How to Reset Your Spiritual Life

**SPEAKER_1** (0:04)
Welcome to the City Lights Church Podcast. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing today, we hope this message inspires you to follow Jesus. You can find out more about City Lights Church at city-lights.church.

**Andrew Scott** (0:23)
It's good to see you. As Tim was saying, he had, he was talking about pineapple on pizza, and wow, it just went very dark. Is that the cue? Just a quick survey, if you like pineapple on pizza and burgers, put your hand up. Those who are anti-pineapple on pizza and burgers like myself also put your hand up. I think we're in the minority, unfortunately.
Well, why don't you turn to the person next to you, give them a big smile and tell them, I'm glad that you're here this morning.
Now, if you're in the building this morning, or if you're listening online, you have probably most likely recognized something. You have recognized that you have a spiritual life. Because deep within us, we have deep thoughts, deep emotions, deep, if I even would say, deep longings. And these are like an iceberg. They sit so deep within us, and occasionally they pop out or they pop up. And we're like, where did that come from? But we know that we are not just flesh and bone, but actually we have a spirit deep within us. Do you know that the devil is the adversary of our spirits? His role, his purpose, his mission is to destroy your spiritual life. His plan is to fill the deepest parts of you with brokenness and with bitterness, and to cripple and destroy you from the inside out.
In fact, he tries to do this in a couple of ways through our culture. One of the messages that I believe is from our enemy is this one. There is no such thing as a spiritual life. All we have is what we can see. What we can see, what we can explain, those are the only things that matter. That's one message. At the same time, there's a contradictory message, and you see this quite a lot in our media. In fact, on one hand, they say, well, there's no spiritual life. And on the other hand, they say, well, no, there is a spiritual life, but it's dark. It's evil. You better be careful when you go to that little house in that abandoned town, because spiritual forces are something to be afraid of. Here's what we know as Christians, that Jesus' plan is to give us spiritual life. His plan is to restore us. His plan is to change us, to renew us from the inside out. In fact, Jesus says this exact thing in John 10, 10 He says, the thief, I mean the devil, Satan comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. And this is what happens. For most of us here, we have come to a point where we have recognized that without Jesus, we cannot have a transformed inner world and inner life. And so we come to Jesus and we say, Jesus, we need help. We need you to transform us. We need to change us. Last week, we had five amazing baptisms. Wasn't that a great service for those that were here?
And do you know what happened is lives were transformed. Each person shared their stories so powerful. And this morning, I took, I was this week kind of reviewing these stories because I found them so encouraging. And I just picked some little quotes, some little sentences from each different person about what Jesus has done and how the Jesus life has transformed those lives. Jack, sitting right here, he said this, I've got the greatest sense of peace I've ever had in my life and have found joy in giving up control. Amazing. Gabby says this, Gabby says this, regardless of all my flaws and sins, he reminded me every day that he still loved me. He showed me an unconditional love that I never knew existed or that I deserved. Isn't that amazing? Bree said this, all my worries were somehow gone and replaced with this beautiful peace. Jade said, I've never felt this light like a weight has been lifted off me. And Ryan said, my heart has and continues to soften, and I continue to evolve into a man of Christ to become the best me I can for my family. This is real life, how the life of God changes our lives. And these are precious moments. These are moments that we shouldn't rush away too quickly from. These are moments, markers, moments of transformation.
And we all have these. Each and every one of us would have in our lives, as we were to look back, we would have these markers and moments of how Jesus has transformed our lives. And at the same time, our spiritual life is still opposed. Do you know that you can have moments of goodness, moments of life, and then the devil does not stop his work. He wants to take what you've got. He wants to distract. He wants to destroy. He doesn't want to give up the ground that Jesus has transformed. In the parable of the sower, Jesus talks about five things that oppose our spiritual life. They're coming up on the board. And here are the five things. Difficulties and trials. Pressures and frustrations. The busyness of life. A cultural mindset that is hostile to God. Temptation to do the wrong things that feel really good. Do you know that these are some of the things that will try and take and oppose your spiritual life, whether you're just beginning or whether you're in the process, like we all are, of being transformed every day into the likeness of Jesus. Now, they have differing effects on us. Sometimes we have an immediate and sudden effect. Sometimes, who knows, we mess up. We do something and we're like, why did I do that? Sometimes we do that. Other times we ask God for something, and we feel like He doesn't come through for us in the way that we want. Who's had that? We've asked God. We've got, God, I'm going so well, God, I think this is my next step. And what happens? Your next step doesn't happen in the way that you expect it to happen. And as a result, we become disappointed, discouraged, sometimes even angry at God. And it can alter and change our perception of our spiritual life. But most often, for most of us, particularly in our culture, we don't mean for our spiritual life to lose its vibrancy or energy. But often we just get busy. We just get distracted. We just get stressed by the things of life. We have other priorities and other things going on in our life. And we're in a culture that doesn't value or honor the things of God. So it's easy for us to do that. And often, even in spite of our highs, our spiritual highs, which are good, our markers, our moments of transformation, we can often feel discouraged. We can feel disconnected. And at some times, we can feel de-energized. And that may even be you right now. And if that is you, that's okay, because that's what we're here to talk about. And this morning, as part of our how-to series, I want to talk about how to reset your spiritual life. How to reset your spiritual life? To reset something means we restore it to the original way it was meant to function. And as I said, most of us have these moments, these seasons, these times in our life where we had a knowing, we had a sense that we were on track with God and that there was spiritual health, spiritual life, spiritual flourishing, spiritual momentum. And often we're like, things happen in life to all of us, we're off track, we're talking about how do we get back on track? How do we reset? How do we get things back to the original way that we were designed and meant to function? Now, here's the good news. The keys to resetting your spiritual life, they're actually very, very simple. But to have a look at this topic, we're going to turn to John chapter 15, starting in John 15.1. With this statement, this is Jesus talking to his disciples. He says this, I am the true grapevine, and my father is the gardener. Now think about this. This is, I think we can all picture this, right? We have all got a sense of maybe a vineyard, or a garden, that Jesus is the grapevine, and my father is the gardener. Here's what he said. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit. And he prunes the branches that do bear fruit, so they'll produce even more. Talking to his disciples, he says, You have already been pruned and purified by the message I've given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you, for a branch cannot produce fruit if it's severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. He says this, yes, repeating, I'm the vine, you're the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted. When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my father. So let me give you a few headings around what we're talking about this morning and this idea of resetting our spiritual life. The first is this, very simple. Spiritual flourishing is God's business. Spiritual flourishing is God's business. Now, sometimes we are tempted to think that our spirituality, our spiritual flourishing, our spiritual health, our spiritual growth is something that we can control. And the answer to that is we simply cannot. And I hope that is just so releasing to you, because if it was up to me, my spiritual life would be a mess. But it's not up to me, it's up to God. Here is what the passage says. Jesus says, I am the vine, I am the source of life, and my father is the gardener. My father is the one who cultivates that life, who cares for, who tends to the soil, who makes sure that things are operating the way they should, but I am the source of life. Up into this point, have you thought spiritual growth, spiritual life was your business, or God's business, because quite clearly from this passage, it's God's business. We should take a deep sigh, a deep breath, the pressure comes off. So the role of God is our spiritual life, our spiritual health.