How Our View of God Shapes Our Stewardship

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Hi, I'm Rob West. In the parable of the talents, one servant buried what he was given. And while failing to invest was a big mistake, his real failure ran much deeper than that. Today, we'll talk about how our understanding of God shapes our stewardship. 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 decisions. In Matthew 25, 14 through 30, Jesus tells the story of a master who entrusts his servants with different amounts of money before leaving on a journey.

Two invest and multiply what they've been given, receiving their master's praise. But the third servant, out of fear, buries his portion and returns it untouched. The master condemns him, calling him a wicked and lazy servant in Matthew 25, 26. Now, at first glance, the third servant's punishment may seem harsh. But this parable is about much more than stewardship.

It's about how we see God. The servant viewed his master as a hard man, we see in Matthew 25, 24, someone to fear rather than trust. That false perception shaped his response, leading him to act out of fear instead of faith. His words reveal the issue of his heart. Master, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.

So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. His failure wasn't merely financial mismanagement. It was a misunderstanding of his master's character. Instead of seeing an opportunity, he saw a trap. Instead of seeing generosity, he saw harshness.

Because of that, he did nothing. This is the danger of a wrong view of God. When we perceive him as an unrelenting taskmaster, we naturally shrink back, afraid to fail, hesitant to step out, reluctant to engage with what he has given us.

We bury our talents, whether our time, resources, or gifts, assuming he is more interested in punishment than partnership. But scripture tells us, there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment, in 1 John 4.18. In contrast to the third servant acting out of fear, the first two acted in faith. They saw their master not as a harsh dictator, but as someone worth serving.

They embraced their responsibility joyfully, taking risks and multiplying what they had been given. When the master returned, he praised their faithfulness. Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things.

I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your master's happiness. The master wasn't just rewarding productivity. He was inviting them into a deeper joy. Their faithfulness wasn't about money, it was about trust. They trusted their master, and because of that trust, they acted boldly. Many struggle with obedience because they see it as a burden rather than an opportunity. But the faithful servants in the parable saw things differently.

They understood that what they had been given actually belonged to their master and saw their role in stewarding it as a privilege. The same is true in our walk with God. Jesus invites us to partner with him in his work, not because he needs us, but because he delights in working through us.

Paul describes this beautifully. For we are co-workers in God's service. You are God's field, God's building. We are not slaves cowering under a harsh master. We are co-laborers in his kingdom. When we understand this, our perspective on obedience changes. Rather than being our gift back to God, obedience becomes his gift to us. Giving, serving, and using our gifts for his glory are no longer seen as obligations, but privileges. The tragedy of the third servant is that he never really knew his master.

His false perception led to inaction. The master's words in the parable are sobering. Throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This warning is not just about stewardship. It's about our hearts. If we live in fear, refusing to trust God, we will miss out on the joy of his kingdom.

In fact, I would venture to say that when some meet Jesus, they may not hear, I never knew you, but rather, you never knew me. But if we truly know him, we will step forward in faith, eager to invest our lives in his work. God invites us to see him as he truly is, and when we do, we will not shrink back in fear. We will step forward in faith. Like faithful servants, we will hear his words of joy. Well done, good and faithful servant. Let's live as stewards who know our master, trusting his goodness and investing in his kingdom with boldness and joy.

All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000. We're grateful for support from Movement Mortgage, who provides residential home loans in all 50 states. Guided by a mission to love and value people and a goal to redefine the mortgage process, Movement seeks to help others achieve their financial goals.

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For licensing information, please visit NMLS consumer access dot org. Faith and Finance is grateful for support from Sound Mind Investing. For more than 30 years, they've offered financial wisdom for living well. SMI provides step by step guidance for do it yourself investors from those just getting started to those getting ready for retirement. More information, including the short video webinar on profit and peace of mind, no matter what's happening in the market, is available at sound mind investing dot org. I'm so glad you're with us today on faith and finance. My name is Rob West. If you're just tuning in for the first time, welcome.

If you've been listening for years, we're glad you're back. Our program is dedicated to helping you navigate your financial life, not so you can enrich yourself. Although there's nothing wrong, money is a good gift from God. We should seek to grow it over time. But really understanding that our financial journey is one of the key ways God shapes our spiritual journey. And so as stewards of God's resources, recognizing he owns it all, we want to be found faithful.

Well, the purpose of this program is to help you do that. How do we do it? Well, we mind the scriptures, the significant portion of God's word dedicated to this topic on money, the big themes we see throughout the Council of Scripture.

In fact, our team was working the other day. It'll be a part of our third issue of Faithful Steward, which will be out this summer. We're working on a flyover of God's word, looking at every book of the Bible and pulling out the big idea, the big theme related to money in every book, all 66 of them throughout the Old and the New Testament. It's powerful. And you begin to see kind of the big idea of God's design for money. And it's that money is a tool to accomplish his purposes, that it can compete with our hearts. And so we have to be careful to put it in its proper place. It's not an end.

It's a means to an end. But it's a powerful force for good when we use it to be generous and bless others and to provide and to enjoy and also to invest, which, by the way, there's an incredible opportunity to deploy investments, capital into business, blessing its neighbors and creating human flourishing and to do it in a way that aligns with your values. At the same time, you're seeking an appropriate risk adjusted return for your portfolio to grow God's money. Well, that whole sector of investing is just exploding right now. And there's some incredible world class investments that allow you to do just that. Well, all of those topics are what we cover each day on this program.

But at the centerpiece of all of that is your question. So if you have a financial question today, we'd love to hear from you. Lines are open. We'll be taking those calls beginning here in just a moment.

So call right now with your financial question. Eight hundred five two five seven thousand. That's eight hundred five two five seven thousand. Before we do that, in the news today, you may have noticed eggflation is out of control. Data from the commodity tracking service Expana shows that the average wholesale price of a dozen large eggs nationwide is now eight dollars. Shoppers in major cities like New York are seeing egg prices closer to twelve dollars a dozen or a dollar per egg.

Now, why is that? Well, analysts say it's the latest round of highly infectious avian influenza. The Biden administration ordered the destruction of tens of millions of chickens last year to stop the spread of the disease. It's not clear yet how effective those measures have been in controlling avian influenza. But in the meantime, the shortage of hens means a shortage of eggs, which, of course, drives up prices.

We remember quickly our days of Economics 101 back in high school. Curiously, chicken prices in the grocery store are less affected since the flu bug seems to be less deadly on farms, raising chickens for meat as opposed to egg producing operations. Expect egg prices to remain high for the time being as producers scramble to get back in operation. It takes up to six months for newly hatched hens to begin producing eggs. So we're going to have this shortage for some time and hopefully egg prices will start to come down.

I suspect there will be an increase in those raising their own egg producing hens in the in the near future if it hasn't already started. But we'll keep you posted on that. All right. Let's dive into your questions today. Lines are open. We're ready for you.

Anything financial in play today? That number 800-525-7000. You can call right now. Let's begin in North Carolina today. Hi, Jack. Go ahead, sir.

Yes, sir. I have a question about my daughter. She is in a huge debt with credit cards. Her husband has been incarcerated and will be for five or six years. So naturally, that has affected her bottom line. The credit card debt is, I understand from my daughter, to be twenty thousand dollars among five different cards.

He is a good job. She is a manager of a bank, believe it or not. But yet with all that heavy debt, she just can't make it. And wondering if we're going to be able to consolidate and be able to do something that will cause her bottom line. In other words, she's paying. I think she said her payment is about eight hundred dollars a month.

And that's the bare minimum. So she's not making any headway. And you know, I'm sure you know, she's probably paying what, 20 some percent probably interest on these cards. And her mother and myself are paying. Well, we're really paying the debt just to make it that way.

That's why I'm looking to try to help her. We're having to make those payments. Yes, sir. I can certainly understand that.

And you're right. The average interest rate on credit cards is just shy of twenty four percent right now, which just makes it really difficult to get out from under it and you pay a fortune in interest. My preferred approach on something like this, Jack, once you get above four thousand dollars, and that's just kind of the rule of thumb I've found over the years, below four thousand, it's best just to snowball it and do it yourself over four thousand. My preferred approach is something called debt management. It's also referred to as credit counseling. Essentially, what happens, Jack, is every one of these creditors, Capital One and Citi and Bank of America, and Discover, all of them have what they call a credit counseling department and a program set up. And if you work through a not for profit credit counseling agency, and our preferred solution for that is an organization called Christian Credit Counselors, they will drop your interest rate to the credit counseling rate for their company.

Each one has their published rate. They're usually between zero and eight percent. And when you sign up with Christian Credit Counselors, then all the cards would be moved into that program. She would then or you on her behalf would make one payment to Christian Credit Counselors. It's probably going to be around three percent of the balance. So on twenty thousand dollars in credit card debt, that's going to run you about six hundred dollars.

Typically, they'll tell you exactly what it is. But the nice thing is the combination of that level payment, the payment doesn't go down as the balance comes down. So each month you're sending a higher percentage of the outstanding balance. The level payment on top of the dramatic reduction in the interest rates allows you to pay it back 80 percent faster. And we've heard from thousands of our listeners that have used Christian Credit Counselors over the years and they just have a fabulous experience.

They're all Christ followers and they're just a wonderful organization. That would be my preferred approach because then she's not getting past due and into collections trying to settle, which would trash her credit report. She's not trying to take out a new loan to pay it off, which has fees and expenses.

She's leaving it right there and she slides it into this program. If you want to check them out, you can do that on the web at christiancreditcounselors.org. You can see their phone number there. Give them a call and they'll get you set up.

Eight hundred five two five seven thousand is the number to call. We'd love to encourage you from God's word, help you lean into that role that you have of being a wise and faithful steward. But do it with confidence, because, you know, as we think about our financial lives, there is just an unending number of decisions that we have to make every day. And we have limited resources.

I don't have to tell you that. You're reminded of that every month where there's, you know, in some cases more month than money. And I understand you just want to be found faithful, honor the Lord and what he's entrusted to you. And our goal each day on this program is just to come alongside you and say you got this and point you back to scripture where we find wise counsel. It starts with the idea that God needs to be our ultimate treasure, not our things. We need to lift our sights and maintain an eternal perspective, not be fixated on the here and now, the temporal, the circumstances of the day.

Trust God as our provider and realize we have a high calling. But there's help God's word and this program to join with you in that back with more questions after this day with us. If you enjoy this radio program, you're going to love all of the many different resources waiting for you at faith. I dot com and the faith by app, you'll find powerful wisdom, free podcasts, articles, videos and more from leading voices such as Randy Alcorn, Howard Dayton, Ron Blue and our own Rob West.

Grow in wisdom and knowledge by connecting with a community of thousands of Christians striving to be good and faithful stewards at faith by dot com or by downloading the faith by app. We're grateful for support from Timothy Plan for more than 30 years. They've served clients on a biblically responsible journey to invest in a way that honors God and gives dignity to people's lives. More information is at Timothy plan dot com. The investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses are contained in the prospectus and summary prospectus available at Timothy plan dot com.

Mutual funds distributed by Timothy Partners Ltd and ETF distributed by Foresight Fund Services LLC. Glad to have you with us today on faith and finance. We've got just a few lines open. We're taking your calls and questions. That number 800-525-7000. Again, that's 800-525-7000. You can call right now. Let's go to Louisiana.

Hi, Teresa. How can I help? So my husband and I have been approached for someone to buy our business and we've owned it for about 14 years. We didn't pay a lot when we first bought it. And my question is, if we do sell it, they're offering us a really good price on it. But we don't really want to get caught where we have to pay a lot of taxes on the money. So we know we can invest some put some of it back in like I think it's seven thousand dollars each into IRA.

Yeah. So I would talk to your tax preparer about that just because you are going to have a capital gain on that. Now, there are a couple of ways to structure it that could help to reduce the overall taxes because you could, in effect, spread the capital gain out over multiple years. So the first would be an installment sale. So instead of receiving the full payment upfront, you agreed to be paid over several years.

So that would allow you to spread the capital gain across multiple tax years and potentially keep you in a lower tax bracket, lower capital gain tax bracket, because you only pay the taxes on the portion of the gain received each year rather than all at once. Now, what's the risk in that? Well, the risk is, you know, the buyer situation could change and if they defaulted, obviously you'd lose future payments. And that's that's a pretty big risk.

So you just need to know that. I mean, obviously, if they've got the funds available at closing, you know, you're you're made whole, even though you've got to recognize it all at once. The second would have a similar risk, but it would be but it would also have a similar tax benefit, which is where you do seller financing. So you act as the lender. The buyer pays you over time with interest. The interest comes as ordinary income tax.

The principal is taxed as capital gain, but it's spread out over the life of the loan. And this makes it easier for the buyer to afford the purchase. Now, they're not done.

I haven't heard you say that. So maybe they're not asking for that. The other option would be if you had any charitable intent with any of this, you could give a portion of the business away, whatever portion you want, essentially whatever percent you want to a donor advised fund prior to the sale. And then when you sell it, that percentage would flow into your donor advised fund.

It would not be subject to capital gains. And then you could grant it out at whatever in whatever timeframe you want to whatever nonprofit ministries you want or your church. So that would be another way.

But those would probably be the three most common. OK, we're definitely going to do the 10 percent, you know, tiding on it. And the other thing is that we were also considering maybe a reinvestment where we maybe buy some property that we rent or something like that. Would that be something you could turn like that?

Potentially. So for a 1031 exchange, it does have to be. So if your business includes real estate, you may be able to do a 1031 exchange to defer the capital gains by reinvesting the proceeds in another property.

So you would need to talk. So you're essentially kicking the can down the road on that portion of it because you're putting it into a like type property, real estate for real estate. And so that would be an option. Eventually, you have to pay the capital gains unless you you know, unless it's inherited at death. And then the inheritors get the step up in basis. But apart from that, the 1031 exchange would just kind of kick that down the road. Let me also just circle back to you said, yeah, we definitely want to tithe on it. So the key there is, yes, when you make the gift, you're going to get a tax deduction. But what would probably be better for you, just given what you're describing here, is for you to to give that 10 percent of the business away to a donor advised fund before the sale, rather than you selling it and taking the cash and then giving the gift.

Because the only way to avoid the capital gains on that 10 percent you're planning to give away is to essentially give it away prior to the sale of the business. Does that make sense? Okay, sure.

Yeah. And so then that's excluded from the sale because it's been given away prior to the sale. And the organization you'd want to talk to is the National Christian Foundation at NCFgiving.com. They could tell you how to structure it.

It's pretty simple. NCF was founded by Larry Burkett and Ron Blue. It's one of the largest Christian ministries in the world. But they don't develop their own giving strategies.

They just help givers like you give in a way that's wise. And so they would help you set it up so that you give away 10 percent of the company to your donor advised fund at NCF. And then upon the sale, it would be funded. You would not pay capital gains on it.

And then you all could give it to your church or wherever you want it to go. Okay, good. I appreciate your help. Absolutely. Teresa, all the best to you.

Thanks for calling. Well, folks, we have covered a lot of ground today. By the way, this quarter we are shining a light on a great ministry here at Faith and Finance. You know, we love the idea that managing God's money includes an opportunity to be generous, to give to our local churches.

But beyond that, to be able to align our giving with the things that are on the heart of God, like proclaiming truth and influencing our culture for the sake of Christ. But also coming alongside those that are vulnerable or oppressed or poor. And that's what Cross International is doing. They work with local in-country ministries in places like Malawi and Uganda and Zambia to address the physical and spiritual poverty. We are so grateful for the work they're doing to provide life-saving resources like nutritious food and safe water, but also spiritual development. And by working with folks in-country, they're able to make sure that it's sustainable and really lift up those that are doing the boots on the ground work alongside them. But I love the fact that in addition to meeting their physical needs, they're bringing the hope of Jesus as well to the poorest of the poor. And if you'd like to learn more or perhaps be a part of what they're doing, we would love for you to consider doing just that. You can be a part of the Thriving Kids Initiative when you go to crossinternational.org slash faith. That's crossinternational.org slash faith.

Perhaps you've been blessed a bit more this year. You have a little extra and you'd like to put that to work. Well, for the price of a tank of gas or a meal at a restaurant, you can change the life of a child in extreme poverty.

It's quick and simple to do. Just head to crossinternational.org slash faith. We covered a lot of ground today. You know, as I think about our role in managing God's money, there are an unlimited number of decisions we make every day around our finances. And yet we can boil them down.

We can simplify them into really just four big categories. The money we live on, the money we give, the money we owe and the money that we grow. But the big idea over it all is that God owns it all. And our goal is to be faithful stewards, looking to God's word for counsel and wisdom to apply to our financial decision making. And when we do that, I believe it draws us closer to the heart of God.

It ultimately draws us into a more intimate relationship with him when we handle his money according to his ways. I hope you found something today helpful and encouraging. I want to say a big thanks to my team today. On behalf of Taylor and Pat and Devin, I'm Rob West. I hope you'll come back and join us next time for another edition of Faith and Finance. May the Lord bless you. Faith and Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.