00:00:00 Welcome to Episode 5 70 seven of the inspired Stewardship podcast I'm Paul Song from Kara. I challenge you to discover your true identity and calling so you can be empowered to live every day to the fullest. One way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott made her, and I know that there are dozens and dozens of churches of all sizes in all parts of the world where people are doing these things similarly and don't get me wrong. I am not saying Christians or churches are perfect.
00:00:43 We're not. We screw it up, we make mistakes. We don't do everything perfectly. But what we are doing is trying welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship. Podcasts. 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 who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world and today spiritually Foundation episode about investing in yourself.
00:01:28 I talk with you about Matthew. Chapter five Verses, 14 through 16. Why now is a vital timeto?
00:01:36 Let your light shine and why it's so easy. Select your light. Go out in times of fear.
00:01:47 Matthew Chapter five Verses, 14 through 16 says You're the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
00:01:56 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand,
00:02:01 and it gives light to everyone in the house in the same way. Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father and heaven.
00:02:14 You know, right now, I I've been thinking a lot about the church and how the church has to step up at this time and be the light of the world and recognize the church.
00:02:24 Here isn't the building, and it's not even just the people that go to that building. The church here is that larger community of believers,
00:02:36 and right now we are called to let our light shine in a very, very re away. And yet I think it's also easy to be afraid and hide that light at this time.
00:02:51 You know, if we are believers and believe that the Gospel and Jesus is the light of the world than what are we doing in our actions and our attitudes and our words and our deeds during this time of fear and chaos,
00:03:06 toe allow people to see the good works of the church. It's not that the church building is empty today.
00:03:14 It's that instead, the church has been deployed to go out into the field and do the good works.
00:03:23 Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying to go out and do things that put you in danger or make us not safe in some way or or spread the virus.
00:03:31 I'm talking about doing the things that we can do sometimes those things maybe showing up for our neighbors by delivering food and leaving it on their porch.
00:03:40 Sometimes it may be being the person that doesn't buy the last roll of toilet paper on the shelves or doesn't buy the last dozen eggs or maybe even doesn't shop whenever they could.
00:03:54 Because they have enough and out of that. They also have enough to give to others and to help You know,
00:04:03 sometimes I think as Christians we end up being a stumbling block for others. Because instead of showing the light of Christ in our actions and our words and in our deeds,
00:04:15 we instead hide that because sometimes we're afraid of what people will think. We're afraid of what people will say.
00:04:22 We don't wanna do anything that points us out. But during a time like this, this is the vital time toe.
00:04:30 Find the things that you can do if you can't leave your house than what are you doing to shed positivity on social media?
00:04:38 Who are you calling and checking in with and making sure that they're okay? Are you reaching out to your neighbors and making sure that they're all right?
00:04:49 Are you letting the people around? You see that you have faith and not fear. And yet you are also taking the positive actions that we need to take toe help prevent things from getting worse,
00:05:04 you know instead, I think a lot of times what ends up happening is it's really easy in a time like this to be afraid.
00:05:12 And instead of relying on faith toe have that fear keep us hidden to have that fear keep us from doing the things that were supposed to do tow,
00:05:25 have that fear, keep us from being the church and have us become fearful. And when we do that,
00:05:34 that is what we're talking about when we talk about hiding your light where we talk about putting the light under a bushel or under a bowl,
00:05:43 you know that song? This little light of mine is so important. I found myself singing it of late because it is so important that we let our light shine into the world that we go out there and let people see that the church is being responsible.
00:06:06 But the church is also continuing to serve others continuing toe love on others. You know, we figured out a way that we can still give meals to those people in the community that need it without putting people at risk by having a dry three pick up where people pick up the meals to go.
00:06:24 We're in our church, we're still streaming the broadcast, and we've actually had more people attending our broadcasts than normally attend our Sunday school service.
00:06:34 And we're trying to figure out ways to reach the community around us and make sure that the people around us are taken care of.
00:06:43 And I know that there are dozens and dozens of churches, of all sizes in all parts of the world where people are doing these things similarly and don't get me wrong.
00:06:55 I am not saying Christians or churches are perfect. We're not. We screw it up, we make mistakes.
00:07:01 We don't do everything perfectly. But what we are doing is trying. We're trying to let the light of Christ shine through our hands and our feets and our actions and our words and our deeds so that people can see the gospel in action and recognize that it's out of that faith,
00:07:21 that Christians take action. And that action is what provides the light to the world. Because that's what God is calling for us to do out of faith,
00:07:34 not out of fear. So what are you going to do this week? Toe Let your light shine.
00:07:39 Who are you going to call? Who are you going to reach out to? Who are you gonna love on?
00:07:44 Who are you going to share some words with? How are you going to help your neighbors and get out there and show your light instead of hiding it.
00:07:54 Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener,
00:08:07 we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen. But act on what you've heard and find a way toe live your calling.
00:08:17 If you enjoy this episode, do me a favor. Go overto facebook dot com slash inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there until next time investor time,
00:08:47 your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact world.