00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 702 of the inspired stewardship podcast. Hey, there I'm Cassidy cache the host of that Shakespeare life. If you'd like to impact the world one day like Shakespeare, one way to do that is listening to this it's inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott made her No in today's world. It's all too easy to say that we don't have any gods other than God,
00:00:36 but the truth is we can make a God out of almost anything. And indeed begin to serve that before we serve the Lord, we live in an age where most people have no fear of the Lord. 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,
00:01:01 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's spiritual foundation episode about investing in others. I talk with you about Joshua chapter 24 verses 13 through 28. Why being a congregation doesn't mean agreeing and what we need to do instead.
00:01:36 This is actually a sermon I delivered at Lake Hills United Methodist church. Oh man. So today is the next part in our four part stewardship series. We've talked about stewardship as a Christian and stewardship as our family. And this week we're talking about stewardship as a congregation. Let's face it. Life is full of choices. In fact, this morning, all of us here have already made a number of choices today that will impact how this day turns out.
00:02:18 For many of us this morning began with the choice of whether or not to get out of bed when the alarm clock went off. And then that choice leads onto a whole string of other choices. Am I going to take the time to read my Bible and pray this morning? What am I going to eat for breakfast? Am I even going to go to church today?
00:02:40 So every day we have a string of these moment by moment choices that each impact to a large degree, how my day is going to turn out. We also have larger choices, bigger choices in our life that also end up with a tremendous influence on how our lives turn out. How will I handle my money? How am I going to allocate and spend my time?
00:03:08 What am I going to do to maintain my health? But the problem is that the choices I make may not be the choices that you make. And then there's a natural tension that occurs around our choices, both for ourselves and for our family. And indeed for our church family, I would assume that we all want is want what is best for our church.
00:03:37 We all want to do what God calls us to do, but often, unfortunately we all have a slightly different picture of what that is in the church. There's a natural tension that occurs between mission security or safety and internal needs within the church. Some members one morning may see that we need to do more to serve those who need our help outside of our walls.
00:04:05 They call on us to expand our mission field, to grow our projects, to do more, to help those who haven't heard the gospel. And indeed, I would say that the Lord calls us to do that. Others may see that we are struggling in areas. We have the same people doing the same work and it's burning them out. We have limited time.
00:04:26 We have limited money and if we do one thing wrong, we could be in trouble in a way that ends up closing the church down. And that would be something that none of us want. And indeed, we are called to be stewards of the larger and of the smaller things that we are blessed with. Some members may see that we need more ways to serve our current members.
00:04:50 We need to make things more accessible or larger or expand the ways that we provide for the spiritual development and growth of our members. And indeed the Lord calls us to do that too. But in this passage, Joshua reminds us that God is a jealous God, God is one who calls for us to serve him and serve no other. God. Scripture says,
00:05:16 now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness, throw away the gods of your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves to this day who you will serve, whether the gods, your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living.
00:05:41 But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. You know, in today's world. It's all too easy to say that we don't have any gods other than God, but the truth. We can make a God out of almost anything. And indeed begin to serve that before we serve the Lord, we live in an age where most people have no fear of the Lord.
00:06:10 They are more than willing to champion the divine characteristics of love, but they don't want to ignore knowledge is holiness. The average person in America has no fear of the Lord. They live as they please and never consider that there's accountant ability and accountability to God. In fact, the average church member I would argue has no fear of the Lord. Fear for the Lord is absent in the average home in America.
00:06:42 In fact, this is evident in the lives that many people live. One cannot claim to have a genuine fear for the Lord and live in any way that you please, it does no good for the church members to claim. They fear the Lord. If indeed, they're not committed to serving him and to being faithful. Of course, the problem is that being faithful may mean different things to each of us,
00:07:11 any other things, being good stewards means serving the Lord with the single biggest call that we are given, protecting that call with a fierce attention and never letting it go. And indeed, that is the call to love one another. Even when we disagree, even when we recognize that we have a different view of what we are called to do as a church.
00:07:36 And we argue and don't agree, even then, we'd we feel that a different person should be an office or that one side or the other is right or wrong in the upcoming election. When we feel there is an injustice that others see as a justice that is being served. When someone sees something different from us, it doesn't mean that they are wrong and we are right all too often.
00:08:01 It just means we both have the same goal, but we're disagreeing about the best route to get there. The truth is that we are all called to make a choice, the same choice that the pig and the chicken make when it comes to breakfast. I mean the chicken is involved in breakfast by making the eggs, but the pig is committed to breakfast in the making of the bacon.
00:08:27 So we're given the same choice to commit to the Lord, but to all so recognize that others may be equally committed to the Lord and yet see things entirely differently than we do. And this just may mean that you need to pause, pause for a moment and consider if someone in my church, family who I love and I trust. And I believe that they have a true commitment to the Lord.
00:08:58 If they see things a bit differently than I do, maybe I need to reconsider. Maybe I need to pause and to listen before I assume that they are wrong. And in doing this, we can be stewards that the Lord has called us to be the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit. Amen. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast,
00:09:33 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 this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook.com/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,
00:10:13 invest your time, your talent and your treasures, develop your influence and impact the world.