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Doing a 'Reset' for a Better Life with Pastor Rick Warren · Voice of Rick warren

0:00
Speaker 1: You'll take out your message notes. They're inside your program.
0:03
Speaker 1: We're in part three of building a better life, doing
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Speaker 1: a reset for a better life. Now, every parent and
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Speaker 1: every child knows the meaning of the phrase, you need
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Speaker 1: to take a time out. We all know what that means.
0:20
Speaker 1: You need to take a timeout. Sometimes when the kids
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Speaker 1: get squirrely and unruly and irascible and everybody's upset, you go, okay, timeout.
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Speaker 1: Everybody go to your room, take a timeout, work on
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Speaker 1: your attitude, calm down, and stay in your room until
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Speaker 1: you get a better attitude. It's time for a timeout.
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Speaker 1: In many ways... The last year of pandemic has been
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Speaker 1: a global timeout for humanity. We were all sent to
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Speaker 1: our rooms to think about our attitudes. You can call
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Speaker 1: it quarantining or stay at home or social distancing or whatever,
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Speaker 1: but the bottom line is, it's been a timeout. Now
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Speaker 1: as it appears that our timeout may be nearing an end,
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Speaker 1: I just wanna say that God is not at all
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Speaker 1: interested in us merely resuming our old ways of living.
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Speaker 1: Instead of resuming our old ways of living, our old lives,
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Speaker 1: God is interested in giving us the opportunity to reset
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Speaker 1: our lives, not to resume our lives, but to reset
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Speaker 1: our lives. What do I mean by that? Instead of
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Speaker 1: going back to your old ways, ways, we have a
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Speaker 1: chance to reboot. We have a chance to refigure, to redefine,
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Speaker 1: to reset our lives at a better level, a better life.
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Speaker 1: Better than the good life. I've talked to you now
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Speaker 1: a couple weeks about this. The good life, you're all
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Speaker 1: living the good life. You look good, you feel good,
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Speaker 1: you have the goods. but the good life's not good enough.
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Speaker 1: You were made for far more than the good life.
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Speaker 1: You were made for what the Bible calls the better life.
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Speaker 1: And as your pastor, I wanna help you move up
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Speaker 1: from the good life, which is good, it's certainly better
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Speaker 1: than the bad life, to the better life. And as
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Speaker 1: your pastor, it is my job as your spiritual counselor,
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Speaker 1: your life coach in many ways, My goal, my job
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Speaker 1: in life is to help you live as successful a
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Speaker 1: life as possible. My calling, what God has called me
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Speaker 1: to do is to help you be the most productive,
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Speaker 1: the most effective, the most fruitful you can possibly be
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Speaker 1: in every area of your life for the glory of God.
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Speaker 1: That's what I'm called to do. That's why the first
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Speaker 1: thing we started when all of a sudden it looked
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Speaker 1: like we were gonna have a little bit of reprieve
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Speaker 1: from our time out, the first series we're starting is
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Speaker 1: called Building a Better Life. But to build a better life,
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Speaker 1: to build a better you, a new you, is gonna
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Speaker 1: require an intentional reset. And that's why for a couple weeks,
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Speaker 1: and we're gonna continue in the future, look at the
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Speaker 1: principles for resetting your life. Now on your message notes,
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Speaker 1: I have put a definition of the term reset. To reset,
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Speaker 1: here's a dictionary definition. To reset is to make a new,
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Speaker 1: fresh start due to a change in circumstances, opportunities, or priorities.
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Speaker 1: Changed circumstances, changed opportunities, or changed priorities. And that's exactly
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Speaker 1: what COVID-19 and this global pandemic has done for us.
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Speaker 1: It's given us an opportunity, new circumstances, new priorities to
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Speaker 1: reset our lives. So that's why a couple weeks back,
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Speaker 1: we started in part one, and I shared with you
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Speaker 1: four principles of resetting your life after a trauma. And
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Speaker 1: last year was an incredibly traumatic year, and it's really
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Speaker 1: not even over yet. And we're not even sure that
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Speaker 1: we're not gonna have a fourth year you know, a
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Speaker 1: wave of the COVID virus. But if you missed part one,
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Speaker 1: I would encourage you to go back and watch part
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Speaker 1: one and part two. Last week was Easter, of course,
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Speaker 1: but that was part two. Watch it online at saddleback.com.
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Speaker 1: Now I'm not gonna cover all that material, but I
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Speaker 1: just put the four principles down there and you can
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Speaker 1: get all the details in watching that if you missed it.
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Speaker 1: Expect to feel mixed emotions as you're coming back into
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Speaker 1: a different kind of life. Expect to feel mixed emotions.
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Speaker 1: Extract the lessons you learned. Don't waste last year. Was
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Speaker 1: all that pain for nothing? Did you learn anything from it?
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Speaker 1: If so, write it down. Evaluate everything before resuming it.
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Speaker 1: Don't just automatically fill your schedule with the same stuff
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Speaker 1: you were doing before. Evaluate. I've lived without it. Do
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Speaker 1: I need to add it back in? Really. Evaluate before
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Speaker 1: resuming and then engage slowly. Don't get in a hurry.
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Speaker 1: God's timetable is always slower than than your timetable. Don't
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Speaker 1: get in a hurry. So what I wanna do today
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Speaker 1: now is give you four more principles and let's get
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Speaker 1: right into it. These are from scripture so that you
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Speaker 1: can move up to a better life. And here's the
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Speaker 1: first one. In order to move from the good life
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Speaker 1: to the better life, to step up, to have a
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Speaker 1: new you, here's the first thing you need to do.
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Speaker 1: Eliminate non-essentials. Eliminate the non-essentials in my life. I have
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Speaker 1: mentioned to you in both previous weeks, the physical and
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Speaker 1: the emotional cost of trauma. and chronic stress. And remember
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Speaker 1: I said it's like a battery. If you got a
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Speaker 1: battery and you have one light bulb attached to it,
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Speaker 1: it'll last a long time. If you attach two light
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Speaker 1: bulbs to the battery, it burns out in half the time.
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Speaker 1: If you attach four light bulbs, it burns out in
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Speaker 1: a quarter of the time. You have had many light
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Speaker 1: bulbs attached to your battery this last year. Many reasons
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Speaker 1: for stress, many reasons for tension, many reasons for a trauma,
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Speaker 1: traumatic events in your life. And I said, and you
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Speaker 1: all obviously understand what I'm talking about on this, that
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Speaker 1: nobody in the sound of my voice has the same
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Speaker 1: level of energy as you did a year ago. Not
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Speaker 1: one of you. There's not anybody here that has the
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Speaker 1: same amount of energy, that physical and emotional energy you
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Speaker 1: had a year ago. You say, how do you know that, Rick?
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Speaker 1: Because I know what trauma does to you. And I
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Speaker 1: know that the slow drip of every day this crisis
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Speaker 1: has gone on, it has drained you more and more
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Speaker 1: and more. And so you just don't have the same
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Speaker 1: level of energy that you had a year ago. That's
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Speaker 1: not to say you won't get it back, but it
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Speaker 1: is to say that right now you don't have it.
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Speaker 1: So since you don't have the same level of energy
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Speaker 1: you did a year ago, it is absolutely important that
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Speaker 1: you not waste it. That what little energy you have,
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Speaker 1: you don't use it on non-essentials. Does that make sense?
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Speaker 1: You need to be more selective in your life, in
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Speaker 1: your attitudes, in your schedule, in your calendar. Now, the
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Speaker 1: Bible specifically tells us three things that we need to
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Speaker 1: eliminate in our lives. And they're the next verses there
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Speaker 1: on your outline. We need to eliminate the sins that
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Speaker 1: hold me back, the activities that waste my energy, and
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Speaker 1: the unhealthy habits. Let me go through these. First, write
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Speaker 1: this down. Sins that hold me back. I need to
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Speaker 1: obviously get rid of those. I don't wanna pull old
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Speaker 1: sins from pre-COVID into post-COVID living. Hebrews 12, verse one,
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Speaker 1: let us run the race before us and let us
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Speaker 1: never give up, okay? You're in a race right now
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Speaker 1: and that race is not a 50-yard dash, it's a marathon.
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Speaker 1: Let us run the race before us and never give up.
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Speaker 1: We should remove from our lives, that means eliminate, we
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Speaker 1: should remove from our lives anything that would get in
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Speaker 1: the way and the sins that hold us back. The
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Speaker 1: same verse in the contemporary English version says this, we
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Speaker 1: must throw off every weight that slows us down, especially
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Speaker 1: those sins that just won't let go. These are habitual
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Speaker 1: sins in your life. If you are habitually impatient, And
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Speaker 1: you were that way before COVID, you probably still are
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Speaker 1: that way now. You don't want to pull that sin
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Speaker 1: into the new you. If you are habitually, you lose
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Speaker 1: your cool, you lose your anger, your temper. That's a problem.
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Speaker 1: If you habitually become fearful. or you are habitually anxious,
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Speaker 1: or you worry, you chronically worry, or you get jealous,
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Speaker 1: or a thousand other different attitude sins that I could list.
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Speaker 1: All of those things, you don't wanna take those with
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Speaker 1: you into the new you. And so he says, we
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Speaker 1: wanna let go, we wanna eliminate sin. the sins that
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Speaker 1: hold me back. By the way, we'll come back and
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Speaker 1: cover these in details in other messages. Number two, though,
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Speaker 1: is activities that waste my energy. That's the next verse.
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Speaker 1: I want to eliminate activities that waste my energy. These
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Speaker 1: things are not necessarily wrong. They're just not necessary. There
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Speaker 1: are a lot of things in your life that's not sin,
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Speaker 1: but it's just not worth your energy. 1 Corinthians 6.
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Speaker 1: 6 verse 12 Everything is permissible for me. In other words,
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Speaker 1: I I can do anything But not everything is beneficial.
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Speaker 1: It's not the difference between bad and good It's the
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Speaker 1: difference between good and better and moving from the good
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Speaker 1: life to the better life. Everything is permissible, not everything's beneficial.
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Speaker 1: Everything's permissible, but not everything, I won't be mastered by anything.
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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna let anything control my life, and you
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Speaker 1: shouldn't let anything control your life either, all right? Sins
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Speaker 1: hold me back, activities waste my energy, and the third
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Speaker 1: verse talks about unhealthy habits. I need to eliminate unhealthy habits.
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Speaker 1: And here's what Ephesians chapter four says. Get rid of
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Speaker 1: your old self. That's pretty clear. Get rid of your
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Speaker 1: old self, which made you live like you used to
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Speaker 1: live pre-COVID. The old destructive patterns. If you're taking notes,
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Speaker 1: circle that phrase, the old destructive patterns. What are old
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Speaker 1: destructive patterns? Unhealthy habits, okay, that weren't good for you.
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Speaker 1: Unhealthy habits, the old destructive patterns that were rooted in
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Speaker 1: deceitful desires. They were based on lies that Satan tells us. Instead,
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Speaker 1: let your heart and mind be made completely new, okay?
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Speaker 1: This is a reset. Let your heart and mind be
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Speaker 1: made completely new. Put on your new self, that's the
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Speaker 1: new you, which is created to be like God, and
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Speaker 1: it shows itself in the true life, the true life,
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Speaker 1: that's the better life, in the true life that is
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Speaker 1: right and right. Good. That's where we're going, folks. That's
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Speaker 1: where we're going, to the true life. That's the right
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Speaker 1: life for you, and it's the good life for you,
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Speaker 1: but it's better than just the good life. It's, as
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Speaker 1: the Bible calls it, the better life. So it starts
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Speaker 1: by letting go of some stuff. I remember one time
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Speaker 1: I went to dinner with a couple that I had
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Speaker 1: done their wedding years and years ago, and it was
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Speaker 1: a second marriage for both of them. And the woman
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Speaker 1: told me at dinner, she said, you know, Rick, When
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Speaker 1: I walked down that aisle in that white dress, I
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Speaker 1: did not realize that I was carrying a giant garbage
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Speaker 1: bag of garbage from my previous relationship into my new one.
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Speaker 1: I'm going, what an apt picture. You don't want to
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Speaker 1: do that pre-COVID and post-COVID. You don't want to take
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Speaker 1: the garbage that was in your life that didn't work,
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Speaker 1: the habits, the hurts, the hangups, the sins, the activities
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Speaker 1: that wasted energy. You don't wanna go walking into the
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Speaker 1: future with that garbage. You wanna let it go. And
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Speaker 1: we'll talk about more how to do this in the future.
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Speaker 1: How do you eliminate the non-essentials? Now, the second principle
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Speaker 1: for resetting your life is the complimentary action to this
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Speaker 1: first one. And it is this, excel at what really matters.
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Speaker 1: Excel at what really matters. You stop focusing on the
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Speaker 1: stuff that doesn't matter, and you start focusing on the
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Speaker 1: stuff that does matter. You eliminate the non-essentials, and you
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Speaker 1: emphasize and you excel at what really matters. Watch this
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Speaker 1: on the screen. Now, the next principle of resetting my
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Speaker 1: life is the complementary action, and it is this. Excel
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Speaker 1: at what really matters. That's the next thing you want
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Speaker 1: to focus on in the months ahead post-COVID. Eliminate what's
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Speaker 1: not essential and excel on what is essential. Excel on
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Speaker 1: what really matters most. Excel on what is right and true. Friends,
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Speaker 1: I want to tell you some personal experience. You don't
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Speaker 1: have to be good at everything to make it in life.
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Speaker 1: There are thousands of things I'm terrible at. Just thousands
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Speaker 1: of things that I'm not good at. You don't have
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Speaker 1: to be good at everything. You don't have to, you
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Speaker 1: don't need to be good at everything. God doesn't expect
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Speaker 1: you to be good at everything. But to live the
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Speaker 1: better life, this upgraded life, not the good life, but
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Speaker 1: the better life, to live the better life, you just
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Speaker 1: need to be good at what's most important. And if
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Speaker 1: you're good at what's most important, it doesn't matter if
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Speaker 1: you're terrible at everything else. If you're good at what
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Speaker 1: matters most, it's not gonna matter that you're not good
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Speaker 1: at this, this, this, this, and this, because you're not
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Speaker 1: gonna be good at everything anyway. So when you get
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Speaker 1: to heaven, God isn't gonna say, for instance, how coordinated
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Speaker 1: were you? Some of you are really coordinated. God gave
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Speaker 1: you natural coordination. Some of us, we're not coordinated at all.
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Speaker 1: Some of you are good with math. Some of you
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Speaker 1: suck at math. Some of you are good at music, others,
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Speaker 1: you couldn't carry a tune in a baggie, okay? You
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Speaker 1: have a voice that should be cultivated, plowed under, actually, okay?
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Speaker 1: You're a prison singer. You're always behind a few bars,
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Speaker 1: never have the right key, okay? And so you don't
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Speaker 1: have to be good at it. The Bible just says
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Speaker 1: make a joyful noise. You don't have to be good
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Speaker 1: at everything. What matters, excelling at what really matters is
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Speaker 1: the key to the better life, okay? I eliminate the
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Speaker 1: non-essentials and then I excel at what really matters. Now,
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Speaker 1: what really matters? Well, in order to excel at what
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Speaker 1: really matters, in the days ahead, you're gonna have to
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Speaker 1: develop three habits, okay? You're not gonna do this overnight,
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Speaker 1: but you're gonna work on these habits in the days
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Speaker 1: ahead so you move from the good life to the
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Speaker 1: better life. These three habits are the three verses there
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Speaker 1: on your teaching notes below. And by the way, they're
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Speaker 1: all intertwined. You can't leave out any of them, okay?
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Speaker 1: So let me give you the three habits. We'll look
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Speaker 1: at three verse. Here's the first habit you really need
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Speaker 1: to work on post-pandemic. First habit, managing my time. You
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Speaker 1: need to get better at managing your time if you're
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Speaker 1: gonna move to the better life. Not simply from the
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Speaker 1: good life, but up to the better life. Managing your time.
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Speaker 1: Selection is the name of the game. The secret of
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Speaker 1: an effective life is selection. Knowing what matters most and
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Speaker 1: doing that. Managing your time. One of the big differences
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Speaker 1: between successes in life and failures in life, or for
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Speaker 1: that matter, the difference between living a good life And
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Speaker 1: living the better life is that people who live the
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Speaker 1: better life do a better job of using their time.
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Speaker 1: People who live the better life do a better job
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Speaker 1: of using their time. Why? Because time is your most
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Speaker 1: precious resource. Your time is your life. If you waste time,
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Speaker 1: you're wasting your life because you're never getting that back.
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Speaker 1: Time is your most precious commodity, not money, time. Why?
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Speaker 1: Because you can always get more money, but you can't
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Speaker 1: always get more time. Everybody here, we all have the
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Speaker 1: exact same amount of time, 168 hours a week. And
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Speaker 1: the difference between people who live a good life, people
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Speaker 1: who live the better life, people who live the better
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Speaker 1: life make a better use of that 168 hours a week.
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Speaker 1: You know, one time I was talking to Bill Gates
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Speaker 1: at a conference. And I asked him, I said, Bill,
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Speaker 1: you know, at that time he was the wealthiest man
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Speaker 1: in the world. I said, how do you use your money?
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Speaker 1: He said, Rick, the best use of money is use
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Speaker 1: it to save time. I go, that's brilliant. It's brilliant. Why?
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Speaker 1: Because you can get more money, but you can't get
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Speaker 1: more time. And so one of the good ways to
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Speaker 1: use money is to use it to save time. Time
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Speaker 1: is your most precious resource. Now, here's a prayer that
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Speaker 1: you can pray every day. Psalm 90, verse 12. Lord,
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Speaker 1: Teach us to make the most of our time so
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Speaker 1: that we may grow in wisdom. That's a good prayer
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Speaker 1: to start praying post-COVID. Lord, teach me to use my
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Speaker 1: time wisely. Teach me to make the most of my
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Speaker 1: time so that I may grow in wisdom. By the way,
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Speaker 1: how does God teach you to make the most of
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Speaker 1: your time? This book right here. The more you get
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Speaker 1: in this book, The more you apply the principles, if
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Speaker 1: you'll practice the principles of God's word, you'll waste less time. Okay,
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Speaker 1: that's one habit. Second habit. First is manage my time.
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Speaker 1: Second habit is living on purpose. And that's the next verse.
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Speaker 1: Living on purpose. We call it purpose-driven living. I don't
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Speaker 1: care what you call it. Just do it. Proverbs 17,
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Speaker 1: 24 says this. An intelligent person aims... Aims, that's purpose-driven,
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Speaker 1: at wise actions, that you work intentionally with your life.
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Speaker 1: But a fool starts off how? I can't hear you, how?
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Speaker 1: In many directions, in many directions. Friends, as your pastor
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Speaker 1: who loves you, the last thing I want you to
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Speaker 1: do is with all the newfound freedom, when all of
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Speaker 1: a sudden all the restaurants are open and everything, all
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Speaker 1: the events are open and everything is open and we're
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Speaker 1: all freed up again and we're not restricted, is to
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Speaker 1: go out and fill your life with a bunch of
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Speaker 1: stuff that doesn't matter. You gotta eliminate the non-essentials, but
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Speaker 1: then you have to focus and excel on the essentials,
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Speaker 1: what really does matter. They're complementary, and you do that
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Speaker 1: by managing your time and living on purpose. Now, you know,
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Speaker 1: it might be a good thing to do to go
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Speaker 1: back and retake the purpose-driven classes. Some of you haven't
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Speaker 1: taken them in months or maybe even years. This would
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Speaker 1: be a good time for a refresher course to go back,
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Speaker 1: take 101, 201, 301, 401. Take the classes which define
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Speaker 1: and describe how to live a life of intention, how
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Speaker 1: to live a life of purpose, how to not head
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Speaker 1: off in all directions, but to focus on the thing
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Speaker 1: that God says matters. God has five purposes for your life,
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Speaker 1: not 10. Not two, not one. God has five purposes
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Speaker 1: for your life. And we've got a class on those purposes.
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Speaker 1: And so I'm just telling you as your friend and
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Speaker 1: as your pastor, as somebody who loves you, I'm begging
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Speaker 1: you that as the freedoms become more available again, don't
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Speaker 1: just refill and repack your schedule with activities simply because
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Speaker 1: you're free to do it. Leave some margin in your schedule.
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Speaker 1: Do not rejoin the rat race that you have not
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Speaker 1: had to be a part of for the last year.
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Speaker 1: Don't head off as many directions. An intelligent person aims
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Speaker 1: at wise action, but a fool starts off in many directions. Now,
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Speaker 1: here's the third habit. The third habit that goes along
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Speaker 1: with focusing on what, excelling at what really matters, manage
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Speaker 1: my time, live on purpose. Number three, third habit, choose
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Speaker 1: good priorities. The Bible has a lot to say about this.
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Speaker 1: I'm only gonna give you one verse. I could give
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Speaker 1: you hundreds of verses on choosing priorities wisely. But I
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Speaker 1: love the story of how one time Jesus is visiting
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Speaker 1: his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Martha's more worried about
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Speaker 1: the meal than spending time with Jesus. And she actually
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Speaker 1: complains to her sister about not helping her, okay? And
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Speaker 1: Jesus gently corrects her. And in Luke chapter 10, verses
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Speaker 1: 41 and 42, Jesus says this. And I want you
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Speaker 1: to hear the compassion in his voice. My dear friend Martha, Martha, Martha,
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Speaker 1: my dear friend Martha, you worry and you fuss over
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Speaker 1: so many different little things. But really, only one thing
22:24
Speaker 1: is essential. Circle that. Only one thing is essential. Only
22:29
Speaker 1: one thing is essential. And Mary has selected it. What
22:34
Speaker 1: had Mary selected? Spending time with Jesus. So here's the question.
22:43
Speaker 1: Is spending time with Jesus the top priority in your schedule?
22:49
Speaker 1: Because if it's not, you're never going to move from
22:51
Speaker 1: the good life to the better life. To move from
22:54
Speaker 1: the good life to the better life, you have to
22:57
Speaker 1: spend time with Jesus. It should be number one on
23:01
Speaker 1: your to-do list. Is it? No, probably not. On your
23:05
Speaker 1: to-do list for Monday morning, Jesus, spend time with Jesus
23:09
Speaker 1: is probably not on that list. I suggest that post-COVID,
23:13
Speaker 1: you start making it. You're number one on your list.
23:16
Speaker 1: Excel at what really matters. Manage my time, live on purpose,
23:20
Speaker 1: and choose God's priorities. Only one thing is essential, and
23:23
Speaker 1: that is spending time with Jesus, right? Okay, here's the
23:29
Speaker 1: third principle. We're moving through these pretty quickly. Third principle
23:33
Speaker 1: for resetting your life post-COVID is this. Embrace the new
23:38
Speaker 1: things God does. Embrace the new things that God does. Now,
23:46
Speaker 1: I chose that word embrace intentionally because embrace means more
23:51
Speaker 1: than just agree with it, to grudgingly accept it. To
23:57
Speaker 1: embrace means to be content with it. It means to
24:00
Speaker 1: even love it. You don't embrace things you don't love.
24:05
Speaker 1: So what I'm saying here is you not only accept
24:08
Speaker 1: the new things that are happening today, in God's world,
24:11
Speaker 1: in God's church, in God's family, in your family, in
24:14
Speaker 1: your life, but you actually learn to love them. You
24:18
Speaker 1: need to embrace what God does. Embrace, be content, even
24:24
Speaker 1: love it. Parents, when your kids were growing up, did
24:30
Speaker 1: they change? Of course they changed, radically changed. Think of
24:35
Speaker 1: the change between one year and three year. Think of
24:38
Speaker 1: the change between three years and five years and think
24:41
Speaker 1: of the years between five and 10 and on and
24:43
Speaker 1: on and on all of the changes that your kids
24:47
Speaker 1: went through. COVID has created a lot of changes in
24:50
Speaker 1: you and our society and culture. Not all of them
24:53
Speaker 1: are good. Not all of them are good. But the
24:57
Speaker 1: question I have is when your kids were going through
24:59
Speaker 1: all those changes, did you stop loving your kids when
25:04
Speaker 1: they stopped being infants? No. No. No, you love them
25:11
Speaker 1: at each stage of their growth. Not every stage is fun.
25:17
Speaker 1: Junior high years is like hell years. Everything seems like
25:24
Speaker 1: it's a national problem, okay? And broken hearts and everything
25:30
Speaker 1: is a life or death situation. But you know what?
25:33
Speaker 1: You loved them in their junior high years. And in fact,
25:39
Speaker 1: for your kids to not have changed and not have
25:42
Speaker 1: grown would mean one thing, tragedy. And God says the
25:48
Speaker 1: same thing about you coming out of COVID. Now, I
25:51
Speaker 1: want to just be frank with you. As again, as
25:53
Speaker 1: your pastor who loves you, your friend, I'm praying for you.
25:57
Speaker 1: I'm trying to help you through this difficult time. And
26:02
Speaker 1: I would say this. Read my lips. Life's never going
26:08
Speaker 1: back to the way it was a year ago. I
26:13
Speaker 1: hate to let you down. I hate to tell you that,
26:15
Speaker 1: but it's not going back to the way that it
26:18
Speaker 1: was before COVID. Everything has changed, including you. The past
26:25
Speaker 1: is past. You can't go backwards in life. You can
26:31
Speaker 1: only go forward. And so you can't go back. We
26:35
Speaker 1: can't go backwards. So really, What we all have is
26:38
Speaker 1: two choices. We either, A, complain and grumble and long
26:44
Speaker 1: for the way it was a year ago, or B,
26:46
Speaker 1: we get on with life. That's it. Because all the complaining,
26:54
Speaker 1: all the grumbling, and all the regretting, and all the
26:56
Speaker 1: moaning is not going to go back to the way
27:00
Speaker 1: it was. Grumbling won't change anything. It's over. On top
27:04
Speaker 1: of that, when you read this book, when you read scriptures,
27:07
Speaker 1: you realize that God is a God of newness. He's
27:11
Speaker 1: always doing new things. His mercies are new every morning.
27:15
Speaker 1: He doesn't do the same thing, same old, same old.
27:17
Speaker 1: And if you want to live the better life, then
27:21
Speaker 1: you're gonna need to cooperate with the new things, the
27:25
Speaker 1: new things that God is gonna do in your life,
27:29
Speaker 1: the new things God is gonna do in this church,
27:33
Speaker 1: The new things God is gonna do in your family,
27:35
Speaker 1: in your career, in your friends, the new thing God
27:39
Speaker 1: is gonna do in the world, God is a God
27:44
Speaker 1: of newness. And we have to cooperate with the new
27:48
Speaker 1: things God wants to do. Here's what scripture says, Isaiah 43,
27:52
Speaker 1: 18 and 19. The Lord says, forget the former things. Wow.
28:00
Speaker 1: And don't dwell on the past. Instead, look at the
28:04
Speaker 1: new things I'm going to do. I'm going to do.
28:07
Speaker 1: Look at the new things I'm going to do. They're
28:09
Speaker 1: already starting to happen. Can you see what I've begun
28:13
Speaker 1: to do? Now, if you're taking notes, I want you
28:15
Speaker 1: to circle the word look, and I want you to
28:17
Speaker 1: circle the word see. He says, look for the new
28:20
Speaker 1: things I'm going to do and see what I've already
28:23
Speaker 1: begun to do. Why does he say that? Before you
28:27
Speaker 1: can embrace... Before you can embrace the new things God
28:32
Speaker 1: is doing in your life and around you, you have
28:36
Speaker 1: to see him first. You have to see the new
28:39
Speaker 1: things that God has. Can you see it? Can you
28:42
Speaker 1: see it? Are you looking for it? Well, you're not
28:47
Speaker 1: looking for it if you're always looking backwards. And if
28:51
Speaker 1: right now you're still looking back to wishing it was
28:55
Speaker 1: the way it was a year ago or more than
28:58
Speaker 1: a year ago, years ago, Why can't we go back
29:01
Speaker 1: to that era of my life? Why can't we go
29:04
Speaker 1: back to that time in my life? Because we can't,
29:08
Speaker 1: that's why, we can't. And always longing for the past
29:15
Speaker 1: and glorifying the past and dreaming of the past and
29:21
Speaker 1: wishing for the past. is like driving a car where
29:26
Speaker 1: you're always looking in the rear view mirror and never
29:29
Speaker 1: looking out the windshield. If you're always looking in the
29:32
Speaker 1: rear view mirror, you're going to crack up. You're going
29:35
Speaker 1: to crash. You're going to burn. You're going to have
29:39
Speaker 1: an accident. You can't move forward in life longing for,
29:46
Speaker 1: I wish you were like that era of my life. Now,
29:52
Speaker 1: let me just say, I've said this in the last
29:54
Speaker 1: two messages too, it's okay to grieve your losses. And
29:58
Speaker 1: every one of us have had major losses. I've had
30:02
Speaker 1: some enormous losses, personal losses in my life in the
30:05
Speaker 1: last year. Like Kay's mom, for one thing. John Baker,
30:09
Speaker 1: Pastor John Baker. So many other dear friends. Jordan Machow
30:15
Speaker 1: and others. And Marnie Bueller's husband, Mick. And we've all
30:21
Speaker 1: lost friends, relatives. Some people have lost jobs, lost opportunities.
30:27
Speaker 1: lost income. Grief is the only legitimate, healthy way to
30:31
Speaker 1: handle a loss. But you need to learn how to
30:34
Speaker 1: grieve while you're keeping your eyes focused on what God
30:39
Speaker 1: wants to do next. And you need to embrace the
30:44
Speaker 1: new things that God does. I often pray a simple
30:50
Speaker 1: prayer that goes like this. God, I know you're going
30:53
Speaker 1: to do some really great new things today in the world.
30:58
Speaker 1: I would like for you to give me the privilege
31:00
Speaker 1: of being in on some of what you're going to do.
31:05
Speaker 1: I don't ever pray God bless what I'm doing. I
31:08
Speaker 1: never pray that prayer, God bless what I'm doing. What
31:10
Speaker 1: I pray is God help me to do what you're blessing.
31:15
Speaker 1: You're doing stuff in the world right now. I volunteer.
31:18
Speaker 1: I'm in. I want to get in on it. I'm
31:20
Speaker 1: volunteering for the future, whatever future you have for me.
31:26
Speaker 1: I'm signing up right now. I'm volunteering. I'm in. You know,
31:31
Speaker 1: we're looking in this series at five different books. Ezra, Nehemiah, Malachi, Zephaniah,
31:40
Speaker 1: and Haggai, which were five books written to encourage God's
31:43
Speaker 1: people to after they'd come out of captivity. And remember
31:47
Speaker 1: I told you they were held captives by Babylon for
31:50
Speaker 1: 70 years and finally they're allowed to go back home
31:54
Speaker 1: and the first thing they wanna do, reestablish worship like
31:57
Speaker 1: we're doing right now. We hadn't worshiped here or in
32:01
Speaker 1: any of our Saddleback campuses for a year together. They
32:06
Speaker 1: hadn't worshiped together at the temple for 70 years. 70 years.
32:12
Speaker 1: Can you imagine going 70 years without corporate worship at
32:16
Speaker 1: the house of worship? And so they get back, and
32:19
Speaker 1: they're all excited about that. Interesting, one of the prophets, Isaiah,
32:26
Speaker 1: who lived before the Babylonian captivity, God actually gave him
32:30
Speaker 1: a vision of the 70-year captivity that was going to happen.
32:33
Speaker 1: He said, this is going to happen. And he also
32:36
Speaker 1: gave Isaiah a picture of what it was going to
32:38
Speaker 1: be like when they finally got to come back. And
32:42
Speaker 1: he said, Isaiah, I'm going to show you what worship
32:45
Speaker 1: became after they got back together, after the time when
32:49
Speaker 1: they couldn't worship. It's really similar to us, similar parallel,
32:53
Speaker 1: just like we'd been unable to worship. They hadn't been
32:55
Speaker 1: unable to worship for 70 years. And when I read
32:59
Speaker 1: the promise in Isaiah that God told them that he
33:04
Speaker 1: would do after they returned, I claimed that same promise
33:10
Speaker 1: for our Saddleback Church family. It is this. It's on
33:14
Speaker 1: the screen. Isaiah 49, 19 and 20. God said this.
33:19
Speaker 1: Even though your land was unused and abandoned. This campus
33:24
Speaker 1: right here has been unused and abandoned for a year.
33:29
Speaker 1: We weren't having weekend worship. Even though your land was
33:32
Speaker 1: unused and abandoned. it'll soon be too small for all
33:37
Speaker 1: the new people. More people than you know what to
33:41
Speaker 1: do with. This is God talking. And the new generation
33:46
Speaker 1: that was born in exile will return and they'll say,
33:49
Speaker 1: we need more room. It's crowded here. So here's the question.
33:54
Speaker 1: Are we going to bemoan a past that's never coming back?
34:01
Speaker 1: And You know, regret that, oh, it's not, Saddleback isn't
34:05
Speaker 1: the way it used to be. Are we gonna use
34:08
Speaker 1: the energy that we've got to embrace the new thing
34:14
Speaker 1: that God is gonna do through Saddleback Church? It's our choice.
34:19
Speaker 1: It's our choice. And I wanna challenge you to become
34:23
Speaker 1: a pioneer. All right, a pioneer. You say, well, I
34:28
Speaker 1: wasn't here when the whole thing started years ago. Doesn't matter.
34:31
Speaker 1: We're getting ready to do a restart, a reset. Saddleback
34:36
Speaker 1: has had 5.0. We're gonna go to 6.0. We had
34:39
Speaker 1: a 1.0 version, 2.0, 3.0. In 41 years, we've had
34:44
Speaker 1: five different versions of this church. And now post-COVID, we're
34:48
Speaker 1: getting ready to go to 6.0. And this is your opportunity.
34:53
Speaker 1: You weren't here on the very first one, the first version,
34:57
Speaker 1: but you're here now and you can be a pioneer
35:01
Speaker 1: in Saddleback 6.0. We're going to do that. We're doing that.
35:05
Speaker 1: We're remodeling the worship center right now in a whole
35:08
Speaker 1: new way here at Lake Forest. So let's review. We
35:12
Speaker 1: eliminate the non-essentials. That's important to do a reset in
35:16
Speaker 1: your life. And then you Excel or you emphasize what
35:20
Speaker 1: really matters most. That's the corollary focus on what matters.
35:24
Speaker 1: Don't focus. Don't focus on what doesn't matter. Manage your time,
35:28
Speaker 1: live on purpose, choose good priorities, then embrace the new
35:32
Speaker 1: things that God is doing and is going to do.
35:35
Speaker 1: Now there's one more principle, write this down. One more
35:38
Speaker 1: principle for resetting your life. Post COVID world, expect incremental change,
35:47
Speaker 1: expect incremental change. That means little by little incremental change.
35:52
Speaker 1: And I'm talking about in you, in me. Now, this
35:56
Speaker 1: is the exact opposite of what we normally want. We
36:00
Speaker 1: don't like incremental change. We want rapid change in our lives.
36:06
Speaker 1: We want fast change. You go on a diet, you
36:10
Speaker 1: want rapid results. okay? You want instant transformation. You want
36:15
Speaker 1: the pill that changes you overnight, the seminar, the sermon
36:19
Speaker 1: that changes you overnight. You want the local, you know,
36:23
Speaker 1: total makeover in one hour. By nature, we are impatient.
36:28
Speaker 1: We're always in a hurry. You know, it's always amazing
36:32
Speaker 1: to me when I was up there on the patio
36:35
Speaker 1: and people would come up to me after service and
36:37
Speaker 1: they start telling me about like maybe a marriage problem
36:41
Speaker 1: that they've got and They want me to solve their
36:43
Speaker 1: marriage problem in one conversation. And I go, I'm thinking,
36:49
Speaker 1: it took them years to develop this problem. And I'll ask,
36:53
Speaker 1: how long have you had this problem in your marriage? Well,
36:57
Speaker 1: it's been years. Nobody tells me it started yesterday. You
37:03
Speaker 1: didn't just create the problem you've got right now overnight,
37:07
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get out of it overnight. You didn't
37:09
Speaker 1: create the mess you're in overnight. You're not gonna get
37:13
Speaker 1: out of it overnight. You didn't develop those bad habits overnight.
37:17
Speaker 1: You're not gonna get rid of them overnight. It's gonna
37:21
Speaker 1: take incremental change, moving from the good life to the
37:25
Speaker 1: better life. I remember one time a guy told me,
37:29
Speaker 1: he said, you know, Pastor Rick, I feel like my
37:31
Speaker 1: life is flooded with problems right now. It's just like
37:35
Speaker 1: flooded with problems. And I feel like I'm drowning in
37:38
Speaker 1: the flood. And in the back of my mind, I'm
37:42
Speaker 1: thinking about the flood that Noah had to deal with,
37:45
Speaker 1: the literal flood. And thinking that, you know, in that flood,
37:49
Speaker 1: it didn't dissipate overnight. It took a while for it
37:54
Speaker 1: to gradually dissipate. The flood just didn't flip a switch
37:59
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden we were on dry land.
38:02
Speaker 1: In fact, Genesis chapter eight, verse three says this, the
38:05
Speaker 1: flood gradually receded. That's an incremental change. Little by little,
38:12
Speaker 1: the water lowered. And after 150 days, the worst was over.
38:17
Speaker 1: We're seeing that happen with this pandemic. There's not gonna
38:21
Speaker 1: be any switch that all of a sudden, boom, one
38:24
Speaker 1: day we flip and everything is back to quote normal.
38:27
Speaker 1: It's not gonna happen that way. It's gonna recede little
38:29
Speaker 1: by little. And there might be other waves. with other
38:32
Speaker 1: variants of the strain. We don't know. But I mentioned
38:38
Speaker 1: before in this series that God's never in a hurry.
38:42
Speaker 1: He's just not. And that God's timetable is always, always
38:46
Speaker 1: slower than yours. And that's what's so frustrating. That's why
38:51
Speaker 1: we get frustrated because we're in a hurry and God's not.
38:58
Speaker 1: Remember how God told the Israelites, and I mentioned this
39:00
Speaker 1: verse a couple weeks ago, That when they were coming
39:03
Speaker 1: up to the promised land, he said this in Exodus 23,
39:06
Speaker 1: verse 30. Little by little, this is a word phrase
39:10
Speaker 1: used all through the Bible. Little by little, he says,
39:13
Speaker 1: I will drive the enemies out of your life until
39:18
Speaker 1: you have grown strong enough to take full possession of
39:22
Speaker 1: the land I have given you. Now notice that given
39:26
Speaker 1: is past tense. I have given it to you. God
39:29
Speaker 1: has already decided. how he's gonna bless your life. God
39:33
Speaker 1: has already decided your promised land. God has already decided
39:37
Speaker 1: all the really cool, good things God wants to do
39:40
Speaker 1: in the rest of your life. But he says, I've
39:43
Speaker 1: given them to you. You're just not gonna appropriate them
39:46
Speaker 1: yet because you gotta do a little growing first. You're
39:49
Speaker 1: not ready to handle all the blessing I wanna give you.
39:53
Speaker 1: You're not ready to handle the prosperity, the influence, whatever
39:58
Speaker 1: I wanna give you. You're not ready to handle it.
40:00
Speaker 1: So you gotta grow in character. And those problems in
40:03
Speaker 1: your life, we're gonna drive them out one at a time.
40:06
Speaker 1: We're gonna peel the onion one layer at a time.
40:09
Speaker 1: We're gonna work on this sin and then that problem
40:12
Speaker 1: and then that habit and then this attitude. And we're
40:15
Speaker 1: gonna do it in incremental change. So what I'm telling
40:20
Speaker 1: you about is the pathway from the good life where
40:24
Speaker 1: you are to the better life where you're gonna be.
40:28
Speaker 1: It's gonna be incremental. It's not gonna be overnight. And
40:32
Speaker 1: that's not suddenly. You know, I did a study through
40:36
Speaker 1: the Bible this week of this phrase, little by little.
40:41
Speaker 1: I studied it all through the scripture. And I was
40:44
Speaker 1: amazed at how many different areas of your life this
40:49
Speaker 1: incremental principle of incremental growth, little by little, how God
40:54
Speaker 1: works in so many different areas of your life, relationships
40:58
Speaker 1: and money and time and career and so many. Let
41:05
Speaker 1: me just give you one example. Building your wealth. One example,
41:11
Speaker 1: Proverbs 13, verse 11, there on your outline. Incremental growth
41:15
Speaker 1: applies to finances. Wealth, it says, that comes easily, no,
41:22
Speaker 1: wealth that comes easily disappears quickly. Now you know what
41:25
Speaker 1: that means, easy come, easy go. How many people win
41:27
Speaker 1: the lottery and it's gone in a year? Easy come,
41:30
Speaker 1: easy go. Wealth that comes easily disappears quickly, but wealth
41:34
Speaker 1: that is gathered little by little, that's compounding interest, will
41:39
Speaker 1: grow greater. In fact, did you know that God tells
41:44
Speaker 1: you to avoid get-rich-quick schemes? It says don't even try
41:47
Speaker 1: to get rich quick. Do it little by little. Proverbs 28, 20.
41:52
Speaker 1: Look up here on the screen. The Bible says this.
41:56
Speaker 1: Commitment and persistence, persistent work pays off. But get rich
42:02
Speaker 1: quick schemes are ripoffs. Tell that to your next financial
42:07
Speaker 1: advisor who's got the hot deal that's going to make
42:09
Speaker 1: you a ton of money overnight. Proverbs 28, 20. says
42:14
Speaker 1: there in the Living Bible, New Living Translation, a trustworthy person,
42:18
Speaker 1: that means if you're trusted, you can be trusted, a
42:21
Speaker 1: trustworthy person will get a rich reward. But the person
42:25
Speaker 1: who wants to get rich quick will only get into trouble.
42:30
Speaker 1: That's the little by little principle in just one area,
42:33
Speaker 1: your finances. The point that I'm trying to make though
42:36
Speaker 1: is this. Moving from the good life where you are
42:41
Speaker 1: right now to the better life, the life that God's
42:45
Speaker 1: already planned for your life, so that the rest of
42:47
Speaker 1: your life's the best of your life. It's not gonna
42:49
Speaker 1: be a single leap. It's not gonna be a single experience.
42:54
Speaker 1: It's not even gonna be a single decision. There will
42:58
Speaker 1: be many decisions in your life. It starts with a decision,
43:01
Speaker 1: but it happens through incremental change. It's a slow process.
43:07
Speaker 1: It's gonna take the rest of your life. And that
43:10
Speaker 1: slow process is called in the Bible, Sanctification. It's also
43:16
Speaker 1: called discipleship. One of the five purposes of our church.
43:22
Speaker 1: And it's our job. It starts with a decision, but
43:25
Speaker 1: it continues with a continuing commitment. Let me give you
43:30
Speaker 1: one last verse and we'll wrap it up. In Isaiah 26,
43:33
Speaker 1: verses three and four, it talks about this continuing commitment.
43:38
Speaker 1: You keep at it, you keep at it. You just
43:40
Speaker 1: don't do one thing and then stop. Isaiah 26, three
43:44
Speaker 1: and four in the message says this. Lord, people who
43:48
Speaker 1: set their minds on you, who set their minds on you,
43:53
Speaker 1: you will keep completely whole and steady on their feet.
43:59
Speaker 1: Now let's stop right there. No matter what happens, in
44:02
Speaker 1: this next year, no matter what happens with COVID in
44:05
Speaker 1: this next year. Do you wanna be completely whole? And
44:09
Speaker 1: do you wanna be steady on your feet? Then you
44:12
Speaker 1: need to do what that verse says. If you wanna
44:14
Speaker 1: be completely whole, no matter what happens in society, it
44:18
Speaker 1: could fall apart. And you wanna be steady on your feet,
44:22
Speaker 1: it says, you keep your mind on the Lord. Keep
44:26
Speaker 1: your mind on the Lord. It says, Lord, people who
44:31
Speaker 1: set their mind on you, you keep completely whole and
44:34
Speaker 1: steady on their feet because they keep at it. They
44:38
Speaker 1: keep at it and they don't quit. That's incremental. They
44:42
Speaker 1: keep at it and don't quit. So depend on God
44:46
Speaker 1: and keep at it because in the Lord God, you
44:51
Speaker 1: have a sure thing. That's the one thing you can
44:56
Speaker 1: count on is your relationship To God, that's a sure thing.
45:00
Speaker 1: Nothing else is sure in life, but that's your thing.
45:02
Speaker 1: So let me ask you a very pointed question in
45:08
Speaker 1: the post pandemic world post COVID. What are you going
45:15
Speaker 1: to do when you get all the freedoms that you
45:19
Speaker 1: had before? What are you going to do? Are you
45:22
Speaker 1: going to resume the old life or are you going
45:26
Speaker 1: to reset? A new life. It's your choice. Now, will
45:32
Speaker 1: you futilely attempt? And I mean, futilely attempt to resume
45:38
Speaker 1: your old life, just like it was before the pandemic
45:44
Speaker 1: with no changes at all. Will you resume the rat race?
45:52
Speaker 1: Will you return to your old habits and hurts and hangups?
45:58
Speaker 1: Will you refill your life with the same old pressures
46:03
Speaker 1: and patterns and problems? As somebody who loves you, I
46:10
Speaker 1: will tell you this. If you try to do this,
46:13
Speaker 1: it's not gonna work. It's not gonna work, because you
46:17
Speaker 1: can't go back. The past is past. You can't go
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Speaker 1: back to the way things were. And if you try
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Speaker 1: to do this, it's gonna reduce you to resenting and
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Speaker 1: grumbling and complaining and being frustrated and being unhappy because
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Speaker 1: you're never going back. Or number two, will you use
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Speaker 1: this God-given opportunity to let God reset your life for
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Speaker 1: the rest of your life? You're coming at a time
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Speaker 1: out and will you become a brand new you? A better, you,
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Speaker 1: you're not living the good life anymore. You're living the
47:04
Speaker 1: better life that God has always intended for you to live. Now,
47:09
Speaker 1: if you choose the second option, I want to promise
47:13
Speaker 1: you this as your pastor, I will promise you this,
47:18
Speaker 1: that if you say, God, um, I I'm committing to
47:24
Speaker 1: let you reset my life. Then I. and all the
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Speaker 1: other pastors of this church, we will do everything possible
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Speaker 1: to help you succeed in your life reset. We will
47:42
Speaker 1: pray for you. We will teach you how to do it.
47:48
Speaker 1: We will encourage you. We will support you when you
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Speaker 1: screw up, as we all do. And when you're going
47:57
Speaker 1: through the tough spots that are inevitable, we will support you.
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Speaker 1: But it only starts with your decision. It starts with
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Speaker 1: your commitment, your choice. Are you ready for this new journey?
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Speaker 1: Are you all in? Are you willing to do what
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Speaker 1: it takes as we come out of a global timeout
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Speaker 1: And I go, I'm not going back to the old me.
48:30
Speaker 1: I'm moving up to the better life. If you're in,
48:39
Speaker 1: I'd like for you to let me know about that.
48:41
Speaker 1: If you say, Hey, Rick, I'm in, I'm all in
48:44
Speaker 1: for a reset on my life, my family, my career,
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Speaker 1: my relationships, my, my health, my church. Saddleback 6.0, whatever,
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Speaker 1: whatever we're going, I am going to celebrate. I'm going
48:59
Speaker 1: to embrace the new things God does in my life.
49:04
Speaker 1: Here's what I want you to do. I want you
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Speaker 1: to pull out this card and I want you to
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Speaker 1: write the word reset on it. Okay. You say, why
49:12
Speaker 1: do you want me to do that? So I can
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Speaker 1: pray for you by name. It's my job to pray
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Speaker 1: for you. I've prayed for you every day in the
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Speaker 1: last year and I want you to pull this out
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Speaker 1: just write your name if you want to put your
49:24
Speaker 1: phone number on there forget all the other stuff and
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Speaker 1: write in big letters reset so I can start praying
49:31
Speaker 1: for you that's closed service you can just give it
49:34
Speaker 1: to an usher drop it in the basket or wherever
49:36
Speaker 1: you can collect these If you're watching online right now,
49:41
Speaker 1: you can text me to 83,000, the word reset. And
49:46
Speaker 1: just say, I'm in. I'm in for the better life.
49:51
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to waste the rest of my life.
49:55
Speaker 1: Let's bow our heads. Why don't you just say this
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Speaker 1: to God? I don't want to resume the old me.
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Speaker 1: I want to reset to a new me. I want
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Speaker 1: to eliminate the non-essentials in my life. The attitudes, the actions,
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Speaker 1: the sins, the unimportant stuff, the habits that have held
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Speaker 1: me back so far. I don't want to go into
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Speaker 1: the new Era with the old habits. And say, Lord,
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Speaker 1: I want to focus. I want to excel. I want
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Speaker 1: to emphasize what really matters most. Help me to make
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Speaker 1: the most of my time. Help me to aim at
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Speaker 1: wise action and not start off in all directions. Help
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Speaker 1: me to remember that the most essential thing is to
51:06
Speaker 1: spend time with you Every day. And you say, Father,
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Speaker 1: I want to embrace the new things that you want
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Speaker 1: to do in my life post-COVID. I want to look
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Speaker 1: at the new things that you're going to do, and
51:24
Speaker 1: I want to be a part of what you're going
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Speaker 1: to do in the world. I'm signing up. I volunteer.
51:30
Speaker 1: Use me. I want to be a part of your
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Speaker 1: actions in the world. And Lord, when I get in
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Speaker 1: a hurry, when I get frustrated and when I get impatient,
51:42
Speaker 1: help me to remember that you use incremental change. That
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Speaker 1: the little by little principle is the way that I
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Speaker 1: will grow and move from the good life to the
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Speaker 1: better life. God, I need you to keep me steady
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Speaker 1: on my feet and to keep me completely whole. No
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Speaker 1: matter what happens, because I'm thinking about you. My mind
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Speaker 1: is stayed and focused on you. And I want to
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Speaker 1: depend on you and I want to keep at it.
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Speaker 1: And I need our church and I need other people
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Speaker 1: in my life for that support. And I want to
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Speaker 1: be a support to others. If you've never opened your
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Speaker 1: life to Christ, say Jesus Christ come into my life.
52:35
Speaker 1: Make me the person you want me to be. I
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Speaker 1: want to get to know you. I want you to
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Speaker 1: save me. And I humbly ask you to accept me
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Speaker 1: into your family. Help me to understand it. In your
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Speaker 1: name I pray. Amen.