And in Romans, it talks about that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in
the Holy Spirit.
So, if we were talking in terms of the DNA of the kingdom of God, we're talking about
righteousness, peace, and joy.
Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast today.
Ryan Steyer, Executive Pastor of The Road, and I'm here with Dr. Steve Holt, Senior Pastor
and Founder of The Road, and we're here to talk about Habit One in Breakthrough Courage,
the new book that's out now.
And there'll be a link in the description if you haven't had a chance to pick it up.
You follow that link and you can pick up a copy today.
As we're jumping in today, Steve, this is foundational.
I mean, everything's really going to be pivoting from this first habit, and we're going to
talk about what it's meant in our lives, how these people, as they dig in, as our audience
is going to dig into the book, the foundational pieces of seeking the first thing first.
And I'm reflecting on that, and I was reminded of the legendary basketball coach from UCLA,
John Wooten, right?
And just this process that he would take all of his players through, it didn't matter if
they were freshmen or they were returning seniors, and he would line them up, first
day of practice, first season, and he would go through the basics of how do we lace up
our shoes for the game?
And I think this chapter encompasses that concept of, you know, in the battle, in the
game of life, if we're not laced up with the very basics, we're going to flounder, we're
not on solid ground, and how do we really accomplish all that's in our hearts?
That's really true, because I remember my sophomore year at Clarkston High School in
Clarkston, Georgia, with my gymnastics coach coming in for the first time, I had never
done gymnastics before, most of the boys in that gym had not either, and he started with
a front roll.
Here's how you do a front roll correctly.
Here's how you do a back roll correctly.
Here's how you do a handstand.
And so he began with those basics, because everything flowed out of those foundational
principles of being a good gymnast.
And same with life.
And if you recall, you're a swimmer, you were a collegiate swimmer, Ryan, and I have, in
that chapter, the racer start, and the importance of a racer start.
Getting the shoulders, the head, your face facing the right direction, getting that jump
or that push-off after the gun, so important to everything.
And I think, again, I wasn't a swimmer, but it seems like you'd be doing a lot of practice
on the racer start, and it's almost like in Matthew 6, Jesus is saying, here's what the
world tells you, worry about this, be frustrated over that, panic over this issue.
But I say to you, I understand that you need these things, but seek first the kingdom of
God and my righteousness, and these other things will all line up, they'll all add up
together.
Oh, it's so true.
And I love the analogy in the book, and relating to it, yeah, as a swimmer, one of the more
complicated movements, and I'm sure you draw on something from gymnastics this way, is
the flip turn, right?
And that's in the middle of the race, but I can tell you how many races are, I can pull
back in memory, started off poorly because I had a bad start, and it is critical, and
we spend a lot of time on just how to enter the race, and that's huge.
And that tees me up perfectly, this quote that you have from a famed German poet, Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe, the things that matter most must never be at the mercy of the things
that matter least.
Right.
Man, it's so true, right?
Right.
I love that.
Right.
I mean, why do you think it's the opposite?
Why do you think that, like, most of the time, the things that matter least are the things
that we focus on, and thus we miss the things that matter most?
Why do you think that is?
Because I have a theory about that, but I'd be interested in yours.
We haven't talked about it, but...
No, that's true.
Part of it, I think, goes back to the garden and kind of maybe the great deception of the
enemy in our lives.
I think culture does a really good job being a distraction and trying to put the least
of these in front of us with such a loud voice, and it's a distraction to pull us away from
the things that do matter most.
Yeah.
So I think if you go back to the garden, because you referenced that, really what happened
with the initial sin of rebellion against that command of God with the...
tree of good and evil and tree of life was shame.
Shame became the result of that.
I think shame drives a lot of our decisions.
I bet, and I didn't have a survey in the book about this,
but I wonder how much of negative issues in our life
are a part of our decision about our occupation
and the things that we do.
We're almost like trying to prove somebody wrong.
We're gonna do something that kind of shows everybody
who we are.
I think there's a lot of that,
and that's built around shame and competition.
And so to seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, making the most important,
most noble cause of the universe,
our main cause of our lives,
takes the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit
to give us the wisdom to do that.
Yeah, man, that's so true.
And I was reading this chapter, and again,
had been reminded of John Wooten's practices,
but then I thought about the practical application
as growing up as a boy,
granddad had a shed, tool shed, at the back of the yard.
And it's where all the power tools
and all the cool stuff you wanted to get into as a kid,
but you had to be invited in.
And I remember the first invitation I got from him,
he took me to the shed, we opened it,
and he's like, point out the chainsaw.
We had talked about what we were gonna do that day,
and he started with the basics.
He started with the first thing first.
He's like, okay, this is where the fuel goes,
this is the gas.
And as I'm reminded myself, I mean,
the gas for the Christian life
is the priority of the kingdom of God first
and how we seek that.
I love what you write here on page 16.
This is the priority of Jesus
and the first habit to break through courage.
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
This is the most profound statement of the New Testament
and possibly even in human psychology.
Seek the highest and most noble thing.
Realign your life around the most majestic goal
of the universe and watch what God will do as a result.
So as we start to unpack this,
I mean, really this first chapter is an invitation.
If we're not already there,
we've got to start at this starting place.
And then it makes the rest of the habits
in the book more attainable.
I mean, as we look through,
and just a little bit of a spoiler alert,
if you looked at two through nine
and I'm thinking through this narrative
of if I have to operate and try to realign my life
and start to develop these positive habits,
but I don't have that foundation,
I'm going back to the parable of the sinking sand,
the rocky foundation.
I'm not building my life
on the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ.
So therefore can I really sustain
the habits that are gonna follow?
Yeah, and Matthew 6 is contiguous
with the Sermon on the Mount.
So the Sermon on the Mount is Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
He says, seek first the kingdom.
And then if we were sitting there,
it was probably like 20 minutes later,
he says, build your house on the rock.
Don't build it on the sand.
So that is the point that what you're saying,
and you probably already know this,
but I'm just saying it because it's reminding me
that I wish I'd written it in the book.
That the foundation is the rock,
and that those are actually in the same sermon.
So the foundation of the rock
is to seek first the kingdom of heaven.
It's so good, and I love,
you take us into this journey of your early discovery
as a collegiate athlete,
and injury brings you to this precipice of,
I've strived in my own will, my own effort, my own wisdom,
and now there's a real physical injury
that I'm faced with, and how to navigate that.
And I think when we think about those moments
in all of our lives, and I can certainly relate to,
there's this desperate moment that if we're obedient
and we're really just acknowledging,
God lets us use that as a fulcrum or a pivot place
to step into something deeper.
Walk me through a little bit about that around,
and you talk about it in the book,
but as I'm thinking through building blocks,
walk through kind of what was going through your mind,
maybe even talk a little bit about the fear
of a reality you were facing,
and how you pivot into the kingdom of God
as the first thing for your life.
So I grew up very religious.
My parents were very devout Lutherans.
My dad was a Lutheran pastor, very effective Lutheran pastor.
So I was in church nine months before I was born,
and my mom was heavily involved
with everything in the church.
So anything to do with Sunday school,
if you guys out there that are listening to this,
go to a church where you have a Sunday school,
then you know,
because many contemporary churches don't have it,
but back in the day, you went to church on Sunday,
and let's say the service started at.
10 o'clock. So you went to a 9am Sunday school. So mom would run all that. And then when you
got to the sermon and the main parts of the church and all the administration church,
my dad did that. So anyway, I grew up in a very religious home, knew a lot of terms.
So my head was full of catechism stuff, Ten Commandments. I remember memorizing all 66
books of the Bible and memorizing the Lord's Prayer, things like that. But my heart was
the same. It hadn't changed. I was no different. I mean, I was moral, I guess. I was a good
moral person at school, but I wasn't born again. So my freshman year, second week of
practice, I injured my left knee pretty bad doing a spinning move on floor exercise. And
it looked like initially not good, like it might be over for me. Knees are really important
in every sport, but they're pretty crucial in all around. That was pretty demoralizing.
I was kind of down. And it was at that time that a guy, a student, I remember his name
was Bob Carter. So funny, the reason I remember his name is a few days ago, I was looking,
I was kind of cleaning up my office. I have this one shelf that's all old Bibles. I mean,
very old Bible. It's like 150 year old Bibles. Wow. Old Bibles. I was looking and I found
that Bible, my confirmation Bible from my parents. And here's what was cool. It wasn't,
the Bible itself was pretty worn and torn and the cover was coming off. That was a cool
sign that I used it a lot. But what was really interesting was what was in, you know, on
a Bible, you have a few pages that are just blank. Yeah. Right. And I think those are
for people to write notes. And like I said, that's how I've used them. All my Bibles I'll
write special quotes, things like that. So on this one, I had up in the corner, the name
Bob Carter, and then where I was meeting him on a particular day. So one day, at least
one time I wrote down in my Bible, 3 p.m. Bulldog Hall, Bob Carter. And I went, that's
the guy. That's the guy who discipled me and first led me to the Lord, a guy named Bob
Carter. So I went to LinkedIn and I put in, I don't know if this is the right way to put
in Bob Carter, University of Georgia graduate, but nothing came up. So I don't know whatever
happened to this guy. But for a couple years, we were together at least once a week. Wow.
So he started discipling me as a new Christian. And I thought I knew a lot. Man, I didn't
know anything because I'd never really read the Bible. So what a, what a great time that
was in my life to start growing. Pretty big paradigm shift. I don't think anybody understands
until you've gone through it that until you really put your faith in Christ and you really
start following him, what a paradigm that shift is for your life.
You know, you're sitting there and I'm putting myself a little bit in your shoes. You're
a scholarship athlete. You're looking at through the lens of, you know, maybe I'm going
to lose my, my scholarship here. Athletic careers, definitely hanging in the balance.
And there's this invitation from Bob Carter to come in and taste and see, experience.
And so then the kingdom of God starts to get unpacked in your life. What you write here
on page 19, kind of in the middle is that confidence is built and fear is driven out
when we have courage to line up our priorities under God's kingdom plan.
With that statement and using maybe a little bit of what was happening with you in that
moment in college and kind of your athletic career, what's been maybe, or what was, or
has been the one thing you would say has been the hardest place to pivot from or to find
God's kingdom? Essentially, what were you, was there one area in your life that was challenged
that you found was maybe one of the hardest things to lay down under the true submission?
I am going to seek God first and everything in his kingdom in my life. But there's one
thing I do, I'm, it was just, you have a memory of maybe that was hard to lay down, or that
was the one thing that you had to release the grip from, right?
I think the number one thing would probably be, you know, women, you know, having, I was,
I was not overly promiscuous, sexually active, but there were a lot of opportunities to date,
like cheerleaders in the football team and some, some gorgeous women there at Georgia
that were, that were friends of mine and wanted to have a relationship with me, but were not
Christians. So I could see the writing on the wall here, I'm away from home, no, no
clear boundary.
is that I have to follow for the first time in my life.
And here's this field of beautiful Southern University
of Georgia women.
And I had to kind of decide in my heart,
I'm not going to go there because it's not
going to turn out well.
So yeah, I had to put some boundaries on my dating life.
And so I just didn't date, basically.
And I really didn't.
And I'm not saying this for everybody out there
that's listening to this that you have to do this.
It was pretty clear to me right after I really
came to know Christ that probably the biggest
decision outside of becoming a Christian
was going to be who I marry.
So it didn't take a rocket scientist
to realize that who you date is who you marry.
So if my standards are substandard on who I'm dating,
then I'm probably going to marry someone who's substandard.
That was tough.
I'm not saying I did it perfect either.
But I developed really cool friendships
with a lot of great Christian gals.
I wasn't interested in any of them.
I think many of them were interested in me,
but I wasn't interested in them.
And so I just didn't take it to the limit
where I would potentially compromise.
But everybody's got their weaknesses.
And so I felt like that was probably
going to be a weakness for me.
So I just didn't go there and focused on growing in Christ,
focused on gymnastics, focused on my academics.
And it really helped a lot.
Yeah, no, that's huge.
You write here in the book, all sin
leads in the opposite direction of the kingdom of God.
To live against the kingdom of God
leads to wrong relationships, a fearful heart,
and a sorrowful life.
Being pastors of a local church and engaging people,
what would you say in the times where people
have wanted to meet with you and they bring their situation
where they're stuck, kind of the secret sauce
as you've understood it and the way you've lived it out
in your life in understanding and living out
the kingdom of God.
But what would you say has been maybe,
if there's been a consistent theme of people seeking you out,
wanting to say, you know what, I see what you're doing
in your life, I love the habits you've formed.
You know, is there been some one thing that you've seen
that's been kind of consistent with those requests
or people coming in to want counsel from you?
So you're asking the question,
is there a theme in their lives?
Yeah, exactly.
Where either one, you see them break through,
so that's probably a two-fold question.
You see them actually leverage it, break through,
or they stay stuck and they're held back.
Yeah, well, I mean, it's a little bit trite.
I wish I had a really good chocolatey answer,
so my answer is kind of vanilla, but I think discipline.
I just have to say that disciplined people
do better in life in general.
You know, you're not gonna find any successful CEO,
any successful mom, any successful athlete
that's not really disciplined.
That's true.
Well, I think in the Christian life, it's the same.
I think that when you start, you're meeting with someone
and they've got a problem in their marriage,
and then you say to them,
you and your spouse should start doing this together,
and I think it'll draw you guys together.
Well, a disciplined person,
they really want their marriage to work.
They'll just do it.
But you can still have the same motives
in another person who really wants their marriage to work,
but they're undisciplined.
Nothing ever gets done.
They never change.
Their spouse never changes because they're lazy.
It's either laziness or just procrastination in their life.
They can't ever seem to get over the hump,
so I think discipline.
When I look at someone, I'm always looking at,
will you do just the next thing right?
Just gotta do the next thing.
Like, I can't tell you how many times.
I mean, I think it was like 25 years ago,
I changed my tune on all counseling,
and I said, you know, I meet with one person one time,
and I said, okay, do this,
because of something that I said,
why don't you do this for the next 30 days?
If you do it for the next 30 days,
it doesn't have to be perfect,
but pretty much you do it for the next 30 days,
I'll meet with you again.
But if you're not doing it,
it's gonna be the first question I'm gonna ask you,
then I'm not meeting with you.
Why should I waste my precious time
helping an undisciplined person
who won't do what I tell them to do?
There's too many disciplined people out there
that we should be spending our time with.
And then to support that biblically,
we're called to make what?
Go make-
Disciples.
Okay, what's the root of disciples?
You know, it's discipline.
Yeah.
So it's go make disciplined people.
Right?
Yeah.
So that's what we're here to do.
And so I'd say discipline.
Well, that's huge.
You know, it's interesting discipline in the culture because culture makes life convenient,
which I think then breeds or can tend to lead laziness.
So there has to be things that happen to us in our lives that set us up for a move to
reshape and create these new habits we're talking about, changing from bad habits to
good habits.
That's true.
You know, I'm thinking about my own Christian walk and my Christian journey to say, you
know, I mean, I came to Christ.
But then, you know, there were seasons where I practiced seeking God's kingdom first, but
there was, there were long droughts where, you know, I was saved by his grace and I knew
that I was, you know, in the Christian community, but I was not practicing or prioritizing seeking
God's kingdom first.
And I think it was the early inception of the road.
We were starting to plant the road church and I was still in the banking career.
And I remember, and I've shared this at some of our men's advances and encounters as part
of the testimony, but driving into work on the ways of the morning, I started to practice
this actually unintentionally.
I was seeking God's kingdom first at the beginning of my day because there was this desire that
I, uh, it was just this fire that was building in me and I was seeking, I'm looking at the
dashboard of my life.
I'm doing the measurements, the resume, looking at all the things.
And my prayer was simple, but I remember banging on the doors of heaven, just saying, God today,
please father me and everything that I need fathered in today and revealed to me your
purpose for my life.
Right.
I remember you sharing that before.
That was so good.
And it was just, it was month after month, day after day, I would pray on the way into
work and just try and set my heart in the right alignment.
And I'm really in that verse where Jesus is saying, you know, seek and you will find,
knock and the door will be opened.
And you know, I'm just, I'm, I'm applying that scripture in my life, needing breakthrough
in my own life and my own calling.
So, um, I appreciate you sharing the journey of what brought you, you know, this, this
potential career ending injury, this guy, Bob Carter coming in and then you just kind
of hook, line, sinker, take going all in kind of burn the boats.
Yeah.
And that's really what we have to do.
Right.
I mean, where I've seen people stay stuck, uh, it's just that they're not really willing
to burn the last boat, like they're leaving themselves an exit strategy, right?
Yep.
And I do that too.
We all do that to a certain degree.
I remember, I remember so many times thinking like, whenever, probably never going to, I
don't know if I'm going to meet anybody that's really a godly woman and I would want to marry.
And then I just had to, I had to renew my mind quickly and say, look, Christianity's
the, you know, it's still the fastest growing religion in the world.
We're still having babies.
That means a lot of people are getting married and God's the one who created marriage.
So I bet he's probably got somebody for me.
So if I'll do the right thing now as a single person, I know that he's going to reward me
with a really awesome spouse and he did, but it was, but it was, um, six years later
after I came to know the Lord before I got married and, um, it just, now that I look
back on it, I'm actually amazed when I look back how, how patient I was because it seems
like I should have gotten a little bit antsy about it, but I think I love being single,
you know?
I was talking to someone this morning and saying, you know, Liz and I, we've loved every
phase and every season of our life of seeking the kingdom first.
So there was a dating time, there was a dating season, seek first the kingdom.
Then there was initially getting married in the honeymoon and, um, starting to raise a
family seeking the kingdom in that.
And a big family, seeing them grow up and parent them seeking the kingdom then.
Now everybody's gone except for one, we're seeking the kingdom now during this time.
So God wants us seeking first the kingdom of God, whatever our age, whatever season
we're in.
Well, Liz is an awesome woman, mighty lady of God, you've been blessed and you guys have
awesome kids.
You've stayed in the hunt as parents united under a mission kingdom of God.
You can see that throughout your life.
I would echo that.
I know God has totally graced and blessed me with Mandy.
She's such a great, excellent bride, better than I deserve, and has modeled God's kingdom
in our marriage throughout times and encouraged me that way.
That's right.
I love that.
It's so great.
It's awesome.
I'll ask you about this, in the book you're talking about,
you write, only intimacy with the king
and pursuing his kingdom brings all of life into synergy.
The kingdom of God brings the universe into unity.
It's not the Marvel universe, but the kingdom universe,
a united strategy of God for all of life
and all living things.
Thus, when you line up with ultimate life,
you are unified with the universe.
And so there's this concept of a daily union,
being in unity with God that brings alignment
into our lives.
When we pair that with his original idea
and imagination for us, his beloved creation,
this is a concept where, you know, as a Christ follower,
some people just don't get there.
But when we do get it,
then it does make things align so much better and easier.
I can think about in my life where I've tried to do things
with my own understanding and my own wisdom,
and that's always a dead end street, right?
But again, we're speaking to guys,
we're encouraging the men at the church,
and then obviously all the families on Sundays,
but how we grab this daily union and alignment.
Talk to me a little bit about walking out this habit one
in a regular expression, what does that look like?
Well, I talk about the DNA.
So the DNA in your body is what gives you your height,
generally speaking, even your weight,
your size of your hands, size of your nose and your ears,
and the color of your eyes, the color of your skin
is all DNA.
So I talk about in the book,
two strands of the DNA of the kingdom of God.
And in Romans, it talks about that the kingdom of God
is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
So if we were talking terms of the DNA
of the kingdom of God,
we're talking about righteousness, peace, and joy.
Now that's important because that's what everybody's after.
They may call it success, they might call it power,
they might call it achievement,
all those things that are outward
is what's gonna make them happy.
But what they're really looking for is right relationships.
That's what I think mainly righteousness
is about, right relationships,
peace, peace in your heart, and joy.
So I've never met anybody yet
who doesn't want righteousness, peace, and joy
in their life.
So every human being is seeking after something
that is characteristic of the kingdom of God.
So to seek first the kingdom brings it all together.
That brings the whole thing together.
So when we start seeking the kingdom of God first,
we're lining ourselves up with the creator of the universe.
And so his blessing being poured out upon us
unifies everything in our body.
It's just amazing.
And we talk about that in the book.
This idea that, especially I'm thinking of habit five,
which is about solitude and meditation,
and then habit eight, which is talking about working out.
When you're peaceful, when you're joyful,
and you're consistently doing righteous things,
you're actually activating brain cells that grow faster.
They're more creative.
We call it neuroplasticity in your life.
You just start to feel better.
That's right.
So you won't meet anybody out there
unless they're just not playing with a full deck.
But you're not gonna meet anybody out there
who won't say, if you explained it right,
yeah, what I really am looking for in life
is righteousness, peace, and joy.
So we were created to be Christian.
We were created by God to be born again and to follow him.
So for me, it was that reality of lining things up
and seeing that I was just more at home with myself.
With the world, with my relationships,
by seeking first the kingdom of God.
That's huge.
Value flows out of identity, right?
So you pen this in here, and this is, I think,
a pivotal point when we think about
the culture always imposing identity on us.
And that's where we derive our value as people.
It doesn't matter, man, woman.
Like, we either have a poor self-identity,
and then we flow from that.
We base our value on that, right?
But I think the opposite is also true.
And you go on to write that,
when we discover the loving intimacy with Christ,
we develop new values, kingdom values.
What was sticking out to me was,
you write here at the end.
our outward lifestyle based on our new priorities
begin to align with the universal purpose of life,
which is the kingdom of God.
So we were designed to be Christians.
We were designed to experience everything
that you're writing about.
And so when we step into the full knowledge of that
with the creation, the strength, the value,
the identity that we get to operate from,
you know, I'm thinking about that's the constant ripoff.
That's where we see the challenge from the enemy
consistently with the familiar, you know,
agreements that run through our mind,
the narrative where the enemy's trying to hammer us
to tear that identity away,
to separate the spiritual connection
that then physiologically we benefit from.
I think you're saying this DNA, the kingdom DNA,
we're more activated in our core and our spirit.
It's so hard, right, to shut the noise off
in the culture that's always trying to rob us
of our true creation, design, and identity.
Yeah, I think it short circuits the power in our life.
That's why PB&J, we talk about prayer, Bible, and journal
is so huge here.
That's the first thing.
I think that's the first thing I learned
about the kingdom, seeking the kingdom, following Jesus
was what back then we call a quiet time.
So the idea of a quiet time was read your Bible,
pray, write things in your journal.
Now, I've changed it to prayer, Bible, and journal, PB&J.
That's probably the one irreducible minimum
that I would say in the Christian life.
The irreducible minimum, in other words,
what's the fundamentals of being successful at something?
The irreducible minimum has to be one
who gets up in the morning or the evening,
opens their Bible, reads it,
prays through what they're reading,
writes down in a journal what they're learning
or growing in.
That's what sustained me.
That's what I'm sure sustained you.
You show me a Christian that's regular
in their quiet time, or what we're calling here the PB&J,
I'll show you eventually a successful,
effective individual.
Yeah, that has been a huge catalyst in the daily walk.
And even just my understanding of how we,
physiologically, were designed to need that.
It's kind of our operating manual
and how it really does sustain us,
secures us foundationally,
even for the shaky environment that if we didn't have,
man, I just think about it,
if we didn't have the kingdom of God
and weren't anchored to that,
how rocky the terrain would feel right now
in America, in the world,
with everything that's happening.
And people who don't know better
or haven't taken the full plunge in
are anchoring their stability with world governments,
American governments, the presidential thing,
like what happened in the last election.
I know we've talked about internally,
regardless of who sits in the overall office,
we know that we serve a God
that's created an unshakable kingdom.
Well, that's what Hebrew says,
that it's an unshakable kingdom.
Yeah, I mean, I've tested this now for 45 years
and my goodness, it's still working.
And I'm so pumped about the next 10 years of my life
here, both at the road
and in all the things that you and I do
with men's ministry, writing.
I mean, just all that stuff just gets me going.
And I just love it.
I love the adventure of it.
I can't even imagine how people find fulfillment
without Christ.
I don't know how they do it.
I don't see how you can stay married without Christ.
I don't see how you can stay physically healthy
without Christ.
I don't see how you can be mentally growing,
mentally with even raising your IQ level,
which we know can happen today.
You can raise your IQ level.
I can't even imagine your relationships without Christ.
For you out there that don't know Christ, God bless you,
but there's just so much more that you don't have.
And if you'll go after Christ,
if you'll come after Him and surrender your life to Him,
your life will, I'm not saying it'll improve
by cultural standards,
because there's so much, that's very complex.
But I will say it'll improve internally in your life
because you have the creator of the universe
and the savior of the world living in you.
I can't find anything close to it at all.
That's a fact.
Yeah, there's nothing on the shelves at the store.
There's no news bite that's going to, you know,
reassure me, refresh me.
as such the kingdom of God does.
That's right.
Right in the daily walk.
You write this about habit one,
and I think this is great.
As we enter into relationships around us,
this is the great commandment for all of us,
the great commission.
Habit one is learning to love Jesus first and foremost,
and loving our neighbors as we grow to love him.
It is with the love of God
that we reorient our heart toward our neighbors.
We view them from our heart of loving God.
His love flows through us to them.
And I think there's a narrative out there
for the unbeliever,
their perception of the church, the Christians.
You write in here and even quote Gandhi
about he loved the Christ of Christianity.
It's the Christians that were hard to follow, right?
And so, so true.
That's so convicting.
And as I engage personally with my walk,
the kingdom of God,
there's a narrative that I've tried to frame up,
and that is, well,
relationships and humanity can be frustrating, right?
We've heard other people say,
the thing I love about the church
is the thing that's frustrating about the church, right?
It's the people.
But beyond that and deeper into that
is this challenge that I work out with the Holy Spirit
to say, I don't wanna get frustrated, right?
I wanna stay fascinated.
God helped me be fascinated
with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ
and to harness the kingdom of God as he loved his creation.
That is something that we challenge the body with,
being in a relationship with bloodstained allies.
I know we'll get into that habit
a little bit later in the book,
but tying the connection of relationship
and the kingdom of God,
what have you found to be the most important aspect
or where you've grown the most in relationship,
leveraging kind of the kingdom of God's truth in your life,
in your relationships?
I think it's valuing people.
I don't think I had a level of value for people.
People were kind of utilitarian to me.
If they helped me, if they could promote my career,
if they could make me better,
if they could make me happy, then I had a relationship.
But to see the value of the human being made
in the image of Christ, to be imagers,
they carry the image of God wherever we go,
respecting life, respecting people, honoring people.
That was pretty huge.
I'm still learning that,
but I've had to relearn it
because of the tendency not to do this.
But I think that relationally, it's valuing people.
It's seeing how valuable they are, why they're important,
and what a contribution they can make too
if I'll pour into them, if I'll mentor and love them.
Well, thank you for that,
because I've seen the benefit.
I've been in the benefactor of that position
and been able to watch over this last decade
just how well that is seated in your heart.
And I think it's the way Jesus himself tells us
as his followers that the world will know us
by our own love towards them and back to them
and the people around us and our neighbors.
Super good.
I'd be remiss if in this section,
I didn't bring up the quote that you have from Pedro Arrupe.
I love this in the book.
Yeah, that's a great quote.
Love this quote.
And it was encouraging,
and I tied a theme to this in my own life,
but he says,
nothing is more practical than finding God,
than falling in love in a quite absolute final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination will affect everything.
It will decide how you will get out of bed in the morning,
what you will do with your evenings,
how you will spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.
And it's this idea, right,
of God's just absolute benevolent love over us.
He makes us curious as human beings
and then invites us into this mystery of Easter eggs
that he kind of leaves throughout his word in our own lives
that we're to seek and find.
And so for me, in the Christian walk,
it's this commitment to stay curious
about him and his kingdom and his plans for me.
The Christian walk has been described
as a long obedience in the same direction.
It's this marathon pace.
So staying engaged when it gets dry, when it gets dull,
and we're still getting up and we're relying.
I think the value, would you say the value of the habit
is that we're still applying the discipline
even in the dry times?
Yeah, most definitely.
That's why habits is so important.
That's why we have nine habits here.
That's why I feel so strongly.
When I was studying fear, I began to study courage
as an aftermath of looking at fear.
Again, it looked like.
Like to me, that the most courageous people
were people who are actually had built enough discipline
and habits in their life that their quotient level,
the level of their courage was pretty high.
So they get hit with something that a death in the family.
They get hit with losing their job.
They get hit with things like that,
not small things, but big things.
They were able to weather it pretty easily,
not that big of a deal.
Yeah.
I mean, certainly we go through times
that give us a jolt that is super hard,
but they always rally back.
Those kind of people rally back
because they were already incorporating
the habits of courage into their life.
And that's what those nine habits are all about.
It's huge.
These are there so that when things come
and they're going to come that shock us and surprise us,
we're not gonna let fear take over
because we have this courage
that really is the fabric of our lives
for years and years in the past.
So we're ready when those fears come our way.
Well, I can completely align and agree
with that the only times I have experienced true peace,
true joy, and true righteousness
is when I have prioritized seeking the kingdom of God
in my own life and then allowing Him to come in
and transform me.
So as we close this session,
just wanna leave this with you.
I think if you have never surrendered your heart
to Jesus Christ and His kingdom,
there's a prayer on page 25
that we'd like to model with you now.
And then that'll pivot and set you up
for challenge number three at the end of habit one.
We'll get to, we'll close with that.
And before I lead into this,
I just have to say just another great quote
that you have from Jean Guion
from her 17th century book, right?
This is the setup for this invitation.
And it's the last thing she writes
and it's acknowledging God,
acknowledging Him and His right to rule over us.
As our creator, as our designer, He has that right,
but He gives us the option to invite Him to do so.
So with our audience today,
I'd like to read the prayer
and then Pastor Steve's gonna model the response.
And we just invite you,
if you've never taken that step
towards this foundational moment in your own lives,
this is where everything will flow from
and it's where every habit will build upon.
Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.
I thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.
Thank you for rising from the grave on the third day
and conquering sin and death in my life.
Thank you for rising again on the third day
and conquering sin and death in my life.
I surrender the throne of my heart to you.
I want an intimate relationship with you, Lord.
Come take over my heart
and empower me to follow and fall in love with you.
Lord, come into my heart
and empower me to fall in love with you.
Today, I want your kingdom to come
and your will be done in every area of my life.
Lord, I want your kingdom to come
and your will to be done in every detail of my life.
Amen.
If you prayed that prayer for the first time,
on behalf of both of us, we just wanna say,
welcome to the team, we're excited for you,
we're excited for all that God has for you.
This book is gonna give you some very practical next steps
and we just wanna start by inviting you in,
starting tomorrow, get up early in the morning
and seek first the kingdom of God.
Begin using the PBJ outline that's in this book
for your personal time alone with God.
God bless you, thanks for joining us today.