The Great Reset (Where, Who, and What) Part 4
All Scripture taken from the New Living Translation
Today we are finishing our series titled, “The Great Reset.” We did this series to start the year off for those who are looking for a fresh start…
A new beginning with something in life… A reset!
When it comes to resets, every now and then we should evaluate our lives to see if anything needs adjusting or here or there…
Because often when we drift off course, all it takes is a little evaluation to get us back on the path we are supposed to be on…
And then there are the times in life when things are just falling apart… Or life just happened and now I’m looking at what seems like an impossible situation to overcome… And a reset… A total fresh start is needed…
No matter the reason Jesus is One who can help us get things re-aligned
Psalm 145:14 – “The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads.”
Psalm 138:8 – “The Lord will work out His plans for my life…”
These are two verses that we can use to start a conversation with God and say, “Life is crushing me, and
I need help… Where are we, God, with the plans You have for my life… “
When we invite God in on helping with a reset…
He gives us the encouragement, strength, energy, power, wisdom, and all that is needed to get going and start over!
As we end this series, we’re going to look at three questions that need to be asked when looking for a reset in life…
And we’re going to look at a character in the Gospels by the name of Bartimaeus…
Spoiler alert! Bartimaeus was once blind until He had an encounter with Jesus! The first question that we need to be ask is, “Where am I?”
To get where we want to be, we have to ask ourselves, “Is this where I want to stay?” In other words, where am I and where do I want to be?
There are several stories in the Gospels about Jesus giving sight back to the blind, but this is the only story that we know the name of the person…
I don’t know, but maybe there’s something special about Bartimaeus… Or at least maybe Mark thought so (Luke tells same story with no name)… Here goes…
Mark 10:46-52 – “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.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!” 49 When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, “Tell him to come here.” So they called the blind man. “Cheer up,” they said. “Come on, he’s calling you!” 50 Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus. 51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked. “My Rabbi, [a]” 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 [b]”
We don’t know how long Jesus and His disciples had been in the city of Jericho, but on their way out of town, with a large crowd following, Bartimaeus begins yelling for Jesus…
And the fact that he refers to Jesus as “Son of David” tells us that Bartimaues knows who Jesus is… He knows Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah… the Savior of the world!
Let’s say Jesus had been in town for a few days… We can assume He was teaching and maybe even healing some sick…
And Bartimaeus, the bling beggar on the side of the road has been hearing some of what’s been going on…
Imagine His excitement when he hears Jesus is walking by…
He gets excited and starts yelling for Jesus…
Instantly he is told to be quiet! Picture this with me…
Bartimaeus has been sidelined by life…
Off to the side with nobody paying attention to him…
Anybody here feel like that in life right now…
Anybody here feel stuck or hopeless? Where are you and where do you want to be?
If we really want to know the answer to this question, then we need to ask our Creator…
And then listen…
Psalm 32:8 – “The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.”
Psalm 139:23-24 – “23Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
The fact that Bartimaeus believed Jesus to be the Messiah tells me he probably knew Scripture… And
it’s possible he had a relationship with God…
He believed…
So now I wonder, how many serious conversations did he have with God about his situation of being blind and left only to beg for food and money…
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossiper, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sara was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Zaccheus was short, Abraham was old, and Lazarus was dead…. God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the CALLED!
Anonymous
Bartimaeus knew an opportunity was coming where he could be where he wanted to be in life, and he was not going to let this opportunity pass him by…
Now comes the second question of who… Who are we listening to? Because who we listen to will determine the direction of our life…
Now what does Bartimaeus do when Jesus walks by… He begins shouting and causing a scene!
In response to him, the crowd yelled for him to be quiet… This only made him shout louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Can we just take a second to picture what this scene really looked like?
And suddenly when Jesus heard Bartimaeus, He stops and tells Bartimaeus to come here…
This is where I think the Holy Spirit comes into play (Jesus listen to voice of God)! But get this… Who are we listening to? We have so many voices… We have all the world’s information in our pockets (smartphones) …
We also have voices of all the people in our life telling us what we should or should not do…
We have a dozen social media platforms and cable news telling us what to do…
All these examples represent the crowd… So, who are we listening to, the crowd or are we listening to the Holy Spirit… Are we listening to Jesus?
Who is our influence when it comes to making decisions, especially decisions based on a reset in life?
You see, “the crowd” doesn’t really care about you! In this story the crowd was telling Baritmaeus to shut up… Stop yelling, you’re ruining our celebration!
But as soon as Jesus calls Bartimaeus over what does the crowd do, they say, “Cheer up, come on, He’s calling you!”
They went from shut up to, cheer up in a matter of seconds!
“The crowd” is only out for itself, it’s an unstable source, but Jesus… Jesus really cares for us!
I believe Jesus heard the Holy Spirit say, “Pay attention to what’s going on here, listen to the man yelling for You!”
“The crowd,” all the sources of influence in our life sells us a false hope, but Jesus brings hope, He is hope…
And the hope He brings cuts through the voices of the crowd… He is the answer we need!
The first thing Jesus says to Bartimaeus is, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
PRAYER FOR GRACE
“SUFFICIENT GRACE”
God, my Father, as Jesus states to Paul in his time of need, so do I remind myself: Your grace is sufficient for me. Whether in wealth or poverty, hunger or feasting, I will, like the apostle, boast in my weaknesses. For it is my weaknesses, Lord, that make Your grace manifest even more so in my life. In my life thus far, I have been upheld by this grace You supply – thank You, O my Father. Praying in the name of Jesus Christ, I praise You forever. Amen.
Where are we at, and where do we want to be? … Who are we listening to, who is our influence? …
What do we want?
This story teaches us here that when we come to Jesus, we need to know what it is that we want….
This is the most important question we need to be willing to ask when it comes to a reset…
Honestly ask ourselves the “what” question and then be prepared for Jesus to ask us the same question…
What do you want from Me? Bartimaeus said, “I want to see!”
With crowds cheering and all the noise it would have been easy for Jesus to keep walking and soak up all the celebrating… But He took the time to pay attention! Instantly, the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road…. Wow, can you imagine the rest of Bartimaeus’ story!!
Before we wrap this up… I want you to know that as much as I love these stories where the person’s faith coincided with an instant healing from Jesus…
I struggle with this… I mean, I have faith, I believe, but not all my requests get answered the way I want them to…
I’ve comes to terms with this and I’m ok with it, but it still begs to answer the question… Why did my prayer go unanswered?
To me, coming to terms with the mysterious nature of God is a whole other level of faith… It’s a level of faith in being content that Jesus knows what’s best… This is the Vineyard distinctive of the,”The already and not yet.”
Earlier in Mark chp. 10 James and John come to Jesus with a favor to ask… Jesus responds with, “What is your request?”
We want to sit at your right and left hand… Then Jesus drops and heavy truth bomb on them!
Mark 10:35-40 – “35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do us a favor.” 36 “What is your request?” he asked. 37 They replied, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?” 39 “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!” Then Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering. 40 But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. God has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.”
Here’s the thing church… We must be willing to listen for the answer to the “What” question…
Listen to those we allow to speak into our lives, and listen to the voice of God’s Holy Spirit… (Small groups are important)
When Jesus moved in people’s lives in the Gospels, sometimes it was instant…
Sometimes it was gradual… And sometimes He asked the person to do something before He answered their “what do you want” question…
We need to be willing to start and continue the conversation with Jesus on the best plan for the reset in life we’re looking for…
In closing:
Our initial reset in life is being united with Jesus and made right with God…
1 Corinthians 1:30 – “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.”
None of this we do in our own power…
Invite Jesus in on the reset and wrestle the answers to these questions out with those you trust, and then bring them to Jesus…
Where am I and where do I want to be? … Who has my attention, who am I listening to, who are my influences? And what is it that I want…
Jesus, this is what I want…
And be willing to accept His answer!
Jesus is all the wisdom we need…
And nobody wants us to succeed more than Jesus!
I am so blessed.
Not because I did something good….
It’s simply because
God is so good.
AMEN
Special Announcement from Jenny Eversole
Dear Beloved,
I pray that this letter finds you feeling the warmth of The Heavenly Father’s Love all around you. LOOP is excited to announce that we will be including poems, stories, testimonies, etc. with our monthly mailings.
In this month’s mailing, we are including a testimony from Roger D. Hughes, Jr. and a poem from Tom Glass. If you have a poem, story or testimony that you would like to include with LOOP mailings, please send it to me c/o VCC, 15187 Palmer Road, Etna, OH 43068 for review and possible inclusion with one of the upcoming mailings.
Praying God’s Blessings over you,
Jenny Eversole – Executive Director
Lives Transformed
Roger D. Hughes
My mother and I moved to Jacksonville, Florida when I was eight. There, I met my biological father for the is time. It felt strange at first, but I soon grew used to him. Not long after, he moved to Miami but visited often to see me and other family members. I idolized my father because his presence always drew attention, especially from women.
As I grew older, my mother permitted me to visit him in Miami. These trips were much anticipated treats, because my father always gave me money and material items. He allowed me to do things my mother would disapprove of, like drinking alcohol and attending strip clubs. He even encouraged me to be sexually active. Now, I don’t mean to condemn my father. At the time, he was doing what he believed to be right. And I knew what I was doing was wrong, so l am just as much to blame.
Growing up in Jacksonville had its challenges, and I wanted desperately to fit in. This created multiple strongholds in my life, including rebellion and deep insecurities.
Playing football became my main source of hope. It provided me with stability, as well as instruction from coaches, acceptance from teammates, attention from girls, and the opportunity to attract college recruiters. In fact, I was blessed to receive a two-year football scholarship to Savannah State.
College was an awesome experience for me, but it could have been greater, had I taken it more seriously. Unfortunately, I was suspended for stealing on campus before I completed my first collegiate football season.
I can see now that God continually extended His hands of grace toward me, but His appeals of love went sinfully disregarded in the courtroom of my heart. His claims of redemption were denied as insufficient in my thinking.
It did not take long after my journey back to Jacksonville from college for me to become engulfed in a promiscuous lifestyle of sex and drugs. In just five months, I went from an athletic build of 215 pounds to a sickly looking 177 pounds. Everyone could see that I was falling apart, but the depravity of my spirit blinded me from seeing my own condition. Not only was I wasting away on the outside, I was dying on the inside. I was a man separated from God, reaping the consequences of my sin.
My situation got so bad that even crack cocaine users began encouraging me to get off the corner and go back to school–but I wouldn’t listen. I was spiritually deaf and blind and could not hear or see God’s appeals through others.
On August 23, 2001, everything changed. I was arrested for constructive possession of cocaine. That was bad enough, but also received two additional charges, one for armed robbery and the other for murder. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place-but what I didn’t understand at the time was that God would use all these circumstances to bring me to the Rock of Ages-the Lord Jesus Christ.
I continued to resist Him, until one day God, through the preaching of His Word, revealed to me my need for a Savior. And through the faith that He supplied, I responded.
God met me at a most vulnerable time, when despair was all I could see. Through His Spirit, He awakened the deadness of my spirit and breathed life into me. I continued to struggle with my desire to be delivered from the charges I was facing, until I finally realized that my pardon had already been supplied. It was through a higher court in another kingdom.
My earthly release, although desired and to this day still anticipated, is only temporal. My spiritual redemption is eternally set and secure in Christ Jesus. My desire is to reap both, but I’m learning to be content with just the latter if it is God’s will.
Ripple
Where tall pines rich with fragrance stand like a wall along the lake.
Around the waters cold and clear reflecting a all thats in their wake.
As I look hard at my reflection, it’s mirrored surface smooth as glass.
I begin to lean in it’s direction as I come closer to it at last.
In a smooth and gliding motion fingers reach and disappear
Beneath the water’s surface then the ripples they appear.
An my image responds in kind to the shifts that have occurred
As my twin turns to wavy lines an my picture’s slightly blurred
As the ripples upset the flow broken waves inside the calm.
Along the surface they will go like the explosion of a bomb.
Until finally the waves cease the last ripple’s reached the shore
And the surface is at peace the disturbance is no more…
by Tom Glass