Latest / Made For More Leadership Podcast / 3 Biblical Principles for Financial Stewardship | Aaron Burke

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3 Biblical Principles for Financial Stewardship | Aaron Burke · Made For More Leadership Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome to Make for More.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Aaron Burke, and I am the host of this podcast.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I started this about four or five years ago with an idea of helping church leaders and business leaders to really help become all that God has called them to be.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: And every month we put out new content the first Wednesday of every month.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't subscribed, make sure you do that right now.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: It really helps us and really will help you get new content every single month that we really put a lot of intentionality in.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I'm interviewing different guests that have insights that are helpful.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Other times I'm bringing content that is fresh that I have written that has helped our church and our organization be healthy.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And today, over the next actually few months, we're going to be talking about different content that I'm really working with our church on to make it into the best that God has called it to be.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk to you today about financial stewardship.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Every organization needs more finances, more money.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think we all can say that with more resources, we could do more good.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And really, so much of the vision that God has given you for whatever it is in your heart really hinges on do you have the finances to make it happen?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we made a decision early on at Radiant that we're going to make sure that finances are done well at the church.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I know churches and money can kind of get kind of messy.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so we just said we're going to make sure we're highly above reproach in every area, meaning that every dollar is accounted for.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And with that, that we will not go into debt.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to save up, we're going to do things way in advance for the opportunities that come ahead of us.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And by God's grace, we need to be able to hold to that line.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been amazing over the last 13 years.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I really want to help challenge you because if you're at a place where you go, man, I'm in an organization and we're just strapped, we're struggling.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then I would challenge you on the stewardship of that organization, of how you're handling money.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want you to know how you handle money really, really matters and really depends on your ability to experience more in your life and experience more in the future.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So let me just talk to you personally first, and then we're going to talk organizationally.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start personally of what does it mean to be a financial steward?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you have to understand three foundational truths.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, that God is the owner of all things.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is vitally important to recognize that you're not the owner.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: We are just stewards of what God has called us to take care of.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: But God's the owner.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that the earth is a Lord's and everything in it, meaning this, that man, it's not ours.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we have this problem in America that we say, you know, it's my house, it's my car, it's my money, it's my kids.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is it's all the Lord's.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's the owner of it.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um, when it comes to the church, it's the same.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's not my church.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I am um not the owner.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I just take care of what God has given me for this season.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's so important that you understand this because when you recognize as God as the owner, then you treat it differently because it's it's not yours to mishandle.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's the Lord's.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I know what you're thinking, you're going, but I'm the one that got me through school.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the one that that started this thing, I'm the one that puts in the hours.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: But who gave you the energy?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Who gave you the brain?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Who gave you the manpower to even do it?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's the Lord's.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is the owner.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: The book of Deuteronomy says it is the Lord your God who gives you the ability to produce wealth.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like even any blessing you have in your life is but by the grace of God.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is because the Lord um gave it to us.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: So he's the owner.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then we go to that second point, which is God is the owner and we are the stewards.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is a steward?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: A steward is someone that takes care of somebody else's property.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Our job is to manage what God has given us for the season and to hopefully hand it off better than we got it.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what the Bible tells us that we're called to do.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: First Corinthians 4.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this has been handed down to us from generation after generation, and we will hand it off to the next generation.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So everything that God's put in your hand is for a season and it's from him and it's for him.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at the children, the car, the house, the money, everything that's in your life as something that God's called you to manage, not own, then you'll treat it differently.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And here's your third key is that you have to understand that your stewardship of the little determines if you can handle a lot.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone wants more in their life.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're listening to this because you're made for more.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to understand you don't get to more until you handle the little in your life.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And isn't this the key for everything?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, God really cares about how we handle the little.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 16 whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with must.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the case in life that if you can't be faithful with the small things, then God can't give you more.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: I remember taking a group of interns to New Orleans.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was preaching at a church there, and one of them went, uh, we were at a subway and he ordered his food.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when he was done ordering, he uh they said, What do you want to drink?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, I'll take a water.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he grabbed the cup and he went over to the drink fountain and he got himself a Coke.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked at him and I said, Dude, you just ordered a water.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, Ah, it doesn't matter.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really cost the company anything.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I go, it doesn't matter.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's the principle.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: You have character and you're called to handle the little that God's giving you well.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so don't trade your character for a dollar and fifty cents or whatever it is for the drink at that time.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: You have to understand that what you do with little matters.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think of our church, man.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God for the resources and the increase and the people and the campuses.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: But all of it started in a rundown dollar theater in South Tampa, 190 seats.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in a gross, gross building, but it cost us$1,000 a month to lease out the building from the movie theater that we originally started at.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you, we treated that facility like we would any facility God's given us today.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we made the most of it.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: We were cleaning the carpets, I'm scrubbing the floors, I'm making sure the bathrooms smell good.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because why?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I can't just dream up what's next.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: I have to take care of what God's giving me right now.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So let me speak right into the camera.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: You want a new car, but are you handling well that 1995 Corolla you got?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you got trash on the floor and it's messy and it's smelly and you go, but I'm believing God for something new.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Take care of what He's giving you now because how you handle what God's giving you now sets you up in the future.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Stewardship really matters.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if that's the case when it comes to stewardship in your personal life, let's talk about it organizationally.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Many of you lead churches or you lead staffs or you lead a business and you go, man, I really want to set us up for more, then how do you handle it well?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, let's go back to the personal things because it connects with you organizationally too.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing I've realized is that truly you got to remember where the money came from.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're in sales, you recognize that every one of those sales is from the Lord.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in real estate, you understand every one of those pieces of property is given to you by God.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in the church, you recognize that every bit of those funds are not yours to just treat the way you want it to treat.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: It is from the Lord.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is from Him.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is for Him.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I train our staff on this idea that every time you spend money, you are spending someone's tithe, some dad or some mom that worked really, really, really hard to give to God and they honor the Lord.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we got to treat that as holy unto God.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the average church, you know, uh average Christian in America tithes about 2.5% of their income.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, God tells us to give 10%.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some are really faithful to God, some are struggling in that.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So about 2.5%.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: So um our church, we're about double that.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're about the average Christian gives about 5%.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So if someone, um, what I tell our staff is so if you're spending$100 on something as a staff member of the church, that's roughly$2,000 of income from somebody where they had to tie that percentage um to the church to make that finances available for us to spend.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So treat that hundred like it's two thousand, because honestly, that's what it is.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not ours, it's God's.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so you got to ask yourself, is this the best use of God's money?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not your money, it's not daddy's money.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: How many know if when you're in an organization, it's easy to spend when you think it's this man, it somebody else will take care of it.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I I want to constantly train our staff, man, this is not ours.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's the Lord's.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let's treat it as holy.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 21, 20 says, precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be a wise man that has resources and margin and sticks to a budget.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says a foolish man, a foolish staff, a foolish organization devours everything they have.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: They overspend.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're swiping the card without actually understanding where it came from.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: When you think of the finances, the income, the sales, the properties as the Lord's, you treat it different.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, you got to eliminate waste.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: I had a wise man once tell me, he says, if you're ever financially strapped, it's because there is waste somewhere.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Find the waste, eliminate it, and watch how God will bless the organization.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that is so true.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime we have found ourselves getting into a place where we're like, man, money is so tight.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to raise more money.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know what you need to do?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: You need to find where the waste is at.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says the plans of the diligent lead to profit, as surely as haste leads to poverty.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're just spending all the time and there's waste and there's excess there, it leads to poverty.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's where so many people get it wrong in their personal finances, is why they're hasty in their spending.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they're just buying quickly.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: They waste, they get the cheaper stuff.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: It messes up.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: So what you do is you learn to slow down.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: You bring diligence and planning.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And what that does is that slows you down so that you make the right purchase.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then I do this all the time with our organization.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we got to buy this cable.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, have you gone just for a few minutes and looked in some closet somewhere to see if it's there?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because the reality is it's probably there.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: We have it somewhere.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: But what would we do?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: We just want the quicker option.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: It is Amazon, three hour or less delivery that shows up and it's so damaging so many times because what do we do?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: We just buy the next thing instead of really looking at what we already have.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Figure out if there's waste there.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we're looking at this all the time: misplaced or stolen items, making sure that man, are things organized?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because when they're not organized, with the things get misplaced, things get stolen, and we have to buy more.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's overproduction that happens.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we do this all the time when we order food for an organization for some kind of event that we're doing.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there's a hundred people that are registered, so they'll order food for 100 people.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we've come to realize that if 100 people are registered, about 75 of them will show up.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if you order food for 75, the place, Olive Garden or wherever it is, will actually send you food for 75 to 100.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we've learned to order about food for 45 to 50.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I know the scarcity mindset people out there are going, oh no, but what if you run out?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: We've never ran out.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do, you run up the street real quick and buy some extra food.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd rather have that than have trays and trays of food left over that is just wasteful.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we care a lot about making sure we're eliminating waste.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Unnecessary printing all the time.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, we need to print this thing.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, people are just gonna throw it out, use digital options.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when we have uh correction on different work that we're trying to get printed.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how many times have we printed t-shirts and not proofed it or um items that were handed out and not proofed it?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do this stuff and you have a correction, you got to reprint everything again or bring it back into production.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, last-minute purchases destroy an organization.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: So what you got to do is you gotta learn to plan well ahead.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 14 says, suppose one of you wants to build a tower, won't you first down and estimate the cost and see if you have enough money to complete it?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I love this phrase.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, hey, if you're gonna build something substantial, sit down for a little bit and see if you can actually afford it.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we're budgeting it, we're planning things out.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is so important.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And as we eliminate waste, we are able to create margin to spend money on what we actually were created to do, which is for us is ministry and helping the poor and missions and care for people.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we can't do those things when we're wasting it on a lot of things.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: The more you eliminate waste, the more you create room for what God wants to bring you in your life.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: The third thing we do as an organization is that you make good with what you have.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: You make good with what you have.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: You maximize every dollar, every facility, every staff member.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, until you maximize what you have, don't ask God for more.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: All the time, people are going, man, we want to go multi-site.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going, well, what are you doing in your church right now?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we have two services.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, go to three services.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Go to four services.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maximize the room you've got now before you try to multiply.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maximize before you multiply.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to staffing in your life, man, maximize who you have.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've realized many times in our life that we're always thinking that another hire is the solution when in reality we have the people that God has given us.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if we just maximize what we have, then we would be able to do the ministry God's called us to do.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: So this is stewardship.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Stewardship is saying, I'm gonna maximize what God has given me before I ask God for more.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we see this in the parable of the attack of the talents, where Jesus gives this beautiful parable where he gives them talents, he gives them money, and he says, I'm gonna leave for a little bit.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And what did they do?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them multiplied it, some hid what they had.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And really, he comes back and he says, Okay, what did you do with what I gave you?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, that is one of the most important questions you're ever gonna answer.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: What did you do with what I gave you?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because you are not responsible for the things that you didn't have.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're not responsible for the organization you didn't run.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're not responsible for the church that you weren't at, but you are responsible for what God has put in your hand today.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to answer that question.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: What did you do with what he gave you?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: What did you do with the house he gave you, with the kids he gave you, with the spouse he gave you, with the car he gave you, with the church he gave you, with the opportunities he gave you.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: You will be held responsible for that.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the goal is that they maximized what he gave them.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you want to do with everything that God's given you in your life.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maximize what he's given you.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: What I've told our staff is, and this is a good lesson for all, especially church leaders out there, is um excellence is not extravagance.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Excellence is not extravagance.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: You go to some of these churches and it's just like extravagant, the lobbies, the look, the the feel.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so much of it is like, man, I want that.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, God challenges us to be people of excellence, take care of what we are given.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you don't have to go extravagant, you don't have to go in debt for it, you don't have to go overextend yourself for it.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just handle well with what God has given you and watch how it'll make room for you in the future for more.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: So ask yourself this question.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is so important.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the best use of this dollar?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if I were never given more, am I okay with maximizing what God has put in my hand right now to fulfill the vision he has for me?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was never given more.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Am I okay to maximize what he's put in my hand right now?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm always looking at both of those things.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the best use of it?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And am I maximizing it for his kingdom?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is what financial stewardship is all about.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'll close with this idea because we have hammered this since we started the church 13 years ago.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you don't know our history, we came out of a church that um that I was a youth pastor at for years, and um I love my pastor so much, but he took over the reins after the church was in free fall.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: They were$10.9 million in debt.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, tens of thousands of dollars a month in an interest-only mortgage payment.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that he got handed this thing.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember seeing the behind the scenes of what it looked like for him to take over a church that was extremely mismanaged financially.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, man, if God ever gives me a church, I'm gonna make sure I handle it extremely well, knowing this is not my, it's not my church, it's not my money.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna handle it well.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we have seen the hand of God in a supernatural way.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: We we were not able, I mean, in many times there was times and we could have gone in tremendous debt and pursued opportunities that would have crippled us financially, but we're slow.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: We were steady.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: We were just going, hey, what's the most financially smart move in this moment?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: I have a lot of wisdom of counselors around me to make sure that, man, we're making the right decision.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, we've just been slow at this thing.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: I remember in 2019, we were really believing God for a building for our South Tampa location.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: And at that time in the church, we had been going for what, six years then?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we're thinking, this is our time.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna believe God for it.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to raise$5 million for a down payment.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember people thought we were crazy.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: They thought there's no way that um that this church is gonna raise five million dollars, and there's no way you're gonna do it without a piece of property to show them.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, no, well, we're gonna believe God.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, end of 2019, we raised five million dollars and then went into COVID, and the money sat in the account, um, yielded us, you know, some interest every month.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: But but I remember people left the church because they were like, you raised all this money, and where's the property?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, I can't produce the results.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: All I can do is be faithful with obedience and just handle well what God's given us.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so we sat on it for years and years.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: God gave them multiple other opportunities, and um, we just continue to to grind it out, trusting God.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then last year, the door finally opened up for us to um have a long-term future location for our South Tampa location.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, where did the where did the money come from?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we had to start saving uh what, six years before.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: You see, you never know how that stewardship of the little and being faithful with just trusting God would set you up for really the blessing that God had for you in the future.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we were able to raise, I mean, a lot of money to do this entire project, hopefully by the grace of God, by the time it's done, totally debt-free.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I trace it all back to not just what happened six years ago, but what's started 13 years ago, that we're gonna be faithful with every dollar.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And as you're faithful with a little, knowing it's God's money, he will bring the increase in your life.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if he never brings the increase, just maximize what you have for his glory in your personal life, in your organization, because I'm telling you, what you do with what God gives you really, really matters.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'll end with this.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: One day you're gonna stand before God, and there's gonna be two questions that are asked.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is, what did you do with Jesus?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the most important question.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the only correct answer to that question is that he is my Lord and Savior.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: I surrender my life to him.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've never made that decision, it's the most important decision of your life.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second question that'll be asked is that you will stand before him and he'll say, Okay, what did you do with what I gave you?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is the stewardship question.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is your salvation question.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: The second question is your stewardship question.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the second one, by the way, you're already in heaven, so it's good.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is, is there are treasures, there's rewards in heaven.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now we know we'll cast those at Jesus' feet because it's all been about him anyway.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: But that stewardship question really matters.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to stand before Jesus and say, I handled well the life you gave me, the family you gave me, the finances you gave me, the church you gave me for the season that you gave it to me.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was a good steward of it.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: I maximized and multiplied what you put in my hand for your glory and honor.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a life that actually counts for eternity.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm so grateful that you're watching this.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: I hope it's been helpful to you and your organization.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: You have more questions about stewardship and financial stewardship in your personal life or in your organization.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: You can always DM me on Instagram.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: We have a whole team that monitors that, and we'd love to get back with you and help you.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: But thanks for listening to this.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I hope it's helping your staff, and we'll see you next month for May for More.