Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and this is episode two of a new series I'm calling Reset. That's gonna help you set yourself up for a summer of renewal and rest and peace. And last time we talked about resetting your mind because mental strength, spiritually speaking, is so important for renewal. And we talked about Romans chapter 12, verses one and two, and what it means to be not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind. And today we're continuing with the reset series by talking about how to reset your schedule or reset your time. Now, one of the biggest lies people believe is that exhaustion automatically means effectiveness. You know, I'm just so busy and I'm doing so much, and so I must be effective. We live in a culture where everybody's busy or everybody thinks they're busy. A lot of people are overcommitted, they're rushing, and yet you got people who feel like, you know, I'm doing a lot, and yet they're spiritually dry and they're emotionally depleted. And then, worst of all, we're so relationally disconnected, even though we're doing so much, we're around people all the time. And summer can make this feel even worse. We go into summer with these high expectations, and how many understand? Expectations breed frustration if those expectations don't get met. You have this idea, we all do, this fantasy about how summer's gonna be so wonderful, and we're gonna do this and we're gonna that. And we go into it thinking it's gonna be restful. And suddenly the calendar fills up. There's trips, sports, projects, camps, work demands, family obligations. Maybe you've got weddings and travel, and then it's just a lot of endless activity and busyness. And before long, life is chaotic. You feel like the summer just blew by, time was wasted. The truth is simple. If you don't intentionally govern your schedule, somebody else or something else will govern it for you. Your schedule reveals your priorities. And so we've got to talk about resetting your schedule. You can say God matters most and family matters most and church matters most, but eventually our calendars tell the truth. Your time is one of the clearest discipleship tools in your life. And if it doesn't get the kind of reset that we all need sometimes, you can end up looking back on your summer months, wondering where in the world did this all go. I have nothing to show for it. Now, the Bible is full of wisdom on time management. We've talked about some of these things before in the past on the podcast. And just because it's vacation season does not mean we take a vacation from using time wisely. I've got my Bible open to one of my favorite passages about time and thinking about the brevity of life. It's Psalm chapter 90, verse 12. It says, So teach us to number our days. Why? Well, that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. What is the heart of wisdom? What do wise people do? Well, they number their days. They look at each day as an opportunity. They look at their schedule and they steward it appropriately. Ephesians 5, verses 15 and 16 is another great passage. It says, therefore, be careful how you walk. Some translations say, walk circumspectly. The idea is, you know, take inventory, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil. Bottom line is God cares about how we spend our time and our life is made up of time. And once you spend your time, you can't get it back. So let me walk you through three biblical realities about schedule and time, biblically speaking. And then I want to talk to you about some practical ways to reset your time. Number one, your schedule is a spiritual issue. Your schedule is a spiritual issue. Most people think time management is just a productivity issue. It's not true. The Bible treats it like a wisdom issue. It's spiritual. We just thought about that as we talked about those passages. And how about Jesus? What a tremendous example to us. He was busy, never chaotic. He was always doing something, but he was always on purpose or with a purpose. And if you think about that, the Son of God carried the weight of ministry, crowds, opposition, teaching, miracles, discipleship, the cross itself. And yet his life is marked by intentionality and not a lot of disorder. I was just thinking about this this past week, preaching through the gospel of Matthew at Shepherd's house where I pastor, and how Jesus ministered with purpose. If he withdrew, it was with purpose. If he leaned in and pursued someone, with purpose. If he did miracles, with a purpose. When he taught, with a purpose. When he retreated to pray with a purpose. When he told people, don't tell everyone about my miracles. It's not time yet. I don't want a big spectacle. It was for a purpose. Jesus was a busy man, but he did everything on purpose. He withdrew to pray. He rested. He did attend meals. He fellowshipped and socialized. And he also walked slowly enough, the way I would describe this, slowly enough to allow for interruptions. He was just always around. And those became ministry opportunities. Meanwhile, you think about people today, they're constantly hurried, they're emotionally exhausted. They got a lot of noise in their life, not a lot of substance. So some of you don't need a new productivity system. Although go ahead and read a book on productivity this summer can be very helpful. But you probably just need to repent of living like you're sovereign and like you have it all figured out and just be really humble and honest and say, God, I don't need to go read another book on productivity and figure out how to be efficient, be more effective at work. I I need to slow down and copy the model of Christ. I need to stop acting like everything depends on me. I need to stop responding to every email, every opportunity, every invitation, every person, every notification, every text, every side project, and just slow down because my life is too overloaded. And I wasn't designed to carry that much. Let me just encourage you. A packed schedule is not necessarily a fruitful schedule. Sometimes it's the sign of a very distracted life. That's number one. Number two, if you don't control your time, the world will. If you don't control your time, the world will. One of the biggest problems in modern life is we're constantly reacting. I started alluding to it a little bit. Notifications and this, that, and the other always coming at us. And so pretty soon our lives become an endless series of endless notifications. And based on people that I talk to and counsel, even in my own experience in the past, a lot of people don't even have a schedule really anymore. You just have a constant stream of interruptions and reactions and distractions, and that becomes our normal. But scripture calls believers to intentional living. And there's wisdom to apply here from Colossians 3.2. We talked about this last time with our mind and setting our minds on things that are above, not the things of earth. Well, if you can uh reset your mind and start thinking clearly about what matters most, that's gonna impact your schedule. And that kind of focus is gonna require deliberate choices. Every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to other things. Every time you say no to something, you're saying yes to other things. I had a mentor who always pressed this so hard. He'd say, you've got to be focused and it's gonna require very deliberate choices. And you've got to change your mind about what matters most. You've got to lock in and your schedule will follow. When you say yes to something, you're saying no to a thousand things. When you say yes to endless entertainment, you're gonna be saying no to prayer and purpose and productivity. When you say no to your family, but you say yes to overworking, well, you're saying no to a lot of other things and there's gonna be fallout there. When you say yes to constant busyness, you're often saying no to rest. When you say yes to digital distraction, you're often saying no to being fully present in the moment with the people you love. You can't do everything. And trying to do everything is going to result in doing nothing particularly well. So make sure you're controlling your time. Third, God designed rhythms of rest, work, and worship. God designed those rhythms. You got to know that. If you're gonna reset your schedule, go back to what God intends us to do with time from the very beginning of scripture. God established rhythms, and work and rest were part of those, labor and worship, activity and stillness. And the Sabbath law may not be binding on us as believers in the new covenant, but the principle of Sabbath rest still reminds us that human beings are not machines. Think about this: God rested before sin entered the world as part of a plan that was good. And God rested and did all that before the Ten Commandments were set in stone because of sin. And so it's good for you to hear truths like, you are finite. God rested, so should you. You need sleep. You need worship, you need margin, you need quiet. Even Jesus withdrew to pray and get alone. You need time with God. And some people they'll wear exhaustion like a badge of honor. Maybe you're one of those people and we just talk about how you know beat down we are and busy. Oh, so much. I just, oh man, I can't even handle it. I don't even have chronic chaos and that kind of weighed down busyness, it's not a badge of honor. It's actually a sign of spiritual immaturity. And so let's get practical. How do you actually reset your schedule? Reset number one, put God first in your calendar. This starts with you and Him together each day, prayer, the Word of God, and not giving them your leftovers. Schedule time with God first before your summer fills up, before you get obsessed with all the things that you're gonna do. Anchor your life around worship and scripture and prayer, church as well, time with the Lord. Make sure you're spending time together as a family around the dinner table and the word of God. And one of the easiest ways to drift spiritually is to become so summer schedule driven and recreationally driven, which those things are wonderful, instead of worship driven, though. And keep in mind, worship happens all the time, especially in the summertime, on a hike, on the beach, at the cabin, in the yard, in the car, everywhere. Why? Worship is all the time. It's a disposition of life. It's focusing on the Lord as part of what you're doing, in addition to having set times alone with him and soaking in his word. That's number one. God first. Practical reset number two, learn to say no. One of the most spiritual words that you can ever learn is a two-letter word, no. No, no, no. Say no to things. Not every opportunity is from God. Not every invitation deserves a yes or can be a yes. Not every good thing is the best thing. Maybe that's the best one to remember. There's a lot of good stuff we can be offered this summer. Is it best? A lot of families are drowning in activity because they never slow down long enough to just ask is this actually helping us become healthier spiritually and relationally? So some of you, you need fewer commitments this summer, not more. Some of you need less noise, not more quiet getaways, not more and more and more, running around trying to do everything. So here's your invitation to more margin with your family, more dinners together, more conversations, more simple moments enjoying life, more evenings at home. You don't need to fill up every block on the calendar. And in that regard, maybe fill it, but fill it with rest. Practical reset number three, build daily rhythms to reduce reactiveness. Build daily rhythms to reduce reactiveness. I'm big on this. I talk about it all the time with our staff, with different people that I mentor. You lock something in, you build a daily rhythm and you establish something that's very consistent. And it actually allows you to be reactive and to be interrupted and not have everything derailed because once that moment ends, you get right back on the saddle of your routine. I'm a big fan of that. It's basically like somebody who goes to the gym all the time. What happens when you miss a day? Do you freak out because everything's ruined? No, you get back on the saddle the next day because it's a normal rhythm. It's not the end of the world if you miss a workout. It would be a big detriment if you don't really work out that much or you're kind of all over the place, and then now you miss the workout you were gonna do. Well, yeah, because there's no structure, you implode when you miss an appointment or you miss that opportunity. Well, when you build a daily rhythm, it will reduce your anxiety due to interruptions because you just have something consistent. You've built something strong. Healthy lives are usually built around rhythms and not a lot of reactiveness. So it's being proactive, not reactive. And certain habits are going to help this. Go to bed earlier, wake up with purpose, have a calendar, have a structure. You got to have your priorities in order. Eat meals together with your family, put your phone away at certain times, have a consistent devotional rhythm, know what you're doing and why, have a structure for your family, have daily rhythms. Christine, my wife, and I, we do this with our kids. We have a schedule, we have a calendar, we look at it weekly, we review what's coming up one week, one month, three months. We're always looking at that. We're always having conversations about it. So when the extra home visit comes into play, or the baby shower, or the birthday party, or the unexpected visitor, or oh, so-and-so's coming into town, all of those opportunities aren't backbreaking because we actually feel like we have a pretty consistent rhythm. We're proactive, therefore, being reactive isn't as end of the world kind of feels. A lot of you, you feel that anxiety, it's because you don't have a structure to fall back on. So start thinking about rhythms this summer. Practical reset number four, remove time wasters. Some people say, I have no time, I have no time, I have no time. No, no, no. We all have the same 24 hours, same seven days a week. The reality is some people just waste a lot of time. So I would encourage you to track your screen time this summer. You'd be surprised. Hours disappear on social media, streaming services, sports obsessions, mindless scrolling, doom scrolling, gaming, news consumption, getting caught up in drama, uh, internet rabbit trails. And look, recreation's not sinful, okay? Rest is good. But maybe in our recreation, we we need to detach from some of these technological uh devices, shut everything off, get away, and just focus on good old-fashioned fun. Even when you're with people, just put the phone away. And many people are numbing themselves constantly with entertainment. And so, as part of a calendar reset, even with the way you're doing your recreation, try to cut out time wasters. Audit your time. Where does it actually go? What was the purpose of that activity? And you might discover you don't need more hours in the day, you just need fewer distractions in your day. Finally, number five, leave margin for people. Practical reset number five, leave margin for people. One of the saddest realities today is that people are physically present, but they're emotionally unavailable. People who matter in your life, they need your time, they need your attention, they crave your involvement. So leave time for family, leave time for church friends, leave time for the people you love who need conversations with you that aren't rushed. Remember this Jesus was interruptible. Are you? You know, that's one of the best parts about resetting your schedule and taking inventory of your time. You're gonna find that with more structure and more discipline, you have less anxiety, more flexibility for God's interruptions and those unhurried moments. And when you get the rat race of life under control, time stops controlling you and you start controlling time. Just remember, spending time is a lot like spending money. It's about stewardship. But the biggest difference between time and money is you can't get your time back once it's spent. So use it wisely. Next episode, we'll talk about how to reset your health and focus on stewardship of our bodies as a temple. Thanks as always for listening, for watching. Thank you for giving to support for the gospel. We are 100% donor supported, reaching millions of people every single month in multiple languages, all by the grace of God and because of faithful friends like you. So I never want to forget to show my gratitude to God for you. And above all else, please, please, please continue to pray for the effectiveness of this ministry. We receive a lot of testimonies every single month, and it's remarkable to see the way God is working. It's also very humbling realizing that the truth, the truth does the work. God's word penetrates hearts, and it's pretty amazing that He will use sinners and imperfect people like us who are completely finite and unable to do anything good. And suddenly he'll change lives if we would just be faithful. So let's keep praying. Let's keep being faithful to deliver the truth to people. If you want to know more about For the Gospel and you're new to our ministry or a new listener, go to forthegospel.org, check out everything there. If you want to partner with us, just click give. Or you want to know anything else about the ministry or our team, you can find all that information on our website. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.