SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Connect, where we go beyond Sunday to interact and uh integrate the Word of God to real life issues.
SPEAKER_00: In our last episode of Connect, we started a conversation around money, talking about your relationship with money.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the feedback that you have sent to us, the comments and the questions.
SPEAKER_00: And today we are handling another aspect.
SPEAKER_00: Coach Kiriba, we are handling another aspect, still looking at money, but today talking about stewardship and money.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, you can interact with us on this topic and any other topic using uh the comment section below or making use of this email address that is provided for you.
SPEAKER_00: We will be glad to interact with you.
SPEAKER_00: Stewardship and money.
SPEAKER_00: And uh when I think about stewardship, why the word stewardship comes in before money is because we said that money, wealth, silver, and gold belong to God.
SPEAKER_00: They belong to God.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: And so wherever it is found in the hands of good people, in the hands of bad people, we need to remember that it all belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: Whether somebody is using it for the right purpose or not, we need to remember it belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: And in the parables of Jesus, we have a number of parables where we see someone living behind wealth or living behind money or talents and coming back calling for accountability.
SPEAKER_00: And so we said that part of what we shall be accountable for is um what God gave us.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about wealth belonging to God.
SPEAKER_00: We also talked about him giving us the ability to make wealth, but we also talked about his invitation that we can use our money, we can use our wealth uh to serve him.
SPEAKER_00: And we shall be accountable uh in all those three aspects.
SPEAKER_00: And so today we want to delve into this issue of stewardship and and money, which is a very important aspect.
SPEAKER_00: Stewardship and money.
SPEAKER_01: When you bring stewardship first, we are basically reminding ourselves that we are but only managers of someone else's wealth, and this is our God.
SPEAKER_01: And that defines our values as Christians as regards to our relationship with money.
SPEAKER_01: Very important.
SPEAKER_01: So that when you approach money and when you approach all the wealth and resources or responsibilities as regards to these resources, you remember that you are but a steward.
SPEAKER_01: And it will help that your values, your integrity, and all value systems that define how I spend money, how I save my money, how I multiply the wealth, how I use it around the people that God has brought around me, is very critical.
SPEAKER_01: But also just to mention, and this needs to be very clearly understood, money, as I did in my class in economics, is a unit of measurement, is basically a medium of exchange.
SPEAKER_01: There is the wealth or there is a resource behind it.
SPEAKER_01: So money is just a measure of how much is this wealth?
SPEAKER_01: So when we appreciate that God is the owner of all the responsibilities, all the resources, and all the wealth that is brought to us, then we get to define stewardship, to get to define ourselves as managers of that which he has put us in charge.
SPEAKER_01: And as you say, the parable of the talents and the many parables that Jesus shared.
SPEAKER_01: Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: Will that be the response that will come from God?
SPEAKER_01: Or will it be this lazy, this lazy servant who just hid it?
SPEAKER_01: It was even better than some of us who actually depreciate.
SPEAKER_01: There's someone who hid it and it was taken from him and it was given to those who are more faithful.
SPEAKER_00: So, in terms of stewardship, um uh we are we are also saying, first of all, thinking about stewardship, for me, it elicits excitement that actually God can entrust me.
SPEAKER_00: He can entrust me with what belongs to him.
SPEAKER_00: So I should be excited, I should be happy that that he has given me even the ability to produce that which belongs to him and to hold it as a steward, as you mentioned, a manager.
SPEAKER_00: He has entrusted it to me and he has also invited me to use it, yeah, to use it for my own life, to use it for my family, to use it to advance uh the cause of the kingdom, to use it to even provide for others.
SPEAKER_00: You know, talking about uh provision in 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 8, it talks about but if anyone does not provide for his own family, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: An unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: So for me, it excites uh it elicits excitement.
SPEAKER_00: As a Christian, then I should be open in terms of talking about matters concerning money.
SPEAKER_00: I should be open in terms of, as you said, it's a medium, uh being a good steward, making sure that what is at the end of the stick, when where money is concerned, glorifies God and and does the right thing for humanity.
SPEAKER_00: And so there are people struggling with issues of abidance.
SPEAKER_00: How much should I have?
SPEAKER_00: How much money is enough?
SPEAKER_00: I I don't want to phrase that question that way.
SPEAKER_00: How much can you say now from now this at this point I no longer need uh need money?
SPEAKER_00: And so there are people who are struggling with the issues of abidance.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who are struggling with so so, can I have a lot?
SPEAKER_00: Can I, and as you've said, it's a medium.
SPEAKER_00: So how much can I have of this money, Pastor Kiniti?
SPEAKER_01: Now that now brings us to a redefinition and the perspective of that question.
SPEAKER_01: When you appreciate that you're not the owner and you're but a steward, then you should not be asking how much is enough or how much should I be saying it's enough, because our God is a God of abundance.
SPEAKER_01: And as he said, the earth and its fullness belongs to him.
SPEAKER_01: When he says that silver and gold belongs to him, a cattle in a thousand hills belong to him, then you are when you approach from that perspective that you're a steward, then that redefines the question of is it for me or is it mine?
SPEAKER_01: When you know that God has given has made you to be in charge of this world, he can make you to be in charge of a thousand hills.
SPEAKER_01: And uh he can make you to be in charge of much more than, you know, even the scriptures say that God is able to, you know, to give immeasurably more than you can ask or even imagine.
SPEAKER_01: But remember, you are a steward.
SPEAKER_01: So when we appreciate that question that we are stewards, then we will not be having that insatiable hunger for more and more and more.
SPEAKER_01: And as we'll be progressing, I'm sure we will be discussing about the question of integrity.
SPEAKER_01: This actually goes to the scriptural aspects of what we talk about, the seven deadly sin, the pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, and sloth.
SPEAKER_01: All this comes around when you think about how much is enough.
SPEAKER_01: When you're gluttonous and greedy to look for more and more and more for your own satisfaction, that's where now you find you will never satisfy your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, the heart of man is wicked.
SPEAKER_01: So when you seek to satisfy your heart and your wealth and your flesh, then you will never get enough.
SPEAKER_00: So, so uh the questionnaire may not be more of how much, but more of the what do you do with whatever you're given?
SPEAKER_00: And and and you just mentioned integrity, and that's where integrity comes in.
SPEAKER_00: You could be given little, the question is how do you manage that little?
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we we think that integrity only comes in when it's a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I we think that integrity comes when it belongs to the public.
SPEAKER_00: So if I in government or I'm handling public wealth, uh I'm required to have integrity with how I interact or how I am uh managing that wealth.
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to my personal, what I may call personal, and and again we have said really, there isn't one that is really personal because I am just a steward, then integrity comes in as a very important factor when it comes to the stewardship of money or the stewardship of wealth.
SPEAKER_00: And we are going to use those two terminologies uh interchangeably, knowing that one leads to the other, one creates the other.
SPEAKER_00: But also in terms of diversity, when somebody really thinks about uh, for example, I have seen people go to some places and say these people are poor, and so we want to help them because they are poor.
SPEAKER_00: But then this person has a drove of um cattle, goats, cows.
SPEAKER_00: When you look at scripture, for example, in Job chapter 1, talks about the wealth of Job.
SPEAKER_00: Says he had a thousand, a thousand cows, a thousand donkeys, a thousand female donkeys.
SPEAKER_00: His wealth is in terms of those animals that he owned.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but today we have narrowed the issue of money.
SPEAKER_00: We have narrowed ourselves that wealth is money.
SPEAKER_00: Is there diversification?
SPEAKER_00: How do you look at it uh from a broader perspective, besides just looking at it, uh uh looking at money?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Pasi, as uh you have put it right, the question of uh integrity, and especially in our country, the question, you know, when you find a rich man, you'll want to relate them with corruption, which is very unfortunate.
SPEAKER_01: I remember when I was young, when you'll find a very rich man, then you'll find that they are non-Christian, so they have been they have looked for that money in the in an irregular manner.
SPEAKER_01: It's corruption or evilly evil generated.
SPEAKER_01: And corruption people, evil people, people who look for money in, you know, you know, money actually will be called, you know, we wash money, it is because it has been used in many, in many ways of trying to bring it to be to legitimize it.
SPEAKER_01: And that brings that that question of integrity versus money.
SPEAKER_01: And as Christians, and as again in this topic of stewardship, we are called to be faithful in how we generate, how we produce, how we make this wealth.
SPEAKER_01: And God is calling us will you be faithful with the generation of this wealth that I've brought you?
SPEAKER_01: You are in charge of an assignment as a worker in whatever place you have been placed.
SPEAKER_01: You have been given gifts and talents.
SPEAKER_01: I'm an artist, I can be a musician, I can be a creative person.
SPEAKER_01: How do I generate wealth through this gifting that I've received?
SPEAKER_01: So it is very important for you to have the Christian values of God has given you these giftings.
SPEAKER_01: You know, today how you value, as you say, we would value our wealth by the number of kettles.
SPEAKER_01: But today you'll just find someone has a software or just uh a fintech.
SPEAKER_01: Let me call today we have especially fintechs are the ones who are highly valued.
SPEAKER_01: You'll not find that it's a thousand, but that you can able to value how much you will it be able to generate in the future.
SPEAKER_01: So, in that regard, we are able to redefine how we value your wealth with your talents, with your skills, but with that, God is calling us to faithful stewardship of the gifts that He has given us.
SPEAKER_01: So, let me come to that second question of the giftings and talents that God has brought us.
SPEAKER_01: God has given us various giftings, whether it's in the education sector, for example, in the music industry, in the marketplace where you are able to, you know, trade.
SPEAKER_01: All those are avenues or platforms that God has allowed us to minister, but we are called to be faithful stewards on how we multiply.
SPEAKER_00: And and that then speaks to how do we grow this abadance.
SPEAKER_00: We are saying, first of all, it's really not the question of how much, but how good I am as a steward with what God has given me.
SPEAKER_00: And the question of abadance, God is a God of abadance.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the earth and everything therein belongs to him.
SPEAKER_00: So he's wealthy, he has abadance.
SPEAKER_00: In him, there is abadance, and as you mentioned, uh quoted uh another scripture that says he can he can give us more than we ask for, much more than we think we think of.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question is, how then, as good stewards of the much, and and and we are seeing again in scripture, whoever was faithful with little was also given much more to manage.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever was not faithful, even with the little, the little was taken away from them.
SPEAKER_00: And and that could be a principle of uh uh growing wealth, that when you are faithful with little, the giver of wealth, the owner of wealth, enables you to even make more.
SPEAKER_00: When you're not faithful, even with the little that you have, then the owner doesn't see need of entrusting you.
SPEAKER_02: Precisely.
SPEAKER_00: And and being being being faithful here, when we are talking about uh being faithful with little talks informs what you're just bringing up that how do we make our money?
SPEAKER_00: How do we make the wealth that we have?
SPEAKER_00: And it's through work.
SPEAKER_00: Work is at the center of making money.
SPEAKER_00: Work is at the center of making wealth, and there are many ways now that we can bring in that aspect of work as far as wealth is concerned.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, God has gifted us, each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_01: God has given us a gift, and he has empowered our hands with that assignment that he has called us to, that at the end of the day, we'll be called good and faithful servants.
SPEAKER_01: And so it is for each and every one of us, as God's children, to discover what is that that God has put in my hands that I should use to grow and be faithful and to multiply with what he has given me.
SPEAKER_01: And I like this book by Pastor Rick Warren, which talks about purpose-driven life.
SPEAKER_01: And actually, the question is uh there's a summary of a book which is, What on earth am I here for?
SPEAKER_01: And that should be the question for each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_01: And it's very unfortunate in today's world, you're always complaining, oh, sericali, atuna opportunities, we are waiting because I've finished my degree.
SPEAKER_01: You'll find people with placards.
SPEAKER_01: I have a master's, I have a degree, but I have no work.
SPEAKER_01: It's because someone is waiting.
SPEAKER_01: Because I studied for mathematics or I studied for medicine, I need to be, you know, be given a job.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve a job.
SPEAKER_01: Yet God is asking, what is in your hands?
SPEAKER_01: What is in your hands, or what have I given you?
SPEAKER_01: And God has called us out to each and every one of us on an assignment to fulfill in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: So it is for us to go back and to see God with the giftings, with the talents, with the experience, with the gifts that we have been, uh that God has endowed us with, can we go out and put our hands to work?
SPEAKER_01: And God says that he will bless the work of our hands.
SPEAKER_01: So, what are we using our hands for?
SPEAKER_01: I am an accountant, I have been a finance for the last 15 years.
SPEAKER_01: And when I have this conversation, and that's why I'm called to even coach and to work with business people, because of my experience, because of my education, because of my giftings, to be able to sit down and to interpret financials or financial metrics to a business value.
SPEAKER_01: To someone who is gifted in planning, being a planner, can he be able to uh uh uh uh uh put those giftings to be a super planner, whether it is in weddings, whether it's in events, whether it's to organize resources for the wealth of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: For someone who is gifted with leadership, how are you using those gifts?
SPEAKER_01: And using those gifts to make wealth from them.
SPEAKER_01: So God has each and every one of us the gifting, the talents, the skills, and the experience he has allowed us to go through, and we are called to use them for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: And when we do that, we'll be rewarded again, money will be added into us.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah, and and when we talk about work, first of all, we need to remember that God is the one who gives us the ability to make that wealth.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, then secondly, just the scripture that you quoted, he promises to bless the work of our hands.
SPEAKER_00: And and sometimes I talk to people and and I ask them, you know, there is a blessing you're missing because that blessing is very specific.
SPEAKER_00: It it has to be work in your hands in your hands for God then to bless.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just that specific, meaning that actually, if you're not doing anything with your hands, and that really hands represent work.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's not talking about how big it is or how small it is, it is work that you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, God blesses those that work that you have engaged in.
SPEAKER_00: And that is very important when it comes to matters money.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01: There's a question, and let me ask, probably can help, but let's engage on it.
SPEAKER_01: There's a question that someone asked me, especially on that parable.
SPEAKER_01: One was given ten talents, the other one was given five talents, and the other one was given two talents.
SPEAKER_01: So the question was why was this given ten talents?
SPEAKER_01: Now he multiplied them and brought when it was you know double.
SPEAKER_01: The one with five talents also multiplied it.
SPEAKER_01: The one with two talents decided to hide it.
SPEAKER_01: So was it a question of their capacity?
SPEAKER_01: That this one was given 10, and the other one was given two.
SPEAKER_00: So God does yeah, you actually answered it.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, that the passage says that it says that each according their ability.
SPEAKER_01: And ability, I know it's demonstrated.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, ability, yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, and and so when he talks about ability, it's really what God is saying.
SPEAKER_00: I I have given Kiriba the ability to make sixtyfold.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: I have given Jen the ability to make a hundredfold.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when Kiriba makes sixtyfold and Jen makes fortyfold, who has actually produced to their capacity?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that's that's the question.
SPEAKER_00: Or actually, if I may put it differently, so Kiriba has been given the capacity to produce at 60%.
SPEAKER_00: Jane has been given the capacity to produce at 100%.
SPEAKER_00: So Kiriba produces faithfully, 60%.
SPEAKER_00: Jin does very well more than Kiriba produces at 80%.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Who has really produced according to their capacity?
SPEAKER_00: I get you.
SPEAKER_00: You're getting the point?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: So Kiriba has actually.
SPEAKER_00: Produced 60%, but according to his capacity.
SPEAKER_00: Jen, though, has produced at 80%, which is 20% more than Kiriba, it is 20% below her capacity.
SPEAKER_00: So whoever the person who was given one talent had the capacity of making it too.
SPEAKER_00: And so when I was talking about work, the aspects that I'm bringing about is that first of all, there is work that you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: God will bless it.
SPEAKER_00: But secondly, is what work?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Is it also work that glorifies God?
SPEAKER_00: Is it work that uh honors God?
SPEAKER_00: Is it work that that that brings glory uh to God as you engage in it?
SPEAKER_00: God will not bless work that does not bring glory to his name.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the issue again is not how small or big.
SPEAKER_00: Again, remember the passage that says that do not despise the days of humble beginnings.
SPEAKER_00: And so I encourage that person who is doing work that in the eyes of everybody could be one talent kind of work.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: This person despised the one talent.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of making, producing another talent out of the one talent, he had a different, he had the wrong attitude.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why he dug his talent.
SPEAKER_00: So have the right attitude towards your work, whether it's big or small.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, God is the one enabling you to do that work.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one blessing that work.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one causing an increase as far as that work is concerned.
SPEAKER_00: So, as you are saying, gifts.
SPEAKER_00: The various gifts that we have been given by God means that we may not lack a way of making money and actually creating wealth with what we have.
SPEAKER_00: But when we talk about uh stewardship, then we must also talk about uh the wealth consciousness.
SPEAKER_00: The wealth consciousness, you may want to pick that up.
SPEAKER_01: And that's basically again to appreciate that we are called to multiply.
SPEAKER_01: And for you to multiply, then is to understand the principles of wealth.
SPEAKER_01: I am an accountant, I am gifted with the aspects of financial uh stewardship.
SPEAKER_01: How do I grow that?
SPEAKER_01: And how do I expand my abilities and probably to bring a team that will be able to help me to grow that further?
SPEAKER_01: So, as an accountant in a very small company, would I grow to probably grow into an accounting firm that I'm able to grow more people, thousands of people that I'm able to work with for them to go out and be faithful stewards.
SPEAKER_01: So I was an accountant who was being paid some amount, let's say some 200,000 shillings.
SPEAKER_01: And God has gifted me and has helped me to appreciate that how can I value these giftings and how can I multiply it to reach out to more people.
SPEAKER_01: Through those giftings, I can come and grow an enterprise that is able to multiply and even to grow further.
SPEAKER_01: So in your giftings and in your assignment that God has called you, you are called now to use those giftings to be able to multiply the wealth that has come to you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a musician, I do not just go and say I'll be singing glory and that's it.
SPEAKER_01: But how does it generate wealth that will be used for God's kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: I am a leader, I am a manager, I am a person who is gifted with skills of workmanship.
SPEAKER_01: It can be an engineer, it can be a technician, it can be a mason.
SPEAKER_01: How do you use those ones to make wealth?
SPEAKER_01: And that wealth is able to be multiplied for God's glory to minister to yourself, to your family, and to the people around you.
SPEAKER_01: So you should approach it from that point.
SPEAKER_01: And the problem with Christians, they they have that I don't want to discuss money.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we have been discussing about money in all this.
SPEAKER_01: That gift is worth a silver that you can use for the ministry of your family and the people around you, but also for the ministry of God.
SPEAKER_01: So when we discuss money, when you bring money in this conversation of my giftings, it is not that I'm not faithful to what God has called me to.
SPEAKER_01: It is to be able to help multiplication.
SPEAKER_01: Because again, how do you quantify multiplication of that resource or that wealth?
SPEAKER_01: It is through that money.
SPEAKER_01: So I call out Christians, the gifting that God has called you to, can you value it?
SPEAKER_01: Can you package it?
SPEAKER_01: Can you put it into a business package or a financial package that will be able to go out as a planner, as an engineer, as a technician, as a manager, as a leader?
SPEAKER_01: Can you package that product so that you are able to quantify it in terms of value?
SPEAKER_01: Do not shy off to say that I charge$10,000 per hour if I'm able to meet you as a wedding planner.
SPEAKER_01: Do not shy off to say as an accountant.
SPEAKER_01: And I've seen many Christians saying that I'll not go to negotiate my salary.
SPEAKER_01: God will sort in me out.
SPEAKER_01: You should be able to go out and say the value of my time to this organization, the gift is my skills, is equivalent to this.
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's a good way to end it today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, here on Connect, where we go beyond Sunday talking about stewardship and money.
SPEAKER_00: Kindly uh let us know your comments, your questions using the email address provided below and the comment section.
SPEAKER_00: And we look forward to interacting with you more and more.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.