Atomic Relationsips

Happy New year church! If you are anything like me or really anything like the world around us the new year brings upon the expectation and anticipation of potential change. I love the new year because it forces me to reflect on the year I just came out of and I force myself to ask the question, “What areas of my life do I want to change?” What should I start, which should I stop, and which in my life should I invest more time and effort into. We call these resolutions You have a new year resolution to lose weight, read more books, stay in shape, get financially healthy, to play a new instrument, learn a language, be less angry, quit smoking, or drinking, spend more time with the kids or loved ones. Fulfilling these could change your life and the quality of your life.

Why then by most studies, do people give up their new years resolutions by the 3rd or 4th week of the new year? The reason why most of us don’t follow through on our resolutions isn’t because we are not motivated, rather it’s because we are not disciplined. As you are take notes, which by the way, studies show that if you are actively listening, and taking notes your will apply 15-20% more information and application to your life, so start taking notes. Make that a habit in 2022. I want you to write this down, “Motivation gets you going, discipline keeps you going” I read it somewhere once before that everything I want to accomplish tomorrow requires the discipline I have never shown in my life. Isn’t that true? The key to change in your life and in my life and as a church isn’t just motivation to get us going but it is in fact the discipline that keeps us going. If you really want to change your life, you have to change your habits.

We are starting a 4 week series today entitled “Atomic Habits” that small changes lead to large impacts. Most of what you will hear when it comes to how to build and sustain systems of habits, comes from the book by James Clear entitled “Atomic Habits” . This is one of my favorite leadership books of all time. If you are interested you can buy a book at a discounted price in the lobby. They normally go for about $27 and you can get a copy for $15 today. We value this so much as a church and leadership of the church that we want to get it into your hands.

Now, here is a truth and a tension that we live in, every single one of us, “Our present self is built by our past habits, and our future self is determined by our present habits.” Think about who you want to be in the next year, two years or next 5 years. How do you plan on getting there, what are your goals, what are your systems? This doesn’t just apply to the younger generation either this applies to anyone of all ages, kids, students, adults, grandparents and everyone in between. All of us have a desire to be better, grow in an area we are weak in or capitalize on a strength. How do we get there? One problem we face is we set big audacious goals, so we falsely believe that that must make big massive changes to our life. So when you go to the gym for 2 weeks straight for two hours a day, and see very little progress, we quit. When you still itch for the smoke after 3 weeks, it doesn’t feel like anything is happening so we give up. Here is what we have to understand, “Success is the product of daily habits not once in a lifetime transformations.” – James Clear Success

Did you get that, success is more about your daily habits and choices than once in a lifetime transformation. Sure you can win the Powerball, but very few do. However, if you are in here and you win the Powerball, obey God in the tithe. It would make owning this complex and reaching North Peoria for Jesus a lot easier. But if winning the Powerball is your goal for retirement, I’ve got some bad news for you. However, if you want to be someone who is financially stable, and can retire in their 50’s and 60’s that starts with having habits, disciplines and systems in place when you are in your 20’s and 30’s. If you want to be someone who knows the word of God it isn’t just reading through the whole bible once, it is the daily discipline of reading the word for 10-15 minutes. Goals are great, but if you want to make a large impact in your life for the long haul, you have to have the right systems.

Now that is a lot of information coming to you right now, and when you read the book, he gives you more practical ideas on how to apply this to your life. All of this is laying the foundation and ground for us to get to this point before we can move on. Goals are DO based, Systems are WHO based. Goals arefocused on what you are supposed to DO, systems help you develop WHO you want to be. You have to begin to change your thinking from DO to WHO. It starts with your identity.

An example of this is, if you want to quit smoking. Someone comes up to you and says, “hey do you want to smoke.” And you say, “no I’m trying to quit smoking.” You are identifying with the DO. But if someone comes up to you and says, “Hey do you want to smoke” you say “no thanks, I’m not a smoker.” This is a small yet powerful change that changes not just what you do, but begins to form WHO you are. So if you want to learn an instrument, you say, “I’m a piano player.” If you want to read more, “I am a reader” if you want to lose 50 pounds, “I am someone who is healthy.''' focusing on the WHO will take your further faster, and keep you disciplined because it is no longer about what you DO, but WHO you want to become. When we decide who we want to be, who God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit want us to be it is not what I have to do, it's what I get to do. When creating habits and systems focus on WHO you want to be, not what you have to DO.

I challenge you to buy the book, and pray and ask God who he wants you to be, who he wants you to become and as you ask, “ok God since my future self is created by my present habits, who do I want to be who do you want me to be,” and as you utilize the resources that James Clear gives in his book you would become all that God has created you to be by having the right systems and processes in place.

Now you might be asking, “why are we talking about this in church? This is a great leadership talk, but where is the scripture, where is the message, where is the challenge?” The answer is twofold, as you become who God is calling you to be, as your identity shifts from do to who. As you become the mom, dad, husband, wife, fired, neighbor, co-worker, business owner, that God is calling you to be, as you create spiritual habits and disciplines in the word, prayer, corporate worship, fasting and inviting others and being in a journey. We as a church become better, because the church body is stepping into your identity and greater relationship with God and others. We will see these seats fill up because you are inviting others, we will have more students and kids being invested into and growing in Jesus. We will have more salvations, more baptisms, more tithes and offerings, more mission trips and more influence in our community because you, all of you who make up Jounrey church will start becoming who God has called you and has called us to be. As you get better we all get better.

The second, is this concept just doesn’t apply to you as individuals, it applies to us as a church. So the pastors and elders of the church sat down and we began to pray about the beginning of 2022 and asking the question, “God, who do you want us to be?” Not simply what do we want to do, but truly who do we want to be as a church. What do we want to be known for in the community and how can that be apart of the Journey Identity and DNA? That when people drive by Journey, when they hear about us, they know WHO we are as a church.

So we are going to look at four habits we want to instill here at Journey Church. 4 WHO habits that we are going to challenge you to take on as a part of WHO God wants you to be. This is a vision series, as we look into who God wants us to be in 2022 and beyond. If you have been coming to Journey for several years, or you're new, whether you are a member or not, we want every single one of you to take the next step in your faith, take your next step here at Journey, to learn to accept the challenge of WHO we are.

Habit 1: We are Ministers of Reconciliation

These are not words that we use very often to describe ourselves, but to help bring clarity to this I want you to turn your bibles to 2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:  The old has gone, the new is here! Paul is saying here that who you were before you became a Jesus follower is not who you are now. Before you knew Jesus you were dead in your sins, now you are alive in Christ. The nature of the world that you lived for before, is now the Holy Spirit living inside of you. You do not live the life you lived before, rather you live a life that honors God. And even though you might fight against old habits and old desires you now have an advocate, the Holy Spirit fighting for you and giving you a way out. Your eternity is sealed because of Jesus so you can be in his Presence forever when you leave this earth, but as a new creation you have a job to do on this earth. The old has gone and the new is here. The new is not something I have to achieve in the future, rather the moment you believe and receive Christ it’s here. You are made new daily. The Old is Gone and the new is here.

Paul goes on to write, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” Reconciliation means the restoration of relationships. That when a relationship is broken, someone has to go first to reconcile. And normally in relationships it isn’t the one who was hurt, it wasn’t the one who took on the offense, it's not the innocent party who goes first, it’s the one who is in the wrong that goes and asks for forgiveness. But here Paul makes it clear that God took the first step, that God went before us to reconcile ourselves back to him through Jesus. Even though this world is sinful, even though we offend God, even though some will not believe, some worship false God and create false gods, even through all of that, God still chose to seek reconciliation with you through the birth, sacrifice, death and resurrection of Jesus. He wanted a restored relationship not because you are great but because he is great. And because you are a new creation and because you have been reconciled back to God through Jesus, God commands you to be a minister of reconciliation to other people. To be a relationship builder, to help others be reconciled to God.

We as a church are ministers of reconciliation this is WHO we want to be. We take the first step in a dark world to be the light for other people. This is God’s command and commission for all those who believe. However, there is a false assumption or belief in the western church today. I'm not sure it’s anyone’s fault but we have gone down this path for so long, that just like any bad habit, we have to focus on breaking it. That is most people believe it is the role of the pastors or staff of a church to build the church and to reach the city we live in. That is not the case, God has allowed me to be a steward of this ministry here, but he expects that every single one of you who are in Jesus to be ministers of reconciliation. It is not just my job to build, it’s your jobs to build. You are called a minister and as ministers it is our responsibility to reach people. This is who you are.

There is also one other bad habit that the Christian church has gotten into that we must break if we are ever going to be ministers of reconciliation. In the last several years this has become a sticking point for almost everyone, 2019, 2020, 2021 really highlighted it. This world and even in the church it has become and “us vs. them” mentality. And regardless of where you find yourself on the us vs. them spectrum it stops you from being a minister of reconciliation. It’s the left v. right. Conservative v. liberal. Pro-Masks or Anti-mask, pro-vax, anti-vax, pro-life, anti-life, issues of gender and racism, the list can go on and on. But we have to remember people are not the enemy, covid and the political atmosphere of our nation has taught us that anyone at any point in time can be an enemy to me and not even know it. So it has alienated us from seeing people are people loved by God and now they are the enemy.  Because of Covid. It’s US v. Them, and if we are ever going to ministers of reconciliation, we have to drop the us vs. them. Now I’m not saying these issues are not important, and we should have a biblical perspective on all of these and do be aware and cautious but people are not the enemy.

Here’s what I know, just a quick side note, in a room this large, some of you are already angry or upset or offended about what I just said. Even though I didn’t pick a side on any of the topics. You want to send me an email, ok, but did I speak the truth? For a lot of us, if we ever  want to be a minister of reconciliation we have to develop a tough skin. People will reject you, but remember it is not you they are rejecting, it is Jesus. We have to stop giving up on people when we are offended or eventually we will not have people around us. Sin offends God, God hates it and can't stand it, if anyone could have turned his back on me, if anyone could have turned his back on you and written off the world it was God, yet he overlooked the offense and took the first step entering into humanity through Jesus and reconciled people back to him. If God does not write off people for their sins, who are we to ever have the right to write people off for their sins.

It is not us vs. them. If it is, we will only try to reach the “us” we are comfortable with yet, God said be a minister to all people as Jesus came for all people. He did not just come for the Jews but the gentiles also, be a minster of reconciliation to all people. View people as the harvest and not the enemy.

How does this look practically, two things one is a story and the other is a challenge to you. First the story, and before I tell it this is not me being the hero or me having all of this right all the time. God is the story, he just used me to be a minster to reconcile others to him. A few years ago I was working at a church in Mesa, and my family and I were at a park in Queen Creek. It was an awesome park with a three story playground and a splash pad, it was dope.  I was sitting on a bench watching Atticus play And this little five foot black lady named Bri comes up to me and says, “Can I sit next to you?” of course you can. So we get to talking and she tells me about her life how she works at amazon her husband is a truck driver, has a young daughter and 18 year old son. So I asked her, “Do you guys go to church anywhere?” oh cam, she said, we have been off and on but I know we have to get back on track. So I invited her to my church and the next day Bri and her Husband came to church, and then the next week we had a class were they learned about our church and a clear presentation of the Gospel was given.

After the class she was really quiet and crying and I sat down and asked her, “hey bri, you ok.” She told me, “Cam I thought I knew…I thought I knew about Jesus…but I didn’t know…now I do and I believe.” So of course I rejoiced and the next weekend I was able to witness her entire family profess their faith through baptism. Here is a picture. Once again yes, God. Sometimes being a minister of reconciliation is having an open mind and heart to invite someone to church and see what God does. So that is one way of constantly being aware of people and that God might use you to reach them. This is a way to be a minister of reconciliation, to be constantly aware that God might use you to bring people to him every day. We just have to be aware!

The second is a tool and a resource we want to give you the church. We are in atomic habits, small decisions for a large impact, and we want to help you create the habit of being a minister of reconciliation, to being someone who is a relationship builder. So on your chairs when you walked in was this little case, with the atomic habits sticker on them, and inside are 30 different cards that we believe will help you be a minister of reconciliation and build relationships with others.

Here is the goal, we challenge you to do what’s on the cards. Don’t go home and look through the cards and only pick the ones you feel comfortable in doing, rather pick a card each day and do it. Take a step in faith and boldly go out and build relationships with others. For some of you the idea of doing something for 30 days is daunting, others it sounds exciting but remember if You want to change your life,  if we want to change our church, we have to change our habits.

Some of you are really excited about this and will take this challenge head on, so I want to challenge you to share your experiences on social media, tag journey in your posts, send us a direct message or an email about how God is using you to be a minster of reconciliation. Share what God is doing through you. I want to hear the stories of how God is moving in your life. If you are married, these are for you individually for you to do, so each one of you has a relationship builder daily.

Others of you think 30 days, oh man. I get that, it can be a lot so here’s my challenge: Do one every other day, if you can’t do one every other day, do 20, or 10 times a month. And each month do 1 more, or 5 more. Once you make it a habit, it becomes easier and easier to add more. Last thing before we close these are not numbered 1 through 30. We did that intentionally because if you are like me, if you miss #1 I’ll just start next time. If you miss a day that's ok, but just don’t miss two in a row. Once you get through all 30, start it over and do it again and again and again. These are relationship builders that we can do all year long.

This is the first part of our Series Atomic Habits, and I will leave you with this…”We are Journey Church and We Ministers of Reconciliation”

Pray