My Story Will Start

We all have a story, right? We love stories. I mean, part of our economy is built on stories. We love them to death.

Do we have any book readers in the room here? Yeah, they're not gone yet, okay? With the age of, you know, motion pictures and everything else going on, and we still have, and technology, we still have, we still have readers. In fact, you know, reading has increased in the last, even with e-books, we thought there was a drop in reading and book purchases, and I know Barnes and Nobles and places like that have been struggling because of the electronic book age, but book sales have actually gone up, and people are reading more than ever, and it's pretty amazing. I mean, I was looking at some statistics, and books are, the book industry is a $113 billion industry, and it rises every year.

It's predicted to be at $120 billion by the year 2020. Why is that? Because we love stories. We like to read. We like stories.

We like to hear about. We like something, something to go from one place to another. Not only that, we love movies. How many of you are movie people here? Okay, yeah.

No, everybody raised their hand. Come on, we have movie people here. Movie people, television people. We have all these things going on. We have documentaries.

We have the story up here, you know. We are movie, we are like a movie, movie, television generation. In fact, I was reading a statistic that said, the film and the film industry and TV industry is a $324 billion industry in revenue. I mean, that's incredible. Why?

Because we like stories. We love stories, and we all have a story, and some of us have positive stories, right? We like to tell stories when they're positive. We like to tell people when we, I remember when I was here, and I remember when I was there, and now I'm here, right? And I remember when I was deep down in the pit, and I was delivered from the pit, and now I'm here.

And we have these positive stories we enjoy telling. On the other hand, there's these stories that we don't care so much to talk about, right? They're the more negative stories. In fact, we change the story, or we write entire chapters, or pull entire chapters out of our story because we don't want to share them. But deep down, we all want a story worth telling, right?

We all want a story to tell, a good story to tell, a positive story to tell. And it's amazing when we look back in our lives, and we see that small insignificant events really steer our entire lives. Little small decisions, small instances in our lives, small choices really kind of steer our entire lives. For instance, maybe you are a basketball player, and you decided at one time to join a basketball league, maybe a community basketball league, and you met somebody there, a guy who was in, you know, in church, and then he had some friends that are in church. I'm saying guy, maybe you're a girl, and you're in a community basketball league.

I'm just making, you know, assumptions here. But perhaps that's the case. And then they invited you to church. Says, well, you know, I don't care much about church, but I'll go. I like these people.

They seem pretty cool. So you go there, and, you know, you really enjoy the environment, and the song's really, really doing something to you. And then you hear the message, and it's thought-provoking, and you're steered. Something starts happening inside you. And that day, you make the most important decision that you've ever made in your life, and your life has never been the same.

Maybe you're in high school, or you are in high school, and you just decided to take a job. And it's a minimum wage job. I just need a job, right? I don't care about what kind of job it is. It isn't going to be my future or anything.

I'm just going to take a job. But you go to that job, and you're like, wow, I really like this. I'm enjoying this, and I want to learn more about it. And I like my boss, and he's teaching me a lot of things. And then you say, well, you know, maybe I want to do this for a living.

So you start steering your course direction in life, and you go to college, and you decide to go into a career program in college that focused on that. And you're like, wow, if I hadn't made that choice to get a job, just a simple job, I might not be where I am today, loving my career, and just loving life. Or maybe you decided to stop for a cup of coffee one morning, and you walked in, and you looked across the room, and oh my goodness, there's the person that you're going to marry. And you're like, if I hadn't made that decision to stop for a cup of coffee, where would I be? Who would I be with?

Would I have the life I have now? And you all have your story, right? It's so wild how small, insignificant decisions can change the entire course of our life. And then there's the decisions on the other side that we don't like to talk about, right? Those are decisions that are not so good, and they kind of steer you in the opposite direction.

Perhaps it's a friend that you decided to hang out with, and you're like, well, this wouldn't be so bad, right? I mean, just hang out with this person. And then you start getting involved in things you don't want to get involved in. And before you know it, your life is going down, a downward spiral. Or perhaps you go to a party, you make a decision to go to a party when you're younger, and they introduce you to some type of substance.

And that substance is all, ever since then, ever since that choice has been a part of your life. It's been a struggle. It's been a stronghold. It's gripped your life, all because of small decisions. So you see how small decisions, insignificant decisions, can change the course of our lives.

So how do we live a story we're telling? How do we live a story that really makes an impact or makes a difference? Because again, we all want to live a story worth telling. Why not let God be a part of that story? Why not let God, he's an amazing storyteller.

If you haven't read the Bible, that's a pretty good story. And it's amazing how we have multiple stories that work together to form one story. Let God be a part of your story. In fact, he started the story long ago. He started your story long ago.

It says this in Psalm 13 through 14 and verse 16. It says, for you were created, for you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. And I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You know what that means?

It means that you were thought of. That he thought of you. He worked you together. He molded you in a special way. He says, your eyes saw my unformed body.

And all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. So he wrote the book. He wrote your book. He's already started your book. And our theme verse for this series is let's fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Hebrews 12.2. That is an amazing, amazing chapter. If you've never read it, but there's, it's the story. He is the author.

He is the author of our faith and he wants to author your story. So I want you to join me on a journey through this four part series. We're going to work through a journey of how to live a story worth telling. And I'm, each week I'm going to give you a piece of that journey to, and I believe if you just take hold of this, if you, if you listen, if you take notes, if you apply this, not only listen to it, but apply it, it will drastically change your life. I believe this with my whole heart.

So this week we're going to talk about My Story Will Start. But next week is going to be really good because it talks about My Story Will Change. And some of you are experiencing some strongholds and some things that you haven't been freed of. And there's things that you need to change in your life. It's good to start a story, but if you don't change it in the middle, if you don't change somewhere, if change isn't taking place, if you aren't taking different directions, then you're never going to find full freedom in God.

And we're going to talk about that next week. I can't wait for that. And then week three, we're going to talk about My Story Remains. Sometimes God calls us to remain, to remain in Him, to remain in the story. And then the final week, we're going to talk about My Story Will Go.

And sometimes it's better to stay, but sometimes it's better to go. And God calls us to go. And sometimes we forfeit extraordinary things for ordinary things because we're comfortable where we are. So I can't wait. That's week four, right after our Super Bowl week.

But today, I want to talk about starting our story. Starting our story. My story will start. And this is a very, very practical, practical series. I usually do deeper series throughout the year, and then I do more practical, you know, kind of start off the year.

And this is going to help you starting your new year. And we're going to talk about starting life-altering disciplines and habits. Life-altering disciplines and habits. Not just any discipline or habit, but some that, the type that, that alter your life. And I'm not talking about starting a business, or I'm not talking about starting, you know, launching a ministry or writing a book.

I'm just talking about the small, insignificant things in our life that can make a huge difference. The small things that make big differences. And there's this great book that I've gotten a hold of. It's called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. If you haven't read The Power of Habit, it's actually a good book.

He's not a Christian that I know of. But he has this definition for habits, these certain habits. And they're called keystone habits. They're called keystone habits. And I think I have it up on the screen.

And he says this, A so-called keystone, the so-called keystone habits create a chain reaction that can significantly influence the success of other habits. Another way to say it is that there's certain simple habits that if we find or we get a hold of, we start practicing that it could build momentum towards other habits that create momentum towards other positive habits and push us into a positive direction. And on the other hand, if we practice negative small habits, It will catapult us into other negative small habits, which in turn takes our life in a completely different direction. And he calls these keystone habits. And for instance, let me just give you an example so that you better understand this.

Say, a small habit is making my bed in the morning. Maybe you're not a bed maker. Maybe you don't enjoy it. You wake up in the morning, you're good to get out of bed, you know, you're a sleeper. And you're like, oh, I got to get up.

I don't have time to make my bed. After all, I'm going to get right back in the bed at the end of the day, right? Why make it up, huh? Right? And you're that type of person.

So you decide, you know what? I'm going to start this small keystone habit of making my bed every morning. So you start making your bed every morning. And it starts, it's positive. And you're like, oh, I just feel better, you know?

So you know what? Maybe I'll add another habit. Maybe I'll start working out. I'm going to start working out. I'm going to make my bed and get up and I'm going to go work out.

And you start working out. And because you start working out, you start losing weight. You start feeling better, right? So you start eating better. You say, well, I'm going to start the habit of eating better.

So I start eating better. And because I eat better, I start feeling better. And because I start feeling better, I sleep better, right? So you sleep a full eight hours or how many ever hours you sleep. Some of you probably need to reduce your amount of hours you sleep.

but uh but you sleep well and then therefore you have a good attitude because you slept well and and you can wake up earlier and you can actually do your bible study in the morning and pray in the morning and because of that you feel so much better and you have a positive attitude and you go into work and you're you're good to your your people at work that you work with and and you're good with uh your family and you come home and and and everything's good so as you can see it all started out with a keystone habit of just making my bed make them and and you can fill in the blank there maybe flossing your teeth or whatever it is that that one keystone habit they're different free on the other hand if we don't make our bed we wake up late we don't get to work late we're grumpy at that we don't we don't work out for sure and we're grumpy towards the people we work for and then as a result our family sees our grumpiness and we're tired all the time and we're just not living a great life so as you can see keystone habits are very interesting dynamic and i want to take this into a biblical context here because actually there's habits in the bible that we can learn from so i'm looking at daniel the book of daniel and all of you are very very familiar with the story daniel in the lion's den you know even if you weren't in church you probably went to sunday school once and heard it or you heard the story somewhere else or but but daniel and the lion's den where daniel was thrown in the lion's lion's den because he he didn't follow the decree of king darius but i want to look at the story behind the story of daniel so just to give you some background king darius was it was a persian king uh he kind of came after nebuchadnezzar and then there were several other kings and then there was darius and darius really loved daniel he loved daniel because daniel was a man of integrity he was intelligent he always got the job done he never he never did anything wrong i mean daniel was probably one of the few people we see in the bible that actually did no wrong i mean or at least not at least it's not recorded that he did wrong but he's one of the few people in the bible we didn't see that we see like he's perfect you know daniel you know you think of daniel and king darius loved him so he put him up above these people called satraps satraps were were governors over the kingdom so there were 120 satraps and there were three people that were appointed over these satraps and daniel was one of these three but not only that darius loved daniel so much that he ended up setting him over the whole kingdom so as you can imagine somebody was jealous the satraps and the governors and the head officials were very jealous and they wanted to to devise a plan to get daniel so we pick up here in verse 4 of daniel 6 and it says this at this the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against daniel in his conduct of government affairs but i love this but They were unable to do so. They were unable to do so. Why? They could not find corruption in him because he was a trust, he was trustworthy. He was trustworthy and neither corrupt and negligent nor negligent.

Finally, these men said, we will never find any basis for charges against this man, Daniel, unless it has something to do with the law of God. So they're like, there's just no way. And we're going to talk in a few minutes why he was this person. But they could not find any, any wrong in Daniel. So the only thing we can do is mess with his God.

So they devise a plan in the next few chapters or next few verses. Hey, Daniel, I mean, Darius. And they get together saying, you holy, righteous king and glorious are you. You know, they were getting there and they were kissing a little butt, you know, and just kind of getting them all stirred up. And he's like, you, nobody is above you, Darius, right?

Nobody is above you. He's like, yeah, yeah, I guess so. Nobody's above me. Look at the kingdom I've created. You know, I rule and this and that.

Well, you know what? We should make a decree. Let's make a decree that nobody worships their God for 30 days except you. And if anybody worships a God besides you, king Darius, if somebody puts a God above you, Darius, then they need to be executed. And Darius is like, oh, that's a good idea without having any idea that this was going to be the man he loved and the man he put above his kingdom.

So here we are. And Daniel arrives, this decree arrives to Daniel, and it says this. It says, Now, when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. And three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Now, let me go back for a second.

Why was Daniel who he was? Because he had this key discipline. Every morning, every morning, three times, every afternoon, and every evening, three times a day, he got down on his knees and he prayed. And he got aligned with God. And he got his heart aligned with God.

And that discipline was there. And it says, just as he had done before. That before could have been weeks. That before could have been months. That before could have been years.

But he did as he always did, just as he did before. And he made a decision, a small decision, years ago, weeks ago, months ago, that he would do this. Therefore, Daniel's character, his integrity, and everything about him was positive in the king's eyes. As we know, the story goes on, and Daniel is captured, and he's thrown into the lion's den, and God shuts the mouth of lions. All because, but I believe all because, he aligned his heart with God.

He honored God, and he practiced that discipline. So, here's what I want to ask you. I'm going to put this into application point. Two questions today, okay? Two questions.

What story does God want you to tell? Let me say it like this. What story, what does God want you to want? What does God want for you, and what does he want you to want? Maybe, you know, when you look five to ten years down the road from now, maybe you're that person that's experiencing a lot of financial difficulty.

You want to be that person that says, you know, I was in a place where I couldn't even afford bread. And we didn't know what we were going to do next, but we made some decisions. We made some decisions to pull back on our finances and do some things, and now we're experiencing financial freedom today. And God bless, you know, Jesus, that we were able to do this because we made some decisions in the day. Maybe that's your story, or maybe your story is a priorities issue.

Maybe you've allowed some things in your life that are prioritized other things, such as a job or some kind of activity or something that you've done, and you've allowed that to get in the way of your family and spending time with your family. Maybe you have a marriage that's not working out so well, and maybe five to ten years from now you can say, oh, I chose, I made certain decisions to spend more time with my wife and to spend more time with my kids and have a better family experience. And you could say that, and what story does God want you to want? And the second question is, what are you going to do to do that? So what do you need to start?

What do you need to start? What will you start? What will you decide today that will ultimately be the story you have to tell in the future? What do you start today? And I'm not asking you to start a thousand things, okay?

Because if you try to start everything, you're not going to accomplish one. So what's that one thing, what's that one thing that you want to start today? What's that one thing? I know, let me share with you some of the things I've started just in the past few years. A few years ago, I made a decision that I was going to start fasting.

And I never thought much about fasting, honestly. I never cared much for it, as you could imagine. I like to eat. I enjoy my food. I enjoy a good steak, you know.

I enjoy pizza. I enjoy all the bad foods. Name a bad food and I enjoy it, okay? Good foods, you know, I can deal with them. But bad foods, I enjoy it.

I love, love, I love to eat. So I didn't think much about fasting. And even when I was told to fast, you know, I was like, well, you know, it's a personal thing. You know, I made the whole, it's a personal thing, excuse. And I don't feel led to do it and this and that.

But a few years ago, I said, you know what? I'm going to give this a shot, you know. I'm going to fast. And I can tell you, when I started fasting the first of the year, there was just something about it. It was incredible.

I was fed spiritually. It was fruitful. It was very rich. It was just power that I never experienced before. God gave me this ability to hear him clear for that year.

And it kind of set my tone for the entire year. Another thing that I started doing was waking up early in the morning to start my day with prayer. Even if it was 15 minutes with prayer and a Bible reading. And that's just been incredible. Not only am I starting off my year, but I'm starting off my day.

And I can tell you, I get out of it sometimes. Life gets busy and gets crazy and I'm moving. You know, you wake up in the morning, you've got to be somewhere. And then you forget to read your Bible that day. Or you kind of squeeze it in whenever you can.

But I can tell you, if you get away from it. And when I get away from it, it really does make a difference in my day. But when I set God and his first fruits, I decided a long time ago I was going to give God the time. First fruits. And I can tell you, it's revolutionized my life.

It has done incredible things in my life. And I can sit up here and I can tell you, and you're like, yeah, right, pastor. And this and that. And I get that. Because I would listen to the pastor.

Say, if you fast, if you read your Bible, if you study in the morning or whenever, you know, you need to do that. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm telling you, you just got to experience it. Give it a shot. The one thing I'm deciding to do this year, I used to do a lot of, but I don't do much anymore. And I've noticed is that my health is deteriorating a little bit.

Not because of any kind of sickness or anything, because I haven't really been taking good care of myself. I've been sicker a lot lately. I've been tired. I've been, you know, but it's because I haven't been working out. So this year, I'm starting my workout regimen, you know.

I know that's like kind of the number one thing that people do at the beginning of the year. I'm going to work out. I'm going to eat better and do this, you know. But I needed to do that. Because I was, man, back in the day, I used to work out all the time, you know, four or five days a week.

And just, but I just got out of it. And it was terribly unhealthy. And this year, I'm starting a workout regimen, you know. I'm going to work out and I'm going to get back into it. And I'm going to get healthy again.

Because I need to be healthy for you. Because I need to increase my capacity so I can lead this church. Amen. And we're believing for this church. We got big plans this year.

I'm believing that we're going to see this church grow. And we're just excited about what God's already done and the stories that he's telling. Next week, we're going to hear more stories. And I know that God needs to increase my capacity. And that God needs to increase what I need.

I need more energy. I need the, I need the more, more ability to do more. Right? And I'm going to do that by starting this year, taking better care of myself. So some of you may, may have those things that you need to start.

Maybe you deal with insecurity or addiction. And you need to begin a process. Maybe it's time to start counseling. Maybe it's time to start looking for help. Or maybe, maybe you're not spending enough time with kids.

And you're, you're having a, you know, your, your relationships failing with your kids. Well, today may be the day you need to start spending more time with the kids. You need to set aside some time and say, I'm going to give this to my kids. Maybe your marriage isn't so, so well. Maybe you're having trouble in your marriage.

And then you look at your life and you're like, well, I prioritize her or him in the back of the, on the back of the priority list. Maybe it's time to put them on the front of the priority list. Start a date night. Spend some time with them. Today is the day you need to start.

And maybe you need to grow more spiritually. And this is where I kind of get up on my high horse a little bit. But, but I, but I need to do this. Because I hear, I hear the, the, the statement. I don't feel like I'm spiritually growing.

Well, what are you doing? Well, I go to church Sunday morning, maybe once a month. Okay. What else are you doing? Nothing else.

And Saul Church, we, we provide every opportunity possible for you to grow and mature in Christ. We have small groups that begin, um, January 29th. You can get plugged into a small group. You can be a part of a small group. And, and, and you can, and, and I'm telling you, when you're a part of these groups, we heal.

We grow together. We talk out things. We learn. We get deep in the word. We do, uh, God just does incredible things in these groups.

And you need to be a part of this group. If you're not growing spiritually, you need to be a part of a group. We're beginning a growth track starting in February to help you get plugged into the church more. February 1st, we'll have Church 101. This is a great opportunity for you to find out more about our church.

So we'll have 101 and 201 is our essentials class. 301 is our, uh, is, is another, is our, um, uh, our connection class where you learn about your spiritual gifts and, and you can connect to a ministry. We have all kinds of ministries in this church. And I can tell you, even Chris shared with you earlier, um, that, that when you're a part of a team that you get together and you grow together, you get to know each other. And then you, and then you, uh, uh, kind of call each other out once in a while when you're not spiritually where you're supposed to be.

And we need to grow spiritually. Not only do we want to be a church of evangelism, which we are a strong evangelism church. We come up here and we're real people, right? We get together with real people and we care about people coming to know the Lord, but we also need people to spiritually grow. And, and you got to do more than attend church once a month.

You got to start tending a church, attending church regularly. You need to get into a small group. You need to get connected. You need to do whatever you can. And as a salt church, we provide every opportunity possible, every opportunity possible for you to grow.

So there's really no excuse if you're not growing in salt church, but you're on. Um, I know that kind of went off a little bit there, but I had to share that. You still love me. You still love me. Okay.

First Kings 20. It says this, it says this, and I love this because this is kind of our call. This is our call. Meanwhile, a prophet came to King Ahab of Israel and announced, this is what the Lord says. Do you see this vast army?

So Ahab's looking over this army and he knows that he's getting, you know, he's getting ready to go into battle. And he probably is overwhelmed and probably doesn't know what to do. And he says, you see this vast army. And the Lord said, I will give it into your hands today. And then you will know that I am the Lord.

So some of you are sitting there says, Lord, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can start this. He says, I will give, I'm going to give you this. I'm going to put this in your hand. I'm going to do this for you.

And then it says, but who will do this? Said Ahab. And the prophet replied, this is what the Lord says. The young officers of the provincial commanders will do it. And he's like, well, who will start the battle?

And he asked, or he asked, and the prophet answered, you will. You will start the battle. So today I ask, will you start the battle? Who will start the battle? You will.

Who will start the battle? And the kids say, we will, right? Who will start the battle? You will. You've got to make a decision today that you're going to start the battle.

You're going to start. I will start my story today. So I want to ask you a serious question. I'm going to get real serious with you. Do you want what God wants?

Do you want what God wants? Do you believe that God has a story for you? Do you believe that? Well, what will you start doing today? What will you start doing today?

It's time to take those steps. It's time to take those steps. Let's pray. Father, I know that there's many out here, Lord, that you've been speaking to your hearts. Their hearts have kind of been pulling on, being pulled towards something, Lord, that they need to do and they need to start.

Your Holy Spirit has been working our lives and our hearts, Lord. Even in this hour, God, from the time we walked in, Lord, to now. There's many here that know that there's some things they need to start. They need to start today. To begin the story that could be the story that changes generations.

That stop something that could be devastating and downward spiraling. But today, Lord, we're trusting in you. And I'm praying over this place. I'm praying for everybody in here that may have something in their lives that they haven't started yet. That they need to begin to start.

And I'm praying in the name of Jesus that you would begin to do that. That their souls and hearts would rise up to you. If you're here today, I want you... And you have something that you know you need to start today, that you need to change. I want you just to raise your hand, because I want to pray for you.

I see those hands, I pray those, we want to start something today. Lord, I pray for these people, I pray for those who are raising their hand, maybe those who haven't raised their hand in here, maybe those, and we're going to ask, Lord, give us the courage, give us the ability, let us see that you have it in your hands, and you want a story for us. And we want to give you the story. Lord, we're going to make decisions today that will change generations to come. We're going to make those, those decisions.

And there are some of, some of them today, Lord, some people here today, maybe God's convicting them in another way. Maybe they've never even began a story with God, with you, Lord. And all over this place, as we continue to pray, maybe you're that person. Maybe you're that person that's ready today to start. Father, and this is the beginning of the year, what better time to give your heart to Christ, to follow Him.

The past, He doesn't care about your past. He doesn't care about any of that. We walk in church sometimes and we're like, I'm afraid what the people will think or people will do and what they'll say and this and that. God, and, and I want to tell you, this is a, this is a safe place because God doesn't care and I don't care. And God cares about you and He loves you so much and He wants a relationship with you.

He wants you to start the story that will change your entire existence. It will change eternity. Eternity is in hand today. And if that's you today, if you would just lift your hand, I just want to pray for you. I see that hand.

I see that hand. I see another hand. Two hands. Is there another hand? Is there anybody else that wants to make a decision?

Make a decision. Today, I'm just going to follow you, Lord. I'm following you. I've ran from you for too long. Maybe, maybe you're far away from Him.

Maybe for years, you've been far away from Him. Maybe for years, you've been far away from Him. And it's time to reconnect and start that story once again. Anybody else? Anybody else?

I'm going to pray over this place. If you would just pray this with me. Jesus, Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sin and you rose again on the third day, proving that you were God. Forgive me of my sin. And forgive me that I've walked away from you, Lord Jesus.

I tried to do things my own way, but today, I give my life and I give my heart to you. You are my Lord Jesus. You are my strength. You are my everything, God. I give it all to you today in Jesus' name.

And can we say amen all together? Amen. Give God a hand clap. We thank you, Jesus, for what you're doing. We thank you, Jesus.

We thank you, God. Hallelujah.