And what I wanna do, just
to start the message today, is ask you to think about
your last normal day. If you work, what did you do at the beginning of your work day? You might say I'm a stay at home parent. That is a job and you need a raise. Whatever you did on the last normal day, think about what you did when you woke up. Here's what I know. The odds are very, very high that what you did on that day was very similar to what you did on the normal day before that. In other words, if you're
alarm woke you up that day, you probably were waking by
your alarm the day before, or if you just normally
get up with no alarm, you probably you got up on
that day with no alarm again, because you probably did something similar to the day before. You probably went to the bathroom somewhere early in the day, and then you probably did
something like the day before which might be check social media, maybe check your email,
maybe read your Bible, maybe do a little workout,
perhaps make coffee, maybe make some food. You probably took a shower which is good or you may not be employed if
you don't do that everyday. You probably got to work a similar way you did the day before. You probably worked with the same people, did similar things. You probably got home the same way. If you drove, it was very
scary as you probably don't even remember the drive home, that you kinda automatically got home, you probably have a
normal evening routine. You might work out on the evening or you might do fastfood normally or you might cook the meal and then gripe at everybody
who didn't help cook the meal because they didn't clean the dishes after or then they didn't say thank you and you have every right to do that in the name of the father,
son, and the holy spirit. You might have a normal
routine with your kids. You put three kids in the bathtub. One always escapes. You always find that kid,
throw him back in the bathtub. Once the kids were done, you have an evening routine. That might be you look on social media, you binge watch Netflix. It could be that you spend
prayer time or you journal at the end of the day. Maybe you leaned over to your spouse and made a move. You got rejected again. You went to the bed upset. I don't know what your day is like. But chances are, it was pretty similar, a lot of similarities to the day before. In fact, if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. Most of what or much
of what you normally do isn't a result of conscious choices but of daily habits. Much of what you do every single day is not a result of a
decision that you make but of a habit that you
already have in your life. In fact, Duke University
did a study in 2006, and what they found is that fully 40% of the actions that you
take in any given day are not a result of decisions but are a result of habits. 40% of what you do every single day is a result of habits. That's why if you wanna change
where you're going in life, if you wanna change who
you're becoming in life, we have to change our habits. If you were with us last week, I recommended a few different books. One of them is the book
called Atomic Habits by James Clear, and he talks about the reality that many
people have similar goals. Think about it. We all wanna have good relationships. If you're a Christian,
you wanna be close to God. You wanna make a difference in this world. I don't know anybody who
wants to drown in debt. Most of us wanna have some
financial freedom or flexibility. Most of us wanna be healthy. The reality is that so many of us have similar goals but we have dramatically
different results. Why? James Clear writes this. Because goals don't determine success but systems determine success. A quote from his book I like was this: "You don't rise to the level of your goals "but you fall to the
level of your systems." I wanna talk today about systems from a spiritual perspective and I'm gonna show you a
powerful example of a guy who had a system. Or we could say he had one habit that helped shaped him
to become the person that God wanted him to become. We took a brief look at him last week. I wanna take a more
detailed look this week. His name is Daniel. And if you've grown up,
maybe you're in Sunday school and you know who Daniel
is in the old Testament, when you think of Daniel, most people think of
Daniel in the lion's den. That's impressive that he had the faith to stand down lions and survive. But to me, what's also really impressive is there were 120 young leaders who stood out in the nation, and of the 120 top
leaders, Daniel stood out amongst all of them as
having exceptional qualities. In fact, here's what
scripture says in Daniel 6:3. "Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators "and the satraps by his
exceptional qualities "that the king planned to set
him over the entire kingdom." Why in the world did Daniel stand out? What was it that made him who he was? He might have had a spirit of excellence. Maybe great leadership gifts. Maybe he was good relational. We don't know exactly what it was but there was something
in the life of Daniel that caused him to stand out amongst the 120 top people around. Before we answer the question of what made him stand out, I wanna tell you what kinda happened. He became popular with the king. He was gonna get promoted and so there were a lot of people
who didn't like him. Anytime you rise in success, you have people that don't like you. So those enemies decided
to try to take him down. They looked for any kind of weakness, any kind of flaw in his character, any kind of defect so
he could trip him up, but they had a problem finding it. The scripture says this in verse four: "At this, the administrators
and the satraps "tried to find grounds
for charges against Daniel "in his conduct of government affairs. "But they were unable to do so. "They could find no corruption in him, "because he was trustworthy
and neither corrupt "nor negligent." So what they wanted to do is
they wanted to trip him up. They couldn't find any flaw or weakness so they determined the only
way we could trip him up is to do something about his God. This guy is so into his God that it's the only chance we have of getting him to make
some kind of mistake. So what they did is they tricked the king into issuing a decree. That if anyone prays to
anyone except the king in the next 30 days, that they would have to be
thrown in the lion's den. Daniel stood out. He was so distinguished that
amongst 120 top leaders, he was the one that rose to the top. What was it that made him who he was? I would argue it was a system. Or it was one very small habit that over time, shaped his identity and gave him confidence to
be who God created him to be. I'll show you this system. Daniel 6:10 says this: "When Daniel learned that the
decree had been published, "he went home to his upstairs room "where the windows
opened toward Jerusalem. "Three times a day he got
down on his knees and prayed, "giving thanks to his God." Don't miss it, here it comes. Are you ready for it? Here it is. "He gave thanks to God, "just as he had done before." What did Daniel do? Not once a day, not twice a day, but three times a day. Not when it was convenient. Not when it was easy, not when he watched every
good show on Amazon Prime, but every single day. He stopped, he sought God, he listened for the voice of God, he brought his burdens before God, he petitioned to God, he
let God direct his steps, three times a day, as he had done before. He prioritized his life
around intimate time with his heavenly father. What did Daniel do? He lived a habit, a system, fellowship, intimacy, time with God. One small discipline. What I will say to you is this. Never underestimate how our
God can start something big through one small habit. Never underestimate what God might do, something special, something powerful, something that impacts a lot of people that starts with one single
small act of obedience. Our God loves to take
small acts of faithfulness and do something special
through those things. In fact, what I'm gonna do today is I'm gonna share with you a little bit of what's helped shape me for three decades now,
if you can imagine that. I'm 51. Probably a little more than three decades, I have started one new discipline a year, one small little seemingly
insignificant discipline. If you look at the
totality of the 30 years, I had a few years where it didn't take. I'd a couple that I'd
dropped along the way, but I would say with complete confidence, sincerity and integrity that I have 20 plus
disciplines now in my life that were started one small disciple one year at a time. And there's not a single one that's made me a great husband to Amy, a good dad to my kids and effective leader or closer to God. But all of them together, over time, have helped reshape how I see myself, how it renew my mind toward truth, changed by body, my posture,
my spiritual confidence. All of them together have
made a real difference. One small discipline here. I'll share a few of these with you. My first one that I started was flossing and I'm not talking about that, you know. Although I am practicing. I may have mastered that
before the end of the year. Could be my new discipline
to learn to floss. Flossing my teeth. The reason why I did that
is because I hate flossing, and this one small simple act tells me I am a person who chooses
right over comfort. I'm a disciplined person. Years ago, I determined
that to be close to God, I had to have some disciplines in my life. In other words, nobody just
stumbles into intimacy with God. Like oh man, I was just sitting and pop, I just close to God. Whoa, that was amazing. Nobody's accidentally becomes
full of spiritual strength, power and faith. And so years ago, I started
the discipline of tithing. Very simple one discipline. Anytime God blesses me,
I choose in that moment to honor him and put him first. It's a constant, consistent reminder that he is my source, my
provider of the good news, and so I worship and then tithe. When I met Amy when we were dating, even before we were married, we made a choice together
that we worship God every week at church. And so we have. I promise you there is never one time been a conversation in my house where any kid has ever said, are we gonna go to church this weekend? Because that is not
something we talk about. You can ask my kids, we're
on vacation on the mountains, we got there on a Sunday, we find a little Baptist
church, a little bible church and we go to church,
because that's what we do. We are people of God and it's a priority to us. I decided years ago that I
needed to learn God's words, so I decided to read the bible everyday. I want you to know this, that the fact that I'm
telling you I decided do it meant there was a time I did not, just to make you feel better. I reread the Bible. Then I decided to read the Bible one year from front to back. It's probably been 17, maybe 18 years that I've done that over time, started it years ago. I started journaling and
then I failed one year. I started another year and I failed again. I finally found a five year journal where you only journal five lines. I'm on year number five
cause I can do five lines of journaling what God
is doing in my life. I used to not pray with Amy. There were a lot of reasons. The biggest of which, it
takes you about 45 minutes just to get warmed up. And I'm like, oh come on. She's not here at this service so don't tell her I said that. Get on with it. God's like go on, get on with it, Amy. And so I just didn't do it. And so one year, we created a discipline. Before I leave for work, we join hands and we pray. It's a very short prayer, but everyday, we're connecting with God. If you've been with us for a while, you know that I started
declarations a few years ago. I had some insecurities, some wrong thinking, and so I declare spiritual truth, say it out loud to renew my mind. I've got other categories
and I could go on and on. With health, years ago, man I could drink more Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew than any five of you put together. I quit drinking soft drinks; only water. One year, I limited myself
to one dessert a week then at one cheat meal a week. Now my diet is much stricter. And I could go on and on and on and on. I go back to one habit that helped make all this possible. One of the books that I recommended to you was The Power of Habits by Charles Duhigg. And he talks about what
he calls a keystone habit. What you'll do in your life is you'll find there are certain habits that
when you have them in place, they help propel you on to other helpful God honoring disciplines. Daniel stopped to pray three times a day. This was a keystone
habit that I promise you brought other elements into his life that helped him become who
he is supposed to become. The presence of that
one habit, when I floss, I tell myself I'm disciplined. Therefore I go to bed on time, I get up on time, I do
my Bible reading plan, I do my work, I have a productive day, I come on a good mood, I kiss my wife, and that is why we have six
kids for the glory of God. If I do not floss, I
don't feel disciplined. I hit snooze on the alarm. I don't have time to do my Bible plan, I rush into work, I'm not productive, I have a bad day, therefore
I have to stay late. I know Amy's gonna be mad at me so I drive home really, really fast. A police officer tries to pull me over. I don't want a ticket so
I tried to outrun him. Eventually, four of them captured me, put me in jail, all
because I didn't floss. (laughter) And you can tell that
I'm slightly exaggerating but not by much. I was going over this message with some staff members from my floor. I always do that ahead of time. And there was a 25-year-old in there and there's 40-year-old in there, and they said, don't tell
them all your disciplines. They're not gonna like you. Like you're perfect. No, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. That's just unrealistic
to do all those things. Look, you're 25-years-old. I'm 51. If you do this one a year, you're gonna have 26 disciplines. 26! One a year. The 40-year-old, you're gonna have 11 by the time you're my age. There's not a single one small discipline that really improve my marriage, dramatically improve my leadership, completely overhauled my
relationship with God. But I promise you, one
small, one year over year consistently built by
faith, changed my marriage, empowered me as a dad and
equipped me as a spiritual leader. What set Daniel apart? Three times a day? He stopped to have intimate
fellowship with God just as he had done before. Never underestimate how God
might start something big, something special through
something very small one act of obedience. If you're with us last week, we said let's start a little
different way this year. Instead of starting with a do, what do I want to do, let's start with a who. Before we ask what do I wanna do, who does God want me to be? Who am I supposed to be? A godly parent, a bold witness, a person who's healthy,
breaking generations of obesity, whatever it is. I wanna be the person
that's clean and sober. Who do you want to be? Now we add another piece of
the application this week, and here is your one assignment. Based on who you want to become, what one habit do you need to start? Based on who God is calling you to be, what is one small discipline
that will move you in that direction? And I wanna tell you right now. It's better if it's not big. Something small. It may be for you that
you're not gonna hit the snooze button every again. Listen to me. You can do all things through
Christ who gives you strength. Get up and go on with your day. It could be something incredibly small. You might say Bible before Instagram. Before I pull up social media, I'm gonna do YouVersion plan for the day. Or I'm gonna pray with my
kids before they go to bed. But just one simple prayer. What do you do based on who wanna become? You may say I wanna be a
person that cares about others. So for you, it's I'm
gonna write one note a day to express my gratitude or appreciation to someone in my life. Or I wanna be a person that's organized. So for you, you're gonna
make your bed everyday. Why? Because you start the day that way. You wanna be a godly example to your kids so you do a YouVersion
reading plan with them, so everyday there's this
spiritual touchpoint together. You wanna be a person that's focused. If you're taking out your
little note card everyday, three things. These are my three priorities. You do them every single day. You wanna be a person that's
healthier, so you walk three times a week for 20 minutes. You eliminate soft, whatever it is. Based on who you wanna become. What one new habit do you need in place? What new system do you want that will take you where
God wants to take you? Now, some of you're gonna
say, well, I don't do systems. We all have systems. You either have systems
by intent or by default, but you have systems. We all do. Your system may be hit the
snooze button four times, get up late, kick the cat, yell at the kids, drive
like bat down the dark place all the way to work with your hair wet, put makeup on, get to work, be grumpy all day, come home, yell at the kids, go to
bed, and feel guilty. The system. It's not a good one, but it's a system. What new habit, based on
who God wants you to become, do you need to create? In all the different books on habits, I read that all talk in different formats about the habit loop. Let me show you how this plays out. This is what happens in
the life of everybody. Habit loop. There is something that will be a trigger or a cue for you. You see something, you
walk by the refrigerator, you get bored, you get angry, you get hungry, you get lonely. It's the end of the day, it's
the beginning of the day, there's a trigger or there's a cue that always leads to an action or some sort of response. Then you do the act. You eat the piece of cake,
you pray with your kids, you sleep in later, you yell at somebody. You eat a second hamburger
or whatever it is, there is an action. Then you get the reward, the dopamine, the sugar rush, the pleasure, the extra seven minutes of sleep, and then it goes back to the trigger. This is how habits are formed. There's a trigger, we see something, we feel something, we have an emotion, we go to the same type of action, we get a similar type of reward and then the process repeats itself. How do we start a new habit? What we want is we want
the trigger and the action to be two things, if you're taking notes, we wanna make it obvious. Everybody say make it obvious. And we wanna make it easy. So everybody say make it easy. The first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna make it obvious. If you wanna change what you do, then we're gonna change what we see. Make the trigger obvious. If you wanna take vitamins everyday, put the vitamins out the
night before you go to bed, so when you wake up, like
bop, there's a trigger. I'm gonna take the vitamins. If you wanna be someone
who is reading every night before you go to bed, take your book, put it down on the pillow at the beginning of the day. At the end of the day,
opp, there's a trigger. It's really, really obvious. If you wanna write a note everyday to encourage somebody, at the end of the day, put the
note and the pen on your desk so when you walk in the next day, oh, there's a trigger. This is what I'm supposed to do everyday. Make it really obvious. Then make it easy. And this is what's so much fun. You don't need to say and read through the whole Bible this year. If you try that, you might be done by the third week of January. Instead, what you might do is simply say, this year, I'm gonna read
one verse every single day. Every day. Get a streak going on
your YouVersion Bible app. Do you know there are streaks that tell you how long you've done it? Get a streak going that everyday you just
open it up first thing and read the verse of the day. Here's my promise. If you do that for 27 days, you might just get an
appetite to read two verses. And then one day, you're
reading a chapter. Start small and let it grow from there. You might say I wanna pray with my spouse. We don't know how to pray together. We're just too awkward and too intimate. I know we can have sex together
but we cannot pray together. So I've said that out loud. I don't know. But it just felt right
in the moment, okay? I mean, we can just but we can't. So I don't know. So we don't know how to do that. So what we're gonna do is just grab your spouse's hand and thank God for one thing. Just one, everyday. Thank you God that we
have heat in our house on this cold day. Those of you in Florida, thank you God it's not cold here ever. Whatever. Thank you God that we didn't
kill one of our children. Thank you God. One thing every single day. You want to journal, so what do you do? One sentence. Just start there. Here's what I saw God worked today. One sentence. You might get carried away and
have two sentences one day. And then one day, you
might be as good as me, five whole lines. I wanna get in better shape, something. 10 push ups. Can't do 10, do five. Can't do five, do one. Can't do one, put your knees down. Can't do that? Lay down on the ground and stand back up. Do that once a day. Just do something, start small, and see what happens. What are you doing? You're building a system. There's a cue, there's a trigger that tells me after this, this is what I do because this
is a new habit in my life. And here's how you'll
write it out in your notes. You'll say this. You'll say, I will do blank after I blank. There's your system. I will do blank after I blank. Then you would've said this: After I eat my eggs, I pray. After I eat my ham, not a ham sandwich. Not a ham sandwich. After I eat my roast
beef sandwich, I pray. After I eat my chicken dinner, I pray. I do this and then I do this action. I will do blank after blank. My morning routine looks like this. My alarm goes off, I go to
the bathroom first thing. I do my Bible plan, I spend time praying for similar things and then whatever God puts on my heart, I do my daily declarations. I meditate on one truth. Then I make my oatmeal. I put my 12 berries in it. I take a shower, I shave, I get dressed. After I get dressed, I go pray with Amy then I start my day. What I've got is, I've got a system, a routine that aligns my heart with God, renews my mind with truth, empowers me to do what
God called me to do. Just a few small things
toward over a pattern of time that helped shape who I've become. What's yours gonna be? It might be after I drink my coffee, I read one Bible verse. After I put my kids to bed, I do a 30 second plank. After I brush my teeth,
I journal one sentence. After I journal sentence,
I grab my spouse's hand that we thank God for one thing. After we thank God for one thing, I look my spouse in the eyes and I let the spirit lead
me to wherever he leads me. What is it for you? The successful people do consistently what other people do occasionally. People who are close to God are not there by accident. They have small disciplines that draw them close to God. People who are financially strong, I don't go and shopping
for whatever they want. Discipline. There's a plan, there's a
mindset, there's habits. People who are in shape like you don't happen to go on to
all-you-can-eat buffet three times a day. It takes a plan, it takes some exercise, takes some small disciplines consistently done over time. We all have similar goals but we've incredibly different results. We don't have goal problems;
we have system problems. Habit problems. What set Daniel apart? Time with God three times a day. The biggest revelation I've had in my life in recent years is this. I'll just be honest with you. If you look from the outside, you might say, well,
you've had some things that have fallen into place
that might be called success. And yet, I am never satisfied. I'm always wanting something
else, something different, something more. And what I've realized
is that I've been living with the wrong kinds of goals. My goals had been primarily means goals. What is a mean goal? A mean is a goal that
leads to something else. It's a means to an end. How do you know if your
life is full of means goals? Because on the other side of your goal, there's always a so. I wanna get good grades. So I can go to a good school. So I can get a degree. So I can get a good job. So I can make enough money. So I can take her out on a date. So I can get married
and go to a honeymoon. So we can raise a family
in a nice house and so on. My goals have always had a
so on the other side of it. The problem is this. Whenever there's a so
on the other side of it, then happiness of fulfillment
or contentment or joy is always further the future. There's always something else out there; it's always in the future. And what I've realized is
instead of setting means goals, what I wanna do is I wanna set end goals. And the only end that I can find on the other side of every so is not a what but is always a who. It's not what I'm getting
or where I'm going or what I'm doing but who I'm becoming. And the only end goal
that ever seems to matter is if I become more like Christ. More like Christ. More of anything? Why would I ever want
it unless I could use it for his glory? More like Christ. And if that becomes the
driving force of your life, then success is not somewhere out there but you can be successful when
you're obedient to him today. It's not some big result that's five years in the future. It's in a single act of
faithfulness and obedience today. I am successful because I honored God today. (applause) So there's always a so
at the end of your goal. You're always gonna be
reaching for something. My hope, my prayer, based on who God wants you to become, what one small act of
obedience will you start today? And then find joy in it? I did what you called me to do. Wasn't big, but I was
faithful in the small things. Guess what? God's words says that whenever you're
faithful in the small things, boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom. God will trust you with big things. Be faithful the few and thou be trust with more. But don't kid yourself. You're not successful when you get more. You're successful when
you're faithful today. So Father, we ask that you would help us be faithful today. Stir oh God within us the desire to please you, to find joy in pleasing
you, even in the small ways. And all of our churches, as
you reflect in prayer today, who does God want you to become? Based on who he wants you to become, what one small habit, make it easy, make it obvious. Do it for the glory of God. All of our churches, those who say, I'm gonna seek him, I'm
gonna talk about him. Talk about it in my life group, take about it with my family, I'm gonna go public with it. This is real. Not gonna try to do 20. I'm gonna do one, and I'm
gonna be faithful to God doing that one. Would you lift up your hands
right now, all of our churches. Those who say I'm all in,
I'm in, I'm in, I'm in. Man, hands going up all over the place. Thank you, God. Speak to us. May we hear from you. God, help us be faithful. Direct our steps more
than anything else, God, that we could become like your son Jesus. Help us be obedient
today, successful today in doing what you called us to do. And God, I thank you
that when we're faithful with what you put before us, you may put more before us. But God, help us to not wait for the more to feel successful, to feel fulfilled and be
obedient to you than today. As you keep praying today at
all of our different churches, we're talking about starting
a new habit, a new discipline. Let's talk about the word start. There's some of you, you need to start a relationship with Jesus. What does that mean? I grew up going to church and I believed in God, but I thought God was kind of some separate entity, a distant ruler and such. I had no idea that God sent Jesus, not only to save me from my sins, but to reveal the character and the nature and the goodness of God that God wanted to have
a relationship with me. What's the problem? Why is it that we can't just openly talk and hear from God on our own? The problem is that we're sinners. Our sins separates us from God. God is so holy that sin separates us. And this is why Jesus
was born without sin. This is why he was perfect,
why he never sinned. He was the innocent sacrifice who became sin for us on the cross. He, the innocent one,
died for us, the guilty. And by the grace and the goodness of God, God raised Jesus from the dead. He defeated death, hell,
victory and the graveyard so that anyone who calls
out on the name of Jesus, the name that is above every name, anyone who calls on the name
of Jesus would be saved, would be forgiven. Those of you here, if you're honest, you're not following Jesus, you're not walking with Jesus, he's not the dominant source
of truth in your life, he's not your savior, he's
not the Lord of your life and you realize you
need to start something, how do you start a relationship? Very simply, we confess and acknowledge that we have sinned. We ask for his forgiveness and grace and then we decide to follow him. He will direct your steps, he will make you known
to all of our churches. There are those of you, you recognize you're
doing life without him, you're not here by accident, you're not watching by accident. God brought you here for this moment. You can sense it. Your decision is to start
a relationship with him. I turn from my sins, I
give my life to Jesus. Today, I give my life to him. That's your prayer. Lift your hands right now
all over the place and say, yes, right back here in
this middle section place God for you. And over here as well. Both of you here. So right back over there in this section. Others of you saying yes Jesus. I lift up my hand, I surrender to you back
here in this section. Praise God for you. Others of you today, I call on him. Jesus, save me. Church online, you click right below me as we have people coming to faith through all of our different churches. Would you simply pray out loud with those around you? Pray, Heavenly Father,
forgive all my sins. Make me brand new. Jesus be first, my savior, the Lord of my life. Fill me with your spirit to direct my steps. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. Help me to show your love and
honor your name in all I do. Thank you for new life. I give you all of mine. In Jesus' name I pray 'cause somebody celebrate today. Somebody thank God for new life in Christ. (applause) - As a church, it's our
honor to play a small part in all that God is doing
in and through your life. And we would love to continue
with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps could be in your relationship with Christ, all you have to do is
go to life.church/next. Here at Life Church, it's
our mission to lead people to become fully devoted
followers of Christ. That statement drives
everything we do as a church all because we know and we believe whoever finds God finds life.
