Succeeding with a System

Introduction

Introduce self

Dismiss children

I didn’t get to say it last week but Happy new year!

We are in a series titled habits that will help you as you seek to accomplish what God has called you to in life.

Lat week we didn’t something different and either many of you watched it or we got views from different places because that conversation between Craig, Tim, and myself got almost double the views of when I preach to the camera.

For those that weren’t able to catch the video, we were talking about accomplishing your goals by first identyfing who you are in Jesus first, establishing goals towards that, and then attaching your goals to the identity.

For instance, too many people start the year off with “I’m going to lose 10 lbs.” However what happens when you lose 10 lbs? You celebrate but too often you will find yourselves gaining it back.

Why? Becuase you accomplished the goal but now what?

So instead of establishing the goal of losing 10 lbs, you do it this way “Because I’m a follower of Jesus, I’m goin to better wteard my health for Jesus by improving my diet and working out 3x’s per week.”

Now the improving my diet should be o more specific.

But when you get up and don’t want to go to the gym, you can make the excuse, “It’s ok, I’ll still lose the 10 lbs.” However this one is harder to say “I’m not going to the gym today like I planned becuase I don’t want to better steward my health and body Jesus gave me for His glory.”

Same iwth prayer, bible reading, etc.

“Becuase I’m a follower of Jesus and want to improve my relationship with Him I’m going to read my bible for 5 minutes every day and pray for 5 minutes.” See, it’s about your identity in Christ, not about what you want to do.

Goals are often one time things where as habits are the small daily decisions that make a big impact.

I’m reading a great book right now called atomic habits by James clear and somethign he says in there is “You don’t rise to the height of your goals. You fail to the level of oyur systems” you can replace the word systems with habits.

Now, how many of you are like me and are not a fan of routine, monotony, same thing over and over again?

Ok. Now how many of you have heard the quote “consistency compounds”? it’s great it’s fine, it’s true but o my word.

I like to say routines redeem. Because I can have a routine, or habit, that can vary. For instance: I’m reading the bible and today I’m reading 5 verses…tomorrow I may read 5 chapters. I hav ea rotine of bible reading but not of reading x amount constantly. Listen, I know, I think differently.

If you are like me and either don’t like repetition like that or are like me and have a desire to start a habit that will help improve your relationship with Jesus or make you better used for His kingdom, then this message is for you.

If you are here and don’t want ot grow, don’t have a desire for the Holy Spirit to change you or work in your heart, you are about to be bored for the next half hour.

Character- Christian who isn’t where they want to be

No matter who I talk to that follows Jesus, whether they are 8 or 80, none of them will tell me that they are the follower of Jesus they’d like to be. There is none of us that says “I’m the perfect Jesus follower.” I’m the perfect example of waht it means to be a Christian.

What that tells me is that everyone has an idea of what they looks like, but my question is, are you doing anything to move toward that direction?

Most people set goals or have a desire to grow but you often don’t have a plan or habit determined to reach it. Or, you never start becuase you don’t think you can do it. You don’t see the value or you’ve seen others fails and don’t think you can do it or worse you see people succeed and think you can’t be that way.

Whether you like it or not you have habits. You have systems in your life. Think about when you woke up today or when you woke up for work.

What did you do?

Get otu of bed, check instagram, bathroom, brush teeth, deodorant, maybe shower,

go get coffee, make breakfast, then get out of the pjs and get dressed, check social again,

drive to work listening to something and then work all day, after work, you go home and try to have simblance of life to you as you engage with the kids and you rspouse, check instagram, have some dinner, veg out on netflix, get the kids to bed, try to make a move on your wife, get rejected becuase you haven’t figured out intimacy starts in the morning and not when you lock the door, cry yourself to sleep and wake up the enxt day.

See, you have habits. Most are unintentional…adn therein lies the problem

Problem- creating goals without direction

Living wihtout purpose. We find ourselves comfortable with what we have going on and don’t want to come out of that comfort zone.

Let’s get real, why don’t you spend time with Jesus? Becuase it’s uncofortable to sit still and not be doing what’s on your task list.

Why don’t you pray with your spouse? Becuase it feels awkward and uncomfortable at first.

Why don’t you get up early and go to the gym? becuase your comfortable in your bed or you don’t want to make time in your schedule in the evening.

We don’t like to be uncomfrotabel but growth happens, spirutal and physical, when we are uncomfortable.

You have to not only determine the goal but how your going to accomplish it and then be willing to be uncomfortable in the pursuit of it. Because eventually you’ll become comfortable in what was uncomfortable and find yourself not being who you once were but who God designed you to be.

And while there is a whole industry out there now about personal growth, I believe the Bible is truly the best foundation we can have for growing as people and followers of Jesus.

In Old Testmaent we have the example of people choosing to be who god made them to be and then living in light of that truth.

The one we are going to look at today, is Daniel.

Daniel was a man that was taken captive when the Israelites were taken away from their homeland.

While there, daniel became an important person. A person of influence with not only the Hebrews but with his captors. I believe that happened becuase of the type of decisions Daniel made

Daniel 1:8 “8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”

Daniel purposed, he decided not to defile hismelf, He chose the type of follower of God He was going to be and made His decisions based off it.

This was when daniel was a young man and taken captive. Our text in Daniel 6 today is going to be with the familiar story of the lion’s den. And it isn’t the decision Daniel made of who He was going to be that let him ther, it was the system he had in place that got him in the lions den.

Agitated- aimlessly living life doing stuff but never becoming who God made you to be

What if Daniel and never chosen not to defile himself? What if Daniel had never decided that He was going to be a follower of God in a foreign land? Let’s go a step further, what if he had said ‘I’m a child of God but i”m still going to defile myself.”

That’s where many followers of Jesus are today. They have decided they want to be known as followers of Jesus but they don’t want to do or be apart of the things a follower of Jesus does or is apart of.

I read a great book in the last year or so called “The Motive” by Patrick Lencioni and the best question that is posed in that book is this “Do you want to be a CEO or do you want to do what a CEO does?”

You can take that question adn apply it across the board. Do you want to be a follower of Jesus or do you want to do what a follower of Jesus does?

Paul wrote that there would be people like this

2 Timothy 3:5 “5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

A form of godliness is saying “I’m a follower of Jesus. I will look the part of a follower of Jesu.”

But there is no power in looking the part.

There is no power in being a wife that follows Jesus but bashes her husband behind is back and doesn’t seek to be the helpmeet your called to.

There is no power in being a husband that lusts after other women and looks at inappropriate images and videos online seeking his own self gratifcation rather than growing in intimacy with his wife

There is no power in a parent that doesn’t lead their child to Jesus but pushes them for success or worse doesn’t do anything for them at all to raise them and lets them rasie themselves

There is no power teenagers, in saying your a follower of Jesus on Sunday but around your friends you say, do, watch, and laugh at all they do.

There is no power in the life of a Christian who is a Christian in name only.

And that is a Christian who hasn’t purposefully decided how they will keep them self undefiled and growing in the Lord.

Solution- Start small and be consistent

We don’t have a record of all that Daniel did to set himself apart as a young man but we do know he did some things.

Can I confess something real quick? I have a problem. When I want to do something, I want to do to 125% the moment I start. This causes me to go big and go bigger when I may not be ready for that.

Which then leads to feelings of overwhelm and failure.

So instead of trying to get yourself to be super saint in one day, that prays for an hour, reads for an hour, works out, serves in every ministry, and becomes super parent overnight. Take it slow. Take your time.

This is a marathon not a sprint. A relationship not a religion. And you don’t have to do all the things in order to be loved by God. He loved you before you did the things. That’s why He sent Jesus.

Because of Jesus though, you do the things. because you were saved unto good works.

Because you love Him, you live with Him, which causes you to live for Him.

Guide-Jesus, Bible, other belivers

That’s the key. You don’t do this alone.

You have to do this with Jesus. Too maby are trying to live as a follower of Jesus by doing so much for Him, trust me, I’ve been there, but it starts with being with Him.

Adn you have the princples and truths of scripture to guide you. And then,the method JEsus taught to live for Him was with others.

That’s why we have life groups. (People over content)

So you can grow closer to God and each other as you pursue a life with Jesus

People who ahve spiritual disciplines you don’t have. People who have been through things you are going through, and are there to help you get started as you based your goals on who God wants you to be.

Journey-Daniel 6:3-10

Daniel was becoming the man God called him to be while in captivity and is now an old man in Daniel 6.

Most think the lions den happened when he was a kid but that’s not true. It’s believed he was 60-80 when this event took place.

What was he doing that was so heinous to get thrown into a lions den?

Let’s look at the lead up to that event

Daniel 6:3 “3 Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.”

Daniel 6:3 CSB

3 Daniel distinguished himself above the administrators and satraps because he had an extraordinary spirit, so the king planned to set him over the whole realm.

He was different than the others becuase he distinguished himself. He made himself preferred by others because of the excellent spirit that he had. Becuase of hid dedication and discipline to being who God called Him to be now the king is plannig to promote Him.

I’m not perfect but I know that when I’m living from my identity in Jesus and I’m doing the things that a follower of Jesus does, I’m much better to be around.

What are the things that lead to him being differnt?

It was the things no one saw. It was the small decisions to pray 3 times a day when no one was looking. It was the habit that he established that made him the man he was and caused others to be jealous.

have you ever noticed that when someone finds success or betters themselves, the haters just come out of the wood work?

Why? Most are judgmental. They come out and say things like “he’s fake” “he’s not really that way” and why? Why attack someone trying to better themselves?

I belive it’s often from jealousy or fear. Why/ Becuase if someone else can be that way, it means you can be that way, and if you can be that way but your not…what better way to make yourself feel better than to speak negatively of someone who is?

This will keep you from ever trying to better yourself becuase you will believe that if a person is a certain way and you don’t like them then you won’t want to achieve or do what they’ve done.

When a person gets a public platform there is always someone looking to tear them down.

The same is true when yo being to change your life with small habits. You’ll tell your friends, Becuase I’m a follower of Jesus I’m going to pray 5 minutes every day. And what will they say? Hopefully “Great, how can I help?” but some will sya “Well, you can’t do it EVERY DAY…”

Daniel did it. Daniel prayed three times day. That was his habit beucase that’s who he was.

Becuase of his habit, he had success, and because of that success he got some haters. And those haters took it too an extreme.

Daniel 6:5–7 “5 Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. 6 Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever. 7 All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellers, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.”

They knew they could get hi in trouble becuase of his faith.

If someone wanted to gget you in trouble could they depend on your faithfulness to Jesus or wouldit be a tossup?

And what did God do through this one small habit Daniel had?

He used it to prove who he was to the king of the persians.

Craig Groeschel said to never underestimate how God can do something big through one small habit.

Through one habit, just Daniels’ prayer life, God did something amazing.

What small habit could you start that God could do something through?

I recently heard of an interesting concept. It’s called a keystone habit. A keystone habit is a habit that you start that leads to other habits.

For instance, if I asked you what habit do you think of when you think of a disciplined person. Some of you may say “a person who flosses every day” or maybe A person who makes their bed every morning.

But a disciplined person is more than that right? They do more. But what if that habit is the one that you begin and leads to others.

For instance, you could say “I’m going to floss in the morning, after I floss I will read my bible, and then I will have breakfast.”

So now every morning you have the habit of flossing, reading your bible, and eating breakfast.

I’m sure none of us have a problem making breakfast a daily habit.

Now, remeber why Daniel prayed every day? Because he was a child of God. He was a believer in Yaweh.

If you are going to be a follower of Jesus you need to determine what the thigns are a follower of Jesus does.

Then, don’t go crazy but pick one habit that you can do and add to your life over the course of 6 months or a year.

I know, the studies show it only takes 3 weeks to form a new habit and 3 more weeks to make it part of your life or something like that.

But what if you didn’tjust add it to your list of things you do? What if you made it apart of who you are and it became second nature before you added another one on.

But you only want to add habits that are reflective of who god made you to be.

As a pastor there is an expectation I’m spiritually strong, that doesn’t just happen. I have to purpose to read the bible, I have to purposefly pray.

I’ve started journaling this year. Not with my bible reading just at night before I go to sleep. My statement is this “Becuase I’m a follower of Jesus I want to take better care of my mental and spirutal health by journaling. I will journal after I get into the bed and before I lay my head down to go to sleep.”

As a Christian husband there is an expecation to lovingly lead my wife, I have ot be intentional in that. I have reminders on my phone to thank God for my wife and to express appreciation for her.

I’m going to be doing these things for 6 months minimum before I add something else.

And then I’m hoping to add 2 per year. 6 months at a time.

You can do the same. You can t least do something similar.

They jus thave to be based on who you want to become in Christ.

Want to be a someone who cares—One note of appreciation a day.

•Want to be a person that’s organized—Make your bed first thing.

•Want to be a godly example to your teen—Bible plan together.

•Want to be a person that’s focused—Start day w/list three priorities.

•Want to be a person who is healthier—Eliminate soft drinks.

Taking care of yourself mentally and physically is just as important as taking care of yoursefl spiritually and I believe you need to remember that. We can often neglect the mentla and physical care of our selves as an excuse to be super spirutal and only focus on those things. Truth is God made you with a mind, body, and spirit. They are not separate and if your mentla helath and physical health are off, your psiritual life witll be off too.

And it’s as simple as follwoing these three tips to creating a habit.

Make it obvious

Leave your bible out, put your journal on top of your phone, write a sign on your door to make your bed. leave yourself cues. Your no less spiritual for having a cue to read your bible than you are to not need one.

Make it easy

Don’t start a habit of bettering your health by going completely vegan, to the gym 7 days a week for 3 hours, plus 30 minutes of cardio and expect it to go well

Start small. Let me know a goal or habit you want and I’d love to talk with you about starting small with it.

Daniel started small and stayed conssistent

Make it public

I recently made a public post on social media about goals I was setting. They are nto all of my goals ut you can see most of those when you watch the conversation from last week.

the goals were: 1. 90 days no eating out and no Dunkin unless paid for by someone else (family goal) because we want to save money for a cruise and pay off some debt

2. 30 days highly restrictive social media (starts the 8th) and distraction access on my phone because I don’t like how it’s impacting my workflow

3. Sharing at least 1 reel per day via social for church and MAG because I want to get better at making them and grow the reach of both.

I made that post for a few reasons. One, I wanted you to know that if you invite me or my family somewhere, we will either say no or come but not eat or drink anything. Not being rude, just something we are doing to teach our kids it’s good to sacrifice for things you want. 2, I wanted accountability. I fully expect for someone to look at me when I’m out somewhere and ask me if I paid for a coffee or meal. If I’m on my phone, is it locked down…

Make yours public too. Let people help you, tha’ts how God intended it.

Why? Why do this? Why create habits based on your identity in Jesus? Why start small?

Resolution-Choose 1 habit to help shape you into the person God wants you to be and start tomorrow

Because God has given you an amazing gift in not just salvation but this life. He has called on you to steward or live it for Him.

Daniel was the man He was because of His systems and habits.

What habit do you need to start? Waht 1 small habit could you start today?

Prayer for 5 min?

Eat a healthy meal 3 times a week?

Put $5 back everyday instead of buying dunkin?

Why? Why do these things?

Becuas Jesus is worthy of you living intentionally for Him.

Impact: Negative: don’t do anything and never grow or change. Family and community not impacted. Positive: Tramnsformed life and community

What if you don’t do this? What if you decide you don’t want ot be like jesus and have habits?

What if you say Daniel was special and you can’t be that way?

Well first, you don’t believe the gospel that says you ar e new creature in Christ.

Second, your life doesn’t reflect the power of Jesus and has no positive influence on your family, church or community. Truthfully, it will be wasted living for self rather than living for Christ.

However, if you chose to implement just one habit, just one means of growing as a follower of Jesus and using the success you see with it as a testimony to the glory of God…who could see the value of trusitng in Jesus through you? What woudl your family look like?

What would your church look like?

What would your community look like?

1 habit, 1 menas fo growing for Jesus…Just imagine what could happen.

Do you want to see the gospel have an impact? Then choose to do something to help it impact others by having habits that reflect who god made you to be

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