Unlock the Secrets of True Financial Stewardship!
In this episode of the King's Council podcast, the hosts explore the biblical principle of stewardship as the core of true financial stewardship. They begin by contrasting ownership (God owns everything) with stewardship, defining stewardship as the effective management, delegation, and distribution of resources entrusted by God. Using the Parable of the Talents, they illustrate accountability and the expectation to multiply what is given. They categorize risk into three types—no risk (fear‑driven inaction), reckless risk (gambling without wisdom), and calculated risk (faith‑guided, informed decisions). The conversation then outlines six key characteristics of a godly steward/manager: accountability, discipline, honesty, diligence, faithfulness, and trustworthiness, and shows how these traits apply to all life areas, not just finances. Practical everyday applications are highlighted, such as the “penny principle” of faithfully handling even the smallest resources. The hosts tie these concepts into the broader Kingdom Money Principles series (ownership, worship, stewardship, kingship) and discuss how an entrepreneurial mindset, guided by biblical wisdom, can advance the Kingdom economy. They also examine other parables (Pearl, Hidden Treasure) to emphasize the all‑in commitment to God, warning against the danger of materialism that can cost one’s soul. Throughout, the tone is conversational, instructional, and enthusiastic, urging listeners to actively apply these principles to experience both spiritual and material abundance.
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Welcome back to another episode of the King's Council podcast. We're back at you today with some more kingdom money principles.
Back at it.
Back at it. Yes. Welcome, guys. If you haven't listened to last couple weeks episodes, we started out with the principle of ownership.
Yes.
God owns everything. And we're going to continue to through these. Just a quick reminder, ownership 4 kingdom money principles here that we're diving into. The principle of ownership. God owns everything.
We're.
What we are going to dive into today is the principle of stewardship. Stewardship, Yes. I feel like we could talk about this for an entire year.
Yes.
But we're going to make this very practical and inconcise for you guys on what stewardship is over the next couple episodes. Next we'll be going into the principle of worship. Have a couple episodes on that for you as well. And then the principle of kingship. Yes, yes, yes. I think what's important here is again to remember that none of these principles are meant to act independently. Right, right. That this is something that we need to. To not just know, understand, but actually to apply it into our lives.
Yes.
Right. Because there's this is, there's a. You know, some people just think that, oh, God owns the 10%. That ain't true. Right. God owns the hundred percent. He's just lent it to us. Essentially. He said, hey, manage the resources that I've given you. Yep. Right. So if that's you, this is why there are broke tithers. This is why you can be very faithful to the tithe. But if you're not stewarding the other 90% appropriately, you're gonna struggle.
Yeah.
Right. That's just the reality of the situation. Yeah.
And I think some people would call themselves a good steward just because they tithe 10%.
Yeah.
They're like, okay, I gave God is 10% back. Now I'm gonna do whatever I want. 90%. Yeah. And yeah, the. If you steward the only 10%, you're missing out.
Yes, yes, absolutely. When it boils down to this, number one, we are to love God.
Right.
And. And overarching, like, remember the two greatest commandments we've been given. Love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind and strength. Love their neighbor as ourself. Right. So how do we love God? Well, we, we operate in these principles. We understand that God owns everything. Right. We, we love God by own, by understanding that he's the owner. We worship with the tithe. Right. And then we steward. Well, and how do we do that if we know we can't serve both God and money. We. We serve God and make money serve us.
Amen.
That's what we're diving into today, baby. Let's get into this.
Let's do it.
Yes. Where do we even want to start? Gosh.
We have, what, 17 pages of notes for this one?
Yes, we do.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
Well, which will be coming out in Kingdom Money Principles book that we've got. It's going to be part three of our. Are the Kingdom Entrepreneur series. We've got the two books released already. You can actually find those On Kingdom entrepreneur books.com. the first two, they're. They're free up there if you want to just get the PDF, if you like. Something physical, though. PDF. PDF.
That's an audio file. A PDF?
Well, there's an audio file as well.
Okay.
Yes. But they can actually download it.
Okay.
But if you want a physical book, like, I like, I like to listen and to read at the same time. There's actually many studies that prove that your retention of that, if you're reading the words, but you're listening to words at the same time, the retention increases substantially.
Yeah.
That's why I wanted to provide the PDF as well.
Awesome.
Yes. Or go buy it for 15 bucks or whatever it is on Amazon. I don't know.
Yeah.
All right, let's do it. Let's do it.
So let's define stewardship. How about that, Stuart? Let's define stewardship.
Yes.
It is the effective management, delegation, and distribution of resources. So the effective management, delegation and distribution of resources. And really, the key word there is management.
Yes.
As a steward, we are managers. We're not owners of really anything on this earth. But God gives us the opportunity to manage what he sees us fit to be able to manage.
Yes. And I think what's important here, too, in this is so many Christians I even included at different times in my life, even in the last five years of my life, of looking to Jesus as truly Lord. Right. Which. That's what ownership pretty much boils down to, is lordship. In our life, if we acknowledge that God owns everything. A lot of Christians end up praying for a miracle only because they're stewarding so poorly. Right, Right. Yeah. They're just not.
They.
They haven't been trained. Right. And. And I think what's cool is, you know, we go to school. You can go to. You can take courses, things like that, to learn about finances. You can go to Dave Ramsey if you're in debt, learn about these things. But foundationally, the Bible give has Given us like incredible instruction and ultimately implementation. But we have to, we are the ones that ultimately have to implement this.
Yes. And best believe everything is a test. Everything. Look, look at, at your daily life. Look at your house. How do you, how do you upkeep your house?
Yeah.
Is it messy? Is it sloppy? You know, staying here as a guest in your house, I may make sure always, you know, the room I'm staying in, I, I, I make the bed every morning. And then when my last day here, I'll start a load of laundry with everything that, that I use. I'll empty the garbage in the bathroom I was using. When God entrusts us with things, our, our job isn't to just manage those things as far as maintain those things.
Right.
He entrusts us so we could actually add value to what he entrusts us. So if you take that mindset everywhere you go, everywhere you go, if you, it, you know, it was a beautiful room. We talked about it last week. You know how some people just spiffy up the house when they have a guest? But your house is pretty spiffy at all times, I believe.
Yes.
Ash, the maid, you know, all that,
she comes every three weeks.
But I want to leave it even better than how I found it. And think about it. You go to, I find myself even, you know, out to eat somewhere. And if the table's a mess. Right. Yeah, just, just food all over the place, I, I just want to help stack up the dishes for the server and make sure there's not a nasty mess. Yeah. When I leave.
Yeah.
And those things, everything is a test. God sees that. He sees our heart. We could convince ourselves all day long that you're a good steward.
Right.
But God really doesn't give a rip about what you know about yourself. Right. Like, like the, the example of Abraham being called to sacrifice Isaac.
Yeah.
I mean, I, I truly believe because Abraham actually acted it out. Right. I truly believe in Abraham's heart. He had the faith to do it, but it wasn't until he actually physically acted out that faith that God is a test. Yeah. Everything is a test. God sees everything that we do. There's nothing in secret. And when we could be entrusted with, with small things, God's gonna slowly add to those small things that we have and entrust us with more. If God owns everything, right. And there's how many people on Earth? 8 billion people at this point, or whatever the number is. Everybody's called to steward. If, if God owns everything, who's he going to go into Entrust with his stuff, with his business. It's going to be the people who have the proven track record. It's going to be the people who have been there, done that. I've shown my, my, my previous work of how I could manage God's business. And God's going to be like, okay, I'm going to give you more.
Yeah. And there's no better example than the parable of the talents.
Yeah.
Right. Which is. We're not going to read it on this episode here, but it's an incredible parable. Matthew 25. There's so many principles that you can come out of this. But you guys know that the kingdom of heaven is like, right? And. And then Jesus goes in to really explain that the Master, he was going on a journey and he entrusted a talent, one talent to one person, two talents to the other person, and five. Five talents to the other person. I held up four fingers on accident. If you're on YouTube, it's just easy. One, two, four.
Yeah.
One, two, five. And. And then he went on a journey. Right. And then those individuals, at that point, they had a choice, right. Were they going to steward what God had given them? Right. And I think the choices that they made ultimately were. Were made based on the perspective of their Creator. Right. The respecter of the owner, call it. Yep. Their perspective of the owner. And it really boiled down to. I mean, at the end of it, they were held accountable to these things. Right. And when he returned, he's like, all right, what'd you do with what I had given you? And that's what we are all going to be held accountable to one day. Right. If you've given your life to Jesus, you're saved. The judgment seat that you experience when you, when you meet your Creator is not going to be, are you getting into heaven or not? Right. We know by faith. We've. We've repented, we've confessed, we believe in our heart. We. We declared with our mouth, we. And so we're saved.
That's.
It's not a matter of salvation, but what we're going to experience is the accountability that what did we do with what he's given us? Right? And the only thing, the first two, when he gave an account, they doubled. They put to work what he actually had given them, the five talents. He said, you are faithful with a little. I'm going to trust you with more.
Yeah. Make you ruler over many.
Ruler over many. Enter into the joy of the Lord. I think that that part of that verse kind of gets skipped A little bit. It's like, what I want some of that, baby. Enter into the joy of the Lord. Right. And then the one same with the one that got two, he doubled it. Well done, good and faithful servant. Right, right. The quantities and amounts don't matter at all in this. Right, Right. But the one who was only given one, first off, there was a reason he was only given one. Right. Because God knew. Right. He just, you know, we're given according to our ability. And it's like, well, if he's not going to manage it, well, let's see. Let's give him a chance. Yeah, right. I gotta believe these others. And this is maybe me reading into this a bit, but I gotta believe these others had already passed the one test. Right, Right. The guy who got five already passed the two tests, the three tests, the four test. And when we're. When we steward appropriately what we have, we will be given more. Yeah, right. We know that. That's truth. And so. And again, this isn't about just like us trying to acquire more wealth for our sake, but it's for the owner's sake. Right? Right. We're doing it unto the Lord. Right. And the one who did one, he buried it. He didn't put to use the talents that he had been given. And he heard the gnarliest thing on probably within scripture. It's just like, I mean, it's. If I ever, if I hear anything other than well done, good and faithful servant, I'm going to be very disappointed in myself.
Yeah, right.
Not only even disappointed. And God's eyes like, yowzers. Yeah, right. Get away from me, you wicked and lazy serpent.
Yeah. It's not even like, all right, all right, cool, dude. It's like, no, no, you're. You're wicked, you're slothful.
Yes.
You're lazy.
Gnarly man.
Wow. So he, I mean, he didn't lose it, right? He didn't lose it. He just maintained it.
Yep. Yes.
Yeah.
Yes. And I think we. When we think about these individuals, I think there's characteristics that come into play. Right. And ultimately they're probably. Well, if you read into the one who did one, there was. There's a certain amount of risk he wasn't willing to take. Right, Right. I think there's like three actual types of risk that, that we can choose to take or not take. Right. First off is the risk of no risk. Right. It's like, I'm. I'm scared. I'm operating out of lack mindset. I'm operating out of fear. So we choose not to take any sort of risk. Right. And, and I think we have to understand and boil down like what, what truly is risk. Right. If we are operating out of faith and we know we've steward what we've, or we're going to steward what God's given us, it should take the risk portion out of it. There might be the unknown. Right. Like, I don't really know, but I believe this is from the Lord and I'm going to take that step of faith. Right. Not the, the step of risk, but the step of actual faith in that situation.
Yeah. Risk involves faith, period. And the, the biggest risk in life is not taking one. Right. Isn't that some saying or quote from somebody? And if you apply it to the spiritual. Yeah, yeah. God isn't calling us to be wicked and lazy servants. He's calling us to, to be active.
Yes.
He's calling us to go out and do be doers of the word, not just hearers.
Yes.
If your faith doesn't have legs, then I question if you have faith at all. Faith is an active. I question if you have faith at all.
Yes, absolutely. And that's the works port of it. Again, not a salvation issue at all. But faith without works is dead.
Yeah.
Right. So that we have to. To walk this thing out and I'm going to just prep.
Well, that kind of is a salvation issue because if the, the byproduct of your faith is zero works, then do
you even have it?
You probably don't have real faith to begin with. So it is kind of a salvation issue. Sure. And if you assess yourself, because so many people, they say a prayer and they think they're. They're in the kingdom and they have absolutely no fruit in their life. That says that you are.
Yes.
You know, in first John, it says that there's two categories. You're either a child of God or a child of the devil. What? The child of God, He. He walks in righteousness and he walks in love.
Yeah. Right.
So if you're walking in righteousness and love, people are going to be able to see that.
Yeah.
You're going to, you're going to be a thermostat rather than a thermometer. You're going to be able to set the temperature in the room. People will know that even if they don't know it's the Holy Spirit that's in you. If they're unfamiliar with God, it could be somebody who grew up in a different nation and grew up in a different culture. A Different religion. But they should be able to point out that guy is not like everybody else.
Yes, yes.
And quite frankly, we're going to be hated for it. Yes.
Yeah.
They hated Jesus. And if we bear the characteristics and the fruit of Jesus, we will be hated as well.
Haters are your elevators, baby.
I like.
I think that's a Josh Latimer ism.
Is it?
Yeah. I don't know unless he got it from somebody, but. Right. I remember him saying that.
Yeah. So I like it.
Yeah. So, okay, so the risk of no risk, the next would be reckless risk. Right. So this is going to be us going to the casino and putting on.
That's exactly what I was thinking.
10 bucks on red.
I was thinking roulette.
Yeah, baby.
Yeah.
This is the fun one. Yeah, but it's reckless. Yeah, I mean, it's fun.
I enjoyed roulette.
I did too.
You lose pretty often, but when you hit. When you hit.
Yeah.
It's such a good feeling.
Yeah. But when I would play, I would. I would play the next step of risk, which is intelligent, which is. It's really not that intelligent, but.
Okay.
You can share this with the audience.
The intelligent risk of gambling on roulette.
Well, you, I mean, just going and picking, obviously high risk, high reward. Yeah. Right. But huge downside.
Yeah.
Right. So you can just choose, you know, black 13 or whatever, and you're going to hit whatever 60 times.
You know that 13 is black.
Yeah, yeah.
You're familiar.
But then you can do, you know, there's. There's red and black. There's. That's like. It's not complete 50, 50. Because you can still put your money on the, on the zero.
That's how the house gets the edge.
Yes. They always have to have the edge. Right. But I would always hedge my bet as much as possible by, by putting money on those ones. I'm still, I'm definitely still negative. I would. I gotta believe I'm negative. And I haven't done it a ton.
Most people are in roulette.
Yes.
Yeah, well, I, I would play like a section of the wheel. That's what I would do. And then sometimes when you go to a casino and you see like the numbers that come out, some wheels, they, they do start to have biases. And some wheels, you'll see the same number come out, like back to back.
Yeah.
There'll be a couple different numbers than back to back. So sometimes I would just go and just play the number that just came out.
Gonna hit again.
Yeah.
Interesting. But when they, when they're all electronic.
I. Oh, yeah.
I don't trust, trust that if they can't, if they can't do, you know, 81 million votes.
Right.
I just don't trust it. Right. So anyways, those are BC days.
Just to be clear with everybody.
Yes.
Yes.
I mean, I be real. I've gambled when I've been a Christian. Right. But I fully, well, I full well know it was money that I, I set aside that would. Okay, this is going to be for entertainment. Right. Fully expecting to. That's, that's what we've allocated to that like we're gonna go with a certain amount. I'm not, I'm not expecting to win anything if we do. Amazing. But. Right. Yes.
Yeah. I'm an advocate for that as well. Because some people would say, well, if you gamble anything, then you're a poor steward.
Well, if you drive down the street, you're gambling with your life.
Says the guy in gamblers anony.
But truthfully, I mean, if you do, if, if that's. Yeah.
Not that you're a gambler's anonymous. I don't want anybody to get that twisted. But I always thought that to be the case if somebody's, you know, form of entertainment is going out to eat. If somebody's form of entertainment is going to shoot in pool, going bowling, going wherever, to the movies. Yeah. And somebody else's form of entertainment, you know, you're going to spend X amount of dollars, be entertained for the evening. At the end of the evening, you're not going to have that money.
Yeah.
But it has been allocated for entertainment. You've given your first fruits to the Lord. You, you paid your bills, you've already done what you need to do. All right. This is my entertainment money.
Yes.
Then you want to go bet it all on black 13.
Yeah.
And so be it on the, on
the Falcons against the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
Right. Yeah.
If you took that bet at halftime. Right. A lot of heartbreak. Which, which kind of comes to the, the third version of risk would be calculated. Right. Right. Or I, I even think intelligent.
Right.
This is going to be something that we're, we've looked to strategically because here's the deal. God's given us a brain. Yeah. He will speak to us majority of the time through the, through the word, the Bible. But there are going to be times too, when you, you know, you've got a download from God like, you know, and you're knower that, okay, this is what I'm supposed to do. Take gambling out of It. Because I don't believe he's probably gonna do that. I don't know. But I don't believe he's gonna be like, go put that money on double zero roulette. And I can't believe that's. That would be a way. But I don't know. But strategically, he's given us a mind. He's given us a brain to learn, to understand and to apply wisdom to what. What this. The what he's given us. Right, Right. So this. Whatever that talent is, we. We talk about it monetarily, but it's also the skill set that you've been given. Right. Like, we. We've all been given this of ability, and we should operate in excellence in that. And so if you see this is. As entrepreneurs, I talk a lot about head on a swivel. Right. Like, as entrepreneurs, we want to be looking for opportunity. I'm not a believer that if you follow your passion, you'll never work a day in your life. Right. I think that's hogwash. But I do believe, as entrepreneurs, if we follow opportunities, always bringing our passion with us, that's a way that we can truly walk this thing on out and see those opportunities with the economy, what's happening in the marketplace, and skate to where the puck's gonna be, as Wayne Gretzky always did, why, he was one of the greatest hockey players of all time. Right, Right. It's like we are. We are moving in the direction. And as kingdom economists, as entrepreneurs, this is the. One of the skills that I believe God will use here for us to advance the kingdom of God.
Yeah. Amen.
Yes.
And calculated risk, like you said, when we have discernment from the Holy Spirit, when we have heavenly wisdom. Right. We're able to take more calculated risks where it may not seem calculated to those who lack that faith. Think of Caleb and Joshua.
Yeah.
They. They truly believe that because God promised them that land, that I don't care if there's giants over there. We go in and even the report that came back, there were two of the 12 spies, you know, 10 of them. They're like, oh, no, there's giants over there. We can't take this land. And Caleb and Joshua are like, oh, no. Like, that's our land.
Right.
We. We got God on our side. That's our land. But I'm not sure how we'll do it. But we're going to defeat them because God said, that's our land.
Yes. And that's. That's faith. Right. That, like, they're they, they knew God said, no, that's our land. Right. What's so cool about that? That story too is just that it was their perspective, Right. The other spies come back and it said we looked like grasshoppers in our own eyes. Right. It's like in our own eyes. And so it was their perspective of like, we're going to get crushed.
Yeah.
Right. It's like, oh, man. Back to a football analogy. It's like you look at the other team, it's like, be a bloodbath, right?
Yeah.
But no, it's like they knew God. God already said, that's the promised land, baby. It's yours. Just go get it. Yeah, just go take it.
Yeah. We mentioned that last week of David, his perspective. He said, no, you. The Lord delivered you into my hand. Yeah. Imagine this young boy having that type of faith.
So good.
And that's partly why we're to have that childlike faith. Like my four year old, like he truly believes he could defeat anybody. And sometimes he goes around saying, I will kill you. And I'm like, whoa. As he don't want anybody to misconstrue that.
Right.
In his mind, he's just playing out a scene from the Bible. And it's funny because like every Bible story involves death. Almost like true. Like think of Daniel and the lion's den, right? And it's like my 4 year old knows the whole story. That, yes, God shut the lion's mouths and Daniel came back out. But then, yeah, my son knows that the king's family and all the bad guys got thrown into the lion's den and they were eating up before they even hit the bottom of the pit.
It's like, yeah, yeah. It's gnarly to think about.
It is.
Yes, it is.
But that childlike faith that he has, man, I pray that he keeps that childlike faith. And he just knows. I mean, when he pretends to be David, pretends to be Samson, even like knocking down those pillars and the, the temple falling, Y that, that type of faith, that it's like, God, just give me strength one more time.
Right, right, right.
I could do anything if you just act on my behalf one more time. If you come through for me, I am your servant. I could do all things.
Yeah.
That type of faith is what I Good, man. I. I want that childlike faith at all times.
Heck yeah, dude. Heck yeah. Those three risks again, just. There's the risk of no risk. There's reckless risk and then there's calculated risk.
Yeah.
And be doing reckless risks. Right. Or we should. I don't think we should do the risk of no risk. Right. We need to be taking these risks again, acts of faith with intelligence, with, with, with biblical application and wisdom and, and walk these things out. So here's. We boiled it down. We'll run through these quickly. Characteristics of a good steward, a good manager.
Right.
We're going to probably reference steward. Stewardship is management.
Yeah.
Right. They're synonymous here, what we've, what we've been given.
Well, before you even jump into that, let's give Miles Monroe's definition of management.
Okay. Yeah.
So it is the effective, efficient, correct and timely use of another person's property and resources for the purpose of which they were delegated with a view to producing the expected added value back to the person. So that's a, That's a manager.
Yes.
Sometimes we just think of manager is like, oh, that's the boss who makes the schedule and signs off on my checks. Yes, that's the boss.
Yeah. I think even management, just to again, practically state this, it is. There's money managers out there. Right. And they. When you give your money God's money, correct me. Right. When you give that money to somebody, that. That's their job, like that. It's. It's what they're supposed to be good at. You never give it to them with the hope that you're just going to maintain it.
Yeah. There's a big difference between management and maintenance.
Yes. Yes. Amen. Amen. Yes.
Because the maintenance, that's what the, the dude with the one talent did.
Right. Right.
He maintained it like, I knew you
to be a hard man, so I just, I maintained it.
Yeah.
He was afraid.
Yeah. I'm just gonna give you back what you gave me.
Yep. No, nothing. Yeah.
Like, what person goes to a money manager, say, okay, you just oversee this, and when I come back in six months and we check in on things, I'll have exactly the same amount of money there.
It's like, okay, I'm technically like 13% less effective now with inflation going on. Right, right. It's. Yeah. Because if you're not. I mean, if you're literally just storing money in a, even a savings account, it's silly. Yeah. You should have your, your little storehouse, your little barn for, you know, a few months to get by.
Yeah.
But other than that, you need to be putting that to use. It needs to. This needs to multiply.
Yeah.
That's the commandment we've been given. Be fruitful, multiply, have dominion on this earth.
Yeah. God doesn't call us to not lose. He calls us to win. Right. And think about even in football, you mentioned before, that, that Super Bowl 51.
Yeah.
Where the Falcons are up two minutes to go in the third quarter. They're up 28 to three. Right. 28, three. And what do they do? They started to play not to lose.
Right.
They're playing almost three full quarters of the game to win, and they're winning by a big margin. Then what happens? And I can't stand watching football when it teams up big and they start to do this. Yeah. And that's defense. Yeah. That's why you see the other team come down, score 21 points in the fourth quarter because they start to play not to lose. Why don't you continue to play the. The same way that got you there, that got you that lead instead of starting to play timid.
Yeah.
God doesn't want us to be timid.
Right. Why would we ever pull off, lay off the gas. Right, Right. Or let alone pump the brake like it's. You've been given. They were running a playbook. The Falcons were, and they were crushing. And then they changed the playbook.
Yeah. Right.
And they lost 34 to 28. Falcons didn't even score another point in that game. Right.
Yeah, The. The Patriots scored 19 points in the fourth quarter, then the game went to touchdown in overtime. Man, college football teams don't do that. College football teams, maybe they will.
Yeah. There's a little bit more maybe grudge against the other team or something, you know? Yeah. Yes.
But I enjoy that. Like, if you don't want me to run up the score, then stop me. Period. Now, if we're talking like, like fifth grade traveling team or something, it's like, okay, maybe take your foot off the gas just a little bit.
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah. For the sake of their future. Right.
But even, even so, that, that's. That's a lesson to be learned.
Yeah.
Like, if you don't want to get blown out by 60 points in a. In a football game, basketball game, whatever, then get better.
Yeah, absolutely. Get better. When I started to really, like, understand this principle, I think of, you know, where I was six, seven, eight, nine years ago, I would, you know, I would get even a. I'd have loose change that I would just like, dude, I've regretfully just like, would throw it on the ground. Right. It's like, yeah, I don't need it. A few pennies. I don't even need it now.
Yeah.
But when I started to understand this, like, I Made a commitment to myself now that even if I see a penny that's on the ground, it's unclaimed, it's a penny, I'm picking the dang thing up. Right. Where before, it's like, I. I wouldn't even take the time to do that. But it was a commitment to myself of, like, I'm gonna manage well, whatever God puts in my path, I want to manage that thing well. And so I've got a lot of loose pennies laying around. Right. But I think it's. It's a. It's a simple principle.
Yeah.
That puts into practice a protocol that we call it of. Or, you know, just something that will ultimately lead to prosperity.
Yeah.
Right. It's a. A principle that leads to a practice that leads to prosperity.
That's good.
And it's. It's. If we're faithful with a little, again, a penny. Nowadays, it literally costs more money to make a penny than it does to actually even have a penny. Right, Right. And I, when I made. Again, when I understood just like, okay, what this stewardship is about. It's just the little things. Right. If we're faithful with the little, God will. God will continue to give us more and more opportunities. Right. But it still is us that has to take advantage of those opportunities.
Absolutely.
Yes.
So characteristics of a manager.
Yes, Here we go. Six of them that we. We boiled this down to. And we'll kind of just run through these quickly. But accountability. Right. A good manager. And even if you're. If you hire people right now, these are the characteristics you want to.
You're going to look for.
Like, how are you going to hire. You want somebody that's accountable. Right. You want somebody that's discipline. You want somebody that's honest. Right, Right. I mean, maybe look for these even in a spouse. This is pretty much good characteristics. But ask yourself, are you accountable? Right. Even if. If you are an employee right now, back to just even stewarding what you have. Well, now, if your mindset is like, I'm just gonna punch the clock and I'm gonna, you know, put my time in, but you're not actually operating in excellence.
Yeah.
You're not being faithful with a little.
Yeah. The Bible says let your yes be yes or no be no.
Yes. Right? Yes.
So if a Christian says yes to something, then best believe that should be done.
Yes.
If a Christian says no to something, best believe it'll be a no.
Yes.
I can't stand Christians who are just, like, late for everything.
Oh, my goodness. Yeah.
I'll be there at 3 o' clock then. It's like 3:30, 4 o'.
Clock. Yes.
It's such a poor witness.
Yes, it is. Yes. That is a huge pet peeve of mine. And ashes too.
Oh, yeah. She'll leave you in a heartbeat.
She absolutely will.
Yeah. She's done it to me.
Yeah. And then I'm left like apologizing.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
Just at like the end of an event. It's not like even. Well, even if we say we're getting out of the house for something at a certain time. Yeah. The car's running. Yes. Yep. Yeah. She will pull off without you.
Yes, she will. Yeah, she will. So accountability, discipline, honesty, diligence. Right. Like you're gonna see it through whatever the task it is that you, you've committed.
Yep.
Faithfulness. Right. Are they faithful with, with. Are you being faithful, what you've been given? And trustworthiness.
Yeah.
Right.
So the same thing as honesty.
I kind of thought so. But I think a person can be honest and still not be trustworthy in the fact that if you give them something that I'm entrusting to you, like a money manager, I can, I can. They're honest. Like the dude with one, he buried it. He didn't go blow it.
Right.
But he wasn't trustworthy in the fact that he went and multiplied it.
Yep. Yeah, it's good.
Yep. So I thought it was worthy of a number six there.
Right.
So just, I mean, characteristics of a disciple of Christ. That's really what it is. Right. And just ask yourself, like, am I trustworthy? Am I faithful? Am I diligent? Am I honest? Am I disciplined? Am I accountable? Those are just great self checks for, for us individually, who you're even hanging out around with and how to call people on, on their junk.
Yeah. Right. And look at every area of your life with these things. Not just money or, or possessions. I mean, are you disciplined in things?
Yeah.
Right. Did you say you're going to, you know, start a diet? Did you say you're going to go to the gym three times a week?
Yeah.
Are you disciplined? Are you disciplined to make your bed every day? You know, little things. Because once you, you, you start the practice of these things, then you get better at them.
Yes.
Right. You progressively grow in each and every one of these areas, quite frankly.
Yep. Yes, absolutely. I love that what we're doing. We talked about the parable of the talents and there's so many parables throughout scripture.
There are. And almost half of them have to do with Money, possessions.
Absolutely, absolutely. And so I think it's important for us to understand why Jesus even spoke in parables when it comes to this and anything. And let's understand a parable, essentially this is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Right. And In Matthew, chapter 13, Jesus actually specifically says why he speaks in parables. Right. So if you've been like, questioning, like, why do. Why do. I got it? Like, this is hard to understand. I don't quite really get this. Like the mustard seed, the pearl, you know, the guy who sells everything. It's like, why is this. Yeah. And it's. This is it Matthew, chapter 13, verse 10. It says the disciples had this question too. They're like, what is this dude talking about? Right, right. They came to him and said, why do you speak to them in parable? And he answered them to you. It has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. So in understanding that he was speaking in parables not to confuse the. The disciples or his followers, but it was to essentially hide the secrets from those that, yeah, they didn't know. They're like, okay, this dude's like, crazy. Yeah.
And if you're not a follower of Jesus, if you're not a child of God, you ain't going to get it.
Yes, exactly. Right. Because he goes on to say, for to the one who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables. Because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand. Right. So the secrets of the kingdom are in the parables.
Yeah.
Right. All these parables, they. They start out with, the kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom of heaven is like this. It's like, man, if you want to understand the kingdom, you gotta. You gotta start to dive into these parables of what is it? What. What is he even saying here?
Yeah.
That's why it's so fun to read through them. Yeah.
And if you apply these principles which I'm teaching you in these parables, I'm gonna give you more. What you have. I'm gonna give you more. And guess what? Those who don't get it, those who aren't applying these principles, even what you have will be taken away.
Yes. Yeah, I mentioned the pearl, so let's just even mention that. Because if you just continue to read on again in Matthew 13, get to verse 45. This is the parable of the pearl of great value. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. He went and sold all that he had and he bought it. Yeah, right.
All.
All means all. Yeah, right. All that he had. So this is, this is back to the understanding of ownership. Right. This is. God owns you. He owns your house, he owns your car, he owns your spouse, he owns your kids. He's the master. He owns everything. And when this is what the kingdom of heaven is like, it's like man, where our treasure is that our heart is also. It's like when we go all in for Christ. Like all in. That's what this really thing. That's what this means.
Yeah.
It's like it's all baby.
Yeah.
It's not, it's not like he went, sold some stuff. He kept the 10%.
Yeah.
And only gave him the 90 is. No, it's all.
Yeah.
He gave it all. Yeah.
It's very similar to the parable of the buried treasure where a treasure was hidden in a field and the, the man sold everything he had so he could purchase the field.
Yeah.
To get this treasure. And quite frankly, the treasure is all that God has for us. Right. That treasure is Jesus Christ himself. So just like Jesus said to the young rich ruler, sell everything that you have and follow me. Right?
Yes.
We. We have to surrender it all to God. And guess what? We, we know that God wants for our good. Right. He is good. He wants for our good. We know that spiritual blessings and our treasures in heaven are far more important than anything here on this earth.
Yep.
But we're going to have an abundance here. Right. We, we walk in, in kingdom authority here on earth. And part of the reason why, why Peter we talked about this last week. Peter said at the end of that, he was like, well, we, we got rid of everything. We follow you. What do we get?
Yeah, right, right.
And he said, well, you will sit at 12 thrones and you will be judges over the 12 tribes of Israel. It was all a heavenly thing that Jesus suggested that they. Yeah. Would receive. However, guess what? We say it time and time again. If us, the church, the body of Christ is called to be the provider, be the provision for those who are lacking, those who are in need was to say right here, it says that we are going to have an abundance.
Right. Yeah.
What we have will continue to grow and we will live an abundant life here. So we, we Know, when we say yes, when we're saved, we are going to live forever. We will have life, eternal life.
Yes.
But life here on earth, we will have an abundance if we are truly following these principles that. That Jesus laid out for us in these parables. And the parables are all about the kingdom. Yeah, the kingdom. You know, like, people don't get the concept of kingdom.
Right, right.
This is what Jesus preached. He preached the kingdom.
Yes. That's all he preached, baby.
Yeah.
Yes. Back to what the kingdom is again. These. These four principles that we put in place here. So if you want to thrive, if you want to prosper, you gotta adhere to all of these kingdom money principles. All means all. It's not like I'm gonna just do this or I'm gonna hold back the 90 for myself. All means. All right. And I really believe that God wants to bless Christians. He wants to bless us even financially. Yes. But he wants to. He needs to know that he can do it without destroying your life.
Yeah.
Right. And if. If we've proven ourselves to be faithful with the little that he's given us, he wants to add to us, he wants to give us more, but we have to prove ourselves to be faithful first.
Right.
This is why. And it applies not just to our finances, but to every single area of our life.
Yeah. If your abundance in material things here on earth means that you're going to lose your soul, then heaven forbid. God. God does not want that for us. We shouldn't want it for ourselves.
Yes.
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? And when you see the world of Hollywood, the world of entertainment, music, I mean, you hear these stories of people literally signing their. The. Their life over to the devil.
Just sold their soul.
Yeah.
It's gnarly.
Yeah.
That's the power of it, man.
I don't care if you live to be 200 years old on this earth and you. And you are look young and healthy for 200 years. I don't care if it's a century. I don't care if it's a million years on this earth that you live and you rule everything here on this earth.
Yep.
Everlasting is everlasting. Yeah, that. That goes on far longer. I heard it put this way one time, that if a. What. What's the small birds with the little beaks? Just a little hummingbird.
Sure.
Okay, so a hummingbird. If a hummingbird, it goes to this oak tree, and the oak tree is like 100ft in circumference. If once every thousand years, that hummingbird pecked one time at that tree.
Right.
And every. Every hundred years, every thousand years, that hummingbird comes in, pecks one time. One time, one time. By the time he's pecked through that entire tree, that's one day in heaven.
Yeah.
Think about that.
Yeah. That's crazy.
Like, everlasting goes on a long time. A long time.
Yeah. It's wild. Forever. It is. It is wild to think about.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yes. I like to think of this verse Paul wrote in Philippians 4:19, and my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. My God.
Yeah. He meets all our needs, but, you know, he takes care of the birds. Right. He promises to feed the birds, but guess what? They got to go out and find the worms. God will provide, but he. God doesn't just drop the worms in their nest.
Right.
We. We have to go out. We have to be active in this world. Yeah. Diligent.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. God wants to. To use us. He wants to bless us, but we have to be willing to get on the playing field. Right. If you're just a spectator in the stands, it's.
You're.
You're not going to be number one used, but you're not going to be able to walk in that abundance, walk in that authority that he's. He wants to pour out upon us. Yeah, yeah.
He wants us to get in the game, not be timid, Play the win, not play to just not lose.
Yes.
He wants us to. To take risks in faith. Take calculated risks.
Yeah.
Walk this thing out. Advance the kingdom of God here on earth.
Yes.
You can't advance anything. Being stagnant, being idle.
Right. It's very true. Very true. All right, let's get back to, like, hone in here on stewardship again. And I mentioned last week, I love the book of Genesis because there's so many principles within this. And this principle is so apparent in Genesis chapter two, when God created everything and then he created man. Right. So In Genesis chapter 2, verse 4, it says, this is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. Right. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Now, no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no one to work the ground. So why didn't any shrub pop up? Why didn't. You know, why wasn't. Why weren't things, like, happening yet? Because he hasn't created man Right. He didn't have his succession plan in place.
Right.
For man to work the garden, which is inherently like. That's what we were created to do. We were created to manage what he's been given.
Yeah.
We were created for rulership, not for ownership, but we were created to. To manage all of creation. And in the concept of work and entrepreneurship and whether you're an employee or an entrepreneur, entrepreneurship is a mindset. It's. I'm willing to undertake whatever the task is at hand. Sure. And if we come to that, with full submission to God, this is just all the more reasons, like, all right, I'm going to do it to the best of my abilities. I may be tired, but God's called me to. To work the garden here. Right. And it's. It's just. It's so simple.
Yeah.
We really break this thing down.
Yeah.
Right. It's just like, it doesn't mean that
God told Adam to work or tend the garden. It was just. That's why he was created. Created to work.
Yeah, yeah. When you go on in verse 15, then it picks up, it says the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And it's not like Adam was like, oh, man.
Right.
I gotta work.
Yeah.
He knew it. He knew it. He had to do it.
Right. And it's really a blessing to have the. The opportunity and privilege to. To work. To work on behalf of God, to. To work and tend the things that God puts in our hand.
Yes, absolutely. All right. So we were. We know that we were created to work. We were created to add value. My notes just went down to every. Everything that we've been given to. That's what effective management is, to truly add value. Right. And it's back to that succession plan. It wasn't like, just stay here and tend this garden. No. God said, be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth, have dominion, go, occupy. Luke 17 tells us to occupy until he comes.
Yes.
Right. So we have. This is why there's a call to kingdom advancers to the king's council has been established with this at the core of it of like, we are called to occupy to advance the kingdom of Heaven. And when we do that, we can stimulate the kingdom economy. We can continue to multiply by sowing into each other. And that's just an effective way of stewarding. Right. Sowing on good soil. If you're sowing into bad soil, you will not produce a harvest. You're going to be working by the sweat of your brow. This is going to be toil. It's going to be stressful. But God, this is back to the principles that God's given us is that this isn't. It doesn't have to be hard. It's hard work. We're called to do hard things. But it doesn't have to be the toil. It doesn't have to be the stress, the angst, anxiety, the. Just like this overwhelm feeling that most entrepreneurs, if we're honest, we feel this at times.
Right? Right.
But our strength does not come from our efforts. Our strength comes from the Lord.
Amen. Yes.
I'm going to continue to say this in each and every one of these episodes is that these do not work independently. There's a synergistic effect here. The of how the kingdom operates. And if you want to know more, just start reading these parables.
Yeah, right.
The secrets of the kingdom are there for us, but we have to have ears to hear. Right. We got it. We got to be willing to look beyond just the words. But what is the meaning behind these? What are the principles behind these things? All right, we'll see you guys on next week's episode.
Peace.
