I'd like to say hi to all of our 18 campuses and welcome to 40 days of Prayer which is our spiritual campaign a growth campaign that we're going to do this year every year for decades we have done a spiritual growth campaign where we pick a subject and we focus on it intensely for about six weeks and we do this because God wants us to grow and so we spent a lot of time emphasizing a period of time in our church life every year on you personally growing spiritually you know babies are cute and I love them and I love little kids and there's so much fun to watch when especially in that but two and three year old stage but a baby that didn't grow up would not be cute that would be a tragedy we're made to grow up almost every problem in the world is because of spiritual immaturity an inability to see beyond ourselves I want what I want and I want it now you want what you want you want it now and it causes Wars and it causes divorced and it causes businesses to overextend and collapse and all kinds of other problems in the world simply because we can't get beyond ourselves maturity means becoming more Christ centered and more other person centered and less about me it's not about you you're not the center of the universe God is and maturity is growing up to see that God is the center and that our lives are meant to help other people around us in Ephesians chapter 4 you'll take out your message notes chapter 14 it says this we're not meant to remain as children at the mercy of every chance wind of teaching you know when you're immature you don't know is that true is that not true is that is that God or is that just some opinion we're not meant to remain as children at the mercy of every chance wind of teaching instead we're meant to hold on firmly to the truth in love a lot of people hold on to the truth but they don't hold on to it in love and there are two things there you can be truthful but you can also be nice you can be polite you don't beat people over the head with the truth we're not meant to remain as children at the mercy of every chance wind of teaching instead we're meant to hold firmly to the truth in love and to grow up in every way into Christ circle the phrase grow up as we're starting this spiritual growth campaign for this year I want us to look at what does it take to grow up and before we even get into the issue of Prayer and all of the benefits of it in your life we're gonna look at that in detail in the weeks ahead I want us to go back and say why do we do what we do when we do these campaigns everything we do at Saddleback Church we try to base on the Bible and there are actually six laws the spiritual growth they're more than that but there are six laws that form the basis of every campaign we do every single year and we've done it for decades I want to share with you those laws of growth why because I want you to grow up God wants you to grow up and hopefully you want to grow up spiritually you know you can grow old without ever growing up the world is full of people who are in their 50s 60s 70s and older and are still spiritual babies and they're cantankerous and they're mean and the backbite and the gossip and they've never ever actually grown up I don't want you to grow old I want you to grow up and every campaign that we do are built on these six underpinnings that we call the laws of spiritual growth so what does it take to grow my job as your pastor is to help you grow to help you grow in every area of your life and your financial life in your relationship life and your career life and your spiritual life and your friendship life in every area of your life God wants you to grow up he wants you to mature he wants you to become all that he wants you to be and for that to happen you have to follow six rules of the universe God created the universe on certain laws their physical laws are the laws of physics that determine the physical nature of the universe for instance the law of gravity is a is a physical law second law of thermodynamics is a physical law God invented these laws by which the universe operates but in the spiritual realm there are spiritual laws that are just inviolable and you can't ignore the law of gravity and you can't ignore the laws that God sets up for the universe in our spiritual realm too so let's look at them number one if you're serious about growing you don't want to stay a spiritual baby first you have to understand that we grow when we feed on God's Word we grow when we feed on God's Word now anybody knows that physically you can have good health or bad health determining determined by your diet and if you eat junk food and never eat any healthy food that's going to take a toll on your system and the same is true spiritually that if you're going to grow spiritually you've got to have spiritual food and the Bible this book is our soul food it's the food that feeds your soul Matthew chapter 4 Jesus says this in verse 4 people need more than bread for their life they need butter and jam no no he didn't say that he said people need more than bread for their life they must feed on every word of God the more you get in this book the more you will feed yourself the less you're in this book the more spiritual anorexia you will have you'll be weak you'll be feeble you won't have any strength you have to have the food for a physical strength then you have to have the spiritual food for spiritual strength now if you only get the Word of God on the weekend at church that's not enough that would be like saying can you eat a big banquet on Sunday and then fast for the next six days and be healthy of course not you have to eat a little bit of food every day to keep your strength you have to eat a little bit of the spiritual food every day to keep your strength the Bible says in acts 20 verse 32 Paul says the word of grace that's the Bible is able to build you up and that's what I want I want you to be built up in the faith I want you to be the woman God wants you to be I want I want you to become the man that God wants you to be you'll be built up you'll be spiritually strong and he says the word of grace is able to build you up and give you all the blessings that God has for his people oh ho let's stop there just minute would you like to have all the blessings that God has for his people well they're right here in this book the more you get into this book you hear it you read it you study you memorize it you meditate you think about it you act on it you apply it you do it the more this book saturates your life the more blessing God can put on your life God wants to bless your life God is a good God he's wanting to bless your life but you got to get bless of all and he says there that the word of grace is able to build you up that spiritual maturity and give you all the blessings that God has for his people now I've written there on the outline those six ways that we feed on the Word of God we hear it you're hearing it right now we read it when we read the Bible we study it that means we take a pencil make notes we can memorize portions of it write it on a card and take notes and memorize a verse meditate means to think about it seriously and then we apply it remember in class to a-1 some of you took that in the 1800's we use a little hand illustration that your pinky represents hearing it and there your ring finger reading it and then your middle finger studying and then your index finger is memorizing and then meditating or thinking about seriously and your palm is the applying it and remember that we taught you that if all you do is get the Word of God by hearing it you don't have a very good grip on the Bible you're holding it with one little finger why because we forget 95% of everything we hear in 72 hours that's the depressing statistic for a pastor you're gonna forget everything I say to you right now by Wednesday unless you write it down which is why we never teach at Saddleback without handing out a note because the shortest pencil is longer the longest memory but if you only rehear the Word of God you hear another way Satan can come and steal that from you real easy if you hear it and you read it every day now you got a little bit better grip if you hear it and you read it and you study it you got a bigger grip on the word of God if you hear it and you read it and you study it and they actually memorize it nobody's gonna take that away and then you meditate you think of serious about it and you apply it in your life nobody's taking this out of my hand nobody and so what kind of grip do you have on the Word of God if all you do is hear it it's not enough we're gonna teach you all of these ways again and help you with some habits that will help you do those things in your life so here's the action step we're gonna do in this 40 days it is a daily time with God now in the past you've probably tried this for please say you know I I read the Bible a little bit and then I pray and I do it for a couple days then I forget it for a couple days then I do it for a day and I forget it for three days and then I do it maybe for a week and then I forget it for like a month well it's no wonder you don't have any strength in your life because it can be taken away you the reason why most people who are in Christians 20-30 years are not consistent in their quiet time with God every day and that's your most important meaning of everyday your time alone with God more important than any other meeting you'll have even if it's just ten minutes the reason people aren't consistent is because they've never passed the the six-week test you know when we do spiritual growth campaigns we always do like forty days or fifty days why because studies have shown that it takes about six weeks to develop a new habit in any kind of habit you want to develop you have to do it every day for three weeks before you start becoming comfortable with it the way you eat or exercise whatever and then it takes another three weeks for it to get solid in your life doing it every day so it takes about six weeks or about forty days to develop a new habit we're going to talk about that in a minute the problem is is a lot of people have a prayer time and read the Bible and then they skip three or four days that's like rolling up the ball of twine and dropping it rolling it up and dropping it rolling it up and drop it you know making any progress we got to get you through that 6-week barrier of doing something every day so it becomes habitual in your life but we grow when we feed on the Word of God okay number two here's the second way that we grow and we've built this into 40 days also we grow when we learn in different ways we grow when we learn in different ways now we've talked a lot about how God loves diversity he made us all different he made no clones he makes no copies there's nobody like you in the whole world you are unique there's nobody like you and you have different voiceprint eyeprint footprint different thumbprint heartbeat and you also have a different learning style you learn differently than other people sitting on the same row with you right now and if we don't teach in the learning style that you learn best in you won't learn as effectively let me get let me explain this there are dozens of different ways that people learn but there are four common ones that everybody here has at least one of these four the first is some people are auditory learners they learn by listening you learn through the ear gate and if you learn through the ear gate you learn by hearing something you love church why because that's the primary way that's used in churches what we're doing right now you sit still while the teacher instills and and if you learn through hearing got it I heard it got it that made sense then you really like church but a lot of people don't learn through the ear gate there other people say I don't like to listen but I'm a visual learner I learned by watching I don't watch a video i watch you do it I learned by reading and I learned through the I gate you're a visual learner that's good okay it's not right or wrong it's just different some people say I don't like to listen and I don't like to read but I do like to talk and if you're a talker you are an aural learner if you are an aural learner you love small group what cuz in small group you get talk and that's how you actually learn you actually learn by as you talk your mind goes into gear and I've actually sat in some meetings sometimes when people say you know I've always thought and I thought they'd never thought that but they says that the moment they're saying it they're thinking it and some people their mind doesn't engage until first their mouth does don't look at them but you know who you are and there's nothing wrong with that it's no different than being a an ear learner and I learned you're a mouth learner you learn by actually talking it out and as you talk about you you know that's what I really believe I never really thought about that but once I said it I go that's what I believe different learning styles now there's some people in the world who say I don't like to listen and I don't like to talk and I don't like to read they're called men men in general and generalizations are often generally wrong men in general are kinesthetic learners or we learn by hands-on we learn by doing it nobody learned to play football reading a manual nobody learns to play golf by watching or listening to a lecture because they let's go out and shoot some hoops let's go play catch let's go drive some balls on the on the on the golf drive driving range a lot of men and this is well say you know I got to fix up in the car let me just get under the hood here and I'll play around the carburetor you know I don't give me a manual I can figure out how to wire this stereo don't give me a owner's guide I figure out how to download this app or install this program they men often learned by doing and that is a physical way of learning actually doing it now what we want to do during 40 days anytime we do a campaign we use all different learning styles and I actually had to figure this out from watching my own dad as a young boy growing up in my dad's church my dad was a pastor and I saw my dad for each good messages and and yet I saw people who are in that church for twenty thirty years and they didn't seem to change they were still cranky selfish gossips people you didn't like to sit next to and just downright custody they were mean maybe oh wait a minute how can they hear the word of God week after week after week for years and it doesn't really change their character well there are two reasons number one was they weren't taken notes so they were forgetting it by Wednesday but the other ones they may not have had the learning style of learning by listening and we weren't teaching them but visually we weren't teaching them orally discussion we were teaching them can aesthetically through actually giving people things to do in practice and projects that's not their fault so what we do is we use all the different styles and we're going to be using them in the next 40 days now notice some Bible verses Luke 3:18 in many different ways John preached the good news to the people underline the phrase many different ways notice John is preaching he's teaching this is John the Baptist but it why does John the Baptist use different style of teaching because we all learn different ways now not of course understands this he made us he's the one who made us all different gave us different learning styles in fact God understands us in job 33:14 God speaks in different ways and speak the same way to everybody speaks different ways to different people depending on your learning style God speaks in different ways and we don't always recognize his voice so this is the second way we we grow we grow by getting into the Bible hear it read it study it memorize it meditate think about it talk about it and we grow by using different styles of learning now if I were to stand up here and just teach a series on prayer that's one thing a campaign is far more than as an oppressor Minh series in fact the sermons that I'll be teaching in the next six weeks will only be about 10% of the campaign most of it takes place in the small groups where you're going to do these other learning styles besides just listening the sermons are just like 10% if all you do is listen sermons you're not gonna get this you're not gonna get the benefit from it because we've planned it to use all the different learning styles for reinforcement and when you hear something like you hear it from me and then you read it in a daily devotion and then you talk about it in a small group and then you watch a video on it and then you have a project it goes to do and you have a Bible verse to think about during the week that's like taking the nail and instead of hitting at one time with the hammer you hit it five times boom boom boom boom boom and it drives the truth deeper in your life that's what we're gonna do for the next 40 days but you have to participate in all of it not just say well I'm gonna go hear the sermons and that's it that'll be about that much you got to get all the reinforcements in your life okay now number three and then we're gonna sing a song after this we grow when we develop spiritual habits we grow when we develop spiritual habits what I mean by this is in order to grow you have to develop good habits in your life you are the sum total of your habits if you have bad habits then you're gonna have bad character you have good habits you're gonna have good character your habits determine your character and your character determines your destiny you can't say for instance that you have the character quality of kindness unless you are habitually kind that means it's predictable you're always kind you can't say you have the character quality courage unless you are habitually it is your habit to always be courageous you can't say that you're honest unless you were habitually honest you're honest all the time if I were to say I'm faithful to my wife and then I say honey I'll be faithful you 228 days a month well that's not faithfulness partial faithfulness is unfaithfulness partial obedience is disobedience it means you do it all the time it's your habit if you want to grow in any skill in life you've got to develop good habits you got to develop it now we and we introduce these habits in class 201 and there are dozens of them but in this 40 days we're going to focus on four and we're going to repeat them over and over because how do you develop a habit in life by repetition okay by repetition and by practice you do it over and over less is that it takes doing it something every day for six weeks before it gets ingrained the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is their habits I know a lot of successful people I know a lot of unsuccessful people and the difference is successful people are willing to develop habits that the unsuccessful people are not willing to develop nobody gets to the Olympics just hoping that it'll happen there's a lot of discipline and a lot of habits if you want to grow in life if you want to be successful in life you have to develop good habits and so we're gonna help you develop good habits in life and how do you do that well look at these John 13 verse 17 Jesus says now that you know these things all stuff Jesus that I've taught you you'll be blessed if you what Circle that practice then you don't get blessed in your life by knowing the Bible you get blessed in life by practicing the Bible you don't get blessed in your career or your marriage or your finances by simply knowing what the Bible says about it even the devil knows what the Bible says you get blessed by practicing it and what does it mean the practice that means you develop habits what happens when you practice good habits you grow up because the next verse Hebrews chapter 5 tells us this in verse 14 solid food is for mature people okay you know when you're a baby you eat pablum eat baby food when you get older you you can eat a steak solid food is for mature people what does a mature person next line whose minds have been trained by practice in other words they developed good habits in their life whose minds have been trained by practice to know the difference between good and evil when you are a mature believer you're a mature Christian you know that there's being good and evil they don't have to go mmm I wonder if that's right or not he doesn't know why because your mind has been trained by practice it's like Treasury agents for the United States you know mint and the Treasury they don't when they're teaching them how to spot can't counterfeit they don't give them counterfeit dollars then I'm show them to him they train a Treasury agent by giving them the real thing and they practice looking at that $10 $50 hundred-dollar bill and they studied and they learn it and they memorize it and they meditate on it and they look at it and they live with it so they know the true dollar bill so well when they see if a Theo that's fake how you know well I know what the real thing looks like that's fake well how you know I know because I practiced looking at the real thing I don't even have to guess that's a fake that's a phony dollar bill it's phony 50 dollar bill because I know what the real thing looks like the problem with a lot of Christians they don't know what the real thing looks like they haven't spent enough time with God in the Bible solid foods for mature people whose minds have been trained by practice that's habits to know the difference between good and evil I told you about Tom Brady doing that look at this next verse the Bible says in first Corinthians 9:25 all good athletes train hard and practice to get better they do it to win a prize that won't last but we practice to win a prize that will last forever the habits we're going to work on together in the next 40 days will last you the rest of your life if you've been in previous campaigns maybe you did those in the past but you got out of out of shape you stopped practicing them you let these things fall by the wayside it's time to renew it's time to restore trying to refresh and so God says I want you to develop strength by practicing what's right during 40 days notice there on your outline we're going to practice four different kinds of of habits and there is the habit there of weekly large group worship that's what we're doing right now and then there's the habit a small group fellowship that's what you do in homes or at the office or with another small group of people anywhere from 2 3 5 up to 10 people then the habit of daily time alone with God know this large group small group and alone that's three different kinds of habits with God daily time alone with God where you read the Bible and you pray for 5 10 20 minutes and then a habit of memorizing God's Word now these first two the habit of large group worship and small group fellowship where did we get that idea from the Bible that's the way the Bible structured the church 2,000 years ago the very first church was in Jerusalem and look at this on the screen the Bible says this about them first believers every day one just on Sunday the believers had the habit of meeting together and they met two places in the temple courts that's large area to worship and in their homes that's a small area for fellowship they ate together and they celebrated now there was a partying with happy and thankful hearts okay they praised God and it says in the whole community is not talking about Christians talking about the community around the church the whole community liked what they saw in these people and as a result the Lord added to their groups daily as their neighbors were being saved if ever there was a verse that I would want to be true of our church family it would be that verse that verse right there that we were so close to each other and we were enjoying each other's company and that people would look from around the community go I wouldn't be like those guys they seem to be less stressed out they seem to have more joy they seem to have some kind of purpose we don't have let's check them out and the Lord added to their number daily because their neighbors are going I went in on this I want to be a part of this and it was attractive to the people in the community so much that in about 20 years the Church of Jerusalem grew from 120 people to almost a hundred thousand people one and and he said well how big was the city about 250,000 so almost half the city was a member of one church why because they were so attractive in in their habits and in what they were doing so large group worship small group fellowship that's from the Bible talks about this many times that's one of the the structures now then we have the habit of daily time alone with God where you read a little bit of the Bible and you talk to God and let him talk to you and then the habit of memorizing scripture now if I were to ask you how many of you don't see your hands on this how many of you would really like to succeed in life you don't want to fail and I if you want to succeed in life can see your hands yeah that would be all of us and that would be my goal for you I don't know anybody wants to be a failure I certainly don't want you to be a failure my job as your pastor is to make sure you're not a failure in life my job is to coach you so you're not a failure in any of the aspects finances sex relationships career spiritual life and all those areas there's one promise in the Bible where God promises prosperity and success you don't know that verse of appear on the screen it's Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 says this always remember what is written in this book what's a terma the Bible always remember what's written in this book read it think about it that's meditate think about it seriously every day that's a habit and be sure to obey everything written in it if you do this you will be prosperous and successful in your life you think God's lyon-saint God's just exaggerating there do you think God will actually keep his promise if you remember that's memorized read it think about it that's meditate obey it that's apply it that's that's we're talking about the hand we just talked about if you do all those things God says you will be prosperous and successful in life with all my heart I want that for you I want the rest of your life to be the best of life and I'm hoping that this next 40 days will be the launch pad for the prosperity and success of the rest of your life because you're going to do what God says to do and you're going to develop the habits that God wants you to to develop you got a you've got to do these things now we're not gonna leave you out there on your own so I and a team this last year have prepared a workbook a guidebook it's very beautiful it's full-color guidebook and it's about 260 pages and it's filled with all of the things that are going to help you develop these four habits in the next 40 days anybody who gets in a small group study is going to be given one of these it's got the small group lessons the video lessons it's got the daily directions and it's got questions and habits and exercises this is like a manual for spiritual growth I'm gonna give it to you anybody who is in a small group and it's a tool to help you learn these four different habits let me go through the last three real quick number four we grow and I've seen this now for decades we grow when we help each other grow we grow when we help each other grow in other words you cannot grow to spiritual maturity by yourself ah and then gonna happen zero not a chance no way Jose you cannot be all God wants you to be by yourself God wired the universe in such a way you need other people you need me and I need you and you need the people on your row whether you realize it or not over and over through the scripture the Bible says you only grow in community a Christian without a church family is an orphan they're like a hand cut off from the body what uses a hand cut off from the body it's worthless what uses an eye cut off from the body it's worthless can't see anything what uses an ear cut off from the body it's worthless I can't hear anything only in connection can you fulfill your purpose that God made you for let me say it again only in connection to the body of Christ can you fulfill the purpose you were made for God did not make you a lone ranger he did not intend for you to go through life on your own you need other people in your life now I'm not just talking about coming to a church where you have a thousand 2,000 3,000 or more people sitting with you I'm talking about a small group the cells of the body Christ the church the body of Christ is not one giant cell it's millions of little cells and and we grow by helping each other because spiritual growth is relational Paul says in Romans chapter 1 verse 12 I want us to help each other I want to help you help each other with the faith that we have your faith will help me and my faith will help you you got to have other people in your life God wired us this way how many times have I talked to you about the 56 one anothers in the Bible there are 56 commands in the Bible you cannot obey unless you're part of a church family love one another careful in another encourage one another help one another support one another pray for one another party with one another I made that one that now you can't do that with a hundred people you can't even do it with a thousand people you can do it with a small group six people four people eight people ten people in a small group small is actually better twos better than three three is better than six six is better than eight eights better than ten you get more than ten people on small groups somebody's going to stop talking and the most outgoing person will tend to dominate a conversation now why our relationships so important spiritual growth why do I have to have other people in my life in order to grow to spiritual maturity because the number one thing God wants you to learn is that love and you can't love God in the cave you love God but you can't love other people he said love God and love your neighbors yourself and he says if you don't love other people you don't really love God see how different Christianity is from every other faith every other faith says to be holy you separate yourself from people and you go up on the mountain and you hide in a cave and become a guru and that's how you become a holy man and the holiest person is a person who's untouched by people who are evil which could mean bad nasty but that's not Jesus said of Jesus ministry he's going to parties he's eating out with people he's going to weddings he's a wedding crasher he does most of his you know miracles at at fun outdoor experiences he's hanging in fact the Bible says Jesus went to so many parties that the religious people called him a glutton and a drunk he's a party animal Jesus clearly was modeling you have to be with people if you're gonna learn real luck so I like being a small group because those people irritate me that's why you need to be in it how do you think you're gonna learn to be unselfish if nobody ever ruffles your feathers you need people in your life who disagree with you so you realize you're not the God of the universe and the manager and control of everything we need each other we grow through community Hebrews chapter 10 says this verse 24 and 25 let us be concerned for one another in other words not just ourselves to help one another to show love and to do good he's starting out doing good to other people let us not give up the habit nor there's that word again let us not give up the habit of beating together he's talking here about small groups meeting in homes there were no church buildings when this was written all church was in homes let us not give up the habit of meeting together as some are doing instead let us encourage one another all the more so here's the action step that you need to get involved in during the next 40 days join a small group if you don't join a small group you might as well just check out and go to some other church because you're not going to get anything out of where we're going everything we planned is built around these groups this weekend maybe thirty thousand people be at Saddleback Church in one of our locations hi everybody but during the week during the week about 40,000 we'll be in small group Bible studies we have almost 7500 small groups 7500 small groups no church has that why because the Bible says you grow in community so we take that seriously here we take it very very seriously how many of you in a small group because your answer yeah almost everybody's in a small group if you're not we'll help you get in one now and the key thing is for you to just start one you say well I don't have any friends I'll buy you some friends okay for the next six weeks I will pay some people to be your friends because I do not want you to miss you're not gonna get any of this material that we're giving out to all of our small groups if you're not in a group because that's where the growth goes here you're just listening but in a small group you're going to develop all these other learning styles that go along with what we were talking about and so we want you to we want you to learn to grow and the truth is we need to start about 500 new small groups and if you're not in the group we'll help you start one it's easy peasy anybody can do it teenager can start a group senior citizen can start little ladies or nine years old have started groups because we're not asking you to teach anything we're asking to do four things it's called host H OS T hu have to like people and if you're a grump you're a grouch you can't be a host okay you have to be nice to people genuinely like people oh oh is open up your home or your apartment or your office at work or Starbucks or on a campus or somewhere have to like people H oh and host is open up your own s serve something to drink coffee tea water and tea turn on the DVD player or your laptop but you can do that you can be a host we've had people who've been a Christian one day we've had non-christians be hosts said I'm not even there yet but I want to study this I want to learn about fine you can be a host anybody can be a host we have over seven as I said right now and you can be one too they will give you everything we're gonna give you a kit number five the fifth thing that causes people to grow the fifth thing is we grow when we expect to grow this is what I call the faith factor we grow when we expect to grow Matthew 9 verse 29 Jesus says according to your faith it will be done to you Jesus says you get to decide how much I bless your life according to your faith it'll be done to you you get to decide how much I lose your use your life it's not dependent on me Jesus it's been on you how much faith have you got faith for a little we'll do a little in your life faith for a lot we'll do a lot in your life no faith at all we can't do anything in your life God does not respond to your whining God does not respond to your moaning God does not respond to your griping but the moment you trust him he moves into action on your behalf God always responds to faith so what do you expect in God to do in the next 40 days in your life probably haven't even thought about till I started talking about it but I want to suggest that you not go through the next 40 days without setting a goal this is what I'd like to see changed in my life in the next 40 days just pick a goal get a goal and start believing and expecting God to do something according to your faith that will be done into you now you know I don't even have to know the particulars of your life right now but I can tell you exactly what God is doing in your life you see yeah I'm not a mind-reader but I can tell you exactly what God's doing in your life right now he's doing exactly what you expect him to do no more no less because if you study Scripture you find that every time God moves out of heaven and moves on earth and does a miracle it's because somebody believed this church exists because I expected God to grow it and when I moved here with no money no members no building was 25 years old I go god I'm expecting you to do this I sure can't do it guess what it happened every single thing in my life that God has done their blessing I didn't think it could be done by my benefit or my power but I expected God to do it and God listens to the woman who trusts him God listens to the man who trusts him so God says if you want to grow you gotta expect to grow so what do you expect a nap in the next 40 days you should start expecting a miracle you should just start expecting to grow you should start expecting renewal in your life you should start expecting a revival of your career or whatever you need you start expecting it start believing God in advance watch what happens I dare you well you got to lose doesn't cost anything to dream doesn't cost a penny to dream I dare you God says you grow when you expect to grow I mean he starts then got on I know I'm gonna grow in the next 40 days I know you're gonna change my life and you're gonna transform this situation so I can handle it or something happens according of your faith will be done into you and number six this is a big one we grow when we choose or we commit to grow growth is a commitment growth is a choice growth is intentional growth is not automatic you don't automatically grow up you can automatically grow old but you don't automatically grow up you have to choose to growth so as your friend is your pastor let me ask you a pretty personal question a year from today where do you envision your life being a year from today so gonna be any better than it is right now are you gonna be stuck in the same rut do you expect to be stronger a year from today you expect to be more mature a year from today see a lot of people they're not going to be stronger you're from they're not gonna be more mature you're white because they never intended to growth is a choice bottom line is this you're as close to God as you choose to be don't blame anybody else well if my husband my mom if my brother if my dad if my husband you're as close to God as you choose to be and you're spiritually mature as you choose to be if you want to be a spiritual wimp a baby walk around in diapers mess in your plants rest your life go ahead but don't stink up the place for us on the other hand if you go I'm tired of being immature I'm tired of the worry and the hurry and the fear and the anxiety it comes from immaturity I want to live a life of peace of joy of abundance I'm gonna live a life of confidence I want to know who I am and where I'm going that's called maturity and the maturity comes from these six things getting in the Word of God getting in a small group doing all these different things that God says if you do these things I will make your life prosperous and successful just do it God's Way it always works out better if you follow the owner's manual we grow when we commit to grow so do you really want to grow let's just go back to the the title of this message do you really want to grow up let me put it out what are you willing to pay for it because there's always a cost in growth it means you have to develop some new habits are you willing to develop those new habits God says it pretty clearly in Jeremiah 29:13 he says this you will find me when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else really the prayer that God hears the fastest is the prayer of desperation God I've got to have you I've got to have you I've got to know you no turning back no turning back I have decided to follow Jesus no turning back you'll gets it when you get serious about finding me and what it more anything else you're gonna find me I'm gonna work in your life you can count on that we grow when we commit to grow when we covenant to grow here's the action step covenant with others what's a covenant a covenant is when you make a commitment in a group and say let's all do this together and we've been doing this every year at Saddleback for decades when we come to spiritual growth time we sign a new covenant together and say for the next 40 days here's what we're gonna do together we're gonna be in groups we're gonna be in church we're gonna we're going to study the word together we're gonna try to memorize a Bible verse or two we're gonna try to develop some new ways of learning and you covenant together to do that there's something more powerful about doing it with other people than trying to do it on your own in fact you can't do it on your own you have to do it in community in Nehemiah chapter 38 Nehemiah says in view of all of this that let me give you the background the nation of Israel had kind of fallen away from God they'd gotten lazy complacent they weren't praying they weren't close to God and the result they were getting overrun with all kinds of problems kind of like America is right now overrun with all kinds of problems and so I said okay let's get our act together and they signed a covenant say we're gonna pray and we're gonna worship and we're gonna do all these things together and here's what it says Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 38 Nehemiah who was the leader said in view of all this we're making a covenant together in writing and all of us are signing our names to it I want to challenge you to do that with the rest of us right now inside your program is a covenant for the next 40 days so once you pull it out you say well I don't know if I want to make the covenant to God why you make one to everybody else you can't do anything in life without making covenant you can't buy a car without signing a contract that's called a covenant I'll pay it off in this many months you can't rent a house or buy a house without making a covenant so you'll make a covenant to other people but not to God when you have a credit card you're making covenant to I'll pay that off you can't get married without making a covenant I - love you and you alone you can't do anything in fact it is the fear of covenants it is the fear of commitment that keeps us immature the most immature person is the guy who's afraid to commit to anything that's fear that's immaturity the you will only grow in the areas where you commit to growing so I want to challenge you and there about three commitments here in this covenant 40 days of prayer covenant a transforming journey to learn how to connect with God to learn to experience his power and to receive his blessing on my life that's where we go in the next 40 days yes I want to grow spiritually so I commit to and here's like three things first I'll watch and discuss Pastor Rick 7 video sessions with my small group during 40 days of prayer if you're already a small group you can check that box if you're not in a small group check the one underneath it I'll help start a small group for 40 days I'm not asking to do it the rest your life but you're not gonna get this teaching without being in a group so I'll help start a small group we'll get you some people said earlier I'll buy you some friends if we need to okay and number two I'll make it a priority to attend all seven weekends so I won't miss any of the messages in this campaign I've been working on these messages for over six months alright and then number three I'll make time every day to read the 40 short daily devotionals which we've written for you please send them to me each day and we'll send them either by email or by text so you can either give an email you can give a mobile phone number and we'll send you one short one a day for your quiet time and you can sign your name there and address and then one more I'll pray for a friend and invite him or her to church during 40 days purpose if you have a friend who's in any kind of pain or problem this is a perfect series to bring it'll blow their mind it's a very seeker sensitive this is you have any friend who said I hate Church this is the week to bring them in the next six weeks it'll be a perfect time to bring them to that time in 1980 I made a 40-year covenant with you the Covenant with this church the first service of the church I stood up and said this our goal is to have we had you know first the start was just Kay and me our goal is to have 20,000 members by 2020 and I'll get 40 years of my life to this church as your pastor 40 years sounded like forever I mean when you're 25 65 sounds like you're in a wheelchair today it feels like middle age but it sounded like we really think so everybody's known for years that I said I made a 40-year commitment to pass through this church and it was a covenant with this church that I said I will keep and I've been offered many tempting positions out of places but they weren't really tempting because I knew God had called me here to be your friend your pastor your coach and honestly I didn't even think about that covenant for about 35 years until the 35th anniversary a couple years ago and all of a sudden the clock started ticking and I thought wow it's not that far away 2020 and I made it very well-known that I would give 40 years to this church and that was my covenant and my commitment about a year and a half ago kay and I went away for a little prayer retreat and we said Lord do you you want us to do this or not because God didn't tell me to give that number I just made it up I just said I'm gonna be here long term I'll be here 40 years that's just number I made up do you want to sustain do you want us to go you know every year ever excuse me every week for 38 years I've prayed the same prayer driving to this campus it's about an eight minute prayer and part of that prayer says god I offer to you my resignation because I belong to you you used me to start this church but it's not my church these people belong to you and I belong to you and if there's somebody who can do a better job as pastor the me I willingly and gladly step out of the way and let somebody else you use me to bring it this far if you need to bring somebody else to protect the next step go right ahead and then the hard part of the throw was this and I'm willing to do something harder that was the test of my commitment to Christ because there's a lot of things I could do that it's a whole lot easier and pastor and Saddleback Church this is a city with over a hundred thousand names on the roll and I pray that prayer every week offering my resignation with an open hand okay and I went away about a year and a half ago and we prayed about it I was supposed to retire 40 years and honestly God said nothing so he said okay we'll put it aside we'll do it again so this summer while I was working on all this material we also took a two-day prayer retreat and we went away and we prayed and we made a list of about 25 reasons that I should stay and we made a list of one reason why I might leave and that would be if my health wasn't good enough and I couldn't lead I'm not gonna lead this church if I couldn't give it a hundred percent I'd rather stick a knife in my heart than hurt you and hurt this church and as we prayed about it and so after that decision we decided that if it's okay with you I'd like to Rio and recommit for another covenant with you okay if that's okay if that's okay I will [Applause] thank you so okay all right update okay sit down okay in that case I'm coming after you because I am NOT going to let you waste your life and whether you got five years or 50 years left I'm coming after you and I'm gonna make you become what God wants you to be I will not let you sit and coast the final years of your life I will not let you sit and do nothing I will not let you sit and not become the woman or man God wants you to be I'm coming after you okay so just know it you you have no idea what you just gave me permission to do but we're in this together and I'm looking for 40 days of prayer to being the starting point of a whole new level of growth and maturity and expansion and what God wants to do in your life I want the rest of your life to be the best of your life and if I'm going to stay here I'm not gonna waste it and I'm certainly not gonna coast I wasn't made with a backwards move there's no reverse on my car okay it's it's forward and it's full speed ahead and so I will push you and sometimes you will get mad at me like I'm saying right now you need to be in a small group you need to have a daily quiet time okay these are the things this is not rocket science it's what God has said for us to do and we're starting with prayer because every great revival in history started with prayer and Friends America needs revival we are in we are in deep deep deep weeds right now in so many different areas and I've just spent a few days this week with about 400 500 churches in the Houston and that area Port Arthur Beaumont area that they lost everything the pastor's lost their homes and the churches lost their homes and they were so grateful that as we took them over a million dollars in cash from Saddleback Church and three semi-truck loads of faith and volunteers because we step up we're not simply a nice little Bible Church we intend to make an impact on the world and this is the starting point we start with prayer all right my greatest goal is the last verse on your outline our greatest wish in prayer is that you will become mature in Christ so what are you going to do for the next seven weeks do nothing miss out and watch everybody else benefit or step up sign the Covenant do the things and get serious about the most important part of your life I want you to fill this out in just a minute when we give our offerings you can just drop that's far more important than money and the commitment for the next 40 days let's bow our heads Lord I love these people they're easy to love they're good people and I thank you for our church family I thank you through all the campaign's you've brought us do you have a sense that you really want to do something special or it would be a waste of time for us to do these 40 days and not expect you to do something you said according to your faith it will be done I pray you will raise the faith level of every person here that they'll begin to expect you to help them grow expect you to do miracles in their life expect some transformations expect some problems to be solved expect you to do things that they've never even thought possible before and as we learn more in how to pray and get answers and how to make contact with you would you do something special that's never been done in the history of our church and I humbly ask this and I ask you to bless every person here in the next 40 days at all of our campuses in Jesus name Amen
