Episode 1. We All Have One
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Funny thing, but each one of us knows we have a particular week spot. Maybe it’s envy or anger or pride. Whatever. And it turns out, that each particular personality type is particularly …
Funny thing, but each one of us knows we have a particular week spot. Maybe it’s envy or anger or pride. Whatever. And it turns out, that each particular personality type is particularly prone to one of the seven deadly sins. Which one is yours?
Over the last couple of thousand years a whole bunch of things has changed in society. The way we look at people, women for instance, in most parts of the world are treated much, much better today than they were way back when. Slavery, it’s no longer an accepted norm in most parts of the world. Many things have changed for the better but that’s not always the case.
In this so called, “modern society” we’ve shifted the morality line, the line between good and bad, quite a way. Even over the last 50 years. Today we’re happy to say, “this goes” when back then, it didn’t. Is that good or bad?
I guess from where I sit, it doesn’t matter when or where or who we are, some things will always be wrong. If I picked up a venomous snake 2 thousand years ago and it bit me, well the poison was deadly. And if I picked up that same breed of snake today and it bit me, guess what; it’s still deadly.
Over the last few weeks on the program we’ve been looking at breaking free from the power of sin. Not some old fashioned concept of an irrelevant Church, it’s the stuff that we know is wrong, the stuff that ruins our lives, the stuff that’s like a poisonous venom that pumps through our veins.
And so this week and next week, on the program, we’re going to take a look at what are known as the 7 deadly sins. Because you know something, it doesn’t matter who we are, where we are or whatever; they’re still deadly.
And I’m joined on the program today by a special guest, Keith Henry.
Berni: Keith, welcome!
Keith: Thanks Berni.
Berni: Now listen; you’ve spent a bit of time in your life kind of figuring out how people tick and the different personality types. Why is that? Why have you done that?
Keith: About 10 years ago I was asked to talk, at a Church camp, on what our gifts are and I didn’t want to do it but you know when it’s a calling of God, you can’t get out of it. So I studied it and gave a talk on it. Then I was captured, I wanted to know more myself, I realised I only knew so much.
But when I started teaching people about what their gift was, the whole personality issue came out. It’s not just what your gift is but who are we? You know, what do we think about? What grabs our attention? In this case, what’s our deadly sin?
Because there’s one sin, more than the others, even though we have all of them right but there’s one sin more than others, for each personality, that really is your main sin that you have to combat.
Berni: Interesting! The Bible actually talks about personality types in Romans chapter 12, verses 6-8, doesn’t it? The person who wants to prophecy, the person who serves, the teacher, the encourager, the giver, the leader, the administrator. So even, even way back then God was telling us that we have different personality types. So is your observation, as you’ve studied, that we certainly are hard wired, each differently?
Keith: Yes, in our nature. There’s nature and nurture. In our nature we’re actually made and hard wired with a real motivation, a real gift and a temperament which is our style.
Berni: Hang on, you rushed over those. A motivation,
Keith: Yeah.
Berni: A gift and a temperament, just explain those.
Keith: Well, motivation is what drives us. We all have a drive and in those, each of those personality areas in Romans 12, there’s actually 7 drives.
Berni: Okay, let’s say I’m an encourager, what’s my drive?
Keith: Your drive there is to find fulfilment in what you’re doing. Doesn’t have to be money, doesn’t have to be, it could be saving the whales, right? It could be anything.
Berni: Okay, so if I’m a leader, what’s my motivation?
Keith: Your motivation there is to have power and control.
Berni: Okay.
Keith: You want to control your environment.
Berni: Okay, so there’s the personality type, there’s the motivation, now what was the other thing you said?
Keith: There’s temperament.
Berni: Okay.
Keith: Because we all have a style. If you look at the temperaments such as sanguine, choleric etc., we all fit into one of those areas. And that’s a style that we have. Are we really out there or are we quiet and sit behind the scenes?
Berni: Oh, I’m quiet and shy myself.
Keith: No. (Berni laughs) No you’re not. (Keith laughs)
Berni: Well I try and tell people I am.
Berni: Okay, so we all have a different personality type, do you think that people really, by and large, understand that about themselves? Do you think the average person says, “Well actually, I know that I’m a leader or I know that I’m a caregiver?” You know, do people understand that about themselves or not?
Keith: Unfortunately, because we have cultural influences, that sort of wipes a bit of our hard wiring away and it could be you know, your family, your school, your Church, your friends. Whatever you grow up in it tends to take the attention away from who you are. I would say, if I could just pick a figure out of the air, 99% of people have no idea who they are.
Berni: Isn’t that scary?
Keith: It’s terrible.
Berni: I mean, everyone’s striving for fulfilment in some way, shape or form.
Keith: Yeah.
Berni: If we don’t, I know for a lot of my life, you know I didn’t really know what my ‘shtick’ was, what my ‘gig’ was, what I would be good at. Tried a whole bunch of things, some of them I wanted but they weren’t particularly satisfying. And you get to the age, 36, 40, 50 even and people still don’t know.
Keith: Well that’s one of the reasons too that people have mid life crisis.
Berni: Ahh.
Keith: Because they, they work it and get somewhere but they then realise, “this isn’t me, I don’t want this and where do I go now? What do I do?” and they try and change. Maybe a divorce, maybe going out into the country and get away from it all, whatever, but you can’t run away from who you are.
Berni: No.
Keith: You’ve got to find out who you are.
Berni: But who we are also has some down sides doesn’t it? There’s a flip side to the coin for each personality type.
Keith: There is. We’ve got our hard wired or Gods standard that we’re supposed to meet that in the culture that we live, it doesn’t come anywhere near close to the “God standard”. But there is a pathway through that sin, that loss of things, that we can find who we are. We can find out how God has made us because God’s made us, as you say, to be the person that He’s made us to be. How do we find that?
Berni: Okay, we’re going to be talking about the 7 deadly sins and Keith’s going to be joining me over these next couple of weeks to talk about those things because, what I’ve found is, he meets you and within about 10 minutes he’s got you sized up so accurately, its frightening. In fact, my wife is afraid of meeting him (both laugh).
Okay, let’s look at the 7 deadly sins, let’s say, give me an example, let’s say I’m an encourager, which I’m not. But let’s say I’m an encourager. What’s my particular down fall?
Keith: The deadly sin that mostly affects an encourager is gluttony.
Berni: All right, okay. Well we’re going to look at that specifically but quickly, why gluttony?
Keith: Okay, it’s not just gluttony of food, it’s gluttony of wanting too much of everything. In this case it could be too many ideas.
Berni: Okay, well what about a leader, what’s the sort of deadly sin the leader struggles with?
Keith: The leader struggles with lust because, as we said, what drives them is to have power and control. They are the adrenaline junkies.
Berni: Oh okay, I relate to that.
Keith: (laughing) I know you do.
Berni: I’m your “run through the brick wall” sort of person.
Keith: Yes.
Berni: So I relate to that.
Keith: Yeah.
Berni: Yeah. Okay and what about someone who’s a server, someone who wants to serve people, what’s the downside of their particular personality type?
Keith: The server is from greed. But it’s not greed that they, like gluttony, that they want more and more. It’s actually a greed of hoarding which means fear.
Berni: Okay, you see, it seems to me so important because we try, people believe in Jesus right? A lot of them do and you try and you live your life for Him and then you fail and you keep failing in one particular area.
Keith: Yes.
Berni: And you feel like you’re all alone but actually, what you’re saying to us is, that the different personality types, well you can almost predict, fairly accurately, what the particular sin is going to be that that person falls into.
Keith: You can. And it’s interesting. If I’m in a, say a dinner with some people and you start talking about things like that, about who they are, they either react “I want to know more” or they withdraw from you, “This fellow knows to much about me”. If they want to know more it’s a lot of fun.
Berni: Yeah.
Keith: You know, finding out who they are.
Berni: Well we’re going to have that fun over the next couple of weeks because we’re going to go through each of these 7 deadly sins, one by one and I’m really looking forward to it.
Keith: So am I Berni.
Comments
Charles Jarmond
Sins are a part of human nature. Choosing evil over good. That’s why we die.
I think to care about doing what is morally right is the key. God is love. I need His mercy and grace to do good.
Michaela
Thought provoking and instructive. I recognised myself in all. Now I need to discover which one is my major.
Thank you for the help.
Michaela
Tyrone McFarland
Awesome and timely message
Om Prakash Tyagi
It was very informative and engrossing too.
Fee Williamson
Anyone else find episode 5 (Laziness) really staticky?
Archibald Sign
Lust, wow an amazing topic. Lust can ruin relationships, marriages or our lives.
Lust also includes arrogance and power to control. Sin is a passion. 2 types of passion Godly passion that i personally chose, working for people, to serve them. There is also worldly passion working for yourself very self-focused.
very educative
Archibald Sign
It is proving to be very educational. Being the leader I concur, what drives us is to have power and control. They are the adrenaline junkies.
Cyndy
This is a very helpful series. Thank you.