A Startling Alternative // Still Deadly, Part 10

The seven deadly sins – lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, wrath, envy and pride – are tearing this world apart. Each one of us deals with at least one in our makeup. But God has graciously given us the power to break free from their clutches.

Berni: I'm joined again today by my good friend, Keith Henry. Keith, you've been great over these last couple of weeks. Time has flown; we're in our last day.

Keith: Yep, it's been very good Berni, enjoyed it very much.

Berni: You know, what's struck me as I've listened to you speaking about our different personality types and our weaknesses, is how complex we are as people. You know, we see people and we interact with them during the day but we never really stop to think how incredibly complex we each are. You know, there are so many layers and as we've looked at each personality type.

I'm going to ask you to go through those personality types again and look at the strengths and weaknesses of those personality types, just to kind of tie it all together today. But, you look at all that and you stand back and you think, 'man, these people couldn't possibly have evolved from some primeval slime. You know, if God didn't create us, it just, you know it takes more faith, from me, to believe in evolving from the primeval slime than it does to believe in the Creator who created these incredibly complex people.

Berni: We talked about seven different deadly sins. I'd just like to go through each of them again today, and you said, look, each personality type has a virtue, something that they're really good at.

Keith: Yes.

Berni: And, sort of like a flip side of a coin, which is the down side of that personality type and from what I gather from what you were saying was, that the way that, say a leader deals with his or her lust is by exercising their virtue which is Godly. Is that what you were saying?

Keith: That's right. Gods given us a way out for each personality and each sin, out of the seven deadly sins and in terms of a leader, because they have a lust for life, they have an adventurous spirit and it can undo them because they get into all the sins which is quite easy to open to because they are so active and so out there, that they have to react to those things in a Godly way but what do we mean by that? The one, the Godly way that suits the leader is justice and truth. You think of God, He's a loving God so they have to have that love but they really want justice.

Berni: Is that a natural inclination for the leader?

Keith: It is.

Berni: And so, if the leader replaces the down side with the up side, that's how he or she wins.

Keith: Exactly. So, they have to look at justice and truth in terms of "what is Gods justice" not revenge in the world.

Berni: Okay, so the leader, the down side for that personality type is lust but if we can summarise the virtue corresponding, is Godliness.

Keith: Yes.

Berni: Okay, that's great. Okay, tell me about the encourager. The encourager's sin is gluttony which was kind of weird.

Keith: Yes, they want more of everything and they want to do everything. They just don't settle down, they're forever on the move, life's exciting for them but they have to focus more. They actually have to get one thing that they're passionate about and focus on it. So they become more in moderation, not so many things that they're doing at one time.

Berni: Okay, so for the encourager, the sin is gluttony but the strength, the virtue is moderation.

Keith: Yes, that's right.

Berni: Okay. What about the server, the server is someone who serves. Love being around servers, all you servers can come over to my place.

Keith: Well, the server, in this case, we're talking about a server who's got greed and the greed we're referring there is hoarding things. So it's not gluttony as we said, of wanting more and more, it's hoarding things because they don't think they have enough. The hoarding is based upon fear so that what they have to do, the way out is really, they're a knowledge person, so get more word, get more knowledge and then go out and use it. They actually have to put it into action, go out in faith in other words.

Berni: Okay, so if they're hoarding their money because they're afraid they won't have enough for tomorrow, the way to deal with that is to, for instance, exercise faith by giving some of that away.

Keith: Exactly or entering a new project if they wanted to.

Berni: Okay.

Keith: Actually going and doing it instead of just gaining more knowledge and being too scared.

Berni: The teacher, what's the teacher's deadly sin?

Keith: The deadly sin is sloth there or what we call laziness.

Berni: I love that "sloth".

Keith: Yes but as I said, even the busy can be lazy, right. It's really putting off what should be done today and putting off until tomorrow and the tomorrow and the tomorrow. It's not having priority, it's to do things and sticking to them. So the virtue of that is perseverance.

Berni: Okay, so sticking with things and seeing them through to completion.

Keith: Yes.

Berni: Right.

Keith: And having a priority to do the first things first, not to put them to the last.

Berni: Alright, the prophet. The prophet's someone who speaks out right and wrong. In fact, the prophet's in the Bible were the people who spoke out Gods right and wrong. What's the deadly sin that the prophet has a problem with?

Keith: The deadly sin is anger but it's not an anger that a leader might use in shouting at somebody. It's an internal anger, that they resent things not being perfect, they resent people not doing the right thing. So what they have to do, they have to have integrity of Gods integrity there. They actually look at His standard, God has a standard, these are "standard" people. They like a standard set, a very high standard, so they have to look at Gods standard, not their standard and work to Gods standard.

Berni: So the prophet's the person who finds it hard to soar like an eagle when they're surrounded by turkeys.

Keith: Exactly, so they have to really, Gods standard is to be patient and understanding with everyone.

Berni: Yep, yep, it is. Alright, the carer.

Keith: The carer has envy as the deadly sin that they have most of. They love what other people have. The carer's a loving person and they go up and down, their emotions and they want to experience the ride but the way out of it for them and the only way out is to show love to others. They're sensitive, not to their own feelings, become sensitive to other people's feelings and show love to them.

Berni: And the neat thing about that is that that's the carer's natural inclination anyway, isn't it?

Keith: It is.

Berni: Is to show love. So really they're replacing their sin with their virtue.

Keith: Exactly.

Berni: If they live out their virtue, the sin actually has no room.

Keith: That's right, yes, that's right.

Berni: That's God's way, isn't it?

Keith: Focus on others, not themselves.

Berni: Yeah. Alright, the giver.

Keith: The giver, it's pride here which sounds very very funny but say I'm supporting your ministry and I'm the biggest supporter, I then start want to expect things from you, I want you to do it my way. I don't want you to do this; I want you to do that. So they, they think, pride can think, "I'm the power behind the throne, I'm the one that has done everything". The way over that is brotherly kindness; they actually have to give, with kindness, without any expectation of return. Just give through a loving heart.

Berni: In each case, there's a natural virtue that these personality types have and the natural virtue, if they exercise that, God starts driving out the sin.

Keith: He does, we can't do it, there is no way. You can become like a monk, a Buddhist monk and you can become the highest level you want and the peaceful person but you cannot break through the divine nature.

Berni: No, that's the thing that God does through His Spirit. Hey listen Keith, it's been fascinating spending these couple of weeks with you and time has just gone out the window but it's been really fascinating and I've learned so much about myself and about other people.

Keith: That's good Berni; I've enjoyed being here, thank you very much.

Berni: Good on ya, hopefully we'll be able to have Keith Henry back another time and it's been a real blessing. God bless you.

Keith: Thank you.