The Stewardship Question Every Leader Avoids | Allen & Stacy Jo

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Transcript

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (00:00.706)
Hello truth believers Welcome back to faithfully invested as always. I'm Allen and I'm Stacy Jo and Allen Before we get started today. I have a question for you that feels a little loaded but Go ahead. Okay. Well goes along with our subject, but if someone handed you a bag of money and said here multiply this

What would you do with it? So what are we talking here? Are we talking like real cash or you know, funny money? Real money, babe, real money. Real money. well, first I'd have to consider...

I have to consider who's given me a bag of cash before I take it blindly. Yes, I'm not just going to. It's a little suspect. Where did that come from? Right. And if all if everything checked out, then then I'd have to I'd call our friend Melissa and wisely invest it. And she's much smarter than I am. And she knows where to put it to fulfill the multiplication request. yeah.

us.

Honestly, same. But here is why I ask, because that is literally the setup of the parable that we are digging into today. And spoiler alert, one of the guys in the story digs a hole and buries it, which in my opinion is not the best decision, sir. Not the best decision. Absolutely agree with that one. So here we are in season seven, and today we're talking about stewardship one more time from a different perspective.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (01:45.492)
But if anybody checks out because they think they know what we're going to be talking about, then we just encourage you to stay here, to stick around. if you've walked through season three with us, if you've...

If you've heard all the season three, then you already know we've provided a solid foundation and we hope that you picked up that information for that solid foundation on stewardship. That's in season three. We discussed that for a whole season and it was good, but please know that we are not rehashing or recovering that information today. That's right. What we are doing today is something

very different, and we are asking what faithful stewardship builds over time. Specifically when you zoom out the lens to a generational view. What does it look like for you to steward what God has given you, not just for your lifetime, but for generations that come after you?

And maybe not just that generation, but the generation after that and the generation after that. And that's the legacy dimension of stewardship that can change everything.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (03:10.606)
So I want to start. Excuse me. I like to start with something that I think a lot of kingdom minded leaders carry, but they don't always want to say it out loud. We don't want to expose it. There's, there's a weight that comes from being someone who's, who's been given a lot to Stuart.

been given a business, family, influence, resources and gifts. And most of us who are wired to build and lead feel that weight accurately, but we take it seriously. We have to take it seriously. Those who have been given much, have to, we gotta care for it much.

And we got to take it seriously and we, and we work hard to remain faithful, but even in them, even the most diligent stewards fall, fall into a subtle trap of, of stewarding faithfully for today without stewarding intentionally for tomorrow. You can manage what's in your hands right now with excellence and, and still never ask the deeper question. What

Is this supposed to produce beyond my lifetime? And I can tell you firsthand friends. This is a real deal challenge right there. Boy howdy. It is a real deal challenge that I have dealt with. I think we've all dealt with it firsthand. Boy howdy. Boy howdy. There it is. Yes. And it's not negligence. That is just where most of us live most of the time. We live in the urgent, in the present, you know, in the demands of what is right in front of us.

That's not a bad thing, but and those demands are real and they do deserve our attention, but kingdom stewardship, legacy stewardship, that requires us to lift our eyes to a longer horizon that beyond just this next quarter or next year or even the next decade.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (05:18.71)
And here's, this is what makes this season the right time to talk about this because you've already done the work. You know, we've put the information out there and hopefully you've heeded that information. You've already internalized that you are the manager, not the owner, that everything you have is God's and held in trust for His purposes, right? You've done this, right?

If you've...

If you've been through season three, if you've not been through season three, rather, we encourage you to go back and check it out. Season three lays out a somewhat decent theological foundation that helps make everything here today make a little more sense. Yes. But if you have been through season three and you're living out those biblical principles and precepts, you are most likely living from that posture of stewardship. Then today we are asking you, okay, steward of God,

resources, what does your faithfulness now look like when you zoom out to a 50-year view? What about a 100-year view? What? 100-year view. What does that, does faithful stewardship look like when the question is not just, what did I do with what God gave me, but what did what God gave me produce in the people in the world that came after me? Yeah.

That's the real deal legacy question there. And that's exactly what the gospel's talking about in the parable of the talents when you really read through it through a biblical lens. So let's go there. Matthew 25 starting in verse 14, Jesus tells us the story. And that's when our ears perk up. Jesus says. Jesus says. Jesus tells.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (07:18.252)
So Jesus tells us a story of a master who's going on a journey and before he leaves he calls all his servants together and he entrusts them with his property.

He gives one five talents. gives another one two talents and he gives another one one talent each according to their individual ability. And then he leaves, goes on his journey. The steward with five talents, a servant rather, good steward as the story ends, but we'll get to that. A servant of five talents goes on and he invested and he gains five more of the steward.

He keeps saying steward. The servant with two talents, also a decent steward, he gains two more. But the servant that only gave one talent, know, he wasn't a steward. It says that they were given the talents based on their ability. And this guy got one talent. Right. You know, and, know, he he won. He dug a hole in the ground.

and he hides it. He buried what was entrusted to him. Yeah. And then when the master returns to settle the account, the first two servants hear the words every one of us is living for. And that's well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. But the servant who buried his talent. Well, the master called him wicked and lazy.

And he takes the talent away and he gives it to the one who has 10. Right. Well, yeah, you get what you get, pal. That's what happens. And that's and I'm saying that to myself. You get what you get. Yeah. Anyway, now.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (09:19.414)
Here's what I want us all to know. Here's what we want everyone to notice about this parable. And it's easy to miss it. The master doesn't come and ask the servants how much they had. He asked what they did with what they had. What did you do with what I gave you?

a servant with two talents. He didn't get a lesser accommodation than the servant that was given five. They both heard the same words, well done, good and faithful servant, because they were both equally faithful with what was placed in their hands by the master. You see how this is working? The measure was never the amount. The measure, the master's measure was always how faithful they were with what was given to them.

And here's the legacy challenging challenge hiding in this parable. The servant who buried his talent, he wasn't malicious. You know, I don't think he was reckless, but he was afraid. Yeah, he operated out of fear. Yes, he said it to he said it himself. I was afraid and I went and hid your talent. So fear drove him to preservation mode.

and preservation mode is the enemy of kingdom legacy. You cannot multiply what you are trying to protect. You can't hoard and expect something to multiply. Certainly not. Yeah. And we've talked about fear in the context of generosity back in season six. And we're really dug into how fear disguises itself as wisdom when it comes to our finances and our giving. But here in season seven, we're

in the same fear operating in a broader area. It's not just about the money. Fear can cause us to bury our influence, bury our gifts, our calling, and fear can even call us to, or I would say not even, but maybe even especially bury the opportunities that God places right in front of us. Anything that feels risky, anything that could fail publicly in front of everybody, anything that requires us to trust God.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (11:30.224)
with the outcome, fear will tell you bury it. Fear will lie to you. I love that Zach Williams song. Fear.

is a liar. Nice, babe. But I was not too nice. anyway, it's Zach's the singer, not me. But fear, fear will tell you with whatever it is that God's plan is for you, bury that man, play it safe. But as Christ followers, friends, we got to remember that the truth that God does, the truth says in

2 Timothy 1:7 Paul writes that God does not give us a spirit of fear.

So as we're following Christ, we should never operate out of a spirit of fear. But what he does give us is a spirit of love, power and a sound mind. And that love, power and a sound mind sounds a lot greater than fear, don't you think? I will take love, power and a sound mind over fear any day. Yeah. mean, fear's result in legacy terms is that all the things God entrusted to you to multiply for the kingdom never gets invested.

Those seeds never get planted and what never got planted can never grow into the harvest that it was supposed to bless, supposed to in order to bless the next generation. And that's the real cost of burying talent. It's not just what you lost, it's what you never produced because of what you buried. I'm gonna say that again. Please.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (13:14.018)
That is the real cost of buried talent. It is not what you lost, it's what you never produced because of what you buried. You bury it, nothing buried multiplies. Nothing. It just stays there. Yes. No bueno. It's not good. Yeah. It's, yeah.

That's a disaster to the master. That's good. is disaster to the master. So anyway, I'm glad you said that twice because that was so good. So friends, our challenge with kingdom stewardship is, in the legacy context, that it requires courageous faithfulness.

So as Christ followers, do we have courageous faithfulness, not recklessness? The servants in the parable, they weren't reckless with the Master's resources, they were intentional.

the one with five and the one with two, they were intentional, they were wise, and they were willing to put it to work. Intentional, wise, and willing to put it to work, to multiply it as they were commanded. They were willing to risk it, to multiply it, because that's what they were commanded, because that's what the Master said. And that willingness, that's what the Master honored. Not just holding it safely and certainly not burying

it but actually investing it. Actually being, it was the obedience, it was their obedience done out of courageous faith that he honored.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (15:03.04)
So let's talk about what the struggle looks like in real life because I think it shows up in ways that are very personally practical. Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. A lot of leaders who have built something over many years, our challenge looks like this. We stewarded faithfully, we've protected what God gave us and you've maintained it. We've grown it responsibly.

and you've not been reckless, but from a traditional stewardship standpoint, all that's good, but the goal, if the goal was just maintenance and protection by keeping it healthy and intact, then at some point God's gonna show up and...

He's going to ask the master's question because, know, hey, spoiler alert, the master's God. Right. And we're the stewards. So are you you burying what he gave you or are you multiplying what he gave you? Is obedience or fear? So he's going to ask the master's question. He's going to ask, what did you do with what I gave you?

So I ask, we ask you here and now, how might that go for you currently? And I know that we've come a long way, but I also know that we still have a long way to go there.

And for others, the struggles comparison, you look at what someone else was given the platform, the resources, the connections, the opportunities, and you measure your stewardship against their results. And that's a bad move, friends. That comparison is paralyzing because it's complete. It complete. What was that comparison sucks? Oh, it does. It does. It'll suck the life right out of you. It totally will.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (16:53.712)
But it completely misses the point of the parable. The servant with the two talents was never supposed to produce the same as the servant with five. He was supposed to be faithful with the two. That's it. And he was he was. So just be faithful with what he gave you what he gave you gave you those are facts ma'am. That's I think there's a

a third version of this challenge and that would be the weight.

the weight of the challenge on people who have grown to Stewart resources well. When you genuinely believe, when we genuinely believe that all that we have has been entrusted to us by God, all that we have is from Him, then you'll be responsible. It comes with faith's maturity. We'll be responsible to account for it. And that weight.

That weight can also can go either way, you know, and it comes back to maturity and it comes back to teachable moments and comes back to, you know, dropping some we're gonna one way or another early or it depends on how we're willing to learn. We're at one point or another, we're gonna drop that ball.

due to that weight. The weight can topple from healthy accountability into paralysis quickly as we learn how to handle that weight of leadership and accountability. You might be so afraid of mismanaging God's resources that you end up doing nothing bold with the resources that you've been given. And that's where the third fella, that's where he fell into. And we don't want to be that guy.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (18:54.324)
Yeah, you know, I want to speak to that person right now because I think there are some deeply faithful, deeply sincere people listening who have been so careful and so responsible that they've never actually taken the swing that God was asking them to take. They never made the kingdom investment that felt risky. They never stepped into the assignment that seemed too big and too difficult. And the enemy has used their own good intentions to be faithful.

servants, faithful stewards or servants, however you will say faithful stewards. It's not just me. To bind them from God's purpose, stewards, servants, you know, but the enemy has used their own good intentions to be faithful stewards, to bind them from God's purpose for them and to keep them playing small, playing smaller than what God designed them to do. Right, all out of fear. That's what the enemy, he works in fear. He does. We talked about that.

And I was just talking about this with one of my coaches because there was a fear of going to that next level. What happens when you go to that next level? And there's always a root for that fear, right? I mean, that's an episode for another time, too. is. is. Roots and fruits. So, friends, the truth of what we know from our own journey, from watching the lives of Kingdom leaders that we admire and

and respect. Yeah, that's the moments that have produced the most lasting fruit like investments in people, leaps of faith, kingdom assignments that made no financial sense on paper whatsoever. Those were the moments that required the most trust. When you're like,

When it's clearly larger than you, then that's where trust kicks in. Not fear, but trust in the one who has given it to you to entrust. The ones where we had to say, God, this is yours anyway. We know that you want it multiplied. So we're gonna be faithful and obedient. Faithful and obedient. So we're gonna be faithful and obedient to put it to work.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (21:22.164)
A new leg and that's where a new legacy is born not in the safe place not in the buried talent but in the courageous spirit-led open-handed decision to put what God gave you to work for his kingdom. Yeah what the next generation in nine not just for the next quarter. Right so let's talk about practical legacy stewardship. What what does it look like this week? What do I first

We want to expand our stewardship horizon. This means sitting down, maybe with your spouse, maybe with your mentor, or maybe just you and the Lord. What a great idea. Sitting down and discussing and asking, know, am I faithful with everything that you entrusted?

to me for the next 20 years? Am I faithful with what you've given me for the next 20 years? There's a question. You're not going to figure that one out. know? So ask him. What could, as you're faithful with what he's given you, what could that produce? Not just for your business or for your family, but for his kingdom.

What could that look like over the next generations? Start with dreaming. Dreams. Start with dreaming about wider horizons and longer perspectives. See things through his perspective. Let him shift your paradigm. Be wise and bold, friends, as he guides you, as his Spirit guides you. Let him guide you to be wise and bold.

And remember that we cannot steward toward a horizon that we're not willing to look at. Yes, and this is something Al and I have done together, and I highly recommend doing it as a couple if you're married. Because when two people start dreaming about their kingdom legacy together, what God might do through their faithfulness over a lifetime expands the unity of your mission. It gives your marriage a shared kingdom purpose that can go be

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (23:43.137)
beyond just building a good life together. You're building something that outlives both of you together. And that is super powerful. Absolutely powerful. Second action item for you this here and now is identify what you may have buried out of fear. This is an honest prayerful inventory question. Is there a gift that you've been sitting on? An opportunity that God keeps us

opening that you keep walking past, intentionally or unintentionally? Is there a kingdom investment in a person, in a ministry, in a calling that you've been deferring because the time doesn't feel quite right?

Bring that before the Lord. We encourage you to bring that before the Lord. Name it and ask Him honestly, is this me being wise or is this me being a servant that dug a hole?

Because here's the thing about fear and stewardship. It almost always sounds reasonable. It sounds like prudence. It sounds like responsibility. It sounds like the right thing to do. And the servant in the parable thought he was being responsible. He thought he was being responsible. He said, I knew you were a hard man, so I protected what you gave me. He genuinely thought he was doing the right thing. And he was completely wrong.

So don't let the reasonableness of the fear be the final word. Take it to God and let Him inform you from His wisdom on how to navigate His wise investment. That's the cool thing about Him. When we walk with Him and we seek His kingdom first, we're never walking alone. His Spirit is always walking with us, talking with us. So talk

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (25:45.035)
to him and write it down and his write down his answers so that you can progress his way not the way you think you might be able to you might need to go. Right we always we always we want to have it Yahweh. Right. Whenever we have a Yahweh it's the higher and greater way. Right. So third

We want to steward intentionally for the people who come after us. That's what we're talking about here. This is where legacy stewardship gets its most practical and personal. It's gotta be practical and it's gotta be personal.

Who are the people God's placed in your sphere that's going to carry on what you've built further than you could ever carry it yourself? Are you investing in them? Are you sharing what you know with them? Are you creating opportunities for them to grow in their stewardship so when it's their turn, they're ready? Are you leading them well? Leadership teaches and lets them make their...they're going to make their own mistakes. Leadership lets them make their own mistakes.

along their own journey because that's where the teachable moments are. I've learned my greatest, I've learned the most from my worst mistakes. And I made a lot.

So, you know, we appreciate what Psalm 145 says that one generation shall commend God's work to another. that commending or that passing on does not happen automatically. It requires intentional investment. It requires leaders who are thinking not just about what they're building, but about who is going to carry it forward. And that investment in people must be a deliberate, must be a deliberate decision to develop the next steward.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (27:44.609)
Absolutely. Remember, we don't just want to manage resources for today. We're multiplying capacity for tomorrow. That's what kingdom stewardship's all about. And that's what the master of the parable honored. He didn't honor preservation. He honored multiplication. And multiplication always flows through the Lord.

and it flows from him through the people that he's entrusted with that. So here's, we got one takeaway. We throw too much out there, it'll never get done. So we only got one. One takeaway for this week. We encourage you to sit with the Lord on this one. What has he entrusted to you? So, and.

He's entrust. What does he entrusted to you? And are you managing it for today? Or are you intentionally steering it, stewarding it for the next generation? Ask him, ask him about that. I mean, it could be resources, relationships.

or even wisdom that you've accumulated over decades of walking with God that you have never really thought about passing on. Maybe your legacy is a gift that has been serving you or yours, but has the capacity to serve the kingdom at a much larger scale. If you would just...

put it to work more boldly. Yeah, whatever it is. Whatever it may be, be willing to lay it openly before him and gain his perspective because that's where it's at.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (29:30.314)
We got logic and we got our ideas, but if we really want, if we're gonna build a legacy, we must gain his perspective for our legacy, for our people's future, for his people's future.

Y'all know that he's not looking for perfect stewardship, He's never looking for perfection. If you're trying to attain perfection...

Just look to progress. Even if it's just 1 % a day. He's not looking for perfect stewardship. What the Master, what the Lord, what our Creator Father God's looking for is faithful, creative, courageous stewardship. Faithful and courageous. That's the kind where we say God...

Thank you. I know it's all yours and I'm gonna put forth the work for your kingdom with everything that I've got. And then go and do just that. Understanding that it's his and give it everything you got as you follow him.

Give it all you got through the spirits of not a fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind, because that's what He gives us so that we can continue our journey with Him as the ones and with Him for our lives and for the ones that are on down the line. Yeah, that's good,

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (31:12.79)
So there it is friends. That's a heart posture that hears the words we are all living for. Well done, good and faithful servant. With that, I think we should go into a prayer. Can you lead us in a prayer, Yeah, I can lead this week. Absolutely. I would thank you for leading last week. That was well done, babe. Thank you, babe. Yeah. So. So, Father, we just we come to you as as managers of everything.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (31:43.401)
everything that you have so generously entrusted to us. We acknowledge that you

that it all comes from you and that none of it is ours, our gifts, our resources, our influence, our time in relationships. It all belongs to you. Thank you for forgiving us in any area where fear has caused us to bury what you meant for multiplication. Thank you for opening our eyes to a wider perspectives and longer horizons of what stewardship produces.

through us. Thank you Lord for the faithful courage to invest boldly for your kingdom. Thank you for the wisdom to pour into the people who will carry what you have built through us further than we could ever do it ourselves. We leave it all with you.

as we deny ourselves and sacrifice our finite perspectives for your infinite wisdom and we follow you into generational kingdom legacy. I will leave all of this with you in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

All right, friends, well, episode four is coming at you next week, and we are going even deeper into the generational side of all of this, thinking beyond our lifetimes, building things that outlive us and what it truly means to pass a kingdom inheritance to our next generation. It's gonna be a great one, and we don't want you to miss it. Right, so until then.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (33:28.034)
We encourage you to stay faithfully invested because when you do. God brings the increase. He does. Take care. God bless you and your families. Have a great week. God bless.