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Series Code: IAADD
Program Code: IAADD000007A
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00:27 Welcome to Issues and Answers. Our topic today is Stewardship, 00:30 Love It or List It. Today our guests are Reginald and Ebony 00:34 Clark, graduates of the University of Memphis. 00:37 Reginald is a certified financial planner, first elder 00:40 in his church and a recognized leader in America's financial 00:44 planners. Ebony is a tax accountant and auditor. 00:47 Together they run P3 financial groups in between caring for 00:51 their three precious children, Reginald and Ebony conduct 00:54 seminars and trainings to churches and the public on how 00:58 to care for their finances and be good stewards. Welcome to 01:02 the program Reginald and Ebony. 01:04 Thank you for having us. 01:05 Thank you folks for coming. So exactly what is stewardship? 01:09 Karen, Stewardship is an awesome expression of God's love. 01:13 In my opinion, next to salvation stewardship is probably the 01:17 greatest expression of God's love because what 01:19 stewardship is, stewardship is when something has been 01:24 something has been entrusted to the good care of someone else. 01:27 The good care? The good care of someone else. 01:30 Wow. Okay. So when did God kind of get the stewardship going for 01:34 all of us. Well, there are four components 01:36 to stewardship. Everything starts with God as you mentioned 01:40 You have the Source, you have the resources and the Source 01:43 entrusted the resources to us. The Source, the resource, the 01:47 trust as well as the steward. Actually what I'm going to do in 01:50 the next few minutes is break those four components down and 01:53 just look at stewardship a little deeper than what some 01:55 people may be used to in the past. 01:57 Okay, well I'm excited. So we get to have like we were going 02:00 to one of your trainings or one of the seminars. We're going to 02:03 actually get a treat here. Okay studio audience and those that 02:07 are watching other places, we're going to find out love it or 02:10 list it stewardship. Okay. 02:12 Well, we talk about the four components of stewardship and 02:14 let's talk about the first one. The first one is the Source. 02:17 Where does all of this come from and of course the Source is God. 02:21 God says through him all things were made. Without him nothing 02:25 was made that has been made. And for every animal of the forest 02:29 and the cattle on a thousand hills is mine. Back then that 02:32 was the currency of the day. So he's telling you that even 02:36 though it may belong to you it came from Me. God is the 02:40 ultimate source. So God is the Source and so 02:46 let's look at what are those resources that we're talking 02:48 about? What are those resources that he's entrusted to us? 02:51 What are those things that he's given to us to take care of for 02:54 him? When you look at it, you have time, talents, which are 02:57 our abilities, a temple, which is our body, that's one of our 03:01 treasures. Most of the time we refer to those as the four T's. 03:04 So let's take a look at each one of those. Let's list each one of 03:08 those. The first one is time. 03:10 The question is, is God concerned with our time? 03:13 Well we all know that out of the seven-day week he set aside 03:17 one day and this is the day that we are to come away and focus 03:21 on him as our creator. But not only is he concerned with how 03:25 we spend our time on that one day. He's also concerned about 03:29 how we spend our time on the other six days. All of the time 03:32 that he gave us is precious, so he wants us to be good stewards 03:36 of the things that we do outside of that time. Everything that we 03:39 do should be to glorify him so that time shouldn't be spent 03:43 doing anything wasteful. 03:46 Well you know people always say we don't have enough time. You 03:50 know time, 24 hours in the day, you know how do we address the 03:53 time issues that we have? 03:55 Let's go to the word for that. Ephesians 5:16-17 says 04:07 So how do we make the best use of our time. By understanding 04:09 the will of the Lord. And that may sound like pie in the sky, 04:12 but it's not, it's really not. If I'm conducting myself in such 04:15 a way where God is pleased, that's going to take me through 04:18 all 24 hours, not just from sunset Friday to sunset on 04:21 Sabbath, Saturday. It takes me through all the entire week. 04:24 So we do have to make the best use of our time as the scripture 04:27 said because the days are evil. _ our time here is limited 04:29 on this earth is limited. We have to make the best use of our 04:32 time. So God is concerned with how we use our time, which is 04:35 our first resource. 04:36 So how do people know if they're making good use of their 04:40 time? Like what kind of things would be examples of how to do 04:44 that, not to waste time? 04:45 I think the best way not to waste time is to be intentional. 04:51 have a plan. Set goals. When you get up in the morning have a 04:55 plan for what you want to do. The first thing should obviously 04:59 be prayer and worship. You're feet shouldn't touch the floor 05:03 without thanking God for waking you up another day because some 05:07 people don't get that opportunity. But after then make 05:09 sure that the things that you're doing throughout the day makes 05:12 your life better and makes someone else's life better and 05:16 ultimately glorifies God. 05:19 That's excellent advice, have a plan. Get up in the morning 05:22 before you get up have your prayer, have your devotion and 05:25 then kind of write down a list of things that you want to do 05:28 or you wish to accomplish. Is that what you mean by being 05:31 intentional? Yes, exactly, absolutely. 05:34 I read a book that said do all you can do that day, in that 05:37 day do all that you can do. Sounds simple but it's a really 05:40 powerful concept. Do all you can do in that day. Let's go to our 05:44 talents, our abilities. That's the second resource. Is God 05:49 concerned? We do have to give an account for our abilities. 05:51 Absolutely, we most certainly do. Let's take a look at this 05:53 text here. It says: 06:04 It says a gift here. Often times we think about talents, gifts. 06:07 When we look at that we say this person can do this, this person 06:11 can do this, they especially have a talent. But instead of 06:15 I like to say ability. We all have abilities. You know there's 06:19 something you can do a little better than anybody else on this 06:22 planet. I can think of a whole lot of 06:24 things that I can do a lot better. 06:26 I've seen examples of two people take the same recipe and one 06:34 person's tastes totally different because they're gifted 06:37 in that area and have the ability to do that. So we have 06:39 to give an account for the gifts God has given us. We have to 06:42 use them to his honor and glory. 06:45 We also have to use our own gifts. We shouldn't be envious 06:49 of other people's gifts or abilities because we have our 06:53 own. So if I know my area is not baking, I can just stay away 06:57 from baking and hire someone to bake a cake and I can focus my 07:02 energy on the special talent and ability that he gave me and then 07:07 that just makes everything flow and work well. 07:10 So you're saying that God gives each one of us certain abilities 07:14 that we don't have to sit and look at someone else's and 07:17 wonder why can't we have theirs. God gives us ours? 07:20 Exactly, absolutely. I think a lot of times people get upset 07:24 because some abilities are more public and some are more behind 07:29 the scenes. But if you focus on what your ability is that can 07:34 take you so far in life and you don't have to worry about what 07:39 someone else is able to do. 07:40 Well how do you know what your abilities are? As far as 07:46 for people, spiritual gifts seminars and a whole host. 07:48 But what's a practical way to see maybe what you're good at? 07:53 One of the best ways is to think about what is that you enjoy 07:57 doing so much that you wouldn't have to be paid to do it. That's 08:01 probably what your gift is, that's probably where your gift 08:05 is. God has given each one of us something, some he gives more 08:08 but each one of us has something so special, unique to us, but 08:12 you have to develop it. 08:14 That sounds good, that sounds really good. 08:17 Another one of the resources is your temple, which is your body. 08:22 People may wonder well is God concerned with what I do to my 08:26 body and what in my body. Of course he is. He says: Or do you 08:30 know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within 08:34 you whom you have from God. You are not your own, for you were 08:37 bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. That's from 08:43 I Corinthians 6:19-20. So the Holy Spirit lives within us and 08:47 since the Holy Spirit lives within us he is very concerned 08:52 with how we treat this vessel, whether it's what we eat, the 08:56 activities that we choose to participate in, our thoughts, 09:00 our actions. All of that is his concern and when we treat our 09:06 bodies well we have the energy to be able to glorify him and to 09:12 spread the message. 09:13 Okay, so what if somebody watches the program says I 09:17 really... I think this is really wonderful about my body being 09:21 the temple of the Holy Spirit but I'm not at my best in all 09:26 areas, you know. I may be over here and I'm trying to get over 09:31 here. How do I get from hey everyone has New Year's 09:35 resolutions or some point, birthdays or anniversaries or 09:38 whatever day they say I want to do something better physically. 09:41 How do we get from here to there? 09:43 Life is about progression and steps. The scripture says seek 09:47 ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these 09:51 things will be added to you. He didn't say he'd multiply it. 09:53 Added means it going to be given to you a step at a time. 09:57 Whenever we have big goal whether it's especially being 10:00 able to take care of our temple to be a financier or whatever 10:03 it may be you break that big goal down into smaller steps and 10:07 you set attainable goals. You set goals that stretch you out 10:11 there a little bit but goals that you can get hit so you can 10:15 take these steps and be at the next. So that's how you get... I 10:18 mean just think about how you climb a flight of steps, one 10:21 step at a time. You don't jump from the first floor to the 10:24 second floor. It's one step at a time. 10:26 I think it's about each day deciding that day. Every day 10:30 you're either moving closer to further away from your goal. 10:34 So just take that one day. Just decide today I'm going to make 10:38 good choices. After that day is done, the next day. Today I'm 10:41 going to make good choices and before you know it you will have 10:44 reached your goal. 10:46 So let's take a look at the next component of stewardship which 10:49 is trust. Again so we identify the source; we know the source 10:53 is God. We know the resources. We went through those. So the 10:57 next component of stewardship is trust. Trust is such a delicate 11:02 thing. Trust is very delicate. As it relates to stewardship, 11:06 there's a trust on behalf of the source. God entrusts his 11:10 resource to us. Then we need to turn around and trust God that 11:13 the resources he gave us last week he's going to provide today 11:17 and tomorrow. So trust works both ways. When you think about 11:20 trust think about trust in your own life. You can work to build 11:24 trust up over a number of years with a person. It's like 11:27 building a house of cards. Make one misstep and that whole thing 11:31 come tumbling down. So trust does work both ways. 11:34 The good thing about God is that even if that whole house of 11:37 cards starts tumbling down, he gives you another chance. 11:42 He doesn't make you wait, he doesn't make you wait, he 11:45 say uhhh, I'm not sure if I'm going to trust her again. He 11:49 gives you another chance as soon as you ask for it. 11:53 Let's look at the scripture real quick. I Thessalonians 2:14 says 11:56 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted 12:00 with the good news. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He 12:04 alone examines the motives of the heart. That's from 12:05 I Thessalonians 2:14. So God has entrusted to us not only his 12:09 resources for the spreading of his word. He could have told his 12:13 angels to do it. He said, I'm going to trust this to man. 12:15 So we've identified the source, we've identified the resources, 12:21 we've identified trust and so the last component of 12:25 stewardship is the actual steward. Who is the steward? 12:28 And God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and 12:33 let him have dominion over the fish in the sea, over the fowl 12:38 of the air and over the cattle and over every creeping thing 12:43 that creeps upon the earth. And that's in Genesis. God created 12:47 us, but after he created us he said you've got all this. I'm 12:52 putting you in control of everything. So that is saying 12:56 that we are the stewards. He created it and then he gave us 13:00 charge over it to care for it in the way that he directed. 13:04 He made it all for us. Ebony share with us the next text. 13:08 Okay. Psalm 8:4-6. 13:29 You can't get any closer than that. 13:30 So we don't have to worry about can we do something or should we 13:33 try. You're saying that God has given complete authority over 13:36 the entire earth, to try different things and to stretch 13:44 out, to grow and develop? Absolutely. He did a lot for us. 13:46 I mean... Of course this world has been marred by sin, but even 13:49 in this sin-filled world there's still so much good to experience 13:53 and God, he wants us to experience. That's the part we 13:56 really got to get clear. Stewardship is not about what 13:58 I can't have and what I got to give and this and that. 14:01 No it's about God wanting 14:03 his stewards to enjoy what he gave to us. It's just like if I 14:07 loan you my car, you need it for a year. Now I'm going to have 14:11 some guidelines, you know. You should get the oil changed, use 14:14 this kind of gas. I'm going to tell you the best way to take 14:17 care of it, but I want you to enjoy it. And it's the same 14:21 thing with God but it's much more than just a car. Much more. 14:25 So we've covered all the areas for stewardship and the resource 14:28 Okay, are we ready for questions and answers? 14:30 We've got one more part. We've got to get to the last. 14:35 Okay, absolutely. This is the one right here. 14:37 We've got to talk about the treasure. Let's do this. Let's 14:43 dispel some myths about God and money. I've got some written 14:48 down here. It says, here's a couple of myths we want to 14:51 dispel. Money is the root of all evil. That's a myth. We 14:54 shouldn't want to be rich. 14:56 Rich or wealthy people got their money from being low down. 15:00 Rich people only think about money. Rich people can't go to 15:03 heaven. All those are myths. We want to talk about some though. 15:06 We've got scriptures to talk about some. 15:09 Yeah, budgeting. I have a great scripture about budgeting. 15:20 As we discussed earlier, that was the currency of the day. 15:24 So what God is telling us in this scripture is to watch over 15:28 your money carefully. It's not haphazard. You should know 15:32 this is where my money should go and care for it as if you were 15:37 caring for an animal. 15:42 That's pretty strong. So you can't just go and spend any way 15:46 that you want or kind of impulse spending. You're saying that 15:50 it's like you would care for an animal, you know, a flock of 15:53 sheep, you know, a lamb. You're going to feed it, you're going 15:56 to water it, you're going to care for it. 15:58 And just like you were caring for an animal. You don't feed 16:01 them whatever. You have a schedule. So that same care 16:05 should be taken and used in our finances. 16:09 Money left on its own will find something to do. You have to 16:15 tell it what to do. So many of us we just earn, spend and pray. 16:20 Earn, spend and pray. 16:25 That's not what God would have us to do. Here's a scripture for 16:29 some of your business owners out there. It says wealth obtained 16:33 by fraud dwindles but the one who gathers by labor increases. 16:39 it. This scripture's telling us don't look for fraudulent ways 16:44 to try to get ahead. You know even the fourth commandment 16:49 obviously it commands us to observe a day of rest, but it 16:55 also says six days shall you labor. So it's also a 16:58 commandment to work too. We just kind of look over there, why 17:02 absolutely. As the scripture says wealth obtained by 17:06 fraud dwindles but we are admonished to labor to increase 17:10 our wealth. And then contentment. This 17:15 scripture is about contentment. Keep your life free from the 17:19 love of money and be content with what you have. One of the 17:23 myths is that money is the root of all evil and that you 17:27 shouldn't love money and you shouldn't love money, but you 17:32 should be content with what you have but still and gain more. 17:36 That doesn't mean that you shouldn't want more. There's 17:39 nothing wrong with wanting more and when people have money 17:42 they're free to do other things. They're free to help people. If 17:46 you don't have any money you really can't help people. So it 17:50 says that be at peace with what you have but there's nothing 17:54 wrong with trying to get more. 17:55 If I could add a little something to that. The scripture 17:59 is clear; it says keep your life free from the love of money. 18:01 It's the love of money that's the root of all evil, not money 18:05 itself. Ebony hit the nail right on the head when she said when 18:08 you look at contentment in this context, what it's talking about 18:11 is be at peace with what you have. Being at peace with what 18:14 you have right now is not mutually exclusive from wanting 18:18 something else. It means you don't sacrifice your sanity and 18:23 your peace of mind to go gather things, always chasing something 18:27 else. No. Be at peace with what you have and follow God's plan, 18:32 his economy and he'll bless you with other things. He obviously 18:36 God doesn't have an issue with things. Just do it in it's 18:38 proper order. Seek ye first the kingdom. I gave you these 18:41 things. Things are nothing. But you've got to keep it in the 18:43 proper order. Step by step by step. 18:45 Step by step by step. 18:50 What about debt. Okay let's talk about debt. 18:51 Yeah talk about debt. My goodness Americans are so much 18:54 in debt. I think we're probably like leading the debt as far as 18:58 individual households. Is that right? 18:59 Oh absolutely and it's growing every day. 19:01 How do people get caught up in that? You know, people talk 19:05 about credit cards. Like the average American household has 19:09 like $25,000 in debt between credit cards and other things. 19:14 Is that true, really? 19:15 Probably worse than that and it goes right back to the scripture 19:19 I just read. Not being content, not being at peace. Oftentimes 19:23 we jump the gun. Here's what debt does. Debt allows you to 19:28 live beyond your means. All right? So if you can structure 19:31 your life to live within your means and I know this sounds 19:34 simple, but if you can structure your life to live within your 19:37 means, you can eliminate a lot of debt. Another thing I'd like 19:40 to add is when you take it from a scripture standpoint. Debt in 19:44 and of itself is not sinful. But debt is a weight. You know the 19:47 scripture says let us lay aside every weight, the sin that so 19:50 easily besets you. Debt is something that brings us down. 19:53 It's a weight that brings us down to the point of sinning. 19:56 Here's a practical way to express what I mean by that. 19:59 If my life is entangled with debt it's going to be easier for 20:04 me to maybe consider working on the Sabbath or maybe consider 20:07 neglecting my family, doing things that I know I shouldn't 20:11 be doing. Not returning a faithful tithe. 20:13 Right, not returning a faithful tithe, because I'm so entangled 20:16 with debt. Matter of fact I've got a scripture for you. 20:18 Here you go. 20:24 So whoever you allow yourself to owe, that person controls a bit 20:28 of your life. You can look up and you can be enslaved by debt 20:31 and it's driven some people to do some crazy things. It really 20:35 has. Whenever you see debt mentioned in the Bible it always 20:38 accompanies a warning. You'll always see it with a warning. 20:42 There's a reason for that absolutely. 20:47 That'd stop us cold in our tracks. You going to give us 20:49 advice for people who are kind of in debt or whatever? You got 20:54 some advice on how to get out of that situation? So we know 21:00 know that it's a weight, right, it's a bondage. It kind of holds 21:04 you down. The best way to tackle debt is 21:09 systematically. Absolutely. First live within your means. 21:15 Okay? So if you're not currently living within your means, take 21:19 an assessment of how much money you have coming in and what you 21:22 have going out. Anything that's not necessary, that's causing 21:26 you to live above your means, eliminate it, because in order 21:30 to tackle the debt, you have to have extra money to be able to 21:34 pay the debt. Then after that hit it systematically, say, I'm 21:38 paying this. Make sure everything's paid on time, but 21:43 put a little extra money toward a bill till that bill is paid 21:46 off. Then extra money toward another bill until that bill is 21:50 paid off. Then just keep track and before you know it, if you 21:53 keep at it, you'll be out of debt. 21:55 I want to add one thing too. Whenever you find yourself in 21:58 the hole and you want to get out what's the first thing you 22:01 should start doing. Dig. Digging right. So let there be a 22:05 starting point. Make sure your mind is made up because you're 22:09 going to not use... You know you got to stop using debt and 22:13 credit. We'll talk about it in another segment but we 22:16 developed something where we have people classify what we 22:20 call green debt, yellow debt, red debt. 22:23 Give us that real quick, green debt, yellow debt, all that debt 22:26 debt. Red debt is personal things that 22:28 do not really have value to them whatsoever. For instance, using 22:32 debt to maybe buy gasoline, vacations, clothes, things like 22:38 that. Don't use debt to get to those 22:40 kinds. Like swiping your credit card 22:41 for vacation, or for gas, or for clothing. 22:44 Absolutely that's red debt you got to stop immediately. 22:47 You can't get anything like that 22:48 Stop immediately! You have to cut that out 22:50 immediately. Then you have yellow debt. Yellow debt is what 22:53 we say may be purchasing an asset with the debt but it's not 22:57 an asset that's producing new income. That's like a yellow 23:00 light means proceed with caution. This is yellow debt. 23:03 You can get it but use it very carefully. Purchasing the home 23:06 that you live in, the car that you drive, maybe appliances and 23:09 things like that. Often times we have to use debt for these 23:12 things but you should do so very, very carefully. 23:14 And it needs to be debt that you can comfortably pay off. Part of 23:20 the reason why the housing bubble burst is because people 23:23 were getting houses that they really couldn't afford. So most 23:27 people do have to go into debt for a house or a car. But make 23:31 sure it's something that you can afford long term. Okay. 23:36 The last one that we hit on is green debt. Green debt can be 23:40 kind of complicated, but green means go, right? 23:42 So we just go, we just go into the debt. 23:44 Well, but you know, don't put it like that. Not quite like that? 23:48 This is what we call good debt. There is actually such a thing 23:51 as good debt. Oh really? Yeah there is. This is where you use 23:55 debt that you're going to buy an asset such as a rental 23:58 property and you're going to earn more than the debt is 24:01 costing you. But even to do that you do that under the careful 24:05 guidance of someone that knows what they're doing. All right? 24:08 We definitely don't want to end our time here without talking 24:12 about the system. 24:13 God has designed a system for us to be sure we can keep our 24:17 life free from the love of money. We've got to talk about 24:20 this system. There's such a beautiful system. We call it 24:23 tithes and offerings. That's what this system is for. That's 24:27 how we balance being at peace with what we have, not falling 24:31 in love with money and still have a desire for something 24:34 better. God put a system in place for that called tithes and 24:38 offerings. You want to get started on that? 24:42 When we talked about giving God says in 24:56 One of the most important parts of those verses is he says the 25:02 first of your produce. He doesn't want what's left over. 25:07 He blesses us, and blesses us and blesses us, so he desires 25:10 the respect and honor to say you know what from what you've 25:14 already give me, because all of it is his, I'm going to give you 25:18 back the first of it and then I know that you can take care of 25:21 everything you need to take care of with the rest. But how 25:26 dishonorable would it be for us to say well okay I'm going to 25:30 take care of all this stuff and whatever I have left, hey, you 25:33 can have that God. I know you gave it all to me, but I'm going 25:37 give you whatever I have left. 25:38 No such thing as consecrated leftovers with God. He asks for 25:41 the first. All right? 25:43 So you're saying swing the pendulum from paying for your 25:47 car note and your house note and those things and then seeing 25:49 what's left. You're saying switch it upside down. 25:51 Absolutely, absolutely. When God gave us his son he gave us the 25:57 best that he had. We have to return the best. Obviously there 26:02 is no comparison but we have to return to him the very best 26:06 that we have. Like I said, the first 10 percent. You know 26:10 tithe stands for 10 percent, but the tithe is the minimum 26:13 requirement, okay. After the tithe, of course, we have the 26:17 offerings. In Malachi, it doesn't say you rob me in 26:20 tithes or offerings. He says you rob me in tithes and offerings. 26:24 So we need to be cognizant of that. 26:25 You have given us so much information today. I mean lots 26:29 of things that we could probably continue to talk about all day. 26:32 But I don't want to close out the program without asking for 26:36 prayer for ourselves, myself, the viewers that are watching, 26:39 as we're trying to become better stewards. Would you mind 26:42 offering prayer for us please. 26:43 Sure. Let us bow. Lord thank you so much for another beautiful 26:47 day. Thank you for these concepts you've given us in your 26:49 word. Lord we ask right now that you will please help us to be 26:52 better stewards of what you've entrusted to us. Help us first 26:55 to recognize the relationship that we have with you through 26:58 this thing called stewardship, Lord. And we ask that you would 27:01 please give us these concepts more clearly that we may be 27:04 better stewards. The main thing we want to hear, Father, at your 27:07 return Lord, when you return, that every steward wants to hear 27:10 we want to hear the two words, well done. This is our prayer in 27:14 Christ Jesus' name we pray Amen. 27:15 Amen, amen. Thank you all so much for coming to the program. 27:19 You all are available? You travel at all? 27:22 Oh absolutely. And you've got materials and 27:26 things that people can get hold of okay. Absolutely. So that's 27:30 fantastic. We all want to improve and become better 27:33 stewards. For those who are watching at home, thank you so 27:36 much for joining us. We hope that it was helpful that we 27:40 learned a lot more about the different kinds of debt, the 27:43 resources that God has given to us that we don't have to lack 27:47 anything because God has given us so much. If you're interested 27:50 in knowing more about how to reach Reginald and Ebony Clark 27:54 please contact us here at Dare to Dream Network. We'd love to 27:57 hear from you. We'd like to hear your questions and your 28:00 comments and keep the conversation going. Again thank 28:03 you for joining us and we just ask that God will continue to be 28:07 a blessing to your life and may we give him our very best, give 28:11 him our first fruits, our abilities, our plans, our dreams 28:15 out goals, our ideals. God bless. |
Revised 2016-03-30