Redeeming Productivity [pt2]

Introduction:

Last week, I taught about Redeeming Productivity in our week. This is a continuation of the subject. Last week, I dissected the parable of the talents in Mathew 25. I drew parallels between the good and bad stewards. I highlighted that, as Christians, we want to be good stewards of Christ's talents. As mentioned in 1 Cor 6:20 we are bought with a price. Our body, Soul, and time are not our own. They are Christ's body, Soul, and time. We are stewards of the time Christ has given us. So Let's Use that time Wisely.

You don't have to raise your hand, but you can answer in your head: How many of us scheduled time to meet with Christ this week?

What did you read?

What did you pray about?

What have you been meditating on this week?

It may be hard to remember everything you read, prayed, or meditated on this week, but today's message will help you reclaim productivity in your Christian life by organizing your time with Christ.

This is just a template for the time you schedule with Christ. If what you are doing works better, then keep doing what you're doing. I only mean to help those who may need more structure, and because of that lack of structure, they may lose confidence and quit.

I always wondered why or how people chose to highlight or take notes in their Bibles until I saw a bookmark in an old Bible bookstore with themes in different colors. I've always done that because it makes sense to me.

Hopefully, today's message makes sense and can help you bring Power to Your Morning Devotions.

Morning Devotions

It's been said, "The first hour of your morning is the rudder of your day, like the rudder on a ship; your mornings are a relatively small part of your day, but they set the direction."

My wife and I just returned from a cruise to Mexico; if the captain hadn't checked the rudder every day, we would have been lost at sea.

Why Mornings?

Psalm 5:3 “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”

Psalm 63:1 “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: My soul thirsteth for thee, My flesh longeth for thee In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;”

Psalm 88:13 “But unto thee have I cried, O Lord; And in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.”

Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Mark 1:35 “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”

Philippians 4:6 “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

Proverbs 3:9 “Honour the Lord with thy substance, And with the firstfruits of all thine increase:”

This verse is often used to tell people to tithe, giving our first fruits to the church, just as they did in the Old Testament.

We give Christ our first and best because, in truth, it already belongs to him.

We should give Christ our first moment of the day. By reading, praying, and being productive, we are offering Christ our first fruits of the day.

What do we do with this time we are giving to Christ?

How can we be productive with this time and bring power to our mornings?

Power is an acronym: P-rayer| O-rganization| W-ord| E-xercise| Reading &Writing|

Prayer & The Word: Orient Our Heart

1 Samuel 16:7 “But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”

Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me.”

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Mark 4:19 “And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”

We should start each morning realigning with Christ so that that doesn't happen.

Admiral William H. McRaven gave a commencement speech at the University of Texas in Austin. In this speech, he drew from his experiences as a Navy SEAL to impart life lessons to the graduating students. "If you want to change the world, start by making your bed."

He emphasized that making your bed every morning gives you a small sense of pride and accomplishment, which sets the tone for the rest of the day.

If we want to Change Our Christian Lives, we must start the day by Orienting Our Hearts with Prayer and God's Word.

Reading and Writing: Orient The Mind

Journaling is essential to bringing power to your mornings.

Even if it is just a page or a paragraph, journaling forces you to put pen to paper and think about what you read in the scripture, recall it, and meditate on it. Journaling is also a great way to keep track of your prayers and other prayer requests.

1 Timothy 2:1–2“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”

James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

We should all list those who need healing, protection, or prayer. Bro Bowne was a good friend of mine. I loved him; he was one of my best friends before Christ took him home. He showed me that he keeps a notebook with all of his and others' prayer requests in it, and in the back, he keeps a list of all the prayer requests that God has answered.

Reading the other half of orienting the mind.

To some, Reading and Writing are not fun. For some, it's like owning a house in Antelope Acres. After it rains, the weeds around your house start to grow, so you pull out that lawnmower that hasn't been touched for six months. Even though it has gas in it, no matter how many times you pull that string, it just will not start until after a while, you finally hear it roll over, and all that white smoke starts shooting out the exhaust.

To keep our minds fresh, we need to keep using it.

Pastors often bring people in to speak, and most of the time, they have books with them; we should be reading anything and everything we can to help us better understand God's word, NOT in place of God's word but as a tool to help us understand more of its beauty and richness.

Audio Books work just as well as we consume something other than this world's music and politics.

Exercise Orients: Our Body

After Orienting our Hearts through Prayer and The Word and our Minds with Journing and Reading, it is time to Orient our Body with the E in our acronym. The E stands for Exercise.

As we said earlier, we are bought with a price. We understand that our life belongs to Christ, but Paul was also speaking of our physical body.

1 Corinthians 6:19 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

I'm not suggesting we all get gym memberships, but I am saying that as stewards of our bodies, we should be aware of what we eat and how we sleep. Eloy told me a few weeks ago that every morning, he gets up and does some stretches and pushups. I think that we should exercise to some degree so we can maintain and upkeep the body we have because it's the only one we get.

Organization Orients: Your Self to the Day

Lastly, we come to the final letter in my P-O-W-E-R acronym, which is the letter O.

O stands for Organization, Organization Oreients Your Self to the Day

Today's message is jumbled organization: I saved this one for last. After our Heart, Mind, & Soul are oriented to the day ahead, it's natural to start organizing the day's tasks.

Organizing your day is up to you; I think it is essential to mark the critical items on your to-do list and Seize The Day

WHAT GETS SCHEDULED GETS DONE

Conclusion:

Life is crazy; sometimes, there are just not enough hours in the day. Some days, some weeks, it feels like you will spend 1 million. miles an hour with no breaks or stopping in sight, but as Christians, we shouldn't be speeding up to meet the workday, but instead slowing down to meet with our KING

YOU HAVE MADE YOUR BED

YOU HAVE PRAYED

YOU HAVE BEEN IN THE WORD OF GOD

YOU HAVE JOURNElleD AND STUDIED

&

YOU HAVE ORGANIZED YOUR DAY

ITS TIME TO CARPE DIEM OR CIEZE THE DAY

PRAY IN JESUS NAME