When Your Mind Won't Slow Down | Top Clips From Steven Furtick

Honestly, this is why I had to stop hanging out with some certain people, because I started realizing you catch what you're close to. If you need to take out your phone at this point in my sermon and do some surgery with that swipe left delete move… Some of y'all don't need to lift your hands to have more faith. You need to swipe your thumb, because it is your contacts. I caught something. I catch something every time I'm around them, every time I scroll. I noticed this the other day. I get in a certain mood, and I can't figure out, how was I so happy three minutes ago? Have you ever had it switch that quick? I started studying, and I realized before I caught a feeling, I caught a thought. Now, sometimes that thought is just me going through my feed, and I will see something that won't register. Now, here's what I noticed. You don't feel it while you're scrolling. When I ate a whole bag of Oreos one Thanksgiving after I'd already eaten three meals, I didn't feel sick while I was eating them. My taste buds didn't tell me to stop. So, I'm scrolling, and I don't feel sick until after I've stopped. What I realized about myself… Maybe you're more spiritually mature than me, and you can find a church where the pastor is whole, healthy, and doesn't have these issues, but for all of us who understand that sometimes you are mad about something you saw 10 minutes ago on your phone because you were in everybody else's life but your own trying to figure out, am I better than them? Are they better than me? What happened while I was scrolling… I saw them on vacation, and I know they're in debt, so I caught a thought of judgment. Why should they be on vacation when I know they're in debt? Now I feel sick 10 minutes later because of a thought I caught while I scrolled through somebody else's situation that has nothing to do with my responsibility. So, what happened to me was I caught a thought of offense, and then I reaped an attitude of frustration. I got offended the other day because I saw God blessing somebody he wasn't supposed to bless. Did you ever watch God just do something awesome for the wrong person? He didn't consult you. So, I found myself feeling insecure. The reason I felt insecure in myself is because I caught a thought of offense about somebody else. Here's what happens. You become a victim of your own judgment. When you judge others that way, you judge you that way.

So, when you catch a thought of judging others, don't be surprised when the judgment comes upon you. The less y'all say amen, the more I know I'm preaching. So, I caught a thought, and I realized that the thought I hold onto… You know, like you can catch a wave. You can catch a football for the game-winning touchdown like Graham Furtick did yesterday, just this very yesterday. But I never knew I could catch a thought. I knew you could catch a case. I had some relatives who did it. I knew you could catch a cold, but I found out you could catch a thought. Then I trace sometimes the weakness of my faith, and I ask myself the question, Where did that thought come from? It's important where it came from, because where it comes from determines where it leads to. My issue is that when I say I hear from God, I don't hear him out loud. God bless you if you do. I've never heard the audible voice of God. I mean, he speaks through my wife all the time. But other than that exception, I've never heard the audible voice of God. If you have, I'm not mad at you, unless you start trying to use it to manipulate people by making up stuff God told you, because God has three-way calling, and he can tell us both. So don't tell me God spoke to you something I'm not in agreement with and tried to get me to do something you want to do by saying God told you to, especially if you say God told you to quit your job because you're just tired of dealing with frustrating people. I don't know if that's God or if you're just tired and need to get some sleep and have a better attitude when you show up. I've never heard from God out loud. One guy asked me one time, he was like, when you say God spoke to you, how do you know? Great question, because I don't hear God at an auditory level. So when I say God spoke, that can be misleading. When Peter said, Jesus spoke to me, it was literal. Jesus was a person. He spoke to me. I was fishing one night.

I hadn't caught anything. I was frustrated. And Jesus said, let down your nets in the deep for a catch. And Peter would say, at first I was frustrated, because I thought, you're a carpenter. I'm a fisherman. You do your job, I'll do mine. You wanted my boat to preach from. I didn't know you were going to try to drive it. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. Now when he let down the nets, he caught a great number of fish, but God was showing me that before he caught the fish, he caught a… You like this church? Before there was a seat, there was a thought. Now see, the issue with this is I don't hear God out loud like that, and so I connect with God not at an auditory or sensory level. I connect with God at the level of thought, which would be fine if God spoke to me at the level of thought and he was the only one who spoke that way. But I got this other joker. They call him the Devil, but when I say the Devil tempts me or the Devil discourages me, I'm not talking about a guy in a Halloween costume he got on clearance at Target, walking up with a pitchfork and a cape and some horns. I never saw the Devil like that. I just put him off my shoulder. He's not on my shoulder. When he comes to me, he comes to me through a thought. So now I have God speaking to me through my thoughts. I have the Enemy trying to speak against what God spoke to me through my thoughts. I have two voices on the same device, and I'm caught between a thought. One is telling me, "'Your greatest years are ahead of you.'" One is telling me, "'You've already done all of the good things you're going to do.

You better ride it out, because it won't be much longer.'" One is telling me, "'Go ahead and speak it and say it and do it and step into it and believe for it.'" The other one is telling me, "'Well, you better not go too far out there. You know, if you go too far out there, you'll be embarrassed, and after all, if you climb high, they can pull you down.'" I'm caught between Caleb, Began, and the other spies. I'm caught. I got a thought. I got caught. I got caught by a thought. I don't know how it happened, but, y'all, I have this thought that goes through my mind all the time that says, "'It doesn't matter.'" Just all the time. I could be doing anything, and it would be like… The way the thought… You know that eye-roll emoji? That would be the face of it, but the thought behind it is like, you know, who cares? It doesn't matter. Have you ever had that thought catch you trying to do something? Raise your hand again if you've ever had that thought. Oh, oh, oh. You're not enough. I don't know if you say it exactly like that, but it's crazy how many people I talk to. I used to think it was… people who didn't have a lot of confidence. But then I realized professional athletes have this thought, that I'm not enough. They are the ones our society worships. Still, there's a thought. It's a thought that's going around. The reason it's going around so much more now than it used to go around is because now we don't judge ourselves or measure ourselves according to the calling God has given us. We compare ourselves to a fictionalized account

of somebody else's life. That's where you always get in trouble. Now get this point. You always get in trouble when you start comparing your calling to somebody else's, because when you compare callings, you catch insecurity. When you compare callings, you catch insufficiency. When I think I'm not enough, even the disciples… It's not enough food to go around, Jesus. You need to send them away. How many times have I sent away something God put in my life because I caught a thought that I'm not enough? They wandered around and around and around in the wilderness for 40 years, not because of their enemy but because of their thought. Then even sometimes when things are going good… I have this thought. I don't know where it comes from. I don't think it's God. I don't think it is. It's hard to tell sometimes. Because it's not like he talks like this. I don't even know what that was. I'm glad he doesn't talk like that. That was super weird. Does that sound like Morgan Freeman? It's just a thought. Come on. If God sounded like Morgan Freeman, you could do it. If he narrated your life like that, you could do it. You could make it. You would go to sleep and wake up and just be ready for the day. But it comes like a thought. Even when it's going good, it won't last. They'll leave you too. You can't count on them. Then you sabotage the gift because you're not securing it, because even while it's happening, you don't believe it's real. This is my thoughts. I don't know where I caught them. I had a good mom, a good dad. I mean, they weren't perfect. Don't get me wrong. I wish I could trace it back to just one traumatic event. I think that would be easier. Not enough. Where did that thought come from? I'm not sure where it comes from, but I know where it takes me. When I look back on the seasons of my life that I was so deep in depression… Oh, yeah, and I know the Bible verses. Yeah, I know them better than you. Let's have a quoting contest. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice. See my hand motions? I know the verse. Rejoice in the Lord always. Then Paul says, I will say it again. Rejoice. Well, you can say it as many times as you want to, Paul.

I'm sad right now, and I can't find my way out. Now I'm fighting on the level of my feelings, but watch this. Before it became a feeling… Look. Even Paul… It wasn't just like Moses was a bad leader. Even Paul had to fight against opposing voices and thought systems that undermine the essence of the grace of God in the gospel. Even in the churches he started, even in the church at Corinth, he would write to that church, and what would happen to them was they would be led astray, or the word he likes to use in 2 Corinthians is deceived. He says, I fear that you're being deceived by the power of suggestion. He uses the example like Eve was deceived by the serpent. Do you remember that story? When God said, You can eat any of this. Then she caught a thought from a snake. She allowed something that was beneath her to speak to her, and she caught a thought. See, I never had a snake slither up to me and talk to me. I wish I did I Wish it was a snake that I could chop the head off of it It's a thought and I have to live with this and I have to deal with it And and the serpent said to Eve did God really say you see it? He introduces a doubt into the possibility and potential of faith Causing her to focus on what is not available rather than what is And Paul says I'm I'm afraid That you will be deceived Because there's these um There's these spies in the church at Corinth in there They're leading the Christians astray They're doing it by The power of thought they are introducing the thought into the church that you need something other than Christ to justify you He says I fear that you have been led astray from your pure devotion to Christ And pure is the right word that's the important word pure It's that uncontaminated place that you access occasionally Where you know that God's got you and everything is gonna be alright You ever just felt that and you had no reason to and you didn't even have the facts to back it up

You ever just felt that like wow I? Just feel like I feel like I'm gonna make it and God's gonna do it and I just feel and and I can't even prove It on a flowchart or anything like that, but I just I just What happens is The enemy deceives you he can't take what God gave you You know that right I? Need to make sure you know that he can't take what God gave you But if he can get you to catch a thought that opposes it He can keep you so weak that you will not walk into it What if it's a it's a phrase that I like to refer to as fears greatest hit what if What if I mean how many things in your life? Did you not do because what if and how many things in your life? Did you do that you shouldn't have done because? What if how many nights could you have slept, but what if kept you awake? How many mornings did you wake up anxious because what if was your alarm clock? What if not just what if Moses wants to know what if pay attention to the next word what if They What if they but it's a It's a it's a it's a good question. What if and it's where many of us Wonder and wander our whole lives. What if they what if they laugh at me? What if they don't accept me now on one hand Moses is in a hypothetical situation because he hasn't even done anything yet But he's just playing out the possible after-effects of his obedience What if they but on the other hand it's not hypothetical at all it's historical because Moses is afraid of the same Rejection that he experienced 40 years earlier Recurring force 40 years earlier that Moses had killed an Egyptian in defense of his people and Because he did the right thing the wrong way He ended up on the run and there's something about when you've tried to do the right thing and put your heart in something But you did it the wrong way that you don't even want to try again And so now Moses is asking something that's hypothetical

But it's based out of what is historical and he's projecting his past into his potential and it's his limiting factor but God wants him to know that that staff in your hand now to us a staff is a Shepherding instrument and Moses was using it to tend his father-in-law's sheep But to Moses the staff represented a whole lot more than his vocation it represented his mistakes because if he had never killed the Egyptian and ended up a fugitive on the run from Egypt where he was born into or adopted into royalty He never would have had the staff in his hand. So when God tells him what's in your hand It causes Moses To have to reckon with the mistakes that he's made that have landed him in the position that he's in Because when God speaks to you about your potential he will cause you to confront your past touch somebody say handle it So he says what's that in your hand and to Moses is a staff but to Moses is also his past and to Moses is Also his instrument the thing that he has to do what he's doing And so there's a whole lot happening in this staff and yet God says what you have is what you need God wanted to say that to a single mom today that what you have is what you need that he put enough in you to Raise that child he foresaw that you would be in the situation and he compensated for what others didn't give you By putting a resolve and a grit and a determination in you, that's more than enough. Everything you need is within reach. Leave your list of what you don't have alone today. What is that in your hand? The wisdom you need is probably in a book that's on your shelf that you haven't read. I was talking to a guy who pastored a church one time that was bigger than mine. I said, I need some advice, and he said, I gave you a book. I said, you mean that book three years ago? He said, yeah, that book three years ago. Did you read it? I said, no, I didn't get around to it. He said, I knew that you were going to be at this place because I've been there, so I gave you what I knew you would need. You missed it.

He said, call me back when you read the book. At least read a couple chapters and we'll talk. What are we even going to talk about? You know sometimes when you pray and ask God to download information about a decision, God, how should I handle it? He's like, did you even read the book? We have never lived in a time where the information that is in the Word of God has been more accessible to us. My God, they'll send you alarms. They'll break it down for you. They'll give you a Bible reading in a year plan, Bible reading in the book of Psalms plan, a Bible reading in Southern dialect plan to give you how to read the Bible with your dog in 32 days every morning on your walk with your dog, an audio Bible, a Bible in Braille. Touch somebody and say, grab it. Grab it. Grab it. You've got to grab it. Joy is there. You've got to grab it. Wisdom is there. You've got to grab it. It's there. The information you need for the transformation of your life is waiting to be seized by those who will open their eyes to what they've been given. Am I preaching okay? So everything that you need is in your reach. It was something that he had already in his hand that produced what he needed to move forward into the future and to accomplish God's purpose in the earth. I'm moved by that because I get caught up in what I don't have.

I know you don't. I didn't say you did. I said I do. I get caught up in what I don't have. But here's the thing the Lord is teaching me. It's less about what you have and it's more about how you handle what you have. I'll prove it to you. Do you have Netflix? Go on Netflix. Put it on, I think they have this on Netflix, 30 for 30. It's a documentary series from ESPN. Put it on Broke. Put it on the one called Broke. It will show you athletes that made millions of dollars, and by the time their careers were over, they were in debt. Because it's not what you have, it's how you handle what you have. Say it again. Come on with me. It's not what you have, it's how you handle what you have. That's true with money. I've met rich people who are further behind than poor people. I've met poor people who are greedier than rich people. It's not what you have, it's how you handle what you have. That's what God wants to know. How are you handling it? It's not the woman you married. It's how you handle the woman you married that determines whether you get the marriage you want. The selection process is important. You can cook better with good ingredients, but I'm saying that somebody might be able

to take your same ingredients and make something delicious. Because it's not what you have, it's how you handle what you have. That determines what you do. I found out that teenagers think they're busy. They do. They'll tell you, "'I'm busy.'" How are you doing? "'Oh God, I'm busy.'" You're busy? And they're 12 now. They're 13 years old. I follow up with a question. Do you have a baby? Because if you don't have a baby, you don't know busy. Preach with me. In fact, I want all of you busy 13-year-olds. You're so busy. I want you to find a 25-year-old woman in the lobby, one who has a little car seat she's trying to carry on the way out the door from church, and walk up to her and tell her how busy you are and watch her look back at you and take about the next five minutes to show you that it's not how much stress you have. It's how you handle the stress that you have that determines. I'm saying you could do a lot more if you handled it differently. You could accomplish a lot more if you handled it differently. It's all in how you handle it. It's usually not the things you think are stressing you out that are stressing you out. It's the things you are mishandling in other areas of your life that make you hate your job or it's the things you are mishandling in your job that make you hate your life at home.

So now you come home and you take out your frustration from there on them because you didn't handle it here. Now it's showing up over there. Touch a neighbor. Say, Handle it. You have to learn to handle it. Whether it's weights in a weight room or whether it's life, see, because you keep asking God to take some of the weight off of your life, but faith doesn't take the weight off of my life. It shows me how to handle it. How many of you have a situation in your life today and you want God to show you how to handle it? Just wave your hand if that's you. Come on, just wave your hand if that's you. Well, see, God is good and God is strong. God is great and God is good. God told Moses, I heard my people crying out, and their cry reached me, and I've come down to rescue them. That's what he told Moses in Exodus, chapter 3. He said, I've seen my people in cruel oppression. I saw how Pharaoh was treating them. I see what you're going through. I see what it's like. I see that you're trying. God said, I came down, and I'm going to handle it. I'm going to handle this. I'm going to handle it. Now, before you get really excited about it, God has his own way of handling things. You'll be asking God to send all the people away so they can get some food, and he'll tell you to steal a little boy's lunch and bring it to him.

That's how he handles it. You'll be looking at Jericho, and you'll see some big walls, and you'll be like, God, we need to knock these down. Will you handle it? God won't give you a wrecking ball. He'll give you a trumpet. God has his own way of handling it. You'll tell him, I don't have anything to pay my debts off of, and he'll tell you, what do you have in your house? You'll say, a little bit of oil. He'll tell you to go to your neighbors and borrow jars. You'll say, no, that's the problem. I'm in debt. I don't need to borrow anything else. He'll say, but go to these people and borrow it in the right way. When you borrow it in the right way, now you're going to get something you didn't have. God has a strange way of handling things. You'll be praying that he would send the Messiah, and you'll be thinking that Thor is going to come down out of the sky and save the world. God will show up and speak to a virgin girl and say, I know that even though you haven't been active with a man yet, your husband is going to want to divorce you. What's in you is conceived of the Holy Spirit, and it's going to come forth, and it's going to be the salvation of the world, but it's going to start in a manger, because God is going to handle it in a strange way. I'm speaking to somebody. You're in a situation right now, and God is handling it, and you don't even know it, because he's handling it in a cradle. If the cradle isn't enough proof, he proves it on the cross when he defeats death with the very instrument that symbolizes its most violent nature. He doesn't defeat death with a tank.

He doesn't defeat death with a sword. He defeats death with a cross, because God has a strange way of handling your situation. He's handling it, and you don't even know he's handling it, because you've never seen it handled like that before. He tells you to turn the other cheek, and usually you're the one turning someone's cheek when they offend you. God said, no, I've got another way to handle it. This is what always happens when God is trying to do something in your life. The Enemy will always present another Enemy that is not the real Enemy to keep you distracted. it from fighting, the one you're called to defeat. In David's case, it was his brother, his big brother. His name kind of sounds like Goliath, but it's not Eliab. He was tall. For a minute, Samuel thought he was supposed to be the king, because Saul was tall, and Samuel saw in Eliab what he had seen in Saul, which is height, not heart. God said, Don't look at his height, look at his heart. Stop judging your situation externally. It's what's inside that counts. And Eliab starts judging David's motives. He's like, Look at this in verse 28. He goes, Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep? All of these things David had taken care of. He's a very responsible young man, but really what's happening here is I believe the Enemy is trying to trigger David to get him to fight the wrong person, because if he stands here and argues with his brother, he will never even see his Enemy. This might be the whole sermon for somebody. Just look straight ahead if you're married. Sometimes you're fighting against what you're supposed to be fighting for. You have to call a timeout sometimes.

You have to sometimes be like, Wait a minute. You're not my Enemy. Wait a minute. You're not who I'm supposed to be fighting. If David gets caught up fighting Eliab, he never sees Goliath. If he gets distracted, some of us are defeated simply because we're distracted. Now you know how the story ends, but think about how it could have ended. David for the next two hours defends himself to Eliab. I was the other day checking on some Instagram posts, seeing if they were touching people's lives. I would like to say I always do it with a pure heart, but sometimes I'll scroll to look for people who say mean things to me. That's a dysfunction, and I'm not saved all the way yet. I am saved. I was saved. I'm being saved. This is the part that's in progress. Sometimes I just like to imagine the response I could see. You know what the Spirit of the Lord told me the other day? First of all, is one out of 300 people who say something negative. That's number one. Number two, if you would invest a fraction of the energy into blessing people that you put into defending yourself, you would be Mother Teresa. You would be St. Paul. You could change the world if you would stop trying to defend yourself. I'm coming right for you, because some of us trip over an offense, and so we never defeat the real opponent, because we stand and argue with Eliab, and we never even get to Goliath. Isn't that so powerful? It could have had a whole different ending. It could have been a whole lot different.

I bet Aunt Jackie wouldn't have taught me that Bible story in Sunday school if David had stood there and argued with Eliab. Here's the thing that's practical about this. Some of you are fighting Eliab today, and because you're fighting Eliab, Goliath continues to go unchallenged in your life. You know you're fighting Eliab if you're still blaming people. David did this move that I want to learn how to do when I realize I'm fighting the wrong enemy, when I realize I'm fighting something outside when I really need to be dealing with something inside, when I realize I'm trying to control how other people are versus trying to have self-control the fruit of the Spirit for myself. This is a word today. It said that David did something very strategic, and this is the turning point of the story. It said in verse 30 that when Eliab was going back and forth in David, David hit him real quick with an insult just to let him know, "'I'm not a punk.'" Then after he said what he had to say, watch what he did. David turned and asked somebody else. Watch this. When he turns away from Eliab, it positions him to face Goliath. You'll never even get to Goliath. get to the insecurity that is causing the issue if you keep blaming the people who are bringing it out for you to look at. Eliab wasn't the giant. Eliab wasn't the enemy. Eliab was his brother he was supposed to fight for. So now we've watched David…two different alternate endings. If he argues with Eliab, then he misses Goliath. If he doesn't obey his father in a simple thing, then he misses Goliath. Graham was so prophetic. He said, it could have ended a whole lot different. I was so mad at my mom for forgiving my dad. I didn't think he deserved it. What would that funeral have been like if she had listened to me rather than listening to God? If we weren't even on speaking terms when he died, it could have ended up. I only bring it up because every story in this room is still being written. Sometimes you think you know how it ends, but what if it's not over yet? I'm going to preach it through that little facade you have right now. What if it's not over yet?

What if you've wasted a lot of time, but God really is able to redeem the years the locusts have eaten? What if it's not over yet? I'm just posing a question. What if it's not over yet? What if your best days are not behind you? What if the Devil is a liar? What if everything you have been through can serve a greater purpose? What if a generational curse was being broken through your battle? What if God brought you to the valley of Elah? He's the God of a turnaround, the God of a second chance, the God of a new beginning, and the God of a new ending. Mary and Martha said, I know how this story ends, but one thing they didn't know is that Jesus doesn't provide resurrection. He is resurrection. So, if he's on the scene… Watch this. When David showed up, he said, I come against you in the name of the Lord. Now, one more thing I have to show you. Y'all, calm down. It's a Bible study, not a football game. It's not a basketball game. There's nothing to be excited about in here. It's not like the blood of Jesus is enough for you. It's not like depression is defeated. It's not like the Devil has to back up when you call on the name of your God. It's not like worship can push back darkness. It's not like praise can break chains. Y'all, sit down, because now he has to go through Saul, the one who should have been celebrating him, the one who should have been supporting him. David kills Goliath. Stop being so boring when you read the Bible. The Bible is boring. You're boring. Read it better. This thing could have had so many endings. It could have ended when David had a bad attitude toward the ordinary. It could have ended when David was fighting against who he was supposed to be fighting for. He could have gotten offended. It could have ended with ordinary, it could have ended with offense, and it could have ended with only. Do you know only? The spirit of lack and limitation. Do you know only? What Saul said to David. David was like showing Saul his resume. He was like, I'm pretty good at beating stuff that's bigger than me. I beat a lion one time. I beat a bear. Put me in, coach. Saul said, You're only a boy. I wonder what you're only in your own mind. Remember, Saul wasn't the enemy. Saul was supposed to be a friend. Do you ever have something inside of you turn on you? You're only. I had it this week. I was thinking that I'm just a preacher. I was thinking how really

influencing culture is done through rappers and fashion and others. I was thinking about changing a generation, and I felt discouraged about it, like I'm only a preacher. But there's this one verse that always comes up when I think that way. way. God told Jeremiah one time, he said, "'Do not say, I am only.'" While I was thinking about that, I know this isn't exactly what the text means, but I was thinking how God's name is I Am. So when you say, I am only, and you're supposed to take God's name, you mess up the name he gave you by diminishing it in your own sight. I am only. Do not say, I am only. Do not say, I am only. I'm only a boy. But David said, no, no, no. I've never faced this giant before. Get ready to shout. But I brought the same God to this valley that I brought to the last valley. Because the only reason I'm preaching it is because you're standing in front of something right now. You've never seen this before. But David said, here's the common pattern I've noticed. I dropped the lion, I dropped the bear. It only stands to reason that if the lion didn't stand a chance, if the bear didn't stand a chance, because they opposed my Father's business, if this giant opposes the purpose of God, I predict an upset victory over everything in your life that is bigger than you, that opposes the purpose of God within you. Come on, he's the God of a turnaround. So I know, somebody shout I know, how this story ends, because I know who wrote it. I know who wrote it. He is the author and the perfecter of my faith.

She looked at me last week on our date night, and this movie was going to have a nice ending, but then she remembered that the writer of this particular movie is noted for everybody dying in the end. She looked at me. Now I want you to get this when I say it, okay? She said, it can't be over. I just remembered who wrote it. Come on, you know it's a word for you. You know there's some things, because we tell ourselves these stories, but if God wrote it, it's not over until we win. It's not over until the light overcomes the darkness. Come on Nairobi, come on Gaston, come on Ballantyne, it's not over. 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 incline 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. We don't incline something that's already upright. Must have meant that his heart was declined. 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 direction today? 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. I don't even want it to be that way. I want it to be like the infomercial. Do you remember the infomercial with the rotisserie, Showtime rotisserie oven? The man said, Set it 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. Hey, I went to church first Sunday in January. That ought to get me by. I set it, but the psalmist said it's not enough to set it. forget it. He said it's more like you set 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. Maybe it's a default position of discouragement or despair or dysfunction, but when you take charge of your heart… Touch your neighbor and say, "'Take charge of your heart.'" That's what the writer of Proverbs said. It's not just the psalmist that did it. The writer of Proverbs said, "'Guard your heart.'" It's your heart. That's where the issues of life flow from. So before we can get the windows working, we have to get our hearts open. Hey, man, the doctor was fussing at me a couple of months ago about my cholesterol. It lets me know I'm getting on up there in age. I've never had a conversation like this with the doctor before. He was just talking, blah, blah, blah, LDL, HDL, triglyceride, all this stuff. 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 of a heart attack. Listen to me." I corrected him. I said, "'Doctor, I know you have some degrees that I don't have and all that, but you're wrong about that. I don't run, so if I fall over it's not going to be on cardio.'" 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.'" It is good. Every once in a while you have to stop and clap for the word God speaks through you. I feel like God is going to help somebody set your heart on things above, get your heart set in the right direction, but it's going to require some habits. They're all right there in the psalm. 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 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. It's not a person I hate. It's I hate the condition of double-mindedness. I hate it. See, the thing about hate is hate is the most powerful motivation to change, not love. 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 you hate. It's going to be complicated, because as for me, I have a love-hate relationship with some of the things. I feel kind of like David. One time David's son Absalom died, and Joab came to him and said, Your son is dead. David started weeping, and Joab was mad because Absalom was trying to take the throne from David. 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. 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. Certain things in my life… I hate how they feel when I'm doing them.

I hate the plank. Exhibit A. For years, I was one of these people… I would tell you to your face. I hate to exercise. You can go back and watch my sermon videos from three years ago. I would stand on the stage and say, I hate to exercise. Do 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 going to teach today. You came out. I'm going to make it work your wall. I'm going to teach today. Get that elevation pin ready. We're going to burn it up today. You can get a new one next week. I grew to hate. The moment of realization for me was when I was paying Andy $450 to come over to my house and let my pants out. 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. 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. Sometimes, before you can make a change, you have to be motivated by… I know it's a strong word. It's not very pastoral. You have to hate it. You have to hate self-pity. 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. It 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 to hate. I hate this. I hate the way… Watch. I 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 longstanding relationship with carbohydrates. They have been there for me in the midnight hour when I couldn't call on anybody else. I could call on chocolate, so I love it, but I hate… I love what it does for me, but I hate what it does to me. I hate all this. I hate anger.

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. Somebody shout, "'Outcome.'" 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. It's complicated. It's a complicated relationship I have with complaining. I love to complain. I love to tell somebody. You can look there at me when the Bible says don't do it, but it didn't say it doesn't feel good. Amen. It feels real good to complain. It feels like a choice morsel going down. As it's coming out of your mouth, just to unload on them. When somebody says, "'How are you doing?' Just let them know for five minutes. Every ache, every pain, every disappointment, every struggle, but guess what? The next time they see you coming, they're going the other way." 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 early, don't say stuff like that. People put it on YouTube and use it against you as a weapon, but I just have 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 a natural high, because if I can get you down here, then I feel like I'm right here. The only problem is I'm setting myself up for decline, 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 something 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 are like, but by the same measure you judge, you will be judged? 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. 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 have to hate it. I hate bullying. I hate bullying.

I was bullied. Tony Wigfall jacked 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 going to break my face? I hate it. 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 have 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 and say, "'I hate it.'" Not I hate you, I hate it. I hate it. I hate the double-minded. I hate indecision. I hate it. 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. I hate the discipline of preparation too, but I hate the pain of procrastination more than I hate… I hate it. 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 I used to roll my eyes at. I think I like to exercise. I think I've reset my heart.'" 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. Come on. You're going to love the presence of God this year. You're going to love the Word of God this year. You're going to love the right things this year. 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 of the food on our plate when we overfilled it at Ryan's Buffet. Vacation memories. He said, "'You're going to eat every bite on that plate.'" Me and my brother took turns causing diversions while the other one stuffed our pockets. 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.'" 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.