Dharius Daniels - This Is My Last Nerve

I want to use as a subject for today’s sermon, «This is my last nerve.» This is my last—clap your hands if you believe God’s gonna speak to us in our time together today! Families, as I was preparing for this presentation today, I remembered the book I read several years ago that uniquely impacted my perspective on progress. The name of the book was «The Compound Effect.» The Compound Effect, family, is simply a principle that suggests small, consistent actions or changes, when repeated over time, can lead to significant and exponential results. One more time: small, consistent actions or changes over time can lead to significant, exponential results. One more time: small—come on—consistent actions or changes, when repeated over time, can lead to significant and exponential results.

I don’t know if you know what I mean when I say «exponential.» Even if you’re not clear on what exponential means, you need to be excited about it because, whether you know it or not, all of us want God to do something exponentially in our lives. Come on and talk to me! Yeah! See, when God does it exponentially, it’s not addition; when God does it exponentially, it’s multiplication! It’s when He says you are no longer in the season of adding; you have stepped into the season of multiplying. I want to know, am I talking to anyone who believes God is getting ready to multiply? You didn’t talk back to me like you believed it! He’s getting ready to multiply joy, multiply opportunities, multiply strength, multiply favor, multiply your team, multiply your money, multiply your mind—exponential!

But you don’t experience exponential just by pursuing exponential. Small, consistent actions or changes over time lead to significant, exponential results. That book revolutionized my perspective on progress because it showed me that you don’t experience drastic changes by pursuing drastic changes. You experience drastic changes by implementing small changes and maintaining those small changes consistently over a period of time. Then your consistency compounds, and you look up and you step into a season of multiplication without even knowing it. You look up, and you’ve acquired skills you didn’t even know you had. You look up, and you’ve accidentally gotten good at something without even realizing how it happened. You look up, and you’ve gotten stronger; you don’t even know where this strength came from. It was an exponential experience because consistency compounds. Those who understand and embrace this principle realize that I may not be able to change my destination overnight, but I can change my direction.

I can’t change my spiritual state tomorrow, but I can change my spiritual disciplines today. And if I change my spiritual disciplines today, it’s going to change my spiritual state one day. I can’t change my relationships overnight, but we can change how we start treating each other today. If we change the way we treat each other today, it’s going to affect our relationship tomorrow. I can’t change my body overnight, but I can change what I’m putting into it today. And if I keep changing what I’m putting in and maintain that consistency, I look up, and it’ll change my body. It’s the Compound Effect! And when the devil can’t stop you and me from doing the right thing, his next step is to try to get us to do the right thing the wrong way. If he can’t keep you with a grasshopper mentality—where you’re small-minded—he will try to get you and me to do big things the wrong way.

You don’t do big things by trying to do big things; you do big things by doing small things consistently over a period of time, which gives you the capability to do big things. I’m telling you today that if you are willing to do small things like they are big things, you’ll hit a season where you can do big things like they are small things. I said, if you are willing to do small things like they are big things, then you’ll hit a season where you can do big things like they are small things! If you are willing to take care of the lion and the bear when nobody’s looking, then you’ll be able to knock down Goliath when everybody’s looking because consistency compounds. This is why I don’t have time, and this is why the enemy is after your consistency.

Yeah, I’m doing good teaching! I’m doing a teaching this Saturday on Super Saturday with people on the parking team, the host team, and some of our other teams about spiritual warfare because I want us, as a church, to demystify spiritual warfare. The Bible says when we are ignorant of Satan’s devices, he has an advantage over us. Some of us are looking for him in big things, and we don’t see the warfare in small things. We don’t realize that our struggle with consistency is an indication of warfare; the enemy is fighting you in areas you don’t even call the enemy. You just think it’s a habit, a hang-up, or an issue. I’m not trying to over-spiritualize it, but it’s a devil who doesn’t want you to be consistent, so he fights you tooth and nail because he knows if you ever get consistent… I say he’s after it! I say he’s after it! I say he’s after it!