Resetting Your Story

Series introduction

Review

1. Current series: “Reset: What Does it Mean to Follow Jesus?”
2. Last week: “Resetting Your Mind”
3. Initiated 30-day Bible Challenge focused on the book of Mark
4. @ Procedure:
   1. Sit in silence to refocus for about a minute
   2. Read through the Bible passage for the day – 5 minutes
   3. Ask yourself: What would I have seen, heard, felt, experienced if I were present – 2 minutes
   4. Write or reflect on: “What teaching moments did God want to share with me in this story?” – 1 minute
   5. Pray for God to reveal to you what he wants you to do differently/better in your life this week – 1 minute

@ Current topic intro

Today’s passage in our reading plan from Mark is Mark 5:1–20. We’re going to illustrate the plan by taking today’s topic from there and drawing another lesson from our Reset series.

Main message (after prayer)

Intro

1. @ Who are you? How do you define yourself? It’s human nature to categorize people, to put ourselves and others in a box.
   1. When meeting: What do you do? What box can I put you in?
   2. Thinking: What do you look like? How can I categorize you?
   3. What are your political views? Are you one of the good people or the bad ones?
   4. What religious category do you fit into?
2. Sometimes our stories determine how we categorize ourselves. Sometimes the way others categorize us influences our stories.
   1. We’ve been talking about being disciples of Jesus, and that’s all about stories.
      1. @ What is a disciple?
         1. More than a student: A student attends class, does homework, and is finished
         2. More than an apprentice: An apprentice receives hands-on training, then goes home for the day.
         3. Jesus’ disciples lived, traveled, ate, and hung out with Jesus 24/7.
   2. Does your story paint you as a disciple of Jesus, or does it paint a different picture?
      1. None of us has a story that, if fully told from beginning to end, would say, “This person has always been the ideal disciple of Jesus.”
      2. In fact, if we’re honest, our stories probably have parts that are quite the opposite.
   3. Today, we’re going to read about a man whose story took a dramatic turn after an encounter with Jesus.

The story

1. The background. Jesus has taken a boat across the Sea of Galilee, quite a large lake. Several of His disciples are fishermen by trade and quite comfortable handling boats on the lake. @ Mark 4:35-41
2. Now to the main story: @ Mark 5:1-5.
   1. Picture this scene. Imagine seeing a man as crazed and apparently violent as this man.
   2. In fact, notice that we’re told that Jesus stepped out of the boat, but nothing is said of the disciples or of the other boats that were traveling with them. Was everyone else too terrified to step out of the boat?
   3. Now, picture yourself in this man’s shoes. Except this guy had no shoes. Luke 8:27: “For a long time he had worn no clothes.”¹
      1. What was this guy’s story like? We know nothing about the events that led to his current circumstances, but we can guess that it must have been traumatic.
      2. How did he come to be demon-possessed? That’s what the text means when it says that he had an unclean spirit.
      3. Why had people tried to chain him up? What happened? We don’t know.
      4. What drove him to cry out and cut himself?
      5. How miserable must his life have been?
   4. Your story might not be as extreme as this man’s (or maybe it is). But your story can change.
3. @ Mark 5:6-7: Encounter with Jesus
   1. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to add a little imagination to this scene:
      1. This man sees Jesus. He lives in an area where the people aren’t Jewish and don’t really know about Jesus, yet something—perhaps the demons’ reaction to Jesus—prompts him to want to talk to Jesus.
      2. He runs toward Jesus and falls down before Him. Maybe he’s showing respect or worship. Or maybe the demons tripped him. Whatever the case, he tries to speak.
      3. But instead of his voice, the demons speak instead. They know Jesus’ divine power and they know that their allegiance is to Jesus’ enemy, Satan. And so, they plead with Jesus, but don’t miss an opportunity to lie about His character, falsely suggesting that Jesus might torment them.
   2. @ Have you had an encounter with Jesus? Maybe it was dramatic like this story. Maybe it was far less dramatic. But at any rate, resetting your story begins with an encounter with Jesus.
      1. My own story is far less dramatic, yet I had an encounter with Jesus that changed my story.
         1. In college, I met this girl. I said nothing to anyone, and I’m quite confident that no one, not even her, knew that I was interested. It took me a while to decide that I wanted to ask her for a date, and even longer to find the courage to ask. Just as I was about to bite the bullet, my roommate and I were talking and he casually mentioned that he was going on a date with this same girl. (By the way, they’re married now.)
         2. I was devastated. I didn’t blame my roommate; he had no way of knowing. I was upset that I had been so slow to act. The devastation lasted for days, and it really bothered me that I couldn’t just bounce back like normal.
         3. Finally, I decided to pick up my long-neglected Bible. I don’t remember what I read. But I remember that as I read, and later prayed, healing started to take place.
         4. I’ll tell the rest of the story later, but for now, let’s move on.
4. @ Mark 5:8, 9: Jesus was proactive
   1. Notice how Mark tells us the story a little out of order:
      1. He first tells us about the man with the demons and helps us to understand the situation
      2. Then, he reveals what Jesus was already doing, before the man could even ask for help.
         1. As you read Mark’s gospel, you will find this pattern repeated.
   2. Notice how Jesus was proactive. He initiated the effort to reset the demon-possessed man’s story
      1. @ Jesus wants to reset your story, too.
5. @ Mark 5:10-17: The townspeople don’t get it
   1. Notice how the demons caused a large financial loss in their attempt to oppose Jesus.
   2. This got people’s attention and they saw the man whose story Jesus had reset. They saw that he was now completely normal.
   3. They heard the story, then out of fear they begged Jesus to leave.
   4. @ When Jesus resets your story, other people won’t always understand.
      1. Sometimes they may think it’s just a phase.
      2. Sometimes they may think you’re foolish.
      3. Don’t let them drive a wedge between you and Jesus.
   5. Tendi’s story:
      1. After a series of events, Tendi came to understand that God was calling her to take a stand for Him. She realized that God wanted her to get baptized and to begin observing the Sabbath. This was the result of how God had been working in her life, changing her story and growing her.
      2. Tendi had a good job at a bank, but her job required her to work on Saturdays. So, she quit her job in faith, even though she didn’t have another job lined up.
      3. Tendi’s family, who didn’t share her convictions, couldn’t understand why she would quit her job just so she could observe the Sabbath. Her dad announced that there would be no financial support for her and cut off all contact.
      4. For a year, still unable to find a job that would allow her to keep the Sabbath, Tendi went through considerable challenges, but God always came through for her.
      5. After a year, Tendi and her family reconciled. Her dad told her that the only thing that would make sense is if she married someone who shared her faith.
      6. That was 10 years before Tendi and I met.
      7. After we were married and were in the process of moving from Alabama to Maryland, Tendi ended up with two job possibilities to choose from.
         1. One was a job at the embassy of Botswana, her country. Representing Botswana in America would give Tendi’s family great pride.
         2. The other option was a job working for the church.
         3. Tendi called her dad and asked for his advice. He said, “Work for your God.”
6. @ Mark 5:18-20: Share your story
   1. Notice that this man didn’t have advanced training in how to teach all of the doctrines in the Bible.
   2. Jesus message was: @ “Tell your friends what God has done for you.”
   3. And the man traveled throughout the whole ten-city region (Decapolis), telling how Jesus had reset his story.
   4. Some time later, Jesus returned. Notice how different his reception was the second time around: @ Mark 6:53-56. All because this man told what Jesus had done for him.
   5. Back to my story:
      1. Remember how I was devastated when I realized that my roommate had started to date someone who I had been interested in?
      2. As I told you, I was led to pick up my Bible and spend some time reading it and praying.
      3. Not only was I able to return to my baseline mental state, but I started to realize that I hadn’t been taking discipleship or my relationship with God seriously. I started to realize that God was wanting to lead me in a different direction.
      4. As Jesus began to reset my story, he also asked me to share what He had done for me. I was convicted to change my major to theology and to spend some time in overseas mission work. Those decisions have impacted the whole trajectory of my life since then. And all because Jesus reset my story.

Wrap up (after discussion groups)

Gospel and witnessing appeal

Other materials

Main points

Reset your story: The demon-possessed man was healed and told the people around him

• When Jesus changes your story, tell others
• When Jesus changes your story, other people won’t always get it
• When we tell others how Jesus changed our story, we pass the change on to others (Mark 6:53-56)

Discussion guide

Icebreaker questions

1. If you could completely reset one chapter of your life — not erase it, but rewrite how it shaped you — what would you want to change?
2. Can you think of a moment when an unexpected experience or person changed the direction of your story in a meaningful way?

Bible passages

Luke 19:1-10

1 [Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Ezekiel 36:26-27

26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Psalm 66:16

Come and hear, all you who fear God, / and I will tell what he has done for my soul.

1 Peter 2:9-10

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Discussion questions

1. What labels or experiences tend to define people today, and how hard is it to move beyond those labels?
2. When did your life take a meaningful new direction? What triggered that change?
3. How has Jesus reset your story? What changed afterward?
4. Why do you think people sometimes feel uncomfortable when someone’s life changes in a spiritual or moral way?
5. Have you ever experienced misunderstanding, skepticism, or even resistance from others because of a personal change you made? How did that affect you?
6. What makes sharing personal spiritual experiences difficult or intimidating?
7. Jesus told the healed man simply to tell others what God had done for him. Why might personal stories be more powerful than arguments or explanations when talking about faith or life change?

Application/reflection questions

1. If someone in your life were to see your story unfolding right now, what evidence of growth, change, or hope would they notice?
2. What part of your life or personal story might need a “reset” right now—an attitude, habit, relationship, or direction you sense needs change?
3. Is there someone you could encourage by sharing a piece of your own story?
4. How can you become more open to noticing where growth, healing, or transformation is already happening in your life or in the lives of people around you?