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 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