Transcription
Your past is past. Did you do some dumb things? Yes. But you can't change that. You are a product of your past, but you are not a prisoner of your past.
About a couple hours ago, as I was finishing up this weekend's message, my computer just froze and I lost the entire teaching notes. I mean, they could not be recovered. I couldn't figure out. And there was a about a 30 minute period of panic where I thought, "Hm, I wonder are we going to just sing a b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b of extra verses of songs this week because, uh, all that I had planned to say and speak on was gone."
Fortunately, the maestro of, uh, workarounds, RJ Hughes on our staff, uh, figured out how to save at least a third of the message. I had to reformat it, format that part. But, uh, he got me at least a third of the message back and I immediately gave him a $1 million raise. So, but you know what? My computer had been sluggish for some time. Uh, and it finally just stopped working. And you know, you've had this happen on yours where, you know, too many programs start conflicting with each other and you get too many error messages clogging up, uh, the system in the machine and eventually it just froze. And at that point, there was only one possible thing I could do. Hit the reset button. Okay. Reboot. Uh, my computer needed a clean memory and my computer memory, uh, uh, needed a fresh start and new RAM and all of that and, uh, so sometimes you just have to hit restart.
Now, of course, people are like that and we all live very complicated lives. Uh, your life is complicated, mine is. Uh, and there are a lot of different programs running in your mind and in your body and running all around you in your brain and, and you can quickly find yourself on overload. Everybody agree with that? Okay. And, and you feel like, okay, I'm getting sluggish because there's too much trying to go on at the one time and your brain starts sending you error messages in, in, in your mind. And what you need is a life rebuke, uh, reboot. You need a refresh. You need a reset of, of your life. Well, that's exactly what Jesus Christ came to do. Uh, he was sent to earth to offer you a fresh start.
If you were to ask me to summarize what our church has been doing for 43, uh, years, 43 years now, um, I would summarize the goal of Saddleback Church in two words. Changed lives. That's what we're all about. Changed lives. Okay? We're, we're not, we're not about how big we are. We're not about how flashy we are. We're not about buildings. We're not about music. We're not about the sermon. We're about changed lives. We are in the transformation of life business. If you want to know what makes your pastor run, I am addicted to changed lives. And all I have to do is hear about one person who gave their lives to Christ or one marriage put back together or one kid gets off drugs or somebody's life was turned around and somebody got a, a new lease on life. Um, that just keeps me going. It really, really does. Uh, when we hear people become what God has always intended them to be, that's the purpose of the church.
Now, this kind of transformation where people's lives are radically changed. It's called a lot of different things. Um, it's called salvation. Uh, when you step across the line. It's called sanctification. When you keep on growing and changing. It's called conversion. It's called starting over. It's called being born again. It's called getting a fresh start. Uh, having a life reset, etc., etc. Uh, and in the history of our church, hundreds of thousands of people have experienced this personal reset of their lives. And most of you could, could tell a story how your life has been changed by Jesus Christ. "I was going this way. Now I go now I go this way." Doesn't mean you're perfect, but, but it means that your life was radically altered in the direction.
This past week, I always receive a lot of letters after Easter, and I received many letters from the 38,000 people who came to, to Easter Saddleback service, uh, last weekend. Um, and, uh, I want to begin by just reading you one of those letters because I think it expresses where I want us to go in this new series. Uh, "Dear Pastor Rick, I've known about Saddleback Church for maybe 15 years. And I was always curious about why it attracted so many people. But I had never attended its service until a friend invited me to last week's Easter service. So I went out of curiosity. Honestly, I was not prepared for what I experienced. Everyone was smiling and so happy and joyful and welcoming and the love on their faces immediately put me at ease. Although I hadn't ever been in church, but when the people started singing with all their hearts, tears instantly started flowing from my eyes. I didn't know any of the songs, but the way that people sang them stunned me."
So, do you realize that when you sing at church, you're a witness to everybody else? You're preaching a sermon when you sing. When you sing from the heart, it's saying, "God is real to me." So, he said, "The love on their faces put me at ease." But, uh, when they began started singing with all their heart, tears instantly flowed from my face. I didn't know any of the songs, but the way the people sang them stunned me. I could feel God for the first time in my life. I didn't understand it, but I instantly realized that I had been missing out on something that I desperately needed. So long before I even got to speak, she's or he, whoever this is, got moved.
Then you, Rick, spoke about God's love and God's purposes and how God wants everybody in his family. I took it all in with great wonder. And at the close of that service, when you led everybody in a prayer, I prayed it, too. And while I was saying those words, the tears returned and I felt overwhelmed by God's love for me. Okay, Pastor Rick, Pastor Rick, I don't know what the next steps should be, but I do know this. The direction of my life was reset in that moment. So please help me now to know what to do next."
Now, what caught my attention in that particular letter was the word reset. I, I've told you, uh, that I've been going up to Northern California to a clinic, uh, near Stanford University where a team of doctors has been, uh, trying to study the constant pain in my body and figure out how to cure it. Uh, and at the first meeting with, uh, these doctors, I asked the head doctor, the lead doctor, and there were seven of them in the room, "What is exactly what is it you're exactly trying to accomplish, uh, in, in me and, and in my body?" And he replied very quickly, "Rick, we intend to reset your health. And we intend to reset it using a number of different biological tools that weren't even available 10 years ago." And I thought, fantastic. That's great. I'm all in for a biological reset. And while you're at it, can you make me 30 years younger and give me Brad Pitt's face while you're at it?
A year ago, you may remember that I actually did a message on this theme, reset. It was right after we had started back on, on, uh, meeting publicly. We were meeting outside with CO and we just started meeting and all the COVID restrictions. And I told you that God was not interested post the pandemic for you to simply resume your old way of life. He didn't care about you resuming your old way of life, going back to your old ways. He wanted you instead to reset your life in a whole new direction. I want to come back to that theme and this weekend, I, I'm starting a new short series that I'm simply calling "Resetting My Life."
Now, the dictionary definition of the word reset, if you pull out your message notes, go ahead and pull them on out and at the top of your message notes, the dictionary defines reset as the opportunity to make a fresh new start, to begin. Now, that's something that Jesus specializes in, a fresh new start and beginning again. And the Bible gives us in scripture a lot of themes, many, many theme verses, uh, that we're going to look in this series that talk about a fresh new start and a resetting, uh, of your life. But let me just give you one of them today. Uh, it's at the top of your message notes there. The first verse, Ephesians 4:22-24 talks about the resetting of your life. It says this: "You've learned the truth that is in Jesus." Jesus said, "I am the truth." So, in regard to your former way of life, he's talking about what you were before you were a Christian, before you met Christ, before you were born again, before you opened your heart to his love. Regarding your former way of life, put off your old self and be made new in the attitude of your mind and put on your new self. Created to be like God, truly good and holy."
Now, I want you to circle the phrase "put off" and the word phrase "put on." Okay? God says that once you've invited Jesus into your life and you put your trust in him, there is a process of growth and change and God resets your life in a certain way. And just like changing clothes, there are some clothes you take off, old ones, dirty ones, holy ones that are messed up, and then you put on a new set of clothes. So you take off some and you put on some others. He said, "This is part of the process of God resetting your life."
Now, today we're not going to talk about the steps to resetting your life. There's a lot of them, and we're going to look at them in the weeks ahead, and you don't want to miss any of it. But instead, I want to give you what I call the preliminaries. There are four things you need to do to get ready to have your life completely transformed. These are four prerequisites, four preliminaries that have to happen in your life. If all of a sudden you're going to become the woman you want to become, the man you want to become, the person God created you to be from the very start. There are some things you have to do preliminary wise before you even start taking the reset steps.
Now, what I want us to do this weekend, as I said, is look at the four preliminaries, preparation steps for God to do a major recall, a major revamping, a rebooting, a resetting, a recharging, a renewing of your life. And here are the four things you have to do to get ready for a reset.
Number one, start asking God to do something new in me. I start asking God to do something new in me. And you don't just ask him once. You show that you mean business by asking him more than once by repeatedly bringing your request to God. You know, any parent knows that when at Christmas time a child says, "I want this for Christmas." If they only mention it one time, they don't really want it. They have to say it three or four times and you go, "Now, this is the difference between a whim and a genuine want." Okay? And God says, "Are you serious about changing your life? Are you serious about being a different guy, a different gal, a, a man of God, a woman of God? Are you serious about breaking some of those bad habits in your life? I need you to tell me."
Now, you might wonder, is it okay for me to ask God to do something new in my life? "God, I want you to do something new, something fresh, something different, something unique in my life. Can you do that?" Yes. In fact, it's in the job description of Jesus Christ. First verse there under that point, Revelation 21. Jesus says, "I am making everything old." No, that's not what he says, is it? "I'm making everything boring." "I'm making everything the same." No, he said, "I'm making everything what?" >> "New." This is what he does. Jesus transforms life. So, if you're tired of your old way of living, this is the guy you come to. "I make everything new."
Now, a good prayer that you could pray is the one that David prayed in Psalm 51. And in Psalm 51, he asked God to create a new heart in him, create a clean spirit, uh, do some new work in him. And in Psalm 51:10, I love this verse particularly in the message paraphrase where David says this: "God, make a fresh start in me." I like that. "Shape a Genesis week from the chaos in my life." You need this verse. "Make a fresh start in me. Shape a, a, a new creation from the chaos of my life." You might want to write that on a little card and put it on your refrigerator and memorize that verse this week.
Now, it's not only a good prayer to be the start of asking God to do something new in your life, but it's also, um, significant even more when you realize that David wrote this after stealing another man's wife and having the man, the husband, murdered. We got a little bit different context now. David has created two of the top sins up there, adultery and murder. And he's saying, uh, "God, I need you to make a fresh start in me. Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life." What that implies is really quite good news. What it implies is that you are never too far gone for God's grace, >> for God's forgiveness. You, you can't do a bad enough thing that God's going to say, "Uh, time out. You don't get any more chances." This is a message of grace.
"God, do something new in me. I have so messed it up, so screwed up my life, so made a fiasco of everything. And I've done this sin and this one, and this one, and this one, and this, but I need a fresh start." I don't care what you've done. I don't care who you've done it with. And I don't care how long you've done it. You can get a fresh start and a life reset starting today. If you'll come to God and the first preliminary is to just say, "God, I need a fresh start. I'm carrying too much baggage. I'm carrying too much sin. I'm carrying too much guilt. I'm carrying too many regrets."
Listen, your past is past. It's over. Did you do some dumb things? Yes. But you can't change that. You are a product of your past, but you are not a prisoner of your past. You might write that one down. In fact, you might tweet that one. Rick says you're, you're, you're a product of your past. You have been shaped by the good and the bad and the ugly things in your life, but you're not a prisoner of it. You can change. That's the gospel. That's the good news. That's what Christianity is all about. There can be pushing the reset button and I get a second chance. I get a new life. I get born again. I get new freedom. And I can get a second chance and a third chance and on and on.
Now, here's what God says about your past. Are you listening? Isaiah 43 verse 18 and 19. Here's what God says about your past: "Forget the former things and do not dwell on the past, whether it's good or bad. Instead," God says, "look at the new things I'm going to do. They're already starting to happen. Can you see what I've begun to do?" God says, "I don't want you constantly looking in the rearview mirror." If you're always looking in the rearview mirror, you're going to crack up while you're driving. The only way you can drive effectively is look to the future. Not look at what's behind you, but look to the future. All of the rest of your life is in the future, not in the past. As I said, your past is past. So, don't dwell on it.
Start asking God to do something new in me. Do you know why nothing's happening new in your life right now? Because you're not asking. Look at the next verse. James 4:2. "You do not have what you want because you don't what?" Ask God for it. Circle that. Start under. "You don't have it because you don't ask for it." Have you ever asked God for a reset in your life? "God, I need a fresh start. I've blown it. I've made a big mistake. Mistakes plural. And I need a fresh start. I need a new start. I need a, a revamping. I need to reboot my life." This is the first preparation step. You're going to have to start asking God, "God, I want you to do something new in my life." And I pray that in the weeks ahead during this series, you're going to be praying this prayer every day. And I want you to pray it every day this week. I want you to, when you think about it, go, "God, would you do something new in my life? Would you do something fresh in my life? Would you give me a fresh start? Would you give me a, a renewed energy, renewed spirit, renewed hope and heart?" The first step in preparation is to ask God for a reset.
Here's the second thing in preparation. These are preliminaries. Pinpoint specifically what I want changed in me. That's the second thing you do if you want to get a brand new start in life. Pinpoint specifically what I want changed in me. Nothing becomes transforming until it becomes specific. You, you don't just say, "God, I want you to change me." And God's going to say, "Specifically, what do you have in mind?" Change what? What do you want changed? Okay? Uh, you can't change a generality. So don't just say, "God, change me." Don't say Jane. You have to clarify. You have to identify. You have to decide where you want to be different as a man or as a woman. Where do I want to be different? You see, you cannot solve any problem obviously to first you identify it as a problem. Do you know the problems in your life or are you just still in denial about them all? Uh, you, you got to identify the problems in your life. You got to clarify the problems in your life. You got to admit that they are problems in your life. "Oh, no. I'm not really in debt." "Oh, no. I'm not really, uh, uh, uh, you know, habitually procrastinating." Whatever. No, I, I don't need help in, in an area. Well, then you, you'll be helpless.
Now, the more specific you are about what you want God to change in your life, the easier it's going to be. God, for God to do it and to, and to help you and to do it faster. Now, what I've done on your message notes is I've created a little checklist to jog your memory. Where do I need help? What would I like to change in my life? What are the things in my life, relationships or whatever that I'm dissatisfied with? I'm just not cooking on all burners. I'm not on all the cylinders. So I want to do this is worth it for us to take some time right now in this service. This may be one of the most important things you do this week is to take this personal inventory right now. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5: "Look closely at yourself." That means do a little self-examination. "Test yourselves to see if you're really living in the faith." Okay?
So, here are, here are, you know, a dozen or so, uh, areas. Let's look at these. What, where do I need a reset? What would I like God to change in my life to give me a fresh start? How about in my connection to God? I said, "Well, how do I know if I need a reset there?" Has there ever been a time in your life when you felt closer to God than you do right now? If the answer is yes, you need a reset, you need a reboot, you need a reconnection, so you need to check that box. Yes. If you say, "I've never been closer to God than I am right now." You don't need to check that one. You're copathetic. You're a-okay.
How about, "Do I need a reset in my health and body like the doctors are trying to do with me right now?" Do, do you need help, uh, in, in your metabolism in some area of your, your, uh, chronic illness or something? You mean I could ask God about that? Of course you can.
Do I need, um, a reset in my priorities? Are your priorities out of whack? And things that really aren't important, all of a sudden you're spending all your time doing those. And the things that are really important, you're not doing those. That's your, "I need a reset in my priorities." Okay, check that one.
Uh, how about a relationship? Do you have a relationship? Boyfriend, girlfriend, friend, or whatever, and you're going, um, it's stagnating or it may be deteriorating. Do I need to reset in that relationship?
How about in your energy level? He said, "I'm finding it going lower and lower." Do I need to restart there?
How about in your career? In my career or in my job. If you're out of work right now, you need to restart. If you just got laid off or fired, you're out of work. You need to restart there.
How about in my thought life? I'm having thoughts that I don't like. I can't control them. Um, they scare me. Uh, they're the wrong kind of thoughts. I shouldn't have these kind of thoughts. Uh, and they bother me. Check that.
Do I need to reset in my marriage? No marriage ever stands still. At every point in your marriage, you're either growing closer together or you're drifting further apart. No marriages stand still. So, if you're not growing closer together, you're drifting apart. And maybe you need a reset in your marriage. I need to refall in love. I've had to refall in love with my wife, my wife, many, many times in almost 47 years of marriage. It, you just have to re-up and re-commit.
How about in your routines? Are your routines out of whack? You know, the routine I'm in right now started during COVID. It's not helping me and I need to change my routine. I need to reset there. Maybe you need to check that one.
Or how about habits? Do I need to replace some bad habits with some good habits?
How about in my parenting? Some of you need a reset in your parenting. And right now, uh, you, you've got a, you need to reset a relationship with one of your kids. They be in maybe an adult child, but you're out of whack with them and you need to reset in that relationship. You check that one.
How about in my time in my schedule? Have you figured out that it's easier to fill your schedule than to fulfill your schedule? Have you discovered that it's easier to get in to something rather than to get out of it? It's easier to commit than to actually fulfill. And, and, and you, you say, "My time's out of control. My schedule's out of control. I'm always pressured. I'm always late." Whatever. You check that one. I need to reset there.
How about in your self-confidence? Say, "Why would I need to reset my self-confidence?" Well, if you've just experienced a major rejection, you probably do. If you've been rejected at work or you've been rejected by a friend or a parent or a lover, you've been rejected by your spouse or somebody. Anytime you have rejection, it, your self-confidence takes a hit. And, and you say, "I need to re, reset that, Lord, in my life."
How about finances? Am I in denial about all the debt that I'm in? I'm just pretending it's not really there or do I need a reset in my dream?
Now, what we're going to do this, I told you this week is just an introduction. In the weeks ahead, we are going to cover many of these areas in detail. So I don't want you to miss any of the messages in this series on, uh, you know, "Resetting My Life" because this is news you can use.
Now, before we move on, um, there is, I need to say a word to a special group of you and that is the few of you who just now as I went through that list did not check a single box. Really? You're that perfect? You're in such denial you couldn't even find a single box to check. Hello. You're out of touch with, you may, you must be Jesus. You're so perfect. Why don't you come up here and just take over and you start teaching? Cuz I would certainly like to learn from somebody who's perfect. You can't find a single thing that you said, "Yeah, I need help in that area." If not, you, you are, it's desperate time for you. The most desperate thing is when you're out of touch with the reality in your life. And the Bible says the heart's deceitful, which means you lie to yourself more than you lie to anybody else. And for those of you who didn't check a single box, this is what God says to you.
Next verse, Romans 12:3. "Do not, do not think you are better than you really are. Decide what you really are by the amount of faith that God has given you." So, I want to highly recommend even if you use false humility, go back and check a few things because trust me, you're not perfect. Trust me, there's things on that list that need a reset in your life. And if you don't understand that, you really are out of touch with your own self because nobody's perfect. We're all flawed. We know that. God knows that. And actually, you know it, but you're just trying to tell yourself something different. You rationalize. You know what rational means? You tell yourself rational lies. You tell yourself in your mind what your heart is telling you is wrong and your mind said it's okay. It's not.
Now, this weekend we're just identifying the four preliminary steps to prepare you for a personal life reset. And everybody needs a reset at different stages in their life. You're going to need several of them in your lifetime. Step one in preliminary: start asking God to do something new in your life. Step two: pinpoint specifically what you want God to change in your life.
Now, the third step of preparation is this. Find some people to support my reset. Find some people to support my reset. You're not going to get better on your own. You're not going to get reset by yourself. If you could, you would have, but you can't, so you won't. It's not, it doesn't work. God has wired the universe and wired us that we need each other, that we're better together, as, as Alice said, that we only get healing, we only get health, we only get change, and we only get real growth in relationship to other people.
Now, this is pretty self-explanatory. We talk about this all the time because Saddleback is a church of small groups, over 7,000 small groups meeting in 196, uh, cities of Southern California. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says this: "A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back to back and conquer." And there three or even better for a triple braided cord is not easily broken. There are some things in your life you need to conquer about you, but you're never going to conquer them by yourself. Revealing your feelings is the beginning of healing. Getting other people involved.
Now, you don't need a bunch of people in your reset plan, in your recovery plan, in your reboot plan of your life, but you do need a few. I'm talking two or three or four people. If you're in a small group, that's, that's a good group to start with right there. If you're not in Celebrate Recovery, you could join Celebrate Recovery, but you're going to need some friends. You don't need a lot. You just need some people who are going to back you when you start working on some major changes in your life. Anybody who's ever done an exercise program or a diet program knows it works better with a buddy. Everybody needs a buddy. Okay, you can tweet that, too. Everybody needs a buddy. You need somebody. It is not good for man to be alone. God says we need people in our lives to help us grow. And so you're going to either have to get in a group if you're not in a group or you're going to have to, we'll help you form a group because to get the most out of this series, it's not something you just listen to and go home and you do. It's something that you're going to need other people in your life working with you. Just as Alice talked about the importance of that to her.
Ecclesiastes 4:10: "If one person falls, another can reach out and help. But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble." You're going to fall. Count on it in your reset program for your life. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to stumble. There are going to be days you feel like giving up. You say, "It's not worth it." It is worth it. And that's when you need other people that when you fall, they help you up. And you say, "I don't even know if I believe in God right now." That's when you need people who say, "That's okay. We'll believe God for you right now." Everybody needs stretcher bearers in their life. So when you're going through major pain, they can carry you. And then when they're in pain, you can carry them. That's what family is all about. That's what the church family is all about. So write this down. Community is God's antidote to discouragement, to defeat, and to failure. If you're discouraged, if you feel defeated, if you feel like a failure, I can tell you right now, you're not in community. You're not in true koinonia, true community, true relationship of friendship.
Now, God says this about us because we're as Christians, Romans 12:5: "Since we are one body in Christ, we belong to each other and each of us needs all the others." Did you know that you belong to me and I belong to you and we need each other? And actually, your relationship to the other people in God's family is going to outlast your family relationships, your, your sports relationships, your work relationships, cuz these are going to go last forever. Okay? There are people out there who I know who are white, 6'2", tall American males, and yet I have more in common with Alice because she's my sister in Christ. And I'm more committed to her than I am to somebody who looks like me, thinks like me, and votes like me. Does that make sense? Cuz that relationship between me and Alice, she's my sister. We're going to be in heaven. And if somebody hurts her, I should care cuz I'm her brother.
Now, Hebrews 10:25 says this: "Let us not give up the habit of meeting together. Instead, let us encourage one another." The problem with CO is CO was a group killer and it was a fellowship killer. Every church in America right now is in rebuilding phase because a lot of people just got out of the habit of going to their group or going to service and things like that. And so we've got to rebuild. But the bottom is we build better together. Don't try to do a major life reset on your own cuz you're going to fail. Okay? I'm just guarantee you you're not going to stick with it. You need other people in your life. God wired it that we need others. Why? Because it requires humility. The Bible says, "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble." The proud think they can do everything on their own. "I don't need anybody else to help me." That's called pride. And that's why you're in the mess you're in right now. And why you can't get out of it, why you're stuck. Humility says, "I need God and I need other people. I need brothers and sisters in my life."
Now, here's the fourth preliminary step. Let's just get this set up for the whole series. Number four, eliminate anything unhelpful or unhealthy in my life. Eliminate anything unhelpful or unhealthy in my life. Now, you know what we're talking about here. If, if you've ever gone on a diet, you know the first thing you do is you go to your, your kitchen and you start throwing away all the junk food so you're not tempted by it. You clean out your cabinet and you clean out your refrigerator of all the stuff. You know, I really don't want to be eating that. And, and you clean that out and you clean out the junk food cuz you know you can't get healthy until you do. But what about the junk food you put in your mind? Maybe you need to cancel your cable subscription for a few months. Or maybe you need to do a media fast and stay off social media for two or three months. I'm certain your mood would improve. You'd feel less stressed. You'd feel, uh, less, uh, in competition with everybody else and, uh, you'd feel your, your joy would come up a whole lot higher.
So, here's what the Bible says about eliminating anything unhelpful and unhealthy. Hebrews 12:1: "We should remove anything from our lives that would get in the way and the sins that hold us back." Anything that gets in the way or sins that hold us back. Hebrews 12:1 and 2 in the CEV version says this: "We must get rid of everything that slows down our progress, especially those sins that just won't let go. And you know what they are in your life. We must be determined to run the race that ahead of us. And we must keep our eyes on Jesus who leads us."
So, here's the big question. Here's the fourth question. Write this down. What do I need to get rid of or let go of? What do I need to get rid of or let go of if I'm going to have a major reset in my life? I'm going to become the man God always intended me to be. I'm going to become the woman God always intended me to be. What do I need to let go of? What do I need to get rid of?
Maybe a relationship that's out of whack. You know, if, uh, you say, "Well, I'm trying to help them come to Christ." That's a good thing. But if I come up here to the edge and I'm trying to bring lift you up and you're trying to bring me down, who's going to win? There's no question. Okay? It's more likely that that friend's going to bring you down than you bring them up. It's just the law of gravity. And, and so that doesn't mean you don't love them. Pray for them. But you can't be friends with people who are going in a different direction than the reset you want to make in your life.
Colossians 3:7-10 talks about in order to prepare for the new me, I'm going to have to change some attitudes, too. Now, this is easier said than done. We'll go into it in detail in the weeks ahead. In Colossians 3:7-10, it says this: "You used to live, you used to live this your former life according to the selfish desires." In other words, "I just did what's best for me. Forget anybody else. I just do what's best for me." "When your life was dominated by them, by their selfish desires. But now, now that you're Christian, you must get rid of all these things." And he gives an example: "anger, hot temper, hating others, even those of a different political party. No insults." Well, that just ruled out much of the internet. "No filthy talk must ever come out of your lips, and stop lying to each other, for you have put off your old self and its habits, and you've put on your new self." That's called a life reset.
Now, it's interesting since we're covering this in a series. The word reset is only used one time in Hebrew in the entire Bible. The word reset is only used one time in the entire Bible. And it's an example where God is giving a word of encouragement to the people of Israel. Their nation had been ransacked and defeated in a huge war by a superior army, the Empire of Babylon. And Babylon had come into Israel, taken over the entire country, taken almost all of the citizens as prisoners of war and moved them back to Babylon for 70 years where they lived as prisoners of war. And they ransacked and destroyed the capital of Jerusalem. In all this time, God had not forgotten them. And when they turned back to him, God says, "I, I've got a word for you because this is the end of a chapter of your life, but it's not the end of the story." And I'll tell that to you, too. What you're going through right now may be the end of a chapter in your life, but it's not the end of the story.
And to the discouraged people of Israel captive in Babylon, God says this in Isaiah 54:10-11: "The mountains may shake and the hills may crumble." In other words, everything may be falling apart in your life. It's all coming apart at the seams. Earthquake time. "The mountains may shake and the hills may crumble, but my unfailing love for you will never be shaken." Circle that. "Never be shaken." Everything else can come apart. You may lose all kinds of. You're not ever going to lose my love and my promise of peace will never change, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
And then he turns his promise to Jerusalem, the city that had been destroyed. "Oh Jerusalem, you suffering, storm-ravaged city needing comfort. Maybe you feel like that suffering, storm-ravaged, needing comfort. I will rebuild you with priceless jewels and I will reset your foundations with sapphires." Now, that's a metaphor. Okay. What's it? This is where the only time the word reset is used in the Hebrew scriptures. "I'll reset your foundation with sapphires." He said, "I'm going to build it back. This is only the end of the story. We're going to rebuild is, uh, Israel, rebuild Jerusalem to its glory. Only this time, I'm not going to build a foundation on sand. I'm not going to build a foundation on clay. I'm not even going to build a foundation on cement. I'm going to build it on precious jewels." The next verse he mentions rubies. Rubies and sapphires. Why do you use them for a foundation? Cuz they're indestructible. Other stuff will decay. Other stuff will rot. Other stuff will rust. But precious jewels, sapphires are expensive. Rubies are expensive. A ruby, uh, can be up to $1.2 million a carat for the finest. There was a ruby sold recently, uh, for 30-carat ruby for over $32 million. Okay? And God says, "I'm going to use this stuff for your foundation." Sapphires, why? They can't be destroyed. They're indestructible. They last forever. He said, "I'm going to put a foundation under you that's going to stay and stick for a long, long time." That's what God wants to do in your life. He wants to build a new foundation to reset the foundation of your life. But you got to be in on it. You got to say, "I'm in." And you start praying, "God, do something new in my life. Do something fresh in my life. Do something great. Do something unusual in my life."
God would say to you what he told Job, look at the next verse, Job 11. He says, God told Job, who had been through a lot, "Put your heart right. Reach out to God. Get rid of evil and wrong for your home. Get rid of that po, get all, get those porno magazines off out of your house in the on your computer. Then face the world again firm and courageous." Then he says, "If you'll do these things, then he says, all your troubles will fade from your memory like floods that are passed and remember no more." It's like water under the bridge. Nobody's going to remember it. Your life will be brighter than the sunshine at noon, and you're going to live secure and full of hope. Oh, you guys, as your pastor, the guy who prays for you all the time, I want you to have that kind of life. I want you to live secure and full of hope. I want your days to be brighter than noonday sun. What do you do? What he says there? Put your heart right. Reach out to God. Get rid of the junk in your home. Then face the world again.
Now, most of you know the Lord. You've already stepped across the line. But there may be some people here who haven't quite yet opened their life to Christ. And if so, the last verse is for you, which says this. Here's what happens when you open your life to Jesus. Say, "Jesus, I don't understand it all, but I'm asking you to come into my life." Second Corinthians 5:17, the Bible says this: "When somebody becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside." That's a reset. He's not the same anymore. A new life has begun. And it doesn't matter what's been in your past. No matter how ashamed or sick or weird or sinful or what, it doesn't matter what it is. Regrets in your life. He goes, "You're a new person." And if you die after you've given your life to Christ, you go to heaven. You say, "Now, Lord, about that sin I committed four years ago." You said, "What sin? What are you talking about?" It's forgiven. And it's forgotten. It's wiped out. You be, you're a new person. You're not the same anymore. That's called a life reset.
Let's bow our heads. So, let's start this journey together, friends. Why don't you just pray this prayer? Start by saying, "God, I'm asking you to do something new in me starting this week. Lord, you say you make everything new. I'm asking you to make a fresh start in me. Shape a Genesis week from the chaos in my life. Say, Lord, help me to forget the former things and look at the new thing you're going to do in my life. It's already starting to happen. Help me to see it. I'm asking you to do something new and fresh in my life starting this week."
And then say, "Lord, I want you to help me specifically pinpoint what needs to be changed. To go over that list again and think of anything else, to look closely at my life and figure out what's out of whack and what needs to change. I want to stop living in denial. I don't want to think that I'm better than I really am."
And then, Lord, help me to find some people who will support me, uh, uh, and as I'm working on this life reset that they will be encouragers, not discouragers. Help me to realize that community is the antidote to discouragement and defeat and failure. Help me to realize that we belong together and I need others in my life.
And then Father, I ask you to help me to eliminate anything unhelpful or unhealthy to do cleaning house. Spring cleaning in my mind, in my body, in my relationships, spring cleaning in every area of my life. Show me what I need to get rid of or what I need to let go of in order to prepare for the new me.
God, I'm asking you to reset my life. Put me on a new start, a fresh beginning. And if you've never invited Christ in your life, say, "Jesus Christ, come in. I, I open my heart as best I know how. Put your spirit of love in me. I want to learn to love you and trust you, and I ask you to accept me into your family." In your name I pray. Amen.