Intentionally Starting

Family Moment

I am so glad to be back with you all today!

I want to encourage you if you have not been to our EB campus yet to go check it out!

We are looking to launch a second service there in the next few months because the reality is we are growing here and there so much….

SO soon you will have 4 Sunday morning service options…and more to come on that soon…

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I am REALLY excited about today!

We are starting a new sermon series today that will last all month.

And this series is something that has been in my heart for sometime.

I think it is something that is the perfect springboard from where we were last month talking about the basics of our Christian Faith.

This series is also foundational for series to come.

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Let me explain the trajectory for the next month.

The reality is all of us are going to one day look back over our life.

The reality is one day all of us will look BACK over our life and ponder the story we wrote with our life.

See….being a pastor I get to be there at the ends of many lives and that is such an honor….And I believe God has shown me somethings through those experiences.

See….Teens….College Students…Young Adults…..

I know today you are NOT thinking about the end of your life…because your WHOLE life is ahead of you.

But there is a reality I have learned…..

Teens… College Students…Young Adults…..Adults….hear this….

Life goes by much faster than we think it will.

And if we are not INTENTIONAL with the life we live…..one day you might look back and regret a lot of the life you lived.

You will look back and regret the time you missed with your kids.,

You will look back and regret the choices you made in your marriage.

You will look back and regret the choices you made in work.

You will look back and regret the relationship choices you made.

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So, for this next month we are going to talk about what does it look like to be an Intentional Author of our own lives.

We are going to talk about how our lives might look IF we lived with the END in mind.

What if we DIDN’T just let life happen to us…. But instead, we CHOOSE to be intentional about the life we lived….

So many stories fill the pages of life.

Some chapters you can be proud to tell.

Others, you would rather skip.

The day life really turns a page is when you let God be the author of your story.

Let God write your story and you'll live a story worth telling.

PLEASE PLEASE try to be here for this whole series. I think this will be a very powerful series.

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So…..this week we are going to unpack those times in our lives were God calls us to START something.

Next week we will talk about the opposite…..When God calls us to STOP something.

In week three we will talk about when God calls us to STAY somewhere.

In week 4 we will talk about when God calls us to GO somewhere.

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Let me ask a question……How many of you love a good story, anybody love a good story? I think we all do!

A good book

A good Hallmark movie if you’re like my wife!

A good movie

It's always fun when you get together with somebody and you start telling stories, "I've got to tell you about the time when..." and you tell stories.

Or you walk in a room, and someone says:

"Let me tell you about the time there was a problem, and I overcame it!"

"Let me tell you about the time I set a goal and I accomplished it!"

"Let me tell you about the time I made a monumental decision."

"Let me tell you about the funny time when I did….."

We all have stories that we love to tell, BUT unfortunately all of us have stories that we'd rather leave untold right?

Maybe you would say even entire chapters of your life that you'd rather not tell anybody.

Maybe you edit some of the old stories and change them just a little bit, or even lie, or leave parts out, or make some parts sound better than they really were….

Because there's some parts of our life that we're really ashamed of and really wish that we had never done.

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What's so interesting to me when I think back over my life… I realize how many moments at the time I thought were insignificant that really had a MAJOR impact on the direction of my life.

Do any of you ever think about that?

You go back and you think, you know, somebody invited me to be a part of the tennis team, football team, chess club, band and so I decided to START something new in my life.

For the students in the room… I was on a mission trip in high school and was FORCED to write my girlfriend a letter about how I want her to know Jesus….

That started her coming to church.

That lead to her accepting Jesus.

Now we have 4 kids and have been married over 20 years!

A simple invitation can change the course of a person’s life.

Or maybe you are in college and you thought, "I've got to take a class, an elective, and there's this one class and I heard it was an easy A and so I enrolled in that class.”

You didn't even care about the subject, but all of the sudden you fell in love with the subject….. then you changed your major and now you've got a great career based on that one simple, seemingly insignificant decision to enroll in a class.

See that happened to me in college. One day I took a business class….I feel in love with it and change from pre-med to business! 2.5 years into my pre-med!

A seemingly small choice changed the direction of my entire life.

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Adults….it can happen to you as well….you decided to take a new job or move and have no idea how it will change your life….

That happened to me when we moved from New Jersey to Missouri I had NO desire to be in ministry…. But then we got involved in a church in Missouri and that led me to enrolling in Seminary and to ministry!

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Sometimes we look back at life and say, "Wow, I can't believe the way that decision impacted my story!"

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But see the converse is true as well! Some stories aren't always positive. Sometimes we look back and we think, "Man, I had no idea how that seemingly small decision would impact my life in such a negative way."

You look back and think,

"I wish I hadn't started that!" "I wish I had never said that!" "I wish I had never gone there!" "I wish I had never become friends with that person,"

Because when I made that decision I had no idea how my life would start to unravel.

Let’s be real in church again…..like the time I decided to Toilet Paper that kid I hated from school for the 4th weekend in a row…and then some of the guys I was with decided to put boulders across the drive way in case they tried to chase us in a car….which happened and the kids father drove over the boulders…and the police showed up at my parents’ house…

NOT a good life choice!!!!

PAUSE

Think about it this way and this is our first point

The decisions that we made yesterday determine the stories that we'll tell today.

Repeat…

Which means…..write this down…

That the decisions that we make today will determine the stories that we tell tomorrow.

Our decisions really matter.

I think back to the catalyst that led me to Seminary.

We had just moved to Missouri. Jenny prayed in the morning that she would meet a friend at the park that day; because Jenny likes to have friends.

Well, she gets to the park and there is only one grandmother there and no young moms! So, she is frustrated because God didn’t answer prayers. She talks to the grandma a bit but then they part ways as the kids are playing around.

Well before the grandmother leaves the park she comes up to Jenny and says Hey why don’t you come to my kid’s church this weekend. I think you would like them. That was it!

Now we found out later she lived in Colorado! But as you will see in a second, she took the time to step out and invite us to church and it changed our life!!!!

So, we decided what can it hurt, we had not found a church yet, so we went.

Well….. We meet our best friends in that church…. We met a Pastor who was about our age that had a great job and left it all for ministry! That is the kick I needed to finally give in and start seminary and start really living out the call God had on my life.

It's amazing the way the little decisions we make determine the stories we tell.

One simple invite from a person that did not even regularly attend that church changed the course of our life.

Guys hear me!!!!

We all need to be inviting people to church every week. You one day could be the person that forever changed the direction of someone’s life by a simple invitation!

The decisions that you make today will determine the stories you'll tell tomorrow.

So the big question I want to ask today is:

Big Questions:

How do we live a story worth telling? How do we live a life that produces a story that we want to tell one day?

The writer of Hebrews said:

Hebrews 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and perfecter of our faith.”

It says let us fix our eyes on whom? ...Jesus...

Jesus who is what? Would you all say it aloud?

the author and perfecter of our faith

Wouldn't it be amazing if you let Jesus, the Son of God become the Author of your life??

How do we live a story worth telling?

We just live out scripture!!!

We keep our eyes fixed our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith and Jesus will help us write the story….

Today we are going to dive into how we need to start a discipline that can be life-transforming.

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Have any of you ever heard of the concept of a “keystone habit?”

I first read about that concept from the book "The Power of Habit."

The authors of that book tell us that there are certain habits, certain disciplines, that when you practice those habits, they cascade forward into positive momentum and other positive habits.

You all want to know one of my keystone habits?

Showering as soon as I wake up!!!

I don’t shower right away because I love to be clean…..But for me, some reason I started that at a young age and it stuck….it is a keystone habit…

When I shower first thing, I feel disciplined

Then my habitual life says now you take the kids to school and pray with them on the way.

Then you get into the office, before anyone else....I read my Bible and spend time with God before anyone else gets into church and interrupts me.

I leave work on time because I was productive, I come home in a good mood, I see Jenny and, she says, "You're awesome!"

I say she's awesome and we have 4 kids because I shower every morning!

Do you see how that works?

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How one positive habit can cascade forward into other positive habits?

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Let’s look at the converse side:

If I do shower because I am running behind…then I'm grumpy. Then I get into the office later and I don't do my Bible study because I’m behind….then I am in a bad mood and I'm unproductive and so I work later and so I'm going home late and I'm really late and I know I'm in trouble with Jenny…

All because I didn’t shower…..

Okay that might be a slight exaggeration, but we all have disciplines in our life that create positive forward momentum and the absence of those disciplines end up dragging us down…...

Today, we're going to decide to start a discipline that can transform our lives.

Open your Bibles to Daniel 6.

Let me give some background on this story to get all of us at the same place. The whole story of Daniel is nothing short of incredible.

When we first meet Daniel he is carried off as a young boy to be a slave in the courts of an evil and bad king. Into a land with very different customs that worshiped all kinds of Gods and did all kinds of strange things…..

We are going to pick up the story in chapter 6 is when Daniel has, with God on his side, done lots of incredible things. Now Daniel is loved by the King.

King Darius has 120 governors to rule parts of his Kingdom. He picked three men to be over the 120; Daniel was one of the three.

Daniel stood out in the crowd because of his integrity and the way he led so the king said, 'I want to put Daniel in charge over everyone.'

See and any of us that have been promoted at work over our peers….or became team captain in school understand this can make people jealous….

The other 119 guys were jealous and said, 'We've got to put a stop to the teacher's pet, Daniel.' And so, we pick up the story in

Daniel 6:4-5 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs,

Let’s pause there…..what were they doing? They were looking for skeletons in his closet, let's find some trash, let's find some reason to make charges against this guy….

but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.

What a life! How many of you wish the story you were writing sounded that good? Totally Exemplary!!!! Totally trustworthy!!!

I wonder what Daniel’s keystone habit would have been?

Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”

How can we use this man who is so faithful to his God that he is above reproach…how can we use that against him!

So, they came up with a plan, you can read all of the details.

But let me paraphrase……

They basically went to the king and said, 'Hey king, we've got a great idea; wouldn't it be awesome that for the next 30 days, no one would be allowed to pray to anyone or any God except for you oh king!

And if they pray to any other God then you throw them into the lion's den!!!

And the king said, 'That sounds pretty cool to me, let's make a law. No one prays to anyone but me. And if they do, they're thrown into the lion's den.'

Why was Daniel looked upon favorably?

Why was he a man of integrity?

Why was there no corruption found in him?

Why did the king promote him in his leadership?

Why? Because early in Daniels’s life he made a decision to START doing something that made him into the man of integrity that he was!!!

Flip to verse 10 and let me show you what his decision was, what his KEYSTONE habit was, (mom keep together)

Daniel 6:10, Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.

He Did what? Say it aloud, and he:

prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.

Read this last phrase together…..just as he had done before.

REPEAT

REPEAT

Think about this, who knows for how long, perhaps years, maybe more than a decade; three times a day Daniel stopped whatever he was doing, made an appointment with his one true King and God,

He knelt down before God and aligned his heart to God, worshiped his God, prayed that God's will would be done in his life.

Why was he successful?

Why was he a man of integrity?

Why was he looked upon favorably by the king?

Why did he rise in influence?

Because he made a decision to START praying THREE times a day and God transformed his story into one we still tell today!

TALK about a POWERFUL START that made a POWERFUL Story!

Remember: the decisions we make today determine the stories we tell tomorrow.

But these men…they plotted against him go and find him praying and run and tell the king. And it says in Daniel 6:4

Daniel 6:14 “When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed; he was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him.”

But he had passed a law…..so Daniel was throwing into the pit of lions! But Listen to what the king said

Daniel 6:16 “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!”

Did you hear that!

His BOSS

The KING

KNEW how his employee LOVED and SERVED God!

Don’t let that fall on deaf ears in the room…..

Does your boss know you love God?

Bosses, do your employees know you love God?

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Drop down to verse 20 and let’s see the full impact Daniel’s Godly life had on the king! Here is what the king says in verse

Daniel 6:20 “Daniel, servant of the LIVING God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?” “Daniel answered, “May the king live forever.”

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I want to pose two questions to you. A simple question.

What is the story that God wants you to tell 5/10/50 years?

Repeat

For some of you it might be a different financial story…..you need to START a budget or sign up for FPU or cut up your credit cards.

If you start getting ahold of your finances today, five years from now your story could go something like this; “you know, I can barely even believe it, but five years ago we were living paycheck to paycheck and we were drowning in debt, but we started _____ blank, and now after five really disciplined and hard-fought years, we're completely out of debt!

No more credit card debt, no more student loan debt, we paid off everything but the house and we're on track to pay it off early!”

That could be your story if you start the discipline today that allows you to tell the story tomorrow.

It could be some of you God wants for you to have the right priorities, because you don't right now. And it could be five years from now if you start the right discipline today, your story might be something like this:

Well several years ago, I wasn't a good husband or a good mom or a good spouse, and I was pursuing my career more than anything else.

I told myself that I was doing this for my family, but I was really doing it for myself. I was really doing this just so we could have more money…..So one day I decided to start leaving the office no later than 6PM.

I decided when I got home my family was my only focus until the kids went to bed. Then me and my wife spent an hour talking before I checked my email or wrapped up some work projects…..

Now it's totally different; I've got the marriage that I've always wanted and my kids know me and I know them and I'm involved in their lives.

That could be your story if you'll start the discipline today.

It could be, some of you, it's more of a story about the way you take care of your body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. You may be able several years from now to tell a story like this:

Well it's hard to believe, but a few years ago I actually weighed 50 pounds more than I do today. And it's so amazing because I just decided to start eating right, or I started a diet, or I started exercising, or I started whatever.

But now I feel better about myself, and I've got a better ministry because I've got better self-image and my whole life is different because I started a discipline to help me tell the story God wants me to tell.

What is the story that God wants you to tell 5/10/50 years?

I want every one of you to just take some time, whether now or later and think about that…..pray about that….answer that…

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Let me make this personal….Let me tell you about a day I decided to START a new chapter in my life….. Students listen to me on this one…..

I was not the best kid in school. Believe it or not I was very well known by the principles….superintendents……I won’t go into the whole story today but on the last day of school my senior year…..before school was even out I was in the Principals office and let’s just say me and many of my friends ended up not having it be our last day…..we got in school suspension after we graduated!

I remember my dad sitting me down with tears in his eyes….and telling me that I had to make a choice….to START a new life…..or end up being loser my whole life…..

HARD WORDS…..but they pushed me to START a new life….they motivated me to go to a Christian College and not MSU…..if I had gone to MSU….it would not have been good for me……and now I am a Pastor…….if only my teachers knew……..

Students….it is NEVER to late to change the course of your life!!!

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Let me ask a follow up question then…..all about what we are talking about today…..

What do you need to start?

What do you need to start in order to tell the story that God wants you to tell?

What do you need to start to live a story worthy of telling? And here's the key, what I want you to do is pick one thing and one thing only, because every single one of you, you're going to be tempted to do what I'm tempted to do;

Pick one and you commit to one. You pray, you ask God, "What do you want me to want? What do you want me to start?"

What discipline do you need to start today to tell that story in the future?

And let me just tell you a few of the disciplines that I've started because this is something that is important.

I had a problem being a workaholic. I decided to START making my family a priority.

I use to leave the house before Jenny and the kids were even awake….I would work late…..travel a lot…..go out with others all the time…

And now, my story is very, very different.

I decided I wanted to be a part of my kids stories one day!

I DON’T want my kids to one day say, "Well, my dad neglected us and he loved the church and we didn't really feel loved or valued."

I made a decision to START prioritizing my family!

Let me tell you another START:

When we lived in Missouri I got up to 300lbs….I remember the day my size 44” pants could no longer fit and I was going to have to go buy new clothes again because I was getting bigger…..

I decided to START working out!

And could I be in better shape…sure….but

What does God want you to start?

Some of you, your marriage is not what it could be… so you need to START something new in your marriage.

Start a CONSISTENT date night! Or pray together or Study the Bible together!

Some of you, when you look at your spiritual life, and say what Spiritual life? So, START making church a real priority in your life.

Commit to being here weekly!

Commit to reading your Bible this year!

I don't know what you need to START, but I know if you honestly take time to look at your life…..it will come to you….

What story does God want you to tell? Do you want to live a story worth telling? The decisions that you make today will determine the story that you tell tomorrow.

I want to ask you a question, in closing…..

Life Application What discipline can you START that will help you tell the story God wants you to tell?

Daniel prayed three times a day…

Why could 119 men find no fault in him?

Because at some point in his life Daniel made what others would think was an insignificant and very small decision to START praying three times a day.

Let’s Pray…..