So things haven't turned out as you hoped.
Life took a turn.
A bump.
A darkened sky.
And at times it may have seemed there was no hope.
Here's the good news.
Our God is the God of fresh starts.
Our God is the God of new beginnings.
Our God brings new mercies, new compassion, not just once a year.
Not just when things are bad, but every single morning.
This season has been tough.
And for many of us, things will never be the same.
But we are here breathing, maybe smiling, or crying, or shouting, or laughing, but we
are here feeling, maybe fighting, or cheering, or seeking, or grieving, but we are here living.
We are not alone.
Our God is here.
Our God is with us.
And our God is the God of new creations.
Good morning.
Welcome to part three in our series, Reset.
Jesus Changes Everything.
We've been talking about how to reset our spiritual life from the inside out.
And these resets are actually just little prayers.
Beginning two weeks ago, we prayed, Jesus, reset my heart.
That's where it all begins.
And then last week, we prayed, Jesus, reset my mind.
And our prayer for today, Jesus, reset my voice.
To reset is to restore something to its original design.
It's to set back to its original purpose.
So what does it look like, or better, what does it sound like for Jesus to reset our
voice?
That our voices, the words that we choose to say, would be reset for the glory of God.
Our main text today is found in Psalm 71.
If you'd like to turn there in your Bible, we are reading from Psalm 71 verses 15 and
16.
I will tell how you do what is right.
I will tell about your salvation all day long.
And even though it's more than I can ever tell, I will come and tell about your powerful
works, Lord God.
I will remind people that only you do what is right.
This Psalm challenges even the most spiritual of us.
Think about it.
All day long, each time you open your mouth to talk, what comes out is something that honors
God and blesses others.
Now you might be there.
I'm not.
And I've got some growing to do.
I mean, is this even possible?
And I think with God it is.
If we allow Jesus to reset our heart and to reset our mind and to reset our voice, then
I believe that our words can actually be transformed.
That the way we talk can actually honor God.
But who does this?
Who lives like this?
Who talks like this?
That's a good question.
You want the short answer?
Not many.
Not many people do this.
Not many people live like this.
Not many people talk like this, at least according to the research.
A recent study conducted by a scientific American reported that we spend at least 60% of our
time talking about one thing and one thing only.
And no, it's not sports, it's not Jesus, it's not sex, it's not even politics.
Anybody want to take a guess at what that 60% of our time we talk about?
Me.
We are me monsters.
60% of our words are about ourselves.
And when we communicate on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, the number jumps from
60% to 80%, 80% about me.
Now back to the researchers, they wanted to know why we are so self-involved.
And so they recruited 200 participants to participate, submit to a test.
The research team would connect the volunteers to a machine that would show their brain activity
as they talked about themselves.
They hoped to use these results to find out why we are totally self-absorbed.
The test showed two regions of the brain that had never been associated before with communication.
The results of those two regions of the brain was off the chart.
Those two regions of the brain were always associated with the feeling of pleasure.
In other words, when we talk about ourselves, it feels good, and we probably didn't need
any research to tell us that, did we?
Now it's absolutely essential in a healthy relationship that we open up about ourselves.
Who wants to be friends with a robot who has no feelings or never expresses or never chooses
to share what they feel?
A good, healthy relationship is built on healthy give and take.
Intimacy requires that we share our feelings and our beliefs with someone.
So there is a time that you need to talk about yourself, but here's the challenge.
Because our culture is so self-centered, and because it feels good to us to talk
about ourselves, we're going to have to make a serious effort if we ever hope to talk
about anything other than ourselves.
You see, there's a battle that's going on over our voice.
On one side, we have Psalm 71.
I will tell how you do what is right.
I will tell about your salvation all day long, even though it's more than I can ever tell.
I will come and tell about your powerful works, Lord God.
I will remind people that only you do what is right.
And then on the other side of the battle, we have, but enough about me.
Let's talk about you.
How do you think about me?
I think you'd agree we have a problem, but things don't have to stay that way.
There's good news, and the good news is this.
The serious effort that's going to be required for us to change from all about me to all
about others, that effort has already been made for us.
Because even though it's true that not many of us tell about God's salvation all day
long, that not many of us remind people that only God does what is right.
There's still hope for those who have a reset heart and a reset mind.
Those verses in Psalm 71 are more than just a pie in the sky goal.
It's something that we can achieve.
It will naturally happen from a heart and a mind that has been reset.
When your heart is toward God and your mind thinks about things that are excellent and
praiseworthy, what naturally follows is a reset voice, a voice that can help but bless
others and honor God.
Jesus talked a lot to the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were the church people in Jesus' day.
This was the religious crowd, and it always amazes me how he would get pretty rough with
them, and any time he would talk to a prostitute or a sinner or a thief, he was always gentle
and kind.
So here's Jesus straightening out the Pharisees about how we should talk.
Matthew chapter 12, if you want good fruit, you must make the tree good.
If your tree is not good, it will have bad fruit.
A tree is known by the kind of fruit it produces.
You snakes.
You are evil people.
So how can you say anything good?
The mouth speaks the things that are in the heart.
Now all over the news for the last couple of days has been about some words that people
have said, and Jesus addresses that right here, verse 35.
Good people have good things in their hearts, and so they say good things.
But evil people have evil in their hearts, and so they say evil things.
And I tell you that on the judgment day, people will be responsible, listen to this, for every
careless thing they have said.
The words you have said will be used to judge you.
Some of your words will prove you right, but some of your words will prove you guilty.
When Jesus resets our heart, and when Jesus resets our mind, our voice can't help but
be reset too.
We will start talking less about our self, and less about our stuff, and less about
our accomplishments, and less about our achievements, and talk more about things that have eternal
value.
We'll start talking less about hopeless situations, and talk more about the one who gives us hope.
We'll start talking less about the latest fad, and more about the one who's the same
yesterday, today, and forever.
We'll talk less about our stress, and more about the one whose yoke is easy, and burden
is light.
The more we choose to put our trust in Jesus, instead of putting our trust in ourselves,
the more we saturate our minds with things that are excellent and praiseworthy.
The more we will find ourselves doing the Psalm 71 thing.
I will tell how you do what is right.
I will tell about your salvation all day long, even though it's more than I can tell.
I will come and tell about your powerful works, Lord God.
I will remind people that only you do what is right.
I mean, who does this?
Who lives like this?
Who talks like this?
We do.
You can.
Starting today.
There is someone who is always the best at seeing an opportunity to speak truth, and then
speaking that truth before the opportunity was gone.
And the master of this was Jesus.
He wasn't like the parent who says, do as I say, not as I do.
Don't you love hearing the mom at the grocery store screaming at the top of her lungs for
her kid to stop screaming?
Really?
Where do you think they learned to scream?
But Jesus wasn't like that at all.
What he said we should do, he did.
What he said we should say, he said.
And exactly what does he want us to say?
Speak truth, kindness, forgiveness, speak acceptance, healing and peace, speak joy, hope, and above
all love.
And did Jesus speak these things himself?
He sure did.
To the wind and the waves, he spoke peace.
He said, be still.
To Nicodemus, he spoke the truth.
He said, you must be born again.
To the woman caught in adultery, he spoke forgiveness.
Neither do I condemn you.
Go and sin no more.
To his disciples, he spoke rest.
He said, do not let your hearts be troubled.
And then to all of us, he speaks hope.
He said, I will come for you.
Take heart, I will come again.
And on and on the list could go example after example of Jesus speaking truth, peace, hope,
and love.
And were these messages back then powerful when Jesus first spoke them, they sure were.
Does our world need to hear these messages today?
Probably more than ever.
And here's the awesome thing about all of this.
He wants to speak through us.
And when you allow Jesus to reset your heart and mind, don't be surprised when you're given
opportunities to speak up for God.
And when those doors open for you to speak for him, speak things that are excellent and
things that are praiseworthy.
Ephesians chapter five, verse 15.
So be careful how you live.
Do not live like those who are not wise but live wisely.
Use every chance you have for doing good because these are evil times.
But when Jesus gives us an opportunity to speak up for him, what if I don't have the
words to say?
This is what Jesus told us in Matthew 10.
When you're arrested, don't worry about what to say or how to say it.
At that time, you will be given the things to say.
In the most difficult times in your life, God will give you the words to bless others
and to honor him.
Say something forgiving, say something caring, say something encouraging, say something loving,
say something hopeful.
God has placed people in your life for a reason.
Most of the time, we have no idea the influence that we have on the people around us.
God has a message of good news for the world, a message of grace and mercy and love and
forgiveness.
And God wants to speak his message with your voice to your friends, to your family, to
the people that are in your life.
That person next to you might need a word of encouragement, a word of care, a word of
hope.
There's someone waiting for you to speak to them today more than you can imagine.
Just simply take the opportunities that God gives you and say something that honors God
to someone in need.
What do you think that people outside of the church, outside of the faith, expect to hear
from a Christian?
And I'm not sure, we really want to know that answer.
The church has blown it so many times with what we say and the way we say it.
So many people have been unnecessarily hurt by the church and by church people.
May Christians be known as people who are humble, who say wise words, words that honor
God and words that bless others, words that bring encouragement.
There was a story about a Christian businessman who was on a long sell strip and he was going
from city to city to city and he was exhausted.
And as he boarded the plane, he asked the flight attendant if there might be an empty
row somewhere on the plane where he could stretch out and get some sleep.
She told him to go ahead and sit in his ticketed seat.
She would check it out and get back with him in a few minutes.
In the meantime, a young man sat down beside him dressed in army fatigues.
He had just finished basic training.
The two struck up a conversation and the businessman learned that the soldier's stress level was
very high.
He was being deployed to the Middle East and he was very nervous about it.
Just then, the flight attendant told the businessman she'd found an empty row if he'd still like
to relocate.
So he shook the soldier's hand and went to get some sleep.
As soon as he sat down, he felt he should go back to the row where he'd been and tried
to speak some encouragement to the soldier.
The businessman was very tired and he was upset that he would miss out on the rest he
so desperately needed, but he knew that he had to go back.
You see, his heart had been reset to care about the things that Jesus cares about.
And the thing that Jesus cares about more than anything in the world is people.
You see, the businessman's mind had been reset to think on things that are excellent and
praiseworthy, not stress, not anxiety, not discouragement, not fear, but instead things
that are true and noble and right and pure, things that are lovely, things that are admirable
and he wanted the soldier to experience these things too.
And even though he was completely exhausted and even though he might be labeled a Jesus
freak, he got up and headed back to where the soldier was seated.
He told the soldier that he was really concerned about what the soldier had shared with him
about being so much under stress and he wondered if it would be okay if I just pray for you.
The soldier accepted his offer and after the brief prayer, a 90 minute conversation for
the whole length of the flight took place and ended with the soldier asking Jesus to
reset his heart.
Remember what Jesus told the Pharisees?
The mouth speaks the things that are in the heart.
In other words, the mouth speaks what the heart is full of when your heart has been reset
by Jesus, when your mind has been reset by Jesus.
He is going to show up in your words.
He is going to show up in your voice, Jesus, reset my voice.
I will tell how you do what is right.
I will tell about your salvation all day long, even though it's more than I can ever tell.
I will come and tell about your powerful works, Lord God.
I'll remind people that only you do what is right.
As we've talked about before, all other resets flow from a reset heart.
Are you ready today to surrender your heart to Jesus so that your mind can be reset, so
that your voice can be reset?
Don't leave here today without taking this essential step of giving Jesus your heart.
Every other reset you crave flows from allowing Jesus to reset your heart.
So today, would you pray this prayer in your heart?
Pray it to God in your heart if you're so led, as I pray it out loud.
Dear God, would you reset my heart?
Today I surrender my will to you, and I accept you as my Lord and Savior.
Jesus, would you reset my mind?
May I think about things that are excellent and praiseworthy.
Jesus, would you reset my voice?
Would you speak your message of love through me?
Help me to take every opportunity that I'm given to bless someone with my words, and
to honor you with my voice.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Jesus changes everything.
Jesus, would you reset my will to you, and I accept you as my Lord and Savior.
Jesus, would you reset my will to you, and I accept you as my Lord and Savior.
Jesus, would you reset my will to you, and I accept you as my Lord and Savior.
Jesus, would you reset my will to you, and I accept you as my Lord and Savior.
Jesus, would you reset my will to you, and I accept you as my Lord and Savior.
