Habits; Apply, Rinse, Repeat Part 2

continuing tonight continuing what we started last week on the subject of habits everybody say that word habits habits and i simply gave us the correlation between a shampoo bottle if you read the typical directions on any shampoo bottle they would go along the lines of apply rinse and repeat apply rinse and repeat and i believe that's the best way to describe life informing forming holy and healthy habits apply rinse and repeat just like you need to repeat the practice of washing your hair it's not just a process of one and done somebody say amen but that is the same truth in reality when you form healthy and holy habits or behaviors you just don't wake up and do something one time such as washing your hair you don't go to walmart you don't buy a bottle of shampoo and you don't use it once and then throw the bottle away you do you use it every day and i know women sometimes the longer the hair you don't wash your hair every day but i mean just about without fail men do wash their hair every single day uh you don't just uh you don't buy a bar of soap and use it one time all week long and throw that bar of soap away and somebody ought to say man right there if you do that nobody will want to ever be around you hallelujah hallelujah if you and i want to be a person changed if i want to be a changed individual if i want to be a person to whom god can use to change the world our world our individual worlds there are things we must everybody say apply apply rinse and repeat we got to do that every single day we learned last week and i'll just have a brief recap we learned that a habit is a repeatable behavior in your life a repeatable last week we talked about the fact that we all have habits they range from holy healthy and even horrible okay we learned that our life today testifies to the habits in our life for better or for worse your relationship with god today is saying something about your spiritual habits i'm going to say that again your relationship with god is saying something about your spiritual habits your family and marriage today is saying something about your household habits hallelujah your health today is saying something about your health and wellness habits last week we learned that time causes habits to have an accumulative effect in our life know and i hope that makes sense good has somebody say good habits makes time our ally but bad habits make time our enemy say what you will you're more than likely not going to die from one drink of alcohol more than likely but you do that for 20 years your liver will give you your liver will play out and you will you will be the recipient of what a bad habit and how a bad habit becomes your enemy much like smoking you don't smoke the first day and get cancer you don't you don't smoke the first day and get lunch chronic lung issues somebody ought to say amen i'm not belittling anyone i'm just telling you bad habits have a way of becoming your enemy in the future of your life maybe not right now but in in your life and in your choices and decisions of life those habits end up producing the life you have to live i believe it's safe for me to say as your pastor god called to this to this assembly in this hour it's time to take inventory of our spiritual life our home life even our health habits and throw basically i'll just say it like this throw a launch party a launch party of brother edwin small repeatable changes a launch party i'm not talking about some big grant i'm talking about a small launch party that's going to produce repeatable changes our ladies are doing it this week they're praying at six o'clock every day it's eight o'clock now now for some that may seem like minor and some of you've been doing that for years but for those of us that we've been praying but it's getting us at a scheduled time it's getting us focused in together it's getting us you but you know what's going to happen in 30 days from now because of small repeatable changes small things that we just tweaked changed you're talking about something's on the horizon in our church in our families in our homes and you may not see it right now but you do it long enough it's going to produce something in your life that's like coming to church being faithful to the house of god just start doing it today i'm gonna be faithful to the house of god today and you do that on sunday and you do that on wednesday and you do that every time you get a chance you know what you've just formed a habit of being faithful for those of you and we welcome you that are joining online joining online at the time the service starts at seven o'clock or whenever you can walk but doing it every week you form a habit of joining us and creating a strong spiritual habit hallelujah

so tonight we're going to take inventory and starting this week we're going to take inventory many of you will go home and think about this lesson and go back and we re-watch it i believe the health not only physically but spiritually are going to be affected

paul called the church at thessalonica to some incredible habits and i want to read these for you in first thessalonians 5 16-22 rejoice always pray without ceasing in everything give thanks for this is the will of god in christ jesus for you do not quench the spirit do not despise prophecies test all things hold fast to what is good abstain from every form of evil paul was telling the church these are some incredible habits that you and i can form and if we do these things it's going to produce something in our lives it's going to start affecting how we look at things how we think of things how we live think of the power i want you to think with me of repeating just one of those habits every day rejoice always every day i'm going to rejoice no matter how bad it is sister christie we're going to rejoice no matter how bad it is brother downs we're going to rejoice brother no it doesn't matter brother no i am going to rejoice always good bad high low whatever unforeseen i'm going to rejoice always now that's saying something right there about us as individuals if we could just adapt that this week i'm going to rejoice about everything always

what about pray without ceasing well let's go to the in everything give things i don't know if i can do that i don't know if i can do that what if i get a report from the doctor that i wasn't i i didn't have calculated into my future give thanks what what if something happened what what is something that i did not i didn't plan on i don't understand and god didn't warn me and i don't understand what god's doing in the why god's doing in everything give thanks in everything give thanks don't despise prophecies the entirely of the entirety of the description or the understanding of that i may not know but maybe you've been prophesied something in your life and it hasn't come to pass yet just make up in your mind i'm going to hold on to every word i've ever received from god and it will come to pass i'm not going to despise that word it may have not happened yet what about abstain from all from every form of evil i'm just going to stay away from it i'm not going to let my good be evil spoken of i'm just going to stain the very appearance of evil i'm not going to be at the wrong places at the wrong time i'm going to be at the right places at the right time i'm going to choose my friends wisely i'm going to make my choices in my my conscious decisions because i'm going to abstain abstain from every form of evil

last week we man it was so awesome when we read and understood about a man who had anchored healthy habits in his life his name was daniel he lived before the teaching of paul but he practiced first thessalonians 5 16 when it said he prayed without ceasing prayer was a holy habit somebody say that holy heaven the repeatable behavior in daniel's life is found in daniel chapter 6 verse 10. now when daniel knew that the writing was signed he went home in his upper room with his windows open toward jerusalem he knelt down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his god as was his custom since early days he didn't stop what he was doing he just did what he did every day it did not matter what the king what they had signed what the petition was i'm going to my room and i'm open my window towards jerusalem and i'm going to pray just like i've done all my life it was he had a holy habit of prayer and because of that prayer transformed daniel's life let me tell you what else prayer did prayer protected daniel's life prayer empowered daniel's life the prophetic would flow through daniel and he would write prophetically through prophecy and angelic witnesses that he would write down things that we're living today that we would not have had if he had not prayed the habit of prayer and i love this the habit of prayer became part of daniel's identity when you think of daniel you think of daniel in the lion's den but you would not have read or would we would not be he would not be known of land daniel in the lion's den had he not prayed he would have been eaten up he would have been consumed we'd have read about the boy that got thrown in there and he was he was a good midnight snack for the for the lions but because he prayed god shut the mouths of the lions and it became his testimony hallelujah

let's let's talk just a second about how our identity relates to our habits if you're taking notes this will be a good one right now habits shape your identity we often accuse people of being judgmental when in fact we're giving them we're giving them what they are judging by our habits habit shape your identity you get known by your habits whether you like them or not you're getting all by your habits think about daniel he was known as a man of prayer why he prayed everyone knew he prayed faithfully to his god daniel was known for a habit so are we now let me ask you this what do you want to be known for now one songwriter said i'm going to get the words all messed up i'm going to be famous i want to be famous for loving you i don't think that was a christian song but i just remember hearing the word somewhere in my not long ago if i'm going to be famous anyway what do you want to be known for

in the book atomic habits which i highly recommend the most effective way to change your habits is not focus on what you want to achieve but on what you wish to become now you think about that the most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve but on what you wish or who you wish to become the wise solomon said as a man thinketh in his heart so is he before you can focus on goals and what you want to implement in your life you've got to focus on identity ask yourself what do i wish to become what do i wish to become how many remember in school i remember first second third grade and somewhere in that i remember what do you want to become when you grow up matter of fact we did that when we honored all of our graduates and those little those little uh kindergarteners it was funny i believe it was brother weavers uh brother weaver's son said i want to become a doctor or a vet i believe it was a vet if i'm remembering right somebody said i want to become a vet and every student after him because everybody applauded that was the cool thing to become so because he wanted to become that everybody all those little ones want to become the same thing you got to settle what you want to become what what what i want what do i wish to become come and in the book james clear describes this is a two-step process you've got to decide the type person you want to be what kind of person you want to be now this is heavy what i'm going to tell you on the next one but it's worth right now you got to decide the type person you want to be and prove it to yourself with repeatable behaviors what do you want to become and you got to pray you've got to convince yourself you've got to prove it to yourself by getting up every single day and repeating behaviors that will produce what you want to become i know that seems maybe over your head maybe elementary but it's so true when you think about it

the most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do you want to change outcome you got to change income input changes output think about this who you are is to change what you do remember every action we make in a given day is a vote everything you do is a vote for the type of person you wish to become everything you do is a vote for who you want to become i know that's heavy i know that i know that's hit but it's causing us to consider what we're doing it's kind of like insanity everybody knows what insanity is doing the same things over and over every day and expecting different results it's just it just doesn't work that way if you want to change who you are and become that person you said you wanted to become you've got to prove it to yourself by repeatable behaviors that's going to produce what you want to become

you know i'll never forget since i was 13 years old it had been spoken on me you're going to be used to god you're going to be uh mightily used of god i didn't understand what that was i had people prophesied pastors i didn't understand was that what now i grappled with it and i you know made mistakes fell short but eventually grew to the point you know what if i'm going to become what they said i was going to become i've got to start doing some things a little different i got to start my actions have got to match up with what you know what i started doing i started serving serving in the last anything i could find my hand to do i'd do it serving in youth my wife and i served as youth pastors we served on the cleaning committee we served that y'all my pastor never never had to worry about the outside of the church that was i was going to do that never never started adopt blog started outreach ministries started running a bus my wife drove a little sawed-off blue school bus and we went into an underprivileged area and picked up bus kids and i said god we're going to do this for two years two solid years we picked up kids every sunday then pastor created a hospital team you're on the hospital team yes sir whatever we had a hospital phone and people that went to the hospital or were on there called that hospital phone and it rotated through all the ministry team and we was at that hospital midnight two and three o'clock in the morning it didn't matter i said you know what one day i'm gonna understand what all that all this means it's producing something going to elder's house preparing food for those uh that had lost a loved one and and taking it to their home and hosting hosting small groups i didn't understand all that but at the end of the day i wanted to become what somebody said i could become and what i eventually believed i could come i just had to start doing repeatable behaviors that could produce what i eventually believed i could become

it's like i admire we have a we have a lady in our church who is a single mom who just graduated you had a goal of graduating didn't you sister amanda and now you've re-enrolled in and going to athens state correct because you got a goal of what you want to become now you could have stayed and man i wish that i could become whatever it is but wishful thinking don't produce results like somebody that says you know what i don't care if it takes me x amount of years i'm gonna work i'm gonna raise my family i'm gonna go to school i'm gonna go online if it's one course a semester i'm gonna eventually get to my ultimate goal and before you know it you blink because of repeatable behaviors you're here now with a graduation diploma and now you're registered for another season of life two degrees two degrees i'm highlighting her because you know what was that an easy decision to make not i mean how am i gonna balance home and raising two kids and next and some of you have done the very same thing but you put a goal in mind brother josh and it took you out of state and you went to school and you put a lot of hard hard work but to get where you are today it just took somebody said i'm going to do this enough days behavior is repeatable i'm gonna wake up one day and i'm gonna cry i'm gonna walk across that aisle i'm gonna get that job that i dreamed of getting and here we are today why because you will end up where you end up because you did behaviors repeatedly whatever that is whatever it is in life you're going to end up there because you're repeatable behaviors your identity this is worth writing down your identity emerges out of your habits and i'll ask you again what do you want to become what do you want to be let me let me say it like this what do you want to be known for

how many hours approximately brother chris did it take for you to get licensed to be an adjuster too many to count now if i was to ask brother chris did you ever feel like in the process at times the thought is it really worth it becoming an insurance adjuster is no easy thing that's like a college degree when you get through hours and hours of study and prep and practice testing but something inside of you said you know what i'm going to become this adjuster it might come hell or high water i'm going to become one i don't care how long it takes me i don't care what i got to do what do you want to be known for you've got to settle that and then become that through your habits through what you do every day

one of the most gratifying one of the most gratifying moments in life is when a healthy or holy habit becomes part of your identity imagine someone coming up to you and saying you know what you're a great parent now of all of us in our lives we've not always felt like great parents we've dropped the ball a time or two we've said things we've done things could have done more should have done more but it's kind of gratifying when you know you've tried and you man put my best foot forward and hear somebody you know what you got great kids you must have done something right to hear those words are gratifying or to hear someone say you know what i really respect your walk with god that makes that makes an impression on you that all of that work and that determination the concentration the intended intentional focus man somebody noticed they noticed i've changed they noticed i i'm not the same person i was a year ago your prayer what if someone comes up man your prayer life inspires me your ministry to others is so strong what if somebody were to come up to you and say that

did you know that healthy and holy habits can change your beliefs about yourself if i were to ask this one question to you i believe without fail most every one of you would say the same thing what's your number one enemy it's yourself you look at them in the mirror every day you're your number one enemy because you feel like i'm never good enough i never i never measure up i'm never but holy and healthy habits change your belief about yourself i've watched people my whole life make healthy decisions and accomplish things they never thought they could accomplish they i've seen people get on a mission and i've seen people do drastic things i've seen people run marathons they didn't do it overnight but they just started every day getting up early and started getting in a routine of working out conditioning and doing losing weight many of you know losing weight's not easy but you do know what it takes it takes discipline trial error ups downs but you know what when you lose that first pound and you get through that first week and you've lost two pounds and you get to that third week my lord because i did these little habits every day here i am and i'm at a goal that i never dreamed really i would would ever accomplish when i started but because brother josh i did it every day it's produced something in my life you do it long enough and you change what you believe about yourself i've watched people who thought the miracle of transformation was for everybody else but holy repeatable behaviors changed their belief about transformation in their own life and

i say this to new converts i'm saying this to all of us in this place don't try to live for god a month at a time it'll get you frustrated i just don't know if i can do it a month at a time i don't know if i can live for god for a moment why don't you just try to live for god today and in the morning when you get up live for god today and and the next day when you get there if the lord terror you live for god that day and before long 30 days is going to pass and you're going to realize i'm not the same person that i was when i started 30 days ago but because i got my mind off of what i couldn't do oh i can live for god tomorrow or i can live for god today i can make wise choices today i've watched people grow in god until their self-doubts evaporated into expectations self-doubts just vanish into i mean i expect god to do something and i'm i believe god's gonna do something in my life

hallelujah man we've talked about the fact that habits involve repeatable behaviors but let me give you a key about those repeatable behaviors establish habits with small repeatable behaviors james clear says small repeatable changes in your life become habits more easily a simple change that is small and easy allows for it to become routine just change one thing change one thing and do it day after day after day before long it becomes who you are it becomes your identity hallelujah

i would encourage all of us as people of faith and people of god don't knock individuals who make small repeatable behavior changes encourage them now here's here's here's always been my my theory i believe god can instantaneously deliver you from anything i believe that i prefer that because i believe god's able if you'll surrender your will surrender your life to him but if you decide to take the long route of deliverance that's the hard route i'll give you an example if you're smoking a pack of cigarettes a day i believe god can instantaneously deliver you ain't that right brother dodd and system anybody else in here been delivered from substances addictions it can happen just like that but what about if you take set a goal you know what i'm gonna take one out today and then the next day take two out and the next day take three out you're taking the long route but you know what you do this long enough with a determination in a made up mind something could eventually click in your spirit and you'll wake up and say you know what with the help of god i can just lay the whole pack down i'm not doing this anymore i proved to myself and to everybody else i can do it so don't knock small repeatable repeatable behaviors in individuals lives cheer them on because zechariah said for who has despised the day of small things most successes are the product small most successes are the byproduct of small repeatable habits not once in a lifetime transformations although your changes may be small over time they will compound to increase in momentum those gains and losses really add up after five years after 10 years after 20 years that's why when you're investing money you almost set it and forget it why because it's going to have highs and lows how's them have good days and bad days but at the end when you retire if it goes like it's supposed to you're going to be okay we went through an economy i won't say a crash but we went through an economy setback through covid go check your 401ks today it's almost all bounced back in most markets because you didn't panic you didn't freak out you didn't say oh my just hang on it's going to be all right just keep doing what you're doing just keep putting that six percent in every month when you get to the end of life you're going to wake up

prime example my mother and father my mother started doing 401k and i i know she's probably watching she started doing 401k years ago now my dad was a little more resistant the lord's coming back before 401k he's gonna even be lord's coming back by then but you know what after about 15 20 years of working approximately you know what i might need to put a little that money back if he would have started when mama started putting back he'd have a little bit more money but now all he can do is look in envy and and say my lord if i'd just done that what you did look where we would have been today just small things every year every week every month whatever that paycheck and you put in and contribute to a 401k that you eventually i know that's not in my lesson not in my notes but

you don't see the dividends it's going to produce in your life by just being faithful to the house of god bringing your kids to sunday school i know it's a struggle mama i know it's a struggle dad i know you're working two and three jobs and i know you'll find out in about five or ten years what you're really what really life was worth all about i thank god today too and my children are two of our children are in bible school today it was bittersweet this week emotional but you know what we didn't just raise them up and they just decided to go things were being deposited in them all of their life you're gonna do something great for god i believe god's going to use you and eventually you wake up and they're 20 and 22 they're being used by god but it took habits every day every week to produce getting one percent better

think about this getting one percent better every day counts for a lot in the long run one percent every day if you just increase one percent when you get 365 days in a year think about how much of a percentage that is right there you got better from january 1 2020 to january 1 2021. one percent every day 365 percent better than when you started just one percent think about daniel's life every day he prayed one prayer doesn't seem like much but habits are really tiny gains or tiny losses that accumulate over time and translate into major outcomes this habit became part of his identity this habit became powerful this habit changed the nation this habit of prayer resulted in prophecy that we are seeing fulfilled at this moment daniel's system of prayer saved his life in a strange time

i believe we can all say we're in a strange time if we are not in a strange time i don't even i i don't even want to live to see those days and be honest with that this is as strange as we've seen in our modern era or so it feels like we're living in a strange time we've got stay-at-home orders we've got mask mandates we've got we we've got so much going on we're now on the verge looks like college football is shut down who would have ever thought who would have ever thought nba ncaa nfl now college foot the major sports world that contributes trillions of dollars to our economy would have ever been shut down but it has who would have ever dreamed our rights under the constitution of worshipping in churches would have come under attack this year but it has i think it's safe to say it's time there won't be much longer we're going to be praying even so come lord jesus everything that can be shaken will be shaken and that which is remain cannot be shaken

oh james clear said it like this there is surprising power and small repeatable changes apply rinse repeat you do it enough you live for god long enough it will change your life you do it long enough brother james it's going to change your life

john 8 31-32 then said jesus to those jews which believed on him if ye continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free if you continue apply rinse repeat you gotta apply rinse repeat the word and it will make you free small changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you're willing to stick with them a few years

i'm coming to a conclusion i believe what i felt over the last several weeks of time in this coven 19 process that we are literally on the threshold of one of the greatest spiritual breakthroughs not only in our church but in our community i believe that i believe we're just right on that that cutting edge of something supernatural transitioning in our lives but here's one thing i've learned about breakthroughs they don't look like breakthroughs in the beginning they look like setbacks breakthroughs in the beginning aren't remarkable breakthroughs don't happen right away breakthrough moments are often the result of many small repeatable actions and those actions accumulate and finally unleash a breakthrough you keep digging you keep praying you keep pushing you keep believing and then eventually you wake up and understand this is what we've been feeling this is what we've been believing this is what's really happening in the spirit realm and here we are beneficiaries of the greatest breakthrough that this modern church this apostolic church has ever known before

if you believe that i want you to stand to your feet all over this house hullabal what do you need to change i can't answer that for you what do you or who do you want to become i want to become a better husband i want to become a better father i want to become a better mother i want to become a stronger leader in my home i want to become a prayer warrior i want to become a greater witness i want to become and you fill in the blank to become that is going to take you doing small repeatable behaviors that will produce what you want to become

what do you want in life what do you want why do i need a new car okay i need a new house i need this or i'd like to have that you know what it's going to take small repeatable behaviors it will produce it may take a little overtime every now and again it may take two it may take husband and wife going back to work it might take an extra job and i often say how bad do you want it how bad do you want it that's at the end of the day you've got to i want to become this and have a mentality this is what i'm willing to do to make it happen this is how we're going to do it we're not only going to achieve in the natural but also in the spiritual i do not believe it's the will of god for us to succeed in the here and the now and we let our spiritual man and our spiritual wall just go to the wayside we get our priorities all mixed up got to understand that we can't in the pursuit of this life lose our spiritual walk with god but i believe you can do both of them i believe you can achieve and become all that god and in this life you can be blessed of god i've got too many examples where people were blessed of god the hand of god was upon them but they also were used mightily in the kingdom of god and that's what i want to see in all of our lives in all of our circumstances in all of our situations

keep the main thing the main thing that's what brother timmy said keep the main thing the main thing if we can do that i believe god will transition god will begin to shift some things in our life and you're going to wake up man i've become what i've always dreamed i would become i am dreamed to be in this i have dreamed of this day and here we are we wake up boom there it is because we just made small repeatable behaviors

why don't we lift our voices and lift our hands right now father in the name of jesus lord i thank you for this day i thank you for this night i thank you lord for helping us lord we're nothing without you we cannot do this without you lord but with your power with your strength with your anointing you can equip us you can change us you can god form something inside of us that's going to strengthen us and guide us in this day and in this hour god so that we can become all that you have intended for us to become