Look At the Sparrows with Taylor Standridge and Chad Clark

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Now let's dive into the podcast. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6 26. Hi, I'm Rob West. God has promised to provide and he is ever faithful.

Knowing that is one thing, believing in and living by it is another. Taylor Standridge and Chad Clark join us today to launch a brand new tool to help you overcome financial fear and anxiety. And then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, among their other duties here on the Faithfi team, Taylor Standridge and Chad Clark have been collaborating on a brand new Faithfi resource, along with co-author Carolyn Kolupka, called Look at the Sparrows, a 21-day devotional on financial fear and anxiety.

And I'm so excited to dive into this, guys. Chad, I want to kick it off with you and have you explain why you think this resource is so important and why so needed today. Yeah, Rob, that's a great question. So many people wrestle with financial anxiety. We hear it every day on the faith and finance program.

We hear it from our community at the Faithfi app. And so we just felt like this was such a relevant topic to talk about because it can plague our lives and completely overcome our thoughts. You know, financial anxiety isn't always dependent on how much money is in our bank account or the net worth on our balance sheet. It's really dependent on a much deeper, even spiritual level.

For me personally, this has been an area I've struggled with. So this has been really helpful for me to just recognize where that root of anxiety comes from and to just recognize that really Jesus is the great physician of our souls and that we can cast our cares on him. We can trust him. And when we seek him with all our hearts, we will find rest and peace for all of our worries and anxieties. Wow, that's well said. And I think that's why this is so needed right now.

In fact, I saw recently that the most engaged verse for 2023 in the YouVersion Bible app, which means most highlighted, shared and bookmarked verse, was in fact Isaiah 41 10. That really speaks right to this issue of financial fear and anxiety that so many of us have. Taylor, I'd love for you to talk about the structure of this devotional, because I think it's beautiful and it's a structure that I think a lot of our readers will find really helpful.

Share that with us. Yeah, I remember having the conversation with Chad about this because we recognize this undeniable connection between what we treasure and what is the source of our anxiety. And we found this in Matthew 6 19 through 34. So this devotional has seven sections with three devotionals in each of those sections. And this is based on, obviously, Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. So each section is going to start with that portion of the Sermon on the Mount. And then those two devotionals that follow that are going to build upon that section's theme. So you're going to recognize some of these section titles like Can't Serve God and Money, Don't Be Anxious About Your Life, Seek First the Kingdom of God. And we didn't just want this to be a devotional that you read and put down.

We wanted this to be something that you reflect on throughout the day. So we have a scripture passage that you reflect on. We have the devotional itself.

Then we invite you to pause. And this is really where we start to ask you questions that go deeper into what you just read in the devotional. And then we include a guided prayer.

I know some people are kind of at loss for words when they read something powerful and they don't know what to pray. We invite them to pray with us through this 21-day devotional. And then we invite them to ponder. This is not something that they necessarily do with the book, but this is something that they think about throughout the day. It's sort of this one-sentence truth that they walk away with when they read the devotional.

What is this devotional about in one sentence? And this is just something that they ponder throughout the day. This is something that's going to shape their thoughts. It's going to shape their worldview. It's going to shape how they approach everything in their life. And so at the end of each day after they ponder, they're also invited to memorize this correlating passage from the Sermon on the Mount. So at the end of the 21-day devotional, you will have memorized Matthew 6, 19-34. And I think that's a powerful application. That's the best thing we can do is to put God's Word on our hearts so that when we run into these anxieties, when we run into these falsehoods that the world is putting on us, we have the truth of God that is rested in our hearts.

Oh, that's well said. And I'm so glad that we have Scripture memory as a part of this. And Chad, there is an illustrator that actually put together beautiful images that depict each of these big themes as well, right? It is, yeah. The design was a really big piece of this because we want to invite you into just the beauty and the hope that we can find in God's Word.

I'm so excited about it. Folks, it's called Look at the Sparrows, a 21-day devotional on financial fear and anxiety. You can check it out today when you head to our website, faithfi.com slash sparrows, faithfi.com slash sparrows. Back with Chad Clark and Taylor Stanritz just around the corner, we're talking financial fear and anxiety.

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That's kingdomadvisors.com. We're talking financial fear and anxiety today on faith and finance. I'm joined by Taylor Stanritz and Chad Clark, two of our team members here at FaithFi, and they've been collaborating on this brand new resource along with Carolyn Kolupka. It's called Look at the Sparrows, a 21-day devotional on financial fear and anxiety, and we were unpacking for a moment why we created this, why we think it's so important right now, and a bit around the structure of what you're going to encounter over 21 days. As you read scripture and you memorize scripture, you get into each of these 21 devotionals, but also as you have an opportunity to pause and pray and even ponder a big idea that you can take away and apply in your financial life. And Taylor, you're of course the lead author of the devotional.

What is it that you hope and pray our folks will experience and apply as they go through it? Yeah, I really just hope that people who encountered this devotional are transformed by Jesus's words to focus on the eternal and incorruptible treasure that is found in pursuing God's kingdom. You know, because when we do so, we actually align our hearts with God's will and His righteousness. And despite the daily worries that come about, whether that's about necessities or that's economic related, we can rest assured that God knows our needs better than we do and that He will provide for us just like He cares for the birds and the lilies. And that's something that we invite them to do in the devotionals, actually to go outside and look at the birds and the lilies and just remind yourself of that. So I think our prayer, whether it's Chad, Carolyn or I, is that you would draw closer to God as you read this 21-day devotional, seeing Him as your ultimate treasure and experiencing the peace and fullness that comes with His mercy and grace.

Oh, so good and so needed. I say we dive into it, guys. Perhaps we could unpack one of the daily devotions so folks can get an idea of what to expect. Chad, I'd love for you to start with day one.

Yeah, absolutely. Rob and you and I have talked about this before. It's all about our hearts treasure. And so day one, we jump right into the heart of the issue, which is for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also.

And so we explore this theme of anxiety that arises from fearing the loss of financial security and possessions. Really, this first day highlights the transient nature of worldly treasures and warns against placing our hope and money, which can lead us astray. Instead, Jesus teaches us to treasure the kingdom of heaven and to let go of earthly attachments that so often capture our hearts. By trusting God and prioritizing Him as our ultimate treasure, which, by the way, Rob, is our vision here at Faithfy, we want to see every Christian come to see God as their ultimate treasure.

And when we do that, we can release our grip on material things, which will ultimately help reduce our anxiety. The message of this specific devotional is really to help self-reflect on what we may value more than God, and it challenges us to bring those things to Him, to seek His guidance on how to prioritize His kingdom in our lives. I love that, that in addition to getting into God's word and just being able to ponder this idea of making God our ultimate treasure, there's actually some exercises associated with each of these so you can put it into practice.

But put a finer point on that, Chad. What is that one big takeaway message from day one? Yeah, day one is foundational. And so in day one, we see that when God is the treasure of our hearts, we can release our grip on worldly possessions and embrace the true security and fulfillment that God offers. Now, Taylor, I want you to refocus on day 19 because I think this one is so relevant right now, and that is the uncertainty of tomorrow.

A lot of folks are listening today, they're anxious about what tomorrow might bring, and this particular day actually addresses that head on, right? Yeah, we realize that financial uncertainty is often the fuel that burns the sickness of anxiety in us, and so that arises from trying to control the uncontrollable. You know, I kind of attribute it to this picture that we're sort of these ventriloquists trying to control all these strings in our lives when really we don't control any of it. Matthew 6 27 highlights that futility of worry where Jesus explains that anxiety cannot extend one's life.

And in fact, scientifically speaking, we see that it actually does the very opposite. It emphasizes that focusing too much on the future actually leads to unnecessary stress and missed opportunities in the present. So in order to find peace, we must trust that God knows the future and only God knows the future. And since God actually transcends time and he sustains all creation with the word of his mouth, we can rest assured that he is in control of the past, the present, and the future. The key message here is that we don't need to be anxious about tomorrow because God, he's already there, and he's managing all things according to his glory.

Oh, that's great. You know, Taylor, I remember what the late Larry Burkett would often say that fear is a spiritual trap because it causes us to take our eyes off the goodness of God and places them on our circumstances. And when we begin to dwell on the here and now, that's where we can often allow this fear to creep in. Isn't that right? Absolutely.

Yeah. And I would say that, you know, when we look at the picture of the lilies and the birds, you know, Jesus makes it a point to illustrate that, you know, they're not storing up for the future. And while Jesus isn't saying that saving for the future is wrong, that would be contrary to a lot of what we see in scripture. He is saying that they don't worry about what's ahead because they actually know who feeds them. You know, we often think of creatures or animals as these simple animals that don't really think, but they actually worship God just simply by existing and simply by actually depending on their source of provision. So I think we have a lot to say, whether it's the lily or it's the bird or maybe in Proverbs six, it's the ant.

We really can learn a lot just by simply watching what they do and just that simple dependence on who God is and what he's going to do. Chad, we talked before the break for a second about the design that went along with this, and you really had the inspiration behind the design that our designers brought to life. It's a black and white theme with this beautiful pop of gold color. What was it about that design that you thought depicted the subject matter?

Yeah, that's a great question. And like I said before the break, I think that the design of the devotional was really thoughtful because we want to invite you into that experience more fully. And when I personally think about anxiety, there's this darkness that surrounds it.

There's this cloud of worry that can overcome me personally when I become anxious and worried. And so that black theme was something that we wanted to integrate to represent the anxiety. But we wanted this strong, powerful white to come through to really overcome the darkness and then this beautiful gold that we've integrated throughout the devotional to really represent both treasure in terms of physical treasure that gold represents, but more importantly, the eternal treasure and hope that we have when we look and seek God's kingdom. And so the design is just really an important piece of this entire experience, and we'd love for you to get a copy of it and experience it for yourself.

Well, I can't wait for you to get your hands on it, folks. I hope and pray it helps you break through the fear and the anxiety that's been weighing you down to lift your sights toward God's ultimate treasure. And Chad, tell our folks how they can learn more about it.

Yeah. To learn more about the Look at the Sparrows devotional, they can go to our website, faithfi.com slash sparrows. I also encourage you to consider becoming a monthly FaithFi partner. FaithFi partners receive these devotionals and studies before they even become available to everybody else. And so becoming a FaithFi partner is anybody that gives thirty five dollars a month or more to the ministry. This not only supports writing these great resources, but the faith and finance radio program, our podcast, our website, our app is just an incredible way to invest in the work that we're doing here at FaithFi. And we'd love to invite you to become a partner with us.

You can do so again by going to faithfi.com slash sparrows to learn more about becoming a FaithFi partner. Excellent. Well, guys, thanks for your great work on this. Along with Carolyn Kolupka, this is going to be a real blessing to our listeners. Jan Taylor, thanks for stopping by. Thanks, Rob. Thanks, Rob.

All right. Your calls are next. The number eight hundred five two five seven thousand.

That's eight hundred five two five seven thousand. I'm Rob West and this is faith and finance biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Absolutely free. We know you've learned to be suspicious of those words, but really you can get biblical financial wisdom delivered to your inbox each week. Absolutely free articles, videos, podcasts and special offers on biblical resources. Nearly 60000 people receive our free weekly wisdom email and you can to create your free faith by account by going to faith by dot com and click sign up to begin receiving weekly wisdom in your inbox. We are grateful for support from the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing. ECFI is an educational initiative of Eventide Asset Management that seeks to help Christians understand and practice biblically faithful investing. They do this through their podcast and online journal featuring articles from industry thought leaders and their course called Discover God's Story for Investing. More information is available at faith and investing dot com.

That's faith and investing dot com. Well, thanks for calling today on faith and finance. Thanks for listening today as well. We've got lots of questions stacked up here. We'll get to as many as we can. I've got a few lines open. If you still have a question, we can try to get you in between now and the end of the broadcast. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's head up to New York. Bob, I understand you're listening or perhaps a user of the FaithFi app. Go ahead.

Thank you for taking my call. I just had a question about some of the, I guess, faith based brokerage firms that I'm aware of. And some of the larger, more nationally known do tend to have a broader spectrum of offerings. And I'm wondering if you know of one or where I could find information on one of them that might be better aligned with the faith based investing or more of a moral, quote unquote, conservative values in a lot of their products.

Very good, Bob. Yeah, there's certainly plenty of faith based investing mutual fund families and investment companies offering investment products. There really isn't per se a faith based investing brokerage firm.

So what I would typically recommend is you do one of two things. If you want to do it yourself, then you would probably want to go to like a Fidelity or Schwab. One of the discount brokerage firms that are going to give you access to most of, if not all, the faith based investing fund families like Eventide and Guidestone and Timothy and Praxis and all the others.

One Ascent. All of those would be accessible through a Fidelity or Schwab that really just gives you a platform to buy the funds that you want. The other option is to hire an investment advisor and we would recommend a certified kingdom advisor. And when you choose a CK in your area at our website, faithfi.com, as a part of that process, it will ask you, do you only want to see the CKs that offer faith based investing or do you want to see all the CKs? And if you say no, I just want the faith based investing options, then you'll just get a list of certified kingdom advisors that can provide a faith based investing approach. And then you would interview and ultimately hire an advisor and then he or she could manage the money using exclusively faith aligned investment options. Which one sounds like what you're looking for? Well, I would probably do my own, sir. So I guess be the first of the options. So you did give me a great place to start, though, because I knew of Timothy and Guidestone. I did not know of Praxis or the other one that you mentioned. Eventide.

Yeah. Let me in fact, let me let me give you a place where you go. It can go to download a complete list of the faith based investing funds that we've at least vetted and track. I'll give you a website. If you've got a pen handy, you can go to faith and investing dot com slash faith five.

I'll say it one more time. Faith and investing dot com forward slash faith. And that's going to take you to the Center for Faith and Investing. They prepared a list of faith based investing fund families and it will give you a probably 15 to 20 options you could investigate.

Any of those would be explicitly faith aligned for believers. And then you could open an account at one of those discount brokerage firms I mentioned and make your investments there. Greatly appreciate that. Thank you so much, sir, for what you do and for your time. Thank you. Absolutely, Bob. Lord bless you, sir.

Let's go down to Port St. Lucie, Florida. Hi, Miriam. Go ahead. Hi. How are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for your call. I'm hoping that you could help me before I even start. I want to thank you for your ministry.

Appreciate hearing so much about finance. You don't hear much about it in the church. My husband is thinking about retiring in a couple of years, but we just realized that the life insurance that he has is with his job.

And we don't have any outside of that. And usually when you do the portable from your employer, it turns out to be a lot more expensive. So I'm trying to see what other options we have. And he was just diagnosed with a health condition that would definitely affect him getting life insurance right now. Yeah. Yeah. So Miriam, did you say he is close to retirement? Is that right? Yes.

He's 63 last month. All right. And what about your situation? Are you working now? Yes, I work for myself. I have life insurance. Yeah. So I guess I would question whether there's a need for life insurance, at least on his life.

And here's why. And you know, the purpose of life insurance is to offset a hardship that would be created by a family member that passes away. And the rest of the family is depending on that income source that's now gone. And so the life insurance is there to provide that death benefit that then could be invested and generate a replacement for that income that has gone away. But if he's retiring, then, you know, he's no longer providing an income stream. Now, you could say, well, he's going to get social security, although I would hope that he wouldn't take it as early as 63. But he may, you all may have to, you know, depending on his health situation. But ideally, if you have the retirement assets that would allow you after his passing to continue to fund your lifestyle, then you wouldn't need to continue to pay the life insurance premium. And especially if he has a health condition that would make that cost prohibitive, essentially, you would just say, okay, he's retiring, we're no longer going to have life insurance on his life. And if he passes away, we have other assets and income sources that you would be able to maintain your lifestyle at that point. If that's not the case, then you certainly could look at putting maybe a 10-year term policy on his life or something like that.

But, you know, you are going to have to weigh whether or not the premium is justified, especially given, you know, a health condition that is present. Does that all make sense, though? It does. I never thought about not having it.

I just freaked out when I realized we won't have it. Yeah. Okay. Well, the exercise to go through, Miriam, is just to say, okay, what is our budget today and how are we funding that and how will you be funding that when he retires? Let's fast forward a year or two years, whenever it's going to be that he's retired, and how are you all going to be paying your bills?

What income sources will you have? And then you would look at, okay, now how does this change if the Lord calls him home? And what you may find is it doesn't change it at all because I'm continuing to work, we've got our retirement savings, you know, at some point I'll be collecting Social Security.

And so you can kind of run through that exercise. And if the answer is his passing doesn't change the situation at all, then I think you've got your answer. Well, there's not a need for life insurance at that point.

So I think you ought to maybe take a look at that, and especially given his health condition, you probably are going to be in a better position just to recoup that, you know, that monthly amount that you would have been sending to the premium, and now put that back in your budget for other purposes like continuing to build your savings, paying down debt, those types of things. So hopefully that helps you as you think through this. I realize we just kind of assume, well, we always need life insurance. No, we really just need it during our working years. And then that's one of those expenses that can go away once we get to retirement because all of our income sources and savings are in place. And therefore there's no hardship created by one of us, you know, passing away. I appreciate your call today.

Hopefully that gives you a few things to think about. Big thanks to my team today, Devin, Robert and Taylor. We'll see you next time. Bye bye. Faith in Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.