Pre-Decide: Part 3 - I AM CONSISTENT
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
We're continuing in our series this morning and I've heard from a few of you in this past week or so. You guys are enjoying this series, which is good. I'm glad that God is speaking to you through these messages and through His Word, and I hope that it continues today. In our series, we're talking about pre-deciding, those decisions that can positively affect the direction of our life, and that direction is determined by the quality of our decisions. The problem is that often when we get to these stressful moments or difficult, challenging we may not be the best decision makers. And so we want to pre-decide now to follow God in whatever happens. We're gonna have something for you this morning as we have our ushers handing out stickers to help you remember where we're going in our series, what we've covered. And if you remember, our scenario is this, when faced with whatever happens in life, I have decided to, and you fill in the blank. And these stickers, it's a sticker by the way, you get a little sticker with everything that we're covering and you can stick that wherever's helpful, in your Bible, I don't know where you stick, on your water bottle if you're one of those people, which is awesome. But we are, there's six things.
And so we've talked about last week, Pastor Lauren talked about being ready. And so, can we try this out? You say I am ready. I am, there we go. You guys were ready, kind of. We'll get there. Today we're going to be talking about consistent, how we're consistent. We're going to talk about how we're devoted, generous, faithful, and how we are finishers. So this morning, like I said, we're going to be covering, I want to share with you one of the most important spiritual qualities that has the potential to not only impact the trajectory of your year, but your entire life. And this quality can be the key to your physical health, your finances, your relationships, your goals, but more importantly, your spiritual strength, your ministry impact, and your ever-deepening relationship with God. And this quality is not based on appearances or background or education or experience. It's your consistency. Being consistent, disciplined, and steadfast has the potential to impact your life more than you might imagine. So what's the problem? Well the problem is that naturally many of us are inconsistent. We're inconsistent with what we eat, when we exercise, sticking to the budget that we made. We're inconsistent with spending time with God, praying, reading our Bibles when we said we were going to. Maybe some of you relate more with the sentiment that the most consistent thing is how inconsistent you are. Personally, I resonate with that a lot. As I was preparing for this sermon, I was praying, God, is there a reason is where I'm preaching this sermon, is where I'm preaching this consistency. I often have, thank you, I often have good intentions, but I struggle with the follow through. For example, I have this devotional app that I use, maybe some of you have heard of it, it's called Lectio 365, and my aspirations, my intent is to do that 365, 365 days of the year, every day, to use the app for my devotion. But I haven't made it a whole year yet, I've used this app for a couple years now. And I've usually gone like a month or so, and then for whatever reason, something comes up, maybe it's a holiday, and then all of a sudden I haven't done it in a week. And I'm like, oh, there that goes. And I gotta start over again, and I'll go a couple weeks, and then I'll skip a day here and there. And I just, I'm inconsistent. And I want to be, my desire is to do it every single day, but it doesn't happen, it hasn't happened yet. It can be hard to remain consistent. And I know I'm not alone in that, and if you're feeling the same way, that you're not alone in your struggle with consistency.
In fact, there's an apostle who wrote much of the New Testament, Paul, who also struggled with being consistent. He wrote this in Romans, Romans 7, 15 says, "I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing." He was very wordy when he said that, but you get the point that he's not doing what he wants and he's doing what he doesn't want to do. And if we can relate to Paul, I think we're in okay company right there. But if you're tired of having good intentions, but then failing and falling short, then hopefully this morning is going to be especially encouraging for you as we talk about the power of consistency in our spiritual life. Today we're going to pre-decide, adding to our readiness, we're going to talk about consistency. And here's the key, you're not doing this on your own. Not only do we have each other, but we also have the help of the God who created us. Because it's with God's help that we can be consistent. With God's help, I can be consistent in my daily devotion. Why does consistency matter? Well, successful people do constantly what other people do occasionally. Successful people, experts in whatever field or practice, they don't just do those things occasionally or familiarize themselves with it when it matters. They are surrounded by it. They're immersed in it. They are in it all the time. They are doing it over and over and over again. One pastor said, "It's not what we do occasionally that makes the difference, it's what we do consistently." Think of a skill or some area of knowledge that you know really, really well. You're an expert in it, in your circle. You probably just didn't, it's like one time I looked it up and I figured it all out and I became an expert in one moment. Or with this skill, whatever sport you play, I just practiced one time and I was the best. I doubt it happened that way. Maybe you have some God-given skills, but you had to be in it over and over again and commit time and devotion to it.
So today, we're gonna look at how scripture says that consistency matters and see how growing in our consistency is a way to better honor God. We'll be in the Old Testament today, looking at a particular man in history that demonstrated incredible consistency, who had pre-decided to follow God in all situations, even in captivity, even when faced with conspiracy, and facing death. And that man is Daniel. So you guys can find, turn in your Bibles if you want to Daniel 6, and as you're turning there, let me explain some of where we're at in Israel's history. Shortly after Israel was defeated, and Jerusalem was destroyed by the kingdom of Babylon, life changed very quickly for God's people in the Old Testament, the Israelites. Babylon began taking young men from Israel captive, the best and the brightest. They took back to Babylon to help them contribute to the Babylonian kingdom. They took Israel's potential leaders to have them be leaders for the kingdom of Babylon. And Daniel is one of those people. He stood out to King Nebuchadnezzar as one of the best young men from Israel. And later after King Nebuchadnezzar died, the next king, King Darius, saw the same potential in Daniel, said this is one of the best that they have to offer. He noticed Daniel's leadership and consistency and promoted Daniel to a very high position in the kingdom. Now Daniel's rise to power did not settle well with some of the other leaders, the non-Israelite leaders. And so they tried to undermine Daniel's credibility. They tried to find fault with him. And if this was happening in today, it means that they were looking for dirt. They're looking on his social media. They're looking for anything, and he runs with the law. They're just looking for anything to get Daniel canceled. So we don't like this guy. We don't like how he keeps rising in power. What can we do to take him out? And you know what they found? It says in Daniel 6, verse 4, "At this, the administrators and the satraps "tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel "in his conduct of government affairs, "but they were unable to do so. "They could find no corruption in him "because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Another version says he was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy. Daniel showed consistency in practicing his faith in God. Even in a foreign country, even in captivity, he showed consistency in being responsible and trustworthy and faithful. So what happens? Well, because Daniel is consistent and there's no dirt on him, these jealous leaders attempt to create a problem for Daniel. They're hoping to trap him by using his consistency against him. They go to the king and they schmooze their way into creating this new law. They're like, "King, because you're so great, "because you're amazing, we think that only you "should be worshiped and prayed to for the next 30 days." And the king's like, "You know what? "I am great, you are right. "Let's do that, let's make that a reality." And so, for 30 days, there's a decree given that everyone must pray only to King Darius, no other god. And if anyone were to break this law, the punishment would be being thrown into the lion's den. Now we are not necessarily familiar with lions and a den of lions, but this was certain death. This was not, hey, you might survive, it might be entertaining to see if you could try to make it the day. No, this was certain death. And so we have to recognize that this plan was put in place solely for the purpose of killing Daniel. In the minds of the jealous leader, this thing was as good as done. As soon as King Darius signed the sins of law, they said, "We got him. We've got Daniel. We can get rid of this guy." And so let's read what happens next.
In verse 10 of chapter 6 of the book of Daniel, 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. Three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. What do we see right here? We see Daniel's consistency. It's not a sudden decision that, hey, I'm in a really hard time right now, let me go to God and figure out what I'm supposed to do. No, he continued in his regular practice of prayer. I have a hard thing going on, God, right now, but let me just talk to you like I always do at this time. His relationship was established, and he just continued in his regular rhythm of talking with God. Well, the jealous leaders were able to trap Daniel in his integrity and took it before the king. And they said, "We found Daniel praying "to someone besides you, King Darius." And the king was bound by his own word and by the law that he had made to make Daniel face the punishment. Now, there's a whole other story here that King Darius didn't wanna do this. King Darius really liked Daniel. And so he was really saddened to have to throw Daniel into the lion's den. But he does. And so Daniel's thrown into the pit, lion's den, and everyone is thinking, "This is it." It was good knowing Daniel. He was great. good faithful servant of God and to the king, but it's over now. If you already know the story, then you know that it's a good ending. But instead of Daniel dying, a miracle happens and God sent angels in the night to keep the mouths of the lions shut. And in verse 23, it says, "The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him because he had trusted in God. He lived, he survived certain death because he trusted in God. Now church, I wanna ask this, and this is the key. When did Daniel learn to trust God? It wasn't in the lion's den. He learned to trust God in his routine, on his knees, in prayer, three times a day, day after day, week after week, month after month.
Daniel's faith wasn't built in battle, his faith was built in remaining consistent in pursuing God every single day. It's not what we occasionally do that makes the difference, it's what we consistently do. Most of us pray occasionally, Daniel prayed consistently, and so our desire is to be more like Daniel. just in prayer, but in every aspect of our life that is God honoring, we want to be more like Daniel and be more consistent. So let me give you three thoughts regarding consistency. These are from Pastor Greg Groeschel, and I think they're really helpful for us today to hear and to understand. And they are starting with the why. We want to plan to fail, and we want to fall in love with the process. So let's start with the why. Why did Daniel pray consistently? Well, it wasn't about outward appearances. It wasn't about appearing spiritual. This is the problem that the Pharisees had in the New Testament that Jesus reprimanded them for, saying, "You're just praying out loud to boast "and to seem and come across so spiritual." Daniel did this in the quiet of his home upstairs, so it wasn't about that. But he prayed consistently because he was devoted to God. He was committed to having the best relationship with God. It wasn't just desire, it was devotion. And devotion stems from the heart. Devotion to God sees that we are God's creation, made to serve him with everything that we have so that we can and others can know him. Really, any goal, be it financial or personal career, it goes beyond your personal desire. And it has to come from wanting to honor God and live according to his will. Because we have to understand that God is God, we are not. His ways are perfect, and that means that we want to be devoted to the one who is perfect. We won't really change if we don't know our why. Transformation is not based on our desire or willpower, because eventually our desire and willpower will fail us. We will run out of willpower. We will stop wanting or desiring at a certain time, relying on our own strength. We will eventually take the foot off the pedal. We'll come to a place of not exercising, even just for a day. We don't like it anymore. Whatever it is, we will fail ourselves. Like my struggle with my daily devotion of Lectio 365. When I'm trying to do it all by myself, there's mornings when I wake up, I'm like, I'm just so tired. I don't wanna do it today. And then I don't. But when we know our why, when we remain devoted, when we, like Daniel, continue to pray three times a day, no matter what, we can continue through. We can continue through disinterested moments, challenging schedules, or any other stumbling block. The why is really pointing us to rely on God to be what God created us to be. Like we said at the beginning, it's with God's help that we can be consistent. and how we rely on God who is perfectly consistent. Well, how do we know that God is consistent?
Well, this whole Bible is a story of God being consistent, but there's a specific scene I wanna point us to. It's in Exodus 34, and this is a moment where God is with Moses, and Moses and God are having this conversation, and Moses is saying, "God, I wanna know you more. "I've been leading your people, "but I still don't know who you are. "Can you tell me who you are?" And God says, "I'll tell you exactly who I am." Exodus 34, 6 through 7 says, "And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, 'The Lord, the Lord,' which in the Hebrew is his name." God is saying his own name, he's introducing himself. And he says, "The compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin." That phrase, abounding in love and faithfulness and maintaining love to thousands, that's talking about God being consistent. The Hebrew words there are a covenantal love steadfast commitment. God is eternally consistent. No matter how many times his people failed him, doubted him, denied him, or actively rebelled against him, God never failed them. God continued with his plan of redemption. The Old Testament is a story of God's people continually turning away from God over and over again deciding, you know what God, I just I don't want to do this anymore. And God never giving up on them. God sending person, prophet, leader, miracles, bad things to say, hey I'm trying to get your attention, I have a plan, I'm remaining consistent in pursuing you. God remained consistent in his pursuit of humanity and it all led to him bringing salvation through his son Jesus. Church, no matter how much we wrestle with our consistency and relationship with him, we can recognize and praise God that he is always consistent with us. So, we rely on him. We know our why because we are devoted to the one who is eternally devoted to us. And when we know our why, we'll find a way. So, we begin with our why and next, we plan to fail. This sounds really counterintuitive. Why are we planning to fail? Well, we have to plan not to be perfect. Do we have any perfectionists in the room? You don't have to raise your hand. I know there are some. I won't point you out. Perfectionists will be-- this is tough for everyone. This is especially tough for perfectionists. Failure is tough. Failure can make it feel like it's not It's not worth it to continue anymore. But let me remind you that you are not perfect, and the only perfect person to ever live was Jesus. Everyone else has had to work through imperfections and failures, but everyone else has also had the opportunity to grow from them.
Any of the heroes of the Bible that we tend to put on a pedestal and think that they were perfect, they were not. All the heroes of the Bible had their inconsistencies, their imperfections, even Daniel. And so why is it that so many of us are inconsistent? We've already talked about losing the willpower. It can also be because we can have an all or nothing mindset. If we fail one time, we think that we are a failure. We can wrap up our identity and our actions of success or failure, which is not how God sees us, by the way. We have to remember that being consistent does not mean being perfect. We need to give ourselves grace to fail. I'll say that again for everyone, and especially for the perfectionists in the room. Give yourself grace to fail. If Jesus has enough grace to give to you, then you should certainly have grace on yourself. You're gonna mess up. You have to plan for what happens next. What are you gonna do after you fail? Predecide for your failure. Again, Pastor Craig Groeschel says, "Know that a momentary failure "is actually a part of the process. "And really the problem for many of us "is the illusion of perfection "keeps us from getting started." We think, I'm never gonna be great at that, so I might as well not even try. Have you ever been invited to participate in something, an activity, and you say, oh, thank you so much, but that's okay, I'm good. Not because you're being polite, but because you're like, I'm not gonna be good at that, so I don't want to embarrass myself, I don't want to try, I don't want everyone to see me fail. That's me, for sure. I noticed this in our daughter at times, when she gets so upset when she messes up. And we're just trying to, it's okay. You're gonna mess up, you're gonna fail, you're not gonna get it, that's fine. And she gets so worked up that she just didn't do it perfectly and she wants to give up. And it's a reminder, I see myself in it, I'm like, oh my goodness, this is me all over again in so many areas of life. Because some of us are viewing our relationship with Jesus like that. There's some of you who may not be following Jesus today because you think, "Well, if I start following Jesus, what happens when I mess up? What if I fail and my language is bad, or I'm not loving, or my thoughts are completely terrible, or whatever it is that I struggle with, what's going to happen when I fail? Because I don't think I'm going to be a good Christian, so I don't think I'm going to try.
Well, I'm here to tell you that you will fail, and everyone in this room who is a Christian has also failed. But don't let that stop you from pursuing God with everything that you have. And letting God love you and show you mercy and compassion and grace in your failure. It's all part of the process. There are growing pains. There are moments that aren't great, but it's not all a complete loss. So, know that you won't be perfect. Don't confuse being consistent with being perfect. Start with the "why." Plan to fail. And then lastly, fall in love with the process. In our story of Daniel, Daniel wasn't doing something to get this promotion. He wasn't like, "Hey, if I remain consistent in my faith and all these things, my end goal is to get this position in the Kingdom of Babylon." No. He was consistently doing what he knew to be important, being devoted to God. It's the process of being devoted that matters to God, not this goal. We tend to be a very goal-oriented people. task, I got to get it done, and here I want to measure my growth, I want to measure how successful I am. And we tend to measure success by only one metric, which is accomplishing the task. It is either pass/fail. Either I did it, or I didn't do it, and either I'm a success or I'm a failure. And again, that is not how God views us. So we shouldn't necessarily view ourselves in that way either. In fact, I think that's a terrible way to measure your spiritual journey, or to measure how you are as a Christian. Rather, it's in how we honor God that we can measure. We can have a moment of failure, but if we got back up and committed ourselves to God, we should say, "That's what matters. God cared about that right there, of how after I sinned or after I failed in whatever way, God loved that I got back up and I kept pursuing Him." Again, Pastor Groeschel says, "You're not successful when you achieve the goal in the future. You're successful when you honor God today." I think that's really wise. Now it's good to accomplish things. We can set our minds to things and want to do them, but ultimate success is when we honor God. You won't hear that from the world. This is not the world's definition of success, but this is what God cares about, is when you honor him. He is so overjoyed and happy and content with you when you honor him. Learning to honor God in the process, even when you mess up, that's the important part. This process includes ups and downs. Recognize that, acknowledge that, and plan accordingly. Pre-decide for when you fail.
A professor once shared with me that when we're younger in life, we tend to have these big ups and downs in life. When we're up, we're feeling great, we're overjoyed, we're loving to everyone else, we have a lot of energy. Life is so good, and we're feeling on top of the world. And then whatever happens, it can knock us down. And when we're down, we're really down. I think of high school and college, and it was a lot of this with friendships and just everything going on. And when you're down, you're empty, maybe you're bitter, there's not a lot to give, you're selfish. But we notice, he was sharing that with older people, older Christians, those same things may be happening, but you're not getting this big sweep. You're kind of just getting a more consistent line. I wish I had a graphic here, 'cause my hand, I don't know if you can follow my hand on what I'm trying to do. But instead of these roller coasters, big up and down, it's still an upward trajectory towards God, but you're a more consistent line. You're still feeling those things, maybe, but they're not dominating your life or just taking over you. You are more in tune with God and what He has for you in that moment. And so that's our desire. Instead of having these big ups and downs, we wanna remain consistent with God in our relationship with Him. That's the process, steady, consistent devotion to Him. So I wanna end by reminding us that we can't do this without God's help. And so I wanna invite you right now to reflect. We're talking about pre-deciding to follow God in all areas of our lives, and maybe in this series, there's something specific that God has brought to the forefront of your mind. And I wanna ask, where is God calling you to be consistent? In what area of your life is God bringing to your heart and to your mind that you need to be more consistent in? So think about that. And if it helps, if you're not sure, ask God, God, where do you want me to be more consistent? Where can I honor you more? Where can I be more faithful? Is it with your family, your spouse, your kids? Is it with your prayer time, your Bible reading time, your speech, your attitude? Maybe how you treat those around you, how you spend your time in general or your money. Whatever God is putting on your heart, give it over to him, ask him for his help in that area. Rely on him to be consistent. Pre-decide, church, with me. Start with the why, plan to fail, and fall in love with the process of being made more and more like Jesus. So say it with me. With God's help, with God's help, I am consistent. I am consistent. Yes. So you are ready, you are consistent. You'll find out more in the weeks to come how you're also generous, how you'll be devoted, and how you're faithful, and how you're a finisher.