So these leaders, they told King Nebuchadnezzar they say yo, king Neb, I got this good idea For the next 30 days, you should make a law where everyone has to pray to you and praise you only. And then King Nebuchadnezzar is like that's a mighty fine idea. Let's do that, send the law, let's make it happen. You know. And so a law went out that everyone, when they prayed or they praised, it had to be the King Nebuchadnezzar only. Okay, check this out. So the guy's like we got Daniel, we got him this time. So we're about to see this one habit that Daniel did. We're about to see this one habit that Daniel did. We're about to see the one habit that Daniel did that changed his life. Okay, check this. Just one habit, though. It was just one thing, it wasn't a bunch of things, it was just one thing. Let's check this out, let's see it. Let's see if you see it in the text.

Speaker 1: 11:25

Daniel 6.10 says this been published. He went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened towards Jerusalem. Three times a day. He got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he has done before. Wait a second, wait a second. There was a decree that went out. There was a law that went out. You had to pray or praise. Only King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel heard this and Daniel, hearing what went out, three times a day, continue to pray to his God. Three times a day. He knelt before God and gave thanks, just as he'd done before.

Speaker 1: 12:11

Now again, if you don't know the story, the next part of the story is pretty powerful. The guys went to the king and they said hey, daniel's been praying. He hasn't been praying to you, he's been praying to his God. And the king was upset. The king was upset because he liked Daniel and he was like man I don't know if I want to do this, I love Daniel, daniel's a great guy but he felt the pressure from the people and the law and so he said OK, I guess I got to do what I do. I'm a king, I got to stand on my word. So he threw Daniel into the lion's den and the king was up all night hoping man, I hope he's OK, I hope he's going to be all right. And then they sealed Daniel into the place with a big stone. The next morning, the king came there and the king said Daniel, daniel has the God you serve rescued you, has the God you serve rescued you? And after Daniel stayed the night in the lion's den, when the angel of the Lord shut the mouth of the lions, daniel said yes, my God has rescued me. And again it raises a question how did Daniel set himself apart? How did Daniel have enough faith to stare down the lion? How did Daniel do this? And the answer is Daniel prayed just as he did before.

Speaker 1: 13:22

And I want you to get this, because life challenges happen, things happen, obstacles come, distractions happen, problems come at us. There are things that attack us. They're in our marriage, in our work, with our finances. There's problems, and when there's new problems, we don't have to reinvent a new way to handle the problem. We can just do as we've done before, because I got a habit of I'm going to talk to God. I'm going to spend daily time with God. See, I don't need to get all fancy on you guys today. I don't need to give you a 10-point series on how to change your life or how to do this or that. I'm going to tell you. It's simple. You got to spend daily time with God. How to do this or that, I'm going to tell you. It's simple you got to spend daily time with God Because when our inconsistent world throws its inconsistencies at us, we can have a consistent relationship with God.

Speaker 1: 14:20

We can have a consistent habit, a one small holy habit. And whether this one habit of seeking God not just once a day, but three times a day, due for Daniel, I don't know specifically. I don't know the specifics of his prayer time he didn't leave a journal for me to read. I don't know all that, but what I can assume is that it built his faith in God. I can assume it built his faith in God and I can assume it strengthened his spiritual intimacy with God. And once his spiritual intimacy with God was strengthened, he learned to hear God's voice and it prompted him to go in God's direction. I believe that three times a day gave him the confidence to say no to the temptations in his environments. It gave him the spiritual strength to stand firm when others bowed down. One powerful holy habit changed the spiritual trajectory of Daniel's life, and that's why I want to say to you today is this Never, ever underestimate how God can start something big through one small habit.

Speaker 1: 15:27

Never underestimate what God can do in your marriage, in your faith, in your health, in your friendships, in your ministry impact through one specific God-honoring habit. The past couple of weeks, we talked about our spiritual why. Last week we talked about understanding our spiritual who, and today I want to talk about our spiritual why. Last week, we talked about understanding our spiritual who, and today I want to talk about our spiritual what. I want to talk about our spiritual what and these habits can lead you to a growing relationship with Jesus. And the question we're going to raise again today is this Based on who you want to become, not what you want to do, but based on your character, based on who you want to be Let me put it this way Based on how you want people to speak about you at your funeral.

Speaker 1: 16:13

Based on who you want to be, what's one small habit you need to start? What's one? Not 10, not 20, because we got a lot of them. There's a lot of things I could do better, but what's one habit that you can do based on who you want to become? I want to be a loving and engaged mom. I want to be a spiritual example to my kids. I want to be a godly witness to people at work. I want to be someone that manages my resources to the glory of God Based on those.

Speaker 1: 16:42

What's one habit do you need to start? And it is not bad to start small. I actually think you should start small, the smaller the better. You don't have to say I want to run a marathon by next Friday. Don't do it, we'll be picking you up on the side of the road. You don't got to say I'm going to pay off my house next month. I guess if you played the Mega Millions you could, but don't you know. Just start small. It might be that you want to be more disciplined.

Speaker 1: 17:13

So what's one habit you need to start? You might say I'm not going to hit the snooze button, even though it was great this morning to do that. You may want to be a person who's intimate with God. So what's one? What's your one small habit? Maybe your one small habit is Bible before phone. I'm going to check my Bible before I get on my phone. You want to leave a spiritual legacy. So your one small habit and this is an important one your one small habit may be I'm going to pray with my kids before they go to bed. So I'll pray with them. I want to leave a spiritual legacy.

Speaker 1: 17:42

What one habit do you need to start? Say you're, I got a couple ideas I want to throw at you. Say you're a leader at work and you want to be someone who genuinely cares about the people that work for you. So your one habit might be this You're going to write one note of appreciation a week to people, or every day to someone. You're going to write someone who works for you an appreciation note, send them an appreciation text.

Speaker 1: 18:03

Maybe you want to be someone who's more organized. You say God is a God of order and I want to honor God with my life and live more orderly. You might say your one habit and this one habit I'm about to share is actually a keystone habit for me. It's one of my keystone habits in my life. If you want to be a more orderly person because I am not organized but I do this you may say I want to make my bed every day. Come on, that's a good one. You're telling yourself I'm going to be more organized than what I do. Or you might want to be a godly example to your teenager. So you may say, hey, we're going to do a Bible reading plan together. We're going to do a Bible reading plan every day, and this is the great part you can pick one and you can share it with them. And even with the YouVersion Bible app, you can share plans and you can comment on them together. That's the way you can do it. You're going to be pregnant.

Speaker 1: 19:01

Maybe you say I want to be a person who's healthier, I want to honor God as the temple of the Holy Spirit. So you just say what I'm going to do Monday through Friday. I'm going to eliminate soft drinks, and you can do it because you got, because the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. So you can say no to Diet Dr Pepper. You can say no to Mountain Dew. You can say no to Red Bull. You can say no to Red Bull. Dude energy drinks get me going crazy, but for real, that's the way you do it. You may say, hey, I want to be closer to God.

Speaker 1: 19:25

What one habit do you need to create? Maybe you say we're going to attend church weekly and you're just flipping the script. Instead of saying at the end of the week, are we going to go to church this week, you say we're going to go to church this week unless something comes up, so you're just switching it because you know there's value and celebrating Jesus together. And then not only are you attending church every week, you say, and I'm going to invite someone with me, I'm going to invite someone to come with me Because, based on who you want to be, what's one habit you need to start? I hope I'm being practical with you today, hope I'm being practical. So what's one thing that you need to start? Okay, and then what we're going to do, we're going to talk very simply. I only have two points for us today. Okay, I'm going to talk very simply. How do we create a new habit? I want to give you these two ones, okay. The first one is this. The first one is this I want to encourage you. If there's something you want to change in your life, if there's something that you want different in your life, then make that change obvious, make it obvious, make your new habit obvious.

Speaker 1: 20:29

Anyone and everyone that teaches on habits will talk about their own version of a habit cycle. All right, and so I love how Craig Rochelle talks about it. Check this out. I got this picture up here. You have the habit cycle, okay, and basically what you see is this it starts with the cue. All of our habits start with a cue. There's a cue, something you see, something you smell, something that triggers you. There's a cue and once you see it, it creates a desire or a craving, followed by a response or an action, and then you get your reward.

Speaker 1: 21:00

Now, even when dealing with addiction, this is how addiction works. There's a cue and then there's a response, and then you know there's an action, there's a craving, there's a response and then there's a reward. And so, even when you're dealing with something that's negative for you, this is how you attack it. You have to identify the cue. You got to identify the thing. But when developing good habits, the same thing what's the cue, what's something that can get me? Because once you get it, it creates a desire or a craving, followed by a response or an action, and then you get the reward. You get that dopamine hit, you get that sugar buzz, whatever it is. There's a cue, there's a craving, there's a response and then there's a reward. The cue is the key to the habit cycle.

Speaker 1: 21:45

Now, for some of you, I'm about to share something with you that may be a cue for you. It may trigger you, okay. So I'm going to be sensitive, all right, but this cue for you is what gets you, and you're like man, I thought I'd never go back there again. But when you see this cue, go ahead and put it on the screen. When you see that hot Krispy Kreme donut sign, come on, man, that's the cue that gets you man.

Speaker 1: 22:12

My brother Isaiah he used to love Krispy Kreme donuts so much He'll be driving down the street and if he saw that sign, come on, he'll cut through three lanes of traffic. He said grandma crossing the road, not my problem, he did whatever it takes. He said once the sign hit red, if you're in my way, then you're dead. Okay, he wasn't that dramatic, but maybe he was a little bit. But for real, the hot sign comes on and you got to get it, don't you? It's so much better when the donuts are soft and hot. It's good. But the truth is this. The truth is this when it comes to your cues, when it comes to your habits, your cues determine what you do.

Speaker 1: 22:53

And so you may be wondering the whole time why do I got my stinky shoes and these red workout pants on the stage today? So this is my Monday workout gear? All right, my Monday workout gear. And so I got my brightest red pants. Come on, I got my brightest red pants. I want to make it obvious. I want to make it obvious. But what do I do On Sunday night, not on Monday morning?

Speaker 1: 23:19

On Sunday night, I take out my brightest red pants, I get my workout shoes, I got my socks in there and I get my workout gear ready. And do you want to know where I put it? I don't leave it in my drawer, I don't leave it in my closet, I take it downstairs and I put it right on my coffee table and I put it right next to my iPad. And here's the reason why Because when I wake up around 4.35 and when I walk downstairs, the two things I want to do to kick off my Monday and kick off every day for me, monday through Friday is I want to spend daily time with God in the morning and then I want to hang out with Sean T afterwards. So but if I wake up early and I went downstairs and I couldn't find my iPad and I do all, I got all my Bible, all my stuff on my iPad, I couldn't find my iPad Then I'll get discouraged and I say, well, I guess I should just work out. But if I didn't have my workout gear easily accessible, then I'll have to walk back upstairs to get it, and my stairs are loud in my house and once my stairs are loud I'm going to wake up all my kids. And then, once my kids wake up, they want to instantly play. So I couldn't do it. So I make it obvious. And here's the thing If you want lasting change in your life, you got to make it obvious, you got to make it easy for you.

Speaker 1: 24:32

And that leads to the second point. Then you got to make it easy. You make it obvious and then you make it easy. You make it obvious and then you make it easy. James Clear says in his book Atomic Habits which this is a book I recommend everyone to read once a year, not one time, once a year. Atomic Habits by James Clear says that when the key to starting any habit is to actually make it a habit that takes you two minutes or less to do, the key, it has to be two minutes or less. You make it obvious and you make it easy.

Speaker 1: 25:04

For example, if you want to create a habit of journaling and you want to spend daily time with God and you want to journal, you want to write things down. Sometimes we approach things like man. I don't know if I have time to do that because I got to write like four pages of all the troubles in my life. No, no, no. You write one sentence. You start with one sentence. If you want to spend daily time with God and you want to journal to God, start with one sentence. That's it. You make it easy Instead of writing four pages. Your goal is one sentence. You lower the threshold and you just write that one sentence and then you get the habit going. Come on, you get the habit started and I promise you, once you get the habit started, one sentence can lead to two sentences, then it leads to three sentences and next thing you know you're pouring your heart out before God in your journal entry. But it has to start with one. You have to start with one.

Speaker 1: 25:53

Let's say you want to pray with your spouse, and it's really hard to pray with your spouse. For some reason it's kind of awkward to pray with your spouse. I don't know why it is, but it is. And so you're kind of intimidated, you're nervous by it. So you lower the threshold, you say what we're going to do at a certain time of day. We're just going to hold hands and we're both going to say one thing we're thankful about in God thank you for our healthy kids. Or you say, god, thank you that we have jobs, thank you that we got running water, I don't know whatever. You just say one thing. You just thank God for one thing. And the next thing, you know, you're learning how to pray together. You're learning how to pray together, and then you're getting closer.

Speaker 1: 26:30

That way, you might say, hey, I want to start exercising, but I want to start exercising, but you don't exercise. Instead of saying, man, I'm going to download the latest thing and get my 30-day abs that you never do because you love pizza too much you just say, man, I'm going to do five push-ups, and if you can't do push-ups, you get on your knees and do the knee push-ups. Those look good too. Then five leads to seven, and then seven. At the same time you say, man, maybe I'll throw a sit-up in there. Then, after you do a couple sit-ups, maybe you throw a plank in there, and after you do a plank, maybe you throw a couple lunges in there. And after the lunges, next thing, you know, you're doing back flips in your bed.

Speaker 1: 27:10

I'm just joking, but for real, you find one thing, you go for a walk and that's it. That's how you do it. Next thing, next thing, next thing, you're going to start, you're going to make it obvious, you're going to make it easy. Then, james Clare, he expands on the idea and this principle and he calls it habit stacking. Which I like, which I like and you can see this in Daniel's habits as well. He says, basically, you start to stack one habit on top of another. So you say, after I do this, I'm going to do that, after I do this, I'm going to do that. And you start stacking your holy habits, which are a reflection of why you want to do something, because you're trying to become someone who God has called you to be. For example I can't prove this with Daniel, but I'm guessing. Since he prayed three times a day, when do you think he prayed? He probably prayed after he ate some Froot Loops in the morning time, then he probably prayed after he ate a grilled cheese sandwich in the afternoon, and then he probably prayed after he ate some meatloaf at the end of the night. Chances are he prayed after each meal, because that was also customary of Jewish culture, but it was a habit that he could remember and do.

Speaker 1: 28:23

Here you go, I share my routine with you guys. After I turn off my alarm and I say softly out loud I don't say it loud because my wife's right next to me and she's still sleeping, but softly out loud I say Jesus, thank you for this day. I try my best for the first words to come out of my mouth is a praise to God. I said Jesus, thank you for this day. After I get up, I make coffee. After I make coffee, I spend daily time with God. After I spend daily time with God, I work out. After I work out, I bring out my laptop and I write out all my tasks. I have to do that day. Then normally my kids wake up and then my day kind of starts with that. But if I don't do that before they wake up, man, I feel scattered through the whole day. I feel scattered. But because I prepared ahead of time, I'm ready to take on the day. And here you go.

Speaker 1: 29:10

I know that sounds kind of boring, I know that sounds kind of dry, it doesn't sound that exciting, but I want to say something to you about that Sometimes freedom is found in the mundane. Sometimes the thing you're looking for it's not always about, like I said, the latest and greatest thing, but it's about being consistent with the mundane, about being consistent with the boring thing, about being consistent with the thing that isn't the latest and greatest, but you're making it consistent. So for you it might be this you isn't the latest and greatest, but you're making it consistent. So for you, it might be this you might say after I put my kids to bed, I'm going to do five push-ups. After I do five push-ups, I'll journal one sentence in my notebook. After I journal one sentence, I'll hold my spouse's hand and we'll thank God for one thing that happened in our day. After we thank God for one thing that happened in our day, I'll lean over and give her a kiss. And after I give her a kiss, only God knows where that's going to take us next, but it could be good. So we have our spiritual who. We have our spiritual why. We have our spiritual what, and Paul says this, and I want to leave you with this thought. Paul says physical training is good. I want you to get this Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better Promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.

Speaker 1: 30:31

One small habit at a time, we can become more like Jesus. And if you're hoping to change something, hope is good, but hope alone won't change your life. Holy habits will Hope will give you, will get you started, but habits will keep you moving. Let me say that one more time Hope will get you started, but habits will keep you moving, will keep you in the direction that you want to go. So, based on who you want to become, I want you to think about this what is one small habit you need to start? What's one small thing you need to start? And then you may say I want to crush this right now. You may say, man, it's just one small thing. How's one small thing going to change anything? How's one small thing going to help me?

Speaker 1: 31:18

Zechariah 4.10 says this Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. Did you know? God's heart shines, god's heart is happy when you just start, when you just start moving, when you start going towards Him. You don't have to have it all figured out, but you're starting, and I love what Jesus says. He says come to me all, everyone who's weary and burdened. Come to me those who have hope, but you don't know how to get habits. Come to me that wants a different change. You want a different outcome, but you don't know how to get there. He says come to me and I will give you rest for your souls. He says just start somewhere. Start somewhere, and I got a confession. I'll make here's my confession time on this topic, okay, because this topic is very personal to me, and my confession is this I used to primarily read my Bible just because I had to preach, so my Bible study was more about what can I learn to say out there rather than what can I learn to become more like Jesus?

Speaker 1: 32:30

And I would normally pray when I was desperate and in need of something. There's nothing wrong with desperate prayers, but prayer wasn't my first response. It was my last resort. I often worked too much and believe everything rested on my shoulders. I never took a rest. I always had this low grade anxiety going on in my life, always feeling anxious about something. And Aaron can tell you this. And Aaron can tell you this. My life changed. I know the exact date July 5th 2020. My life changed on. I know the exact date July 5th 2020.

Speaker 1: 33:09

My life changed on that day and I was stressed out about life, Like many people. Covid was going on and you know, you didn't. Everything was so uncertain For me. Specifically, the church was uncertain. We just moved up here, started the church. We didn't know what was going to happen, if we were going to have to fold the church or if I, and, if so, were we going to have to move again. We had all these people move up with us and all this stuff.

Speaker 1: 33:28

So I'm just, you know, I'm stressed, I couldn't, you know, I I was spending nights not being able to sleep and all this stuff. And there's this one particular day. I couldn't sleep all night, so I got up early and I went for a run, and that day started for me something that changed my life forever, changed the whole trajectory of my life. It started a habit in me that became a keystone habit in my life. That changed my life, and, according to my Apple Watch, I have worked out in some form or fashion, either doing HIIT workouts or yoga, or running, or walking, or playing extensive play with my kids. I haven't missed a workout in 1,394 days since that day, and clearly I'm not Dwayne Johnson. So I ain't like lifting weights and putting them down, but what it did, it started a habit in me and I want you to see this and what that workout habit started.

Speaker 1: 34:18

It started with that and then it went to a one-sentence journal entry entry when I would put my daughter down for her nap, which led to well, maybe next time I'll do a Bible reading plan. Then that went to well, how about I start waking up early and spend time with God there, because that afternoon time is such a good time to actually get some work done for church. Then, which led to which led to I'm tired of being a glass half empty kind of person. I want to start writing about thankfulness at the end of my night. So I started a thankfulness journal entry, which led me to man. My phone isn't as important as my family and, according to my stats, I'm spending six hours a day on my phone, and that went from six hours to one hour a day, which led to man, social media is kind of bad for my soul anyway, so I'm going to go ahead and delete it, which I did. Then I just recently got back on it, but for different reasons. To what to that led to. What would it look like if I taught my family how to stop, rest, delight and worship God and we picked up a weekly Sabbath and then and then and then. That led to, instead of just watching TV every night after the kids went down, what if Aaron and I actually start praying and talking with each other and growing our relationship?

Speaker 1: 35:27

Now, if you take local basics, at step two we talk about how to become fully engaged at LVC. And the number one thing, the number one thing we're looking at to become fully engaged at our church. It isn't tithing, it isn't perfect attendance, no, it's when you have an active participation in your own spiritual habits. That's the number one thing we're looking at. Because what I discovered about myself and my hope for you is, as an everyday person who has everyday problems and everyday hurts and everyday hurdles to try to jump over, that you, as an everyday person, will learn how to become an everyday follower of Jesus, that you will understand His heart for you, that you will connect with Him and navigate the complexities of life through an authentic relationship with Jesus, because that is what brings hope and it changes everything. Because physical training is good, paul says, but training for godliness is better and you won't change because you hope to change. You'll change by creating habits that lead you to God's heart.

Speaker 1: 36:33

So, church, what's one, what's one small habit that you can start this week that God can take and make a big impact in your life? Let's pray God, jesus, holy Spirit, thank you for your love, thank you for your goodness. More of you, god, more of you God, more of you God. Like Daniel, maybe there's pressure on you. Maybe you feel there's pressure to not do the thing God wants you to do. Maybe it seems easier just to cave in or make an excuse, say God would understand if I don't pray for this 30 days. The Daniel could have came with all the different excuses, yet his one small habit, though it led him to the lion's den. He was rescued.

Speaker 1: 37:40

And that's like the Holy Spirit saying right now starting a good habit doesn't come with an instant good result. It could be hard, it could be tough. It's to die into yourself, it's to say I'm not going to cave into this craving, I'm not going to give into that cue. I'm not going to give into that cue, I'm not going to then get that response, get that reward. I'm going to do something different. That's why the Holy Spirit right now is saying it's going to be hard, but it is worth it.

Speaker 1: 38:17

And I just feel the Holy Spirit very clearly speaking either to one person specifically or a couple of us in here. Stop believing that lie, that that addiction is giving you the reward that you really want. You know, because after the dopamine hit goes away, after the buzz fades away, after that goes, you are left feeling ashamed and embarrassed and you're saying I would never want to be back here again. And I feel like the Holy Spirit is saying there's freedom for your life right now in Jesus' name. There's freedom for you right now in Jesus' name. Come Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit. More of you, more of you, god, and based on who you want to become. There's one small habit, there's one small thing, lord, that we can give to you.

Speaker 1: 39:15

If you're in here today, you're like Jacob that sounds good man, but I don't even know this God. I don't know this Jesus you're talking about or maybe you have, and life got in the way you walked away. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, to start this journey of freedom, I just want to pray with you right where you are? I'm not going to call you out. Have you come up front? Nothing like that, Just right where you are. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, just pray this prayer with me. Just say, jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new Today. I trust you with my life Today. I follow you In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.