What is Stewardship?

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. I want to welcome you to the podcast Student of Life. I pray that you hear something that will add value, shape, develop, and cultivate your faith in order to be the person that God desires you to be, as well as the application to see it through. Enjoy. What's up everybody? So this is episode 7 of season 3, and I was gonna do a trailer but I changed my mind. I'm just gonna lead in with this episode, What Is Stewardship, to kick off our stewardship series. And so it might be 3, 4, maybe even 5 parts. You know, I'll make that call as we get down into it because I think I only have content right now for like 3 episodes, but I kind of want to do another one and maybe one more after that. But like I say, you know, we'll get into this. And I didn't want to really bulk record these because although I kind of have that core essence of content together, it's still some things as I just, just the Lord is just leading me on what to speak and, you know, just what to say through this. So with all that being said, the title of this episode is What Is Stewardship? So with that being said, I want to open this one up with a rhetorical question because of course I know you can't really reply back right now, uh, but what comes to mind when you think of stewardship? Like, it's a guy I, I know and I learned a lot from him. Very successful guy. And we were sitting at the table one time in Starbucks, and, you know, iron sharpen iron, and he's very successful. I really admire and look up to him and his wife. And I actually met him through his wife, through LinkedIn, uh, through a book. And it just showed you the power of posting, man. And they reached out to me, and it didn't really turn into a business opportunity, but I ended up writing him because I just kind of sat back and watched him And I just was like, man, I just really want somebody to talk to like you, you know, because like it's certain areas in my life that I have a collection of mentors. And all that being said, he just seemed like a person that was just a good steward over his family, you know, just over the ministry, over his, his job, over his business, and so on and so on. And so he asked me— I said all that to say this— he asked me, he was like, man, you know, if you could get up and just talk about anything, what would it be? And I said stewardship, and that's why I want to lead in with that question, because I think it's something that we just say, like, well, I'm a steward, or, you know, we often understand it in financial terms. Like I said, I want to get ahead of myself, but I really want you to just ask yourself what, what comes to mind when you think of stewardship. And the reason why, like I said, you know, is because many people don't have a proper understanding of it. I was one of those people, you know. And, and one thing that we have to understand, especially as believers and followers of Christ, it's one of our primary callings in life. When you go back to the foundation of scripture, in the beginning Adam was to steward over the land. In other words, he was to manage over God's resources. And like I say, you know, we get this when it comes to a financial standpoint. But do you think about it when it comes to your job, your kids, your wife, your husband, just your spouse, your family, your friends, your relationships, and on and on and on? Like I said, we'll kind of unpack a little bit more of that in this episode. But do you really understand that? Because, and honestly, What we have to understand is that to be more generous, whether it be financials— financially, whether it be to be there for people more relationally or whatever, trying to be more generous in life without being a good steward over the resources, especially things like I say, like money, it's like trying to basically run with one foot nailed to the floor. So in other words, if somebody has your foot, your left foot nailed down to the floor and then say, "Chase me," good luck. You know, now of course, if you want to get super logical, you can say, I can, you know, might rip, come up out the shoe, whatever, I don't know. But from a cartoon perspective, if someone had your foot nailed down to the floor and, you know, turn around and say, "Hey, I need you to chase me," that's what it's like. Or if you want to use a better analogy, If you ever nailed something, like put up a picture or frame or whatever, have you ever tried to nail Jell-O to a tree? So that's how it looks. I mean, very corny examples, but that's how it looks. Trying to be more generous without properly managing and stewarding over our resources, that's what we look like. And so that's what we— like, we get burnt out. For instance, like, if I'm trying to be like, man, you know, think about it from a spending time with family, but you're always just taking, like, saying yes to everything. So that right there shows me that you— we don't know, like, we don't know how to say no. So we can't steward over a relationship properly because we just don't have the, the emotional intel— I mean, not emotional, we don't have the relational intelligence to do so. So like I say, but we really get the concept when it comes to money, but stewardship affects us in so many more areas in life. But when it comes to financial things, in most cases, if not all, being a wise steward of God resources is what enables generosity. So kind of going back to the relation point, like when you understand the balance of saying yes to something, it's also saying no to a lot of other things, and vice versa. Saying no to some things enables you to— empowers you to say yes to other things. Or with your money, as you basically steward over it. So if you get a paycheck and you're going through the proper whatever blueprint— so many different blueprints out there— but getting a successful one that works for your life, it enables you to kind of like do things. So from a faith perspective, you know, we talk about prayer, prayer, prayer, but money touches everything. You know, I've said this before, it enables you to give and help advance the kingdom. Or if you're not a faith-based person, you know, think about a charity that you might want to give to, just family members, or want to help the homeless. Just, you want to do more. Like, I don't think that it's nothing wrong with making a lot of money and, and doing things and, and saving and investing, but from my perspective, it is a problem when it's all just spent on you. And so a lot of times, you know, we want a miracle and we want a blessing in life, and it takes generosity because God works through his people. So a lot of times, if you want a financial blessing somebody else has sold into that on the other side of it. So you got to think about it from also your perspective as well as like doing it, being one that can do it. So like, you know, if the ministry or whatever, or charity is saying, well, this will do this or this, then you really have done your due diligence, you can give to that. And you don't have to give to it always sacrificially because that's what we often revert to. Well, this is a big sacrifice. Why can't we just give just to give and it not hurt us and we don't miss it at all? That's, you know, that, that has always been a primary goal in my life. And thank God, you know, like I said, by the grace of God, I've been a, I believe, a pretty good steward over the years. And, you know, and even where the Lord is calling me to give more, you know, like, just this proper stewardship, it helps to be less of a headache, you know, where I can give cheerfully and joyfully. So all that being said, This is what stewardship is. So kind of going back to, as we didn't kind of talk more, you know, what comes to mind now when you think of stewardship? And, you know, so most importantly, I know we didn't open up with a foundational text, and you can see 1 Corinthians 3:9 if you, if you want to reference that scripture again. 1 Corinthians 3:9. But biblical stewardship is understanding, like I say, that God is the owner and we are the managers over all of his resources. So you can talk about your talents, you can say, well, it's my talent, it's my gift. Okay, who you think gave you that? Who you think gave you the brain? If you're a basketball player, who you think gave you that ability? So it's God. So you, like our kids, you know, we sit up here sometimes as parenting, and we can parent so good or whatever, and you know, we can get so tired. I'm not saying be loose, like, oh my God, let— like, no, what I'm saying is like, we can parent so good we start to think that we're the one that this child really, really belongs to. But in actuality, from— this is a person of faith— they belong to God, and he just entrusted me to steward over them and bring them up. Because once I'm gone, I'm gone. I ain't coming back. I don't want to come back because I believe— I totally believe in my heart that I'm gonna be with my Lord and Savior. But by the grace of God, my kids and my, my, my kids will still be here, the ones I made here in this flesh. But think about that, but they still have to navigate and go on through this world, but God will still be working and operating within them. So, you know, because I'm a person of faith and that's just what I believe, and you might not, and that's cool, you know, and I hope you do come into it, but I'm not here to force my faith down on your throat, but that's how my mind thinks, is that they really don't belong to me. I'm just stewarding over them. And so, like I said, when it all comes down to kingdom stewardship, it's our primary calling as we follow Christ. As we've said earlier within the episode, our time, money, gifts, talents, relationships, the work that we do, and so on and so on, it all belongs to God. We cannot confuse with us basically getting the roles mixed up. And what I mean by that is, like I say, like we start to think that we're the owner rather than God. And so, you know, just really, really think about that, man. We shouldn't take his trust in us to manage over his creation for granted. We should not take his trust to manage over his creation for granted. So the ultimate question then is this, and I really want you to think about that. Am I the— I want you to think about this, sorry. Am I the lord of my life, or is Christ the lord of my life? Because in essence, stewardship expresses our total obedience to God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from a faith perspective. This is a faith-based podcast. Now, if you're more carnal-minded, you might say, man, I, I can kind of get with this, but I don't want to hear all this God and this Lord and Christ Jesus stuff. And you can prosper in your own ways, and you know, you can leave legacies and inherit and all that type of stuff. But I believe in my heart what it really comes down to at the end of the day is that all of that means nothing if you don't know God and you don't put things in its proper perspective, because it's all about eternity. And so again, I say, what comes to mind now when you think of stewardship? Do you feel like this series is going to be worth a listen? And if you do, the next episode we drop every Monday, as long as we're in a, you know, current season. Listen to this and start getting people ready for it. So hey man, go subscribe to this, go, go check this out because we're going there. And just to kind of give you a preview, the first one we're going in mindset because none of this stuff matters. Matter of fact, you can listen to this episode, but after the next one for sure, if you're not going to get that mindset right, you can really stop listening to the series altogether. Really, you can stop listening to this podcast because that's where it's going to start. And I'm not trying to be arrogant or cocky by any means, But the mindset is going to be the most critical thing because we know what to do. But we also got to keep in mind is what's easy to do and what we know to do is what's also easy not to do. So the blueprint, we're going to go there, but we're going to deal with the mind first as being one of the first parts in this stewardship series. So I hope you kind of just think about this one. I see right now I'm around like almost 13 minutes. But we'll really get into some more deeper things in the next one. And like I say, you know, man, stewardship is our— I'm not gonna say the primary calling, I mean, I believe that's to go out and make disciples, but stewardship is one of our most primary calls in life as we diligent search the scriptures. So I hope you've enjoyed this. And like I say, you know, you'll hear it again in the outro, the call to action, but This is gonna be one, and we're gonna really focus on the money part of it, 'cause I know people like to really, really keep hearing new and creative ways about money, but I want this to be kind of like a complete, 'cause I want this to transcend, to see your whole life as being a proper steward. Hey, so I wanna thank you for taking the time to listen to this content today. If it has impacted you in any kind of way, I wanna encourage you to share it on your social media feed with family and friends. And if you desire to connect with me on a more deeper level, go to www.timothyprattjr.org where you'll get more information on how to do that. With that being said, continue to have a blessed day, and Lord's will, I'll see you next time.