Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / September 26, 2018 | Men Of Success - Fall 2018: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Session 3

Transcript

September 26, 2018 | Men Of Success - Fall 2018: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Session 3 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_03: Alright.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_03: Good morning, man.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_03: How are y'all doing this morning?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_03: Overwhelming response.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think I got two.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: Les might have been one of them.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_03: And somebody else responded.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: Hopefully, you guys are having a terrific day so far.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: Full of full of lots of good things, especially good breakfast.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_03: So who was it?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Tom.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, let's give a big round of big round of applause for Tom and the guys who are working.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: We appreciate it.
• 0:44
  unknown: Wow.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_03: We've also got the Kansas City Chiefs.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: Talk about these guys.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_03: They're 3-0.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_03: They've got this guy, Mahomes.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I call him.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: I know that's not really his name.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_03: Mahomes boy.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I call him.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_03: How I mean, how many guys think that they're going to the Super Bowl this year?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: No one.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you have a little faith.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Pixie does have to wear off at some point.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's got, I think he set a record.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: What'd you say last year?
• 1:20
  unknown: I think it's a deep thing off the card.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I guess you need deep friends, don't we?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: They need some deep, but it's.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, the guy set a record.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: 13 touchdown passes first three games?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Something like that.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: More than anybody in history.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: But he's in there.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: And I think I would say he's being very proactive.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: And in his in his play and his preparation.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: Very good.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: You're such a man.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_03: So as you know, we're going through the seven habits of highly effective people.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: And we use the first two weeks to discover the two chapters of intro.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then as a review, what we talked about a little bit last week was if you remember that maturity continuum.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: So this is that that process, that that grid that we can look at as we go from dependent to independent to interdependence.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: So dependence, thinking about that like a little baby, completely dependent upon parents.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_03: They are able to grow up, learn a few more skills, they're able to do things on their own, and then interdependence.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: They can still do things on their own.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: They're still independent, but they know the value of working with others and sharing and being collaborative in that way.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: Collaborative.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: That's too big a word for this.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: Too many syllables for 6 40 in the morning.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: So this is a great chapter.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it I think it's fundamental to everything else we're gonna do.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you dive us into the uh first part of it?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so this is the first of the seven habits.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: Be proactive, and that's what we're gonna be talking about all through this chapter today.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: And then a verse is Romans 12, 21.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_03: Do not become overcome by evil.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: That's being proactive right there.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: That's very so it's not allowing us to be consumed, especially as we think of our spiritual lives, as we think of our relationship to God, our obedience.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: Not to just let evil and temptation and all of that squash us, but actually put some effort forth in doing good, in having obedience.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: And we know that we can't do it just by ourselves, but we need the help of God, we need the help of the Holy Spirit in order for us to do that.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then he has a quote that says, self-awareness is our capacity to stand apart from ourselves and examine our thinking, our motives, our history, our scripts, our actions, and our habits and tendencies.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: And so this is looking at our past, this is looking at our current circumstances, looking at our life, and what what events are here, what relationships am I involved in, and how am I, am I able to process, am I able to think back and think, why am I doing the things that I'm doing?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: Why am I acting the way that I'm acting, and why am I thinking the way that I'm thinking?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so that he would define as self-awareness.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: That's just apart from the animals, in fact, doesn't it?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: No, no animals do that.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: We are the planners, we're able to think and reflect and think about the future and make plans and all of that.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then he talks about the social mirror.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: And he says, if the only vision we have of ourselves comes from the social mirror, from the current social paradigm and from the opinions, perceptions, and paradigms of the people around us, our view of ourselves is like the reflection in a crazy mirror room at the carnival.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: So when we look at this mirror, he actually is going to give three different mirrors that we typically look at.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: But as we look at this thing, it distorts reality, it distorts what's truly there.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: And then the three different types of mirrors that he describes, if you look where the where the red is, there's genetic, psychic, and environmental.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: So genetic basically is saying if we look at ourselves, and maybe you have a bad habit.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it's being explosively angry all the time.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_03: And you look at that and say, Well, my grandparents were like that.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_03: So genetically, that's just that's just how I am.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's just my personality, there's nothing I can do about it, it's just it's fixed.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then the second is what he calls psychic, and he says, This is this is where we look at our circumstance, we look at a habit, and we think, well, my parents raised me this way, and so that's just how I am.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: There's no changing it, there's no moving it, it's it's done for.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_03: So that's that's the second mirror.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_03: And then the third is environmental.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so this is looking at all the things around us.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: We say, well, my spouse is like this, so that's why I do the things that I do.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_03: My environment is like this, our culture is like this.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_03: People are just really, really greedy around me.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: There's there's just greedy people all around, and so that's why I'm so greedy.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_03: And if they wouldn't be so greedy, then I wouldn't be so greedy.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: And so this is what he's saying is the reactive person.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: This is everything else happens and forces me to be the way I am rather than taking the proactive approach and saying, I can actually do something about this, I can change this in some way, shape, or form.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of us have.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: As a member of, I have a member of my family who's this way, but I mean, she's now mid-50s and she's been this way for decades, and there's no way that Melanie and I can force her to change.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so you just understand some people sort of are victims.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: They're always reactive, and we have to decide how to handle that.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you're telling us we ought to be proactive rather than reactive.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: That's the battle.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's the battle.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: So um basically, what you're talking about is is is what some people call a stimulus response model, where there'll be a stimulus upon me and I respond, and the idea is, you know, I have no choice.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's my grandparents, my parents, my workplace, or whatever.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: So he says, but that's not the way that we have to live.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: The example he picks is this guy who's a famous psychologist who survived the concentration camps.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: A Jewish guy named Viktor Frankel.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: He was in a concentration camp, and apparently he got to the very bottom.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: He was naked in an empty little room one day, facing the gas chamber, perhaps.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: And he realized all of a sudden that he had an incredible kind of a freedom.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: He would later write after he got out of the concentration camp, that he realized that everything can be taken from a man but one thing.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: The last of the human freedoms, choose one's own attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: He realized, Victor Franco did, in the concentration camp, that those people could not take away his ability to have the attitude that he wanted to have, that between the stimulus of their persecution and his response, there was a space in there where he was free to choose.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: To choose his response.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, you know, he realized in the concentration camp that what set him apart from animals was four things.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Something they couldn't take away, not only his self-awareness, but also his imagination.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And in the concentration camp, Frank would picture, would imagine himself years later standing at a university lecturing students about certain things.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: He said, There's no way the guards of the concentration camp could take away that imagination.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Or his conscience, where he would decide to do right or wrong, and let's say, unlike other concentration camp inmates, he wouldn't steal anybody's food.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: He would treat everybody with a good conscience.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And finally, independent will, that he would do whatever he chose to do.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: If he chose to run to the wire and get shot or electrocuted, he could do that if he chose to remain silent.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: So he realized he had more freedom even than the guards at the concentration camp.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Later, he would call that response ability, that he had an ability to respond that no one could take away.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: That he couldn't always choose, none of us could choose what happens to us, but we can always choose how we react.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And he uh popularized at that time uh a phrase by Eleanor Roosevelt, no one can hurt you without your consent.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's not what happens to us that hurts us, it's our response that hurts us.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the basis then of this chapter, Gabby's first chapter, is this proactivity is realizing I'm not the product of my circumstances, I'm the product of my decisions.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the things that flow out of this in the rest of the chapter are gonna be proactive.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Proactive people are those who focus their efforts on things which they can do something about.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: They are responsible for themselves.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: They recognize their responsibility to make things make things happen, etc.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the difference between reactive people and proactive people is reactive people are always blaming their circumstances.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: If the social weather is good, if it's bad, then they feel good.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: If it's bad, they feel bad.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas proactive people, I love the last line here, don't blame anyone or anything.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: They carry their social weather with them.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you walk through life, and no matter what anyone else does, you can make it rain and shine in your own world because you carry your own weather with you.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: This is the really fundamental idea in this chapter.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: The problem is not the problem in your life, the problem is your attitude about the problem.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Derek, I like the verse you found for us, and that's whatsoever things are true.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Honest, just pure, lovely, good report virtues.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think on these things.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: Bottom line, if you're proactive, you don't have to wait for circumstances or other people.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: To create experiences for yourself, you can create your own.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: So don't be acted upon.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Act.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: And the difference he says, second line, 5,000% difference in effectiveness between victims, the reactive as versus the proactive people.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's a I think that was from a study too that he did, the 5,000%.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're right.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think it's just to make the point.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: This is reflective in the way we talk, isn't it?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's it's interesting.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: And and this isn't, I don't think, new territory for all of us.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_03: In this idea of we don't have to act simply out of the way that our environment is or because of a certain stimulus, but we actually do have a choice in how we respond and a choice in our attitudes.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: And it even comes out in the way that we speak.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_03: It comes out in our language.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_03: And he gives he gives a really neat comparison of some reactive language versus proactive.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: So for some reactive language, this is there's nothing I can, there's nothing I can do.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: This is just the way I am because somebody else did it.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: I can't do this, I have to do this, I must do this thing.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_03: But then there's also the proactive language which says, I have the ability to choose.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_03: I can look at different alternatives, I can look at the situation differently, I can prefer something, I, or maybe I will do something versus I have to do something.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: And this, I think when you when you think about the language that we use on an everyday basis, you're gonna see this a lot.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's just gonna start coming up a lot.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of like when you get a new car and you realize, wow, everyone else has a Honda Civic 2.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: What in the world?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: I never noticed all these cars before.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the ways that I've seen this is working with youth for quite a few years.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's interesting how the reactive language is so prevalent.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_03: For example, there's you know, there's sports and activities and all kinds of other things that will maybe take kids away from Sunday church service or youth group or whatever it happens to be, and say, Oh, you know, we really missed you last week.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: Where were you?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I had to go to baseball practice.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I'll always say, Did you have to or did you choose to?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: No, I I had to go.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Did you have any other options?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: Nope, I had to go.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: So it hasn't quite sunk in yet.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: And they get, I think they get pretty annoyed when I ask the question that way, because I'll press them and finally get to realize, no, you could have chosen something different, but you didn't want the consequence of the choice that you didn't choose.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: And as I was thinking about this, I thought, man, this is not a great tactic to have with our spouse.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: Don't try what I did with the students on our it's just not gonna go very well.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then he jumps into talking about how this idea of our language, and then he starts talking about love and our actual care for somebody else, and he he gives a brief example of you know, husband and wife, and the husband's just saying, Well, I just don't love you anymore.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: I just don't feel that anymore.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: And he pushes back and says, No, you can still love her because love is a verb.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: It's not, it can be a feeling, it can be, you know, feelings can be a result of that, but as we look at love, it's something that we do towards someone else.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's some it's an action that we take.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: So I can choose to love you, or I can choose not to love you, whether or not the feeling is there.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_03: And he says, the feeling is the fruit of love, the verb, or our loving actions.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: So love her, sacrifice, listen to her, empathize, appreciate, affirm her.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then we see this in 1 Corinthians 13, and this is the chapter on love.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's not jealous, it does not seek its own interest, it bears all things, endures, it hopes all things, it believes all things, it's never rude, it never fails.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: And we see this all throughout 1 Corinthians 13 and all these characteristics of love.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_03: And as we look at these things, these are things that we can do towards somebody else.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: Now, it may not be natural, it may not feel like we want to, we may not be able to do it in just our own strength, but we need God to help us.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_03: But those are things and actions that we can do.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: This is what uh separates Christianity, of course, from all our other religions.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: So we're rebels against God, Paul said in Romans, but yet while we were rebels and were unlovable, God so loved the world that he so love is a verb, God acted in such a way that he pursued it and he died for it.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Then he moves to another way of looking at this whole proactive thing by saying, think about your life and all of the things that uh are in your life that you are concerned about, such as your problems, such as your income, such as your health, such as your children, such as your election, such as terrorism, and he says you realize all of these are in a circle that you can call areas of concern.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: And you have a lot of other areas of no concern.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh who's gonna win the uh women's NBA title, I'd say.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um sorry, just picked one.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, you know, there's a lot of things you really don't care about, and maybe half of the ones that I listed as areas of concern you don't care about either.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: But but the significant thing is that in this circle, he says there are circles of concern, inside this circle of concern is a circle of influence, a circle of like control.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Things you can do something about.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: That would include, let's say, your health or your weight, or perhaps your income, or whatever else.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And he says that proactive people do not spend their time in that outer reddish circle, I think it's really, but but focus on the circle of influence.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: They worry only about the things they can control, and as they get proactive, that he says very interesting, you can watch that circle of influence or circle of control grow more and more, say at your workplace.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: He said, when you focus at your workplace on what you can control, starting with your own attitude, and walk around your workplace and move into other people's lives in an attitudinal way.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Bob.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: You missed all the good stuff.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Go ahead and leave now.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm kidding.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm joking.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um so he says your influence will just super expand, whereas reactive people who are all hunched down like I have no choice, their circle of influence shrink.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: And he says that affects then the kind of person you are, whether you or I have person that's a reactive person, or I can be person that's a proactive person.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: The reactive people say, I'll be happy when I have a full establishment.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: If I only had a boss who wasn't, if I had respect from my wife, if I could just have management days, if the environmental, you know, whereas proactive people say, I can be a better old mom, I can be more organized, I can be more diligent, I can be more loving, etc.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: etc.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: We are free, he says, to choose our response in any situation.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now he says, he says, I've got to tell you something.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: If you've made a huge mistake in your past, that's going to affect your level of control.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: If, let's say, you're if you're senior in high school and you get a girl pregnant, well, the truth is your circle of control has just shrunk because you've done something.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: The consequences will fall from the action.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, you're free to choose your response in any situation, but in doing so, when you chose your response in the backseat of the car, you chose the attendant consequence.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: We pick up one end of the stick, we pick up the other.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: So he says, uh gotta uh couch this circle of control thing by remitting some of the things you've done in your past have shrunk your circle of control.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: But if you've made those mistakes in the past, the proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, to correct and learn from it.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: This will literally turn failures into success.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: First Timothy 4.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Be diligent in these matters, give yourself wholly to them so that everyone can see your progress, watch your life closely, persevere, and you you'll save both yourself and your fear.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_03: And as we're we're being conscious about our life, we're being conscious about our choices, the things that we're making, we're thinking about those things.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_03: He finishes up the chapter with a section about making and keeping our promises, or making commitments and keeping our commitments.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: And he says, as we make and keep commitments, even small commitments, we begin to establish an inner integrity that gives us the awareness of self-control and the courage and strength to accept more of the responsibility for our own lives.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_03: By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our honor becomes greater than our moods.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: And we think, you know, this isn't this isn't new, this isn't rocket science stuff for us.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_03: But as I think through my weeks, I can think through times where I didn't follow through on my commitment.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_03: And that strained a relationship, or I didn't follow through even just on a commitment by myself or for myself, and then what it does is it kind of strains my own internal relationship.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: And so I become, and I think this happens to all of us, when we don't.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: Keep our commitments, we actually become less trusting of ourselves.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then it affects our self-image, it affects the way that we think, it affects what we do, and it even affects what we say that we're going to commit to.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: And so as we think about being proactive, as we think about doing the positive thing, as we think about not being a victim of our circumstances, he says one thing that will bolster this idea, that will bolster being proactive, is when we have opportunities to make commitments, that we make them, and not just that we make them, but we also keep them.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the things that, Sam, you actually mentioned this yesterday, and something that I've been thinking about for a while, and for a while is actually not the greatest at is when somebody comes up and maybe it's you know middle of the day or at the grocery store or wherever, and they tell you something, and then I say, Well, I'll pray for you.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_03: How many of you guys have done that before?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: How many of you guys forgot to pray for that person?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: It happens to all of us, but even in things like that, that's an example of not keeping our commitment.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: Because we told you, I will pray for you, but that action didn't actually happen.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the things that I learned in my first couple weeks of working here at TBC from Hank, actually, which was amazing because I hadn't seen anybody do it quite like this before.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: But he would ask and say, you know, is there anything I could pray about for you?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_03: The person would tell him, and then he would say, Can I pray for you right now?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Whoa, I didn't even know you could do that, but that's awesome.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm adopting that.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so, depending on the circumstance, depending on you know the crowd and whoever, I'll I'll do that at times, and it helps me remember to actually follow through on that commitment.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: And we see this is very biblical.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_03: We see it in the book of Matthew.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_03: Let your yes be yes and your no be no.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_03: Anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_03: And we see this from Jesus and how how great of an example it is for us that God is saying, yes, this making a commitment thing, that's really important for your life.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's something that you need to do to grow in godliness.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you can't go through this incredible chapter without asking yourself once in a while, where do I fall on the spectrum?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Am I a very reactive person or am I a very proactive person?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: And you ask yourself, how could I be more proactive?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: It seems to me that uh maybe there's nothing that could so radically change a person's life and changing from being a sort of a victim, you know, it rain's falling on my barbecue, to being proactive.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: So uh in the group discussion, here's what we would suggest.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Again, the first time you share, it's just week three.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: So remind others of your name again, uh, work or whatever.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Second, as you review your life, answer this question.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: As you review your life, have you been more of a reactive or a proactive person?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: And if at one point you were reactive, but then you became proactive, share how that happened.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Number three, at your workplace, how often do you hear or use reactive phrases like if only or I can't, or I have to, or perhaps at your home.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Number four, try a one-week test of proactivity.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Note the change in your circle of influence, how it will grow as you become a more attitudinal proactive person.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_03: Perfect.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: Let's pray.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: God, thanks that we get to come together this morning and eat a great breakfast.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: We get to dive into this book that's been around for years, and we get to see the biblical principles and how you've set up these leadership lessons, these things about how we can be proactive in our lives.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_03: Help us to do that.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: We ask for your guidance through your spirit and that we would walk by your spirit today and this week.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_03: Help us to be proactive.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: In Jesus' name.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.