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We have been talking about building Spiritual habits, 

  • The first week I talked about the spiritual habit of reading your Bible and meditating daily. I laid out a practical process you can use to get started reading the Bible every day.
  • The second week I talked about prayer; I talked about how to pray and how not to pray, and then I laid out a practical process that you could use to start praying every day. 
  • Last week I talked about fasting. I talked about how that fasting is about saying no to the physical servers that you can say yes to the spiritual. Then I laid out again a practical process you can use to get started with fasting. 

In life, there is no pause button. Life comes at you one second at a time, and there are no do-overs. If you waste the time God has given you, you've wasted your life. 

In a sense, we haven't been talking about habits; instead, we've been talking to you about how to ensure you maximize the gifts God has given you.

I heard the story about 2 woodcutters named Peter and John. They were friends but very competitive. 

They were always trying to prove which one was better than the other. Finally, they decided to have a competition to see who could cut the most wood in a day. 

The following day both took up their positions and started chopping. They went as fas as possible for about an hour when John stopped chopping. 

Peter thinks, "he's tired already, I'm definitely going to win." But 15 minutes later, John comes back and starts chopping again. Another hour goes by, but John again stops suddenly and then comes back 15 minutes later. 

This would go on throughout the day. About every hour or so, John would stop for 15 minutes and then come back and start working again. 

Peter was Supremely confident that he had won, but to his astonishment, John had beaten him. 

Peter asked in disbelief, "how is it that you won when you took all thos breaks? Where did you go?" John replied by saying, "I was sharpening my axe." 

"Do not work so hard that you don't take time for the most essential things in life - the things that ultimately make you more effective.1 "

We've all heard this story before. However, the point remains the same. Good spiritual keep you sharp. You may not think you have enough time to invest in these spiritual habits, but I'm telling you that you don't have enough time not to.... 

Only one life to live will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last. 

Today we're going to end our series by switching gears from talking about good habits to bad ones. 

I want to do two things today:

  1. I want to talk about how to identify bad habits. 
  2. Then I want to talk about how to break bad habits. 

How to identify bad habits. 

When we think of bad habits, we tend to think of obviously bad things. For instance, smoking is bad because it's not good for your health.

Doing meth is a bad habit because it's illegal, and it's bad for your health. 

It's easy to look at those things and say, "off course I shouldn't smoke, and they definitely shouldn't smoke meth, those are bad habits."

Listen to my definition of a bad habit, "a bad habit is simply doing things habitually that are bad for you."

Notice the last part, "bad for" 

Just because someone else can do something without it being bad for them doesn't mean you can do the same thing. 

We are all different, and we all have different strengths and weaknesses. What may be a stumbling block for you may not be stumbling block for someone else. 

How do we identify our bad habits?

  1. A bad habit is whatever limits your potential.
  2. A bad habit is whatever diminishes your self-respect. 

Whatever limits your potential. 

Matthew 5:14-1614 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Jesus says that believers are "the light of the world." Our job is to shine. When we shine, we show others the way to Jesus. 

In vs 15, Jesus asks, "do you light a candle and put it under a basket?"

The answer is obviosly no. The point that Jesus is making here is twofold. 

  1. As believers, we should shine.
  2. As believers, we can act in act in ways that cause us not to shine. In other words, some things can keep you from shining, thus stopping you from reaching your full potential.

For Christians, bad habits obscure our light because they limit our potential. This is different for everyone.... remember our Definition of what a bad habit is,

"a bad habit is simply doing things habitually that are bad for you."

How do we identify a bad habit? We ask ourselves this question "what is keeping me from shining?"

  1. Is it the way you eat?
  2. Is it your sleep habits?
  3. Is it who you are hanging out with? Are the people you Surrond yourself with encouraging you to be your best version?

Whatever diminishes your self-respect.

Roman 14:14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

Here Paul is specifically talking about the controversy of eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols. 

Back then, some people thought it was OK to eat the discounted meat sacrificed to idols because those gods were not real,

While other believers saw the idols, they used to worship as gods as real. They, therefore, sought to disconnect themselves entirely from that way of life. 

So, they were offended when they saw other believers eating food once dedicated to another god. 

So, here, Paul points out that nothing is in and of itself unclean. However, if you think that eating meat sacrificed to idols is sinful, then to you, it is a sin. 

Aome things aren't sinful pre se, but God has convicted you specifically about something, for you to do what God has told you specifically not to is sin. 

Romans 14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. 

The point that Paul's making here is this, we should steer clear of actions that are specifically and clearly forbidden by scripture. 

  • The Bible is clear, Thou shalt not lie. 
  • The Bible is clear, it is a sin to be drunk. 
  • The bible is clear, we should not engage in gossip. 

However, there are things the Bible is not clear about. In those cases, we should follow our conscience. 

Our consciences should be informed and bound by scripture, but when scripture is unclear, we are not to violate our conscience. 

This means that no matter what anyone else says, if you feel that it is wrong to engage in certain activities,n then for you to do those things is to sin. 

To continually ciolate our conscience is to act in ways that go against our self-respect. 

How to break bad habits. 

  1. Say what it is, John 3:20 "For everyone that does evil hates the lift, neither comes into the light, lests his deeds be reproved."
  2. Avoid using willpower, 2 Timothy 2:22 "Flee youthful lusts."
  3. Make it hard, 1 Thessalonians "Abstain from all appearance of evil."

Say what it is. 

John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the lifht, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 

Bad habits love darkness. Bad habits love secrecy. So, when we expose our habits for what they are, we make them unattractive. 

This is what Jesus is saying, the reason we love darkness as a coulutre is becuase it conceals what we really are, which is sinful. 

It's not that we do sinful things. It's that we are sinners by nature an anything that exposes that we hate. 

The same holds true for our bad habits. What we do is play word games in our heads so we can hide how bad our habits are. 

It's just girl talk. No, it's gossip. One of the reasons you allow yourself to gossip is that you lie to yourself about what it really is. So, the first step in dealing with this bad habit saying what it is. 

When you gossip, you are betraying a friend. WHen youare tempted to gossip, tell yourself what you are doing. I'm about to betray my friend. 

Avoid using willpower. 

2 Timothy 2:22 22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

We should look at it like this, willpower is short-term solution, not a long-term solution.

When we put ourselves in situations where we have to use willpower to keep from indulging in bad habits. We will, eventually, we will cave in. 

This is why the Bible says that we should flee youthful lust, meaning that whenever we feel tempted, the best thing we can do is to run away from that situation. 

If we avoid the most tempting situations, we significantly increase the likelihood of us staying on course. 

This means when we begin to feel the pull toward a habit we've identified as wrong, we should immediately get ourselves out of that situation. 

Application

There are two aspects to this, the physical an the mental.

The physical means that we physically remove ourselves from the situation. 

    • If our bad habit is eating all the Oreos, then don't have Oreos in your house. You can't physically overeat cookies if thee are no cookies in the house.
    • If our bad habit is connected to what we watch on teloevision, block the channels associated with our bad habits. 
    • If our bad habit is connected to who we hang out with, stop hanging out with the people who indulge in the practice you're trying to quit. 

Mental, there are times when you can't physically remove yourself from the situation. In this case, flee mentally. 

When I was growing up, Sunday school teachers told me that the best way to battle temptation is to memorize scripture about the things you're tempted by. 

And when you are tempted to indulge in sinful behavior, quote those verses in your mind. 

This doesn't work, If I have a problem with lust, and I'm quoting verses and my mind about lust, what am I thinking about? Lust

Instead of quoting Bible verses that relate to your specific temptation insteadm you should quote Bible verses in your mind about the gospel. 

You cannot focus on two things simultaneously. So, if you are meditation on the gospel, you can't meditate on your temptation. 

Make it hard. 

1 Thessalonians 5:22 "Abstain from all appearance of evil."

We cannot avoid every kind of sin because we live in a sinful world, But we can ensure that we do not give sin a foothold by avoiding tempting situations.

Again, willpower is a short-term solution, 

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