Busy Is Not the Same as Fruitful

In this episode of The Morning Charge, Joshua talks about the difference between being busy and being fruitful.

This message focuses on priorities, daily connection with Jesus, and the danger of filling life with activity while producing very little that actually lasts. It also highlights how easily people can become distracted, overcommitted, and spiritually drained when they are doing many good things but not the right things for their current season.

This episode is a reminder that fruitfulness does not come from striving harder. It comes from abiding in Christ, staying rooted in His Word, and being willing to let Him prune what no longer belongs.

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Morning Charge. This is your moment to slow down, breathe, and get your spirit aligned before stepping into the day ahead. Life moves fast, responsibilities pile up, voices compete for your attention. But before the noise of the world takes over, this is where we come back to what actually matters. This is a place for honest conversations about faith, life, purpose, and everyday battles we all face. No pretending, no religious performance, just the truth. Because following Jesus was never meant to be complicated. This is the morning charge. This morning the Lord has put um a message on my heart. I thought I was going to get to do this yesterday, but it's okay. We follow the Holy Spirit in this room. All right, whatever, whatever he is breathing upon, we're going to talk about that. But I feel like this is a biggie that a lot of people deal with. And it's the difference between being busy and being fruitful. We I know we talk about this, and remember the statistic I gave you yesterday. It's the rule of seven. In other words, you have to hear a message seven times before you really get it, before you start walking it out. Why do you think it's important to stay in your word daily? All right, well, there's seven days a week. Maybe there's a scripture you need to meditate on every single day this week. If it's the rule of seven, why do you think it's important to take up, deny myself, take up my cross and follow him daily, seven days a week? The rule of seven can mean all kinds of different things, but you have to hear a message around seven times before you really get it, before you recognize it, before it gets deep-seated in here, before you begin to walk it out. So that's why we're going through this this morning, because there's a lot of people doing a lot of good things and they're really busy. But are they doing things that are producing fruit in their life? That's the things we're going to assess this morning. All right, Father, I thank you, Lord, for this word. I thank you for your word. God, Lord, I pray that this would be etched upon our hearts. Holy Spirit, that we would follow your leading and your guiding. Lord, that we truly would be those that would be deep-seated in your root in your word every single day. That you are the one that's leading us. You are the one that's guiding us. You are the one that is that is causing us to step out and you meeting us in those places, God. Father, there's a lot of good things that could be done in the lives of people who are even on this live stream this morning. But Lord, we don't want to just be going around doing a whole bunch of things just to be busy and saying, hey, I'm living life and I'm doing things. Father, we want to be ones that are strategically doing the things that we are doing, the things that you have called us to. And Lord, help us assess what it is that we're taking on. Help us assess what it is that we're doing. Keep us focused, keep us rooted, keep us grounded, Lord, in the mission. In the mission. And we thank you, Lord, for life and life more abundantly in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen and amen. Thank you, Jesus. All right. So let's get down to business. A full calendar does not mean a full life. I mean, listen, we used to be those. Our calendars would just be crammed. It'd be crammed on in there, and I just do the very, the very thing that I could. I just do the very best that I could. And I felt like I was doing a whole bunch of God things, but really it was just a whole bunch of good things. Brandy and I really had to take a step back and we had to assess where we were. All right. Remember that workbook, men I told you guys about? That's around the time God really started getting my priorities in order because I had my life completely out of whack. I mean, I'd be at work and I'm helping, I for years I helped other people build their businesses. There was a key role, some sort of a transition was taking place. If I showed up and that was just a theme in my life for some reason, is I'd get hired on somewhere, and then this company was taking on more companies, or this department was transitioning to a new department, or or this, this at one time, I mean, they were totally shifting facilities from one city to another city. And I'm like, Lord, this is a pattern in my life. So I was busy helping people, but the Lord was teaching me, and he was teaching me things for things that were to come as far as kingdom building goes. I didn't realize that at the time, but he was teaching me unaware. Hello, God can teach you unaware. But the last corporate position that I was in, character and integrity, lots of issues, lots of things going on in there, you know, a lot of compromise in my life. And I had to say, whoa, hold on. We we've got to, this is not right. And so eventually I just had to walk away from it. I had no plan, didn't know what I was going, didn't know what I was doing. But we took a step back. Me and Brandy had peace in that. And the Lord truly took us through a season of relying completely on him and him getting our lives back in order. It's almost like we needed a reset because we were busy and we were doing the things, and the kids were going here and we were going there, and I was working this. And I mean, we were all passing each other, and it was like, what in the world are we doing? God's called us to a more simpler life. God has called us to a more simpler life. We weren't taking any time for ourselves. And at night, I was one that I was more worried about uh emails and text messages and things that went wrong from that day. Everything was still bothering me, so I wasn't even present with my family at the time. Like I said, God came in and he totally had to get my priorities back in order again. And I'm so glad that he did. But a full calendar does not mean a full life. If you're tired at the end of the day, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're living a productive life. All right. If you have a whole bunch of stuff crammed on your schedule, that does not automatically mean that you're that you're being effective for the kingdom. All right, so we got to get some things back in order. There's people in here this morning, I'm sure, that you're wore out, you feel stretched thin, you've been burning the candle at both ends, you've been doing and you've been moving. Lots of things going on. But there's a lot of people who are just completely wore out and you're stretched thin. And yet you're producing, you're producing very little. Anything that's actually coming forth out of all the things that you're doing, there's a little something there, but it's a little something. That's because busyness and fruitfulness, they are not the same thing. All right, busyness and fruitfulness not the same thing. So let's look at the difference between being busy and being fruitful. Because also I want you to remember this. If the enemy cannot get you to openly stumble into sin and just rebel, all right, what he will do a lot of times is he is going to keep you distracted. He's going to keep you exhausted. He's going to keep you uh overcommitted to a lot of different things, and that's going to stretch you thin in all areas of your life, even to the point where you're just don't, you're not spending time in the secret place with God. You're not making time to get in your scripture today because I got to go to work and I got to go pick up the uh the stuff. And then we got to go shopping after this, and the kids have the ball practice, and then we got, and then tomorrow we're gonna get up and we're gonna be even busier tomorrow than we were today. I'm not saying any of the things that I just mentioned are bad. I'm just saying you need to reassess your schedule and see what is going on in your life. Is it benefiting anything? Especially, is it benefiting anything for the kingdom of God? Because the enemy will keep you busy if he can't make you just blatantly sin and rebel. So he's gonna keep you running in circles. He's gonna keep you uh preoccupied with things, and he's gonna make you think it's your purpose. When all the while you've actually lost your purpose. He's gonna keep your schedule so full till you're not spending time with Jesus. And a lot of people they they mistake this emotion in their life as in I am a mature adult and that is how I am walking things out. No, just because you're busy doesn't mean that you're a mature adult. Maturity comes when you come before the Father and you say everything I'm putting my hands to, is it producing fruit for your kingdom? Is it producing fruit for my life, for the next generation, the things that I am doing? Don't mistake being busy as your assignment in life. That's not your assignment in life. There's strategic things God wants you to do. And if you strategically begin to do those things, you're gonna find yourself not doing as much because when I got my priorities back in life, because men, I just want to say, we're the head of our households. What starts in the head will roll down to the body. Okay? If your household is out of whack, you need to go look in the mirror. And I'm just being honest because I am one that had to go assess my life and assess myself in the mirror because things were out of whack. If if if if there's a day when there's chaos going on in in my home, the first person I look at is me. God search me and know me. Now, the enemy can come and attack your family in many different directions, but we got to stand up and we got to arise and we got to be able to speak rightful things because we can speak chaos into the atmosphere if we're not careful. All right, so let's look at this. Jesus called us to bear fruit. He didn't call us to just stay busy. He specifically called us to bear fruit. John 15, oh boy, yes, I'm going there. Most of you probably know. Oh, he's going there again. That's right. Seven times, the rule of seven. The true vine. All right, so if we go to John 15 and 1, starting there, he said, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. He's going to prune that thing. And every branch that bears fruit, he's pe prunes that. So he cuts off the unalived areas for good. But if it's bearing fruit, he also prunes that as well. Then it would bear more fruit. It's an interesting process. You cut away the unalive things, things that aren't bringing life, but you also cut away at some point that stuff that is bearing fruit. Why? Because when you do that, it comes back healthier and stronger, and it will hold and bear even more fruit than it did before. A lot of people are okay living their life. I know I'm going a lot of different directions this morning, but a lot of people are okay and comfortable living their lives in such a way that they're like, oh, don't cut because that hurts. And then, and you know, and we're we're already producing this little bit of fruit. Like you want to just hang on to the little bit of fruit you got. And God's like, if you will just let me come and cut that, you're gonna see more fruit than you've ever seen. That means you got to let some things go. You got to prune some things in your life so that you can pick up and run with the things that God has for you. Oh, and then things are going to produce even more fruit in your life. I'll tell you about a vision God God showed me in just a moment. Verse three You're already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. Here's the abide in me and I in you thing again. As the branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. Jesus is saying, Without me you cannot do a thing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. You go into the fire pit. If you're not abiding in the Lord, you feel like one that is dry, that is brittle, that is decomposing, just wasting away, sitting on the pile about to be burned. We don't want to live a life like that. And I can tell you, just running around being busy, you'll be one that you're gonna feel that way. If you abide in me, verse 7, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. I'm gonna read that one more time for those that need to hear that. If you abide in me, and my words abide in and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. Ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. You are known by the fruit that your life is producing, or the fruit that your life is not producing, you will be known by that. I had a vision yesterday, and and and in this vision that the Lord gave me, there was a there was a man at a crossroads. This was during our prayer time yesterday morning. There was a man standing at a crossroads. So imagine I'm standing at a crossroads, and there's two paths that go either way. This path right here, I looked down and it was a pile of pennies. The path didn't go any further than that. It's almost like my feet had arrived to something. I could settle for this something. It's right here and it's in front of me. But I looked over to the right and it was a long path, and I could see a mountain off in the distance, and the Lord said, That is the mountain of promise. And then the Lord began to speak to me, and he said, You see, what's happening is some people will are comfortable standing where they're standing, collecting the pennies that I have put in front of them. In other words, you've got your little bit of change. It doesn't fully supply everything that you need. But if you're willing to walk the the long path with him, that's the path. That means you've got to actually put on your backpack, lace up your boots, put on your backpack and and go. It's time to ride. You can either stay and and and just be here with the little, or you can say, you know what, this is gonna take some oomph, and I'm gonna have to hike a little bit. But the the but the mountain of promise is that way. So do I want to stay here for this, or do I want to walk all the way with what he has for me? That means I'm gonna be having to restructure my schedule to work on things that are important that will actually bear bear fruit. That means I'm gonna have to get up a little earlier, I'm gonna have to go to bed a little later. That means I gotta find some time to spend with the Lord in the secret place. There's some things you're gonna have to change and some things you're gonna have to do to be able to reach the mountain of promise that he has for every single one of you. There's 259 people on here right now. He's no respecter of persons. So the 260-ish of us that are here, he sees us all the same way. We are all his children. There's no one no more special than the other. All right, like I've mentioned to you guys, starting on just starting on TikTok and social media and having no desire to do that and and I don't understand anything about it. I kind of get it, but I don't. I had to start somewhere, and that was one year ago today. Well, not today, but one year ago this month, in the month of May. I started putting out some videos and some different things. Why not? Whatever, whatever, Lord. I chose to not just settle with where I was sitting at the time and just being busy with a whole lot. I began to pick up and run with what God had asked me to run with. That is why I'm still sitting here. If I was doing this in my own strength, this probably would have ended months ago. I'm just gonna be honest with you guys. Because when you're striving and you're moving and you're going and you're feeling burnout, and you're feeling when I get up every morning, do I feel like sitting here and and talking a lesson with you guys and going over things? No, I don't feel like doing that every single day. But God is the one that sustains you. What makes the difference in your life with the things that you're doing is are you abiding in him and he abiding in you? Are you connected to the vine and is his words abiding in you? Because when that happens, you ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. If you're not connected to the vine, that means there is no source of strength to do the things that God has called you to do. There is no, and you and I hear a lot of pastors and I hear a lot of people in the ministry arena, whether it's organized church or just whatever it is, but you hear a lot of leaders and they say, I'm just so tired and I'm just so burnt out. That means you've picked up something and you've started doing it on your own, on your own, on your own strength, in your own will, in your own way. You have started doing things on your own somewhere, somehow, if you're feeling burnt out and you're feeling tired. It's time to go back to the drawing board. It's time to get real before God, and it's time to say, Where did I miss things? Lord, I feel like I'm doing this all on my own. Lord, where where did I miss you? Where did I leave you? Because I know he never leaves. We're the ones that walk away from the plan and the purpose and the mission. So if you've walked away from that and you've started doing things in your own strength, you're gonna feel tired. You're gonna feel weary. Now the Bible tells us that he's close to the brokenhearted. All right. It says he brings strength to the weary. So that means we do have moments when we go through that, but your moments don't need to become your days. You're gonna have moments where it's not gonna be, I'm not saying when you're connected to the vine, you're not gonna feel like, man, today really stinks. What I'm saying is, is it makes the difference because he is your source of strength. The word tells us specifically what to do. If he's close to the brokenhearted and he's gonna give strength to the weary or rest to the weary, then we have to be ones that understand the word. If you need to take a day and go rest, go rest. You should be Sabbathing every week anyway. There should be a day when you're not worrying about all the things. And no, that doesn't need to be the day where you're running all the errands and doing all the things you didn't get to the whole rest of the day. You should rest. God rested on the seventh day. You need to find your Sabbath day and you need to take some time to rest and spend time with your wife, spend time with your family, go for a hike in the mountains, go to the beach, go for a walk, go to the park. I mean, make food, eat food. I mean, enjoy each other's company, enjoy God in your life. I mean, find some time to relax for goodness' sake. This life brings a go, go, go, go, go mentality. And if you ain't go, go, goin', then you ain't amounting to anything. See, a lot of us grew up in that mentality. If you're gonna work, hey, work is what gets you seen and that's what gets you known, and work, work, work yourself out there and do the best you can. Those are the most tired, put out people I've ever met in my whole life. And there's a reason for that. Priorities are not right. Shift your priorities back around. We got to be living according to biblical principles. And if he said I needed to rest, then you better take some time to rest. But that don't mean we're sitting around seven days a week. Hello? We're not sitting around all week long. But if you take time to rest and reset, the other six days of the week is going to go very well because you took time to do just that. And if you're spending time with the Lord, starting your day off with him every day, being in the word, rooted and grounded in what it says and who he says you are, and believing who he says he is and what he is going to do, remembering the times when you have come through in faith and he has brought you through this situation and that situation, and he did it in this situation, and now you're facing this situation, you're gonna go back and remember, hey, he's gonna do it again. He's gonna do it again. But we gotta stay connected to the vine. Jesus here did not say, By this my father is glorified, that you shall stay exhausted. He did not say in John 15, by this my father is glorified, that you say, booked up every single hour of your day. Work, work, working. He didn't say, By this my father is glorified, that you become known for being overwhelmed. He said, The Father is glorified when we bear much fruit. The father is glorified when we bear much fruit. Idle hands is the devil's playground. Now, if that's true, what are your hands actually working on? What are your hands working on? And and and two, what are you dwelling on when you aren't fully busy? See, you gotta get your thought life in order, okay? You gotta get some things out of your heart. Maybe some things that are causing you to see things wrongly. You got some veils over your eyes. I mean, you gotta get you get you gotta walk with Jesus and you've got to allow him to come in and help you get some things cleaned up so you can see rightfully, you can perceive rightfully, you're putting on the mind of Christ every day, and you're walking out his will and his plan and purpose for your life. And when you begin to do that, more peace just begins to settle in on your life because now you're doing things that that are building kingdom life, not just your own whatever it is you've been doing. It's his plan. If his ways are higher, then I'm gonna go based according to his ways. But continue to walk with Jesus, allow him to clean some things up. Hey, we've been through inner healing in this room, but you've got to stay rooted and grounded in Jesus. That is the key. That is the key. But the Father said, or but your father is glorified. Your heavenly father is glorified when you're bearing much fruit. God is not impressed by how much you have going on and how busy you've been and how hard you've been working. He's not Impressed by any of that. He is looking for the fruit. He is glorified when you bear much fruit. He's looking at the fruit that is coming from your life. Are there baskets of fruit out there? Or is there a frustrated farmer over in the corner crying under a tree because you keep trying to squeeze the same lemon you've had in your hand for the past decade? Stop squeezing the same old lemon and get out here and prune the trees that need to be pruned, tend to the orchard, and then watch the fruit come in. Fruit means there's evidence that something living is flowing through you. That means there's something alive in your life because something's got to be alive if it's bearing fruit. Fruit means that there is a lasting impact, something lasting, fruit everlasting is in your life. All right. Fruit means that your life is producing something that is carrying kingdom substance. Because we can't grow fruit by ourselves. This is a partnership with God in everything that you're doing. A tree can have a lot of leaves, beautiful, green, and full, but no fruit. On the outside, your life looks great. Maybe you got the big house and you've got the, you've got the car you always wanted, and and you, you've got the kids, and the you've got all the the marriage and the all everything from the outside just looks wonderful and it looks great. But everybody's so busy, there's really no fruit. And a lot of people are empty and they're miserable. You could have it all as far as like physical things and be completely empty on the inside, completely depressed and and just and just worried about everything. And you have so much, now you're having to just work, work, work, work, work because you got to pay for all these liabilities that you have in your life. There's a difference between assets and liabilities. All right, this is not business class, but you got to know the difference. Okay, just because somebody is in eyeballs up to here in bad debt. Outside it might look like they got it all, but on the inside, they're just tore completely up because they have they have uh got themselves in a mess to have everything that they have. If you want fruit that is everlasting, that means you've got your priorities in order and God is blessing your life. There's peace in that rather than you trying to go out here and pull some things together to make your orchard or look like it is it is producing fruit. That kind of fruit can only be sustained for a small period of time if you're doing all that by yourself. But the fruit that God gives you is fruit that is everlasting. There's a lot of people out here who are busy and look like they're doing a lot of good things, but they are so spiritually empty on the inside. There's a lot of people that are always, they're always moving and they're always talking, they're always planning and they're building and they're they're helping and they're rushing and and and maybe even uh their their crew of people, if God has entrusted them with a business or something like that. Their crew. You can usually look and see. If you work at a company or you walk into a company, you can usually tell by talking to a few of the employees how the culture of the business really is outside of what's actually written on paper. Before I ever accepted a job anywhere, if I was putting out resumes and I would go into my interview, I would I would ask the hiring manager, would you mind taking me around to the different departments? You know, I just want to meet, you know, your people, and I just I just want to uh just see you know fully what's going on. And most places will give you the the tour anyway. So when they introduce you to somebody, you shake hands with them and you talk with them and you ask them, this is what I ask them. I'm giving you all a little bit of advice next time you apply for a job and you're getting introduced to people in the building. All right, ask that person, be like, hey, you know, uh, how how many years have you been here? You start when you start throwing out some odd questions, you really catch some folks. There was one specific position that I took in my life. It was actually less money than I was well, it was less per hour. Anyway, I went for the it was a god door, it was a god door, and it all, I mean, it all worked out well. But I would ask them that question everywhere everywhere I went, how long have you been here? Oh, I've been here 30 years. It's a great place. Went into the next place. Man, I've been here for 20 something years. That wasn't just in one or two places. Everywhere that I went, those folks have been there over 10 years. That told me something. That told me the culture of the place was good. Because if somebody's gonna park themselves for a decade or two or three, or maybe even four decades, that lets me know that the culture must be pretty good. And it was. Ask the hard questions. You don't want to be around people who are like, man, I've been here for like two weeks and I'm ready to get out of here. That's probably time to go. And if you see that pattern as you walk around, well, there you go. So anyway, there's a little bunny trail for you. All right. Always find out what you're going to be a part of anyway. But there's always people that are that are rushing and they're going and they're working. You're going to see that that was the culture. Oh, yes. Well, that was the culture of the older generation, too. You know, a little bit, a little bit different mindset. But I mean, they were happy. So there you go. They you made they make careers out of their jobs. We don't, we don't do that much. Our generation doesn't really do that so very much. But you know, there's a lot of people that are called to build things. There's a lot of people that are called to come alongside and help steward things. All right. We all have different callings. We all bring different puzzle pieces. There's a lot of people that are like, I don't want the headache and the taxes and all that stuff. I don't do any of that. You just take care of me and I will help you do whatever it is you need to do. There are folks that want to do that. And then there's some folks that are just crazy like me, like, well, we're going to figure this out and we're going to get in here and we're going to do what God said do. It's all depending upon who you are, what God has truly called you to, but you want to make sure you're in your vein because whatever is in your hands is what is going to produce fruit. Whatever God has placed in your hands, let me rephrase that. Whatever God has placed in your hands, that is the thing that must be going to produce fruit in your life. What has God called you to? What has God called you to? Assess those things. And are you even doing what God has really truly called you to do? Because if you're not, that's the thing you need to go and you need to look at today. But I know a lot of people that are frustrated and they're and they're trying to just pull things together and they're all over the place. They're pushing, they're moving, they're pulling, they're changing all the time. And it's like it's like a spirit of confusion is just there. And you see it all over the team members that are a part of that. Be careful what you hook yourself to. Because there's a lot of people that they're not quite in the right place doing the right things. But these people, these people, if you look at them from afar, there's some people that look like they got it going on, but really on the inside, they're very dry. If you were to assess life, you may see a prayerless life. You might see a very distracted life. You might see somebody who's real snappy and always got a really, really short fuse. They're always overwhelmed. They they can't seem to find enough time to do all the things. Amen. That is not a fruitful life. That is that is that that that is it's a very un unsustainable model that you're looking at in somebody. And we start in verse 38. As Jesus and the disciples continued on their journey, they came to a village where a woman welcomed Jesus into her into her home. Her name was Martha. She had a sister named Mary. Yes, we've heard this many times. It's the workflow, the workflow ecosystem. What is the workflow ecosystem, bro? That would that would explain. Maybe send me a message. We can find out more about that. It's not a job. The workflow ecosystem. Maybe we should hear more about that, my brother. Send me something. Send me a little something. Unless I'm missing something. Y'all know how I am when I'm in it, and then I shift gears and I'm like, hold on, I gotta ponder on this for a minute. How do you know what God has called you? How do you know what God has called you for? The way that you know what God has called you to do. Alright, there's many different aspects. The first and forest uh number one thing is gonna be you need to find yourself in the secret place. And you're gonna have to spend time with God every single day. You're gonna allow him to speak things to your life. You need to keep a prayer journal with you as you as he begins to speak, because blueprints are written when he begins to speak. There's things he wants to show you through the word. All right, first and foremost, first and foremost, you need to realize. First and foremost, you need to realize that we are all called to do different things. But there is one thing that he has called us all to do. He's called us to have the heart of the evangelist. So when it comes to sharing the gospel, we should all be bold enough to be able to do that. You should be able to speak your testimony and speak what God has done in your life, what Jesus has done for you, and then share about who Jesus really is to other people. When you begin to develop that in your life, then you're going to be able to step into some other things. But yes, he's all called us to evangelize, to speak the goodness of Jesus, to make disciples. He's called us to do that. So there you go. That's a good place to start. But then as far as like your giftings, all right, what you need to assess things in your life that come easily. What's some things that you can do that comes easier to you that other people around you can't seem to figure out or do? You need to start there as far as like things that you could be stepping out into. Those that have their minds renewed know the will of God. But uh, but yeah, but then as far as that, find your giftings in your. I mean, not everybody can sit down at the piano and play the just to, you know, figure out tunes and hear melodies and sounds from heaven. Well, music may be a part of what God has called you to do. Amen. You might be able to sit down and write out a story, and people are like, man, how do you write like that? How do you come up with those things? That is something that God has gifted you with. Find your giftings as you're going throughout life. There's some things that come easier to you that don't to other people. That is a piece of the puzzle that you are in this life. Amen. It's the long and short of it. We're all called to be an evangelist. I mean, to have the heart of an evangelist, to share our testimonies and share the gospel of Jesus, and then find the giftings and things that God has given you. Maybe you can cook, and there's something special about I know there's some people that can cook, and you're just like, my gosh, like if I made this, it ain't gonna taste like this. And I could have put the same stuff in it and done the same things to it. But you this is amazing. See, there's all kinds of things that you can do. Find out what those things are. You gotta go find out what those things are. God is the one that will help you discover the very talents that He has put on the inside of you, and He will help you grow in those areas. And while He's doing that, let's not become like Martha, who became exasperated by finishing all the numerous household chores in preparation for her guests. Don't get so lost in the doing that you forget the main things. You forget the main thing, and that's Jesus. She interrupted Jesus and said, Lord, don't you think it's unfair my sister left me to do all this work by myself? You should tell her to get up and to help me. Verse 41 the Lord answered her, Martha, my beloved Martha, why are you upset and troubled, pulled away by all these many distractions? Are they really that important? Mary has discovered the one most important thing by choosing to sit at my feet. She is undistracted, and I won't take this privilege from her. I'm not gonna take that privilege from her. Martha was a very busy person. You got Martha and Mary here. Martha was running around busy. She was active, she was doing, she was serving, she was in it to win it. Boy, she was just, man, Jesus is at my house. We're gonna cook the best meal, we're gonna make sure the dishes are clean, we've got a vacuum, we got to do the things, we've got to get all this stuff in order. But Mary went over and just sat at his feet when he came in the door. Jesus didn't say that Martha's serve service, what she was doing, didn't that doesn't mean anything. He never said that. But he was showing that the activity that she was doing, all the running around in the doing, without priority, became anxiety to her. Did you see that? Are you just gonna let her sit there? I mean, we have all this stuff. We got she was very anxious, she was very, she was very troubled, and she was getting angry. You can see this in this passage. Martha was not wrong for serving. Let's let's get this part of the story. I know we've gone through this many times. Martha wasn't wrong for serving, she was wrong for letting the service pull her out of alignment in what was most important for the moment. All the things that you're doing. May not be a thing wrong with any of it, but are you in alignment with God and doing the things that He's asked you to do? When busyness pulls you away from Jesus, it is no longer fruitful. When busyness pulls you away from Jesus where you're so distracted, you don't have time for that, then that is not fruit in your life. There's a lot of people, you don't have a work problem. All right. What it is is you have a priority problem. You have a problem getting things in order. You have a problem of keeping the main things, the main things. You have all these things dump on you. And listen, if I'm not careful, I can have this person who's having a hard day and wanting me to listen. And then I could be one that's thinking about all the things that I've got to work on today because if I don't meet these deadlines, my gosh, I'm one that sets goals and I try to keep those. I try to meet those goals. If you're gonna set goals, make sure to set them at an attainable pace. Don't try to do things where it's just like, I got to get all this done by no, no, no. Set your goals where they are attainable. But you have to be ready for things that come along. This person may need your attention. That person may need your attention. All right. And you have all these deadlines and things to meet, and you have all these things. You have to prioritize. And Jesus has got to be number one. Your relationship with the Lord is number one. Your your yourself and your time with God is that's number one. Your spouse is right there after that time with him. Your children is right there underneath that. Make sure you keep your spouse in check, okay? And your relationship and your marriage. All right, before the kids came along, there was that. All right, and then the fruit of that, which is your children, that comes right under that. Everything else comes under that. You have to prioritize your life in that order. God, spouse, children, everything else. Somebody needs to write that down. I mean, you don't, you don't get to ever put anything before God. So that's number one, always. All right, spouse is next. Children are next. If you're not married yet, if you're still single, God hasn't brought that special someone to you. It's God. All right, and then everything else. Your relationship with the Lord is the most important thing. Write that down. And only you know the everything else. You only you know the everything else and what needs to be. But the thing is you need to start practicing prioritizing your day and your life. All right, do this. I do this every day. I make what's called a daily success list, and I'll put the date next to it. And then those are the things that I work on. All right, spend time with the Lord. The morning charge. Okay, and then prayer time with my spouse and my family, going over the word of God and praying together. All right, and then everything else flows outside of that. We homeschool our children, we have our cleaning business, you know. I'm working on uh ministry stuff with Fire and Water Ministries, you know, we're we're working on cutting this stuff up, putting it on. So I mean, we have a lot. So we have to prioritize this stuff by day, and you have to write it down. Do that because when you see it and it's in front of you, it something shifts on the inside of you because when you see it at a glance, it helps you keep things in perspective. That doesn't mean that things aren't going to arise, all right? That this would go back, this would be a whole thing about putting a schedule together. You just gotta know how to prioritize your day. And if you keep certain hours of the day, certain things, and nothing else comes into that spot, that's when it, that's when your life starts falling back into order. And it's okay to say no. There's a lot of people on here this morning, you don't know how to say no. You feel like it's rude to say no. And then your schedule looks a mess. You're pushing stuff off, you're pulling things on, you're shifting stuff around. I didn't spend time with God today because, you know, I got to go over here and help this person who needed this, and I got to go help this person who needed that. And I and I got, and then I gotta, oh, you hadn't even spent no time with God. You hadn't even got yourself grounded. Your family's missing you because you've said yes to a whole thing. And you're all you're oh, now you're now you're just being stretched out here everywhere. Now your marriage is suffering, your relationship with God is suffering, your your children aren't doing well in school because you're being pulled here, there, and everywhere because you don't know how to say no. There's some things you need to you need to write down. I want everybody in this, just do it today, okay? A lot of you have already done this if you've if you've been hanging with me for a while, but I want you to list everything you got going on. Put it all down on paper today. I don't care what it is. It could be taking the trash out on Wednesdays. You list everything that you have going on right now. You got work and you got ministry and you got this and you got that, and you got kids in school and sports, and I mean, I want you to list everything that you do. It could be serving in this role and that role. Maybe you took on too much at church, and you're on this committee and that committee, and now you're on this nonprofit's board and you're doing this thing over here, and you're I don't know what you got going on in your life. Only you know, but you know something's got to change. There's some things you're gonna have to go and look at, and you're gonna have to say this is a no. And I want you to prioritize it. Is it God, spouse, children? Make sure those things are all, whatever goes in those categories, make sure to keep those things at the forefront. Everything else you got left on that paper, you need to say what is important and what is not. Or ask yourself this question: what is bearing fruit? What is not bearing fruit? Because the things that ain't bearing fruit, you're gonna have to cut that thing off and go put it in the pile over there with the other unalived things. The things that's bearing just a little bit of fruit, not a whole lot, you might want to think about pruning because as soon as you prune something, maybe it wasn't a season for that. Maybe it is something God called you to, but you've got all these other important things now that you've realized, oh, those are important. You need to prune those things because when the season comes back around for that to begin to grow in your life again, it's going to bear more fruit than it is right now. You can only be so effective. You're only one person, you can only do so much. You're now you've doing so much till you are taking the day you should be resting to run all the errands, go grocery shopping, go to the dry cleaners, go to the hardware store, but take on this project, that project, the other project, and you didn't rest. You didn't, you didn't reset, and now you're burning the candle at both ends. Mm-mm-mm. So there's a lot of there's a lot of things that come out of this. We're gonna be we're gonna be opening up ways to be able to even deep dive on some of these things coming up. So we'll keep you posted on that. It's just a lot to go through on the morning charge, okay? Fruit, listen this. I'm sorry, fruitfulness, goodness, help me with my English, Lord. Fruitfulness comes from abiding, not from striving. We got to make sure we get this in check. There's a lot of people that think that fruitfulness is produced by harder effort. If I just put in more effort, if I just put in more time, if I if I just put in a little more, no, no, no. It doesn't come from more hustling, more pressure, more running around, more noise, more output. I mean, you feel like you're just having to do a whole lot. Jesus said fruit comes from abiding. That's what we just read. Abide in me. Without me, you can do nothing. Jesus has to be at the forefront here. It comes from abiding. That means that real fruit is born out of connection. You're connected to the vine. Real fruit is born out of connection. We're the branches. We got to stay connected to the vine. It's it's communing with him. It's remaining in him. I in you, and you in me. Let's I in you and your words in me. Notice it said that on the next verse down. That goes. That goes takes another step further. I and you and you and me. Yes, we're in Jesus. We're seated in heavenly places with him. We were co-crucified, co-resurrected with him. I in him and he and me. And then under that I in him and his word in me. See, we got to get so much into this. This word is in us. It's not just in this book that we kind of just dust off and read every now and again. This is a daily thing that we have to get into. We have to remain in him. Let his word be in us. Busyness is often driven in your life by pressure. When you feel that pressure of not enough finances, you feel like you got to get real busy right then. Which honestly, it would take a while to do all the things that you're even thinking about doing to try to get some quick cash coming in. You know what I'm saying? But busyness is often driven by pressure. Now you feel like the busier I am, the more I won't feel so bad because I don't have enough coming in. Fruitfulness is only produced by connection to him. He is your source of strength. He is Jehovah Jireh. He is your provider. So if you're connected to the vine, you're not going to lack. You're not going to, you're not going to suffer. It might look for a moment. You pulled up the bank account and you're like, ah. You ever had those moments? What are we going to do? And when you get in that, you're feeling the pressure of that what are we going to do moment? And you start panicking. And then you start just pulling from all things. And then you may start doing some things you should have never picked up and started doing. You might start trying to pull something, ah, and now your mind is a mess and you're scattered everywhere and you're just trying to stay busy to suppress what is really going on in your life. See, busyness can also become a suppression thing, too. But when you abide in Christ, your decisions get clearer. The things that you're doing, your mind starts to clear up when you're abiding in him. Your priorities line up and the things that you're doing, your schedule looks cleaner. Your assignments, what you're doing, you're more zero focused in on what you're doing, and your assignments get more specific. Your peace and your life, it gets, it gets stronger and it gets thicker because peace just follows you wherever you go. And your efforts get more focused. Whatever you're doing during this time, you're focusing. I'm focusing in on whatever I got going on. Abiding cuts out the waste. Abiding cuts out the noise. Abiding cuts out all the confusion. That's what abiding will do for you because when you are close to Jesus, when you are connected to the vine, you stop giving yourself to everything. When you're connected to the vine, you start, you stop giving yourself away to just all these things out here. Yeah, all these good things, but are they God things for your life? The enemy wants to keep you busy. He wants you living a life that's full of noise and full of pressure, full of endless things to do, unnecessary obligations. You know, there's some people, it's called a false responsibility. You need to just go ahead and brush that off your shoulder. Get that false responsibility out of here. That wasn't your place. That wasn't your thing. That wasn't your fight. There's a lot of people out here trying to fix everybody and everything. You can't do that. You can only lead them to Jesus. That's his place. Stop picking up all the unnecessary things that you can't even do. Your priorities are out of whack. You have this emotional overload. The enemy tries to throw a lot of things on you. You know, and in Mark 4, Jesus is talking about the seed that is sown among the thorns, you know, when they're sowing your seed is where that parable comes from. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the desires for other things, it begin to enter in and it chokes out the word. Those thorns will choke out what God is wanting to do. But notice this, okay? The word was present, the seed was a real seed, but it got choked out. The environment choked it out. These things they don't always get, they don't always get choked out by just by sin. Because sin is going to hold you in bondage from things. A lot of times, this will choke out things because of uh of the of the weight of life that is upon you, that pressure that we were just talking about. You do not have to be evil to be unfruitful. You do not have to be doing evil sin and gross sin to be unfruitful. He just gotta he just gotta crowd your schedule. He just gotta he gotta cloudy the water. He gotta stir some things up so you get your focus off onto things that you can't even fix. That's what the enemy tries to do. A lot of it's just you're too overcrowded. You got too much hurry and worry in your life, is what I call it. You got way too much hurry and worry going on. And I'm gonna end with this. What do we end with on this? Jesus. We gotta look at and study the life of Jesus. So if we look at Jesus' life, without going through all the gospels here this morning, we don't have that much time. Jesus, think about his life. He had a lot of pressure. He had immense pressure. Crowds were always following him. People were always needing healing. All right, when word got out about Jesus, word got out about Jesus. He is the man that's going to help me be healed, be whole, be set free again. So you now you got people following him everywhere. Crowds are forming, people needing healing. People were needing answers about different things in their lives. People were pulling on Jesus constantly. And the disciples were always following with him and going with him, asking him tons of questions. He was always speaking stories to them to try to get them to understand. But yet Jesus, he was never led by panic. He was never led by worry. He was never led by his feelings. Jesus never got in a hurry. He was always present wherever he was. If there was a story that needed to be told, he told a story. He maintained peace. He was not manipulated by all the demands and all the things that were, well, we gotta have more meetings and we gotta have more of this and we gotta have more. He knew when to draw away and he knew when to press in. And he did everything unhurried. He took his time. He would stop, he would talk, he would move on when it was time, he would withdraw and he would pray whenever he needed to. He would move when the father said to move. He would leave places where people wanted him to stay. Please stay. I must press on and I must go. He was the very perfect model for us. He would say hard things and he would say it in love. He would remain focused on the mission of what he had to do, and he knew where the end was going to lead him eventually, but he did it anyway. That is a fruitful life. You want the model? Jesus' life was the perfect model. And he knew boundaries. Yes, just like I said, there was people that wanted him to stay in places, but he said, I must press on and I must go. And he would go because his relationship with his father was the most important thing in his life. Is the relationship with the father the most important thing in your life? If it's not, it's time to reassess some things and put some things back in order. If your pace keeps you from peace, your pace is off. You're not in perfect alignment, you're not in right alignment with God. There should be peace and you're there, should be no reason why you don't have peace. If you don't have peace, I mean, maybe you're a feeler and you're feeling the room. If you're one that walks into a room and you're just like, oh, I just feel everything and everyone and all of their stuff. If you're that, you've got to learn how to rein that in. You've got to learn how to give that to God, and you've got to learn to breathe, and you got to understand it ain't you. God has allowed you to have that so you know how to pray for people, how to intercede. You can begin, if you're supposed, if you feel that when you walk into a room, you're called to be the thermostat on the wall, not the thermometer, this reading. So you might be reading it for a minute. You better adjust that thermostat so you can begin to set the room and set the atmosphere. Come on. Jesus didn't live frantic. He had a surrendered focus to his father. We gotta keep our my our our priorities in order. See what you need to prune today. Ask yourself these questions. Y'all know who I y'all know how I am. I try to leave you with homework if I can, because this is necessary. This is important stuff for your life. For your life. You want things to change? Some things have got to change. You need to stand up and start speaking differently if you want to see change. What in my life is taking energy from me, but it's producing little or no fruit? What is sucking the life out of you? And you're not hardly seeing anything, if anything at all, from what you're doing. What has God actually assigned to me in this season? What should I put my hands to? I should put my hands to the plow. I don't want to put my hand to the wrong plow. I don't want to be plowing somebody else's field. I want to plow the field that he has set me in. What do you have me doing right now? This takes time in his word, in his presence, in the secret place. If you really want to know what he's calling you to do, what he's calling you to do right now, get alone with Jesus. Spend some time with Jesus. And then ask yourself this third thing. Am I abiding in Christ? Or am I trying to do everything in my own strength? Am I truly abiding in him or am I trying to do everything in my own strength? All right, and go back to our scriptures today. John 15, 1 through 8. Luke 10, 38 through 42. Go to Mark 4, 18 through 19. The cares of this world. Alright? Are choking out the word. Ecclesiastes 3 and 1. There's a season for everything. Ecclesiastes 3 and 1. Also look at John 15 and 16. That's fruit that remains. That's the scripture that talks about fruit that remains. We've been there this morning. And Psalms 46 and 10. In the midst of it all, what's part of Psalms 46 and 10? Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. I'm going to try to figure out a way to put those up for you somewhere. So y'all can find those. You just gotta kind of get in there. You know what I'm saying? We do the best we can on TT. So, all that being said, I hope at this point you know the difference between being busy and being fruitful. Stop being busy. Start being fruitful. You have to spend time with the one that you should be connected to. I in him and he in me, and that is when things begin to grow. That is when things begin to happen. And if you don't see fruit today and you don't see fruit tomorrow, because if I go out there and I plant, let's say I've never tried any of this before. If I go out there and I plant an apple tree today, it might be next season before I see fruit. Or the next season. But are you willing to do the work necessary? Are you gonna take the pennies that you have before you now and continue to just scatter those about? And you've got to think pennies are heavy. If you load it all out into a wagon, that's gonna be real hard to pull. You're not gonna be able to pull your pennies to the mountain of promise. Think of that for just a moment. Are you just willing to put on the backpack and say, I'm in this for with you for the long haul, Jesus? And I'm gonna go with you. I'm gonna go with you. I'm going to the mountain of promise. I mean, hey, what do you got to lose at this point? If you've been in the same old cycles over and over, do something different today. Do something crazy different today. And start walking with Jesus and see how he comes and how he provides for you. And let that fear go out of your life. Amen. That's today's morning charge. Before you move on with your day, take a moment and let what you've heard settle into your heart. Faith isn't just something we talk about, it's something we live out in the ordinary moments of everyday life. Wherever today takes you, remember this. You don't walk into it alone. God is already ahead of you, working in ways you may not even see yet. Stand firm, walk in wisdom, lead with love, and don't forget who you belong to. Until next time, keep your heart anchored, keep your faith strong, and keep living out real talk, real Jesus, real life. We'll see you on the next morning charge.