The Solution: Part One

What are possible solutions to the DAF dilemma?  And, how should Christians be responding to this Idle Treasure? 

Some obstacles to generosity are practical, some are relational, and others are spiritual. 

In Part One of the Idle Treasure finale, we walk through two practical, concrete tools that can change the trajectory of your giving: a financial finish line and a sunset strategy. 

We hear from one financial advisor who put a cap on his personal spending to free up more funds for giving, which resulted in an interesting new dynamic with his clients.

We also meet someone who ran a private foundation and developed a strategic plan to give away all the money, which led to their most fruitful years in philanthropy.

If you’re using a DAF, leading a foundation, advising clients, or just trying to follow Jesus with your money, this conversation is an invitation to rest in enoughness and take the next faithful step. 

If you wish to support the show, kindly subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a rating and review so more people can join the conversation.

Idle Treasure is sponsored by the Center for Financial Discipleship.

Transcript

Finale Setup And Practical Focus

Speaker 3 0:00

It feels bittersweet to be approaching the end of the Idle Treasure series. You and I have covered a lot of ground together. We've relived a chapter in the DAF origin story. We've calculated payout rates and looked at dozens of statistics. We've explored various reasons why money and DAF stay stagnant. And we've leaned into some hard and uncomfortable conversations about giving and the Christian walk. We've gotten to meet some incredible men and women along the way. People who have dedicated their lives to spreading the message of biblical generosity around the world. In a sense, I feel like we could keep this conversation going much longer. The story around DAFs truly is like a Rubik's Cube with limitless twists and turns and new things to explore each time you pick it up. And perhaps we'll add more to the story later. But for now, I think it's time we start rounding the corner to look towards the end. What are possible solutions to the Daft dilemma? And how should Christians be responding to this idle treasure? Throughout making of this series, it was made clear to me that some obstacles to generosity are practical. Some are relational, and others are spiritual. At the risk of starting off overly prescriptive, we're gonna begin part one of the idle treasure finale by addressing practical solutions to resolve the DAF dilemma. We'll hear from one financial advisor who put a cap on his personal spending to free up more funds for giving, which resulted in an interesting new dynamic with his clients. We'll also meet someone who ran a private foundation and developed a strategic plan to give away all the money which led to their most fruitful years in philanthropy. Our conversation today will focus on two central themes sunsets and finish lines. This is a conversation for all of us. It doesn't matter if you have $500 or $5 million. I'm confident wherever you're coming from, you'll be challenged with something new and encouraged to take a step forward. So let's get ready. But it led me on a journey to discover what really lies beneath this number. Some Christians say there isn't a problem. Others are frustrated by the amount of charitable assets not getting deployed. But this story isn't just about donor advice funds. It is about you and me. This is a story about how our culture has shaped the way Christians behave with money. It's a story about the goodness of wealth and the weight of responsibility we feel to steward it wealth. It's a story about the vulnerable reasons why we often keep money to ourselves. And it's about the opportunity of a moment. Journey with me as we seek the answer. How should Christians respond to this idle treasure? At this point, it feels almost unnecessary to restate the problems around DAFs. We're not trying to be a dead horse here. But for the sake of context, let's do a quick recap. Currently, there are over $325 billion in donor advice funds, and this number has continued to grow every year. These are assets that have been designated for charity and can't be used for anything else. And yet the money hasn't actually been given away. While nonprofits hustle to keep their doors open, money that could be helping them feed the poor, help the sick, and spread the gospel is sitting idle on the sidelines. But this is not an isolated issue. There may be billions of dollars in DAFs, but there are trillions of dollars in private foundations. And let's not stop there. Let's think about the countless amounts of money currently stockpiled in our own personal bank accounts

Why Idle Treasure Matters

Speaker 3 4:34

and investment portfolios. This story was never just about DAFs. It is about you and me and the reality-facing Christians today. It's simply become normal in our culture for God's people not to live generously. So, how do we begin changing the story? There are many places we could start. And I want to acknowledge that all our stewardship journeys will look different. I'll try my best to offer solutions that are flexible and can be adapted into your life no matter where you're coming from. But to change a story, we must change the conversation. And if you decided to take serious steps towards generosity, you might be asked the question: Do you have a financial finish line?

Speaker 5:24

This concept, I think, was a huge turning point for me. It was um in the form of setting a financial finish line, which is literally answering the question, how much is enough? It totally flipped my whole world upside down, the way that I thought about my career, the way I thought about earning and accumulating money, and how I would use it as well. And I discovered that there's a community of people who are exploring these same topics.

Speaker 3 5:50

This is Cody Hobelmann. Cody works as a financial advisor in addition to running multiple ministries. He is the co-founder and executive director for Compound Impact, an organization that provides safe housing for refugee families. Cody is also a co-founder of the Finish Line Pledge and the co-host of the Finish Line podcast. Alongside his brother Keelan, Cody has interviewed hundreds of the most generous people around the world. Cody's financial experience in both the for-profit and non-profit contexts give him a unique perspective on the DAF story.

Speaker 6:25

Finish lines are not a new tool. We see these patterns for centuries, if not all the way back to the Old Testament. Now I don't see the term finish line used specifically, and it wasn't necessarily talking about money in our modern context the way that we think about it. But when I read in Exodus chapter 16, something jumped out at me after I set a finish line for myself. And to give some context, Moses is leading the Israelites through the desert, and they're worried about what they're going to eat and what they're going to drink, and God miraculously provides for them in this passage. And so Moses is giving them instructions

The Financial Finish Line Question

Speaker 7:03

on how they should approach God's provision. And Moses told them, It is the food the Lord has given you to eat. These are the Lord's instructions. Each household should gather as much as it needs. Pick up two quarts for each person in your tent. So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed. Then Moses told them, Do not keep any of it until morning. But some of them didn't listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them. There's a lot that we can pull out of this passage, but this the central theme of having enough, it's actually defined. This is a very simplistic example because they're in the desert and they need food to eat. God provides the food, and Moses tells them exactly how much to gather. Now we don't have that kind of specificity in our instructions. When God provides for us, we don't know how much is enough. We have to answer that question for ourselves, and that's what the finish line is really intended to do. Because I don't know what two quarts of mana looks like today for each person in our household. We we're kind of left to on our own to try to answer how much is enough. But it can be done, and I think it just might set you free.

Cody On Enough From Exodus

Speaker 3 8:41

So let's break down how to set a financial finish line. As Cody mentioned, it begins by answering the question, how much is enough? Finish lines essentially reverse the normal question we ask of, God, how much do you want me to give? And instead we're asking, God, how much do you want me to keep? So from a practical perspective, let's say your family needs $100,000 a year to maintain a simple lifestyle and provide for basic needs. Well then you would set your finish line at $100,000. But let's say your family actually earns $150,000. Well, essentially the finish line puts boundaries in place so that you would only use $100,000 on yourselves and the rest would be given away. Now everyone's finish line will look different based on your unique calling, your family structure, your geographical location, and your life stage are just a few factors that would influence this decision. But it's important to note that setting a financial finish line is incredibly personal and it should only be directed by God.

Speaker 9:47

In Second Corinthians chapter 9, I just want to read a quick passage. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. Now this is a super interesting passage, but it actually ties back to the first passage I read out of Exodus 16, because we see people gathering bread, and they gathered enough for their family, and here we see God provides seed to the sower and bread for food. And I think

How To Set A Finish Line

Speaker 10:33

this has been really helpful. This is my interpretation, but bread for food could be the amount of resources that we use for our own provision. Because God does want us to take care of our families and to be well provided for. And so when we actually assign purpose to the resources that we are given and entrusted with, then we can say there's a portion that I'm going to use to provide for my family, and that's good. But what about the seed to the sower? We see all these examples. We see Adam and Eve are in a garden. We see Abraham plants a garden when he gets off the ark. We see Isaac plants plants crops and yields a hundredfold harvest. We see all these examples of sowers who are sowing seed. So I see all these examples of gardeners and farmers who understand that the seed that they store up is for next year's crop. So they're planning to apply

Bread Versus Seed Stewardship

Speaker 11:31

it to sow it into the ground to see a harvest. And in this passage, we see a harvest of righteousness. And then right after that, it says, you will be enriched so that you can be generous on every occasion. So as I read this, I interpret it as God may provide far more than we need. And we have to understand what of those resources is bread for us to consume and what is seed to be sown. And when we are faithful in sowing seed, God provides more seed, not more bread. So the amount of resources that we're given doesn't actually indicate that we're supposed to increase our lifestyle. It actually gives us a greater capacity to see a harvest of righteousness when we are faithful to actually use seed for its intended purpose.

Speaker 3 12:20

Cody's distinction between bread and seed is a powerful visualization for our role as stewards. We first have to understand why we've been given the seed to begin with. Answering the question, how much is enough? goes far beyond evaluating how much we spend at the grocery store. Asking this question is tied to much deeper concepts. It forces us to evaluate our relationship with God and ask questions like, why has he created you? What has he gifted you with? And what is his invitation for you to use those gifts?

Speaker 12:55

When we are secure in our identity and we have an understanding of our purpose and the mission that God might be leading us on, the adventure that he's journeying with us, it actually clarifies how we would use resources. And I think that actually connects us to the topic that we're going to be focusing a lot of today on, which is actually having some formal separation of our bread and our seed. And we can do that in a number of ways. It can very simply be two different checking accounts, but often in the complex world that we live in, donor-advised funds can be a very powerful tool for creating some separation and understanding that these resources are not for me to consume. These are resources that I'm going to apply in some way that's going to be focused on co-laboring with God in the way that He has called me into. And the way that we decide how to do that is a really fun topic to explore. But that separation, I think, is a really key first step to say, I've already made the decision that I don't need this for my own consumption. So, in my experience as an advisor, I've been encouraging more and more clients to set up donor advised funds. And in many cases, I can actually manage those donor-advised funds with the client so that we are facilitating very efficient giving. We're usually finding ways to save a lot on taxes, but then once the money's in the donor-advised fund, there's a really interesting dynamic as an advisor because advisors can get paid on the actual assets within donor-advised funds. So there's actually less of an incentive to encourage the client to grant those same funds out. But that may have been their intended purpose. The client might just lack clarity around where to grant the funds. But in the meantime, when those funds are invested or sitting in the donor-advised fund, in some cases, advisors may be collecting fees on those balances. And that may be very appropriate if it's intentionally invested and it's to be applied later. But in many cases, that's where the that's where the resources just stall out. And sometimes they just sit in cash and they're not actually deployed doing anything. And that reminds me of the parable of the bigger barns, where the farmer puts all his seed, all his harvest into the barn for a time that he never gets to experience. He had a plan for it, but he wasn't actually using the seed for sowing. He he stopped being a farmer in that moment. He is now a retired farmer, and God doesn't seem to be pleased with that posture. So that's that's the risk that I think we have when we don't follow through with the plan that we have for our giving.

Speaker 3 15:58

Cody points out that for him, having his own financial finish line reduces the tension that many advisors

DAF Tools And Advisor Incentives

Speaker 3 16:04

face when stepping into a giving conversation with a client.

Speaker 16:07

But I've found the most helpful thing for me is having my own personal financial finish line because it really clarifies my role with the client. And so if a client desires to make a gift, I can help them use a donor-advised fund as a pass-through vehicle or a place where they can engage in impact investing, but it doesn't actually increase my lifestyle personally because of the commitment I made when I set a finish line. So I don't actually have that same personal incentive to try to keep those assets on the balance sheet, if you will. I'd much rather see those assets get deployed in into the kingdom, which could yield in far more impact than it might sitting there in the donor advice fund.

Speaker 3 16:55

In the conversation about money accumulating in DAFs, it appears there could be much to gain by encouraging more advisors to set their own financial finish lines.

Speaker 17:05

So I actually have shifted my role instead of thinking, how do I build my practice? How do I build a business that generates a lot of income? Instead, I can put myself in the passenger seat with the client and say, let's get this money given in a way that's exciting to you, in a way that draws you into relationship, in a way that helps see the impact that you want to have on the world. And as an advisor, we're given a position of influence along with our clients. And so when we partner with them to help them carry out the purpose that they have assigned for their resources, it's just so much more fun. And it's so much less about me and what I can do and how much I can generate. And I think that is a better picture for me of the opportunity that we have as advisors.

Speaker 3 17:53

The concept of having a financial finish line is simple enough to grasp, but taking the necessary steps to create a finish line and live by it isn't easy. We live in a consumer-driven culture that thrives on us constantly wanting more, more safety, more security, more stuff, more experiences, more control. And no matter how much we accumulate, it seems like the end is always just out of sight. Creating a financial finish line forces you to stop running towards more, and it invites you to rest and enough. In this posture, the race towards materialism ends because you've intentionally chosen its stopping point.

Speaker 18:37

When Keelan was inviting me to explore putting some structure around my own finances that would actually prioritize and orient me towards giving, I really pushed back because that's I wasn't ready for that conversation, and I wasn't ready to make any kind of a decision, and it felt very final and sacrificial, and it felt like maybe something I'd grow into later. But these kinds of things that went through my head and the things I hear from other givers as well, I I've started to categorize them into head issues and heart issues. And the reality is when we make a gift, especially when it's money that we had other plans for, and we're not buying something, or we're we're choosing to defer purchasing something that we want for the sake of giving, focused on others. It seems to matter what we do, how we actually give that money, we we have an attachment to that. But I think the the first place that I start is surrender. And so when we give any amount at all, it

Surrender And Next Step Giving

Speaker 19:45

is an acknowledgement that we do have enough because we can part with even a small amount. We're making a statement that we trust that God will continue to provide. And so that actually builds our ability to trust in that reality that we've always had enough, which is evidenced by us waking up with breath in our lungs this morning.

Speaker 3 20:07

Once people come to a place of surrender where they're willing to take a step of faith and give, they may find themselves wondering if they're giving correctly.

Speaker 20:17

The nature of giving can be very complex. I think there are millions of different nonprofits just in the US alone. And to make a decision around where to give seems to matter, especially when we're making large gifts relative to our income or our net worth, or just in general. To make a $500 gift might be a big step from a heart level, but I could reasonably give that to one organization and feel pretty good about that and not demand that they give me impact reports. But if you start adding zeros, then I think the weight of stewardship. Who am I partnering with? What are they actually going to do with those resources? Am I actually helping or hurting through my giving? Do I even know? How much do I care? All of these questions can have the effect of being uh paralyzing to a giver. And I think we answer them by doing. That's the fastest way to actually get clarity around these. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing, but by taking the next step and then the next step. And we can we can check in, we can check our compass and say, Holy Spirit, tell me what the next move is. You have to light up my path, and I'll take the step. Just teach me. Give me boldness, give me courage. I want to co-labor with you. I want you to work through me. And so help me be open-handed with the things that I have right now. Help me trust that I have enough. Help me trust that you are enough. So it's really uh trying to go at head and heart issues simultaneously and not letting all of the details and decisions that have to be made prevent us from giving, but instead really taking this as a As an opportunity to grow.

Speaker 3 22:02

A growing trend and another practical solution to solving the DAF dilemma is hiring a philanthropic advisor to help remove some of the complexities of giving. Philanthropic advisors can vet nonprofits, review financial information, track the impact of your gift, and help ensure that you're giving in a tax-efficient way. Aside from the functional barriers they help donors overcome, they can also help facilitate family giving conversations and address the emotional and relational complexities to giving. We've met one philanthropic advisor during the Idle Treasure series. His name is Brian Grasso, founder and CEO of Simple Charity.

Speaker 2 22:46

It all starts with abundance. It all starts with grace, you know, and gratitude. So that's the biblical, you know, this is not a message of guilt, of scarcity, or anything like that, but this is an opportunity to receive God's grace and extend it to the world.

Speaker 3 23:01

One way Brian encourages people who manage staffs or private foundations to extend more of God's love throughout the world is by sunsetting.

Speaker 2 23:10

So sunsetting is when you spend all of the money in a donor-advised fund or a foundation, and after doing that you close the account or you dissolve the foundation.

Speaker 3 23:26

So money can accumulate perpetually. Creating a sunset strategy would ensure the money gets deployed by a certain time. It's interesting to note that over recent decades, sunsetting has been growing in popularity.

Speaker 2 23:39

According to a Wall Street Journal article, in the 1960s, only five percent of foundation assets had a legal end date. By 2010, um that was 24% of all foundation assets, which had this you know sunset

Sunsetting For Urgent Generosity

Speaker 2 23:54

clause, meaning they had to be given away by a certain date. This year, uh Bill Gates was in the news for setting an end date for the Gates Foundation, the second largest charitable foundation in the world. The Gates Foundation will end on December 31st, 2045. So over the next 20 years, uh the Gates Foundation will give $250 billion and then it will cease to exist. He said in the letter that his mom taught him that to whom much is given, much is expected. And that way of thinking was uh part of the reason why he wanted to sunset the foundation.

Speaker 3 24:40

I wanted to sit down with someone who has experienced sunsetting a private foundation. And for that I turned to Steve Steddom. Steve served as the executive director for foundation when it was in a season of sunsetting. For privacy reasons, Steve wishes to keep the name of the foundation anonymous. So from the beginning of its formation in 1997, the foundation was set up to eventually sunset. There was a certain window of giving that must be met each year, which guaranteed the principal would eventually be spent down. But the exact sunset date was unknown. With the help of a small team, Steve made grants, knowing that his time running the foundation would eventually come to an end. As Steve describes it, the foundation was granting to great causes, and it was surely making a difference. But their team lacked a focused strategy and a sense of urgency.

Speaker 1 25:28

But then about 2012, 2013, we began to shift. There was a change in leadership, and we uh some different board members came on and we began to ask the question, how do we finish well? And what does that look like? To answer that question, we determined that we probably didn't know who we were and really what we were after to such an extent that would be helpful ultimately to ourselves and to others. And so we began to kind of head down that path of fund or know thyself. What does it take? I mean, there really is a sense of, you know, I think a lot of times people who are funders, you know, are looking outside and are trying to figure out what everyone else is doing. And a lot of times we forget to ask the question, wait a minute, so who really are we and what are we about? Because ultimately that's how you find the best partners. And so, yeah, ultimately, I would say about that time is when we really began

Finishing Well With Clear Strategy

Speaker 1 26:31

that trajectory shift. So there was a sense of focus, a higher sense of focus, and a higher sense of urgency. That ultimately led us to be more strategic. And we would say from that point on till we actually sunset, till we uh ended uh the granting operations, which was uh about two years ago, we determined that that was probably our deepest and our best granting. And so uh, yeah, that's the sunsetting for us was a really good thing.

Speaker 3 27:07

Steve and his team began asking themselves questions to chart a path forward. Questions like, why are we giving? What are we trying to accomplish? What premises are we building on? And what's our theory of change? Once they had clear answers, they began creating a strategy. The first thing they did was take inventory of their current nonprofit partners. Doing this inventory allowed them to see clearly who they were serving and where they saw the most potential for alignment going forward. With their new focus on sustainability and long-term impact, Steve's team had clarity on which organizations to invest with, both relationally and financially.

Speaker 1 27:46

One of the things that came out for us was a real shorthand way for us to think about our intended impacts was local church, local leaders, and local networks. If a group was focused on developing local indigenous leaders and they did it through and with the local church, and they were not lone rangers, and that they saw that what they were a part of was bigger than that. And if there was a networked aspect, if they understand, you know, working with others, they may not have all of the right interventions. Maybe there's a different kind of intervention that's you know required from a different group. That's not necessarily what they do. But if you can work together and if you observe that, that was really key for us. And we would say then that there's a strong overlap and that they would probably be a good partner for us.

Speaker 3 28:34

Steve noticed that as his team's focus began to change, the conversation with their nonprofit partners also began to change.

Speaker 1 28:42

It was a different conversation, and we kind of thought of it as we were now sitting down at a table on the same side of the table with them. So we weren't sitting across trying to do an evaluation of a project and just vet it from the sense of, you know, does it look effective? Does it look efficient? Um, is it something, you know, we want to be a part of? It was more about what kinds of things, you know, are not working for you? How can we help you? Some of the things that we began interacting with with different ministries were things that they probably wouldn't even bring to their board. But there was a higher level of trust at that point that we had developed with them so that we could think about, okay, what are what are some possible ways forward? And some of those would require granting from us and from others. That kind of relationship is the the kind of relationship change that we were we were encountering.

Speaker 3 29:41

And it wasn't just the relationships with our partners that was growing and deepening. Steve started to notice that he himself was being changed as a result of their giving.

Speaker 1 29:51

I would say some of our biggest change, both individually but organizationally, too, happened during that time. And I think we identified our ultimate aims as humility, truth, and encouragement. And we saw at that point in time, faith-based philanthropy, especially in the Christian foundation space, probably wasn't as healthy as it needed to be. And so what did it look like? And so we had that big hairy goal. What would it look like to redeem philanthropy? And so it really started with us individually and started with us uh organizationally. What we understood or began to describe as leveling the power differential. We just felt like when we came to the table that there wasn't an even table. There was just too much a sense of people were coming to ask for money and we had the money. And so you just had a really uneven and a faulty really way of thinking about that. So there was certainly a humility that needed to change there. And so we tried to embody that more through communicating more who we were to uh to others. And so rather than a black box, people would send in a grant application or talk to us about you know a project, and we would either send back for most of the times it was no, but that just wasn't helpful. And so um we really began to to change individually about that time, and and because of that, I would say too, it's also just valuing people more. I mean, it sounds crazy, but everybody's made

Humility Power And Risk In Giving

Speaker 1 31:32

the image of God. And um I think rather than a commodity and rather than just a place to make that next grant, so rather than just production and a machine of getting money out, we needed to step back and change what that looked like. And it it wasn't production, it was actually seeing and wanting people to change. And so that that was the that's where the developmental aspect came in, and um that was some of the change that occurred within us.

Speaker 3 32:08

Coming to the table, sitting on the same side as their partners, being willing to grow with an organization, learn from mistakes, and value people as image bears, as Steve mentioned, it required a new degree of humility, and it also required a new tolerance for risk.

Speaker 1 32:25

I think we had to take on, and then organizationally we had to take on a different understanding of risk. Sometimes as funders and the way we give as Christians, this may sound like heresy, but listen to the full answer, right? Um I think sometimes we hide behind stewardship, and we use that term in essence to not give. And we look for those things where there's virtually no risk, or our understanding is that there's no risk. Sometimes we have to step outside of that. Sometimes you need to understand that risk is inherent in growth and development, and to see that maybe not all of what we would hope to see it up front is is going to be there. So that became part of one of our premises. And we would say that that we attempted to thoroughly integrate the presence of risk within all our granting decisions to both maximize ministry effectiveness and best steward uh the trust resources. We expect risk. We didn't uh deny it or run from it. And I would just say if you find things that have no risk, leave those for others to invest in. Uh go find those things that you feel like there's some level of risk. Andy Crouch has a two by two in his strong or weak uh book where he talks about vulnerability as one axis and then uh authority being the other axis. And I think sometimes we as funders don't run to vulnerability. And that vulnerability with our funds can and take into consideration risk. Sometimes it's risk and not knowing exactly what God has in mind. We certainly need to be shrewd as serpents. We need to have an understanding of the organization of the leader and all those kinds of things. So, and we need to vet that's you know what I did for 16, 17 years. So I I understand that, you know, you look at the financial statements, you do those kinds of things, you do the due diligence, but then I think we need to have a certain level of vulnerability with our granting because we have a certain amount of authority. And, you know, Andy Crouch's uh that quadrant for him was that's where flourishing happens. The higher the level of authority, and we felt this as institutional funder, we felt like we needed to accept a higher level of risk and let individual funders be in that lower level of risk. But even in that, I would you know encourage DAF holders to think about that and make sure we're not hiding behind the stewardship mantle.

Speaker 3 35:25

I want to encourage listeners who have a DAF, a foundation, or even a large sum sitting in your bank account to ask God a risky question. What does he want you to do with this money? Does he want you to stop accumulating more? Does he want you to start giving with more urgency? Could creating a financial finish line or a sunset strategy invite you to live into a greater sense of purpose and clarity? How might your story begin to change if you truly believed you already had enough? I think we avoid asking these questions because answering them would force us to relinquish control, to swallow our pride, and to live humbly with God. But let's consider the potential outcomes. If people who control DAFs and private foundations began releasing more funds to kingdom causes, churches would be planted, the hungry would be fed, the sick would become well. If more individuals began capping their lifestyle spending, we would see even greater amounts of giving to God's kingdom. Churches and nonprofits would be financially healthier, and more people would get to experience the joys of partnering with Christ to heal some of the brokenness in the world.

Speaker 37:00

And I wouldn't trade this journey for anything else that I could come up with, focused on building my kingdom. So I think as we lean into the heart transformation that results in a generous posture and giving, it naturally gives us opportunities to invite

Resting In Enoughness

Speaker 37:17

others along this journey with us and they get to experience Christ, not just learn about him or hear about him, but to actually get to know him and walk with him.

Speaker 3 37:27

So how can you become part of the solution? Let me begin with financial advisors, DAF sponsors and ministry leaders. There's an opportunity for you to step boldly into stewardship conversations. Not for the sake of asking for money, but to help people recognize that they've already received everything they need through Christ. For individuals, perhaps the first step is setting a financial finish line. Maybe it's creating a sunset date for your deaf. I also think we need to wrestle with some of the bigger spiritual questions that lie beneath these actions. Why have we been given more than we need? How do we correct the imbalance of power? And how do we finish well?

Speaker 38:18

One thing I might recommend is as you read through scripture to pay special attention to how God gives. I think this gives us a different template instead of what should I do with my money? How much do I really need? These are helpful tools and conversations. But when I really reflect on how does God give, I think it reveals his nature as an unbelievably, unmatchably generous God when it can be tempting to describe him using a variety of other words. Changing my perspective of God and allowing myself to see him as generous has transformed my relationship with him. And I think that's available to anyone listening today.

Speaker 3 39:14

For today, our invitation is to rest in enoughness. Some of us need to trust that God will provide for our physical needs. Some of us need to trust that God will provide us with courage. In each case, we can rest assured that the Lord provides enough. Special thanks to Cody Hobelman and Steve Stedham. Our closing song this week is The Lord Will Provide by John Guerra. If you wish to support the podcast, please leave us a rating and a review. And join us next week for the conclusion to the Idol Treasure series.

Speaker 4 41:12

The veins of the blood of the love between us.