 Okay. So, as we start, we look at 1 Peter chapter 2, and this is verses 12 onwards, like, having your conduct honourable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of the visitation. Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king, as supreme, or to governors as those who are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of those who do good, for this is the will of God. That by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bond-servants of God. Honour all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honour the king. So, here Peter is laying down some instructions for the believers in their relationship with the government, those in authority, and specifically he's talking about the earthly rule, like, whether kings or governors or whoever it is. So, he's saying, first of all, let your conduct be honourable. Let your behaviour be honourable. It doesn't matter, you might be believing the best of things, but how is your behaviour among the Gentiles? Then he says, this is the will of God, that by doing good, you will put to shame the ignorance. So, this doing good is something, he says, this is the will of God. This is God's will, this is God's desire for you, but by doing good, you will put to shame the ignorance of foolish men. In the sense, they might persecute, they might say all kinds of things against you, but when you continue in doing good, then you will actually silence them. It says in verse 15, they will put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. So, the thing of conducting ourselves honourably, and I just want to say, as leaders, because we might behave a certain way with fellow believers, saying that, okay, with believers, I'm going to honourable, let's sometimes we say, they are Christians, so we will do our best for them, we will extend courtesy, we will honour etc. because they are believers. Then we might, we look down on others, we look down on gentiles, they are non-believers, and then we, sometimes we do not extend the same courtesy, we don't extend the same honour and so on, but here, we see something else in practice. Peter says that by doing good, by keeping to the rules and regulations of the land, the law of the land, by doing good, you will actually silence their ignorance. By doing good, you will be, because of your good actions, you will actually put to shame. So, something for us to remember, especially as leaders, people whom God appoints as leaders, we need to be doubly careful about this. Okay, let's pray. Father, we thank You, Lord, for this exhortation that, Lord, You've called us, Lord, as believers, Lord, as Your disciples, Lord, to keep to obey the rules and regulations, the law of the land. And not only that, but you also, Lord, exhorting us to do good, you're exhorting us, Lord, to live honourably, so that, Lord, by the good deeds, Father God, that we will be put to shame and to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Father, we pray that we will always remember this, that we will live honourably, not only among believers, but also among those who do not know You, Father God, and especially among those who do not know You as Lord and Saviour. Yes, Lord, enable us to do this. We thank You in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Okay, so we've been looking at the second, you know, section, about winning with people, right? Winning with others, winning with people. And so, in that, we looked at the first one, which is getting ready to relate to people, right? There are some adjustments that we need to make, there are certain things that we need to, perspectives that we need to change in order to get ready to relate to people. Okay, in the same thing, the second one, which will actually help us, is again, we're going to look at certain principles, right? Which will help us to focus on others, to be other focused, okay? So, you know, I'm sure you've done, all of us have done this. Let's say there is a group picture, okay? And I just take a selfie, I take a group picture, and I send it to all of you, okay? So, when you look at the picture, what are you going to focus on first? Exactly. That's the thing. You know, first of all, you know, it's a natural thing. We want to see how we are. We won't look at, you know, how the other people are, but we want to see, okay, it's a picture which includes me. So, I naturally go and see, oh, and then we say, oh, my hair is looking like this. Oh, I close my eyes. Or, you know, so, we zoom in onto us, okay? And that's something that we grow up with, right? We want what's in it for me, okay? And it's, it's not something that is bad, but the thing is, in Philippians chapter 2, right, we've seen that verse 3 and 4, it says, let each one of you not look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others, right? Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. So, if we want to win with people, right? If we want our team to win and ourselves to win, as we are leading people, the thing is, we need to be focused, others focused, okay? Because we are leading others. We need to be others focused, okay? To help with that, here are some principles. One is the big picture principle. That is the same thing, what we saw just now. We need to understand that this world, this life, just not revolve around us, but there are others also, right? There is, you know, this whole thing of, you know, we think that, okay, the whole world revolves around me. We get up thinking about ourselves, how can I, you know, what's in it for me, what do I need to do, etc. And it's quite natural, right? But we need to understand that we cannot be self-centered all the time, right? We need to take care of ourselves, yes. We need to take care of our needs. We need to make sure that we, you know, in terms of our health and nourishment and all those things, we need to take care of ourselves. We need to guard, protect ourselves, you know? So, if you look at a lot of things that we learn about discipleship, it is focused on us, right? You know, how do I grow in faith? How do I, you know, build myself in the Lord? You know, how much, how do I protect myself from temptation? Guard myself, right? It's actually focused on us, right? We say, okay, God, what is your plan for me? What is your will for me? And then so, there's nothing bad about it. It's good. But at the same time, you know, what we do is, when it comes to relating to people, we realize that maybe we are too focused on us, right? And I think, you know, sometimes, I think that, I'm sure you're learning about marriage and family, like, you see that marriage is a cure, huh? Oh, we're already, I know, sorry, sorry. You mentioned last class itself. So that is the cure, you know, where all this has to die in order for things to work and thrive, right? For the relationship to work. So we need to esteem others better than ourselves, okay? And it's a sign of maturity, right? So when we fail to see things like that, when we fail to consider others, then it becomes a problem, okay? So outward focus, focusing on others. Taking, looking at, okay, what do others need? This is my need, but what do others need? Now it's a shift in perspective, right? As believer, as Christian leaders, you know, as maybe, maybe pastors and the thing, we think about, okay, God has given this for the people, right? So I need to take them from here to there. I need to build them up, et cetera. But also we need to consider where are people right now, right? Where are people right now in their journey with God? At what level of faith are they, at what level of maturity are they at, you know, and that will help us to be even more effective, right? As leaders, that will help us to be even more effective. Otherwise, we will be blind to the fact that, okay, people are at one stage and we are trying to do something. Like for example, there was this, there were two boys who studied here, APC and Bible College. And it was, you know, some years back, early batches. So one of them was a drummer, the other guy used to play guitar and lead worship and so on. So they come from, you know, Chennai area, somewhere, you know, suburban Chennai. So they came here, they learned all the Hill song and Bethel and all the songs and everything. And they wanted to take that back to the church. And they said, you know, we want to, you know, we want to teach them, these are songs, we want to teach them all this and then where they went. And then they, they came back after one summer vacation, they came back and they were very disappointed. They're all dead, nobody's moving. We played, you know, one way and Hill song and all that. They're all, you know, they're not, even the young people, they're not this thing at all. Such a waste, you know, these people are and all that. Then I asked them, you know, what are the songs, what are the language, first of all, what are the language that they're comfortable with? They're all Tamil speaking only faster. But we're trying to teach them new songs, you know, but do they understand this? Some of them, yeah, some of them do, some of, most of them don't. But these are good songs, you know, they need to, when we had that conversation, he said, hey, do you just start with where people are, you know, or do they understand what kind of music do they, do they listen to, what kind of music are they able to use in order to connect with God, right? Same thing happened when we went to this place called Siliguri. We went there and we had to do, you know, like a mission strip similar to something that happened in Hyderabad, so we had to go there. So we went prepared with Hindi songs and we went with, you know, some like worship team. We had all these Hindi songs, but it was all translated from English into Hindi, you know. Some of these popular songs those days. So we went to there and then we saw, and then nobody's moving, nobody's responding. Like we are just putting all our energy and singing and we're thinking, we're singing Hindi. And, you know, we're singing all these songs, you know, how's it, then there was one group which came, okay, so, which came from Calcutta, I think. They came and then they did Bengali songs, okay. They sang in Bengali and they were not sophisticated, you know, kind of, you know, sophisticated, I'm just using the word sophisticated in the sense, they were not kind of contemporary modern songs, but they were, you know, very simple folk kind of beat, right? And you should see the same crowd which was sleepy, the same crowd was jumping. And I'm seeing like some of the older folks dancing. I'm saying, oh, you know, this uncle is auntie and all, like they had their eyes closed, they were just, you know, not responding, but now they are moving, dancing, and so then we realized, see, we need to start where people are. We can't say, okay, you know, this is who I am, this is what I am, and then, you know, we are doing this in Bangalore and then, you know, go with the same kind, genre of worship music, right? And then we realized things need to change. This is not working at all, right? So also when we are leading, you know, leading people, sometimes we think, hey, this person is very slow, this person is, you know, it's not measuring up, find out, right, find out whether it's a matter of skill or it's a matter of attitude, right? Okay, so focus on others. Okay, so what you're saying is, okay, the big picture principle, that it's not just about me, it's not about even my ministry, but it's about others' people, right? Now the second one is the exchange principle. Okay, so it means that in order to understand others, we see things from their viewpoint. I remember the first time we had public speaking in our school. Okay, first time, so the teacher said, okay, I'm going to give you, it was just like our homolytics preaching this thing. You know, you pick a topic and then you just go and speak. So the teacher said, okay, I'll give you some time to prepare, you know, you go and then you need to speak. So then all of us, you know, prepared and we went forward and I couldn't say anything. I'm standing in front of the class and I couldn't say anything because there were some 50 students who were looking at me, 50 pairs of eyes looking at me. I'm so used to seeing one person on just the teacher, right? That was my view. Now I'm seeing like 50 people including the teacher, 51 and they're all looking at me. So the view from the front of the class was totally different from the back of the class where I sat and no words came out. My mouth became dry and I was sweating and somehow I managed to say some things and then so then I realized that the view is totally different. I didn't prepare for that. So the exchange principle is what is the view from where they are? So I'm just saying view for a physical view. But then how do they see things? How do they see you? What is their perspective when they come to church or work or ministry or in your team? What is their perspective? What is the viewpoint? How do they see it? We need to understand that in order to help, in order to lead better, in order to relate to people better. So Romans 12-10 says be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor giving preference to one another to see their perspective of viewpoint. Now, you might have questions. Do I always have to do this? What about things that we need to get done? We need to get done. How can I always just be looking at their perspective and get their viewpoint? So yes, there is something, there is a goal, there is a vision that we need to achieve. But if we do not set right things from their perspective, it could be some minor things. It could be wrong understanding. It could be some challenges that they're going through. But if we do not exchange places in order to see where the other person is, then we cannot lead well. We need to have that skill. Why is that person saying this? As a student, what is the student going through? What are the challenges so that we can make changes so that we may not be able to make a whole lot of changes but some things we can and we need to do that. So that's the exchange principle. The third thing that will help us to be other focus is the learning principle. So what is that? The learning principle is simply this, that I don't have everything. I don't have all the knowledge. I don't have all the skill. I can learn something from others. The learning principle. So for us to be curious about who the other person is, you can learn something about the other person. Learning something from the other person. No matter how skilled we are, how qualified we are, or how experienced we are, we can always learn. Now I remember having a conversation with one of our colleagues. This is many years ago again. So he always had a lot of ideas. I don't know if I shared this, but he always had a lot of ideas. Some of the things, most of the things we could not actually, not very practical. So a lot of things. We should do this, we should do that. So I remember just, we used to have our office in Artinagar those days. I remember we both of us got into the car and then we were about to come to another place. And then he said, hey Jay, you know, I think we need to, and I was just about to shut down. Shut down in the sense, shut him out completely. I was like, okay, I'm not, and the Holy Spirit spoke. God spoke and said just listen to him. Okay, don't, don't do that. Don't shut him off. Listen to what he has to say. And I remember very clearly, right? I was like, okay, God, I'll take notice of that. And he had some things. He was really sharing his heart. And so it was good for me to hear that and learn something about, you know, what was, what he was going through in life and all that, right? So the learning principle is we can learn something from others. In the sense, people can actually add something to our lives. Okay, now, you know, we could have these kind of attitudes. You know, an arrogant attitude would be, no one can teach me anything. Okay, no one can teach me anything. I will, you know, if I want to learn, I will learn by myself from the sources that I go to. That's an arrogant attitude. No one can teach me anything. Second one is a naive or a very simplistic attitude, which says, or which thinks like this, everyone can teach me everything. Someone can teach me everything. Now that is also, that is false, right? Because no one has all the knowledge, no one has all the experience and some might be strong in one area, not so strong in another area. So they can't teach us everything. But the teachable attitude is this, that everyone can teach me something. Something, you know, some skill, something that I can learn from, from everyone. Okay, so now that's a good attitude to have. Okay, this person, from this person. Okay, that'll be something that I'm learning from their lives. So if we, if we have that perspective in relating to people, right? Even the worst of people in the worst manner for people like we can always find something good in them, right? And learn something from them. Okay. Okay, so this will help us, right? So that's the learning principle. Okay, the Charisma principle is this, that, you know, yes, God has gifted us. Okay, when we look at what does the word Charisma mean? Yeah, in, in the, you know, that is the general definition, right? In the sense you have a strong personality where people look up to, listen to, people listen to you, right? So, so you say this person is charismatic. But the other, other, other, you know, meaning or the biblical meaning that we see is the Greek word Charas means gift of grace, right? A grace, gift of grace, something that is given out of grace. So, so we see the gifts of the spirit, they are gifts of grace, right? So that, that word Charas is used when Paul writes about the gifts. So we say, okay, when you say a charismatic church, which means that this fellowship of believers is open to the gifts of the spirit, open to receiving, open to moving and learning and the gifts of the spirit and so on. So that's why we call it a charismatic like movement or charismatic church and so on, right? So anyway, so this Charisma, whether we're talking about again, like what you said, it's, it's about personality. It's about giftedness and though that people sit up and take notice and, and give you that permission to speak into their, their lives and so on, right? So, so the thing is this, we need to understand that people don't care how much we know or how much we can, you know, add to their lives till they know that, that they are being cared for or how much we care for them. Okay. Again, we're talking about environments like church or, you know, special ministry or teams. People don't care, right? People don't care how much we know or how skilled we are. Like they might say, one or two times they might, okay, listen and say, okay, fine. This person is skilled, qualified, gifted and then they say, okay, so what? After a time it just wears off. Okay, fine, right? But then if they know that they are being cared for or you care for them, then they will sit up and take notice. Then your skills and abilities and learnings are actually making an impact. They know that, okay, I'm, they are, okay, they are, this is a genuine care. This is out of a genuine care for my, for my betterment or for my good, right? So, if you are interested in people to bring something into their lives to do some, bring some good into their lives, then they are interested in receiving, right? Otherwise, you know, that interest might be there for some time but it just wears off, okay? So, what are some practical things that we can do? Okay, what are some practical things that we can do in our churches, in our ministries and in general with people? What can we do? Become genuinely interested in other people, right? So, think, ask yourself, am I genuinely interested in getting to know people? Am I curious about them or am I just not interested at all? I don't care, right? To become genuinely interested. And this also helps those, some of us who might be, who might think, okay, I'm very shy person, right? I don't talk much to people. I don't have anything to talk to people about if you're, you know, if you're saying, okay, I'm very introverted. Like, even if you are thinking that this is who you, this is how you are, this will be helpful, right? When you are interested and so you can ask questions and find out more about others, right? Become genuinely interested. The second thing is to smile, okay? So, what does a smile tell? Sorry, what? Okay, let's say negative, it's an actual smile, genuine smile. Okay, we're talking about a genuine smile, becoming genuinely interested in people, genuine smile. What does it, what does it communicate? So, I'm smiling at you, what does it tell you? No, suppose someone smiles at you, I smile at you, what does it communicate? It's communicating something, right? Yeah, friendly. Then, he's not angry, he's friendly. Acceptance, yeah. See, it's a sign of, it's a sign of openness, right? A sign of openness. The thing is, there are certain cultures in the world, I forget which nation, I think some European nation, probably Germany or some of the Scandinavian countries, I'm not very sure, sorry, so I'm not able to make a comment, but if you smile, generally if you smile, it means, you know, you're a weak person, weak, so they won't smile back. So, smiling is seen as a sign of weakness in certain cultures, right? So, which means they're very guarded, closed all the time, I'm not going to smile, I'm going to be very serious all the time, because smile means I'm opening up to you, I'm making myself open, vulnerable, so I'm going to be guarded, closed all the time, right? Because, you know, just think, if a person doesn't smile at all, very serious, then you will also be serious and you will also be thinking, you know, maybe this person is not approachable, this person is not open, all these thoughts go through your mind, right? So, you don't want to relate to that person. You'll think twice, think thrice. Can I go? Can I ask? Right, we'll think. Same way, we are learning about how to be other focused, how to relate to people, how to win with people, so it helps when we genuinely smile, okay? The other simple thing is, remember the person's name. Okay, how many of you are good with names? Like when you meet a person, I just remember their name, right? So, it helps, right? I've had some very embarrassing moments, with some people whom I know very well and they come for prayer and then I start praying and I realize, oh man, I forgot their names and I'm praying like, no, please help this brother and please, Lord bless this sister and because I know their name is very well and at that moment it's just gone blank, you know? So the thing is when you hear your name and I met a couple, you know, very elderly couple actually that auntie passed away recently in their 70s. See, I met them when I was a bachelor when I came to Bangalore, okay? That's when I met them and after I got married and my wife and I, we met them, they remember our names. It's not like we meet them every day. We would have, you know, suppose we meet them now, maybe it's some meeting, we would have Christian meeting, we would have met them, church meeting. Then maybe after a year, maybe after two years and when I went for his wife's funeral service, I was meeting him after the pandemic, right? Some five years and he remembers my name. He just said, and he remembers what I do. He's introducing me to his daughter and he's saying, you know, this is Pastor So and So and this is his wife's name, is this, oh my God, and I'm wondering, God, I need help, right? Maybe because we don't really make a, you know, make an attempt to remember the names. It's hard. It's difficult. It's very difficult because you meet, yeah, it's important, but it's difficult and it helps when we, you know, when we make a lot of it especially in Bible college, it's difficult. Right now I'm thinking, okay, first batch, some of the names I know, you know, but then some names I, you know, we forget every other's a new batch and so on, right? So, yeah, next year I don't know if I know. But yeah, so the thing is to, when we remember names, when we relate to people with names, it actually helps. Means that you are focused, right? What is the other one? Be a good listener. Okay, so how many of you can say you're a good listener? Yeah, so when the other person is speaking, do you think about, okay, I need to study this, I need to do that, and then come back, you know, let the person finish, right? But I was just saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, and then, you know, and, right? So, be a good listener, be a, I think we learned about listening, right? Was it, no, and it's in life skills, class, third year, where, you know, how to be an active listener, not just hearing. Is hearing different from listening? Yeah, what is hearing then? Okay, yeah, I'm sorry, the mic is not, so yeah, pass on the mic. But anyway, so this is what it is, you know, hearing is, hearing is when you receive the noise, when you receive the sound, and just keep it, yeah, hearing is when you receive the sound, okay, it's the act of, where our physical organ here is receiving, but listening is when you actually code it, you actually make sense of it, and you, you know, you respond to it, right? So, to be an active listener, this again is something, maybe some of us may not have that skill, you know, we're thinking about something, sometimes we think about, what should I answer now? You know, that person is saying something, or we are even thinking about, okay, let me answer this, let me answer, you know, that is also not a good, you know, not being a good listener, right? You have a question? Just use the, yeah. So, what if people, keep on, yeah, people, yeah, so... I think like whatever they are telling is true or not. It goes out of the boundary. Yeah, so we need to facilitate the conversation, right? Recently I met someone who said, you know, I want to have two things to tell you, okay? And then that person went on to say 10 things, and then I lost track of, you know, beyond that, you know, then, so you can, then the person said, you can pray for two things, and well, I said, okay, I went beyond two things, and it didn't seem to be stopping, so then I had to say, okay, let's pray now, right? Let's pray, mention those things, don't worry, let's just pray. So, probably we just need to facilitate that, right? Okay, okay, talk in terms of the other person's interest, you know, we, you know, we like to talk about ourselves, because it's a good subject, like you, it's a subject that you know about. You're an expert in this, right? An expert on yourself. But talk in terms of the other person's interest, to ask questions, you know, what are you interested in, what is, what makes you, you, and so on, right? And so that, that helps to make the other person feel respected and value their importance, right? And, and the thing is, people can find out whether it's fake or genuine, you know, you're just asking questions for the sake of asking questions, you know, so, so, yeah, so, so how are you doing? You know, this, how are you doing is a, you know, how are things with you is such a, you know, very common and much abused, you know, ask question, right? Because we don't really want to know the answer, and other person also knows, they say, how are you doing? Yeah, all good, all good. And then it's just a, like, you know, certain cultures, you know, like when I came here to Karnataka, I realized that people ask, you know, nashta aitha, uta aitha, you know, so I'm asking, why is he asking me this, you know, you're meeting that person and they say, sir, coffee aitha, you know, I mean, have you had coffee and it's about three o'clock or something? So it's just, it's just a manner of speaking. Have you experienced that? You also maybe done that, you know, uta aitha. So you have a conversation and then around, as you're winding up or even beginning the conversation, you ask about whether they've eaten anything, whether they've had their lunch, they had their breakfast and it's a, it's a manner of speaking, right? And even, you know, things like, how are you doing, it's become like that. So, you know, are you genuine in, in asking, you know, the questions, you know, I'm not saying, you know, like greetings like all well, but then going beyond that certain things that we ask, you know, how's your work, you know, how are you doing? So we might ask the questions and then when the person is speaking, we are looking somewhere, you know, we just nodding, oh, okay. And then we're looking behind and then, you know, we're waving at someone else. So that shows that we are not sincere and that we're not genuine. Okay, so, so we're just saying that, you know, show people that you care and then they will be interested, they will, you'll be able to relate to them better. Okay, the number 10 principle. Okay, see the thing is the, the number 10 is a perfect score in some of the sports, like especially in things like, in sports like gymnastics and diving and so on. So the number 10, so this author is basically American, you know, and some of these concepts have American culture in them. So, you know, the number 10 principle, it comes from that place where, you know, sports like diving, perfect, 10 is a, is a perfect score, like when it comes to diving and it comes to gymnastics. So the number 10 principle, so what is it? Number 10 is believe the best about people. See, there are two ways you can look at people, right? They are guilty until proven innocent, or innocent until proven guilty, right? So it means you look at them, okay, this guy is up to something, I'm not going to trust him, till he proves himself to be innocent. Or the other thing is, you believe the best till they, you know, mess up or do something, you know, believe the best in people. So this number 10 is believing the best of people, esteeming others, like honoring others. So the, so general human tendency is when you believe the best about people sincerely, they will also respond with their best, in most cases, okay? If you trust, you know, I'm not saying that in all cases, but in most cases, right? If you trust, I remember the first time I joined church as a staff, as an administrator, and I remember, I think it was in that first week or something after the orientation and all that and, and Pastor Ashish came and gave me the, the debit card, okay, of the, of the church, say, hey, this is the card, use it as in, you know, for the expenses and everything. And I literally was shaking, you know, this is the card. Those days we used to have one account and this is it. So I need to be careful, but also, you know, the kind of trust that was placed on me. So I was like very careful. I need to be very sure that I don't mess up, right? I need to be with the, with the money that's coming in, with the money that's going out to make sure that I do my best, right? In order to give my best, right? For the trust that is placed on me. So when, when you trust people, they will bring out the best in them, okay? So when it comes to number 10 principle, you know, don't write people off based on personal biases. What are personal bias? What is a bias? A bias is, is a certain idea. It's like a prejudice, you know, you have a certain idea that you have about people. It could be based on their ethnicity. It could be based based on, in a sense, which place they come from, right? What language they speak, what they do in life, you know, it could be when it comes to bias for people, about people, right? So you have some personal biases based on your experience, right? Like we sometimes, you know, it's, it's, it's unfortunate, but we, we, you know, we, we make a lot of jokes about, you know, about the Sardarji community, right? Say, okay, you know, I'm sure you also made some jokes or, you know, heard some jokes. Just to, you know, and the whole premise is what that they are not intelligent, right? But the fact is the truth is not that the truth is that they are very intelligent people, very sharp, very intelligent. We had one prime minister, right? Mr. Manmohan Desai was a prime minister, right? So, sorry, he was, yeah, he was also finance, I think, at one point. That whole opening up of the market, right, came during that time and he was very instrumental in bringing that opening up of the economy. So, we see that, you know, that's a bias, a personal bias. We could also have a personal bias about people from, you know, different regions and we need to guard ourselves, especially as believers, as pastors, where, to our gathering, if people from different, if God would, you know, give that, give us that influence, place that, places in that sphere of influence where multi-lingual, multi-ethnic people come to our gathering, let's say, or God is using you to reach out. We cannot afford to have these biases, right? And generally for a team to function well, we cannot have these biases, right? This is recently we were, you know, we were, we had a prayer time and then we were all, we were all sitting and talking and after prayer time, we went for a breakfast and we were sitting and talking and somebody was saying something about, I don't know, it was actually a, you know, something, they didn't do something deep within, but it came out and they said, hey, there's North Indians, you know, and something like that. And I was like, oh, God, no. Because I knew someone who was from the North who was sitting right there, right? And this person, you know, thankfully, they didn't talk, continue about this and then, but I made a mental note of it, you know, that we are sitting as, you know, people from, brothers and sisters, brothers from different places and we can't make such comments, right? We can't have such biases, which lead to making such comments, okay? Right. Okay. Any questions? These are some practical things, right? Nothing very deep or anything, but something that we need to put in practice, you know? So if we identify, I seem to have some biases, like I personally had a bias about the West, right? Maybe Americans or people from, you know, I had a bias about, about the spirituality, about, you know, God really had to deal with it, you know, I had to deal with it and, you know, put it aside, right? So things like that, we might have certain biases, but we need to deal with it. And maybe God's plan involves, you know, so many, you meeting different kinds of people, you leading different kinds of people and until that is dealt with, you cannot successfully relate, right? Okay, then the last one in this, in this topic is the confrontation principle, okay? What does, what does confront mean? Pacing them, facing people in order to deal with the problem, in order to correct, in order to point out some mistake, maybe, yeah, so confrontation, okay? So conflict, maybe there's a conflict, okay? Maybe, you know, a mismatch of interest or misunderstanding and leading to a conflict. So there could be conflict and this, you know, John C. Maxwell talks about how he is doing workshops at different places and he asks, okay, you know, and he's talking to leaders saying that, okay, so how many of you have conflicts in your team, in your organization? So almost 95% put their hands up and said, yeah, we have conflicts. So then he asks the second question, how many of you have confronted the person because of the conflict? He said, no, only 5% put their hands up, okay? So conflicts, everyone is aware, everyone knows that it's happening but in order to confront maybe the source of conflict, maybe, you know, the person who's the source of conflict or, you know, how to set right the conflict, very few people indulge in that, okay? So when we are relating to people and we want to win with people, this confrontation is necessary, right? Is it a pleasant thing or an unpleasant thing? Unpleasant, right? It's unpleasant because, you know, yes, maybe people get angry, you get angry, you know, and so maybe words are spoken and all that. So then, if we've had some bad confrontations in the past, we hesitate, I don't want to do this. I know what he'll say, I know what she'll say and it'll drag out, it's going to take some time and, you know, emotionally I'm not strong enough and then we say, leave it, right? So this leaving it doesn't help at all, right? Because you leave it and then you come back to it and then you see that it's grown into one big monster, that conflict, that problem, it's not gone, right? Okay, so, okay, we'll just look at this one statement, care for people before confronting them, okay? You need to confront in order to set right, in order to make sure the mistake or the conflict is dealt with. But do we care for the people, for the person, before we confront them? Okay, something to think about. We'll continue this in the next class. Okay, okay, thank you. God bless, we'll see you next class.