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

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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

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