Habits That Matter – Part 4

Message Date: January 30, 2022
Bible

Review

  • Habits are more about who you’re being–who you are becoming–than what you’re doing.
  • Real change only happens at the level of identity.
  • God is the true source of your identity, and so is the only One who can truly change how you really see yourself.
  • The Word
    • We talked about how to read the word in such a way that it brings change. Where you hear HIS  voice in HIS word HIS Spirit helps to change you and FREE you from vice. Not just information, but transformation.
  • Freedom
    • Freedom is the ability to relate to God fully as the person you were created and redeemed to be–free from vice.
  • Prayer
    • Wisdom: skillful, practical use of knowledge.
    • Revelation: unveiling
    • Knowledge of Him (intimacy)
  • Fasting
    • Fasting does not change God. Fasting changes you. Flesh is static in hearing God.
    • 7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Galatians‬ ‭6:7-8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
      • Corruption: decay; not as good as God intended; not ripe; runs out; spoils; need more and more, because it gets old
      • Everlasting life: not quantity of life, but quality; never gets old; constantly fresh, and ripe, and the way God intended
    • What you feed grows.

Rest/Sabbath

  • God’s Pattern: 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:1-3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
    • A sacred rhythm:
      • cycles of the day (sunrise/sunset)
      • cycles of the moon (tides)
      • cycles of the seasons
  • 23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?” 27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” Mark‬ ‭2:23-28‬ ‭NKJV
    • Two types of law:
      • Prescriptive: (the Law) the system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties
        • Synonyms: rules and regulations
      • Descriptive:  a statement of fact, deduced from observation, to the effect that a particular natural or scientific phenomenon always occurs if certain conditions are present.
        • Synonyms: fact, verity, certainty, certitude
  • Simply put, the world around us works in a certain way, and physical laws are a way of classifying that “working.”
  • Paul said, for Sabbath, one day was just as good as another: ‭‭
    • 5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. Romans‬ ‭14:5-6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
      • It’s not about a certain day. It’s about a rhythm of life.
  • 1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:1-3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
    • Blessed: empowered to prosper
    • Sanctified: set apart
  • STOP paid and unpaid work.
    • This may not seem realistic, but you will get better and better at this.
  • REST and delight.
    • 12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God. ‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3:12-13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
      • Contemplate the grace of God and ponder His love.
  • 1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.  Hebrews‬ ‭4:1-10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬