As preached by Pastor Steven Furtick.

0:00
I shared a teaching with our staff couple weeks ago, what was it about two months ago. And I came in and taught this teaching, called three habits of a healthy heart. And several of them said, you need to share that with the church and I couldn’t find a good weekend to share it because of all of the scheduling. And well, when I realized we would have to postpone our series for a week, I thought, this is the time this is the window for me to share this with you. So I want to teach you a little bit today. Thank you for your enthusiasm in God’s presence today.

0:34
This teaching is going to require your full attention and I don’t just mean with your mind. I mean your emotional attention and kind of well I did set up here to teach you today three habits of a healthy heart. How many know real lasting change has to happen in your heart? it can’t just be in your behavior.

1:11
You really have to fundamentally change your belief. And that’s kind of what the Psalm is talking about in Psalm 119:112. There aren’t many chapters in the Bible that have 112 verses. I think some 119 is on record as the longest chapter in the Bible. It’s constructed grammatically, in a specific way that we won’t go into in this class. I kind of want to teach a little bit today if that’s all right, is it alright if I don’t even shout or holler anything? If you wanted to hear me holler you should have come to the praise party. We had an amazing time saying good morning midnight. Because we welcome not only a new year, but we welcomed our challenges this year, knowing that also That our calling is contained in our challenges. If we learn how to see it correctly, everything begins with perspective and the perspective of the psalmist in Psalm 119 is kind of all over the place. I think he’s dealing with some inner issues and getting beyond the grammar of the song we can know a little bit of the intention of it because the soma says in 112, I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever to the end. I want this to last. I don’t just want to see some changes in my life for a few weeks in January. Come on, somebody, I didn’t hand them my gym membership and sign up for a year. Just to be eating chocolate by Valentine’s Day, i want to see some lasting change in my life this year. The Psalmist said, I incline my heart; it has to happen within not just The behavior but the belief that drives the behavior has to change, or the change won’t stay. We found this out over and over again every new year we learn it again. And so lasting change is what I’m after. And I incline my heart interesting choice of words if you inclined something that means that it was naturally not in that position. That means you had to act upon it, in order to orient it in a different direction. Right, so we don’t incline something that’s already up right must have meant that his heart was declined. And the problem with a lot of us is we go through life reclined. That is just however, we wake up. That’s how we stay. However we feel that’s how we act. The Psalmist said I act upon my attitude, and I incline my heart. Did you know you’re in charge of your heart? Quit saying people broke your heart. They can’t break it if you don’t give it to them. And so he said I’m setting my heart in the direction of heaven; I wonder is your heart set in a divine directiontoday?

4:17
incline my heart. I don’t think this is something you do like one time you know. You just incline your heart to God when you were 12 at summer Bible camp and you never were tempted again. And we want it to be that way. I want it to be like the infomercial do remember the infomercial with the rotisserie, Showtime rotisserie oven, and the men said “set it and, and forget it”. That’s how I want my heart to be like that infomercial, set it and forget it. I want my heart to just stay there. You know, just hey, I went to church, first Sunday in January. That oughta get me by, I said it. But the Solomon said it’s not enough to set it and forget it. He said it is more like you said it, you check it, you reset it, you check it. Because all through your day and all through your year, your heart is going to be tempted to decline to a default position. And maybe it’s a default position of discouragement, or despair or dysfunction. But when you take charge of your heart, Touch your neighbor say, take charge of your heart. That’s what the writer of Proverbs said. It’s not it’s not just the Psalmist that did it. The writer of Proverbs says, guard, your heart; It’s your heart. And that’s where the issues of life flow from. So before we can get the windows working, we got to get our hearts open.

5:54
Hey, man, the doctor was fussing at me a couple months ago about my cholesterol. lets me know I’m getting on up there in age, I never had a conversation like this with the doctor before. And he just talk and talk, blah blah blah, LDL, HDL, triglyceride, all this stuff. And I know he could tell he wasn’t getting through to me because he took a real drastic turn. He said, Hey, I don’t want you to be one of those guys who looks real fit on the outside, which made me feel happy that he said that about me. But then one day you’re just outside running and you just fall over have a heart attack. And then Listen to me, and I corrected him. I said, Doctor, I know you got some degrees that I don’t have it all that but you’re wrong about that. I don’t run. So if I fall over, it’s not gonna be on cardio, but he said you can be blocked on the inside look good on the outside and be successful and fall over, and be Sexy and fall over and be married and fall over. Come on, get a promotion and fall over. Be religious and fall over. It has to happen in the heart, but it doesn’t start with the heart. It starts with the habits. Your habits create the condition of your heart.

7:31
I feel like God is going to help somebody set your heart on things above. If your heart set in the right direction but it’s going to require some habits and they’re all right there in the Psalmist. I want to read you the next two verses because my three habits are right there. In the verses forever to the end. I set my heart to perform your statutes. I hey, this is 113, I hate …I hate… What’s that words doing in the Bible? I thought was supposed to love everything. No, I hate the double minded. But I love your law. I don’t think we should go on until we talk about that. He said I hate this…. I hate the double minded. I hate and it’s not a person I hate is I hate the condition of double mindedness. I hate it and see the thing about hate is hate is the most powerful motivation to change, not love.

8:34
And so before you start with wanting to reach your goals, maybe the first thing for you to do is to make a decision about some things that you hate, and it’s going to be complicated because, you know, as for me, I have a love hate relationship with some of the things. I feel kind of like David. At one time, David son, Absalom died and joab came to him. He said, Your son is dead. David started weeping and joab was mad because Absalom was trying to take the throne from David. And so Absalom had become David’s enemy. But David’s heart was connected to Absalom. So he was crying and Joab said you need to get it together. You hate those who love you, and you love those who hate you. You hate what’s trying to deliver you and you love what’s trying to destroy you. And I feel that way about certain things in my life, certain actions, certain behaviors in my life. I love how they feel for a minute. But I hate the crash. And certain things in my life, I hate how they feel when I’m doing them. I hate the plank. Exhibit A I mean, I was for years, I was one of these people, I would tell you to your face. I hate to exercise. Go back and watch my sermon videos from three years ago. I was standing on stage and say, I hate to exercise.

10:03
You know why I hated it? because it wasn’t a habit, I didn’t do it enough to love it. I hated it, But you don’t have to accept your default attitude toward anything. I incline my heart. I’m gonna teach today you came out, I’m gonna make it worth your while. I’m gonna teach today. Get that elevation pin ready. We’re gonna burn it up today and get a new one next week. I grew I grew to hate, I think the moment of realization for me was when I was paying Andy $450 to come over to my house and let my pants out.

10:09
I hated it. I looked at Andy and I said, I hate this man. I could be using this money to buy new clothes, and I’m paying it to you to make my clothes bigger. I hate this. And he said, Hey, keep eating. It’s job security. For me, that’s what my tailor said. I said no man, I hate this. I hate this feeling, and sometimes, before you can make a change you have to be motivated by, I know its a strong word is some very pastoral. You have to hate it. You have to hate it. You have to, you have to hate self pity. And the problem with hating self pity is Ooh, it feels good, like a bag of Doritos on your tongue. See, it’s not that I hate the taste of Doritos. I just hated what it did to my waist. This is so good. sounds simple, but it’s real deep. He said I hate the double minded, I love your law. Before I can do what I love, I have to know what the Hey, I hate this. I I hate the way I hate the way I, watch, watch… Love what it does for me, but I hate what it does to me. It’s a complicated relationship. A bag of Doritos does something for me. It might not do anything for you. It does something for me. I have a long standing relationship with carbohydrates. They have been there for me in the midnight hour when I couldn’t call on anybody else. I can call on chocolate.

12:30
So I love it. I love what it does for me, but I hate what it does to me. I hate all of it. I hate anger. Oh, it makes me feel good. It even gets me some results. I have a complicated relationship with anger. If you get mad enough you can get people to do what you want, but then you’re all alone after they do it. Nobody wants to be with you. I hate being angry because I hate being alone. I hate the outcome of this and that, I hate it. I hate what it does to my marriage. I hate what it does to my relationships. I hate how it disturbs my inner peace and puts me in a state of turmoil. And it’s complicated. This is a complicated relationship that I have with complaining. I love the complain. Oh, I love to tell somebody. You can look at their meat when the wound was lives don’t do a Bible says don’t do it. But it didn’t say it doesn’t feel good. Amen. It feels real good that complain feels like a choice more so going down. I mean, just as it’s coming out of your mouth, just to unload on them when somebody says how you doing just let them know for five minutes, every at every pain, every disappointment, every struggle, but guess what, the next time they see you coming they’re going the other way.

13:53
Because it’s the law of diminishing returns – it gets you high for a minute. I love to talk bad about people. I do. I shouldn’t say these things. I tell myself every week after I finish on Sunday when I’m watching back my sermon, Hey don’t say stuff like that. People put it on YouTube and use it against you as a weapon. But I just got to tell you, I love it makes me feel really good about my dysfunction to spend a little time discussing yours. I love to talk about other people’s dumb decisions. I love it. It’s just it’s a natural high. Because if I can get you down here, then I feel like I’m right here only problem is I’m setting myself up for the client. And now the next time I see you, I can’t treat you better than I talk about you. So it ruins my relationships. I love what it does for me. It does some for me. Come on how many will admit it does something for you to talk about what Henry did and what Susie wore and what they should have done and what their kids It’s unlike but by the same measure you judge you will be judged.

15:07
I love the taste, but I hate the outcome – I hate it. The problem with a lot of our resolutions for change is that they are not motivated by a healthy kind of hate. Healthy hate Yeah, there is a healthy way to hate. I hate racism, I hate poverty. That’s the only thing that will motivate me to do anything about it is I’ve got to hate it. I hate bullying. I was bullied. Tony week fall jack me up against the wall. I still remember my head cracking against the wall and my friend Hamilton looking at me saying Don’t look at me man. I still remember the view from up there. And I can’t see somebody being picked on without seeing myself from up there. Just wondering is this guy gonna break my face. I hate it… I hate it.

16:06
Holly said to me the other day, she said I hate being late notice she didn’t say I love being early because she doesn’t. But you got to get to the point we were going to see somebody she said, I don’t want to walk in like that. And until you hate being late more than you love hitting snooze, you won’t make the change. Get that thing on your mind that bag of Doritos and say I hate it. Look at your neighbor say I hate it. Not I hate you. I hate it… I hate it… I hate it… I hate the double minded. I hate , I hate it.

16:45
I’d rather make a bad decision than make no decision; I hate procrastination, I hate it. I did it a lot. But I finally got to the point where I hate it. Now I hate the discipline of preparation too; but I have Hate the pain of procrastination more than I hate it. And I actually said to somebody the other day I said, I never thought I’d hear myself say this. And I used to hate people who said this. I think I like exercise. After three years of doing it five days a week and finding out what works for me. I think I’m one of those people that I used to roll my eyes at, I think I like that exercise. I think I’ve reset my heart. I declare reset. I declare reset. There are some things in your life that have been on the decline. But God brought you to church on the first weekend of the year, and you’re setting your heart in a different direction. You’re gonna love the presence of God this year. You’re gonna love the word of God. This year, you’re gonna love the right things this year.

18:05
train your brain to hate it. train your brain, I know that’s what my dad was trying to do when he made us eat all the food on our plate. When we overfilled it at the Ryan’s buffet. Vacation memories. He said, you’re going to eat every bite on that plate. And me and my brother took turns causing diversions while the other ones stuffed our pockets. And we walked out of Ryan’s with pockets full of food, never forget it. He wanted me to have an association. He said I want you to hate waste. Maybe that’s why sometimes God lets us get so low. So I hate it. So I will despise Egypt because if I didn’t despise it, I would be tempted to go back.

18:57
Double minded and I Love your law and I know what the hey, and this is healthy habit number two, I know where to hide. Do you know where to hide? you better, because the attacks are going to come and the missiles are going to fly. And the doubts and discouraging thought are going to try to set your heart on the decline. get you off track. take you back, where you been. Keep you stuck from moving forward.

19:39
Do you know where to hide when discouragement comes flying past your head? Or do you run to the same enemy that is attacking you? in an effort to hide. I’m not talking about physical places because the hiding places That we create that destroy us are usually the ones in our heart, emotional states. He said, You are my hiding place, Lord. You are my shield. That’s a powerful thought in that. Look at what he says. He says, You are my hiding place. And my, when attacks come, I’ve learned where to run. And the reason that I’m moving forward in my life this year isn’t because I won’t be attacked. It’s because I know what to run to when I am.

20:37
Help me preach this, The expectation of no attack is a setup for disappointment. But the Psalmist said I set myself up for success because I designated in advance where I would hide when the attack came. You can’t find the place to hide once the attack starts. I’m going to teach more on the In the weeks to come, are you coming back for the series? This series when I say this series as something worth canceling your life to make sure you don’t miss meaning, I mean, it’s so what God has shown me so explosive, I think it might even be my next book. I don’t even want to write another book but it’s so strong I think I might have to, because I’m gonna teach you in this about the power of making decisions and sticking with them that I’m not going back there. I’m not running to that. I can’t ask God to protect me from the enemy that I’m running to.

21:36
Where do you hide when it gets hard? You better set it up in advance that I’m running to the places where there’s real protection, not the illusion of protection, because some of us hide in places that seem safe. He said, You are my hiding place Elijah went and hid in a cave because it seemed safe. It was far away from Jezabel. And she was threatening his very life. This is an Old Testament story that’s worth reading, if you hadn’t read it because the whisper of God came into the cave, as Elijah ran from his calling, are you running from the conflict? Or you running into the conflict? Because the place of conflict is the place of calling. But you have to be comfortable hiding in the midst of hardships to know that God is your refuge, your strong tower in the battle, not from him. And Elijah ran south as far as he could go. Went in a cave and spent the night and the voice of the Lord went in the cave and said what are you doing here? Elijah Why are you hiding here? Why would you choose to hide in the place that would keep you confined. When you’re calling is out there. Did I not protect you on Mount Carmel, did not send down fire from heaven? You can hide in plain sight when you trust in the goodness of God, I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. But I want to experience life and dead places. So I got to know where to hide.

23:21
One of the staff members that heard this teaching when I taught it to the staff, and to be honest with you, I’m teaching it better to you than I taught it to them. I have some practice now. She said that her hiding place is blamed. She said, when I’m confronted with a need to change a hide behind blame. And when we were picturing our hiding place because I had all of the staff members I could have you do this but I don’t want to embarrass you and you might be a first time guest. I haven’t turned to each other and say what they’re hiding place was and they went deep. Some of them said porn, some of them said eating. Some of them said destructive thought patterns. Some of them said this and some of them said that but they Hiding Place everybody in here has a hiding place. In fact you have multiple hiding places and she said her hiding place is blame, something goes wrong. Well if the kids hadn’t well if the car Hadn’t you know blame just it’s a convenient hiding place because it will shield you from the inconvenience of change. for somebody else that needs to change, it’s a convenient hiding place for a little while, but it’s a it’s a paper machine a shield.

24:42
It can only it can only keep you from so much. She said I blame, I blame everybody. I blame everything. I blame the way I was raised. I blamed my parents for being too hard on me and then I blame them for being too easy on me. I blame them if they would have made me stick with piano lessons. And then I blame them that they made me show up the choir practice. I mean, I blame them. I blame, I blame what I did get a blame what I didn’t get; blame was her hiding place. What’s yours? Elijah had a Cave? She had blame. I wonder do you hide behind low expectations? This one is real common because if you don’t expect much, you can’t be disappointed. So you learn how to hide behind this fake smile. You don’t really have a whole heart you have a fake smile to cover up your half hearted interior life And we hide ourselves from even those closest to us. And we hide ourselves because if I hide behind an image that I present, I don’t have to deal with who I am

25:58
And the call of God is coming forward. Like the voice of the Lord went into the cave, the voice of the Lord is coming into your heart today saying Come out. Come out of hiding, come out of fear, come out of low expectations, come out of hypocrisy, come out from this fake spirituality, come out, come out wherever you are. You know when you hide in the shadow of the Most High you can abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I am a shelter, i don’t have to hide beyond anything but God.

26:39
I’m glad it’s snow so i can break this message. This is gonna open your heart. What good will it do for the windows of heaven to be open if your hardest block. You got nowhere to hide. Or you’ll be running, doing your thing this year and just collapse the doctor said because you didn’t know were too hide. I know where to hide. I don’t always do it, but I know where to start. I know where to hide, somebody shout, I know where to hide.

27:14
My kids were playing hide and seek one time and they got locked in the crawl space. That’s what you don’t want to do. Sometimes it’s like that you’re running from something thinking you’re hiding but you end up blocking yourself. I mean, you can lock yourself in a pattern in an attitude in an effort to escape something and once you get locked in is worse than what you were running from. Myself and you and you need a better hiding place. You gotta hide somewhere. So memorize some songs, a little songs that you like those songs we sing in the church. You can sing them other than Sunday. You can run the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it, so you might have to sing in the shower, to incline your heart to keep his commands, you might have to hide in a different place. where else you gonna hide? You’re gonna hide and feeling sorry for yourself? you’re gonna hide an enemy held territory and expect to be safe there? I know where to high, I know how to say I love you Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you oh my so rejoice, take joy my king this whole song but it still worked around the devil off when he starts messing with the middle of the night. You hear may be a sweet, sweet sound in yo ear. I can sing when I’m squeezed. I can sing when I’m brush. I can rejoice hit reset on my heart.

28:57
Come on. We’re hitting reset. I want you to picture yourself to play a Nintendo. Remember bill and you hit reset, you’re about to go have to start over all your progress and you hit reset. the Psalmist said, I know where to go to reset my heart. It’s not that the missiles never fly. I just learned how to duck and I know where to high. And I pointed my heart in the direction of my destiny. I know where to hide. I know what the Hey, and my heart knows how to hope I want you to stand up if you have hope. Stand up if you have hope. It’s good to have hope. I said it’s good to have hope.

29:42
I preached a whole Christmas sermon on we have this hope. I hope everybody at every location is standing up because you have hope. But the Psalmist doesn’t say in this particular instance. I have hope, he says I hope andI’m not sure if I learned this in third grade English or fourth. But when he says I hope, instead of saying, I have hope that makes it a verb and not a noun. Any English teachers can verify what I just said? It’s not just something I have is something that I, what? is something that I do. It’s an active hope. And you cannot go into another year of your life. hoping it gets better. Like the lady I sat next to on the plane, she said, here’s my philosophy. Hope for the best expect the worst. That’s clever, but it’s crap.

30:56
Hope doesn’t just wish it would, and I tell you what, if you don’t know how to hope, if you think hope is just when we say I hope in your word that’s not a bookmark in your Bible that you look at every once in a while or something on your coffee mug – It is a way of living. I hope somebody say I hope, I hope not just I wish, I hope what does hope do? hope puts its hand to work. Hope not just in my heart, but hope. Look, have you put your hand to what you’re hoping for? Because faith is the substance of things hoped for. And the evidence of things not seen. And God wants to open your heart this new year to possibility but you’re going to have to put your hand to what you’re hoping for. In other words, you’ve got to work your window and watch this, I don’t hope it’s not cold – I wear a coat.

32:09
When I was leaving for church this weekend, Elijah said daddy is going to be great. He said, there’s going to be record attendance. I said, No, it’s not. He said, yes, it is Daddy, have a little faith, practice what you preach. But I said, Boy, let me teach you a little lesson about church growth and hope. Okay? Some of our campuses have to be closed so it can’t be record attendance. And Charlotte people are kind of crazy. Some of them anyway, not y’all but some people watching online. And I said this my whole visit, that the rooms are going to be full. My hope is that God is going to show up and speak to whoever called that’s how I hope. I don’t hope it’s not cold. I put on a coat and go out anyway

33:12
My hope is not in the past my hope is in the promise so the path can look like this. But I’m still headed to the promise. I hope in your word how many received something from the Lord to day? you feel your heart opening up you can feel it you can feel God doing something. This this is going to be an amazing year church. If I were you I wouldn’t miss the window. I wouldn’t miss it. Next weekend, I’m I’m really gonna start the series this time, work your window. But I feel like today was a little WD 40 Amy on the window on the hinges. We got the window crack. We got our hearts open. If you feel comfortable I don’t know if you do or not. Would you just lift your hands like this to the Lord to receive what he asked for you?

34:10
Hope and you were, open your promise. Thank you for your presence Lord. Thank you for the expectation of change. We incline our hearts. We’re set up for success. The windows of heaven are open and so are our hearts. We won’t be blocked. If set our hearts will set it again and again and again. I will bless the Lord at all times and his phrase shall continually be in my mouth. Come on said I will bless the Lord at all. And his praise, shall continually be in my mouth. I will bless the Lord at all times, and his phrase shall continually be in my mouth. Come on, let’s fill the place with praise today. Clap your hands. AMIN

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Disclaimer:
This sermon is generated out of AI-Powered assistant tool and further edited word for word manually, hence in your reading you might find some miss pronunciation and other unintended errors. I would really appreciate if you can help to point out such case, so that I can work to fix it for the greater good of our community. Thanks