August 11, 2025 • 29 mins
Let's take a look at two biblical stories about bigger barns and discuss saving, investing, and wealth building. What is our motivation? What is our priority? Are we living a life of JOY?
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Paul, Welcome to Catholic moneytalk, where we talk about all
things money and finance, and wetry to do it through a lens of
being Catholic, where ourultimate goal is to one day be
in Heaven with the Lord. I amyour host. Paul Scarfone, thank
you for being here today.
Welcome back to Catholic moneytalk. Today. I want to talk
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about building bigger barns. Iwant to talk about saving and
wealth building. But before wedo that, let's say a prayer in
the name of the Father and ofthe Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen, Heavenly Father. We thankyou for this day. We thank you
for all the ways that you loveand bless us, Lord, Lord, we
recognize that you have a greatplan for us. Allow us to embrace
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that plan. Let us to pursue youin everything that we do. Lord,
God, let us meet you in prayerso that we can understand your
vision, your plan for our lives.
Fill us with the Holy Spirit sowe have the strength to overcome
whatever challenges orsituations that we might find
ourselves in Come Holy Spirit.
We ask this all in Jesus nameamen, and name of the Father and
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of the Son and of the HolySpirit. Amen. Now, before I get
in trouble, right with myopening line there about what
this podcast is about.
A couple Sundays ago, we heardthe parable Jesus telling the
parable about the rich man whois building bigger barns. And
we'll look at that in a minuteand so many times, particularly
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in our culture, we we tend tolook towards building wealth,
growing savings, and we can veryquickly think like that's not a
good thing to do, right? Becauseof the parable. We'll look at
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that. And it's one of thosethings that there's times for
building bigger barns. There aretimes for that. But in all
things, we want to be seekingthe Lord's plan for us as we
just prayed, right, Lord, whatdo you want us to do? So we're
going to look at two biblicalstories. I love both of these,
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this parable and the other oneis Joseph, right? Joseph the son
of Jacob in his brother sellinghim into slavery in Egypt
through a series ofcircumstances. Right? He gets
old into slavery. He's purchasedby a family. The wife ends up
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lying about Joseph because hewould not yield to her demands,
because it was immoral, and hegets sent to prison. And while
he's in prison, he interpretssome dreams of some of Pharaoh's
servants, right, some of his histop guys that had been in
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prison, and they end up gettingout of prison. Well, one of them
does. And when Pharaoh has thesedreams, they don't know how to
interpret them. The wise mendon't know how to interpret
them. And the guy, right, theguy that was in prison with
Joseph, says, Oh, I know thisguy who was in prison who can
interpret a dream. They go gethim, and he interprets Pharaoh's
dream. And here's so we've gotthe story of Joseph, and we've
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got the parable from Jesus. Sothe parable from Jesus, it was,
it was a gospel couple Sundaysago. It's from Luke, 1213, to 21
is the the full the Gospelreading for that day. But here
it is, then he told them aparable. There was a rich man
whose land produced a bountifulharvest. And he asked himself,
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What shall I do? For I do nothave space to store my harvest.
Right? He was kicking butt andgrowing whatever he was growing.
And then he decides, you know,this is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to tear down my barnsand I'm going to build larger
ones there. I shall store all mygrain and other goods. And I
shall say to myself now as foryou, you have so many good
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things torn up for many years,rest, eat, drink, be merry. And
then God said to him, You fool,this night, your life will be
demanded of you, and the thingsyou've prepared to whom will
they belong? Thus will it be forall who store up treasures for
themselves, but are not rich inwhat matters to God? Here's a
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particular thing about thisstory that I think is important
for us to see. Great Harvest.
He's got all this stuff. He'sbuilding bigger barns. But
here's his attitude, right? It'swhat he says to himself. He says
this to himself. Now as for you,right? So now as for me, I have
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so many good things stored upfor many years. I can now rest,
I can eat, I can drink. I can bemerry. Me, me, me, me. Now I
will be honest with you. Thereare moments in my life where I
find myself desiring ease andcomfort. There's moments in my
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life where there's things that Iwant and they're not bad things,
right? And maybe it's a I lovefishing, maybe it's a fishing
trip. Maybe it's some fishinggear. Maybe it's an experience
that you desire, for you, foryou and your spouse, your
family. Maybe it's a trip, maybeit's a once in a lifetime trip.
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Maybe it's a nicer house, anicer piece of property we live
on a not quite a posted stamp,but I would love more property,
right? When my neighbor's havinga party, it's hard for me to
have a party. There's just toomuch we can hear what's going on
over there. It's just we're tooclose. I would love hundreds of
feet between me and myneighbors, right? That's just
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who I am, right? I'm not a cityguy. I'm more of a country guy,
right? So there's things that Imight desire that aren't bad,
but sometimes I can get focusedon that, right? And this happens
to us, right? This guy in theparable, now I can rest, now I
can eat, now I can drink, now Ican be merry, right? It's that
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happy ever after. I've spokenabout that before, right? Well,
once we get that house, it'll begreat. Once we get that job,
it'll be great, boy, if I canget that raise, if we could ever
win the lottery, right? Allthose desires that might be
inside of us, and some of thoselike, it's okay to experience
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those and feel those and to wantgood things, it is totally okay
to want good things. We justdon't want the desire for good
things to be our onlymotivation. We don't actually
want them to be a big part ofour motivation, right? Our the
motivation we want is, how do weserve the Lord and how do we
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serve others? There's a fatherLarry Richards. He's a priest in
the Diocese of Erie,Pennsylvania. He does men's
conferences and talks. And Iremember reading one of his
books. I think it's called Be aman by Father Larry Richards.
It's a great book for Catholicmen, and he talks about this
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concept in there, and I it'sprobably been around. He might
not have created it, but this,this, this way to live a life of
joy. J O Y, Joy.
If we have that in our life,that's proper order. J O Y,
Jesus, others, yourself, when wemake decisions, and we're
motivated by that set ofpriorities, Jesus, others than
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yourself. That's that's how welove the Lord. That's how we
pursue the Lord, right? So thestory, in this parable, it
wasn't Jesus, others yourself,it was him, him first, right?
And only him. So, buildingbigger barns, building wealth,
to benefit me, to give me easeand welfare. You know good ease,
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comfort and you know worldlypleasures, kind of thing, and
again, not, not, not, we're not,I'm not even talking moral or
bad things, but just an easylife, a good house, a great car,
good vacations, great hobbies,right? Is that our focus? So
let's just flip flop that realquick and look to Joseph, the
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story of Joseph, and this comesfrom Genesis 41 so I kind of got
us up to this right? So here'sJoseph now, he just heard
Pharaoh's dream. Pharaoh'sdream, it talked about, and let
me see maybe I'll actuallyread it. Do
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Pharaoh said to Joseph in mydream. So this is Genesis 41
it's verse 17 here. Then Pharaohsaid to Joseph in my dream, I
was standing on the bank of theNile, when up from the Nile came
seven cows, fat and well formed,they grazed in the reed grass.
Behind them came seven othercows, scrawny, most ill formed
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and gaunt. Never had I seen suchbad specimens as these in all
the land of Egypt, the gaunt,bad cows devoured the first
seven fat cows, but when theyhad consumed them, no one could
tell that they had done so,because they looked as bad as
before.
Then I woke upand I'll This is verse 22 in
another dream, I saw seven earsof grain, full and healthy,
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growing on a single stalk behindthem sprouted seven ears of
grain shriveled and thin andscorched by the east wind. The
seven thin ears swallowed up theseven healthy ears. And I have
spoken to the magicians, butthere is no one to explain this
to me. And then Joseph said toPharaoh, Pharaoh's dreams have
the same meaning. God has madeknown to Pharaoh what he is
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about to do. The seven healthycows are seven years and the
seven healthy ears are sevenyears the same in each dream,
the seven thin bad cows thatcame up after them are seven
years as are the seven thin earsscorched by the east wind, they
are seven years of famine.
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Things are just as I toldPharaoh. God has revealed to
Pharaoh what he is about to do.
Seven years of great abundanceare now coming throughout the
land of Egypt, but seven yearsof famine will rise up after
them, and when all theabundance, when all the
abundance, will be forgotten inthe land of Egypt, when the
famine has exhausted the land,no trace of the abundance will
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be found in the land because thefama famine that follows it, for
it will be very severe thatPharaoh had the same dream
twice, means that the matter hasbeen confirmed by God and God,
and that God will soon bring itabout. So this is what Joseph
tells him to do. Then,therefore, let Pharaoh seek out
a discerning and wise man andput him in charge of the land of
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Egypt. Let Pharaoh act andappoint overseers for the land
to organize it during the sevenyears of abundance. They should
collect all the food of thesecoming good years, gathering the
grain under Pharaoh's authorityfor food in the cities, and they
should guard it. This food willserve as a reserve for the
country against the seven yearsof famine that will occur in the
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land of Egypt, so that the landmay not perish in the famine. So
and then Pharaoh was veryimpressed, and he actually
honors Joseph by giving him thatjob of overseeing this right? He
took off his ring, he puts it onJoseph, he puts him in fine
robes and fine linens, puts agold change around his neck and
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says, you're now in charge,right? Like he's second command
in Egypt. Whoa. So here thisstory, they probably had to
build some bigger barns, right?
If I seven years is a long time.
The house we're in right now,we've been in seven years. It
feels like forever, for sevenyears of good harvest. So that
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means, like, a lot of excess,that's a lot of food, right?
That they're growing tons.
That's going to take someserious barns for all of Egypt
to store all of this. And thenover the next seven years, after
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the seven years of harvest,right, they give out all the
food. And that's the story. WhenJoseph's family right back in
the land of Cana, the faminereaches them, and they run out
of food, and they hear thesestories that Egypt has food, so
their family goes and there thebrothers are reunited with
Joseph. That's a whole notherstory, right? So God works out
all these plans to the good buthere's the thing, Joseph built
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bigger barns, and that was agood thing. The fella in the
parable that Jesus told builtbigger barns, and that was a bad
thing. So which is it? Right?
It's has nothing to do with thebigger barns. It has to do with
our motivation, right? Here,Joseph is following, if we go
back to that life of joy, right?
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Well, Jesus wasn't around yet,right? But God will put God
first, Jesus first, right? He'sfollowing his direction, right?
The dream that the Lord revealedhis plan to Pharaoh, and Joseph
was able to interpret itfollowing God's direction so as
to serve others, right? All thepeople, Joseph didn't do that to
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try to get out of prison. Hedidn't. Joseph didn't interpret
the dream to be able to get outof prison and to get a
promotion, right? It wasn'tabout him. It was about him
following the Lord, listening tothe Lord, and then serving other
people, first with Pharaoh andthen with all of Egypt and
basically, like the entireworld. And then he was last,
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right? He was at the end, andthe Lord blessed him and took
care of him. So why am I sayingall this? I'm saying this
because sometimes, particularlyas Catholic Christians, when we
hear stories and we hearparables in the Bible, right,
it's harder for a rich man toget into heaven than it is for a
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camel into the eye of a needle,all these types of things that
we hear make it sound likewealth and bigger barns and a
large bank account could be abad thing,
and in itself, it's they're not.
But it comes down to thedisposition of our hearts.
Hearts, which is what drives ourmotivations, right?
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Are we? Are we pursuing a lifeof joy where Jesus is first,
others are second and we'relast, right? Are Are we trying
to be last? Are we trying to putthe Lord first and the and
others first? So I've told thestory before, and I love it. I
really love it. Several yearsago, I was helping this young
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woman, single woman, we'reworking on finances, and we were
talking about generosity anddoing things for other people,
but at the same time, we'retalking about saving for
retirement. And you know herbeing in her 20s, you save 100
or $200 a month from when you'rein your 20s to your 70s, right?
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You go for 40 or 50 years. We'retalking it becomes millions of
dollars, right? You know, forher, it just felt like
retirement so far away. But Iunderstand, if I do it now, like
that'd be great. Also, she'strying to pay her current bills
and try to be generous as well.
And so her homework was, she wasdoing some reading on retirement
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and trying to understand alittle bit about investments and
things like that. But also wasto see if there's an opportunity
that the Lord presents to youfor you to be generous. And so
our next meeting, we come back,and I said, So how'd it go? And
she was so excited, because shewas telling me that she was
going on a retreat, and one ofher friends, another single
woman, wanted to go on theretreat as well, but didn't have
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the funds to do it, and in thatmoment, she just felt inspired
by the Lord to pay for herfriend to go on the retreat, and
it was a couple $100 and she didit. And I said, Whoa, that's
awesome. How did it make youfeel? She said, it was
incredible. I was crying. Shewas crying. It was awesome. I
said, now just let's think for amoment. What happens if you sit
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you did that, that's great. Butwhat happens if we slowly start
saving for retirement? Whenyou're retired, you have an
account that's got millions ofdollars in it.
How many people could you helpgo on the retreat?
She's just a big smile on herface. She's like, I could pay
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for everyone to go on theretreat. I said exactly. That's
why we save. That's why we putstuff into barns, right? Some,
some of us might have to havebigger barns than others, but
it's not so that we can sit backand think of how great our life
is going to be, right? Like thatrich man, right? We don't. We
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don't sit back and look at ourbank account. We shouldn't sit
back and look at our bankaccount and say, Ah, now I can
rest, now I can eat, now I candrink, now I can be merry. No,
we should look at it. We say,Wow, how many people am I going
to be able to serve? And thenstart looking for those
opportunities, right? One of thethings I tell people when their
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income increases, right? Andthat could happen by just annual
increases. Maybe it feels likethere's an increase, because
some expenses fall away, right?
Maybe they paid off their debt,maybe they paid off their house.
Maybe their kids have graduatedfrom school, and they're not
helping them pay for whether itwas Catholic school or college
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or whatever it might be, right?
Maybe expenses decrease. Maybeincomes gone up. Maybe there was
a big promotion. Maybe a spousewho was staying home to
homeschool kids or raise kids isnow going back into the
workplace, and there's there'smore income. Maybe you did get
that big promotion, or started acompany, or maybe received an
inheritance, right? Maybethere's a moment where just
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there's more money. One of thethings I tell people is to
prayerfully consider, likeJoseph did in in Genesis, in the
story we just read, maybe you'rein that season of great harvest.
Sometimes we can tend to spendmore. Oh, I've got all this
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extra money now. Now I canafford a bigger house. Now I can
afford to replace a car andspend more on a car. Now my kid
can go to this school, all thosedifferent things again, none of
these are bad, right? But wedon't want to be quick to spend
it, because we want to be ableto right, right, just as Joseph
said in that story, if, if theydidn't know Joseph was there,
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people might have been eatingmore, right, or spending more
because they said this, theharvest was so great, but then
the famine was so severe thatafter seven years, they wouldn't
even have they wouldn't evenhave been able to recognize that
there had been a moment ofabundant harvest, because this
the famine was so severe, right?
And that's all solved by savingand storing in barns. And so I
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think the same. A thingapplies to us
when we have those moments. AndI've said this to my wife, Taryn
at times, and I say this toclients when they experience
this, maybe you're in a momentof abundant harvest, and maybe
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there'll be a moment when thereis a famine.
So what do you want to do?
And that's why, if we save orinvest and we set money aside,
we don't consume it all rightnow, nor do we give it all away,
right now. But if the Lord callsyou to do that. Do it right. If
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he says, sell all you have andcome follow me, do it. But when
we don't get those clear sensesfrom the Lord, right, when we
don't hear that, that directmessage from the Lord, and we're
trying to prayerfully discernand and look at our situation,
how do we how are we followingthe Lord? How are we serving
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others like how do we moveforward in this current moment?
It's great to recognize whatseason are we in. And if you're
struggling with that, this is agreat little exercise. Think
back to a moment in your lifewhere you experienced famine.
Maybe you were between jobs.
Maybe you were fresh out ofcollege and didn't have a job.
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Maybe you were in collegelooking for some part time work
and you couldn't find anything,and you felt like you just you
didn't have anything. Yeah, youdidn't have money. You could
you're relying on mom and dad oror friends, and it was just a
rough period of time, maybe,maybe you had a challenge in
your marriage, right? Maybethere was a death in the family
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that devastated you, took youout of work for a bit, a
sickness, medical situation.
Think of those moments where youhad those famines and
just think, Wow, if I, if I hadset something aside during those
moments of harvest, abundantharvest, how would I have been
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able to better handle those,those seasons of famine, Right?
And maybe you've had a lifewhere you really haven't
experienced big swings eitherway, right? It's kind of been
just steady, you know, even,even keel, just, you know, no
big ups and downs. Well, praisethe Lord. We don't know what the
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future holds. And so, creatingsome savings, right? Building
wealth, not for the sake ofagain, leaning back and look at
and go, I can take it easy now.
I've set myself up for ease andcomfort the rest of my life. No,
look at it and go, let me buildthis up. Because I don't know
when I might need to use this tocare for my family, or I won't,
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I don't know when we need to usethis to help care for others and
to bless others, right? Andthat's, that's what we're
talking about here. Catholicmoney talk. How do we put all of
our finances at the foot ofJesus and say, Lord, this all
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belongs to you, none of it's myit's not my wealth. Like all the
wealth, everything belongs tothe Lord. Lord. What do you want
me to do with this?
And then see what he says.
But one of the things I'veexperienced, I've shared these
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stories before as well. There'sbeen moments in my life where
there was a need. Someonebrought a need to me of asking
us for for money, and one of thepivotal moments in our life was
this is years ago, our kidsschool at a small, small parent
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run Catholic school, and itneeded money, or it was going to
close, and they basically theboard, kind of made this
financial presentation. Theysaid, we're looking for each
family to give $2,000 and we cancontinue to stay open. And we
didn't have that money. This waswe had just started trying to
get out of debt, and things weresuper tight, and I just the
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school raised the money, wasable to continue. But I just
remember thinking, I think wegave like, 800 bucks or
something. We scraped everythingtogether that we had. And I
remember thinking like, I neverwant to be in a spot where I
feel like I can't do my part.
And it wasn't so much a pridething, because I was recognizing
that the situation we were inwas self inflicted, right? So it
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wasn't like, Oh, I wish I coulddo as much as everybody else. It
was like, I wish I had beenmanaging this stuff better so
that I could be a blessing toother people, because years
later, I was able to find outduring that. A plea for money
from the school, there werepeople able to give 510 $1,000
like big chunks and why? Becausethey were good stewards of their
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money. They had put in theirbarns contributions from those
seasons of harvest, so that whenthe seasons of famine came. They
were able to help serve the Lordand to serve others, to serve
me. And when Tara and I kind ofreflected on that early in our
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you know, financial walk oftrying to get things straight,
we said, Wow, we want to bethose people. We want to be
those people who are able to setmoney aside right in times of
harvest, so that when faminestrikes, whether it be famine to
us or famine to other people,we're able to serve. And so when
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we look at retirement and wealthbuilding and saving and
investing, that's the lens whichwe're looking at it in there.
Don't get me wrong, there'smoments of temptation where I'd
like to get a nice fishing boat.
I'd like to get a couple 100acres somewhere, do some
hunting, fishing, hiking,camping, whatever, right? That
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that's that's appealing to me.
And I think, oh, yeah, man, it'dbe nice to do that. And I see
people who do that. And I'm notsaying that's wrong, right, but
when I pray, when I pray and Isay, Lord, what do you want me
to do? What do you want? Pauland Taryn Scarfone, what do you
want? What are you calling us todo? I don't,
I don't usually hear that.
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I hear a name of a family thatmaybe he wants us to give
something to. I hear of someonedoing some mission work, or an
organization that needs somehelp and support, or whatever,
right that I hear other things,other moments, that the Lord
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wants us to kind of have thatmoney ready for, to save for, to
help other people through maybea season of time where they're
experiencing famine. So that'smy take on all this saving and
investing in wealth building,right? I'm going to call this
episode building bigger barns,right? And I we gave two
examples,Genesis, chapter 41 the story of
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Joseph and then the gospel froma couple weeks ago, Luke 12,
with the rich man. So as wesave, as we invest, as we kind
of create these long termsavings goals and plans, I want
to ask us, What is yourmotivation? Why are you doing
this? Is it to have a life ofjoy where you're serving Jesus,
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others and yourself? Last? Is itto save during moments of
harvest, so that you're readyfor moments of famine? Or is it
so that you can sit back andeat, rest, drink and be merry
and pursue a life of ease andcomfort?
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What is driving usand what do we feel the Lord is
calling us to? So that's a greatprayer to do. I recommend you
pray with your spouse.
Obviously, if you're married,about these things like, let's
Honey, let's say a prayer. Lord,what are you calling us to do?
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If we save and we experiencegrowth in our investments and we
build wealth, how do you want usto use it? Lord, Lord, all of
our wealth belongs to you.
Please direct what we do withit. So that's what I have for us
today, building bigger barns,and the different perspectives
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you can take and how to prayabout that so that you can be
pursuing the Lord.
So I hope this has been helpful.
Thank you for joining me today.
God bless Thank you forlistening to Catholic money
talk. I hope you join us againnext time, please click
Subscribe on your podcast app toget notified of new episodes.
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God bless you and have a greatday. You
Paul, Welcome to Catholic moneytalk, where we talk about all
things money and finance, and wetry to do it through a lens of
being Catholic, where ourultimate goal is to one day be
in Heaven with the Lord. I amyour host. Paul Scarfone, thank
you for being here today.
Welcome back to Catholic moneytalk. Today. I want to talk
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about building bigger barns. Iwant to talk about saving and
wealth building. But before wedo that, let's say a prayer in
the name of the Father and ofthe Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen, Heavenly Father. We thankyou for this day. We thank you
for all the ways that you loveand bless us, Lord, Lord, we
recognize that you have a greatplan for us. Allow us to embrace
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that plan. Let us to pursue youin everything that we do. Lord,
God, let us meet you in prayerso that we can understand your
vision, your plan for our lives.
Fill us with the Holy Spirit sowe have the strength to overcome
whatever challenges orsituations that we might find
ourselves in Come Holy Spirit.
We ask this all in Jesus nameamen, and name of the Father and
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of the Son and of the HolySpirit. Amen. Now, before I get
in trouble, right with myopening line there about what
this podcast is about.
A couple Sundays ago, we heardthe parable Jesus telling the
parable about the rich man whois building bigger barns. And
we'll look at that in a minuteand so many times, particularly
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in our culture, we we tend tolook towards building wealth,
growing savings, and we can veryquickly think like that's not a
good thing to do, right? Becauseof the parable. We'll look at
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that. And it's one of thosethings that there's times for
building bigger barns. There aretimes for that. But in all
things, we want to be seekingthe Lord's plan for us as we
just prayed, right, Lord, whatdo you want us to do? So we're
going to look at two biblicalstories. I love both of these,
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this parable and the other oneis Joseph, right? Joseph the son
of Jacob in his brother sellinghim into slavery in Egypt
through a series ofcircumstances. Right? He gets
old into slavery. He's purchasedby a family. The wife ends up
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lying about Joseph because hewould not yield to her demands,
because it was immoral, and hegets sent to prison. And while
he's in prison, he interpretssome dreams of some of Pharaoh's
servants, right, some of his histop guys that had been in
(02:55):
prison, and they end up gettingout of prison. Well, one of them
does. And when Pharaoh has thesedreams, they don't know how to
interpret them. The wise mendon't know how to interpret
them. And the guy, right, theguy that was in prison with
Joseph, says, Oh, I know thisguy who was in prison who can
interpret a dream. They go gethim, and he interprets Pharaoh's
dream. And here's so we've gotthe story of Joseph, and we've
(03:20):
got the parable from Jesus. Sothe parable from Jesus, it was,
it was a gospel couple Sundaysago. It's from Luke, 1213, to 21
is the the full the Gospelreading for that day. But here
it is, then he told them aparable. There was a rich man
whose land produced a bountifulharvest. And he asked himself,
(03:41):
What shall I do? For I do nothave space to store my harvest.
Right? He was kicking butt andgrowing whatever he was growing.
And then he decides, you know,this is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to tear down my barnsand I'm going to build larger
ones there. I shall store all mygrain and other goods. And I
shall say to myself now as foryou, you have so many good
(04:04):
things torn up for many years,rest, eat, drink, be merry. And
then God said to him, You fool,this night, your life will be
demanded of you, and the thingsyou've prepared to whom will
they belong? Thus will it be forall who store up treasures for
themselves, but are not rich inwhat matters to God? Here's a
(04:25):
particular thing about thisstory that I think is important
for us to see. Great Harvest.
He's got all this stuff. He'sbuilding bigger barns. But
here's his attitude, right? It'swhat he says to himself. He says
this to himself. Now as for you,right? So now as for me, I have
(04:50):
so many good things stored upfor many years. I can now rest,
I can eat, I can drink. I can bemerry. Me, me, me, me. Now I
will be honest with you. Thereare moments in my life where I
find myself desiring ease andcomfort. There's moments in my
(05:13):
life where there's things that Iwant and they're not bad things,
right? And maybe it's a I lovefishing, maybe it's a fishing
trip. Maybe it's some fishinggear. Maybe it's an experience
that you desire, for you, foryou and your spouse, your
family. Maybe it's a trip, maybeit's a once in a lifetime trip.
(05:36):
Maybe it's a nicer house, anicer piece of property we live
on a not quite a posted stamp,but I would love more property,
right? When my neighbor's havinga party, it's hard for me to
have a party. There's just toomuch we can hear what's going on
over there. It's just we're tooclose. I would love hundreds of
feet between me and myneighbors, right? That's just
(05:57):
who I am, right? I'm not a cityguy. I'm more of a country guy,
right? So there's things that Imight desire that aren't bad,
but sometimes I can get focusedon that, right? And this happens
to us, right? This guy in theparable, now I can rest, now I
can eat, now I can drink, now Ican be merry, right? It's that
(06:19):
happy ever after. I've spokenabout that before, right? Well,
once we get that house, it'll begreat. Once we get that job,
it'll be great, boy, if I canget that raise, if we could ever
win the lottery, right? Allthose desires that might be
inside of us, and some of thoselike, it's okay to experience
(06:39):
those and feel those and to wantgood things, it is totally okay
to want good things. We justdon't want the desire for good
things to be our onlymotivation. We don't actually
want them to be a big part ofour motivation, right? Our the
motivation we want is, how do weserve the Lord and how do we
(07:00):
serve others? There's a fatherLarry Richards. He's a priest in
the Diocese of Erie,Pennsylvania. He does men's
conferences and talks. And Iremember reading one of his
books. I think it's called Be aman by Father Larry Richards.
It's a great book for Catholicmen, and he talks about this
(07:22):
concept in there, and I it'sprobably been around. He might
not have created it, but this,this, this way to live a life of
joy. J O Y, Joy.
If we have that in our life,that's proper order. J O Y,
Jesus, others, yourself, when wemake decisions, and we're
motivated by that set ofpriorities, Jesus, others than
(07:46):
yourself. That's that's how welove the Lord. That's how we
pursue the Lord, right? So thestory, in this parable, it
wasn't Jesus, others yourself,it was him, him first, right?
And only him. So, buildingbigger barns, building wealth,
to benefit me, to give me easeand welfare. You know good ease,
(08:13):
comfort and you know worldlypleasures, kind of thing, and
again, not, not, not, we're not,I'm not even talking moral or
bad things, but just an easylife, a good house, a great car,
good vacations, great hobbies,right? Is that our focus? So
let's just flip flop that realquick and look to Joseph, the
(08:37):
story of Joseph, and this comesfrom Genesis 41 so I kind of got
us up to this right? So here'sJoseph now, he just heard
Pharaoh's dream. Pharaoh'sdream, it talked about, and let
me see maybe I'll actuallyread it. Do
(09:06):
Pharaoh said to Joseph in mydream. So this is Genesis 41
it's verse 17 here. Then Pharaohsaid to Joseph in my dream, I
was standing on the bank of theNile, when up from the Nile came
seven cows, fat and well formed,they grazed in the reed grass.
Behind them came seven othercows, scrawny, most ill formed
(09:28):
and gaunt. Never had I seen suchbad specimens as these in all
the land of Egypt, the gaunt,bad cows devoured the first
seven fat cows, but when theyhad consumed them, no one could
tell that they had done so,because they looked as bad as
before.
Then I woke upand I'll This is verse 22 in
another dream, I saw seven earsof grain, full and healthy,
(09:52):
growing on a single stalk behindthem sprouted seven ears of
grain shriveled and thin andscorched by the east wind. The
seven thin ears swallowed up theseven healthy ears. And I have
spoken to the magicians, butthere is no one to explain this
to me. And then Joseph said toPharaoh, Pharaoh's dreams have
the same meaning. God has madeknown to Pharaoh what he is
(10:13):
about to do. The seven healthycows are seven years and the
seven healthy ears are sevenyears the same in each dream,
the seven thin bad cows thatcame up after them are seven
years as are the seven thin earsscorched by the east wind, they
are seven years of famine.
(10:34):
Things are just as I toldPharaoh. God has revealed to
Pharaoh what he is about to do.
Seven years of great abundanceare now coming throughout the
land of Egypt, but seven yearsof famine will rise up after
them, and when all theabundance, when all the
abundance, will be forgotten inthe land of Egypt, when the
famine has exhausted the land,no trace of the abundance will
(10:57):
be found in the land because thefama famine that follows it, for
it will be very severe thatPharaoh had the same dream
twice, means that the matter hasbeen confirmed by God and God,
and that God will soon bring itabout. So this is what Joseph
tells him to do. Then,therefore, let Pharaoh seek out
a discerning and wise man andput him in charge of the land of
(11:20):
Egypt. Let Pharaoh act andappoint overseers for the land
to organize it during the sevenyears of abundance. They should
collect all the food of thesecoming good years, gathering the
grain under Pharaoh's authorityfor food in the cities, and they
should guard it. This food willserve as a reserve for the
country against the seven yearsof famine that will occur in the
(11:40):
land of Egypt, so that the landmay not perish in the famine. So
and then Pharaoh was veryimpressed, and he actually
honors Joseph by giving him thatjob of overseeing this right? He
took off his ring, he puts it onJoseph, he puts him in fine
robes and fine linens, puts agold change around his neck and
(12:02):
says, you're now in charge,right? Like he's second command
in Egypt. Whoa. So here thisstory, they probably had to
build some bigger barns, right?
If I seven years is a long time.
The house we're in right now,we've been in seven years. It
feels like forever, for sevenyears of good harvest. So that
(12:25):
means, like, a lot of excess,that's a lot of food, right?
That they're growing tons.
That's going to take someserious barns for all of Egypt
to store all of this. And thenover the next seven years, after
(12:45):
the seven years of harvest,right, they give out all the
food. And that's the story. WhenJoseph's family right back in
the land of Cana, the faminereaches them, and they run out
of food, and they hear thesestories that Egypt has food, so
their family goes and there thebrothers are reunited with
Joseph. That's a whole notherstory, right? So God works out
all these plans to the good buthere's the thing, Joseph built
(13:09):
bigger barns, and that was agood thing. The fella in the
parable that Jesus told builtbigger barns, and that was a bad
thing. So which is it? Right?
It's has nothing to do with thebigger barns. It has to do with
our motivation, right? Here,Joseph is following, if we go
back to that life of joy, right?
(13:31):
Well, Jesus wasn't around yet,right? But God will put God
first, Jesus first, right? He'sfollowing his direction, right?
The dream that the Lord revealedhis plan to Pharaoh, and Joseph
was able to interpret itfollowing God's direction so as
to serve others, right? All thepeople, Joseph didn't do that to
(13:55):
try to get out of prison. Hedidn't. Joseph didn't interpret
the dream to be able to get outof prison and to get a
promotion, right? It wasn'tabout him. It was about him
following the Lord, listening tothe Lord, and then serving other
people, first with Pharaoh andthen with all of Egypt and
basically, like the entireworld. And then he was last,
(14:19):
right? He was at the end, andthe Lord blessed him and took
care of him. So why am I sayingall this? I'm saying this
because sometimes, particularlyas Catholic Christians, when we
hear stories and we hearparables in the Bible, right,
it's harder for a rich man toget into heaven than it is for a
(14:40):
camel into the eye of a needle,all these types of things that
we hear make it sound likewealth and bigger barns and a
large bank account could be abad thing,
and in itself, it's they're not.
But it comes down to thedisposition of our hearts.
Hearts, which is what drives ourmotivations, right?
(15:06):
Are we? Are we pursuing a lifeof joy where Jesus is first,
others are second and we'relast, right? Are Are we trying
to be last? Are we trying to putthe Lord first and the and
others first? So I've told thestory before, and I love it. I
really love it. Several yearsago, I was helping this young
(15:27):
woman, single woman, we'reworking on finances, and we were
talking about generosity anddoing things for other people,
but at the same time, we'retalking about saving for
retirement. And you know herbeing in her 20s, you save 100
or $200 a month from when you'rein your 20s to your 70s, right?
(15:51):
You go for 40 or 50 years. We'retalking it becomes millions of
dollars, right? You know, forher, it just felt like
retirement so far away. But Iunderstand, if I do it now, like
that'd be great. Also, she'strying to pay her current bills
and try to be generous as well.
And so her homework was, she wasdoing some reading on retirement
(16:11):
and trying to understand alittle bit about investments and
things like that. But also wasto see if there's an opportunity
that the Lord presents to youfor you to be generous. And so
our next meeting, we come back,and I said, So how'd it go? And
she was so excited, because shewas telling me that she was
going on a retreat, and one ofher friends, another single
woman, wanted to go on theretreat as well, but didn't have
(16:34):
the funds to do it, and in thatmoment, she just felt inspired
by the Lord to pay for herfriend to go on the retreat, and
it was a couple $100 and she didit. And I said, Whoa, that's
awesome. How did it make youfeel? She said, it was
incredible. I was crying. Shewas crying. It was awesome. I
said, now just let's think for amoment. What happens if you sit
(16:55):
you did that, that's great. Butwhat happens if we slowly start
saving for retirement? Whenyou're retired, you have an
account that's got millions ofdollars in it.
How many people could you helpgo on the retreat?
She's just a big smile on herface. She's like, I could pay
(17:16):
for everyone to go on theretreat. I said exactly. That's
why we save. That's why we putstuff into barns, right? Some,
some of us might have to havebigger barns than others, but
it's not so that we can sit backand think of how great our life
is going to be, right? Like thatrich man, right? We don't. We
(17:36):
don't sit back and look at ourbank account. We shouldn't sit
back and look at our bankaccount and say, Ah, now I can
rest, now I can eat, now I candrink, now I can be merry. No,
we should look at it. We say,Wow, how many people am I going
to be able to serve? And thenstart looking for those
opportunities, right? One of thethings I tell people when their
(18:03):
income increases, right? Andthat could happen by just annual
increases. Maybe it feels likethere's an increase, because
some expenses fall away, right?
Maybe they paid off their debt,maybe they paid off their house.
Maybe their kids have graduatedfrom school, and they're not
helping them pay for whether itwas Catholic school or college
(18:25):
or whatever it might be, right?
Maybe expenses decrease. Maybeincomes gone up. Maybe there was
a big promotion. Maybe a spousewho was staying home to
homeschool kids or raise kids isnow going back into the
workplace, and there's there'smore income. Maybe you did get
that big promotion, or started acompany, or maybe received an
inheritance, right? Maybethere's a moment where just
(18:46):
there's more money. One of thethings I tell people is to
prayerfully consider, likeJoseph did in in Genesis, in the
story we just read, maybe you'rein that season of great harvest.
Sometimes we can tend to spendmore. Oh, I've got all this
(19:10):
extra money now. Now I canafford a bigger house. Now I can
afford to replace a car andspend more on a car. Now my kid
can go to this school, all thosedifferent things again, none of
these are bad, right? But wedon't want to be quick to spend
it, because we want to be ableto right, right, just as Joseph
said in that story, if, if theydidn't know Joseph was there,
(19:32):
people might have been eatingmore, right, or spending more
because they said this, theharvest was so great, but then
the famine was so severe thatafter seven years, they wouldn't
even have they wouldn't evenhave been able to recognize that
there had been a moment ofabundant harvest, because this
the famine was so severe, right?
And that's all solved by savingand storing in barns. And so I
(19:56):
think the same. A thingapplies to us
when we have those moments. AndI've said this to my wife, Taryn
at times, and I say this toclients when they experience
this, maybe you're in a momentof abundant harvest, and maybe
(20:19):
there'll be a moment when thereis a famine.
So what do you want to do?
And that's why, if we save orinvest and we set money aside,
we don't consume it all rightnow, nor do we give it all away,
right now. But if the Lord callsyou to do that. Do it right. If
(20:41):
he says, sell all you have andcome follow me, do it. But when
we don't get those clear sensesfrom the Lord, right, when we
don't hear that, that directmessage from the Lord, and we're
trying to prayerfully discernand and look at our situation,
how do we how are we followingthe Lord? How are we serving
(21:02):
others like how do we moveforward in this current moment?
It's great to recognize whatseason are we in. And if you're
struggling with that, this is agreat little exercise. Think
back to a moment in your lifewhere you experienced famine.
Maybe you were between jobs.
Maybe you were fresh out ofcollege and didn't have a job.
(21:24):
Maybe you were in collegelooking for some part time work
and you couldn't find anything,and you felt like you just you
didn't have anything. Yeah, youdidn't have money. You could
you're relying on mom and dad oror friends, and it was just a
rough period of time, maybe,maybe you had a challenge in
your marriage, right? Maybethere was a death in the family
(21:48):
that devastated you, took youout of work for a bit, a
sickness, medical situation.
Think of those moments where youhad those famines and
just think, Wow, if I, if I hadset something aside during those
moments of harvest, abundantharvest, how would I have been
(22:13):
able to better handle those,those seasons of famine, Right?
And maybe you've had a lifewhere you really haven't
experienced big swings eitherway, right? It's kind of been
just steady, you know, even,even keel, just, you know, no
big ups and downs. Well, praisethe Lord. We don't know what the
(22:34):
future holds. And so, creatingsome savings, right? Building
wealth, not for the sake ofagain, leaning back and look at
and go, I can take it easy now.
I've set myself up for ease andcomfort the rest of my life. No,
look at it and go, let me buildthis up. Because I don't know
when I might need to use this tocare for my family, or I won't,
(22:56):
I don't know when we need to usethis to help care for others and
to bless others, right? Andthat's, that's what we're
talking about here. Catholicmoney talk. How do we put all of
our finances at the foot ofJesus and say, Lord, this all
(23:17):
belongs to you, none of it's myit's not my wealth. Like all the
wealth, everything belongs tothe Lord. Lord. What do you want
me to do with this?
And then see what he says.
But one of the things I'veexperienced, I've shared these
(23:38):
stories before as well. There'sbeen moments in my life where
there was a need. Someonebrought a need to me of asking
us for for money, and one of thepivotal moments in our life was
this is years ago, our kidsschool at a small, small parent
(24:00):
run Catholic school, and itneeded money, or it was going to
close, and they basically theboard, kind of made this
financial presentation. Theysaid, we're looking for each
family to give $2,000 and we cancontinue to stay open. And we
didn't have that money. This waswe had just started trying to
get out of debt, and things weresuper tight, and I just the
(24:24):
school raised the money, wasable to continue. But I just
remember thinking, I think wegave like, 800 bucks or
something. We scraped everythingtogether that we had. And I
remember thinking like, I neverwant to be in a spot where I
feel like I can't do my part.
And it wasn't so much a pridething, because I was recognizing
that the situation we were inwas self inflicted, right? So it
(24:46):
wasn't like, Oh, I wish I coulddo as much as everybody else. It
was like, I wish I had beenmanaging this stuff better so
that I could be a blessing toother people, because years
later, I was able to find outduring that. A plea for money
from the school, there werepeople able to give 510 $1,000
like big chunks and why? Becausethey were good stewards of their
(25:10):
money. They had put in theirbarns contributions from those
seasons of harvest, so that whenthe seasons of famine came. They
were able to help serve the Lordand to serve others, to serve
me. And when Tara and I kind ofreflected on that early in our
(25:30):
you know, financial walk oftrying to get things straight,
we said, Wow, we want to bethose people. We want to be
those people who are able to setmoney aside right in times of
harvest, so that when faminestrikes, whether it be famine to
us or famine to other people,we're able to serve. And so when
(25:52):
we look at retirement and wealthbuilding and saving and
investing, that's the lens whichwe're looking at it in there.
Don't get me wrong, there'smoments of temptation where I'd
like to get a nice fishing boat.
I'd like to get a couple 100acres somewhere, do some
hunting, fishing, hiking,camping, whatever, right? That
(26:15):
that's that's appealing to me.
And I think, oh, yeah, man, it'dbe nice to do that. And I see
people who do that. And I'm notsaying that's wrong, right, but
when I pray, when I pray and Isay, Lord, what do you want me
to do? What do you want? Pauland Taryn Scarfone, what do you
want? What are you calling us todo? I don't,
I don't usually hear that.
(26:37):
I hear a name of a family thatmaybe he wants us to give
something to. I hear of someonedoing some mission work, or an
organization that needs somehelp and support, or whatever,
right that I hear other things,other moments, that the Lord
(27:00):
wants us to kind of have thatmoney ready for, to save for, to
help other people through maybea season of time where they're
experiencing famine. So that'smy take on all this saving and
investing in wealth building,right? I'm going to call this
episode building bigger barns,right? And I we gave two
examples,Genesis, chapter 41 the story of
(27:21):
Joseph and then the gospel froma couple weeks ago, Luke 12,
with the rich man. So as wesave, as we invest, as we kind
of create these long termsavings goals and plans, I want
to ask us, What is yourmotivation? Why are you doing
this? Is it to have a life ofjoy where you're serving Jesus,
(27:47):
others and yourself? Last? Is itto save during moments of
harvest, so that you're readyfor moments of famine? Or is it
so that you can sit back andeat, rest, drink and be merry
and pursue a life of ease andcomfort?
(28:09):
What is driving usand what do we feel the Lord is
calling us to? So that's a greatprayer to do. I recommend you
pray with your spouse.
Obviously, if you're married,about these things like, let's
Honey, let's say a prayer. Lord,what are you calling us to do?
(28:31):
If we save and we experiencegrowth in our investments and we
build wealth, how do you want usto use it? Lord, Lord, all of
our wealth belongs to you.
Please direct what we do withit. So that's what I have for us
today, building bigger barns,and the different perspectives
(28:52):
you can take and how to prayabout that so that you can be
pursuing the Lord.
So I hope this has been helpful.
Thank you for joining me today.
God bless Thank you forlistening to Catholic money
talk. I hope you join us againnext time, please click
Subscribe on your podcast app toget notified of new episodes.
(29:16):
God bless you and have a greatday. You
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