What do you do when life becomes a train wreck? Today I want to share with you the five secrets to advance your vision. Do you feel stuck in your own calling? Do you often think that you'd like to be more successful and more influential, but something's in the way our circumstances keeping you from achieving your life goals? If so, this week's podcast is for you. 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 all Sylvan and I've been helping leaders like you answer these questions and more for over 30 years. That's what this podcast is all about. Let's learn and grow together. Welcome to TGF Today God is First podcast. Hey guys, and welcome to our podcast this week. This week we're going to do two podcasts because we've got some special things going on this week. So today's podcast is talking about what happens when there's a train wreck in your life. And I'm going to share with you a few secrets that I learned when I had a train wreck of my life and hopefully it's going to be helpful to you. Now. Over the years I've discovered that most people are in one of three places. Life is good. You're really doing well, you're making lots of money, you're having great impact. I hope that's where you are. Uh, others are, you know, not so lucky. They're not in that place of blessing. They're having struggles, but it's not too bad. But they reason that, well, everybody has those kinds of struggles. And so, you know, I just deal with it. And then there's a third category of people and that is, they're in a very difficult crisis and they need some help in understanding what God is doing in their life so that God can take them through that and really help them fulfill God's purposes in your life through that train wreck. And so that's what I want to talk to you. A, what I'm sharing today is going to be helpful no matter whether you're in one, two, or three stage. And so I hope that you'll stay tuned. I'm also going to give a free resource at the end. If you want to stay with me at the end, there'll be a tool that you can use that can help you again, no matter where you are in that phase of your journey. So I want to do something a little different than I normally do today. I want to take you through some some principles as we start this. The question I have for you is, What’s your story? You know, we all have a story and that story often tells us where we are and what we need to do as it relates to that story. So, you know, the best way for me to communicate this is kinda share a little bit with my story and, and you've probably heard my story many times, but I've never gone to the depth that I'm going to go with you today. Uh, because I think by going to the depth, you get a better understanding of how what I learned is applicable to your own life and how you can navigate and no matter what circumstance you find yourself in, that you can be successful. And, you know, God takes us through these and some of them are very difficult and some of them are seasons of prosperity. And so it's important to understand how to relate in each of those stages. So let us be down and let's talk about your dream and what you had hoped your life would be like. You know, uh, my dream was to be a professional golfer that didn't work out. You know, I worked hard at it and not early twenties, but it didn't work out. And so, but it did use, uh, God you that failure in a good way. He allowed me to come to Christ through that failure. And, uh, gosh, I'd probably not be where I am today if I'd had not had that failure. And so the important thing is to fail forward and understand how to use those failures to take us to a different place. And a different calling. And that's exactly what happened to me. So I ended up going into business and ultimately would end up in advertising and had my own advertising agency. And, uh, you know, we'd had a run for about 12 years and it was a good run. And, uh, so, um, but in 1994, I went through my crisis and you probably already know that, but I lost a half million dollars through a Bernie Madoff situation and, uh, you know, life was very disrupted. And so, uh, what do you do with that? What do you do when there is a train wreck? And I was less with all of those questions as well, but that was my dream. I basically wanted to be, you know, a Christian business leader that impacted lounges of other people that was able to give money to Christian causes to influence our culture. I really wanted to do that. And they, my ad agency after, as Lyndon lion called the Aslam group. And so, and God was using us in that way. It was a very, uh, exciting time in my life, but I had some struggles and I had a marriage struggle and just, uh, uh, you know, things I was being successful financially. Uh, but in 94, went through that crisis and I had a Bernie Madoff situation happen where, you know, my half million dollars in savings that, uh, been taken by this guy, I would never recover it. And then 80% of my business walk out the door and I get stuck with $140,000 bill from that client and my vice president would take me and my wife decided to leave me during that time and said that I shouldn't be into a seven year season. And so it was not until 1996 that I was able to get some revelation about my current situation. And so, you know, I met Gunnar Olson, in Washington D C in 1996 and you heard my story and I said, Oh, I do. You have a Joseph calling in your life. And so I said, what does the Joseph calling? And he explained that to me. It's, uh, a person who's has a marketplace call to be a physical and spiritual provider for others. I say, Oh my gosh. Well, I walked in that day really with a lot of shame and failure that, uh, I had, you know, let my family down. I'd let the others in my business down. And so, so I was dealing with that. And so when gunner spoke those words to me, it was like, Oh, he said, you know, the adversity is not because something you did wrong is because of a consequence or call on your life. And that was what it was for Joseph. He had a consequence of the call on his life that even though the devil was trying to kill him by throwing him in a pit and you know, putting him in slavery, God used that in his life to fulfill a destiny. And he later said those famous words, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And you might be in that place today where you're struggling to know the events of your life and you know, there's no event in your life that Gaza doesn't know about the most important thing. It's what are you going to do with it? How are you going to turn that event into something that can be positive in your life and others? So here I was in my situation, I had a barrier. And that barrier was I no longer had money. I no longer had a wife. I no longer had a means of, you know, making a living. And if 44 years old, I was questioning, God, where are you? What did I do wrong? What is the barrier between you and I that's not allowing your blessing to come to me? I felt like I'd been faithful to God serving him. I was giving money, uh, you know, and so it didn't make sense to me until on that good or awesome. And then I realized that God was doing a different kind of work in my life. And maybe he's doing that with you. And so we need to understand, you know, those barriers are real. Um, but it also says in the scriptures that the truth shall make you free. The truth shall make you free. That's John eight 32. Whenever you discover the truth about your situation, that becomes the beginning of change. Because once you've learned the truth about things, you can begin to change things, at least move toward change. And so what I realized was the truth that meeting with gunner helped me realize the truth about my own situation. It wasn't all my fault. Yeah. I had some things that God needed to work on in my life and he did. In fact, I'm not the same person as I was back then. Uh, I got a lot of strong holes removed and it was a, a process. It got and took me through for seven years. And, uh, it led to a new common lane. Now, I didn't know I was going to be led to a new calling, but many times whenever a crisis happens, that's the front door to your new calling. And so you need to understand that when God disrupts your life, sometimes it's for his purposes, you think is about the apostle Paul. He had his life disrupted, he was blinded by Jesus, and that was a disruption. Uh, Peter's life was just rooted when Jesus met him at the boat that day and other lines were disrupted when a crisis came into their life. So the most important thing is to discover what the truth is about your condition. And sometimes we can go through adversity through, um, sin, you know, go haze on the assistant to Elijah, lost his job and got leprosy because he tried to profit from a healing that Elijah did. And so it's important that we understand that. That's another secret to this whole process. And number four is once we go through the crisis, that means we've got to develop a new plan, a new plan of action, what's, what's the new strategy? And sometimes he doesn't give it all to us and he has to allow us to go through that transition. And my transition was seven years, and I'm in the seventh year. I was able to receive some money from a piece of property that God allowed me to sell for six times what I paid for it. It allowed me to become debt free. And I had begun writing during that time, but I had to survive during that time, before that happened. And so I had to ask myself, what do I have in my hand? And you know, that's a principle in the old Testament where Elijah was, um, ministering to the widow who is on her last meal. And he said, what do you have in your hand? What do you have in your house? And she says, well, I don't have anything other than some oil lamps. And he said, well, go collect all the oil lamps you can, even your neighbor's oil lamps. And a miracle happened where oil appeared in those oil lamps. And she was able to sell that and, uh, care for her needs and her children's needs as a result of that. And so I had to ask myself, what do I have in my hand that could help me transition in my period? Well, I was pretty good at marketing and advertising. And so God opened the door for me to do some consulting with a sports marketing company and later a ministry in um, and Detroit. And it was, I was able to do that for about three years and that was God's man up for me as he was remaking me and reshaping me. So my question do you, is what do you have in your hand? You know, what is it that God could multiply during a tough season if you're in a train wreck season? What is it that God might want to multiply in your hand? The other thing I discovered is it, I had to invest in myself. I had to learn why did I go through the things I went through and to discover those things so that I wouldn't repeat them. And so that's another important part of the process. So by this time I was starting to sense that God was taking me into a new calling and that new calling was to equip men and women in the marketplace. And I'd started writing TJ out during the late nineties. I'd send that off to my computer and people would write back and say how much it helped them. And then it got on a website that was, uh, called crosswalk.com. And, uh, I began to get letters from people around the world. And, uh, the only thing was that I had a desire to equip people, but I didn't feel like I had the skillset. Um, I was very weak in grammar and, uh, I barely got out of English class in high school. And so I felt very insecure about writing. And, uh, I also wasn't a very good speaker. I was very shy. Uh, I was a young man who had a lot of insecurities growing up. Like Moses. Uh, I didn't want to speak. I felt like, uh, I was not the right man for the job, but you know, as God was doing such a deep work in my heart, I began to share with other people and the need to share became greater than my insecurity, if you know what I mean. Well one thing, I was weekend as grammar, as I was writing these devotional and I'd send them out and I would send them to people who wanted them and it was free. And I miss a day one or two and people say, where's my devotion on? I said, what do you mean? Where is your devotion and you're not paying forward? And but that was a verse indication. I got that a, it was helping people. But I also got comments like, Hey, I love your devotional, but have you ever thought about having somebody look at your work grab grammatically? And uh, so I, I, uh, didn't know what to do with that and I asked her about the fifth or sixth one of those comments. I said, well, how about you? Can you help me if you're good at that? And well, it just so happened that it was a Hong Kong English teacher, uh, who responded that email. And that person agreed to be my long distance editor. So I would write the devotional, send it to them, they sent it back and correct it. And so God provided, but you see, I had to put my foot in the water. Sometimes people don't step out because they feel like they are so unqualified. And you know, I understand that. But you can't let that dictate when God calls you to do something and you have a passion and a to do that. And um, so the other thing I had to do was, you know, do something that was very contrary to my current status and that was, money was very tight, but there were certain conferences that I had to felt like I needed to go to that Gunnar Olson was at. And that costs money. I remember one time I said, you know, I believe God wants me to go to this conference. And so, uh, I didn't have the money. It was going to cost $2,500. And so I kept praying and said, Lord, I don't know what, what I'm supposed to do here. And so the very day of the deadline for the registration, a man who was in my Bible study came and wrote me a check for $2,500. He says, I believe you're supposed to go to this conference. And so you did. I did. And, uh, but I began to see a lot of those kinds of miracles. Uh, and sometimes we have to put our foot in the water for the water to, to park. And that's what the, the, uh, priest had to do when they were carrying the art across the Jordan river. They had to put their foot in the water first. And maybe, maybe yours in a place where you don't feel like you could invest in yourself. Well, let me challenge you with that. That, you know, sometimes that can be the greatest investments and the greatest breakthrough I'm going to share with you at the end about a new initiative we're doing that is going to allow you to invest in yourself. And, uh, you know, you might say, well, I can't afford to do that. Well, you can't afford not to, you know, and, uh, God calls us to make us equipped. And sometimes, uh, investing in those kinds of things can really help us. And so that's the other secret that you need to, uh, understand your weaknesses, but not let your weaknesses dictate what you do and then you need to invest in yourself toward your optimization. So in my own journey, God took me through that period and, um, today I can consider what great things God has done because he literally transformed me into a marketplace leader. And I would end up going to 26 countries to equip leaders. I would write, just finished my 19th book and, uh, I'm debt free. You know, after those seven years I received that money, I became debt free. And, uh, and so God has used that. And I'm also happily married to Pamela that, uh, I got remarried four years ago and the God is using us. She has a powerful prison ministry herself. And so, you know, God turns our Valley of a war into a door of hope as Hosea two 15. And it's a hope, this not only for us, but it's others as well. And so whether you're in a place of great prosperity or you're in a kind of a transition period or where you're in that train wreck, you know, God is not, uh, unaware of your condition. Uh, Paul once said, the things that have happened to me have served to advance the gospel. And that's what we need to ask each of us is what has happened to my life? Is it advancing the gospel either in a good way, uh, or you know, some kind of significant way of touching other people. And God doesn't want you to stay in your pants. He don't want you to be a victim to your past or your circumstances or your train wreck. As I began to share many of those things with others, I would often have people say, do you, do you mentor others? And that, you know, God began to invite me to other places to, uh, receive, um, to be able to teach and equip others. And he was learning. He was teaching me to learn how to see God as my provider. I w I remember one time a man called me from New York city and he said, um, I've read your adversity book seven times. It's the only book that has ministered to me because of your marketplace background. And I said, well, that's interesting. And he had just lost his job as, as a major, um, uh, financial, uh, Morgan Stanley type business there in New York city. And his wife was leaving him. And so I began to serve him and minister to him and, uh, just, uh, receive his calls anytime he called. And so we developed a very close relationship. I ended up going to New York a few times and, uh, you know, just talking with him. And after about seven months, I began to think, Lord, you want me to continue to serve this man? And the Lord said, yes, continue to do that. So I did, uh, never got a donation from him and then it was Christmas time and he calls me and says, I've, I've sent you something and, uh, just be on the lookout in the mail. So a few days went by and I got this envelope from him, and in that envelope was a check for $20,000. And I began to realize that God calls us to be obedient. And now whenever there's a vision, he provides the provision for that. And so sometimes we have to be obedient. On another occasion I was invited to speak the Barbados and I was in the middle of my adversity. And, uh, it was a very, very small meeting. I mean, it was like 12 people in a marketplace. People either don't pay me about 150 bucks to and, but, and I knew it'd take two or three days of my time. And so, but God said, go. And so I've mapped and administered to the man who had a marriage problem himself. And, uh, I was there for three days, ended up leaving some of my books behind. And uh, as a result of that, a man began to, who spoke the following month and got some of my books and began reading them and they were administering to him. And so he called me and said, I've, I've been reading your TGI F book. I really like it a lot. It's ministered to me. I'm doing a marketplace conference on the Island of Trinidad and I'd like to have you as our keynote speaker. It'd be 22 Island nations represented. So I went and did that. And that man became a very close friend from that time on. And I taught a workshop during that time and I found that, um, there was a man there that was really ministered to by my teaching on the Joseph calling. It transformed his life. He said he was the largest car dealer in the, um, in the Caribbean. And, uh, that December I got a check from him for $5,000. And you know, so sometimes both obedience does it yield immediately and it takes time for that seed to come back to us. And so sometimes we have to invest in the others. We have to invest in ourselves through training and equipping. Uh, we have to invest in being mentored by others. And so that all of these experiences are to help others fulfill their dreams. And so that's a, that's what the conclusion I've come to over these years is that God has used what I went through to be able to help others. The most common comment I get from people who read TGF is you read my mail today. And I said, what do you mean? And what you spoke right into my own situation. And I think that, um, you know, God did that. I wrote those devotionals for myself, not other people in order to help me better understand the processes of God in my own life. And so it turned out that those devotionals were helping many other people at the same time. And so when people said, do you have a mentoring program? And so, well I, um, I do have a ment, I don't have a mentoring program cause I can't, can't do it right now because I'm traveling so much. And so what came out of that is we put together sort of a [inaudible] mentoring program called the change agent network. And the change agent network had many courses and training, video PowerPoints and so forth, podcasts and interviews with leaders on it. And so that became our mentoring program for a season. But, um, over the last three months, we've been asking many of our friends, what are you going through? What do you need help with? Um, what could we do to help you be able to invest in yourself? And so we heard from a number of people and we took those comments and we said, they need help here. They help here, they need help here. And so what came out of that is a, uh, a more advanced change agent network. We call change agent master mentor program. And in that program we have 10 core things that we're addressing. One is managing your money and the other is the Joseph calling. How do you navigate difficult seasons? One is discovering your purpose. You know, I find that a lot of people just don't understand their purpose. You know, you need to know your purpose. You need to be able to write it down in one sentence because that becomes the filter by which you judge all your activity and what to focus your time on and what not to focus your time on. Uh, you need to learn from other proven culture shaped is one of the things we did last year in Washington is we had an international culture shapers summit. I had 50 different presenters. If you can imagine, over three and a half days, these were top leaders in their area of the seven cultural mountains at business. And they spoke to our group. And we've included all of those sessions on this new program called a change agent master mentor program. And that hearing God, you know, the number one thing that people struggle with, uh, in their marketplace call is hearing God. How do I hear God? What, uh, what, uh, is the way that God speaks to me? How can I discern his voice better? So I know it's him versus me? And so there are 10 ways God speaks and we cover that in the training. Make your work matter to God is another focus and that is helping you understand the theology of work. How do I experience God in my work? How I manifest the power of God in my work? How do I see his hand in my work? How do I, uh, really break through barriers in my calling in the marketplace? And that's what we do there. Experience thriving relationships is another area that we focus on. And that is a powerful session. You know, I was a very much of a performance driven bottom line kind of person. Um, and uh, I was very transactional and so a board member of mine named Ford Taylor still on my board, uh, he has a whole organization called transformational leadership. And so I had him, um, uh, provide some courses on our platform that will allow him to teach others. Like he taught me to be a relational leader and there's, uh, a term he coins called real actionable leadership. And it's a combination between true relational and transactional. And so, uh, you know, we all need improvement on relationships and I wasn't very good in relationships and so I'm pretty good now because I've learned a lot and you have to be intentional about learning these things. And, uh, then Lauren from a mentor, uh, you know, I can't be a one mentor to people, but I can be in a group setting. And so we've created zoom calls to be able to process, of course, each week, you know, a session each week. And then we come together on that call and take questions and engage with each other. And then we have a private Facebook so that you can engage around the Facebook and um, you know, it's only for those who are in the course or part of our TGI inner circle. And so that's why I created the change agent master mentor program. In this course number there are a number of things that make up the program. There are 34 modules in the program, but all these 10 different topics, there's 135 classes. So, you know, you're never going to run out of things to learn. There's 54 case studies. And, uh, as I mentioned, there's mentoring via zoom. There are 250 leader interviews. So here’s you're going to gain from this program. You call requires tremendous wisdom and discernment and knowledge to fulfill your marketplace call. So let me just review with use all of the things that you get as part, um, the program. You just heard the course, these courses and the value of that's over $8,000. And then the presentations of the prison from the change agent network or the change agent, uh, uh, culture change your summit. And I'm sorry, uh, that, uh, those 50 presentations would have a value of over $3,500 on the market. Uh, it costs a lot to go to that summit. And, uh, so this is the real value. And then you get our TGI media app and the change agent, uh, program can be usable on your phone. It works just like an ad and reads re really good. So you can access a lot of the training on your car. Uh, and anywhere you're, you're on vacation or whatever. As I say, the 250 leader interviews that has a value of $950. And you know, we have a weekly teaching blog, there'll be a weekly teaching segment, there'll be sent out. And, uh, as I say, accessing the private Facebook community, you're also going to get 10 eBooks from me. And, you're also going to get a number of downloads, 20 different PDF downloads. These are tools to help you live out your calling. And so, uh, you can access all of this 24, seven. And so it's a, it's a tremendous opportunity. The question is where, where could you go and get that kind of value that we estimate the value of that program to be $19,000 just to just the base, uh, offerings that we're putting on the platform. So where else can you go get training? You're not going to get this kind of training and your, um, church because it's very marketplace specific and you're going to be able to develop a mentoring relationship with myself. So, um, the registration enrollment opens tomorrow and uh, opens tomorrow. That's February the 19th. And so you can, you can't register today, but you can, we'll be giving out the website tomorrow, uh, and uh, you'll be able to register, um, by looking for an email from me. And you can be one of the first to enroll. So already mentioned all the things that you're wanting to gain from that. So we don't need, need to rehash that. I just don't want to encourage you to join us. And, um, I'm going to give you a resource, uh, in a minute called are you a biblical worker? Uh, it's a tool that you've been using, personal study and small groups that we've been giving away for the last couple of months and it's 50 questions, true false questions on, uh, what you would do in a workplace situation. And then at the back of the book we give all the answers. So it's a great little tool for small group study if you have a small group in the marketplace or just your personal study. So I hope you'll take advantage of that free resource for you. And I hope you'll be looking in your email for our announcement on the change agent marketplace mentor program. And, uh, don't forget to give us a comment below what you think about this session today. Was it helpful? Uh, and always good for me to get feedback from you and let me know what you think about this new initiative. And then, uh, uh, if you're on iTunes listening to this audio, then let me encourage you to uh, just give us a comment on iTunes. It will help us, uh, generate more re a listenership on iTunes when you give us a good rating. So I think that's all today. So thanks for being with me. I'd like to pray for you today before we end up by there. I thank you for those listening today and I pray that you will fulfill their purpose and destiny and that you will help them in their transitions, those who are in a train wreck situation themselves. I pray for the grace of God to work in their midst and for those who are living a very successful life, that the things that have happened to them will be used to advance the gospel in a positive way. We thank you father in Jesus name. Amen. I have a red dead. Hi, this is Ron Hart out in Santa Cruz, California. And I just wanted to give a shout out for the agent network. It's like having mentoring on demand. It's kind of fun. Is that right? We're all in transformation and we have to start with ourselves. So on the change agent, we have access to video courses, uh, uh, webinars with leaders in the marketplace and a, a searchable database of you name it and uh, you can find it there. We also have forums to discuss this with other change agents. So without [inaudible], uh, because there's a long road that T can't find your way, man. Anytime. It is a very great resource and it's changed my life. 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 to 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. Just go to www.threebiblicalworker.com that's free biblical worker.com.