oh boy men you may be seated I just want to encourage us all at the
first of this year to not allow busyness to consume our lives do not allow just
the busyness of life to overwhelm us and overtake us we all have a million things
to do there's our jobs our families we have
responsibilities of all kinds we have chores to do plenty of activities that
can keep us busy but I want to encourage us to not be busy but be productive you
see if we're going to see our dreams and desires come to pass for this year
those things that we're expecting we're going to have to make room for them
we're going to have to clear out some of the clutter and set some priorities you
see if you want a healthy strong family this year if that's the desire of your
heart you're going to have to move some things around you're going to have to
give your family the first and best of your time not your leftovers maybe
you're learning a new career getting ready for a promotion you can't stay out
with your friends all night and expect to get to work the next day and perform
at your top ability your desire is to get out of debt this year this is the
year I'm getting out of debt I can feel it
I can sense it you can't go and spend everything that you see you can't buy
everything that you see you can't be spending your money you've got to learn
how to save it you've got to set some priorities you see if we're going to see
our dreams and desires come to pass we can't just let everything occupy our
time and get us off course you know at one point in my life I thought that
multitasking was a gift and I had it in abundance I could juggle all these balls
in the air in fact sometimes I would look at Joel and think look at me look
how much I can do now you know women we do have a
little more tendency than men to wear a lot of hats
we try to do it all so women we can somehow fall in this a little bit more
than men but I realized one day that my multitasking was not productive what it
was doing was burning my energy I was working on one thing thinking about two
other things it was causing me to have a hurry spirit Giada
hurry and do this so I could hurry and do that the people around me had to
hurry because I have to hurry you know that brings stress into our life that is
not productive you see so often we think that activity equals productivity and it
doesn't activity sometimes just means busy just busy and we don't want to
where busyness as an important attribute in our life we want to where
fruitfulness productiveness we want our life to represent the good things of God
we want our life to be in a place of priority getting the right things done
at the right time I want to encourage us let's don't put the lesser things in and
leave out the more important things it says in Psalms 90 12 teach us to number
our days so that we can gain a heart of wisdom that Psalm was a prayer of Moses
and I can only hear the cry of his heart God teach me teach me and show me how to
order and prioritize my day Moses was the man who was in charge of all the
Israelites he brought them out of captivity and was God's man leaving them
into the Promised Land can you imagine the great responsibility on Moses life
they say there was over sick hundred thousand men that's not
including all the women and children that he was responsible for all eyes
were on Moses he had to have all the answers he had to know how to get to the
right places he had to be the one to hear from God for them I'm sure some of
you feel a little bit like Moses everybody's asking you things you need
to fix all their problems you need to pray for them you need to bring in the
money you need to do it all you feel overwhelmed you see you need to pray the
same prayer Moses did God teach me to order my day teach me to put the right
things into perspective not to put the lesser things first
but then what matters first you know there was a count of there was an
account of Moses and he was trying to settle all the disputes among the people
he would sit day in and day out listening to their arguments listening
to the things that were going wrong in their life he was trying to give them
the right answers trying to settle disputes among them day in and day out
one day God sent his father-in-law Jethro and Jethro observed what was
happening that Moses was just wearing himself out sitting among the people
trying to resolve all the problems and do everything else he was supposed to do
and to throw smoke into his life and said you need to set up a system you
need to appoint your godly god-fearing men put them over the tribes begin to
set up a system that you can meet the needs of the people don't wear yourself
out doing the things that other people can do you need to do what only you can
do you need to set your priorities I truly believe it was an answer to Moses
prayer he sent a wise counsel to him to help him gain the right perspective to
help him clear some of the clutter and arrange his life you see God what's to
help us he's got people out there to help you he's got ideas to make your
life easier we've got to pray god help us
it's about ordering our life so that we can see our God callings come into
existence come into full fruition we want to be all that God has called us to
be my question today is are you putting the big rocks in first see the big rocks
represent the important things the things that are going to move you
forward the things that are gonna satisfy you and bring forth these God
callings out in your life and in the lives of those you love you see there
was a professor and he stood up in front of his students and he held up a glass
jar a see-through jar and he put three big rocks in it the rocks filled the top
of the glass and he asked his students is the jar full to them it looked full
they were to the top of the container and then he grabbed some gravel and he
began to put it in the jar and shake the jar and the gravel begin to work its way
down he asked his students is the jar full then he got some sand and he began
to pour the sand in and the sand started filling in all the other empty spaces
you see his illustration and example was to show his students a lesson and
productivity he was showing them that if you will put the big rocks in first all
the little things will make its way around them but if you put the gravel
the sand and all this stuff in first you're not going to have room for the
big rocks you see my question is what rocks are we putting in first the big
rocks are the important rock we have to put the big rocks in our
container of life first if they're going to get done and one of the major big
rocks that would benefit all of us would be spending time with God
you see our God Rock should be the first rock that we put in our container of
life the scripture says in proverbs 3 that if you will acknowledge God first
place and everything that you do that he will direct your path and he will crown
your efforts with success you see it's so easy in the morning to pull our
phones off of the charger and begin to look at our text messages our emails
check out social media and before we know it time has gotten away from us so
we have to put that God Rock aside for a later time but see if you want God to
direct your path if you want him to crown your efforts with success he says
put me first nobody wants to move in the wrong direction nobody wants to waste
their time hanging around the wrong people no one wants to do the things
that aren't important we all want to be productive we want to reach the fullness
of our destiny so my encouragement today is let's all make a decision to put the
God Rock first in our jar of life and then all the other things will begin to
make their way down put that God Rock in and God will help you identify the other
big rocks then all the other things can make their way down into your jar of
life amen amen he's an awesome God your partnership makes this ministry possible
you're faithful and consistent monthly support makes you a champion of hope the
vision of Joel Osteen ministries is to use every avenue available to present
the hope of Jesus Christ to people everywhere we know it is this hope and
the transforming power of the gospel that makes an eternal difference in
people's lives to partner with Joel Osteen ministries visit Joel Osteen comm
slash partner today