00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on Episode 5 75 of the inspired stewardship podcast. Hey, I'm at him, author of Redefined Rich and I Challenge You to Live richly by listening to the inspired stewardship podcast with My friend Scott made her. The truth is, there's always choices you have. There's always action you can take at the best of time or at the worst of time. There's always something else that we can continue to do. And when we recognize that, that is what we're called to do to take that positive action each and every day to make today a little better than tomorrow.
00:00:45 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 Searchie podcast will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world in today's episode about impacting the world through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about why good stewardship brings hope and peace, even in times of stress like the's.
00:01:29 Why stewardship and faith isn't an excuse to not take action. And what faithful stewardship actually looks like when times are crazy? 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 do is use inspired stewardship dot com slash amazon when you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon,
00:01:58 and a small commission will come back to support the show. If you enjoy the show when you're ready to buy from Amazon,
00:02:05 just use inspired stewardship dot com slash amazon stewardship. You know, the theme of this show constantly comes back to this idea of being a good steward,
00:02:18 and today I'm gonna use stewardship of money as an example. But recognize that this principle, this idea of stewardship,
00:02:26 is about way more than money. One of the definitions I've seen for stewardship when it comes to find finances is that generosity is a matter of action intentions in heart.
00:02:39 It's the grateful outpouring of gifts to others out of our love for God. Outpouring is a terrific description,
00:02:47 since all of these treasures of the Gospel. Not just our money, not just our time. But all of the gifts of the Gospel comes from God,
00:02:56 and it's meant to be poured out to others. And what stewardship is is recognizing the idea that we're given something not for ourselves but for how we can use it to serve others.
00:03:11 So there's a couple of key principles that we want to talk about, and I want to recognize how stewardship,
00:03:16 good stewardship, having that mental and physical philosophy leads to peace both in a practical way as well as in a faithful way.
00:03:31 So the principles of stewardship. There's a one, the 1st 1 and this is the key one. And this is the one that,
00:03:38 really, at the end of the day is probably the hardest to internalize but also the most important. And this is the principle of who owns things you know.
00:03:49 Psalm 24 says the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.
00:03:56 In other words, anything that you have anything that's in the world is not yours. It's not anyone's,
00:04:03 it's God's, and our job is simply to take care of it. It means that when we're damaging something in the world in the environment,
00:04:14 that we're not being good stewards. It means when we're not spending the time that we've been blessed with,
00:04:18 well, we're not being good stewards. It means when we're not using the money that we've been given well,
00:04:25 we're not being good stewards. That leads to the second principle, the principle of responsibility. God gives us everything,
00:04:34 and it even says God gives us all things richly to enjoy. God does not want us tow, live in the state of scarcity and lack and fear,
00:04:45 and right now that's probably a really hard thing to deal with. But that's not the intention that we're supposed to live in the world with.
00:04:54 That's not the feeling or the attitude that we're supposed to have. Instead, we're supposed to recognize that we have a tremendous responsibility to God and to each other to take all of those gifts that we have been given and used them well and use them well to serve others,
00:05:14 not just ourselves. The third principle is the principle of accountability. The word stewardship comes from this idea of being someone given responsibility and accountability for what others have God has entrusted us and giving us the responsibility to manage things well.
00:05:34 And God has also made us accountable to that, meaning that we will have to speak up and say what we have done and be ableto do and represent that over time we've done the best we can with everything that we've been blessed with so that at the end of the day's God looks at us and says,
00:05:56 well done good and faithful servant, that is the idea behind stewardship. Those four key principles and the idea is the recognition here is when you've done those things when you've said about tohave,
00:06:14 good resource is and take care of them. Well, then what's interesting is you have more hope, more peace and less stress.
00:06:24 First off, from an emotional standpoint, it gives you the ability to recognize that your job is to do the best you can.
00:06:33 But it's not all on your shoulders. It belongs to God. It lets you begin to give up some of the fear and the frustration while still taking action and moving forward.
00:06:46 The other thing, from a practical standpoint, it means that you've done and taken good care of. Your resource is you've laid up resource is for in a time of feasting for a time of famine,
00:06:57 which means that when something goes wrong and something always goes wrong, you're prepared for it. And now all of a sudden,
00:07:06 instead of the car breaking, being a financial emergency and a transportation emergency, it's just a transportation emergency.
00:07:14 The finances air taken care of. It means that in a time like this, whatever everyone else is panicking,
00:07:21 you're able to have a little bit more of a peaceful attitude. You're still taking action. You're still doing things to take care of yourself and others.
00:07:31 But you're not panicked about it. You're not in fear and see. That's part of what's important. To recognize the idea that stewardship is not the same as O God's Got it.
00:07:44 God will provide. I don't have to do anything. Stewardship is about taking action. Stewardship is taking responsibility and accountability for the gifts that God has given you,
00:07:57 and if you set back and are passive, that's not taking responsibility. That's, Ah, false form of stewardship,
00:08:06 and this is what it looks like whether times their normal or times or faithful, it means taking action.
00:08:12 It means identifying what is it that God wants for us? And it means not looking to money or anything else to be your provider,
00:08:22 but recognizing that God is your provider but that God has empowered and entrusted you with certain. Resource is so that you have the role of doing the right things,
00:08:35 whether that's getting out of debt, whether that's giving to others, whether that's building well so that you can start a foundation or a charity or just donate money to someone,
00:08:47 whether it's giving of your time or your talents for a nonprofit or another organization that has your heart or a group of people that need your help,
00:08:58 whether it's right now just showing up and delivering groceries for someone that can't get out of their house and leaving them on the porch.
00:09:05 All of these are examples of good stewardship, and the truth is when times were crazy like this, it's even Maur important that we look for the opportunities to take accountability and responsibility for all of the blessings that we've been given.
00:09:25 Now, if this is hitting you hard right now because you recognize that maybe you haven't done as good of a job of laying up and preparing for the future.
00:09:35 Well, that's okay. Use this as motivation for recognizing that you've got to do better when you come out of the other side.
00:09:44 Recognize the fact that this just means this is a motivation and a wake up call that you need to take responsibility,
00:09:52 be accountable and sit down and do the hard work of figuring out What is it that you can do to re focus on what's important to you.
00:10:01 To gain control of the resource is that you have so that you can take responsibility and accountability for those things that God owns.
00:10:09 And then to set a plan in place so that you begin to get in a better position so that the next time there's an emergency,
00:10:16 you're better off. The truth is, there's always choices you have. There's always action you can take at the best of time or at the worst of time.
00:10:25 There's always something else that we can continue to do, and when we recognize that, that is what we're called to do to take that positive action each and every day to make today a little better than tomorrow.
00:10:39 That is being a good steward. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship Podcast.
00:10:52 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 toe.
00:11:02 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 dot com slash treasures or text in the U.
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00:11:34 your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact world.