Ep #02: No One Can Serve Two Masters

Episode Transcript

Spencer: Welcome back to second half stewardship. We're excited to be on this journey with you as we talk through ideas surrounding God owns it all, which we went through in a little bit in the first episode. And Austin, you want to take us back through. Just a quick recap.

Austin: So last time we talked about just that broad idea, that God owns it all, we looked through 1 Chronicles 29 to see what David's response was when he was not allowed to build the Temple. He gave resources abundantly. He set his son up well, and then he called the people of Israel to do it as well.
And so and then we see this rejoicing at the freely giving back to God, what is God's. And then we also looked at just this idea that that comes from Abraham Kuyper that says, “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry ‘Mine!’”
And so we just we lay that foundation of God owns it all. He owns everything, and we are simply stewards. We are responding to his goodness and his faithfulness to us.

Spencer: And I think it's important, again, to highlight that as we look at that, if we have a sense that perhaps we've done it poorly, maybe we haven't been good stewards over time for all of us, there are areas where we can grow, certainly. We have a Lord who is gracious, who is merciful, you know, that sense that we are loved as his children and being able to pair those together of the tremendous opportunity to act as his stewards and the responsibility that we have there, but also that we're incredibly loved, that he loves us right where we're at.
And so if we have made a royal mess of things, he still loves us. He still has sent his son to die for us. And so as we launch into this episode, where we'll be talking more specifically about money and our material possessions, we want to bear that in mind. We don't want this to come across as something that is, you know, really pushing in a direction where it can be shaming, but really one that invites us just as the Lord does.

Austin: So, Spencer, where can you always find money?
Spencer: Oh, man, this is an important question. I don't know.
Austin: In the dictionary.
Spencer: Oh, all right. So now we have dad humor for the day, so thank you. I'll keep that one in mind.

Austin: You're welcome. You're welcome. All right. All right. So before we get going, here's our quote for for this week. We're going to come back to you, I think, later. But it comes from Martin Luther. And he says, “there are three conversions necessary to every person, the head, the heart and the purse.” And, you know, it is true. We we are converted.
We turn back to Jesus with our head. We turn back to Jesus in our love. And then we turn back to Jesus in our purse, in our response to him. And we have to give those things back to him. So just a profound quote by Luther, but.

Spencer: Well, and Luther also said thereafter, those rarely happen at the same time, those three conversions. So often times it does take time to see that knowledge go to our hearts and then move from our hearts to actually allow our hands to be open, you know, before the Lord.

Austin: So yeah. What we want to look into today before we get started are where those cultural messages that tell us differently than Scripture talks to us about money and they're plentiful. Let's be honest, if you've ever turned on the TV, then they are trying to sell you something. One of our favorite exercises as a family is when a commercial comes on just to stop and ask the kids, What are they trying to sell you?
Sometimes it's a product, but then we try to get them underneath that to start asking the question, What are they actually selling us? What is that company actually trying to sell us? You know, in here just some of the common ones. If you see commercials for automakers, get that new car, you deserve it. You deserve to be comfortable.
You deserve to drive fast. You deserve that freedom on the highway. Fast food: don't cook it out. Just make life easy. We can do this for you. Headphone companies like Beats or even Apple iPod, the AirPods. Nothing beats the best. If you want that status, that quality of life, then you got to get the best. It's all about maximizing this personal happiness.

Spencer: Yeah. And we see that not just in our current cultural moment. I think, you know, some folks forget that this has been going on, you know, far prior even to the founding of our country, you know, that we can place our contentment in objects and in different products and services and such. You know, when we think about the radical individual freedom, you know, over the last couple of decades, you know, Bon Jovi said, “it's my life,” you know, and if if there's anything that is the antithesis of God owns it all, it's it's my life.
Yeah. You know, I get to do whatever I want. I get to make all the choices. I'm an independent, you know, actor here. One of the things that I'm reminded of when I was in business school at University of North Carolina, so many of the exercises that we would have to calculate a net present value or to look at different things that we were would be learning.
It would come back to this idea of personal affluence. And, you know, the professors wanted to make this real and vivid for us. And so sometimes it would be, okay, well, you want to buy a Lamborghini or you want to buy a boat or a plane or whatever. But it was always, you know, something that a multi multimillionaire, you know, would be doing once you've achieved success.
And so antithetical to really thinking about things as a steward of what the Lord's given. You know, one of the things that we come back to all the time in business school was, you know, pushing people towards jobs that would give them really strong income so that the school could look really good. You know, and University of North Carolina is a great place.
I loved the experience there. This is not unique to, you know, that institution. That's probably even more so and a lot of other institutions. We had a really good social entrepreneurship program that was, you know, not pushing in that direction. But, you know, so much of it was just, hey, how do we get school rankings higher, too. And one of the ways that we do that is, you know, your income is more and so take whatever job will pay you the most.
You know, that push of this radical individual freedom, how can I buy the most have the most experiences, the most prestige?

Austin: The last little thing that's just an interesting statistic. In the seventies, we were seeing only maybe about 500 ads a day. And by we, I mean not me. I was not born in the seventies, but in 2020. Nowadays, in the 2020s, we're seeing upwards of 5000 ads a day. We're just bombarded with ad after ad after ad of deserve. You need it, you need it. You need it, you need it. Take it, take it, take it. It's all yours. So.

Spencer: And I was even noticing that just driving down Kingston Pike this morning, I had to run an errand, just bombarded by the number of signs, you know, and just absolutely overwhelming, all trying to sell something.

Austin: So we're going to start today and we're going to look at Luke 16. We're going to read just verses 10-13. But our our entire focus is going to be that first part of the chapter verses 1-13. So, Spencer, you want to give us some context of what's happening here? Yeah.

Spencer: So basically Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem. You know, in Luke nine, he had set his face towards Jerusalem. And so his disciples start to have this sense of, okay, Jesus is changing here. His demeanor, his whole focus is heading there and he's giving specific teaching about it what it looks like to follow him. And he had just finished the parable of the two sons.
So the parable, the prodigal son. And so now he talks about a rich man entrusting wealth to a manager and that rich man calling that manager to account. Now, the rich the manager had ingratiated himself, knowing that maybe the man that the rich man would be firing him. He has ingratiated himself to other people by marking down their debts.
Now, the surprising thing, the twist really, is that Jesus commends that manager for his shrewdness. But the main point is found in verse ten, if you want to touch on that.
Austin: So the text says, “one who is faithful and very little is also faithful in much and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the righteous, unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches. And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?
No servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” And you know, as I think about this, I'm reminded of that passage from Matthew that we looked at last week where Jesus says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be.
Also, Jesus talks about money a lot. He comes back to this idea that we can't serve two masters where your treasure is there your heart will be also. You can't love one and despise the other. You can't love God and love money. And so I think one of the most profound things about this passage is Jesus is implying that we are going to serve a master, there will be a master in our life.
And like you were saying earlier with the Bon Jovi quote, it's it's my life. That's what we hear. The water that we swim in every day is it's my life. I am the master. But Jesus here is saying no, God is the master. We we respond to him as the master. We are not the master. Money is not the master.
But if we if we live as culture would tell us to live, it's I am the master. I get to do what I want. I am the most important thing person rather than God who is the master.

Spencer: Well, and Jesus turns the table on again the parable by even saying, you know, sing those resources in a surprising way to build spiritual wealth, rather than just look at it as something that builds material wealth is, you know as well, just such a different orientation to life than our culture will give us there. You know, and this isn't, of course, something that was new in Jesus time or something that he came up with, independent of kind of the roots of the Old Testament.
You know, we go back to Psalm 139. Yeah, you know, and looking and reflecting on the fact that God knows everything, you know, he says, “Oh, Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know, when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways, even before a word is on my lips.
Behold, oh, lord, you know it all together. You hem me in behind and before and have laid your hand on me.” You know, it's amazing when we think about God already knows all these elements. Yeah, he, you know, we say he owns it all, but he also knows it all, you know, and so he knows where we're headed before we head there.
And he still loves us, but we can't really hide behind this idea that maybe he doesn't, He won't know what we're doing with His money. Or maybe He won't know what we're doing with our time or, you know, other things that He has given us to steward. He knows me. And so the more that we can approach Him in that idea that just like the psalmist it in Psalm 139 there that we lay ourselves before the Lord and we do so believing in His love that allows us really a freedom to be stewards.

Austin: Absolutely. You know, what I love about Psalm 139 is it starts off, oh, Lord, you have searched me. You know, when I sit down and when I rise up, it's this call of acknowledgment that God already does know us. And then the bookend is he says, “Search me, oh, God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”
You know, it's God knows us, and yet we need to continue to seek God and say, God, show me my sin, show me where I'm falling short of your glory. Remind me of your goodness of your faithfulness. Search me. You have searched me. It's a it's both. It's He knows us and loves us. And yet if we continue to ask Him to search us, we are welcoming Him back into the life that we are living together with the Lord.
And it's so important to be reminded that, yeah, you're saying I can't hide from God and so let's acknowledge it and let's invite Him into this process with us. Because if we can't lay back before God, our finances, our money, He already knows it. Let's not try to hide it. So let's say search me, God, show me where I'm falling short.

Spencer: Well, and I also love the idea that, you know, we don't need to hide our limitations. I mean, He knows our limitations. Let's not act like we're smarter than we are. Or we're stronger, you know, than we are. If we need, you know, brothers and sisters around us in particular areas of life to be a support let's, let's welcome that. You know, so, you know, good elements there.

Austin: You know we'll just finish off our scriptures by looking back at 1 Chronicles 29:11. It's just such a good reminder. “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the Kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.”
We just come back again to this because it is. It's all God's. Our money is God's and He is the one that deserves our praise, our thanksgiving. He knows us. Again, like we've said, He searches us. He is the master that we want to serve. And so let's come back to Him as the one that owns it all.
To be reminded that our money is His, our time is His, nothing is of our own. It is all of God's for, for us to be stewards of.

Spencer: And as we get in further in our conversations and reflections on God owns it all in this money topic, just like the first episode Austin you were talking about, one of the questions that will come back to you is “How much is enough?” You know, it's not so much as a steward. It's not so much how much we give to God in tithing.
It's how much do I keep for myself. And that is the really difficult question that we, I think, need to grapple with. We need to listen to the Holy Spirit. We need to be in community there because it's easy enough to try to say, okay, well, I'm going to give 10% or I'm going to give some other amount that I'm coming up with and act as though still the resources are mine.
That I've done what I needed to do. I fulfilled my religious obligation. But in fact, if we're stewards, then we need to say, okay, how much is enough? We are, in a sense, hired by God or we're entrusted by God with these resources. So He He wants us to use them partially for our basic needs to be able to to feed our kiddos in our case, you know, to make sure that we have a home there and that we're, you know, invested in the community and such, but that we also grapple with how we set limits for ourselves and how we really seek more in a concerted way, in an intentional way to be able to pass along those blessings, you know, that He's given us.

Austin: So we'll come back and just like last week, we'll talk about some areas where we have not necessarily thrived in this. Yeah, you know, I think about, you know, sharing last last time that I love research. Right now my Toyota Prius is about to die. It feels like it's tried to die several times, whether it's by the hybrid battery dying or somebody stealing a part out of it.
My catalytic converter was cut out. And so but, you know, in this it's it's old it's got 180,000 miles on it. It's run its course, which is a beautiful thing. It has served its purpose. But I now find myself in anxiety of what's going to come next. What am I going to buy next? Rather than trusting God. I am doing a bunch of research.
I'm searching. I'm trying to figure out what's the best next thing to buy. And in that time, I'm also thinking every time my family gets in that car, whether my wife is using it for the day, I'm just thinking, man, I hope that hybrid battery doesn't die again. And she's stranded on the highway somewhere. And so this anxiety takes over.
And I'm I'm not trusting the Lord both with His timing for when we're going to replace the car. Or just what we're going to get next. I just have this deep anxiety and it it wells up and I forget that God says that Jesus says that see the lilies of the field and how beautiful and splendor that I have clothed them.
Do you not know that I will provide for you in the same ways? And I forget that. And so I try to wrestle back and I fix it by doing my research, by figuring out, do am I going to submit my fear to the Lord or am I going to submit my fear to automakers marketing saying get this nice, new, beautiful car?

Spencer: And I think that's so powerful. Austin as a as an overall sharing of when we touch money and when we have significant emotions, what are those emotions, you know, and do they line up with what who we want to be as we walk as stewards? Because, so often our emotions give us a clue into where our hearts really are.
And you know, so often we can say, okay, yeah, I'm lining up here and here and then, whoa, I got some emotions, you know, whether that be a strong desire in one direction that might not be godly or a fear or some other emotion. You know, one of the things I think that we can come back to is, you know, where do you where do you sense emotions when you think about money, even as as kind of a core reflection for me, you know, when I think about one of those areas that that I fall short for sure is when there are elements of discomfort in life.
And sometimes, you know, this is these are first world problems, but significant discomfort, I would say, like, you know, we go on a camping trip and, you know, the tent starts to leak and we have a miserable night out camping rather than pausing, taking a B, you know, for a few days, my tendency is just to solve the problem and to use money to do so and not to really think of it as a stewardship issue as much.
But, okay, I've got the resources. I'm going to make sure that that next experience is far better. So, you know, in this circumstance, you know, Memorial Day 2021, we go camping with friends, tent leaks. It's kind of a difficult night, to say the least. There's a lot of tiredness the next day and intense emotions and such. And so I call my buddy Travis and say, Travis, what tent do you have?
It clearly doesn't leak, you know, what you're doing. You've got a big family. And he says, okay, well, you know, here's the company and here's the type. And so, you know, within an hour I've gone out and ordered that and it comes in and problem solved. But did I take that before the Lord at all? No. No, I didn't.
I was just running from the pain of that really difficult experience of not sleeping well and having kids that were, you know, discombobulated the next day. And, you know, a family that had, what would you say, a suboptimal camping experience. But, you know, instead of, again, taking it before the Lord and saying, you know, Lord, what would you have here?
Is this something that we really need to buy? Is it something that maybe we can be patient and we can look at different avenues rather than just buying, you know, a really good tent, you know, new, you know, is there something else that you would have? I far too often just want the problem fixed. And do that with money.
So again, question would be, you know, where do you find yourself in this? Where do you see emotions coming in or where do you see perhaps the Lord inviting you into a different path as a steward? We come back to some next steps. We'll try to keep these fairly consistent over time because we recognize, you know, if you've if you've studied habits or how you form habits, I would encourage you to take a peek at James Clear's book, Atomic Habits.
We can do this most easily when we create very, very small habits that we can add to. And that's one of the reasons that we talked about the Lord's Prayer last time. If we get up and the first thing that we do is the Lord's Prayer and we do that for a month or so, that actually habit will allow us to add to that over time or to modify that or just to give us the confidence that we could be able to to push in that direction in a little deeper way.
So again, we come back to one encouragement being to pray the Lord's Prayer Daily. You know, give us our daily bread, Lord, if we look to him and we're patient, rather, you know, not not my direction, but if I'm patient, you know, about his giving us what we need, then that can be a far different trajectory. So praying that in the beginning of the day, the end of the day, that would be one application point that we'd encourage.

Austin: Again, in memorizing Ephesians 2:4-6, “but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Remind yourself, through the Words of God, that You are loved by God.

Spencer: At your worst, you're loved by God. You know, even when we were dead in our trespasses, you know, amazing love. And so as we confront again this part of our life, whether it be something that we have a lot of room to grow in or just a little bit of room to grow in, as we as we sense the Lord's love, it gives us, again, the energy to address things.
Austin: And then finally just continue to compile that balance sheet as, as things come up as you realize, oh I forgot I'd had that or I forgot that this was there or you bought something new. Just continue to get that balance sheet together to understand where your money is. It's really helpful just to, to, again, take that take those things before the Lord and say, is this what I have? Is this what I need?

Spencer: Absolutely. So when we think about tools for growth, what we want to highlight are some resources that you could go deeper on if you so choose. One of our favorite books is called “God in Your Stuff” by Wesley Wilmer. He really does a nice job of helping us look at what the Bible says broadly about our possessions and how we frame that in light of God owning it all.
Another one is “The Treasure Principle” by Randy Alcorn. This is kind of a condensed version of “Money, Possessions, and Eternity”. That's again, more in. But the treasure principle is a great place to start with. Randy Alcorn And then the final one being “Master Your Money” by Ron Blue. Again, another excellent book that kind of looks at a big picture of how we look at money, how we look at our role as stewards, and then gives us some practical tips in being able to put in place systems like budgets and, you know, how we invest in those kinds of things.
So three resources there that we'd encourage you. And of course, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out and we can point you in the right direction potentially in other areas that you might be interested in.

Austin: So just to wrap up today, we're going to come back to Luther's quote. “There are three conversions necessary to every person, the head, the heart and the purse.” So really the question that we want to finish with today is who are you going to serve? Is it going to be God or is it going to be money?
And I think we really just need to wrestle with that question. Will I serve God or will I serve money? Yeah. And we're going to continue to dive into this idea that God owns it all that next week we're going to focus on our time, that God owns our time, just like he owns our money. He owns our time, and we can serve time, just like we serve money.
So again, who who is going to be that master? Is the master going to be God or is it going to be your money.
Spencer: Amen. We'll look forward to seeing you next time.