what other people do occasionally. Successful people, in any area of success. If someone is spiritually
thriving, they're close to God, they're consistently
living the disciplines that help them grow close to God. If you've got someone that's
financially successful, they're free, they're
consistently doing things that other people will occasionally or maybe even never, ever do. Relationally, physically,
it's all about small things leading in a direction
of big things over time. If you look, let's say, who
was successful in Scripture. I don't think anybody would argue that Jesus wasn't incredibly
successful pleasing God. I think they would say Paul was incredibly
successful pleasing God. If you look at their lives,
one thing I can tell you is Jesus never, ever, ever said, but I just can't find the time to pray. I'm so busy and these disciples,
they're wearing me out. Peter just gets all up on my nerves. I wish I had more time to spend with God, but I just don't have the
time to spend with God. Jesus never, ever said that. What you'll see is a consistent habit of breaking away from the crowds to have intimate fellowship with God. The Apostle Paul did not make excuses. There's a verse in Scripture
that said he had the habit, everybody say habit, he had the-- - [Everyone] Habit. - Of going to the temple
to actually share his faith with those who were not
in the family of God. Habits matter. Successful people do consistently what other people do occasionally. I like what Sean Covey said. He said, "Our habits
will make or break us. "We become what we repeatedly do." You'll probably acknowledge
that this is a good time of year to talk about habits, because this is a time of
year that people create new year's resolutions. I love that. I celebrate it. I applaud it. That's the good news
that people wanna change. The bad news is that according to studies, 92% of your new year's
resolutions will be gone by Valentine's Day. That's bad news. You know it from last year. You had the goal, the resolution, and for most people in most
cases, it doesn't last, and you end up feeling
like the Apostle Paul in his writings in Romans chapter seven, when he said this, "I don't
really understand myself, "for I want to," stop eating junk food, (audience laughs) I wanna stop procrastinating, I wanna stop overspending
at Target, whatever it is, "I want to do what is right,"
he says, "but I don't do it. "Instead, I do what I hate. "I want to do what's right,"
he says, "but I can't. "I want to do what is good, but I don't. "I don't want to do that which is wrong, "but I do it anyway." And then he does what so many of us do, he connects his failure to his identity, and he says, "Oh, what a
miserable person I am!" What a failure. I'm not disciplined. I'm not becoming more like Christ. What a miserable person. Then he asks the question, and we see him shift in his thinking. He says, "Who will free me from this life "that is dominated by sin and death?" And he looks to the source, the only one who can truly
change him, and he says, "Thank God! "The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord." Who can change us? Who can deliver us? Who can set us free? Christ is our source. Christ is our strength. Christ is our healing. Christ is our hope. Christ is the one who
makes all things new. It doesn't matter who
you were, where you were, what you did, where you've been. With Christ, he takes all
things and makes them new. "If anyone is in Christ,
he is a new person. (audience applauds and cheers) "The old is gone "and the new has come." My prayer is that you
will not only experience all the life available to you in Christ, but you would live out the disciplines that lead to a God-honoring,
God-pleasing, successful life, because successful people do consistently what other people do occasionally. Why is it that so many of us, we genuinely have good intentions. We want to lose the weight. We want to get out, we wanna do whatever, but we fail again and again and again. I wanna show you three reasons why we don't succeed when we
have such good intentions. The first reason is that
we focus on the what, we don't understand the how. We focus on the action
that we want to perform, the thing we want to accomplish, but we don't understand how to get there. Think about it. Almost everybody that you know has, for the most part, similar goals. If we surveyed 100 of you and said, "What's really
important to you in life?" most of you would say
things that generally fall into the same categories. Most of you would say something about you want to be healthy in some form. You wanna be healthy. I don't know anybody who'd
say my goal this year is to have dangerously high cholesterol. (audience laughs) Nobody's gonna do that. When it comes to finances, most people say I wanna be free, I wanna be out of debt, I wanna be able to be generous. I don't know anybody who'd say I want to double the debt that I'm in and get really high interest rates, maybe 19 or 20% would be fantastic. Nobody does that. Relationships, we all
want good relationships. Spiritually, if you're
a disciple of Jesus, you wanna be close to God. You want to make a
difference in this world. You want your life to matter. Most of us, we have very
similar goals or hopes, but the results are
dramatically different. Some are really achieving
what they want in one area and others are falling way, way short. In fact, I like what James Clear says in his book Atomic Habits. He says that winners and losers generally have the same goals. He says that successful
people and unsuccessful people have the same goals. Think about it, at the beginning
of any season in sports, what does the coach say to the team? The coach has the same goal. We want to win the championship. I don't know any coaches that say this year we're shooting for fifth place. It's gonna be amazing. (audience laughs) Nobody's doing that, right? When somebody gets married,
what do people want? We want love, we want a blessed life, we want to be happy. Nobody's saying our goal
is to make it five years, maybe seven, and then
divorce is in the cards. Nobody does that. We all want something similar, but we end up with very different results. Why? He teaches this idea, and I love it, that goals don't determine success, but systems determine success. Goals don't get us
alone to the end desire, but the systems in our
life determine success. In fact, to directly quote his book, he says, "You don't rise
to the level of your goals, "you fall to the level of your systems." You fall to the level of your systems. You may say that doesn't
sound really spiritual at all. When I read the Bible through
the lens of that thought, I see examples all over the
place of people successful because of godly systems, or unsuccessful because
of the lack of systems. When I look at Daniel,
he's a fantastic guy. If I want to model after
the life of someone who stood out and had great
faith, I wanna live like Daniel. Why was Daniel successful? Why was it amongst a
bunch of other young men did he stand out to all the leaders as godly, gifted, talented, and different? Why is it that when thrown
into a den full of lions because of his obedience to God
he was able to stand strong, trusting God, and come out
alive on the other side? It's because he had the systems in place that led to a life of
faith and faithfulness. What was his system? For years and years and
years, Daniel had pre-decided that three times a day, every day, he stops to spend time with God. Three times a day. If you wanna grow in your faith, and if you want to be more faithful, you will not rise to
the level of your goals. You will fall to the
level of your systems. If you have in place systems
that build your faith, strengthen your knowledge
and intimacy with God, then you will more
likely become the person that you wanna become. Here's the mistake that we tend to make. We tend to think I wanna
change the results, whatever it is. I wanna lose 20 pounds by Easter. I want to be more organized. I wanna finally pay off
that one credit card that's been with me so
long, it's like a pet. You know, it's been driving me crazy. Whatever it is. The problem is this, we
need to change the systems that create those results. If we will fix what we do, how we live, the habits in our life, the
outcomes will fix themselves. Is anybody interested in this? If you're interested
say, "I'm interested." - [Audience] Yes! - I'm gonna tell you
a lot more about this, but I'm gonna tell you about it today. In the weeks to come, I promise you, we're gonna get very practical building spiritual
principles into how to create these systems that will lead
to the desired outcomes. That's just to kinda tease
you to get you warmed up. Why do we not succeed? Number one, we tend to focus on the what, but we don't necessarily
understand the how. The second reason we give up so quickly and 92% of our new year's resolutions fail is because we don't see
progress fast enough. You know this. You've been at some area in your life where you go and walk on the
treadmill three days that week and then you get on the scale
and you gained two pounds. (yells) This doesn't work! You read your YouVersion Bible
plan for four days straight and then you're driving to church and you yell at your
kids all the way there. See, told ya, this thing
doesn't work at all. Whatever it is. You stop drinking coffee to save money and you go a whole
month and you save $100! And now you don't owe
$35,500 on your college loan. You owe $35,400! (audience laughs) And you're saying I can't
even make a dent in this. You don't see results fast enough. And because of that, we
tend to make a mistake, and the mistake is this,
that we wrongly conclude that small, good decisions
don't matter that much. We wrongly conclude this
small, God-honoring habit, this small, faithful decision, this small, good and positive action doesn't make that big
of a difference at all. Then take the flip side,
the not-so-good things. What do you do? You go and you play video
games for three hours straight, and your wife's not happy,
but she doesn't leave you. You skip church for a weekend, and your whole world doesn't fall apart. Nothing tragic happens to you spiritually. You eat a third of the box of chocolates and nothing changes, and so
then you also wrongly conclude that the small, bad decisions don't impact your life that much. The small, good decisions
don't really move the needle. The small, bad decisions
don't matter that much, and you miss the truth of
what is impacting your life in massive ways. And that is our life is the sum total of all the decisions that we make. Who you are today is a result
of every single small decision that you've made along the way. They all matter and they
all add up over time. What happens? You rarely wreck your life and end up in a really
bad place all at once. What tends to happen? You make a small decision,
a little compromise here, cut the corner there,
fudge a little bit here, lie a little bit there, bend
the rules a little bit here, you take a step over the line here, and then one day, you wake up and go, how in the heck did I
screw my life up so much? You didn't do it all at one time. How'd you do it? One little bad decision
followed by the other. Then, you take someone who
in some area of their life, they're crushing it. They're blowing it out. They're living the end
result of what you want, and you look at that and think,
well, how'd they get there? They didn't get there all at once. Again, it was one small
decision at a time. It was a moment of self-sacrifice. It was a small discipline
done again and done again, and nobody else knows about
the time you spent in prayer, and the time that you fasted, and the time that you sought after God, and the time that you had
a difficult conversation, and the early mornings
and the late nights, and the grind and the faithfulness and all the perseverance that it took for you to get to a certain place. They don't see that. They don't understand it, but you realize it was one
small, faithful decision after another over a period of years that led you to the place that
everybody else wants to be. - [Audience Member] That's good, Pastor. - Your good decisions are not wasted. They're being stored up. You may not see it. It's a little bit like I eat
essentially, is this true, the same thing everyday. The same thing over
and over and over again and it impacts my body. For breakfast, I eat
oatmeal with 12 blueberries. On a crazy day, I'll up it to 14. (audience laughs) One time I did 15. It got out of control. And what I do is I heat the water up and I'll put room
temperature water in the pan and put the fire on, and the water is just room temperature. You don't see anything happening, but the fire is changing the
temperature in the water. It might be now 78 degrees,
then 104, then 139, then 187, then 201. At some point, the heat
is being stored up. You may not see it from the outside, but at 211 degrees, what do you have? You got really hot water, 211 degrees. Then at 212 degrees, you
hit the tipping point. It's not just really hot water. It's boiling water. Here's what'll happen. You add a God-honoring discipline and another one and another one. You're generally faithful. Sometimes you mess up, but
you're generally faithful. You may not see any results
for a period of time, but the temperature is rising. Your faith is being stored up and at some point, I promise,
there's a tipping point and it becomes obvious. You're now in shape. You're now out of debt. Your marriage is now better. You're now making a
difference, whatever it is. And people will look on
and they're gonna call you an overnight success. They have no idea all
the private sacrifices, all the faithfulness, all the consistency, overcoming your own self-doubt, failing and starting again,
praying and seeking God, enduring the criticism. They have no idea, I've
said this for years, it's the things that no one sees that bring results everyone wants. It's what's invisible. People don't see it, but you know it, one small decision at a time. I like the way the Apostle Paul said it to the believers in Galatia. He said this in Galatians 6:9. He said, "Let us not become
weary in doing good." Let's not become weary in honoring God. Let's not become weary in
doing the right things. Let's not become weary
in living by a budget. Let's not become weary
in counting calories. Let's not become weary in
getting up 30 minutes early to seek God. Let's not become weary
in going to the gym. Let's not become weary in
fasting before our God. Let's not become weary
in doing the right thing, honoring our marriage even
when we're not getting the respect back, "for
at the proper time," you may not see it for a while,
but it's being stored up. "For at the proper time,
we will reap a harvest "if we do not give up." Why do we tend to fail so often? We focus on the what. We don't understand the how. We don't see progress fast enough, or number three, and
this is a big problem, our distorted identity
sabotages our success. Our distorted identity
sabotages our success. What does our enemy do? Our enemy tries to connect
our failures to identity. You failed so you are a failure. You did bad, therefore you are bad. That's what happened to the Apostle Paul, as he was recognizing I
try to do what's right and I don't do what's right. Oh, what a miserable person I am. When you look at some of
the most effective people in God's Word, you see people who battled
with identity issues. In the Old Testament,
somewhere along the way, Moses didn't live up to
his own expectations, and so when God called him, he said I'm not a good public speaker. I'm not a good leader. He identified some failure with who he was and that sabotaged his potential. The same is true with Gideon. Gideon was nervous. You think I'm not nervous? We all get nervous. But he took that failure,
that shortcoming, identified with it. He said I'm the weakest and
I'm the least in my community. The Apostle Paul even did that. He said I'm unqualified,
I'm not good enough, I'm not educated enough. I'm the least and I feel
incredibly unworthy, and this is how it might
play out in your life. Well, this is just the way I am. I mean, we've always
known I just kinda have an addictive personality, and so, well, might as well
take another drink, right? - [Audience] Yes. - I'm not good with money. I've never been good with money. So might as well go shopping,
just to deal with it. I'm not a disciplined person. I'm not an organized person. I've never been good in relationships. I just can't seem to get it done. It's identity, and here's what happens. An unhealthy identity
creates unwise habits. Then the unwise habits reinforce
the unhealthy identity. It's a cycle. We don't see ourselves as godly, therefore we don't live
in way that's not godly, therefore the way we live
reinforces the identity that we're not really living for God, and the cycle becomes very, very negative. That's why this year, when we start, we're gonna do something
very, very different. What I'm gonna ask you to do, and I'm gonna ask you to do
this in your life groups, and if you're not yet in a life group, you may wanna add one
small part to your week that could be a total game
changer for you spiritually, which is we gather together
with other people of God, and we sharpen one another spiritually. We do life together. We are people of a broader community, and this is what we do. I'm gonna ask people
before you start do goals, here's what I wanna do, I wanna lose 18 pounds, whatever it is, I wanna encourage you
to start with who goals, not what do you wanna do, but I want you to first
start with the identity and ask yourself who
do you want to become. Who do you want to become? Who is it that when people describe you, you want them to describe? You might say I want them
to be a true man of God. It's a great who goal. You might say this, I wanna be clean. I wanna be sober. That's a fantastic who goal. I wanna be a godly mom. I wanna be a godly spouse. That's a great who goal. I wanna be financially free. I know it might take four years. I might take seven years. I wanna be generous along the way and I wanna be radically
and irrationally generous in the years to come. I wanna be a bold witness to
the other people in my school. I wanna be a healthy person. I wanna recognize that my
body is a gift from God. It's a temple, it's a house
for the Holy Spirit of God. I wanna make it healthy. Who do you want to become? Here's what happens. Identity shapes actions. Identity shapes actions. Identity does. For example, years ago
when our church officed in this little complex
where my office looked out over a parking lot, these
high school students came up, and a bunch of them got out of the car and two guys took their shirts off and they were fighting each other, and I turned into a 10th grade boy. I ran through the office yelling, "Fight, fight, fight, fight!" And Pastor Robert Wall joined me and two pastors went outside and watched these two guys beating
the tar out of each other and we were cheering them on. 30, 45 seconds, maybe a
minute, we're like, "Yeah!" and then we looked at each
other at the same time and we remembered who we were. (audience laughs) We're grownups. (audience laughs) We're Christian grownups. We're Christian grownups who are pastors. (audience laughs) We don't cheer on two testosterone-filled, hairy-legged teenage boys beating the crap out of each other. (audience laughs) We break it up, regrettably,
because it was a good fight, but we break it up. (laughs) And so we did. The point is, when you know who you are, you know what to do. - [Audience] Amen. - Who do you wanna be? When you know who you are, then you know what the
right thing is to do. The do overflows out of the who. Don't start with the
do, start with the who. Who do you want to be? (audience applauds) When you know who you are, thank you, Mom, for clapping. (audience laughs and applauds) There's an example in one
of the books that I read, I can't remember which
one, but they said this, let's say you're trying to
stop smoking cigarettes. You're trying to stop
vaping, whatever it is. And someone says to you,
do you want a ciggy? (audience laughs) If you say, no, I'm trying to quit, what you're doing is you're
identifying as a smoker. I am a smoker trying to quit. If, on the other hand, you
say, no, I don't smoke anymore, your identity is saying
that's a part of my past, it's not a part of my present. Identity shapes actions. You may say but this is just who I am. I can't change. Remember God's Word, Romans
6, verse 6 says this, "We know that our old sinful selves "were crucified with Christ, "so that sin might lose
its power in our lives. "We're no longer slaves to sin. "For when we died with
Christ, we were set free "from the power of sin. "Now you are free from
your slavery to sin, "and you have become slaves
to righteous living." When you know who you are,
you'll know what to do. Who are you in Christ? You are redeemed of the Lord. You are righteous in Christ. You are more than a conqueror. You are an overcomer. You're blessed at coming in,
and you're blessed coming. You can do all things
not by your own power, but through Christ who gives you strength. "Oh, what a miserable person I am! "Who can deliver me
from this body of death? "Oh, thanks be to God. "His Son Jesus Christ our
Lord can set me free." (audience applauds) Identity shapes actions. When you know who you are,
you'll know what to do. We talked about the negative spiral. Let me show you the positive one. Healthy identity, what does it do? It creates positive habits. I fast, I tithe, I
pray, I read God's Word, I eat disciplined, I work out. It creates healthy habits, and positive habits
reinforce a healthy identity. I'm a disciplined child of God. I'm a contributor. I'm an ambassador. I'm one who makes a
difference in this world. Who do you want to become? Who do you want to become? 23 years ago, on this weekend,
Katie was 19, 20 months old. Mandy was a baby. Amy and I were kids and we
gathered with a few people and started this place. And what's happened over 23
years is almost impossible for me to get my mind around. I figure I got another 23
good, hard years in me. - [Audience Member] Come on. (audience applauds and cheers) - Maybe more 'cause I'm a disciplined child of God. What do I want people to say about me when I'm in my 70s? Who do I wanna be? I jotted, just on a
napkin, a few things down. This is who I wanna be. I'll just tell you what I wrote
down without even thinking. I want people to say this about me. He's a guy who loves Jesus. He's obsessed with his wife. He's a great dad and even a better Pops. (audience laughs) And he's a devoted pastor
to the church that he loves. I want people to say he's a strong leader who believes in the best in people and he helps people do
more for the glory of God than they could do on their own. I don't think anybody will say this, but I want them to intuitively feel it. I don't think they're gonna
say this next statement, but I want them to feel it. He's a wise steward. And they're not gonna
say he's a wise steward. You're not gonna say that, but what I want you to
feel is this guy takes care of whatever's trusted to him, his health, his influence, his marriage,
his money, his time. He uses it to glorify God. Then I want you to say
something like this, the dude is enjoying the ride. He's rich in friendships and
experiences and generosity and he's leaving one heck of a legacy. (audience laughs) One heck of a legacy. That's what I want you to say. - [Audience Member] That's good. - When you know who you
are, you'll know what to do. No single action will
change your identity, but consistent actions
over time start to change how you feel about yourself
and change your identity because successful do consistently what other people do occasionally. Who do you wanna be? At our church, for years now,
our staff and many of you have prayed and asked God to give them a word for the year, one
word that kinda represents what we're praying God to do in our lives. Some people, their word
is discipline, sacrifice, faithfulness, joy, rest, whatever it is. Amy's word for several
years has been give. Give. So my word is earn. (audience laughs) You gotta fund that girl, right? This year, I asked Amy what's her word. You ready for this? This is a true story, 100% true. This is Amy. Her word is Jesus. (audience applauds) Well, you win. (audience laughs) Jesus. Whatever my word is sucks. (audience laughs) It's like all downhill from there. What do you do there? So you know what my word is? Amy. (audience laughs) 'Cause Jesus is already taken. So she's trying to be like him. I might try to be like her. (audience laughs) And I laughed and laughed and
laughed and laughed at this. You can't have Jesus as a word. It's not fair. What's it next year, Holy Spirit? (audience laughs) And then it dawned on me, that's exactly who I wanna be. - [Audience Member] Yeah, that's good. - That's who I wanna be. I wanna be like Christ, because if I'm like him, I'm full of love, full of grace, full of truth. I reflect the love of God in this world. I wanna be like Jesus. Conform me to his image, and if you're becoming more like Christ, you know who you are,
then you know what to do. - [Audience Member] That's right. - Because truly God-honoring
people do consistently what other people do occasionally. So, Father, help us to be like Jesus. Do a work in us, God. Stir up your church,
God, to have great goals, not just for the things in this world, but to be who you call us to be. All of our churches, as you're
reflecting in prayer today, those of you who would say I will seek God and listen to him on who
he wants me to become. I'm gonna start with the who. If you're willing to do
that, I know it's a real ask. This isn't something like
you just do in three minutes. It might take you five. It might take you 10. Might take you longer. I wanna seek God for
who he wants me to be, would you lift up your hands? I'm gonna ask you to do
that as a church today. All of our churches. Father, I pray that you would
just breathe life into this. Doesn't have to be formal, but years from now, this
is really who I want others to know that I am. This is what we stand for. And then, God, in the weeks to come, we thank you that the do is gonna overflow out of the who. More than anything else, more
than being a good leader, good dad, good husband, good mom, more than anything else, God, help us to be like your Son Jesus. As we keep praying today at
all of our different churches, some of you might be
spiritually frustrated. It could manifest itself
in any different way. Maybe you kinda have spiritual thoughts, but you never are really consistent. Maybe you believe in God,
but you never can seem to get it quite right for him. Maybe you're not even
like a God person at all, but there's something that's
drawing you to him right now, and you don't know where
you really stand with God. Amy's word is Jesus, and what I want you to
think about is Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is the Son of God. He is God in the flesh. His name is above every single name. One day every knee is
gonna bow unto that name. Every tongue's gonna confess his lordship. If you look at your life as
you enter into a new year and you recognize you're
living for anything else, you're shooting way too low. You're shooting way too low. God loves you so much that he sent Jesus to show you his love. Jesus loved the unrighteous. Jesus loved the sinners. Jesus loved those who
never, ever got it right. Jesus became sin for us as the perfect sacrifice on the cross. God raised him from the dead so that anyone who calls on his name would be completely forgiven. Maybe there's something in your past, that weight of your sin follows
you, the shame, the guilt. Anyone who is in Christ,
their sins are forgiven. They're made completely new. What I hope you're gonna understand is that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. At all of our churches there, those of you who recognize
he's not first in your life. Today, make him first, make him Lord. All of our churches, those who
say I need his forgiveness, I need his grace. When you call on his name,
he hears your prayer. He makes you new. That's the very reason
that you're here today and you can sense it. I need his forgiveness. I turn from my sin. I turn toward Jesus. I give my life to him. That's your prayer. Would you lift your hands high right now, all over the place, and say
yes, I surrender to him? Right back over there, praise God for you. (audience applauds and cheers) And over here as well. Both of you right up here, thank you. Back over here, two hands up. Right over here, praise
God for you over here. My goodness gracious,
right back over here. Yes, sir, God sees you. Right here, all of you together. My goodness, what's gonna
happen here together? Church online, you click right below me. I hope somebody here will just go ahead and worship God for a moment. Tell him thank you, tell him thank you. (audience applauds and cheers) Let's take a moment and just join those around you in prayer. Everybody pray aloud,
pray Heavenly Father. - [Audience] Heavenly Father. - I surrender to you. - [Audience] I surrender to you. - Jesus, be first. - [Audience] Jesus, be first. - The Savior. - [Audience] The Savior. - And the Lord of my life. - [Audience] And the Lord of my life. - Fill me with your Spirit. - [Audience] Fill me with your Spirit. - So I can follow you. - [Audience] So I can follow you. - So I can live for you. - [Audience] So I can live for you. - My life is not mine. - [Audience] My life is not mine. - I give it all to you. - [Audience] I give it all to you. - Thank you for new life. - [Audience] Thank you for new life. - Now you have mine. - [Audience] Now you have mine. - In Jesus' name, I pray. - [Audience] In Jesus' name, I pray. - Everybody said amen, worship God. (audience applauds and cheers) Welcome those today. - Hey, thanks again for
joining us here at Life Church. You know, it's always our heart to see you continue to grow in your
relationship with Christ, and one of the best
ways for you to do that is simply by going to life.church/next. There you'll be met with all
kinds of different resources to help you take your next step in your relationship with Christ. Another great way to continue to grow is to check out all of the videos we have here on this channel. We have lots of messages
from Pastor Craig Groeschel that we know will make a
huge difference in your life. Again, thanks for joining us
and we'll see you next time. (upbeat music)
