Small Things Big Difference (Habits)

Introduction

Explain what we have been talking the last few weeks and give an overview.

Today we are going to talk about our habits or we can say our diciplines. We are what we repeatedly do. I want to start with a powerful thought today on dicipline.

Before we start I want to ask a question. Who here considers themselves to be highly diciplined? How many would tend to say I tend to be more undiciplined at times.

For those of us who say we are undiciplined at times I want to present you with a thought.

Example of overweight video game player.

We are all diciplined we just sometimes don’t have the right diciplines.

Here is my simple defenition of dicipline.

Dicipline is simply choosing between what we want now and what we want most.

All of us are successful at some areas in our life and if we look in those areas we will see good diciplines regarding that. (examples)

The opposite is true as well. Any area you are not succeeding in you have got some diciplines, but they are just not the right diciplines.

Example of saying you want to work out this year and making excuses. Example of eating.

The apostle Paul one of the greatest believers we may have ever seen. Wrote a huge portion of the new testament struggled with this very same problem.

In Roman ch 7 Paul is so transparrent.

Romans 7:15 NIV

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

Romans 7:20 NIV

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

By nature we are not selfed diciplined people. By nature our sin pulls us away from what God wants. Our sin nature bends us toward doing what is wrong rather than what is right. We want to do what is right, but our sin nature wants the opposite for our life

Romans 7:24 NIV

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Romans 7:24–25 NIV

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

If I can give you a little insight about myself. I personally love food that is horrible for you. You got donuts I will eat them. I love pizza, and hamburgers, and chips and ice cream.

Last week I told you about a thematic statement that I had been reciting throughout the year last year. “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world”. “He who is in you is greater than the wrong appetites in me”. I have been able to eat better because of this very mind set.

I personally am not self diciplined in this area. I had to become Spirit diciplined. It is not me in me, but Christ in me. The Holy Spirit can empower me to be able to do what I can not do myself. He can allow me to choose what I want most rather than what I want now.

We will never be self diciplined because our self is bent towards sin. But when the Spirit takes over in you you can be Spirit diciplined to do what God wants you to do.

By the power of Jesus we will choose what we want most over what we want now.

Becoming Diciplined

I am going to read you a portion of scripture where Paul is talking about running a race. Now when Paul talked to the Corinthians about this subject they would have been very aware and very into what was known as the Isthmian games.

This was a race that bore for them patriotic pride. It was like the olympics for them and you represented your community.

1 Corinthians 9:24–25 NIV

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

All athletes are diciplined. They are running to win not just to place. You are running to maximize the calling of God on your life. You aren’t just running for the bronze.

The Corinthians would have known that these athletes chosen would go to this place called the gymnasium for 10 months.

They were so into this race that they would run naked. So that there would be no piece of clothing that would hinder them from running faster.

Hebrews 12:1 NIV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

People in that culture would know this is what you do. You want to be faster you have to strip your clothes off. If you think about it. It would give you more motivation to get out in front. I aint 4th place watching 3 other naked people run in front of me the whole time.

Explain v 25

1 Corinthians 9:26–27 NIV

Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

We need to keep holding onto this thought. I am not self diciplined I am spirit diciplined. I want to run with purpose in every step that I take. A purpose that is going to bring God glory.

When we get this and you decide I am choosing what I want most over what I want now you are running with purpose in every step. (the way we eat, I am saying to honoring my parents even when I don’t want to. I will run with purpose in every step. Step by step by step I am bringing God glory.

Example and lack of my dicipline at times. (But the Spirit within me allows me to choose what I want most over what I want now)

-There is a book called “The Power of Habit” in the book there are things called keystone habits. Keystone habits are habits that if they exist in your life they will lead to other positive and life giving habits. If you mess up on these habits and build bad keystone habits it will spiral downwards.

When God helps us choose what we want most over what we want now it creates a spiritual momentum in our life. I am Spirit lead running with purpose in every step.

What do you want most?

Is the first question (examples).

One dicipline

I want to ask you a question that will help you determine what dicipline to add to your life to help you glorify God and how you live. What do you need to do now to have what you want most?