Alright.  Hey, everybody.  Welcome to Valley Creek church. We are so glad that you are here with us at the beginning of this fall semester back to school.  And we want to give a big welcome to our Denton Campus, our brand-new Venue Campus.

And everybody who's watching online, wherever you are in the world, you now know these people are really glad that you are here with us.  And we are excited about this fall.  We're believing God for some great things.  In fact, we've been praying for you all this week at our early morning prayer gatherings that have been amazing.  And we've been praying that you would have this encounter with God this fall semester that he would move in your life in some profound ways.  And I'm just believing God has something great in store for you and your family.  And so, I'm excited about starting this new series today called Reset.  And for the next few weeks, we're going to talk about putting our life back in order.  

And I think this is going to be a significant series for you and for the life of our church.  You see, I don't know about you, but I love technology.  But I am technologically-challenged. 

I love technology.  It's amazing.  When you look at the things we have, iPads, and phones, and those fancy watches, and the technology just that's in this room right now, the technology in our cars, my kids' toys and the technology that they have, I mean, it's amazing, the things we have.  I love technology, but I am technologically challenged.  Like I always have issues with technology.  My favorite day is when you get the thing in the box.  And on the box, it has all these amazing promises of all the things this little gadget is going to do.  And you take it out of the box and for a few moments, it does those amazing things.  But not for long.  

Then, all of a sudden, the thing starts going wonky.  It starts freezing, and glitzing, and getting crazy, and it'll freeze and not do what you want it to do.  And you don't know what to do with it, and it goes black, and it stops responding to you, and it gets super frustrating.  Anybody know what I'm talking about?  

And what I was thinking about this week is I realized this isn't like a new problem for me.  This has been my whole life, being technologically challenged.  Like for those of you that remember the original Nintendo, when I was a kid, Nintendo. 

I remember countless times playing Tecmo Bowl.  It was like the best game.  Bo Jackson was faster than anyone.  And he would be running down the field.  You're playing, about to score a touchdown, and --  He just freezes.  And so, you start -- do you remember the game?  And then, you start punching it, trying to get the thing to go?  You pull it. Shove in the game back in.  If you had Nintendo, you know what I'm talking about.  Or AOL, the original dial up, be-bop-bop. 

And then, it just drops.  No internet.  And now my problem is the Pinwheel of Death.  If you have a Mac, the Pinwheel of Death, that little color wheel that shows up.  And when that starts spinning, you're like, "No, I forgot to save."  

See, it's over.  I mean, I remember getting my first iPhone.  And you listen, I'm a late adopter.  I won't wait in line for six hours for anything, let alone a phone.  So, everyone else had one for a long time.  And they were telling me how great it was.  And I waited until you just walk in the store and buy one.  And I buy one, and I bring it home.  And on the box, it has all these promises, amazing things it's going to do.  And you open it up, and at first, it's amazing.  First month I have it, it does all these cool things.  You're figuring it out.  And then, after about a month, it started getting wonky.  The apps wouldn't respond the way I wanted them to.  The screen would freeze.  It would change and go to another screen when you didn't want it to.  It wouldn't respond and do the little touchpad thing and all that stuff.  And I remember being so frustrated with it.  I mean, the phone was functional, but it certainly wasn't awesome.  And so, like two years go by and this is the condition of my iPhone.  It's always got issues.  And then, one day, I'm complaining to one of my friends, and they said, "Well, when was the last time you reset it?"  I said, "What are you talking about?" 

This one's an iPhone.  You know you have to upgrade it and reset it like all the time, right? I said, "I have no idea what you're talking about." They said, "You've never done that?" I said, "No."  And so, he takes it, and he plugs it into the computer.  And there's a couple little buttons.  Five minutes later, unplugs it, hands it back to me, and the thing is amazing. It's got a brand-new operating system.  It looks totally different.  Everything works.  It's fast.  It does all of the promises it was supposed to do.  And I learned something really important that day, that reset is the most important button on any piece of technology. 

That is why every piece of technology you have purchased has a reset button somewhere in it.  They know it's important.  And so, I am not good at technology, but I am great at pressing reset.  Whether it's the button, Ctrl+Alt+Delete, or getting a little pencil and pushing it into that little pinhole on the back of something, I'm good at pressing reset.  And I think that is a great picture of life.  We get started in life. 

And life makes us all these promises.  But somehow, life doesn't deliver on the promises it made us.  Our marriage isn't what we thought it would be.  Our relationships aren't really healthy and awesome.  That where we're at with our kids isn't where we want it to be.  Our dreams haven't come to pass.  We find ourselves disappointed and disillusioned in life.  And yeah, life is functional, but it's certainly not awesome.  Well, can I just tell you something?  Life was never meant to be functional.  It was meant to be abundant. 

And so, maybe we need to press reset on life.  You see, what I love about reset is that it's God's idea.  It wasn't the idea of some technological engineers that sat in a factory somewhere or in a research center.  This is God's idea.  Go all the way back to creation, Genesis 1 and 2, God creates the universe.  He makes Adam and Eve, puts them in a garden.  Everything's perfect.  He says, "I'll be your God.  You'll be my people.  We'll walk together.  Everything is the way it should be.  There's just one thing.  The only thing you can't do is eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."  

And so, what's the one thing that Adam and Eve do?  They eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  And in that moment, everything gets wonky.  It goes out of order.  Things start flickering.  Things are no longer responsive.  Death, destruction, and every type of disorder is released into the universe.  Satan, the king of darkness, brings his kingdom of darkness.  And he now starts ruling and reigning and brings all of his disorder.  And yet, in the midst of all that, you still see the goodness of God.  Because even in the midst of that, you see God's desire for reset.  First thing He does when Adam and Eve sinned is He makes them clothes out of animal skins.  In other words, He covers their sin, and their nakedness, and their shame so they could reset in their relationship with Him.  And then, you look at that God gave them the gift of time.  He gave them days, and weeks, and months, and years, and seasons, because His mercies are new every morning.  And He wants to give them a chance every single morning when they wake up to reset their life again.  And then, He brought the flood.  He brought the flood to reset all of the earth, that Noah and his family would be able to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth the way God intended it to be. 

And then, God gave them the sacrificial system with the tabernacle in the temple so they could go and offer sacrifices at any point in time and reset where they were with God.  And then, He tells them, "Hey, every seven years, I want you to cancel every debt you have."  Would that be awesome or what? If every seven years, you got to press reset, baby, go buy something big at six years, 11 months, and 29 days.  Reset. 

But that was His intent that everything will go back.  And then, you see the year of Jubilee.  Every 50 years, everyone celebrates, everything rests, and everything resets.  And all of those were types and shadows of the one who was to come.  They were the prophetic picture of Jesus because Jesus was the reset. 

I mean, listen to this, Galatians 4:4-7, when the time had fully come, when everything was wonky, and scrambled, and wasn't working, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 

Because you are sons and daughters, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."  So, you are no longer a slave, but a son.  And since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.  In other words, when it was all crazy, God pressed reset in Jesus and saved you from being a slave and made you His son.  Or how about Romans 5:6, you see, at just the right time, when you needed a reset and couldn't do it on your own, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  God pressed reset in Jesus.  Or Colossians 1, once you were alienated from God, you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  Things were out of order.  They were broken.  They weren't working.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death.  He pressed reset in Jesus to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation.  

Jesus was the reset. You see, when he hung on the cross and said, "It is finished," a divine reset button was pushed in all of creation.  When he wore the scarlet robe, it meant all of our shame was on him and we now got the robe of righteousness.  When he declared, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  In that moment, Jesus was forsaken so you'll never have to be.  Jesus was dead, buried, put in the grave so that you could be alive and be free.  Jesus makes all things new. 

He was the reset.  And if you look through the Gospels and you look at how Jesus engaged with people, it's amazing.  He was always resetting people's lives.  Think of the leper.  Here's a guy who spent his life with leprosy.  And it was such an awful disease that he had to live outside in the outskirts of town because it was so contagious.  He couldn't be around people.  And every time someone came near him, he had to shout unclean.  Imagine if anytime someone came near you, you had to shout out your worst moment of shame.  That's how he lives. 

And one day, he comes, and he sees Jesus.  And he hits his knees.  He says, "Jesus, if you're willing, you can make me clean."  And what you have to remember, in those days, sin was the influencing agent.  If a clean person touched an unclean person, the clean person became unclean.  Sin was the influence or the disorder would go from disorder to order and bring chaos in the midst of order.  But when Jesus shows up, looks at the man, reaches out and touches him and says, "I am willing.  Be clean."  When Jesus, the clean, touches the unclean, the unclean becomes clean.  The disorder didn't come to Jesus.  Jesus says, "Order and reset came to this man."  And he says, "Now rise and go."  And he sent him back to his life, totally reset.  Or how about the woman caught in adultery?  All she wants is some love.  She's wanted to be loved her whole life so she's in some random bed with some random man.  The Pharisees catch her.  They grab her.  They bring her out, throw her on the ground in front of Jesus.  They all pick up stones ready to stone her.  And they say to Jesus, "Jesus, Moses says we should stone her.  What do you say?"  

And Jesus looks at them, and he says, "Okay.  Whoever's without sin, you throw the first stone."  One by one, they all drop them and they leave.  And the only person who could pick up a stone is the only one who doesn't.  And he looks at her and he says, "Is there no one to condemn you?"  She says, "No one, sir."  He helps her up.  He says, "Then neither do I condemn you."  I have no idea what that is or where it came from. 

Drop your stone. But it will bother me, so we have to get rid of it. And he brings her up and he says, "Is there no one to condemn you?"  She says, "No one, sir."  And he says, "Now go and leave your life of sin."  And he resets her life and sends her with love and freedom.  Or how about the disciples?  A bunch of ragtag fishermen zealots and tax collectors who literally have uninspiring, dreamless lives.  They sit there every day.  And they go to work, and they do their thing, try to close their sales deal.  And then, they come home and turn on TV at night, and just sit there and veg out.  

And the TV doesn't even work right so they're banging it on the side. And Jesus shows up and says, "Hey, come follow me.  I'll make you fishers of men."  And he resets their life with purpose.  Luke 19:10, the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.  In other words, Jesus is walking through this world looking for people who need reset.  It's what he's looking for.  Jesus can reset anything anytime, anywhere.  And if he could reset them, he can reset you.  He comes to you with eyes of love, hands of grace, and words of life.  And maybe you're here and you're a single mom, and you say, "I can't do it one more day."  Or you're a man in the middle of a midlife crisis, wondering why do you get up and go to work every day, and why do you have the family that you do.  Or you're a student with a dreamless future, or you're here broken about the shame and the brokenness of your past.  Jesus was the reset.  And he can reset you.  And what I love about Jesus or God is that when God resets, he also upgrades.  

See if you can catch this theology with me, okay?  This is important.  Romans 5:17, for if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, talking about Adam, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.  So, see if you can catch this.  God makes Adam.  And we're all included in Adam.  This is what we have in Adam in the Garden of Eden as man made in the image and likeness of God.  This is what we have in Adam, but then Adam sins.  And death comes, and we lose everything.  We lost everything we had in Adam, but God decided to press reset in Jesus.  And what we now have in Jesus is superior to what we lost in Adam.  So, he says, "For how much more those who receive God's abundant grace in Jesus Christ, how much more will we have in Jesus than we actually had in Adam?"  This is what you had in Adam, death came, we died, we lost it all. 

But now, through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, we have more in Jesus than we ever lost in Adam.  He gave us a reset, but he gave us an upgrade, a new operating system.  You're a new creation.  You have a new divine nature.  You're included in Christ and all that he is instead of Adam and all he wasn't. It's like having a telegraph or having a Skype call. 

It's an upgrade.  So long as the Skype is working, you know what I'm saying? The very next verse or one verse later, Romans 5:19 says, "Just through the disobedience of one man, Adam, the many were made sinners, identity.  But through the obedience of one man, Jesus, the many were made righteous, identity."  So, see if you can catch this.  Through the one man, Adam, and his disobedience, we were made sinners.  That was our identity.  That's who we were in Adam.  And we were in a prison of sin and we couldn't get ourselves out of it.  We were included in his nature.  We weren't sinners because we sinned, we sinned because we were sinners. 

You do who you are.  Identity determines behavior.  Trapped in a prison of sin, you're a sinner, and that's all you can do.  And when you know or believe you're a sinner by faith, you'll live a life of sin because you do who you are.  But through the obedience of one man, Jesus, the many were made righteous.  In other words, Jesus came, pressed reset.  What we lost in Adam, we gained much more in Jesus.  He rescued us out of the prison of sin, brought us into a position and posture of righteousness.  We now are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and we partake in his divine nature.  

In other words, Jesus is now your new factory setting.  When you press reset, you don't go back to what you had in Adam, you now are included in the divine nature of Jesus Christ.  In fact, in the Bible, it says that Jesus is the firstborn.  The Greek word for firstborn, it's the word protos, P-R-O-T-O-S.  It's where we get the word prototype. So, Jesus is our prototype.  He is now the factory setting.  He is the standard.  We were born in Adam, but we were born again in Jesus.  Adam was the protos.  Jesus now is the new protos of who we are included in.  And so, when we press reset, we get back, aligned to the factory settings of Jesus himself.  So, at 1 John 4:17 says, "As He is, so we are."  We're a part of his divine nature.  Because he is righteous, so am I.  Because he is holy, so am I.  Because he is loved, and accepted, and wanted, and free, so am I.  He is the standard and the factory setting of your life when you believe in him.  It changes everything if that's true.  It is true, but you can wonder if it is for a moment.  What we gained in Jesus was more than we ever lost in Adam.  And you'll hear people say things like this, "I wish Adam and Eve wouldn't have sinned.  And we could still be in the Garden of Eden.  It would be awesome."  

Okay, think about that for a second.  Let's say Adam and Eve didn't sin, and Cain and Abel, their sons, didn't sin.  And let's say every generation till today has not sinned.  The tree of the knowledge of good and evil would still be on this earth in the Garden of Eden, and at any point in time, crazy Uncle Joey could go eat off it. 

But because Jesus came and press reset, it's all done.  1 Corinthians, where, oh death, is your sting?  Where, oh death, is your victory?  You have been swallowed up.  It's gone.  It's actually better.  That's radical if you can get your brain around that.  But it's true because now we're a part of the divine nature of Jesus instead of Adam's nature.  Jesus was the reset, and he is the reset.  You see, a lot of us, we get saved, and we press reset in Jesus, but then we start living our lives.  And I think Paul says this really well in Galatians 5, he says, "You were running a good race.  Who cut in on you?"  He says, "Hey, you were running a great race.  You were killing it.  It was amazing.  You were included in Christ.  Your factory settings had been adjusted.  You were running, but what happened to you?  Who cut in on you?  Why are you tripping, falling now?" 

In other words, it was a great HD picture, and now it's all black and jumbly, and we can't see what happened.  We drift.  We get apathetic or complacent.  We compromise, and we start tolerating sin in our lives.  And we start becoming judgmental and skeptical, and we lose faith.  We need to press reset again and remind ourselves of the factory settings we have in Jesus.  In fact, I think this whole series is really for that verse.  I don't think this is a series about a lot of teaching and like yeah, let's take notes thing.  I think this is a prophetic invitation from Jesus to you.  You were running a good race.  Who cut in on you?  Let's press reset.  And go back to factory setting. 

You see, spiritual maturity is simply the willingness to press reset faster.  It's all it is.  Proverbs 24, the righteous man falls seven times, but he gets up again.  We're all going to fall.  You're all going to get a little wonky.  You're going to drift, but the spiritual mature, press reset faster and go back to the factory settings in Jesus.  In fact, all the people you love in the Bible, they all were really good at pressing reset.  Moses, he was a murderer.  He got really depressed.  He wanted God to take his life, but man, Moses was good at pressing reset.  David, takes another man's wife, sleeps with her, gets her pregnant, has her husband killed, he's a terrible father, and the Bible calls him the man after God's heart. You got to find the comedic relief in that. 

Why though?  Because David pressed reset better than anyone, I think.  He drifted, but he knew.  Real quick, pressed reset, and get back into alignment.  Peter, enough said. And then, you take a guy like Judas who, for three years, walks with Jesus, and the Bible says he's among the disciples.  He healed the sick.  He cast out demons.  He preached the kingdom.  And yet, at the end of three years, he sells Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.  How, we say?  Because he never pressed reset.  We look at people and we say, "How did they just have an affair?  How did they have this addiction?  How did they become like this and become angry and crazy?  Like it happened overnight."  No, no, no.  It happened over a long period of time with a lot of little choices and the unwillingness to just keep pressing reset.  So, if we really want to walk this life, not just functionally but abundantly, let's get good at pressing reset.  Let's get really good at Ctrl+Alt+Delete.  If you want to reset, press Control, Alt, Delete. 

And do it regularly.  And there's an abundant life for you.  So, do you want to know how to do that? Really simple.  Here's how you press Ctrl+Alt+Delete anytime, anyplace.  First thing is this, confess.  You're like, "I don't like this message anymore." 

Confess.  Acknowledge that things are off.  I am convinced that pride keeps us from receiving the healing that God offers.  Humility and honesty is the beginning of freedom.  Be honest.  Take off your fig leaves and be honest with yourself, be honest with the people in your life, and be honest with God.  Like just be honest.  Here's where I'm drifting.  Here's where I'm compromising.  Here's where I'm tempted.  Here's my ungodly beliefs.  I just need to press reset, confess some things to you.  I mean, listen to this, 1 John 1:7 says, "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His son, purifies us from all sin."  It says walk in the light.  When things are in the darkness, they grow, they breed, they fester.  They just get out of control.  But if we would just walk in the light as he is in the light, we would find ourselves free.  

But Satan wants to convince you to keep things in the darkness.  In fact, Satan's greatest trick is not to get you to sin, it's to get you to keep things hidden.  It's not to get you to sin, Satan knows the power of the forgiveness of Jesus.  He believes in it even more than we do.  He gets it.  So, his great trap for us is to get us to keep things in the darkness.  Bible calls him the accuser of the brethren.  In other words, you mess up and he shows up and goes, "I can't believe you just did that.  You better not tell anybody because they ain't going to be okay with that.  And all this thing over here, no, no, no, no.  You remember what they taught you in Sunday school about what God does to people like that?  No, no, no, no, no.  You need to keep that right here with me.  Just put it in this little trunk.  Give me the key, and I'll keep it safe for you, and nobody will ever know."  And we believe him.  So, we hide it.  And then, we align ourselves with the king of the kingdom of darkness. 

And we actually empower him to then rule and reign in our lives.  But if we would just bring it out of that little chest that we've entrusted him with and bring it into the light, light heals, restores, purifies, and makes us whole.  You're only as sick as the secrets you keep.  Something in the dark is like a virus, inside your technological system that eats you from the inside out.  In fact, here's an interesting question maybe you've never thought about before.  I realize this is pushing on a little theology today, but why do we, as believers, confess sin?  You ever, like really, like what -- why do we, as believers, confess sin?  We confess sin because we already are forgiven, not in order to be forgiven.  We confess sins that we might walk in freedom, not in order to be forgiven because we already are.  We confess sins because you can only be loved to the level you are known.  

And so, if you have things hidden in the darkness, you will always believe there's a part of your life God knows nothing about, so you will never receive the fullness of your love.  But when you confess it, you're now fully known, so you can be fully loved.  I mean, I remember as a kid, like driving places with my parents and thinking, man, if we crash and I die, if I have unconfessed sin in my life, I'm going to hell.  Anybody else?  I mean, it would just sit there and like torment me.  I mean, like man, I might have had a bad thought.  Did I have a bad thought?  And if I had a bad thought, did I confess it?  I can't, I'm not sure.  And I think my mom said I couldn't have a cookie but maybe I could have a cookie.  I did take that cookie, but did I apologize to her?  And did I tell God I was sorry?  And then, I know I hit my sister but she hit me first, but I think God will be okay with that.  That's like love your neighbor as yourself thing.  I don't know, but -- that's a crazy way to live.  Why?  Because you're sin-conscious.  You're focused more on sin and the power of its destructive forces instead of being Jesus-focused and Jesus-conscious and more in tune with the power of his forgiveness.  

My kids don't tell me all the things they do wrong.  Half the time, they're not even aware that what they did was wrong.  And I forgive them and love them anyways.  In fact, if you think you have to confess every single specific sin in order to be forgiven, then man, you better start your list. 

And don't leave out the little ones like that thought you had, the word you said, the thing you didn't do by faith.  And for some reason, we think it only counts after you get saved.  Like I got saved at 30, and I just prayed the Sinner's Prayer, and now I'm all good.  I didn't confess all those, but now I got to confess.  Like really?  Like if you got to confess them all, then you got to confess them all.  So, how about this?  1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us of all unrighteousness.  You say, "There it is.  You got to confess them."  Yes, we confess because we are forgiven, not in order to be forgiven because it says, "We will be purified from all our unrighteousness."  When were you purified from unrighteousness? 

When?  The moment you believed in Jesus.  2 Corinthians 5:21, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that in him we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  The moment you believe in God, all of your sin was accredited to the account in the finished work of Jesus.  He rescued you out of that prison of sin, postured you in this position of the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  You now are part of His divine nature.  He is your factory settings, and you are forever righteous. 

So, what we do is we confess and we call Him.  We say, "God, I'm out of alignment.  My factory settings are off.  I've been doing these things, thinking these things, and they're totally out of alignment with who I now am in you.  And so, God, I -- God, I thank you.  You have already forgiven me.  I thank you.  Forgiveness was a decision you already made 2,000 years ago when Jesus pressed reset on the cross.  And so, I choose to say to you, I'm off here.  I confess, I've been worried, and afraid, and angry."  

That's outside of my divine factory settings.  And so, I declare I'm the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  I've been like a bird that's trying to swim, a fish that's trying to fly, a cow that's trying to bark, and a dog that's trying to moo.  I'm outside of my designed purpose.  And it's frustrating as it is when my iPad doesn't do what I want it to do.  What I'm doing now is totally outside of the design of how you have made me.  Sin literally just means to miss the mark.  It means you're outside of your divine factory settings because you're now included in Christ.  Does that make sense? 

So, you got to confess.  And if you say, "Well, I'm not a believer," then you confess you are a sinner.  You're an Adam.  Jesus, would you make me righteous and forgive me of my sins?  Boom, he says, "Yes," and pulls you out and positions you here, okay?  So, control, press confess.  Then, you got to press Control+Alt, and what you got to do is confess and repent.  

Okay?  Repent.  Repent does not mean to come up to the altar and literally start weeping at a church service.  Though it may mean you have godly sorrow in your heart.  The word repent literally means to change your thinking.  That's all it means.  Repent, think about -- break the word down, re, pent.  Re, go back.  Pent, think penthouse, top floor view.  In other words, he says, "Go back and get God's perspective on this situation."  So, repentance is change your thinking from what you view and now come into alignment with how God sees the scenario.  In fact, that's why Jesus' main message was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Nowhere in the Bible do you find Jesus walking around preaching, "God has a good plan for your life.  And I have a ticket for you to heaven.  And if you would just pray the Sinner's Prayer, you will now forever be floating with a harp and angel wings."  

No.  He preaches, "Repent.  Go back.  Get God's perspective on the situation.  A superior reality has come.  Press reset, and let's align with who you now are."  Romans 12:2, do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Don't be conformed.  We live in a world that wants to conform us what?  To the pattern of this world.  The world wants to conform us back into the pattern of Adam.  That's why we have such a hard time getting out of this thinking.  The world is conforming you to go back and think like Adam, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Change the way you think, it'll change the way you live.  Can I just tell you something?  Don't let the world define your personal holiness standards.  Like can we just stop looking at other people and saying, "Well, they do it, so it's okay for me."  I mean, they cheat on their taxes, so I'm going to too.  And they sleep around and it's okay, so why wouldn't I?  And they live like this and they say they're a Christian, so it must be okay.  

And if it's okay for these people over here, I mean, come on.  Sin deceives you.  Sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.  And to tolerate sin in your life like justify it away, it's like using an iPhone as a hammer.  I know, sometimes that's all it feels like it's good for because you haven't pressed reset on it.  But as ridiculous as that would be, that's how ridiculous as it is, us with the factory settings of Jesus to engage and tolerate repeated sin in our life.  It's that far out of your design.  It's like taking an iPhone and banging a nail into a piece of wood.  It's so far out of what it was created for.  See, that's how we have to change our thinking.  And say, "I'm now included in this reference in Christ.  I am now a new creation with a new nature.  I want to stop thinking the old way, get into alignment with what God says regardless of what I see or how I feel.  I want to repent because I have a new nature and I need to learn how to live it." 

And maybe the best way I can explain this to you and -- man, it's hot up here today. Is this is a -- think of an orphanage.  I have a lot of friends that have adopted kids.  And it's amazing.  They go to these orphanages, and in the orphanage, it's a broken, heartbreaking scenario, all these kids.  And these parents fall in love with a kid and they go to wherever that is in the world.  And they rescue this kid out of an orphanage, and they adopt them, and they change their name and give them a new identity and bring them into a new home, and they're loved.  They have their own room, and it's brand-new family.  Everything is brand-new.  But they tell these stories, and they're so eerily similar of these kids that have been adopted.  And now, these kids, they're like hiding food around the house.  They hide food under their bed or in their closet, or they're unwilling to share toys with the other siblings, or they refuse to give and receive love when the mom and dad want to give it to them.  And they won't give any affection back, and you say, "Why?"  

Well, because in the orphanage, they never knew when they were going to be fed again.  So, anytime they had food, they stashed it somewhere to take care of themselves.  And they wouldn't share anything because the moment they gave it away, they never caught it back.  And affection, they only knew punishment and wrath, so they didn't want to get close and engage with people.  And yet, they're now rescued out of that scenario, brought into a new reality with a new identity, and they need to learn to change the way they think about who they now really are.  And so, the moms and dads need to literally open up the cupboard and say, "You see all this?  This is all our food.  You can have it anytime you want.  And you see all these toys, they're all ours.  You can play with anyone anytime.  And you feel this hug?  I'm never going to stop hugging you even if you don't want it.  We are going to change the way you think."  And even if that child refuses and still hides food and refuses to share and all those different kinds of things, it doesn't mean they're an orphan, does it? No, they're a son or a daughter now. 

But they're still thinking like they were in the orphanage.  Do you understand that's how most of us live?  You've been in the orphanage of this world.  And the world has taught you how to think.  You were included in Adam for a really long time so you've learned how to fend for yourself and take care of yourself and be afraid and reject affection, and I'm not going to be vulnerable.  You crazy.  I got to look out for myself.  And then, God comes along and He presses reset, redeems you out of that scenario, adopts you, brings you into his family, and we're still sitting over here living and thinking like orphans.  But just because you behave like an orphan doesn't mean you're not a son.  We have lived so long in Adam that we have a hard time learning what life is like in Christ.  And so, what the father does is he opens up the cupboard and says, "See all this?  It's yours.  Let's change the way you think."  Don't reset back to who you were, reset back to who you now are.  So, repent.  And then, last thing is this, respond.  Okay?  

You can press Ctrl+Alt all day long, baby, but until you press Delete, all three together, it doesn't work.  Confess, repent, and you got to respond.  You got to take a next step.  You got to start moving in that direction.  You change your thinking, it will change the way that you live.  I mean, that's just how it works.  A question is asked all the time and I love it, it's how do you know when someone is really repentant?  It's a good question, isn't it?  How do you know when someone is really repentant?  Well, after years of study and hours of conversation, you are ready for the answer, you just know. 

You just know.  Why?  Because they respond and change their behavior.  Have you ever been in a relationship with someone that says, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," over and over again for the same thing but never changes their behavior? It's like a piece of technology.  You press reset and it goes right back to its dysfunctional brokenness.  

Jesus tells this great story of a father and he says a father has two sons and he says, "Hey, I want you to go both work in the field."  And the first son says, "I'm not going to go."  But then, later confesses, repents, changes his mind and goes and works in the field.  The second son says, "Sure, father, I'll go work in the field," and never does.  And Jesus asked the crowd, he says, "Which one did what the father wanted?"  And they all declare the first one.  The first one didn't get it right out of the gate, but he was really quick to press reset.  And that's what God wants.  God is more concerned with your next step than your misstep.  He's more interested in where you're going than where you've been.  It's not about what you just did, it's about what are you going to do now?  When you press reset, it literally changes the trajectory of your life.  You have to respond and do something different.  So, here's the question, where do you need to reset? 

Jesus was the reset, and he is the reset.  Where do you need to reset?  I believe this is a prophetic moment in time in this series of an invitation of God to you, so just press reset.  And so, here's how we're going to close this together.  We're going to take communion.  And so, ushers are going to get up.  They're going to start passing it out.  And the reason this is a perfect time to do this is because what you're going to be holding in your hand in a moment is the reset button.  And as it comes and it gets to you, this is for everybody who believes in Jesus.  We partake in a new nature in him.  And if you're here and you say, "Well, I don't.  Man, I don't believe in Jesus yet."  Well, maybe today's your day.  And when that gets to you and you, by faith, say, "I believe that Jesus died for me.  I give him all of my sins.  I take all of his righteousness.  I want a new factory setting reset."  You reach out and take all of that by faith.  

And press reset for the first time.  And so, as you hold this in your hand, I just want you to listen to the Spirit of the Living God.  Where do you need to press reset?  Jesus was the reset, and he is the reset.  You were running a good race.  Who cut in on you?  The screen has gone black.  Things are flickering and jumbled.  No longer is it working the way that it's supposed to.  All you need to do is press reset.  Control, confess.  God, here is what's broken. 

Repent.  God, I want your perspective on this situation, circumstance, relationship.  And then, respond.  Take a next step in the direction.  By faith, believe that something got changed in the atmosphere of your life as you confessed and repented, and actually walk that out.  One next step in the right direction can change the rest of your life.  Don't settle for an inferior factory setting of the world in Adam when what Jesus came to give you was the ultimate upgrade.  And he makes all things new.  Where do you need to press reset? 

And the crazy part about it is, is that when you really start to focus on what Jesus did and what that means, you don't even have a desire to keep doing the things this world has invited you to do anymore.  His grace teaches you to say no to ungodliness and worldly living.  And it gives you a desire to walk out the freedom we now have in Jesus.  So, can we, by faith, press reset together?  On the night, the Lord Jesus was betrayed so we will never have to be.  He took the bread and he broke it.  He said, "My body is broken so that your life can be made whole.  As often as you do this, press reset, and align with me.  Let's reset together." 

And in the same way after the supper, Jesus took the cup.  He said, "This is the cup of the New Covenant, my blood poured out for you.  I just did for you what you could never do for yourself.  And everything you think you lost in Adam, I just gave you even more back.  And so, now reign in life with me."  Let's change those factory settings and reset together.  Can you reset your life in Jesus?  So, Lord Jesus, we love you in this place.  Thank you, that you are the God who makes all things new and all things beautiful.  

Will you reset our lives and give us a new hope and a future?  Over these next few weeks, give us the courage to press the different reset buttons in our lives that brings us back to the factory settings of being included in Christ.  We say in the name of Jesus, life is no longer functional.  It is now abundant because of who we are in you.  We love you, Jesus.  In your name we pray, Amen.