Reset: Start Here | Part 1

Welcome to the Awakening Church Podcast.

We exist to awaken this generation to new life in Christ.

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To find out more, go to awakeningchurch.com.

Well, happy new year.

It is absolutely hard to believe that we're already in 2021.

And isn't it true?

It's hard to even know how to feel about 2021.

Whether we can plan or not plan, dream or not dream as we step into this new year.

But there's one thing I know for sure is after the year we just went through, we all need to hit the reset button in our lives in some way.

Maybe for you, 2020 was a year of drifting spiritually, and you need to hit the reset button spiritually.

And you feel disconnected, you feel far from God.

Maybe because we weren't able to be in person together, you drifted uh through the church online.

And as you begin this year, you're like, okay, God, I want to reconnect.

I need you this year.

Or maybe you feel like you need to hit the reset button relationally.

I mean, last year for many relationships was just so hard and difficult, wasn't it?

And maybe it's your marriage, or maybe with your kids, and you just need to hit that button, or maybe it's a friendship that it just fell apart, and you're going, I need to hit that reset button relationally.

I'd really love for that, or maybe directionally.

When COVID hit, it gave us all a lot of time to reflect and think about where we're at and what we're doing, and asking questions like, where am I headed in life?

And where do I want to be?

And you're wrestling directionally with your future in the season, or or personally, you're wrestling personally.

And it was a season where anxiety or depression or feeling overwhelmed or uh just all the swirling around you, and and maybe even you had some decisions personally that you just feel like, oh God, I I have some unhealthy coping that just to get through this.

But the problem is it's following me into this new year.

And today we're beginning a new series called Reset.

And I want to ask this question: How do you hit the reset button in your life?

Like, how do you actually have a fresh start to a new year?

We need way more than just a nice cliche of a new you and a new year, right?

We need an absolute fresh start.

How do you hit the reset button in your life?

For the next three weeks, we're gonna spend time talking very specific and practically about how to hit the reset button in your life.

Uh, I want you and I want us as a church to be able to do this, to have this fresh start to a new year.

And here's the good news is you don't have to wish or hope for this to happen.

In fact, God's word tells us exactly how to do this, how we can experience this in our lives.

And this series has the potential to be life-changing and powerful for you if.

It's a big if.

If you apply God's word to your life, you if you apply this series and what he wants to say to you to your life.

We're gonna spend the next few weeks in Colossians chapter three.

It's an incredible passage.

Uh, and we're in fact gonna be reading it and praying through it in our 21 days of prayer.

It begins this way: It says, since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated, at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

How do you hit the reset button in your life?

I got some incredibly good news as we begin.

First, is that reset is actually possible.

It's not impossible, it's not improbable, it's not a hopeful, it's possible.

Why?

Because in Christ, you have a brand new starting point.

Did you notice how it began?

It said, since then, you have been raised with Christ.

Like that's your position.

You have been raised.

Just as Christ was resurrected from the grave, he's saying, spiritually, you have been raised.

And so your starting point is not dead, it's not broken, it's not tired or worn out or just hoping and wishing.

Your starting point is raised, resurrected with Christ.

You know, uh, my boys and I love to play football.

In fact, if you come by our house many afternoons in the front yard, literally in the street, we're playing street football and uh, you know, we're throwing back and forth, and brothers, you can only imagine how intense it gets as they're competing.

Now, if you're not familiar with the game of football, uh it's one in which uh you're trying to take this ball and you're trying to take it from your side of the field over here and travel the hundred yards to the opponent's end zone right here.

This thing's called the end zone.

This is the goal line.

And you're you score or win the game as you cross this line.

Now, you know, you can only imagine when I'm doing it with my boys, one brother's rushing down the field or the street to stop the other in his tracks, to keep them from crossing into the end zone, keep them from crossing so uh and scoring a goal.

Now, the game starts this way.

And some of you are like, I get it, Ryan, but some people don't know about this, okay?

Uh, and so maybe for the first time you'll understand a little bit about the Super Bowl, too, this year.

But you go, the game begins where the opposing team kicks off.

They have this set on the ground, the kicker kicks it in the air, and it flies to the other side, the team catches the ball, and they start to run out from their side of the field to cross this way.

The opposing team comes rushing down the field, and wherever the person, wow, that was loud, wherever the person got tackled is their starting point.

Now, I think for many, 2020, you felt like you got tackled and you got hit.

Many of us felt like we got blindsided in it.

And the truth is you have a spiritual opponent known as a spiritual enemy that is seeking to take you out and tackle you on the field of life.

And if we're honest, when we're thinking about our starting points this year, our starting point to 2021, you might feel like you're on the 10-yard line right here, meaning you have 90 yards to go.

You're on the 10-yard line of just not good enough.

Man, I know how that feels.

I felt that most of my life.

That I've just never measured up, I'm not good enough, I'm not able to make it.

And as you start this new year, you're just like, oh man, I'm just not good enough.

I'm just not, I'm not worthy, I'm not smart enough, I'm not, I'm not pretty enough, I I don't have all the right things.

And maybe this is where you feel like you're starting in 2021.

And for others, maybe the last year especially felt like you lost ground.

You went backwards, and you're maybe on the one-yard line, and you're backed up, and you're feeling like you have 99 yards to go, and it's the feeling of never going to change.

This is just the way it is.

I'll never make it down here.

I'm just a failure.

I'm worthless, I'm no good.

This is just the way it is, and that is what feels like is your starting point this year.

And others, you're going, Ryan, that's not where I'm at at all.

Maybe you feel like you're right here, you're right in the middle, you're on the 50-yard line where you're you're kind of halfway midway, but maybe you've been stuck there for almost your entire life because it is the 50-yard line of just do better.

I if I just do better, then I'll be able to move forward.

It's it's your performance, it's it's you know, I have to perform at a certain level.

I I have to be perfect.

Maybe it was drilled into you as a child that that you have to be perfect, or you you're you're only as good as your next performance.

And this is often where we feel like we're starting in life and trying to navigate the obstacles and the opponents to move forward.

And the good news and the gospel is this is that your new starting point is raised with Christ.

Your new starting point is that you're not on the 50-yard line or the one-yard line because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, you're in the end zone positionally.

You're not working to get there, you're not earning, you're not any of those sort of things.

All of those are lies from the enemy, from your spiritual opponent.

You're standing in the end zone of victory, not because of what you accomplished, but because what Christ has accomplished.

Let me tell you just a little bit about what it means to be raised with Christ, so you can begin to understand that because you're like, raised, I don't even get that.

If you flip back in Colossians, go to Colossians 1:13.

Colossians 1:13

Notice it says, For he rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin.

What does it mean to be raised in Christ?

First, that you're rescued from darkness.

You're rescued from the dominion of darkness.

Now notice this.

It was also, you've been redeemed, you've been bought back, you are so valuable.

God says, I want you.

You're fully forgiven, meaning there is nothing on your account in the negative balance.

It is wiped clean.

That's what it means to be raised with Christ.

Go down then to verse 21.

It says, Once you were alienated or separated from God, that was your starting point.

You were separated from God.

Uh were enemies in your minds because of the your evil behavior.

That once before we were in Christ was our starting point.

But now He has reconciled, brought you in and restored relationship with by Christ's physical body through death to present you.

Now notice this: your starting point, holy.

Holy.

That you are covered in him.

Your starting point is holy, set apart, pure in his sight, without blemish, and free from accusation.

What does it mean to be raised with Christ?

That you're rescued, that you're reconciled.

Go on then to chapter two, verse eight.

It says, For in Christ all the fullness and deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.

He is the head over every power and authority.

Maybe for some, you're on the field and you're like, my starting point's empty.

2021, I'm empty, I'm empty, I got nothing.

And in Christ, he says, You've been brought to fullness in him.

That's what it means to be raised with him.

Verse 13 says, When you were dead in your sins, that's your old starting point, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.

He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, he's taken it away, nailing it to the cross, having disarmed the powers and authorities, our spiritual opponent that is the accuser and wants to take you out.

He disarmed them on the cross, he made a public spectacle of them, triumph over them by the cross.

Your starting point is made alive.

Friends, reset is possible because you have a brand new starting point in Christ.

In fact, in Ephesians, if you flip over just a couple pages, the apostle Paul will say it this way to the church in Ephesus, Ephesians chapter 4, verse uh Ephesians 2, verse 6.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention Ephesians 2:6

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him, like right now.

He says, Spiritually, you are seated next to Christ in the heavenly realms, in order that in the coming ages he might show his incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

For it is by grace you have been saved.

It is a work, the unearned, undeserved favor of God in our lives.

We can't do anything to earn it through faith.

When we just trust the finished work of Jesus on the cross, this is our new starting point.

And it says, not by works, so that no one can boast.

See, no matter where you're at, where you've been, what 2020 threw at you, or even perhaps what you did in 2020.

The invitation is to reset, to respond to the truth and the reality of God's word, to the finished work of Jesus, that you indeed aren't on the 10 line or the 50 line, you're in the end zone of victory with Christ.

You have, I have been raised with him.

See, reset's possible because in Christ you have a new starting point.

And you're going, like, okay, that's wonderful, but the reality is, is I'm not experiencing that.

Why, why, if that's true, why am I not experiencing this new starting point, this new reality?

Is because many people live in the lies that the enemy, the spiritual opponent keeps on telling them.

And so you're on the field of um failure, trying to work your way.

You're constantly thinking, I'm just trying to do better.

I'm trying to, you know, you know, move ahead.

I'm never gonna make it, never good enough.

So, how do we experience this new starting point?

Reset requires a rhythm.

A rhythm, a rhythm of consistently setting your mind on things above.

Did you notice what it said?

What Paul said after he said, Therefore, since you've been seated with Christ or raised with Christ, it goes on to say this: set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated.

Ephesians told us that's where we're seated.

So when we set our mind on things above where Christ is seated, it's actually setting our minds on what's actually already true of us as well at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Reset requires something.

It's not just being raised with Christ.

Reset requires a rhythm of constantly setting our minds on things above, setting our minds on Jesus, setting our minds on what's true in God's word and what he says about us.

We've spent, isn't it true, our entire lives being bombarded by all this information, all these things that told us who we are, how we are, what we should be, what we can't be.

And we have to reset our minds.

That word set means a continuous, ongoing effort.

It literally means to direct one's attention and thought to something.

Did you know you can direct your attention and your thoughts?

Many of us just allow our thoughts to come and go and to take uh on their own lives.

And it says, no, no, no, you direct your thoughts.

This soul setting is this keep on keeping on.

See what the apostle Paul is telling us when resetting says, Would you address the source, not just merely the symptoms?

When we look for change, when we want to see transformation in our life, we often look at our activity, don't we?

You know, start a new year, you want to get in shape, and so you're gonna go, like, okay, I'm gonna work out, gonna do those, those are fine.

And we'll actually talk more about that next week.

But if you want to experience true change, it's not fundamentally in what you're doing, it's in how you're thinking.

See, if you change your thinking, you will change your life.

The in the Proverbs it says, as a person thinks, so they become.

Like your thought life ultimately becomes the product of your life.

Uh the apostle Paul in Romans 12, too, would say it this way: don't conform to the pattern of this world, don't be molded into the pressures and the realities of the world, but be transformed, literally, allow yourself to be changed and transformed.

How?

By the renewing of your mind.

Reset requires consistently setting our minds on things above.

If you want to experience life change, it's primarily about thinking differently, not doing something differently.

It's training your brain.

And so, how do you set your mind on things above?

How do we begin to move and have this retraining, this thinking, this realization we're standing in the end zone of victory with Christ?

And yet we've trained our brain to say, you got to do better, you got to do better, you're not good enough, you're not smart enough, and we're bombarded.

Well, let me give you a few ways to do that.

First, we have to be aware of our thoughts.

We have to be aware of our thoughts.

Most of us don't even know the thoughts that are coming in into our brain.

We just allow them to enter.

We just take it in.

Someone says something and it just catches us.

Maybe it's a parent, maybe it's a coach, maybe it was a friend, maybe it's on social media and we take in things.

Have you paid attention to what you're thinking and then where your thoughts are leading?

Like, ask this question where did that thought come from?

Like maybe kind of interrogate your thoughts just a little bit.

Like, where, okay, you're worthless.

Where did that thought come from?

I'll tell you one that I've wrestled with for many years is growing up, um, I wasn't the best student, and um, I heard you're lazy a lot.

And it began to become part of who I thought I was.

I'm lazy.

And I began to overcompensate, and so I was back to that never good enough.

And I always felt like I had to work harder and harder to offset that lie that I believed is that you are fundamentally, it's an identity thing, you're lazy.

Where did that thought come from?

It didn't come from God or what's true, and the enemy used that to bring just such heartache and pain and keep me captive and always striving and never feeling good enough, and always wanting to like prove to people that I'm working hard.

And then it just sounds like you're boasting at that point.

Be aware of your thoughts.

Where did that thought come from?

And then ask this question does it align with God's word?

Like, is it true of what God says of you?

Like, what does God's word say of you?

And friends, if you can't answer that, some of the best energy this year will be spend in God's word understanding what he says of you, because what he says of you is actually true, not what the world, not what you're thinking, and especially not what the enemy's saying.

See, what's true of you is you're forgiven fully, you're loved completely, like beloved, object of his affection.

You're redeemed, bought back, you're not worthless, you're worthy.

He says, You're adopted son, daughter of the most high.

Like this is what God's word says to be true of you.

You are so valuable.

Don't you ever devalue who you are.

You're gifted by God to make a mark and an impact in this world, to bring Bring life to others around you.

You have so much that God has placed in you.

Would you make sure that what you're thinking aligns with God's word?

How do you set your mind on things above?

First, you have to be aware of what your thoughts are.

Pay attention to what you're thinking.

Secondly, treat negative thoughts as an enemy.

Treat negative thoughts as an enemy.

Well, what is negative thoughts?

Let me just make it real simple.

Anything that doesn't align with God's word.

You're like, because I think there's a lot of thoughts we think that aren't quite all that negative, but it doesn't align with God's word.

I'll give you one that we allow into our life and it creates all sorts of heartache and pain.

And I've watched it this year, especially in relationships, a lot of people allow this thought to sow into their mind, and then it reaps all sorts of destruction.

I've seen the enemy on the spiritual field take out relationship after relationship this year.

And here's that little seed.

Doesn't make me happy.

Doesn't make me happy.

See, you got to go, where did that thought come from?

Does it align with God's word?

Well, God longs for you to flourish and enjoy, but He doesn't design you to make every decision about making you happy.

See, do whatever makes you happy actually causes incredible destruction and pain.

And I've watched people do what makes them happy and divorce and heartache and kids that are just going through so much pain.

And you treat that thought like an enemy because it is.

I'm a treasure to be protected.

And you speak God's word and you declare your victory in Jesus.

See, if we do not take captive our thoughts, our thoughts or that thought will ultimately take us captive.

If we don't direct our thoughts, then ultimately our thoughts are going to direct us.

And so we declare victory.

See, I'm not fighting from the 10-yard line, the 50-yard line.

I'm not trying to make my way.

I'm standing in the end zone.

I'm not facing the battle of this thought in my mind, fighting for victory.

I'm fighting from victory in Christ Jesus.

Why?

Because I've been raised with Christ and seated at the right hand with him.

I am adopted son or daughter of the King Most High, and I have every spiritual blessing is mine in Christ Jesus.

And you speak and declare your victory in Christ.

How do you set your mind on things above?

First, we have to be aware of our thoughts.

We have to then take negative thoughts as an enemy.

And then finally, change the playlist of your thought life.

You got to change it.

Maybe you've never thought about it this way, but what's on your playlist?

What are the thoughts that are on repeat in your life?

And for some, those thoughts have been with you maybe since you were a little girl or a little boy.

Maybe your teenage years or your college years, as a young professional, or maybe those thoughts have been on repeat since the divorce, or since that big mistake that you've never been able to get beyond.

Or maybe the secret that you've been holding and hiding.

And remember what I said, it's the word set.

The word set means to continuously engage an ongoing effort to direct one's intention.

You have to change that playlist.

Once you're aware of it, okay, I'm going to change the playlist of my thought life.

And to do that, you have to take responsibility for your thought life.

You're not passive in this.

Okay.

I've been thinking this.

They are not true thoughts.

I'm going to change those and direct my thoughts.

In Philippians chapter 4, verse 8, the apostle Paul tells us this is what should be on your playlist.

Philippians 4:8

This should be on your Spotify channel.

You know, the other day uh we were talking with um, call them a young one, but someone who's younger than us, Jenny and I, and uh they're asking what your different channels you've been listening to.

And I'm like, well, I don't listen to Spotify, I listen to Pandora, and she said, like, well, hello, 2014.

I didn't know that I was so out of touch.

So um, not your Pandora channel, your Spotify playlist.

What's on your Spotify playlist?

This is what the Apostle Paul says.

This should be your Spotify playlist.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever's true, is what uh what's on your playlist true?

Whatever's noble or morally excellent, is what that means.

See, I think so often the playlist we allow by the things we consume, is it morally excellent?

And it just begins to play on repeat.

Is what I'm digesting on Netflix or on social media morally excellent?

Whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely.

Like lovely thoughts about yourself.

We can be such harsh people to ourselves, can't we?

Whatever's admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, notice what he says.

Think about such things.

That's what it means to set your mind on things above where Christ is seated.

This is the playlist.

Let me ask you what's on the playlist of your mind.

What are those things that keep going over and over?

You're worthless, you're no good, you're a failure.

You'll never change.

You're pathetic.

And what we do is go, yeah, no, you're right.

Actually, I am.

And like, no, no, no.

God says you're not, and He came for you, He died for you, He said you're so valuable, you're you're loved, you're not worthless.

And you begin to change the playlist.

Well, how do we do that?

One way I've done it is just by simple three by five cards.

See, a rhythm of consistently setting your mind on things above means you have to do it daily, not sporadically.

So often you want to experience the life change, but you don't do it daily.

You're like, I got into God's word once.

Get into God's word daily.

Write down some things from his word that are true about you, and you just review it in the morning.

Say, this is the playlist.

This is the playlist, God.

I'm gonna, and when that other playlist comes in, I'm going to treat it as an enemy.

This is the playlist.

I'm just gonna review it.

I'm gonna keep it with me.

I'm gonna keep it in my journal.

I'm gonna keep it in my car.

I'm gonna keep it wherever you're working these days.

Change the playlist.

One real specific way you can start off 2021 and changing the playlist is we're doing 21 days of prayer.

We created a booklet just for you to be able to engage in this way where you would say every single day, it's very simple, it's all laid out, and I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna renew my mind and I'm gonna seek you.

And would you join us?

One of the most important decisions you'll make this year is what you put into your mind.

Would you change the playlist?

How do you hit the reset button in your life?

Well, you have to realize it's possible.

Resets possible because you have a new starting point in Christ.

But it requires this rhythm of consistently setting your mind on things above.

We're worn out and exhausted and that running back and forth and feeling like we make three yards forward, two yards backward, and we're just ready for something to change.

And if that's where you're at, would you decide today?

I'm gonna hit reset, which means daily I'm gonna begin to renew my mind on God's word.

And what will happen is your thoughts will begin to change.

And as your thoughts begin to change, your life begins to change, and the Spirit of God cooperates in those moments to bring transformation of your heart and your life.

And you'll look up a year from now and be, wow, I look a little bit more like Jesus as a result.

God, I pray for my friends as we start a new year filled with hopes and hurts, excitement, and anxiety.

God, I ask that this would be a defining, marking moment to hit reset.

After a crazy, chaotic year, 2020, you would do this in this moment just the things in us deeply that we desperately need.

And you would give us the courage to go, okay, we're gonna be consistent with you this year.

God, may we be a church that extends your hope, your grace, your love to those around us because we've experienced we're sitting in victory with you in Jesus' name.

Amen.