September 30, 2022 Show with Reagan Rose on “Redeeming Productivity: Getting More Done for the Glory of God”

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Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation, to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions, and now here's your host,

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Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet

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Earth. We're listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday.

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Today is Friday, isn't it? I've been so busy lately that I'm losing track of time.

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Yes, Friday, September 30th, 2022, and I'm thrilled to have as my guest today, for the very first time,

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Reagan Rose, who received his MDiv from the Master's Seminary. He is former director of digital platforms for Grace to You, the media ministry of Dr.

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John MacArthur, and founder of Redeeming Productivity, a ministry which helps

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Christians develop a biblically grounded understanding of personal productivity so they can get more done for the glory of God.

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Today, we are addressing his book by the same title, Redeeming Productivity, Getting More Done for the

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Glory of God, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you, for the very first time ever, to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Reagan Rose.

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It's my privilege to be here. It's an honor for me. Well, the honor and pleasure is all mine, and I'm sure my audience, once they hear you lay out everything that you want them to know about Redeeming Productivity, they'll be very thrilled that you have been a guest here.

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First of all, tell us something about how you got involved in trying to help brothers and sisters in Christ redeem productivity.

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Was it because you already had a knack for this, something that you developed early on where you were organized and able to make the best proper use of your time?

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Or were you the opposite to that, like me, and in struggling to overcome a very lack of organization and putting things in their proper perspective and priority, had to learn to redeem productivity?

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Yeah, it was definitely the second one for me. My interest in productivity was born out of necessity.

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I am not a naturally organized person. I am not naturally diligent, quite the opposite.

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I actually, as a young man, my interest in it was born out of, basically,

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I was addicted to video games. I was very, very lazy, kind of neglecting responsibilities, not really taking my life serious as a young man.

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Lord kind of got a hold of me, and I realized I needed to grow up.

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I needed to start taking life seriously. If I was going to follow Christ, if I was going to live a life that mattered and glorified

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Him, I needed to learn how to manage my time. I started digging into a lot of the secular books on productivity,

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Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Getting Things Done by David Allen, a lot of these classics on time management, personal productivity.

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I did find so many things helpful in them. Many of the practical strategies and tactics

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I still use to this day, and I still teach. But as I spent years in those books and kind of honing and getting better at redeeming my time,

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I just over and over again was seeing that there was something missing right at the core of it.

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I joke often that you can't really get halfway into a book on productivity from a secular author before they tell you what the meaning of life is, and they're always wrong.

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They'll say the meaning of life is to get as much happiness as you can, or to get as much money as you can, or to become as successful as you can, or to get famous.

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Their reason for being productive is miles apart from the reason that a

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Christian wants to be productive. And that's really where Redeeming Productivity came out of, and even the name of it.

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I want to redeem productivity. I want to buy it back from the world, because I think productivity really is a biblical concept, and something that every

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Christian should be serious about. Well, we have a tradition here on Iron Trumpets Iron Radio.

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Whenever we have a first -time guest, we have that guest provide for our audience a summary of their salvation testimony.

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And that would include the kind of religious atmosphere in which you were raised, if any, and what kind of providential circumstances our

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Sovereign Lord raised up in your life that drew you to Himself and saved you.

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So, let's hear your story. Absolutely happy to share it. Yes, I was tremendously blessed in His kind providence.

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The Lord brought me into a family where both parents were

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Christians. Both actually served doing campus ministry and various Bible studies.

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They were students of the Word. And I was in a good church, too, that taught the

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Bible and preached the Gospel. And so I was privileged. The Lord drew me to Himself very early in life as a child.

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And I really do believe in hindsight that that really was when I was saved.

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I had heard the Gospel in night church, Sunday evening church. And the minister had shared the

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Gospel for who knows how many times I'd heard it at that point. And I came home and was speaking to my parents about it.

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And they ran me through the ringer asking questions about, OK, what do you think it means to give your life to Christ?

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What is this that you're actually wanting to do? And they explained everything.

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And with them, I prayed with them. And I think if it was at that moment, it was somewhere around then that I really did give my life to Christ.

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And He's been very, very faithful to me since then. Even as I've often wandered and strayed,

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He has continually brought me back. Continually showed Himself merciful and kind and forgiving.

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Because that's the kind of God that we serve. And so I've just been absolutely blessed to have that rich heritage of Christian faith and be in a string of very good churches throughout my life.

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Well, how did you get involved with Grace to You Ministries and also the

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Master's Seminary? Yeah, that's an interesting story, actually. Because I am not from California.

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I am from Michigan. I grew up in the Detroit area. That's where I'm living again now. And I did not know who

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John MacArthur was until in my 20s. And actually, this is a story of the

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Lord's kindness to me in preserving my faith. Is I spent a season of my college years in Grand Rapids going to a church by someone who

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I think we would consider a heretic now. It was the Mars Hill Church with Rob Bell.

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And I was a part of that emerging church movement. I thought that it was all great sunshine and roses in my ignorance as a young man.

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And in that church, they were teaching that you couldn't really know what the

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Bible meant by what it said. That it was unclear that God had attempted to reveal

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Himself through Scripture but we need to be humble and recognize that we can't really know what it means.

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As if the sovereign God of all the universe ever attempts to do anything.

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Amen! I actually wrote a thread this week on Twitter talking about the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture.

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Because that's exactly what that movement, the emerging church, came after.

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As they were saying, the Bible's not clear. But, you know, there's a quote from John MacArthur.

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He says, God's Word is a revelation, not an obfuscation. And that really was what led me to MacArthur's ministry,

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Grace to You. I was coming out of this movement, I was realizing something was wrong with it. That his view of the

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Word of God was wrong. And lo and behold, one night I was driving and I turned on the radio and there was

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Grace to You and there was this man explaining what the Bible meant and saying that you could understand it.

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Saying, this is what this means. And I remember, to be honest with you, the first thing I thought was well, how arrogant of him to think he knows what the

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Bible means. Because that's what I've been taught in this movement that I was coming out of. But, you know,

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I really think it was the Spirit's work in me that kept me listening. I tuned in every evening and I just kept listening and kept listening.

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And then I started finding the resources online. I started buying books from MacArthur. Found out that he had a seminary and I was looking up the professors and their books.

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And this was over several years, maybe five years or so. I was getting more and more excited about the

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Word of God and studying it. And I was beginning to teach it to college students at my church and on a local college campus.

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I was going there and evangelizing and reading Bible studies. And then my wife and I, we started praying about going to seminary.

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I said, I need to get equipped if I'm going to teach the Word of God faithfully. And there was only one seminary for me.

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I wanted to go to the Master's Seminary. And again, Lord, in His graciousness and kind providence,

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He led a family that didn't really even know us that well to completely scholarship me to attend the seminary.

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And so three months after we had decided, hey, I think we want to try to figure out how to go to seminary someday, we had packed our bags up and we were driving across the country to California.

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And so that's how I ended up at the seminary. And then after finishing my education there,

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I moved over to Grace View and began working there in digital platform.

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Now, when did you come to the Doctrines of Sovereign Grace? Was it before you enrolled in the

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Master's Seminary or was it during your being a student there? That's a great question.

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It was before that. It was after I'd been introduced to MacArthur and listening to him.

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And I was reading him. I was reading and watching a lot of R .C. Sproul. I read

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John Piper's books. He had Desiring God, his big one from 1985,

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I believe. And so I was getting introduced to these things and understanding more about what the gospel was.

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Before I moved out to the seminary, I was a committed Calvinist.

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Well, I always love hearing that. It's music to my ears. Well, this book that we are going to be addressing today has some endorsements by people that I know personally and have interviewed on this program and have received glowing commendations for this program from them which you can read on my website, ironsharpensironradio .com.

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But I'd like to read first Nate Pickowitz's endorsement.

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He is one of my favorite authors, one of my favorite guests to interview. And looking forward to my next opportunity to hear him preach at a conference.

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But Nate says about this book we are addressing Redeeming Productivity, Getting More Done for the

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Glory of God. Before I entered pastoral ministry, I spent several years working in the business world.

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In keeping step with other successful businessmen in my office, I read numerous books on how to increase sales, manage my time, stay motivated, and make lots of money.

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However, none of these practices truly helped me or gave glory to God.

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In many ways, it felt like I was running on a hamster wheel, chasing productivity, but not really knowing why.

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As I grew in my knowledge and love of the Lord, my focus began to change.

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Having had this previous experience, I was overjoyed and thankful to read

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Reagan Rose's book, Redeeming Productivity. He gives voice to the issue of being productive, not simply for one's own good, but for God's ultimate glory.

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Not only does Reagan give a bevy of helpful tools for personal efficiency, but he grounds the whole book in the

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Word of God. This is an invaluable resource that I wish I had two decades ago.

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However, I'm glad it's here now. And another endorser of this book, someone that should not be a stranger to the

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Iron Sherpa's Iron Radio audience, another former guest on this program,

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Chris Larson, who is president and CEO of Ligonier Ministries, the ministry founded by the late

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Dr. R .C. Sproul. Chris says, Fruitful labor is a gift from the Lord, as He graciously works in and through His people for His good pleasure.

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Productivity is not so much a science to be studied, but a prayerful discipline to cultivate.

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Entrusting our service to the faithful Lord of the harvest, who is always working in our lives, in our families, in our churches, and in our communities.

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In this insightful book, Reagan Rose distills biblical wisdom as we pursue productivity, not for our glory, but for God alone.

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Two very powerful endorsements for this book that should be reason for our audience to have their appetites whetted and for them to want to get a hold of this.

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What immediately came to mind while reading these commendations, especially when reading

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Nate Pickowitz's commendation, is my many years in the

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Christian broadcasting field prior to becoming a talk show host.

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I was, for 15 years, an account executive for the world's largest

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Christian radio network, the Salem Media Corporation. And while employed there, we would frequently have to attend conferences and seminars that would involve things like the concept of redeeming productivity.

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And as good as these men were in the secular realm, at least that's what has been claimed by many people who swear by them, who claim that their careers didn't even really launch until following the advice and counsel of these famous men that have written books on this sort of thing,

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I always left those events feeling let down and being very disappointed in the fact that some of these men, not all, some of these men and women who were the keynote speakers professed to be

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Christian, and yet their worldview and the heart of their beliefs seem to be at odds with very crucial

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Christian concepts. So I am also very glad that you have written a book that appears from what

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Nate and Chris have said, because I have not yet received the book from the publisher.

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This is a very late minute booking of our guest today, and I thank him for so quickly being interested in being on the show.

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He comes to us by the enthusiastic recommendations of my webmaster and other people

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I know. But I'm glad to hear what they have said. These are two men whose opinions

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I trust and whose discernment I respect and highly regard. Have you found this in your own life that very often when you are in, especially if you are in a business that is involved in sales and productivity is obviously an extremely important factor in whether or not, not only do you get bonuses and get superior positions granted to you in whatever field it may be, in whatever corporation or business you're working for, but your very job is at stake when you are involved in things like that.

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And have you personally been disappointed, as I have been, and as Nate has been, by being told by your employees, follow the advice and counsel of these experts, and you leave there saying,

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I'm wondering if that person who claimed to be a Christian was even regenerate. Yeah, no, it is such a, there seems to be a disconnect so often, and I have seen that as well.

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Even when Christians will speak about the subject of productivity, I just think that they are, many of them don't think deeply about it.

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They're just kind of parroting what the world says, and they're not realizing how many assumptions they're importing with that that are actually unbiblical assumptions.

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And that's a lot of what I get into in the book, is what is it about the way that Christians should think about productivity biblically that's different than how the world thinks about it?

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And I kind of sum this up, and I call them the five pillars. They're the foundation of a biblical worldview of productivity, as I think of them.

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And the first one is the origin of productivity. So why do I want to be productive?

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What's the purpose? And I touched on this earlier, but the assumption of the world is you want to be productive so you can be more successful.

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And it's almost not even said. It's just assumed. Like, of course, that's why you do it. That's why it often is so much in a business context, because more productivity equals more profit.

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But for the Christian, that's not the case. Our ultimate motivation for being productive, the origin of our desire to be productive, is because we belong to God.

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We're His. Our lives, therefore, are a stewardship. So I think that's absolutely missing, even often in Christians' understanding of productivity, is it's not your life.

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You're not trying to make the most of the time so that you can turn a bigger profit or do better in your career.

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You're making the most of the time because it's not your life to begin with. It's on loan to you from the

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God of the universe. What are some of the initial things that you, as a person who, like me, the difference between you and me, is that this is something that is from your past, not your present, like me.

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One of the first things that you realized, this is the number one thing that I've got to change in my life to increase productivity in what

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God has called me to do and what field God has placed me in in order to bring

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Him greater glory. What was the initial thing, or perhaps even things, plural, that began to fall like dominoes in your life that you had to transform by the help and grace of God?

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Yeah. Yeah, I'll give you kind of a two -party answer to that. The one,

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I think, on a very just practical, tactical level, when I look at the single thing that I changed that really was that lead domino that led to my life getting a lot more organized, a lot more on track, and a lot more committed to living each moment for God, if I could nail it down to one practice, it was having a morning routine.

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It's life -changing to wake up and have a plan for how you're going to spend the first hour or two of your day.

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I never did that. I would wake up at the last minute. I'd barely get a shower in and brush my teeth and get my clothes on before I was out the door.

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But what happened was I was realizing that because I wasn't planning for the morning,

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I wasn't carving out some time, my devotional life was inconsistent, so I wasn't spending time in prayer or in the

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Word every day because once your day gets going, so many things just get pushed to the side by things that are more urgent.

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It affected other areas too, not just my spiritual life. I wasn't exercising. I wasn't spending much time reading.

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So what I always tell people, if you want to look at one sort of lever to pull that's going to give you maximum impact, examine your morning.

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What do you do when you first get up? Do you speak to the Lord? Do you pray? Do you study the

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Word? Do you plan the day ahead? I talk about this some in the book as well, kind of a strategy for actually mapping out a good morning routine.

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But what I found was once I got that straightened out, everything else kind of fell right in a row behind it.

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I was a lot more organized. I was a lot more thoughtful with what I was working on each day, so I was able to make more progress.

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But the other part of that answer is I think it comes from how you define productivity.

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This is a thing I make a big deal about is what does it even mean to be productive?

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I think a lot of times our minds go to the Industrial Revolution.

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We think of factories. Maybe we're here in Detroit, so I think a lot about Henry Ford and the assembly line.

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Productivity in an industrial or mechanical sense, it's really about efficiency.

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How do you maximize the output per unit of input? How do I turn out more

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Model Ts? How do I do more of X? Then we kind of extrapolated that into the knowledge worker world in the office.

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How do I be productive at my desk job so I can do whatever I do but do more of it in less time?

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Is productivity just about efficiency? I think that if we go back a little bit and look at the type of metaphors that even

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Jesus used when he talked about productivity, because this is a case I make in the book, that productivity means fruitfulness.

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It's about fruit. Instead of taking a mechanical metaphor and thinking of productivity as purely as efficiency, like in a factory, we should think of it as fruitfulness, like in a vineyard or an orchard.

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When you start thinking about it like that, it changes your view of even what it means to be productive.

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One place I find this, I think, is in John 15, when Jesus talks about him being the vine and us being the branches.

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In verse 5, he says, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

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For apart from me you can do nothing. And so he that abides in Christ bears much fruit.

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I see productivity there. There's fruit, but there's not just a little bit, it's a lot. But it comes from our relationship, our closeness to Christ.

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And so true believers are connected to Christ and true believers should and will seek to cultivate that relationship, seek to stay close to that source of spiritual vitality and when that happens, we will be productive, we will produce much fruit in our lives.

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And so all of that's a long way of saying that the main thing you need to focus on when it comes to productivity as a

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Christian is your walk with Christ. If you walk closely with him, you will produce the type of fruit that pleases him, that glorifies him, and that laughs.

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Even if your business endeavors flop, even if you don't stay organized this week, even if your to -do list doesn't get done, if you're walking closely with Christ, you will naturally and organically be producing the type of fruit that pleases him and that's really what it's all about.

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And we have to go to our first break right now if anybody would like to send in a question to our guest

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Reagan Rose on redeeming productivity. Our email address is chrizarnsen at gmail .com

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C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com Give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence.

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Don't go away, we'll be right back with Reagan Rose right after these messages. Hi, I'm Pete Hegseth, co -host of Fox and Friends Weekend.

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Now I don't have to tell you, but American education, it's in a free fall, crumbling under the weight of a century of damage inflicted upon America's academic system.

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The answer, it's called classical Christian education, a form of K -12 ed that's very distinct from the type of education most

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Americans have received, myself included. And that's why I'm so excited to have been invited by my friends at Long Island's Grace Christian Academy to talk about this wonderful, growing movement and new approach rediscovered to education.

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It's at 7 p .m. October 15th at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Melville, New York. I'll also be signing copies of my

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New York Times best -selling book, Battle for the American Mind, for the first 50 guests, starting at 6 p .m.

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Now this is a fundraising event designed to raise money to help grow this type of education at a time when it is so desperately needed.

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So please come ready to give and to learn about a way to stimulate academic revival in our great country.

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You can purchase tickets for the event by visiting GCALI, G -C -A -L -I dot com and following the link to the gala event.

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I hope to see you there. Satan is the father of lies and spin.

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And the mother of those lies is a government who has rejected God. We have especially been lied to these last two years and the

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COVID panic has been one of the central mechanisms that our government has used to lie to us and grab more power.

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Because Christians have not been reading their Bibles, we are susceptible to lies and are weak in our ability to fight these lies.

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God has given us His Word to fight Satan and his lies and we need to recover all of God's Word, its serrated edge and all.

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Mark your calendars for October 6th through 8th as we fight, laugh and feast to the glory of God in Knoxville, Tennessee.

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You'll be enlightened, edified, encouraged and challenged by 10 speakers on the themes

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Lies, Propaganda, Storytelling and the Serrated Edge covering various topics that address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Speakers include Pastor Doug Wilson of Christ Church of Moscow, Idaho and the whole gang at the

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Cross Politics Show and Podcast. For details, visit F -L -F

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Network dot com. That's F for Fight, L for Laugh, F for Feast Network dot com.

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See you there October 6th through 8th in Knoxville, Tennessee. Have you noticed the gap that exists between the

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Sunday morning sermon and the Sunday school classroom or the small group study? So often we experience great preaching from the pulpit but when it comes time to study

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God's Word in those smaller settings, well let's be honest, it leaves a lot to be desired.

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It seems like it is nearly impossible to find good curriculum out there today that is true to the

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Word of God and is built upon sound doctrine. Much less it's hard to find curriculum that will actually teach people how to study the

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Bible. Hi there, my name is Jordan Too and I am the Executive Director of the Baptist Publishing House.

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Our ministry is dedicated to providing local churches with sound Bible study resources.

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Our quarterly curriculum is titled The Baptist Expositor and for good reason, we are

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Baptist and we exegete the scriptures. If you want to have a curriculum that teaches your people how to study the

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Word of God, I invite you, go to our website, download a free study, baptistpublishinghouse .com.

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May God bless you. It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron radio listeners from all over the world.

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Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed,

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Dr. Joe Moorcraft. I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener here in Atai in County Kildare, Ireland.

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Going back to 2005, one of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is

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Dr. Joe Moorcraft. If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron radio, Dr. Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Plumbing, Georgia are largely to thank, since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.

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Heritage Presbyterian Church of Plumbing is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

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Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church, unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards, and Dr.

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Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight -volume commentary on the larger catechism. Heritage is a member of the

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Hanover Presbytery, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, and tracing its roots and heritage back to the great

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Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Heritage maintains and follows the biblical truth and principles proclaimed by the reformers, scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone,

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Christ alone, and God's glory alone. Their primary goal is the worship of the Triune God that continues in eternity.

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For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Plumbing, Georgia, visit HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com.

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That's HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com or call 678 -954 -7831.

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That's 678 -954 -7831. If you visit, have them

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Reformed guests that Chris Arnzen has on the show. Truth is so hard to come by these days, so don't waste your time with fluff or fake news.

36:05

Subscribe to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio podcast right now. And while you're at it, you can also sign up for the

36:10

ReformRookie .com podcast and visit our website and the YouTube page. We are dedicated to teaching

36:16

Christian theology from a Reformed Baptist perspective to beginners in the faith as well as seasoned believers.

36:22

From Keech's Catechism and the Doctrines of Grace to the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Leviticus, the

36:28

Reform Rookie podcast and YouTube channel is sure to have something to offer everyone seeking biblical truth.

36:34

And finally, if you're looking to worship in a Reformed church that holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, please join us at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham, New York.

36:45

Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Invinio, and thanks for listening. When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

37:02

New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the

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NASB. This is Darrell Bernard Harrison, co -host of the Just Thinking podcast and the

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NASB podcast. The NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Tom Buck at First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Kent Keller of Faith Bible Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Andrew Rapport, the founder and executive director at Striving for Eternity Ministries, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Mark Rimaldi, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Greenbrier, Tennessee, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Christopher Cookston, pastor of Prineville Community Church in Prineville, Oregon, and the

38:07

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Matt Tarr, pastor of High Point Baptist Church in Larksville, Pennsylvania, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. Here's a great way for your church to help keep

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Pastors, are your pew Bibles tattered and falling apart?

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Consider restocking your pews with the NASB, and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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Go to nasbible .com. That's nasbible .com to place your order.

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If you love Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, one of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by supporting our advertisers.

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One such faithful advertiser who really believes in what Chris Arnzen is doing is

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Daniel P. Patafuoco, serious injury lawyer and Christian apologist.

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Dan is the president and founder of the Historical Bible Society. Their mission?

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To foster belief in the credibility of Scripture as the written Word of God. They go to various churches, schools, and institutions to publicly display a rare collection of Biblical texts along with a fascinating presentation by Mr.

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You can have your own copy of this 44 -page genealogy book for a donation of $35 or more.

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Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio on the air. We here at Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio praise

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Sterling Vanderwerker, owner of Royal Diadem Jewelers, his wife, Bronnie, his business partner and manager,

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And I've got great news. Royal Diadem Jewelers is extending their offer for every purchase you make of $100 or more from Royal Diadem Jewelers, 100 % of the profits will go directly to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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Whether you're purchasing something that they already have in stock, whether you're having an engagement ring custom designed, or you're having any other kind of jewelry custom design, let's say you want to take your logo from your church, or your denomination, or your seminary, and you want to turn it into a pendant for a necklace, or a ring, or some other piece of jewelry.

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They do masterful work, I've seen it firsthand. The second oldest son of the woman who led me to Christ, Joe, he had a cross pendant custom designed with a crown of thorns on it by Royal Diadem Jewelers, and it's mind -blowing when you see it.

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It's absolutely breathtaking, and they did exactly what he wanted. When they continued to show him images of it on his computer, he would make changes here and there, and then they finally produced the final product that absolutely shocked him in a good way, because it far exceeded his expectations, as the ad said.

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So go to royaldiadem .com, royaldiadem .com. Please, if you have any intention to order jewelry for yourself or someone you love, please try to do that soon, so that Iron Sharpens Iron Radio will still receive 100 % of the profits from your purchase.

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And always, obviously, remember to mention that you heard about royaldiadem .com from Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

44:34

We're now back with our guest, Reagan Rose, discussing his book, Redeeming Productivity, Getting More Done for the

44:43

Glory of God. Our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com, chrisarnzen at gmail .com.

44:49

As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

44:54

USA. We have Ted in Moundville, Alabama, who says, I was interested by your guest's background in the emerging slash emergent church.

45:06

I was curious to know if, number one, he thinks that anything of positive value came out from the emergent church experience, and number two, if he thinks there have been lasting negative effects of the emergent church on contemporary evangelical belief and practice.

45:25

And if that is the case, he wants to know what those lasting negative effects are.

45:33

So, first start with the positive, if any, and then the negative. Yeah, you know, I think the first one he asked, if there were any lasting positive effects,

45:43

I do think that what the emerging church came out of, what they were criticizing, was basically the megachurch model that we had seen in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s, you know, the

45:58

Willow Creek, the big, huge, attractional, seeker -sensitive thing.

46:04

And I think that the criticism was correct. And so I think in that sense, there is a positive that came out of it.

46:13

They were trying to figure out a way to not go that route of like the entertainment -based, just bring people in and then hope that they get converted later kind of model.

46:25

So I think that their original idea was good. I just think the way they went about it, undermining

46:32

Scripture particularly, was not good. So I don't know if there's a lasting impact, like a specific positive thing

46:41

I could point to, except for that they drew attention to some of the problems that were in that seeker -sensitive church model, and it did need to be critiqued.

46:53

So as far as the lasting negative effects that you think are experienced by those who were involved in it, do you think that that far outweighs anything good that happened?

47:09

Yeah, I mean, my bias is towards the negative on it because it was such a negative experience for me.

47:16

I know many, many people who were in that movement who apostatized.

47:22

They walked away from the faith because at least the expression of the emerging, slash, emergent church that I was in was very much eroding the foundation of the authority of God's Word in our lives.

47:38

And so without a foundation, you just fall. So I think that those repercussions are still being felt by many, many people because it just was an assault on the clarity of Scripture, and even though many of the luminaries of that movement have since fallen away,

47:58

I mean, a lot of them apostatized themselves, I think the effects are still being felt by a lot of people, sadly.

48:07

Yeah, it's tarnished the reputation of Reformed churches because that movement, much of it was closely aligned in some way with Reformed theology and churches, and there were men whose reputation for being very discerning has been tarnished, men who applauded some of the leaders of that movement initially, and even co -authored books with them.

48:37

Yeah, absolutely. It really is. The whole thing is a very, very sad chapter,

48:43

I think, in the history of the church and the Reform movement as well. I think there's a cautionary tale there that so many people were so eager to get on board with this movement that was criticizing something that did need to be criticized, and in that eagerness,

49:03

I think that a lot of discernment was set aside. There was a lot of red flags for the guys who were big names in this movement, a lot of them, and people shouldn't be surprised that they ended up crashing and burning in the end because the evidences were there from the start, from the people that were close to them, and it just goes to show that we need to just stick closely to God's Word.

49:30

We have to avoid wanting to get in line with some novel movement or some big, huge thing that looks like it's going to be the next thing.

49:41

I think a lot of it was driven by the big Eva desire to be hip and cool.

49:48

I think a lot of that was behind it, trying to find some way to be more interesting or accepted by the culture as a whole.

49:58

There was a lot of things mixed in there, and it's just a sad tale. Thanks, Ted.

50:05

Give us your full mailing address in Moundville, Alabama, and we'll have Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com,

50:12

ship a copy of this book out to you as a gift to you from Moody Publishers and a gift to you from cvbbs .com.

50:23

We'll be shipping it out to you at no cost to you or to Iron Trip and Zion Radio. We have an anonymous listener who says,

50:31

I am remaining anonymous because the business I am involved in that is owned and operated by Christians has used motivational speakers for the employees like the ones

50:45

Chris Arnzen mentioned earlier that he was subjected to working in the radio industry.

50:51

Some of what I have heard said to me is if we are going to honor Christ in whatever business or field or career we are in, we should imitate what those who are most successful in that organization or field do because of their success and our being successful as well will be a very thing that lets the world know that God has blessed us in what we are doing.

51:23

I find it difficult to swallow that, not that everything about that statement is wrong.

51:30

We can even learn from those individuals in the business realm who are lost if they are successful at what they do and are not violating anything that God commands, but at the same time to use that as a statement of fact in all areas of how we can deduct ourselves to achieve success to me is dangerous and I was wondering what your guest thinks.

51:59

In fact, we are going to have you answer that question when we return from our midway break because I don't want to cut you off in mid -sentence, brother.

52:08

Okay, sounds good. So Anonymous, please be patient with us. We are going to our midway break right now and remember folks, this is the longer than normal break in the show because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1

52:18

FM in Lake City, Florida requires of us a longer break in the middle of the show because the FCC requires of them to localize this show and all of their programming geographically to Lake City, Florida and therefore they air their own public service announcements and other local things in the middle of the show while we simultaneously air our globally heard commercials.

52:42

So please use this time wisely. Please write down as much of the contact information that our advertisers provide so that you can more frequently and successfully respond to our advertisers and hopefully that will often mean that you are buying their products and using their services, supporting their parachurch organizations and visiting their churches.

53:02

But when you can't do any of those things, please do one thing that you can do. If you really love the show and are grateful that there are people and organizations out there that share some of the wealth that God has blessed them with us, if you're really grateful for that, thank our advertisers for sponsoring this show because without our advertisers we would not and could not exist.

53:27

So please spend the time or take the time out of your schedule to respond to our advertisers, thank them, and also write in questions to our guest,

53:38

Reagan Rose, on redeeming productivity and send them to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

53:46

Give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Reagan Rose after these messages.

53:53

Hi, I'm Pete Hegseth, co -host of Fox and Friends Weekend. Now, I don't have to tell you, but American education, it's in a free fall, crumbling under the weight of a century of damage inflicted upon America's academic system.

54:07

The answer? It's called classical Christian education, a form of K -12 ed that's very distinct from the type of education most

54:15

Americans have received, myself included. And that's why I'm so excited to have been invited by my friends at Long Island's Grace Christian Academy to talk about this wonderful, growing movement and new approach rediscovered to education.

54:31

It's at 7 p .m. October 15th at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Melville, New York. I'll also be signing copies of my

54:38

New York Times bestselling book, Battle for the American Mind, for the first 50 guests starting at 6 p .m.

54:45

Now, this is a fundraising event designed to raise money to help grow this type of education at a time when it is so desperately needed.

54:53

So please come ready to give and to learn about a way to stimulate academic revival in our great country.

55:00

You can purchase tickets for the event by visiting gcali .com and following the link to the gala event.

55:08

I hope to see you there. Hi, this is John Sampson, pastor of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona.

55:15

Taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnzen and the Arn Sharpen's Iron podcast. I consider

55:21

Chris a true friend and a man of high integrity. He's a skilled interviewer who's not afraid to ask the big penetrating questions while always defending the key doctrines of the

55:31

Christian faith. I've always been happy to point people to this podcast knowing it's one of the very few safe places on the internet where folk won't be led astray.

55:40

I believe this podcast needs to be heard far and wide. This is a day of great spiritual compromise and yet God has raised

55:47

Chris up for just such a time. Knowing this, it's up to us as members of the body of Christ to stand with such a ministry in prayer and in finances.

55:56

I'm pleased to do so and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining me in supporting

56:01

Arn Sharpen's Iron financially. Would you consider sending either a one -time gift or even becoming a regular monthly partner with this ministry?

56:10

I know it would be a huge encouragement to Chris if you would. All the details can be found at ArnSharpen'sIronRadio .com

56:17

where you can click support. That's Arn Sharpen's Iron Radio. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

56:28

If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough, you know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity.

56:38

And besides that, they feel so good. I'm so delighted I discovered Post Tenebrous Lux Bible Rebinding.

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No radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently, but I'll give it a shot. Jeffrey Rice of Post Tenebrous Lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan.

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All his work is done by hand from the cutting to the pleating of corners to the perimeter stitching.

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Jeffrey uses the finest in buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors like the turquoise goatskin tanned in Italy used for my

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Nessie Olin 28th edition with a navy blue goatskin inside liner and the electric blue goatskin from a

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French tannery used to rebind a Reformation study Bible I used as a gift. The silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome.

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Jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications and even emboss your logo into the leather making whatever he rebinds a one -of -a -kind work of art.

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For more details on Post Tenebrous Lux Bible Rebinding go to ptlbiblerebinding .com

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That's ptlbiblerebinding .com Linbrook Baptist Church on 225

57:59

Earl Avenue in Linbrook, Long Island is teaching God's timeless truths in the 21st century. Our church is far more than a

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It's like a gym where one can exercise their faith through community involvement. It's like a hospital for wounded souls where one can find compassionate people and healing.

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We're a diverse family of all ages enthusiastically serving our Lord Jesus Christ in fellowship, play, and together.

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Hi, I'm Pastor Bob Walderman and I invite you to come and join us here at Linbrook Baptist Church and see all that a church can be.

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Call Linbrook Baptist at 516 -599 -9402 That's 516 -599 -9402 or visit linbrookbaptist .org

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That's linbrookbaptist .org Every day at thousands of community centers, high schools, middle schools, juvenile institutions, coffee shops, and local hangouts,

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Long Island Youth for Christ staff and volunteers meet with young people who need Jesus.

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We are rural and urban and we are always about the message of Jesus. Our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on Long Island, New York by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following Christ.

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Long Island Youth for Christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959. We have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world.

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Help honor our history by becoming a part of our future. Volunteer, donate, pray, or all of the above.

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01:05:02

Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee. Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support

01:05:11

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio financially. Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture through the person and work of our

01:05:28

Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, the end for which we strive is the glory of God.

01:05:35

If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe ten minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some

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Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior. Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin.

01:05:57

Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org, that's gracechurchatfranklin .org.

01:06:06

This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our

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Sovereign Lord, God, Savior, and King, Jesus Christ, today and always.

01:06:27

When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

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New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience have been sticking with, or switching to, the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Dan LeBennick of West Hills Baptist Church in Huntington Station, New York, and the

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I'm Pastor Ryan Galan of Central Islip Community Church in Central Islip, New York, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. Here's a great way for your church to help keep

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Go to nasbible .com. That's nasbible .com to place your order.

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Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read.

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He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.

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James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. That's solid -ground -books .com, purchased generously, purchased frequently, always mentioned.

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You heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Before I return to my guest,

01:09:53

Reagan Rose, on our theme of redeeming productivity, I just have a couple of very important announcements to make.

01:10:02

First of all, if you love the show, folks, you don't want it to disappear, I'm urging you, please go to ironsharpensironradio .com,

01:10:11

click support, then click, click to donate. Now, you can donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion.

01:10:19

And if you prefer snail mail, sending in a physical check to a physical address, there will also be a physical address that appears on your screen when you click support at ironsharpensironradio .com

01:10:31

and make the checks payable to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. If you want to advertise with us, as long as whatever it is you desire to promote is compatible with what

01:10:41

I believe, I'd be more than thrilled to help you launch an ad campaign because we are just as much in urgent need of your advertising dollars as we are in your donations.

01:10:50

So, send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line. Please remember folks, never dig into or cut out of your allotment, your budget that you have set aside financially to give to your own local church in order to give to us.

01:11:12

In other words, don't give your own church less money than you're accustomed to giving them in order to bless us with a financial gift.

01:11:18

Please never do that. Also, please, if you are really struggling to survive and make ends meet, please wait till you're back on your feet and more stable financially before you send in a financial gift to us.

01:11:33

Providing for your church and family are commandments of God. Providing for my radio show is not a commandment of God.

01:11:40

But, if you love the show, you have extra money collecting interest in the bank, you have extra money for benevolent, recreational, and trivial matters, please share some of that money with us if you love the show and don't want us to disappear.

01:11:53

We have been hit hard financially ever since COVID. I'm just assuming that many people in our audience may have lost their jobs, they may have had to shut down their businesses, but something radical has happened to shrink the giving that we've been receiving quite radically.

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So, please, if you're able to, please bless us. We need your help. There are folks, I know, who have listened to this program for many years who just decide not to give.

01:12:23

I don't know why. If they love the show, they don't do that. But we need your help, folks. Please go to www .ironsharpensironradio

01:12:30

.com, click support, then click click to donate now. Also, if you are not a member of a

01:12:36

Christ -honoring, biblically faithful, theologically sound, doctrinally solid church, no matter where on the planet

01:12:43

Earth you live, I have lists, extensive lists spanning the globe of biblically faithful churches, and I've helped many people in our audience in all parts of the world find churches, even sometimes within just a few minutes from their own homes.

01:12:58

That may be you if you send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line.

01:13:05

And that goes for anybody that you know and love that does not have a Christ -honoring church home.

01:13:11

That's chrisarnson at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line. And that's also the email address to send in a question to our guest

01:13:19

Reagan Rose on redeeming productivity. chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com,

01:13:25

give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence. Before the break, you may remember,

01:13:30

Reagan, that there was a listener, anonymous listener, who said that the

01:13:38

Christian -owned company for which he or she works has said that the way we glorify

01:13:46

God here is to imitate what the best people in our field do, the most successful people in our field, because by being successful ourselves, we are going to be bringing greater glory to God.

01:14:03

So we just should be imitating them. And although even the listener, the anonymous listener, acknowledged that it's not wrong to imitate in certain ways and circumstances even what lost people do that brings them success in a certain sphere of life as long as we are not sinning, as long as we're not violating

01:14:26

God's commands and so on. But at the same time, is that not a dangerous motto, because of the wrong way it may be applied by those who hear that kind of motto?

01:14:41

Yeah, no, it's a very good question, because it is a complicated thing, because it's not completely wrong.

01:14:50

It is true that when Christians do experience success, even in temporal matters, that often is a blessing from God.

01:15:03

I mean, we see that in the life of Solomon and others, but what the listener is describing sounds actually very similar to the prosperity gospel even in how it thinks about this sort of transitional way of looking at temporal blessing.

01:15:25

And even the seeker -sensitive movement. People will say, we have 30 members in our church, and the gigantic structure down the road, the

01:15:37

Behemoth building that has 10 ,000 people who are members or attending that church, they must be doing something more correctly than we are, so we should start imitating them.

01:15:53

And very often, now it's not always the case, there are very large churches like the one that our hero,

01:15:59

Dr. John MacArthur, pastors, that do not compromise truth or hang goat bait out the windows to attract goats into their numbers.

01:16:13

So we know that numeric size, even if it's astronomically large, doesn't automatically mean that there's somebody in the leadership of a church that's compromising or deceiving people with false teaching.

01:16:30

But that very often is the case. Even Dr. MacArthur would admit that. And there are churches that actually dwarf

01:16:38

Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California in size, and very often, they are giving a smooth and easy gospel, which is no real gospel at all.

01:16:48

They are just trying to reassure people that if they follow Christ, their lives will improve in every way.

01:16:56

And they never speak about sin, they never challenge and charge the listeners to repent, they never discipline people, especially if they're making a lot of money and contributing a large portion of that money to the church, and we could go on and on, why that would be an ungodly way of imitating what the world views as success.

01:17:21

Yeah, my mind went to the seeker -sensitive church as well, because I think it is a similar principle as at work.

01:17:31

I often refer to this as the idol of excellence. And again, excellence is a good thing, but we have this tendency to define excellence not how

01:17:42

God defines it, and that leads to pragmatism, which is, I think, the philosophical problem with the seeker -sensitive church, is they said success, or excellence, equals more people in the church.

01:17:57

Therefore, we will get more people by any means necessary, and then we're successful. I think a very similar thing, it sounds like, is going on at this listener's company, where they're defining success or excellence only in terms of the outcome.

01:18:14

If revenue goes up, if the business does well, then we've done excellent, we've succeeded. But that's not how

01:18:19

God defines success or excellence. It's not just about the outcome, it's about how you did it, it's about faithfulness, it's about why you did it.

01:18:30

And we have to follow God's method in order to truly be successful and to truly do things with excellence.

01:18:39

That's how God's looking at it. And sometimes, and very often, there are wisdom principles that when you conduct yourself in a certain manner in this world, we read about this in the

01:18:51

Proverbs, you tend to enjoy temporal success.

01:18:57

That's just a tendency, because that's how God has designed the world. It's not a promise, it's not always going to happen. But if you do things faithfully, thinking properly about it, seeking to honor the

01:19:09

Lord in everything, not cutting corners, not just imitating what the world does in their practices, but seeking in all things to honor

01:19:16

God, you will be much more greatly blessed in that God will be honored by that.

01:19:23

And you may enjoy temporal success from those things, but that's not a guarantee.

01:19:30

And that's more important anyway, that the world would look at that and look at our righteousness, and that ultimately honors

01:19:35

God, not the temporal success. Yes. And there are times, even, when

01:19:43

Christians who are involved in sales, for instance, which has been my primary source of employment for most of my adult life, advertising sales, there may be

01:19:56

Christians who are even tempted to exaggerate the truth or even outright lie to potential clients, and that may bring temporal success.

01:20:08

You may make a lot of sales, but it's actually, even if you were to remove a

01:20:14

Christian ethic and what God commands us to do and forbids us to do, it's even stupid in the realm of secular society for a salesman, because that may bring you temporal success, but what happens when these people realize that you have exaggerated or lied in your claims?

01:20:34

Are they going to return to you? No! No, that's one of the reasons why, when

01:20:40

I have a number of folks from different spheres of business and churches and parachurch organizations who have contacted me in regarding wanting to advertise on Iron Trip and Zion Radio, and I tell them right up front that the thing that should be the greatest motivation for you to advertise with Iron Trip and Zion Radio is that you love this show and want it to continue.

01:21:12

The number of customers or visitors or attendees or whatever it is you're trying to achieve through your advertiser cannot be the goal with my particular vehicle for advertising, because I can't promise anything like that.

01:21:28

I can point to my listeners that Solid Ground Christian Books is doing remarkably well in their results for advertising.

01:21:38

They have new customers every month, and a lot of them, and new sales, and the owner and operator,

01:21:45

Mike Gaydosh of Solid Ground Christian Books, sometimes has kept me on the phone for long periods of time reading very lengthy lists of these people.

01:21:55

But do I make sense that even though we should always be thinking first and foremost about honoring and obeying

01:22:03

Christ, sometimes when we disobey Christ, it's even foolish in a completely secular realm, am

01:22:09

I right? Yeah, absolutely. I think that I'm reading through Proverbs right now in my personal study, so it's fresh in my mind, that those principles of wisdom, they do have temporal benefits.

01:22:25

Conducting yourself as a righteous person, conducting yourself with integrity, there are temporal benefits to that.

01:22:32

But ultimately, the ultimate criteria for success in everything has to be judged on the eternal timeline.

01:22:39

Was I faithful to Christ in this? Did I do my work so as to please

01:22:46

Him, not as I service for men? That's the big question, and I often think about the

01:22:53

Christian life in terms of investing, right? Like, if you think about your business or your job, you think,

01:22:59

I want to invest my time or I want to invest my money and have a good return. Ultimately, as Christians, we have a very long -term investment strategy, in that all that we're doing, we're investing with an eternal view in mind, with a recognition that there's a day coming when

01:23:15

I will meet the Master, and I want to hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant.

01:23:23

And that is going to be, that weight of glory is going to be so much heavier than the extra sale

01:23:29

I got or the commendation I got from my boss when I cut a corner or when I was dishonest.

01:23:35

It's so much better to do everything in life God's way. Both temporally it's better, and ultimately, more importantly, eternally it is better, and it glorifies

01:23:45

Him. I don't know if I told the anonymous listener that he or she won a free copy of Redeeming Productivity, Getting More Done for the

01:23:55

Glory of God, but if you could, please send us by email your full name, which will not be divulged over the air, your full address, so that cvbbs .com,

01:24:08

Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service can ship that book out to you, compliments of our friends at Moody Publishers who were generous enough to provide a limited number of copies of this book.

01:24:20

And if you're a first -time listener or a first -time questioner, let me know, because you also have won a free

01:24:26

New American Standard Bible, if that is the case. We have another anonymous listener who asks something that is somewhat similar to what the last questioner asked, but there is a different emphasis here.

01:24:47

An anonymous listener says, even while working for a Christian company, the gurus of success that we were told to read and watch on video and to see in live seminars is that if you want to be a winner, you hang around with winners, and you eliminate losers from your life, because they will drag you down to become a loser as well.

01:25:16

Is that really a Christian ethic? That's a great question.

01:25:21

I can't imagine Jesus Christ telling his disciples, get rid of those losers that you're hanging out with.

01:25:30

That's exactly where my mind went. I mean, who did Jesus spend time with? He was accused of hanging out with sinners and tax collectors, because he did, because those were the sick.

01:25:42

They're the ones who needed the physician. And likewise, I don't see how you live a faithful Christian life apart from associated with the people that the world would call losers.

01:25:57

In fact, Jesus never would have saved any of us if that was the way he thought of things, because we're all, in a theological and anthropological and eternal sense, we're all losers, as much as a loser could possibly be, apart from his grace and mercy.

01:26:15

Amen. Amen. To be fair to the gurus who say this, what they're trying to say, what they're trying to do is saying, okay, if you want to progress and grow in your career or your skills, you need to associate with people who are ahead of you.

01:26:37

I think that principally, it is true. I mean, we even see this in the Christian life of discipleship.

01:26:43

I want to spend time with people who are ahead of me on the walk with Christ so that I can learn their wisdom.

01:26:51

And I think that there's generally a common grace principle that if my work was failed,

01:26:57

I want to associate with somebody who is good at fail. The problem is the eliminating...

01:27:03

I mean, you hear this a lot in pop culture, too. They say, eliminate toxic people from your life. Cut off the baggage, these people that are holding you back from your dreams.

01:27:12

That's the side of it that is absolutely wrong. I think we've got to look at it both ways.

01:27:18

I want to be associated with people who are further along so I can grow in my life with Christ and in my vocation, but I also want to be bringing along people who are not as far along as me through discipleship or through even mentorship in a professional setting.

01:27:36

I think it's incredibly self -centered if you get this idea that I'm going to cut all the losers out of my life and I'm going to be a winner.

01:27:44

I'm only going to hang out with these guys. That is not a Christian ethic at all. Yes, and obviously,

01:27:51

I'm sure you would agree that new converts have to be very careful about the sinners with whom they keep company.

01:28:05

You may have to become a more seasoned Christian before, for instance, if you are a drunkard or a drug addict, before you go back, you return to some of those associates and friends that you were involved with in committing those sins and be the light of Christ to them.

01:28:29

But there may be a season of time where you have to permanently remove yourself from them because you may be much more vulnerable, especially at an early state in your faith.

01:28:41

And even then, I think that you should never just, especially if you're talking about friends who were your comrades in the bar or in the crack house or wherever it is that you were disobeying

01:28:59

Christ through your addiction or whatever sin it was, even if it's somebody that you were committing adultery with or something.

01:29:07

I think that a final word of the gospel to them, after you have found faith, would be,

01:29:16

I think, very much appropriate, if not something that would be a necessary act of obedience.

01:29:24

But would you agree with me that there are obviously legitimately times with certain people and certain circumstances when you do have to remove yourself from a certain element of society?

01:29:35

Not that the Christian goal is to move into a monastery of evangelicals and never associate with the lost, but at the same time, we have to be careful, especially with young converts.

01:29:49

Am I right? Absolutely. That's good wisdom. I'm glad that you added that. Yes, that is absolutely true.

01:29:56

You know, the blessed man in Psalm 1, he doesn't walk in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers, says to, you know, do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals.

01:30:08

There is truth that you don't want to associate with those who are walking in an unrepented sin and have them be your closest friends.

01:30:20

You begin to treat them like your mission field. You know, you go out to reach out to them, but you don't associate with them in the same way that you did before, especially, like you said, early in your walk with Christ.

01:30:34

You need to be careful that you don't get too big for your britches too quickly and think that you're past those temptations to sin that maybe once beguiled you before you knew

01:30:46

Christ. Now let me ask you about something that may have an element, or does have an element of truth in this whole mantra of hang out with winners and remove the losers from your life.

01:31:02

Even when it comes to people that are not involved in overt sin that may tempt you to join them in their sin, how do you deal with the fact that although you cannot remove completely, or you should not completely remove everyone in your life that may be what have, they may be who have become known as the result of a classic

01:31:34

Saturday Night Live skit. They may be Debbie Downers, people who just habitually suck the joy out of you by a never -ending series of complaints and never -ending regurgitation of self -pity, and they are truly depressing to be around.

01:31:59

I'm not saying that if you're a Christian, and especially if this person is lost, and if they are behaving that way, there's a very good indication they may be.

01:32:09

But even Christians, even those who were born again, we do not have perfect personalities, so you can even have a brother or sister in Christ that to a degree behaves that way.

01:32:22

But is it right to at least in putting the priorities of your life in proper order, not giving too much of your time, not surrendering too much of your time to people like that, that may be addicted to you being their shoulder to cry on, to an extreme, where you're actually wind up not being the husband that you should be to your spouse, not being the child you should be to your parents, the sibling that you should be to your siblings, the friend that you should be your friends, the employee that you should be to your employers, the employer that you should be to your employees.

01:33:06

You could be robbed of valuable time in other vital spheres of life because of individuals like this.

01:33:13

So how do you as a Christian respond to that dilemma? Yeah, that's a great question.

01:33:20

I think that's probably something many of us have known, especially if you are a particularly good listener or empathetic, you kind of can draw people who are in need to you, but you can also draw needy people to you that are perpetually needy.

01:33:36

That actually comes up a lot in biblical counseling. And if listeners read about biblical counseling, they have a great program for it actually at the

01:33:47

Master's University. But that is something that needs to be addressed.

01:33:53

Now, what most of us do, I think, is just kind of maybe disappear from the relationship or slowly just distance ourselves more and more.

01:34:02

And you can understand why we'd want to do that. But I think that Christian love demands a more forthright approach to those needy people who maybe are perpetually kind of leeching off of your sympathy and without ever really seeing progress.

01:34:20

And I think that love demands some confrontation of telling them, I think that the way that you talk, you know, if you're claiming to be the

01:34:29

Christ, but the way that you talk, it does not sound like somebody who trusts in the

01:34:35

Lord, who believes His promises. There's a negativity that seems to permeate your life that doesn't seem to proceed from faith.

01:34:44

What is that? Let's talk about that. Let's work through that. And it may be that for a time, you would tell them, listen, we've talked about this,

01:34:55

I've confronted you about this, this is something that I do think that there needs to be growth in, and you're making it difficult for me to be around you, difficult for other people to be around you because of this woe -is -me attitude.

01:35:09

Now, all of that to say, I think that all these things need to be walked out carefully and graciously and patiently, but as you noted, the problem here, it really is a lack of time and even emotional energy.

01:35:26

There's almost these people that walk around that can almost be a black hole, an endless black hole of emotional neediness, and if you allow yourself not to set boundaries with them, you will neglect the other areas of your life that God has called you to steward, your family, your career, things like that, because you have endlessly poured yourself into this person that may not actually be interested in growing or changing.

01:35:55

So, like I said, all that needs to be conducted with wisdom and patience and trust in the Lord, but I do think that there are points where you need to lovingly set boundaries, and maybe even for a time cut yourself off from someone, but be very forthright with them about what's going on and what you think is actually the problem.

01:36:15

You know, you've given me an idea. I think I'm going to make a fortune selling t -shirts, custom -designed t -shirts that say, back away,

01:36:24

I'm a black hole of emotional neediness. I would be first in line.

01:36:32

I'd buy a box of those. We have

01:36:38

Grady, very faithful, loyal listener, and also a generous supporter of Iron Trip and Zion Radio in Asheboro, North Carolina.

01:36:47

Greetings, brothers. One of the fruits of the Spirit is self -control in Galatians chapter 5, verse 23, and in Colossians chapter 3, verse 23, we're told to work as if we're working for our

01:36:59

Lord Jesus Christ. As a professional truck driver, I don't have a lot of problems obeying these while doing my job because it's my ministry, but at home,

01:37:10

I'm very disorganized and can't seem to be motivated.

01:37:17

I heard Elizabeth Elliott say one time that disorganization is because we can't make a decision.

01:37:23

Do you think your book would help me and others with getting organized at home because I want all areas of my life pleasing to God?

01:37:33

And so therefore, I'm going to ask Grady a question. What are you doing wasting your time writing a question to this program? I'm only kidding.

01:37:41

If you could, Brother Reagan. Yeah, I intentionally wrote the book to not just address professional or vocational matters of life, but all of life and trying to communicate at the level of principles that would be applicable in the home or in the workplace.

01:38:03

And one of the principles we talk about that comes up again and again in the book and in some of the other things

01:38:08

I write is what I call the pyramid of purpose, because it's helpful to wrap your head around it, and it's basically a way to think about your life.

01:38:19

If the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, which is how it's summarized in the

01:38:25

Westminster Shorter Catechism, think of that as the tip of the pyramid. It's at the very top. That's like the capstone.

01:38:31

Underneath that, the next layer down is your domain of stewardship. You have your vocation, you have your home, you have your health, you know, your finances, these different areas of your life.

01:38:42

And then beneath that is the goals you have for those, and beneath that is the projects, and then beneath that is the tasks and the habits.

01:38:48

And so the point I'm trying to make with all this is that what I'm seeking to do with the book and what

01:38:54

I'm trying to do with my own life, too, is I want to draw a line from everything

01:39:00

I'm doing back to the glory of God. And Thomas Watson, the

01:39:05

Puritan, he said, the glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all that we do.

01:39:10

That's what I'm trying to do. And so how does this relate to organization? Well, I think an organized life is a life where at any point, whether you're at home or at work or wherever you are, you can look at what you're doing and be confident that what

01:39:27

I'm doing is honoring to the Lord. And the way that you do that is by looking at having some sense of organization, having some sense of purpose that connects from, okay, my home life.

01:39:40

How do I, in my home life, honor the Lord? What would the activities I should be doing be?

01:39:46

What would the habits be? What are the goals? What are the projects for my actual house, for how

01:39:53

I would treat my spouse or my children or my neighbors? How do I order my life in such a way such that I am maximally, quote -unquote, productive in honoring the

01:40:05

Lord in these areas? And I think, at least for me, that requires becoming organized so that I can reach those objectives even in my home life.

01:40:16

Just out of curiosity with your home life, I've always wondered when people write books like the one you have written, does it ever backfire on you where your spouse might yell at you from across the room,

01:40:29

Mr. Productivity, you left your socks on the floor. You know, anything like that ever happen?

01:40:37

Mr. Organized. It is a perpetual joke in my home and all my friends do it.

01:40:44

Anytime I ever drop the ball on a commitment or I show up late to something or, you know,

01:40:49

I leave socks on the floor, I hear about it from everybody, the productivity guy.

01:40:55

You know, the thing that's great about that, though, and that I always use that as an occasion to remind people of is, thank the

01:41:04

Lord that we are under grace. I don't purport to be any kind of a guru.

01:41:09

I'm sharing what I'm learning and what's been working in my life, but I am far from perfect, and all of us are.

01:41:16

And so, praise be to God that we serve a gracious Lord that has paid for our sins, both great and minor, on the cross.

01:41:25

And I can return to Him even in the midst of my failure to live up to His standards and my failure to even live up to my own standards for myself again and again, and know that I will find forgiveness there.

01:41:39

So, even when we fail, there is an encouragement that it's better to be a

01:41:44

Christian in how we conceive about productivity than the world that, when we take on their methods, we might just beat ourselves up for failing.

01:41:52

And we have to go to our final break. If you want to get in line behind the others who are already waiting to have their questions asked and answered,

01:42:00

I would suggest that you submit your question quickly to chrisarnsen at gmail .com,

01:42:05

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence.

01:42:12

Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal or private matter. Don't go away.

01:42:18

We'll be right back. Hi, I'm Pete Hegseth, co -host of Fox and Friends Weekend. Now, I don't have to tell you, but American education, it's in a free fall, crumbling under the weight of a century of damage inflicted upon America's academic system.

01:42:32

The answer? It's called classical Christian education, a form of K -12 ed that's very distinct from the type of education most

01:42:41

Americans have received, myself included. And that's why I'm so excited to have been invited by my friends at Long Island's Grace Christian Academy to talk about this wonderful, growing movement and new approach to education.

01:42:56

It's at 7 p .m. October 15th at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Melville, New York.

01:43:02

I'll also be signing copies of my New York Times bestselling book, Battle for the American Mind, for the first 50 guests, starting at 6 p .m.

01:43:10

Now, this is a fundraising event designed to raise money to help grow this type of education at a time when it is so desperately needed.

01:43:18

So please come ready to give and to learn about a way to stimulate academic revival in our great country.

01:43:25

You can purchase tickets for the event by visiting GCALI .com and following the link to the gala event.

01:43:34

I hope to see you there. Satan is the father of lies and spin, and the mother of those lies is a government who has rejected

01:43:47

God. We have especially been lied to these last two years, and the COVID panic has been one of the central mechanisms that our government has used to lie to us and grab more power.

01:43:57

Because Christians have not been reading their Bibles, we are susceptible to lies and are weak in our ability to fight these lies.

01:44:04

God has given us His Word to fight Satan and his lies, and we need to recover all of God's Word, its serrated edge and all.

01:44:12

Mark your calendars for October 6th through 8th as we fight, laugh, and feast to the glory of God in Knoxville, Tennessee.

01:44:20

You'll be enlightened, edified, encouraged, and challenged by 10 speakers on the theme lies, propaganda, storytelling, and the serrated edge, covering various topics that address the burning issues facing the church in the world today.

01:44:34

Speakers include Pastor Doug Wilson of Christ Church of Moscow, Idaho, and the whole gang at the

01:44:40

Cross Politics Show and Podcast. For details, visit flfnetwork .com.

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That's F for fight, L for laugh, F for feast, network .com.

01:44:52

See you there October 6th through 8th in Knoxville, Tennessee. We here at Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio praise

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Sterling Vandewerker, owner of Royal Diadem Jewelers, his wife Bronnie, his business partner and manager

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Brian Wilson, and the entire family, thank you all for listening to, praying for, and supporting the work of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

01:47:01

I'm Dr. Joseph Piper, President Emeritus and Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

01:47:11

Every Christian who's serious about the deformed faith and the Westminster Standards should have and use the eight -volume commentary on the theology and ethics of the

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It is much more than an exposition of the Larger Catechism, it is a thoroughly researched work that utilizes biblical exegesis as well as historical and systematic theology.

01:47:39

Dr. Moorcraft is pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, and I urge everyone looking for a biblically faithful church in that area to visit that fine congregation.

01:47:50

For details on the eight -volume commentary, go to westminstercommentary .com, westminstercommentary .com.

01:47:58

For details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com,

01:48:06

heritagepresbyterianchurch .com. Please tell Dr. Moorcraft and the saints at Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, that Dr.

01:48:14

Joseph Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary sent you. When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

01:48:29

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01:50:12

I'm Dr. Tony Costa, Professor of Apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary.

01:50:18

I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love,

01:50:24

Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jensen and Christopher McDowell.

01:50:31

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That's hopereformedli .net or call 631 -696 -5711.

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That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

01:51:37

Welcome back. Reagan, I would love for you to now make sure that some major elements of your book that we may have not addressed are spoken by you to the audience.

01:51:52

Most of the questions have been driven by listeners and myself, and this is one of the rare occasions where I haven't even had a chance to see the book prior to the interview because I don't have it yet.

01:52:06

As I said earlier, this was a last -minute kind of a booking of a guest, and Reagan was so gracious to accommodate us with very little notice to be on the show.

01:52:18

So I want to make sure that you have a number of minutes uninterrupted to give some of the essential points of the book.

01:52:26

I appreciate that, Chris, and it's been a joy to get to be on the show and speak with you and answer questions from your listeners.

01:52:35

So I'll just tell you a little bit about the book. We have touched on a lot of it. What is this book about?

01:52:41

Redeeming Productivity is a book where I'm trying to build a thoroughly

01:52:48

Christian vision of personal productivity. A lot of times, there are some great books on productivity by Christians, but a lot of times when, as we've touched on throughout this show, when

01:52:59

Christians approach the topic, they kind of just take secular productivity and sprinkle a little bit of Jesus on top and call it

01:53:06

Christian productivity. So what I've done in here is I've broken down what

01:53:12

I think are the five key theological principles that change the way that a believer should think about personal productivity from a biblical worldview.

01:53:22

And then we've talked about some of those, I like to call them the five pillars. But then

01:53:27

I pair each of those with a really hyper -practical thing that a believer can do to increase their productivity.

01:53:37

So I mentioned earlier about morning routine. I talk about how to set up a morning routine in this book, but we also talk about the fact that you were gifted by God, the source of your productive power is

01:53:50

God. Not the way that people often misapply, you know,

01:53:56

Philippians 4 .13, I can do all things through Christ who dreams of me, but that if we're really thinking about productivity correctly, that we're seeking to honor

01:54:03

God, be fruitful for His glory, then God has supplied us all that we need to do that in all of life through equipping us with His word, through the church, and through our spiritual gifts.

01:54:17

And how do we actually apply those in our life? We talk about other practices like getting organized.

01:54:24

How do you actually organize your life? That's actually chapter four, to speak to a previous listener's question.

01:54:31

I talk about the main areas of your life, the kind of 20 percent that you can organize of your life that will give you 80 percent of the results.

01:54:39

And we talk about tracking your commitments. How do you actually do a project and do the tasks within it and actually make sure they don't get done?

01:54:49

I call this the don't drop the ball chapter. How do I make it so if someone asks me to do something,

01:54:55

I actually follow through? Because as believers, right, we want to be people of our word. I want to be somebody who when

01:55:03

I say yes, I actually follow through. And in this complex information -laden world, we really need to have some systems in place so that we don't forget.

01:55:13

And we talk about other things like setting goals. How do you do that as a Christian? How does that reconcile with a

01:55:20

Christian's view of ambition? Is it wrong to set goals? How do you do that in a way that would honor God? And then at the end, we kind of talk a lot about eternal perspective.

01:55:31

We talk about what is the ultimate motivation for being productive? And what does it mean that we're going to give an account to God for our lives?

01:55:39

And practically, how do I make sure I'm living with that vision before me every day of my life?

01:55:47

We talk about a practice I call writing your well -done statement. And it's sort of this little document you make that gives you clarity and focus to remind you that your priorities in this life are ultimately eternal and that you're going to stand before God one day.

01:56:02

And so your work and all that you do needs to be done unto his glory. So I'm excited for the book.

01:56:08

I pray that it's going to be a blessing to many Christians who really do, they want to live a thoroughly

01:56:15

God -honoring life. And that's what I've thought to do in this book, give you the theological foundation along with the practical skills that you need to do that.

01:56:24

We have RJ in White Plains, New York, who says, Do you think there can be a danger, especially for people that may be naturally gifted at organization, to become so overly organized that they become robotic and lack spontaneity and even refuse the company of others because it doesn't fit in a very neat and tidy way with their schedules and other things that may come up providentially that you're not prepared for that some people might totally ignore or eliminate just because they want to stick to their schedule and to their tight organized life?

01:57:07

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, Kelly Catholic wrote a book called

01:57:12

You're Only Human that's talking about our finitude, that we're creatures, we're not infinite like God.

01:57:18

One of the things he says in that book is, one of the most inefficient things you can do is love.

01:57:25

And I love that because productivity -minded people, that's something we struggle with. Interruptions, relationships, which often take far more time than we are hoping for.

01:57:36

And it is a temptation to become so overly scheduled that you do become robotic and you don't leave room for these providential appointments.

01:57:46

But one way that we combat that is by having a biblical view of productivity. By not conceiving of it narrowly that productivity means

01:57:55

I got done everything I did on my to -do list. That my skills and being productive are merely a vehicle for honoring

01:58:04

God with my life. When I view it like that, then I can properly prioritize even in the moment and say, this was my plan for the day, but here's someone who needs me.

01:58:15

I'm going to throw my plan aside because this is more important. This is more productive for me to give my time to this relationship, even if it doesn't look efficient on paper, because I'm thinking about my whole life as a stewardship.

01:58:31

Well, I have had a blast interviewing you today, and I already know that I definitely want you to return to the program often, as often as you would like and as often especially as God will permit.

01:58:45

I want to make sure that our listeners have the website for Moody Publishers, who gave us these free copies today that we gave away.

01:58:56

Moodypublishers .com, moodypublishers .com, look up this book, investigate it, examine what the website has to say about it, and if you want to purchase it, please purchase it from Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, since they are a sponsor of the show, cvbbs .com,

01:59:14

cvbbs .com. If they don't have it in stock, they will order it for you, and they do typically have in stock things that we highlight on this show.

01:59:25

I want to make sure also that you have the website of my guest, redeemingproductivity .com,

01:59:33

redeemingproductivity .com. Thank you so much, Reagan Rose, for being such a superb guest.

01:59:38

I want to thank everybody who listened, especially those who took the time to write in questions. I hope you all have a safe, joyful, healthy, and Christ -honoring weekend in Lord's Day, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater