Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Throw Away Your To-Do List | Start Fresh

Episode Date: January 1, 2023

Are you stepping into the new year with excitement and anticipation? Or do you feel worn out and overwhelmed from the weight of the last year? No matter how you’re feeling, we have an opportunity to Start Fresh in 2023. Together, let’s learn how to make this year matter. ABOUT THIS MESSAGEAre you stepping into the new year with excitement and anticipation? Or do you feel worn out and overwhelmed from the weight of the last year? No matter how you’re feeling, we have an opportunity to Start Fresh in 2023. Together, let’s learn how to make this year matter. NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/craiggroeschelFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #startfresh Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And happy new year. Welcome to 2023. Or maybe you're joining us on YouTube and it's 2027. So happy 2027. Or maybe it's just Tuesday. Happy Tuesday to you. Here's what I want you to know, though, wherever you're joining us from, I believe God has a word for you today. And I'm excited to get to be here with you. So hey, not to be controversial. All right, let's just be controversial. Here's what I want to know. are you all about those New Year's resolutions? Throw it in the comments. You're like, yep, I'm all about setting some goals or nope, I don't do it because I'm not going to keep it, so I don't even bother.

Me, I like some goals. I like to see where I am, where I want to be, how I can get there. So 2022, last year, I had some goals. Goal number one was this. I want to eat like an adult this year. Less sugar, more vegetables. And guess what? I did it.

I did it. Yep. Three days. I made it three days. Until I saw a chocolate chip cookie and I realized that life without chocolate chip cookies was not worth living. But guess what? It's a new year. We get a fresh start.

20, 23. I've got goals. My first goal is I'm going to eat like an adult this year. But I wrote a few more down. I want to sleep seven and a half hours a night. Parents, that sounds good, doesn't it? Not only that, but I want to spend more time with my two kids, not in front of a screen. I want to take a trip with my wife, Katie.

I have a financial goal that I set, a professional goal that I set. I want to read a growth or development book every month of the year, 12 books. But I got to be honest, as I was writing these goals down, I started to get a little bit overwhelmed. And I had this question, the question is, when am I going to do all this? because one of the conversations my wife Katie and I have all the time is it seems like there's too many things to do and not enough time to do them. You ever feel that way? In fact, sometimes I just feel like our family car on our first ever camping trip. Years ago, Katie and I decided we were going to take a family camping trip.

So we were talking about how that was going to work and she made me a deal and I'm a sucker for a good deal. And she said, here's the deal. I will prepare everything. I will pull everything we need together for the trip if you just load the car. I thought I needed to sell my end of the deal. So I was like, well, I don't know if you knew this, but I'm kind of a car loading genius. And she said, oh. And I said, in fact, spatial relations, like seeing a spot this big, find it into the right suitcase to put it in there.

That's kind of my jam. And she said, all right. And so I said, so I tell you what, I'll take you up on your deal. If you pack it, I'll load it. She said, deal. I came home the day before our trip. and everything was laid out in the living room. I want to emphasize the word, everything.

There was a tent. There was a tarp. There were sleeping bags. There were blankets in case we got cold into sleeping bags. There was food. There was a stove. There was food in case we ate all the other food. There was camping fuel for the stove.

There's a hairdriar. A hair dryer? Babe, people have made it thousands of years without hair dryers. We can make it for a couple of days camping. She said, babe, people made it. for thousands of years without toilet paper. Do you want me to pack that? I was like, it looks like we're taking a hairdryer. But I began to get concerned, because our whole living room was literally full of stuff, that we had too much stuff for too little of a space. And I said, babe, it's not

going to fit. Like, this isn't going to work. But my wife's always like three steps ahead of me. And so she kind of got this puzzled look, and she said, but babe, I thought you said you were a packing car loading genius. And I was like, well, I am. And she said, I thought you said, spatial relations are your jam? And I said, well, they are. And so she said, I thought you said, if you pack it, you will load it. And I said, well, I did, and I will. And I did. In fact, I have a photo from our first ever camping trip from inside the car that I brought with me today. And what I want you to notice is there's not one ray of sunshunding. coming through that back because every cubic inch is stuffed with something that was necessary for

that trip. What you cannot see is there were things strapped to the top of the car attached to the back of the car. Why? Because it was overstuffed, overloading our rear end was dragging a little bit. Like sometimes my life feels a little bit like that. It's overstuffed, overloaded, and my rear end's dragging a little bit. Because I'm exhausted. But here's what I know. I'm not alone. Harvard Business School says that seven out of ten people surveyed so that their life was characterized as being busy or very busy. But I didn't need Harvard to tell me that. Why? Because 10 out of the last 10 people that I've asked how you doing said, man, I'm doing great, but I'm busy. Throw it in the comments if you're busy. And so you can imagine my confusion when I read from Jesus's words in

Matthew chapter 11 where he says to this to us who are busy. He says, come to me all who are weary and burdened. It's like he knows something about us. Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn for me for I am gentle and humble and heart and you will find rest for your souls. Man, that sounds like chapstick on a bitterly cold day, doesn't it? I will give you rest for your souls. He goes on for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Man, it sounds great, doesn't it? Come follow me.

Your life will be easy and light and you will be full of rest. There's just one problem. The problem is I don't always feel that way. Instead, sometimes life feels overstuffed, overloaded, and my rear ends dragging a little bit. But what Jesus is doing is he's offering us an alternative to a different way of life. One of the things we love about New Year's is a fresh start.

But what Jesus is offering is for us to start fresh, to start rested. It's why the title of my message today is start fresh. How to live rested in an exhausting world. What better place to start fresh than the start of God's word. Genesis chapter one, one of my favorite chapters in all of Scripture, God says this to us. It says, in the beginning, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering

over the waters. God said, let there be light and there was light. God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from darkness. God called the light day and he called the darkness night. There was evening and there was morning the first day. And so goes day two, day three, Day four, day five, God created, he saw that it was good, there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day. Day six, it says this in verse 27, so God created mankind in his image, in the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. And God saw all that he had made, but it wasn't good, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning the sixth day.

Genesis chapter one, the account of the creation of the world is actually written in the form of a poem. And as you hear it, you can hear the rhythm and repetition of a poem because there's this rhythm and repetition in Genesis chapter one. Why? Because repetition shows us what's important. Repetition shows us what's important. At the risk of being too much, repetition shows us what's important. But you already knew that. You already knew that. You already knew that. that because when you pick up your phone and you see one missed call from your significant other, your boyfriend or your girlfriend, you think what? No big deal. They wanted to chat. I'll give them a call back when I got a minute. When you pick up the very same phone and see a miss call from your significant other, but not just one, you see 11 missed calls in seven minutes. You think one of two things. Oh my gosh, something's important. It's happened. I need to call them right back. Or oh my gosh,

they're crazy. I need a different boyfriend or girlfriend. Why? Because repetition. shows importance and there's repetition in Genesis chapter one that God created. He saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning. There was evening. There was morning. Do you notice anything different about that? Because honestly, I didn't see it until somebody pointed it out for me. There was evening and there was morning. That's not how the day works. The day doesn't start in the evening. It starts in the what? In the morning. The first thing, we do in the day is we turn the alarm clock off, stumble out of bed, take a shower, eat breakfast. It's the most important meal the day because it's the first meal of the day. We put our clothes on

and we go to work. There's morning and then there's evening. That's how the day works. We get up, we go to work and when we finish our work, then we rest. If we finish everything, we rest. That's how the day works. There's morning and there's evening, but that's not what God's says, he says that there's evening, then there's morning, because what God is doing is he's introducing an alternative rhythm for our lives, a rhythm that doesn't start with work, a rhythm that starts with rest. And some of you are going like, Tim, that's cool. I mean, that's neat. Evening, morning, morning, evening, tomato, tomato, who cares? If you're an Israelite, you cared. Genesis chapter one was written down by most.

Moses. Moses, who was born in Egypt in Pharaoh's household, who killed a man, fled. God called him to go back to Egypt to deliver his people. The Israelite people, the Jewish people who'd become enslaved to the Egyptians, who were enslaved to Pharaoh, to bring them out of Egypt, and to take them to the promised land, the land that he had promised them. And so the first people who heard Genesis chapter one, the first people who would have been able to read Genesis chapter one were the Israelite people. And they were either enslaved in Egypt or they were wandering around in the wilderness just after leaving slavery. And what did their life look like when they were slaves? They literally built the empire that enslaved them. They helped make the roads that the Egyptian armies traveled on. They helped build

the monuments that declared Pharaoh's greatness. But most of all, they didn't do anything that grand. Most of all, what they did was they made bricks. You worked sun up to sundown. And if you're a slave, what's the only question in your life that matters? It's when your Egyptian overseer asked you, how many bricks did you make today? And in Genesis chapter 1, God has a message to his people, the Israelite people, and here's his message, I'm not Pharaoh. I'm different. Your life is not the life of a slave.

It's going to be different because I have a different rhythm for you to live because your value is not in what you do. Your value is not in how many bricks that you make because your days will not start when the sun rises, your days will start with rest. Because your value comes from what I say. And Genesis chapter one, what God said to his people was, I created you, I looked upon you, and before you'd ever done anything, before you'd ever made one brick, I said, not that you were good, but that you were very good, and that you were created in my image. So what God says is, I have a different rhythm for you to live as my people.

It doesn't start with work. It starts with rest. Why? Because to rest is to trust that what God has done is enough. To rest is to trust that what God has done is enough. Aren't you glad that thousands of years later, our lives don't look like that? aren't you glad that we don't make bricks for pharaoh aren't you glad that through all of our technological advances

through all of our social progression that our world's different aren't you glad that we don't go to our phone and check our email six times an hour on saturday in case we missed an email from our boss missing an opportunity to make one more brick. Aren't you glad that we don't go to social media and see how many likes we have to tell us how important that we are? Aren't you glad that we don't get our value from how many things we cross off our to-do list,

validating whether it was a good day or not? And if you haven't picked up on my sarcasm, just one more. Aren't you glad that our first question we ask a person we meet? Hey Susan, good to meet you. Hey, what do you do for a living? Where do you work? How many bricks do you make?

And if you don't believe me, just ask your children. My kids are great kids. They're both teenagers and they're in that stage of life where one of the questions we talk about is, what do you want to do as an adult? Like, what vocation do you want to have? And they went through this phase a couple of years ago, just them because I heard their friends say it as well, where they would answer that question,

what do you want to do with this? I want to be the next Jeff Bezos. Not like I want to start a company, I want to be the next Jeff Bezos. I want to be the next Elon Musk. Why? Because they make the most bricks. They're the most valuable people to walk the face of the earth. And yet there's a problem with this. It's exhausting, isn't it? because you'll never make enough. And here's the crazy thing. It's not Pharaoh that makes us do it. I do it to myself.

We do it to ourselves. Hey, do you want to take that promotion that takes you away from your family who's already well provided for just so you can get a better title and feel better about yourself? Yeah, yeah, yeah, let me do that. Do you want to sign little Johnny up for five days a week

one-on-one basketball lessons because we see a lot of potential in him, even though he's four and a half years old. Absolutely, let me sign him up. Do you want to put the pressure on yourself that your house look like it could be on HGTV at any point? Absolutely, let's do that as well. Do you want every meal to look like it came out of Pinterest?

Yes, let's do that as well. Do you want to start a side hustle, even though you don't need the money, just trying to prove that you have value to somebody you don't know? Yep, let's do that one as well. And yet Jesus says to us, I have a better way to live than this. And that better way is we're going to put a brick down and we're going to start fresh.

We're going to start our day with rest. Because to rest is to trust that what God has done is already enough. So I was working on this message last week and I was sitting at my desk in my office and it's just like a normal little desk. And I have my laptop in the middle. And then I have what I call my iPad next to me. I call it an iPad because it's not actually an iPad, it's actually just like a legal pad. I love a legal pad and writing things down. If you like that, throw it in the comments.

And here's what I do with this legal pad. Yeah, there's four of us who are real excited about this legal pad. Here's what I love about it is that I keep a to-do list, and I write down when I run into a problem because it helps me think. and it helps me remember. So I'm working on this message, and I got my laptop, and I've got my iPad next to it, and I'm just filling it up,

because just being honest, I wasn't real happy with where it was. And so I'm writing down all these places where I'm just feeling stumped, and I fill up the page, and I start to turn the page, and at that point, my mind has all these questions. And here's the questions that I have.

What if it's not good enough? What if it doesn't connect with people? What if you don't like it? What if you don't like me? You ever have those questions? And while those questions are rolling around in my head and I'm writing down all the reasons that I don't like it on this legal pad, I turn the page and I see a note.

But it's not in pen, which I was writing with, it's in pencil. And it's not my handwriting. It's my wife Katie's handwriting. And she had come into my office at some point, and she had flipped to a blank page, and she left me a note. I took a picture of this note. Here's what it says. It says, I love you desperately, and I'm so proud of you.

I couldn't breathe for a little bit, because I thought, I'm trying so hard. I'm trying so hard to win something that's already been freely given to me. And it makes me wonder, how many of us are trying so hard to win something that's already been freely given to us? Matthew chapter 3 has one of my favorite stories about Jesus. Here's what it says. It says as soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.

At that moment, heaven was opened and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove, alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, this is my son whom I love. With him I'm well pleased. One of three times that God audibly spoke, the father audibly spoke to God, the son, Jesus. But what makes this story so powerful to me is where it is in the gospel. It's in Matthew 3. It's the first story that we have is Jesus as an adult. And you have God the father saying to God, the son, you are my son whom I love. And I am well pleased. I delight in you before he had done anything. Why? Because God loved him. Not God loved him because, because, because God loved him. And if you were in Jesus Christ, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, the same is true for you

that God loves you. Not he loves you because he loves you. Which means this. God's to done list what he's done for us. God's to done list is more important than our to-do list. God's to-do list is more important than our to-do list. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, here's what God is done for you. here's what God has done for you before you ever get out of bed in the morning. God created you. He looked upon you before you'd done anything and said that you were very good. God created you. He saved you.

He went to the cross to pay a payment that you could not pay. God created you. God saved you. He healed you. He adopted you. He comforted you. He called you. He gifted you. He goes before you and he is with you. God's to-done list. What he's done for you is more important than your to-do list that you will do today, which means this. Maybe, just maybe, because of God's to-done list, we can put down our to-do list just for a minute and rest. trusting that what he is done is enough. Before we've done anything.

God says this, I have a different rhythm for your life. It's not a rhythm that starts with work. It's a rhythm that starts with rest. Why? Because I want you, my people, to know before you ever get out of bed in the morning, I've already done enough for you. His to-done list is more important than our to-do list.

But I want to be really clear today. This is not an anti-work message. It is not an anti-work message because God offers a new rhythm for our life if we are his children and it starts in the evening, but then it goes to morning. It starts with rest and then it goes to work. Rest is what prepares us to work. He created us for it. He's gifted us for it and he's called us to it.

It's not an anti-work message. Sometimes we think that rest and work are enemies that can't get along. No, no, no, no, no. They're meant to be together. It's just that when we go to work in the morning, we don't go to the work as people who are trying to earn someone's approval. We don't go to work trying to prove to ourselves that we have value. We go to work working from God's approval. So I have a friend, and I was telling him about this message, and he said, that's really great. He probably said it more heartfelt than that. He was like, that was really great. And he said, but I'm like super practical. I need something practical.

And honestly, I had a little bit of tension in that. And here's the tension. I'm going to give you something practical. Don't worry about that. Here's the tension, though, is that if I say here's step one, two, and three, I've removed the gift from you. Because the gift that we have sometimes is to wrestle with things, to wrestle with rest and what that looks like in our life and how we live out that different rhythm that God has called us to. So I'm going to give you something practical, but it's going to be a little fuzzy, because I want you to wrestle with that as you step into this new year. So what is rest? Rest is bigger and broader than what most of us think. Rest is whatever focuses us on the goodness of God. Day seven, it says that God rested.

the end of day six was he looked and he declared that everything was good. Day seven, he enjoyed the goodness of his creation. Rest is whatever focuses us on the goodness of God. So rest can be sleep. All new parents say amen, right? Rest can be sleep. Rest can be a worship song that focuses us on the goodness of God. Rest can be a good meal with people that we love. Rest can be spending time in God's word. Rest can be laughing with friends. Rest can be playing disc golf with buddies. Rest can be a walk in the outdoors being reminded of God's goodness. Rest can be sex with a spouse.

Suddenly, some of you are more interested in rest than you were three minutes ago. Baby, we've got to have some rest time. Rest can be prayer. Rest can be taking a camping trip with people that you love. Rest is whatever focuses us on the goodness of God. and God's called us to the rhythm to start with rest. So how do we do that? Three different rhythms that you see in the Bible

where God's people start with rest. Number one, they start with a daily rhythm. That every day we have that daily rhythm where we start with rest. Maybe for you, it's opening God's word before you go to bed. Maybe it's opening God's word when you wake up. Maybe it's sitting down at dinner

and having conversations of substance with your family. maybe rest is walking the dog which you already do but you're spending that time in prayer maybe single parent rest is the three minutes before you get out of bed because that's all you have reminding yourself of who god is and why you can put your trust in him that he's already done enough no matter how many things you cross off your to do list today knowing you won't get to all of them there's a daily rhythm of rest as followers of Christ. Not only that, but there's a weekly rhythm of rest. In the Old Testament, they called it the Sabbath, sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

It was just an extended period of time to enjoy the goodness of God, to have fun, to laugh, to rest. It's not a coincidence that we have church once a week on the first day of the week. Why? Because it's one of the easiest and best ways for us to establish the rhythm of the rest of of rest in our lives as we come to church and we're reminded of the goodness of God, both in our world around us, but also in our lives. And then we go to lunch with people we care about. Why? Because we have a daily rhythm of rest. We have a weekly rhythm of rest and we have a seasonal rhythm of rest. In the Old Testament, there's feast or festivals that happen every single year.

Why? Because it's seasons to rest and enjoy God's goodness. Because there was a season of work before it. Sometimes life is going to be busy. That's okay. Sometimes life is going to be a lot of work. That's okay as long as we start with rest. What? Putting our trust in the fact that God has already done enough for us. So I was sitting in my office yesterday and I was looking at the photo of my family in the car on our camping trip. And I noticed something from it. What I noticed was, the smiles on our faces. There's two different smiles in this photo. There's the smiles of the people in the front seat, and then there's the smiles of the people in the back seat. My smile was probably a little bit forced in this photo, and is a little bit forced because right before this, my wife,

after I just finished loading this car, cramming everything in, said, babe, relax, have fun. This is vacation. And I said, I am relaxing. Dang it. And then she said, smile for the photo. And that's what Those smiles in the backseat aren't forced, are they? No, those kids are having the time of their life. The smiles in the front seat are smiles of people who are on a trip. Smile of the backseater, smiles of people who are on vacation. There's a difference, isn't there? My smile says I'm trying real hard.

I'm trying to make sure that we didn't forget anything for the trip. I'm trying to make sure that we stay under budget on the trip. I'm trying to make sure that we stay under budget on the trip. I'm trying to make sure that we didn't forget. that I don't take the wrong turn and end up at the wrong destination. That's a smile of somebody who's trying real hard. My kid's smiles are different.

Those are not the smiles of somebody who's trying real hard. Those are some smiles of some people who are trusting real big. They're trusting that everything that they need for the trip has been packed for them. They're trusting that the price of the trip has been paid for them. And they're trusting

that they're going to be taken to the right destination. You see, here's a very destination. Here's the thing in 2023, we're all going to be going down the road, God willing, of 2023. The question we get to answer is, which smile is going to be on our face? A smile of somebody who's trying real hard, or the smile of somebody who's trusting real big, knowing that what God has done is already enough. You see what Jesus is saying when he says, come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest, is he's giving us an invitation, an invitation to a different rhythm of life,

a rhythm of life that does not start with work, but starts with rest, a rhythm of life that reminds us of who we are in God and what he's done for us. He's given us an invitation, not just to a fresh start this year, but to start fresh. And that sounds pretty good to me.

Which smile are we going to have in the car? Pray with me. Heavenly Father, thank you so much as we step out into 2023, or 2027, or we just step out into our Tuesday, that you are with us, that you are for us, and that you love us. As we continue in an attitude and spirit of prayer, I wonder how many of you watching at home are trying real hard. And you say, you know what, I'm ready for a different rhythm of life. I have good news. It's available through Jesus and trusting that he's already done

what's necessary. If you're ready to start fresh, type it in the comments. I'm ready to start fresh. I am too. Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that you offer us a different rhythm of life, that our value is not based upon what we do, but based upon what you've already done for us. Help us to trust, God, help me to trust that what you say about me is true. And that what you say about every person listening is true. Help us to start with rest. As we continue today, I wonder how many of you ended up watching this message because you know that you don't just need to start fresh. You need a fresh start in life. You've come to the place realizing whether it was 20, 22 or the years before, that life's not working out the way you'd hoped it to.

Well, here's the good news for you. Every single one of us has the opportunity to have a fresh start in Jesus Christ. Because the reality is every single one of us needs a fresh start in Jesus Christ. God's word says this, we have earned something through our own actions, but what we've earned is to be separated from a holy and a just and a loving God. But God in his goodness, God and his love looked upon us and said, I'm not okay with that. I don't want to be separated from them.

want to be in relationship with them. I want them to be a part of my family. And so God did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. He sent his son Jesus to live a perfect life, to pay for my sin and for yours on the cross. But after three days, God didn't leave him in the grave. He conquered death, the grave and hell. And he raised him to new life, offering me and you new life as well. The offer that God gives us for a fresh start, isn't it? It isn't just a clean page, it's a new life in Jesus Christ. Today, as you step out into a new year, if you say, you know what, I'm ready to trust God with my life. I'm ready to receive his grace, his forgiveness, his mercy.

I'm ready to turn for my sin. I'm ready to follow Jesus and put my hope, my trust in him. Type it in the comments. I'm ready to give my life to Jesus. Type that in there now. Pray out loud with me. Life Church Online, YouTube. pray out loud with me. Heavenly Father, I'm ready to trust you with my life because I know that I've

sinned, but I believe that you love me. So you sent Jesus to die for me and to be raised from the grave so that I could have new life. So I give you my life. Thank you for saving me. And it's in Jesus' name that all God's people said, amen. Why don't we worship? Let's worship big to celebrate.