How To Get Better — Better, Part 1 | Jeff Henderson

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Emma [Music] well I think we'd all agree the most difficult challenging video of all those had to be the broccoli when y'all agree with that that was just tough right and I think those videos do a great job of kind of capturing where we find ourselves a new year a new January and one of the things I've observed about this time of year is that generally speaking there's two groups of people there are the goal setters and the non goal setters and you know who you are right and you're proud about that which is awesome you know what happens between goal setters and non goal setters they typically get married and that provides a rather interesting experience and I say that really from from experience my wife Wendy is here today we've been married for for 22 years I'm the goal setter in the marriage and she's the fun one you want to definitely hang out with her and we had to learn how to how to do this because our third year of marriage and near the end of the year I was thinking okay we have a new year coming up what I decided to do is hey let's get away for a little weekend bed-and-breakfast up in the North Georgia Mountains but what I didn't tell Wendy is yeah we're gonna go up to the North Georgia Mountains for a bed-and-breakfast but I was gonna surprise her I was gonna surprise her with a goal setting weekend because you know what wife wouldn't want her husband to kind of have some goals for the new year so that this could be the best year that we've ever experienced so I call up I share this story by the way a few years ago but it really kind of helped lead us to where we want to go today I called up to the bed-and-breakfast owner and said hey I've got two three-ring binders that I'm going to bring up I'd like to give them to you during check-in kind of seek release and my wife doesn't miss they see it because I really want to surprise her she's gonna be thrilled with this and I asked him if he had a flip chart that we could use because you can't really do goal-setting without a flip chart surprisingly the bed-and-breakfast didn't have a flip chart but he was kind enough to go get me one so Friday night we get up there we eat dinner we're out on the front porch coffee and dessert and here comes the bed-and-breakfast owner with a flip chart and the two three-ring binders and I'm thing and this is this is gonna be awesome so he gives wind either to to her ring three-ring binder I said honey surprise we're gonna have a goal-setting weekend this is awesome so if you'll turn to the section we're gonna talk about finances this is gonna be amazing right and I was so looking forward to this this has ended up being a terrible weekend in our marriage from that point there were tears and crying throughout the weekend and halfway through the weekend Wendy turned to me and said Jeff stop crying pull yourself together man man up you know so I say all that to say you know you might be the goal setter and you might be an ongoing but what we're gonna talk about today I think all of the goal setters and all of the non goal setters can get on board with not only that if this is your first Sunday in church for a long time or for Sunday bag or you've been tracking but with any of our churches anytime anytime for a length of time by the way this is your first time here we're so thrilled that you're at one of our churches and we hope you have a great experience but wherever you may be on your spiritual journey we believe that what we're going to talk about over the next three Sunday's the first three Sundays of the year we can all get on board with and go you know what whether I'm a goal setter or not no matter what I believe about Jesus I think I want that so let me tell you what we're gonna do I want since this is part 1 of the series I want to give you a quick overview of what we're gonna do and then the next two Sundays Andy Stanley is gonna be back and I'm telling people that Andy Stanley he's got some potential so he's gonna be over here in the next couple of Sunday's and so what Andy's gonna do is kind of cap out the series and finish out the series but I want to take a couple of minutes to tell you where we're going and here's kind of the subtitle that the promise of this series simply says this the title is better but the subtitle the promise is how to have a better year than last year how to have a better year than last year and I want to talk about why we think this is possible for us and then we're gonna look at a principle today that we can implement if we implement this principle in our lives I really do believe this principle will help us have a better year this year than last now to do that we need to start with kind of a foundation and I'm gonna put a question on the screen here in just a second and I just want to let you know for some of us this is gonna be an easy question for some of us it's gonna be a tough question and I just want to let you know I know that but I want to ask this question because it's going to give us a direction of where we want to go for the next three Sundays and the question is simply that is this how was last year how was last year it's not enough to say hey we want to we believe that you can have a better year this year in the last year without asking the question how was last year and the reason this question is important is because for some of us when you hear how to have a better year this year than last year like Jeff good luck because I had a tremendous year last year and I'm hoping this is true but that's a high bar but for some of us the bars pretty low what I mean by that is that last year wasn't a good year for you I I totally understand that and so for you it's like yeah I was so excited to have last year over with maybe for the majority of us it's probably a combination of the both that last year has some really good things and last year had some really challenging things but in the middle of all that however you would answer that question what we believe as the collection of churches is this simple truth that better is possible better is possible and so if you if it's okay I just want to put my cards on the table and tell you what I believe about this what our churches believe about this and what we believe about God and what believe we believe God thinks about you we believe your heavenly Father wants this for you we want we believe that your heavenly Father wants this year to be better than last year and here's why we believe that let me just pick on me I'm a I'm an imperfect earthly father but I want this for my kids because I love them with all my heart but if I as an imperfect earthly father want this for my kids how much more will they perfect Heavenly Father want and give good gifts to his kids because he's a perfect heavenly father your heavenly father wants your life in my life to work not surprisingly Jesus comes comes to the scene comes to Planet Earth and says hey let me tell you one of the reasons why I came here this is what he said ties into this he said I have come that I came that they they being you and me I came that they may have life and have it abundantly another translation that says have it to the full that Jesus said hey I've come so that you might have life understanding how to make life work and have it abundantly this is why I love what Andy says about this when it comes to following Jesus he says following Jesus will make your life better and make you better at life the following Jesus make your life better and make you better at life so what we believe for you today is that you have a Heavenly Father we have a savior that when we follow him he makes life better and makes us better at life and that's really the premise of this series so as we begin today I'm gonna let you know that I feel like I have a responsibility today and I feel like you have a responsibility today so let me tell you what my responsibility is what I'm gonna challenge you to do my responsibility is to give you a principle that I believe that you can implement in your life that will help you make this year better than last your challenge your responsibility is to look at an area where you would say you know what I think this particular area in my life I think I need to gain some momentum because as a look at my life in the year the past year I think I may have lost some momentum in this particular area so to help you fulfill your part of the deal here let me put on the screen five areas of our lives these aren't all of the five areas all of the areas of our lives but these are five huge significant areas in our life and as I put these on the screen I want you to pick just one I know the goal setters are gonna go for all five I respect that and I appreciate that but the challenge here is just to pick one okay and I'll explain this all right here's the five that we're gonna look at or just actually have you pick one but if you want to make this year better than last there's probably one or something within one of these fob that you would say you know what I need to gain some new momentum in the new year it might be financially for you you may look at last year and go you know what my spending certainly outpaced my saving I that's not a great trajectory I need to change that there may be a relationship maybe you just need to invest more time in a particular relationship maybe at least as it relates to what you can do there's a relationship in your life that you really need to improve this year maybe it's physically maybe we do we need to eat broccoli I hate to say that maybe there's that maybe it's working out or maybe it's career you know maybe we need to get better at receiving feedback at work or or maybe even thinking about starting that business but you've got to take some steps toward that or maybe it's spiritual about the cool news for all of us at our churches today is whether you know tonight you've actually applied and practiced the spiritual principle which is really cool it says when you draw near to God draws near to you but as you look at this list here's an area here's a question I would like to ask you is there an area somewhere within here where you would say Jeff I've lost some momentum and the other question is how can we change that and if you look at this list and say Jeff I think there's not a single area in which I'm losing momentum I would just encourage you to share that with the people in your life and see how they would react to that because they might have a little bit of a different response to that okay so here's where we're going if you were to say okay Jeff there's there's a relationship there's a financial thing there's a there's a help thing there's a work thing there's a spiritual thing okay I've got that particular area then here's what I want to do I want to introduce you to a principle that I think can help you so we're gonna do three things and our remaining time together the first thing we're gonna do is I'm gonna share with you this principle which i think is a fantastic principle to apply in the new year and throughout the new year the second thing we're gonna look at though is a problem and the problem is there's an obstacle that prevents us many times from applying this into our lives and then the third thing the most exciting news of all is we're gonna look at how our Heavenly Father how our Savior can remove that obstacle from our lives so that we can apply this principle and when we apply this principle to the new year I firmly believe if there's an area where we lost momentum that as we apply this principle we'll get to the halfway part of the year maybe even earlier and definitely at the end of this year you know you know what it's true I was able with God's help to make this year better than last so that's what we're gonna do three quick things the first thing I want to do is introduce you to this powerful principle and it's simply what I call the consistency effect the consistency effect the consistency effect simply says this that small things consistently over time lead to big things small things consistently over time lead to really big things now the bad news is this is true from a negative standpoint small negative things consistently over time lead to negative big things none of us will walk out the door tomorrow and say I want to ruin my life today now what happens is it's a small negative deposits over time and then one day the whole thing blows up it was just small negative deposits over time that's the bad news the good news is is the opposite is true that small positive things consistently over time lead to really big things now when it comes to the new year this is typically forgotten and it's over placed or it gets there's something else that gets greater publicity and this is actually a good thing and that's commitment right and commitment is good commitment here's what commitment will do for you and me commitment will get us to the starting line right I want to commit to that spending plan I want to commit to that workout plan I want to commit to going to church I want to commit to this all that's great and commitment will get us to the starting line but consistency consistency will get you to the finish line commitment will get you to January and that's awesome but consistency will get you to July September October and December this is really really important so let me give you a couple of examples to talk about the consistency effect the first is what this I got this from the author David Bach he talks about the latte factor the latte factor and before I go any further I just want to let you know I'm not preaching against lattes I enjoy lattes if you're at one of our churches sipping a latte that's awesome I'm not judging you God isn't judging you there's not a Bible verse against lattes okay this is just an example to say hey small things consistently over time can really lead to big things so what David bought cause the latte effect is this he says if we were to say that your average loss latte cost three dollars and fifty cents and depending on where you get your latte this is really you know cheap or too high you know all that but he says generally speaking let's just say it's three dollars and fifty cents right now what David says is that over time if you were to take that three dollars and 50 Cent's and not spend it on a latte but invest it in a mutual fund day in and day out with a 6% interest rate in 30 years you would have a hundred and six dollars so what his point is is that it's really not a three dollar and fifty cent latte through the power of consistency it's really a hundred and six thousand dollars but the latte fact latte drinkers see this and go but Jeff that's not having a latte for thirty years alright I totally understand that all right it's just an example people it's just an example all right not telling you not to drink lattes but what I am saying is that the power of small things can sometimes be over looked let me give you a visible representation of what this looks like these two jars one is full of marbles and one is isn't this jar right here represents the new year all of the days of the new year okay so this is the new year that's ahead of us so the consistency effect would say if you want to change your life if you want to help this year become better than last year what you've got to do is you've got to find that one area that you need a little bit more minim in that one area that you might say you know what of those five that's what I'm doing find a discipline a habit or whatever and then tomorrow you practice the latte effect if you will and you do it over here or maybe it's - yes I am gonna eat broccoli tomorrow it may be it baby hey I'm gonna go work out and what happens is is we tend to think that we're not making much change that says it's just one marble so what we do working out is a great example of this if we haven't worked out in a while what we try to do is we go to the gym tomorrow and take this and try to dump it all in to try to make up for lost time right and the only problem with that is we wake up there's not any noticeable change we just can't get out of bed alright and and intuitively we know that that doesn't work that what what does work is just consistent deposits over time but when we do this we don't think we're gaining any traction but what the power the consistency effect would say is hey small things consistently over time will lead to really big things and so let me tell you what your goal is let me tell you what our goal is if and this is just part one if you want to have a better year this year than last what you've got to do is to make sure that you have more marbles over here in the first quarter the second quarter third quarter and in to the end of the year and the more marbles of consistency over here the greater traction and momentum that you're going to get and the greater and transaction traction that you get in that particular area the better this year could be the last but your challenge is to be consistent day in and day out now this this kind of makes sense right we kind of know day in and day out the more we do this the more it's going to build and we're gonna see some momentum and because this is so intuitive because this is so simple because we go you know and I do understand this Jeff I can't dump you know all these marbles and to our work out expect to get you know massive change it does happen one day one habit one practice at a time I totally get it it would be easy for me to go okay let's go be more consistent this year have a next week have a great week I'll see you next Sunday but the problem when doing that is I would be doing you a disservice because there's a problem with this there's an obstacle with this the reason in fact that there aren't a lot of there weren't a lot of marbles in this side of the jar in the previous year is because there is something going on in that particular area and let me explain the obstacle see when you saw that list and you said okay I know which one of those five I need to focus in on when you've identified an area of improvement what you're in essence saying is I'm not as strong as I need to be in that particular area which is okay but what you've done maybe unknowingly but but here's the truth for us when we identify an area of improvement we often also identify an area of weakness in when we identify an area of weakness we identify an area that we're not as strong in so if all we do is I'm gonna I'm gonna commit to this change at some point our strength runs out and we may start January strong but our strength runs out and we stop and it's not your fault it's just an area that you're not strong in quite yet and what that means is and this is true for all of us all right let me just there's nobody perfect here in fact if you're here at any of our churches in your pur congratulations you don't have to come back next week but for the rest of us we're not perfect okay we need to get okay with that we all have weaknesses they're all there areas are an area in our lives at least that we're not as strong in as we would like to be the other thing is we have a tendency to compensate for or hide our weaknesses so if it's a financial issue and our spending outpaces our savings typically how we we compensate that is we overspend which digs a deeper hole or we try to hide our weaknesses and pretend they're not there so the question is this as you look at this if you want to practice greater consistency the question we got to ask is is there an area where you need greater consistency if so is it possibly a weakness and here's the good news not just good news it's great news god wants to help god wants to help you that's the incredible news that we're gonna see today that if you want more consistency in your life and maybe you didn't experience it last year and maybe it's because you just kind of ran out of your own strength God wants to give you the strength so that you can continue to do this so what we're gonna do today is we're gonna understand that when how do when your strength runs out how to tap in and how to access the strength of God that will never run out and when you access the strength of God you'll be able to gain greater consistency day in and day out so that when you get to the end of the year you're gonna have a jar full of marbles now here's the cool thing too if you're new to our churches or maybe you're back in church flow for the first time a long time and I totally understand this by the way it's easy to look at Christianity it's easy to look at the people who wrote or in the Bible as superheroes they had no issues and they're just perfect holy people I mean we deify these people we call them Saints and it's just not you know it's not real life the only problem with that is when you open up the Bible you begin to realize that these people are just as messed up as us they have their issues in fact here's some good news did you know that there are people in the Bible there are more mess than you and me and they're actually in the Bible let me give you an example a guy named the Apostle Paul the Apostle Paul is a legend I mean he is a he's a legend he wrote over half of the New Testament we could argue that the reason we're here on the other side of the world talking about Jesus and singing songs about Jesus is because of this guy and what God did in his life some of you you might not know that this was the guy that wrote this some of you for those of you that are married the pastor that marriage you might have spoken words that this guy the Apostle Paul wrote this guy's a legend and yet when you begin to see Paul's life here's how he describes himself he says I am the chief of all sinners meaning that if you wanted to rank all the sinners of the world Paul says I'm number one start with me and honestly with all due respect to Paul he had a pretty good case he had a pretty good case so he comes to this situation in his life where he's writing a letter to the Church of Corinth and he starts talking about an issue of weakness in his life all the way you're Paul I mean you're the man you're the let you're the church planting hero you you you have a weakness and what Paul begins to tell is he begins to reveal to us a weakness in his life and as he does he begins to show us how even the Apostle Paul the superhero the legend had a weakness in his life weaknesses in his life but what he began to discover is that God gave him strength right in the middle of those weaknesses and as he tapped into God's strength God used him day in and day out to literally change the world this is what he writes in this letter for the church car he says this is an amazing statement he says for when I am weak then I am strong Apostle Paul the legend is saying hey just so you know there's a weakness in my life this particular weakness we're not quite sure exactly what it is but Paul is talking about what he describes as a thorn in the flesh and this word thorn in the New Testament language is a same word that used it's used to describe a tent stake and Paul was a tent maker and he said basically there's a tent stake in me and I want to get it out and so he begins to have a conversation with God and as he does he but he begins to understand this amazing truth that when I am weak I can also be strong what does that mean what he's saying is I've discovered how to access the strength of God even in my weaknesses and if we can figure this out this is an amazing gift not only from Paul but from our Heavenly Father now the interesting thing is this is a little perplexing it's it's this statement for when I am weak then I am strong it's it's kind of like an oxymoron you know those words they're two words that have opposite meanings that come together their form a word but let me give you a couple of examples of oxymorons jumbo shrimp jumbo shrimp is the two words that have different meanings come together to from one word pretty ugly jumbo shrimp pretty ugly and the Utah Jazz and so these are these are words that apart from themselves don't really go together right but when they're formed they're like oh I know I know how that works you know for when I'm weak then I'm strong I don't really understand how that works because I could relate probably more to to this statement for when I am weak explains my weeks it kind of explains its kind of life you know I got thorn in my flesh and struggles and hardships and all that and that's kind of life but what Paul is saying is hey I got great news if you have a weakness in your life and with all due respect to you and to me I'm pretty sure there's at least one Paul is saying when you're weak you can also be strong can I tell you how that works and if we can figure this out it will give us the strength day in and day out to be more consistent because our strength will run out but when we happened to God's He will allow us to become more consistent day in and day out why is that true but as following Jesus will make your life better and make you better life so he's writing this letter to the church at Corinth and he writes these two foundational verses and so what we're gonna do in these two foundational verses I'm just gonna pull out basically a three step pathway to the new year ahead of you and I believe if will follow this three-step path then it would allow us to be more consistent so that we can make next this year better than last so let me tell you this walk you through this three-step process and then we'll dive into the new year second Corinthians chapter 9 chapter 12 verse 9 says this he said but he and this in these Paul is letting us in on a conversation he's having with the Lord the Lord is he here but he said to me he's talking about the thorn in the flesh my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me so what I want to do in this first and the next one is pull out this three-step process and the first step is actually right here I want to highlight this verse right here that says I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses what Paul is saying is hey don't don't feel like you have to hide your weaknesses share them and so the first step is simply boast admit your weakness and here's what's so remarkable about this Paul is saying therefore hey I'm not gonna hide my weakness I'm gonna boast about them and here's what he discovered as it related to weakness Paul shows us that our weaknesses our opportunities to get closer to God and for many of us we try to hide our weaknesses and when we do that we we shut off the valve of being able to access the strength of God what Paul is saying is no no no no I'm gonna boast all the more gladly and bring them before the Lord and say I'm struggling here just doing that admitting your weakness is a huge first step but then the second step he goes to this we continue in the verse he says but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect not in the great things that are going on in your life my power is made perfect in the weak places and so what Paul is teaching here is to ask for God's grace to ask for help you admit that weakness and then you say God here's my weakness but I need to apply more consistency but my strength will run out can you give me your grace and your strength can you help me now what's interesting to me I'm a preacher's kid I grew up in the church I've been it was with the church nine months before I was born I've been on staff for a long time here I was on staff at Buckhead Church for a while I love you all now it went at church and so I've been around church board all my life and there's a few phrases I hear from time to time well I want to share with share with you one of them which i think is can can be a dangerous phrase it says this I'll hear this a lot Jeff I know it's a Christian I know I shouldn't be struggling with this but we feel like that when we struggle that somehow that's offensive to God and what that's an opportunity for us to do is to admit and stand before God by the way he already knows this will not be new information to him but when we stand before him and say hey I know you know but now I want you to know that I know that I know and I'm bringing it before you will you help me and here's why this is if we get too used to the sermons and to use to the worship lyrics and to use to the Christians the story of Jesus that sometimes we can kind of feel like we're independent we don't really know need God and if we struggle and that's probably wrong yeah we want to grow we want to mature but here's the problem that we will never will never believe God's grace is sufficient until we believe that we are in sufficient and that's what Paul is saying is you know what I've realized I'm insufficient even the church planting hero guy has insufficient so I want to boast about my weaknesses and I want to ask for help and here's what I've discovered about people who will do that it's counterintuitive it takes a strong person to admit they're weak it takes a strong person to go you know I got issues I need help God will you help me so the first is admit your weakness the second is to ask for help and he goes on to the next verse verse 10 and he says this is this for the sake of Christ then I am content with weaknesses insults hardship hardships persecutions and calamities these five here are so interesting because in some ways this is kind of describes our daily lives right sometimes there's a weakness in the day sometimes there's insults in today in the day sometimes there's hardships in the day sometimes there's a persecution we feel trapped in something and then there's just the calamities of the day and what Paul is saying is hey this isn't a once in a while kind of a deal if you're gonna tap into God's strength what you're gonna have to do if you want to gain some traction if you want to understand how to tap into God's strength you have to do this it's not only admitting your weakness it's not only asking for help it's receiving God's strength daily receiving God's strength daily and if you'll do this this year what we're gonna discover is that God's strength will strengthen you in ways that maybe didn't happen last year and here's why this is important when God's strength and his power consistently meets our weakness we grow we grow we grow and by the way this is our mission here in all of our churches to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and one of the ways that happens is to admit what's really happening ask for help and receive God's strength on a daily basis and for some of you here's what I want you to hear for some of you at any of our churches or watching online this is why this next statement is probably why God brought you here today what God wants to tell you is this as it relates to that weakness or that struggle in your life God isn't disappointed in you God wants to help you God isn't disappointed in you God wants to help you my dad when I was a young kid when he would discipline me and I know that those of you that know me think it's shocking that my dad would have to discipline me but when I was a kid and my dad disciplined me what he would tell me is son I'm not disappointed in you I'm just disappointed in who that you forgot who you are you're a Henderson we don't treat people like that we don't act that way I'm calling you to a higher standard that's what God is doing what's your heavenly father's doing he's not disappointed in you God wants to help you in the new year how does that work here's how this works you access the strength and the power of God just like the Apostle Paul did and here's how he did it he talked about boasting of weaknesses to admit your weakness to ask for help the grace and the mercy in the love of God and to do this on a daily basis because life is gonna throw things out you on a daily basis and if you will do this God's strength will give you the power on a day-in and day-out basis to move forward when your strength runs out and when you do this and when you tap in to the strength of God on a daily basis and move forward in that particular area in a very positive way because small things consistently over time lead to big things as you do God's gonna write a beautiful story of a testimony of what the power and strength of the creator of the universe did in your life this year that's an extraordinary opportunity and that's why we believe we can say with all credibility it is possible to have a better year than last year because the strength and the power of God in that weakness if you'll admit it if you'll ask for help and if you receive the strength of God daily over time you're gonna see an amazing story that is written now what I want to do in this point is I want to close by giving you two really practical things to do but to do that here's what here's what we've got to go this is kind of how you access this God's gots power and what we're gonna do is to do that it's going to require consistency consistency is gonna require more strength don't rely on your strength alone rely on God's because your strength will probably run out God's won't so the first step I want to tell you to do is just don't go it alone don't try to do this alone surround yourself with some people they're going to encourage you because one of the ways God's strength us is through other people that's why our churches are really designed one of the things were designed to do is to put you into a small group a small group of people that meets consistently over time that will strengthen you hold you accountable give you belonging and care and love and when your strength runs out and you go to small group and you go I just don't think I'm gonna do that anymore cool a little over remember God loves you remember God is with you remember we want to help you and when that happens when you have a group of people that are strengthening you God strengthens you through them now the reason I bring this up or one of the reasons I bring this up is there's not a better time of year if you're not in a small group to get into a small group right now if I get all of our churches today if you'll just go to the particular guest services area if you're not in a small group I would encourage you to go to that guest services area and simply ask them a question and that question is hey how do I get into a small group this year and they will love to answer that question now you're not signing up for anything you don't have to meet tomorrow night that's not where we're going you're just asking the question hey how do I get into a small group I want to challenge you I want to triple dog dare you to go ask that question if you're not in a small group because it's not enough to go you know what I want to tap into God's power that's awesome one of not the only way but one of the ways that you do that is to surround yourself with people that are gonna allow you to be strengthened through them so you can have more marbles this year now this isn't just true for adults let me just tell you if I can take off my church hat for a moment and just put on the Hat of a parent one of the things I'm so grateful when he and I are so grateful for is that we brought our kids you know kids were in Womble and an up street here at Buckhead and they went through the whole thing from Wamba to inside out my daughter now is a college sophomore and my son is the high school junior we only have like 18 months left in these family ministry environments we have loved them love them love them and are so grateful that we consistently brought our kids to these environments and here's why well here's what I believe that when my daughter let's says she's 19 when when I allow her to get me the age of 45 when that happens I guarantee you her small group leaders from here and from going that church are gonna be there I know when my son Cole gets married his small group leaders from Buckhead Church in Gwinnett church are gonna be there and the reason I know that is I do weddings as a pastor and I see these small group leaders showing up at these weddings and it's extraordinary extraordinarily rich to see their impact and how God has used them to strengthen this young man or young woman parent one of the best gifts you can get your kids this year is to consistently be here in these environments so don't go it alone one of the ways God strengthens you it's through other people the second way I want to give you will close with this is I want to give you a prayer and my hope is that this prayer would be a prayer that we pray consistently as a collection of churches and before I give you that prayer I just want to give you a quick recap here here's where we've been going there's we're gonna go for the remainder of the series here's what we believe we believe that's possible we believe it's possible to have a better year than last year and as I mentioned it's gonna require some consistency consistency rokahr more strength but don't rely on yours rely on God the bad news is your strength will run out the good news is God's won't so here's how this works Paul teaches this to boast about your weakness admit it ask for help and receive it daily and so here's the prayer I want to give you as a church it simply says this this is our prayer for this year it says lord I need you please give me your strength for today lord I need you please give me your strength for today this basically is second corinthians chapter 12 verse 9 and 10 lord I need you in mitt your weakness please give me ask for help your strength for today so here's how this works Samarra I want you to pray this prayer by the way on your way out and most of our churches we're going to give you a marble all right some of our churches don't have marbles but Walmart does so there you go all right and I want you to have this marble place it somewhere where you're going to consistently this marble is going to consistently remind you of this prayer and here's what I want to challenge you to do encourage you to do tomorrow I want you to get up and pray this for your Lord I need you please give me your strength for today the next day Lord here's this area here's my area of weakness I need you please give me your strength for today Lord I need you please give me your strength for today Lord I got to get better financially I've got to get better in this relationship god I've got to get better in my physical health God please help me I need your strength today lord I need you please give me your strength for today it's pretty simple but it's pretty powerful and your goal is to fill up the remainder of the year with these prayers but as you do what you'll fill up this jar with is the power and the strength of a God who loves you so much and as you do through his power he will show you what he can do in your life and you'll experience how he can make this year better than last you

Channel: North Point Community Church

Views: 3,608

Rating: 4.8518519 out of 5

Keywords: North Point Community Church, North Point, NorthPoint, North Point Atlanta, Andy Stanley, AndyStanley, Andy Stanley church, Andy Stanley message, Andy Stanley sermons, North Point church, NPCC, North Point youtube, Andy Stanley YouTube

Id: lrFxvZGBpDs

Length: 40min 59sec (2459 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 08 2019