Pastor Hector Boucet

If GOD looked at your calendar, your finances, your phone, your conversations, and your thoughts — would your life show that HE is first?

Pastor Hector Boucet opened by reminding The Gathering Church that every day, believers choose what deserves their time. Work, family, church, friends, phones, entertainment — none of these things are bad on their own. The problem, he said, is when good things quietly take the place of what should come first.

He compared it to driving the wrong way down a six-lane road in San Juan, unaware until he was already deep into oncoming traffic. Sometimes the HOLY SPIRIT tries to give direction, he said, but people keep going the wrong way anyway — not because they don’t know, but because they enjoy the moment too much to listen.

“Seek first the kingdom of GOD and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Matthew 6:33

Pastor Boucet pointed out something easy to miss in Matthew 6:33: it does not say seek GOD’s kingdom when there’s time. It says seek first. He asked the congregation how quickly most people reach for their phones the moment they wake up, compared to how often the Bible waits untouched. “We don’t have time to read the Bible, but we take time to do everything else,” he said. The real question was never about time — it is about order.

He read Proverbs 3:5-6, calling the church to trust the LORD with all their heart — not just on Sunday mornings, but in every moment when trusting HIM is harder than it looks.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to HIM, and HE will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

“First JESUS, then everything else.”

— Pastor Hector Boucet

Pastor Boucet named a danger many believers never notice: becoming so busy doing things for GOD that they stop spending time with GOD. He turned to Luke 10:41-42, the story of Martha and Mary. Martha was not doing anything wrong — she was serving. But JESUS gently told her she was worried and distracted about many things, while Mary had chosen what mattered most.

“You can be busy doing good things and still neglect the most important thing,” he said. He connected it to John 15:5, reminding the church that apart from CHRIST, believers can do nothing — not because they are incapable, but because every good thing they already do is only possible through HIM.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in ME and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from ME you can do nothing.”

John 15:5

Pastor Boucet reminded the congregation that family is not an interruption to ministry — it is part of ministry. Quoting Joshua 24:15, he pointed out that Joshua did not simply say “I will serve the LORD” — he said “as for me and my house.” GOD does not want to save just one person in a family; HE wants the whole household.

He also warned against chasing what will not last. Reading Matthew 6:19-21 and Colossians 3:2, he reminded the church that money, possessions, and even this whole world will one day be gone — but what is done for CHRIST has eternal value. And time itself, he said, cannot be earned back once it’s spent. He closed with Psalm 90:12, asking GOD to teach HIS people to number their days and gain a heart of wisdom.

“Sometimes our problem isn’t that we have too many things. Our problem is that we have things in the wrong order.”

Pastor Hector Boucet

Prioritizing what matters is not about having a shorter list. It is about making sure JESUS sits at the very top of it — because once HE is in HIS rightful place, Pastor Boucet said, everything else has room to fall into its proper place behind HIM.

Watch the Full Sermon

Hear Pastor Hector Boucet preach Prioritizing What Matters — Putting First Things First, According to GOD’S WORD live at The Gathering Church — August 9, 2026.

Reflect & Respond

What is first in your life right now? What has taken the place that belongs to GOD — and what do you need to rearrange?