Joel Osteen Podcast - Living A Focused Life | Joel Osteen

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

It's easy to waste time on things that don’t matter in the long run. But if we want to fulfill God’s plan for our lives, we have to stay focused.  Your best days are still ahead, and together we can make a difference in this world with the message of God's hope and love. To give visit JoelOsteen.com/GiveHope Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of the Joel Osteen Podcast ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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See you. Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you enjoyed today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend. We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. Well, God bless you. It is always our joy to come into your homes. We love you.

We know God has great things in store. He rewards people that seek after him. And I believe that's you and you here as well. And if you're ever in our area, come by and see us. promised you we'll make you feel right at home but thanks for tuning in today. I'd like to get started each week with something kind of funny so listen to this one a mother was cooking pancakes for her two young sons. Ryan was five and Kevin was three. They began to argue over who would get the first one. The mother saw it as an opportunity to

teach them a lesson and she said boys boys if Jesus were here he would say let my brother have the first one. Ryan turned to his younger brother and said okay Kevin you be Jesus. Hold up your Bibles. Let's say it like we mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I'll be taught the Word of God. I boldly confess my mind is alert, my heart is receptive, I will never be the same. I am about to receive the incorruptible, indestructible, ever-living seed of the Word of God. I'll never be the same. Never, never, never, never, I'll never be the same in Jesus' name.

God bless you. You sound great as usual. I want to talk to you today about living a focused life and making the very most of your time. Time is one of the most valuable commodities that God has given us. And we all have the same amount of time, 24 hours in a day. And one thing about time is you can never get it back. once we live this day, it's over and gone. And too many people are not using their time wisely.

They're not focused. They don't get up each day with a clear-cut plan, knowing where they're going and what they want to accomplish. And so they're easily sidetracked, running here and running there. They're busy, but not making a lot of progress. But if we're going to reach our full potential, if we're going to be everything God's made us to be, we've got to be extremely focused.

You've got to know what your purpose is, what you want to accomplish, what relationships you want to build. You've got to have a plan and then be disciplined to stick with that plan. You can't get entangled and distracted by all these things that are going to come along and try to pull you off course. Because I can tell you, there will always be a thousand ways to spend your time. There will always be a thousand good things you can get involved with. But we have to ask ourselves, is this a part of a lot of? my plan? Is this further in me toward my God-given destiny?

Or is this just another distraction that's going to end up wasting my time? And the scripture says here in Ephesians 515, be very careful how you live, making the most of your time. The Amplified says, don't be

vague and thoughtless, but live purposefully and accurately. Notice we need to live accurate lives. We need to be on, purpose people. That means we don't just go out and wait to see what's going to happen. We don't just drift through the day and do what everybody else is doing. No, we know our purpose. And I know plenty of people today that are extremely talented. God's blessed them with incredible gifts,

but they're not reaching their highest potential simply because they're not disciplined when it comes to how they spend their time. They're suffering from a lack of focus. And it's so easy to be involved in things that we have no business being involved in. It's easy to get up each day and just take care of the thing that screams the loudest instead of doing the really important things. I want to encourage you today to take inventory of how you're spending your time. Examining your week. Do you have your priorities in order? Are you investing in solid relationships? Are you pursuing your dreams, taking steps toward the desires God's put in your heart? or have you gotten off course?

Have you lost your aim? Do you find sometimes you're just so busy you don't have time to do what you really want to do? No, you've got to take control of your life. If you don't determine how you're going to spend your time, somebody else will. The Apostle Paul said, in a race everyone runs,

but only one person gets the prize. So I don't run my race aimlessly. I run with purpose in every step. I like that. He was saying, I make the most of my time. I don't go out chasing these pig trails just because it looks exciting. I don't go hang out with the group just because everybody else is doing it. No, my time is valuable.

He was saying, in effect, I know my purpose. I know what I'm called to do, and I'm going to stay focused. That's the kind of attitude we need to have. I don't know about you, but I want to run my race to win. I don't want to come to the end of my life and look back and find out I only made it halfway through. my course or three-fourths of the way, I want to finish my course. I want to reach my full potential. The only way that's going to happen is if we become on-purpose people. And some of you today, you've lost your aim. You've sort of given up on your dreams and now you're just sitting

back and settling for mediocrity. But I believe that God is saying to you, you need to stir yourself up and get your focus back. Get your aims straightened out. Make some adjustments and start taking steps towards your God-given goals. It's interesting. The only difference between a 100-watt light bulb and a laser beam is focus. The 100-watt bulb can light up a room, but the laser beam can cut through a sheet of metal. You think about it, the bulb has the same potential to cut through metal. It has the same potential to be a powerful force, but it'll never happen as long as it's all spread out. and some of you too would go to a whole new level if you'd simply get more focused. God has put so much potential in you.

You can go further in your career. You can have better relationships. You can live healthier and happier. But you've got to do your part and be disciplined to stick with the main thing that God has put in your heart. In other words, we've got to be willing to prune off any areas in our lives that are not bearing good fruit. it may be difficult. May hurt a few feelings, but that's okay.

You've got to do what you know in your heart is right for you. I know I used to play baseball four or five nights a week. I had done this for years and years and had a lot of good friends out there. But after I got married and we had our first child, I knew that wasn't the best use of my time anymore. I knew down in here I should be investing that time in my wife and in my child. And even though I love playing ball, I had to recognize it was a new season in my life, and I had to let that go. And sure, some of the guys weren't happy about it, but you've got to do what you know in your heart is right for you.

And you too today may be involved in things that you've been doing for years and years, and you've gotten really attached to it. But now down in here, you feel like that season is over. You know it's not the best use of your time anymore. And it may not be easy, but if you don't make the necessary adjustment, it'll end up hurting you later on. And we need to constantly be evaluating how we spend our time. And understand, just because something was right in your life at one time doesn't mean it's going to be right forever. Seasons change. And we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis, is what I'm doing part of my plan? Is this furthering me toward my God-given goals? Is this bearing good fruit? And if not, we've got to be willing to make

the necessary adjustments. That's what it says in Hebrews 12 verse 1, that we need to strip off all the weights and all these other things that entangle us and slow us down. And I've discovered they can even be good things, but the good will end up being the enemy of the best. See, God has given us a certain amount of resources to work with. Each day, like I said, we have a certain amount of time. We have a certain amount of physical energy, a certain amount of mental energy, emotional energy. And once you use that energy for the day, you can't get it back. And if you're spending all your energy on things that are not furthering you toward your goals, then you're not going to have that energy for what you really need it for. I know some people, they spend all their emotional energy

on their friends at work. When they get home at night, they don't have any energy for their family, for their children, they've spent all their emotional energy on the wrong thing. They just want to sit on the couch and watch TV. Some people, if they get caught in traffic in the morning, they get all upset and stressed out and get frustrated. They don't realize it, but they just spend a whole lot of emotional energy that they're going to need later on that day. That's what happens when we worry, when we live upset, stressed out,

when we get frustrated, we're spending emotional energy. And what a shame to waste our God-given resources. like that. We have to realize about time. We are spending our time. Just like you spend money, you're either investing your time or you're wasting your time. You spend quality time with your family. You're making an investment into that relationship. If you're called to sing in the choir and you do that, or if you invest in improving your skills at work, or in staying healthy and exercising, those are all investments. But on the other hand, if you spend your time with people that are dragging you down, really, that's a waste of that time. You will not receive a return on that

investment. If you're doing things, even if they're good things, and it's not a part of your purpose, really, that's a waste of your time. And as I said, we only have a certain amount of time. And that's why I'm challenging right here at the first of the new year to use your time wisely. Don't get distracted. Don't get entangled. Live a focused on purpose life. And we need to evaluate our friend's Who are you spending your time with? Are you investing the time or wasting the time? I want to spend time with people that are going to build me up. People that are going to help me dream bigger dreams. People that are going to inspire me. Really, we should associate with people that have what we want. Because the scripture tells us, eventually we're going to become just like the people we hang around. That means if you're hanging around people that are always negative and critical, people that are always defeated and press, people that don't have any goals and visions, then you are not investing your time very wisely. And friends, as I said, your time is extremely valuable. You need to be very picky about who you choose to associate with. If you're going to reach your full potential, you're going to have to

prune off the relationships that aren't going anywhere. Prune off the relationships that are just dragging you down. And no, I'm not talking about a marriage relationship. Don't go home and tell your husband, I said you could prune him out of your life. That falls into a different category. But young people, this is especially important because your friends are going to have a tremendous impact on your future. Choose them wisely. The scripture says, bad company corrupts good character. You may be a good person. I have no doubt about that. But this is saying, if you run with the wrong crowd, your good is not going to rub off on them. Their bad is going to rub off on you. Don't around people at school that are always getting into trouble. Don't hang around people that

don't have any goals and dreams for their life. You are made for more than that. You are a child of the Most High God. You've got a divine destiny. God has a bright future in store for every one of you. You need to find people that will challenge you to go higher. Like iron sharpens iron, find people that will build you up and not tear you down. People that will inspire you to reach for new heights. Bible, it compares our life to the life of an eagle many times. If you study the eagle, one thing you'll find is an eagle is very focused. Doesn't get distracted. And an eagle has incredible vision. It can see a rabbit in a field over two miles away. And when it focuses on its prey, when it locks that rabbit into its vision, then the whole way it does not get distracted. I mean, other birds may fly by, other stuff may be

happening on the ground, doesn't matter. It stays focused on the prey and swoops in there and gets that rabbit. And in the same way, we need to set our gaze on what God has put in our hearts. In other words, we need to keep our dreams and our goals in front of us. And when something comes along during the day, if it doesn't fall in line with that, even if it's something good, we've got to learn how to not get distracted. And every morning when we get up, we should have a plan. This is what I want to do today. This is what I'm going to accomplish. Here's who I'm going to spend my time with. That's what it means to live a purposeful life. Don't just get up and drift through the day and think, well, maybe I'll go to church this morning. Maybe I'll go down to the mall or maybe I should start

that exercise program. No, make a plan and stick with that plan. If you live that kind of vague life, you'll never be all God's called you to be. And if you have a problem being focused, Maybe you get easily sidetracked. One of the best things you can do is start writing down your goals. Short-term goals, even long-term goals. Sunday nights you can make you a list. This is what I'm going to do this week. Monday I'm going to do this.

Tuesday I'm going to do this. Doesn't mean that it's set in stone. Doesn't mean you can't change it. But by writing it down, it's going to force you to think about how you're spending your time. You're not going to be able to live a vague and a thoughtless life. I hear so many people say, man, I just don't have time. do what I want to do. I'm just so busy. But really, that's a cop-out. Because the truth is, we make our own schedules. And nobody is forcing us to do everything that we're doing. And you can

either fill your calendar with your priorities or somebody else will. But either way, you're going to be busy. You're going to be doing something. I want to challenge you to take inventory and make sure that you're filling your schedule with your priorities. One thing I really appreciated about my father is he took time for his children. When we were growing up, my dad was very busy. He was traveling all over the world. He had a lot of commitments, but every week he would mark time on his calendar for his children. He made us a priority. And we didn't get daddy's left over time when he was all tired and worn out. No, he would schedule his prime time three or four hours here and there to do nothing more than play with his children. And if somebody called him and asked him to speak or to come be a part of

event, if it fell during our time, Daddy wouldn't even think twice. He'd say, I'm sorry, I'm already committed. I got my schedule full. No matter how important that event was or how exciting it looked, he would not change his mind. See, he made us a high priority. He set his goals, and he was disciplined to follow those goals. On purpose, he spent time with his family. He filled his calendar with his priorities. I read a story about this college professor. He was teaching a course on time management. One day he went to the class and he pulled out this one gallon glass mason jar and he set it on the desk there in front of his students. And then he pulled out a dozen or so rocks about the size of his hand and he began to put them into the jar one rock at a time.

And they just barely fit through the opening, but once they got in there, there was a little more room. And after he got the jar filled with as many big rocks as possible, he asked his students, is this jar full? And of course, they said yes. Then he pulled out a bag of small gravel, and he began to pour that into the glass mason jar, and he'd have to shake it around to get it around the other rocks. When he got it full of gravel, he asked the class again, is this full? And they said yes.

About that time, he pulled out a bag of very fine sand. Did the same thing. He poured a little sand in, and he'd have to shake it around to get in the cracks. Then he'd pour some more, and finally he got it full of sand. He asked his class, is it full? They said yes. About that time, he got out a pitcher of water, and he began to slowly fill the mason jar with water. And when he got it to the very top, he said to his students, all right, what's the point of this illustration?

One of the students quickly jumped up, and he said, oh, that's easy. The point that this illustration teaches us is no matter how busy your calendar is, you can always make room for more. The professor said, no, you've missed it completely. The truth that this illustration teaches us is if you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all. What are the big rocks in your life? I hope it's your family, your relationship to God, your dreams. Let me ask you, do you have your big rocks in your jar, or have they gotten crowded out by all the other distractions? Friends, our schedules are always going to be full.

you'll always have plenty of gravel, plenty of water, plenty of sand. And if you don't make a decision to put your big rocks in first, then what's going to happen is all the other less important things are going to take up the space and you'll never get the big rocks in.

Some of you today are not taking time for the things that mean the very most to you. Your family, your children, the people you love the most. You're so busy, distracted, entangled. You're taken for granted the people that you really love the most.

You're just giving them your left over time. I want to challenge you to make some adjustments today. Rearrange your schedule. Get your priorities back in line. Take time for the people that you love the most. Well, you say, Joel, I'm just so busy. I don't know if I can do that, but no, I like to think of it like this. If you discovered that you only had six months left to live,

how different would your schedule be than it is right now? Why don't you go ahead and make sense? some of those changes. Make sure you've got your big rocks in your jar. Another important thing is we need to learn to stay focused on the main thing that we're called to do.

As I said, there's plenty of things that we can give our time to, but if we're going to really excel, we've got to learn to keep the main thing the main thing. For instance, as pastor here, I know the main thing I'm called to do is share with you on the weekends

and be the best that I possibly can, when I get up here. But during the week, there are a whole lot of other things that I could get involved in. I could do all the weddings, all the funerals, all the counseling. I could come to all the different classes. And although that would be good, I know if I do those things, then I'm going to be average at a bunch of things and not excellent at anything. But really, quality is more important than quantity. And I would rather do one thing to the very best of my ability than I would to do a bunch of things just average and mediocre. Keep the main thing, the main thing. And learn to focus on your strengths. Don't spend all your time on your weaknesses. Focus on improving your strengths.

I know the gift that God has given me is to communicate, to encourage people, to inspire them, and that's the area I focus on. That's what I try to improve in. A lot of people come by and they ask me to counsel them. And I love to have to have. help people, but really, counseling is not one of my strengths. In fact, I tell them there are people on our staff that can counsel a whole lot better than I can. And I don't spend all my time trying to improve my counseling skills. I've discovered you can't be great at everything, but you can be great at something. It's funny, somebody came up to Victoria and I the other day, and they were telling us about this very complicated problem that they were having. And there were a whole lot of people

involved and it was just a very confusing, complicated set of circumstances. And they were telling us this. I was sitting there thinking, how in the world am I ever going to advise them? I mean, I don't know what to tell them. It seems like everybody's right. But before they even got finished talking, Victoria jumped in there and she said, all right, here's what you need to do. You need to do this, and then you need to tell that person to do this. And then that's going to open up and then you'll be able to do this. And then this will change and that way things will begin to resolve. And, man, And I'm sitting back thinking, how in the world can she figure all that out? I mean, it was great.

I was saying, you go, girl, you know. But see, that is an area where Victoria has a strength in that I don't. It's probably the only one, but that's one of them. I'm only kidding, but I do need a ride home, though. But I don't try to improve in all these other areas. I could probably be a pretty good administrator of the church. I could probably run the children's department okay. The point I'm making is you cannot do it all.

I heard somebody say you can have anything you want, but you can't have everything you want. You have to eliminate the non-essentials. Quit trying to do it all, par down and focus on the main thing. Don't make that mistake of being average at a bunch of things. Be excellent at one thing. He was talking to a man the other day. He was a diesel mechanic. He works on these big diesel engines, and he was a specialist in the area.

of the fuel system. In fact, people would bring their big diesel rigs from all over the country just so he could work on them. And as we were talking, that was kind of interesting to me, and I asked him about it. And he told me how, as a young man, when he first started working, he realized he had a very natural gift in that one area of the fuel system. And so he just stayed focused on that one aspect. He went back to school and got more training. He studied. He read books. He had people mentor him. And today, he said, Joel, I'm one of the leading experts in my field. See, instead of being average at a bunch of things, he found the one thing he was good at, the one area God had really gifted him in, and he poured

all of his time and energy into it, and today he's excelling. You've got to keep the main thing, the main thing, focus on your strengths. And some of you today, you have a dream deep down in your heart, but you're really not pursuing it anymore. And as long as you're allowing that dream to lie dormant, and you're not actively taking any steps toward it, I don't believe that you're going to be as fulfilled as you could be. In fact, many people think that the reason they're not happy is because of a marriage or because of another circumstance, but the real discontentment is coming because they're not taking steps toward their God-given dreams. We have to understand God is the one that has put the dream in our hearts. That's a part of your purpose. God put it there.

And there will always be a source of discontentment unless you stir yourself up and start pursuing what God's put in your heart. Start pursuing those gifts and talents. And nobody can do it for you. You have to start taking steps toward your dreams. You may have to prune off some things out of your life so that you can go back to school and get more training like you've always wanted to. Maybe it's a dream to start a business, a dream to be in ministry, even a dream to get out of debt, whatever it is, start taking steps toward it, even if they're small steps. You want to be in ministry?

Get involved in our prison outreach. That's great training. If you want to start a business, start researching it. Look for opportunities. Pick other people's brains. You will not be fulfilled until you give birth to what God's put on the inside. And the scripture says we need to give ourselves to our gifts. That means you've got to start pursuing those God-given desires, those God-given goals.

And let me tell you, you take a step and God will take a step. You do the natural and God will do the supernatural. Another interesting thing about an eagle is when an eagle is born, it has a liquid solution in its eyes. And over time, it hardens and becomes a setting that enables it to find its way home. Even if it's thousands of miles away, it acts just like a built-in compass. Somehow as that solution hardens, the eagle discovers the line between his home and the North Pole. And that way, it's always got a reference. And if the eagle is going in the wrong direction, the way it knows it is it will have a low-level pain in its eyes. It'll have a sense

of discomfort. And if the eagle will just change directions and get back on course, then the pain will go away. And I believe that many people today are living with a low-level pain because they're not going in the right direction. They're not pursuing their dreams. They don't have their priorities in order. And until they make a change, until they get back on course, they're going to have that sense of discontentment. But I want to challenge you today to make the necessary adjustments. Do you know it's never too late

to change? You can always get back on course. You may have made a thousand mistakes in the past, but today is a new day. You can have a new beginning. So why don't you make a decision with me that in this new year you're going to use your time more wisely. You're not going to get a new day. You're not going to distracted and entangled by all these things that try to pull you off course. You're going to prune off the areas in your life that aren't bearing good fruit. You're going to choose good

friends and you're going to make sure that you keep your big rocks in first. Friends, if you'll live a focused, disciplined, on-purpose life, having a plan and work in that plan, there's no limit to what God will do. He'll take your places that you've never even dreamed of and you'll experience the abundant life he has in store. How many of you receive it this morning? Amen. I know you do. We never like to close our broadcast without giving you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me? Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins.

Come into my heart. I make you, my Lord and Savior. Friends, if you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again. Get in a good Bible-based church. Keep God first place. He's going to take your places that you've never dreamed of. Thanks so much for listening to today. message. I hope you'll subscribe so you can receive the latest podcast to keep you encouraged and inspired all through the week.

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