Fortified Life Podcast with Jason Davis
Episode Title: The Five Pillars of Stewardship: Building a Life of Responsibility and Wisdom
Episode Summary:
In the exciting kickoff to Season 2, Jason Davis explores a foundational and vital topic for every believer: stewardship. Often misunderstood or viewed differently depending on one's background, Jason unpacks stewardship from a biblical perspective, helping listeners understand how to apply wisdom in their daily walk with God.
This episode lays the foundation for living a fortified life through practical stewardship in every area—faith, purpose, money, time, talent, health, and relationships—leading up to the powerful Five Pillars of Stewardship: Relationship, Ownership, Lordship, Partnership, and Discipleship.
Key Discussion Points:
Stewardship is not just a responsibility; it is a reflection of our maturity and walk with God. Through wisdom, relationship, and obedience, we are called to manage every area of our lives for His glory — living fortified, faithful, and fruitful!
Tune in every Wednesday at 8:30 PM EST live, or catch us on-demand
Episode Title: The Five Pillars of Stewardship: Building a Life of Responsibility and Wisdom
Episode Summary:
In the exciting kickoff to Season 2, Jason Davis explores a foundational and vital topic for every believer: stewardship. Often misunderstood or viewed differently depending on one's background, Jason unpacks stewardship from a biblical perspective, helping listeners understand how to apply wisdom in their daily walk with God.
This episode lays the foundation for living a fortified life through practical stewardship in every area—faith, purpose, money, time, talent, health, and relationships—leading up to the powerful Five Pillars of Stewardship: Relationship, Ownership, Lordship, Partnership, and Discipleship.
Key Discussion Points:
- Understanding Stewardship:
- Stewardship is wisdom applied — managing God's resources faithfully.
- We own nothing; God owns it all, and we are His managers.
- Stewardship touches every part of our lives, from our faith to our finances.
- Navigating Life's Storms with Wisdom:
- Wisdom is one of the primary tools God gives us to navigate the storms of life.
- James 1:5 reminds us that if we lack wisdom, we can ask God for it, and He will give it generously.
- The Magnificent Seven Areas of Stewardship:
- Faith: Living a life that visibly honors Christ.
- Purpose: Walking in the specific assignment God created for us.
- Money: Managing finances for God's glory, not our own pleasure.
- Time: Viewing time management as life management.
- Talent: Growing and stewarding the gifts God has entrusted to us.
- Health: Stewarding our spiritual, mental, and physical health.
- Relationships: Managing relationships in love and alignment with God's Word.
- The Five Pillars of Stewardship:
- Relationship: A personal, intimate connection with God influences how we manage His resources.
- Ownership: God owns everything — the heavens, the earth, the people, and the wealth.
- Lordship: Our heart follows our treasure; who or what we serve reveals our priorities.
- Partnership: God invites us into divine collaboration, making Him our partner in everything we do.
- Discipleship: Stewardship matures into discipleship — the command and process of growing ourselves and others in Christ.
- Powerful Personal Testimony:
- Jason shares a pivotal moment during his college years at Georgia Tech, when he experienced God's presence in a personal and life-changing way. This experience reinforced the importance of a deep, abiding relationship with Christ.
- James 1:5 — Asking God for Wisdom
- Matthew 6:21 — Where Your Treasure Is, There Your Heart Will Be
- Matthew 25:24-25 — Parable of the Talents
- Matthew 28:18-20 — The Great Commission
- 2 Timothy 2:2 — The Process of Discipleship
- Deuteronomy 10:14, Psalm 24:1, Haggai 2:8 — God's Ownership of All Things
Stewardship is not just a responsibility; it is a reflection of our maturity and walk with God. Through wisdom, relationship, and obedience, we are called to manage every area of our lives for His glory — living fortified, faithful, and fruitful!
Tune in every Wednesday at 8:30 PM EST live, or catch us on-demand
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Greetings, Doctor Manette, Publish and pusher to all the body
place of encouragement, culchure, empowerment. Weekly should engage conversations with entrepreneurs,
that creators, and these insightful interviews are designed to help
us build our businesses, respective brands, ourselves and to hopefully
propel us to the next level of greatness, Big Boss.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
So with no time to waste, time is sufficiently go.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Time in family. This is pology of my Journey with Pology,
and I just want to share with you today it's
not what you go through, it's what you do with
what you go through. We all go through circumstances in life.
We're all going to have challenges. The key is how
(00:47):
are we going to respond to those challenges? What are
we going to do given the situation that we're in
and those challenges and how we're going to handle it.
I just wanted to share that with you today. I
want you to stay encourage and I also want you
to stay connected with the TV talk show my Journey
with Apology. That's dreaming across a variety of platforms. And remember,
(01:09):
greatest conversation you will ever have. I tell y'all all
the time, the one that takes place in between your ears.
What are you speaking to yourself? Is God a part
of that conversation? And are you listening to his still
small voice? Embrace the jarney?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Hey, what's going on? Everybody? Welcome back to another episode
of Fortified in Wisdom, where we talk about walking in
the wisdom of God daily. I'm your host, Jason Davis
aka mister Fortifi. I'm an author, speaker, and coach, and
I help mission driven people prioritize their faith in the marketplace.
(01:48):
Really excited for today's episode. Welcome officially to season two
of Fortified and Wisdom. It's great to be back with you.
For those of you if this is your first so
I'm getting to know me. You can check out episodes
one through thirteen season one on my YouTube channel, The
Fortified Life. We also air onto CAB twenty five weekly
(02:12):
Wednesday nights at eleven pm Eastern Time, so you can
have a chance to catch up on everything that you've missed.
As far as today though, kicking off season two, we're
going to talk about an important topic, stewardship. We're going
to be talking about the five pillars of stewardship. Stewardship
(02:35):
is a fancy ten twenty dollars word has a lot
of nuance to it, and depending on your background, you
may view stewardship from different perspectives. So we're going to
look at a biblical perspective of stewardship today. So let's
get ready to dive in and we'll get into how
(02:59):
stewardship from a day to day perspective and walking in
the wisdom of God? What does it mean for you
today in this dayly walk? I first would like to
start out by saying, you know, we're all in a
life voyage life. Theres a lot of things at us,
and that's why we need the wisdom of God. Some
of us are are navigating storms. We're navigating different situations personally,
(03:27):
professionally with our families, and so navigating the storms of
life and our respective spheres of influence. It's difficult. You know,
a lot of us work across a lot of different
industries or deal with a lot of different things. For
those of us in the marketplace or wherever you find yourself,
(03:48):
and I'll talk about this in a second, you're different
spheres of influence. So you have business, you have media,
you have family, church, government, education, art's healthcare. Many of
us are in one or two or more of these
fears of influence. That's just us personally, but we're impacted
(04:12):
by all of these, and so as we're navigating the
storms of life and we're working across or in one
or multiple of these, it can cause a lot of stress.
But you see God as a customized plan and purpose
for each of us, and that's where wisdom comes into play.
(04:35):
So how do we even begin to handle this responsibility
because stewardship is a matter of responsibility. We're going to
come back to that a little bit later, but just
keep if you think about a book, kind of make
a dog ear kind of a put a mark down
on that stewardship as a responsibility. But before we get
(04:58):
into the responsibility I mentioned, it's a matter of wisdom.
God gives us tools to help navigate these storms of life.
He gives us tools daily, hence wisdom. In James chapter one,
verse five, it says, but if any of you lacks wisdom,
(05:21):
let him ask of God, who gives to all generously
and without reproach, and it will be given to him
if we need help. This is one of the benefits
of being a son of being a daughter of God
is when we need help, when we don't know what
to do, we can ask God for wisdom. I always
(05:43):
end the show by saying, when you don't know what
to do, wisdom splits the difference. That's a revelation the
Lord gave me. And it comes from the account and
scripture where the two women brought their issue to King
Solomon and who was the real mother and Solomon again
(06:05):
the Bible talks about he's the wisest person. No one
who came before or after him would be wiser except
for Jesus obviously. But the two women come to him
and they say, this is my child, and Solomon says, fine,
cut the baby in half. The real mother, any real
woman out there, would just simply not allow or want
(06:26):
their child to die. So the actual mother ended up
being the one who cried out for the child, and
Solomon gave the child to that particular woman. And so
there were two options. Do I give the baby to
this woman? Do I give the baby to this woman?
And so Solomon knew because he asked God for wisdom,
(06:49):
there was a third option. It wasn't this woman or
that woman. It was wisdom came in and split the
difference of the two decisions and said, you know what,
let's test and see who the real mother is. He
did so. So that's what I mean by wisdom. So
if any of us lacks wisdom, we can ask God
(07:11):
and he gives generously without reproach. Wisdom is not based
on age. It's kind of a myth. Wisdom is not
based on age, though it can be. Wisdom is not
based on experience, though it can be. Wisdom is not
based on if you're male or female, young or old,
black or white, rich or poor. God gives generously to
(07:35):
all of his children if you ask him for wisdom.
So when we're talking about navigating those storms, we have
tools and the word of God, and one of them
is wisdom, and you can find that in James Chapter one,
verse five. Now we need it, We need wisdom because
that's one of the tools that helps us become better
(07:59):
steward words, which brings up the question what is stewardship. Well,
I like to define stewardship this way. Stewardship, generally speaking,
is wisdom applied knowledge is information. Knowledge is information. But
(08:19):
just because I take in knowledge, that doesn't mean I
have wisdom. Why Because I haven't applied it yet. So
knowledge is information, wisdom is application. One of the ways
we apply wisdom is stewardship. So stewardship is wisdom applied.
(08:42):
And a little bit more specifically, a definition of stewardship
I like to give is it is the essence of
faithfully managing the resources God has entrusted to us. Stewardship
is the essence of faithfully man the resources God has
(09:02):
entrusted to us. Stewardship is a fancy word for management management.
How do we manage? You See, we don't own anything.
God owns it all. That's a whole other teaching. We'll
talk about a little bit of that today. But God
owns it all, so we're really just managing that which
(09:25):
He has given. So that's what stewardship is. And there
are many areas of stewardship. Now I'm going to talk
about seven. I call this the Magnificent seven. But what
I hope is in your prayer time and your devotion
time as you're listening to this, I hope that you
think of other areas because these seven aren't the only ones.
(09:47):
In fact, these seven probably have offshoots of each of them.
But this is just to get your mind thinking about
what you should go to God and prayer about and
read His word. So we're called to steward. What are
some of the things we're called to steward? So I
have seven areas I call the Magnificent seven. Number one
(10:09):
it's our faith. How do we manage our faith day
to day? Do people know that you're a follower of
Jesus Christ or not? Do they know? Do they know
by your fruit? Your behaviors? In other words, do they
know by your walk? A lot of people talk, but
do we walk the walk? Do they know us by
(10:33):
our love frue to spirit? Do they know us by
our love, our joy or peace, our patience or kindness,
our goodness, our faithfulness or gentleness or self control? Do
they know us by our witness? Who do we give
credit to when things are going well? Do we say, ah,
that was me, I'm that good, I'm that skilled, I'm
that wise?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
No?
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Or do we say, listen, the things you see that
are amazing in my life, they're not because of me.
They're because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So do people know that you're a follower of Christ?
Our faith is one of those areas of stewardship. Second
is our purpose. Each of us have a customized, specific
(11:16):
kingdom purpose. My pastor likes to say, and a lot
of people have said this before. If there is still
air in your lungs, if you're still breathing, then you
have purpose. So each of us have a customized specific purpose.
And it's a journey of understanding. Some people they do
(11:38):
one thing, one activity, boom, they find out what their
purpose is. And for others it's a process. There's no
need to get into comparison just because somebody immediately finds
out their purpose and for other people it was more
of a process or a journey. That's okay either way.
In either case, one of the areas were asked to manage.
(12:00):
Is our purpose? Are we walking in our kingdom purpose?
Or are we casually walking through life just bumping along?
So our faith our purpose. Thirdly, I started to tease
us out a little bit earlier. Money. Do we manage
God's money not our money? Do we manage God's money
(12:26):
for his glory? Or do we just try to spend
it all and blow it because we're trying to yell low,
you only live once, Or we're trying to live in
the moment. Have we asked God what he wants to
do with his money? We're just the conduit. Some of
us have been grace to make a lot of money,
grace to we are not that good? God is that good.
(12:50):
So when we earn money, whether it's fifty thousand, five
hundred thousand, or five million dollars, whatever, we find ourselves
in the wherever we find ourselves on the income skill,
when that money comes into our household, do we manage
it for God's glory because it's His money? Faith? Purpose, money? Time? Ooh,
(13:14):
that's a big one. How are we managing our time?
The management of time is really the management of our life.
That's not just activities, right, It's not just oh, the family,
the kids. Yes, there's calendar time. How are we ultimately
managing our life? Do we spend time with Jesus? Do
(13:37):
we spend time hearing about God's direction for our life?
Because that influences the calendar? Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So?
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Have faith, purpose, money, time, talent, talent. Each of us
has been given unique skills. How are we managing them?
Are we developing them? Or are we resting on Are
we prideful? Oh? I'm already good? I don't need to
take classes. I don't need a certification, I don't need
a degree. I'm just naturally talented. Well, how are we
(14:13):
managing that? How are we cultivating that? Are we maximizing
the talent that God has given us? Faith? Purpose, money, time, talent? Health?
Coming off the last three to four years with COVID
nineteen and a lot of other things happening in the world,
how are we managing our health? Number one? Our spiritual health.
(14:37):
What happens on the inside comes out on the outside,
so our spiritual health, our mental health. How are things
going mentally? Are we stressed out? Do we have anxiety?
Are we battling something? Which again remember I said starting spiritually,
because our spiritual health influences all the other things, such
as mental health. And then, obviously the obvious one is
(15:01):
our physical health. Our physical health, diet, exercise, are we
drinking water? All of those things? Health is to be managed.
And last, but certainly not least, relationships. How are we
managing our relationships? Number one? The kind of the through
line of all this is our personal relationship with God,
(15:25):
So God is number one. Secondly, if you're a married
person or if you're in a relationship with someone, your
relationship with your spouse or your significant other? How are
you managing that? Are you being supportive? Are you caring
about their needs? I think about the book the Five
Love Languages that doctor Gary Chapman wrote. Are you being considerate?
(15:52):
Are you being a partner? Not a roommate, but a partner?
Relationships if their spouse, our friendships, our parents, siblings, co workers,
board of directors? How are we managing those relationships? Are
we walking in love or do we have a nasty attitude? Right?
(16:17):
Are we walking in love? And are we trying to
cultivate a community that flourishes and love. The Bible says
to love your neighbor as yourself. We don't love conditionally.
We love unconditionally because God loved us first. So we
(16:41):
have a lot of areas to steward. But God gives
us the grace and the wisdom to steward these areas
to manage these areas. I hope that this is not
the end all be all again, these seven areas of stewardship,
or the Magnificent seven. We're just listed here to pull
(17:05):
back the curtain on some other things. I hope these
seven bring up other topics. But as you can see,
there's a lot of things to manage, and we don't
have to be overwhelmed. God has given us grace and
he's given us a gift, a tool, wisdom to do so.
So those are the seven areas of stewardship. Now, all
(17:27):
of this we're climbing, we're building. It's coming to a
crescendo or a climax. All of these things are building.
How are we navigating life day to day? Because that's
what sets us up to talk about the pillars. So
this was a foundation to talk about another foundation. So
(17:47):
we've been building a foundation. Now we're going to talk
about the actual foundation, the actual pillars. Even pillars, excuse me,
have a foundation, right, So we've been building the foundation
for the pillars. Now we're actually going to talk about
the columns. I don't know if you're a big fan
of Greek or Roman architecture, but it's beautiful. You can
(18:11):
just google a search and you see all the different
Roman and Greek structures that have been built and constructed
across time. And even pillars have a foundation. So we've
been building a foundation. Now let's talk about the pillars
that we place in the Guruz on this foundation. So
the five pillars of stewardship are relationship, ownership, lordship, partnership,
(18:44):
and discipleship. Relationship, ownership, lordship, partnership, discipleship. Let's start digging
into these as we build out the foundation by placing
all these pillars in their respective columns. Number one relationship
(19:09):
relationship developing a personal relationship with God. Developing a personal
relationship with God, the reading of his word, the reading
of the Bible, discerning his voice, the spiritual disciplines, prayer, solitude, silence,
(19:34):
Fasting a relationship with God is critical, and it sets
up how we manage God's resources for his glory. I'm
want to tell you a story about when I was
in college. My wife and I both attended Georgia Tech,
the Georgia Institute of Technology, and I call this story
(19:55):
close encounters of the Yellowjacket. Kind now accept Christ, but
this was a time in my life a cannon event
if you're a big comic book person. This was a
canon event where my relationship with God was really solidified.
All in about a six month period in college, my
(20:18):
parents got divorced, my maternal grandmother passed away, and my
youngest brother had kidney failure. By the way Georgia techt's
really hard and think, by the grace of God, I graduated,
but in a six month period, I just said back
(20:39):
to back to back, just trials and failures, and I
thought I was all alone. Let me give you some
insight because one that was devastating in particular obviously the
divorce of my parents, but the way I found out
about my brother's kidney failure. I got woken up about
(20:59):
seven am on campus at Georgia Tech by the media department.
They said, Jason, we need to talk to you this morning.
There's been an incident with your brother. The first thing
I'm thinking, like, whoa, you know what's going on? It's serious,
So I go down. They said, Jason, Unfortunately, we've gotten
(21:20):
word that your brother had an incident during a workout.
Because all three of us me I have two younger brothers,
we all played college football, he said, there's been an
incident with your brother at a workout. My brother went
to UCF Central Florida and he passed out. And when
(21:41):
my brother passed out, he ended up getting rushed to
the er and had to be an intensive care because
he was so dehydrated. And his kidneys were failing. Didn't
get a chance to talk to family or anybody. I
found out via our media department. Thank God. That was
a grace of God when you get traumatic news like that.
(22:02):
They shielded me from the press, by the way press,
the press wanted comments from me, and my middle brother
was my youngest brother. This happened to and so they
shielded me. And I believe God used them, because I mean,
that's traumatic hearing about your own sibling that early in
the morning. I say all this to say, I woke
up one day I don't even remember what day it was,
(22:24):
and I just felt complete, complete, an utter anxiety. I
felt depressed. I probably during that time, I didn't know it.
I was probably on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
I was probably on the verge of a panic attack.
And I was just crying. I was bawling like a toddler,
(22:46):
and I said, everyone has left me. I don't have anything.
My family's been ripped apart and gutted by divorce. My
maternal grandmother was a matriarch of the family that was
a praying and prophesying woman, and we lost her to
Parkinson's disease and then I find out I'm at my brother,
(23:09):
and then school is hard, and there's all the stress
of being a Division one football player, and I just
I couldn't handle it until I was crying and I said, man,
I got no one, and I'll never forget to this day.
I was laying there and I heard a voice. And
I know God speaks to people differently, and at the
(23:30):
end of the day, God can do whatever he wants.
He speaks through his word, he speaks through circumstances, he
speaks through other people. In that particular day, I heard
a voice and said, Jason, I've never left you, and
I knew it wasn't me. I was looking around and
I said, oh my God, I said, Lord. Craig Grochelle
(23:54):
has this book called Dangerous Prayers. What at the age
of nineteen, I prayed a dangerous prayer. I said, Lord,
if that's you, and I believe it is. And by
the way, I grew up in a Christian family for context,
if that's you and I believe it is, Your word
says You're called wonderful counselor Mighty God, Prince of Peace,
(24:18):
everlasting Father, and the government is on your shoulders. Lord,
You're called wonderful counselor. I'm broken right now and I
have nothing. I demand that you counsel me. Brothers and sisters.
I'm happy to report Jesus has been counseling me ever since.
(24:39):
That passage is from the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah fifty three.
I believe, check me on that be a Burian. I
believe it's Isaiah chapter fifty three. And in the Book
of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah is prophesying about the coming
of Jesus. So that passage in particular is talking about
(24:59):
the actuales of the forthcoming Messiah, the forthcoming Savior in Jesus.
And so one of the attributes that I really needed
at that time that I was crying out for, I
needed counsel. I needed a counselor. You know, we have.
Mental health is more talked about in these days compared
(25:22):
to them. But man, God wrapped his hands around me.
It's like he gave me a hug, and it was
a call to action, and it really solidified my relationship
with God. So I say, I tell people like this,
when I was a child, I accepted Christ as my
(25:43):
savior and Lord. But on the floor crying, feeling alone,
and scared. I met Christ. I accepted Christ as a child,
But I really met Christ at one of my lowest points,
at the age of nineteen, crying on the floor of
my dorm at Georgia Tech Close encounters of the yellow
(26:04):
jacket kind. Here's the key. Why tell the story? Why
say all this about relationship? Why is relationship the first
pillar to stewardship. Here's the key. Relationship influences our stewardship.
Relationship influences how we go about managing his resources. Now
(26:28):
that's my story. But here's right out of the Word
of God and Matthew chapter twenty five, verse twenty four
and twenty five. This is the parable of the talents.
That could be its own other story, its own other episode.
But I'm gonna read Matthew twenty five, verse twenty four
and twenty five to you so you can see here.
(26:48):
And the one also who had received the one talent
came up and said, Master, I knew you to be
a hard man, reaping where you did not sew, and
gathering where you scat no seed. And I was afraid
and went away, and I hid and hid the talent
in the ground. See you have what is yours? So
(27:08):
I mentioned this is what's known as the parable of
the talents. In this particular parable, you have the master
who goes off and travels, and he and trusts resources
to three different servants. He gives one servant five talents,
another two, and another one. When you look at some
(27:30):
of the context, a talent here represented a significant amount
of money. It's also pointed out in the parable that
each servant was given the amount of the talent based
on their ability. That's important to note. That's so I said,
we'll have to get in the parable of the talents
at a later time. But three servants and trusted with
(27:53):
the resources are in the master, and the master went
away and he was going to come back and he
was going to check in with them on how the
management of those talents were going. We don't have a
lot of insight on the relational aspects of the servants
with the master. But it's interesting the one talent servant
(28:17):
we get invited to a peak, we get the curtain
pulled back a little bit on his perceived relationship with
the master. So in this verse here and the one
who had received the one talent came up and said,
having a conversation with the Master. The Master represents Jesus
(28:37):
in this parable, the servants represent at the time Jesus.
You know, he was very astute in society and business
and everything modern day that we could think of ourselves
as servants because we are servants of the most high.
So this is a lesson. This was a lesson Jesus
was trying to teach at that present time. Modern day.
(29:00):
Application wise, we can look at the attributes described in
the lessons some of the takeaways we can learn from this.
So the one talent servant, the servant that was given
one talent, came up to the Master and said, Master,
I knew you to be a hard man. Interesting, he
(29:24):
knew him, his perception, his in dialogue and in conversation.
It's like he thought the Master to be a hard man.
Well relationally with that perception, he went about managing with
a certain mentality and it affected his actions. His relationship
(29:46):
or perceived relationship with the Master influenced how he managed
the talent that was given to him. So listen, Master,
I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where
you did not sell, and gathering where you scattered. No,
And I was afraid m He knew the Master of
(30:07):
be a hard man, and he was afraid, and his
fear caused him to hide his talent in the ground.
It's a whole other story diving deeper into the parable
of the talents, but we even see here relationship influences stewardship.
The perceived relationship that the servant had with the master
(30:27):
influenced how he went about managing the talent. Pillar number one, relationship,
Pillar number two. Ownership. God owns it all. God owns
it all. Our creator has legal ownership of all things.
(30:51):
Deuteronomy ten fourteen talks about how God owns the heavens.
Psalm twenty four to one talks about how God owns
the earth and its inhabitants, the people. Hagui to eight
talks about how God owns the currency. The silver is mine.
(31:13):
The gold is mine, declares the Lord. And Psalm fifty,
verse ten and eleven talks about how God owns all
of the animals the livestock of the earth. So God
owns it all, the heavens, the earth, the inhabitants, the currency,
livestock resources. God owns it all. There's nothing in there
(31:36):
about humans owning that. So in light of his ownership.
Where does that leave us. We'll get to that in
a second. One of the one of my favorite movies
of all time is Remember the Titans. This is kind
of just the explain who's really in control and I'll
(31:56):
never forget and Remember the Titans. Denzel Washington, who play's
coach Herman Boone. He's comment as a new coach and
they're about to go to camp. They're all about to
get on the bus. And you have Gary Bertier, all
American linebacker. He's in the scene and he's talking and
there's the part where Herman Boone kind of is like, Hey,
(32:20):
I need to let you know who's in charge and
that some things are changing. So there's the joke that
he makes you know, is this your team or is
this your daddy's team? And he says yours, and then he goes,
so who's your daddy? Who's your daddy? And that's a
(32:40):
funny quip out of the movie, right, But Coach Boone
was putting a stamp on Hey, things are changing and
this is my team. This is not your team, it's mine.
So is this your team or is this your daddy's team?
Same thing? Is it our money? Is it our cars.
Is it our house? Are these things ours? Just because
(33:02):
your tax return says head of household, Just because your
business has your name on it and your loc and
all these other things, just because on earth, that's the
classification a biblical perspective. God owns it. We're just managing it.
So God's in control. So here's the key. In light
(33:23):
of God's ownership. We are to be faithful stewards managers.
First Corinthians, chapter four, verse two. In this case, moreover,
it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy
aka faithful. On First Corinthians, the apostle Paul is talking
(33:48):
about spiritual leadership within the church, and so one of
the attributes that he describes with spiritual leadership in a
church context, he points out that sewards are to be
found faithful or trustworthy. We can take one of those
applications if it's if that's good enough for spiritual leadership,
(34:11):
that's good enough that same trait, because remember, stewardship is management.
If they're managing God's bride spiritually, we being faithful, being
trustworthy is the same attitude and disposition we ought to
have toward resources. So in First Corinthians four to two.
(34:34):
It is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy
or faithful also Luke sixteen eleven. Therefore, if you have
not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who
will entrust the true riches to you? Such a loaded verse.
(34:55):
But the way we handle earthly wealth, earthly resources, earthly money,
it's a parallel. You know. If we can't handle that right,
how can we be entrusted with the true riches that
God has to offer? So it's never just I have money, No, no, no, no.
(35:16):
Managing money says a lot about how you steward. So,
ENLiGHT of God's ownership, where to be faithful managers or stewards?
Pillar number two ownership? So we have relationship ownership. Now
we get to the third. Actually, let's expand on ownership
(35:41):
a little bit. Let's talk to a few practicalities. So
using money as an example, God owns it all. But
where to be faithful managers? What does that look like?
Especially with something like money day to day well budgeting,
saving debt and credit when it comes the budgeting, are
(36:04):
we creating a personal or business budget that reflects God's priorities?
Are we practicing saving habits to prepare for future needs
and opportunities debt? Are we approaching debt with caution and
seeking to minimize it and or eliminate it? Proverbs twenty
two to seven the rituals over the poor, and the
(36:27):
borrower is servant slave to the lender. To modern day slavery, yes,
there's human trafficking, sex trafficking, all these things, but the
modern day slavery no one is talking about is debt.
Debt keeps you in chains and so our debt management.
(36:48):
Are we paying it all? Are we eliminating it or
cautiously using it? That's stewardship credit? Are we using credit
responsibly keeping stewardship principles in mind? So that's some practicality,
stewardship and motion. I call it the core for budgeting.
Saving debt and credit another phenomenon that's awesome. I learned
(37:11):
about this from Bible teacher Howard Dayton. Before modern day
we have Dave Ramsey. Before Dave Ramsey, there were three
individuals that really highlighted teaching biblical finance, and that was
Larry Briquette, Ron Blue and Howard Dayton. So they all
(37:32):
did a lot of books and teaching together. And one
concept that came up was called the deed dating your
business or career or money to God. And so you
can actually google this and find it online. But it's
an actual document and it says made on the blah
(37:54):
blah blah day and year, and it says from I'll
use myself in it as an example from Jason two
the Lord. I, Jason transfer to the Lord the ownership
of the following possessions. And I would list on all
my possessions. And then you have witnesses, and then you
have the stewards. Because I'm a steward and it was
(38:15):
such a powerful exercise. It really reframes who's in control.
So those are two practical ways to think about stewardship
on a daily basis, especially when it comes to our
money the core four budgeting, saving, debt and credit. And
then also who really owns it all? And maybe do
I need to put that deed up on the wall
(38:36):
somewhere to remind me that it's God's money, not mine.
So we have relationship, we have ownership Pillar number three
lordship lordship. Our affection follows what's valued. In other words,
our heart follows value. Affinity and affection comes out of Matthew,
(39:01):
chapter six, verse twenty one. For where your treasure is there,
your heart will be. Also, I've heard this example used
when it comes to money. Well, if I put my
money in the stock market, I'm gonna suddenly care about
it more. I'm going to care about it because I
(39:23):
put all I put blood, sweat, tears into it. And
I would never care about the stock market if I
didn't put my money there. So I put my money there,
and now, all of a sudden, all the emotions and
everything that come with it when it goes up, when
the stock market goes up, when it goes down, if
there's a crash, if there's a bull market, if there's
a bear market, all of a sudden, I care about
it more. Well, why do I care about it because
(39:45):
I put my money in it. Wherever I put my money,
that's where my affinity follows. And Jesus talks about that
in Matthew six twenty one. So affection follows what's valued,
or focus follows what is valued. I'm a big movie buff.
(40:07):
Another movie example I can bring up is Jerry McGuire
and Larry Burkett. I'll come to Larry in a second.
In the movie Jerry McGuire, you have Cuba Gooding Junior
and Tom Cruise, and Cuba Gooding is a character playing
I believe it's a football player and he's trying to
renegotiate a contract and they start yelling show me the money.
(40:31):
And so it's a famous scene. But notice, if you
hadn't just google Jerry McGuire, show me the money scene
and you'll get to see it. Notice the emotions that
Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding are exhibiting. And what's the
topic money? Our affection follows what is valued. Larry Burkette,
(40:57):
the late Larry Burkett, used to say this a lot
when he was living. Show me your checkbook and I'll
tell you what you really care about most. In other words,
whatever I spend my money on is what I care about.
I go, oh, I care about this and that. But
you're not generous. I can tell your generous or not
(41:19):
with words. You may say you're generous, but with money.
If I don't see money going to the church, going
to nonprofit organizations, going to good causes, my words don't
really mean anything. But my actual transactions reflect what I
care about. And so the key here with lordship our
heart cannot be divided Matthew Six's twenty four. No one
(41:44):
can serve two masters, for either he will hate the
one and love the other, or he will be devoted
to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve
God and wealth. Who is Lord Jesus or money and possessions?
Pillar number three, Pillar number four partnership. Partnership. This is
(42:09):
divine collaboration. Make Jesus your partner. Make Jesus your partner
in everything you do. Jesus is our counselor he has
divine counsel. That's what Isaiah fifty three was talking about.
Partner with Jesus in our managing of his resources. Jesus
(42:32):
invites us into divine collaboration. So we already have the
relationship part but we may confine that to all I pray,
I spend time with God, but then when I go
to work, But then when I do other things, I
forget about him. No, no, no, no. In the context of
a relationship, make him a partner everywhere, everywhere. Quick story.
(42:55):
I wrote my first book called FORTI five and rooted
in God's plan for work in business. I wrote that
book it was divine collaboration. Every page, citing the sources,
sitting down and discussing proper use of the biblical context
when it came to money. All of that stemmed out
(43:17):
of partnership with God. Writing in the morning, writing in
the evening, praying asking God for wisdom. Lord, how do
I say this? How do I write it? What do
your people need? We had divine partnership and collaboration. I
didn't write that book. It was the Holy Spirit's book,
and we wrote that together. Jesus is our partner. So
(43:41):
the key here with partnership as pillar number four, real
success equals walking with God. Real success equals walking with God.
We see that with Enoch Genesis one twenty four. We
don't know a ton about Enoch and scripture. He's not
mentioned much, but get this. In Genesis one twenty four,
(44:04):
Enoch walked faithfully with God. Then he was no more
because God took him away. Enoch walked faithfully with God.
It was important enough that he was in the Word
of God as an example of someone who walked with
God faithfully, and then he was no more. Pillar number
(44:25):
four partnership Our final pillar. Pillar number five is discipleship.
This is the pillar that ties the other four together.
It ties everything together. And now, remember earlier I said
stewardship is a matter of responsibility. Stewardship is a matter
(44:46):
of responsibility. We're gonna you'll see how this fifth pillar,
how he put it in context. But remember, responsibility is good.
There's been a lot of studies on stewardship and local
generosity and all these things. But when you look at
the data and the research, folks, we still have a problem.
(45:06):
And it's not like stewardship isn't being talked about. It's
been talked about for several years. In fact, there are
more and more people and entities starting to focus on
it year every year. And yet when you look at
the lot of data, a lot of the data around generosity,
it it's just not good. Average Christian gives I believe
(45:28):
it's somewhere between two point two and two point eight
percent of their income average. My god, that's scary. Well,
if responsibility is pushed, that's one perspective. We're going to
tie that together with another thing that's not talked about
(45:50):
as much, and without it, if we just feel a
sense of responsibility for stewardship, it may not sink in
for us. So this fifth pillar. Discipleship points out why
this matters. So, first of all, Discipleship, we were commissioned
to do so, and we were commissioned by Jesus himself. Matthew,
(46:12):
Chapter twenty eight. Matthew, Chapter twenty eight. I'm going to
read verse eighteen through twenty. And Jesus came to the well.
That's eighteen. Jesus came to them and said, all authority
in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Well stop, pause, all authority. Now I live here in
(46:35):
America and in the United States. We think about authority. We
think about positions. We think about politics like the President
of the United States, our senators, our House of Representatives
in Congress, the Supreme Court, maybe your CEO, your boss,
the police. We think about authority. Jesus here is making
(46:56):
it very very clear all authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me solely. Jesus is in control.
Number one, that's verse eighteen. As we go into nineteen,
(47:17):
so eighteen sets up this the gravity of what he's saying.
I'm in control. I have authority in the heavenlies, and
I have authority on earth. And because I have authority,
here's what I'm going to say to you, and here's
(47:40):
what I'm going to instruct you. And this is where
we get the Great commission. Because I have authority, I
am commissioning you to do the following verse nineteen. Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and
(48:00):
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that
I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you
always to the end of the age. Folks, Jesus has
all authority in heaven and on earth. What he is
(48:22):
saying here is not a suggestion. This is not called
the great suggestion. This is not called the Great option.
It's called the Great commission. Discipleship is at the top
of the agenda for Jesus Christ. If it's at the
top of the agenda for Jesus, it ought to be
(48:44):
at the top of the agenda for us. Jesus has
all authority in heaven and on earth. Discipleship is a
top priority for him. It should be a top priority
for us. Enough said, so we have the Great commission.
(49:05):
So Jesus commands us to do it. But the Bible
also talks about well okay, all right, well how do
I do that? The Apostle Paul comes back around in
second Timothy and shares with us that it's a process.
It is a process. In fact, it's a life on
life process, meaning men, women, community, the church, the bride
(49:29):
of Christ spending time together. And so the Apostle Paul
is having a conversation with Timothy, his protege, his mentee,
and we find this and second Timothy, two Timothy two
to two. You have heard me. This is Paul talking
(49:52):
to Timothy. You, Timothy, have heard me. Paul teach things
that have been confirmed by reliable sources. In other words,
Paul is talking to hey, Timothy. All this time we've
been spending together, you've heard me teach you, and you've
heard me say things. And the things that I have
(50:15):
told you and taught you, they've also been confirmed by
other people. Meaning it's legit what I'm sharing with you
that two Timothy too too. You have heard me teach
things that have been confirmed by many, not a few,
many reliable witnesses. As a result, now teach these truths
(50:40):
to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass
them on to others. Folks teaching things and absorbing them
and getting it and then the ability to take that
which you've learned with someone walking with you and do
it with someone else. That's the essence of discipleship, and
(51:00):
that's life on life. This comes from spending time together,
eating together, studying the Word of God together, doing life together,
going to the movies together, being generous together. If one
needs hell, maybe I helped the other out with a bill.
This is spending time together. And there are four generations mentioned.
(51:22):
Four generations are mentioned here, and I'm gonna point them
out here. So we have If you look at the
scripture here, you have heard me. So we have Paul,
who taught it to Timothy. You have heard me teach
things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. So
(51:44):
we have Paul. Now teach. Now he's saying to Timothy,
now you go teach. So we have Paul, the spirit
of the Lord working through Paul, who has taught Timothy.
Now he's instructing Timothy to teach these truths to others.
They are trustworthy people. So that's three. We have Paul,
we have Timothy, we have other trustworthy people who will
(52:08):
be able to pass them on to others. We have Paul, Timothy,
other trustworthy people, others, four generations, four generations of discipleship,
all mentioned in that passage. You see, brothers and sisters.
Discipleship is a commission. Discipleship is a process. And here's
(52:31):
the key, and here's why. It ties everything together with stewardship.
Stewardship's not just a responsibility. It demonstrates maturity and maturity
is expected. We are expected to grow, We are accountable
to be maturity because maturity is expected, and we see
(52:54):
it in the word of God, the Apostle, well the
writer of Hebrews. Many think it was all, but I
want to honor and be specific.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
Thank you for listening to the Fortified Life podcast. You
can catch us live on Wednesdays at eight thirty pm
Eastern Times and on demand. Check out fortifiedlifepodcast dot com
for more details. So learn how to live out your
faith in the marketplace. Grab a copy of Jason Davis's
book Fortify Being Rooted in God's Plan for Work in Business,
(53:27):
Available on Amazon
Greetings, Doctor Manette, Publish and pusher to all the body
place of encouragement, culchure, empowerment. Weekly should engage conversations with entrepreneurs,
that creators, and these insightful interviews are designed to help
us build our businesses, respective brands, ourselves and to hopefully
propel us to the next level of greatness, Big Boss.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
So with no time to waste, time is sufficiently go.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Time in family. This is pology of my Journey with Pology,
and I just want to share with you today it's
not what you go through, it's what you do with
what you go through. We all go through circumstances in life.
We're all going to have challenges. The key is how
(00:47):
are we going to respond to those challenges? What are
we going to do given the situation that we're in
and those challenges and how we're going to handle it.
I just wanted to share that with you today. I
want you to stay encourage and I also want you
to stay connected with the TV talk show my Journey
with Apology. That's dreaming across a variety of platforms. And remember,
(01:09):
greatest conversation you will ever have. I tell y'all all
the time, the one that takes place in between your ears.
What are you speaking to yourself? Is God a part
of that conversation? And are you listening to his still
small voice? Embrace the jarney?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Hey, what's going on? Everybody? Welcome back to another episode
of Fortified in Wisdom, where we talk about walking in
the wisdom of God daily. I'm your host, Jason Davis
aka mister Fortifi. I'm an author, speaker, and coach, and
I help mission driven people prioritize their faith in the marketplace.
(01:48):
Really excited for today's episode. Welcome officially to season two
of Fortified and Wisdom. It's great to be back with you.
For those of you if this is your first so
I'm getting to know me. You can check out episodes
one through thirteen season one on my YouTube channel, The
Fortified Life. We also air onto CAB twenty five weekly
(02:12):
Wednesday nights at eleven pm Eastern Time, so you can
have a chance to catch up on everything that you've missed.
As far as today though, kicking off season two, we're
going to talk about an important topic, stewardship. We're going
to be talking about the five pillars of stewardship. Stewardship
(02:35):
is a fancy ten twenty dollars word has a lot
of nuance to it, and depending on your background, you
may view stewardship from different perspectives. So we're going to
look at a biblical perspective of stewardship today. So let's
get ready to dive in and we'll get into how
(02:59):
stewardship from a day to day perspective and walking in
the wisdom of God? What does it mean for you
today in this dayly walk? I first would like to
start out by saying, you know, we're all in a
life voyage life. Theres a lot of things at us,
and that's why we need the wisdom of God. Some
of us are are navigating storms. We're navigating different situations personally,
(03:27):
professionally with our families, and so navigating the storms of
life and our respective spheres of influence. It's difficult. You know,
a lot of us work across a lot of different
industries or deal with a lot of different things. For
those of us in the marketplace or wherever you find yourself,
(03:48):
and I'll talk about this in a second, you're different
spheres of influence. So you have business, you have media,
you have family, church, government, education, art's healthcare. Many of
us are in one or two or more of these
fears of influence. That's just us personally, but we're impacted
(04:12):
by all of these, and so as we're navigating the
storms of life and we're working across or in one
or multiple of these, it can cause a lot of stress.
But you see God as a customized plan and purpose
for each of us, and that's where wisdom comes into play.
(04:35):
So how do we even begin to handle this responsibility
because stewardship is a matter of responsibility. We're going to
come back to that a little bit later, but just
keep if you think about a book, kind of make
a dog ear kind of a put a mark down
on that stewardship as a responsibility. But before we get
(04:58):
into the responsibility I mentioned, it's a matter of wisdom.
God gives us tools to help navigate these storms of life.
He gives us tools daily, hence wisdom. In James chapter one,
verse five, it says, but if any of you lacks wisdom,
(05:21):
let him ask of God, who gives to all generously
and without reproach, and it will be given to him
if we need help. This is one of the benefits
of being a son of being a daughter of God
is when we need help, when we don't know what
to do, we can ask God for wisdom. I always
(05:43):
end the show by saying, when you don't know what
to do, wisdom splits the difference. That's a revelation the
Lord gave me. And it comes from the account and
scripture where the two women brought their issue to King
Solomon and who was the real mother and Solomon again
(06:05):
the Bible talks about he's the wisest person. No one
who came before or after him would be wiser except
for Jesus obviously. But the two women come to him
and they say, this is my child, and Solomon says, fine,
cut the baby in half. The real mother, any real
woman out there, would just simply not allow or want
(06:26):
their child to die. So the actual mother ended up
being the one who cried out for the child, and
Solomon gave the child to that particular woman. And so
there were two options. Do I give the baby to
this woman? Do I give the baby to this woman?
And so Solomon knew because he asked God for wisdom,
(06:49):
there was a third option. It wasn't this woman or
that woman. It was wisdom came in and split the
difference of the two decisions and said, you know what,
let's test and see who the real mother is. He
did so. So that's what I mean by wisdom. So
if any of us lacks wisdom, we can ask God
(07:11):
and he gives generously without reproach. Wisdom is not based
on age. It's kind of a myth. Wisdom is not
based on age, though it can be. Wisdom is not
based on experience, though it can be. Wisdom is not
based on if you're male or female, young or old,
black or white, rich or poor. God gives generously to
(07:35):
all of his children if you ask him for wisdom.
So when we're talking about navigating those storms, we have
tools and the word of God, and one of them
is wisdom, and you can find that in James Chapter one,
verse five. Now we need it, We need wisdom because
that's one of the tools that helps us become better
(07:59):
steward words, which brings up the question what is stewardship. Well,
I like to define stewardship this way. Stewardship, generally speaking,
is wisdom applied knowledge is information. Knowledge is information. But
(08:19):
just because I take in knowledge, that doesn't mean I
have wisdom. Why Because I haven't applied it yet. So
knowledge is information, wisdom is application. One of the ways
we apply wisdom is stewardship. So stewardship is wisdom applied.
(08:42):
And a little bit more specifically, a definition of stewardship
I like to give is it is the essence of
faithfully managing the resources God has entrusted to us. Stewardship
is the essence of faithfully man the resources God has
(09:02):
entrusted to us. Stewardship is a fancy word for management management.
How do we manage? You See, we don't own anything.
God owns it all. That's a whole other teaching. We'll
talk about a little bit of that today. But God
owns it all, so we're really just managing that which
(09:25):
He has given. So that's what stewardship is. And there
are many areas of stewardship. Now I'm going to talk
about seven. I call this the Magnificent seven. But what
I hope is in your prayer time and your devotion
time as you're listening to this, I hope that you
think of other areas because these seven aren't the only ones.
(09:47):
In fact, these seven probably have offshoots of each of them.
But this is just to get your mind thinking about
what you should go to God and prayer about and
read His word. So we're called to steward. What are
some of the things we're called to steward? So I
have seven areas I call the Magnificent seven. Number one
(10:09):
it's our faith. How do we manage our faith day
to day? Do people know that you're a follower of
Jesus Christ or not? Do they know? Do they know
by your fruit? Your behaviors? In other words, do they
know by your walk? A lot of people talk, but
do we walk the walk? Do they know us by
(10:33):
our love frue to spirit? Do they know us by
our love, our joy or peace, our patience or kindness,
our goodness, our faithfulness or gentleness or self control? Do
they know us by our witness? Who do we give
credit to when things are going well? Do we say, ah,
that was me, I'm that good, I'm that skilled, I'm
that wise?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
No?
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Or do we say, listen, the things you see that
are amazing in my life, they're not because of me.
They're because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So do people know that you're a follower of Christ?
Our faith is one of those areas of stewardship. Second
is our purpose. Each of us have a customized, specific
(11:16):
kingdom purpose. My pastor likes to say, and a lot
of people have said this before. If there is still
air in your lungs, if you're still breathing, then you
have purpose. So each of us have a customized specific purpose.
And it's a journey of understanding. Some people they do
(11:38):
one thing, one activity, boom, they find out what their
purpose is. And for others it's a process. There's no
need to get into comparison just because somebody immediately finds
out their purpose and for other people it was more
of a process or a journey. That's okay either way.
In either case, one of the areas were asked to manage.
(12:00):
Is our purpose? Are we walking in our kingdom purpose?
Or are we casually walking through life just bumping along?
So our faith our purpose. Thirdly, I started to tease
us out a little bit earlier. Money. Do we manage
God's money not our money? Do we manage God's money
(12:26):
for his glory? Or do we just try to spend
it all and blow it because we're trying to yell low,
you only live once, Or we're trying to live in
the moment. Have we asked God what he wants to
do with his money? We're just the conduit. Some of
us have been grace to make a lot of money,
grace to we are not that good? God is that good.
(12:50):
So when we earn money, whether it's fifty thousand, five
hundred thousand, or five million dollars, whatever, we find ourselves
in the wherever we find ourselves on the income skill,
when that money comes into our household, do we manage
it for God's glory because it's His money? Faith? Purpose, money? Time? Ooh,
(13:14):
that's a big one. How are we managing our time?
The management of time is really the management of our life.
That's not just activities, right, It's not just oh, the family,
the kids. Yes, there's calendar time. How are we ultimately
managing our life? Do we spend time with Jesus? Do
(13:37):
we spend time hearing about God's direction for our life?
Because that influences the calendar? Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So?
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Have faith, purpose, money, time, talent, talent. Each of us
has been given unique skills. How are we managing them?
Are we developing them? Or are we resting on Are
we prideful? Oh? I'm already good? I don't need to
take classes. I don't need a certification, I don't need
a degree. I'm just naturally talented. Well, how are we
(14:13):
managing that? How are we cultivating that? Are we maximizing
the talent that God has given us? Faith? Purpose, money, time, talent? Health?
Coming off the last three to four years with COVID
nineteen and a lot of other things happening in the world,
how are we managing our health? Number one? Our spiritual health.
(14:37):
What happens on the inside comes out on the outside,
so our spiritual health, our mental health. How are things
going mentally? Are we stressed out? Do we have anxiety?
Are we battling something? Which again remember I said starting spiritually,
because our spiritual health influences all the other things, such
as mental health. And then, obviously the obvious one is
(15:01):
our physical health. Our physical health, diet, exercise, are we
drinking water? All of those things? Health is to be managed.
And last, but certainly not least, relationships. How are we
managing our relationships? Number one? The kind of the through
line of all this is our personal relationship with God,
(15:25):
So God is number one. Secondly, if you're a married
person or if you're in a relationship with someone, your
relationship with your spouse or your significant other? How are
you managing that? Are you being supportive? Are you caring
about their needs? I think about the book the Five
Love Languages that doctor Gary Chapman wrote. Are you being considerate?
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Are you being a partner? Not a roommate, but a partner?
Relationships if their spouse, our friendships, our parents, siblings, co workers,
board of directors? How are we managing those relationships? Are
we walking in love or do we have a nasty attitude? Right?
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Are we walking in love? And are we trying to
cultivate a community that flourishes and love. The Bible says
to love your neighbor as yourself. We don't love conditionally.
We love unconditionally because God loved us first. So we
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have a lot of areas to steward. But God gives
us the grace and the wisdom to steward these areas
to manage these areas. I hope that this is not
the end all be all again, these seven areas of stewardship,
or the Magnificent seven. We're just listed here to pull
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back the curtain on some other things. I hope these
seven bring up other topics. But as you can see,
there's a lot of things to manage, and we don't
have to be overwhelmed. God has given us grace and
he's given us a gift, a tool, wisdom to do so.
So those are the seven areas of stewardship. Now, all
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of this we're climbing, we're building. It's coming to a
crescendo or a climax. All of these things are building.
How are we navigating life day to day? Because that's
what sets us up to talk about the pillars. So
this was a foundation to talk about another foundation. So
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we've been building a foundation. Now we're going to talk
about the actual foundation, the actual pillars. Even pillars, excuse me,
have a foundation, right, So we've been building the foundation
for the pillars. Now we're actually going to talk about
the columns. I don't know if you're a big fan
of Greek or Roman architecture, but it's beautiful. You can
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just google a search and you see all the different
Roman and Greek structures that have been built and constructed
across time. And even pillars have a foundation. So we've
been building a foundation. Now let's talk about the pillars
that we place in the Guruz on this foundation. So
the five pillars of stewardship are relationship, ownership, lordship, partnership,
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and discipleship. Relationship, ownership, lordship, partnership, discipleship. Let's start digging
into these as we build out the foundation by placing
all these pillars in their respective columns. Number one relationship
(19:09):
relationship developing a personal relationship with God. Developing a personal
relationship with God, the reading of his word, the reading
of the Bible, discerning his voice, the spiritual disciplines, prayer, solitude, silence,
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Fasting a relationship with God is critical, and it sets
up how we manage God's resources for his glory. I'm
want to tell you a story about when I was
in college. My wife and I both attended Georgia Tech,
the Georgia Institute of Technology, and I call this story
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close encounters of the Yellowjacket. Kind now accept Christ, but
this was a time in my life a cannon event
if you're a big comic book person. This was a
canon event where my relationship with God was really solidified.
All in about a six month period in college, my
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parents got divorced, my maternal grandmother passed away, and my
youngest brother had kidney failure. By the way Georgia techt's
really hard and think, by the grace of God, I graduated,
but in a six month period, I just said back
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to back to back, just trials and failures, and I
thought I was all alone. Let me give you some
insight because one that was devastating in particular obviously the
divorce of my parents, but the way I found out
about my brother's kidney failure. I got woken up about
(20:59):
seven am on campus at Georgia Tech by the media department.
They said, Jason, we need to talk to you this morning.
There's been an incident with your brother. The first thing
I'm thinking, like, whoa, you know what's going on? It's serious,
So I go down. They said, Jason, Unfortunately, we've gotten
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word that your brother had an incident during a workout.
Because all three of us me I have two younger brothers,
we all played college football, he said, there's been an
incident with your brother at a workout. My brother went
to UCF Central Florida and he passed out. And when
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my brother passed out, he ended up getting rushed to
the er and had to be an intensive care because
he was so dehydrated. And his kidneys were failing. Didn't
get a chance to talk to family or anybody. I
found out via our media department. Thank God. That was
a grace of God when you get traumatic news like that.
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They shielded me from the press, by the way press,
the press wanted comments from me, and my middle brother
was my youngest brother. This happened to and so they
shielded me. And I believe God used them, because I mean,
that's traumatic hearing about your own sibling that early in
the morning. I say all this to say, I woke
up one day I don't even remember what day it was,
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and I just felt complete, complete, an utter anxiety. I
felt depressed. I probably during that time, I didn't know it.
I was probably on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
I was probably on the verge of a panic attack.
And I was just crying. I was bawling like a toddler,
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and I said, everyone has left me. I don't have anything.
My family's been ripped apart and gutted by divorce. My
maternal grandmother was a matriarch of the family that was
a praying and prophesying woman, and we lost her to
Parkinson's disease and then I find out I'm at my brother,
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and then school is hard, and there's all the stress
of being a Division one football player, and I just
I couldn't handle it until I was crying and I said, man,
I got no one, and I'll never forget to this day.
I was laying there and I heard a voice. And
I know God speaks to people differently, and at the
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end of the day, God can do whatever he wants.
He speaks through his word, he speaks through circumstances, he
speaks through other people. In that particular day, I heard
a voice and said, Jason, I've never left you, and
I knew it wasn't me. I was looking around and
I said, oh my God, I said, Lord. Craig Grochelle
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has this book called Dangerous Prayers. What at the age
of nineteen, I prayed a dangerous prayer. I said, Lord,
if that's you, and I believe it is. And by
the way, I grew up in a Christian family for context,
if that's you and I believe it is, Your word
says You're called wonderful counselor Mighty God, Prince of Peace,
(24:18):
everlasting Father, and the government is on your shoulders. Lord,
You're called wonderful counselor. I'm broken right now and I
have nothing. I demand that you counsel me. Brothers and sisters.
I'm happy to report Jesus has been counseling me ever since.
(24:39):
That passage is from the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah fifty three.
I believe, check me on that be a Burian. I
believe it's Isaiah chapter fifty three. And in the Book
of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah is prophesying about the coming
of Jesus. So that passage in particular is talking about
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the actuales of the forthcoming Messiah, the forthcoming Savior in Jesus.
And so one of the attributes that I really needed
at that time that I was crying out for, I
needed counsel. I needed a counselor. You know, we have.
Mental health is more talked about in these days compared
(25:22):
to them. But man, God wrapped his hands around me.
It's like he gave me a hug, and it was
a call to action, and it really solidified my relationship
with God. So I say, I tell people like this,
when I was a child, I accepted Christ as my
(25:43):
savior and Lord. But on the floor crying, feeling alone,
and scared. I met Christ. I accepted Christ as a child,
But I really met Christ at one of my lowest points,
at the age of nineteen, crying on the floor of
my dorm at Georgia Tech Close encounters of the yellow
(26:04):
jacket kind. Here's the key. Why tell the story? Why
say all this about relationship? Why is relationship the first
pillar to stewardship. Here's the key. Relationship influences our stewardship.
Relationship influences how we go about managing his resources. Now
(26:28):
that's my story. But here's right out of the Word
of God and Matthew chapter twenty five, verse twenty four
and twenty five. This is the parable of the talents.
That could be its own other story, its own other episode.
But I'm gonna read Matthew twenty five, verse twenty four
and twenty five to you so you can see here.
(26:48):
And the one also who had received the one talent
came up and said, Master, I knew you to be
a hard man, reaping where you did not sew, and
gathering where you scat no seed. And I was afraid
and went away, and I hid and hid the talent
in the ground. See you have what is yours? So
(27:08):
I mentioned this is what's known as the parable of
the talents. In this particular parable, you have the master
who goes off and travels, and he and trusts resources
to three different servants. He gives one servant five talents,
another two, and another one. When you look at some
(27:30):
of the context, a talent here represented a significant amount
of money. It's also pointed out in the parable that
each servant was given the amount of the talent based
on their ability. That's important to note. That's so I said,
we'll have to get in the parable of the talents
at a later time. But three servants and trusted with
(27:53):
the resources are in the master, and the master went
away and he was going to come back and he
was going to check in with them on how the
management of those talents were going. We don't have a
lot of insight on the relational aspects of the servants
with the master. But it's interesting the one talent servant
(28:17):
we get invited to a peak, we get the curtain
pulled back a little bit on his perceived relationship with
the master. So in this verse here and the one
who had received the one talent came up and said,
having a conversation with the Master. The Master represents Jesus
(28:37):
in this parable, the servants represent at the time Jesus.
You know, he was very astute in society and business
and everything modern day that we could think of ourselves
as servants because we are servants of the most high.
So this is a lesson. This was a lesson Jesus
was trying to teach at that present time. Modern day.
(29:00):
Application wise, we can look at the attributes described in
the lessons some of the takeaways we can learn from this.
So the one talent servant, the servant that was given
one talent, came up to the Master and said, Master,
I knew you to be a hard man. Interesting, he
(29:24):
knew him, his perception, his in dialogue and in conversation.
It's like he thought the Master to be a hard man.
Well relationally with that perception, he went about managing with
a certain mentality and it affected his actions. His relationship
(29:46):
or perceived relationship with the Master influenced how he managed
the talent that was given to him. So listen, Master,
I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where
you did not sell, and gathering where you scattered. No,
And I was afraid m He knew the Master of
(30:07):
be a hard man, and he was afraid, and his
fear caused him to hide his talent in the ground.
It's a whole other story diving deeper into the parable
of the talents, but we even see here relationship influences stewardship.
The perceived relationship that the servant had with the master
(30:27):
influenced how he went about managing the talent. Pillar number one, relationship,
Pillar number two. Ownership. God owns it all. God owns
it all. Our creator has legal ownership of all things.
(30:51):
Deuteronomy ten fourteen talks about how God owns the heavens.
Psalm twenty four to one talks about how God owns
the earth and its inhabitants, the people. Hagui to eight
talks about how God owns the currency. The silver is mine.
(31:13):
The gold is mine, declares the Lord. And Psalm fifty,
verse ten and eleven talks about how God owns all
of the animals the livestock of the earth. So God
owns it all, the heavens, the earth, the inhabitants, the currency,
livestock resources. God owns it all. There's nothing in there
(31:36):
about humans owning that. So in light of his ownership.
Where does that leave us. We'll get to that in
a second. One of the one of my favorite movies
of all time is Remember the Titans. This is kind
of just the explain who's really in control and I'll
(31:56):
never forget and Remember the Titans. Denzel Washington, who play's
coach Herman Boone. He's comment as a new coach and
they're about to go to camp. They're all about to
get on the bus. And you have Gary Bertier, all
American linebacker. He's in the scene and he's talking and
there's the part where Herman Boone kind of is like, Hey,
(32:20):
I need to let you know who's in charge and
that some things are changing. So there's the joke that
he makes you know, is this your team or is
this your daddy's team? And he says yours, and then he goes,
so who's your daddy? Who's your daddy? And that's a
(32:40):
funny quip out of the movie, right, But Coach Boone
was putting a stamp on Hey, things are changing and
this is my team. This is not your team, it's mine.
So is this your team or is this your daddy's team?
Same thing? Is it our money? Is it our cars.
Is it our house? Are these things ours? Just because
(33:02):
your tax return says head of household, Just because your
business has your name on it and your loc and
all these other things, just because on earth, that's the
classification a biblical perspective. God owns it. We're just managing it.
So God's in control. So here's the key. In light
(33:23):
of God's ownership. We are to be faithful stewards managers.
First Corinthians, chapter four, verse two. In this case, moreover,
it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy
aka faithful. On First Corinthians, the apostle Paul is talking
(33:48):
about spiritual leadership within the church, and so one of
the attributes that he describes with spiritual leadership in a
church context, he points out that sewards are to be
found faithful or trustworthy. We can take one of those
applications if it's if that's good enough for spiritual leadership,
(34:11):
that's good enough that same trait, because remember, stewardship is management.
If they're managing God's bride spiritually, we being faithful, being
trustworthy is the same attitude and disposition we ought to
have toward resources. So in First Corinthians four to two.
(34:34):
It is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy
or faithful also Luke sixteen eleven. Therefore, if you have
not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who
will entrust the true riches to you? Such a loaded verse.
(34:55):
But the way we handle earthly wealth, earthly resources, earthly money,
it's a parallel. You know. If we can't handle that right,
how can we be entrusted with the true riches that
God has to offer? So it's never just I have money, No, no, no, no.
(35:16):
Managing money says a lot about how you steward. So,
ENLiGHT of God's ownership, where to be faithful managers or stewards?
Pillar number two ownership? So we have relationship ownership. Now
we get to the third. Actually, let's expand on ownership
(35:41):
a little bit. Let's talk to a few practicalities. So
using money as an example, God owns it all. But
where to be faithful managers? What does that look like?
Especially with something like money day to day well budgeting,
saving debt and credit when it comes the budgeting, are
(36:04):
we creating a personal or business budget that reflects God's priorities?
Are we practicing saving habits to prepare for future needs
and opportunities debt? Are we approaching debt with caution and
seeking to minimize it and or eliminate it? Proverbs twenty
two to seven the rituals over the poor, and the
(36:27):
borrower is servant slave to the lender. To modern day slavery, yes,
there's human trafficking, sex trafficking, all these things, but the
modern day slavery no one is talking about is debt.
Debt keeps you in chains and so our debt management.
(36:48):
Are we paying it all? Are we eliminating it or
cautiously using it? That's stewardship credit? Are we using credit
responsibly keeping stewardship principles in mind? So that's some practicality,
stewardship and motion. I call it the core for budgeting.
Saving debt and credit another phenomenon that's awesome. I learned
(37:11):
about this from Bible teacher Howard Dayton. Before modern day
we have Dave Ramsey. Before Dave Ramsey, there were three
individuals that really highlighted teaching biblical finance, and that was
Larry Briquette, Ron Blue and Howard Dayton. So they all
(37:32):
did a lot of books and teaching together. And one
concept that came up was called the deed dating your
business or career or money to God. And so you
can actually google this and find it online. But it's
an actual document and it says made on the blah
(37:54):
blah blah day and year, and it says from I'll
use myself in it as an example from Jason two
the Lord. I, Jason transfer to the Lord the ownership
of the following possessions. And I would list on all
my possessions. And then you have witnesses, and then you
have the stewards. Because I'm a steward and it was
(38:15):
such a powerful exercise. It really reframes who's in control.
So those are two practical ways to think about stewardship
on a daily basis, especially when it comes to our
money the core four budgeting, saving, debt and credit. And
then also who really owns it all? And maybe do
I need to put that deed up on the wall
(38:36):
somewhere to remind me that it's God's money, not mine.
So we have relationship, we have ownership Pillar number three
lordship lordship. Our affection follows what's valued. In other words,
our heart follows value. Affinity and affection comes out of Matthew,
(39:01):
chapter six, verse twenty one. For where your treasure is there,
your heart will be. Also, I've heard this example used
when it comes to money. Well, if I put my
money in the stock market, I'm gonna suddenly care about
it more. I'm going to care about it because I
(39:23):
put all I put blood, sweat, tears into it. And
I would never care about the stock market if I
didn't put my money there. So I put my money there,
and now, all of a sudden, all the emotions and
everything that come with it when it goes up, when
the stock market goes up, when it goes down, if
there's a crash, if there's a bull market, if there's
a bear market, all of a sudden, I care about
it more. Well, why do I care about it because
(39:45):
I put my money in it. Wherever I put my money,
that's where my affinity follows. And Jesus talks about that
in Matthew six twenty one. So affection follows what's valued,
or focus follows what is valued. I'm a big movie buff.
(40:07):
Another movie example I can bring up is Jerry McGuire
and Larry Burkett. I'll come to Larry in a second.
In the movie Jerry McGuire, you have Cuba Gooding Junior
and Tom Cruise, and Cuba Gooding is a character playing
I believe it's a football player and he's trying to
renegotiate a contract and they start yelling show me the money.
(40:31):
And so it's a famous scene. But notice, if you
hadn't just google Jerry McGuire, show me the money scene
and you'll get to see it. Notice the emotions that
Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding are exhibiting. And what's the
topic money? Our affection follows what is valued. Larry Burkette,
(40:57):
the late Larry Burkett, used to say this a lot
when he was living. Show me your checkbook and I'll
tell you what you really care about most. In other words,
whatever I spend my money on is what I care about.
I go, oh, I care about this and that. But
you're not generous. I can tell your generous or not
(41:19):
with words. You may say you're generous, but with money.
If I don't see money going to the church, going
to nonprofit organizations, going to good causes, my words don't
really mean anything. But my actual transactions reflect what I
care about. And so the key here with lordship our
heart cannot be divided Matthew Six's twenty four. No one
(41:44):
can serve two masters, for either he will hate the
one and love the other, or he will be devoted
to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve
God and wealth. Who is Lord Jesus or money and possessions?
Pillar number three, Pillar number four partnership. Partnership. This is
(42:09):
divine collaboration. Make Jesus your partner. Make Jesus your partner
in everything you do. Jesus is our counselor he has
divine counsel. That's what Isaiah fifty three was talking about.
Partner with Jesus in our managing of his resources. Jesus
(42:32):
invites us into divine collaboration. So we already have the
relationship part but we may confine that to all I pray,
I spend time with God, but then when I go
to work, But then when I do other things, I
forget about him. No, no, no, no. In the context of
a relationship, make him a partner everywhere, everywhere. Quick story.
(42:55):
I wrote my first book called FORTI five and rooted
in God's plan for work in business. I wrote that
book it was divine collaboration. Every page, citing the sources,
sitting down and discussing proper use of the biblical context
when it came to money. All of that stemmed out
(43:17):
of partnership with God. Writing in the morning, writing in
the evening, praying asking God for wisdom. Lord, how do
I say this? How do I write it? What do
your people need? We had divine partnership and collaboration. I
didn't write that book. It was the Holy Spirit's book,
and we wrote that together. Jesus is our partner. So
(43:41):
the key here with partnership as pillar number four, real
success equals walking with God. Real success equals walking with God.
We see that with Enoch Genesis one twenty four. We
don't know a ton about Enoch and scripture. He's not
mentioned much, but get this. In Genesis one twenty four,
(44:04):
Enoch walked faithfully with God. Then he was no more
because God took him away. Enoch walked faithfully with God.
It was important enough that he was in the Word
of God as an example of someone who walked with
God faithfully, and then he was no more. Pillar number
(44:25):
four partnership Our final pillar. Pillar number five is discipleship.
This is the pillar that ties the other four together.
It ties everything together. And now, remember earlier I said
stewardship is a matter of responsibility. Stewardship is a matter
(44:46):
of responsibility. We're gonna you'll see how this fifth pillar,
how he put it in context. But remember, responsibility is good.
There's been a lot of studies on stewardship and local
generosity and all these things. But when you look at
the data and the research, folks, we still have a problem.
(45:06):
And it's not like stewardship isn't being talked about. It's
been talked about for several years. In fact, there are
more and more people and entities starting to focus on
it year every year. And yet when you look at
the lot of data, a lot of the data around generosity,
it it's just not good. Average Christian gives I believe
(45:28):
it's somewhere between two point two and two point eight
percent of their income average. My god, that's scary. Well,
if responsibility is pushed, that's one perspective. We're going to
tie that together with another thing that's not talked about
(45:50):
as much, and without it, if we just feel a
sense of responsibility for stewardship, it may not sink in
for us. So this fifth pillar. Discipleship points out why
this matters. So, first of all, Discipleship, we were commissioned
to do so, and we were commissioned by Jesus himself. Matthew,
(46:12):
Chapter twenty eight. Matthew, Chapter twenty eight. I'm going to
read verse eighteen through twenty. And Jesus came to the well.
That's eighteen. Jesus came to them and said, all authority
in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Well stop, pause, all authority. Now I live here in
(46:35):
America and in the United States. We think about authority. We
think about positions. We think about politics like the President
of the United States, our senators, our House of Representatives
in Congress, the Supreme Court, maybe your CEO, your boss,
the police. We think about authority. Jesus here is making
(46:56):
it very very clear all authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me solely. Jesus is in control.
Number one, that's verse eighteen. As we go into nineteen,
(47:17):
so eighteen sets up this the gravity of what he's saying.
I'm in control. I have authority in the heavenlies, and
I have authority on earth. And because I have authority,
here's what I'm going to say to you, and here's
(47:40):
what I'm going to instruct you. And this is where
we get the Great commission. Because I have authority, I
am commissioning you to do the following verse nineteen. Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and
(48:00):
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that
I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you
always to the end of the age. Folks, Jesus has
all authority in heaven and on earth. What he is
(48:22):
saying here is not a suggestion. This is not called
the great suggestion. This is not called the Great option.
It's called the Great commission. Discipleship is at the top
of the agenda for Jesus Christ. If it's at the
top of the agenda for Jesus, it ought to be
(48:44):
at the top of the agenda for us. Jesus has
all authority in heaven and on earth. Discipleship is a
top priority for him. It should be a top priority
for us. Enough said, so we have the Great commission.
(49:05):
So Jesus commands us to do it. But the Bible
also talks about well okay, all right, well how do
I do that? The Apostle Paul comes back around in
second Timothy and shares with us that it's a process.
It is a process. In fact, it's a life on
life process, meaning men, women, community, the church, the bride
(49:29):
of Christ spending time together. And so the Apostle Paul
is having a conversation with Timothy, his protege, his mentee,
and we find this and second Timothy, two Timothy two
to two. You have heard me. This is Paul talking
(49:52):
to Timothy. You, Timothy, have heard me. Paul teach things
that have been confirmed by reliable sources. In other words,
Paul is talking to hey, Timothy. All this time we've
been spending together, you've heard me teach you, and you've
heard me say things. And the things that I have
(50:15):
told you and taught you, they've also been confirmed by
other people. Meaning it's legit what I'm sharing with you
that two Timothy too too. You have heard me teach
things that have been confirmed by many, not a few,
many reliable witnesses. As a result, now teach these truths
(50:40):
to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass
them on to others. Folks teaching things and absorbing them
and getting it and then the ability to take that
which you've learned with someone walking with you and do
it with someone else. That's the essence of discipleship, and
(51:00):
that's life on life. This comes from spending time together,
eating together, studying the Word of God together, doing life together,
going to the movies together, being generous together. If one
needs hell, maybe I helped the other out with a bill.
This is spending time together. And there are four generations mentioned.
(51:22):
Four generations are mentioned here, and I'm gonna point them
out here. So we have If you look at the
scripture here, you have heard me. So we have Paul,
who taught it to Timothy. You have heard me teach
things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. So
(51:44):
we have Paul. Now teach. Now he's saying to Timothy,
now you go teach. So we have Paul, the spirit
of the Lord working through Paul, who has taught Timothy.
Now he's instructing Timothy to teach these truths to others.
They are trustworthy people. So that's three. We have Paul,
we have Timothy, we have other trustworthy people who will
(52:08):
be able to pass them on to others. We have Paul, Timothy,
other trustworthy people, others, four generations, four generations of discipleship,
all mentioned in that passage. You see, brothers and sisters.
Discipleship is a commission. Discipleship is a process. And here's
(52:31):
the key, and here's why. It ties everything together with stewardship.
Stewardship's not just a responsibility. It demonstrates maturity and maturity
is expected. We are expected to grow, We are accountable
to be maturity because maturity is expected, and we see
(52:54):
it in the word of God, the Apostle, well the
writer of Hebrews. Many think it was all, but I
want to honor and be specific.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
Thank you for listening to the Fortified Life podcast. You
can catch us live on Wednesdays at eight thirty pm
Eastern Times and on demand. Check out fortifiedlifepodcast dot com
for more details. So learn how to live out your
faith in the marketplace. Grab a copy of Jason Davis's
book Fortify Being Rooted in God's Plan for Work in Business,
(53:27):
Available on Amazon
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CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Dateline NBC
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