Speaker 1: (00:00) Hey guys, have you ever allowed perceived weaknesses in your life to keep you from fulfilling your dreams? Well, if that fits you, then today's podcast is made for you. Speaker 2: (00:12) How do I bring my faith to work? How do I tap into the power of God in my work life? Paul, why am I going through this? Adversity is God mad at me? I'm also a woman and I've been helping leaders like you enter these questions and more for over 30 years. That's what this podcast is all about. Let's learn and grow together. Welcome to teach GIF today. God is Herb's. Hey guys, good Speaker 1: (00:36) be with you today. You know, well, this past weekend was the super bowl and you know, I was thinking about that game with, between the chiefs and the 40 Niners and you know, with six minutes to play in the game, uh, the chiefs were down by I think two touchdowns and I began to think, you know, they got a tough road, uh, to overcome that. Well, they, they, not only did they ever calm, they overcome quite well and they ended up winning the game. But I saw such an analogy of how life can be, you know, we can be down, but it doesn't mean we have to be out. And, uh, so today I want to spend my time talking to you about perceived weaknesses that keep us from fulfilling our dreams. Most of you may know my story and, uh, but I want to go deeper in that story today. Speaker 1: (01:23) I want to talk to you about some of those perceived weaknesses that I had in my own life growing up and how God allowed me to overcome those. And, uh, so I want you to be able to overcome any kind of, you know, weaknesses that you perceive are in your life right now. So let's begin by just let me share with you my history. You know, I was born in the South and my dad was a toy store owner and it was great growing up having a dad who owned a toy store. I had four sisters and uh, we went to church every week. But I would say that, uh, our Christianity wasn't really relationship based and uh, it was more of a tradition if you will. But my folks were good. My dad was a solid a man. He was a good provider for our home. Speaker 1: (02:14) And so I, I really grew up in a very positive environment and I love sports. You know, I played sports from, you know, early in my life. My dad started me playing golf when I was 11 years old. And, uh, I quickly picked up the game quite well. In fact, by the time I was 14, I had won several golf tournaments and, uh, won the junior tournament. My club and I had, has three hole in ones and I'd broken cemetery many, many times. And so, you know, most in the community were predicting big things for this young golfer. And, uh, I would continue on in that and ultimately would end up going to school on a golf scholarship. But we did have a major interruption along the way. And that was, I was 14 years old and I was sitting there watching I dream of Jeannie every young adolescent love watching that program. Speaker 1: (03:06) And uh, so I was watching it. Then a newscast comes on and says, three prominent businessmen in the community had just been killed in an airplane crash. And my dad was the pilot of that plane. And so this really changed our lives dramatically. In fact, his insurance was all tied up in the company and it did not pay off. And so here at my mom with five kids is never been, you know, in the workforce all those years and is now forced with having to consider going back to work. And she did. But through that experience, my mom really came to know Christ in a very deep and personal way. That was a very vibrant relationship with God. And she began sharing that with her kids. But I was at a stage where I didn't really want to hear about it. I had one goal in mind. Speaker 1: (03:54) I wanted to play professional golf. And so I went to school in a golf scholarship at the university there in my city and a finish without a degree because I was so passionate about the golf and, uh, nothing else really mattered to me. And that was one of my big mistakes in life that I regret. So, but, uh, my mom continued to preach at me and I didn't really want to hear it. So I moved away to North Myrtle beach, South Carolina. And when I was there, there was a pastor who used to be friends, was friends with our family growing up. He was at the church where I grew up in and now he was in North Myrtle beach and he was actually at a church across the street from the golf course. I was working. And so, you know, I was really striving to be able to get on the tour. Speaker 1: (04:38) It was 1975 and there was a major recession in the country and I couldn't raise money to get on the tour. And so I was kind of nominal, you know, I was kinda on borderline. I had the ability, but I didn't have the understanding and the, uh, the mind to be a competitive golfer. And I'll explain why that was a little later. And so that was one of the perceived obstacles. I had to be able to fulfill my dream. I didn't have money. And so how would I get that? And so over the next several years, um, I would, uh, seek to try to raise money and, and gamble on the golf course and so forth. But along the way, Christ came into my life as a result of kind of coming to the end of myself. And, uh, that is what led me to Christ. And that pastor played a key role. Speaker 1: (05:29) His name was Jim mesic and I'll never forget his involvement. He's still involved in my life today at 84 years old and we are very close, close friends. He is like a father to me and he's known me since I was 13 years old. And so that was a new chapter in my life. And so, uh, I went to Vail, Colorado and uh, turns out I was a golf pro and they'll Colorado. But along the way I realized that that probably was not going to be something I was able to achieve. And so here I had a change in vocation, a direction and you know, a lot of our dreams, we can't fulfill them, you know, and there's a part two to our dream and that we need to adjust our dream based on our ability. You know, I may have had the ability, but I didn't know how to get to another level with that ability in order to achieve my dream. Speaker 1: (06:27) And so, you know, sometimes we can make the adjustments, we can invest in education, we can invest in our lives in order to be a person that can fulfill the dream that we want to have. But sometimes God changes that dream and sometimes he changes the direction in our life. And we see that in the Bible all the time where someone is going one direction and God changes the direction of their life. Consider Josephy he had a big vision. He had a dream of what God was going to do with them and something got interrupted. The devil tried to kill him through his brothers, but the dream would actually be fulfilled. But there was a detour. And so often life has a detour. The question is, what are you going to do with that detour? Are you going to learn from the detour? Are you going to allow God to use that detour to make you better? Speaker 1: (07:23) And so, um, life went on for several years. I would, in getting married, I would go to Bible school thinking I was called to be a pastor. I was so passionate about Christ at that time. Um, and uh, I ended up working at a church for a few months only to realize that wasn't where I was called. And, uh, but I did get married and we had some major challenges in our marriage, but we stuck it out for, uh, 14 years. But then one day in 1994, my wife came in one day and said, uh, I don't, uh, I don't want to go back to counseling. And we'd been in counseling for several years. And, uh, so this was another crisis moment and she did separate and a few other things just happened to take place over the next three months. I had been a very successful businessman in advertising. Speaker 1: (08:15) I had my own ad agency in Atlanta and God was blessing that it was called the Azlan group. And we worked with clients like American express and Steinway pianos and Thomas Nelson publishers and you know, God was using us and I was leading Bible studies and I was teaching and I was ministering to others and giving money to Christian causes. And so, you know, life was pretty good except for my marriage. But then one day I got a phone call from my financial advisor and he says, the half million dollars you have is gone. I had been the victim of a Bernie Madoff type of scam, uh, that I was getting reports every month of our investments. Uh, but those reports evidently had been fake reports. And so there was no way I could know that, uh, what was going on because I had somebody in between us that was checking those things. Speaker 1: (09:07) And so it was a devastating situation. And then in the next few days, um, I would hear that, um, my second largest account, actually my largest account, uh, was a company that we serve for almost five years and built them from 20 million to $30 million. So we were very good at what we did. But, uh, we had a conflict over a particular project and it was $140,000 project. And so my client says, we are not going to pay for that project and we're also releasing you as our ad agency. Well, that was $140,000 project of which I had $40,000 of inventory of, uh, a vendor costs related to that project. And, uh, that was devastating. And so then my vice president left me and he took my second largest account. So life went from one place to hold another place. Now it's at that point, either you gotta wonder, okay, where are you? Speaker 1: (10:04) God, I've been faithful to you to stick it out in these tough places, but where are you? And so, uh, over the next two years, I would operate the best I could kinda navigating this difficult season of life. And um, so two years into that I met Gunnar Olson, the founder of the international Christian chamber of commerce. And, um, it was a strange how I met him. I had been sent on audio tape by him that said God was raising up Joseph's all over the world today. And it's often signified by them going through extraordinary adversity in their business and personal life. Well, that was all I heard on that tape. And so I, uh, said I need to meet this man. Turns out he was from Sweden, but he was going to be in the United States in a few weeks in Washington D C he listened to, I went up there and the hoping to meet him and he was gracious enough to allow me to meet him. Speaker 1: (11:01) And so when I shared my story with him, he says, OSS, you have a Joseph calling on your life and is signified by a people who go through extraordinary adversity to be a physical and provider. For others. It's a marketplace call. And so he says, he pulls out a napkin and draws, you know, this one thing is this, here's where you are now and here's the next phase of the journey and here's the next phase. And so it was an incredible, uh, Kairos moment for me because I'd walked into that room that day feeling like a complete failure. And I walked out with an understanding that there was an actual call. You see, Joseph didn't go through his adversity because of failure of something. He went through adversity because of a consequence of the call. And that's what I want you to understand today, that there's four reasons we'll go could through adversity. Speaker 1: (11:54) And one of those is a consequence of the call. And so I would start a whole new journey. And during those next seven years, God would begin to deposit things. I would seek him with all my heart as gunnery encouraged me to do. And so, uh, this went on for several years, but I was trying to make ends meet. Now. One of the challenges during that time was how do I pay my bills? You know, things were really rough and I was having to pay debts. And, uh, so my ad agency really couldn't support what I was doing. But you know, uh, God often provides manner in strange ways. And one of the things that happened as I was beginning to teach and, and share what I was learning, uh, this was the beginning of the birth of our ministry. And, uh, I would begin to write emails and send them out to friends that would become TGIM. Speaker 1: (12:50) I would also start teaching workshops, uh, about the Joseph calling and that our work is a ministry. And so I was realizing that many of us in the marketplace check our faith at the door on Monday. We act like Monday morning atheist rather than kingdom business leaders. And so I began to really invest in the scriptures and understand how I had gotten to where I was and how do I get out of it? How do I navigate myself out of this? And so it wasn't easy to do. Well, my manner was that I got a consulting job that allowed me to pay my bills and, uh, allowed me to sustain myself. And then I had another ministry that hired me to allow me to serve them during this birthing process. And that's one of the things that we all need to understand is what is the way God might want to provide for us when we get into a tough place and we find a, an old Testament principle of what's in your hand with Elijah and the widow who went around and sold, uh, lamps to be able to, uh, provide for herself. Speaker 1: (13:58) And that is a great case study on what happens when we don't have money. And you know, uh, money can be a perceived obstacle. It, and I say proceed because it doesn't have to be and may be you're in a lane time maybe or not. But, uh, that can be one of those, um, beliefs that we adopt that keeps us from fulfilling our purpose and destiny. Sometimes you have to invest in things where you least can afford it in order to get your breakthrough. I'm in the middle of that right now where I'm investing in something that I really can't afford it that well, but I know it's key to a breakthrough. And so if you, uh, keep yourself from investing in something that's going to help you, that can be a hindrance to your breakthrough. So, you know, that's where we have to apply faith to believing that God is behind the decision that we want to make. Speaker 1: (15:00) And so that's just one example. And so I continued on in this process and I began teaching and I began writing. And you know, here's another situation I perceived myself to be a very poor student. I just didn't have a good grasp of grammar. And so when I started writing, I had this perceived idea that I couldn't be a good writer because I had a poor training. And so, but I had a passion to share. And so I decided to go ahead and write and this interesting story, I started writing the TGI F devotionals and I would get people writing me back saying, I love your devotionals, but have you ever thought about having someone look at your work grammatically? I said, well, I don't have anybody right now that can do that, but thank you for bringing that to Matt. My attention. I know there's a weakness there. Speaker 1: (15:58) Well, this happened about three or four times again. And then finally the last person who asked me that, I said, uh, how about you? Could you help me? Well, he turned out to be an English teacher living in Hong Kong and he agreed to be my long distance editors. So I would write the devotional, send it to him, and then, uh, he was sent it back and I would publish it. Uh, well as time went on, I would learn myself how to be a better writer and to apply it. And so the key point you want to remember there is don't let the obstacle keep you from taking the next step in your journey. You know, I could have said, Oh, well, I'm just not good at that. And so I'm not going to do it. Well today. TGF is red in 104 countries and I've written two versions of it and then I've actually written a three total three 65 devotionals. Speaker 1: (16:53) And so, you know, God turned my weakness into a strength, but I had to go through a process, uh, of, you know, having a little shame in my life from others. Uh, the other thing that, uh, was surfacing in my life is that people were inviting me to speak. Now, I used to terrify me to stand up in a front, a group of people. I get so nervous that I began shaking and I just didn't like it. And, and so, uh, this was another areas that God had to change if I was going to enter into, uh, my dream of being successful. And so people invited me to, to come and share with them and teach. Well, I realized one time that the key thing was, is it more important to share the passion of what I have inside or is it more important for me to be comfortable? Speaker 1: (17:46) And so I had to overcome that obstacle. And so what I did is I become very forceful in my teaching. I would raise my voice to overcome the nervousness and just be intentional about my messaging. And over time I've become a good speaker. I'm a, I'm not a high energy kind of guy, but I'm a good communicator on stage. And so now that's become one of my real strengths. I often get compliments on, you know, my talks. And so here again was a perceived weakness. So, you know, I want to challenge you if you think you have some perceived weaknesses that you just hadn't been able to get past, press in a step into it. Learn from those proceeds weaknesses so they don't have to determine your future. And you know, God is now allowed me to write 19 books and he has allowed me to, uh, minister to men and women in 26 countries. Speaker 1: (18:48) And, uh, so God turned my Valley of ACOR into a door of hope now for the last few months. Uh, I've been sharing about a new program that we've been working on. And uh, you know, we did a questionnaire on our website and ask you a question and the question was, um, what is the biggest obstacle that prevents you from being a Christian leader in the workplace? Many of you gave us some great answers and we took those answers and we've been compiling those answers and learning from what you said to form a new program that we're about to launch on February the 13th, and it's an exciting program and it takes all the 30 years of my business and ministry experience and put it into a program designed to mentor and train you. And it's going to be exciting. Tom, I'm telling you, you know, we've had something called the change agent network that's designed to equip leaders, but this is putting a, you know, a booster on it. Speaker 1: (19:55) It's adding some dimensions to it that's going to be awesome. I hope these thoughts were helpful to you. Uh, you know, there are always obstacles in our path to fulfill our destiny. But those obstacles don't have to keep us from fulfilling that destiny. They can actually be stepping stones for you and not to fulfill that destiny. And you know, I wouldn't have learned some very important things had I not gone through those obstacles. And so think about what those obstacles are and think about how you can walk through them and use them as steps in your journey. Now, at the end of those seven years, an interesting thing happened to me. Uh, I had a piece of property that God had allowed me to hold onto and uh, I was able to sell that property and become free. I was able to pay off all my debts and, uh, it was seven years to the month just light. Speaker 1: (20:52) Joseph had his seven years while I had those seven years. And at the end of them, God restored me in the financial area and I was completely debt free, paid off all my debts. Uh, years later I would remarry and, uh, with Mary Pamela and that we have a very, a wonderful marriage today and she has a prison ministry herself. That's a powerful story in the, she has a testimony that's incredible. You can find her on life changers, legacy.org if you want to hear an inspiring story. And so God is restored and continue to use me in the lives of men and women. And I hope that's an encouragement to you to realize that no matter where you are in your journey, God can use whatever you've gone through, whatever you're into today to really fulfill your destiny. So I hope that you'll be on the lookout for our new initiative though. Hope you'll join us and love to hear from you. God bless. Uh, just a reminder, put your comment down below and if you're not part of our, uh, group on YouTube, please join, uh, and become part of our community there. If you're listening on iTunes, please give us a rating so that others will find us. It's so important that you do that in order for more people to be ministered to. By what we share every week. God bless. Have a great day. Take care. Speaker 3: (22:18) Are you a biblical worker? Do you know what the Bible says about how to work biblically? I've got a great resource I want to give you called. Are you a biblical worker? It's a 50 question. True false self assessment, great for personal study and small groups. Plus you get the answers with supporting scriptures, help you apply what the Bible says about your daily work life. It's a value of $25 but we want to make it available to you as a free ebook. Just go to www.threebiblicalworker.com that's free biblical worker.com.