Putting the Pieces Together

RESET: PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

We need regular resets because we just tend to drift off course. So from time to time, even daily, certainly weekly and monthly, we need to reset, get back on course, get back to what's most important in our lives. Because we tend to drift as human beings, but then there's times in our lives, when we need what I'd call a radical reset, everything has fallen apart. Nothing's working nothing's happening right and you need to radically reset your life. And this series really is for both of those kinds of resets.

Whether it's regular or it's radical, resets aren't always easy. It just takes some energy. It takes some time. So I wanted to start with a promise of encouragement from the book of Psalms. Look at Psalm 145:14. The Bible says, "God gives a fresh start to those who are ready to quit."

Psalm 145:14 The Message

14 God gives a hand to those down on their luck, gives a fresh start to those ready to quit.

We're not talking this today about something you have to do on your own energy and power. You need to reset your life. We're talking about something that God wants to do in your life. We're talking about something that God wants to do in your life through his power. God gives a fresh start to those who are ready to quit. Even if you're ready to quit, you don't have the energy to go one more step.

As we round out this series, we’re going to look at three questions that all of us need to ask in order for a reset to happen in our lives. We're going to learn these questions from a blind man by the name of Bartimaeus.

But when you look closer, there's something that God wants to say into our lives through these three simple questions.

1. WHERE AM I?

In order to get where I want to go I have to ask where I am and that's where Bartimaeus had to start, this basic question, where am I?

It was this great day of celebration in the city where Bartimaeus lived, city by the name of Jericho.

It was a celebration because Jesus and the disciples were coming to town and that was a pretty exciting thing in that day. The word about Jesus was spreading, but it was also an exciting day because it was a time when all the people were coming through Jericho.

So it was one of those exciting times of the year when it's busy, it's celebrating, everybody's excited to be there. And here's Bartimaeus in the middle of all this, he's not celebrating. He's sitting beside the road begging because he is a blind man.

Mark 10:46 NLT

46 Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road.

He's just sitting beside the road in the middle of this celebration. He's begging.

In that culture if you were blind, the only way you could survive was by begging. There was no job for you to have. There was no way for you to support yourself. You were totally dependent on the pity of others to give you a morsel of food so you could survive one more day. So he's surviving on scraps of food.

Something good might be about to happen here. So let show you what happens in Mark 10:46.

Mark 10:46 NLT

46 Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road.

Mark 10:52 NLT

52 And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.

You find that Bartimaeus is sitting beside the road begging, but then by Mark 10:52, just a few verses later, he's following Jesus on the road seeing, that is a reset. That's a total life reset.

Now, in the beginning, where am I? He's sitting beside the road. And that is a picture of being sidelined. His total life was sidelined. He's sitting beside the road, all the dreams that he had for his life, they aren't happening because of his blindness.

SOMEBODY HERE TODAY IS LIKE BARTIMAEUS. YOU ARE SIDELINED.

The events of the last few years, the events of your personal life, you're feeling sidelined. You're not able to get on with the dreams that you have. The way that things used to be aren't the way that things are anymore. And you feel like life is passing you by that's this sideline feeling. That's this sitting beside the road feeling. Bartimaeus shows us how to get back on the road. Bartimaeus shows us how to find a reset. And it all starts with him recognizing where he was and asking himself, “Is this where I have to stay?”

To get to where you want to be you got to know where you are and to know where you are you got to look at the map. And sometimes we don't look at the map. We don't take the time to ask this question, “Where am I?” And there's a lot of reasons we don't look at the map. Probably the number one, one is we're too busy. We're just rushing through life and we don't take the time to look at where we really are.

We have to be willing to admit where we are. Remember when Adam and Eve had sinned in the garden? They had to recognize where they were.

Genesis 3:8–9 NLT

8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

Now, let's just slow down a second here, because this is so important. We all struggle with this.

We need a reset when we find ourselves hiding. So right now you need to ask yourself, where am I? Am I hiding from my past, through my denial?

Or maybe you're hiding from others through your distancing. You're just keeping them at arm’s length all the time. You're having lots of pity parties to tell the truth. And you know what a pity party is. You get all alone in a room, you pull the shade, you make it really dark. There's usually massive amounts of chocolate involved somehow, you're having a pity party and you're pushing other people away. It's a major tip off that you need to reset in your life.

We hide from ourselves through our distractions. You can never be quiet, you can never have a moment to think. You're always distracting yourself by looking at something, watching something, picking up your phone, doing something. You need a reset.

So look at the map and ask, where am I now? By the way, what's the map? What are you looking at? Well, you look to God. God's the one who knows you the best. So you ask in relationship with him God, where am I?

Psalm 139:23–24 NLT

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

2. WHO AM I LISTENING TO?

The second question is, who am I listening to? Who am I listening to? Because who you listen to, what you listen to is going to have tremendous impact on the direction of your life. Look what happened with Bartimaeus

Mark 10:47–48 NLT

47 When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 “Be quiet!” many of the people yelled at him. But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

So get this picture. He is shouting, "Have mercy on me." To Jesus.

And the people are shouting, "Be quiet." Whenever you have to shout, be quiet something's probably wrong. There's a little parenting tip in here somewhere, but that's another message. Shouting be quiet is not working. They're shouting at each other, but Bartimaeus doesn't listen. And he keeps saying, “Jesus have mercy on me.” And because he doesn't listen to the crowd, he hears the voice of Jesus.

Because he didn't listen to the crowd, Bartimaeus is in a place where he is able to listen to Jesus.

Are you listening to the crowd or are you listening to Jesus? And let me just say, this has never been more important because the crowd right now, like never before in human history, it's always with us. The crowd is, on your screens, always shouting at you. The crowd is in your pocket. It's in your phone, always shouting at you always saying things to you.

The voice of the crowd versus the voice of Jesus...

So let me show you four differences between the voice of the crowd and the voice of Jesus.

The crowd shouts. Jesus whispers.

We just saw that with Bartimaeus, but Jesus whispers. The crowd is shouting all the time… Instagram crowd, the Facebook, Twitter, cable news, Discord, Snapchat, TikTok crowd. For some of you, the Pinterest crowd, God help you, for some of you.

We’ve got to build some new disciplines into our lives to get away from the shout of the crowd so that we can hear the whisper of Jesus.

The crowd interrupts. Jesus invites.

The crowd's yelling at Bartimaeus. He didn't ask them to yell at him, he just asking for help from Jesus. Now, the truth is you can't help but hear the crowd. They're always yelling. They're always interrupting.

We are surrounded right now by the rude interrupting crowd, always shouting. And whether it's a regular reset or a radical reset, it's only going to happen as you and I listen to the voice of Jesus and accept his invitation to get closer and hear what he has to say to us.

The crowd flip-flops. Jesus remains steady.

First, they're yelling at him, "Be quiet, be quiet." And then Jesus, they're saying shut up to him is what they're saying. And then Jesus says, "Hey, come and talk to me."

They go from cheer up to shut up in just a few minutes and back to cheer up and back to shut up. That's what they'll do in your life. That's what the crowd will do to you. But Jesus is completely opposite. He never wavers, his love for you, it will never waiver.

The crowd is selfish. Jesus is selfless.

The crowd cares about itself, Jesus cares about you. The crowd by nature of what a crowd is cares about itself. But Jesus cares about you.

The crowd that day, they didn't like Bartimaeus shouting at Jesus. You know why? It made them look bad. It was supposed to be a big day of celebration.

3. WHAT DO I WANT?

Where am I? Who am I listening to? What do I want?

And this might be the most important question for a reset, because if you don't ask it, if you don't ask this question, what do I want? You're going to probably stay stuck where you are.

Mark 10:51–52 NLT

51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked. “My Rabbi,” the blind man said, “I want to see!” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.

So the reset is complete. Bartimaeus has gone from blind man begging beside the road to a disciple following Jesus on the road. And it starts with this question, what do you want me to do for you? I want to see, he says, and God does this through his faith.

So what about the times when he asks you that question and it's not the immediate healing, faith answer, it's a different kind of faith answer.

Mark 10:36 NLT

36 “What is your request?” he asked.

And they replied, ‘Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.’" So they went for it. I mean, they really went for it. I mean, what do we want? We want to be sitting right by you on your throne for all eternity. Like co-leaders of all the universe for all eternity. That's what we want, Jesus. And Jesus says, "You don't know what you're asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with?"

The cup that he's talking about here, he talks about it again in the garden of Gethsemane, it's the cup of his suffering. And Jesus is saying here, the ones who sit on the thrones are the ones who most suffered. So he's saying is that really what you want, to be the one who most suffers? And then later he says to them, oh, it's already been decided who's going to be there anyway. I can't grant that anyway. You'd be kicking somebody else out. Is that what you really want? James and John probably would've said yes, but Jesus is saying no in this moment, you don't know what you're asking.

So what we think we want, isn't always what we really want.

So how does this work? Well, some of you, if I said what do you really want?

If you were just downright honest, you'd say what I really want, I want to get out of my marriage because I'm in so much pain and I don't know what to do and I don't know how to make it right. So can you tell God that? Of course you can. What do you want me to do for you? God, I want to get out of my marriage. Now, that's not the end of the conversation because then God can start to gently work in your life and say maybe there's a possibility that instead of you getting out, you can get help.

Have the tough conversation with God. He loves you. You can say anything to him. What do I want? “What do you want me to do for you,” Jesus says. And you say, “I want to be successful. If I'm honest, I want to be successful.”

CONCLUSION

Matthew 6:10 NLT

10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

1 Corinthians 1:30 NLT

30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.