Develop Great Habits, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Where you are at this moment spiritually is exactly where your habits have brought you. Where you are right now, you see, God has supplied each believer with the Spirit of God, indwelled by the Holy Spirit. God has given each believer the grace of God. God has given each believer access to the Word of God. The difference between us is not the power of God. It's not the grace of God. It's not the Word of God.

I can tell you what it is. It's our own habits. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.

In this edition of Fellowship in the Word is the Radio Ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Benjamin Franklin said that if you take all your good habits and subtract from them all your bad habits, the result will be your contribution to society. Ted Pollack, an expert in time management and behavior psychology, said that training yourself in good habits requires stern self-discipline at first. But once those habits become second nature, the payoff is considerable. Good habits save effort, ease routines, increase efficiency, and release power. The sum of your good and bad habits dictates not only who you are, but what you will become.

You must develop good habits. Several weeks ago I said that victorious Christians think great thoughts. They think great thoughts about God. They think great thoughts about themselves. They think great thoughts about others. They think great thoughts about life.

They think great thoughts about the past, and they think great thoughts about the future. Then I said that victorious Christians enjoy the great moments in life. There is a prevailing joy that they have. And last week, victorious Christians give great thanks to a great God.

But I'm here to tell you that maybe perhaps for you the most important part is this. Victorious Christians develop great habits. Our world thinks that habits are developed from a psychological profile.

You sort of have to make up your mind to do it, and that's only part of it. But the Word of God says something different. The Word of God says that great habits are developed through what the Bible calls discipline. Would you open your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 4, a personal letter written for the Apostle Paul to young Timothy. Timothy is a young pastor who was in Ephesus at the time. Timothy has a lot of giftedness, but he struggles with one area.

We would call it backbone. Timothy has trouble because he has been intimidated, especially by the believers in Corinth who sort of ran him out of town. And he's at Ephesus now, and Paul writes this letter to him to encourage him. And one of the most important things that Timothy can do is Timothy is going to be responsible for making sure that the church stays the course, that it believes the truth, and that if somebody is teaching error, it needs to be pointed out. And so in 1 Timothy 4 and verse 6, Paul picks up that line of thought and says, in pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of sound doctrine, which you have been following. He says to Timothy, look, you've got to point it out, but you've got to do it on the basis of sound doctrine, which means simply sound teaching, the teaching that his grandmother and his mother and Paul had given him. And then he says this, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

Habits determine outcome. That's what Paul's saying. Victorious Christians discipline themselves for the purpose of godliness. What's interesting about this, and I have to say something about it, is that in the context, Paul said, he said have nothing to do with worldly fables. That word fables is muthos. We get the English word myth from it.

Worldly myths have nothing to do with that. And then he says something that in our culture is very politically incorrect, fit only for old women. I've actually read commentaries that have said that Paul was a bigot.

He was not. Paul is using a phrase that is common to the culture. The phrase is an idiom, a myth fit for an old woman. Now you have to understand that phrase by the time Paul showed up was about four to five hundred years old in the Greek culture. And especially three or four hundred years prior to Paul, but even at the time of Paul, Greek women were not educated. Only Greek boys were educated.

You sent the boy off to school, you sent the girl off nowhere. And so whenever Greek philosophers, who thought a great deal of themselves, whenever they would be in a debate with another Greek philosopher, and one of them made a point that was not a very good point at all, not valid, the other would say that was a muthos fit for an old woman. In other words, that is an uneducated, non-distinguished, not good argument. And so Paul uses the phrase here.

He's not really talking about, they would have understood in their culture, he's not necessarily saying anything against old women. So no emails, please. He says, though, on the other hand, discipline yourself. There's the habit.

Discipline yourself. The word discipline is a word we know, gymnazo. It's the word gymnasium. In every Greek city, and an emphasis here in what is today modern-day Turkey, in every Greek culture city, there's a gymnasium. The Greeks loved athletics. They were more involved with athletics than we are as Americans. And so in the center of every town, there's a gymnasium.

You went there, and all that went there for eventually the Olympic Games, but the idea was you trained all the time. That's the word discipline. And he says, notice you discipline yourself. And isn't that the most difficult part of this whole thing? If you're going to develop a good habit, you're going to have to develop it on your own.

It really comes down to you, and nobody else but you. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, eusebia, the idea of godliness. Why is that so profitable? I mean, that seems a little ambiguous, but he goes on and explains. He says, for bodily discipline is only of a little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also the life to come. You see what he says about godliness? Godliness is good for the promise, he said. What promise?

It's good for today, it's good for tomorrow, it's good forever. You see, contained in that promise is if you want a life of promise, what Jesus called the abundant life, if you want a life of joy, a life of peace, a life of hope, you're going to have to discipline yourself and develop good habits. What he says, disciplining yourself for godliness. In other words, the approach that you take to your spiritual life has to be exactly the same kind of approach that an athlete takes to his life. I remember reading biographical sketches of, for instance, like Tiger Woods or Larry Bird, and I'm stunned by the hours they put in. Tiger Woods, since time he was three or four years old, talks literally about the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of hours he logged on a golf course before he was 18. Thousands of hours. Larry Bird talks about the countless hours his whole life since he was a little boy of shooting in basketball. Day in, day out, day in, day out, day in, day out. Now what the Bible says about that is notice bodily discipline is only a little profit.

You see, Larry Bird's career is over, and Tiger Woods one day soon will be. And by the way, even if you are a real fitness freak, how much profit do you get from it? Well, you're going to be fit. That's true. And you could be fit for longer. That's true.

But then you'll be dead. Just like someone who's not fit. You see, it's just that kind of thing. Paul wasn't against the idea of disciplining yourself.

He's for it. But he said if you're going to have discipline in your life, you really need to have discipline about something spiritual in your life more than something even physical in your life. But you have to approach it, he said, exactly the same way. Good habits make great people.

That's what he is saying. Victorious Christians develop great habits. Timothy, you need to do this. But if that's true, something else must be true. And that is defeated Christians must have bad habits. You see, because what happens to us is that if you don't actively develop good habits, you will passively develop bad habits.

Let me show you an illustration of that. Turn to Hebrews chapter 5. The writer of Hebrews writes his epistle because he's trying to warn Hebrew Christians. Hebrew Christians are being persecuted, not only by the Greeks and the Romans, but also by the Jews. And they're thinking about going back into Judaism.

Maybe it'd be easier for us if we did. And he's writing a warning and says, no, that would be disobedient to God. If you do that, you're going to be like the Exodus generation that wanted to go back to Egypt and you're going to die in the wilderness. But God wants you to enter the promised land, what he calls here, the faith rests life. And he says, look, nothing in Judaism is nearly of the same substance that Jesus Christ is.

He is superior to everything. And so pursue him. And so when we get to chapter 5, he's talking about Jesus Christ as this great high priest, a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, not an Aaronic or Levitical priest. And he says, I want to tell you a whole lot about him. But notice what happens in verse 11. He said concerning him, we have much to say. And it is hard to explain.

Not because Paul, I mean, the writer of Hebrews doesn't understand it. He says, since you have become, now here's the bad habit, dull of hearing. That's what they did. They were dull of hearing. That's their bad habit.

I don't think that's gone away. Christians are notoriously dull of hearing. You see, you think about that right now. You might be fighting it, trying to just pay attention to the word of God.

You might be thinking about lunch or the Saints game. You know, the idea is that you might be trying to do something, look at another place in the Bible, writing a note to yourself about something else. You're dull of hearing. I don't really, I don't know, I don't really want to listen.

And by the way, if you aren't that way spiritually, at least I know you might have been that way academically because I certainly was. What did he say? What?

When's the exam? Do you ever sit in class sort of dull of hearing, mind wandering away? You know what they call those people? Below average students. You know what they call Christians who are dull of hearing?

Below average Christians. Notice what Paul, I mean the writer of Hebrews goes on and says. He says, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. You have become, you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness for he is an infant.

That's the assessment of the writer of Hebrews. So the habit of being dull of hearing, and I can tell you what you will reap. No infancy. You will stay a babe in Christ.

That's the way it'll be. You'll never grow. You'll grow old chronologically, but you'll never grow up spiritually. You're never going to get the promised life that he talked to Timothy about, this life of promise. It's not going to be yours because you sow the habit in this case of just being dull of hearing. Notice the contrast, verse 14, but solid food is for the mature, who because of, now watch, practice have their senses trained.

Notice the discipline here, because of practice. In other words, when they hear the word of God and the word of God says stop, guess what they do? They stop. The word of God says go, they go. The word of God says honor, they honor. The word of God says say thank you.

They say thank you. They practice the word of God. If they hear God saying it, they say, I'm going to practice my life. Notice he said, because of practice, they have their senses trained and notice the advantage that they have in their maturity to discern good and evil, right and wrong.

What's a waste of time or what's worthy of time? You see, the mature believer has that. These are immature believers.

They don't. What's the difference? Habits. One has sown the habit of being dull of hearing. The other practices the word of God.

It's a habit. Where you are at this moment spiritually is exactly where your habits have brought you. Where you are right now, you see, God has supplied each believer with the spirit of God indwelled by the Holy Spirit. God has given each believer the grace of God. God has given each believer access to the word of God. The difference between us is not the power of God. It's not the grace of God. It's not the word of God.

I can tell you what it is. It's our own habits. We can either follow this route, the dull of hearing habit, or the route that Paul was imploring Timothy to follow. That shouldn't surprise us.

I mean, isn't life like that? Remember what Paul wrote to the Galatians? God is not mocked. Whatever a man or woman soweth, what's that mean? Habits.

So shall they reap results. You are the result of your habits. If you want to lead a victorious Christian life, if you want your spiritual life to change, you have to develop solid spiritual habits. Paul wrote to young Titus and said to him that you need to learn to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in the present age. Again, the idea of developing habits.

And so this morning, I want to give you five habits, just five basic habits you need to develop. The first one is found in Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6, the Sermon on the Mount. The context for this habit is Jesus is speaking to an issue in his day that is kind of an issue in our day. Guess what people were in his day? Anxious. They actually worried. The people in his day were anxious and they worried. And Jesus said, oh, please don't do this. In verse 25 of chapter 6, he says, for this reason, I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor with your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Now, please understand the difference. Their problem wasn't worrying about what on the menu they liked. It's not going to be the problem some of you have at lunch today.

Well, I don't know whether to get the fish or to get the steak. I'm not sure what it is. I'm kind of worried.

No, it's not that. Their problem is, are they going to eat? They're worried about whether there will be enough food for them to eat. When they're talking about clothing, they're not saying, how does this jacket make me look? You know, it's not that kind of thing for them.

Do I look good in this color? They just needed clothing. Jesus told them, don't worry about that stuff. Why are you worrying about that? He said, look, flowers don't worry about the way they look.

Look how they look. The birds of the air don't worry about eating and guess what? God feeds them.

How much more will God do that for you, one of his own children? But you have to develop a habit. Verse 33, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. The first habit, put God first. That's the habit of priority. Put God first.

Couple places you might be able to see that, your day timer and your checkbook. You see, is God first? Put God first. Is he the priority? Is he always the priority? Is that how you influence other people?

Is that how you teach your children? Former pastor in our church, Duane Richard, was with us for 10 years and he and Sarah went to Medicine Lodge, Kansas and he's the senior pastor up there of a church in Medicine Lodge. And he has three boys and they're three active boys and they're very active athletically. And one of the issues that he's had to face when he's been up there is that in baseball season, basketball season, the different seasons that come, but especially baseball, whenever they get to the important things like the all-star games and the playoffs and all that, they schedule games on Sunday morning.

And so Duane and Sarah said, sorry, but our boys don't play on Sunday morning. God's first. He's first.

This is a priority. The interesting thing, the biggest problem that they had was with people in their own church who had kids on the team. We need them to play first base. You see, the idea is they never even gave it a thought. See, it's one thing to say God's first in everything. It's another thing to make God first in everything.

Think of how many people go through something like this. I really would have liked to worship God, but I didn't get out of the LSU game until late last night and I drove all the way down and my goodness, you know, it was so, I mean, by the time I got to sleep, I got, or you know, the Saints have a noon kickoff and I got to get there. And if I want to go, I'd have to go to the eight o'clock service and I'd have to get up really early to do that. And I can get the CD anyway.

I mean, I'll just get the CD. Do you understand what you're saying? Seek God first. See, what habit have you developed?

I think the habit is that the first and most important thing to me is to do the things I really enjoy. And if those things come in conflict with worshiping God, then I'm going to do what I enjoy. God understands.

He does. But understand this. God gave us all things to enjoy and that even includes the Tigers and the Saints. He gave them to us to enjoy. He gave us all things to enjoy. But remember this.

He said, I am the Lord God and there'll be no other God or idol before me. You see, that's how it works in your life. What is the message? It's God first. You see, it's not a matter when I come to my checkbook.

It's not a matter of numbers, not gradually nor necessity, and you'll never hear us talk about that. But the idea is it should always be, remember, it's hilariously, God loves a cheerful giver. But the idea is it's got to be first.

It can't be after everything else is done, I'll decide. It's never an amount with God. It's always a priority with God, am I first? Seek God first.

That's a habit to develop. You know, I think of a song, Psalm 42 says, as a deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for you, O God. And I just realized when we were singing this morning, you realize what you were singing to God? I hunger and thirst for you. You are the air I breathe. You know what you're singing?

You're first. Make sure that your life backs up your song. You see, it's one thing to sing, I hunger and thirst for you. It's another thing to really hunger and thirst for God. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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