SNS 140: Saturday Night Special – Interview with Scott LaPierre pastor and author of the book series “God’s Way”

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Welcome to tonight's Saturday night, special episode 140.

[00:00:05] Scott LaPierre: Hi, I'm Scott LaPierre , a pastor, author, and speaker, and 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 treasure is to live out your calling, having the ability to run your life.

[00:00:21] God's. Instead of hours 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

[00:00:31] Spending time with the Lord and having your family spend time with the Lord before you go through a trial or else you're going to be blindsided by that. But if you've got a close relationship with the Lord and He is for you. And I don't mean for you. Like we talked about earlier, that means it's going to help you avoid trials, but he's for you.

[00:00:46] And then he's going to use them for your good, he knows what's best for you. Then you can go through that trial and you can proceed. Or if you know the word well, there's going to burst that, come to mind.

[00:00:57] Scott Maderer: Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired [00:01:00] stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time.

[00:01:08] Your talent and your treasures for your true calling 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.

[00:01:23] It tonight Saturday night special. I interview Scott LaPierre. I asked Scott about his faith journey and how his books came from that. I also asked Scott about the most common financial issues he's seen facing people. And I asked Scott to share with you about perseverance and the importance it has in our lives.

[00:01:43] Now, one area that a lot of folks need some help with is around the area of productivity. Getting not just more things done, but actually getting the right things done can be really. [00:02:00] I've got a course called productivity for your passion. That's designed to help you do this and then to hold you accountable and walk with you so that you can tailor productivity, not just to be getting more done, but actually getting the right things done.

[00:02:17] What's more, we take the approach of looking at your personality and how you actually look at things in the world and tailor the productivity system to your personnel. Because the truth is a lot of the systems that are out there are written really well for somebody with a particular personality type.

[00:02:35] But if you have a different approach to things, they just don't work, but there's tools and techniques and approaches that you can take that will work for anyone. And we help you do that in productivity for your passion. Check it out over@inspiredstewardship.com slash law. Scott lop here is the senior pastor of Woodland Christian Church in Woodland, Washington, an [00:03:00] Arthur and conference speaker.

[00:03:01] He holds an ma in biblical studies from Liberty university, Scott and his wife, Katie have nine children and they are passionate homeschooling advocates. Scott is a former school teacher and army officer, and he's also the author of several books and a series of books called God's way, including your finances God's way.

[00:03:21] And many of them. Welcome to the show sky.

[00:03:24] Scott LaPierre: Good to be here, Scott. Yeah. Thank you for having me.

[00:03:27] Yeah,

[00:03:27] Scott Maderer: it will be easy for me to remember your name. I don't

[00:03:31] Scott LaPierre: for your listeners. If it's going to have to be like Scott M. Scott.

[00:03:34] Scott Maderer: Luckily if they go look at the transcript, it actually will have your name.

[00:03:38] When you're talking to my name. When I'm talking, I actually do that in the transcript. So that'll be fun. So Scott, thank you for being here and. A little bit I just mentioned in the intro you're a pastor you've done biblical studies you, your wife and beautiful kids, all of these sorts of different things.

[00:03:59] And [00:04:00] that before that you were a school teacher getting another commonality and then you were an army officer. Okay. I don't have that one. But I do live in San Antonio and that's army USA. So our well military USA, mainly air force, but some army. That kind of journey, and how does that tie into your faith journey where you've gone from being a school teacher and army officer to now a pastor, but also in Arthur and all of these different pieces expand a little bit on that journey.

[00:04:28] Scott LaPierre: Yeah, sure. We don't see what God's doing at the time. And then we'll look back and we see his fingerprints on the course of our lives. And at the time they can feel a little might feel confusing or feel like we're going in a certain direction. And then God redirects, I wasn't raised in a Christian home.

[00:04:41] I became a Christian in my early twenties. By that time. I was I was an elementary school teacher. I'd left the army and I was surrounded by a few Christians who were inviting me to church and I wasn't going. And then my brother had, he died of a drug overdose and they told me you really should come and you should talk to our pastor.

[00:04:59] [00:05:00] He lost his. When he was about your age and I was struggling and I went to this church, no intention of getting saved or being born again or anything like that. I didn't go with the Bible, but I went and someone gave me a Bible and the pastor preached a verse and explained it and read a verse and explained it.

[00:05:15] And I really thought God was speaking to me. It more witness a, I became a Christian to speed this up soon after that and started reading the Bible a lot on my own. And I pretty much thought I'd spend the rest of my life as a school schoolteacher. But I was surprised to find that my passion for teaching school was declining.

[00:05:33] And my passion for I was getting involved in some home fellowships or Bible studies. I'd attend them. People might ask me to start leading them. And I basically to make it simple, I wanted to tell people open their Bibles versus old students open their math books or English books, and so I was waiting and then God opened the door for me to start a part-time position where I was teaching.

[00:05:53] And that worked nicely, the church group. This in California in Lamar, there's enabled Lamar is [00:06:00] mostly known for enabled based data from listening. It's a little south of Fresno, but the church grew that hired me. Full-time as an associate pastor. I did that until I came to Washington in 2010, where I've been the senior pastor preaching pastor at Wilin Christian Church.

[00:06:14] And as far as the offering. I was writing out my sermons very thoroughly. If there's kind of two approaches to preaching you, you have people that have very abbreviated notes, just like a phrase to jar their memory and what they're going to say. I'm the opposite. I'm writing out my, my sermon script.

[00:06:30] Yeah. We're looking at 4,000 to 6,000 words sometimes. Or sometimes over 6,000, but typically around 4,000 words. And I'm working on that manuscript all week. I'm polishing it, refining it. So that by the time I get up there, I don't have to read it because I'm familiar with it from looking at it so much.

[00:06:46] But it's a pretty refined manuscript that can translate well into a book. If you want to say like your lessons, I have lessons on my sermon. Those could be headings for chapters, or you might say, and so my wife was nudging me for quite a few years. Hey, you need [00:07:00] to publish something here.

[00:07:01] You put so much time into these sermons and get more mileage out of them by, but I was so busy we just had our ninth child, obviously wouldn't have as many children. This was six years ago, but we were homeschooling. And from pastoring here, you could basically work from the time you get up till you go to bed.

[00:07:16] And pastors only

[00:07:17] Scott Maderer: work on Sunday. What are you talking about? Just like school teachers only work Monday through Friday. Yeah. And I

[00:07:24] Scott LaPierre: think the irony is that for most of us, for most pastors, Sunday is a lighter day.

[00:07:29] Scott Maderer: Was the light day. You actually get to go home and take a nap on Sunday.

[00:07:32] Scott LaPierre: Yeah. Yeah. You have a lot of that day off.

[00:07:34] Whereas most days it's a four day. I pulled away for a vacation during a vacation time and took the sermon manuscripts and took my wife's counsel, trusting that God was using her to direct me. And then that was my first book. It was marriage God's way. And I was self-publishing it.

[00:07:50] Cause I couldn't get anyone to, to give, take an interest in me to traditionally publish. And that's how that journey of publishing began, which brings us up to [00:08:00] today with a finance book coming out in may.

[00:08:02] Scott Maderer: Yeah. Circling back to the beginning of it. And I know you said making a long story short but let's make a short story long to the how do you think so you weren't raised Christian, but then you became.

[00:08:17] Christian. And now you're a pastor thank you about and not necessarily becoming a pastor, cause that's not the calling that everyone has on their heart, but how do you think that kind of aligns with how many people find their calling in life? Find what it is that God is telling them.

[00:08:34] This is what you're supposed to be doing.

[00:08:36] Scott LaPierre: I think that God, I'm not a health and wealth preacher, I'm not a prosperity gospel. Preacher. I don't tell people become a Christian. See, you're happy the rest of your life. I think that being a Christian in, in this Jesus said in this world, you will have tribulation James one, I wrote a book on trial.

[00:08:50] So I'm condensing trials. You think

[00:08:53] Scott Maderer: that's the definition of Christian? You haven't actually read the Bible. All right.

[00:08:57] Scott LaPierre: So we agree. I'm assuming [00:09:00] most of your listeners agree with that too. But I do think that God wants us to experience pleasure find joy. I don't think he wants us to be miserable serving.

[00:09:11] I think we experienced trials, but if it's like the same way, I would tell people to determine their gifts. If someone said how do I know what my gift is? My first question is, what do you enjoy doing? If there's some people that want to be behind the scenes. We have conferences or events that our church, they want to be in the kitchen.

[00:09:27] Then they've got the gift of service. There's people that are somewhat hurting and they just want to go bring them a meal. They want to talk to them. They got the gift of murder. You is, I knew I wanted, I liked teaching and I didn't even know any of the gift inventories and scripture, but I enjoy teaching.

[00:09:41] I have been coaching and sure enough, I became a pastor and I wanted to share God's word with people. And so I enjoy it. I still enjoy preaching. It's my favorite thing to do speaking and preaching. And so I would invite people to consider how they feel like God has gifted them and determine how God has gifted them by what they enjoy doing.[00:10:00]

[00:10:00] And then expect God wants to open doors for you to use the gifts that he's, that he has given you. I don't think God's trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. I don't think that he's building us one way and then expecting us to operate totally outside of our. Of our gifting. It's not to say that the person that you know, has the gift of leadership never serves and the person that serves and it doesn't ever do anything merciful or the person with mercy doesn't ever, it doesn't ever have to ever be in some, somewhat of a leadership position.

[00:10:29] But for the most part, I think God directs us and confirms what that's, what it is that he wants us to do. Based on the strengths and weaknesses we have.

[00:10:36] Scott Maderer: So that kind of brings us to, you mentioned the book earlier that you've got coming out and you've got a whole series of books the God's way series.

[00:10:45] And now you're looking at finances. And I've been invited into talk on finances in churches because. In my experience, a lot of pastors really don't want to talk about money. So how did you get [00:11:00] called or how did you get this itch to, to start writing a book on finances as part of this writing journey.

[00:11:09] Scott LaPierre: Yeah. This could almost piggyback on the previous question you asked me. I think about Philip in acts eight, when he hits to minister share the gospel Ethiopian eunuch. He has no idea that's what's in store. It's like he does one thing. It takes one step and then he heads that direction.

[00:11:26] Got her bills, the next step. And I think a lot of our Christian life looks like that. You just take the next step. God has for you. He doesn't show you the whole road. And so to be clear, when I first started working on a marriage book, I didn't even know the title of it. Say nothing about knowing that there would be a brand, a God's way brand or.

[00:11:42] And during trials God's way and work and rest God's land and finances God's way. I didn't know anything more than I'm just taking this first step and trying to write this book. And so I would say for most of us this is what it means to live a life of faith, or this is what it means to trust the Lord that we're just taking that next step out [00:12:00] and allowing him to show us your word is a lamp to my feet a lamp doesn't shine.

[00:12:05] Miles ahead. You get the light or the revelation illumination you need for that next step. On your journey. And so for me I just started writing, putting this book together. And to be honest with you, Scott, if I had any idea how incredibly difficult the publishing world was, or the journey that was ahead of me, I probably would not have had the heart to do it.

[00:12:26] It's like the V12 spies. You get the idea that God didn't want them. Spying out the land, it wasn't his idea. And they go and spot the land. And then they're terrified by all the enemies they see God's plan was they'd encounter these enemies one at a time and get one victory and then the next, but if they to see all the enemies they're going to have to defeat, then sure enough they would be fearful and faithless, which is what happened.

[00:12:48] Oh,

[00:12:49] Scott Maderer: it feels so it feels like it'd be so much easier if you just knew the whole journey upfront. There's a lot of truth in that. Don't you think sometimes if we do the whole journey? Oh no, I firmly believe you're absolutely [00:13:00] right. I agree. 110%. I think concept is protecting us from ourselves, but I still, I will say.

[00:13:07] I still pray. Sometimes it's show me the whole journey. Show me where this is going to end up. Absolutely. I just think, I think sometimes God looks at you and go, you really don't want to know that.

[00:13:16] Scott LaPierre: Yeah. You don't want to see all the giants in the land. See all of them at once. Just let's just take this one step at a

[00:13:22] Scott Maderer: time.

[00:13:24] Scott LaPierre: Yeah. And so looking back it's been five, six years since I started this publishing journey and I would not have guessed that it would have taken the direction it did. I, again, I didn't know about a brand God's way. I didn't know. I'd have another God's way book. I basically, I wrote marriage God's way and I could have easily called it something else.

[00:13:39] I think I was entertaining. To become one or something along those lines as the title. And if I had done that, then there wouldn't even be a God's way brand. So that's how loose this sort of develop over the, I didn't sit down and pen out. Okay, I'll do this book and then this, it was just like, I finished Meredith God's way and took a big sigh of relief and then thought the next thing I've got these sermons I preached on [00:14:00] trials.

[00:14:00] I think I'll do the trials book and. And then I have, I preached on Abraham and Isaac and I've always been a fan of typology. And I don't, if you don't understand that God called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to prefigure what God was going to do with his son 2000 years later, then you don't understand that account.

[00:14:15] Genesis 22 basically looks like God told the father to murder his son unless you understand that God was prefiguring or foreshadowing, what he would do with his. In human terms with Abraham and Isaac, then I don't think that account makes sense. And my burden for people to understand Abraham and Isaac or understand topology is where a father offers his son was birthed from.

[00:14:35] But again I didn't really anticipate writing that years earlier. How about the money part though? Is that something that you've done a series on before and it was birthed out of that or out of questions that you get, or where did it come from?

[00:14:49] There was that guy that would came out of two to there's a duality to it.

[00:14:54] There were definitely sermons. I don't have the time or inclination to, to publish a book or write a [00:15:00] bunch of book material that I haven't preached on. So there've been times where a few times where. I need to beef up this book and I'm looking for an opportunity to teach or preach that content in my church so that I can commit that week of studying studying for that sermon.

[00:15:15] But I'm also trying to prepare this chapter and I th I think there's a benefit for that many people understand that if your pastor is writing, Then that's strengthening his preaching and his preaching is strengthening his writing and vice versa. So it's not shortchanging the church at all. If a pastor knows that he's preparing a sermon, that's going to be a chapter in a book he's probably going to have even more incentive to be diligent in his studying.

[00:15:38] And so there was the preaching on finances. And then the other side of it was that I had a heart for finances. I was a business major. I liked finances. I started investing when I was pretty young. And I think. I think we should deal with areas of, I don't know if I'd say expertise, ideally if we can deal with areas of expertise, but at least familiarity and [00:16:00] experience.

[00:16:00] And for me, that's finances. I didn't, I can't talk about, I'm not mechanical. I can't work on cars. I know guys that in my church to build their houses and I can't do any of that. So I deal with what I'm familiar with, which happens to be finances and stewardship. When you think about that within the church, within members of your congregation, what are some of the most common financial issues, financial questions, financial struggles that, that bubbled up that later turned into content for the book.

[00:16:30] Good. So most of us actually, I I don't want to offend anyone that might be listening and I don't want to imply that there are not people with legitimate financial issues, but. If you develop any amount of familiarity with the affluence of our country compared to other nations and compared to the rep to people throughout history, I don't just mean that we are extraordinarily wealthy compared to.

[00:16:56] All of history, we're extraordinarily wealthy compared to most of the rest of the world. What [00:17:00] that means is we don't have we don't have income problems. Most of us, we generally make enough money to not just survive, but thrive. It's an issue of the heart. We're covetous, we're discontent, and we spend money when we shouldn't.

[00:17:14] We don't, I know it's what my, in the title of my book. The subtitle of my finance book is about being a steward. That's what led me to reach out to you with your show on stewardship and enjoy my conversations with you up to this point. And so people don't necessarily see their finances as a stewardship, but if you understand that every single dollar you have doesn't really belong to you, but it belongs to God and you're simply a steward of it.

[00:17:40] It makes you that much more responsible with all of your purchases, with all of your spending. And it also makes you that much more responsible. With your giving and it makes giving easier. In a sense it's a lot easier to give away money that doesn't belong to you. As soon as you recognize your money is God's money and that it's a stewardship, then it's that much easier for you to give it away or be [00:18:00] generous with it.

[00:18:00] So I think that's probably the biggest problem is people not people thinking they need more money thinking they need to make more money. When most people have plenty of money, if there'll be wiser,

[00:18:10] Scott Maderer: We got, there's actually a site. I don't know if you're familiar with it called how rich am I that you literally can put in your income and how many people are in your household and it'll show you compared to the global economy, how rich you are.

[00:18:24] And I can pretty much guarantee you that it's embarrassing how large you compare it to someone in Zimbabwe and it's what you make in an hour takes them. A year to make equivalent and that kind of thing. It shows you some of those comparisons and it's an eyeopening site if you've never been to

[00:18:44] Scott LaPierre: it.

[00:18:44] One of the other things that I thought I had an amount of credibility. Like I was saying earlier to deal with areas of similarity. I, my professions I was a school teacher, which doesn't make a lot of money and now on a pastor, which doesn't make a lot of money. And so [00:19:00] I actually thought that people would hear better or easier from me than they might hear from someone that's wealthy.

[00:19:06] So in other words, if someone's a million, if someone's wealthy and they're talking to you about finances and then spending and what to spend money on and not spend money on or how to avoid debt, you're like they don't have, might not have a lot of credibility. I was hoping we would have we just had our ninth child, we homeschool, we've been a single income family, our entire marriage.

[00:19:25] And so I thought hopefully people will be able to receive the counsel for me a little easier because we've had to walk, walk the walk

[00:19:32] Scott Maderer: so well, and yeah, it's I think too and again, like you said, not trying to offend anybody and not saying that the. Financial struggles that people have in this country and that I don't want to dismiss that or make light of it.

[00:19:48] And I know you don't either, but at the same time recognizing that you have more control over it than you might think at first glance. And I don't necessarily mean you [00:20:00] can magically make more money up here there are choices you make. There are things that. I have the ability to control.

[00:20:06] And a lot of it has to do with our mindset. Like you said, you know what, we're looking at the money as, are we looking at the money as our source of security? Or are we looking at the money as the thing that we're blessed with? So

[00:20:19] How do you think people can actually. When they're going through those financial struggles, like we just talked about, or when they're going through other trials and tribulations you mentioned earlier losing your brother and having got that struggle yourself.

[00:20:34] How, what are some of the ways that we can face that or persevere through that or make. It's hard to get through it. How do we get

[00:20:45] Scott LaPierre: through it? Yeah. Yeah. I'll say there's this illustration. I use it in my book on trials and I've used it preaching before from when I played football. I wasn't wasn't an excellent football player or anything along those lines.

[00:20:56] I played running back. I was in a small school [00:21:00] and so I was part of a small team and I was a running back and I was the kickoff for 200% return. And so I got the ball a lot. I got tackled a lot. And there's kind of two ways to get hit or tackled there's it's coming, you prepare for it.

[00:21:13] You talk the ball and kind of raise your shoulders to support your neck. And the guy delivers the blow and then you pick yourself up off the ground pretty easily. The difficult tackle is what we know is being blindsided. And I think that many of us are like an, a football player or we can be like a football player that sort of running down the field and we just get blindsided.

[00:21:34] We're not prepared for the trials that are introduced into our lives. And it's not to say that any of us are going to know those trials that are going to come, but we can prepare for them. And we prepare for them again, not by knowing what they are, but by developing a strong relationship with the Lord.

[00:21:49] And it's nice when someone goes through a trial and then you learn that they start reading their Bible, or someone goes through a trial and then they start praying or something goes to trial and they start going to church. And I'm not minimizing that, [00:22:00] but it's it's a little bit like almost studying for a test the day of the test it's nice.

[00:22:04] They're studying for the test, but it would have been better if they had started. It started out a little bit, a little earlier. There was this young lady. I think she had just read something on one of my YouTube videos on one of my marriage messages. And she said that she was really glad she watched it as a single.

[00:22:20] And I've had some single people come to my conferences and there's a couple of times they're almost like cringing and it's I'm not married, is it okay that I'm here? And my response is Hey, I wish more people were preparing for marriage before they were married.

[00:22:33] It's interesting. It's one, that's the most, one of the most important decisions we make, who we marry. And then we start preparing for marriage after marriage. I think people should read marriage books and go to marriage concepts before. Similarly, I think we should prepare for trials before we're in them.

[00:22:47] You want to be going to church, reading the Bible, praying, having family worship spending time with the Lord and having your family spend time with the Lord before you go through a [00:23:00] trial or else you're going to be blindsided by that. But if you've got a close relationship with the Lord and you know that he's for you, and I don't mean for you.

[00:23:07] Like we talked about earlier, that means he's going to help you avoid trials, but he's for you. And that he's going to use them for your good, he knows what's best for you. Then you can go through that travel and you can persevere if you know the word. There's going to be verses that, come to mind John 16 and the holy spirit will bring to mind or bring to our memory and those things.

[00:23:24] He can't bring to remember things you've never taken the time to, to remember, to learn or read But wholly, we need to have these verses in our hearts so that we can, God can bring them to mind when we're going through Childs and being encouraged by them. And then the second thing I would say is fellowship the importance of having other brothers and sisters in Christ, a church family.

[00:23:42] There's some stuff we went through as a family. And I don't know that we could have survived it if we didn't have our church. Literally we could have, but it would have been much more difficult. So having a church, family, brothers, and sisters in Christ, that support you pray for you rally around you and hopefully that's what church life looks like. [00:24:00] We're either going through a trial and people are ministering to us, or we're in a nice peaceful season and we're ministering to others, but we're either going through trials or we're helping people who are going through trials, but that can only be when you're part of a church family.

[00:24:13] So having those brothers and sisters in Christ, I think is also very much.

[00:24:16] Scott Maderer: And yeah, somebody once told me you're either going through, you're either going through a period of trouble or you're in the peace between a period of and it's kinda that's a little depressing in a way, but it's also got some truth to it.

[00:24:29] There's always going to be another problem. That's going to come along. None of us live a life that's problem-free and that's not what we're promised either. So thank you about that I, I know I could having nine children and homeschooling them, I think might go on this list, but what are some of the trials that you've gone through yourself with your family and how do you see good coming from those trials?

[00:24:56] Scott LaPierre: Okay. One thing that happened earlier this year, [00:25:00] We my, my dad has Alzheimer's he was a deacon in our church. My parents, I became a Christian and I was able to share the gospel. My parents, they became Christians. I was able to baptize them and they came, they followed us to Washington and they attend church.

[00:25:15] We attended church with us and My parents moved near us because dad had Alzheimer's and we were able to be nearby to help mama. She needed it. My kids just sorta knew that there were times that they look out the window and they'd frequently see mom walking after dad because he'd wander off.

[00:25:30] Or I we'd get a phone call and then I'd usually take one of my kids with me and we'd go over to my mom's house to, to help dad. Cause he was depressed or something like that. And my kids would draw a pictures. So there wasn't I was thankful. That's actually one, one way I saw God's goodness. I think it's good for our children to be exposed to an amount of suffering trials, difficulty.

[00:25:50] We limit it we're not going to show them anything terribly graphic or bring them. In the room while someone's in that throws a death or something. But I was glad my children [00:26:00] understand that this, we live in a sin, a fallen world and our, we get older and we die. It happens to all of us unless the Lord returns on our lifetimes.

[00:26:08] And so my children got to see that pretty, pretty up close and personal as my dad's mind was deteriorating, but he was still really strong physically. This one night, a few months ago, mom called me and she was just really panicking. I couldn't remember ever hearing her like this before.

[00:26:23] And she was screaming for me to head to their house. And I was so I ran over. To her house and didn't take me very long to get there. And dad was passed out on the floor and he, I started administering CPR to him. He had choked on some food, which I guess can be a kind of common thing with people with Alzheimer's.

[00:26:40] And my associate pastor happened to be with me and he came and he was. Alternating delivering CPR. And the ambulance came and I ran out to get them and they came in, but they weren't, they were not able to revive my dad. And it was a shock. It was a shock to all of us. We thought he with him and I was Alzheimer's.

[00:26:57] We got a couple more years left with him. When, so I [00:27:00] mentioned that because then you say what is the good that can come from that? He happened to pass away on a Sunday night. We'd had a really nice day, a nice morning of worship. We'd had a lot of time as a family. We'd had our newest child at the time and my dad had not held.

[00:27:14] Ha, we hadn't really let doubt hold some of our babies as has Alzheimer. We weren't sure if he might set the baby down on the edge of the table or something like that. And we're at the table that day. And Lydia crawled across the table to my dad and he held Ladia. We had a nice meal together. We had evening service and an evening of worship, and there had been a day, a few days earlier when mom had asked me she had to have a surgery and I stayed at the house with my dad.

[00:27:37] And it was just the two of us. And he started to fall asleep in the chair and I brought him in the bedroom to go to sleep and helped him on, he started put his pajamas on over his pants and he's continuous and stuff and just tender moment to help my help. My dad get dressed.

[00:27:52] We get in his pajamas. And put them in bed and talk to him in and gave him a kiss. And I looked at him and I just said, I love you very much, [00:28:00] dad. And I said, do you know that I love you very much. And so that took him a few times and he looked up at me and just, it was just seemed like a very sweet, tender moment.

[00:28:08] The Lord gave me not long before my dad passed. I felt very thankful that I had. Even when my dad was losing some of this faculty has mentally, there had been quite a few times, I'd stood in front of him and I put my hands on his shoulders and I just looked him in the eyes.

[00:28:24] And I said, dad, I love you very much. I love you very much. So I didn't have it, I guess I'm just saying I didn't have any regrets. I didn't grow up in a Christian home, so I didn't always have the best relationship with my dad, God redeemed it. And I'm thankful that my children saw my dad, that they were around him.

[00:28:39] I'm thankful because my, it was just my brother and I. And so when my brother passed away, I'm thankful that my parents had my grandchildren, their grandchildren, my children, I'm thankful that That my dad, there's not a lot of dignity for people when they're all timers gets much worse. And so there's a sense in which I was very sad that my dad passed away unexpectedly, but it allowed him to pass away with [00:29:00] dignity.

[00:29:00] So there, there are just a lot of blessings that we saw and something that you wouldn't think would be very blessed, a man choking and passing away unexpectedly like that. But God was still, it was a Romans 8 28 situation that God worked out for. Good. And. Many ways. And my mom, fortunately, she's near us.

[00:29:16] She got lonely being home alone. And so she moved in with us and she is, we're building her in addition in the back of our house. And so it's been nice to have her around. And I should not lonely now living with us as 90 days,

[00:29:30] Scott Maderer: I guess. Yeah. And again, like I said, jokingly, I mean with nine kids, y'all gotta be able to find me in a trial or tribulation.

[00:29:37] Yeah, every time you turn around right here. Again, I was a school teacher, so I know that one kid is a handful and you've got to have a whole herd of them yeah. That's thank you for sharing that with your dad and again my condolences It having been around a large number of [00:30:00] Alzheimer's patients it, that is a challenging situation to be around people that have Alzheimer's and then with that leading to where it left.

[00:30:09] But at the same time, I think pointing out that. A lot of it isn't that the things that you are saying made, came out of it as a good, it's not that they're good or bad, it's that you're focusing on recognizing that within that situation, there are still things that are blessings. There are still things that are goodness, there's still things that are an advantage that came out of it too.

[00:30:32] Yeah. The demonstration of God's grace through it.

[00:30:34] Scott LaPierre: I appreciate the way that you

[00:30:35] Scott Maderer: said that yet, because it is. What are we choosing to take from the journey as opposed to the journey? I think is important. So you mentioned stewardship earlier, and of course that's my brand and I talk about stewardship a lot on the show.

[00:30:51] But I've learned over the years that using that word, different people here and mean different things when they say it. So I like to ask all of [00:31:00] my guests, what is stewardship to you and what has its impact been on your life?

[00:31:05] Scott LaPierre: Okay, good. So I think if I biblically what we should do is we should try to think biblically, we should try to have a role, a biblical worldview, and we should try to use biblical terms and understand what the Bible means when it says something.

[00:31:18] And then in scripture it says a steward must be found faithful. So a steward is someone who isn't essentially biblically speaking. When we look at parables or when we look at stewards and scripture, they were people who have possession or ownership. Some of someone else's stuff really, they didn't, it wasn't their own stuff.

[00:31:35] They were responsible. They're like a manager really, of other people's possessions. And there's a sense in, and you would know this, you would be able to elaborate on this even better, better than I could. The other ways that were it since that's your expertise, but we're stewards of money comes to mind, but we're stewards of our time.

[00:31:50] There's an amount of time that all of us have been given. The way muster, I'm a steward of my children. God has given me nine children and you hear someone else, nine children, and you think, wow, you want to have a lot of children. It wasn't that [00:32:00] we wanted. Or I hate to use word tried to have a lot of children.

[00:32:03] We just want to what God would give us. And he gave us nine. He could have given us four and maybe he'll get us 10 or 12 or something. I don't know. But I'm stewards. I'm a steward of all of the children. He gives me however many that is if it's 1, 2, 3 or nine. And so I'm responsible for them and how I parent them.

[00:32:20] Completely responsible with how they are free moral agents, but I'm still a steward of them. I'm a steward of my marriage and my wife and my home. And that can be a paradigm shift for people. The idea of a stewardship. It can really pervade all aspects of life, where we recognize that everything there is.

[00:32:37] Early in my Christian life, he was very hospitable. His family would have us over this large group of people for a Bible study that he, that I was leading. And so I greatly appreciated him cause I didn't have, I was a single guy. I didn't have a house for a Bible study like this. And I said to him one time and I didn't, it was, might not sound monumental to you to some of your listeners, but to me it was pretty significant.

[00:32:56] I said, thanks so much for opening your home and having us all over as often [00:33:00] as you do. And he said, that's what it's for. And I thought that's when it's. I thought that's not, I knew it was to me. I thought that's not what your house is for your house is for you and your family. It's not for these other people, but for him, because it was a stewardship, his house really was.

[00:33:15] For God's glory for God's kingdom for having Bible studies. And so if you understand what is your, we have a a van, we have a car, we have those two vehicles, one of those vehicles for what is our home for what are our finances for? So stewardship is basically using what God has given you for his glory.

[00:33:32] He has redeemed Christ has redeemed us. We belong to him entirely to him. All of our time belongs to him. All of our. And it's not to say that we have to spend every single moment in prayer reading the Bible. We see some great men in scripture that, that enjoyed pleasures. There's honorable noble things we can do that.

[00:33:48] Don't look ultra, ultra spiritual. We just, we went to a beach house as a family. I was on vacation this past week and came home yesterday. And so that was nice to go to the beach with my family and kind of get away a little [00:34:00] bit. But so it's not to say that every single thing has to have a culture ultra spiritual, but hopefully we're keeping in mind that we are, have been given.

[00:34:09] Time money, relationships, resources, possessions that belong to the Lord and to be a good steward is to be faithful with what that's the parable of the talents, right? You have three men, three stewards, and what's interesting is the third servant or third stupid. That Christ says is wicked and lazy.

[00:34:27] I, we understand lazy, but it's, it seems odd that he called him wicked, because what makes someone wicked to us a person is wicked because he committed murder or he committed adultery or stole something did evil. Exactly. But this man was evil or wicked without doing anything. Actually it was his doing nothing that made him wicked in God's eyes.

[00:34:49] And that's important to her. That we can be considered wicked simply because essentially like him, we're being poor stewards of the talents that God has given us.

[00:34:57] Scott Maderer: And I think too to call out something you said [00:35:00] there. Cause I think a lot of times we ascribe. If I'm not spending time praying 24 7, if I'm not, I'm going to church every single time that I can go to church.

[00:35:13] Those are the moments that our worship and our giving to God when the reality is no, it's supposed to be. Every moment is giving to God and in a way by setting that aside and going well, I'm not being worshipful because I'm not in church right now. Okay. But you can be worshipful even if you're not in church.

[00:35:29] So yeah, the working that you do can be a form of worship. The, I recently resigned from a position because I felt out of alignment with the kind of what I was being called to do. Not because they were doing anything illegal or moral or whatever, but I couldn't support the decisions that were being made.

[00:35:51] I need to set up away from it. Yeah. W it's ingenious to be it's, disingenious to be part of it when I can't support it. Because to [00:36:00] me, my work is worship and if I feel like it's out of alignment then I need to go do something else. I think it's important too, that we realize that, that it's not just in the quote churchy moments that we can be doing stewardship and doing.

[00:36:13] Yeah, all

[00:36:14] Scott LaPierre: of those, there's something that's called the print. The principle of first mentioned. And it's the idea that we can understand the gray, the clearest definition, or we can develop the clearest understanding of a word from when it's first mentioned our first used needs scripture. And I think there's a lot of truth in that.

[00:36:29] And so Speidel scholars will take notice of when words are first used. And so interestingly, the first time the word worship is used is when Abraham was taking Isaac up to sacrificing. And he said the young man and I will go and worship and we will come back to you. And that's bizarre to us because like you said, worshiped us as being in church singing songs.

[00:36:50] Sometimes we don't even understand. I have to, sometimes I remind my church that listening to the sermon is worship. So we don't even think we might only think singing songs as well. But like you were saying [00:37:00] whatever we're doing, if we're doing it for God's glory Abraham could sacrifice his son, Isaac, and call that worship because it was being done out of obedience, and

[00:37:09] Scott Maderer: God.

[00:37:09] I run the HIV. Sunday. And I always tell people that in a way it's challenging because I want to participate in worship, but I've also got a job to do. So I have to make doing my job is by act of worship or else I'm not worshiping and again, we I've had the pleasure of preaching and the same thing happens when you're leading worship.

[00:37:32] It's a weird act of worship because it's different than participating in. In other ways not better or worse, just different too. So I think that's interesting. So let me ask you my favorite question. This is my favorite question of the show. If I could invent this magical machine and I could pluck you from the chair where you sit today.

[00:37:55] Transport you into the future, a hundred to 150 years. And you were [00:38:00] able God granted you, the gift of being able to look back at your entire life and seeing all of the impact, the ripples, all of the little touches that you've had. What impact do you hope you've left behind on the world?

[00:38:11] Scott LaPierre: I hope I raise kids that love Christ.

[00:38:15] I hope I have children that go out in the world and have a heart for Christ. And I don't hope that they have. Being famous or well-known, I just hope they grow up and they have a relationship with the Lord and hopefully they raise children that there's an, I would take that over any book sales or speaking or anything like that.

[00:38:30] We close out each evening as a family or try to in prayer, most evenings, we're pretty we're able to, and each night I think my children have heard me pray for their salvation. I don't No too many different ways to pray it. So they've heard me say a lot of those same words. How many different ways can you say Lord say my children and grant my children, faith in Christ.

[00:38:52] And yeah, I would pretty much give up anything to have all my children be saved and serving the Lord throughout their lives. And if any with books [00:39:00] I'm thankful. I sometimes people tell me, Hey, I listened to this message or watch the sermon of yours or read this book. That's really nice.

[00:39:06] It is meaningful. You do want to think, you do want to believe that what you're doing is making. A difference. I think of Jeremiah and the difficulty of his 40 year ministry, not one recorded convert under his ministry, so it's like

[00:39:19] Yeah. And how difficult that would be. But so it's nice to be told, Hey this sermon or this book made it made a difference in my life, or God used it, but really it would be raising children that love.

[00:39:31] Scott Maderer: So what's coming next for you, as you continue on this journey to living out your call, what's on the what's on the roadmap.

[00:39:40] Scott LaPierre: So marriage, my marriage book, your marriage God's a was published in September. I don't know when exactly when this episode's going to air, but that was pretty recent. And so I'm still working on that marketing it or responding to messages about. And then it may my next book, this is the one we've been talking about your finances God's way.

[00:39:57] And so coming out in may of [00:40:00] 2022 that I've already finished the book, it's already got the cover it's already it's kinda interesting how long the journey is when you're publishing, because you finish the book and you're not that book's not going to be published for a very long time. And so I finished the work on it a while ago.

[00:40:13] But it will be published in may. And then I've got some speaking engagements teach them diligently as a homeschooling conference. And they asked me to be a featured speaker for them. So I've got to, so if anyone lives in near Tennessee or near Texas, those are the two locations that I will be.

[00:40:28] Then I would love love for you to come see me and say, hi, I enjoy putting on marriage conferences. So if there's anyone listening and then I'll hopefully put on some financial conferences, then if your church would like a merit speaker, I'd be glad. Try to make that happen too.

[00:40:41] Scott Maderer: Yeah. Awesome. And yes, this will be out in they'll listeners are hearing this in may. So your book should be coming out right around the same time. I think your book will be out. I believe the weekend before this is live for everybody. Cause there should be going [00:41:00] live May 9th as well.

[00:41:02] So you can find out more about Scott.

[00:41:04] You can find out more about Scott on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn as pastor WCC. He also has a YouTube channel. Is Scott LaPierre or on Facebook is Scott LaPierre ministries. You can also find out more about his books and speaking, if you'd like to have him come speak@yourchurchatscottlapierre.org.

[00:41:30] Scott, is there anything else that you'd like to share with.

[00:41:32] Scott LaPierre: I like to give my listeners a free gift. There's a little marriage book or more like a pamphlet it's called seven biblical insights for healthy, joyful Christ and our marriages. It's a short read. Yeah. Nothing to be intimidated by.

[00:41:44] There's just seven insights that I think are really helpful for marriage. And I'd love to offer that to you. As a free gift, you can find it on my website. So like Scott just mentioned, my website is my name, Scott liberia.org. I'm guessing that the other scout will probably put a link to it in the show notes.

[00:41:58] And if you go to my website, you should be able to [00:42:00] find that pretty easily and get a copy of that. And if there's any ways I can pray for you, you can contact me on my website, through the contact page. And so stay Scott. I appreciate what you're doing in your ministry and ways. God's brought you along and thanks for letting me come along in a small way and serve you and hopefully serve your with.

[00:42:17] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. We're glad to have had you here today and good stuff.

[00:42:20] 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 listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.

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