Speaker 1: Your past is past. Did you do some dumb things? Yes,
Speaker 1: but you can't change that. You are a product of
Speaker 1: your past, but you are not a prisoner of your past.
Speaker 1: About a couple hours ago, as I was finishing up
Speaker 1: this weekend's message, my computer just froze and I lost
Speaker 1: the entire teaching notes. I mean, they could not be
Speaker 1: recovered I could figure out. And it was about a
Speaker 1: thirty minute period of panic whor I thought, Hmm, I
Speaker 1: wonder are we going to just sing a bunch of
Speaker 1: extra verses of songs this week? Because all that I
Speaker 1: had planned to say and speak on was gone. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: the maestro of workarounds, R. J. Hughes on our staff,
Speaker 1: figured out how to save at least a third of
Speaker 1: the message. I had to reformate it before imat that part,
Speaker 1: but he got me at least a third of the
Speaker 1: message back, and I immediately gave him a one million
Speaker 1: dollar raise. But you know what, my computer had been
Speaker 1: sluggish for some time and it finally just stopped working.
Speaker 1: And you know you've had this happen on yours, where
Speaker 1: you know, too many programs start conflicting with each other
Speaker 1: and you get too many error messages clogging up of
Speaker 1: the system and the machine, and eventually it just froze.
Speaker 1: And at that point there was only one possible thing
Speaker 1: I could do. Hit the reset button. Okay, reboot. My
Speaker 1: computer needed a clean memory, and my computer memory needed
Speaker 1: a fresh start, new ram and all of that, and
Speaker 1: so sometimes you just have to hit restart. Now. Of
Speaker 1: course people are like that, and we all live very
Speaker 1: complicated lives. Your life is complicated, mind is and there
Speaker 1: are a lot of different programs running in your mind
Speaker 1: and in your body and running all around you in
Speaker 1: your brain, and you can quickly find yourself on overload.
Speaker 1: Everybody agree with that, okay, and you feel like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm getting sluggished because there's too much trying to go
Speaker 1: on at one time, and your brain starts sending you
Speaker 1: error messages in your mind. And what you need is
Speaker 1: a life reboot. You need a refresh, you need a
Speaker 1: reset of your life. Well, that's exactly what Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: came to do. He was sent to Earth to offer
Speaker 1: you a fresh start. If you were to ask me
Speaker 1: to summarize what our church has been doing for forty
Speaker 1: three years, forty three easters, now I would summarize the
Speaker 1: goal of Saddleback Church in two words, changed lives. That's
Speaker 1: what we're all about. Change lives. Okay, we're not about
Speaker 1: how big we are. We're not about how flashy we are.
Speaker 1: We're not about buildings, we're not about music, we're not
Speaker 1: about the sermon. We're about change lives. We are in
Speaker 1: the transformation of life business. If you want to know
Speaker 1: what makes your pastor run, I am addicted to change lives.
Speaker 1: And all I have to do is here about one
Speaker 1: person who gave their lives to Christ, or one marriage
Speaker 1: put back together, or one kid gets off drugs, or
Speaker 1: somebody's life was turned around and somebody got a new
Speaker 1: lease on life. That just keeps me going. It really
Speaker 1: really does. When we hear people become what God has
Speaker 1: always intended them to be. That's the purpose of the church. Now,
Speaker 1: this kind of transformation where people's lives are radically changed,
Speaker 1: it's called a lot of different things. It's called salvation.
Speaker 1: When you step across the line, it's called sanctification. When
Speaker 1: you keep on growing and changing, it's called conversion. It's
Speaker 1: called starting over. It's called being born again. Is called
Speaker 1: getting a fresh start, having a life reset, et cetera,
Speaker 1: et cetera. And in the history of our church, hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of people have experienced this personal reset of
Speaker 1: their lives. Most of you could tell a story how
Speaker 1: your life has been changed by Jesus Christ. I was
Speaker 1: going this way, now I go this way. Doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you're perfect, but it means that your life was radically
Speaker 1: altered in the direction this past week. I always receive
Speaker 1: a lot of letters after Easter, and I received many
Speaker 1: letters from the thirty eight thousand people who came to
Speaker 1: Easter Saddleback Service last weekend. And I want to begin
Speaker 1: by just reading you one of those letters, because I
Speaker 1: think it expresses where I want us to go in
Speaker 1: this new series. A Dear Pastor, Rick, I've known about
Speaker 1: Saddleback Church for maybe fifteen years, and I was always
Speaker 1: curious about why it attracted so many people. But I
Speaker 1: had never attended a service until a friend invited me
Speaker 1: to last week's Easter service, so I went out of curiosity. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I was not prepared for what I experienced. Everyone was
Speaker 1: smiling and so happy and joyful and welcoming, and the
Speaker 1: love on their faces immediately put me at ease. Although
Speaker 1: I had never been in church, but when the people
Speaker 1: started singing with all their hearts, tears instantly started flowing
Speaker 1: from my eyes. I didn't know any of the songs,
Speaker 1: but the way that people sang them scunned me. Do
Speaker 1: you realize that when you sing a church, you're a
Speaker 1: witness to everybody else You're preaching a sermon when you sing,
Speaker 1: When you sing from the heart, it's saying God is
Speaker 1: real to me? So I said, their love on their
Speaker 1: faces put me to ease. But when they began started
Speaker 1: singing with all their heart, tears instantly flowed from my face.
Speaker 1: I didn't know any of the songs, but the way
Speaker 1: the people sang them stunned me. I could feel God
Speaker 1: for the first time in my life. I didn't understand it,
Speaker 1: but I instantly realized that I had been missing out
Speaker 1: on something that I desperately needed. So long before I
Speaker 1: even got to speak, She's or he, whoever this is,
Speaker 1: got moved. Then you Rick spoke about God's love and
Speaker 1: God's purposes and how God wants everybody in his family.
Speaker 1: I took get all in with great wonder, and at
Speaker 1: the close of that service, when you let everybody in
Speaker 1: a prayer, I prayed it too. And while I was
Speaker 1: saying those words, the tears returned, and I felt overwhelmed
Speaker 1: by God's love for me. Okay, Pastor Rick, Pastor Rick,
Speaker 1: I don't know what the next steps should be, but
Speaker 1: I do know this. The direction of my life was
Speaker 1: reset in that moment. So please help me now to
Speaker 1: know what to do next. Now, what caught my attention
Speaker 1: in that particular letter was the word reset. I've told
Speaker 1: you that I've been going up to northern California to
Speaker 1: a clinic near Stanford University where a team of doctors
Speaker 1: has been trying to study the constant pain in my
Speaker 1: body and figure out how to cure it. And at
Speaker 1: the first meeting with these doctors, I asked the head doctor,
Speaker 1: the lead doctor, and there were seven of them in
Speaker 1: the room, what is exactly what is it you're exactly
Speaker 1: trying to accomplish in me and in my body? And
Speaker 1: he replied very quickly, Rick, we intend to reset your health,
Speaker 1: and we intend to reset it using a number of
Speaker 1: different biological tools they weren't even available ten years ago.
Speaker 1: And I thought, fantastic, that's great. I'm all in for
Speaker 1: a biological reset. And while you're at it, can you
Speaker 1: make me thirty years younger and give me Brad Pitt's
Speaker 1: face while you're at it. A year ago, you may
Speaker 1: remember that I actually did a message on this theme reset.
Speaker 1: It was right after we started back on meeting publicly.
Speaker 1: We were meeting outside with COVID and we just started
Speaker 1: meeting and all the COVID restrictions, And I told you
Speaker 1: that God was not interested post the pandemic for you
Speaker 1: to simply resume your old way of life. He didn't
Speaker 1: care about your resuming your old way of life, going
Speaker 1: back to your old ways. He wanted you instead to
Speaker 1: reset your life in a whole new direction. I want
Speaker 1: to come back to that theme, and this weekend I'm
Speaker 1: starting a new short series that I'm simply calling resetting
Speaker 1: my life. Now. The Dictionary definition of the word reset,
Speaker 1: pull out your message notes. Go ahead and pull them
Speaker 1: all out, and at the top of your message notes,
Speaker 1: the Dictionary defines reset as the opportunity to make a
Speaker 1: fresh new start, to begin again. Now, that's something that
Speaker 1: Jesus specializes in a fresh new start and beginning again.
Speaker 1: And the Bible gives us in scripture a lot of themes,
Speaker 1: many many theme verses that we're going to look in
Speaker 1: this series to talk about a fresh new start and
Speaker 1: a resetting of your life. But let me just give
Speaker 1: you one of them today. It's at the top of
Speaker 1: your message notes there. The first verse Phesians four twenty
Speaker 1: two to twenty four talks about the resetting of your life.
Speaker 1: It says this, you've learned the truth that is in Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus that I am the truth. So in regard to
Speaker 1: your former way of life, you talk about what you
Speaker 1: were before you were a Christian, before you met Christ,
Speaker 1: before you were born again, before you open your heart
Speaker 1: to His love. Regarding your former way of life, put
Speaker 1: off your old self health and be made new in
Speaker 1: the attitude of your mind, and put on your new self,
Speaker 1: created to be like God, truly good and holy. Now
Speaker 1: I want you to circle the phrase put off and
Speaker 1: the word phrase put on. Okay, God says that once
Speaker 1: you've invited Jesus into your life and you put your
Speaker 1: trust in Him, there is a process of growth and change,
Speaker 1: and God resets your life in a certain way. And
Speaker 1: just like changing clothes, there are some clothes you take
Speaker 1: off old ones, dirty ones, holy ones that are messed up,
Speaker 1: and then you put on a new set of clothes,
Speaker 1: so you take off some and you put on some others.
Speaker 1: He said, This is part of the process of God
Speaker 1: resetting your life. Now today we're not going to talk
Speaker 1: about the steps to resetting your life. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of them, and we're going to look at them in
Speaker 1: the weeks ahead, and you don't want to miss any
Speaker 1: of it. But instead I want to give you what
Speaker 1: to call the preliminaries. There are four things you need
Speaker 1: to do to get ready to have your life completely transformed.
Speaker 1: These are four prerequisites, four preliminaries that have to happen
Speaker 1: in your life. If all of a sudden you're going
Speaker 1: to become the woman you want to become, the man
Speaker 1: you want to become, the person God created you to be.
Speaker 1: From the very start, there's some things you have to
Speaker 1: do preliminary wise, before you even start taking the reset steps. Now,
Speaker 1: what I want us to do this weekend, as I said,
Speaker 1: is look at the four preliminaries preparation steps for God
Speaker 1: to do a major rehaul, a major revamping, a rebooting,
Speaker 1: a resetting, a recharging or renewing of your life. And
Speaker 1: here are the four things you have to do to
Speaker 1: get ready for a reset number one. Start asking God
Speaker 1: to do something new in me. I start asking God
Speaker 1: to do something new in me. And you don't just
Speaker 1: ask him once. You show that you mean business by
Speaker 1: asking him more than once, by repeatedly bringing your request
Speaker 1: to God. You know, any parent knows that when at
Speaker 1: Christmas time a child says, I want this for Christmas.
Speaker 1: If they only mentioned it one time, they don't really
Speaker 1: want it. They have to say it three or four times.
Speaker 1: And he goes, Now, this is the difference between a
Speaker 1: whim and a genuine want. Okay, And God says, are
Speaker 1: you serious about changing your life? Are you serious about
Speaker 1: being a different guy, a different gal, a man of God,
Speaker 1: a woman of God? Are you serious about breaking some
Speaker 1: of those bad habits in your life? I need you
Speaker 1: to tell me. Now you might wonder, is it okay
Speaker 1: for me to ask God to do something new in
Speaker 1: my life? God, I wants you to do something new,
Speaker 1: something fresh, something different, something unique in my life. Can
Speaker 1: you do that? Yes? In fact, it's in the job
Speaker 1: description of Jesus Christ first verse there under that point,
Speaker 1: Revelation twenty one, and Jesus says, I am making everything old. Now,
Speaker 1: that's all what he says is it I'm making everything boring,
Speaker 1: I'm making everything the same. No, he said, I'm making
Speaker 1: everything what new. This is what he does. Jesus transforms life.
Speaker 1: So if you're tired of your old way of living,
Speaker 1: this is the guy you come to. I make everything new. Now.
Speaker 1: A good prayer that you could pray is the one
Speaker 1: that David prayed in Psalm fifty one, and in Psalm
Speaker 1: fifty one he asked God's to create a new heart
Speaker 1: in him, create a clean spirit, do some new work
Speaker 1: in him. And in Psalm fifty one, verse ten. I
Speaker 1: love this verse, particularly in the message paraphrase where David says, this, God,
Speaker 1: make a fresh start in me. I like that. Shape
Speaker 1: a genesis week from the chaos in my life. You
Speaker 1: need this verse, make a fresh start in me, shape
Speaker 1: a new creation from the chaos of my life. You
Speaker 1: might want to write that on a little card and
Speaker 1: put it on your refrigerator and memorize that verse this week. Now.
Speaker 1: It's not only a good prayer to be the start
Speaker 1: of asking God to do something new in your life,
Speaker 1: but it's also significant even more when you realize that
Speaker 1: David wrote this after stealing another man's wife and having
Speaker 1: the man, the husband murdered. We've got a little bit
Speaker 1: different context now. David has created two of the top
Speaker 1: sins up there, adultery and murder, and he's saying, God,
Speaker 1: I need you to make a fresh start in me
Speaker 1: shape of Genesis week, in the chaos of my life.
Speaker 1: What that implies is really quite good news. And what
Speaker 1: it implies is that you are never too far gone
Speaker 1: for God's grace, for God's forgiveness. You can't do a
Speaker 1: bad enough thing that God's gonna say, eh, time out.
Speaker 1: You don't get any more chances. This is a message
Speaker 1: of grace, God, do something new in me. I have
Speaker 1: so messed it up, so screwed up my life, so
Speaker 1: meet to fiasco of everything, and I've done this sin
Speaker 1: and this one and this one and this one, this one.
Speaker 1: But I need a fresh start. I don't care what
Speaker 1: you've done, I don't care who you've done it with,
Speaker 1: and I don't care how long you've done it. You
Speaker 1: can get a fresh start and a life reset starting
Speaker 1: today if you'll come to God. And the first preliminary
Speaker 1: is to just say, God, I need a fresh start.
Speaker 1: I'm carrying too much baggage. I'm carrying too much sin.
Speaker 1: I'm carrying too much guild. I'm carrying too many regrets. Listen,
Speaker 1: your past is past, it's over. Did you do some
Speaker 1: dumb things? Yes, but you can't change that. You are
Speaker 1: a product of your past, but you are not a
Speaker 1: prisoner of your past. You might write that one down.
Speaker 1: In fact, you might tweet that one. Rick says, you're
Speaker 1: a product of your past. You have been shaped by
Speaker 1: the good and the bad and the ugly things in
Speaker 1: your life, but you're not a prisoner of it. You
Speaker 1: can change. That's the gospel. That's the good news. That's
Speaker 1: what Christianity is all about. There can be pushing the
Speaker 1: reset button and I get a second chance, I get
Speaker 1: a new life, I get it born again, I get
Speaker 1: new freedom, and I can get a second chance, on
Speaker 1: a third chance, and on and on. Now, here's what
Speaker 1: God says about your past. Are you listening, Isaiah forty three,
Speaker 1: verse eighteen and nineteen. Here's what God says about your past.
Speaker 1: Forget the former things and do not dwell on the past,
Speaker 1: whether it's good or bad. Instead, God says, look at
Speaker 1: the new things I'm going to do. They're already starting
Speaker 1: to happen. Can you see what I've begun to do,
Speaker 1: God says, I don't want you to constantly look at
Speaker 1: it in the rearview mirror. If you're always looking in
Speaker 1: the rearview mirror, you're going to crack up while you're driving.
Speaker 1: The only way you can drive effectively is look to
Speaker 1: the future. Not look what's behind you, but look to
Speaker 1: the future. All of the rest of your life is
Speaker 1: of the future, not in the past. As I said,
Speaker 1: your past is past, so don't dwell on it. Start
Speaker 1: asking God to do something new in me. Do you
Speaker 1: know why nothing's happening new in your life right now
Speaker 1: because you're not asking Look at the next verse James,
Speaker 1: Chapters four, Verse two. You do not have what you
Speaker 1: want because you don't what ask God for it. Circle
Speaker 1: that start on. You don't have it because you don't
Speaker 1: ask for it. Have you ever asked God for a
Speaker 1: reset in your life? God, I need a fresh start.
Speaker 1: I've blown it. I've made a big mistake mistakes plural,
Speaker 1: and I need a fresh start. I need a new start,
Speaker 1: I need a revamping. I need to reboot my life.
Speaker 1: This is the first preparation step. You're going to have
Speaker 1: to start asking God. God, I want you to do
Speaker 1: something new in my life, and I pray that. In
Speaker 1: the weeks ahead, during this series, you're going to be
Speaker 1: praying this prayer every day, and I want you to
Speaker 1: pray it every day this week. I want you to
Speaker 1: when you think about it, go God, would you do
Speaker 1: something new in my life? Would you do something fresh
Speaker 1: in my life? Would you give me a fresh start?
Speaker 1: Would you give me a renewed energy, renewed spirit, renewed
Speaker 1: hope and heart. The first step in preparation is to
Speaker 1: ask God for a reset. Here's the second thing in preparation.
Speaker 1: These are preliminaries. PenPoint specifically what I want changed in me.
Speaker 1: That's the second thing you do. If you want to
Speaker 1: get a brand new start in life. Penpoints specifically what
Speaker 1: I want changed in me. Nothing becomes transforming until it
Speaker 1: becomes specific. You don't just say God, I want you
Speaker 1: to change me, and God's gonna say specifically what do
Speaker 1: you have in mind? Change what? What do you want changed? Okay,
Speaker 1: you can't change your generality, So don't just say God,
Speaker 1: change me. Don't say change. You have to clarify, You
Speaker 1: have to identify, You have to decide where you want
Speaker 1: to be different as a man, or as a woman,
Speaker 1: Where do I want to be different? You see, you
Speaker 1: cannot solve any problem obviously to first you identify it
Speaker 1: as a problem. Do you know the problems in your life?
Speaker 1: Are you just still in denial about them all? You
Speaker 1: got to identify the problems in your life. You've got
Speaker 1: to clarify the problems in your life. You've got to
Speaker 1: admit that they are problems in your life. Oh no,
Speaker 1: I'm not really in debt. Oh no, I'm not really
Speaker 1: habitually procrastinating whatever. No I don't need help in an area, Well,
Speaker 1: then you'll be helpless. Now. The more specific you are
Speaker 1: about what you want God to change in your life,
Speaker 1: the easier it's going to be God for God to
Speaker 1: do it and to help you, and to do it faster. Now,
Speaker 1: what I've done on your message notes is the created
Speaker 1: a little checklist to jog your memory. Where do I
Speaker 1: need help? What would I like to change in my life?
Speaker 1: What are the things in my life, relationships or whatever
Speaker 1: that I'm dissatisfied with? I'm just not cook them on
Speaker 1: all burners. I'm not on all the cylinders. So I
Speaker 1: want to do this is worth it for us to
Speaker 1: take some time, right now in this service. This may
Speaker 1: be one of the most important things you do this
Speaker 1: week is to take this personal inventory right now. The
Speaker 1: Bible says in Second Corinthian, chapter thirteen, verse five, look
Speaker 1: closely at yourself. Let mean, do a little self examination,
Speaker 1: test yourselves to see if you're really living in the faith. Okay,
Speaker 1: So here, here are you know, a dozen or so areas.
Speaker 1: Let's look at these. What where do I need a reset?
Speaker 1: What would I like God to change in my life
Speaker 1: to give me a fresh start? How about in my
Speaker 1: connection to God? So well, how do I know if
Speaker 1: I need a reset? There? Has there ever been a
Speaker 1: time in your life when you felt closer to God
Speaker 1: than you do right now? If the answer is yes,
Speaker 1: you need to reset, You need to reboot, You need
Speaker 1: a reconnection. So you need to check that box. Yes,
Speaker 1: if you say I've never been closer to God than
Speaker 1: I'm right now, you don't need to check that one.
Speaker 1: You're copasthetic, You're okay. How about do I need a
Speaker 1: reset in my health and body like the doctors are
Speaker 1: trying to do with me right now? Do you need
Speaker 1: help in your metabolism, in some area of your your
Speaker 1: chronic illness or something you mean I could ask God
Speaker 1: about that. Of course you can do. I need a
Speaker 1: reset in my priorities. Are your priorities out of whack
Speaker 1: and things that really aren't important all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you're spending all your time doing those, and the things
Speaker 1: that are really important you're not doing those. That's your
Speaker 1: I need a reset in my priorities. Okay, check that one.
Speaker 1: How about a relationship. Do you have a relationship boyfriend,
Speaker 1: girlfriend friend or whatever, and you're going it's stagnating or
Speaker 1: it may be deteriorating. Do I need a reset in
Speaker 1: that relationship? How About in your energy level? He said,
Speaker 1: I'm finding it going lower and lower. Do I need
Speaker 1: to restart there? How About in your career? In my
Speaker 1: career or in my job. If you're out of work
Speaker 1: right now, you need to restart. If you just got
Speaker 1: laid off or fired, you're out of work, you need
Speaker 1: to restart there. How About in my thought life? I'm
Speaker 1: having thoughts that I don't like. I can't control them.
Speaker 1: They scare me. They're the wrong kind of thoughts. I
Speaker 1: shouldn't have these kind of thoughts and they bother me.
Speaker 1: Check that. Do I need to reset in my marriage? No? Marriage?
Speaker 1: Ever stands still. At every point in your marriage, you're
Speaker 1: either growing closer together or you're drifting further apart. No
Speaker 1: marriage just stands still. So if you're not growing closer together,
Speaker 1: you're drifting apart. And maybe you need to reset in
Speaker 1: your marriage. I need to refall in love. I've had
Speaker 1: to refall in love with my life, my wife many
Speaker 1: many times in almost forty seven years of marriage. You
Speaker 1: just have to re up and recommit. How About in
Speaker 1: your routines? Are your routines out of whack? You know,
Speaker 1: the routine I'm in right now started during COVID, is
Speaker 1: not helping me and I need to change my routine.
Speaker 1: I need to reset there. Maybe you need to check
Speaker 1: that one. Or how about habits? Do I need to
Speaker 1: replace some bad habits with some good habits? How About
Speaker 1: in my parenting? Some of you need to reset in
Speaker 1: your parenting, And right now you need to reset a
Speaker 1: relationship with one of your kids. They'd be into maybe
Speaker 1: an adult child, but you're out of whack with them
Speaker 1: and you need to reset in that relationship. You check
Speaker 1: that one. How About in my time and my schedule?
Speaker 1: Have you figured out that it's easier to fill your
Speaker 1: schedule than to fulfill your schedule. Have you discovered that
Speaker 1: it's easier to get in to something rather than to
Speaker 1: get out of it. It's easier to commit than to
Speaker 1: actually fulfill. And you say, my time's out of control,
Speaker 1: my schedules out of control, I'm always pressured, I'm always
Speaker 1: late whatever you check out, and I need to reset there?
Speaker 1: How about in your self confidence? See? Why would I
Speaker 1: need to reset my self confidence? Well, if you've just
Speaker 1: experienced a major rejection, you probably do. If you've been
Speaker 1: rejected at work, Have you been rejected by a friend,
Speaker 1: or a parent or a lover, You've been rejected by
Speaker 1: your spouse or somebody. Anytime you have rejection, your self
Speaker 1: confidence takes a hit and you say, I need to
Speaker 1: reset that Lord in my life? How about finances? Am
Speaker 1: I in denial about all the death that I'm in
Speaker 1: I'm just pretending it's not really there? Or do I
Speaker 1: need a reset in my dream? Now? What we're going
Speaker 1: to do this? I told you this week is just
Speaker 1: an introduction. In the weeks ahead, we are going to
Speaker 1: cover many of the areas in detail, So I don't
Speaker 1: want you to miss any of the messages in this
Speaker 1: series on uh, you know, resetting my life, because this
Speaker 1: is news you can use now before we move on,
Speaker 1: there is I need to say a word to a
Speaker 1: special group of you, and that is the few of
Speaker 1: you who just now as I went through that list
Speaker 1: did not check a single box. Really, you're that perfect.
Speaker 1: You're in such denial you couldn't even find a single
Speaker 1: box to check. Hello, you out of touch with you?
Speaker 1: You must be Jesus, you're so perfect. Why don't you
Speaker 1: come up here and just take over and you start teaching,
Speaker 1: because I would certainly act to learn from somebody who's perfect.
Speaker 1: You can't find a single thing that you said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I need help in that area. If not you, you're
Speaker 1: it's a desperate time for you. The most desperate thing
Speaker 1: is you're out of touch with the reality in your life.
Speaker 1: And the Bible says the heart's deceitful, which means you
Speaker 1: lie to yourself more than you lie to anybody else.
Speaker 1: And for those of you who didn't check a single box,
Speaker 1: this is what God says to you. Next verse Romans
Speaker 1: twelve three. Do not think you are better than you
Speaker 1: really are. Decide what you really are by the amount
Speaker 1: of faith that God has given you. So I want
Speaker 1: to highly recommend, even if you use false humility, go
Speaker 1: back and check a few things, because trust me, you're
Speaker 1: not perfect. Trust me, there's things on that list that
Speaker 1: need a reset in your life. And if you don't
Speaker 1: understand that, you really are out of touch with your
Speaker 1: own self. Because nobody's perfect. We're all flawed. We know
Speaker 1: that God knows that, and actually you know it. But
Speaker 1: you're just trying to tell yourself something different. You rationalize.
Speaker 1: You know what rationalized means. You tell yourself rational lies.
Speaker 1: You tell yourself in your mind what your heart is
Speaker 1: telling you is wrong in your mindset, It's okay, it's
Speaker 1: not now this weekend, we're just identifying the four preliminary
Speaker 1: steps to prepare you for a personal life reset. And
Speaker 1: everybody needs a reset at different stages in their lives.
Speaker 1: You're gonna need several of them in your lifetime. Step
Speaker 1: one preliminary start asking God to do something new in
Speaker 1: your life. Step two pinpoints specifically what you want God
Speaker 1: to change in your life now. The third step of
Speaker 1: preparation is this, find some people to support my reset.
Speaker 1: Find some people to support my reset. You're not gonna
Speaker 1: get better on your own. You're not gonna get reset
Speaker 1: by yourself. If you could, you would have, But you can't,
Speaker 1: so you won't. It's not it doesn't work. God has
Speaker 1: wired the universe and wired us that we need each other,
Speaker 1: that we're better together. As Alice said, that we only
Speaker 1: get healing, we only get health, we only get changed,
Speaker 1: and we only get real growth in relationship to other people.
Speaker 1: Now this is pretty self explanatory. We talk about this
Speaker 1: all atom because Saddleback is a church of small groups,
Speaker 1: over seven thousand small groups meeting in one hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety six cities of southern California. Ecclesiastes four, verse twelve
Speaker 1: says this, a person standing alone can be attacked and defeated,
Speaker 1: but two can stand back to back and conquer, and
Speaker 1: there three are even better. For a triple braided cord
Speaker 1: is not easily broken. There are some things in your
Speaker 1: life you need to conquer about you, but you're never
Speaker 1: going to conquer them by yourself. Revealing your feeling is
Speaker 1: the beginning of healing other people involved. Now, you don't
Speaker 1: need a bunch of people in your reset plan, in
Speaker 1: your recovery plan, in your reboot plan of your life,
Speaker 1: but you do need a few I'm talking two or
Speaker 1: three or four people. If you're in a small group,
Speaker 1: that's that's a good group to start with right there.
Speaker 1: If you're not in Celebrate Recovery, you can join Celebrate Recovery.
Speaker 1: But you're gonna need some friends. You don't need a lot,
Speaker 1: You just need some people who are gonna back you
Speaker 1: when you start working on some major changes in your life.
Speaker 1: Anybody who's ever done an exercise program or a diet
Speaker 1: program knows it works better with a buddy. Everybody needs
Speaker 1: a body. Okay, you can tweet that too. Everybody needs
Speaker 1: a buddy. You need somebody. It is not good for
Speaker 1: men to be alone. God says we need people in
Speaker 1: our lives to help us grow. And so you're gonna
Speaker 1: either have to get in a group if you're not
Speaker 1: in a group, or you're gonna have to We'll help
Speaker 1: you form group. Because to get the most out of
Speaker 1: this series, it's not something you just listen to and
Speaker 1: go home and you do. It's something that you're going
Speaker 1: to need other people in your life working with you.
Speaker 1: Just as Alice talked about the importance of that R
Speaker 1: please ask you four keen. If one person falls, another
Speaker 1: can reach out and help. But people who are alone
Speaker 1: when they fall, are in real trouble. You are going
Speaker 1: to fall. Count on it in your reset program for
Speaker 1: your life. You're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna stumble. There
Speaker 1: are gonna be days you feel like giving up. You
Speaker 1: say it's not worth it. It is worth it, and
Speaker 1: that's when you need other people that when you fall,
Speaker 1: they help you up. And he said, I don't even
Speaker 1: know if I believe in God right now. That's when
Speaker 1: you need people who say that's okay, we'll believe God
Speaker 1: for you right now. Everybody needs stretch your bearers in
Speaker 1: their life. So when you're going through major pain, they
Speaker 1: can carry you, and then when they're in pain, you
Speaker 1: can carry them. That's what family is all about. That's
Speaker 1: what the church families all So write this down. Community
Speaker 1: is God's antidote to discouragement, to defeat, and to failure.
Speaker 1: If you're discouraged, if you feel defeated, if you feel
Speaker 1: like a failure, I can tell you right now, you're
Speaker 1: not in community. You're not in true quantity, a true community,
Speaker 1: true relationship of friendship. Now, God says this about us
Speaker 1: because we're as Christians. Romans twelve, verse five since we
Speaker 1: are one body in Christ, we belong to each other,
Speaker 1: and each of us needs all the others. Did you
Speaker 1: know that you belong to me and I belong to you,
Speaker 1: and we need each other. And actually, your relationship to
Speaker 1: the other people in God's family is going to all
Speaker 1: outlast your family relationships, your your sports relationships, your work relationships,
Speaker 1: because these are going to go last forever. Okay, there
Speaker 1: are people out there who I know who are white,
Speaker 1: six foot two tall American males, and yet I have
Speaker 1: more in common with Alice because she's my sister in Christ,
Speaker 1: and I'm more committed to her than I am to
Speaker 1: somebody who looks like me, thinks like me, and votes
Speaker 1: like me. Does that make sense? Because that relationship between
Speaker 1: me and Alice, she's my sister. We're gonna be in habit,
Speaker 1: and if somebody hurts her, I should care because I'm
Speaker 1: her brother. Now, Hebrews ten twenty five says this, let
Speaker 1: us not give up the habit of meeting together. Instead,
Speaker 1: let us encourage one another. The problem with COVID is
Speaker 1: COVID was a group killer, and I was a fellowship killer.
Speaker 1: Every church in America right now is in rebuilding phase
Speaker 1: because a lot of people just got out of the
Speaker 1: habit of going to their group or going to service
Speaker 1: and things like that, and so we've got to rebuild.
Speaker 1: But the bottom is we build better together. Don't try
Speaker 1: to do a major life reset on your own, because
Speaker 1: you're going to fail. Okay, I'm just guarantee it. You're
Speaker 1: not going to stick with it. You need other people
Speaker 1: in your life. God wired it that we need others.
Speaker 1: Why because it requires humility. The Bible says God resists
Speaker 1: the proud and gives grace to the humble. The proud
Speaker 1: think they can do everything on their own. I don't
Speaker 1: need anybody else to help me. That's called pride, and
Speaker 1: that's why you're in the mess you're in right now
Speaker 1: and why you can't get out of it while you're stuck.
Speaker 1: Humility says I need God and I need other people.
Speaker 1: I need brothers and sisters in my life. Now here's
Speaker 1: the fourth preliminary step. Let's just get the set up
Speaker 1: for the whole series. Number four. Eliminate anything unhelpful or
Speaker 1: unhealthy in my life. Eliminate anything unhelpful or unhealthy in
Speaker 1: my life. Now you know what we're talking about here.
Speaker 1: If you've ever gone on a diet, you know, the
Speaker 1: first thing you do is you go to your kitchen
Speaker 1: and you start throwing away all the junk food so
Speaker 1: you're not tempted by it. You clean out your cabinet,
Speaker 1: and you clean out your refrigerator of all the stuff
Speaker 1: you know, I really don't want to be eating that,
Speaker 1: and you clean that out, and you clean out the
Speaker 1: junk food because you know you can't get healthy until
Speaker 1: you do. But what about the junk food you put
Speaker 1: in your mind? Maybe you need to cancel your cable
Speaker 1: subscription for a few months, or maybe you need to
Speaker 1: do a media fast and stay off of social media
Speaker 1: for two or three months. I'm certain your mood would improve.
Speaker 1: You'd feel less stressed, you'd feel a less in competition
Speaker 1: with everybody else, and you'd feel your joy would come
Speaker 1: up a whole lot higher. So here's what the Bible
Speaker 1: says about eliminating anything unhelpful and unhealthy Hebrews twelve to one.
Speaker 1: We should remove in anything from our lives that would
Speaker 1: get in the way and the sins that hold us back.
Speaker 1: Anything that gets in the way or sins that hold
Speaker 1: us back Hebrews twelve one and two. In the cev
Speaker 1: version says this, we must get rid of everything that
Speaker 1: slows down our progress, especially those sins that just won't
Speaker 1: let go, and you know what they are in your life.
Speaker 1: We must be determined to run the race that ahead
Speaker 1: of us, and we must keep our eyes on Jesus,
Speaker 1: who leads us. So here's the big question, here's the
Speaker 1: fourth question. Write this down. What do I need to
Speaker 1: get rid of or let go of? What do I
Speaker 1: need to get rid of or let go of? If
Speaker 1: I'm going to have a major reset in my life,
Speaker 1: I'm going to become the man God always intended me
Speaker 1: to be. I'm going to become the woman God always
Speaker 1: intended me to be. What do I need to let
Speaker 1: go of? What do I need to get rid of?
Speaker 1: Maybe a relationship that's out of whack. You know, if
Speaker 1: you say, well, I'm trying to help them come to Christ,
Speaker 1: that's a good thing. But if I come up here
Speaker 1: to the edge and I'm trying to lift you up
Speaker 1: and you're trying to bring me down, who's going to win?
Speaker 1: There's no question. Okay, it's more likely that that friend's
Speaker 1: going to bring you down then you bring them up.
Speaker 1: It's just the law of gravity. And so that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you don't love them pray for them. But you
Speaker 1: can't be friends with people who are going in a
Speaker 1: different direction than the reset you want to make in
Speaker 1: your life. Colossians chapter three, verse seven to ten talks
Speaker 1: about in order to prepare for the new me, I'm
Speaker 1: going to have to change some attitudes too. Now this
Speaker 1: is easier said than none. We'll go into it in
Speaker 1: detail in Weeks Ahead and Colossians three seven to ten.
Speaker 1: It says this you used to live. You used to live.
Speaker 1: It's your former life according to the selfish desires. In
Speaker 1: other words, I just did what's best for me, forget
Speaker 1: anybody else. They just do what's best for me. When
Speaker 1: your life was dominated by them, by their selfish desires.
Speaker 1: But now now that you're Christian, you must get rid
Speaker 1: of all these things. And he gives an example anger,
Speaker 1: hot temper, hating others, even those of a different political party.
Speaker 1: No insults, Well, that just ruled out much of the internet.
Speaker 1: No filthy talk. Must never come out of your lips
Speaker 1: and stop lining each other. For you have put off
Speaker 1: your old self and its habits, and you've put on
Speaker 1: your new self. That's called a life reset. Now it's
Speaker 1: interesting since recovering this in a series, the word reset
Speaker 1: is only used one time in Hebrew. In the entire Bible.
Speaker 1: The word reset has only used one time in the
Speaker 1: entire Bible, and it's an example where God is giving
Speaker 1: a word of encouragement to the people of Israel. Their
Speaker 1: nation had been ransacked and defeated in a huge war
Speaker 1: by a superior army the Empire of Babylon, and Babylon
Speaker 1: had come into Israel, taken over the entire country, taken
Speaker 1: almost all of the citizens as prisoners of war, and
Speaker 1: moved them back to Babylon for seventy years where they
Speaker 1: lived as prisoner of war, and they ransacked and destroyed
Speaker 1: the capital Jerusalem. And all this time God had not
Speaker 1: forgotten them. And when they turned back to him, God says,
Speaker 1: I've got a word for you, because this is the
Speaker 1: end of a chapter of your life, but it's not
Speaker 1: the end of the story. And I'll tell that to
Speaker 1: you too. What you're going through right now may be
Speaker 1: the end of a chapter in your life, but it's
Speaker 1: not the end of the story. And to the discouraged
Speaker 1: people of Israel captive in Babylon, God says this Isaiah
Speaker 1: fifty four, Verse ten eleven. The mountains may shake and
Speaker 1: the hills may crumble. In other words, everything may be
Speaker 1: falling apart in your life. It's all coming apart of
Speaker 1: the seams earthquake time. The mountains may shake and the
Speaker 1: hills may crumble. But my unfeeling love for you will
Speaker 1: never be shaken. Circle that never be shaken. Everything else
Speaker 1: can come apart. You may lose all kinds of You're
Speaker 1: not gonna ever go lose my love, and my promise
Speaker 1: of peace will never change, says the Lord who has
Speaker 1: compassion on you, And then he turns us promise to Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: the city that had been destroyed. Oh Jerusalem, you suffering
Speaker 1: storm ravaged city, needing comfort. Maybe you feel like that,
Speaker 1: suffering storm ravage, needing comfort. I will rebuild you with
Speaker 1: priceless jewels, and I will reset your foundations with sapphires.
Speaker 1: Now that's a metaphor. Okay, this is where the only
Speaker 1: time the word reset is used in the Hebrew scriptures.
Speaker 1: I'll reset your foundation with sapphires, he said, I'm going
Speaker 1: to build it back. This is on the end of
Speaker 1: the story. We're going to rebuild this Israel, rebuild Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: To its glory, only this time. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: build a foundation on sand. I'm not going to build
Speaker 1: a foundation on clay. I'm not even going to build
Speaker 1: a foundation on cement. I'm going to build it on
Speaker 1: precious jewels. The next verse, he mentions rubies, rubies, and sapphires.
Speaker 1: Why do you use that for a foundation, because they're indestructible.
Speaker 1: Other stuff will decay, other stuff will rot, other stuff
Speaker 1: will rust. But precious jewels, sapphires are expensive, Rubies are expensive,
Speaker 1: or ruby can be up to one point two million
Speaker 1: dollars a carrot for the There was a ruby soul
Speaker 1: recently for a thirty cart ruby for over thirty two
Speaker 1: million dollars. Okay, and God says, I'm going to use
Speaker 1: this stuff for your foundation. Sapphires why they can't be destroyed.
Speaker 1: They're indestructible. They last forever. He said, I'm going to
Speaker 1: put a foundation under you that's going to stay and
Speaker 1: stick for a long long time. That's what God wants
Speaker 1: to do in your life. He wants to build a
Speaker 1: new foundation to reset the foundation of your life. But
Speaker 1: you got to be in on it. You got to
Speaker 1: say I'm in and you start praying, God, do something
Speaker 1: new in my life. Do something fresh in my life,
Speaker 1: do something great, do something unusual in my life. God
Speaker 1: would say to you what he told Job. Look at
Speaker 1: the next verse, Job eleven. He says, God told Job,
Speaker 1: who had been through a lot. Put your heart right,
Speaker 1: reach out to God. Get rid of evil and wrong
Speaker 1: for your home, Get rid of that, get those porno
Speaker 1: magazines off out of your house, on your computer. Then
Speaker 1: face the world again, firm and courageous. Then he says,
Speaker 1: if you'll do these things, then he says, all your
Speaker 1: troubles will fade from your memory like floods that are past,
Speaker 1: and remember no more. It's like water under the bridge.
Speaker 1: Nobody's going to remember it. Your life will be brighter
Speaker 1: than the sunshine at noon, and you're going to live
Speaker 1: secure and full of hope. Oh you guys, as your
Speaker 1: pastor the guy who prays for you all the time,
Speaker 1: I want you to have that kind of life. I
Speaker 1: want you to live secure and full of hope. I
Speaker 1: want your days to be brighter than noonday sun. What
Speaker 1: do you do? What he says there, Put your heart right,
Speaker 1: reach out to God, get rid of the junk in
Speaker 1: your home, then face the world, a being. Now most
Speaker 1: of you know the Lord. You've already stepped across the line.
Speaker 1: But there may be some people here who haven't quite
Speaker 1: yet opened their life to Christ. And so the last
Speaker 1: verse is for you, which says this, here's what happens
Speaker 1: when you open your life to Jesus. Said Jesus, I
Speaker 1: don't understand it all, but I'm asking it to come
Speaker 1: into my life two Corinthians five seventeen. The Bible says this,
Speaker 1: when somebody becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new
Speaker 1: person inside. That's a reset. He's not the same anymore.
Speaker 1: A new life has begun. And it doesn't matter what's
Speaker 1: been in your past, no matter how ashamed or sick,
Speaker 1: or weird or sinful or what, doesn't matter what it
Speaker 1: is regrets in your life. He goes, you're a new person.
Speaker 1: And if you die, after you've given your life to Christ,
Speaker 1: you go to have it. And you say, now, Lord,
Speaker 1: about that sin I committed four years ago? He said,
Speaker 1: what's it? And what are you talking about? It's forgiven,
Speaker 1: it's forgotten, it's wiped out. You're a new person. You're
Speaker 1: not the same anymore. That's called a life reset. That's
Speaker 1: power heads so let's start this journey together. Friends, why
Speaker 1: don't you just pray this prayer? Start us saying God,
Speaker 1: I'm asking you to do something new in me starting
Speaker 1: this week. Lord, you say you make everything new. I'm
Speaker 1: asking you to make a fresh start in me, shape
Speaker 1: a genesis week from the chaos in my life. Say Lord,
Speaker 1: help me to forget the former things and look at
Speaker 1: the new thing you're going to do in my life.
Speaker 1: It's already starting to happen. Help me to see it.
Speaker 1: I'm asking you to do something new and fresh in
Speaker 1: my life starting this week. And then say Lord, I
Speaker 1: want you to help me specifically pinpoint what needs to
Speaker 1: be changed, to go over that list again and think
Speaker 1: of anything else, to look closely at my life and
Speaker 1: figure out what's out of whack and what needs to change.
Speaker 1: I want to stop living in denial. I don't want
Speaker 1: to think that I'm better than I really am. And then, Lord,
Speaker 1: help me to find some people who will support me
Speaker 1: and as I'm working on this life reset that they
Speaker 1: will be encouragers, not discouragers. Help me to realize that
Speaker 1: community is the antidote to discouragement and defeat and failure.
Speaker 1: Help me to realize that we belong together and I
Speaker 1: need others in my life. And then, Father, I ask
Speaker 1: you to help me to eliminate anything unhelpful or unhealthy.
Speaker 1: To do cleaning. How spring cleaning in my mind, in
Speaker 1: my body, in my relationships, spring cleaning in every area
Speaker 1: of my life. Show me what I need to get
Speaker 1: rid of or what I need to let go of
Speaker 1: in order to prepare for the new me. God, I'm
Speaker 1: asking you to reset my life, put me on a
Speaker 1: new start, afresh beginning. And if you've never invited Christ
Speaker 1: in your life, said Jesus Christ, come in. I open
Speaker 1: my heart as best I know how, put your spirit
Speaker 1: of love in me. I want to learn to love
Speaker 1: you and trust you. And I ask you to accept
Speaker 1: me into your family. In your name, I pray Amen,