Well, Luke chapter 4, after I jotted my notes down this week, then I came back and reviewed them again, I thought to myself, this is more of a Sunday morning, this is more of a Sunday school lesson. So I know we're at midweek Bible study, and typically on a Bible study, you're seeing lots of verses, you're turning pages, studying the Bible. So it won't quite be that tonight. We're not going to see a whole lot of verses. What I'm going to teach tonight is very topical. And when we see these, we're going to look at three different passages. When you see the passages, you may even determine ahead of time where I'm going with it, and that's fine. But I do want to be a help to you tonight. And you may already know it. You may already be practicing it. But nonetheless, it's good to review, good to hear things again and again. That's really all preaching is. It's repetition of the same things, maybe hitting it from a different angle now and then. It's dangerous for any preacher to say, well, I hesitate preaching this because I preached it before. Or I hesitate preaching this because maybe my people want something new. Well, there's nothing new. That's a dangerous place to be to start thinking you gotta come up with something new. How many preachers went off looking for something new and ended up in heresy? Ended up in false doctrine because they felt pressured to create something new. No, just stick to the plain meaning of the Word of God. Amen. And so it's going to be like a Sunday school lesson. I hope you don't mind. Let's go ahead and get started. Luke chapter 4. And let me find my place here now. We're going to look at verse 15. Luke 4. We'll start in verse 14. When we get to verse 16, that's the verse I want you to see. But verse 14 says, And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, hometown, right? And notice this phrase, this next four words, as his custom was. He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. So when Jesus went back to his hometown, the Bible says, as his custom was, he went to the synagogue and stood up to read. And then turn over to 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 40. The Bible says, let all things be done how? Decently and in order. Decently and in order, all things. And then finally, 1 Samuel, and this is where you can leave your Bibles here once we get there, because this is the main text. 1 Samuel chapter 7. 1 Samuel chapter 7. We'll read verse 15 and 16 of 1 Samuel chapter 7. We'll read 15, 16 and 17. So verse 15, And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. Now watch what it says here. And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, to Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Ramah, for there was his house." That's where he was from, that's where his home base was, Ramah. Or we, a lot of Americans would say Ramah, or Ramah. For there was his house, and there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord. We'll talk about Samuel here for a few minutes. Let's go ahead and pray and we'll launch into it. Father, thank you for the opportunity to stand behind this sacred desk to open the Word of God and to speak of it to your people. Father, it's always a wonderful time when the family of God gathers together around your Word. We come like hungry children to a big buffet table and our eyes feasting on all the scrumptious things set before us. And we see it with our eyes and our mouths begin to water and we can't wait to dig in. Lord, I pray that that will be our heart tonight as we come to the Word of God, that we would be hungry to hear and learn, anxious to practice what we learn. Father, we need your help. We pray that you would be glorified. Well, my intent is to help us tonight, help us to implement things into our lives for one reason, that we could be more like you. We could be all that we could be for Jesus Christ. We could be the very best Christians that we could possibly be, so that we could be a testimony in a lost world. Help us now, in Jesus' name, amen. All right. Well, in our minds, and I don't know about you, but my mind does this, if I, in my mind, my mind's eye, if I begin to think about a prophet or a seer, Samuel was a seer, it says, we didn't read that passage, but it says that about him. In my mind, and this may be because of animated Bible cartoons that I got this image, I don't know, or maybe flanograph or something, but in my mind's eye, I think of a prophet of God, an Old Testament prophet. a skinny old man, and long unkept white hair, maybe a little tangled, and a long white beard, and a long flowing garment, and some sandals, and that's him, right? And beyond that, we think about prophets of the Old Testament, it seems like sometimes they were there, and the next thing you know, they weren't there. Now they didn't have supernatural power to appear and disappear like that, but that's almost the way it seemed like. Suddenly they were there, and then all of a sudden they weren't there, and they seemed to come and go as they pleased, and just blow in and blow out, if you please. But I think if we get a closer look, and we won't get to see different prophets, we'll just focus on Samuel here. But if we take a little closer look, we find that that's far from the truth. Not so much their appearance, for I don't know what they really looked like, but this idea of them just showing up and disappearing and kind of just maybe wandering around aimlessly and all that, I don't think we find that in scripture. I think if we look, in fact, we'll see it in our passage here. We already read it, but I'll call your attention back to it to see that Samuel had what was called a circuit. And he traveled this circuit. Let's look at it again here in verse 16. It says, he went from year to year. So this was an annual thing. Some said that the words year to year, and I'm not gonna be able to re-explain how they explained it. I read it in a commentary somewhere, but they were indicating that perhaps it was twice a year based on what the words year to year meant. And I won't get into that. It doesn't matter. It was a regularly scheduled event. Let's put it that way. So on this regular scheduled event, he traveled this circuit from his home in Ramah. The Bible says he went to Bethel, he went to Gilgal, he went to Mizpah. Now these were all holy places in the Jewish culture and strategic places, no doubt, and he went there, he traveled this circuit doing the work of God. Now he didn't just blow in and blow out. He was on a mission. He had a purpose. He was doing it on purpose. He had a schedule, so to speak, and he was doing the work of God, working the circuit, and he did it on a regular basis. Let me put it this way, it was his routine. It was his routine. We saw in Luke chapter four, the Bible spoke of Jesus that as his custom was, or we could say as was his routine. So I wanna talk to you tonight about this topic, the value of routines. The value of routines. Samuel had this yearly circuit, or this twice yearly. He went to these four places. He had a routine, you might say. You know, all of us as children, we may, I did, and perhaps you did, as a child, you had a routine imposed upon you. And lest that sounds bad, that's not a bad thing, that's a good thing. You know, we all should have a routine. There's other words we could use, routine, manner, habits. But they all have distinct, they're similar but they're distinct. Schedule. You know, everybody should have a schedule of some sort. It doesn't matter what your vocation is or whatever, you should have some sort of a schedule. Even if it's just real, general, and basic. You might not have a schedule. Schedule is not the message tonight. It's routine. Somehow I got on thinking about schedules. A busy executive, he may have to break his schedule down into 15 or 30 minute increments. Because every 15 to 30 minutes, he's maybe doing something different. He has to go to this meeting, that meeting. Someone who's not an executive or a professional might just be maybe a laborer or a factory worker or something like that. They still would have to have a schedule. It would be more general. But everybody needs a schedule. You say, well, I have a schedule. My schedule is I wake up at 7 and I go to bed at 11. What about in between? Wake up and not go to bed. That's my schedule, no. Listen, if you have a schedule like that, one day you will stand before your judge, Jesus Christ, and give an account for your time. You know, we are stewards of our time, our talents, and our treasure. And God wants us to be good stewards of what he's given us, and he's given us 24 hours in a day, and we ought to manage that time for his good and his glory, amen. and not to waste it. And nothing wrong with a hobby or two, nothing wrong with some relaxation, nothing wrong with some entertainment, but everything should be scheduled. You should have a schedule that you follow. And that will play into what I'm going to talk about here in a few moments, but A little bit off topic, but in a way it will tie back in. But as a child, we had routines placed upon us. And you know, a routine is not something that we should grow out of. It's something that should stick with us all of our lives. And I'm thankful for the routines that were imposed upon me as a child, because some of those routines taught me a good work ethic. I'm the worker I am today. And I can remember just like it was yesterday, my dad making me go out in that huge garden about the size of this auditorium and all those rows of whatever, corn and beans and tomatoes and all that. And my friend would come down and say, hey, Kelly, you want to play? You want to ride bikes? You want to go down to the creek and catch crawdads? And I'd say, yes, sure. Dad, can I? No, not until the garden's finished. Oh, I hated that. But today, I'm thankful. I'm thankful my dad taught me to work at. I'm glad he taught me to start and finish things. But I also learned how to be clever. I said, hey Tim, help me do the weeds. We'll get to play sooner. So often Tim would help me with the weeds. Mercy. But those routines are not something to grow out of. They're things to hang on to for a lifetime. We should understand and have a good understanding of the value of routine in our lives. Our children need it. Most of you know my wife is a nanny, a professional nanny. She's not just a nanny, she's a super nanny. And by the way, there's a big difference between a nanny and a babysitter. A babysitter just watches the kids more or less until mom and dad come home. But a nanny is, does teaching and instruction and training and so much more. So it's quite a valuable job. But my wife, she's a good nanny. And all the mothers that she's worked for just marvel at what she's able to do. Not only she's a nanny, but she's a baby whisperer. Serious now. I mean, how many times she's told me stories about mothers that she'd arrive and say, oh, I just can't get the baby to go to sleep. I've been trying for the last hour. OK, well, let me have her or him and take the baby up to the room. 10 minutes later, come back down. What? Fast asleep. What? How'd you do that? And it's amazing what a little ether on a rag will do, right? No, just kidding. But seriously, she has a way to get those babies to go to sleep. And she's a great nanny. But I say that to say this, one of the first things she does when she goes into a new home, a nanny situation, after she does her initial assessment, she gets that child, listen, on a routine. One of the first things. And we live in a world today where boundaries are being removed. In fact, they tell us there are no boundaries. Just do whatever. And that's supposed to encourage their expression. That's to encourage their self-expression, self-development, and creativity. And I say hogwash. Children need structure. They need routines, and they need to know where the boundaries are. Will they test them? Oh yeah, but they need to know they're there. I remember the first night we realized it's time to put Caleb on a schedule. He was only a few weeks old, maybe two, three, maybe four, I don't know. I don't know when we did it, but this has to be done early on. And we put him to bed, put him in his crib. We went out and sat on the couch. And that next 45 minutes was like, it was like, and my wife kept wanting to get up. I kept pushing her back down. No, no, no, no, no. And Caleb screamed his lungs out for 45 minutes. Now most modern day moms, they don't know any better, just run in there and pick baby up. That's exactly what I want you to do. They know how to wrap you around their little finger. But we put Caleb on a schedule. He screamed for 45 minutes, finally. He was out of gas. He was done. And, poom, off to sleep. The next night, poom, sleep. Poom, sleep every night after that. No more crying. He just went to bed and went to sleep. And the schedule began. We put him on a routine. We need routine in our lives, folks. I'm just telling you those stories to illustrate. We need to know where the boundaries are. We need the structure. We need schedules. Routine. Routine does not limit or hinder or suppress creativity. Not at all. You say, Brother Kelly, this sounds kind of like a self-help message. Well, you might categorize it as such, but I don't think so. I think it's simply trying to be the best we can be for the Lord Jesus Christ. And whatever tools are at our disposal to use and to do so, then may we use them so we can be better for Him. I'll say more about that in a minute. Creativity. So routine doesn't limit or hinder or suppress our creativity. After all, consider God. We look at the creation. God is a God who has routine, if you please. Just one example. He gave us four seasons. And one season follows the other. And it's very predictable. Now, we can't predict how long or how severe they may or may not be. In fact, sometimes when we're in summer, we think it's winter. But we know when winter's here, what's coming next? Fall. And when fall is here, we know winter's coming next. And it's very predictable. And there is some security in that. And we can know what to expect. We know what's coming next. Even God's astrological calendar has predictability. If you think about Halley's Comet, anyone know how often that arrives, how often that shows up? How many? Not close, it's 75. At least the number I got was 75. So yeah, every 75 years, like clockwork, Halley's Comet shows up. God is a God of routine. very predictability. And you know that those sort of things just fly in the face of evolution because they would have us to believe that everything came from chaos. That there is no order just chaos created what's here and now we're constantly getting better and better and better and better and better. We're evolving and how false that is. Another example is Israel's spiritual calendar. the feasts and all the things that God instituted for Israel and the routine of that and they knew when it was and when to expect it, what would be next, the next feast and the next feast and the Passover and all these things. It was routine that God gave them. You know, when I got saved 36 years ago, 37, I should be able to say that just like that, but I lose track of the years. Long time ago when I got saved, Jesus came into my life and he changed me. He changed my eternal destination. I'm no longer going to hell. I'm going to heaven. Amen. Jesus Christ came into my life. He made a spiritual change. But not only that, and this is why this lesson tonight, not only did he make a spiritual change in me, but there's so much more to it than that. As I began growing as a Christian, I would ask the pastor and I would read books and I would search and ask questions. I often ask questions, what do I do next? What do I do next? Now what? I wanna know what's next. But here's what I'm getting at. Jesus Christ changed me spiritually and changed my spiritual direction, but I wanted to know how that spiritual change inside here affected my day-to-day living. And it ought to. Amen? My Christian faith ought to be reflected in the way I live and what I do. And I wanted to know how does my Christian faith get woven into the very fabric of my being so that it's not just, oh yeah, I'm on my way to heaven now, and I do go to church on Sunday, but that's really the extent of it. No, it's so much more than that. It ought to be entwined and ingrained and woven into the very fabric of my being so that everything that I do and say would either be through the lens of Scripture or that I would be with the goal of glorifying God in heaven. Hold your place here and look at 1 Timothy chapter 4 with me. This verse comes to mind because Paul kind of touches on this when he speaks to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4. We saw a couple of these verses, we saw verses 13 and, yeah, verse 13 on Sunday in Sunday school, but verse 12 I want you to see. 1 Timothy 4, verse 12. Paul said to Timothy, verse 11, he says, these things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth, because Timothy was a much younger man, But he said, be thou an example of the believers, and then he gives this list. In word, in conversation, that's your overall behavior, in charity, or your love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Paul said to Timothy, look Tim. When you stand before the believers, I want you to be an example. I want your faith to come through in every area of your life. It's not just about going to church on Sunday. But he says, I want it to be seen in every word that you speak. That the fact that you've trusted Jesus Christ changes your language. The fact that you've trusted Jesus Christ changes and affects your behavior. The fact that you've trusted Jesus Christ has an impact on your faith and it has an impact on your purity. Now you live a pure life. And that's all the things that Paul said. If we went to other passages in Scripture, we could add to the list because what Paul's teaching us is that Jesus Christ comes into our heart and He should have access to every room and every area of our life. so that our faith comes through no matter what angle you take. When I got saved, I think I mentioned this on Sunday, I messed around with drugs and alcohol and rock and roll and all that. Jesus Christ comes, then changes have to be made. Purity. I would say all the bad words that the world said, Paul said, Timothy, hey, be an example in word. But guess what? I changed those words. And that's what I'm saying. Folks, there has to be a place where we say, you know what, okay, I know Christian life is going to church, and we tend to think there's a lot of do's and don'ts, and the Christian life is not a bunch of do's and don'ts. It's way more than that, right? However, having said that, there are do's and don'ts. There's things I do because I'm a believer. There's things I don't do because I'm a believer. But that's not the sum total of the Christian life. But as Paul told Timothy, look, let your faith be woven into your life and let it be seen. So there's this spiritual change that takes place. Why are we talking about, I thought we were talking about routines. Well, that's what I'm getting to. Because there's change in my spiritual life, now there's change in how I live my life. And as God has provided tools for me to use, To better my life, whether it be a schedule, or if we talk about routine, as we're gonna talk about tonight, we talk about certain habits, those are things that we can use to make a better life, the way we live our life, make it better and more pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Routine doesn't rob me, it allows for more. Living without routine is like singing without rhythm, without timing. If you were to just sing, you know, if you just ignored the timing, like tonight Brother Cole was leading the songs, if you just ignored the timing and you just put the words out as you felt, well, you'd miss a note and you'd miss a word or you'd come out, you'd start singing when everyone else had stopped or you'd kick in when everyone was, you'd come in too late and all kinds of things. No. You have to do it with everybody else on the timing. And to live without routine is like singing without rhythm. Routines are so important. I'll remind you of one negative story about routine and then I'm going to give you nine statements that are really the teaching. Hopefully, I didn't make a handout sheet for you. I would advise jotting a couple of these down if a couple of them speak to your heart. But there's one sad story in the Bible. The man that we know, we know him by this term, the man after God's own heart. Who is that? No, no, David. You're close, brother, you're close. David. The Bible says, It was a time when kings went to war. That was the routine. But David stayed home. He was out of his routine. And this would be one of the points later, the danger of getting out of a routine. So because David was out of routine, He was on the rooftop, and he happened to glance across the street there, or whatever, and took a second glance, and what did he see? A lady on her rooftop, bathing. And you know the story, I won't need to go into it. It was a downward spiral from there, wasn't it? And David was in trouble. Now, that didn't have to happen. if David would have been in his normal routine. If he would have went to the battle as he should have gone. He was out of his routine, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, all because he wasn't following the routine. And so we'll come back to that later because when you're out of routine, it can be harmful. And so all of that is introduction. Let me go ahead and give you nine things now, just nine statements and we'll be done. It's a very simple lesson. I probably won't have to say much about each of these individual points. At least I don't think I will, but routine is so important. Number one, routine allows you to come in alignment with God's ways. You know, God tells us clearly in Scripture that our ways are not His ways, or His ways are not ways, whichever way it says it. And our thoughts are not His thoughts. However, in Philippians, we find that we can have the mind of Christ. And so, here's a tool that allows us to begin to align our lives with how God wants us to live. You know, we shouldn't be living haphazard. You know, I go back to the children again. I see a lot of children. Visiting on the bus routes, I see lots of children. My wife tells me lots of children's stories because of her line of work. For the most part, in this day and age, children are totally untethered, undisciplined, do their own thing, And the parents are afraid to swelch their creativity. Just, you know, whatever they've been told by the world, just let them do whatever they want to do. Don't ever say no to them, or you might hurt their little esteem. And all kinds of crazy stuff like that. Listen. We need routine. Children need it. They need that structure. And we'll see some other reasons why here. Think of our own son, Caleb is very structured. We keep him regimented. One thing that keeps him out of trouble, but it's, and sometimes, and he's a good boy, but sometimes he questions, oh, can't I just, you know, he wants to do the other thing, or maybe, or a little bit longer, or whatever, and we're saying, no, Caleb, it's time, you have to draw the line somewhere, we're drawing the line now. Let's go on to the next thing, whatever it is we want him to do. But it's so important. And sometimes he may kick at that a little bit now, not a lot. He's very good. And I thank God for that. We have no trouble. He's a great kid. And we're so proud of him. But he's human. And he likes to do what he likes to do. And so, of course he's gonna push back a little here and there. But we hold our ground and he surrenders sweetly and that's cool. But one day he'll look back and say, thank God mom and dad did that. Put structure and routine in my life. So it helps us to align with God's ways. Number two, routine. This is interesting. Routine will help you work better in a team environment. Of course we think first and foremost, our local church. You know, if we had to put together some sort of a team, not a worship team, but a team of some sort, to get a specific job done, and everybody was, boy, they were disciplined, and they were used to routine, and they were hard workers, and they were getting with it, but there's one person who never grew up that way with a routine, and they just had a hard time. They had a hard time fitting in. They had a hard time getting the tasks done. They had a hard time meeting maybe their individual deadline. They just couldn't quite mesh with the team. Why? Because they never experienced routine. They never experienced any structure. They never experienced any discipline or self-discipline. And so they have a hard time fitting in to the team. That also plays out in a workplace. You'll be put in situations where you have to cooperate with a team of people and if everyone can be on the team can At some point in their lives been exposed to some routine and some structure and some discipline they'll do well, but if there's one that has not hasn't had those things they're going to struggle and not be able to get the work done and not be able to mesh in with everyone because because they're late or they don't know how to do it or they don't know how to get started and the list just goes on because they've never had any routine or discipline imposed upon them. So it helps in a team environment. Number three, a random life is littered with missed opportunities. I can't cope with just living life as it comes at me. I feel out of control. And there's a lot of things that I can't control, but I can control my schedule for the most part. I can't control different things that may intersect with my schedule, things that could be out of my control. I have to be flexible. But for the most part, I make my schedule and I can control it. But if I live life randomly, haphazardly, just, oh, whatever's next, oh, let's do this, oh, let's go do that, and have no structure, no schedule, no discipline, just, what do you wanna do now? And just take it as it comes, that's no way to live. And like I said before, we're gonna stand before God and give an account for the time that we used or did not use for His glory. We have to be good stewards of our time. So a random life is littered with missed opportunities. You see when we're in the structure, we're at the right place when an opportunity presents itself, we're there. And we can capitalize on an opportunity. If we're just living randomly, we miss so many opportunities. And especially our eyes aren't looking out for it. I think of a story over in 1st Samuel, actually, right here where we are, but over in chapter 10. Saul had some servants that he, that these servants went out to find the asses. They got out of the corral. And so they went to seek and find the asses. Later in the story, after they'd wandered around for quite a while, Saul's, King Saul's uncle saw them and basically said, hey boys, where y'all been? And they said, oh, we went to seek the Asses, and when we couldn't find them, we went to see Samuel in Ramah. How did they know Samuel would be there? He was in his routine. And they knew what his routine was. And that brought predictability. And they could go and have the opportunity to see Samuel because they wanted to have Samuel give us guidance on how to find disasters. Which he did. Let me go on to the next one here, number four. Routines produce a sense of security. Kind of touched on that already, maybe a sense of control. When I'm in my routine, And I've got lots of routines. I guess under the big canopy of schedule, then there's little routines underneath of it, right? Routines on how I get dressed, what items I put on first. Maybe that's more of a habit, I don't know. But in a way, it's a routine. And I've got this one routine. Part of my routine, I go to the closet. Well, first I put my socks on, go to the closet, get my pants. And then I'm putting my belt in the loops, and immediately I walk over to my little nightstand, pull out the drawer, and right there in the little tray I have is my wallet, my change, and maybe my pen or my collar stays, whatever. I get my wallet. Oh, that's important. I have to have my driver's license. I'm a CDL driver. I must have it at all times. I can't tell you how many times when I got my belt and started to make that trip over to that that nightstand, that's my routine. Oh darling, can you, oh yeah sure. Take care of that, come back. By now my belt's on, so now I'm getting my shirt organized, whatever else, finish up, and leave the house. Without what? The wallet. Because I got out of the routine. And so, But when I'm in a routine, that's just a minor routine, but I mean my main routine, my bigger routines of life, I find security there. Because I know what's next, I don't have to wonder. I know what's gonna happen next, or what should be happening next. And I know what to expect. And it gives me a little bit of control. You see what I'm saying? That routine provides some security to me. And it should. And it does. Number five. Routines create predictability. And listen, people like predictability. There's lots of things. If you ask my wife, is Kelly Choma predictable? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the list is endless. So I'm not even going to go there. From very important things to very insignificant things, like always putting ketchup on my bacon. What? Don't you dare say, ooh. You say, yum. Uh-oh. That's not from the Holy Land, huh? That's defiled. I saw a little cartoon today. The guy said, I'm trying to grow my own food, but I can't find bacon seeds. Yeah, routines create predictability, and people like predictability. I do. I know there's things about Preacher I can predict it. He's going to happen. The sun rises and he sets in the West. This is the way it's going to be. I can predict that out of him and he never lets me down. And other people, I just know what they're going to do, I know what they're going to say or where they're going to be. Predictability, I know that on Sunday morning certain individuals are going to be here for the bus route, I can predict it. As long as a major storm or something weird doesn't happen. It's, I like predictability. I know, I like to know where I can find somebody if I need them, or what's going to happen next, or especially people who are on a team with me, I can predict from them. I like to have that predictability. I don't want to have to wonder, are they going to be there? Are they going to show up? Preacher gonna be here Sunday or I'll do this myself. No, he's gonna be here. Predictability. And people like predictability. Number six. I was hoping to get this out earlier. I think I still might. There's only three more after this. Number six. Routine will help you get better at what you do. You say, Brother Kelly, this sure doesn't seem like a Bible lesson. It is. We're getting this principle from Scripture. Samuel had this circuit. He was predictable. He had a framework. He had a schedule, a routine that he was following. You know, sometimes we have to pull from Scripture, not just doctrines and flat-out truths that we see, but principles as well that will help us in our Christian life. And this is one of them. This will help us. It'll help you if you implement a routine into your life and make it positive. So it'll help you get better at what you do. In other words, it's not new anymore. Once you get a routine, you've laid the foundation. Now you can build on it. Where if you're not in a routine, it's like something new every time. And I've got this learning curve I've got to deal with. But when it becomes routine, it's like, oh yeah, boom, boom, boom. It's like clockwork. You just get it done. And you get better at what you do. It's no longer the first time. You've done this a few times. And now you've got it. And you become better at it. Number seven. Now here's an important one. Routine helps reduce stress. If I'm out of routine, I get stressed out. Especially since I'm OCD. That adds a whole other dimension to it. And then I get stressed out, and guess what? Who else gets stressed out? My family gets stressed out because Dad's stressed out. It's a chain reaction. They're not stressed out for the same reason I'm stressed out, but they're stressed out because I'm stressed out. But routine eliminates the stress. When I get up in the morning, I know exactly what I'm going to do, when I'm going to do it, where I'm going, who I'm going to see, pretty much to the minute, what time I'll get home, and then what I'm going to do. When I get to work, I know I'm gonna do this, this, this, this. I wake up in the morning, I don't have to wonder what I do now. My eyes open, my feet hit the ground, my hand grabs the Bible from the nightstand. I go to the kitchen table, I open it, take my cell phone as a flashlight, I read scripture for a little while. And then, because family's still asleep, it's 3.30 in the morning. Switch that little light off, close the Bible, get dressed, you know, it's just a routine, boom, boom, boom, boom. No stress. when there's no routine, it kind of just brings stress about. And not only that, I added this little note, it could also not only reduce stress, but it could reduce depression. We live in a day and age where everybody's depressed. At least that's what the doctor tells you. A lot of that stress and a lot of that depression is self-inflicted. Sorry, I don't want to step on any toes, but listen to me. If all you do is sit around the house all day and think about your problems, yeah, you're going to be anxious. Yeah, you're going to get stressed. Yeah, you're going to get depressed. So get yourself, and this is how I was saying earlier about a schedule, get yourself a schedule. Even if you're a senior citizen and all you do is stay home all day, great. Enjoy being retired or whatever, but have a schedule. Or whatever age you are, if you have a job from home, have a schedule. Don't allow yourself to sit around and to think on things and problems and allow yourself to get worked up and get anxious and depressed and stressed. Do something productive. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. If you're home all the time, have a schedule that allows you to read and pray and do things that'll help others maybe, and just be productive and get your mind off yourself. Routine will help you in that way. Number eight. A routine will help you to be more efficient, more focused, and get more done. I guess that's efficient. And that just makes sense. If you're just helter-skelter everywhere, if you're just haphazard, you're not being as efficient as you could be. You're not getting as much accomplished as you could or should. Whereas if you had the structure, boom, boom, boom, boom, you stay focused on that list, on that to-do list, whatever. If you stay focused and have a routine for it, bam, bam, bam, you're gonna be very efficient, you're gonna get a lot done, and you're gonna stay focused. Routine will help you do that. And then finally, number nine, routine and consistency gives God something to bless. Routine and consistency gives God something to bless. What do I mean by that? God looks down at you and sees you being a good steward of your time. And he's pleased. And he says, I'm gonna bless that. God's blessing. I don't think God can be pleased when we're just living life on our own terms. Living life haphazard. Just taking it as it comes. no schedule, no routine, just hey, sora, sora, oh well, you know, oh, oh, oh, oh, that was an opportunity, I missed it, oh man, too late now, and folks, you know, folks, we can't live that way. Live a structured life. A schedule, a routine, good habits, And when we do that, we find ourselves falling into the category that Paul told Timothy. He said, Timothy, be thou an example to the believers. And you'll be an example to other believers. Not that that's your goal, but they see, hey, this guy gets the job done. This guy is focused. This guy Cranks out the work. This guy is efficient. Or this gal. She really knows how to mm-mm. And why is that? Because I've got routines. I've got schedule. I've got structure. I've got discipline. All those things go together. That help me to be, for me, the best telecoma that telecoma can be. Not as a self-help thing, but to glorify my savior. and to be a good steward of the time that he has blessed me with.