Reset Part 1

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Next Steps in February

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John the baptist

Intro:

I want to take a poll this morning:

Who here would say that they are, in this season, busy?

Who here would say they live a busy life?

Who here would say that you are often too busy?

Who here would say that your business causes you to miss out on things you wish you could otherwise do?

the other day I was at Dorie’s grandparents house with the girls

And I had Naomi and Essie outside

Essie was on her bike and naomi was in a little tricycle type thing and she had just learned to pedal and so Essie would come zooming past her and do what any good big sister would do

She would yell out something to the extent of “I’m gonna beat you Nonnie.”

Of course that sent Nonnie in a tizzy and she’s trying to pedal as hard as she can and her little legs just can’t keep up with Essie

This happened multiple times. They would even line up and say go and Essie would just leave her in the dust.

Well after 6 or 7 of these races I decided to step in. So I got behind Naomi and her little thing had some handles I could push and Essie says 1,2,3 and we take off.

Now, I don’t know where you stand on this but my kids aren’t going to beat me in anything until they can actually beat me

So, I take off and Naomi is laughing and Essie is getting worked up and we get about 10 to 15 feet out in front of her and all of sudden Essie yells out

Wait daddy we need to restart

We need to reset.

Ummm....I wasn’t ready

How this was going, how it was looking I think it would be best if we did that over again.

I need a reset.

Don’t you wish that life had a reset button sometimes

Aren’t there moments in your life where you wish you wouldn’t have done that or wouldn’t have said that

Maybe it’s that you’ve just found yourself in a place or position that you don’t really know how you even got there and life is caving in and there’s no time and no way out and you just wish you could hit the reset button

I can tell you this, after the Christmas season, Im ready to hit a reset button.

I’m ready to get back to my routine and get more time to do the things that need to be done

Between

All of the parties

all of the festivities

All of the events and visits

Eating - hitting reset on the gym

all the presents - money and

cards. Can we be done with Christmas cards? We see 18 pictures a week of your family on SM why do we have to send you a card with one around Christmas

But then, every year, this year it was last Sunday we said goodbye to 2022 and we began the year of 2023

And as that day began, we began a reset.

We reset our calendars

we reset our routines

We reset our goals

As the clock hit midnight we were officially in a new year

With new possibilities

And new new opportunities

And it’s the norm to begin to wish for new things, we call them resolutions

And they always start out promising and well

And we face them head first with passion and excitement

Ex: Go to the gym

Ex: Eat healthy

Ex: read x amount

Whatever it may be

The problem we face: life still goes on. Right?

Monday comes and you realize that the same problems are still there, the same people are still around, the same restaurants are serving the same unhealthy food, you’ve got the same 24 hours in the day and you are the same you

We see all of the possibilities and opportunities and we wish for all of this new but what we don’t do is get rid of the old

And so we are expecting and hoping and wishing and dreaming for all of these new things but how could we possibly squeeze in one more thing?

The old famous quote goes that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

How could we do something new when we don’t have space for anything new in our lives?

As a pastor one of the most common things that I hear, if not the most common thing I hear, when it comes to following Jesus in any capacity (serving, attending, groups, next steps, giving, reading your Bible, studying, praying, etc) is this in some form or another:

I am too busy

It may sound like:

I can’t come to this because we have games that night

Or I can’t commit to that because our schedules are just too crazy right now

Or I have a hard time reading and studying and praying because I have to get up so early for work and I’m just exhausted when I get home

I am too busy.

And I’m not bashing any of those things. But Scripture is clear about our approach to this life when we follow Jesus

And the truth is that when we follow Jesus everything changes

The moment that we decide that Jesus is Lord and we surrender our life to Him and for Him

We hit reset!

And for a lot of us in this room, possibly all of us, we may have been saved before but it’s time to reset.

Reset our perspective

Reset our motives

Reset our minds

Reset our relationships

Reset our goals

Reset our time

Reset our days

It’s time to reset and refocus on what’s important

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

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Paul writes this letter to the church in Corinth and he begins talking about some of the affects of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Here in verse 17 of this chapter he makes a profound statement that those who are in Christ is a new creation.

And that, the old has gone and the new has come

So, when we put our faith in Christ. When we are in Christ there is a radical reorientation.

Let’s break this down quickly to make sure we are clear

To be in Christ means:

The proclamation that Jesus is Lord

The Faith that receives that proclamation

And a life devoted to that proclamation

It’s a heart that finds sole satisfaction in Jesus

A soul that finds rest in His presence

A mind that searches to know the depths of His goodness

And a life that mimics the model laid out for it

To be in Christ is to align oneself with Christ

And when this happens, newness comes and oldness dissipates

This means a newness of life.

New purpose, new direction, new expectations

The old would say that life is solely self centered

The new says life is completely Christ centered

There is new hope and peace

The old would say that everything is accidental and meaningless and with end

the new would say that everything is God driven and purposeful leading to an eternity spent with our heavenly Father.

There is new perspective

The verse prior to this one Paul states

2 Corinthians 5:16 NIV

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

The old would say that there is me and mine and that is the only thing that’s important

The new would say that everyone is created in the image of God and in desperate need of His love and grace

My concern is that we say the right things and believe the right things and may even want the right things but we are trying to cram newness into a space that is full to the brim of the old

And we will never be able to experience the fullness of the new creation that God has intended us to be until we put to death and get rid of the old that has held us captive

Now, I want to make this point clear. Paul is not expecting perfection

To be in Christ is to be participating already in the new creation to come.

So, it is true that for the time being the old will still persist and the new has not fully come.

So, the point Paul is making is not come to Jesus because He will make you perfect, but surrender to Jesus and things will change.

He will make you hit the reset button.

What we are talking about here is creating margin

We need to create margin in our lives so that we can begin to say yes to the things that are most important and yes to the new that God has for us

Let’s start with the definition of margin

Margin is: the space between my load and my limit

Margin is the space between what I currently have going on and trying to accomplish or expected to accomplish and what I actually have time, energy, and resources for.

Margin is space.

And the reality is, is that most of us are living full throttle, all the way to the max with little to no margin in our life

My wife and I have a problem with always being early.

And it really doesn’t matter what’s going on or what it is, unless there is an emergency, more than likely we are going to be early.

We always get ready much quicker than expected and we just hate being late to places.

Now, I also know people who are always late.

And when i say always i mean always.

Now, I dont think that they wake up and say “you know what, I’m gonna be late today.”

What they think is, I’m gonna be on time.

The problem is, there’s only 3 things you can be, early, on time, and late

But when you only plan to be on time you’ve left yourself no margin, so one thing goes wrong and now guess what…you’re late.

So, creating margin in our life is going to take work, it’s going to take sacrifices, it’s going to take discipline.

And you may say, Pastor, what does this have to do with Jesus?

I think there are 3 major reasons why this is biblically important for us

#1 I believe that because of the way we live our lives

we often miss out on gospel opportunities.

We are either too busy to see opportunities to be Jesus or to busy to do the things He’s called us to do

#2 God’s called His people to be generous.

It’s impossible to be generous when you have nothing to give

Because we have no margin in our lives we have no extra time, energy, or resources to give.

#3

We are designed for both work and rest

God has designed for His people, since the very beginning, to live in a pattern of work and rest.

Which means, to be who God has called us to be, we have to create margin.

Emotional margin, spiritual margin, financial margin, margin in our time

So that we can slow down, see gospel opportunities, be generous with all that God has given us and live in the pattern that God has designed for us.

So we will spend the rest of this series talking about that.

How to create margin for the most important things. What the most important things are. Disciplines for people to live with margin in their lives. and how to have grace in the margin.

So, I hope you come back and continue with us, and I pray that God uses this timely series to help us make room in our lives for what He wants to do with us.

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