Rick Warren - You Can Change

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 could figure out. And it was about a

thirty minute period of panic whor I thought, Hmm, I

wonder are we going to just sing a bunch of

extra verses of songs this week? Because all that I

had planned to say and speak on was gone. Fortunately,

the maestro of workarounds, R. J. Hughes on our staff,

figured out how to save at least a third of

the message. I had to reformate it before hmat that part,

but he got me at least a third of the

message back, and I immediately gave him a one million

dollar raise. But you know what, my computer had been

sluggish for some time 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 of

the system and 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. My

computer needed a clean memory, and my computer memory needed

a fresh start, new ram and all of that, and

so sometimes you just have to hit restart. Now. Of

course people are like that, and we all live very

complicated lives. Your life is complicated, mind is 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 you can quickly find yourself on overload.

Everybody agree with that, okay, and you feel like, okay,

I'm getting sluggished because there's too much trying to go

on at one time, and your brain starts sending you

error messages in your mind. And what you need is

a life reboot. You need a refresh, you need a

reset of your life. Well, that's exactly what Jesus Christ

came to do. 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 forty

three years, forty three easters, now I would summarize the

goal of Saddleback Church in two words, changed lives. That's

what we're all about. Change lives. Okay, 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 change lives. We are in

the transformation of life business. If you want to know

what makes your pastor run, I am addicted to change lives.

And all I have to do is here 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 new lease

on life. That just keeps me going. It really really does.

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. It's called salvation.

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. Is called

getting a fresh start, having a life reset, et cetera,

et cetera. And in the history of our church, hundreds

of thousands of people have experienced this personal reset of

their lives. Most of you could tell a story how

your life has been changed by Jesus Christ. I was

going this way, now I go this way. Doesn't mean

you're perfect, 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 thirty eight thousand people who came to

Easter Saddleback Service last weekend. And 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. A Dear Pastor, Rick, I've known about

Saddleback Church for maybe fifteen years, and I was always

curious about why it attracted so many people. But I

had never attended a 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 had never 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 scunned me. Do

you realize that when you sing a 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 I said, their love on their

faces put me to ease. But 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 get all in with great wonder, and at

the close of that service, when you let 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've told

you that I've been going up to northern California to

a clinic near Stanford University where a team of doctors

has been trying to study the constant pain in my

body and figure out how to cure it. And at

the first meeting with 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 in me 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 they weren't even available ten 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 thirty 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 started back on meeting publicly.

We were meeting outside with COVID 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 your 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'm

starting a new short series that I'm simply calling resetting

my life. Now. The Dictionary definition of the word reset,

pull out your message notes. Go ahead and pull them

all out, and at the top of your message notes,

the Dictionary defines reset as the opportunity to make a

fresh new start, to begin again. 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 that we're going to look in

this series to talk about a fresh new start and

a resetting of your life. But let me just give

you one of them today. It's at the top of

your message notes. There. The first verse Esians four twenty

two to twenty four talks about the resetting of your life.

It says this, you've learned the truth that is in Jesus,

Jesa that I am the truth. So in regard to

your former way of life, you talk about what you

were before you were a Christian, before you met Christ,

before you were born again, before you open your heart

to His love. Regarding your former way of life, put

off your old self health 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

to 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's 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 rehaul, a major revamping, a rebooting,

a resetting, a recharging or 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 mentioned it one time, they don't really

want it. They have to say it three or four times,

And he goes, 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 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 wants 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 twenty one, and Jesus says, I am making everything old. Now,

that's all 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 fifty one and Psalm fifty one.

He asked God's to create a new heart in him,

create a clean spirit, do some new work in him.

And in Psalm fifty one, verse ten. 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 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 significant even more when you realize that

David wrote this after stealing another man's wife and having

the man the husband murdered. We've got a little bit

different context now. David has created two of the top

sins up there, adultery and murder, and he's saying, God,

I need you to make a fresh start in me

shape of Genesis week, in the chaos of my life.

What that implies is really quite good news. And what

it implies is that you are never too far gone

for God's grace, for God's forgiveness. You can't do a

bad enough thing that God's gonna say, eh, 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

meet to fiasco of everything. And I've done this sin

and this one and this one and this one, this one.

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 guild. 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

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 it born again, I get

new freedom. And I can get a second chance on

a third chance, and on and on. Now, here's what

God says about your past. Are you listening, Isaiah forty three,

verse eighteen and nineteen. 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 to constantly look at

it 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 what's behind you, but look to

the future. All of the rest of your life is

of 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,

Chapters four, Verse two. You do not have what you

want because you don't what ask God for it. Circle

that start on. 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 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 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. PenPoint 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. Penpoints specifically what

I want changed in me. Nothing becomes transforming until it

becomes specific. You don't just say God, I want you

to change me, and God's gonna say specifically, what do

you have in mind? Change? What? What do you want changed? Okay,

you can't change your generality, So don't just say God,

change me. Don't say change. 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?

Are you just still in denial about them all? You

got to identify the problems in your life. You've got

to clarify the problems in your life. You've got to

admit that they are problems in your life. Oh no,

I'm not really in debt. Oh no, I'm not really

habitually procrastinating whatever. No I don't need help in an area, Well,

then 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 help you, and to do it faster. Now,

what I've done on your message notes is the 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 them 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 Second Corinthian, Chapter thirteen, verse five, look

closely at yourself. Let mean, do a little self examination,

test yourselves to see if you're really living in the faith. Okay,

So here, here are you know, a dozen or so 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? So 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 to reset, You need to 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'm right now, you don't need to check that one.

You're copasthetic, You're 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 you need

help in your metabolism, in some area of your chronic

illness or something? You mean, I could ask God about that.

Of course you can do. I need 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. How

about a relationship. Do you have a relationship boyfriend, girlfriend

friend or whatever, and you're going it's stagnating or it

may be deteriorating. Do I need a 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. They scare me. They're

the wrong kind of thoughts. I shouldn't have these kind

of thoughts 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 marriage just

stands still. So if you're not growing closer together, you're

drifting apart. And maybe you need to reset in your marriage.

I need to refall in love. I've had to refall

in love with my life, my wife many many times

in almost forty seven years of marriage. You just have

to re up and recommit. How About in your routines?

Are your routines out of whack? You know, the routine

I'm in right now, started during COVID is 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 to reset in your parenting and

right now you've got to. You need to reset a

relationship with one of your kids. They'd be into 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 and 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 you said, my time's out of control,

my schedules out of control. I'm always pressured, I'm always

late whatever you check out, and I need to reset there?

How about in your self confidence? See? 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, Have you been rejected by a friend,

or a parent or a lover, You've been rejected by

your spouse or somebody. Anytime you have rejection, your self

confidence takes a hit and you say, I need to

reset that Lord in my life? How about finances? Am

I in denial about all the death 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 the 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,

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 out of touch with you

must be Jesus, you're so perfect. Why don't you come

up here and just take over and you start teaching,

because I would certainly act 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're

it's a desperate time for you. The most desperate thing

is 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

twelve three. 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 rationalized means. You tell yourself rational lies.

You tell yourself in your mind what your heart is

telling you is wrong in your mindset, 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 lives.

You're gonna need several of them in your lifetime. Step

one preliminary start asking God to do something new in

your life. Step two pinpoints 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 gonna

get better on your own. You're not gonna 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 Alice said, that we only

get healing, we only get health, we only get changed,

and we only get real growth in relationship to other people.

Now this is pretty self explanatory. We talk about this

all atom because Saddleback is a church of small groups,

over seven thousand small groups meeting in one hundred and

ninety six cities of southern California. Ecclesiastes four, verse twelve

says this, a person standing alone can be attacked and defeated,

but two can stand back to back and conquer, and

there three are 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 feeling is

the beginning of healing 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 can join Celebrate Recovery.

But you're gonna need some friends. You don't need a lot,

You just need some people who are gonna 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 body. Okay, you can tweet that too. Everybody needs

a buddy. You need somebody. It is not good for

men to be alone. God says, we need people in

our lives to help us grow. And so you're gonna

either have to get in a group if you're not

in a group, or you're gonna have to We'll help

you form 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 ur

please ask you four keen. If one person falls, another

can reach out and help. But people who are alone

when they fall, are in real trouble. You are going

to fall. Count on it in your reset program for

your life. You're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna stumble. There

are gonna 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 he said, 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 stretch your 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 families all 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 quantity, a true community,

true relationship of friendship. Now, God says this about us

because we're as Christians. Romans twelve, verse five 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 all

outlast your family relationships, your your sports relationships, your work relationships,

because these are going to go last forever. Okay, there

are people out there who I know who are white,

six foot two 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? Because that relationship between

me and Alice, she's my sister. We're gonna be in habit,

and if somebody hurts her, I should care because I'm

her brother. Now, Hebrews ten twenty five says this, let

us not give up the habit of meeting together. Instead,

let us encourage one another. The problem with COVID is

COVID was a group killer, and I 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, because

you're going to fail. Okay, I'm just guarantee it. 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 while 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 the 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 you've ever gone on a diet, you know, the

first thing you do is you go to 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 nut

and you clean that out, and you clean out the

junk food because 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 of social media

for two or three months. I'm certain your mood would improve.

You'd feel less stressed, you'd feel less in competition with

everybody else, and you'd feel your joy would come up

a whole lot higher. So here's what the Bible says

about eliminating anything unhelpful and unhealthy Hebrews twelve to one.

We should remove in 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 twelve one and two. 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

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 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 then you bring them up.

It's just the law of gravity. 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 chapter three, verse seven to ten 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 none. We'll go into it in

detail in Weeks Ahead and Colossians three seven to ten.

It says this you used to live. You used to live.

It's your former life according to the selfish desires. In

other words, I just did what's best for me, forget

anybody else. They 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 never come out of your lips

and stop lining 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 recovering this in a series. The word reset

is only used one time in Hebrew. In the entire Bible.

The word reset has 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 seventy years where they

lived as prisoner of war. And they ransacked and destroyed

the capital Jerusalem. And all this time God had not

forgotten them. And when they turned back to him, God says,

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 Isaiah

fifty four Firse ten eleven. 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 of

the seams earthquake time. The mountains may shake and the

hills may crumble. But my unfeeling 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 gonna ever go lose my love, and my promise

of peace will never change, says the Lord who has

compassion on you, and then he turns us 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 ravage, needing comfort. I will rebuild you with

priceless jewels, and I will reset your foundations with sapphires.

Now that's a metaphor. Okay, 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 on the end of

the story. We're going to rebuild this 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 that for a foundation, because they're indestructible.

Other stuff will decay, other stuff will rot, other stuff

will rust. But precious jewels, sapphires are expensive, Rubies are expensive,

or ruby can be up to one point two million

dollars a carrot for the There was a ruby soul

recently for a thirty cart ruby for over thirty two

million dollars. 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 eleven. 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, get those porno

magazines off out of your house, 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 past,

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 he home. Then face the world a being. 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 so

the last verse is for you, which says this, here's

what happens when you open your life to Jesus. Said Jesus,

I don't understand it all, but I'm asking it to

come into my life two Corinthians five seventeen. 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, 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 have it. And

you say, now, Lord, about that sin I committed four

years ago? He said, what's it? And what are you

talking about? It's forgiven, it's forgotten, it's wiped out. You're

a new person. You're not the same anymore. That's called

a life reset. That's power. Heads. So let's start this

journey together. Friends, why don't you just pray this prayer?

Start us 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 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.

How 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, afresh beginning.

And if you've never invited Christ in your life, said

Jesus Christ, come in. 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,