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thank you guys I'm gonna go ahead and let you be seated but as we begin this evening I've read this verse at the beginning of every week do want to remind you the nursery is staffed and there is no children's church tonight okay before we get into it but the nursery is staffed if you need that support amen but I do want to draw our attention as we begin this evening back to the verse we have read at the outset of of this particular series or study again I'm so grateful to Pastor for giving me the opportunity to teach on something I'm very passionate about my own personal growth is something I invest a lot of time and effort in in my my own spiritual growth because I want to be better today than I was yesterday I want to be a better version of myself than the man I was a week ago or even just yesterday I want to be a better version of myself of of myself than I was even an hour ago before I stepped for the foot through the doors of the church and so I want to read this passage of scripture again in second Peter chapter 3 beginning in verse 17. I know they're going to put it on the screen for me at least I hope they are if not that's okay we'll get it in a second there we go ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked the caution here guys is to grow that's the caution it's easy if we get stuck in our routines and doing things the way we've always done them and it's easy to get LED away it's it's easy if we're not growing to fall from our own steadfastness but Verse 18 says this but grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I want to know more of God tomorrow than I did today I want to be more aware and more cognizant of the grace that God has for me and has extended to me tomorrow than I did today you know the saying is this that you know at least a lot of people say this when they're talking about their spouses is I love you more today than I loved you yesterday and I loved you more today than I did when we got married and so the same premise applies when we're talking about how we grow and develop in our relationship with God how we become the best version of ourselves so that God can accomplish what he wants to accomplish in our lives you know we we have this this word that loves that makes its way often in the English vocabulary and you know um we use it for a lot of things it's that word hope anybody ever use that word yeah I mean Hope Is Awesome hope is awesome it's what every Tennessee fan has at the outset of August every single year foreign thank you I know Jaden's got me but hope hope is something that is not really tangible okay I was like I was thinking we were having a malfunction again I was like man I checked it before church oh I think we could still I think we can still have church pastor I think half the people in here are Georgia fans we're good yeah oh here goes meeting again all right but when we're talking about the word hope a lot of times we put our hope in the word hope we we expect to grow because we hope to grow hope is one of those things that it is like the starting off point it is the starting line for a lot of our experiences a lot of our development as individuals hope is that Dorian if you guys can go ahead and hand out those handouts for me okay hope is that hope is something that is not really tangible it's something that doesn't have any kind of real value Beyond just kicking us off however it is habits not hope that leads us to growth I'm gonna say that again it's habits not hope that leads to growth our habits will play a significant role in our own growth hoping to grow and hoping to be a better version of myself than I was yesterday and hoping to stop and start things in my life like we talked about last week hoping to do those things does not help me grow it is actual action Behind these things it is the habits that we create it's the habits that we stop it's the habits that we make intentional efforts to establish and develop so my crew here is is handing you guys out a handout tonight there should be plenty I made 75 copies in in uh in Ultimate aspiration of how many we would have here tonight but I'm gonna do my best to stay true to this and and I want to make sure the reason I gave you a handout is I want to make sure when you leave here there's something in your hand that you can look back and say this is how I develop the habits I need to develop to grow okay um so the first thing I want you to do when you get this hand out if you notice those first few lines there um you know and I know you've done this probably a thousand times at different points of your life but I'd like for you to just take a few moments and jot down the five most consistent routines that you have in a day now I want you to do this in order okay jot down your five most consistent routines do them in order okay take just a couple of minutes here everybody get one anybody missing one there's even fill in the blanks so I mean I'm trying to make sure y'all don't fall asleep on me tonight I have a pen if someone needs one if someone's short a pen oh you're just short oh there's another one that was in pastor's Pulpit here I'm I don't think it's a sacred pin oh it's save our children hey for the kids Sunday school you need it Pastor okay leave it right there we'll make sure yeah all right everybody's got a pen we're good then so our five most consistent routines in order who would be willing to share be loud be proud your third routine third one all right Bella tell us eat food that's kind of important anybody else have that as number three man y'all y'all need to fix your priorities okay brother Nathan what was your third one read the news in the Bible hopefully in that order or reverse the order or just I got you okay whichever man gotta get that Bible app in there first man okay what about your fifth routine anybody share your fifth routine all right sister Sloane breakfast that's all the way down at number five man I'm telling you what by that time I'm probably already getting ready to buy somebody's head off we we have a saying in our house it's it's uh not really a saying but like we understand that food is very very important I'm sure you can tell and uh you know so we have this thing in our house about food and food has an utmost priority like if you are the first one up you start making sure everybody else has food because you know in my house if the the animals aren't fed they start eating the odd man out literally okay and I I have no desire to be you know my my head to be on somebody's platter On Any Given morning so we're like feeding Cameron we're feeding Dorian and Jalen and fandrea still happens to be asleep I'm Shoveling some oatmeal down her mouth just so she wakes up in a good mood all right anybody willing to share your first routine somebody else let me get a new boy all right Lauren start the coffee man come home I think I felt Jesus in that either that or it was the Tim Hortons I'm not sure which but y'all don't know Tim Hortons I'm sorry if you're not from the north but that's good coffee so all of these things though we have these routines like if if I were if I get up in the morning I have this certain routine I have to follow it is the habits that start my day off well what happens if one of those routines gets out of order does any does anybody like have a really really hard day when those routines get out of order oh my goodness the alarm clock didn't get off I didn't wake up on time I have to skip breakfast I I have to skip my coffee and get something on the way maybe no all right that is a rough rough day but the habits are are very very important there are routines there why we we do what we do and there's there's good habits and there's bad habits and there's some habits that are kind of indifferent but most of them are going to fall in the category of good or bad habits and and you know ultimately we know what's a bad habit and we know what's a good habit it's those indifferent ones that we're not really sure why we are doing these sort of things but but we have them nonetheless and so I want you to think about a question how do our habits and this is just a reflection question how do our habits influence our growth just think about this for a minute and even make it personal so how do my habits influence my growth and some of y'all haven't thought about your habits in so long you just went oh as as I begin to like really study this out and prepare I've been reading this book I've mentioned it a couple weeks ago pulled a list that I gave you all in last week's lesson off of this book called uh the power to change mastering the habits that matter most by Craig groeschel I highly recommend this book if you get a chance and it's one of those books I I've got all these like school books I'm supposed to be reading and I'm like I keep finding myself gravitating towards that book um especially when I'm trying to identify why I do what I do why I I have the habits I have and how I can overcome them and I'm going to kind of use a lot of those principles and kind of talk you through some of those tonight but I'm gonna tell you what there is so much depth in that book I encourage you to check it out uh if you love to read but most of us would acknowledge that our habits have a tremendous influence over our growth our habits do you know I want to turn your attention to the book of Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3 if if uh I know they're going to pull it up for me but just kind of so you can set the stage we've got shortly after you know this is Acts chapter 3 comes after Acts chapter two you know um so so we've got this amazing day of Pentecost experience we've got people that are having changed 3 000 souls are added to the church in One Day miracle after Miracle amazing move of God and then we go to the next chapter where it says now Peter and John went up together in the temple at The Hour of Prayer being the ninth hour now again just kind of a little side note here notice that they did not break their routine just because the spirit of God was moving they said you know what I still need to make sure yes the power of God is Awesome over here but I still need to make sure I'm developing my relationship with God and a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried whom they laid daily at the Gate of the temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms of them that entered in notice what it says there go back to that verse real quick I want to make sure we we understand what we're reading here a certain man who was lame from his mother's womb was carried daily could we say that's a habit could we say that was a definitive routine that this man was in it's what he did every single day that's what the scripture says verse 3 who's seen Peter and John about to go into the temple ask in alms and Peter fastening his eyes upon him with John said look on us and he gave heed unto them expecting to receive something of them then Peter said verse 6 then Peter said Silver and Gold Have I None but such as I have give I Thee in the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk he went from being carried to being told to walk okay are you guys with me okay and then he took him by the right hand excuse me lifting him up and immediately his foot his feet and ankle bones receive strength excuse me and he leapings up stood and walked and entered in with them into the temple walking and leaping and praising God and all the people saw him walking and praising God notice in that passage of scripture in the course of Two and a Half verses we have seen a man that had been carried carried carried carried now all of a sudden in multiple times in this passage of scripture in a couple of short verses here he's went from being carried to now he is doing what he is walking notice the difference here that began to happen he was walking and leaping and praising God and all the people saw him walking and praising God and they knew that it was he which sat at arms at the beautiful gate of the temple and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which it happened to him when he broke his habit and he changed a little bit of what he had been doing and he began to change even just the small thing from being carried to walking which for him was huge when he did that he began to lead them and and open up an Avenue where people began to see the power of God in operation in a way a lot of them had not yet seen okay I understand he had to break his habit he had to break that habit that he had always done in order to grow into something and to receive what it was that God had for him he had to break that habit of depending on everyone else to do it for him and he said you know what it's not about Hope anymore it's about this habit I've got to break this habit and begin to do something different and when he did he began to walk he began to praise God and his life was changed he grew in a way that he had not yet grown when he broke his habit a bad habit especially Daniel in the Old Testament his success came not by hope it wasn't like Daniel said in the Old Testament you know in the Book of Daniel it's not like Daniel just said one day man I sure hope God will be here with me oh man they're putting out this decree I hope God will understand I hope God will God will forgive me but it was his habits not his hope that allowed him to experience that night in the Lion's Den where he was not destroyed it was his habits good habits that said you know what daily the Bible tells us Daniel Prayed he was so consistent in his prayer in his good habit that they knew exactly where to find him at the moment they were trying to accuse him did you ever notice that like they knew exactly where he would be at that moment because every single day he devoted to developing a habit and growing this habit of being in constant communication and connection with God and because of that the people around him that wanted to accuse him that wanted to destroy him all the while God's operating in different ways behind the scene but those people knew exactly where he would be at that moment interesting that sometimes people wonder where whether we'll be at church or not they wonder if we'll be doing the things that we say we believe in when the time comes that they wonder sometimes because of that and our our growth and our influence is important but he was so consistent and we must develop like Daniel to be that consistency that says you know what in any given moment people know where I'm going to be they know how I'm going to be developing and growing in my relationship with God but habits are difficult habits are difficult to operate in they're difficult to work in we have to learn to start small remember that first lesson we talked about and we ended talking about I've just got to take one more step today than I took yesterday but it even goes more small than that I've got to look at and say what is my goal for today what is my goal for today I've got to start small if I start thinking real big Pastor what are we at 13 years 15 years you've been pastor is that right it's almost 16 years and he tells us often like when the time came and he came here to to to follow the call of God into Chattanooga there was just a handful of people it had been very easy in that moment to start dreaming big and thinking about a two three million dollar facility right if that's the vision God I mean division's big but what's my goal for today to achieve where I want to be tomorrow what is my goal I have to start small and the way I start small is beginning to create habits that are pleasing to God number one and number two are sustainable we have to build upon that mindset that we talked about last week of stopping and starting that will then begin to Foster the environment for creating effective and long-term habits of growth for creating the environment for Effective long-term habits of growth so I want to talk to you guys a little bit about Keystone habits this is one of those things I never really learned about I read this in that book and I began to explore this a little bit more in depth than than what what Craig Rochelle talked about in in the power to change it there's something interesting about this I was trying to explain it to Andrea in the car and like you know I kind of went deep-minded Sam you you feel me right I was like I was off here in like my deep philosophical mindset of it all and she's like I just want to go get dinner like you know but Keystone habits guys Keystone habits are the habits that Propel other habits that they're the ones that do more to develop and grow see Keystone habits they Propel other habits and they bleed over into other aspects of Our Lives to create new behaviors and they may not even be something related but doing this changes the way we think about other things like by developing a keystone habit and it's simple a keystone habit says hey look if I can do this then I know I can be disciplined enough to do this and I could continue to grow and expand I I can't develop habits without having some Keystone habits already established for me going forward I I've got to develop these these basic choices because what happens is if I fail to meet my Keystone habit it messes up my whole day and it's something relatively small anybody ever forget to do something you know we talked about a minute ago forget to do something early on like in your day that you normally do what happened to your day you realize I'm a lot less disciplined than I probably should have been what's off and you go back and you track it to that one little thing you didn't take care of that morning that is part of your habit see that would then be a keystone habit because my success there then bleeds over into the other habits that I want to create or my failure there then bleeds over into my growth in other areas I'll give you an example I'm talking about my own experiences see the first thing I have to do if I want to have a successful day when my feet Hit the Floor the first thing I have to do is go to the shower that's the first thing if for some reason the kid is screaming upstairs or I hear the older two fighting and bickering and I go upstairs without getting my shower first doesn't matter if I come back down in 20 minutes 30 minutes an hour guess what happens to my day I I was blown away when I began to think about this it's like it's a it's a shower like it can happen before I leave the house at least I hope it does it doesn't have to but it's something so small that it becomes that Keystone habit because if I'm consistent about getting up and getting in the shower I find myself like I'm less likely to snooze hit the snooze button maybe that's what Keystone happens like I don't hit the snooze button not me at least twice I know I've got to roll out of bed by 5 30 if I'm out of bed by 5 30 I don't mess up too much of the routine but the Keystone habits are vital to building the habits that we need to have to grow into who God wants us to be and and as I'm talking about this some of you guys are already starting to think about some of those things that are Keystone habits that if you don't do them even though they're small it could be forget it could be flossing your teeth it could be popping on the Facebook real quick for five minutes when you first whatever that Keystone habit is some of you are already thinking about it if I don't do this first or pretty quick even though it's so small it throws off my whole day what I want you to do on your on your little note sheet there is go ahead and write down what came to your mind when you were thinking about maybe your own Keystone habits just jot that down real quick habits that give you the confidence to bleed over impact your day negatively but they're really really small really really small anybody want to share one any volunteers all right brother Nathan so that you've got to do that and it seems so simple but if you don't do that it messes up your whole day and regardless of whether you forget something or you don't you're thinking all day that something's off okay anybody else got time for one more let's just cure so if the sun doesn't wake you up you're exhausted all day is that right that seems pretty simple right but that's a keystone habit because everything else positively or negatively that happens that day is contingent on that one simple thing now I want you to think a little bit more what's something really really simple that you've been telling yourself you need to start doing that you think could have a positive impact on your day something super small okay we're not talking about reading the entire book of Genesis or Chronicles or you know whatever oh numbers that's a good one okay something really really small I want you to just jot something down there real quick a keystone habit that you want to create you want to start so you have what's already there what's something as you're thinking about it right now that might become a keystone habit because what's going to happen is if I'm able to start this Keystone habit I'm going to say you know what I've got the discipline to do all the other stuff I want to do I I've got the discipline like it's going to do something in our minds it's crazy how the brain works all right if you've never studied the human brain I encourage you don't cut one out of your neighbor's head but definitely do some research okay like the human brain is absolutely amazing if there's any doubt in your mind that you know God created this go just explore the research that exists on the human brain I mean it's unbelievable what the human brain can do unbelievable and you know there's some that still theorize and believe that this just happened by circumstance and I'm like there's too many intricacies and and awesomeness about the human brain that we don't see in any other creatures really it's phenomenal so somebody got those keys I'm not going to ask you to share this because I just wanted you to have this for you but does everybody have at least one Keystone habit that you might want to create man Tom's flying away from me I gotta hurry so we start with start with small always start with something small again breaking these Keystone habits will oftentimes lead to undisciplined choices that influence our growth maybe it influences in the sense of instead of eating healthy that day we decide you know it's a McDonald's cheeseburger on the menu with extra fries a regular soda because you know that diet garbage ain't gonna do it when I'm already making bad choices but we start with the small things you know have you ever looked at seeds anybody like Andrew has been getting a garden going this year and she's she's changed some things about it that we did last year and she actually got these little seed starter things y'all know what I'm talking about it's like a little box Greenhouse kind of thing you just set it inside the house and protect it till it grows a little bit we got a little corn stalks about like that they're kind of cool but the seeds in those things are so stinking small like they're like this big but what's amazing is the seed of a corn of a corn plant is about like that but we all see how tall they grow and when we look at our when we look at our Keystone habits we have to look at them like seeds we have to look at them like seeds is right now it's a struggle right now I don't even know how any when she put those in there I'm like how much money did we spend on this like what's the point of this and then within a week man we got those corn plants we got some squash plants don't worry Patrick will pair of ties are what we get but we've got all these different things like and they all just started with simple seeds but they're starting to grow because the point of a seed is to start small but grow big the harder it's much harder to keep a grown plant alive than it is to start with a seed it's much harder so let's talk about what helps us create habits what helps us create habits and this is not on your note sheet so if you feel I encourage you to jot down these four things if you've got space somewhere there's four things I'm going to talk a lot about our cues but the first thing is cues c-u-e-s this is how habits are created how they're born cues then from cues cues we go to cravings so cues Cravings then we go to our response and then we go to reward so cues cravings response Rewards I'm gonna say those one more time just so you can kind of jot this down this is how habits are created good habits bad habits all are created the same way okay cues Cravings response reward it's accused I want to talk a little bit more extensively about than I will the other three because this is the beginning point this is essentially the seed of a habit okay so when we're talking about cues cues essentially are the triggers of these cravings and they're the triggers of what will eventually become our responses the the cues are the things that factor in and have the greatest impact on whether or not we're going to develop a habit for the behavior that follows and and and oftentimes what happens is those cues keep popping up so there's there's several areas where the cues are are relevant or or were they specifically occur and so the first thing the first place that we need to talk about the trigger is the places that we go okay y'all know the plate like something that triggers a behavior out of you immediately when you walk in Cracker Barrel when you go into Cracker Barrel all right let me not you when I go into Cracker Barrel and I walk through the door it don't matter how healthy I'm eating it doesn't matter what I whether I'm hungry or not I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna eat about three of those buttermilk biscuits with some freshly melted butter and some strawberry jelly because I'm cued in on that place I was just telling Andrea in the car on the way here I was like you know what I have not touched a single biscuit anywhere except for when we went to Cracker Barrel last week I was like since March I haven't ate a single biscuit I know hard to believe but I have not touched this thing because it's the place when I walk in there it is a trigger for me specific places and specific feelings I mean some of you guys it's a cue for you or a trigger for you when you're driving by and you're close to Krispy Kreme you smell it and you look over and you see the light and you know it's on I got an amen over here I know there's more than like amen they don't want to acknowledge it but that's a cue that's a trigger for the habits that we create because the reality is how many of us if we see that hot sign on whether we're hungry or not if we got a couple of minutes here we're gonna pop in at a Krispy Kreme we're gonna get one when the hot signs on it's a cue it's a trigger because of a location also there's certain times that become triggers you know a lot of people find it much easier to exercise in the morning but then when they lay in bed at night they find themselves worrying whereas they worry less in the morning and exercise less at night the time of day is a trigger if you notice there's certain times if people have struggles and battles that they face most of the time it fits within a certain time frame think about your own times when you've let down I'm gonna tell you right now if I ever get sweets put in front of me between 1 30 and 4 30 or 5 I will most likely give in outside of those times I'm strong as a rock like no man I don't I don't need that man oh you brought Bagels this morning oh man that's great thank you I'm gonna let it go oh oh Duck Donuts okay um no I'm gonna let that go see me at 1 30. I will most likely so the triggers can also be times that that begin to develop these habits for us so one of the ways that we can utilize this for our advantage is to identify a time and a place where we want new habits to start yeah I you know one of the things when I get off track and I use my own personal experience on this because I don't want to call anybody else out but back before spring break I looked in the mirror and I was like you know I gotta do something about this it was when I was getting ready for church one Sunday and I realized that the suit jackets were size 50 um didn't fit and button at all like they were supposed to anymore and I began to realize you know I need to start so I went on that whole mindset of I need to start I need to start back I need to do right I need to cut back portions and all that kind of stuff I need to do those things but when I said I'm going to start this Monday morning first thing when I wake up I'm going to cleanse my body and I'm going to do this what do you think happened as a result of that I was much more successful yeah I was much more successful uh and since then you know I've dropped like almost 15 pounds and I feel better I look better at least in my own mind the the fact of the matter is if we can choose a time that these things will start our habits will be able to develop the habits that we want to do these are triggers for us they're cues anybody ever find yourself in a bad mood because the next thing is moods our mood is a trigger Good Moods we find ourselves being much more disciplined bad moods give me the rocky road ice cream and a big old spoon I know I keep going back to food but it's what the fat guy enjoys but we need to do these things and we need to like we need to be aware of this good good moods trigger good habits bad moods trigger unhealthy habits and even uh giving in to temptation all those kind of things typically follow bad moods you know there's a there's an acronym that says it's a halt okay so when you have a bad mood or when you think yourself about to give just halt h-a-l-t it stands for most of the time you give in to bad habits when you're hungry when you're angry when you're lonely and when you're tired those things when we give into these things and we develop these bad habits it hampers the growth that we're striving for it hampers all of those things it hinders it and most of the time if you look back most of the time when you have been undisciplined you will find yourself you've either been hungry you've been angry you've been lonely or you've been tired because it is much harder for us to be disciplined and maintain the mental power for that when we're in those positions the fourth cue or trigger is moments we find ourselves if we ever have an argument or disagreement with someone our spouse especially that's when we find ourselves making poor decisions or being undisciplined and again the if we're not aware of those triggers then we will inhibit the growth that we need to have happening in our life or maybe we have those moments too that help us create good habits because we celebrate something awesome now we think about those things and we want to do well we think about that time that we scored really really high on an exam and you know we went home and popped the Dr Pepper and said thank you Jesus celebrated it good moments there's also and here's a big trigger for us probably the biggest of them all biggest cue for creating habits is people I'll let that one settle for just a minute people wrong people can be accused that lead us astray from the goal of our own growth that we're striving for the right people though lead us in the right direction people are I'm gonna give you a little scientific fact people are more likely to be overweight if their friend group is overweight they didn't just come together and be friends because they were overweight but they're more likely to be overweight because their friends are just like even though somebody in that friend group may start to lose weight other people will start to lose weight too that are part of that group why because people trigger good habits or bad habits they trigger these things you know that's why the Bible tells us in First Corinthians and also in Proverbs to be careful who we're around you know be careful about the the ignorant counsel right consider these things and make sure you're being smart at who you're around because they can trigger good habits or they could trigger bad habits and if we're going to grow good habits has to be the focal point if we are going to grow into what God has for us and what God wants us to be good habits have to be the bulk of it so then we had cravings guys which are the physical emotional mental need that the cue leads us to do or want to satisfy the response then is our behavior that we typically fall into so like I'm all mad I'm gonna go on Xbox and play four hours of Call of Duty or whatever else you know or maybe I'm Gonna Save that one for a minute but our response to this our response to this is very very important and then our reward is how the behavior makes us feel and what happens is our brain begins to create this connection to the cue the craving our response and the reward we got for you essentially it comes down to the level of dopamine rises in our system and our brain says hey that felt good doesn't matter whether guilt follows it because we made poor decisions or they were undisciplined but there was a rise of dopamine in the system and that same Loop then with this process begins to get stored in our brain influencing our ability to grow in the future see habits form when we do something the brain enjoys that's what forms habits therefore we have to identify the strategies for creating habits that Foster growth hoping will not grow me and it will not grow my relationship with God I'm going to say that again hope will not grow me and it will not grow my relationship with God I have to be intentional about the habits I want to create in my life so that I can be all that God has ordained and destined for me to be I have to be intentional so that God can use these natural processes in me to make me who he wants me to be but if I am not intentional about it I'm going to put myself in some situations and I'm not going to apply the things that I need to do for God to do what he wants to do so let's talk about five skills for to start healthy habits for growth five of them the first one is this make your habit obvious make your habit obvious this should be near the bottom of the page there back into the blanks make your habit obvious make it obvious well what does that mean it means I'm going to redesign my environment so that I'm prepared for the Habit to be created that means I'm going to start looking at some decisions I might make before I would make them and I'm going to pre-load my response for instance if a habit that I want to grow is to read God's word more frequently I'm going to put my Bible in the first place I see it in the morning so that it is in my face and before I ever have a chance to make a decision to do it or not do it I'm gonna have that opportunity if my decision and and and and my habit that I want to create is to spend five minutes in prayer the first thing I'm going to have cued up ready to go in the morning is the worship music I want playing while I'm praying and my my prayer corner and my prayer closet ready to go I have to make my habit obvious if I want it to be successful if it's not in my face guess what our natural inclination is going to be uh I'll do it later I promise I won't forget I won't forget because it's not right there so we have to preload our decisions when we're making this obvious we have to redesign our environment to make sure we're putting the habits we want to create at the Forefront we also have to do what's called stack our habits to stack our habits which means we build the Habit on top of a previous obvious habit so if my desire in the morning first thing the habit I have to do is get a shower I'm going to make sure that the Bible is right there so I see it when I get out if the next habit I want to create is to spend some time in the word if the next step I want to create after that is to go upstairs and have the coffee pot going I'm going to have something there that's in front of me to help me build that habit and grow that habit so then it becomes second nature and it's not something I have to think about it's just something that begins to happen because I'm stacking them I'm pre-loading them I'm going to go ahead and decide the where and the when if I'm going to be successful in creating this I need to be obvious about the where the when the what it needs to be right there in my face I need to know okay if my time to read the word is at six o'clock in the morning every morning that I'm going to be there at six o'clock in the morning I'm gonna make sure I'm clear on that and there's going to be some things there to help me remember this habit and to follow this habit so that it becomes even more of a habit the next thing that we need to do is we need to make our habit attractive we have to build upon the dopamine release okay can I just really really blow your mind for a minute the brain doesn't want to do something we don't enjoy I remember not too many years ago I made up in my mind I was going to run in the mornings I remember that first morning I got up I was at Youth Camp I was like I'm going to do this I'd lost weight like it wasn't all that pressure on my knee anymore I got up man I ran all the way up if you've ever been to the campground I ran from the dorms all the way up to the road started run back as I'll walk got back to the dorm I was like man that felt good guess what I did the next day didn't happen because guess what running is not enjoyable to me I prefer an activity that actually has a point sorry Zach I I like Zach in this conversation is over here saying man I love to run like I enjoy that that's a good thing for him yeah that's that's a lot of dopamine release for that for me now no ain't gonna happen jogging running walk no like give me a basketball court and I may huff and puff up and down the court but I'm gonna give it my all because there's a point at the end like I'm gonna take this ball and I'm gonna put it in that hole or at least make it go buying in the process like I have to I have to make the Habit that I want to create attractive and it's not going to be attractive by being um something I dislike you know you you could say all the time I'm going to be a vegetarian okay but how much do you like meat yeah how how successful is that habit going to be are you going to be able to grow in that and the same is true in our relationships with God and our our spiritual Pursuits is that we have to be able to grow spiritually and in order to do that we have to stay connected with God John 15 5 tells us that he is the vine we are the branches hey that that we are have to grow in him so prayer and study of the word we've got to figure out a way to make that attractive we've got to make that enjoyable Mark 1 35 tells us that Jesus himself set this principle of waking up early in the morning to go pray notice it never said how long Jesus prayed you know I think so so many times we we limit what God wants to do in our growth because we try to put these astronomical amounts on it which I'm kind of getting ahead of myself a little bit but you know if you're having a way to make it attractive for you is to pray while you're sitting in your favorite recliner go sit in your favorite recliner and pray don't hurt your knees if it's very uncomfortable for you and not enjoyable you're not going to develop that habit if everything you're thinking about the whole time you're praying is you're saying oh Lord Jesus and it's not because you're reaching out to him it's because you can't feel your kneecaps like we won't be successful if it's not attractive we've got to figure out a way maybe it's the journal during prayer time maybe it's playing worship music or or taking out a highlighter and and doing all that but guess what if none of that is interesting to you if none of that is enjoyable to you it doesn't matter how hard you try it doesn't matter how many straight days you give up because there is no set time frame contrary to what's been shared with us there is no set time frame to establish a habit we have to enjoy it has to be attractive to us we have to make it so that we do not want to miss it that's the most important thing we have to make it so that we do not want to miss it if it's time spin in the word I don't I need to make that time not so drudgery man if I've got to do a different translation to read the word of God and make it attractive to me by all means do it because it's more important you get the word of God it's more important for my growth that I establish a habit that will grow and I will not want to miss being in the word and I will not want to miss being in his presence and I will not want to miss the opportunity to share his word with someone I have to do these things to grow we have to also the third one make our habit easy we try to force ourselves to do things that are not reasonable oh I'm gonna get up God we make these prayers at the altar God I promise every day I'll get up and I'll pray for an hour every day I'll start tomorrow good you're not gonna do it tomorrow now granted there's exceptions but the reality is you got to build up to that you're not going to be able never having prayed for more than two minutes over a meal well not even that long over a meal never having prayed more than two minutes and all of a sudden being able to sit in the presence of God in an uncomfortable kneeling position for over an hour you're not going to be able to do it you have to make it easy you have to look at it and say look I've got to look for these difficult and challenging habits and look for those things that the brain might try to opt out of and figure out a way to make them easier because here's a reality no matter how much desire I have in here the brain will always seek the path of least resistance and I'm going to find myself you and my viewing and looking and reflecting on my own life and my own habits and my own choices as a failure because I put my gold too lofty and instead of building the Habit up to something that was that significant of an hour-long prayer time I I need to start small I need to start with something a little more manageable something to me maybe as I wake up and I have two minutes of intense devoted prayer time I'm going to tell you you do that for a little while and you will not want to miss that two minutes and you'll find yourself wanting that two minutes to be four minutes and it won't be long in that four minutes you'll want it to be eight minutes and it won't be long in that eight minutes you'll want it to be 16. and it won't be long in those 16 you'll want to be 32 and then 64. and before you know your wife and your families I say hey come and spend some time with us because you want to be in the presence of God so much that the time and because you started with something easy and built to something bigger the skills for developing a habit are make it obvious make it attractive and please make it easy to accomplish because if you don't make it to accomplish easy to accomplish it's going to be a struggle we fail because we make things too difficult we fail in our growth because our expectations are two grand at the beginning I know I'm running short on time if you guys will give me about seven more minutes I'll be done this is my guitar this is not brother derons he did let me borrow the mic though come on play a little something for y'all I think we're gonna figure this out let's see if I push the right button here I promise I'm not gonna go uh like you what Jimmy Buffett no not Jimmy Buffett Jimi Hendrix yeah so like not too many years ago I decided I was going to learn to play the guitar Andrea is going to start laughing when I tell this story because my grandfather had left me at a 1967 Gibson J 45 acoustic guitar I'm gonna talk about a beautiful beautiful thing so I was like you know what I'm gonna make this promise to my granddad he left me a guitar I'm gonna learn to play the guitar but I'm one of those that I like to skip steps so I told Andrea I was like you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna learn to play something I'm gonna learn to play something and before I knew it I was going I was playing a song at least in my mind I was like I'm doing it you know we were pastoring the church we had a Christmas sing-along one one one year at Christmas like that first year I think we were there and I was like I'm gonna play Silent Night Silent Night oh Holy Night then I just sat there and just went hey look I could do this I can make it seem like I know what I'm doing right so I'm sitting here going all these things right our skills make it easy so what do you think happened because I was trying to make myself play a song it wasn't long my guitar went in the closet the promise that I'd made was left unfulfilled all because I wanted to do something before I was ready in my mind my habit was I'm gonna play a song every day better is one day in your courts as that one was really simple if I remember right yeah like she's over here laughing because she remembers me doing that in the basement or the in the basement of the the church apartment that we were in you know what eventually what happened is I began to put it away and when I put it away The Habit that I wanted to form dissipated you know why because I did not make it easy I jumped straight in and instead of trying to learn to play at the Grassroots of it starting with a G learning instrument I jumped straight to trying to do all kinds of too many things my growth as a guitar player went away brother Duron got a little excited when he saw me walk in with this tonight he's like hey somebody else no man if only you knew but the fact I got a cool guitar though I mean you can't hate on my guitar it's beautiful brother Logan can play it later make it sound good but the fact of the matter is I had to make my habit easy because if I don't make it easy if I don't make it easy I'm not going to follow through you know and the thing is is the easier I make it now the more I want to build and then it becomes more attractive and when it becomes more attractive I want to make it even more obvious and when I do those things I want to grow I find myself growing in ways that I could never have grown on my own let me go through the last two real quick brother Ron if you can come let's give everybody hope that there's a real musician coming so I asked the question that why did Peter sink why did Peter sink because he saw the Grandeur he wanted the grander but he didn't have the small steps yet what about the Rich Young Ruler that came to Jesus and Jesus said hey look you want to do this you got to do this you got to do this he gave him steps but all he wanted all he saw was the grander moment it was it wasn't easy enough for him in his mind he wanted to make it harder the fourth thing is we need to make our habit communal which means we need each other I love what we're doing on Tuesday nights and I can't wait till I get my school stuff done and I can be back there more consistently but I love what CR is attempting to accomplish you know why because there's some bad habits that were being broken and some good habits being established but it only happens through communal support you know we used to sing a song when I was growing up you're my brother you're my sister so take me by the hand together we will work until he comes we must have the support of each other if we're not supporting each other we will not grow beyond our own capacity however the scripture gives us a precedent and a principle and says if one can put a thousand the flight two can put two thousand ten thousand understand that law of mathematics doesn't make sense except when you have two people building together growing together establishing habits together because when you go into these groups and you have these support members around you you have these friends these these support opportunities you're more encouraged to stay true to the small habits you're building and you may not win every week but you are going to win more than you lose support is healthy and necessary and we already established that people influence our habits unrequently yoked as it's talked about in second Corinthians chapter six is not just about romantic relationships it's about having the right support around you to develop the habits you need to develop to grow into everything God has not just ordained for you but for the others in your life as well we must make it communal and our last one is we must make our habit repetitious we must make it repetitious it's been said that the difference between a really strong weight lifter and a really really strong weight lifter is repetitions that'll make sense to some of y'all later the word I want to put out there is potentiation potentiation means this Connections in the brain so strengthen with repeated activity the more you do the easier it is to do the more you do the easier it is to do remember we talked that first week the more I take a step one more step today the easier it becomes to take that next step tomorrow the more things I stop in my life that are negative and the more things I start the easier it's going to be in those things going on and the more habits I start that are positive the easier it's going to be to create those stand with me today see walking around Jericho in the Old Testament we always wonder why God does things I I kind of have a theory okay it's not it's just a theory but I have a theory that God was building repetitions in them day one day two day three day four day five day six walked around went home walked around went home see they started small but on the seventh day the Bible tells us that they walked around seven times that first day there was a lot of complaints as you might imagine that second day a few more that third day they just kind of began to figure out okay what's old Joshua up to fourth day fifth day sixth day but then the seventh day came and what they thought was so brutal that first day they had already created a habit that would allow them to grow and obtain the promise God had already given them because of repetition hey here's the crazy thing if I miss a day it's okay it's okay atrophy doesn't happen from one day but if we make our habits obvious if we make them attractive if we make them easy if we make them communal and if we make them repetitious there is no limit to where God is going to take us as individuals and the way he is going to accelerate the growth of us as a church in our families and Beyond I believe that I believe God has given us everything we need to establish the habits to stop the things we need to stop to start the things we need to start and to take that one more step so here's what I ask us to do today you wrote down a keystone habit that you'd like to start I do want you to consider where you want to be down the road I'm going to put a Time on it I'm going to say in 10 years oh no let's not go that far let's go five where do you see yourself in five years pretend you're on a job interview where do you see yourself in five years get that in your head real quick where are you going to be in five years okay let's go 12 years where are you going to be in five years how are you going to grow in five years give that boy a microphone let him teach next month faster based on your desired growth track and where you want to be in five years I want you to think of one habit beyond our Keystone that you need to start right now just think for just a moment and as we close tonight I want us to bring that one Habit in our mind and I want us to come around this front and I want us to take that habit before God and say God I know the plans you've had for me plans to prosper me God I I see this future in my in my own mind as you get that habit I want you to go ahead and come and I want you to bring that habit that you need God to help you start and help you hold strong and would you just bring it to the front right now and just lift it up to him and just talk to him about what you need from God in order to grow into what he needs you to do what habit you need to start come on just come and lift it up to him right now come on let the words of our mouth begin to cry it out to him right now father you see the desires that I have God you see the hungers and the dreams in my life God you alone know where I need to be God you alone know where I will be God but I pray Lord Jesus God I want to be closer to you I want to know you God I want to grow in you Lord Jesus God I want to grow as an individual I want to expand my horizons Lord Jesus I want to expand the territory of influence God I want your power and your anointing to be heavy in my life oh God and I come to you tonight Lord Jesus with this habit I'm asking you to help me create God to help me establish in my life God it may be small right now but I know the principle of growth says you're going to take it higher and you're growing further than I could ever do on my own come on will you lift it up to him one more time father in the name of the Lord Jesus in Jesus name God help us Lord Jesus to grow and be God who you need and want us to be God to be who we need to be for our community for our family for our friends God for our own future in our own destiny God I pray it right now in Jesus name Jesus name