Small Things: Habits

This morning I want to speak about habits. I said this three weeks ago that there is a word that informs our thoughts, which in turn informs our word, that will drive our habits. Let me give you an example: If my word is cheat, then I will think about cheating, which will make the things I say about cheating and then my habits will be that of a cheater. Likewise, if my word is generous, then I will think about how I can be generous, I will say generous things and then my habits will be generous because I will believe what I say and do what I think. It is from this idea where I said that it’s often the small things that no one sees that result in the big things that everyone wants. I know you guys don’t know this, but about two years ago now, I’ve had a word: that word was “available.” The reason that was my word was because I was never available. I was always so busy that I wasn’t available to even take a minute to breathe. So as I thought about what it means to be available, I started thinking about how I can make myself more available to people. Then I started talking about my availability, which made me realize how available I can really be. Now, the way I work, is to make sure that I am available no matter what. This applies in terms of time, money and energy. I have available time to do things, I have the availability in money, and I have the available energy. But getting there was a lot harder than I anticipated. Getting to that point took and takes a lot of discipline. [CHANGE SLIDES]. DISCIPLINE IS CHOOSING BETWEEN WHAT YOU WANT NOW AND WHAT YOU WANT MOST. Now we all know something about discipline, and I don’t mean getting spanked for doing something wrong. I’m talking about the discipline to sit there and do what you have to do because you know you have to do it, no matter how painful it is. You see, it’s discipline that makes a basketball player consistent in basketball. It’s discipline what makes a pianist be able to play piano really well like it doesn’t take any effort at all. It’s discipline which helps those who are smart and do well, actually do well and be smart. The problem is that we’re not that discipline. If you don’t believe me, just look at your lives: when was the last time you enthusiastically did something you hated doing even though you knew that doing that thing you needed to do (aka practice) would be beneficial in the long run without your parents having to threaten you to do it? Better question: what was the last time you chose to do hardwork over video games, or sleeping in, or pushing it off until later? Another question, when was the last time you were writing something and thought, eh, I’m done writing, I did enough—the bare minimum and called it a day on anything you submitted? I think better yet, we complain about how “not good” we are because our lack of discipline. This begs the question: What am I so inconsistent? Let’s go to Romans 7 to find out why we do the things that we do. ¹⁵ I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate… See you weren’t the only one that didn’t understand why you make the wrong decisions that you make and why your habits are undisciplined, lazy and sucky. ¹⁸ I want to do what is right, but I can’t. ¹⁹ I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. ²⁰ But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it… The bible gives us the ultimate reason about why we are such great underacheivers: it’s called sin. Sin is doing anything that is not good. I want you to write that definition—sin doesn’t mean bad, it just is something God wouldn’t do, nor would He recommend you to do. That’s what sin is. Not only is doing something that you know is wrong, a sin; but also, doing something that is not entirely beneficial for good is sinful. Here’s an example: becoming rich for the sake of being rich and doing nothing with it is sinful. It’s not wrong being rich, I want everybody to work hard and be rich; but when you are rich for the sake of being rich and you don’t do anything with it, that’s a sin because it doesn’t do any good. Let’s keep reading. ²⁴ Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? ²⁵ Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 7:15, 18b-20, 24-25 NLT Underline that in your notes. The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. With Jesus’ help, we can change our habits. Christ that is in my is stronger than my appetites.  What I want now doesn’t have to be what I want the most and so my habits change from satisfying now to looking toward the future. Lets go to 1^st Corinthians 9. Paul was writing to the church in Corinth and was talking about the Corinth-Isthmian games. The Isthmian games, this is a fun fact, was like the Olympics, but they happened the year before and the year after an Olympiad. There were five sports that I know of: chariot racing, Pankration (we call it MMA now), wrestling, music and poetry contests, and boxing. There was a strict diet for all the athletes, even the poets and musicians. They couldn’t eat junk food. They trained and trained for almost a year. Let’s see what Paul says about that. ²⁴ Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!  Let me tell you what the prize was. The prize was a crown of celery and 100 drachmas. A drachma literally means a handful. I think a drachma would equal about 6 coins that fit into an average sized man’s hand, so that’s about 600 dollars for winning. Paul says, if you’re going to do anything in life, then do it in a way that you won’t lose. He says, why would you play to lose? Play to win. Do everything like you’re going to win. The reason you do anything is to win and be the best. So Paul says to do it. Let’s keep reading. ²⁵ All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. I want you to understand this. Our lives, especially if what we want most in our lives is Jesus Christ because he saves us from sin, that is doing anything less than good, with our lives, then we’re not just looking to win right now, this moment, this month or even this year, we’re playing for an eternity, that’s forever.  ²⁶ So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. Paul says everything that we do means something and counts for something. Every decision you make, every action you take means something. That means, even going to brush your teeth at night, even though it sounds like a silly habit, means that later on you won’t be fighting cavities. It means eating that cheesecake at ten pm will not do your diet any good. You’re doing everything you do for the long run, the eternity.  ²⁷ I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) What do you want the most? What do you need to do now to have what you want most? I set up a chart for us to look at. The reason I have this chart is to help us look at the big things we want the most. And then write down ways on how we can get there. It’s not easy, but if you’ll notice, there are a lot of baby steps that we need to take, that we have to do over and over again so that we can get where we want to go. We’re doing it for an eternal prize. Let’s pray.