Controlling Your Habits

Controlling your habits

Gal 5:1

2 peter 2:19

Greeting- Good morning everyone, I am glad that you have joined us.

Gal 5:1- Look in Bible- “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

As a believer, Christ has set us free. HE HAS SET US FREE FROM SIN. HE HAS GIVEN US THE ABILITY TO LIVE A LIFE OF VICTORY. PAUL TELLS US…We are to stand firm and not let ourselves be bound up by things that Christ has set us free from.

We are with His strength and His guidance are not to allow the very things He set us free from to bind us up and control our life and cause us to be slaves to them.

Illustration- From Max Lucado

Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming, one second he was peacefully perched in his cage, the next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over. The problem began when Chippie‘s owner decided to clean Chippie’s cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She barely said hello, when sssopp! Chippie got sucked in. The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was chippie...still alive but stunned. Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom turned on the faucet, and held chippie under the water. Then realizing that chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do... She reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air. Poor chippie never knew what hit him. A few days after the trauma, the reporter who initially wrote about the event contacted chippie’s owner to see how the bird was recovering. Well, she replied, “Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore- he just sits and stares”

Sucked up, washed up, and blown over... anyone ever feel like that?

That’s enough to steal anyone’s joy isn’t it?

This morning I want to talk about breaking free from life controlling habits.

YET ALLOWING THE LORD TO BLESS YOU WITH NEW AND POSITIVE HABITS THAT BUILD MATUROITY AND DISCIPLES US TO MORE OF THE IMAGE OF CHRIST.

One minute everything is good and the next thing, we are struggling with things that we cannot get control of in our lives.

If the truth be told… For most of us, we saw it coming…we just didn’t think it would happen to us.

2 Peter 2:19- say that…

“For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him”

Message bible paraphrased- says ‘a man is a slave to whatever controls him or her.”

Listen here how Peter tells us about the danger of allowing bad habits and things into our lives after the Lord has set us free.

2 Peter talks about the evil people that came against Peter and the ministry and then he describes those that have allowed bad habits to bind them from things the Lord has already set you and I free from-

Starting at verse 17 in 2 Peter to verse 22- Read from Bible

Many times when we hear a message about breaking free from habits, we picture drug addicts, the alcoholics, they need the message, but I will say lovingly - so do you, and so do I. WE ALL DO!

I agree, those people need Him, but 2 peter is much more than that, and many who sit in these pews today need to break free from something.

Peter says we are slaves to whatever has mastered you

Some here today are:

Slaves to work,

Slaves to jealousy, to anger,

Slave to gossip, to what people think instead of what God thinks,

Slave to inappropriate sexual behavior,

Slave to thinking they are better than anyone else.

Today , we need to take an inventory of the negatives habits in our lives,

To look at what the lord needs to take out of our lives!

Notice I said the lord, because immediately you can think of things you’ve tried to break, but continue to struggle with.

There are some questions I would like to answer.

Write these down! Questions to ask and answer today

I, How do we identify a habit

First let’s give it a definition

A negative life controlling habit is something you find yourself doing even though it is destructive either physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. Or you consistently do something you wish you wouldn’t do, but you find yourself doing it anyway

Romans 7:15-

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”