You’ve Been My Audience; Will You Be My Research Team Too?
I don’t want to be selfish.
I want to share with you the blessings that I receive as a Preacher.
People don’t know this, but when I preach, the person who gets the most blessed is the preacher himself. Why? Because I spend enormous amounts of time studying, reflecting, and rehearsing my talk. Because of this, I don’t only listen to the talk, I also munch on it, chew it, and digest it more. So the chance that I apply these truths in my life is greater.
Today, I ask myself, “With the power of the internet in our hands, why is preaching still a one-way street?” It shouldn’t be. You can help me give these talks! And in the process, share the blessings I receive as a Preacher.
So I’m writing down here the summaries of new Teaching Series for the weekly FEASTs for July, August, and September 2007, entitled How To Get Rid Of Bad Habits Now. It will be a powerful teaching series because all of us have bad habits! So when you join the weekly FEAST at Valle Verde Country Club (Beside ULTRA),
If you live abroad or in the provinces, you can catch these talks either by (1) ordering the Audio CD or DVD, (2) watching it on ABC 5 every Tuesday at 10:30pm, or (3) watching it on www.preacherinbluejeans.com Ultimately, you’ll find these truths in book form–and together, we’ll bless millions of people.
Read the topics. I prepared a “head, heart, and hand” goal for each talk. “Head” means what I want you to learn, “heart” means what I want you to feel during the talk, and “hand” means what I want you to do after the talk.
Next: Write on the comments box below short (nothing longer than 8 sentences) personal testimonies, stories, jokes, quotations, analogies, skits, popular song lyrics or popular movie scenes that will help explain or expound any of the talks below.
Thanks for being my Research Consultants!
Listen to these talks at the weekly FEAST in Valle Verde Country Club (Beside UlTRA),
I remain your friend,
Bo Sanchez
PS. If you haven’t joined the www.kerygmafamily.com, you’re missing a lot of blessings too. I send my partners a mountain of spiritual nourishment. Log on there now!
Series Title:
How To Get Rid Of Bad Habits Now!
Jul 22 Talk 1: Discover What You Really Need
Head: To learn that addictions are symptoms of deeper love needs
Heart: To feel the hunger of love within–and feel loved
Hand: To seek help from God and others to meet our love needs
Summary:
Destructive bad habits or addictions are symptoms of deeper needs. Specifically, love needs. Meeting these deeper love needs will free us the urgency of our addictions. If not, we may be jumping from one addiction to another. How does one meet our deepest love needs? Receive God’s love, receiving love from the people around us, and radically loving ourselves. When we meet our love needs, we quiet the throbbing ache within that fuels our addictions. They no longer become compelling or urgent as they used to.
Jul 29 Talk 2: Focus On The Ambition And Not The Addiction
Head: Learn to work on a dream, not merely fight the bondage
Heart: Feel hope that you can get out of this addiction
Hand: Create a dream and take the first step towards it
Summary:
Tell yourself 10x, “I will not think of a pink elephant.” (Try it.) Guess what you’re thinking of right now? A pink elephant. What you focus on grows. So if you focus on your addiction, you make it grow. Telling yourself “I will not smoke” 100x will make you think of smoking 100x. Instead, you need to focus on a dream of your healthy body jogging on the hills under the blue sky. We need to create a dream, an ambition, and focus. Doing so, we build self-esteem, self-respect, and fill our love needs.
Aug 5 Talk 3: Love The Sinner And The Saint Within
Head: Learn to forgive oneself and see beauty within
Heart: Feel happy after being released from self-anger
Hand: Forgive oneself
Summary:
Many addictions come from self-hatred. (Again, a love need that isn’t met.) To heal our addiction, we need to heal our self-hatred. We need to accept our past, embrace our weaknesses, and forgive our sins. Indeed, we need to forgive ourselves the way God forgives us–total and absolute! Aside from that, we also need to celebrate our strengths and bless the world.
Aug 12 Very Special Talk
Aug 19 Talk 4: Create A New Outer World
Head: Learn what needs to be removed, what needs to be added in our life
Heart: Feel the power one has to design our outer world
Hand: Design one’s outer world
Summary:
We’ve heard this statement before: “Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.” We are influenced by our environment. But instead of resigning ourselves to the external powers around us, we must also acknowledge this powerful truth–That we can influence our environment. (Yes, we have the power to choose our friends.) We need to create a new world that will make us reach our dream and free us from our bondages. That means designing the best relationships, schedules, jobs, recreation, TV shows, music, and everything else in our outer world.
Aug 26 Talk 5: Redefine Yourself
Head: Learn what “labels” need to be removed, what need to be added
Heart: Feel the power that one can create new labels for oneself
Hand: Create new labels
Summary:
We become the labels we give ourselves. The problem with many labels is they are unconscious. For example, some addicts unconsciously define themselves as weak, failures, monsters, evil, monsters–and so they become the these labels they give themselves. We need to learn to give ourselves new labels based on our true identity in God. If we know the truth, it will set us free.
Sep 2 Talk 6: Correct Your Faith
Head: Learn that distorted theology can worsens one’s addictions
Heart: Feel the joy of being released from a wrong theology
Hand: Create a more accurate theology
Summary:
Distorted theology has helped lock many people in their addictions. What is distorted theology? A wrathful, vengeful God who is preoccupied with your sinfulness. (Our love need for God’s love isn’t met.) Or a religion that defines holiness as saying NO to all our needs, even legitimate, valid ones. (Our love need for self-love isn’t met.) Or a pessimistic view towards human beings as sinful, instead of focusing on our inner beauty. (Our labels tend to be pessimistic as well.) We need to identify these distorted beliefs and overhaul them.
Sep 9 Talk 7: Take Charge!
Head: Learn to stop blaming and take responsibility
Heart: Feel the power of taking responsibility
Hand: Select one area where he needs to stop blame
Summary:
When we blame, we lose our power to change our lives. Addicts are experts in blame. Unless we learn to take responsibility, our walk to freedom will be slow. What does it mean to take responsibility? By taking baby steps. How does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time. By growing in small victories, we gain strength to win bigger ones.
Sep 16 Talk 8: Fire All Engines (Conclusion)
Head: Learn all the elements that can help free us from addiction
Heart: Feel hope and joy that one can indeed be free
Hand: Choose to work on one of these elements
Summary:
There is no one specific way to overcome an addiction. In fact, surveys suggest that there may be 70% who overcome their bondages on their own, without any help from an Alcoholics Anonymous group or therapy or counselling. (Some of those 70% received their freedom when they joined a prayer meeting.) But it’s also true that lasting change can only happen when we actually work on making ourselves grow. To summarize the entire teaching series, we shall again revisit the various elements necessary for making healing lasting and permanent.
Instructions: Write your inputs below to explain or expound any of the talks above. As much as possible, make it below 8 sentences. Any personal testimonies, stories, jokes, quotations, analogies, skits, popular song lyrics or popular movie scenes…
