Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / March 20, 2019 | Men Of Success - Winter 2019: The Greatest Salesman In The World - Session 9

Transcript

March 20, 2019 | Men Of Success - Winter 2019: The Greatest Salesman In The World - Session 9 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, good morning.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: How you doing?
0:05
SPEAKER_00: Good breakfast, huh?
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Let's give uh Tom and the crew a big hand clap.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: So thanks for your regularity.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, four.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: So we uh we did really well.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: And uh so we weren't really sure about when our second semester was going to end, and we buried it like two or three times during the year because we'd canceled because of snow.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: And we decided this morning what we were gonna do is just play a Greg Brenneman video next week.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: I'll think I'll send you that link.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Greg was in town, Rodney and I went.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: It's been what two weeks ago, a week and a half ago or something.
0:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, two weeks ago.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: Over at Washburn.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: And they did a YouTube video of it.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: I'll send you that link.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: We were gonna show that next week as sort of a finale and uh for a couple reasons.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: One uh being that I'm out of town.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Um we're gonna end it this morning and uh pick it up this fall with John Maxwell's book.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: And our first week this fall will be easy to remember.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: It'll be on 9-11.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: And we'll uh hit the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you actually picked up that book and you know started reading it like we did, and and then other things got in the way.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: So uh Maxwell will teach us this fall.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: So, and I hope Rodney will be back, and and um we'll see what we're gonna do.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: By the way, we got a couple of we got the NCAA tournament starting this week.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: First game of a Kansas team is on Thursday.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Have you filled out a bracket?
1:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm in charge of, let's see, last week it was 35 TBCers.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: The staff and other people, if you want to get involved in that, send me a bracket by email or whatever.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: In like 25 years of doing it, I think I'm the only one who has never won it, which really ticks me off.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: We uh what's yeah.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: If I win, there's gonna be a pot.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we never pay off.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: I've had most all my women's staff members have won over the years just by picking, you know.
2:29
SPEAKER_02: Cutest uniforms.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: Cutest uniforms, or you know, what is it, Lori or Sandy Block.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Somebody won one year because she picked all the most Christian names.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: So she that was the year that the Duke Blue Devils, who she always picked to lose in the first round because of that evil name, that was a year they got upset, so she cleaned up.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: So you know.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: So uh the problem is for the Kansas teams is is that is that uh they're both being picked by some of the gurus online to get upset.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: They're both number four seeds, Kansas to get upset by Northeastern, which if you watch Kansas this year, they can't lose to anybody.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh Kansas State has to play a team that you know has won more games than anybody, you know, in the tournament, won you know, like 30 games in a row or something.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: So it's gonna be iffy.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh I feel like if Kansas State could win that game, they got enough senior leadership that they could go get it get to the Elite Eight again.
3:34
SPEAKER_02: It seems like the that 413, the 512 games, those are always where the upsets happen.
3:38
SPEAKER_02: Well, 5'12, yeah.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: The 12s beat the fives about half of the time.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Every year.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, but it's it's one of the most fun weeks of the year.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, uh, we're gonna finish this book this morning.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't read this book, you need to come up and grab my copy and borrow this.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: This is uh because it's it's inspiring.
4:03
SPEAKER_02: It is, right?
4:04
SPEAKER_02: And there's so much good stuff that we don't we don't cover um as we talk.
4:10
SPEAKER_02: And and the chapters are only two or three pages a piece.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: Um and you just read it for the first time, didn't you, this year?
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I did.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: And he's a changed man.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Look at him.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, he used to have a nervous tick and it's gone.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Can't sell anything, but I'm changing.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: He lost 20 pounds.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: His wife loves him more.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, greatest salesman in the world.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: So borrow this.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: It's uh, you know, it's you know, it's uh there's a reason why it's the number one best-selling self-help leadership sales book in in of all time.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Of course, part of that is because it's so dang short.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: So again, the story of this is the is it's a story about a poor camel boy named Hafid and his road to success.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: He lived back in Jesus' time, and and you learn right away that he sort of gets kicked off by through an interesting process.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: He's he's trying to make money to uh win a girl's eye, and so he gets this expensive robe and tries to sell it in Bethlehem, and he has no luck, and then he decides to give it to some cold, a cold couple who've taken off their clothes uh in a cave and wrapped them around a little baby, whom you know who that is.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: So his boss gives him these scrolls, passes on these scrolls to the only person he's ever passed them on to, and there's ten timeless principles.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
5:36
SPEAKER_00: So why don't you, let's see, you're doing seven and nine today.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you read number one, and I'll read number two, and you're reading, you read the odd numbers.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: You're kind of odd, okay?
5:47
SPEAKER_02: I'm glad we're ending this week.
5:50
SPEAKER_02: I'm kidding.
5:50
SPEAKER_02: Uh, number one, I will form good habits and become their slave.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Number two, I'll greet each day with love in my heart.
5:58
SPEAKER_02: I'll persist until I succeed.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: Four, I'm nature's greatest miracle.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm unique and I'll capitalize on my differences, not imitate others.
6:07
SPEAKER_02: Number five, I'm gonna live each day as if it's my last.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: Six, I'll be master of my emotions.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: And then number seven, uh, I'll laugh at the world.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: So we're doing seven, eight, nine, and ten today.
6:20
SPEAKER_02: Um, so we're gonna, uh, just like Jim said, we're gonna hit these.
6:24
SPEAKER_02: And uh this one is is um it's kind of one of those things that you don't expect in a book like this.
6:32
SPEAKER_02: Um but we're at this phase of life.
6:34
SPEAKER_02: Um our youngest one is nine months old, nine months old, and so we're naturally in a phase where there's a competition between my wife and I, and me and my kids, to see who can get the youngest one to laugh the hardest, to laugh the longest, um, and to laugh most consistently.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Um and so what do you do as a boy or a girl?
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's a girl.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: It's a girl.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: So what do you do that makes her laugh?
7:00
SPEAKER_02: So she likes peekaboo, and uh she also likes being kind of tickled underneath the chin, tickled on the chest, and and so you know, we'll we'll be sitting there and uh my wife will do something, she'll be like, look, and um, and so I'll wait a few minutes, I'll go over and do something, and I'll get her to do it harder.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, there's there's just something about a baby's laughter that it just lights up a room.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: Whether you got kids or grandkids, you always want to try to get them to laugh.
7:27
SPEAKER_02: Uh and I think that, you know, we're all attract.
7:31
SPEAKER_02: Like I could go to work today, pull up YouTube, and sit for an hour and just watch baby laughing videos.
7:37
SPEAKER_02: I'd probably get fired for my job, but it would it would light up my day to do that.
7:42
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and there's something about laughter that we all want to be around people who either make us laugh or have a really contagious laugh.
7:49
SPEAKER_02: That there's just something that it brings to relationships.
7:52
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's good that he he wrote this that he says, you know, we got to build this this uh we gotta cultivate a habit of just laughing.
8:01
SPEAKER_02: He says, so I'm gonna laugh.
8:02
SPEAKER_02: He said, No living creature can laugh except man.
8:05
SPEAKER_02: Trees bleed when they're wounded, beasts cry, uh will cry in pain and hunger.
8:09
SPEAKER_02: Only I have the gift of laughter.
8:11
SPEAKER_02: It is mine to use whenever.
8:13
SPEAKER_02: Henceforth, I'm going to cultivate the habit of laughter.
8:17
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then yeah, go to the next one.
8:23
SPEAKER_02: Um I I love this part.
8:26
SPEAKER_02: And uh he says, I'll paint this day with laughter.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: Never will I labor to be happy, rather, I will remain too busy to be sad.
8:35
SPEAKER_02: I will enjoy today's happiness today.
8:38
SPEAKER_02: It is not grain to be stored or wine to be saved.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: It must be reaped today, and this will I do.
8:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh he just says, you know, I will enjoy today's happiness.
8:50
SPEAKER_02: I can't save today's happiness for tomorrow.
8:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh and then he says, Um I think that's the same slide.
8:57
SPEAKER_02: Um he says, I will laugh at myself, for man is most comical when he can't, when when he takes himself too seriously.
9:07
SPEAKER_02: I've all been around those people who just they they're so uptight that they can't just enjoy life.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: They can't just sit back and enjoy life.
9:15
SPEAKER_02: And then uh then he also introduces the idea of okay, but what if life is sad?
9:22
SPEAKER_02: We all go through hard seasons of life.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: What about then?
9:25
SPEAKER_02: Are you you just say just to laugh it through that that hard phase?
9:28
SPEAKER_02: He says, no.
9:29
SPEAKER_02: When I go through a hard phase, this is I remember four words.
9:33
SPEAKER_02: He says, these four words, that this too shall pass.
9:38
SPEAKER_02: That in seasons of life, my natural bend is gonna be try to laugh, but I realize that life is gonna get hard, and I'll remember that this too shall pass.
9:48
SPEAKER_02: The sadness will pass, the success will pass, uh, and I'll just go at life at you know being able to have a good time.
9:58
SPEAKER_02: So I just I just want to ask us as men, uh, what are we known for?
10:03
SPEAKER_02: Are we guys who can sit back and enjoy a good laugh with friends?
10:08
SPEAKER_02: Do people enjoy being around us?
10:10
SPEAKER_02: Are we too uptight, too rigid, that we can't just sit back, enjoy, enjoy life, laugh at ourselves, laugh with the people around us, and just you know, have a good time in the world.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: Number eight, I will multiply my value a hundredfold.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: What he's talking about here is what a lot of business people talk about when they're talking about added value or homeowners, you know, when you can add value to your home with you know paint and upkeep and maybe um you know, adding on.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, we multiplied the value of our home when we hired uh Matt Vincent to come over and and uh and and put an addition on it.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: So what he says here, he starts off by talking about the types of things, you know, you can add value to clay by turning it into a building.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: And he then he talks about a grain of wheat.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: He says a grain of wheat faces one of three futures.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: It can be dumped in a stall and fed to swine, can be ground to flour and made into bread, or it can be planted in the earth and allowed to grow until it yields 100 stalks and a thousand grains.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: Unlike that grain of wheat, I can choose.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: I have a choice, and I will not let my life be fed to swine, nor will I let it be ground under the rocks of failure and despair to be broken open and devoured by others.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Today, I will multiply my value a hundredfold.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: So you get to that part of the short chapter, you go, how do I do that?
11:42
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is the same thing we've been learning from our more modern books.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will nurture my body and mind to fulfill my dreams.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: And whether it's Stephen Covey or Four Disciplines of Execution, remember they always talk about how instead of being consumed by the tyranny of the urgent, you need to carve out an important part of every week to build into your mind, to build into your body, and so forth.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: And four disciplines of execution.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Sean Covey, Christmas Chesney, and so forth distinguish between lead measures and lag measures.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: The lag was the, or the wildly important goal is I have to lose 10 pounds.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: I want to lose 10 pounds.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: You can think about that all you want to, okay?
12:29
SPEAKER_00: But the way to actually increase value is you have to move then to the lead measure.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: That is, how do I get that done?
12:36
SPEAKER_00: And you focus not on the losing of the 10 pounds, but on the way you're going to do it, like running three times a week.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: So each of these books keep telling us carve out time to read good books, read the Bible, pray, uh, spend time with your wife, run, exercise.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: Because in doing those things, you build in and increase your value, your net worth.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: I thought that was really good.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: So let's go to the next one.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Ninth.
13:11
SPEAKER_02: Number nine, I will act now.
13:13
SPEAKER_02: Um, I was reading an article, and there in this article, it talks in in 2010, there was a study done by Lexis Nexus uh that examined uh employees in the workplace.
13:24
SPEAKER_02: Said employees in the workplace spend more consistently, they spend half of their time gathering and managing information uh when they could be using half of that time to actually do something with that information.
13:38
SPEAKER_02: In this same article, there's this psychologist named uh I think his name is uh Robbie Schwartz, and he said that he coined the phrase paradox of choice, that we have so many choices at our disposal, and it often leads us to make good decisions.
13:55
SPEAKER_02: And that's what those choices are supposed to do.
13:58
SPEAKER_02: But he also says what it also leads to is that it leads to a bunch of stress, it leads to uh indecisive decision making, and and it leads us to not like making decisions.
14:09
SPEAKER_02: Uh and and then in the same article it says if you were to Google this paradox of choice or what we're more um more known as analysis, uh paralysis analysis, if you were to Google that, you would come up with more than 1.3 million hits of articles, blogs, or different things to try to help us overcome this paralysis by analysis.
14:43
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's a it i I like that they wrote he wrote this scroll about I will act now.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: Because I think so many of us, and and I'm speaking to myself when I say this, yeah, me too.
14:55
SPEAKER_02: Is that I get so overwhelmed with the amount of information that's out there to be processed and to be to be looked at that I look at all that information, I just go, I just don't want to make a decision now.
15:06
SPEAKER_02: And it makes me not act.
15:11
SPEAKER_02: And the author of this scroll, he says, in the midst of that, what you need to do is you need to act now.
15:20
SPEAKER_02: Act now.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: Um he starts it off by saying, My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible, all of no value unless they are followed by action, and I will act now.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: He uh what he says about map reading, then, and you know, yeah, you go ahead.
15:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so he he right after this, he says, uh, never has there been a map that has carried its owner over one inch of land.
15:50
SPEAKER_02: Um action is what ignites the map.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: Basically, if I were to go out to my car, turn on the GPS, and say, take me to Kansas City, that GPS system is not going to do anything for me unless I put that car in park and I start to drive.
16:05
SPEAKER_02: The same is true about the goals, the plans of our lives, that it won't mean anything unless we choose to act.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: So I I put this other picture, I know I I know it would it wasn't mentioned in the book or anything, but this is a book I own, okay?
16:20
SPEAKER_00: The reader's digest new fix-it-yourself manual.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: This sucker is beautiful.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: It's got pictures on every page, it's like 250 pages, tells you how to fix toilets, it tells you how to build walls, it tells you how to do masonry and everything.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: I spend way too much time sitting on the couch just reading this book.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: Have never done one project.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: It's insane.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: I feel so, and so I'm reading this, I'm going, this is like me and the fix-it-yourself manual.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: It's like reading the manual, somehow get the toilet fixed.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
16:57
SPEAKER_02: So that's funny.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, connecting.
17:00
SPEAKER_02: And so later on in this, he's he goes on.
17:04
SPEAKER_02: Uh he says, now I know to conquer fear that I must always act.
17:09
SPEAKER_02: This is not um, this is not, this is something else I'm reading.
17:12
SPEAKER_02: He says, to conquer fear, I must act without hesitation.
17:16
SPEAKER_02: And that as I do that consistently, that the flutters of my heart will vanish.
17:22
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and then you can go to that next slide.
17:24
SPEAKER_02: He says, I will not avoid the task of the day and charge them to tomorrow, for I know that tomorrow never comes.
17:31
SPEAKER_02: Let me act now, even though my actions may not bring success, for it is better to act and to fail than to not act and flounder.
17:40
SPEAKER_02: And so he charges us, he charges the reader, he says, I will act now.
17:46
SPEAKER_02: He almost wants us to be who we are.
17:49
SPEAKER_02: Like this is just our mind frame.
17:51
SPEAKER_02: I will act now, I will act now.
17:53
SPEAKER_02: Henceforth, I will repeat these words again and again and again, each hour, each day, every single day, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing.
18:03
SPEAKER_02: And the actions with follow become instinctive as the blinking of the of my eyelids.
18:09
SPEAKER_02: I will act now.
18:10
SPEAKER_02: And then he later on he gets into uh I really like this.
18:14
SPEAKER_02: He says, When the lion is hungry, he eats.
18:18
SPEAKER_02: When the eagle thirsts, he drinks.
18:20
SPEAKER_02: Lest they act, both will perish.
18:24
SPEAKER_02: For you, as a salesman, he's still talking in the reader, he says, I hunger for success.
18:29
SPEAKER_02: I thirst for happiness and for peace of mind.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: Unless I unless I act now, my life will be full of misery and be full of failure.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: So I want to ask us a question.
18:44
SPEAKER_02: Where is it in our life that we need to we need to act now?
18:50
SPEAKER_02: Where's the area of your life that you know you're you're not taking steps forward?
18:55
SPEAKER_02: You're you're in some ways being passive towards an area of your life.
19:00
SPEAKER_02: Is it in your finances?
19:02
SPEAKER_02: You know there's some debt that you need to pay off or you need to create a budget and stop spending money?
19:07
SPEAKER_02: Is it in the area of health and fitness?
19:09
SPEAKER_02: You know that you need to be eating healthier, you know that you should be exercising regularly.
19:14
SPEAKER_02: Is it in your marriage?
19:17
SPEAKER_02: Is it in your parenting?
19:20
SPEAKER_02: Is there a relationship that you know that you need to act now instead of waiting and putting it off?
19:30
SPEAKER_02: I was as I was thinking about this, these verses in Ecclesiastes came to mind.
19:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh Ecclesiastes 10, 16 through 18, and then Ecclesiastes 11, 1 through 6.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: And uh you guys can read this on the screen, but basically the first part of Ecclesiastes 10, 16 through 18, it talks about woe to the land whose king was a servant and whose prince feasts in the morning.
19:55
SPEAKER_02: But blessed is the land whose king is of noble birth, whose princesses eat at a proper time for their strength and not for drunkenness.
20:03
SPEAKER_02: Basically he's saying there are when you look at the land, when you look at whatever is underneath your dominion, your ownership, he's saying, woe to the land, woe to everything underneath that king's, that person's dominion, that person's ownership.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: And the king was a servant whose priests, feasts, and they they they just did things at the wrong time.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: It's just bad leadership.
20:32
SPEAKER_02: Um bless is a land, bless everything underneath that person when the guy does things the way it's supposed to be done, when it's supposed to be done.
20:40
SPEAKER_02: And then he gets through this, he goes, through laziness the the rafters sag because of idle hands, the house leaks.
20:48
SPEAKER_02: That when we choose laziness, when we choose slothfulness, when we choose passivity, it's kind of like a house that has great bones, a great foundation, but you walk up to the second floor and all of a sudden you look up and the roof starts to leak, that it has deferred maintenance or what I call deferred action taken out of my lives.
21:10
SPEAKER_02: That if someone were to look at my life, go up to the second story, would there be any area of my life where you go, Man, you got great foundation, great bones, everything, but there's just some deferred maintenance of your life.
21:21
SPEAKER_02: There's action that you have not taken, so you're not all that you could be.
21:27
SPEAKER_02: And uh I hope that would not be true of any of us in this room, that we would be men who take action, who don't, through the laziness of our lives, through the passivity of our lives, it our lives would, the roofs of our lives would just sag and the idle hands, our house would leak.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: So how how do we combat either idleness or how do we combat um analysis paralysis?
21:50
SPEAKER_02: Ecclesiastes 11 1 through 6 says this is this is uh the answer, Solomon's answer is to um making decisions.
22:02
SPEAKER_02: And this comes at the heels of uh he's going through the book of Ecclesiastes and he's talking about life is just unpredictable.
22:10
SPEAKER_02: You know, it doesn't make sense that all these things are happening.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: So in the midst of this unpredictable life, in the midst of all this, what what how how should you act?
22:19
SPEAKER_02: And he says, ship your grain across the sea.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: After many days, you may receive a return.
22:24
SPEAKER_02: Invest in seven ventures, yes, even eight.
22:26
SPEAKER_02: You don't know what disaster may come upon the land.
22:29
SPEAKER_02: Like he's saying, don't, don't, because you don't know what's going to happen, don't not take action.
22:33
SPEAKER_02: He says, diversify what you're doing.
22:36
SPEAKER_02: Primarily talking about money.
22:37
SPEAKER_02: If you don't know, you don't keep all your money in the bank.
22:39
SPEAKER_02: Go and put it in seven or eight, because you don't know what's going to happen.
22:42
SPEAKER_02: If the clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth, or the tree falls to north or south, uh, in the place where it fall, where it falls, there it will lie.
22:50
SPEAKER_02: Then he says this whoever watches the wind will not plant, and whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
22:56
SPEAKER_02: That there's this indecision that if we're constantly analyzing things, boy, the wind is blowing today, I'm not gonna go out as a farmer and throw my seed.
23:05
SPEAKER_02: Who knows where it's gonna go?
23:07
SPEAKER_02: He's saying it doesn't matter.
23:08
SPEAKER_02: Uh those people who are constantly looking at the clouds and the weather, they're not gonna do anything.
23:15
SPEAKER_02: They're just gonna sit.
23:16
SPEAKER_02: He says, This is what you should do.
23:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh he says, as you do not know the path of the wind or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the maker of all things.
23:28
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, this is how you should act.
23:30
SPEAKER_02: He says, Sow your seed in the morning and in the evening, net lot net let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.
23:45
SPEAKER_02: And we don't know what's gonna happen in our life, but we do know that we can trust God with the actions of our lives and that he's gonna guide and direct our steps.
23:54
SPEAKER_02: All we need to do is just take action, just take another step forward and trust God, because we don't know what's gonna happen.
24:02
SPEAKER_02: We don't know if one's gonna do well with the other or whether both are gonna do well.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: So I I read this book when I was uh early 20s, and um, you know, about half of the chapters really shaped my thinking, but the chapter you're talking about acting now actually helped me in a small way that's it's really actually big.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: It helped me more practically than in the other chapter, and it helped me get up in the morning.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: So I I had developed this habit where I never, never got out of bed when the alarm rang.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Or when, you know, when I was growing up, my dad would always walk by with a milk bucket, I'd hear the milk buckets, the door would slam from the house.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: I lived out in the garage, and he'd, you know, I'd hear the milk practice and I'd lay there underneath all my blankets because you know it was cold, we didn't have heat out there.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: And um, and then dad would yell, he'd walk by or he'd hit the hit the window or something, he'd say, Come on out, you know, and I was supposed to go out and milk.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: But I wouldn't.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: I'd roll over.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: I had developed this, and the thing is so after a while he started charging me, you know, if he had to milk the cow that I was supposed to milk.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: So that's how my bank account went down to zero.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: And uh he got really mad.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: I had no more money to give him.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: So um, so then I go to college, and same thing.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: Alarm rings, eight o'clock class, and I never made it.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Never made it on time.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: I just always roll over.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: So I read this chapter, and uh I decided I would apply it to the alarm that I would go.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: I'd count down in my head three, two, one, act now, and say that, and I'd get out of bed.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: And it it really, I know it's small, but it uh it really changed my life practically.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: It got me from failing my eight o'clock classes to getting C's.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: That's the truth in college, and it made a difference, you know, uh from F to C was a big deal.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: So um anyway, I just mentioned that this chapter really influenced my life in a small but important way.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: Finally, uh he concludes with a really short chapter and just says, you know, there's a God.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: We all know there's a God because we all cry for help, he says.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: And the whole chapter is like what he prays, and he says, you know, don't pray for God to solve your problems.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Don't pray for the material things of the world.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm not calling to a servant in heaven to bring me food.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm not ordering an innkeeper to provide me with room.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: Never will I ask for gold, health, victory, fame, success, or happiness to be given to me.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: Only for guidance will I pray, he says.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: So pray for guidance.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: He says, You're crying for help, include God in it, call for guidance.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: So we all know that.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: So uh let's conclude with this the story of this book is cool.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: So he says, where we left off.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: As a youth, Hafid was a camel boy for the wealthy trader Pathros.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: When given the opportunity to be a salesman for Pathros, Hafid gives way to the one item he had to sell, a red robe to an infant in a manger.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: When Hafid returns, Pathros gives him a box containing ten ancient scrolls.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: After putting the scrolls to use, Hafid becomes the greatest salesman in the world.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: Late in life, in retirement, Hafid waits for the one to arrive for whom he is destined to give the scrolls.
27:18
SPEAKER_02: Now remember, he he was charged that he could not give these scrolls, like he had to keep these scrolls a secret until the one came who could give it.
27:30
SPEAKER_02: Um and so in the story, he the last chapter after that last scroll, he he tells a story about how um Hafid ends up giving the scrolls away.
27:41
SPEAKER_02: Um he waits for the one to arrive whom he's destined to give the scrolls, and then he tells a story about Paul.
27:49
SPEAKER_02: Um that this this man comes to see uh Hafid's servant.
27:54
SPEAKER_02: He says, I have to see your master.
27:57
SPEAKER_02: Um and so he kind of shovels him in, brings him in, and and this guy starts telling his story.
28:03
SPEAKER_02: Hey, you know, I was four years ago, I was persecuting the church, and I had oversaw the sentencing of this guy named Jesus.
28:11
SPEAKER_02: Um and then a year after that, I had wrote in uh I'd I'd given orders to stone this guy named Stephen.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: And then I was on my way to to give some more bad news, and all of a sudden I was on the road, and all of a sudden this huge light came and I was blinded.
28:26
SPEAKER_02: And he tells a story of Paul and the Damascus Road from Paul's perspective.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: And he gets to it, and he says, he says, I was I was sitting down, and Paul's saying this, I was sitting down, and uh the Lord Jesus came to me and says, For the last four years, you've been you've been giving the word of God, uh-huh, but it's been like vinegar to people.
28:49
SPEAKER_02: He says, You need to you need to learn to present and sell my word in a way that attracts people.
28:55
SPEAKER_02: I need you to go see this guy named Hafid.
28:57
SPEAKER_02: And so he says, This is why I'm here.
29:00
SPEAKER_02: And he said, and and Hafid is like, tell me more about this Jesus guy.
29:05
SPEAKER_02: And so he tells him about Jesus' life and his ministry, and he says, Well, where's this Jesus guy from?
29:12
SPEAKER_02: He says, Well, this this Jesus guy is from Bethlehem.
29:16
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, he he didn't come with much in the world and he didn't leave much.
29:21
SPEAKER_02: But one thing that he did have was his robe.
29:26
SPEAKER_02: And I oversaw his crucifixion and I was there, and the the Roman soldiers, the only thing he had was his robe, and they were casting lots for his robe.
29:34
SPEAKER_02: And it took me a whole lot of time, but I finally found the robe and I brought it with me.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: And Hafiz said, Let me see the robe.
29:42
SPEAKER_02: Let me see it.
29:44
SPEAKER_02: And he gives him the robe and he says, This guy was born, he was born in some cave in Bethlehem, and he looks at the robe, and Hafiz thinking to himself, surely, like there's thousands of robes that would have been sold.
29:57
SPEAKER_02: Surely this is not the one.
29:59
SPEAKER_02: And he looks over and he and he sees the mark the the little call it a Nike sign on the robe.
30:08
SPEAKER_02: He says, This is the one.
30:10
SPEAKER_02: And he says, This is the one that I'm supposed to give these scrolls to.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: The third person that could take these scrolls could then give them to the world.
30:18
SPEAKER_02: Um, and so it kind of, you know, this is Paul, a Jewish Christian, arrives and um he gives Paul the scrolls and he says, release them to the world.
30:28
SPEAKER_02: The whole world needs to know about this.
30:30
SPEAKER_02: And so it's kind of a spin on Paul's life and how he became the greatest missionary.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: So uh that's this semester, fall semester 9-11.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I got three questions for us today.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: Number one, would your family say that you laugh freely and often?
30:51
SPEAKER_00: Number two, what is one specific way that you could nurture your body or mind in order to multiply your value a hundredfold?
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Third, would your wife say that you are a Gitter done guy?
31:08
SPEAKER_00: I like that comedian, or a put it off procrastinator.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: These are really mean questions.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: I know they're really bad, but uh but they really incise to the points we made today.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: Any of you have any comments?
31:24
SPEAKER_00: All right, lead us in prayer, Rodney.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
31:27
unknown: Do you have any alternative questions?
31:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what you may want to do is just share what you're gonna be doing between now and September, where you're you know, whatever.
31:35
SPEAKER_02: Let me pray for us.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: Um Lord, we we come to you, Lord, and we're thankful for this morning.
31:42
SPEAKER_02: Um thankful for the time that we get together as men to sharpen one another.
31:47
SPEAKER_02: Um Lord, I pray that you would be with our time today in discussion at the tables, Lord, that it would be edifying to each other, or that you would be leading and guiding us today, that you would be reminding us of the truth of your gospel, uh the amount that you love us, that you that you gave yourself for us.
32:07
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I pray that that gospel would transform our minds, it transforms our hearts, that we would live differently, that we would be a light in this world.
32:18
SPEAKER_02: Lord, that you would receive the praise and glory that's due your name, through the way that we live our lives.
32:24
SPEAKER_02: It's in your name I pray.
32:25
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for coming, guys.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't be nearly as much fun if nobody was here.