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HABITS WORTH HAVING – Gratitude ----------------------------------------------- When people don’t know who to be thankful to, they develop a sense of entitlement and ingratitude. Also, when we dwell on things that are bad, we are grumpy with God instead of thankful. The Bible does not say that we won’t have problems, but it tells us to rejoice in various trials. That is how God forms our character. God is better to us than we think He is, and He is not holding out on us. He knows more about us than we do, and His arms are open wide for a close relationship with us. Focusing on God opens up our generosity. All things good are from God and are for His purpose. God put us here with an eternal focus. You’ve heard “you are so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good.” Actually, if you are earthly minded, you are of no earthly good. We should thank God for specific things. When learn to be grateful, then we can invest in everything God wants us to do. Application points: -- Groom your gratitude. Become intentionally grateful and tell God so. -- Beware the grumbling of ingratitude. If you find yourself grumbling, choose to be grateful instead. -- Thank God for a hard thing and see what happens. God says to be thankful in all things. It stretches our faith.

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HABITS WORTH HAVING – Service (John 13: 12-16) ----------------------------------------------- Our threshold for service is really tied to our pride. We need to lay down our pride and take up our towel. Jesus, the King of Kings, humbled Himself to the extreme when He washed the feet of the disciples. But the message is not about foot washing – it is about SERVING. Service creates the path to an attitude of humility (Phil 2: 3-5). The more power and prestige we have in life, the less we tend to have an attitude of humility and service. (Matt 20: 25-28). God gives us gifts so that we can SERVE. But we need to serve for God’s purpose and serve others without resenting them. When we do it for the Lord, it changes our attitude. To be great, we should live to serve. We are to be His hands and feet for the great commission and to build up the body. Application points: -- Learn to live for Christ (2 Cor. 5:14-15). The motivation for service is love born of worship and gratitude. -- Find the joy of a gifted serving and non-gifted serving. (It doesn’t matter if you have the spiritual gift of service.) -- -- Joy doesn’t mean easy … or even fun every time. -- -- Don’t wait to “discover” your gift before you serve. There is no shortage of needs. -- Search your heart for hiccups about serving.

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Pastor David is starting a GREAT new series called HABITS WORTH HAVING – Building Your Character for Now and Forever (I Tim 4:6-10) ----------------------------------------------- Up to 40% of what we do is out of habit, some intentional and some not. Habits always have a trigger, then a result (the habit), and then a reward. Character is FORGED. We need to Build habits that bring us closer to Christ. We can’t sit back and expect God to make us godly. God calls us to the “Spiritual gym” to build our character. Our character and people we have discipled are the only things that we will take to heaven. To build a new habit, we must be intrinsically motivated. It takes an average of 66 days to build a new habit. We should start with something achievable. We won’t be perfect, so we shouldn’t beat ourselves up. When developing a new habit, there will be a honeymoon phase and a struggle phase, and it will help to have support. It will also help to schedule time for the new habit and to be accountable to someone. Let’s get ready to go to the Spiritual gym to develop new habits. A beginning is to meditate on what God has to say to us, and embrace silence so that we can better hear God. Application points: --Choose what habits need replacing and what habits need building. Figure out what is not forming Christ in you and change that. --Trust God’s empowerment for change … but work hard at it. --Let’s work together to become like Christ (Eph 4:13). Who can you work with for encouragement and accountability?

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Build Your Life (Matt 7:21-27) ----------------------------------------------- Some people want to claim Jesus as Savior but not as Lord because they don’t want to surrender their will to God’s will. We can’t have a Savior without a Lord because He is the same. God wants us to believe in Jesus as the ONLY way to Salvation, and He wants us to do what HE wants. A true Christian will always bear spiritual fruit. We should live a life that stands the test of time. God is judge and He sets the rules. We shouldn’t fall into the trap of doing works for ourselves, but should be careful where the spotlight falls. If we worry about what others think, then we worry about the wrong thing. What are we doing with the time that God has given us? Is our life all that we hoped for? We should listen, obey, and LIVE, investing ourselves in others: serve God and leave the world a better place; have a great marriage; teach our kids to know and love God so that they spend eternity with Him; have amazing friends. We should live to stand now and forever, and seek a life that stands on Jesus as the solid foundation. Here’s how we can do that: -- Live fully surrendered to Jesus. Make sure He sets our agenda and don’t be ashamed that we stand for Him. -- Make sure our salvation shows up and works out. No one should be shocked that we are a Christian. We should give a testimony, tell people how to trust God and share what He is doing in our life, but don’t hog the spotlight. -- We should be intentional. Identify the life and legacy that we would like and then follow God’s way to that reality.