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All right, we're in Romans chapter number seven look down at your Bibles at verse 18 It says for I know that in me that is in my flesh Dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not and the title of the sermon this morning is how to Perform that which is good how to perform that which is good and this morning specifically I'm going to talk about habits Good habits bad habits how to forsake bad habits and how to actually accumulate and have Good habits as well now Romans chapter number seven is the famous chapter highlighting the perpetual conflict that Paul has between his flesh and his spirit and you know the desire to do right and The constant roadblock that is presented with us to do wrong, right? Now I love this chapter because of the fact that it completely demolishes and destroys the stupid doctrine Then once a person gets saved that they're just automatically gonna do right no matter what happens Right people don't want to say well Once you get saved, you're always gonna do right. You're always gonna read the Bible. You're always gonna go to church You're not gonna want to sin. You're a son of God, you know, you're not gonna want to do these bad things You're gonna always do right because you're saying no that's not what the Bible teaches And in fact we see here in Romans chapter never seven that one of the godliest men in the New Testament Even expressed his struggle between the flesh and the spirit He specifically said himself that he was in the flesh He specifically said himself that the things that he would do he didn't do. Oh, yeah. What is that? Oh, you know like godly living Okay walking in the spirit not sinning doing that which is pleasing in the eyes of the Lord Paul specifically said sometimes I don't do those things. Okay, and You know, I haven't found any deliverance doctrine type heretics that are able to actually explain this away Okay, they always want to go to 1st John They always want to go to these other scriptures obscure scriptures But yet they never want to touch Romans chapter 7 with a 10-foot pole Why is that because it completely destroys that foolish heretical teaching? Okay? That's not the sermon for today But you know, maybe I should just talk about that a little more often Lest anybody in here should think that you know, once we get saved, we're just always gonna automatically do right Hey, if that was the case, then why are there so many commandments in the Bible to tell us not to do wrong? You know if batteries came included When we got saved Why is it that God has all kinds of commandments telling us not to do those things why because we have the temptation to do Them and we will do them Sinless perfection is Impossible this side of eternity now look obviously when we get saved our spirit is saved. Our spirit is perfect Okay This is actually what first John is actually talking about When it says that when we're because we're born of God We're born of the spirit that we have that we will not commit sin Why because the seed dwells within them he's referring to the fact that the spirit is born again. It's sinless. It's perfect However, we have what's called the flesh Okay, and what does the flesh desire to do things of the flesh and in fact the Bible even says that it's not subject to the law of God Neither indeed can be the Bible says okay now look at verse 19 He says for the good that I would I do not explain that You know sinless perfection. He says the good that I would I actually don't do That's called sinning by the way Because he that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin the Bible says But the evil which I would not that I do. Whoa. Hold on a second Paul Hey, don't you know with all the sins perfection heretics the John MacArthur's? You know the James White's All these sinless perfection devil say about that. Hey Paul, you're not you're not even you weren't even safe to begin with actually You know Verse 20 now if I do that, I would not it is no more I that do it but sin That dwelleth in me now, let me just make something very clear. The Apostle Paul's not schizophrenic here He's not like talking about two different personalities He's talking about the two natures that we have once we get saved. We have two natures Okay, we have the new man and we have the old man This is what he's referring to and he's saying look when I sin it's not me who's doing it And when he's talking about me, he's referring to that new man He says it's sin that dwells within me which is the old nature the sinful nature Okay, the one that will not inherit eternal life You understand, you know when we die flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, right? Those who you know the body because it sins will not inherit the kingdom of God But the Spirit will he says in verse 21 I find in a law That when I would do good evil is present with me Now look at verse 22 It says fried the light in the law of God after the inward man But I see another law and my members Warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members So we don't want to go to the opposite extreme and say that we will never desire to do good Because the fact that the matter is the inward man delights in the law of God Okay, so even if you're involved in sin, you're backslitting you're out of church There's something that dwells within you that says I want to go to church I want to read the Bible and I want to do that which is good now Does that mean that you will do good? No, does that mean you will live righteously? Absolutely not but the desire is there Okay, the Bible says that the flesh lusts against the Spirit the Spirit against the flesh These are contrary one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would the Bible says, okay So when it comes to doing right? Whether that means reading the Bible eating healthy Okay You know developing godly habits, whatever it is, you know, we all have good intentions, don't we? like oh man 2020 no more Twinkies or you know, no more eating bad food, and I'm gonna exercise I'm gonna read my Bible. I'm gonna go so winning you have all these proper godly intentions But let me say this good intentions are never enough God doesn't reward people because you had a good intention Your good intention has to be coupled with an action it has to be coupled with Obedience it has to be coupled with a godly You know action a habit that you take that that produces that outcome of righteous living you understand So you can say well, you know, I I want to read my Bible, but you know if you don't do it It's it's worthless Okay, the intention should drive you to actually go read your Bible Right the desire to want to see people saved to actually drive you to go out and preach the gospel the desire For to live righteously should cause you to repent of sin to clean up your life in order that you would live a life That's pleasing unto the Lord. So the intention by itself. It's not that it's bad It's just that you can't you have to couple it with an actual action But here it says that we see the intention stem from the inward man Because the inward man desires these things it delights in the law of God. Okay? you know you woke up this morning and Maybe there's two types. There's two categories in this room The one who already has the habit of coming to church. So no matter what happens today. You already know I'm going to church there's no question about it and Maybe there's another group That came to church because they felt like coming to church This is the same group that if they don't feel like coming to church, they're not coming to church Whether it's something that it's right to do or not What we want to do is we want to transition from being the people who feel like doing something To doing it because we know that it's right. We've developed the habit of doing Righteously, okay, and look the Bible tells us that we need to learn to do. Well Isaiah 1 7 learn We have to learn how to live righteously, okay? Look at verse number 14 for we know that the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal. Oh Don't say that you're ruining the Sinless perfection. Okay, don't say you're a carnal carnal people aren't saved. I am carnal Sold under sin now, I will say this, you know If you were to put your thumb over that right there and kind of like go like this then, you know Maybe that would work out. Okay Verse 15 for that which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I Now, let's make let's give some examples of what he's stating here. Okay, don't you hate being overweight and fat and unhealthy? Yeah So as you're eating the foods that cause you to be that way don't you think this like man I hate I hate this Now some of you out there like no, I don't I Just got a satisfied, you know Now he says there For that which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that That do I if then I do that which I would not I consent unto the law that it is good now Then it is no more I that do it but sin the dwells in me now Look, you can't necessarily take that excuse like why do you eat so much McDonald's? It's not me that does this to send adults within me Why do you eat so much junk food? It's not I that do it. You know, I desire vegetables I desire, you know healthy water and and you know, I don't want sugar It's the it's the sin that dwells within me that desires those things Unfortunately, you know you actually you're actually covered in that sin nature so you still get credit, okay When we get saved we don't automatically start doing right with no friction You know when when you get saved You know, there's something called repenting of sin now people want to use the concept of repenting of sin to say That's what you have to do to be saved. Okay, which is a damnable heresy It's actually a prideful doctrine is what it is Because typically people who teach you have to repent of your sins to be saved are those who are basically saying you have to repent Of my sins in order for you to be safe, you know, you have to repent of the sins that I overcame Okay, and it's like well apparently you haven't overcome pride You know Apparently you struggle with being humble So you obviously have not repented of all your sins Okay So often it's it's the sins that is subject unto them the ones that they struggle with right and by the way You won't find that phrase repent of your sins in the Bible You know to be safe find that verse in the Bible for me. Okay. Well, it's in the Greek. Yeah so But here's the thing repenting of sin is a good discipline to have right Repenting of sin is a good discipline to have but here's the thing it has friction because if you're used to doing something a certain way if you're used to Sinning if you're used to a specific habit that leads to sin in order to abstain from that sin You know what's gonna happen? You're gonna it's gonna have friction. You're gonna struggle. Okay? So there's a barrier that actually keeps us from doing good, all right now, what is that barrier the barriers a habit Okay the reason people Find it hard to do that, which is good. It's not because they have the wrong desires You're like, oh man, if I could just change my desires, it's not necessarily that you have the desire It's called the inward man that produces those desires. It's the habits that you have Okay, the habits that you have mold you the habits that you have formed over the years Form the sins that you commit on a daily basis, okay Now what is the habit a habit is a routine or a practice that is performed regularly, right? Now habits if you're if we were to break down what a habit is. It's basically a mental shortcut Okay from experience So what your brain does it's your brains an amazing tool that God has given to us, right? What it does is this all day every day. You're performing tasks making decisions, right? You experience certain events in your life your brain processes these these Experiences and it creates habits The reason it creates habits or these shortcuts is to basically save you time and energy from thinking about certain things Okay, for example, if you're to walk down the street and you see a lion Okay, you see a lion coming after you. You don't have to like think okay lions kill people Lions are carnivores Lion is hungry. He's looking at me. He's running after me. He's gonna kill me. I'm gonna die. Okay now it's time to run You have a mental shortcut that already says run In other words your brain does the thinking for you. Okay. This is a good thing Hey, man This allows us to basically focus on that which is most important because we can only solve problems one at a time So what your brain does is it takes all the experiences that you have, you know experience in your life creates mental shortcuts So then you just are automatic and doing certain things. Okay, you know you wake up in the morning You may not know it but you actually put your leg through your left leg or your right leg through that pant leg every single Morning. Okay, you put on the right shoe every single morning you do something specifically every single morning You don't even think about how about this? What about when you drive to work? Have you ever driven to work and once you get there like man, how did it even get here? Like I don't remember What streets I took I just know that I got here, right? Hasn't that ever happened? Well, the reason that happens is because you've already created a mental shortcut in your brain that has a habit that causes you to get There now wouldn't it be great To have that for good We just automatically have the habit of doing well You we can do that. Okay, and look this is not just a lot of this Yes is psychology, but it's psychology that's actually based on the Bible Because these are biblical principles to learn to do well to be a custom to have a bent towards something You know when the Bible talks about you the the children of Israel had a bent towards backsliding. What does that mean? They just are perpetual backsliding. They've created habits Sinful habits that are displeasing unto the Lord and because of that they're suffering the consequences of their actions Okay, and in like manner we can do the same thing So your brain is always looking to preserve your attention for essentials in life. It's constantly delegating Actions to your body and your brain so you can focus on that which is most important You know, let me let me let me try to inspire you a little bit The the goal should be this that you are so habit bent towards godly living That actually you can set forth goals of how many times you want to read your Bible a year You know how many how much scripture you want to memorize instead of struggling with Starting to read your Bible Right Because here's the thing. And the reason I'm talking about this this morning is because we're nearing the end of the year Okay, and everyone has what's called a New Year's resolution, right? Oh this year, I'm for sure gonna read my Bible and this year I'm for sure gonna wake up early and this year for sure I'm gonna start running and and eating healthy and then January, you know The end of January comes and you've done nothing of the sort and you're like, alright 2021 for sure for sure That one's in 2021 comes around I'm for sure gonna do these things this year is just a bad year for me You know every year is a bad year for you. Okay, we need to accumulate good habits and things that practices Procedures and systems that will help us to be successful. Look as a dog returned to his vomit so a fool returned to his folly Okay, if you hate eating junk food But you love the reward that comes with it you need to change that Because eventually you're gonna have what's called a heart attack Okay, you're gonna have you know, the McDonald's you keep me the plastic you keep eating Your consuming is eventually gonna give you cancer Right, so better to change a habit before you receive the consequences of the accumulation of those actions Then to receive the consequences of the accumulations of those actions and then at that point now you got to really make the change I Rather just make the change not be forced to make the change, right? You know, I rather just say you know what? This is a wise decision for me to make This is a wise thing for me to do. I'm gonna do it instead of like well, I'm about to die I need to change my eating habits now. Oh That's what you want to do, okay, but that comes as we develop good habits You know better to actually Cause yourself to read the Word of God to learn it to develop godly habits on how to do it Then to go through a trial and say oh man. I wish I had read my Bible I wish I knew what the Bible actually says about a specific subject you get hit with some heretic who you know is quoting from the ESV or whatever and And hit you with some false doctrine and you don't know what you're talking about because you don't actually study your Bible Okay, that's embarrassing So the Bible doesn't use the word habit, but it does use terms such as want Okay, it uses a custom or uses being given to You know That's why the Bible tells us in regards to the qualifications of a pastor that he should not be given to what wine Right, the deacons not given too much wine And in fact, it tells the pastors and it tells Christians in general in Romans chapter 12 that they are to be given to Hospitality What is something that you're given to it means something that is habitual in your personal life It's something that you just automatically do. Okay, you're given to these things Go with me if you would to Romans chapter 12. Let's look at that Romans chapter number 12 I'm gonna read to you from Proverbs 23 verse 1 says well now sit us to eat with the ruler consider diligently What is before thee and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite? Now we're gonna talk about appetites a little bit here, okay Because you know, this is this is the Christmas season There's all kinds of goodies during the Christmas season, right? And look, I don't think there's anything wrong with rewarding yourself with goodies right cookies and pumpkin pie and All that diabetic stuff. It's all you know, it tastes great right as a reward But to live that way That's a different story Okay to live off of Little Caesars Pizza is a different story Right to live to have Little Caesars Pizza as a reward, you know, okay, but to live off of that We need to be people who eat to live not live to eat Right, we need to eat to live not live to eat and here it says you got to put a knife to your throat If you're if you're a man given to appetite, what does that mean? You have the habit of just Living for food and we do live in a society where that that's very much important to to the world, right? Now where to have you turn look at Romans 12 verse 11 says not slothful in business fervent in spirit serving the Lord rejoicing in hope patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer distributing to the necessities of the Saints Given to Hospitality what is that you have the habit of being hospitable kind to others welcoming them into your home Letting them use your resources whatever it is, but that doesn't happen on accident You have to make it habit out of that You understand that has to be something that you habitually do in order for you to do it naturally or automatically Now go with me if you would to Psalm 119 verse 112 Psalms 119 verses 112 I'm gonna reach you from Proverbs chapter 5 And look, this is actually very much important to God. Why is that? Throughout the Old Testament you'll often hear God rebuking his people because they're they haven't inclined Their ear to his word. What does that mean? They don't have the discipline of listening to God That's what it is When he says incline your ear, it means they're not inclined to listen. They don't have the habit They don't have they're not given over to paying attention to what God is saying Let me reach you from Proverbs 5 verse 11 says and now mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy blood are consumed And say how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers Nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me Let me let me tell you what it's a good habit for you to have as a Christian listen in church Have the habit of listening in church now We don't have a church that you know, you guys are constantly checking your phones and social media You know because if you did then and I caught you guess what I do. I call you out Okay, but I've known churches where they actually do that. They're checking the game the score of whatever's going on They're doing other things other than listening to God's Word That is a complete disrespect and dishonor of the preaching of God's Word Those people are not inclined to listen the Bible says that we need to be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath So we need to have the discipline of listening in church now How do you do that well first and foremost remove things in your life they they cause you to have a short attention span like television If you're constantly watching television, you're constantly watching programs. That means you're constantly looking at images that are changing every two seconds Therefore you condition and accustom your mind to wanting variation of images every two seconds Well, you know what here you're looking at me for 50 minutes So you know I can't change I'm not a chameleon I'm not gonna like do a circus up here to try to keep your attention. You need to be disciplined to listen in church right so part of paying attention in church and being inclined to hear is Removing distractions or practices that cause you to have a short attention span But not only that paying attention in church is being to have to be sober and alert Now what I mean by that getting enough sleep the night before Or not eating Little Caesars pizza at 12 o'clock midnight Right hey, this is deep doctrine. I know okay Look when you eat late at night Okay, and the reason a lot of you are laughing and smiling is because that's what you did last night When you eat late at night your body is work your liver is is like Working overtime to process all that food So you think you're sleeping, but you're not sleeping Now because you've been doing it for years you wake up, and you're like yeah, I slept But here's the thing you have no idea what it's like to actually have quality sleep The kind of sleep you're thinking about is like I closed my eyes, and I woke up the next day And that's it, but your body is like. I'm not done yet, though So therefore when you come to church, you're yawning you're tired You're having trouble paying attention and because you're you're you're spiking your insulin so much You know what you're also thinking about what's for lunch I Hungry I need to eat You know are they having that special food back there is at the beginning of the month are we having birthday breakfast? What are we doing? What is that doing? That's taking your attention away from being inclined to hear the Word of God You see how important it is to be disciplined in the Christian life It doesn't happen by osmosis. You don't just come to church and just become a godly person it takes work to learn to do well right So you know when you wake up in the morning get your cup of coffee Amen You know read your Bible get a good night's rest before the night before Don't eat past six Okay, so you give your body enough time to process all the foods get the rest that it needs come early in the morning Sing the songs learn the preaching of God's Word and succeed in life Did you know you can come to our church and still be a failure? That sucks To come to our church for a certain amount of time and just be a failure is a terrible thing What you want is that when you come to church you learned you get the most out of? The church you get the most out of the preaching and you succeed you go forward But these are habits that often are we're inclined to do look at Psalm 119 verse 112 one verse, but it's very powerful He says I have inclined my heart to perform Thy statutes always even unto the end bold statement He's like I got the discipline and the habit of doing right and obeying the commandments always even unto the end now Obviously we understand that this is not sinless perfection because guess what the same writer of this one wrote Psalm 51 Right Where he's confessing his sins he's repenting of his sins. He's getting right with God. He's still Understanding that there's that fine line there Now why is this important? Why our habits good? Why are they important because as I mentioned the good intentions are just not enough we need to incline ourselves to do right and be Accustomed to abstaining from evil, you know, there's there's people that struggle with sin Okay. Now here's the thing is in our church There are specific sins they if you struggle with and you perpetually do will actually get you kicked out of church That's a good motivation to not do them You know if you're involved in drunkenness if you're smoking pot if you're involved in fornication Which is having sex outside of marriage if you are involved in extortion if you rail against me if you rail against anybody in your Church that'll get you thrown out if you're covetous if you're idolatrous you will get thrown out of the church Okay. Well, I don't believe that's right then go somewhere where you can believe that that's right and the pastor There's a weakling enough to even say that that's right as well But not here, but you know what that is, that's a good motivation for you to say well I guess I'm not gonna smoke weed anymore. I want to keep coming to church By the way, you said what do you find that first Corinthians chapter 5? Okay. I preached on that two weeks ago Okay, keep an order in the church. That's good motivation That's a good cue for you to say Well, I want to keep coming to church because I want to be blessed by God. I love the fellowship I want to hear the preaching of God's Word. I want to live right therefore I need to abstain from these things because if not pastor me he is gonna throw me out and I don't want to get thrown Out and you know, by the way, it's something that's coupled with that is shame Because you know what we do when we throw people out we bring it before the church And say, you know brother hike got thrown out because he was extorting me I'm just kidding. But we do do that we breathe because it's biblical. That's what the Bible says we should do. Okay Now Why is it that why is it that a bad habit is formed in the first place Okay, because we're gonna talk about a lot of things We're gonna talk about you know from from sin to just regular habits that just kind of just make you fat or make you slow Or make you dumb. Okay, for example, for example watching TV is a habit that will make you stupid. I Mean you could cut it with it whichever way you want. It's a habit that'll make you foolish and dumb But you know, it's a habit that will make you intelligent reading not just the Bible but just books in general Okay, you know, what's a habit that will actually increase your knowledge and your intelligence is? Memorization or rather recalling. Okay learning how to recall scripture learning how to recall words in different languages That actually exercises your brain in such a way that actually makes you more intelligent It exercises this big muscle that you have going on here and it actually helps you to be more focused and just be a better Functioning member of society just in general, but if you just are always on social media Instagram Facebook YouTube You're just always watching movies. You're always on TV. It's gonna make you foolish. It's gonna make you dumb. Okay, and A lot of people unfortunately have those habits now The reason people have habits just to begin with was because it that action that they took actually yielded a reward Okay, I'll give you an example of this. Let's just use McDonald's for example, okay, I Used to eat McDonald's don't hold it against me. This is you know, BC before Christ and I'm just kidding, but This is no actually was it was while I was a Christian This is years ago when I was in Bible College. Actually. Okay. I had a bad habit of eating junk food and You know, this is when they had I don't know if they had they still have it the dollar menu You guys remember the dollar menu? Do they still have that today come on those of you who are still addicted tell me all right Yeah, they do so I Used to eat that like every week at least every other day. Okay, and No, we're not glorying in that Marcos. This is not a good thing. Okay Now what was the reward that I was looking for? Because obviously I knew the McDonald's was bad You know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that McDonald's is really bad for you. Okay. What did it take? What was it that why is it that I keep kept eating it? Why did I make that habit because when I would eat it it would create a sense of what? satisfaction Whether it's I'm fed and you know, of course you have all the MSG in there That you know creates that sense of satisfaction as well that dopamine rises up. Okay Now what is dopamine dopamine is the neurotransmitter that basically transmits signals in your brain cells and It causes you to say hey, this is good It brings you happiness is what it does, you know when ladies eat chocolate Right. Yeah, I need this talking you eat the chocolate Okay, that is the reward that you're looking for now if you keep eating chocolate, you know that it's bad But what is overriding that that you know that intelligence that knowledge you have that it's bad the fact that you want the reward You like I'm gonna eat chocolate cuz it makes me feel good. Okay I'm gonna eat this kind of food because it makes me feel good. So look all we have to do is Rewire the habit to get the same outcome in the reward Or if a habit that you have has a bad reward Okay, like death Then what you have to do is make the habit invisible And look, this is all biblical Okay, because what did David say I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes I hate the work of them to turn aside. It shall not cleave unto me So what how do we abstain from certain things? Okay. Well number one you have to remove the potato chips from your house Can't see him hey out of sight out of mine Okay now for my Hispanic fellows you have to remove the conscious You have to remove the tortillas. I Just offended like half the church right now To the rest of you you're like, what's the big deal with that? It's a big deal To like Hispanic homes. Okay, you need to remove them Okay, learn to do well You Have to remove the sugars that which is Detrimental to your health if you want to not eat those you can't say well, you know I got to stop eating tacos, but you keep us stacked like this big of tortillas in your in your cupboard Out of sight out of mind Now look if you're here, you're like well I'm just content eating this way and I'm fine if I die early then go ahead then have at it if that's your goal But hey, I want to live for God I want to live a long time And you know what? I want to serve God at peak levels Right, not just in my spirit, but in my body in my mind I want to be able to be a vessel unto honor meets for the Masters use So that when God looks down he sees okay, you know what? He's still a sinner He's imperfect obviously, but obviously he has some good habits. He can perform at peak levels. I'm gonna use this person I've known a lot of pastors back in the day that you know, they had a spiritual side down But apparently, you know not their eating habits. There were men who were given to appetites a lot of fat preachers back in the day very overweight fat preachers that ended their life early They could have won more souls to Christ Preach greater sermons in the years to come but did not because of the fact they didn't take care of their health. Okay? We need to make sure look I want you to be around for a long time I meant you know, what are the mode one of the motivations for me is to eat right to live healthy my kids Right and look we're a church that believes in having lots of kids You know because two ways you grow the church is soul winning and having kids We're gonna keep having kids like my wife and I we're gonna keep having kids until she can no longer have children We don't believe in any form of birth control Okay, we don't believe in Birth control and trying to you know plan, you know plan baronhood. We don't believe in that Just keep having kids But here's the thing that means though I'm gonna get older and what happens the children are actually gonna get younger You know you understand what I'm saying? So that means that as I get older, I got to make sure I'm healthier Because my little one is Still deserves his dad to be able to play with him. I Say oh, sorry son, you know, I got you know I got this liver tran I need this liver transplant and I got all these problems and all these things I need to perform at peak levels for my children. That's what he deserves. I chose him. He didn't choose me So it's not fair to our children, right? Be inclined to listen now. It's not fair to our children Okay to not have their parents perform at peak levels for them because of our bad habits You know it comes a point in our Christian lives that we need to not be selfish And we need to start thinking upon others and what I mean others. I mean our children. How about your wives men? right Be around long enough for your wife. Hey, this is why you know Obviously eating junk food and stuff is bad. But you know, hey, how about this smoking cigarettes is bad, too Now you you don't get kicked out of our church for smoking cigarettes But you know, you're gonna kick yourself out of a healthy body and eventually kick you right into a grave early great Okay We need to take these things into account. This is why we want to change our habits So a habit is formed in the first place because there was an action you took that yielded a reward Your brain records this and tells you. Hey, let's do that again So, you know you get the chocolate chip cookie and it's just laying on the counter cuz your wife cooked them or baked them You eat it. You're like, hey, that was really good. What are the actions that we took to get to this point? Oh, that's right. I had my wife make them for me Okay Dopamine rises up so on and so forth and look a lot of the times actually, you know, cuz they've done studies on this and Dopamine obviously spikes when you have the reward, but it actually has a greater spike when you anticipate the reward Okay, think about Christmas for example children and Christmas some of the most exciting days for children are not necessary Christmas Day It's the days leading up to Christmas. I Knew a man long ago. Okay, and I'm not gonna say his name He's in our church today and he's sitting in the back. His name is Marcos. I Will tell you his last name, would you say Marcos s okay, maybe that's too obvious. I will say M Sanchez, okay He's a mind me telling this because he's told us too many people You know when when when he would even say like back in the day when when he's seen McDonald's he said he would get really excited Driving up to McDonald's He said Look I asked dr. Rita about the sign scientific proof. This is true. He said his heart would begin to palpitate You know Now look Marcos is a very healthy man. I mean he takes care of himself He weight lifts and all that. He's probably one of the strongest men in our church Okay, but back in those days. It was quite a different story. Okay, you know, but but look that's an extreme example But people do that all the time, you know when you salivate You know, you're going to a restaurant That is the dopamine that's rising that's causing you to feel that way, okay Now wouldn't it be great to feel that way for healthy foods or even this for spiritual reasons? I'm not saying salivate when you come to church. It's like I'm saying, you know, for example, David said this One thing have I desired? Right and he was talking about being in the house of God So that means he had a strong desire to be in the house of the Lord. Okay, that's how we want to get Whereas we have a strong desire to read the Bible. We have a strong desire to go sowing We have a strong desire to live righteously Instead of constantly struggling we want to have that desire, but that is coupled with the habit that we get now Go with me if you would to Go to Hebrews chapter 3 if you would So Again remember just remember your mind is constantly scanning your environment, you know And as it's scanning the environment, it receives a reward and you're like, oh that was good And then it begins to backtrack and see what were the steps that led up to that? Reward of feeling good. Okay, and then let's do that again Okay, so this could be used to form a good habit, but it's also used to form bad habits as well Okay, for example someone who is an alcoholic maybe they don't have that in their family How did they be how do they start being an alcoholic? Maybe it became it started when they're in in a social group. Everyone was drinking and he just had a beer she just had a beer and the reward was now I'm accepted by the group, right and So that becomes a habit every time they go out they drink Unfortunately, it rolls into her drinking him drinking when they're home and then it becomes cirrhosis of the liver That person dies that person becomes a slave of their own habits and they receive the consequences. They're up. Okay Now, how does it happen with good habits? Well, you read the Bible. Amen Start off with the book of John. You're like I could actually understand what I'm reading. I'm just gonna read one chapter and then that minuscule habit Action of reading one chapter becomes ten chapters becomes twenty and by the time you know it you finish the Bible You receive that reward and what happens when you receive the reward you say wow, I can do this. I'm gonna do it again Then that begins to accumulate then you start saying well if I could read the Bible in a year Surely I can read the Bible twice in one year And you see how that begins to spiral and go into godly habits and godly goals, etc So, how do you perform that which is good. I'm just gonna give you a couple points here Okay, and if you don't like this sermon then go ahead check your social media. Go ahead. Just keep doing what you're doing I want to help you because you know 2020 is coming right around the corner and you should have some godly goals. Amen You should have some things that you want to achieve and let me say this You should not be the same Christian you are today that you were last December. I Mean if you were to observe yourself and say man Am I doing the same exact thing is my health in the same exact position is my Bible knowledge Exactly the same as it was last year if it is you have not changed your habits Insanity is doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results. You're crazy Something needs to change. Okay So how to perform that which is good. Well, number one. This is very basic. You just need to know your temptations First and foremost, let's talk about the bad things first. Okay, and then we'll talk about the good things So know your temptations. Okay. What are you inclined to do? Let's talk about spiritual habits. Okay, so You say well, I'm inclined to not go to church. Unfortunately on Sundays You know, I just have a bad habit of being inconsistent in church. Okay, and let me say this that's a bad habit Especially if you're a father you're a husband You need to have the habit not just for your sake but for the sake of your family of being in church now Obviously, there's exceptions to this rule. Is there not you know, if you're if you're dying you you don't come to church. I Get it, you know, we'll give you a pass on that one. Hey if you're sick don't come to church Hey, if your child is projectile vomiting exorcist style don't come to church So, I don't we can't take this to the other tree was like why Just throwing up and you're like we're going to church no matter what cuz this is what we do Stay home Because you're gonna create this environment of sickness amongst all the children And then what's gonna happen is instead of missing one family on a Sunday. We're gonna be missing ten because everyone gets sick. Okay But what I'm saying is this is that you need to know your habit. What are you bent to do? You know, are you what is your weakness is it chocolate is It Little Caesars Pizza. Is it junk food? Okay. Is it laziness? What is it? And look come to grips with it. Don't be like in self-denial Don't try to portray yourself as you know, I just got it all together. I'm all that in a bag of chips Ah, now you just told me what your struggle is Because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaking it's potato chips You know, what is it that you struggle with know what it is that you're struggling with? What is that temptation that you're bent to do now and just remember this it's not the potato chips. Do you want? It's not the chocolate that you want. It's the reward That it brings It's the feeling that it gives you cuz here's the thing. This is what people do and I'm getting ahead of myself But this is important, you know, let's like let's give an example. You're at work and your boss yells at you Cuz you know you did something wrong. You didn't do something the right way. What are you inclined to do? You pull out the Snickers bar Everything's gonna be okay Okay, so it's not necessarily the chocolate wood that you need then You just need to relieve some stress because your boss yelled it You know what I'm saying? So what you need to do is replace that Because what's being produced are endorphins, right? When you eat that you get the dopamine you get the serotonin the oxytocin Right, you get all these chemicals that makes you feel happy But you think but you're getting them through the bad Avenue of chocolate or junk food or whatever it may be so what is the answer you have to remove the chocolate and Understand you can actually get that through something else like doing push-ups running Punching the wall. I'm scared What I'm saying is this is that don't think you're addicted to chocolate and that's the reason I just that's just what I do No, it's the fact that the reward you're looking for is the relief Do you get when your boss yells at you you pull out the chocolate bar, but here's the first step Don't put chocolate bars in your desk Right You say what should I put in my desk maybe put a Bible Because now you've already had the habit You're inclined to open up your drawer When your boss yells at you because you're expecting the chocolate bar But you know what the visual aid is what the Bible you open that up and you read a proverb You put it back in and you you you get rid of that habit. Okay? The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 13, but exhort one another daily what it is called today Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So what does that have to do with what I'm talking about? Well The habit that you have of eating bad foods or whatever may be is just deceiving you Because it's making you think that it's gonna deliver you something that it really is not Okay, you know the the tortillas the bad eating the shows that you watch You know, you're doing it because you're looking for a reward Well that is deceiving you to think that that's the only avenue for that reward that you're gonna get. Okay, it's not it's deceiving you okay, so The same goes with making a goal Okay, so know what is your temptation but on the flipside if you want to produce good goal good habits You got to have an actual goal to work for so this is what I mean. Don't make it so ambiguous You're like, okay 2020. I want to read my Bible more. I Want to be in church more. I want to not sin as much that's too ambiguous Can we get specific? Okay, what sins are you talking about? Okay gluttony Okay, let's get more specific than that what type of foods are you referring to well Mexican food, you know, well, you know candy or chocolate or whatever. Okay now we're getting somewhere Okay, so you got to have specific goals or how about this? I want to read the Bible more Let's get more specific than that. I want to read the Bible in one year. Okay, that's good. That's specific Now you have something to work with okay now that's that's possible because you're working towards a specific goal You're working towards a specific goal or how about this? I want to lose 40 pounds right 60 pounds or whatever Don't just say I want to lose weight That's not specific enough You're not gonna do it But if you have a specific goal you're working towards saying well, I want to lose specifically 60 pounds 50 pounds Now you have a concrete goal that you can work towards. Okay, and look I did this in July of last year where you know, I wanted to lose at least 40 pounds Okay, I said I want to lose 40 pounds and I told my wife I was saying okay Here's the window of time that I want to do that it Okay, and I said from you know, I think it was August August September October I said by October I want to hit my goal You say why because then you have Thanksgiving You have December you have good food. I don't want to abstain from good food, but I want to reach my goal by them Okay, so I hit because I had that specific goal. I reached that goal of losing 40 pounds Now here's the problem with goals though, okay, is that Often when you meet that goal You just move on to something else and you're no longer you're no longer implementing that system Implementing that system. So this is why it's important that instead of just having a goal of losing weight or reading more Bible You just have a goal of being a Bible reader Right So you just focus on the system Right. So instead of saying well, I just want to lose weight. Why don't you just have weekly goals of just eating specific foods exercising certain times And every time you reach that goal, it'll accumulate within the next six months of losing 40 60 pounds Good Because here's the thing, you know it and I know it when we set a goal and if we don't reach it we're discouraged And that deters us from trying again Whereas if you set up immediate goals that have immediate successes You're going to continue to do it because you're successful that day you're successful that week, okay So on and so forth and then it accumulates Okay, the desire accomplished is sweet to the soul But it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil The Bible says now go with me if you went to james chapter number one So know your temptations know your goals here's another one know your triggers I already mentioned this a little bit, but this is important. This is very important know your cues Now how many of you remember my sermon triggered? Raise your hand if you remember my sermon triggered, okay That sermon was basically saying that there's certain people that if you mention something They're just triggered by it, you know, you start talking you you talk to another old ifb church member Or a pastor and then you just mention pastor stephen anderson They're triggered They're just like they switch that's the cue So, you know what to do to piss them off Right just mention this person or a specific doctrine, right? You mentioned that the jews are not god's chosen people triggered You know, you mentioned the reprobate doctrine triggered Okay So we need to know what triggers us To take an action to eat that candy bar Which is your boss yelling at you? Which is your husband getting mad at you? Idleness There's something that happens on your day-to-day life That causes you to think okay now I need to take this action to receive this reward you understand? You understand now looks for some people for example people who who lift weights the trigger sometimes can be You know, they already have the habit of going to the gym and they hear the clanking of the weights Yeah, and what they think is like now the dopamine is rising up because now they associate that with the work that will Eventually produce the reward of getting big becoming stronger. Okay, they may not even be able to tell you that but in their minds That's what's taking place Or how about this you drive down a specific street and there's an exit or you go down the freeway There's an exit that goes to the restaurant that you typically go to to eat bad food Okay, what is the cue that freeway? Or that billboard. Okay, and by the way companies know know this like the back of their hand Okay This is why you have liposuction uh Billboards everywhere right now, you know why because people feel fat because they've been eating really bad So they see that like oh, yeah, I need I gain so much weight. I need liposuction They take advantage of that. This is why you go to target or you go to some store They have everything you need to buy at eye level And the cheap stuff the most expensive stuff is at eye level the cheap stuff is like tucked away somewhere in the corner Because they know if you're waiting to pay something and you look it's more likely you're going to grab that it's a cue That's given to you to say I need this you understand So you need to know your cues a trigger is a subconscious reminder That reminds us of the reward that we're waiting for. Okay Now you can do this even with good habits So think about what you do when you wake up in the morning, okay? You got to make a list of things that you do when you wake up in the morning I wake up in the morning. I use the restroom I get dressed and you need to Implement a new habit within those already established habits So if you have a habit of drinking coffee in the morning, that's a good habit. Amen You put a but if you struggle with reading the bible you put the bible next to the coffee So now you have stacked that habit on top of a habit that you already have So now what happens is when you in the morning when you wake up you associate Coffee with bible now look I know what i'm talking about because that's what I did Years ago if you ask if you tell me about bible reading automatically in my mind. I picture a cup of coffee and my bible always Well, that's carter. You should just want to like read your bible. Yeah, how's that going for you? Because it's going well for me i've read the bible scores of times for 13 years and it's always worked So you have to associate something, you know your bible reading or how about prayer time, okay? You know if you walk somewhere you need to associate that location with prayer So what i'm saying is you have to implement a new habit with the already established habit that you already have okay and After a while it becomes habitual for you to read your bible as you're drinking your cup of coffee or as you do whatever, okay? This is what's referred to as a trigger and look this is biblical. What was the trigger? for eve the fruit What was the trigger for aching the babylonian garment What was the trigger for david? That's shiba? It's all everything that they saw Okay They saw it and automatically it triggered an action that resulted in a specific consequence and look the bible tells us mine eye affecteth mine heart So the bible says But here's the thing What if you remove it then you don't see it What if you stop putting your bible there where you're typically used to seeing it you're not going to read it What if you stop taking that route where there's that billboard or that you know restaurant you're probably not going to go Because here's the thing. We always want the path of least resistance so look if you have a habit of Let's say this let me give you an example. Let's say you have a habit of watching tv, which I don't even have a tv Okay, let's say you have a habit of watching tv and you want to reduce the habit of watching tv. This is what you do You get the tv And you throw it out the window. No, i'm just kidding You get the tv and you put it in the furthest closet in your house Unplug it take all the wires out and say okay if I want to watch tv I got to take it out of the closet. I got to reconnect it I got to set it up and then I got to watch my program, but you know what's going to happen You're going to say that's too hard And you know what's going to happen you're not going to do it So whenever you introduce friction To a specific action you're not going to do it You understand what i'm saying? But look when there's friction for a good habit, you're not going to do it either Okay, so that's why you want to make your habits you want to make the actions and the cues to your habits easy Put it where it's already visible put it where it is attractive put it where you can see it And therefore you will be inclined to do it But if you want to get rid of a habit You got to make it hard for yourself to actually get it If you're inclined to just purchase food when you're out and about then leave your credit card debit card at home Don't carry cash on you. It's harder to do. Okay You know if you are inclined to just go on social media instead of reading your bible Okay, then why don't you do this delete your apps? And if you want to look at social media Then you have to re-download them. You have to re-put your password in You know and you have to go through that friction process of doing that The point is this you want to make doing bad habits hard on yourself? Because we always take the path of least resistance and that's bad in some cases But when it comes to getting rid of bad habits, it's good for us Because we want things to be hard, right? We have to make sin look exceeding sinful We have to put it far from us We need to put as much distance from us in the queue as possibly as we possibly can Well, that's too extreme. I'm putting my tv in the closet Well, you know what? That's the fine line between successful people and unsuccessful people Successful people are willing to do everything that it takes to gain the right habits in order to produce A lifestyle that is becoming unto the lord becoming unto a saint that'll that you can live a life that's pleasing unto god. Okay? Let me see here All right, go to psalm Go to psalm 101 if you would this is the last point So you got to make a trigger you got to trigger yourself, okay Maybe it's like you want to run every single day. Okay Well, maybe the trigger is you got to put you got to lay out your clothes what you use to exercise is already out As soon as you get home you put on the running shoes or whatever it is and that triggers your brain Okay. Now I got to go do this. Okay And here's the thing once you do it a certain amount of times the dopamine starts going up Because we like accomplishing things and once something gets accomplished now, we can't live without it Now it feels weird if we don't do it you know When you read your bible and you Go without it for one day. You just you're like i'm backslitting i'm like i'm not right with god today He's gonna strike me down something bad's gonna happen to me because you already have the habit of reading your bible every single day Okay, and that is where you want to be. That's the sweet spot Okay And the last point is this make your habits invisible or make it visible Okay, and I already mentioned a lot of that and just remember this guys It's easier to avoid temptation than to resist it It's easier to just avoid it Than to be in the presence of it like okay. I gotta pray Just give me the twinkie And then you just give into it Where if it's out of sight, you don't see it now it's invisible now. You don't even have to resist it You just avoid it entirely Okay So in other words, you got to reduce your exposure to the cues that are making you do the habits They're causing these rewards that eventually will lead to the consequences thereof. Okay Get rid of them make them invisible don't see them and look I'm, not saying don't be a person of temperance and self-control because self-control is very much important, right? Keep under my body and bring it into subjection list by any means when I preach to others I myself should be a castaway, you know The bible specifically tells us that he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty And he that ruleth his spirit that he that taketh the city, right? So the bible does put an emphasis on having self-control, but let me say this self-control Is only a solution for the short term not for the long term It's only a solution for the short term. It's only a solution for the immediate battle that you're going to face today But you can't keep having self-control Over a bad habit for a week a month a year. You're going to eventually give in The short-term solution to a temptation is self-control. Okay. So in other words tomorrow You know, you need to have some self-control and read your bible and obey that cue obey that habit you're going to set forth Okay, because look at the end of the day I can give you all these principles You can read all the bible you want and see what the bible has to say about it at the end of the day You have your own will Okay, we're not calvinist here Thank god, we're not calvinist god is not puppeteering us making us do all these things we have a will of our own Where is that in the bible everywhere? In fact the bible god even told the children of israel that you've limited the holy one of israel How does that work in a calvinistic world? When you limit god, I thought god is sovereign He's sovereign he can just do anything he just puppeteers us no, it doesn't work that way He gives us a will and we get to choose Okay, so look that this is as far as that can take you At this point you need to choose And if next week you still have the bad habits next week, you're still doing what you're not supposed to be doing, you know You can only blame yourself because at one point you just got to say, okay, I got to choose to do this Okay Look at psalm 101 101 The long-term goal is that you build in these habits so then you just do these things automatically Okay That's why look guys when it comes to church attendance Don't let your family ask you are we going to church today That should never be a question are we going to church today like When they ask that you just look at them like what are you talking about we always go to church This is what we this is who we are See it's got a transition from something that you do to someone who you are Am I going to eat healthy today? This is who you are Am I going to exercise today? This is who you are Are you going to read your bible today? Are you going to read your bible today? What in the world? This is who I am You know, are you gonna fill in the blank this is who I am So it's got to change from being something that you do to someone who you are Because who you are basically means these are the actions that you always just do naturally Okay Look at psalm 101. It says I will sing of mercy and judgment unto thee. Oh lord Will I sing I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way Oh when wilt thou come unto me, I will walk within my house with the perfect heart I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them to turn aside It shall not cleave unto me if forward heart shall depart from me. I will not know A wicked person this is a lot of absolute statements that he's making here And look we know for a fact that david sinned greatly He did a lot of sin, but even he said and it isn't interesting that the sin That he was involved with Took place with his with what he saw and yet he says here. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes I hate The work of them to turn aside it shall not cleave unto me. This is not like, you know motivation He's not giving himself a motivational speech. This is just who he is now And in like manner this is what we need to do we need to make sure that we become These habits or really rather that these habits become just who we are. You understand? So what is the sermon for today? Look, you know I just want you to get some good habits. Amen And whether that means eating healthier I want I want a church to just have a higher quality of life Okay We got we got the doctrine down already. Amen Got the soul winning down. Amen Let's keep moving forward and let's improve the quality of the individuals within our church Okay, don't just ride the success wave of the church Use it Become a better individual become a better christian become a better father become a better wife become just a better Person a christian just in general, but that doesn't happen by accident or by dreaming or by having good intentions You need To form habits. You need to give heat to these things You need to become the person that you want to be at the end of 2020 Okay, amen Inspire hasn't have a word of prayer father. We thank you so much for your word And lord i'm thankful that we are creatures of habit that can work Uh for our benefit, but also to our detriment And I pray god that you'd help us to give heat to these things there's plenty of motivations out there to do the right thing Obviously we have our sin nature And there's going to come a time when we will no longer have that sin nature and we can You know, we're going to get our resurrected bodies and we will no longer be in the presence of sin. It'll be great But I pray god that today that you'd help us to give heat that we would incline ourselves to do right to live Righteously to love you to do that which is pleasing in your sight and help us to put in the effort needed To learn to do well to develop these godly habits so we can perform at peak levels For your honor for your glory in jesus name we pray. Amen