Sermon Tone Analysis

March 5, 2012

By John Barnett

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As we open to Psalm 101, may I remind you of a transformational truth?

Your habits are shaping your destiny, one little action at a time.

Habits are the default settings of our soul.

When we do not consciously plan our behavior we are taken over by habit.

It is easier to operate by habit, also sometimes called our instinct, than it is to consciously choose each act.

Therefore perhaps the most powerful part of our lives is that box of mental auto-choices we call our habits.

Be sure that you are choosing to reap the result of holy habits, not unholy ones.

Many things can become habits.

Among the normal “good habits” are: neatness, responsibility, politeness, and so on.

Among the “bad habits” are: smoking, being late, over eating, being messy, and many others.

Most self-help organizations, secular counselors, and secular books agree on the idea of bad habits.

Here is a standard statement of them:

Bad habits, addiction and healthy habits are subconscious behaviors formed through repetition.

It takes about 21 days of determination and discipline to change or form a new habit.

Some of these that have been ingrained so deep in the brain will take a lot longer.

This is why there are support groups and tools to help people with addictive behavior.

Some people can't do it alone or have no willpower.

*List of bad habits...*

Nail biting; Smoking; Borrowing money; Procrastination; Overeating or food addiction; Desiring something for nothing ; Compulsive shopping; Binge drinking or habitual intoxication; Gambling; Drug addiction (http://www.about-personal-growth.com/bad-habits.html)

David had some of the most amazing habits: they were his chosen responses that reflected his devotion to God.

These auto-choice habits were what we would call Holy Habits: habits that cultivated holy living, holy actions, and holy responses to everyday situations David faced.

*Holy Habits*

Much of David’s world was so much like our lives today.

God hasn’t changed, nor will He.

So if David’s cultivated habits pleased God, they still will.

If David’s habits formed him into a young man that caught God’s attention so much that He said, “There is a man that does what I want done.

David is following my heart’s desires”—then shouldn’t you and I want to cultivate similar habits?

David cultivated habits of personal conduct and consecration.

These habits are captured in *Psalm 101* which can also be called David’s Plan for Purity.

He fled to the Lord as his refuge from sins of his youth.

This Psalm may be written in his youth as a record of his choice of “good habits” for his young years or later when he starts his career as King—as a testimony of God’s faithfulness in the past and a reaffirmation of his consecration to the Lord.

But no matter when these words came to David, they are directly from God, inspired as a record from David’s life that can transform our lives if we let them.

Please stand with me and consider David’s challenge to us for:

*Reaping the Results Of Holy Habits*

Psalm 101

A Psalm of David.

1 I will sing of mercy and justice;

To You, O LORD, I will sing praises.

2 I will behave wisely in a perfect way.

Oh, when will You come to me?

I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

3 I will set nothing wicked before my eyes;

I hate the work of those who fall away;

It shall not cling to me.

4 A perverse heart shall depart from me;

I will not know wickedness.

5 Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor,

Him I will destroy;

The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart,

Him I will not endure.

6 My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land,

That they may dwell with me;

He who walks in a perfect way,

He shall serve me.

7 He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house;

He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.

8 Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land,

That I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the LORD.

In this Psalm David revealed a list of choices for his growing years, that became his habits—his pathway to a godly life.

We could even say that Psalm 101 was David’s pact for purity.

He fled to the Lord as his refuge from sins of his youth.

*Habits start With Personal Choices*

If you look carefully you can see the intensely personal nature of this Psalm.

David speaks of his own internal workings of the will.

He sets forth a pathway to a life of godly habits starts with a series of personal choices or resolves of holiness to God.

Note with me as you follow along in this Psalm the nine “I wills” (1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3a, 4b, 5b, 5c, 8a).

Psalm 101

A Psalm of David.

1 *I will sing* of mercy and justice;

To You, O LORD, *I will sing* praises.

2 *I will behave* wisely in a perfect way.

[give heed to (NAS); ponder (ESV); careful to lead (NIV)] Oh, when will You come to me?*

I will walk* within my house with a perfect heart.

[integrity (NAS/ESV) blameless heart (NIV)]

3 *I will set* nothing wicked before my eyes; [no worthless thing (NAS); anything that is worthless (ESV); no vile thing (NIV)] I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.

4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; *I will not know* wickedness.

[I will have nothing to do with evil (NIV)]

5 Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, Him *I will destroy*; The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, Him *I will not endure.*

6 My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, That they may dwell with me; He who walks in a perfect way, He shall serve me.

7 He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.

8 Early* I will destroy* all the wicked of the land, That I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the LORD.

From those repeated choices David was making formed a lifetime of habits.

Be careful what you cultivate because:

*Habits are Powerful*

William James (1842-1910) the pioneering American psychologist, in his classic Principles of Psychology, despite being a secular, unsaved psychologist observed some amazing truths that God has built into the chemical makeup of humans, put it this way:

Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state.

We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone.

Every smallest stroke or virtue or vice leaves its ever so little scar.

The drunken Rip Van Winkle, in Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying, "I won't count this time!

Well!

He may not count it, but it is being counted nonetheless.

Down among his nerve cells and fibers the molecules are counting it, registering and storing it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes.

Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out.

Of course, this has its good side as well as its bad one.

So here in Psalm 101 we can trace the six very powerful habits that David cultivated as his own choices to live before a Holy God in daily, personal life.

1. *Habit One*: David* sought personal integrity* as his goal v.1-2b. 1 I will sing of mercy and justice; To You, O LORD, I will sing praises. 2 *I will behave* wisely in a perfect way.

Oh, when will You come to me? *I will walk* within my house with a perfect heart.