Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / January 9, 2019 | Men Of Success - Winter 2019: Primary Greatness - Session 1

Transcript

January 9, 2019 | Men Of Success - Winter 2019: Primary Greatness - Session 1 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, good morning guys.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: How you doing, Rodney?
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: How y'all doing?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you, Sam.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let's give Tom a hand and his team.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Great job as usual.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're calling this second semester because we met last fall.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think last fall we had uh nine meetings, or maybe ten.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And April or the spring semester is usually a little bit longer.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna go 12 sessions, Lord willing, ending uh uh in March, two weeks before Easter.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so want to explain to you what we're gonna do this semester, and uh but we want to of course start off with the most important stuff, which is you need to be praying for the Chiefs because we're in trouble.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: No, um I'm kind of worried about this Sunday, Rodney.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Me too.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think Indy has that type of defense that can shut us down, and um I'm afraid I know one thing for sure.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Our defense can't shut any, I can't shut them down.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: They can't.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: So can't stop anybody.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd like to get this burden off our backs, which is that we always tend to lose the first playoff game at home.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so pray for us, Josh.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: We need help.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: So hey, so I was online, Rodney, and found some old pictures.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: You look so cute there.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So uh tell us about, yeah, yeah.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you uh, you know, you talked already, I think, at Men's Breakfast one time, but you uh played for K-State, played for Bill Snyder, who's sort of a hero of all of us, but but you've told a story about him that's really cool.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you enjoyed playing uh football for K-State, huh?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: I did.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was a it was a great experience.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um one of those things that you look back on and it defines kind of who you are as a person.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I would probably never go back and do it again because it was uh it was so hard, but it was because your wife would kill you?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she would.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've talked about trying to go back and go into coaching, and she said, absolutely not.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: You you're not allowed to.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So football days are over.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: But now coaching, I think.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So your wife's a nurse, right?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think she doesn't want you to play because you might break something, but coaching, you know, you send other people out to break things.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: So she doesn't like that idea.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So this is your family, right?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I saw I found this online.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Wife's name Laura.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: You got uh what, three kids?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Three little girls.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's Annalise on the far left.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: She's our oldest.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Emmy is in my arms, and then that's Ellison.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so they are they're three and a half, two, and seven months tomorrow.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: So if y'all are thinking about me later today, please pray for me.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because as you can see, we have our hands full and full of emotion and drama, and um life is just busy.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: But God has blessed us.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, surrounded by women.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I I was walking by the table in the back of the room there a minute ago, and I heard Brian Budden say that he'd known you from somewhere, and you seemed to be a quiet guy, and then and then you turned into Billy Graham at the uh, you know, at the Christmas light show.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: So he said, I was I I too.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I heard you a number of times because I was hanging around here that whole time.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: You kept getting more and more like Billy Graham every time uh I went in there.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was amazing.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything except the buses will wait.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was incredible.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: You did a great job.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Was that kind of scary talking with thousands of people over the span of three days?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: No, uh, it wasn't because when you when you're on stage, a lot of people don't realize this, when you're on stage, the lights are so bright that you can't even really see who you're talking to.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: So uh you just get up there and you feel like you're talking to an empty room.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you can't really see anybody.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So wow.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what made you decide now?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you work, by the way?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: I work at Meishauser.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, and you just started there, right?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Just started there two or three weeks ago.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so the field you're in is uh is accounting uh and finance.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh when I was at K-State, I got my degree in accounting.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um spent a number of years in kind of the financial services.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: So the department that I'm in at Meishauser, Meishauser provides uh accounting services to about 1,900 McDonald's franchises or uh stores across the nation.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's a real, really unique thing that they do.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I'm a part of that team that provides the accounting services uh to those owners and operators.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I was uh I was happy, but I was surprised when uh, you know, you and I went out to eat and turned out, and I was kind of I was a little surprised that you said you really like books like the one we're gonna start with today, that you really like reading stuff like this.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that uh your wife maybe had bought this book for you for Christmas, or you know, what so have you always been interested in self-improvement, leadership, this kind of thing?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I it's not until about three or four years ago that I really started being interested in it.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why is because I was I was put when we lived in Memphis, Tennessee before we moved here.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: We've been going to TBC about just under a year, but in my last job, uh I was forced into a leadership role and I was kind of lost of like what do I do?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I was looking anywhere for guidance and I found these types of books.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And when when you start reading these books, it's it's a healthy kind of example of biblical principles lived out, and so it was very it was very helpful for me.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: And and it it just kind of one of there was one book, it was the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, that kind of wetted my appetite for these types of books, and ever since then, she makes my wife makes fun of me for reading these books, but I just can't help the there's so much wisdom, there's so much practical application in these books that I can't help but I can't not read them.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I love them.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Love them.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So uh obviously we don't baptize everything that's in all of these books, but uh we evaluate them biblically, and that's what we're gonna do.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a year ago we were taking a different book every week, a different bestseller every week, and that was just kind of everybody's heads were underwater.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: So last fall we took the seven habits, spent the whole fall in the seven habits of highly effective people.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna sort of compromise this time, take three books.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna spend the first three weeks in this book called Primary Greatness, first three weeks.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna take about eight weeks in uh John Maxwell's uh 21 or 2001 or however many laws he's got.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're gonna do the number one bestseller of all time in uh leadership, that is The Greatest Salesman of the World by Ogmandino.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're gonna do.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you may have walked.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, good, we're already at him.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want a summary, uh I can I'll send out a link to this paper.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a hard copy.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: A number of you have it in front of you, and I've got one copy left.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: We'll bring more next week.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if you want to study this book without buying the book, here's a seven-page summary.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you ready to go?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: All right, we're gonna do it.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh um, so why don't you start with why don't you start with sort of the the whole theme of the book, you know, primary, secondary greatness, okay?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so if you guys were to read the introductory chapter, it's where Stephen Covey kind of puts his thesis out.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And he's saying that there's there's two types of success or greatness that our world defines.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the first one is it's a it's a you know, we look at success and define our success by, hey, we're successful if this.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And we can look around our world and we can see that a lot of the time our world defines greatness by how much money do I have?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: What's my occupation?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of car do I drive?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, where do we live?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do we send our kids to private school or do we homeschool?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, there's there's this type of success that we look at as a culture and says that defines success.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Where that's dangerous is that that's only focused on the exterior.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: That I would go about my day more concerned about what another human being who does not know me thinks about me.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I would walk around and I would judge other people based upon where they live, kind of car they drive.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing that really has to do with who they are as a person.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so he's saying that those types of things, those are secondary greatness.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Those are things that we should not be focused on.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, we should be focused on primary greatness.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: Primary greatness is it's on the inside, it's about your character.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, uh, many people confuse success with secondary greatness, but successful life is about a primary greatness, a life of duty, honor, integrity, perseverance.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so he's saying that if you want to have a life that's successful, if you like if you were to strip away everything else, you know, I think about um I think about the if if any of you guys watched the national championship, they talked about this Clemson senior senior class or this Alabama senior class.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing that I went through, and a lot of things, a lot of guys go through when they leave that college football arena, everything else gets stripped away from them.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: They have an identity crisis.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, who am I?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: What am I living for?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: The guys who don't go off and play in the NFL.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's there's the the way that our world molds us is to think about what we do rather than who we are.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and that's something that I went through.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and I'm sure that's a lot.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I just want to pose the question: what what would your life be based upon if everything else was stripped away?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: The house you lived in, the car you drive, where you where you lived, if all that was stripped away, what would define who you are as a person?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: What could you hang your hat on?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so he's saying in the book he's talking about there's this primary greatness.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: So how do we how do we get that primary greatness?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's about your character.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: How do you get character?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: You have to live by principles.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's there's this primary greatness that's focused on your character, that's defined by the principles that we live that we live by.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And the the really important thing is in an age where there's all these books, like we talked about yesterday, this book of How to Win Friends.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: How to win friends and influence people.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um How many of you have read that book, Dale Carnegie?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was my first first book in this field.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: It was one of my first ones too.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: But you look at those things, and at the if you were to strip all that stuff away, it's at the end of the day to me, it seems more like manipulation tactics, how to get people to do what you want them to do, rather than who you are truly as a person and another person.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: So the important thing as we go through these, these things are not manipulation tactics.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: These things are, hey, this is who you are as a person.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So he introduces these 12 levers of success.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like these are the principles that we have have to live by.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll get into those levers.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we'll take the first six next week and the second six the following week.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we're this morning, we're doing the first five chapters, which is sort of the introduction.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so he he he really he he hits on a it's so important that it's who you are.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: And if you were if you were to read the Bible, you would see this uh all throughout.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: There's a verse in 1 Samuel that you know, man is so bent on looking at appearances.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: I go about my day looking at how somebody looks rather than being concerned about who they are.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And we all know these types of people who who look successful successful.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: We know these people at work who, you know, they have everything that you would look at and define by success, but if you were to strip off the covers of their lives, their lives are sinking.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: And he makes a really powerful illustration in the book.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: He talks about the types of people who are focused on secondary greatness, who are all about the exteriors, are the types of people who would be on the Titanic and be more concerned about rearranging the deck chairs as the ship goes down rather than helping people.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: I just thought that was powerful.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: That as the ships of life are sinking, we're more concerned about how we appear than actually who we are in this world and the contributions that we make.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, like a preacher, he ends that that chapter by saying, Listen, quit quit hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior, you know, winning friends and influencing people, the surface stuff, and get to work on the root of the tree in your life, the character from which those behaviors grow.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you, if you were here for last fall, you'll recognize this is the same guy, Covey.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, in that great book, he which which is a little later, he is his the his focus was change comes from the inside out, which is the same point.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in his first introductory chapter of five, we won't spend a lot of time on these.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's entitled The Secret Life, in which he says we all live three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: The public life is what everybody sees.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Private life is the life with our friends and family.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Secret life is what's in our heart.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's where your heart is, it's where your real motives are, the ultimate desires of your heart.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that, he says, is the key to being really great in life, to primary greatness.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's what are my motives, what are my desires, what do I really care about?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's what the Bible focuses on, isn't it?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 4.23, guard your heart for everything you do flows out of that.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, when I face a frustrating or perplexing situation, he says, I enter into my secret life, I face myself, I ask, will I live by correct principles, or will I surrender to the demands of secondary greatness?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is, will I try to fake it rather than making it?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: He says, for example, when thinking about your career, you might ask, now, what's my real motive?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because until you choose your own motives, you really can't choose to live your own life.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Everything flows out of motives and motivation.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's chapter one, the secret life.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you take us through the second chapter, which is character?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: He moves from secret life into character, which is the source of primary greatness.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he he makes the argument that uh when you look at somebody, what defines their greatness is uh a lot of people and a lot of times in our day and age, we we focus more on competence.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if if you're smart enough, that will make you successful.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um and he's saying in in this chapter, he's saying, hey, it's it's not about your competence.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because we all know those people who are competent, they're smart, but they don't know how to get along with people.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: All right?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I've worked with people who are so smart, but they just their their character is such that they just don't care about other people.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's saying your character is your building block for all relationships.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like if if if that it competence is important, but if you're if you can solidify your character, that will carry you through and allow you to be great in life.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I could interrupt, you know, you mentioned the Alabama Clemson game, and and I'm like, you know, I was stunned by the result and how it happened that Clemson upset him and clubbered him.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, uh, then I read an article that both of the starting quarterbacks, when asked by their teammates about the quarter about their quarterback, their answer was never, oh, he's he's got a great arm, or he's you know, they all talked about the character, the humility, the Christianity basically of the quarterback.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: That both of the starting quarterbacks in the championship game are outspoken Christians who are better known for their character than for their competence.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you could, I mean, you could see that uh in the SEC championship game when Tua went down, Jalen came in, and you would expect there to be some sort of tension, like, oh, what's Nick gonna do about Jalen and Tua?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you could see Tua just hugging Jalen on the sideline after he led them to the SEC championship.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's like like I looked at that and I was like, that's what that I mean, that's what it is.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's what sports is about, and that's what character is.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: And same same with the Eagles.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Both Nick Foles and Carson Wentz being believers, and and this anyway.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: We we got together yesterday to plan this, and all we did was talk about football.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: So so tell us here's an interesting picture.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: You got Yoda and you got uh uh what's his face here?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Difference.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that was really interesting.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Character versus competence, values, ethics, integrity on one hand, and ability, effectiveness, and results on the other.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then that scale.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us about that scale.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that scale, it talks about in the book, it talks about character and and what is that, what does that mean?
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like what types of things do you have to have to be successful?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: And he's saying that in order to, the type of character is based upon maturity, and it defines maturity as this it's the balance of courage and consideration together.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: And what what I mean by that is you have to have, in order to be a leader who has character, you have to balance those two.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: So let me let me illustrate it like this.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: If I were to get into an argument with my wife or get in an argument with Jim, I would have to have the courage to say what I need to say, the courage to say what the right thing is to do, but also the consideration for Jim's feelings, for Jim's point of view, that I don't completely crush him.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because here's what happens we can swing one way or the other, have a ton of courage and no consideration, and in those arguments with my wife, I told her to slay her with my words.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of more where I lean to her.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: I can I can be high courage, low consideration.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Or I could be on the flip side.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: I can be high consideration, low courage, where I don't talk about and I don't express the things that are important to me, the things that I see as correct principles to live by, and I end up uh frustrated because I don't I don't ever speak out, and it's always a it's always a lose for me.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And we I think you guys covered this in the seven habits.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's the the mindset of having a win-win.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Win-win principle of hey, I I'm going to, I'm gonna balance my courage with consideration and speak about issues, speak about principles in a way that is very mature.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: And he calls that emotional maturity to be able to have those types of relationships and those types of conversations.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: He also talks about later on in that chapter, talks about it's also necessary for us to have humility.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: The type of humility that, hey, when I step on the scale in the morning, that's gonna tell me whether or not I've been living by the principle of healthy diet and exercise.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not until we have those moments where we have to be humbled by our situations that it that requires us humility to say, I haven't been living right.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't been living by the principles that would allow me to have success in life.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: So um just really interesting things that he says.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: So chapter three, so he keeps he's working his way up to his 12 levers or levers or whatever, the key principles, and he says, how to align yourself to these principles.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, the key to primary greatness is he's already said it's character.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: He says it's the character of being centered on principles.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're not in control of our world.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Principles are uh control our world.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: They are the laws that are established by the creator or the manufacturer by which a product functions.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you violate those laws, then you produce malfunction, which is what we call failure.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you obey those principles, align yourself with those laws, then you're guaranteed success.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And what he's talking about is true principles, which are universal, which are timeless, which are self-evident principles like humility and character.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Take us to chapter four, staying on true north.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: So chapter four is is a really, really short chapter.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's it's all about okay, now we know how to live, and well how and so he he he almost warns us of the things that could get us get us off course.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: And he he makes that illustration by saying this, and I'm not gonna have you guys do this, but he makes the illustration by saying, hey, if all of us were to close our eyes, and if we were kind of in a random part of the building, and and I told you guys, okay, point to where north is, if we were to do that, hands would be going in all different directions.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: That there's that we we never know where true north is, and that we have to, once we get on true north, we have to stay on true north, but that there's there's these three things that can get us distracted from true north.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: And he says that the three things are this that there's there's the culture that affects um the way that we view principles, that we live in a distorted moral environment, and that can distort the way that we live by principles.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: There's a subculture that we all live in, um, whether that's our family, the company that we work in, the division in the company that we work for, or there's these um there's these magnets, and he calls these powerful emotional events or very strong personalities that come in and affect our true north.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And here, I'm gonna give you guys an example of this.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh in a job that I I worked in previously, uh, we had a consultant that would come in and try to help the accounting team with uh with the items that we had on our task.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: We we had to go through audit, we had to go through month clothes, et cetera, et cetera.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and when this when this consultant came in, she was well respected.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but what she didn't know is that the direct the manager that she reported to was not well respected in our in our department.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: And as As time went on, what the members of the team, what I started to see is she started behaving like the manager did, because the manager got the results of secondary greatness.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: She got the team to perform, she got this to you.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: But if you were to ask any of the team members, none of the team members liked the manager, hated her, didn't want to work for her, were looking for jobs.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: And what was very I thought was interesting when I was reading this chapter is this consultant was magnetized to the secondary greatness that this manager got, changed the way that she treated people in order to get the results that she wanted, and in turn lost all respect, lost all influence with the team.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: People just kind of kicked her off to the side.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And in the same way, if we and what she was doing is she was violating the principles of kindness and respect, thinking that she could get greatness by doing so.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: What ended up happening is she lost more than she ever gained in that situation.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And the same is true with us in our lives that if we violate these principles by being magnetized to the way that our culture says to do it, by the way that our subculture, our family, our departments, whatever, or even by a person who is close to you, if you get off course, what that causes you to do is you have the bad consequences of not living by principles.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great illustration.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: It reminded me of my college basketball team.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and finally, chapter five.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: So reprogramming your thinking.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so the he says before you get into these 12 principles, check the way you're thinking.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: You may need to reprogram your thinking to an inside-out approach rather than outside in, realizing the inside is the most important.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's the inner changes that create the outer changes to get to a character ethic, he says, which I believe to be the foundation of success.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Teaches there are, he sort of puts the whole thing in one sentence here, teaches there are basic principles of effective living that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible puts it this way: don't conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, uh, Rodney, why don't we kick them off into their small groups and just for discussion starters?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Although, you know, I wish I wish I'd have heard you beforehand because I would have added the question about consideration.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: What was that you're talking about?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Consider and courage.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: That balance.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was I was really convicted by that, you know, because I tend to slide to one side as versus the other.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that may be a question you want to add.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, where do you slide off to uh in consideration versus courage at work and at home?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: But start by going around the table, finding out everybody's name, where they work, if they have family.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, in what ways do you see some of your friends chasing secondary greatness at the expense of primary greatness?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: And third, in what areas of life would you most like to inject courage and humility, which he says are the two greatest virtues?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sound good?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm gonna ask Josh Jones if he would uh lead us in a word of prayer and uh we'll get this done.