Episode 987: Biblical Success

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 987 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Jennifer Lazzatto: I'm Jennifer Lozado, author of inheriting chaos with compassion. I encourage you to find the ways to be loving with your family both before and after you pass. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.

[00:00:25] Scott Maderer: But I think the reason that the Bible talks so much about money talks so much about success. There are literally dozens and dozens of Bible verses that I could pull out and relate to you that are about money. They're about success. And there are about our attitude around those things, because this is an area.

[00:00:46] That we as human beings are inherently going to struggle with. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who [00:01:00] God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your. For your true color in the inspired stewardship podcast, we'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:18] And today's spiritual foundation episode about developing your influence. I talk with you about Matthew chapter six verses 19 through 20. I also share why it is important that you really think about how you measure success. And I share why the Bible spends so much time talking about money and success.

[00:01:38] Matthew chapter six, verses 19 through 20. Most people have heard before it says. Do not lay up for yourselves, treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourself, treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not [00:02:00] break in and steal.

[00:02:02] Now, this passage to me has a lot of meaning about what it means to be successful. The world's definition of success is usually about wealth, about power or about popularity. It's about whether or not people look at you as someone who's powerful. Look at you as someone who they admire are, look at you as someone who is rich in terms of dollars and cents.

[00:02:31] But this passage is talking about not focusing on that, but rather focusing on things that are lasting. And eternal focusing on not just whether or not you have a good relationship with others or with God, but also looking at things that are centered, not on gratification and promotion of ourselves, but rather obedience and [00:03:00] glorification of God and of others.

[00:03:03] The success that they're talking about here comes out of a relationship with God and a relationship with others. And I can tell you that can be difficult because sometimes it means that we get this false idea that any sort of worldly success automatically means that we can't be spiritually successful.

[00:03:27] But I think it's important that you focus on how do you measure success. And if you're measuring success, strictly based off the dollars and cents in your bank account, or the number of people that like you on Facebook or the number of things that you have that come out there in terms of power, the number of people that you boss around.

[00:03:53] Then we're focused only on the worldly success. And that tends to make us selfish. That tends to make us less [00:04:00] humble. That tends to make us see fruits of the spirit. That tend to be things that we don't want. Think about it. You've been around people that you can tell that in their mind, it's all about this.

[00:04:15] But instead, you've also been around people, even people that may have some trappings of worldly success, they may have some power, they may have some popularity, they may have some wealth, but you can feel in their spirit that it's not self centered. It's not all about the. And usually that's because that person has done a good job of figuring out what are they really focused on.

[00:04:41] And that focus is usually about others and about a relationship with their faith, their ethics, their belief in something that is bigger than them. And because of that, out of that comes things like humility, like righteousness, like gentleness, like [00:05:00] honesty, like goodness. Because they've actually done the hard work of figuring out what's important to them and what isn't, even though they have some things that the world could look at as the trappings of success.

[00:05:14] It's not all about those things. But I think the reason that the Bible talks so much about money talks so much about success, there are literally dozens and dozens of. Of Bible verses that I could pull out and relate to you that are about money. They're about success. And there are about our attitude around those things, because this is an area that we, as human beings are inherently going to struggle with.

[00:05:45] It's so easy to let money or power our popularity become the thing that you're. In many ways, it's our natural bent. We have to fight against it. We have to put energy into [00:06:00] not doing that. If it came easy, that it wouldn't be something that we had to work at. It wouldn't be something that we had to put energy into.

[00:06:08] It wouldn't be something that we struggle with and it would probably not be something that's in the Bible. Times because the goodness, the loyalty, the kindness, the gentleness that we are being told to exemplify, the good news that we are being told to spread should come out of that relationship with success, that isn't based on our own success that isn't based selfishly on looking to us, but rather should be looking to others and looking to glorifying.

[00:06:45] And that's a hard balancing act to hit at times. It's something that I've struggled with. It's something that most people struggle with and it's something that, unless you really think about what is success and how do I [00:07:00] measure it? What does it look like? It can be really hard. To stay with your mind and your heart and the right place.

[00:07:08] And this isn't something you do just one time and then you're all done with it. And you never have to think about it again. This is something that every time you hit a new level, you have to re-examine, you have to reset. You have to refocus. Find new places to be humble from. This is why so many people will get to a certain level of success.

[00:07:30] And at that point it will all crumble around them because at that level, for them, it now becomes about them and not about being other focused. And when that happens, it tends to be the moment that success crumbles around us. That's why it's so important. Thanks for watching.

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