Better Habits | Jud Wilhite | Central Church

well i'm glad you're here um i hope you had a good week this week uh honestly we've had an up and down week it's been a hard week um in our home uh this has been a hard weekend for me we just did the funeral this weekend of a dear friend um who passed away a couple weeks ago uh 48 years old after um a 18-month struggle with colon cancer and you know it's just i've been really reflective especially this weekend just about what matters and what's important in life this friend of mine was incredible i mean he had so many friends everybody thought they were his best friend and he loved his wife with all his heart loved his kids he was one of the good guys y'all one of those things where you say man they just they went too soon too early we prayed a thousand prayers for him it doesn't make any sense and sometimes those are the cards life deals us i got to be with him just um right before he passed away a few days before he passed away and he didn't really look like himself anymore he lost so much weight he was just a shell of the strength and vigor that he once had but he had fought cancer with the best attitude and all the strength you could ever ask for somebody cancer is one of those things it takes the weak and it takes the strong and he fought with so much strength to the end and i held his hand there in that special moment that i got to have with him and i thanked him i told him goodbye but i thanked him for loving his family well i thanked him for bringing hope and encouragement to so many people i bawled my eyes out frankly i bawled my eyes out at his funeral i bawled my eyes out all the way home but the whole time i'm thinking what really matters in life because if the last year has taught me anything if this weekend has reminded me of anything it is that life is short it's a breath y'all and it's gone and if we're not careful we can lose our priorities and lose what matters most a lot of people have said i've said so many times this year man i just want to get back to normal come on somebody i just want to get back to normal right we've all said it thought it you know i i watch tv and i'm like oh remember those days no mass people just hanging out like i just want to get back to normal but the more you think about it like i don't really want to get back to normal i want to get back to better there are some things we've learned this year there's some lessons you've learned there's some things you've had to live through and go through this year and those are lessons we need to hang on to for the comeback and i believe we're in a comeback i think we're gonna we're gonna come back to to um to life i think things are going to start moving forward rather rapidly and as they do are we going to come back the same because for some of us if we just go back to the same you know what the same was the same was struggling with the same old bitterness the same was filled with all kinds of petty resentments the same was anything for some of us but happy right normal was not necessarily healthy i don't know about you but i want to get back to better i want better than normal i want my heart to be free of those little petty things that used to weigh it down i want my focus to be on things that matter most in my life i want to live with an awareness y'all that i'm going to die soon and hopefully not tomorrow but only god knows right and if you ask me if it's 10 years 20 years 30 years 50 years it's soon i need to live with an awareness that i got to number my days so i can make the most of my days i got to value what matters most that's what we're going to talk about over the next several weeks what's most important what matters most to you in your life what matters most to god you know it's really simple from a biblical standpoint love god and love others jesus said that's the most important thing just love god and love others as i held my friend's hand in his final days that was what struck me about him he did that well he loved god well and he loved people well and if we can do that that's a successful life listen god can use what you've been through to give you a breakthrough god can use what you've been through to give you a breakthrough and you've been through some stuff so how do we learn from this last year in the comeback to make some adjustments and changes to our life so that we come back better to set us up i want to go to one of the most famous passages in the bible jeremiah 29 11. this is what god says and i'll read this off the screen when we get to the red word i'll just ask you to jump in and say it out loud here with me but jeremiah 29 11 god says for i know the plans i have for you says the lord they are plans for good and not for disaster to give you a what a future and a hope turn the person next to you and say you have a future you have a future you have hope some of you need to hear that because over the last year you've started to wonder if you still have a future right some of you need to hear that because over the last year you've started to wonder if god still has a plan and a purpose for you in your life in your business for your dreams for your future for your kids and here god is telling his people listen i have a plan and the plan is to do good to you the plan is to give you a future and a hope you have a future because god has a plan listen i think i've told you before this last year i've read the bible personally devotionally more than i think in any other season in my life looking for wisdom asking god for guidance i've prayed more than any other year in my life i don't want to lose that those are the things that sustained me through this last year but there's one verse that i think god has just anchored into my heart that i've hung on to all year long isaiah chapter 43 god says i'm about to do something new and then he says do you see it to his people i'm going to do something new do you see it he says i'll make a pathway through the wilderness i will create rivers in the dry wasteland i've been hanging on to that all year long and i've been saying god give me the eyes to see it because i don't always see it sometimes all i see is the wasteland it's called the news sometimes i'll come on somebody sometimes all i see is the wilderness right you know it looks like politics i mean i i just look around and all i see is wilderness and wasteland but god says listen to his people i am making a path through the wasteland i'm making a path there's going to be something new that's happening and he asked his people do you not see it i'm moving and working in these situations so if we're going to come back i want to talk about how we can come back better here's the first thought for you today and that is to practice one better habit just i want you to just think about practicing one better habit in your life today you know uh if you've ever seen the show annie there's that famous song from annie it goes you know tomorrow tomorrow i love you tomorrow right your only what you're only a day away tomorrow i love you and it's this like when you're in a bad place when you're hurting when you're struggling like that's a that's an awesome thing it pushes you forward tomorrow when you're going through something you want to say tomorrow i can look forward to something tomorrow but if it's always about tomorrow you're never going to change today and there's a place when we're struggling where we got to bring it back to today and say what can i do today that's different now jeremiah 29 11 is written to the israelites in a time of exile they've lost their homes they've lost their savings they've lost everything worse than quarantine they were literally uprooted and taken to a foreign land as captives and a lot of them were singing this song they were playing the song from annie in their head and a lot of the false prophets were coming along and they were like hey this isn't gonna last too long one year two years you're gonna go back to israel we're gonna get back to normal right just another year or two and then we're back to normal and so a lot of people man they weren't they weren't trying to make any adjustments to their life they were holding on to some hope about someday and they weren't doing anything today they were singing the song tomorrow and they were ignoring the opportunities in front of them and god comes along through jeremiah in chapter 25 and look at this beginning chapter 29 beginning in verse 5 he says this build homes that doesn't sound like you're going back right build homes and plan to what stay ooh plant gardens and eat the food they produce marry and have children then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren god's telling his people listen you're hoping for someday to get back to normal but i'm doing something new you're in captivity your life's been flipped upside down everything's gone crazy but i want you to plan to stay listen god's greater future is made possible by today's faithful actions god's greater future it's made possible by today's faithful actions the israelites they just want to get back to what they lost right they want to give back to some of us right now all we want to do is get back to last year pre-covet if we could just get back to what we lost but god wants them to build up new from what they have god wants them to look they got to focus on what they do rather than just wish for what they want and so someday is built on what you and i do every day some days built on what we do every day now there's been a lot of research done about uh habits and goals in our lives and there was a best-selling book that came out recently uh called atomic habits by james clear amazing book he talks about in this research uh three different levels of commitments that we make in our lives and as we kind of move through these three levels we you know as we move along the the levels become more and more effective and grounded in our lives first we start with with goals and you know i want what what are the things that that you want in life many of us are goal people some of you you've got goals and i think the challenge with goals if you're like me is is i got a lot of goals but i don't always have the most follow through hello right like those goals are amazing but but i get sometimes i have so many goals i could never do them even if i wanted to you know like if i really looked at it but you know we we would love to start a set up with goals and we start with our goals but what you want to do is get to a place where the goal gets broken down into a habit a habit says not just i want you know i want a better relationship with my family i want to achieve more in the work in the workplace um you know i want to get married i i want to um move closer to home whatever a habit starts to say i will and this is the challenge for us what will you do today that will move you toward your goal in other words if you have a goal to read 10 books a year well then the habit could be i'm gonna read three pages a day right until you get the habit going in your life you're unlikely to sustain the goal but you get that habit going you want to be in better shape right well you know it's hard to and who doesn't want to be in better shape hello right but that goal isn't going to matter unless you break it down into a habit you know i'm going to walk for 20 minutes every day right i'm going to you know i'm going to work out more days a week than i don't or what i'm going to like habits start to break it down you say i want to my goal is to de-clutter i'm a hoarder i confess it i want to declutter just let me come over i love to get rid of stuff i'm all about it somebody said that's my goal all right well what should the habit be well the habit becomes i'm gonna i'm gonna organize one drawer a day that's the habit i'm gonna do it every day now a lot of people say if you just do a habit for like three or four weeks it's done right you've locked it in it's become a part of your life but james clear says well the more current research says a habit can take check it out anywhere from 18 days to 254 days i don't know where they got 250 for but that feels like a big disparity doesn't it like 18 days i got that 254 man that's like sold out but somewhere in there they say the average is about two months the habit starts to take root in your life and you want to get to the third place which he calls here identity where you start to identify yourself with what was once simply a goal and then a habit in other words some people you know you ask them like well you know who are you like what are you about you know they say well i'm a i'm a health nut right like that goal i want to get in shape then became a habit i will do this i will do this and then it eventually became part of their identity you know they say well i want to read 10 books a year and then they get the habit of reading three pages a day and they do it long enough people say well who are you well i'm uh you know i'm a book person i'm a reader right now it's become a part of their life i'm a follower of jesus i'm a church-goer you know i'm these are the these are the identity cues in our lives that means something has now become a part of us now i don't know what you want to change in your life but i thought this was pretty helpful to think about and my encouragement to you is to just step back and think about what is one thing god wants me to change as we move into a new season if this is the comeback and we're going to build back better what's one thing that i can change in my life it'd be look if you're like me you can come up with 30 right you can get a whole plan and now you're going to conquer the world and you are a little napoleon great but just pick one just one one one thing keep it simple keep it small what's one thing you want to change in your life then develop habits around that one thing simple habits that you can actually do right to be like i want to get in shape and i'm going to work out four hours a day okay but you haven't done that once yet right so maybe just start with 15 minutes you know something small and then eventually that can become a part of who you are and you can then tackle the next goal that you have in your life so here's some one person put it this way i thought this was super helpful i'm going to paraphrase a little bit of it but they said this you do not rise to the level of your goals somebody needs to hear this you do not rise to the level of your goals you actually fall to the level of your habits everybody just went oh yeah let me write that let me think about that that's good you don't simply rise to the level of your goals you fall to the level of your habits goals are important but habits are crucial if you're going to get to the accomplishment of those goals so what you do every day is what determines who you become someday so here's some habits that i've cultivated in my life things that i do every single day and when and then i'm going to share with you my one that i'm working on okay just keeping it real um but these are the things that that i did all through coven that if you ask me like uh what sustained me over the last year it was these simple habits that made the biggest difference over time first one was this spend my first 15 minutes with god every day just my first 15 minutes with god every day now i could have said spend my first hour with god every day and sometimes it'll be an hour sometimes it'll be two hours but why make it difficult what if it's not so i just say i'm gonna spend my first 15 minutes because sometimes i gotta run y'all and so that i don't put pressure on myself but i just say first 15 minutes when i wake up i read through a psalm i pray through it if you've been around central very long then you've heard that many times but just find something that works for you my first 15 minutes is with god prayer and reflection um another simple habit that i've tried to anchor into my life is to just tell my wife and kids that i love them every day every day just tell them i love them because they're critical and they're important um and if the last year has taught us anything it's how important those friendships are and those family relationships how critical they are to everything else so much else will change so much else in our life can get flipped upside down in any moment but family and those core friends those people are forever i've got to cherish them in my life and so i've done a lot of time this year checking in on people how you doing just want you to know i love you i'm about to sound really gushy and i'll send a really gushy text i don't care life's short y'all but i want to tell them i love them every day here's another one for me give thanks for my church and pray for you as the people of my church this is what i do every single day i want you to know that i pray for you every single day i read a statistic this week that 29 of pastors in america seriously considered leaving ministry in the last year almost 30 29 and it wasn't that they were going to leave their local church that they served and go to another church it was that 29 seriously considered doing something else with their life and i understand that many sectors including the church it has been a brutal year to lead through very challenging but i want you to know i think part of why my heart is not even close to there has been because i've prayed for you and for our church every single day through this whole thing and it's that's not a statement about me right it's a statement about the goodness of god what i want you to hear is what you pray for has a huge impact on your heart and on your life when you pray for people on a daily basis your heart grows for them your love grows for them you care about what's going on in people's lives and so that's been a huge habit for me another habit that i've engaged in is to read or listen to books 15 minutes a day just read or listen to books get some stimulation going in my mind 15 minutes a day so those are just some i could go on and on but i i've got these habits that i try to do every single day to keep me learning growing grounded in my faith grounded in what god's called me to do here's the habit that i'm trying to develop okay right now this is my one simple kind of practice that i'm gonna try to do coming out of this message and that is work out more days a week than not okay work out more days a week than not um look when you're my age you get less concerned about how you look hello and you start getting a lot more concerned about how many years you got left you get less concerned about appearance and more concerned about i want to be there for my for what god has called me to do i want to be there to be able to fulfill the purpose god has put in front of me right i i don't know that i can extend my life much but whatever life i've got left i want to be able to live it to the fullest that's the motivation and uh i've done terrible with this during cove when copenh first happened i have a little home gym a barbell and plates and a squat rack and you know i shut it down out of solidarity with all the other gym goers you know just compassion and kindness towards others solidarity unity and uh it's been reopened very sporadically since then you know so that's my commitment that's something that i'm trying to do but whatever it is for you maybe you know maybe you want to um grow more in your faith maybe you know your number one goal is to grow more spiritually or maybe it's family related or maybe it's work related whatever maybe it's deal with an addictive issue in your life maybe it's deal with a sin issue in your life something that just continues to haunt you i just say focus in on one thing keep it simple set a habit that can help you address that one thing in your life and keep doing it research says for up to two months or more keep doing it regularly make it simple so that you can easily do it and then it begins to become a part of who you are then you can tackle the next one and uh allow god to move in that and remember through it all that our ultimate identity is in god we're his kids he has plans for us and that can actually sort of fuel that awareness can fuel the changes that we engage in in our lives listen you are not simply a number on a scale you're not a number in their bank account uh you are not the worst that somebody else says about you you are more than all of that you are a child of god you're a child of god you're not a hopeless case right you're not too old to make a difference uh you're not too young to have influence you are a child of god you're not too broken to matter you're not you're not simply like your bankruptcy or your breakup you're more than your medical condition you're more than your follower count you're more than your anxiety you're more than your job title you're more than what's in your resume you're more than you know what other labels people may put on you you're more than what you do you're more than what you fail to do you're more than your regrets you're more than even what you think is possible and god is already doing a new thing he has plans for your good you don't have to do everything but maybe you can do one thing hello you don't have to fix everything but maybe you can just start small and fix one thing build one better habit in your life people may ask why you're doing it one day they'll ask how you did it just build one habit in your life and let it take root here's another thought and that is to multiply your motivation remember years ago i went for a hike with a um a mentor and some friends and it was a multi-day trek through the smoky mountains on the appalachian trail and we had these big packs and we'd hike and as we were going along um when we were exhausted we'd gone like 15 miles and we're still going and it's uphill and you know we're worn out and and my mentor would say this little quote that he was always saying through this entire hike he would say boys the summit is a state of mind and then a little while later you'd say remember the summit is a state of mind what was he trying to do he was trying to get us to enjoy the work of the moment he was trying to motivate us to realize this is what's special not that because when you get to the summit he was right we only stood there like 20 minutes and then we're all like well i guess we'll start heading down now got to get to a little camping place before nightfall you know i guess we're gonna that was it and i've thought about that for years and years since then the summit is a state of mind in other words we always want to move towards certain goals so think if we can just get to that goal we'll be there but i think a lot of our goals are sort of like hollywood have you ever tried to go to hollywood i don't know if you go to new york you can go to like times square if you go to hollywood you're like i don't know am i is this it any of you try to go you're like i'm at the chinese theater does that mean i'm here there's a mall there's a mall am i a hollywood yet it's kind of like there's no there there and i think i think sometimes when it comes to our goals we think man if i can just get to that goal i'll be there no no you got to learn to enjoy the climb because that's really where the there is right when you get there it's probably not all that it's cracked up to be a lot of times we look at other people and we think oh i want to be the next steven spielberg you know they're amazing they're gifted i want to be a movie director producer whatever like that's what i want to do that's my goal that's my vision or pick your person right i want to be the next lebron james i want to and we look at these people and we only see the success we see the highlight reel but we don't really think about the fact that almost all of their life is not filled with getting awards it's filled with doing the work one foot in front of the other i've known a few highly successful athletes i don't really want their daily schedule it's no fun y'all they just get up and work out and work out and don't get to eat what they want and work out some more and then they go to bed and then the next day they get up and it all starts over again and it never stops if you don't love the work you're going to be miserable so one of the motivations is to fall in love with the work in front of you whatever that is you know people say man i want to write a book well do you love writing because if you don't love writing what's the point of just having a book because if the book sells well guess what happens they want more and now you've got to write more books and if you don't love the work that's like a prison and now you got to do more and more and more of what you don't even really love because you love here's the thing we fall in love with the idea of success more than the work that it really takes to get there so i think a powerful motivation for us in our lives is to fall in love with the work i started with my little 15 minutes a day i start my day with god i wouldn't miss it for the world now it's that moment i love it i don't always have revelations sometimes i'm i got 80d i'm bouncing all over the place in my mind i can't focus sometimes my prayer life isn't very consistent i try to pray but then i go oh what's that and then you know i got my ipad and i'm like oh click you know squirrel you know what i'm over here and then look i'm just like everybody else but but i just keep showing up and i've learned i love the process i've fallen in love with the process and when you fall in love with the process people that say i'm a health nut they've fallen in love with the work of going to the gym you know what a friend of mine who's super fit calls it he calls it joyful movement joyful movement fallen in love with the work the successful do every day what the average only do some days the successful do every day with the average only are willing to do some days and so one way you can multiply your motivation is is to want something bigger than just results let's say the goal is 10 000 steps but what you really want is to be able to play with your kids without getting winded come on somebody like that's the motivation i'm gonna work out for that right the goal is to lose 20 pounds but what you really want is to be around for your grandkids and get off some of the medication that becomes what drives you the goal is to master a new skill but what you want is to simply have more freedom or the goals to read more books or listen to more podcasts but what you want is to have more wisdom so that you can lift your leadership lid right so the goal may be to do more but what you really want is to become more and enjoy more and mean more to others let the bigger thing motivate you when you go about the daily thing check this out jeremiah chapter 29 beginning in verse 6. i love this this is god's word to his people who are off in exile and captivity everything's upside down he says multiply that is not about math sit with that for a minute somebody's going home be like hey baby bible says multiply he says we're not having any more kids well we can practice okay multiply do not what dwindle away and work for the peace and prosperity of the city where i sent you into exile pray to the lord for it for its welfare will determine your welfare it's it's tempting when you've been through something like we've been through to want to just pull back and kind of dwindle away to want to close the blinds you're tired you're worn out it's been a hard year employers are telling us through different articles the experts are saying that we potentially will see the largest job market movement in the history of our generation in the next year people moving leaving jobs for other jobs we're about to see a breakout and i don't know if it's true or not but it makes a lot of sense when you think about a lot of people want to move back home they want to get closer to family after all we've been through this last year a lot of people living in certain states are like i'm out of here you know i want to go to that state or i'm going over here a lot of that going on same thing with the job market and the job world there's a lot of movement and a lot of stuff because we've been through some things but one temptation is is to dwindle and my encouragement to you is now is the time to push back on that and to say god give me the motivation to just take one thing and start going after it every day and just climbing out of this maybe emotional or mental or spiritual kind of funk or hole that i'm in god i'm i'm just going to start climbing out of it one day at a time you either live for something greater or you'll start dwindling into something lesser so that's why we're starting this four week challenge we're challenging everybody to get back to church get back in the routine in your life some of you you've been coming to church and watching church faithfully all through the pandemic and you've meant so much to me i'll tell you when this first happened and we closed churches down and you know where everybody was trying to do the right thing and we closed i didn't know what would be left i didn't even you know there is a moment i won't lie where you're kind of sitting there alone with god like is this are we done is this over and um i want you to know like your faithfulness to our local church i don't even have words you've inspired me i mean it no no no no you've inspired me that's what i want you to hear your heart your faithfulness please sit ah look [Applause] i have been so moved by the courage of our people i've been so moved in the early days of the shutdown watching volunteers out putting food in the backs of cars when everybody on the news make you think you're going to get coveted and die before the end of the night and they did it anyway we know a lot more about it now than we did back then but they did it anyway uh people who have been faithful to serve and faithful to give and faithful to minister to one another and take care of one another it's just it's blown me away and i thank you for that and i think in this next season there's a whole other group of people who have continued to be around the church but have sort of just lost touch with that habit in the swirl of everything going on and our call to everybody now is hey let's let's get back into faithful rhythm showing up at church honoring god with our life letting god inspire us so that we can come back to better let's just make the main things the main thing again so multiply that multiplication that god brings into our lives i know for some of you weight loss has been a lifelong struggle i know for for some of you it seems like people you love will never change listen but god he's already doing something new he's already moving in a new way i know how hard it is to alter things in your life to fight certain cravings that you have i know the job market may seem impossible for some of you i know that man you may feel like you're never going to love what you do for a living i know that your financial world may seem broken beyond repair and your mental health is a constant struggle it seems like there's no good solutions but hear me god is already doing a new thing listen for some of you your spiritual life is so dry and it's been so dry for so long you wonder if your faith even matters i know it can feel like your family is never going to get back to normal your job's never going to bit back to normal your community is never going to get back to normal your life's never going to get back to normal but god is already doing a new thing and with god things may not get back to normal but i believe they can get back to better to his better it's a new path through the wilderness right it's a new river through the wasteland it's a new plan for good and not disaster for your life and mine and god's asking us as he asks the israelites do you see it don't just look back if you want to come back look forward to god in faith he's doing a new thing and so should we so i want to encourage you practice one better habit this week just one thing small simple thing don't beat yourself up this is a no shame game just one thing set yourself up with a small make it so easy you can't not get an a right and then just try to be faithful to it this week small habits can lead to big changes what you do every day determines who you become someday either live for something greater or you start to dwindle into something lesser so don't give up don't tap out don't wait for things to get back to normal but partner with god so that things can get back to better maybe you're here today and maybe you've never crossed the line of faith in your life if that's where you're at i'd love to give you an opportunity just to reach out to god and ask him to move and work in your life and fill you with his goodness and his mercy if you're ready to become a follower of jesus today i'd love to lead you in a simple prayer to open your heart to him would all of you bow your heads and close your eyes you can begin that journey by just repeating after me just say dear god i thank you for loving me thank you for sending jesus into the world i believe he died on the cross for my sins i believe he rose again forgive me for my sins give me the gift of eternal life help me face the challenges that i'm up against god i surrender my life to you in christ's name friends with every head bowed and every eye closed if that's your prayer if it's your commitment i want to ask you to just slip your hand in the air to just acknowledge you're going to follow him you're going to trust him in your life you're going to anchor into him just slip your hand in the air [Music] god we love you i thank you for each person just reaching out to you and i pray you'll fill their life with your goodness your peace your joy thank you for the privilege that we all have of walking with you every day and may they experience that joy and powerful ways in their life we thank you in jesus name amen let's put our hands together for those who made spiritual commitments in their life today if you made a spiritual commitment i want to tell you congratulations we've actually created a resource that we hope can be helpful to you it's simply called how to follow jesus and all you need to do is go to central.family and click the link i've decided to follow jesus and you can get your free resource in your life today well at this time let's put our hands together for our location pastors who are going to come out and close out our thank you experience much for that powerful message and if you said that prayer with him at the end of that message and you made the decision to make jesus the leader and forgiver of your life we want to give you that how to follow jesus guide uh you can simply go to central.family fill out the simple form and it'll be emailed directly to you also we mentioned the four week challenge this is week one you've already got one down keep it going let's go over the next four weeks and we'll have a gift for you at the end if you do all four weeks you can simply go to central.family and see where you can check in for that as well well remember as always in romans chapter 8 it says if god is for us who can be against us keep showing up

Channel: Central Church

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Keywords: central church, central online, central live, drew bodine, it's okay to not be okay, pastor jud wilhite, jud wilhite, Sermons, online church, easter at central, christmas at central, first step, celebrate recovery, groups, central youth, cy nights, cy, mancave, girls night out, me time, hope for the city, central academy, faith, 2021, The Comeback, Comeback, Better Habits

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Length: 39min 37sec (2377 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 10 2021