CHOOSE - Diminish Your Distractions 1

Christian joy feel stuck in place. Even though you want to move forward on moving it on through God's plan for your future. What about this. The real Turning Point of the Jeremiah explains why this happens and how you can regain your momentum by refocusing your vision from the series is David introduces Mrs. choose to measure distraction friends. We are working our way through this whole process we call forward discovering God's presence and purpose in your tomorrow based on the book that was released just a few days ago of this brand-new project is our attempt to help us get unstuck and get back on the road toward progress and success.

According to God's standard success. According to the standard of God is the fall complete absolute total accomplishment of God's will in your life, what God wants you to do and doing it during the pandemic. Many of us kind of had to stop some things we had to back up. We had to quit doing some of the things that we were doing simply because of the health concerns now as we start to pull out of that. How do we get started again. In fact, for many of us, how do we really get momentum in our life. So many people you and I know end up living in the past. Living life to the rearview mirror instead of the windshield is so much bigger and our desire during this series is to encourage you and strengthen you and motivate you to move forward so far. We talked about dreaming and praying right now we need to figure out how to diminish our distractions and just before America entered the war to leave from Ohio named Walter also thought boarded BC to transport play.

He and several other Marines took off on a routine parachute jumping exercise is pilot Harry Johnson headed aloft into a beautiful blue San Diego sky nine men jump from the plane and then disaster struck was standing near the door when his record caught on something and deploy his shoe flew open and shot from the plane like a rocket hitting the side of the aircraft. The impact broke two of his ribs fractured three vertebrae and is also pop plunged toward the ground. He was yanked. And then jerked backward. This parachute had wrapped around the planes wheel and the hapless Marine found himself dangling 15 feet below the plane's tail was literally hanging by a thread gets worse vicious chest strap and one leg harness had broken sauce above was dangling in midair upside down, suspended by a single strap which had slipped down to his ankle, his weight, put tremendous pressure on the plane and Johnson was struggling to keep from those diving. Furthermore, Johnson had no radio contact every other man in the plane couldn't reach there buddy but dangling Marine injured and terrified, his eyes squeezed shut against the rushing wind. Blood dripped from his helmet. He was stuck and he was facing certain death. I'll tell you the end of the story later but for now I want to imagine how helpless Walter also pop felt you may not have dangled from an airplane but you have like all of us felt like your life was turned upside down. Maybe you felt like you were at the end of your rope stretched to the breaking point or stuck in a situation you couldn't escape is not usually as dramatic as what our Marine friend experienced, but feeling powerless to change anything Israel, and it can keep you frozen in place. Authors call it writers block athletes call it a slump economist, call it stagnation. Pastors: burnout swimmers call it treading water off floaters call it spinning their wheels and retailers call it sluggishness, sinus call it inertia. Retirees call it every day is Saturday syndrome sailors call it the doldrums certain points in life you will feel incapacitated and stuck, unable to gain forward momentum.

Some of the greatest characters in the Bible were immobilized for a time.

Moses was stuck on the backside of the desert for years, unaware of God's future for him. Naomi was trapped in Moab after the death of her husband and her son Peter was caught in a dark depressive cycle on the Saturday before Easter.

The apostle John was exiled on the island of Patmos lonely and unable to continue his ministry. Or so we thought.

So if you feel stuck by circumstances or by your own lethargy.

That's not what God wants you to stay.

We all have temporary faces in life where we recalibrate recover regain our bearings, we start going forward again because you see, you were created for an ever fruitful flourishing thriving life according to Jesus. John 1010.

Put it this way. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly in first Corinthians 1558, the apostle Paul proclaimed.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, you can't be stuck and live abundantly at the same time you can't be despondent while keeping your spiritual fervor and God's service.

You can't be immobilized and give yourself fully to the work of the Lord. So how do you get free of the sandbar and back to sailing in open water. I have some thoughts I'd like to suggest to you.

First of all, consider what's best.

Start by accepting the fact that everything is not equally important, almost every adult struggles with this today, we become so distracted by molehills that we can't charge up the mountain, but we have to remember, not every activity is vital. Not every situation is eternal in his parable of the sower. Jesus said now he will receive the seed among the thorns is he who hears the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. Can you relate to this. I can sell the seat of his word into our hearts, but it's not as productive or fruitful as he wants, so his work in and through us is choked by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, often times our inability to move forward is due to a lack of priorities we failed to even consider that some things are more important than others without prioritizing your life. You just can't sort through the cares of this world.

You become paralyzed by burdens and business and busyness in trying to do everything you end up doing nothing this paralysis by analysis can devastate your morale and your emotional health. Greg McCowan in his book essentialism wrote these words. The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first of prior things.

It states singular for the next 500 years only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and then started talking about priorities. Illogically, we reasoned that by changing the word we could been reality.

Somehow we would now be able to have multiple first things people and companies routinely try to do just that. One leader told me of his experience in the company that talked of pride.

One pride 25354 and 55. This gave the impression of many things being the priority but actually, nothing was so you have to learn to consider what's best that everything is as important as everything else. If you're going to diminish your distractions.

You're going to have to come up with your priorities. Secondly, clarify what's best. Once you've understood the significance of priorities.

The next step to getting unstuck is to actually determine the most important things in your life to do that you need the clarity to know what's best.

Start by asking what's most important to God what isn't as important to him. What do you need to focus on in your life and what can you start deleting to generate momentum. Evaluate your activities delete things of less importance to keep things of greater worth, I can give you an itemized list of what should be important to you, but in Mark chapter 12 Jesus gave us three principles that should be central to everyone's life when he read that passage. First of all the commandments is here oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second like it is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Jesus boiled down the contents of the entire Old Testament into one overarching overwhelming priority and that priority is low, and he ascribed to that priority three applications without understanding this, it's impossible to move forward.

Love as God defines love is life's ultimate priority. First is the priority of loving God. Deuteronomy 6 is it this way, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and Jesus quoted that in Mark chapter 12, more than anything else. This is what were made to do this is what were made for a passionate practical embracing of God and all of his attributes.

All those virtues and all of his grace embracing him with an overflowing heart of burning devotion and passion in our lives that affects everything else we do everything we say everything we think so number one priority should first of all to be to love God with all your heart, you really can't go anywhere to go there because that's the ultimate goal of every Christian. But Jesus answered the question that was posed to him by giving more than he was asked. Jesus said you shall love your neighbor as yourself within the same priority of love. There's a second application were to love our neighbors and believe it or not we have 7.7 billion of them, we can't know her personally care for each of them, but the Lord knows exactly how to lead us to those that we need to serve you see loving others is sharing the compassion of Christ with the people around you. The Bible says oh no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. Love does not harm a neighbor.

Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And Paul wrote for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. As I was finishing this series of messages our world was rocked by the coronavirus pandemic. You know the details of the hordes and devastation caused by this plague were all living through it and we have all been affected by national calamities and tragedies. We had choices to make the people of our congregation chose to use this pandemic as an opportunity to love our neighbors so that the leadership of one of our pastors David St. John, we began providing food for people in our community. Each week we distributed over 50,000 pounds of food.

We fed 1000 families with basic food living essentials.

A gallon of milk each. More than 60 of our fellow believers gathered every Friday put on their masks and their gloves put this gift of love in the trunks of cars as people in need.

Drove through our campus hundreds of emails, letters and phone calls helped us realize what this meant to the recipients. Perhaps the greatest benefit of this initiative was just a wild joy I witnessed in the lives of the people were doing the giving. It truly is for blessed to give than to receive and loving your neighbor is not something you feel loving your neighbor is something that you do for us. James 28 says if you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If you do that, he said you do well with keeping priorities correctly aligned is a daily challenge.

The first step is knowing what's at the top of the list. Once that's settled, everything else begins to fall into place, what comes first is clear love God and next is to love others and, finally, and this will surprise some of you to love yourselves. Notice again how Jesus stated this commandment, he said, you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. That means it's okay to love ourselves. In fact, we are commanded to love ourselves not to be careful here because the devil always tries to turn self-love into selfishness and ego low and high self-esteem and conceit haughtiness and self-importance and all the other things that make up for sinful narcissism. I'm not recommending any of on the other hand, the apostle Paul said, therefore, take heed to yourself and to all the flock, let me paraphrase that take heed to yourselves and everyone else assigned by God to your care if you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of others. If you become fatigued and notable.

You can't uplift others.

If you don't pay attention to your diet and exercise, you will lose the strength you need to fulfill God's will. You have a God-given responsibility to take care of yourself, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your personality is the means by which God touches others. If you get in a rut you will pull others down into it with you. But when you have your priority love in its right place and you understand the three applications.

Things have a way of moving forward. You have to take care of yourself. I remember as a young pastor walking into the office of a chiropractor and there was a note on the wall and this is what it said when you were out this body then where will you live really good one body we don't get it.

I knew what we'll get a do over.

So we have to take care of what God has given us so consider what's best and clarify what's best.

Then of course you have to choose what's best. Once you've clarified what is God's best in your life. The next thing you need to do is actually choose those priorities. You need to make intentional, planned decisions that elevate what is best and remove what is just good. The older you get, the more you'll find out that your choices are not between good and bad, but there between good and best and sometimes they almost seem like a between best and best choices become hard as Moses was dying. He told his successor, Joshua, be strong and of a good courage, for you must go with his people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them and you shall cause them to inherit. And the Lord is the one who goes before you.

He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Do not fear nor be dismayed. In other words, once you establish your priorities.

Find the courage to say no to some things and yes to some other things… Look at two areas where this courage is required. First of all, will only be courage to embrace our limitations to have any of those we all do, don't we were all aware of them. Maybe specifically more aware of them now than we've ever been. Because of the environment in which we find ourselves. Beware of living in denial to move forward. You have to be realistic.

Progress comes by embracing your God-given limits. I: God-given some limits to do with your age or stage in life. I used to do a lot of running for exercise. Now my knees will allow me to do that so I have to accept that limitation and find other ways to get the exercise that I need some of your limitations have to do with the gifts God has given you, or the location were displaced you.

Maybe you battle a handicap or chronic illness or your caregiver for someone who does. Maybe you have a dysfunctional family member or you live in a dangerous area. You might be on a fixed income or maybe you can afford to go to college or your job is being phased out. Whatever your limitations except them.

Don't use them as an excuse for not doing what God assigned you to do something that will shock you. Even the Lord Jesus Christ had limitations as Almighty God.

Of course he had limitations he was and is all powerful, all-knowing and all loving, not even the entire universe can contain him this power by grace, holiness and justice are limitless, boundless and measureless. But when the son of God entered the human race in Bethlehem, he was confined within an animal's feeding trough.

He grew up in a small hillside town he didn't know recorded miracles for the first 30 years of his life and he lived in submission to his parents when Jesus began his ministry.

He didn't fly around like an angel from one preaching assignment to another even have a horse or donkey except on one occasion he said in Matthew 820 foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Jesus of ministry during the whole time he was on this earth was limited to a little strip of land along the Mediterranean and he never visited the great cities of his day. Athens, Rome, Milan, Alexandria, Carthage, he had a limited education, unlimited income and a limited time for his work only three years old and his mission was inflated. It was occupied by Roman soldiers, limitless son of God was financially geographically chronologically, politically and physically limited, and then his limitations became far more stringent on the cross, he became so limited by the nails in his hands and feet. He was unable to wipe the blood from his eyes or scatter the flies from his face. Yet his limitations worked for the advantages of the whole world. Imagine that limitations should never become excuses for staying where you are. Your priorities are determined by the gifts God has given you, or stage in life. Your personal shortcomings doesn't the Bible say something about that.

It says your strength is made perfect in weakness. Embrace your limitations realize you can't do everything, even the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of his life said the father, I have finished the work that you gave me to do.

Not all the work there is to do the work that you gave me all of us have limitations.

And before we can move forward before we can see this principle take hold in our lives.

We have to acknowledge that were not Superman. We don't have everything everybody else has God's given us a certain set of abilities and giftedness and in one way or another. Those things limit us and has a really good thing to realize that you haven't been called to do everything, but that you have been called to do something and if we get out of the everything circle back into the something circle we can really make a difference. All of us have to deal with that. As you know Jeremiah Garcia right here tomorrow for more information on Jeremiah's current teaching series, visit a website where you will certified to free ways to help you stay connected monthly magazine Turning Points and daily email devotional sign up today Jeremiah.old/radio Jeremiah.old/radio when you do your copy of the discovery God's presence in your tomorrow is your gift of any amount which is the Jeremiah study Bible. The English standard version, new international version and the new King James version are available in a variety Jeremiah.old/radio Gary join us tomorrow as we continue the series to Turning Point. Jeremiah taking time to listen to the trendy thing