John C. Maxwell - Laws of Growth (1)
wait wait wait hey hey hey come here I'm
gonna be walking around up here do it
again
real good I don't want to break my neck
on the favor of God
I'll go down you'll say boy he was slain
in the spirit
yeah just hold on a second I mean if
it's not the music stand it's a ice rink
okay I think I'm just gonna stay over
here for a while fat's alright that's a
little slippery I'm clumsy on good
ground happy new year happy new year to
all of you my it's great to be with you
happy new year City place Boynton Beach
my goodness our new campus of Boyton
Beach in that exciting I'll give them a
hand huh wonderful and Stewart is in a
new location now and Royal Palm great to
have you with us and our main campus
here what a wonderful weekend we have in
store and I'm very excited about about
sharing and I just I'm just asking God
to really help us this is our first
weekend of the year and it's kind of
nice to get it started right so I would
like you to look at your neighbor and
say - on all the campuses and also
online if you've got a neighbor with you
online look look at your neighbor and
say I want to congratulate you you have
not missed a Sunday this year would you
do that hi justice just amazing your
perfect
perfect attendance huh don't you feel
just a little more spiritual than the
rest of those people huh I mean you have
not missed a weekend yet you got to feel
good about that
two years ago 2011 I was doing a series
get ready Get Set grow which was
basically on how to grow in your
spiritual life we're gonna do a review
on that I mean Pastor Tom was kind of
kind of making fun of me about my series
this year which kind of went a little
long well I'm going back two years ago
when I taught you thought it would could
only get better but it can't it I can go
farther back and we'll do a review in a
moment but a couple years ago I started
us off in 2011 on it get ready Get Set
grow series which became um which became
a book okay in other words I I did the
series and about two months later I woke
up in the bin in the middle of the night
about 3:30 and I realized I wanted to do
a book on the loss of growth and that's
something I'm very passionate about and
so I did the book and on our campuses
the book is available here when we're
done I'll go over and sign it and I
would really encourage you what a great
way to start the year by saying this is
gonna be a personal growth here in my
life also over beside me to my right I
developed what we call the Maxwell plan
for growth because I'm so passionate
about growing myself I've had a personal
growth plan since 1974 and and so people
have asked me about it and so it's an
online interactive type of growth plan
if you're on the other campuses if you
go to the Welcome Center they'll have a
sheet there that you could get online
and they'll show you how to do it and
it's it's it's a dollar a day so it's a
it's a kind of expensive plan but the
money goes all to the church again you
understand take none of it so if you get
if you want to do personal growth this
year the money goes all the church it's
just a great way to help them and help
yourself in a way we go but if you're
here go see Steve right afterwards and
he'll help you go okay
let's lose a review on what I taught in
2011 and then I'm going to take two laws
out of my growth book and teach them
spiritually to you for the for this
are doing your so let's let's let's go
and let's look at these ok let's let's
do a review ok in Ephesians chapter 4
verse 15 there's a passage of scripture
that says God wants us to grow up to
know the whole truth and tell it in love
like Christ in everything we take our
lead from Christ who is the source of
everything that we do Luke chapter 2
verse 52 another great passage and Jesus
mature growing up in both body and
spirit blessed by both God and the
people the review that we're going to do
now is from the message as I preached
two years ago let's look at it and get
ready to write because these are
guidelines for growth in your life
guidelines for growth in my life also
okay number one growth must be
intentional if you're going to grow you
don't grow accidentally you have to grow
on purpose that's true of all of us so
as we approach 2013 we have to be
focused on I really want to grow number
two second guideline choose the areas of
your growth it's impossible for us to
grow in all areas so I challenge each
one of you to take maybe one area or to
spiritual areas in your life and say
that's where I really want to grow for
example every year I ask God to give me
one word one word that kinda is a word
for the year that all kind of helped me
as far as areas that I want to grow in
my own life spiritually number three
create a growth environment for yourself
one of the great ways to have a growth
environment is course is to to be in a
small group to be around Christians to
to to to get into into Bible studies to
take advantage of all the wonderful
ministries that our church has number
four allow failure to be your friend and
the reason I say that is because
whenever we attempt anything that is new
for us we're going to never do it right
the first time so you've got to embrace
failures your friend it's it's really is
a wonderful friend it'll teach you much
if you embrace it as a friend if you
look at it as an enemy and you become
fearful of it it'll keep you from
growing number five
value today in other words really value
the growing that you're doing right now
and visualize tomorrow what that means
basically is take advantage of the
moment that you have but be motivated by
what you want to become visualized
tomorrow guideline number six develop
systems to help you grow develop it in
your own life methods and systems that
will help you to to develop and grow in
your own life number seven be
comfortable being uncomfortable because
what happens is when we begin to grow
again we're doing things we've never
done where we're growing in areas where
we have never grown before so that's
just part of the growth process and then
the last guideline that I gave in that
series was be a river not a reservoir
and the God will only give to you what
he knows will flow through you now that
was that was the series that I did a
couple of years ago how many of you
remember well every one of those points
and truly I didn't need to review it
because that message was so powerful
that you've never forgotten anything
would there be anybody like that okay
I'm glad I reviewed it and the race I
reviewed it is I didn't remember one of
those points myself so I did it for
myself okay in the 15 at the book that I
wrote is the 15 laws of growth and I
would like to give you two of them and
apply them to you and myself spiritually
and law number one is the law of
consistency and the law of consistency
says motivation gets you going
discipline
keeps you growing in other words we get
started by being motivated but we if
we're going to achieve it's not the
spurt it's not the start it's the
process and motivation gets us going but
discipline keeps us growing we have to
be more than just mowed evaded now when
I think about motivation getting us
going I'm thinking of the fact here we
are it's the first week of our the first
weekend of the new year and we are here
in perfect attendance
on a very spiritual high over that and
we're kind of excited and why do we do
it the first year we make new year's
resolutions how many of you how many of
you made a new year's resolution for
this year how many have you made at
least one Oh many of you did how about
the other campuses raise your hand if
you made new year's resolutions okay
okay we can we get motivated about we go
we got this price year we got a new
start and this is a you know a brand new
sheet of paper clean sheet here I go so
motivation gets us going that's January
and then February comes huh they say
that it takes 17 days to forget the
resolution that we make in the first of
the year so by January the 17th were
kind of worthless again you follow I'm
saying we were good for a couple weeks
well what's that that's the spurt that's
the motivation and this principle the
law this law the law consistency says
that you really get good not by being
good just in a spurt or in a start but
you really get good by being consistent
now when you think of consistency as a
law of growth it's not really an
exciting law is it I mean you're say
John you had 15 why did you pick that
seems a little boring I mean consistency
I mean think about if somebody came up
to you and they said there are some
things I really admire about your life
and so you're kind of excited because
they're gonna talk to you about what
they might what they're Martin you're
like so you kind of sit on the edge of
your seat and say well yeah well go
ahead you you have an hour go ahead tell
me what what do you admire about my life
and if they looked at us and they see
what I really admire about you is is you
were just so um you just sue and you
just kind of waiting you know and and
you got words for them adjectives if
they can't think of them you know you
got a list there and you're just so
you're just so um consistent that's kind
of a letdown that that wasn't what you
were looking for it's not a sexy word is
it you're so so consistent
I think of the 15 loss it's the most
important law I know in my life because
I've lived these laws and practice these
laws since 1974 I know in my law the law
life the law consistency would be number
one if there is any success that I've
had I can promise you it goes to the
fact that as a young man I understood
the value of process and day in and day
out being consistent I got to thinking
about the other day since 1967 I've been
speaking in fact I was kind of curious
Malcolm Gladwell's talked about the fact
that if you really want to be good at
something you have to do a 10,000 times
and I thought man it's kind of a high
number you know it's kind of