Springhill Church

Topic: Habits

  • Uphill Habits – Part 4

    Aristotle said: “We are what we repeatedly do.”

    We form habits but then our habits end up forming us.

    Most people have uphill hopes and downhill habits.

    Hope is a great motivator, but it is not a strategy.

    (Romans 12:2 MSG) Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

    Habit #1 – Come close to God.

    Habit #2 – Control my thoughts.

    Habit #3 – Keep my life aligned with my purpose.

    God had the thing for you to do first, then He made you!

    We need to live by design, not by default!

    Habit #4

    Choose my relationships carefully.

    Your relationship decisions are the most important decisions you will make in your life.

    You are the sum total of your relationships. You show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.

    (Proverbs 27:19 TLB) A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.

    Four relationship verb choices you can make:

    ✓ Nurture my important relationships.

    Nurture – to feed and protect.

    Relationships take work! Just because it takes work does not mean it is a bad relationship.

    (1 Peter 4:7-8 NIV) The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. (8) Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

    ✓ Restore my broken relationships.

    The pain of fixing a broken relationship is not as bad as the pain of not having the relationship.

    (Romans 12:17-18 NIV) Do not repay anyone evil for evil… (18) If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

    (Colossians 3:13 NLT) Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

    ✓ Sever any harmful relationships.

    (Proverbs 13:20 NLT) Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.

    (1 Corinthians 15:33 NIV) Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

    ✓ Initiate some meaningful relationships.

    Start relationships you don’t already have.

    (Hebrews 10:25 NIV) Let us not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

    Mastering the Habit

    Four relationships that you need to initiate:

    1. Develop my relationship with my church.

    (Ephesians 2:19 TLB) …you are members of God’s very own family…, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.

    You need to eventually move from being an attender to a member.

    You need to eventually move to a place of commitment.

    Take ownership because it belongs to you and you belong to it.

    1. Develop my relationship with godly friends.

    Do you know how to tell if you are around godly friends? If being around them makes you more godly.

    If they are not pushing you to become more like Jesus, you may need some new friends.

    (Acts 2:44 TLB) And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything with each other,

    1. Develop my relationship with a team.

    You will never do anything significant alone!

    (Ecclesiastes 4:8 NIV) There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth…Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:

    1. Develop my relationship with God.

    (Jeremiah 29:13 NLT) If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find Me.

  • Uphill Habits – Part 3

    Aristotle said: “We are what we repeatedly do.”

    We form habits but then our habits end up forming us.

    Most people have uphill hopes and downhill habits.

    Hope is a great motivator, but it is not a strategy.

    (Romans 12:2 MSG) Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

    Habit #1 – Come close to God.

    Habit #2 – Control my thoughts.

    I will never change my life until I change the way I think.

    Change does not begin in the doing; it begins in the thinking.

    Habit #3 – Keep my life aligned with my purpose.

    Our lives must be in alignment with our purpose because there is probably not one thing that will affect more areas of life than your purpose.

    ✓ Because I have a purpose.

    (Psalms 139:16 BBE) Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book all my days were recorded, even those which were purposed before they had come into being.

    (Ephesians 2:10 NIV) For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

    God had the thing for you to do first, then He made you!

    We need to live by design, not by default!

    ✓ Because there is competition for my time and attention.

    An overwhelmed schedule will often produce an underwhelmed soul.

    (Ecclesiastes 4:6 NLT) And yet, “Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.”

    ✓ Because time is short.

    Time is short for us individually but also in the scope of the time for the world.

    Either way, we are all on limited time. Can’t be so casual.

    (James 4:13-15 NIV) Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” (14) Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (15) Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

    Mastering the Habit
    1. Decide what is important.

    A lot of our lives are not being defined by the important – they are being defined by the urgent.

    Life’s Priorities According to the Word of God:

    • My relationship with God
    • My relationship with my spouse
    • My relationship with my children
    • My relationship with my local church
    • My job
    • My social life.

    (Philippians 3:7-8 NIV) But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. (8) What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ

    1. Give calendar time to the important things.

    (Psalms 90:12 TLB) Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.

    • Make time for renewal.

    (2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV) Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

    • Make time for relationships.
    • Make time for Heavenly reward.

    (Matthew 25:21 NIV) “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

    1. Eliminate the non-essentials.

    Ask yourself, “is this really helping my life be better?”

    (Hebrews 12:1 NIV) …let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

    1. Regularly take inventory.

    Where is my life out of alignment?

    (Psalms 39:4-5 NLT) “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered–how fleeting my life is. (5) You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to You; at best, each of us is but a breath.”

  • Uphill Habits – Part 2

    Most people have uphill hopes and downhill habits.

    (Romans 12:2 MSG) Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

    Habit #1 – Come close to God.

    If you will draw close to God, He will draw close to you.

    We kicked off our time of 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting.

    What I starve dies.

    What I feed thrives.

    Habit #2

    Control my thoughts.

    I will never change my life until I change the way I think.

    Change does not begin in the doing; it begins in the thinking.

    (Romans 12:2 NLT) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think…

    (Theological principles about thinking:)

    ✓ Everything begins with a thought.

    (Ecclesiastes 10:2 MSG) Wise thinking leads to right living; Stupid thinking leads to wrong living.

    Every habit and every action that we do always begins with a thought. What are you beginning your day with? What you are starting your thought-life off with in the day?

    ✓ What we think determines how we feel.

    (Philippians 4:8-9 NIV) Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. …And the God of peace will be with you.

    What if we went a week without media in our lives and replaced it with worship music, etc.?

    ✓ Our thoughts determine our destiny.

    Your thoughts will determine where you will be this time next year.

    Sow a thought, reap an action.

    Sow an action, reap a habit.

    Sow a habit, reap a lifestyle.

    Sow a lifestyle, reap your destiny.

    You are today, what you thought about yesterday.

    If you don’t like where you are headed, change your thoughts!

    (Romans 8:5-6 NLT) Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. (6) So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

    Mastering the Habit
    1. Find a plan to control my thoughts.

    Cut off the sources of wrong thinking and replace it with sources for right thinking.

    Read the Bible.

    (Hebrews 4:12 NLT) For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

    Don’t just read the Bible, let the Bible read you!

    1. Find a place to think your thoughts.

    At some point in your day, turn down the volume of the world and place your focus on God.

    Just talk to God!

    (Isaiah 26:3 NLT) You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You!

    (Colossians 3:2 NLT) Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

    1. Find a person to stretch my thoughts.

    Get around people who are thinking the way God wants you to think. Get involved in one of our group ministries: men, ladies, marriage, etc.

    (Hebrews 10:24-25 NLT) Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. (25) And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.

    1. Find a purpose to land my thoughts.

    The healthiest thoughts you can have are ones about your God-given purpose.

    The conversation that God wants to have with every one of us is, “Let’s settle yesterday and let’s talk about your future.”

    (Romans 12:2 BBE) And let not your behaviour be like that of this world, but be changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete purpose of God.

    1. Find a power to fuel my thoughts.

    Open your life to the power of the Holy Spirit.

    (Isaiah 55:9 NIV) “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

    He wants you to have His thoughts and not yours.

    (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV) Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,