The Power Of Consistency

God is great.

God is good.

Let us thank him for this food.

Amen.

A simple prayer that we teach our kids, but bears so much weight after you've been through some things.

You magnify him and you praise him and then you thank him for the blessings that he's given you.

In three simple sentences.

Well, while you're still standing making your way back to your seats, I was talking with somebody last week or the week before, and we begin to notice that on Sundays after service, the people would just linger with each other.

You build a strong church when people enjoy talking to each other.

And I thank God for the church He has established here that the people actually enjoy being around each other.

You may not enjoy the singing, you may not enjoy the preaching, but the people are good.

So look over if you have your Bible today, and if you don't, we will have it on the screen.

In Romans chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

We're gonna read verse 15, and then we're gonna jump a little ahead to 18 and 19.

Romans chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

If you got it, say amen.

If you need some more time, say hold up.

Alright, I got you.

I got you.

So Romans chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

If you don't know, it's in between Genesis and Revelation.

Trying to help you out the best I can.

Romans chapter 7, verse 15, it says, I don't really understand myself.

Romans 7:15

Anybody ever felt that way before?

For I want to do what is right, but I don't do it.

Instead, I do what I hate.

Verses 18 and 19, it says, remember, this is Paul writing, is known for the majority of the New Testament.

And this is what he is writing to the Roman people, Roman people.

And I know that nothing good lives in me.

Can anybody understand?

If you think you got some good living in you, you don't understand who Christ is.

Because we are all in desperate need of a savior.

And I know nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature.

Anybody got some sinful nature in the house?

Some of you probably had to pray it off when you got to church this morning.

If you've ever, in my house, there's two things that make me mad about my wife and my child.

These are the only two things I will ever complain about with them.

Okay, there may be more, but the only two I'll tell you about is that when it's time for me to be somewhere, I am 15 minutes early or earlier.

But if my wife is with me, that never happens.

If my son is with me, that never happens.

The same goes with getting out of the vehicle.

For some reason, it takes an act of God in Congress to get out of the vehicle so I can lock the door.

So sometimes I have to pray off my sinful nature before I go into Walmart.

Because I'm already ticked off from getting out of the car.

It's a little small petty stuff that find the little small cracks in our personalities, in our relationships, and we allow them to grow and grow and grow until every day I'm finding something to complain about.

But I know nothing.

Good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.

I want to do what is right, but I can't.

Verse 19 says, I want to do what is good, but I don't.

I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

Now let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for your mercy and your grace.

Thank you, God, for your presence coming down in the worship service today.

I pray, God, that it continues on.

That not only continues on, but begins to grow.

And Father, that we allow you to come into our hearts, that we allow you to shine your righteous light into the dark places of our hearts, that we look inside of ourselves and say, Holy Spirit, search me.

Holy God, search me.

Look inside of me, show me what I need to change, show me what I need to get rid of.

In the name of Jesus, we pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So we have a plague in the church house today, and two of those are this self-righteousness and entitlement.

We didn't get even half the church saying amen on that one.

But Paul understood this that when I begin to actually look at myself, the Bible says that our righteousness, compared to God's righteousness, is that of filthy rags.

What does that mean?

That levels the playing field for every single person.

Then it doesn't matter how bad you've been or how good you have been, there's actually no good inside of you.

If Jesus Himself said, Why do you call me good?

No one is good but the Father.

How can we say the term a good person?

It starts leveling the playing field, and we have nowhere to look down on the people from when we realize that we all are in desperate need of the saving, salvation of Jesus Christ.

Now, today I want to show you the most important spiritual quality that has the greatest potential not only to impact the trajectory of your coming year, but also can begin to move your life in a positive direction.

Anyone ever had your life go in a direction where you felt like you wasn't in the driver's seat?

In your own car, you feel like you're getting a ride.

This quality is absolutely and completely the key to your spiritual strength.

It's the key to your ministry impact.

Let me tell you something.

Just because you're not holding a microphone and you're not on the stage does not mean you are not in ministry.

And I tell you this that Jesus took people that did not have degrees in theology and put them to work.

That brings good hopes for me.

Because if God can save a fool like me, if he can redeem a moron like me, if he can turn my personality that got me in so much trouble into something to be used for his kingdom, what is coming next?

This is the key to your ministry impact.

Every single person in here has some sort of inner circle sphere of influence.

It may be people at your job, it may be your children, it may be your parents, it may be your brothers, your sister, your grandma, your grandpa, but you have people in your life that you can in a positive way or a negative way impact their day.

Let me give you a quick another story of how I'm a terrible husband.

I will be upset with something that had nothing to do with my wonderful, perfect, beautiful wife, and she will come home to a husband.

Actually, I got I got mad on the way here because my phone wouldn't play through the system, and I'm trying to warm up my vocal cords, and the stupid thing won't work.

And all it took was for my beautiful wife.

Actually, the first thing she did, let me tell you this: she said, Let's pray.

Fine.

Sometimes you gotta submit to prayer when you don't want to, but it always works.

Every single time.

She took that thing, she exited out of the app after we prayed.

I was fuming before I got to the church.

I'm like, this stupid thing.

All of a sudden, I hear music coming through my speakers.

And then, like a little child, once I got what I wanted, the anger subsided.

Oh, finally, things are going the way that I want them to.

Am I the only person in the house today?

We get so angry and upset on things when they do not go our way.

When the word of God says that every single thing we go through, good or bad, every single relationship that we have, good or bad, if you are following God, your steps are being ordered, and everything that happens to you can be a work that God can do through you.

This key quality for your ministry, for your physical health, for the quality is the key for relational intimacy.

It's the key for financial potential.

Anyone in the house, you're thinking, okay, financial potential, now I'm in the sermon.

This quality is the key to accomplishing your goals.

So, can anybody guess what the quality is?

Probably not because I've given no hints at all.

I just said a blanket statement of all these good things that's gonna happen for you.

Well, before I can tell you what it is, let me tell you what it's not.

The good news is that this quality is not based on your appearance.

This quality, it is not based on your background, it's not based on your education.

This quality that has the potential to impact your entire life is consistency.

No one likes that one.

Why?

Because we're terrible at it.

The only thing we're consistent at is complaining and whining.

We're real consistent in sinning.

We're real consistent in entitlement and self-righteousness.

Turn to your neighbor and say, It's your consistency.

Don't be scared of them.

Y'all know I give y'all extra opportunity to preach to your spouses when you get the chance, so I got some more for you.

Now, consistency has the power to give you back the power in your life.

Has anyone ever felt that the circumstance or the season that you were in, it was just happening to you, and there was nothing you could do to make it any better.

Like I said a minute ago, that you're in the passenger seat of your own car and someone else is driving, and it ain't the Lord.

Matter of fact, when we do let the Lord drive, we try to give him directions.

No matter what season you're in, it never feels like that.

You're in the driver's seat.

You always feel like you're the passenger in your own car.

Without consistency, listen to me.

Without consistency, you cannot have sustainability.

Without consistency, you cannot have sustainability.

This is why finding happiness in relationships or in people or in places or things only lasts until the new wears off.

Then you have to go to the next relationship, then you have to go to the next church, then you gotta go to the next location, then you gotta buy that next truck, then you gotta get you a new spouse, and you're still you carrying old baggage into a new season, and God does not desire for you to carry that with you.

Because all of these things, and y'all know I love shoes, shoes make me happy, but they do not deliver sustainable joy.

Your spouse can make you happy, but if you search for that relationship to make you joyful, you will find yourself empty, alone, and wondering what happened.

If you find it in that substance and you find yourself drinking or whatever else, and all of a sudden it's got you bound, you are subject to whatever it wants you to do.

God desires for his people to live a free, a holy, and sustainable life full of joy, not of happiness.

Why?

Because when good things happen to you, you feel real good.

You're in a heightened state of woo, yay! And then when things start going bad, all of a sudden you wonder everything's just so where are you, Lord?

He's right where you left him, on the sidelines, watching, tapping his foot, wondering when you're gonna stop being stupid.

Because the joy of the Lord is your strength.

If you're feeling weak in the house today, let me tell you something.

You've been trying to sip on the milk of happiness, but God has the meat of joy ready for you today.

Because joy will sustain you, happiness will betray you.

It'll make you base everything you go through on feelings instead of facts.

It's not true joy, it has no actual substance, so it cannot sustain you.

Anybody in the house likes some ice cream or cake?

Woo! Pretty sure God was in the making of that.

But you can eat this all the time, and it tastes good.

Matter of fact, it gives you a little bit of a high, and you feel good when you eat it.

My birthday's coming in about 10 months.

So if y'all wondering, my favorite is chocolate cake and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

And I go scoop, scoop, boom.

I love sweets.

We had the growth track a couple weekends ago.

And man, we had we had cookies left over.

Yes, Lord.

We had cheesecake.

Hallelujah.

It did not expire.

I promise you that.

I put to good use every fork and plate in that house to make sure that I finish it because that's my duty as the pastor.

But it won't sustain you.

No matter how good it tastes in the moment, there's no sustainability.

Some people look at Christianity and they're like, oh my goodness, look at all those rules.

That's ridiculous.

They're not rules, they're parameters to keep you from suffering in ways you never want to suffer.

Guidelines and disciplines from God and from the Word of God or things that will sustain you in any season.

So if you want to remain sustained, you have to remain consistent.

If you want to remain sustained, you need to remain consistent.

I told you I was gonna have something for you.

Turn to your neighbor and say, be consistent! It was really easy right then for me to tell who was the most outspoken because one turned and said it out loud, the other one laughed and giggled.

Now, this scares most of us.

Why?

This word consistency means I have to be tied down to something.

I have to say that I am putting a stake in the ground, that I am going to do what I set out to do, that I'm gonna do what I said I was gonna do.

Let me point out some things to you that maybe you have the issues with too.

I I work out almost every day that I can at the gym.

And it's not because I want to look really good, it's so that I can work off the sweets I have from the weekend before.

I have a system down.

I will starve myself during the week so that I can cheat on Sundays.

I'm telling you, you know what I'm saying?

I got the process down that I can play any game I want because on the week I'm gonna kill myself, I'm gonna starve myself, and then by the time the weekend comes, what's up?

We got growth track.

All right, cheesecake, here I come.

We're inconsistent with what we eat.

We say, I want to be healthy, and we still eat everything we're not supposed to.

Some of you, if you go to a restaurant and they put something green on your plate, you take it back.

I'm not a rabbit.

We're inconsistent with our desire to exercise, we're inconsistent with our reading the Bible and with our prayer time.

We can't even get on time to places consistently.

Is anybody?

We got some late people in here.

Y'all know who you are.

You ain't got to raise your hand.

Your spouse will point you out.

You can't get anywhere on the time you're supposed to be there.

And no matter how early you wake up, something happens, the devil breaks loose in your house, and everything goes wrong, and you can't make it.

It happens.

Some of y'all are wired that way.

I'm the opposite.

I gotta be there early.

But we can't be consistent on being places.

The only thing I'm consistent in is being inconsistent.

You ever felt that way before?

That inconsistency is the only routine you have.

And if you find yourself like most of the rest of us with really good intentions, but you struggle to follow through.

Like going to the gym, eating right.

We make it a few days, we slack off.

I'll go, I'll start.

As soon as day one of next month comes, I'm gonna get it.

I'm gonna hit that grind and I'm gonna be looking fine.

But until then, where's the cake?

Four months later, we go another time.

We eat one salad, and then four months we look back and we're like, what happened?

I don't like the way I look.

Oh God, what is going on in this season of my life?

I don't hear you anymore.

It's because you ain't been listening.

Something that I learned being in ministry full time was that I did not spend enough time in my private time praying out loud.

Now you say, well, why does that matter?

Do you have to pray out loud?

Absolutely not.

But when you're the pastor of a church, people come to you to pray over the weirdest things.

Because you're there, you have to pray in front of everybody.

You have to bless the food, you have to pray over the baby at the birthday party.

We were at the birthday party for true.

He turned one.

They said, Well, hey, will you bless the food and will you pray over true it?

Okay, sure.

Didn't prepare anything, but let me get my notes.

Well, I have to get into the habit of consistency to where in any season, in any circumstance, I know that I can pray out loud with confidence because I've already been practicing in private.

We're wanting to fight spiritual battles, and we're not doing any private practicing until we get in the middle of the field.

And then we wonder, God, why are you allowing this to happen?

A lot of times it's not God allowing things to happen so much as that you haven't prepared for what He's been trying to tell you.

The same habits and thoughts and processes.

We apply the same thing to our bad eating habits, our bad gym stuff, whatever you want to do.

Apply it to whatever.

Your toxic relationships that you keep letting in your life over and over and over again.

We apply the same stuff spiritually.

The same habits and thought processes.

We allow this to infiltrate our spiritual walk.

I'll pray with my kids starting tonight.

I'm gonna start a weekly devotion with my baby.

Four months go past, and we've done it twice.

Tonight comes.

Man, it's been a long day.

It's been full of stress and anxiety.

And now I'm feeling a little depressed, so I need some cheesecake.

And all the excuses in the world of why we don't do or why we don't finish out what we set out to do.

That we know to do, but we don't yet have the habits to stay consistent in our spiritual walk.

I promise after this week we'll start reading and praying together.

Next thing you know, it's been three months, and you end up doing nothing you set out to do three months ago.

In consistent.

Good intentions with zero fault.

I don't know about you, but I find it strangely comfort comforting when Paul was writing to the Romans in chapter 7 because he said this.

We'll read it again.

He said, I don't really understand myself.

Does that make you feel better or what?

That makes me feel better.

Because of sinful nature, sometimes we'll do things and look up and be like, How did I get here?

And you don't understand.

How did that conversation go that way?

You ever been through a conversation and all of a sudden it got real heated?

Somebody you loved and cared about, and you end up saying some things that you really didn't mean, and then you go later and you're like, How did that conversation even get there?

We started off talking about tacos.

That sounds funny, but that's true.

We'll start in one area of a conversation that is that is easy, that is gentle, that is just conversational, relational, and then all of a sudden we look up and the house is burnt down.

But he says, and of you, if you ever say this, I don't understand myself, you're in good company because Paul didn't either.

Sometimes I don't know why I do it.

He said, I want to do what's right, but I don't do it.

He's talking about the lack of consistency in his life that he says, I am going to be this way, I am going to serve God.

For me in my house, we're going to serve the Lord, but yet you look at the fruit, and there's nothing there.

I want to do what is good, but I don't, I want to do, I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyways.

There's an inner conflict that Paul is talking about here that every single person of the sound of my voice can understand.

And I can relate to that.

If you know that consistency matters, but you find yourself often inconsistent, today's message is for you.

Today's message is called the power of consistency.

There's something about consistency when you do over and over and over.

So last week I introduced this proclamation of faith.

And I think a lot of times in our life we we allow negativity to cling to us, and so then we begin to reproduce more negativity, and a lot of times it's over ourselves, it spills onto the people that we love.

And I think that as of children of God, we should be willing and able to speak life, speak vision, speak the word over ourselves and say, I am who God says I am.

That the world does not dictate who I am, the world does not make my definition.

Only God can give me that.

And we read this, it'll be behind me.

I am ready.

That was last week.

I am ready.

We talked about last week about temptations.

That you need to know where you are weak and stay on guard.

We talked about moving the line.

That sometimes the line of temptation on the other side is the sin.

But right here, like little kids, we go up to the line and we want to get as close as we can before we fall.

And that is a remedy for disaster and sinful nature to take over your life.

This is why we have pastors, ministers, deacons, people that know better, that know the word of God, and they end up falling because they get right up on the line.

Put that separation around you away.

Move the line, leave that line there, but set you another one.

And between you and that temptation, put people you trust and know will pray for you.

I said this before.

My wife has all access to every single social media and email anything.

She knows my passwords, she knows the emails.

Why?

Because she is my best friend, and I know that I can trust her with everything that I am, even the things I struggle with.

I'm not saying it has to be your spouse, but don't tell somebody your business is going to tell somebody else.

People listen to me.

If somebody tells you something, shut up.

It's not your place from God to go tell the prayer team of somebody else's business.

Shut up.

Because that causes division of the house.

And this is where church hurt comes into play.

Nine times out of ten, it's a betrayal of trust.

And the church is consistent in them.

But we want to declare this over ourselves.

I am ready.

I know where I am weak.

And I'm going to put the necessary boundaries around me so that I do not even get close to stumbling.

I am consistent.

I am consistent.

I am devoted as next week.

I am generous.

I am faithful.

And I am a finisher.

What God put in my heart, what God sent me out to do, I will finish it.

I will stay true to what God has placed in my heart.

I will be who I say I am, whether it's in my own room in my house where no one will ever know, or out on the street, or in the church.

We need to be exactly who we say we are in front of people.

It's called character.

And the church is lacking character.

We got some characters, but we're lacking true character that we are who we say we are.

This is why the world can point to us and say, How can you tell me anything?

Look at you.

We are to be blameless and righteous in God.

That doesn't make us perfect.

But we need to be pursuing perfection.

And actually, the original text when Jesus said, Be perfect as I am perfect.

It's actually maturity.

We need mature Christians in the church that when somebody gets upset with somebody else, you can go and talk to them, not to everybody else.

I'm your pastor.

But if I hear that you talked about me to somebody else, I will not trust you anymore.

We often speak negativity over ourselves, but the church needs to begin to understand that I am a child of God.

And only by Jesus am I made righteous.

Let me tell you something very real to me.

Is when I when I got out of jail as part of my probation, they made me go to AA.

The 12-step program is based on biblical principles.

And at this time, when it finally came about, I have been free from drugs and alcohol for a couple years.

And it broke my heart that a part of the program was that every person that was in there would introduce themselves and say, I am, and then prophesy over themselves.

I am an alcoholic.

You better not be.

You're on probation.

You get caught, you're going back to jail.

See, all of a sudden that starts to fall apart.

I am addicted to pornography.

I am filling the blank with whatever you want to fill in, whatever problem you have.

And all of a sudden, you begin to speak over yourself that you are that thing.

But our sin, when we are sanctified, is no longer our definition.

Because my defining moment that changed my definition of who I am was when I gave everything over to God.

When I completely submitted myself who I was just the day before did no longer apply.

Because I was fully submitted to the sanctification process mapped out by the Lord.

I will no longer be addicted to cigarettes or alcohol or meth or whatever the case may be.

Say it over yourself until you begin to believe it.

Because your but your body, your mind, your life, it moves in the direction of your strongest thoughts.

So if you're constantly saying I am bound and addicted, you will remain bound and addicted.

But if you want to be set free of what is binding you, you need to begin to speak that I am free, I am saved, I am redeemed, I am a child of God, and nothing the devil throws at me will bring me back to that bondage again.

That doesn't mean you will not struggle.

Struggling and bound are two different things.

If you do not have God's help.

That was the worst advice I've ever heard in my life.

Yes, you need God.

Because addiction is strong.

The bondage is real.

Now, why does consistency matter?

Listen to this.

Because successful people, anybody want to be successful in their life?

You first gotta start by saying, I am going to be successful.

Because if you don't believe it, nobody else will.

Successful people do consistently what other people do occasionally.

Successful people do consistently what other people do occasionally.

And we know this is true because successful people do over and over and over again what other people do every now and then.

Let me give you a real world example.

If you work with a company and they have a 401k, you don't know what that is?

That's that's retirement funds, okay?

Or Roth IRA or whatever it is, and you start, I think, at the age it was like 24 or 25, and you go till you're 65, and you only put in$100 a month.

$100 a month.

By the time you are of retirement age, you will be a millionaire because of compound interest, and doing the same thing consistently what some other people do every now and then.

Now, this same thing applies in our spiritual walk.

That's why I challenge you every single Sunday, five minutes in prayer, five minutes of reading your word, five minutes of worship, doing one small act of faith every day and inviting someone to church because you need that in your life.

These are small deposits that will later have a large return.

Five minutes of prayer, five minutes of reading your word, and five minutes of praising.

Start your day off this way, and whatever comes your way, you will have already made up your mind.

You will already, the Bible says, do not fix your eyes on what's in front of you.

Why?

Because what's in front of you sometimes can be terrible.

Some people sitting in here right now have some of the worst lives or stories that none of us will never actually know.

But if you keep looking on the problem and you don't look to the problem solver, you will constantly stay in bondage.

Be consistent on where you look, because when you look in the right spots and you know where your help comes from, when temptations come your way, when struggles come your way, when conflict comes your way, when bondage comes your way, you can shake it off and say, Not today, Satan.

Because I know who is on my side, and if he is for me, what can be against me?

So I want you today to look with me in some scripture.

Actually, no, before we go to the scripture, so I want to collectively as a church, now I can't independently, each one of you, go to your house every single week and disciple you and say, hey, come on, let's read and blah, blah, blah.

But what I can do is point you in the direction of what you need in your life.

Does anybody want some better habits in your life?

You may have it all figured out.

If you're one of those that you got everything figured out, you're on top of the world, whatever.

That's all right.

Just sit there and be quiet.

The rest of us got some things to figure out.

So behind me, there's gonna be a QR code.

Does anybody know what that is?

You get your phone out, your smartphone, and you use the camera.

And when that smartphone, when your camera's on there, you'll see this yellow box pop up.

And what that is, it takes you to a seven-day Bible study in a Bible app to build better habits.

Is it working for everybody?

Good.

Good.

She tested it from back there.

I was like, if she gets it there, that'll work.

Because we want to choose first, is our constant theme in this entire seven-week series is choose first.

How do you make the decision to choose first?

You start to build better habits in your mind and your life, and this will walk you through that.

We want to decide first that I am going to be consistent.

Seven days of building new habits in your life.

And if you can't get it to work on your phone, that's okay.

We also are gonna send out the link to it where you can just click it.

And then if some of y'all have some issues, it's fine.

We know what what age you're above.

I'm just kidding.

Just kidding.

I say they, but some of y'all got some of y'all got technology now, probably better than I do.

And some of y'all just admit it because you know so if we make good, consistent decisions now, we are choosing first the quality of our life in the days to come.

So turn on with me to the book of Daniel, chapter six.

Now, Daniel chapter six, this is where Daniel gets set up.

So I'm gonna give you a little bit of a backstory right quick.

We're gonna run through it.

Daniel chapter six.

I'm gonna tell a little bit from the first verses, and then we'll land on uh verse 10 of chapter 6 and Daniel.

Now, I want you to understand this.

Because you say today that I am a man or I am a woman of God, does not make the rest of your life be humdrum, rainbows, and butterflies.

Matter of fact, the Bible promises that we will be persecuted.

And if let me ask you this how bold are you about your faith?

You probably haven't been too persecuted.

Because we don't speak out on truth like we should.

Matter of fact, we let things invade our living rooms.

My dad used to call it a one-eyed Babylonian idiot box.

The TV.

I'm surprised I made that without tripping up on my words.

That was a mouthful.

And it was true.

Everything that we watched, if you pay attention, we went to a Holocaust museum in Dallas.

And over the entryway, they the Holocaust Museum and what was it?

Something, something rights, human rights?

They had gay pride stuff everywhere, even in their store.

I mean, that was the majority of their store.

Now listen, if you're part of that lifestyle, we love you.

But we do not affirm sinful nature here.

Sinful nature is sinful nature, whether it's homosexuality or whether you have a lying problem.

We believe that we do not affirm sin.

Why?

Because God doesn't.

And the same thing happened here in Daniel chapter 6, is that Daniel is over.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

There's 120 provinces here.

We have a man of God who did not learn his consistency in the middle of his circumstance.

Instead, he had chosen, he chose first before the battle.

He decided that he was going to remain faithful to God.

So we start in this chapter, and it's giving us a little bit of a layout of kind of what's going on.

So they've all been captive.

There's this kingdom of Darius the Mead.

There's 120 provinces here in this land, and each had an appointed high officer over each province.

So they split up the kingdom.

And then over that, there were men that were placed over those guys.

So you have kind of a pyramid scheme going on.

Well, Daniel was in that group of the top of the top.

He was over the uh the people who was over the provinces, the officers.

There he's appointed Daniel and two others as administrators over them.

And I want you to understand this when God gives you favor, jealousy arises.

When God begins to do things in your life, people are going to look at you and get mad because they're not in the spotlight.

So the other administrators set out to kill Daniel.

They leaned into the king's pride and ego.

What do they say?

King, for the next 30 days, everybody should only pray to you and no other deity, no other human, only you.

Of course, the king, he's like, Oh, really?

I like that.

Let's do that.

Puts a stamp of approval on it.

No one can pray except to the king.

Verse 10, it says this.

But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home, he knelt down, as usual, in his upstairs room.

With its windows open towards Jerusalem.

He prayed three times a day, just as he had always say, always.

As he had always done.

Day after day, week after week, month after month.

He consistently sought after God.

Now, why is it that some of us are inconsistent with our relationship with God?

It's because Daniel prayed consistently, and we're only willing to pray occasionally.

Some of us in this building right now are only willing to pray and seek God and stand in the gap for other people when we come and pray for him at the altar.

And we choose to pray whenever it's convenient.

Convenience will rob you of a calling.

It's not what we do occasionally that makes the difference, it's what we do consistently.

So, three important things right quick.

How to be consistent.

Three things.

You need to start with the why.

Why do you need consistency in your life?

Why do you need this in your life?

Number two is plan to fail.

You're gonna mess up, you're gonna have a day where you skip prayer, you're gonna have a day where you skip your Bible plan.

My goodness, you do a every single day reading through the year, all of a sudden you're on day 47 and you're like, well, it's halfway through the year.

I know there's been more days than that past because we get busy, but we need to plan to fail.

And number three is we have to fall in love with the process.

So, why?

Why do we need consistency in your life?

Why do I need consistency in my life?

How did Daniel stay consistent?

His prayer life was born out of devotion.

He can have a strong desire to do things, you can have a strong desire to do things, but if you will not devote yourself, you will not keep to it.

You can have a strong desire to go to church, but if you don't devote yourself to a body, you are weak and vulnerable.

You can have a strong desire to do things, but if you will not devote yourself, you won't keep going.

It's not sustainable.

This is why we we're on March right now, almost in April.

This is why New Year's resolutions.

How many of you made one and you left it on January 20th?

Just gone.

Like, whatever I give up, I quit.

Lay down on the floor and say, I'm done, I'm not doing it.

Because you had a great idea with no follow-through.

You had a great desire.

I'm gonna go to the gym.

Thank God we're still going.

I want to go to the gym.

I desire to look better, I desire to have more energy, I desire to feel better, I desire some compliments every now and then.

Well, my guns are showing through a shirt or something, yeah?

Strong desires, but if I'm not backing that.

I have a strong desire.

We have a strong desire.

That was his why.

We've got a plan to fail.

And when we plan to fail, this dismantles the illusion of perfection.

Anyone ever watch anybody else's Instagram reels?

I'm a photographer and do video work, and I'm like, man, how'd they get it to look like that?

I have a desire to have my photos look like that, but I ain't got the devotion or time to put in the work.

When you start paying attention to everybody else's product of their devotion years and years, you think that you can go and try first in one time and you get it.

I guarantee you, this man right here can paint circles around me.

Because he's had years and years of devotion being consistent in his craft.

You cannot compare yourself to the person across the aisle in the church that has spent years and years in devotion to the Bible and the word and reading and praying and seeking God's face.

You can't compare your desire to their devotion.

It doesn't translate.

You have to understand that in the body of Christ, every single person in here, like I said in the beginning, we all need a savior.

Plan to fail.

You have to give yourself some grace and get some established devotion in your life.

That cancels out the illusion of perfection.

My dad was a sim as a god preacher my entire life.

And there was this little old lady, her name was Sister Cantrell.

I'm talking about she was old.

She was.

We were little kids and she was almost our height.

She was down there.

We go mower a yard, break up the leaves.

My dad's got pictures of me and my little brother in the leaves, you know, looking out, our heads are sticking up.

We're just having a blast.

She always had these little ice cream cups that she would get from the swan man.

And woo! We didn't mind the work because it paid off good.

That's probably where I got my first addiction from ice cream.

But you look at someone like that who's been in the faith for years and years and years.

And you wonder how can they continue on, even though they may be in the worst season of their life.

It's because consistency, when rooted in devotion, does not waver.

When you're devoted, it surpasses just the desire, but it becomes a part of who you are.

Some of the business biggest successes were grown in the soil of failure.

The biggest successes that are in people that you see them successful in their life has been born, birth, and grown in the soil of failure.

Because we always see the end results, we don't see the process of how they got there.

Henry Ford's first two automobiles failed.

His companies.

Y'all know who Ford is?

Ford truck?

Oprah Winfrey, you heard her name?

Was fired from an early job as a television news anchor.

Jerry Seinfeld.

Anybody ever heard that before?

Jerry Seinfeld, comedian, was booed offstage in his first stand-up comedy appearance.

Sir James Dyson suffered through 5,126 failed prototypes before he landed on the first working Dyson vacuum.

Over 5,000.

I would have given up after four.

But he had devotion.

He knew what he was in and the progress he could see past what was in front of him.

Let me tell you today, if you only see your life of what's in front of you, there is more.

But you have to stay consistent.

Stay on the path that God puts you on.

It is straight, it is narrow, it is hard, it is tough.

But if you stay consistent, it will pay off.

Allow yourself room for failure, not room for giving up.

Because you really don't actually fail until you stop trying.

Know your why, plan to fail.

Number three, fall in love with the process.

Daniel wasn't praying three times a day out of duty, he was praying out of delight.

He was not praying out of duty because he had to, he enjoyed his master, he enjoyed being with the Lord, he enjoyed praying, lifting up his heart to him, praising the Lord.

Sometimes we come into church and we come to consume and we never contribute beyond Sunday.

And then we wonder why our week isn't sustained.

Why we don't get involved in what the church has going on?

I don't know.

I can't answer that for you.

But God has things for us to do, but He wants us to enjoy the process out of delight, not of duty.

He was enjoying praying.

He would pray just to pray.

When was the last time?

Listen to me, Saints.

When was the last time you just prayed not for anything, but just to be in his presence for a moment?

You know, I've we have a prayer meeting on Tuesday mornings at 10, and also again on Tuesday nights at seven.

And one morning I was walking around and I was, I often will go and anoint everything.

I walk up on the stage, I anoint every instrument, every microphone, the table, the altars, I anoint, you see the grease stains right here.

That's anointing all.

I go and I touch and I anoint back there with the baptistry, I anoint the cameras, I go up in the booth, I anoint every single.

If y'all try to turn things up and down and you're slipping, it's probably my fault.

I touch everything back there because I want the anointing to be on everything this church has.

I go in those door frames right there.

I had no one on both sides of those, on the entrance from outside, I anoint on both sides of those.

I walk back to the kids' hall, the right now, the storage room.

I anoint it for future classes.

I go to the baby's room, the nursery, I go to the room to where the workers go, and I say, God bless the workers in the field, give them strength beyond what they can carry, rise them up on the wings of eagles, let them not grow weary, and I anoint this kitchen that out of it will flow sustenance.

I go out here and right where the corner is of the plants, right there, where you have the walkway coming into the front door.

If you look about that big, on both sides, I pour anointing oil on both sides of that entryway.

Whether you've got something to deal with or you need freedom, deliverance is in the house.

Whether you just got issues in your mind that you're not thinking straight, deliverance is in the house.

People in this church right now that come to this church that it started a few months ago.

Every time I walk out into the parking lot on Tuesdays of prayer meeting, I say, every vehicle that goes on this road, let them be drawn in by your spirit.

We have people in this house today that were drawn in.

One report said, I didn't know what it was, I just felt like a magnet was pulling me just to come in and sit in the parking lot.

The spirit of God is real.

And if you have the spirit of God resting on you, should not people who are dying and going to hell in need of salvation and restoration and deliverance be drawn to you.

And I felt such strong conviction, and I began to cry.

But you never thank me in faith.

You may not know this.

We have put out there that we are looking for a worship leader, and so it's been heavy on my heart because sometimes I feel like I cannot be the pastor because I'm wearing another hat.

I'm I'm torn between the two.

And God told me this you don't have to beg me for what I've already given you.

Just because you're not there yet doesn't mean it is not on its way.

And so I begin to walk around, and everything that I anointed and prayed for, I begin to thank it for it already being done.

We've got to stop begging God for promises that have already been established and begin to thank him for the good God that he is, and begin to worship him, not for what he is doing, but for what he has done and for what we know he will do and for who he is.

What kind of relationship would it be if I only prayed to him when I wanted something?

Imagine if we had these same relationships in our life, that we only made contact with each other when we wanted something.

Those relationships are exhausting and become toxic.

You always talk to me when you want something.

That's it.

You always are desiring something from me.

Pull, pull, pull.

Soon you will become exhausted.

The amount of spiritual filling that I get when I just begin to thank him for what I have yet to see in my life.

I thanked him for a worship leader.

I thanked him.

This is my prayer over that baptism that it be worn out to where we have to build another one.

Because the people coming to Christ, we need to begin to thank God for what he has already done.

What kind of relationship is that?

If we have that relationship with God where we're always asking, there is no joy in that.

There's always a I need mentality.

This does not translate, and it sounds goofy if I say that with my wife.

Well, I better go say hi to her or she'll get mad and we won't have a good marriage.

That's no marriage, that's out of obligation, not enjoyment.

We pray to God, we seek God's face when we need something, when we want something.

God is looking for a church, for a bride that is not just wanting something from him, but is wanting to bless him and give something to him.

God, whatever it is in me that I have not given you yet, take it today.

Whatever it is in me, I don't want anything but just to praise your name.

When was the last time you stopped begging God for something and you started praising him just for being good, just for being righteous and holy, just for giving you the blessings that you have?

But we make a shopping list with God, we make a checklist on our daily to-do.

Listen, I'm all about consistency, but God wants us to enjoy the process of consistency, and we call that relationship.

Want to ask you, is God another thing on your list to check off?

Because if he is, you're going shopping, you're not being sincere wanting an actual relationship with him.

I'll be the first today to answer my own altar call.

I want everything God has for me in my life, I want God more in my life.

That I don't want to be a beggar, I want to be a believer.

Some of us come to the table of God begging Him for things when He's not asking you to beg.

If I go into my Father's house, I don't have to beg.

Everything He has in there, everything that He owns, it belongs to me by birthright.

Some of you are living in bondage right now, and you are not listening to what God is saying to you, that you can be set free.

It is your birthright.

We have been grafted into God's family.

I want to fall in love with Him over and over and over and over, not asking for anything, not asking what can He do for me, but God, what can I do for you?

Life is hard enough.

I need to enjoy the process with God.

When you know your why, you will find a way.

When you give yourself and other people grace and mercy, that we're all in this together, that we are going to mess up, we are going to have failures, we're going to have issues, but it's all a process that when we do it together, it's more enjoyable.

That none of you in here today are alone in your process.

That you have people here that you can call on, that you can lean on, and that will pray for you with every hip bow.

I just want to challenge the entire church today.

If you want more of God, come down to the altar and begin to praise him for all that he is.

If you want more of God today, do not let your pride or shame keep you from worshiping God.