Episode 790 Stewardship is not Generosity
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 790 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Al Como. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, talent, and treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to manage change is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader.
[00:00:39] these are tied together. But the interesting thing is that givers truly do gain. If you have the mindset of helping others, if you have the mindset of giving, if you have the mindset of generosity and the mindset of stewardship, if those live in your heart and your mind, then what you'll find is over time.
[00:00:59] Your wealth will [00:01:00] grow, not just in the amount of money you have. Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspire, shared 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 and the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:01:20] You will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you. Okay. Impact the work
[00:01:34] in today's episode about developing your influence through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about why stewardship and generosity are not equivalent. Also share why stewardship is a call on our hearts and not our minds. And I talked to you about why stewardship is a powerful wealth building principle.
[00:01:53] As we talk about stewarding your treasures. Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it [00:02:00] without costing yourself an extra dime, it turns out you can. 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, we'll come back to support the show.
[00:02:16] If you enjoy the show, when you're ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. So over and over again, I talk about stewardship. This is a question I asked many of the guests, what stewardship means to them. And you've heard me talk about stewardship and define it over and over again.
[00:02:35] But I also talk a lot about generosity and giving and these sorts of things as well. Today, I wanted to dive a little bit into why. I think a lot of times, one of our confusions, as we think about stewardship, generosity and giving as synonyms for each other, if you attend church, you may actually even hear those terms talked about almost interchangeably, but the truth is they're not [00:03:00] interchangeable terms.
[00:03:00] They mean different things. Stewardship is actually a role. It's a role that someone takes on. It's an attitude that they take on around their resources and their blessings giving is actually an act and generosity is an attitude that we have as well. But it's a different attitude. I've defined before that a steward is the person who used to manage the possessions in accordance with the wishes of their master.
[00:03:29] It was somebody who had high integrity, who the master trusted, who was given over. The rights and responsibilities to manage the possessions, but to do them in the way that the master wanted. And if we truly believe that God still owns all that we have. Then stewardship for a Christian is recognizing that God is the owner and we are merely the managers and we must use those possessions to please, and to do what [00:04:00] God has called us to do.
[00:04:02] So stewardship is a role that you take on. Generosity is simply being willing to sacrifice for the benefit of others. Sometimes that generosity can be realized through money sometimes it's through time. And other sort of things that you do and giving is the act of giving away are releasing something of value.
[00:04:24] Notice that giving can be done without generosity. You can give because you have to, or because you're forced to, or because you feel like you must. But generosity cannot be realized without giving of some resource. You have to give over something else. If you're sacrificing for the benefit of others. But keep in mind that generosity is only part of what happens in stewardship.
[00:04:50] It's not the whole picture. It instead is part of the primary responsibility of a steward to take care and [00:05:00] manage the resources that are left. After generosity has happened. So it's not about just giving away things. It's also about managing what is left behind and making sure that is still done in alignment with what God has called us to do.
[00:05:17] This is one of the reasons why sometimes if you're just giving the tide, but then you're going and using the resources in a poor way that are left behind. That is not really a heart of stewardship. And the truth is it's not about wanting something from someone it's about wanting something for them, good stewardship, and being willing to tie them, being willing to give and having a heart of generosity is all about the heart and the spirit.
[00:05:48] Not the mind. It's about. Not a financial question, but a spiritual one that makes us a giver because our God is a giver, he calls [00:06:00] for us to be generous. He calls for us to be a giver. That's part of how we're supposed to manage those resources that God blesses us with. And you can find example of example about how, when the resources get in the way, when the money gets in the way with your heart, then all of a sudden, regardless of your wealth, You're spiritually poor and you don't have a heart of generosity and you don't have a good mind for stewardship.
[00:06:26] The truth is stewardship is not about the causes you believe in stewardship is not about a financial or math problem. Instead, it's a heart problem. When you give over something, despite any logical reason why you should have done it. That's because there's a call on your heart. When you find yourself giving generously, even whenever you're struggling yourself, that is a call on your heart.
[00:06:51] When you are able to continue to tie the, even when it seems like this is not wise, that is a call on your heart. [00:07:00] Not your mind. It's not a financial question. It's a spiritual question. It's one of, one of how you feel one of your soul that caused that to happen. But the truth is having good. Stewardship is a powerful wealth building principle.
[00:07:16] The truth is there's a practical aspect to it. If you aren't able to organize your finances, if you don't make a plan for what you're going to do, if you don't pay attention and aren't intentional about how you spend and how you save and how you earn. Then you end up not able to do any of the other things that you're called to do.
[00:07:40] Why? Because that money will get in the way of your ability to do that. There's also an emotional aspect to money because out of stewardship comes the recognition that if you do foolish things with the money, you're actually. Using and doing something that is against the will [00:08:00] of God, God. And if you truly believe that that's important in your life, then that is not an idea that you're comfortable with.
[00:08:07]It causes us sometimes to spend for emotional reasons, but having that heart of stewardship begins to bring us back in alignment with that as well. The truth is if you don't align your financial decision-making with the wisdom of God, then you can't really be a good steward. It's also difficult, not impossible, but very difficult to have a heart of generosity.
[00:08:34] And it's also going to affect how and what you actually feel called to give and are able and willing to give as well. All of these things are tied together. But the interesting thing is that givers truly do gain. If you have the mindset of helping others, if you have the mindset of giving, if you have the mindset of generosity and the mindset of stewardship, if those live in [00:09:00] your heart and your mind, then what you'll find is over time, your wealth will grow, not just in the amount of money you have.
[00:09:08] But in all sorts of other blessings that are poured out into your resources as well. Thanks for listening.
[00:09:20] 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 listened, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of treasures. You can sign up for our treasures tips by going to inspired stewardship.com/treasures or texts in the U S four four two two two treasures tips.
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