Steven Furtick — 3 Habits of a Healthy Heart
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. And 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 statues. I hate," this is 113, "I hate..."
I hate... What's that word doing in the Bible? I thought we were supposed to love everything. No. "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. I hate... It's not a person I hate. It's, I hate the condition of double-mindedness. I hate it."
And see, the thing about hate is hate is the most powerful motivation to change, not love. And 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 that you hate. And it's going to be complicated because, you know, 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, he said, "Your son is dead," and David started weeping. And Joab was mad because Absalom was trying to take the throne from David. And 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. And 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. And certain things in my life, I hate how they feel when I'm doing them.
I hate to plank. Exhibit A; I mean, 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 was standing on the stage and saying, "I hate to exercise." You know why I hated it? 'Cause 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 worth your while. I'm going to teach today. Get that Elevation pen ready. We're going to burn it up today. You can get a new one next week. I grew to hate... I think 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."
And 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." And 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 it.
You have to hate self-pity. And the problem with hating self-pity is 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 it what it did to my waist. This is so good. 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 long-standing 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 anger. Oh, 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. And it's complicated.
It's a complicated relationship that I have with complaining. I love to complain. Oo, I love to tell somebody, "Well, the Bible says don't do it," 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. I mean, just as it's coming out of your mouth, just to unload on 'em when somebody says, "How are you doing".
Just let 'em 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'm finished on Sunday, when I'm watching back my sermon, "Furtick, don't say stuff like that. People put it on YouTube and use it against you as a weapon." But I've just got to tell you, 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, 'cause if I can get you down here then I feel like I'm right here. 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. Healthy hate? Yeah. 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've got 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. 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," 'cause she doesn't. But you've got 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." 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. Now, I hate the discipline of preparation, too. But I hate the pain of procrastination more than I hate. I hate it.