All right, so does everybody have a handout? They were on the back as we were coming in. If you don't have one of these yet, I'd encourage you to grab one of those. Today is our last lesson in this particular class on Reformed Foundations. What does it mean to live a God-centered life, a Reformational life, a Christian life that is following Christ through the tradition and understandings of the Protestant Reformation. And so you have on the top of your handout, you have sort of the review section, things that we've been discussing over these last 10 weeks together. We've talked about what it means to live a God-centered life, a life that is lived according to the scriptures, the word of God, a life that is lived, we walk by the grace of God. God, every day, gives us the opposite of what we deserve, His grace. that we live through faith, faith in the Son of God, united to Jesus by the Spirit of God. And then finally, we live with purpose. We live with intentionality. We live with the goal of magnifying and glorifying God, to enjoy His goodness, to reflect on His goodness, to proclaim His goodness to all we meet. And as we've gone through and unpacked that definition over the last two months or so, We've seen that in this way of thinking, in this way of reading and understanding Scripture, there are some big ideas that come out, some of the more prominent ideas in our branch of the Christian faith. And the first of these is what we call the sovereignty of God. The idea that God is ruling and controlling all things. All things in creation, all things in salvation, all things in history. Even the seemingly random things. Scripture says that he upholds the universe by the word of his power. The strong nuclear force that holds and binds some atomic particles together is God actively holding the world together. We talked about the Bible as one single unfolding story of God's saving promises. We call this covenant theology. We talked about how the church is always striving to bring its life and practice more and more into alignment with the word of God. The idea of being always reforming, not just being reformational, not just having come through the reformation, but continuing to seek continuous reformation in our lives. We talked about the difference between justification and sanctification. Justification is God declaring us righteous, accepting us because of what Jesus did once for all. And then sanctification is God renovating us, God making us righteous, little by little, bit by bit, day by day, until we enter glory. We also talked about how sanctification is more than just a behavior modification. When we are learning to repent, when we are learning to follow Jesus, yes, we need to change our behavior, but underneath our behavior, there are attitudes that goes all the way to the depth of our heart. And so we talked about how we can free our hearts from the idols that enslave us. And then we shifted gears a little bit and talked about the importance of being part of a visible church community, that every Christian needs membership in a visible church community in order to be discipled, in order to be accountable, And then we talked about worship. We talked about how we worship God the way he tells us to worship him. We talked about how we see that in the scriptures. We talked about why it makes sense. Just think about it. If God is an infinite, eternal being far above us, we are finite creatures, plus we have sin, how could we ever possibly know how to worship God the right way, in spirit and in truth, unless he told us. And the glory is he tells us in the Bible, this is how I want to be worshiped. And then the last time we were together, which was two weeks ago, because I was away last week, we talked about how God governs the church, how he oversees the church. And we made the point that it's really God who governs the church, not the pastor, not the elders. God is the ruler, but he rules through his word. And then he gives us pastors and elders to declare his word, to minister his word. So the pastors and elders are in power, it is ministerial. We minister the word, it is declarative. We tell you what God says. So those are the big ideas. Now today we're actually going to try to see how well we do, but we're going to try to put it all together. and say, how do we actually live this? How do we actually activate it? One of the major accusations that is sometimes given against Reformational churches is that we are too cerebral. We are too much living in our heads and we're so in love with our ideas that we never actually bring them down to earth. Have any of you ever heard that said about Reformed or Reformational churches? Yeah, the frozen chosen, right, right. And if we're honest, there is, I think, times, more than a few times, we are tempted because we like to think and we like ideas. And so it's very tempting to sort of just get so focused on that that we never actually land the plane. You know, you're flying, how many have ever been in an airplane? I mean, it's a lot of fun. You're like, man, look at the landscape. It's so great. You're flying up there. But if you never land the plane, you never actually touch down, right? And so we are sometimes accused, and we're tempted, if we're honest, to just stay up there in the realm of ideas and never land the plane. But today, what I want to try to do is show us how these ideas, these big ideas that we've been talking about, actually mix into regular everyday life. And so to do that, sort of the paradigm is I'm just using this idea of a day in the life. If you are seeking to live a God-centered life day by day, what does that look like from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep? Now again, I'm generalizing. I'm just basing it on my experience. This is what my days look like, at least in theory. There's going to be some variation in how you may implement these things. I want to say that up front. But generally, this is one way in which we can integrate these big ideas. And again, this is our last class on these subjects for now. So if you have comments or questions as we're going through, please just, you know. And I know it's hard for Presbyterians to put your hands above the level of the pew, but in Sunday school, at least, it's okay. So just, you know, put your hands in the air and get my attention, all right? You can't have a question yet, Ryan. We didn't even start. Okay. And just one more thing before we jump in. Why is this so important? The Bible talks about the importance of having right doctrine, right thinking, orthodoxy, the word is. The Bible also talks about the importance of living in a right way, orthopraxy. And it also talks about thinking and living with a right spirit, you might call it orthopathos. So the big Latin words, you don't have to remember those. But the idea is we really want to try to take these ideas and integrate them. And I want to say this, this is very important for people in reformed churches to hear. It does not matter how correct your doctrine is if it does not come out in your life. If you are, if you, if you profess to be reformed and you know, you know, you've read all of Calvin's Institutes, you've read all the works of Luther, and you're a jerk, there's something majorly dysfunctional in your Christian life. And so it really is important that we not only have right thinking, but that we have right living and that we have a right spirit. And so that goal today is to just show us how we can start to integrate these things into our lives. So, from the beginning, you wake up in the morning, right there on your handout, waking up. Right when your alarm goes off, or your Alexa is making that noise to try to wake you up, you guys know you can use your Alexa for an alarm clock? It works. As long as it doesn't lose its internet connection. Those moments when you first wake up, I don't feel particularly Christian in those moments. I don't know about you. But how should we start our day when we wake up? We ought to remember, as we wake up each day, what the psalmist says in Psalm 139, and I print it right there for you. We ought to remember, as Scripture says, your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you." Every day, every day as we wake up, we ought to remember that there is absolutely nothing, nothing that you are going to face that day, during the day, that was not part of God's plan for you from before the foundation of the world. The first idea that we talked about in one of our very first weeks together, the idea that God is ruling and controlling all things. It's not just the happy things, but the hard things. There is nothing that you are going to face today, this day, Sunday, December 20th, or any other day. that is not part of God's plan and has not been part of God's plan for your life from before the foundation of the world. And so we need to sort of load that idea into our minds right from the outset of our mornings. Again, do we all do this perfectly? Do we all remind ourselves this every day? No, but we need to. And it can be hard. And so, because it is hard to sort of center our minds and hearts on the Lord right from the beginning of the day, because it's very hard for us to do that, one thing that is very important, if you are at all able, if you are at all able in the mornings before you jump into your day, is to try to spend some time, some time in the Word and in prayer. Now again, what is this going to look like for you? It could look very different. depending on where you are in life, depending on your age, depending on your job, depending what time you gotta get to work. If you gotta get to work at 5 a.m. to start work at 5 a.m. and you're not particularly a morning person, it's probably gonna be pretty hard to get that extra time up in the morning. So maybe it's challenging, but there are ways even in that to make this happen. So if you have to go to work early, you can pray on the way to work. If you have to go to work early, you can get an audio Bible, just listen to a little bit. If you're privileged to be able to stay at home in the mornings to a little after 5 a.m., maybe you can get up, have some coffee, read the scriptures, pray. But however you fix it, however you arrange it, the point is just this. If you are traveling to a place you've never been before, You're going on vacation or you're going somewhere and you've never been there before. What's the first thing you do before you get in your car and pull out of your driveway? At some point before you get in the car and turn the key, what are you going to do? I hope you're going to look at a map, right? Or you're going to pull up your smartphone and get the address loaded, right? That's what most of us do, I hope. But every day is an unknown journey. You are casting off onto the seas of God's providence, and you know that God is good, but we need to look at the map every day before we cast off the ropes and set sail onto the day that God has before us. And the way we do that is we get ourselves in the presence of God. We want to get pointed in the right direction. And so if you're at all able in the morning, strongly encourage you to spend at least a little bit of time hearing God speak to you in Scripture, and speaking to him in prayer. And again, it's not a one-size-fits-all approach. Some of us maybe can sit down and read a whole chapter of scripture and have a cup of coffee and spend a half hour in prayer, maybe. Maybe you don't have that much time, but the bottom line is like five minutes consistently, regularly, is better than setting unrealistic goals that you can't meet. In fact, this is actually a pretty good word to just put before you in general. As we come to the beginning of a new year, many of us, maybe not all, but many people like to try, you know, this is the year I'm going to have a plan to read the scripture and pray. And that's wonderful. Wonderful. But there are times, maybe it's been you, or maybe you've known somebody where you set out with such high ambitions, right? I am going to read five chapters of the Bible every morning, and I'm going to get through the Bible two or three times in the year. And you do it for like three or four days, right? And then life happens, and you get knocked off schedule, and then you're so discouraged because you're behind that what happens a lot of times? You just drop, and you sort of just spiral into randomness. It's much better, especially with this sort of practice of getting yourself in God's presence every morning, to pick something that is sustainable and that you can be consistent at than to pick something that is maybe really awesome, but realistically, you can't do it. Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The bottom line, Practically speaking, you want to try to put yourself in God's presence. Orient yourself in a God-centered direction every morning. And for myself, again, I don't know, some of you are probably morning people. Any of you weirdos out there morning people? Yeah, of course. I'm more of a night person than a morning person, but I still am committed to doing this in the mornings. And so one of the things that I've learned over the years, and maybe it'll help some of you who are not morning people, is pray out loud. Or if you're reading the Bible, read it out loud. I mean, don't shout it, especially if the rest of your family is asleep, but reading out loud, praying out loud actually can help your mind focus, especially if you're dealing with sort of that morning fog. It's just a practical tip. Any thoughts or comments or even maybe any other tips on this in terms of like what you do in the morning to try to help get yourself centered on the Lord? Anybody have anything they'd like to share? Go ahead, Ryan. just for the morning, but fostering a heart of thanksgiving for whatever comes about. So waking up, there's numerous, I am a morning person, but I don't wake up happy every day. I have trouble believing that. But having a heart of thanksgiving is something I try to foster myself. Yeah. And we're going to come back to that on the second page. But yeah, what Ryan was saying is not just trying to put yourself in a God-centered direction, but sort of thanking God in advance and cultivating a habit of thankfulness. Amen. We're going to come back to that as well. All right, so after you get awake, and after you've gotten yourself kind of dressed, hopefully centered on the Lord, you've got your family going, if you've got a family, you're sort of all up and around, kids have eaten, you've eaten, if you eat breakfast, now you've got to go to your work. And all of us have some sort of work that's set before us day by day, unless you're on vacation. But whether you're going to an office or whether you work at home, if you're a homemaker, or whether you're a student, you're going to school or you got to sit down at your kitchen table and do your homeschool, all of that is our work, whatever that looks like. And what should be our attitude toward our work? When we go to work, we need to remember that work is not just about us. Remember, we're talking about living a God-centered life. So if God is at the center of everything, brothers and sisters, then God is at the center of our work. And this is very important. Look at what the scriptures say. And I give you a couple of verses there on your handout. Paul says in Colossians, he's not just speaking to the pastors, he is speaking to all the Christians. And he says, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. And then in Galatians, he says, the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. One of the things that a God-centered life should do for our work, I mean, there are whole books written about how the centrality of God and the sovereignty of God should affect how we approach our work. We can't go into all that this morning, but one of the things that's very clear is that we ought to be diligent in our work. It's not just pastors who serve God at work. Everybody serves God when they go to work. Even the most ordinary work, Think of like the most tedious work you ever did. There was a time when I was a younger man, I was cleaning, doing some cleaning work for my grandfather's business, you know, cleaning bathrooms. It's just pretty menial work, right? But even the most menial work, changing diapers, cleaning bathrooms, anything like that, filing papers in an office, all of it is important Not necessarily because it's fun, but because of the person for whom you're doing it. A great example that really helped cement this for me, I read in a book years ago, this person was, the writer, I think it was J.I. Packer, was talking about the Second World War. And he was talking about how during the Blitz, when London was being bombed by the Nazi bombers, Churchill and his cabinet, they were all in these bunkers underground. And he said, of course, when you think about, Packer said, of course, when you think about the work that was being done in that bunker, well, of course, you think, well, the prime minister and his ally and his cabinet secretaries and the soldiers, and they're all doing important work. But then he says, but also the janitor and also the secretaries. And even though their work, if you just looked at it, sweeping floors, cleaning bathrooms, typing papers, even though that might not look important, The point is they were doing it for an important person. They were doing it for an important cause. And so that elevated and dignified their work, even though it was so-called ordinary. And brothers and sisters, the reality is that all of our work is like that all the time. Paul says, you are serving the Lord Christ. So if you're a homeschooled child, I'm looking this way because I know some of you are, And your mom or your dad gives you an assignment, and you're just like, meh. This is not my favorite thing. You're doing it for Jesus. And even if it's not your favorite subject, do it for Jesus. Do a good job. Or husbands and wives, you're going to work, whether you're working at home or working in an office, and you're like, oh. Oh, good. I get to fill out the special report. Or, oh, good. I got to clean up this mess. Or, I don't love this. But I love the Lord. I'm doing it for Him. And so I'm going to do a good job. Everything we do, we do for the Lord. If we believe that God is the center of the universe, then it ought to affect our work. And we're going to come back in just a couple minutes to the sort of attitudes we ought to have. But I'm trying to give a sort of basic orientation here, that our work should be God-centered. Brothers and sisters, our work is also centered on serving other people. Bible says, Christ died for all that those who live might not live for themselves, but for him. What did Jesus say? The greatest commandment is to love God and to love your neighbor. And you realize that doing a good job in your work, whatever your work is, is a way of serving your neighbor. I think especially we need to remind our young people of these things because it can seem when you're a student, whether it's elementary, high school, or college, well, I'm not really in life yet. I'm just studying. No. The reason you study well when you're in your youth is so that you can be a more competent, capable adult. The better you do in your school, the better you will be as a neighbor in the future, to your coworkers, to your neighbors. If you're in sales, for example, I remember Pastor Patton shared this a couple months ago. It was such a good example that he had read it somewhere, but he shared it online, talking about this man who was a salesman, and then he got converted. and became a Christian, and it changed the way he thought about his work. And he said, I don't just sell cars. I help people buy cars. Do you see the shift? Instead of being sort of a self-centered, well, I'm in this for me. I want to move as much merchandise as I can. He said, well, I still want to move merchandise. It's still my job. But I'm realizing that my job is also about serving God and neighbor. And so I want actually to help people that come through my door help them buy the car. that will be best for them. Same if you were in any kind of work. If you're a teacher, why should you work hard to teach well? Because it's the way you love your neighbor. If you're a shoemaker, why should you make good shoes? Because good shoes are better for people than bad shoes. Do you see the point? All of life All of what we call culture, all aspects of it, whether it's law, medicine, manufacturing, teaching, politics, all of it, all of it, is given to us to fulfill the two great commandments, to know and love God, to know and love one another. Another way of saying this is that all of culture exists to facilitate relationships between God and between one another. And so everything we do needs to be done with diligence and service, not selfishness. And so again, practical tip right there at the bottom of the first page. When you're doing something you don't like to do, how many of you have any of that in your life, in your work? Again, it's a Presbyterian, but we're like, can we put our hands up? Yes, we all have this. We all have this. You say to yourself, I don't like this task, but I love the Lord for whom I'm doing it, and therefore I'm gonna do as good of a job as I can. And yeah, any thoughts on that? Go ahead, Dan. Right. Yeah. Yep. Right. Yeah, yeah, so Dan, for those of you who are listening downstairs or listening at home, Dan was just reflecting on how I've encountered the same thing as a younger man, where there is sometimes an idea floating around Christian churches that you're not really serving God with your work unless you're in vocational ministry or in missions. And I've known people who have actually felt guilty about this. I've known college students, and they're on the cusp of graduation, or they're a couple years from graduation, but they're feeling guilt because they're really on fire for the Lord, but they're not majoring in Bible. They're not planning to go to seminary. And they say, well, am I disobeying God because I'm not serving Him with my gifts? This is why this doctrine is so important. You say, well, serve the Lord in the career you have by doing excellent work, by doing it in a way that magnifies Him. and you can serve the Lord in your work. All of our work is God-centered. Yes, Linda, go ahead. Yeah, you're exactly right. In fact, in terms of opportunity, so for those downstairs, Linda said, sometimes the attitude is, well, if you're not in vocational ministry, you're sort of a second-class Christian. And yeah, we really need to push back against that, because especially when it comes to evangelistic opportunities, do you realize that those of you who go out into non-church, non-vocational ministry often have a much riper mission field than those of us who work vocationally in ministry? Think about it. If you're working vocationally in ministry, you're a pastor or you're doing that full-time, most of the people that you're working with are already Christians. Most of them. Not all, but most of them. And so the opportunities for a full-time pastor to actually have deep relationships professionally and personally with non-Christians is somewhat limited. But when we go out and work in a non-ministry workplace, we are surrounded. We are surrounded with unbelieving friends and co-workers. And because we work with them day by day, because we're having all this shared experience, there's all sorts of opportunity. to really shine for Christ in a way that sometimes pastors don't get. So really, I would encourage you, I'll call on you guys both, but just don't shortchange that. You are not a second-class citizen just because you're not working in vocational ministry. In some areas, your opportunities are greater. Okay, Dan and then Ryan. Go ahead, Dan. Should our primary focus be our job? Like, I'm a teacher. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, so Dan's question is about, you know, if you're a Christian at work, what should your focus be at work? When you're at work, you need to focus on your work. You don't steal from your employer in the name of Jesus. Right? You do excellent work, let your light shine, and then have those sidebar conversations as you have opportunity. But don't steal from your employer. Ryan, you were going to say something. Yeah, so I grew up very much in that framework of a second-class citizen if you're not a vocational person. Right, right. So Ryan was pointing out to us that in the Greek text of the Great Commission, But what's commonly translated in most of our English Bibles is, go and make disciples. Really, the grammatical form there is, it's called a participle. As you are going or in the process of going, while you are going, make disciples. And so there's a little bit of a wider context. And we even see that, regardless of whether you can read Greek or not, you see this in Acts chapter 8, when the Christians that are scattered because of the persecution, it's as they are scattered, they are sharing the word. And we talked about this a little bit last summer with some of our classes, that one of the things that really spread Christianity in the early centuries, talking like before Constancy, when they couldn't have church buildings, they couldn't invite people to a dedicated facility, yet Christianity exploded during those centuries. It was because people were talking to their coworkers, talking to their neighbors. They weren't shortchanging their work, but they were simply shining in all the regular spheres of life. Monday through Saturday, not just on Sunday. And it really, the Lord really blessed that. So, yeah, tremendous. Any other thoughts on this before we flip over? Yes, go ahead. Yeah. So for those downstairs, one of the comment was, one of the challenges that we're facing, one of the ways that we're not doing a good enough job as Christians is by consciously cultivating a Christian attitude in all these spheres. Right, and that we don't want to abandon any part of the created order and say, well, we can't go there as Christians. There are areas where you have to be very careful, of course. And there are certain spheres, certain vocations that are very dangerous spiritually and that requires a lot of training and a lot of accountability. But we don't want to abandon the field in any area. All right, let's flip over to this. Oh, sorry, go ahead, Linda. Go ahead. Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, doing good work. I mean, I can't give you a citation on this, but what I've heard more than once over the years is that when Martin Luther was starting the Reformation in Germany, people were asking him, like, the guy says, okay, I'm a shoemaker. How do I honor Jesus with my shoemaking? And Luther said, look, make good shoes, because good shoes are good, right? And just the existence of good shoes is an opportunity to thank God. I mean, how many of you ever had bad shoes? Like, you know what he's talking about, right? And so, yes, the work itself has value. All right, let's flip over to the second page. I'm going to grab my water while you're all flipping over. Right there at the top of the second page, so, in our sort of our imaginary day in the life, we've woken up, We've gone to work, hopefully with the right attitude and the right spirit. But now, as we're just going about our day, throughout the day, now, depending on your context, whether you're a student, whether you're working in an office, whether you're working in a school, whether you're working at home, the location is gonna look different. But what should be the sort of attitude, what should be the sort of character, what should be the sort of spirit that we should be seeking to cultivate throughout the day. A couple passages there from the Scriptures to set our parameters. Philippians 4, 4-6, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And then from 1 Thessalonians, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. And from Colossians, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. So the first one there, the first sort of character trait that we see in these passages is the one that Ryan mentioned, cheerfulness. As we go about our days, we ought to seek, as much as we're able, to be cheerful. Now again, I know dispositionally, in terms of our temperament, some of us are just more naturally cheerful than others. I am not a particularly naturally cheerful person. One time we asked our kids, what would you say dad's basic attitude is? And they're like, well, somewhere between grim and joyful. It's true. That's sort of like where I am dispositionally, just by my wiring, I guess. But even so, so even if you're not sort of a naturally like just exploding smiley sort of person, all of us as believers are people who believe that we have a very happy ending coming. the happiest ending imaginable, happier than the best happy ending of every story you've ever read. And so remembering that ending, remembering that we are destined for a new creation, we have to make a conscious decision. When we were living overseas, a friend of mine and I were emailing back and forth, he was here in the States, about this idea of joy. And like myself, he's not a naturally joyful person, but he said to me once in an email, he said, joy is the conscious decision. to live each day in light of the truth that God is good and that he has good. And so it's not just a matter of my emotional disposition, but it also is a conscious decision that I cultivate the act of, you know, like putting it on the mirror of my life or, you know, the heads-up display of my heart. God is good. God has good plans. I am going to consciously remember that. I am going to consciously try to live in light of that. And again, whether you're naturally cheerful or not, keeping that before your heart will nudge you at least in the right direction. So cheerfulness is something that we should cultivate. We believe in the good news. It should make our hearts glad, at least a little bit. The next attribute is reasonableness. Paul says, let your reasonableness be known to everybody. This is really important too, brothers and sisters. I mean, we believe that God is in control. We believe that God is sovereign over all things. If God is sovereign over all things, if all people are made in the image of God, then all people are worthy of dignity and respect. It doesn't mean you have to agree with them, but it does mean you should be respectful. You should be a reasonable person. You should not be known as a hothead if you are committed to the Christian faith. The gospel gives us the humility and the security to be reasonable people even when we disagree. The gospel empowers us to be people who can disagree without being disagreeable. And so we should seek to cultivate a reasonableness in our manner of speaking, the way we work. You should not be the hard case in your office. You should not be the person who's the most difficult to work with, that nobody wants to knock on your door because you just explode or you're unpredictable. No. Be reasonable. Third thing is that we should be prayerful. Paul says, in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Now, how do you pray without ceasing if you're supposed to be at work? How do you do that? Anybody have any thoughts they want to share? When you're supposed to be doing your homework, how do you pray without ceasing? When you're taking care of your children, how do you pray without ceasing? When you're in the office, how do you pray without ceasing? Any thoughts? Todd. And he just talked about different points where you're almost like checking in. So like, for me, it could be I go, and I think he might give you this example. You go make copies. So you're standing there at the counter. That's the time where you can check in. Or for me, I have a long walk from my office to the elementary lane. So that could be a long time to check in. Yeah, yeah, right. Right. Right. Yeah, yeah, that's a good example. Excellent. At least in my experience, yeah, sometimes you do better at that than other times. Yeah, but I think that really is the basic idea. Todd said that, he read this in a book, this idea of just checking in with God periodically throughout the day. I really think that's the core idea. That as you're waiting for your computer to boot up, or as you're getting your keys out of your pocket to unlock the door, just taking those sort of those down moments where you're not stealing time from your employer or anything like that, but just the down moments that come in the pattern of our lives, and just checking in with the Lord. If you're going into a hard meeting, or you're going to meet a co-worker who is not reasonable, as you're walking to where they are, you know, Lord, give me wisdom, give me grace, help me not to respond the way they're going to respond. I often, oftentimes, as I'm going into a meeting, maybe even as somebody is coming in to meet me, or as they're sharing something, I'm listening, but I'm also saying, Lord, give me wisdom. Help me to respond wisely. I remember hearing a story about a man who, you know, every day when he got home from work, between where he parked his car and the back door of his house when he walked in, he was praying, Lord, give me patience, give me grace so that I am gracious and patient with my family. Or on the commute to and from work, you know, these are times we can check in. You're on your lunch break, not just thanking God for your food, but as you're eating, sort of just silently speaking to the Lord, processing what you're experiencing. Go ahead, Jeannie. That's the next point right there in the second column. Thankfulness. Just cultivating a habit of thankfulness. You know, when you're eating a piece of fruit and it's crisp and it's sweet, praise God. Thank you, Lord, for this. This is delicious. Or when something good happens, cultivating the habit of just saying, oh, praise God. That's really great. I'm glad to hear that. And being thankful. Thank you, Lord. I did not grow up doing this myself, but it was in my semi, you know, late 20s, early 30s, that I really made a conscious effort that I'm going to try to start cultivating that sort of thankfulness. And honestly, when you first start, it sounds a little weird, it sounds a little forced, because you haven't done it before, right? Every new habit, every new practice feels that way at first. But as you make a commitment to it, it becomes more natural, and then it starts happening automatically, almost. You enjoy something good, you're like, oh, praise God. Wait, I just said that. I didn't even have to make myself say it. I just did it. You cultivate that habit of thankfulness. Yes. Very good. Thank you, Jeannie. That's a good example. Another one is watchfulness. Paul says, make the best use of the time. Again, remember, we are committed to the reality that God is sovereign. That means every interaction you have every day. is part of God's plan. And so we should always be just sort of, you know, on one track we're experiencing life, but there should be another track where we're asking like, okay, what is the Lord doing bringing this into my life today? Like, what am I supposed to learn from this? We're going to come back to that in just a moment because it's especially important when you face unexpected or disappointing circumstances. The last one here that he mentions in these passages is graciousness. Again, learning to speak and treat others the way Christ treats you. What is grace? Grace is God giving us the opposite of what we deserve. God does not treat us the way we treat him. God treats us far better than we treat him. And so when you're interacting with people, even if they are being unreasonable, don't go there. Be reasonable. Even if they're being angry, don't be angry. Be calm. Treat people the way God in Christ has treated you, remembering that God is bringing these interactions into your life intentionally. Now, let's go on to the next section here. What do we do when things get really hard? Things are really frustrating? You go to turn on your car, and the car won't start. We came back from our trip this past Tuesday. Tuesday night, been a long drive. Pull the van in the driveway, we unload, and I say, okay, my other car was parked in the garage, and it doesn't usually stay in the garage, so I need to move the other car out so I can put the van in. And we had to go pick something up. Something was waiting to be picked up. And guess what? The other car, the one in the garage, wouldn't start. Oh good. Oh, good. What do you do? Well, you get frustrated, you get a little pouty, but eventually you tell yourself, and finally the Lord did enable me to get to this point, like, okay, all right, Lord, this was not an accident. You had a purpose here. What do you want me to learn? It doesn't just happen to me once, it happens to all of us lots of times. Things don't go the way you want. Your car won't start, or an appliance breaks, or a child gets injured, or worse, you get unexpected really bad news. You lose your job, you have to move, somebody you know and love dies unexpectedly. All of these things, these unexpected things, they get thrown at us in the plan of God. What do we say? Again, this is where having a big view of God is so helpful. The world is not flying off its hinges. God is in control. He has planned this day from the beginning of the world, from before the foundation of the world. And Jesus promises us in Matthew 10 that all the hairs of our head are numbered. God is in control even at the micro level. And of course, that great promise from Romans 8, my wife's favorite verse in the Bible, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. It doesn't say all things work together for comfort. It doesn't say all things work together in a way that is easy. It does not say that. It says that all things work together for good. And so when we are just sideswiped by life, Remember, and we can say to the Lord something like this, okay, this is really surprising to me, but it wasn't a surprise to you. I am in pain right now, I am not happy with what you're doing, but I know that you are good, so what do you want me to learn, and how am I supposed to grow through this? Now, of all the things we've said today, this is the one that is the easiest to say and the hardest to do. but it is a consequence of knowing that God is sovereign, that God is the Lord. Okay, on these two pieces, now we are getting, we have about 10 minutes left, but on the top of the second page, how we're to go about our day, how we are to face the unexpected. Any thoughts or comments on this? Go ahead, Linda. It does take time with the unexpected, depending on how big the unexpected actually is, which is really worrying. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, so for those listening downstairs, Linda was just sharing that sometimes it takes a lot of time to get back to the right place. I agree with that, and we need to be patient, even with ourselves. But also, this is where some of those other disciplines, sort of that daily grounding really kicks in. I think I've shared this before. I have some old friends of ours, and the husband died very suddenly, unexpectedly, wasn't sick, and it was really devastating to the family. And it took some time, but they recovered much more quickly than they might have because that family, their habit was to be in the word, to be in prayer, day by day reminding themselves that God is good, God is God, nothing is really a surprise to God. And so again, there was the initial shock when my friend died very unexpectedly. But within 48 hours, when I was speaking to his wife, I said, how are you doing under the circumstances? And she said, you know, surprisingly well. Because brick by brick, you know, day by day, they had laid, they had built that wall of spiritual strength by the power of the Spirit through word and prayer. It was like laying a brick, brick by brick, row by row. And when the flood hit, they still got wet. And it still was a shock, but the wall didn't break. And so yes, it takes time at all. So that's why it's important not to wait until you're in crisis to try to get serious about your spirituality. It's the day by day really is the reinforcing. Go ahead, Jeannie. That's right. Yes, exactly. Jeanne was saying if we cultivate a heavenly-mindedness, reminding ourselves of our true home, then when we make it a habit to think that way, then when the hard times hit, our mind will remember. It will automatically go there. It's the same reason athletes train. You don't decide to run a marathon on race day. You train. You train for weeks and hours. And in sports, you don't wait till game day to put a helmet on for the first time. You just don't do that. You train. You train your muscles. You train your body. You train your mind so that when the test comes, you're ready as much as you can. So it's the same with our lives. And so this idea of the sovereignty of God, the bigness of God, that God is controlling all things, You don't leave that on the shelf until life gets hard. You bring it into your life day by day, consciously, so that when life is hard, reflex. Spiritual muscle memory, you remember. And it really does help. Okay, we don't have a lot of time left, just a couple minutes, but I want to at least briefly survey the rest of what I've got here. We can read it more at home. So you go throughout your day, you come home from work, and what do you do after work? Not everybody is blessed to have a lot of free time, but many Christians, especially Western Christians, especially here in the U.S., Canada, where we're very prosperous by God's gift, many of us have leisure time. How should we use our leisure time? There are three verses here that I think set some fences. First of all, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So again, still God-centeredness. You're not off the grid in terms of your recreations. Secondly, everything created by God is good. Nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. So it is not a sin to enjoy good gifts, including recreations. But thirdly, do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So although we can enjoy good things, we must not make them into God's substitutes. And those really set the parameters. See, the temptation is, especially if you've got a very challenging job, maybe your studies are really hard, maybe your kids are just really challenging, maybe your coworkers are really tough, The temptation is when you get home from work to think, OK, now it's me time. And I'm just going to do what I want to do. And I'm just going to basically give the rest of my waking hours over to recreations, entertainments, whatever. It's not wrong to enjoy entertainment. It's not wrong to enjoy food and drink in moderation. But it is wrong to sort of check out of the God-centered life during those times. There's a really interesting quote from the Screwtape Letters. I'll let you read that on your own. What we ought to be doing when we're enjoying our recreations or enjoying food and drink is we need to, again, continue to remember that even this is to be done for God's glory, with thankfulness, with enjoying the good thing, but not letting it become too important. And what are the danger signs when a recreation or an avocation, something that's not your job, what are the danger signs when something like that is becoming too important? And this could be anything, brothers and sisters. You really love reading literature, and so when you get time alone, it's like you and Tolstoy, or you and Dostoevsky. That could be your recreation. Maybe that's not for many of you, but it could be, right? Or maybe it's video games, or maybe it's watching sports, or maybe, take your pick. Maybe it's reading political news, or whatever, whatever it is. How do you know if it's becoming too important? Well, there are some things, there are some questions you ask. Do my recreations actually, are they helping me to love God and others? Or are they interfering with those relationships? Are they creating conflict? Are they disrupting my relationships or diverting me from my responsibilities? Then they're probably too important. And one of the, again, you can look for triggers. So if you come home and say, you know, like, I really am just, I'm really looking forward to like sitting down with my book or sitting down and just catching up on the news or sitting down and playing Minecraft for an hour or whatever. And what do you do when life interferes? Something comes up, and I mean, nobody's really happy when life interferes with our plans, but do you explode? Like, are you unreasonably emotional? That could be a sign that that thing was too important or it's becoming too important. Or you're looking forward to watching the game, like, you know, it's the game. And then something comes up and you have to go, are you like, are you unreasonably been out of shape? It's okay to be a little disappointed, but if it's like, if it's really triggering you, then you got to ask yourself, like, is this becoming too important? Or is it possible that like our recreation start pulling us away from our responsibilities? You know, you get home and you're like, you know, I haven't actually had any time to pray or read scripture today. I'll do that after I Minecraft. I'll do that after the game. Right? Or, you know, again, a big temptation in our culture is so many sports happen on Sunday. It's like, well, you know, today I won't go to church because it's the game. I've got to go to my team. Just, these are just a couple examples. But again, if our recreations are pulling us away from our responsibilities, or if they are disrupting our relationships, then maybe they're becoming too important. So just again, think about it. Last thing that I want to say, and we're almost out of time, we are almost out of time. Before you turn out the lights, It's really good, especially if you have a family, to spend at least a little bit of time praying, reflecting, reading, and singing together. In the Reformation tradition, we call this family worship. Some families do it in the mornings, some do it in the evenings. But my point here is that it doesn't have to be complicated, but you should do it. Again, it's just a way of closing the day where you began. And in our family, we've done various things over the years, but we always try to include these four elements. Some portion of Scripture, some reflection or comments on that Scripture, a time of prayer, and some little bit of singing. Right now, what we're doing in our family is, started over the summer, each of our kids during the summer had to read a chapter of the Bible. Any chapter they want, they could pick the book. And then when it came time for family worship in the evening, we would ask them, okay, what chapter did you read? And like, what was just one thing that stuck out to you? Just one thing. And we'd all go around the room and we'd share, like, this is a chapter I read, this is what stuck out to me. And then, after that, we would say, okay, it's time to pray. What are three things we can pray for today? We didn't have to have a huge list, it was just, let's pick three. And then we'd take turns praying. If it was Monday, it might be my oldest son's turn. If it was Friday, my daughter's turn to pray. And then we'd say, whoever's turn it was to pray then got to pick a hymn, and we would sing one verse. That's not the only way to do it, brothers and sisters. But the point is, again, think of something that's sustainable, also age-appropriate, right? What we're doing now, we couldn't have done when our kids were toddlers. My kids are smart, but they weren't reading at age two. So again, age-appropriate in terms of time and content, but cultivating that habit of, again, ending the day by centering on the Lord, so important. And if you're, If you're married, I really encourage you, before you go to sleep, before you turn out the light, husbands and wives, to pray together, at least for a few minutes. Again, it doesn't have to be extensive. One size doesn't fit all. But again, just so important to begin the day centered on the Lord, to close the day centered on the Lord. Okay, we are basically out of time, but are there any one or two comments or questions? Anybody have anything they want to add or ask? Go ahead, Laurie. It's been a while since my kids were really young. I was a little more okay with telling them you have to pray. Like, this is part of what we do as Christians. You know, and again, I don't always, do I always feel like praying? Not always. But like, sometimes, that's actually the time when it's most important to pray, when I don't feel like it. And again, if it's been a hard day, it might not be as much time praying. Might just be one or two. Again, we try to, so with your child that maybe is struggling to get in, to want to pray, say, You don't have to do ten things today, but is there, like, one thing you can thank Jesus for tonight before you go to bed? Or, like, maybe one thing that you want to talk to Him about or ask Him to help you with? You know, starting small and building up. That would be my encouragement. But also to tell them, well, you might be too tired, but do you need to go to bed earlier so that you have time to pray? You know, it's like anything with my younger kids. There was always carrot and stick, right? You know, like, well, I'm too tired. Maybe we stayed up too late. Maybe we shouldn't watch that movie next time. No, no, no, no, we should. Maybe we're not as tired. You know, it's like when my kids say, when they were younger, very young, like, I don't want to eat the rest of my food. We've got this great dessert coming, but you know, if you're too full, that's okay. You don't, no, I want the dessert. Well, maybe you still have room. So again, I'm not being nasty, always being gracious and patient, right? But yeah, using a little bit of carrot and stick and just encouraging them, like, there are lots of things in life we have to do that we don't always want to. But if they're important, my boys are probably so tired of me saying this, but I always say, like, everything in life that's worth doing is hard. There's almost nothing in life that is worth doing that is easy. And prayer is especially like that. So that's a great question. Thank you, Laurie. Brothers and sisters, we are going to have to conclude now with prayer, but if there's other questions or comments, we can chat afterwards or always feel free to email me. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this time that we've had over the last 11 weeks to reflect on what it means to live a God-centered life. Father, we have not had time to explore any of these things to the depth to which they can be explored and to which they have been explored by very competent writers and thinkers. But we pray that the bits that we have had, the time that we've had, that it will at least get us all started in thinking and living and in being the type of people that truly live God-centered, Reformational lives. Not for our glory, but to magnify, to celebrate, and to enjoy the goodness of who you are in Christ. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, next week, we...