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Episode 775: Don’t Do What You’ve Always Done

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Join us today for an episode about the reason you may not want to do what you've always done...

Today's episode is focused on recognizing that to improve you must change...

In today’s episode about impacting the world through stewarding your treasures, I talk with you about why the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.  I share why not doing what you’ve always done isn’t the same as being inconsistent.  I also talk about how to balance consistency and not wasting your efforts.

Join in on the Chat below.

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Episode 775 Don’t Do What You’ve Always Done
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 775 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Scott Brookens from Scott brooklyns.com. I encourage you to find the way to be inspired to start your dream business and find freedom. And one way to do that is to be inspired by this the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Mader.
[00:00:30] the gaining control the consistency part. And once you have consistency, then you can worry about optimization. But the funny thing is what we often try to do is we try to put in automation and optimization at the beginning because we think that will somehow create a new result. But the only thing that changes things is you welcome.
[00:00:54] And thank you for joining us on the inside fired stewardship podcasts. If you truly [00:01:00] desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true call in the inspired stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact.
[00:01:18] The word.
[00:01:26] Today's episode about impacting the world through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about why the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. I share why not doing what you've always done. Isn't the same as being inconsistent. And I also talk about how to balance consistency with not wasting your efforts.
[00:01:48] As we talk about stewarding your treasures. Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without costing yourself an extra dime, it turns out you can't. All you have to [00:02:00] do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come back to support the show.
[00:02:10] If you enjoy the show, when you're ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. One of those expressions that gets given to a lot of different people as a quote, Tony Robbins, I've heard it, Mark Twain. I've heard it for others. Einstein is this idea that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and then expecting different results.
[00:02:39] The truth is that is one of those things that. As human beings, we do a lot. We hold onto things and expect that if we keep doing them this way, because we've always done it this way. Somehow this time it'll work. When it comes to our money, we do this. We'll spend money or we'll set up [00:03:00] a budget or we'll do certain things on patterns of behavior.
[00:03:03] But this time it'll work I'll willpower my way through it. I'll focus more and I'll get it done this time. But the truth is it doesn't work that way. The truth is that if you do it the same way over and over again, typically you get the same or similar results. And when it comes to our money, that means whatever it is we're doing will continue to happen that way.
[00:03:31] Until you make a change, you've got to change your behavior. You've got to change something about what you're doing. You got to change something about your plan. You got to change the way you're executing that plan. You've got to put a new routine or a new structure in place. Something has to change or else you can't really expect different results.
[00:03:54] And a lot of times the pushback that I get from folks is they say I don't want to change all the time. I don't [00:04:00] want to change too much. It's being inconsistent and that's true. It's true that if you just bounce from goal to goal and thing to thing, and you don't focus, you don't make much progress.
[00:04:12] This is one of the reasons that techniques like the debt snowball or the debt avalanche work is because, or the baby steps that Dave Ramsey
[00:04:19] shares
[00:04:19] Scott Maderer: [00:04:19] or the refocus gain control and set a plan methodology that I use with clients, all of these things work because they give you structure and they allow you to focus on one thing at a time.
[00:04:34] And that focus is important, but it's also important that you measure the results that you run experiments or tests, or do things where you set out and you look at them. And then if you aren't getting the results you want, you either change or tweak until you do get the results you want. So shifting things because [00:05:00] of information.
[00:05:01] Is not inconsistency it's adaptation. And the truth is you want to balance this. If all you do is try something new every single week, every single month, every single day. That's not enough consistency to really know what's going on. You have to make a commitment to do something for long enough. And with enough consistency to see if you get the results.
[00:05:28] And you can balance that so that you end up not wasting your efforts. I've had folks that when we're doing the monthly review or the annual review right now, and you're looking back at the year before you find that you've changed directions financially 20 or 30 or 40 times in a year. And that's way too often, you can't get any sort of traction.
[00:05:50] You can't really make progress on any goal. If you shift goals that often. But I have other folks that have fought tooth and nail [00:06:00] about making changes to their behavior. And when they look at it at the end of the year, they're more or less exactly where they were at this time. Last year, they haven't made any progress on their goals.
[00:06:10] And by the way, COVID or no, COVID, you can still make some sort of progress on your goals, even if you've lost your job. There's things that you can be doing, your goals would shift, but you'd still be making progress on those new goals. You can be in control. You can take responsibility, you can make a change in the goal.
[00:06:31] You can shift the experiment, but you do it based on information. You don't just do it based on Willy nilly. You don't just do it based on a whim. This is how you balance consistency, doing something over and over again so that you can see what results you get. That's consistency. And then when you find something that you're consistently getting good results, you may want to look at how can I tweak it or [00:07:00] improve it?
[00:07:01] How can I make it even better? But it's no longer about just throwing it out and trying something new. It's no longer about burning it all down and starting over from scratch. Usually instead it's about modification, tweaking, improving refining. And the truth is when it comes to your money. Those refinement optimization is what I call it.
[00:07:24] That comes second. The first thing that has to come is the actual foundation, the gaining control, the consistency part. And once you have consistency, then you can worry about optimization. But the funny thing is what we often try to do is we try to put in automation and optimization at the beginning because we think that will somehow create.
[00:07:47] A new result. But the only thing that changes things is you, you are control of you. You are the one thing that you have control over and you are the one thing [00:08:00] that you can really control. And that means that is the thing that fixes your life. You are the thing that fixes your life. Not who's president, not who's in your local office, not whether or not.
[00:08:16] COVID is going on, but you, and that doesn't mean it's easy. Trust me. That doesn't mean it's simple. That doesn't mean it's fun. That doesn't mean that only good things happen to us, but it does mean that whether something good is happening or something bad is happening, you have control over your response to those things.
[00:08:36] And out of your response is where the good things come. How are you going to respond to 2020 in your finances? What are you going to do different so that you get a different result in 2021? And that different result could either be a better result because you already got a good one or it could be a good result where you've had a bad one.
[00:08:59] Thanks for listening.
[00:09:06] [00:09:00] thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of treasures. You can sign up for our treasures tips by going to inspired stewardship.com/treasures or text in the U S four four two two two treasures tips.
[00:09:43] And we'll send you five weeks of our best tips on stewarding your treasures until next time, investor time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. [00:10:00] .

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In today's episode, I talk with you about:

  • Why the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result...
  • Why not doing what you’ve always done isn’t the same as being inconsistent...
  • How to balance consistency and not wasting your efforts...
  • and more.....

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

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Some of the Resources recommended in this episode:

I make a commission for purchases made through the following link.

Let Me Know What you Think Below....

Episode 774: What Do You Need to Let Go of?

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Join us today for an episode about the need to let go of things to move forward...

Today's episode is focused on how you can really learn to let go of the past....

In today’s episode about impacting the world through stewarding your talent, I talk with you about letting go of things from the past to find the future.  I give you some tips on how to let go of these things and I share what happens when you don’t.

Join in on the Chat below.

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Episode 774 What Do You Need to Let Go of
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 774 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm David Smith author of who's got your back making and keeping great friendships among men. I encourage you to invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talents and your treasures to live out your calling.
[00:00:24] Having the ability to build real lasting friendships as a man is vital to doing this. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with the leadership provided by Scott Mayer.
[00:00:50] How can we do it? Here's a few tips around how to let go. Number one, you have to stop blaming others. You have to take responsibility for yourself for [00:01:00] your own actions, for what happens for your own emotions. You have to take responsibility for those things and begin to work on yourself. You have to make a clear decision that you're going to let go of something.
[00:01:12] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:45] In today's episode about impacting the world through stewarding your talent. I talk with you about letting go of things from the past and able to find your future. I gave you some tips on how to actually let go of these things. And I share what happens when you [00:02:00] don't. You've heard me talk about developing your talent and what are the best ways to do that is through books.
[00:02:07] But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via audible.
[00:02:33] That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. Coming up on the end of the year, looking at 2020, I think there's a lot of things that have happened to a lot of us this year that really could be described as trauma.
[00:02:55]We're dealing with a lot of emotions, we're dealing with a lot of frustration. There, there's all [00:03:00] sorts of things that have gone on in the news and in our own personal lives that have created just an, a feeling of things being out of control. A feeling of frustration, a feeling of fear. And what I wanted to talk a little bit about today is about letting go of things from the past, whether this is the immediate past or whether this is the distant pass.
[00:03:28] One of the things that we have to do to be able to move forward effectively into the future is let go of things that we maybe were holding onto. That aren't the most positive of. Of things to hold on to. I think that's advice that you've probably heard before, where you've been dealing with something or struggling to let something go and people tell you, you just need to let it go.
[00:03:50] You just need to get over it. You just need to move on, but that's a lot easier said than done because the truth is we [00:04:00] have a tendency as human beings. To really try to control things, to really try to hold on to things. We have attachment issues, we get attached to things and let's talk a little bit about attachment.
[00:04:13]This is a mental and an emotional fixation on something that we need or want, or at least something that we think we need our want. No, sometimes there's things that we get attached to that really are a need quite frankly, eating, you need to be attached to eating. You do need to eat to survive.
[00:04:32] But the truth is we often then will turn that into a want where it's no longer about eating. It's about eating out. It's about getting things the way that we want them when it comes to food. It's about eating well in a certain way. And I'm not talking about eating healthy or not healthy. I'm talking about.
[00:04:52] Putting some sort of value statement around eating where eating becomes something that we [00:05:00] think creates happiness for us. We get attached to people. We get attached to beliefs or views or outcomes. We get attached to stuff and we get attached to them because we're afraid that we'll lose them. And if we lose them, therefore we'll now be unhappy.
[00:05:18] Or maybe we won't survive. The problem is that oftentimes that happiness feeling that comes from people and things and stuff is a temporary happiness. Anyway, real deep happiness is something different. Happiness is not about you got a new car. Happiness is about the more permanent feelings of satisfaction.
[00:05:45] The more permanent feelings of recognizing that your life is good. Your life is free from suffering. Your life is happy. You have gratification, not in the temporary, [00:06:00] but in the permanent. So if we let go of our fixation on things and our fear that if we lose these things, we'll lose our happiness. If we develop enough faith that we will get the things, we need an abundance mentality, then in a strange way, you actually are happier.
[00:06:21] You're less attached. You're more able to let go of things. And the truth is it's really hard to do this because in our culture, in our mindset and our belief holding on to things is the way that we put forward. That is the route to happiness. That is the route to success. Getting more, having more holding onto more loving, forever, finding the one perfect thing.
[00:06:49] Or person, our belief, our relationship that from now until the end of time will create happiness. We're afraid of losing those [00:07:00] things because we've romanticized these as a permanent way to happiness. But holding on to things is also a habit. Fear of change is also a habit and we begin. To worry about letting go of these things, because it affects our identity affects who we see ourselves to be in the world.
[00:07:21] The image that we project to other people, everything becomes tied up in this feeling. And we have this illusion that if we hold on to all of these things, if we control them, if we Cate control of other people, if we take control and material things, then we'll be happy because we'll able to make all the circumstances be exactly the way we want them to be and they'll stay that way forever.
[00:07:50] But the truth is the only thing that is constant is change. It will change. The only thing you have control over is yourself. And you [00:08:00] have to begin to learn to let go of these things that you don't have control over, which is pretty much everything else. As you learn to let go, it gives you a sense of freedom.
[00:08:10] It gives you a sense of happiness and allows you to have better and deeper relationships with people because you recognize that they are free to grow as well. And it allows you to continue to grow. So if letting go is hard, How can we do it? Here's a few tips around how to let go. Number one, you have to stop blaming others.
[00:08:32] You have to take responsibility for yourself for your own actions, for what happens for your own emotions. You have to take responsibility for those things and begin to work on yourself. You have to make a clear decision that you're going to let go of something. I like to write that decision down. I've decided to let go of this, whatever it is I realize it's holding me back and I am making a commitment to letting go of it and then post that somewhere.
[00:09:00] [00:09:00] But the idea is to make that decision and make it very emphatically in clearly with yourself. And you also have to begin to trust and have faith that the future. We'll be okay. That letting go of some of these things will actually allow you to be better. And if something has gone wrong, you need to learn the lesson and then move on.
[00:09:26] So that you can continue to grow. You need to leave it behind you, meditate, develop other sorts of ways of looking at things, create some physical distance between you and the person or the place or the thing, create a mantra or something that you repeat to yourself that helps you move on and quickly find that.
[00:09:50] And you need to be gentle with yourself. Find the things that you're grateful for and focus on those. It's okay. To feel negative. It's okay to [00:10:00] feel angry. It's okay to feel hurt, but recognize that feeling again, knowledge it, and then let go of it and move on. Because when you don't do that, then you have the opposite of those things.
[00:10:12] I shared early. You have less freedom, you have worse relationships, you have more stress, you have more anxiety, you have more pain. And those are the things that don't lead to happiness and longterm growth. So learn to let go so that you can move on and grow. Thanks for listening.
[00:10:41] thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this episode on the [00:11:00] stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent and sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent.
[00:11:12] Or if you're in the U S you can text four, four, two, two, two talent tips. That's talent tips to four four, two, two, two, and get those tips until next time. Invest your time, your talent and your treasures, develop your influence and impact the world. .

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In today's episode, I talk with you about:

  • Letting go of things from the past to find the future...   
  • Tips on how to let go of these things...
  • What happens when you don’t...
  • and more.....

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.- Albert Einstein

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Some of the Resources recommended in this episode:

I make a commission for purchases made through the following link.

Let Me Know What you Think Below....

Episode 773: Eliminate Intentionally

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Join us today for an episode about the need to eliminate intentionally to say yes to things...

Today's episode is focused on guarding your yes with powerful no's....

In today’s episode about impacting the world by stewarding your time, I talk with you about why saying yes is also about saying no.  I share why you have to intentionally eliminate things from your life.  I also talk about how this is the way you can progress.

Join in on the Chat below.

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Episode 773 Eliminate Intentionally
[00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 773 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Joe Saul-Sehy from the stacking Benjamins podcast. I encourage you to find ways to be inspired, to find financial freedom. And one way I do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott meter.
[00:00:29] own your own business. It doesn't matter whether you work in a corporate environment. It doesn't matter if we're not even talking about business, but talking about our home life. How can you simplify things that you do over and over again? So that you can get more time to spend on the things that are harder, but more important.
[00:00:52] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the [00:01:00] person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:24] And today's episode about impacting the world by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why saying yes is also about saying no, I share why you have to intentionally eliminate things from your life. And I also talk about how this is really the way you can progress. As we talk about stewarding your time.
[00:01:43] Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long, it turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission will come back to support the [00:02:00] show. Just that quick. If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon.
[00:02:11] You've probably heard the expression that every yes is guarded by a thousand nos. I think the biggest problems that we make when it comes to productivity, when it comes to doing things that are important to us, when it comes to serving out and working in our life and getting the right things done.
[00:02:32] Is that we find it really easy to say yes to things. And I think we find it pretty hard to say no to things, or at least I think most of us do. People ask us to do a favor for them. People ask us to spend some time with them. People ask us to do things all day, every day, and we put things on ourselves.
[00:02:51] There's things we need to do for our business. There are things we need to do around the house. There's chores, there's activities. There's [00:03:00] recreation time. There's literally a million things that you can add to your list each and every day. And it's almost harder to say no than it is to just keep saying yes and adding to your list.
[00:03:15] But the truth is if you keep saying yes, and just adding to your list and adding to your list and adding to your list and adding to your list, you're never going to actually get. The right things done. You're never really going to live out your calling. You're never really going to make an impact. You're never really going to serve the people around you.
[00:03:38]Because you're going to be doing so many things that you're not going to be doing anything with excellence. I've seen it happen time after time. I've seen people who spend all of their time doing the urgent things, the things that are on fire and because of that, they never step back and do the things that are really [00:04:00] important that really build on the future and allow them to make a bigger and bigger impact.
[00:04:08] So saying yes is really about saying yes to the few things that are key and important for you and saying no to literally everything else. And to do that, you have to be very deliberate about eliminating things from your life. This isn't about just Willy ne daily saying no to everything. This is about identifying and targeting and finding the things that you need to eliminate so that you can really spend the time and energy doing not more things, but the most important things.
[00:04:47] This is about looking to make sure that you're in alignment. If you say your family is important to you, are you spending time with your family? If you say that church is important to you, are you spending time in church of your [00:05:00] clients are important to you? Are you spending time making their lives better?
[00:05:06] And if the answer is no, then you need to look at what are you doing instead? Where are you spending your energy? Where are you spending your time? And you have to ruthlessly eliminate things that are keeping you from doing the things that are the most. Important. Yeah. You heard Dan talk on Monday about eliminating about 15% of the stuff he does every single year.
[00:05:32] And by trimming that back and trimming that back, he's always refocusing on what's most important. And you can do this annually. You can do this monthly. You can even do this daily. But the key is to be intentional about doing it. The funny thing is by focusing in, on doing a few things better, you can make more progress that doing a lot of things, [00:06:00] not very well at all, whether this is about narrowing down in a business, whether this is about eliminating some things from your life so that you can spend time with the people that are most important to you.
[00:06:13] Whether this is about maybe letting the laundry go for a day so that you can work on something else. That's a bigger project. That's much more important. And even though the laundry is urgent, it may not be the most important thing. It's about identifying the things that are really going to move the needle for you.
[00:06:32] What are the things that you can invest in today that payoff down the road and more time? Th, this is one of the things I've heard whenever I was in corporate and I was leading a team is people would say that they didn't want to give the task over to the admin. We had an admin that could do certain tasks and they would say I don't want to give it to them because I have to take the time to train them how to do it and how to [00:07:00] do it right.
[00:07:00] And how to do it well and what to check for. And because of that, I might as well go ahead and do it myself. But the funny thing is if you could get, yeah, you get the understanding, get the mindset that if you can identify the things that you could train this person one time, and then they could do this task that you had to do three or four times a week with consistency and with excellence.
[00:07:27] Yes, it would take you two or three times as long, the first couple of times, because you need to check behind them. You need to make sure that they're doing it right. You need to train them. You need to give them feedback. But after that, it would pay off in dividends. At this task, took you an hour and you could outsource it.
[00:07:46] And you were doing it three to five times a week. That's three to five hours every single week, across a month. That was literally. Hundreds of hours, it could add up very, very quickly. [00:08:00] It would be 20 to 30 hours a month. And then across a quarter, and then across a year, very quickly, you could add this up and free up huge amounts of time for you that you could then use to do other things.
[00:08:14] It doesn't matter whether you're a small business person, whether you're. Own your own business. It doesn't matter whether you work in a corporate environment. It doesn't matter if we're not even talking about business, but talking about our home life. How can you simplify things that you do over and over again so that you can get more time to spend on the things that are harder but more important?
[00:08:42] That is why you have to eliminate intentionally. That is why you have to guard every single year. Yes. With a thousand nos. Thanks for listening.
[00:08:59] thanks so [00:09:00] much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting four four, two, two, two time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time.
[00:09:42] Until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.

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In today's episode, I talk with you about:

  • Why saying yes is also about saying no... 
  • Why you have to intentionally eliminate things from your life...
  • How this is the way you can progress...
  • and more.....

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. - Lin Yutang

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Some of the Resources recommended in this episode:

I make a commission for purchases made through the following link.

Let Me Know What you Think Below....

Episode 772: The Song of Simeon

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Join us today for an episode about the Song of Simeon and how we need to listen and sing...

Today's episode is focused on Luke 2: 22-40...

In today’s spiritual foundation episode about impacting the world, I talk with you about Luke 2: 22- 40.  I also share why listening is part of what we need to do, but then we are called to share the song we hear…

Join in on the Chat below.

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Episode 772 The Song of Simeon
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 772 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Derek Guarjardo from strong life coach. I encourage you to find your own journey to building your own strong life. And one way to be inspired to do that is by listening to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Mader.
[00:00:26] and acted upon it. They then shared that with others. And I think sometimes that's the second half, we get afraid that we feel a call. We feel a direction, we feel something that we're supposed to be doing. And we fail to take action because we're afraid to share it with others. We're afraid of what they'll say.
[00:00:48] We're afraid of how they'll welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to [00:01:00] use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling. In the inspired stewardship podcast, we'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:22] And today's spiritual foundation episode of out impacting the world. I talk with you about Luke chapter two verses 22 through 40. I also share why listening is part of what we need to do, but why we are also called to share the song that we hear. Luke chapter two, verses 22 through 40, also known as the song of Simeon.
[00:01:48] And it goes like this. When the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. This is talking about Mary and Joseph bringing [00:02:00] Jesus up to the temple as it is written in the law of the Lord. Every firstborn male shall be designated as Holy to the Lord.
[00:02:07] And they offered a sacrifice. According to what it is stated in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout looking forward to the constellation of Israel and the Holy spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah.
[00:02:32] Guided by the spirit. Simeon came into the temple and when the parents brought in the child, Jesus to do for him, what was customary under the law? Simeon took him in his arms and praised God saying master. Now you are dismissing your servant in peace. According to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation.
[00:02:52] Which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for the revelation to Gentiles and for glory to your people, [00:03:00] Israel and the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother, Mary, this child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed and a sword where will purists your own soul too.
[00:03:21] There was also a prophet Ana, the daughter of FanDuel of the tribe of Asher. She was a great age having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage. Then as a widow to the age of 84, she never left the temple, but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At the moment she came and began to praise God and to speak about the child, to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
[00:03:46] When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew, it became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him. Now this [00:04:00] passage about Jesus coming to the temple, his parents bringing him there to be recognized and consecrated like others were.
[00:04:12] And what happens is sin and an Ana come to recognize Jesus. And one of the things that I love about this passage is it's becomes very clear that Simeon has been listening to the Holy spirit for a long time. It points out that Simeon is there in Jerusalem. It doesn't actually say that he lives there or that he comes to the temple every day or anything else.
[00:04:37] It just says that he's there in Jerusalem because he's been called there. Something has arisen in him that said, I need to go here. And out of that, he was fulfilled his destiny of seeing the Messiah before he died. And Ana is this older woman who just lives there in the [00:05:00] temple, but she also recognizes immediately what's going on here.
[00:05:05] And I think it's important to recognize two parts to these relationships. One is these people were open to listening to the word of God in their life, listening to the calling of the Holy spirit. And I think a lot of times we don't listen to what we're being called to do. We are having a hard time hearing what it is that God wants us to do.
[00:05:31] And we aren't doing a good job of responding to that hearing with action either. And see, I think just like Simeon it is a combination of things. I think one thing that happens is oftentimes we're given messages where we're told something's going to happen, but we're looking for it to happen on our timescale.
[00:05:51] We're looking for it to happen, whatever we want it to happen. And the truth is it doesn't happen on that schedule. It [00:06:00] happens on the schedule that God has called for it to happen on. You have to wonder if Simeon had been looking for the Messiah and waiting for a long time and expecting it to happen and it hadn't happened and it hadn't happened and it happened.
[00:06:15] Hadn't happened. And now he's excited because it has. But he also has to have been frustrated before that been wondering, when was it going to come? And the second half of this relationship is both of them responded Anna and Simeon both responded when they saw what was going on when they had the call come to them and they acted upon it.
[00:06:42] They then shared that with others. And I think sometimes that's the second half, we get afraid that we feel a call. We feel a direction, we feel something that we're supposed to be doing, and we fail to take action because we're [00:07:00] afraid to share it with others. We're afraid of what they'll say. We're afraid of how they'll tell us.
[00:07:04] We're crazy. We're afraid of how they'll tell us that this is not a good idea and they'll push back on us. And because that. We don't take action, but both Ana and Semyon here actually act in response to their calling. They share their song with others. And I think that's really what we're called to do, not just in this season of Christmas, but all of the time.
[00:07:36] Thanks for listening.
[00:07:42] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy [00:08:00] this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired.
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In today's episode, I talk with you about:

  • Luke 2: 22- 40... 
  • Why listening is part of what we need to do..
  • We are called to share the song we hear…
  • and more.....

Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed--and a sword will pierce your own soul too." - Luke 2: 34-35

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