John Perks - Becoming Disciples of Christ - Class 4 - Redeeming the Time

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   This is day four of the 2025 Idaho Bible School. Our second period teacher is Brother John Perks. His general subject is Becoming Disciples of Christ. Today's topic is Redeeming the Time.

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   Good morning, everyone. I'd like to start by reading Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

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   Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

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   And the Bible is very clear that life is difficult, and there are going to be times of storms and difficulties and sadness. But we are to develop that relationship with Him so that we can walk through those valleys of the shadow of death.

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   And I hope that this talk, as we go through it today, will remind us of the importance of redeeming the time that we have. To develop that close relationship so that we can get through these difficult times in our lives.

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   So let me review what we've gone over so far up to this point. We've been talking about becoming disciples of Christ. That this is a process, and it's a lifelong process. We're called to be Jesus' disciples. That's very clear in the New Testament. In fact, in John 13, verse 35, it gives us a little test.

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   He says, By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. So we're called to be His disciples and to demonstrate that we are His disciples.

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   And then we talked about taking on the mind of Christ. That this is the first step of becoming disciples of Christ. That we take on His mind, His way of thinking. That we repent, that metanoia. We change the way we think to follow the way He thought. And we read about how He made Himself of no reputation.

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   And so we have to follow that example. That He humbled Himself. And that He became obedient. And then we, in class three, talked about how we have to be disciplined and intentional to create time and space. To be relentless and taking back control of our lives so that we can have time for our Heavenly Father and His Son.

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    And then in doing so, hopefully we have now time to fill those things with practices that build us up. And so that's what we're going to be talking about today.

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    And we all know the parable of the man who swept out his house, cleaned it all out. And that's sort of like creating that time and space. But if we don't put something back into that space, if we don't decorate that house with things that are good, we know that we're going to end up in a worse situation than we once were in.

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    And so ask yourselves, you don't have to put up your hands, but of the things we talked about yesterday, was there anything of value that you saw in Sabbath? Maybe making that a practice. Or in fasting, of silence and solitude. Somehow working those into your day. Because the world is relentless in taking up every second that we have.

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    And we need to be relentless in taking it back. So today we're going to focus on some of those things we can do to fill that time and space. And there's a lot there, and we're not going to get through it all. There's Bible reading, study, service,

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    celebration, meditation, prayer, giving, singing, preaching, confessing, submission. There's many things we can do to fill up that time. But we must be intentional. And once again, just to remind ourselves, the purpose of practices and disciplines is so that the things that are impossible for you today will hopefully become possible, even natural. It'll be the first thought you have, the first action you have.

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    And of course, it's to glorify our God so that people will notice and ask and we can tell them about our Heavenly Father. So if you could turn to Colossians chapter 3, I just want to point out the seriousness of discipleship. Because sometimes in our reading, we can gloss over the power of words.

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    And Colossians chapter 3 is all about putting off the old man, which I sort of see as creating that time and space, getting rid of those things, not listening to them anymore, not being discipled by the world, and then putting on the new man. This is the redeeming the time.

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    And we started out in Colossians 3 the other day, which is talking about seeking those things which are above. Verse 2, setting your mind on those things that are above, having the mind of Christ. But then it makes some very strong statements. And we're going to start in verse 5. It says, Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth,

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    fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry. You're to put to death. What are you doing practically on a day -to -day basis that is putting to death these things? And it says, Verse 6, Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

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    So being active in our discipleship, we're saying, Oh no, we're not living in those anymore. We are putting them to death. And here's the things I can show you I am doing to put those things to death. And then he goes on in verse 8, But now you yourselves are to put off all these.

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    The ESV, I think this on the slide is the ESV. It says, But now you must put them all away. There's no question about this. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. I love how Paul says, These are practices.

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    You were walking in them. You were doing them. You were listening to these things. You were entertained by these things. And whether you accept it or not, you were beginning to think that way and behave that way. And you have to put them away.

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    And then he goes on and says, Okay, you're putting those away, but now you have to fill yourself up. So in verse 12, Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long -suffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, the example, our Master, he says, So you also must do.

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    But above all these, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

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    And whatever you do in word or deed, the practices you do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. This is not some way of elevating ourselves and patting ourselves on the back. This is giving thanks to God through Jesus for the things he's gifted to us.

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    But it's interesting. He says, Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, love. As a teacher, I'm always, well, what does that look like? How do you put on tender mercies? How do you put on kindness and humility? It doesn't just happen. You have to think about it. How am I going to put on kindness today in my workplace, on the street, in Costco?

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    How am I going to put these things on? What are people going to see in actual action? And so this is our key verse. See then that you walk circumspectly. That means carefully. Not as fools. Fools do not walk carefully. They want to go this way, they go that way. They want to go this way, they go.

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    There's no direction. But we're wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. I want you to think of your day as a clock. And this is, you know, I've had a number of people say, you know, thank you for the practicality of your talks. Well, let's be very practical. You have one day before you.

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    How do you redeem each section of that day? And be specific. So before I really started to think about my discipleship, I was, as I mentioned, an undisciplined disciple. My mornings were wasted. My afternoons were wasted. My commutes were wasted. And quite often my evenings were wasted. Oh sure, I went to Bible class.

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    And I went to meeting. And we did readings. You know, sometimes we missed. I prayed here and there, not as much as I should. But then I started thinking about redeeming my time. And I started creating time and space. And I don't mean this in a way to brag or anything. But I have.

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    I feel good about the way I've redeemed my mornings. I wake up at five. I used to watch sports, watch the news. I'd listen to the radio while I made my breakfast and my lunch. I'd listen to sports radio on the way into work.

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    On the way home, I'd listen to more radio. And then the evenings, you know, you're busy and things. And I'm still working on my evenings. I'm becoming a disciple. I'm struggling with my evening still. But my mornings, I get up at five. I do a couple of readings very slowly. I'm not in a race.

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    I'm not checking off a box. I do my readings slowly. I finish my readings with a prayer. When I'm making my lunch and breakfast, the radio is off. I'm just with my own thoughts. Silence. When I get in the car and commute, it's either silent or I'm listening to a podcast. Or, you know, it's silent.

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    There's many days I just listen to silence or classical music. music. I feel really good about those mornings, the way I'm starting my day off. And then I get to work. And before I go in, I say a prayer. I thank God that I have a job, that I got there safely. I pray for the students that I'm going to teach.

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    I pray for their families. And then I go to work. And at the end of the day, as I'm walking away from the work, I thank God that he got me through that day. And I hope that I've glorified him in some way. Now, like I say, I'm struggling with my evenings and redeeming those.

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    And so think about your day in those chunks. What can you do differently to redeem that time? I want to share a little story. This is about Lilius Trotter, who is a British

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    painter and an author. And I didn't put in an extra S. That is how it's spelled. Focused. She wrote this story about walking in the woods one early morning. She said the sun was climbing on the steep cliff and the light was beginning to flood into this valley. And she noticed this dandelion that the sun was just catching perfectly.

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    And she said, it was just a dandelion and half withered, but it was full face to the sun and had caught into its heart all the glory it could hold and was shining so radiantly that the dew that lay on it still made a perfect halo around its head. And it seemed to talk, standing there, to talk about the possibility of making the very best of these lives of ours.

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    And she could have been, from what I read, a great painter. She was advised, you know, give up your Christianity, go to Europe, study with these masters. And she said, no, my identity is in Christ. I'm going to go on missionary. So she gave up that opportunity. She let go of grasping tight to that.

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    But there's a lady named Helen Lemel who took that story and put it into a hymn. It's not in our hymn book, but this stanza just struck me so powerful, especially about what we're talking about today. In the stanza, it says, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of the earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

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    If we create time and space and we start filling it with these things that build a relationship, and we look at the beauty of our Lord and Savior and of his Father, the things in the world will, in comparison, just grow strangely dim. And it's interesting, this happened with the Apostle Paul. Look at the comparison.

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    He says, he's just talked about how he was the Pharisee of the Pharisees, and he was achieving more than others. And, you know, he was, he had power and prestige. And he says, indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.

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    You know, they grew strangely dim in order that I may gain Christ. That's our goal. That as we develop these practices and realign our lives, that the beauty of Scripture and what it tells us, we won't even want to be enticed by the world.

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    So how do we fill the time and space? And we're going to go through as many as we can in the time that we have.

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    And as Christadelphians, we've been given a tremendous heritage. And it didn't really strike me until we had some new brothers and sisters. We had one from Iran. We had a family from Africa. And they had not been brought up in the culture of Christadelphians. And so coming every Sunday was not something that they had been taught was essential.

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    And so they'd come once a month, once every other month. And reading the Bible every day was not something that they had been brought up with. So it was a struggle. Attending Bible class, Bible schools. And you think about your life, if you had missed all of that. And so it was the responsibility of the ecclesia to try to bring those things and show them the importance of that.

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    But we've been given a tremendous heritage to be raised in these things. I remember growing up and going downstairs and my dad was reading his Bible every morning and seeing that as an example. And it wasn't an option. We went to Bible class. And we went every Sunday. And sometimes you're like, oh, come on.

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    You know, as kids. Then as you mature, you go, wow, that was, thank you for doing that. Thank you for teaching us these things.

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    So what I want you to do and what I want you to think about, because one of the dangers is we can go to meeting and Bible class and do our readings and it's just, you know, a checklist. Okay, I did it. I'm done. We're trying to make things that are impossible, possible.

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    And hopefully more than possible, natural for us. And we look to the example of Christ. So what I want you to do is as we go through some of these practices, I want you to go to Matthew 5, 6, and 7 and pick something from Jesus's teachings, which he has told us, you know, go into all the world, make disciples, teaching them to observe the things I have commanded you.

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    So we look at Matthew 5, 6, and 7, or if you have the commandments of Christ in a little booklet, look at, and pick one that you're struggling with. It's impossible or near impossible for you. And then you bring intention to all these practices we're going to talk about. How can Bible reading help me with this problem I have?

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    How can memorization help me? Meditation, prayer, singing, fellowship. How can they specifically help me with the problems that I'm having so I can be more like Christ? Hopefully bringing intention into everything we do. So pick one. Right now I'll give you a one minute look at Matthew 5, 6, and 7. This is not optional.

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    You have to pick one. So just as an example, I'll give you a second more. So just as an example as we go through it, I'm going to choose one that I struggle with and that I am actively working on. So it's from Matthew chapter 7. And I'll just read the first couple of verses where it says,

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    And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

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    So this is something that I struggle with, especially at work. I can be very judgmental of parents. I can be very judgmental of children. I can be judgmental of my fellow colleagues. And I know this is not acceptable. I want to obey the commands of Christ. So then in my practice, in my intentional discipleship, being disciplined, this is what I'm going to focus on with these practices I'm filling my life with.

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    Does that make sense? So, one of the first things we can fill our time with, obviously, is studying and reading. We need this in this world. We live in a world where our culture is just filling us with garbage. That has no nutrition, no value, other than entertaining.

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    You know, it's like, you know when you go to baseball games and kids are eating, I don't know, cotton candy, candy floss, what do you call it? That stuff you put in your mouth and it's like sugar. And it looks like something, but it's nothing. It has no nutritional value. In fact, it's bad for you.

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    That's what our world is feeding us through Disney and Netflix and all those streaming sources. It's made by man for man. And yes, there can be things that are educational and things you can find that are fine, but quite often it's not great. Yet, we have the word of God, living water, good for us.

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    And we can look to many scriptures that we all know very well. Like in 2 Timothy, where we're told, we read this slowly and we think about it. All scripture is God -breathed and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, training in righteousness. So that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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    I read that and I think about, okay, I'm struggling with judging people. This can help me. It can teach me. It can rebuke me. It can train me. I need to read the word of God. We know in Hebrews 4, the word of God is alive and active. It isn't alive and active unless you make it alive and active.

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    Let it get into your life. Let it speak to you. So we can be thoroughly equipped for every good work. We can be very thankful that we've been given the daily reading planner, that we're encouraged to read daily. You might have a different way of reading your scripture, but what's important is you do it every day.

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    But then in addition to that, maybe I start looking for passages about judging. Maybe I do a study and I choose maybe to study David. How did David demonstrate good judgment? When was he not a good judge? When was he judged harshly? When was he judged well? And I try to learn from that study those things that will help me learn to be more obedient.

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    Okay, so I'm intentional about my reading. I don't just do the readings to say, yep, I did it. And I do studies that are intentional.

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    And they don't have to be studies where you're thinking, okay, I have to plan five talks and prepare and give them. They can be personal studies for you, for your specific purpose. So I might read from James, Romans, how we all stand before one judge. I might read about the wheat and the tares and study that and think about that.

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    So think about whatever you chose from Matthew 5, 6, and 7. How would you make your reading and study intentional to help you with that?

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    Christian Russell, who you all know, gave me this sheet of paper that I have found extremely helpful when I'm just doing my daily readings, but it just brings intention to what I'm reading. And so they have this list of questions. Is there a lesson that I learned when I was reading? Is there a principle that I can apply?

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    Is there an example that I can follow? I wish I had these things when I was raising the boys and we were doing the readings, you know, to give us a focus. Is there a sin that we need to avoid? Is there something that I've read that I can do tomorrow to put into practice?

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    What did I learn about my God? What commandment am I trying to follow in application to what we're doing this week? So I just found bring purpose to your reading.

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    What about memorization? You know, making the words of God a part of you, that they're in your mind, that they're in your thought process. You don't have to put up your hand, but just to yourself. So how many of you make memorization a part of your discipleship? Okay.

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    I read one author. He said, I would not want to be a part of any church group that did not make memorization a part of their regular practice. And not just for the kids, right? We tend to do it in Sunday schools, but in our own lives. And I know I used to say, I can't memorize stuff.

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    That's not me. It's not part of my game. And that's not acceptable. We know that Jesus memorized probably all of Scripture. And when he was tempted, he had those verses. They were flowing through his veins, through his mind. So memorization is extremely important. We live in a world of memorizing the dumbest and craziest things.

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    My name is Anigo Mantoya. And there's, you know, song lyrics. I will not hear a song for 40 or 50 years. What is it? There once was a man. No. Okay, I can't do it. The Beverly Hillbillies theme song. You know that one? A man named Jed. Barely kept his family fed. And then one day he was shooting for some food.

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    And up through the ground came some bubbling. Why is that in there? But Scripture, why can't it flow out like that? So because we live in a world that we can memorize. My students always say that. I can't memorize stuff. I say, what's your name?

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    Yes, you can. The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. There's a good verse to start your memorization.

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    And I would suggest what I have found, now that I've been more disciplined, and I've taken memorization seriously, number one, all those little parts of my day when I'm on a walk or on my drive or riding my bike, excellent opportunity to go over these verses and these memorization projects that I've taken on.

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    And I don't memorize verses, I memorize sections. I find it much more powerful. And if I'm working on, if I'm struggling with judgment and judging people, I focus on those verses. So that when there's a situation and I want to judge, hopefully that verse will become natural and I will be able to avoid a sin.

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    Hopefully I'll be able to redeem time by having things to do. But you have to be intentional about it. So here's four reasons that meditation can help. To give an answer. Somebody asks you about your hope. And maybe you have a verse that you remember. Why did you react that way? I've never seen that before.

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    You have a verse. To fight a sin. To redeem your time. And then, to meditate. To have something to meditate on. So meditation. I don't know the actual definition. I think the way I think of it is to think deeply about important things. To roll them over in your mind. I think the actual Hebrew word means something like to growl or to coo or to chew the cud or something.

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    Like it's there. I think I do that a lot with students. I murmur about them. But why not do that with scripture? You know, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And going over that. Or the Lord's prayer. Or the verse that is helping you fight and to become obedient and to fight a sin.

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    So you meditate on it and you think about it. Like I can be, like I mentioned, I can be judgy at work. But meditation and memorization can help me fight those things. So we live in a world of distraction and interruption and immediacy. And to take on projects like memorization and then to meditate on those words and think deeply about those words is so important.

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    And once again, Joshua 1 verse 8, it says, But you shall meditate in it day and night. To roll it over in your minds.

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    I've mentioned this before. When we were in San Diego, there's a song. But it talks about following things through to their logical end. I like that thought. The world doesn't like to do that. To follow things through to their logical end. Because one road leads to death. And we need to think deeply about things that lead to life.

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    Prayer. I don't know if anyone would say, My prayer life is perfect. All the time. Deeply meaningful. So it's all something I think we can all work on. I like this definition I heard about prayer. The writer said, Talking to God about the things you are working on together. So beginning your day and speaking to God in a reverent way.

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    Giving praise and thanksgiving. But saying, Here's the things I'm struggling with. Here's the things I need help with. Trying to memorize your word and meditate on it to help me. I've created time and space. But I need your help. I'm really struggling with this. And to talk to God. And to have that relationship.

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    Prayer can be tremendously transformational. If we use it. And we live in a society that provides little comfort and hope. I heard about this one. He was a Christian. Not a Christadelphian. And he was asked to give a message of hope to people. But he was told, But don't bring up Christianity.

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    And he said, I can't do it. There is no hope in this world. And I feel with the hope we have. You know, How would you do that? Give a message about hope in the world we live in. Where would you look? AI? The economy? Science? You know, We have 6 ,000 years of history of proving we are not in a good state.

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    There's one hope. And we can access it. And remind ourselves of it. And draw near to it through prayer. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cast your cares upon him. Seek help. And so being specific and intentional in our prayers.

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    Fellowship. Just the importance of being together like we are here. In your ecclesias as CYCs. Bible classes. We live in a world that makes just about every relationship transactional. And we need to be in a community of covenant. Yes, we're going to go through difficult things. But we need to be there for each other.

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    We went on that hike up that mountain. And we kind of got spread out. But Brother Nick was there at the back with Rachel and I, herding us on. You know, no person was going to be left behind. And it's just that relationship. We're there for each other. Helping each other. Encouraging each other.

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    And he distracted us from our pain by these great stories. It was wonderful. And then we got to the top and there's this fellowship up there. And we said a prayer and we watched the sunrise. And just joy of being together. You know, that's something I'm going to take with me and remember forever.

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    It was just wonderful. So we need to know that we're there for each other. We're going to continue to be with one another. Back to that John 13 verse 35. By this all people, people watching, they're going to know that you're disciples of Christ because you love one another.

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    And in Hebrews 10 verse 24 through 25. I've stirred up love and good works. And so if I'm struggling, I've gone through the commandments of Christ and I've recognized something I'm struggling with. And I can go to my brothers and sisters and say, here's what I need help with. What are you doing to help you with this?

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    Confessing our sins. Being encouraged. So important that we're together. Discipleship is not a solitary thing. It's meant to be done in community. And so we need to stick together and be there for one another.

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    Worship. The act of showing reverence and adoration. We need this. We need to fill our time and space with this. Because we live in a world that calls things sacred that are not sacred. And it blasphemes and ignores or denies that which is sacred. It has no care for our Heavenly Father. And so we need to come together.

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    And in that atmosphere, we need to be reminded, this is the one thing. Our Heavenly Father is worthy of worship. Now, thinking about this and bringing this intentionality into my life has helped me at Sunday meeting. Because sometimes I don't even think that it's about worship. I think it's about these rituals that we do and then we leave.

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    And I don't really think about the words in our hymns. But then coming to meeting and thinking, I'm worshiping my Heavenly Father. I'm starting to pay attention to those hymns and the words that we sing. And I'm thinking about the readings and glorifying God and thanking Him for His Word. And so bringing meaning to our meetings.

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    And then, once again, thinking about my particular commandment that I'm working on. How does that work into our worship of God? Even Jesus, not as I will, but as you will. He was obedient to God. He worshipped our Heavenly Father who is worthy of worship.

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    Why is that good for us? Why is it important? Because it establishes the correct position of our relationship with Him. He's worthy of worship, not me.

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    It's sad when we sometimes hear, I don't really like going to meeting because I don't like the songs we sing. And I don't feel uplifted. You say, oh, I didn't know we were worshipping you.

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    You're worshipping our Heavenly Father. And if you're not getting anything out of it, maybe I need to pour more into it. We are there to worship Him. To express our sentiments of gratitude and awe through words, song, rituals, symbols. It's so important.

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     Celebration. We just have a couple more to go through and then we'll wrap up. But celebration. The practice of actively rejoicing in God's goodness and greatness with others. You know, to be joyful. To enjoy a good laugh. And to share in sports. The things you do at Bible school. To celebrate together. It's wonderful to celebrate our God and His Son, to be joyful about these things because we should be the most joyful people in this world, and people need to see it.

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     We live in a world that celebrates actors and athletes, and we like to idolize actors and athletes. When I was a kid, I idolized Wayne Gretzky, and Wayne Gretzky used to take his jersey and tuck it in one side. And I think he used to shoot this way, and I tried to switch, and I couldn't, but I used to tuck my jersey in, and I had posters of him, and I idolized him.

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     We all are really good at imitation. We dress like our idols. If you're a musician, maybe you follow the same style that they play.

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     But actors and athletes, when our Heavenly Father is there to celebrate and to follow and be close to, we're told to rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice, to be so joyful in what we have. And so we direct our hearts and joy towards the things worthy of celebration.

104. 41:22

     Our last one, service. And there's many more. There's many more things you can fill that time with. You know, journaling. Some people journal. You know, we're not going to get to singing and all those other things, but filling that time, being intentional. So we need to attend to people's needs. We live in a world that serves self.

105. 41:41

     It's so focused on what's good for me. And we need to serve one another, because this is what our Master told us. If then your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.

106. 42:07

     And so to come together in different ways, and how can I help you? How can I serve in whatever way it is? And if I'm somebody who's struggling with judging, how can I serve that kid that instead of being critical of, how can I serve them and make their life better? If that family that I'm critical of is struggling, and I don't know their whole background, what can I do for that parent?

107. 42:31

     How can I serve them instead of being critical of them? And so you take whatever you're working on and you turn it into service. And it's good for us. You know, I think this is one of those things. You want a lighter life, an easier yoke? Serve one another. It doesn't sound counterintuitive, but it's actually better for us.

108. 42:54

     So I'm just going to close once again, coming back to what Paul said, that if we can clear time and space and fill it with the good things in this Word and in prayer and these different practices, hopefully the things of this world will grow strangely dim. And as Paul said it, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

109. 43:25

     For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.