The Power Habits – Part 1

off our phones before we go to bed. That's a tough one, isn't it? We intuitively know that these guaranteed good results, but the habit you're talking about today are backed by more than just statistics, aren't they?

one way or the other. So we're going to talk about that today.

want to bite their nails. Um, other people have cuss words that they just just grew up saying, and they just it just pops out at the most inconvenient times. And you just say, I don't want to say it. I don't want to say it, but you say it. You're like, I'm going to break that habit. Uh, some of you have habits about health that you're trying to break, some bad habits. Habits are hard to break, and they're

hard to create. If these three habits that I was taught that I'm about to talk to you about were easy to create, then we would all be doing them. But they are difficult to create. And I'm challenging you at the beginning that you would pay special attention to these three habits because they happen to be the three habits that Jesus talks about in the same chapter. Matthew chapter six. I call it the Power Trio. I don't know if we have in the house any triathlon. Uh, competitors.

Anybody here done a triathlon? Triathlon before? Yeah. Okay. We have at least one. Anybody else? Yeah. Okay. One over here. A couple people that have thought about it. How many of you have thought about it? Yeah, we got a lot of thought about it in here, but only a couple of people that have done it. So here's the thing about a triathlon. I've never done one, but I've had friends that have done triathlons. And so there's three primary disciplines in a triathlon. You have to learn to

swim well. You have to learn to cycle and then run. And so if you're going to win a triathlon or compete well in a triathlon, you have to prepare yourself in swimming, prepare yourself in cycling and prepare yourself in running. Three disciplines lead to one victory. Only if you master all three, you may be a great runner, but a lousy swimmer. And you'll never win a triathlon. You may be a great swimmer, but a lousy runner. And you'll never win a triathlon. But if you're able to master

all three, then it leads to one significant victory. Jesus is telling us in this passage about three disciplines that, when combined together, can create an extraordinary, powerful impact not only in our spiritual life, but on every realm of our life. If you go to Matthew chapter six, which is primarily known for the chapter in which the Lord gives us the Lord's Prayer, or what we refer to as the Our Father, you'll see three disciplines that he

refers to in verse two. He says, when you give in verse five, he says, and when you pray and verse 16 he says, and when you fast, he gives a paragraph to giving, a paragraph to praying and a paragraph to fasting. Yet now you may think that these are merely spiritual disciplines, but the way that Jesus presents it is that these are disciplines that actually overflow into

every area of your life. They will affect your marriage, affect your health, affect your finances, affect your mental state, affect your well-being because they have with them a promise of God's favor or God's reward. Number one, if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. The first thing I want you to see about this is that God expects these disciplines in our life. He expects it. He doesn't say, if you give, if you pray, if you fast. He says. When you give, when you pray,

when you fast. In other words, the implication is that if you are a follower of Jesus, these are sort of natural expectations that you will engage in. These aren't for the super powerful, extraordinary people. This is not for a one time event in your life. These are regular habits that disciples of Jesus engage in. And he, in

this passage, he he tells us about these habits. And I was thinking about these habits and I thought to myself, they're hard because they hit at areas that we tend to cling to, areas that we don't want to give up. Giving touches our money. Praying touches our time, and fasting touches our food. Some of you like pastor, I can give. I can pray, but the fasting, I mean. Come on. Some of you are hyper possessive about your food. Admit it. Last time you went to Rick Benny's, your husband reached

over and said, I don't want fries. And then he reaches over and tries to pull a fry out of your fry bag and you say, hold on, that's my fry. If you wanted fries, why didn't you order your own fries? Don't touch my fries. How many of you know what I'm talking about here? How many of you have people around you that always want to mess with your food? And you're like, hey, get your own fries. Your wife says, no, no, no,

I'm watching my diet. I'm not going to. And then she always wants a piece of yours and another piece and oh, that's good. And you're like, hold on. Jesus talks about giving, praying and fasting that affect our money, our time, and our food. Each of those things are hard to let go of. There are areas that we tend to want to cling to. There are areas that are difficult to release, but yet they have a powerful repercussion in our lives when we learn how to manage

them well. If it were easy to give away, we would be giving it away. And for example, he talks about giving. You know, the Bible is talks a lot about the topic of giving. And I believe I happen to believe that we as believers should be some of

the most generous people in the world. I believe that if our father owns a cattle on a thousand hills, and our father has all the wealth in the world that we know that our God supplies, and so therefore we also need to be generous and it needs to flow out of us, not just at offering times on Sunday morning, but in our life in general. I believe

generosity should characterize the believer. Can I tell you this church is here because when we were 20 people and had very little money and very little resources and were meeting in a rundown building and, uh, no staff besides me who was paid part time and a building that was creaking and falling apart and no worship team. And when we got together, we made a determination. We may have needs, but we refuse to be needy. So we

will not act like we're the needy people. We will start giving and releasing even though we don't have a lot to release and give. When we were that small, we decided we were going to give to missions and support missions in Africa and other people. And I'll never forget someone coming up to me and say, pastor, we are the mission field. We can't be given to orphans in Africa. Look at us, pastor. And I sat down with a couple of people. I said, hey, hold on

a second. Have you ever been to Africa? No. Well, then you may think that you're the needy because you've never been to Africa and you've never seen how people live in Africa. But I'm going to tell you something. There are people that are much, much, much, much, much needier than you are around the world. So, so never take on a needy mentality. You may be a single mother here right now, just living paycheck to paycheck, wondering

how you're even going to pay your mortgage. Listen, and I understand that's a challenge to live in that world, but I want to tell you something. Never take on a needy mentality. Never view yourself as I'm the needy person. I have nothing to give. I'm just living. Living from paycheck to paycheck. The moment that you embrace that mentality, the moment you start living in that world, is the moment that you will feel like I have nothing to

give to others. I have no time, energy, love, generosity, food, uh, sympathy to give to others. And you begin to lose what you have when you begin to develop a need mentality. You need to understand, hey, I may have needs, but I will never, never, never live like a needy person. Amen. Jesus said, give and it will be given to you. Good measure. Pressed down, shaken together, running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use

it will be measured back to you. That's Luke chapter six, verse 38. Prayer. Prayer is hard because prayer requires us to give of our time and more than our time. It requires a humility about our approach to God. Prayer causes you to say to God, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, which means holy is your name. You're declaring that God is high and you are low. When you pray, you are declaring that you need God. When you pray, you are saying, I can't

do this without you, God. I need a force and a power that's greater than me to intercede in my affairs, because I. I need you to do what I cannot do. God. Prayer causes you to humble yourself. Prayer causes you to admit that you don't have all the answers. Prayer causes you to bow yourself before the King of Kings and acknowledge I'm in a position subservient to you and oh God, I desperately need you. It hits at our pride and

it hits at our time. Let me tell you, if you are here today and you don't know how to pray and you don't pray, it's because you haven't understood really how much you need God. What's keeping you away from that is either your pride, your self-sufficiency, your self confidence, and a lack of understanding how big God is and how small you are.

a short time. I have a question about an earlier program I heard when you were talking about the Mark of the beast. I didn't hear you mention anything about the rapture. So my question is, do you believe in the rapture or taken away of the church slash believers before the tribulation?

to come like a thief in the night. And um, in first Thessalonians chapter five, in multiple other passages, it talks about, uh, Jesus coming unexpectedly and the ideas that he's coming to take, those who are believers already. And I do believe that we will be spared from the

Great tribulation. The majority of the difficult time. That doesn't mean that we won't be tested or go through difficult times and not go through dark times, but I believe that what Scripture talks about the, uh, seven years of tribulation, that we will be raptured ahead of that time, that's called, by the way, pre-trib rapture and Moody Bible Institute is taught on this a lot. And that's kind of what

we hold as an institute as well. But I also respect people that have other views of the end times and where they think, um, there are certain things that Scripture is very clear about. Other things that scripture, uh, you have to nuance it. And, uh, but I hold to a pre-trib rapture that the the church will be raptured before the Great Tribulation.

Let's get back to today's Bold Steps message. Now the power habits.

the same way. The people that pray are people that are humble. It humbles us to pray. It brings us to our knees. It causes us to stand. When I pray, I acknowledge I'm standing as a small, finite being before the awesome, omnipotent, grandiose God of the universe who has all power and all might. When I don't, who has all the answers and I don't, who has all the miraculous power and I don't who can open all the doors and I can't. Who is everywhere all the time.

And I'm not. I'm bowing myself before that. God acknowledging how awesome he is and how much I need him. And Jesus said, when you pray. Ephesians chapter six, verse 18 says, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. First Thessalonians 516 through 18 says, rejoice always. Pray continually. You say, well, pastor, I don't know how to pray. If you gave me a prayer to read,

I would be able to read it. No, I don't want you to read a prayer. I want you to pray. It's like me saying, hey, I don't know how to talk to my wife. If you give me a poem to read to her, I'll read her a poem every day and repeat it multiple times and hope she's happy. No, she's not going to be happy. I don't need to learn a poem. I need to learn to talk with her and communicate with her. You don't need to learn the the Our Father. You need to learn how to

talk to your father. You need to learn how to communicate to him. And some of you don't know how to pray because you're not that close to God. And it's almost like, hey, God, it's me. Well, you probably already knew that. You need to learn how to pray like a father and a son. Communicate together, because that's the kind of relationship that God wants with you. Not a reverse prayer, not an awkward silent prayer, but a

father to son. Daughter to father conversation where you stand before the creator of the universe, and you converse and bring an end. And it's an ongoing conversation that you have with God, because that's how God wants us to learn how to pray. The discipline and the habit of prayer. And then the third discipline is the discipline of fasting. Now I have to say, if these were easy again, we would be doing them. Fasting is the forgotten habit

or spiritual discipline of the church. The 21st century does a lousy job at being a fasting people. It's a almost like an ancient practice. Like, yeah, didn't people the old saints do that. Didn't Jesus do that? The disciples do that, but we don't really do that. I mean, some of you told me, yeah, I come from a tradition I used to fast before Easter. Really? Yeah. You tell me. Every Friday I would fast. Tell me about your fasting. Yeah, well, I wouldn't eat meat. What would

you eat? Well, yeah. Where would you go to Long John Silvers and eat all the fish I could eat? Hey, you're not fasting. You're changing diets. That's not a fast. A fast is actually giving up food, abstaining from food or drink for a predetermined period of time for the purpose of more intently seeking the heart and the face of God. If you fill yourself up on fish or fill yourself up on meat, it's not fasting. Fasting is actually giving up food. Fasting is one of those disciplines

that puts your prayer life on turbo. That every significant event in Scripture seems to be preceded by fasting and prayer. Jesus fasted in prayer for 40 days before his ministry went public. Moses fasted 40 days before he received the Ten Commandments. Elijah fasted 40 days before he went into the cave. Uh, we see over and over. Place after place, event after event. People fasting for the purpose of praying

so that God could move in extraordinary ways. Jesus was once approached about it because the disciples of John the Baptizer were fasting, but the disciples of Jesus were not fasting. And so some people came to Jesus and they said, hey, how come your disciples don't fast? But the disciples of John the Baptizer, they fast. And Jesus said, they can't fast while the bridegroom is with them, because Jesus was

still with them. He said, but the day will come where the bridegroom, I will be taken away, and then they will fast. We live in that day and age between the leaving of Christ and the coming of Christ. And so we live in a time and an age where we are called upon to fast and pray. Break.

talk about her book, The Six Conversations. This is a very timely book, isn't it?

to learn from them. So my neighbors that believe different things politically or socially, instead of arguing with them, I say, I can tell you really care so passionately about this issue. I'd love to hear the story of when you first started believing these things. Now we're having a warm connection, and I can share things that I'm learning from the Bible or anything important about my life.

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And as we close, we just want to remind you that you can always find these messages and catch up on anything you've missed on the radio by subscribing to the Bold Steps podcast. Open up your podcast app on your mobile device and search for bold steps with doctor Mark Jobe. Well, I'm Wayne Shepherd signing off, and we'll see you tomorrow for the conclusion of today's message. The power happens. That's coming up Thursday right here on Bold

Steps with Mark Jobe. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.