Zechariah

Good morning, Saylorville, and welcome back to our Summer sermon series, Real Council. If you’ve been with us the last couple of weeks, we’re exploring what does the Bible, God’s word, say about the issue of counseling, specifically how we counsel others, but also how we counsel ourselves? And we went through all kinds of issues leading up to this sermon this morning. We’ve talked about what does the Bible say about dealing with tragedy? We’ve talked about the serious topic of anxiety and depression. And then just last week our own Pastor Jason talked about how can we live biblically in godly marriage? But today, we’re talking about something, a topic that we probably honestly don’t often associate with counseling. In fact, our topic this morning is by definition something that you probably don’t think about much at all… your habits. Now, I will admit, the first service, like everyone just… there was like a collective groan when I said we’re talking about habits today. It was like, ‘Oh, no!’ So buckle your seat belts.

But what can I ask you? Do you have any habits? Yeah, of course you do! Right? We all do. But the question is, are they good habits? — or are they bad habits? I have some habits. I have a pretty consistent morning routine, a pretty consistent evening routine. Whenever I wake up in the morning, the very first thing I do… I have to do it… is I take a shower. I might as well just go right back to sleep if I don’t take a shower. I need that to wake up. The second thing though, I make the most delicious cup of coffee that you have ever tasted. I mean, I have it down to a science. Okay, I like tamp outa certain amount of grams and all that stuff. But the third thing I do is without a doubt the most significant, the most important… I open up God’s word. I bring out my journal and I just spend time with my Maker and with my Savior. So that’s my morning routine. I mean, that seems pretty good. My evening routine though, ehhhh… not as noble! So I confess before this cloud of witnesses I’m kind of a late night snacker, notorious late night snacker, right? I mean almost every night, it’s become a problem probably. But both of those routines, right? They’re pretty mundane, pretty small. They’re both fairly automatic, and they both have consequences. My morning routine makes my eyes and my heart wider. My evening routine makes my waistline wider. So again, not really the best thing to do. The first routine is constructive. It builds me up. The second routine is destructive. It tears me down while also making me bigger. So figure that out. But this knowledge isn’t new, right? I mean, you can think to yourself, like what are some of your good and bad habits? In fact, the ancient Greeks even talked about this. Aristotle… (there’s a name we don’t throw around very often) Aristotle said this about habits, and I think he’s spot on. He says,

“It makes no small difference whether we form habits of one kind or another. It makes a very great difference, or rather, it makes all the difference.” Aristotle

So I want to plead with you this morning that when it comes to effective counseling, not just of others, but the counsel that we give ourselves, we don’t just need new information, new knowledge, we need new habits, new habits.

So what is a habit, right? I mean, if you go online, there’s all kinds of definitions. I’ve taken a bunch of definitions and kind of, you know, put them together. But for the sake of our time this morning, I would define a habit as a routine, a practice, or even a barrier in your life that is consistent and almost automatic. But does the Bible actually talk about habits? Yeah, it does. As I’m talking, some of you are probably thinking about verses to talk about habits. The Bible does talk about habits, but its language is a little different than maybe what we’re used to. There are a couple parts in the English Bible, probably about four or five, that actually use the English word “habit,” and that word in the Greek is the Greek word ethos. Now again, it is translated habit, but it’s more commonly translated as custom. That’s way more frequent in our English Bible. And again, interesting enough, the word custom is frequently applied to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So Jesus, the Son of God, God incarnate, had habits, habits that you and I can emulate if we want to live a godly life. The scriptures say that Jesus, as was His custom, would sometimes go off by Himself for long periods of time and just live in solitude to refocus His heart and His mind on His Father in heaven. The Scripture said that Jesus, as was His custom would commonly worship in community. He would go to synagogue back in the Jewish times, and He would actually read God’s word. He’d meditate on it. He’d commit it to His heart. The Scripture said that Jesus, as was His custom, reached out to those who were unlovable, and He would share God’s love with them frequently, consistently, automatically. So I think it’s fair to say today that behind all of our Lord Jesus’ big acts…you know, the miracles, the crucifixion, the resurrection… behind all these huge things that the Lord did, there were also small, faithful habits. So today, I could just give you a list of Jesus’ habits and say, ‘Do those,’ right? — the constructive habits. And I could give you another list of all the bad habits and say ‘don’t do those.’ But that might not be super helpful, because then I’d just be giving you a check box, right? And that’s one inch away from legalism, right? I’ll do this and I won’t do that and then I’m good. But honestly, I mean, if we’re being honest, you already know. You already know what would be some good habits to implement and maybe, maybe what are some bad habits, habits that you can get rid of.

So for our time today, I want to really focus in on the heart behind our habits, and how we’re going to do that is we’re going to actually jump into the book of Zechariah… Zechariah chapter 4, verse 6. Zechariah 4:6.

Now, those of you who know your Bible, you’re probably like, ‘Zechariah? We’re talking about habits and Zechariah?’ Yeah, we are, because I’m convinced by the Lord this morning that the passage we’re going to dive into this morning, it encapsulates God’s power through our small faithful habits. But Zechariah is a pretty obscure book. It’s near the back of the Old Testament. And you might need a little context. Okay? So the context of Zechariah… Zechariah would be what we call a minor prophet. A prophet would be a messenger from God in dwelt by God’s Holy Spirit to tell a message to Israel about God’s will or God’s direction. And Zechariah came into Israel, came into the Jewish nation in a time of great change. You see, if you remember in the Old Testament, about the middle of the Old Testament, the Jewish nation is basically just out to pasture with God. They’re being disobedient, their kings are wicked, they’re worshipping and bowing down to alters. And so God disciplines His people by sending the Babylonian empire to destroy Jerusalem, level the temple, and bring them in to exile.

So during Zechariah’s time, the Jews, the Jewish nation, they’re coming back from exile. God has shown mercy to the Jews and He’s calling them back to Jerusalem after 70 years. And they have one goal on their way back. Their desire through their changed heart is to rebuild God’s holy temple. That’s their mission. That’s their goal. And Zechariah talks a lot about that. But there’s really two characters in Zechariah. The first character is Joshua. Now this isn’t Joshua like with the book that’s named after him. This is a different Joshua. This is Joshua the high priest. He’d be like the religious leader of the Jewish nation. The other character is someone that almost no one has. His name… Zerubbabel! Any Zerubbabel’s in here? Yeah, I’ve never in my life met a Zerubbabel. Okay? So if you are a Zerubbabel, my bad. Okay. You’re unique. But Zerubbabel, he was like the civic leader. He was like the governor of the Jewish nation. And by the time that Zechariah 4 was written, the foundations of the temple, God’s holy temple, was already laid. Brick by brick, the Jews started rebuilding God’s house. But at the time of our passage, they’re starting to be enemies that are creeping into Jerusalem, obstacles that are halting the construction of the temple. And by the time we get to chapter 4, the temple stands unfinished. It’s just a pile of stones right now. And so in chapter 4, it’s a vision. It’s a vision given by the Lord of Host, God, through Zechariah to the people of Israel as an encouragement and a reminder that God has not left them yet. That being said, let’s go and hop in Zechariah chapter 4 verse 6. This is God speaking directly through Zechariah.

Zechariah 4:6-10

6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.

7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”

8 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.”

And then verse 10,

10 “For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.”

This is the word of the Lord. So you notice verse 10 there. Right? That’s our focus for a little bit, ‘…despising the small things…’ — despising the seemingly insignificant things that we do. It’s talking about habits in some ways. Right? That word “despised” in the Hebrew, it literally means in the original language, “count as insignificant.” Doesn’t matter. This work we’ve been doing on the temple, it seems like it doesn’t matter. These Jews have been faithful. They’re building the temple day by day, brick by brick, but now the work’s starting to get hard, and the enemies are surrounding them and just putting all kinds of doubts and all kinds of obstacles in their way. And Zerubbabel’s probably thinking what some of you might be thinking right now. ‘Is this really worth it?’ Is this really worth it? The secular author James Clear, he wrote the small little book called the Atomic Habits. It’s a good book about habits. He says this about our American society with habits. He says,

“We often dismiss small changes because they don’t seem to matter very much. If I save up a little money now, I’m not a millionaire. If I work out at the gym for three days in a row, I’m still out of shape.”(Amen!) “If I’m studying Mandarin for an hour tonight, I still can’t speak Mandarin. We make a few changes, but then the results don’t come quick enough, so we slide back into our previous routines.” James Clear

I don’t know about you, but that hits pretty hard for me. You relate to that? You see, these problems that Zechariah and Zerubbabel and Israel faced, these enemies, these setbacks, this opposition to Israel… it seemed like an insurmountable mountain, like a summit that could never be reached, something that is absolutely impossible to fix. And yet, what does the living God say to the people of Israel… and say to you, if indeed you are a Christian? He says, “What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain.”

So friends, I know you have it, but do you have any mountains in your life right now? Is your marriage on the rocks? Are you just struggling under the burden of anxiety? Have you struggled with a life dominating addiction that no matter how hard you try you can’t shake? How does a mountain become a plain? — one stone at a time.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife, Rachel, and I took a vacation to the Black Hills in South Dakota. Awesome vacation! First vacation we ever brought Winnery. Very different from any other vacation we did when we were married without kids. But when we got there, obviously we went to a lot of parks. And as is our custom, what we usually do when we go to a natural park is we go on a hike. Now, some of you, you hike for the exercise. That’s not us. Okay? We hike for one reason… the vistas, those majestic views of God’s creations on the summit of the trail. Right? But if we’re honest… if you’ve hiked before, you know that whatever the hike is, sometimes the hikes are a joy, you get to see those beautiful sights, and sometimes they’re a slog. I remember in this hike on this trail, Rachel and I were down in a valley, and we were just surrounded by trees, and I remember consciously thinking, ‘This just looks like Iowa. Why am I doing this?’ Right? ‘Turn around and go back.’

But friends, I think that principle applies to our habits. I think many of us, myself included, I think, today, we often want the vista without the hike. So our first point as we read through Zechariah is that habits are not just “a” means of change. Your habits are not just something you add to already a regimen of other things. Your habits, my dear friends, are “the” means of change. Any issue that we’ve discussed so far in the sermon series, whether it’s marriage or anxiety or addiction, the mountains of our life, did those mountains come about overnight? Yeah. Of course not. Right? If you wanna know the power of habits, look at your bad habits.  Right? — The habits that seem to have a hold on you. Right? Habits are powerful! They cut both ways. And of course the Lord Jesus knew this in the Gospel of Luke chapter 16, he says this. He says:

Luke 16:10, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteousness in a very little thing is unrighteousness also in much.”

You see, the Lord Jesus, our Creator and the author of reality, He knows the power of small things. And as I’ve studied this text, I really do believe that small things, small steps of faithfulness are just baked into our reality. I mean, think about it. Babies when they’re born, they can’t read. They can’t play disc golf. (Had to get that in there. Okay?) They can’t do anything. They have to take small steps. When you go to the gym, you’re not buff right away. Right? You gotta do the work. If you’re learning anything, you gotta do the work. This is baked into all aspects of creation. And yet, in our instant gratification culture, you know, push the button and it’s mine. I do too. We tend to despise the small things. We tend to desire the quick fix.

But friends, you gotta hear this this morning. If you’re dealing with a mountain, if you’re dealing with some kind of just life-dominating issue that you can’t get out of, one meeting with the counselor, one great resource, a book or a podcast, one sermon… is not gonna fix it, because mountains take a long time to move, but by the power of God, they can be moved.

By show of hands, who here has ever tried to read to the Bible in a year? That’s quite the undertaking. Who’s done that? Yeah, many of you. That’s awesome! I have a friend right now who just started, and he just finished the Leviticus and he’s like, ‘Woof!’ (audience laughs) ‘I don’t know if I can finish!’ He’s in the valley right now. He’s slogging it out. He’s like, ‘Man, I never knew that so many goats could be sacrificed!’ It’s hard. But John Piper puts it this way when he talks about the habit of reading. Friends, if you started today, if you started reading, 15 minutes a day, every day, by the end of the year, you will have read 5,475 minutes. And if you take that times the average reading speed of just an average American 200 words per minute. At the end of the year, you will have read 1,095,000 words in a year. And if you take that and you divide it by the average amount of words on just an average book, 360 words, you will have read 3,041 pages a year, which means if you’re at 15 minutes every day, that’s usually average of 10 books. 10 books! By the way, if you hold that pace, you could read through the Bible in a year… and more so. Small habits, but BIG results!

See, this is why at Saylorville Church, this is why our counselors in the counseling, they always assign homework, always, because contrary to modern therapy, meeting a counselor is not the primary means of real change in your life. It’s actually what you do outside the office that matters the most. You can maybe put it this way. Your counselors, my counselors, their job is to get us on the trailhead, but our habits are how we hike. Our habits are how we hike.

The apostle Paul said as much in Ephesians chapter four. He said to Christians, he says:

Ephesians 4:22-24 (ESV)

[22 “… put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,

24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”]

‘… put off your old self… and be renewed in the spirit of your mind… put on the new self which is made in the likeness of God.’

So simply put, sanctification, if you’re a Christian, is you becoming more like Jesus. If you just wanna boil it down to its essence, sanctification is the supernatural exchanging of old destructive habits for new (constructive) habits. Every Christian by the power of God’s Spirit is being torn down in some ways and rebuilt in other ways.

I remember when we were in the Black Hills just a couple weeks ago, we’d go back and forth between the various trailheads and when we drove through the highway… South Dakota is doing some major roadwork. I mean, there’s just these huge Tonka trucks, these giant, just beastly construction machines, and they’re literally driving up the mountain, ripping the mountain to pieces. Why? — So they can build more roads, build more trails.

This stone temple that Zerubbabel’s building in Jerusalem, it was probably made by the stones of a nearby mountain that they had to deconstruct to build the temple itself. But I want to encourage you this morning. Zechariah is not the only one building a temple. The scriptures say, my friends, if you are a Christian, if you put your faith in Jesus Christ’s finished work, the scriptures say that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. [1 Cor.6:19-20] So let me ask you, what mountains need to be destroyed to help build your temple? Or what trails, what new trails need to be paved to help build your temple? I’m pleading with you this morning, don’t despise the day of small things, because the smallest changes in your life make the biggest differences. In fact, they make all the difference.

Friends, when you serve your wife, if we’re talking about marriage, when you serve your wife, or you serve your husband, when you kiss them goodbye, when you pray with them, when you read scripture with them, that matters. When you limit negative media, negative things in your life, that matters. Yes, when you’re leaving your house, you’re getting the kids together, you’re trying to feed them and get them out the door at the same time. You’ve got five minutes to read the Bible. That matters. In fact, whenever you limit good things in your life so that you can see the best thing which is Jesus Christ, that matters.

And I get it. Sometimes the hike’s a joy! Sometimes you’re on fire for Jesus! Sometimes you’re full of the Spirit, just full of joy and compassion for God and His kingdom! But sometimes it’s a slog. Sometimes it seems like you’re not making any improvement. Friends, by faith, we keep stepping, trusting the Lord Jesus, that if we keep walking in faith, He’s gonna show us that vista, the deeper intimacy with Him.

Habits are the means of change. But habits are also the gauge of change. The gauge of change. Don’t forget the context of Zechariah here. Right? Who are these Jews rebuilding this temple? Where are they coming from? They were exiled Jews. These are Jews that were kicked out of Jerusalem ’cause they were disobedient to God. But God showed mercy on them. He called them back. He loved them and led them back to the Promised Land. And what’s happened is they’ve had a heart change. And now they want to rebuild the temple that was destroyed. You remember the word habit? Remember how we talked about that, right? It’s the Greek word ethos? What word in the English language does that word look like? “Ethics,” — because the word ethics is based on that word. Don’t miss that. The word for ethics is based on the Greek word for habits. Why? —because your character and your habits are inseparable. Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 15:

1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.“

The word for “morals” there is ethos. It’s just a modified version of the word. It’s crazy! And of course Jesus said as much in Luke chapter six. The Lord Jesus said:

Luke 6:45, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil…”

Friends, the tricky thing about your habits is that your habits and my habits, they tell on you. Your habits tell on you. If I’m just being honest… Rachel, we just celebrated our seven month… Ooh, got that wrong! Seven year wedding anniversary! — And when we celebrated it, I got a time as I was preparing this message to reflect a little bit. And if I’m being honest, when we first got married, I was kind of a hot mess. I was just all over the place. Okay? I read scripture, but I was inconsistent. And I’d always go to Rachel and I’d just bemoan. I was like, ‘I desire God, but He just seems so far. He won’t talk to me. What’s wrong?’ But friends, you know what I was doing every morning? I’d walk into the living room and my beautiful wife would have God’s word open and just diving in. You know what I would do? I’d go grind on the Xbox. I would. And I’m saying, ‘Why won’t God talk to me?’ Duh! Right? Friends, did I actually desire God? No! I might have a little bit. But how do you know? My habits reflected my heart. And so do yours. Let me show you a verse that’s been just kicking my butt this last couple of months. It’s Proverbs chapter 14 verse 23. It’s a great proverb! I’d memorize it if I were you. It says:

Proverbs 14:23, “In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.“

Friends, if I followed you around, if I just followed you around your life for a month, what would your habits tell me you desire? If I followed you around for a full month, what would your habits reveal about what you treasure? See, people might come into the counseling wing and they might say, and it’s a good thing, they might say, ‘I want to fix my marriage!’ That’s a good thing… but do your habits show it? Or maybe you come into the counseling wing and you say, ‘I want to be free from this burden of anxiety!’ Well, friend, are you habitually limiting the things you’re listening to that are causing you that anxiety? Or maybe you come in the counseling office and you say, ‘I want to kill my addiction!’ My dear friend, have you built up barriers? Have you built up habits where you limit access to the people or the media that’s making you fall into that? Paul says in Romans chapter 6:

[Romans 6:16, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?“]

‘You are the slave of what you obey.’ So let me just ask you this morning. Who’s your master? Is it Jesus? — and if it is Jesus, do your habits show it, or are you deceiving yourself? Friends, it’s hard, but your habits, my habits, they tell on us. They are a mirror of what we actually love.

Habits are the means of change, and habits are the gauge of change, but, Hallelujah! Thanks be to God!… habits are NOT the source of change! Notice Zechariah again. These Jews, they’re rebuilding the temple. They’re just, they’re trying to lay up the foundations. Right? But then things start getting hard and they get discouraged. And how does the Lord of hosts respond to them? He encourages them, and He says:

[Zechariah 4:6] “Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.“

Maybe you’re sitting in this auditorium right now and you say, ‘Okay, I get it, Colton. Habits are powerful. I already knew that. I understand. But listen, I’ve tried and I’ve failed more than once. I’ve tried to do these things that I know are good for me. I’ve tried to get really into my Bible. I’ve tried to pray regularly, but it’s hard! —And my bad habits, they just seem just stuck to me.’ That’s me too! Despite knowing the power of habits, it’s hard to form new habits, much less cut out bad habits. It feels like an uphill battle, like you’re missing out on something or like you’re not getting anything out of it. So you get discouraged and you just give up. I’ve done that. So what do we do? Is there any hope that habits can help our marriage, our anxiety, our addictions? There is, but ‘not by might, nor by power, but by His spirit declares the Lord of hosts.’

You remember my definition for habits? Remember that? A habit is something that you do automatically. I’m gonna take a step out here real quick. You know what most people do automatically? Put on deodorant in the morning. Hey, raise your hand if you put on deodorant this morning. You know what? Actually, don’t do that! — because the person sitting next to you, they can tell! Let me tell you something. There is one group, there’s one demographic, one group of people that no matter how hard you try, they refuse to put on deodorant… middle school boys! (audience laughing) — and if you’re a middle school boy right now, you know it’s true! Listen, I taught middle school for 10 years, and I should have gotten hazard pay for that! (audience laughing) The asphyxiation is just something… from August to December, they just refuse. ‘I won’t do it!’ But then, by the power of Almighty sovereign God, the same power that split the Red Sea, the same power that raised Lazarus from the dead, all of a sudden, all the middle school boys, they start applying deodorant somewhere in January. Why? — ‘Cause now the middle school boys, they wanna get to know the middle school girls! Happens every year. What changed? What changed? Was it the difficulty? No, applying deodorant was just as easy as it was before. What changed is that there was a greater desire pushing forward the habit.

And friends, you want to know what the greatest, the most powerful, the most tangible, the most real desire that will actually push forward your godly habits and kill your bad habits? It’s the desire to know the beautiful Savior that loves you despite your habits, despite all your failures.

Look at Israel in Zechariah. They’re building this temple for God and it’s not impressive. But are they building that temple to be accepted by God? No! They’re building the temple because they’re already accepted by God! In His mercy, He pulls them out of exile. They want to worship Him! And to the Christian, if indeed you are one, the apostle Paul writes in Philippians chapter 3, verse 3:

[Philippians 3:3, “For we are the circumcision (God’s people) who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—”]

He says that ‘us believers, we worship by the Spirit of God, and we glory in Christ Jesus, and we put no confidence in the flesh…’ The Lord of Host says, “Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit.” [Zechariah 4:6] But how do you do that? How do you walk in the spirit of God to become more like Christ through your habits? We’ll see what it says in the text. You worship in the spirit by putting no confidence in the flesh. But how do you learn to put no confidence in the flesh? You already know. Try to put confidence in the flesh. Try to fix yourself through your own willpower. Try to love God more through your own willpower. You can’t! — And even if you find some kind of victory. It doesn’t last! — because your heart hasn’t changed. Are you struggling with your habits? Have you failed? Yeah. Me too, — but friends, this might be all you have to hear. You know what the most beautiful thing about our faith is? — that despite all that, Jesus still loves you! Therein lies the source behind all godly habits, is believing that. First John chapter four verse 10 says this of our sovereign God. It says:

1 John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we loved God…” not that we did all the right things or said all the right things or looked the right way… “In this is love, not that we love God, but that God loved us and gave His son as the propitiation for sins.”

Friends, the ultimate source of real change in your life is not the habits you implement. It’s the heart change that you experience when you just simply by faith believe the Gospel. When you realize that you stand before a holy God and because of all your bad habits, because of all your failures, you deserve hell. You deserve to be separated from Him forever! He would be right to do that to you. “But God so loved the world. That He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever should believe in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16] Do you believe that? Christ died for your bad habits! — and He promises that by faith in Him alone, His finished work, He’ll raise you up on the final day, and He’ll raise you up right now by the godly habits that His spirit builds within you. Godly habits are not the way to be accepted by God. Godly habits are worship, worship of the God who through His grace has already accepted you in Christ.

Friends, the ultimate goal of your habits is just to make you look at Jesus again. Godly habits don’t have any power in themselves, but they lead you to the source of all power, the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, I’m pleading with you this morning. Do not despise the day of small things. Small acts of kindness for your spouse…. — that’s not just a habit. That’s worship. Cutting out your bad habit… — that’s worship. Reading the scriptures even when you don’t want to… — that’s worship. And praying when God seems far, praying when God seems distant… — that’s worship. But maybe you’re saying, ‘Colton, I don’t want to worship. I don’t want to worship God.’ What does Zechariah say? Look at verse 10,

[Zechariah 4:10, “For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.”]

‘Whoever has despised the day of small things, whoever doesn’t want to worship, even they will rejoice,’ Why? — Because God will finish the Jews’ temple. And friend, if you’re a Christian, God will finish your temple too. When you can’t go on, when the hike is just too much, Jesus Christ, Himself, by His Spirit picks you up, brushes you off, and then hikes with you to that vista of eternal life.

So friends, how’s your habits? How’s your hike? What mountains need to be destroyed? What paths need to be laid? Why not do it today? Why not start today? But remember, when you do, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by His spirit.‘ [Zechariah 4:6]

So as we close, dear friend, do you have His spirit? —’Cause there’s no power without His spirit. Have you ever had a time where you’ve put, you’ve come to the realization that you can’t put any confidence in your flesh, and where you’ve put your full confidence on Jesus’ finished work on the cross? Have you done that? Habits are not a way to be accepted by God. They’re just the response of someone who’s already been accepted. Is that you? Do you want it to be? Come to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith… [Hebrews 12:2] and our habits.

Would you pray with me?

Almighty God, Lord, we admit, I admit, Lord, that we often despise the day of small things. Lord, would you forgive us for that? And Lord, help us hold on fast, Lord, hold tightly to the promise in Zechariah, Lord, that “Not by might, nor by power, but by Your Spirit declares the Lord.” And Lord, that’s what You did, Lord Jesus, on the cross for all those who have believed on Your name, Lord, that You didn’t leave us as orphans, but You left us with Your spirit. Help us walk in the spirit and put no confidence in the flesh, Lord. Understanding, Lord, that we’re already accepted and that through being accepted we can walk with You. And, Lord, I pray for those in the audience that don’t know You, that are still lost with the burden of anxiety, broken marriages and addictions. Lord, You came to seek and save the lost, [Luke 19:10] to turn bad habits into good ones through Your spirit. Lord help them see, Lord, that it’s not about their habits. It’s about their Savior. Be glorified in Your people today. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Read for 15 minutes a day…

15 min x 365 days = 5,475 mins a year

5,475 mins x avg. 200wpm = 1,095,000 words a year

1,095,000 words / avg.360 words per pg. = 3,041 pg. a year

3,041 pgs. A year = 10 books OR the Bible once and then some!

Why Habits?

1 – Habits are the means of real change.

2- habits are the gauge of real change.

3 – Habits are NOT the source of change!