Episode 1287: You Belong to God

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,287 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. I'm

[00:00:07] Heather Heuman: Heather Hyman from Sweet Tea Social Marketing. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling.

[00:00:23] Having the ability to reach others is key, and one way to be inspired to do just that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott made.

[00:00:44] Scott Maderer: But I don't think Christ Jesus is. Mi is basically someone that we can look at as our property and the way we get to define him is the way everyone should define him. The Corinthians had remade [00:01:00] Christ in their image instead of allowing Christ to remake them in his image. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:01:12] 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, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:39] In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk with you about First Corinthians chapter one, verses one through nine. I share how we often think we don't have enough, but we really do, and I also share why we belong to God. So first Corinthians chapter one, verse one through nine says, Paul called to [00:02:00] be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and our brother soThe.

[00:02:05] To the church of God that is in Koth to those who are sanctified in Christ. Jesus called to be saints together with all those who in every place. Call in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus.

[00:02:27] For in every way you have been enriched in him in speech and knowledge of every kind. Just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift. As you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, he will also strengthen you to the end so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:02:49] God is faithful by him. You were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ. Our. I have a 19 year old young man [00:03:00] who's our son, who's a great young man and he's working on launching out into the world and doing his own thing. And every once in a while I'll get a text message or a phone call from him and he'll be gone.

[00:03:14] He'll be traveling, he'll be doing other things. He's away from the house on his own. and part of my heart falls sometimes when I get the phone call or the message because immediately I think there's got to be something wrong. And often, of course, when he calls, it's really not anything wrong. He's calling to remind me that he left something out and maybe I could put it away for him or that he's expecting a passage, a package delivered to our house, and he wants me to keep an eye out for it.

[00:03:47] Something simple and something innocent. And yet we often jump to this idea of thanks. For something crazy Stewardship podcast, something bad is going on here. Subscriber listener, [00:04:00] we challenge you. We go there because just sit back and passively listen. We're worried about it. Act on what you've heard and of course, and find a way sometimes we to live.

[00:04:08] If we just had. If you enjoyed this episode, just do me a favor. More money, more time, more energy, more something slash we can do a better job steward. We should take more care people, our Facebook page, better ourselves if you'd to would be in a better from us so that we can, therefore we could take of all of these people that we wanted to care of.

[00:04:31] To the best. That fear of our abilities of carry in a place of love and place of kindness and a place of until next to make sure that investment time people that we care about talent, those that are around treasure, our family, and our develop your influence are taken care of, the impact the world. And yet this biblical passage, although it's got written to deal with this attitude, in fact, if anything, maybe it's written to deal with the opposite attitude, still speaks to how God.

[00:04:59] Meets us [00:05:00] where we are and begins to see to our needs. See, the problem in Koth at this time that Paul is writing this letter about was probably not a lack of confidence or a fear or a worry. If anything, it was overconfidence. There was a group of Christians in the church at Koi. Probably thought of themselves as super Christians, better than the average believer, stronger, more knowledgeable.

[00:05:27] They had gifts and abilities like speaking in tongues and other things. That said, we are more equipped, we're more favored. We are more special than those others around us. In fact, they had began to think probably that they knew all the answers to the test questions. They don't have to listen to anyone but themselves.

[00:05:48] and Paul begins by stressing his credentials. He begins by pointing out his authority, apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. He's saying if [00:06:00] you have the opinion that there's no one out there that can teach you anything, maybe you wanna think about who I am and the fact that I can speak into your, Not that authority is the be all position for somebody speaking into your life, but I will tell you there's times that I haven't listened to people that have been there and walked the walk and talked to the talk, and then I've paid for it.

[00:06:24] Yeah, there's, he's called to be a saint. He says A saint being someone who recognizes that there's the need for a savior. In other words, Paul is saying, even though I put in this position of being an apostle, even though I'm a saint, it means it's because I know I'm not in the primary position. I know I'm looking for a savior.

[00:06:46] I'm saying yes to Christ Jesus, not yes to. That it, it carries honor, but only because I'm called to this by God we're, I'm beholden to God. [00:07:00] That is this idea of being beholden, wrapped up and contained and belonging within the presence and the strength of. And he's reminding the Corinthians that they belong to God too.

[00:07:18] And then saying, examine your behavior and see if that still fits. The description of being a saint are you holding that you are at the center of things or is God the center of things? Because arrogance has no place. and the community of faith, and yet we all get arrogant from time to time because we assume everyone must see the world the way we do.

[00:07:46] Everyone must believe the way we believe, but I don't think Christ Jesus. Is MI is basically someone that we can look at as our property, and the way we [00:08:00] get to define him is the way everyone should define him. The Corinthians had remade Christ in their image instead of allowing Christ to remake them in his image.

[00:08:13] And I think we do that today as well, all over the. And so Paul is reminding him you belong to something. You belong to a community called to love. You belong to a community called to be in prayer and in service to others, and that we're all then this together. It's not just you, it's not just your family.

[00:08:39] It's not just your church. It's not just your circle of friends. It's not just the ones that look like you or act like you or that you get along with. The vision is bigger. It's for inclusion. , it's for the full community. This is what we're called to do. And [00:09:00] yet what Paul is saying is maybe when you set yourself apart and you say, I'm a little more faithful, I'm a little better than someone else.

[00:09:10] It's a little hard to see yourself as part of something larger that you know you are a saint, and that means that you need a. . That means that you need help too. That means that you, whether you think you measure up or you think you don't, you've been enriched and called and given gifts by God, and you have to go out there and use and express those gifts because you belong to God.

[00:09:45] Thanks for listening.

[00:09:51] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just [00:10:00] sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired steward.

[00:10:17] 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, invest your. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.