The Biblical Leadership Show
Inspiration. Wisdom. Leadership from a Higher Perspective.
Welcome to The Biblical Leadership Show, your go-to resource for discovering timeless truths from Scripture that empower leaders to inspire, influence, and impact their world. Hosted by Tim Lansford and Dr. Dean Posey, this podcast takes a deep dive into the Bible’s profound lessons on leadership, bringing fresh perspectives to timeless principles that resonate in today’s fast-paced, ever-changing world.
Each episode is packed with:
- Powerful Biblical Insights: We explore the leadership styles of biblical figures like Moses, Esther, David, and Jesus, extracting practical strategies for overcoming challenges, building trust, and creating lasting impact.
- Real-World Applications: Learn how to integrate biblical leadership principles into your workplace, team, or organization while navigating the complexities of modern leadership.
- Inspiration for Growth: Whether you’re a seasoned leader or just stepping into a leadership role, our content is designed to motivate and equip you to lead with integrity, compassion, and vision.
- Stories and Wisdom: Hear personal stories and guest interviews that highlight how biblical leadership transforms lives and businesses.
Leadership isn’t just about titles or power—it’s about serving others, making wise decisions, and leaving a legacy of faith and purpose. Through relatable discussions, actionable takeaways, and encouragement rooted in Scripture, The Biblical Leadership Show provides the tools and insights you need to lead boldly and faithfully in every sphere of life.
Whether you’re leading in the boardroom, the church, your community, or your home, this podcast is for you. Together, we’ll navigate the intersection of faith and leadership, bridging ancient wisdom with modern relevance.
New episodes drop every Tuesday. Subscribe now and lead with purpose, faith, and courage!
The Biblical Leadership Show
Embracing Stewardship: The Reflective Path of Lent and the Dance of Ethical Responsibility
Ever wondered how a period of fasting and reflection could enhance your sense of responsibility and stewardship? Join Dr. Dean Posey and myself, Tim Lansford, as we unravel the significance of Lent and how its practices extend beyond sacrifice to encompass a deeper commitment to caring for what we've been given. From personal tales of forgoing sweets to the flexibility of Lenten observances, we offer insights into making this season a transformative journey for both soul and society.
Stewardship isn't just an ancient concept; it's a balancing act we perform daily, and during this episode, we dissect its biblical roots and modern implications. Dr. Posey and I navigate through stories from the Garden of Eden to the sobering tale of Ananias and Sapphira, drawing parallels with today's challenges in parenting and business ethics. Through my real estate anecdotes, we underscore the importance of integrity and the delicate dance of aligning profitability with ethical and social responsibilities.
Concluding with a robust exploration of stewardship's core values—identity, trust, gratitude, and love—we examine how these principles shape our lives and impact our actions in corporate and personal realms. Tim shares his experiences with mentorship in the construction industry, while we both reflect on the Parable of the Talents and its enduring message on resourcefulness. And for a dash of humor, we sprinkle in a dad joke to lighten the mood, because even the most serious conversations benefit from a moment of levity!
Oh, huh, now Mm-hmm, yeah, uh-huh, yeah, come on, come on, alrighty welcome to another episode of the Big Bang. Alrighty welcome to another exciting, exciting, exciting, exhilarating episode of the.
Speaker 2:Biblical.
Speaker 1:Leadership.
Speaker 2:Hey Tim, how you doing.
Speaker 1:How you doing. Tim Lansford and Dr Dean Posey with you here today and we're going to talk to you a little bit about Stewardship, stewardship, what is stewardship? How do?
Speaker 2:we. Yeah, that's uh.
Speaker 1:You know, this is true, this is one true and due True.
Speaker 2:We haven't even told the dad joke and you're already laughing.
Speaker 1:I told him, but no, this is a good one for you you know it is a good one.
Speaker 2:You're excited about this subject, so I am excited, but we're in the season of lint and so let me just, for those listeners who don't know what that means, let me just explain that. So, technically, there are 47 days in the season of lint. Counting Sundays, there are 40, okay, so it's, you count 47 days back from Easter. It always happens on a Wednesday.
Speaker 1:I learned something today. And there you go. Wow, look at me, see, that's why I gotta hang out with a good doctor 40 days without.
Speaker 2:Sundays, and so, wow, yeah, and so you count that back, it starts on a Wednesday, which is called Ash Wednesday, and so those days we normally call it 40 days of lint.
Speaker 1:Do you include Fat Tuesday it?
Speaker 2:was the day before the lint.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying I mean that's sort of a prepper to Ash Wednesday.
Speaker 2:It is. It's the prep for Ash Wednesday, at least in my world. That's why it's called Fat Tuesday.
Speaker 1:You probably didn't get that coming to the church for out. But that was sort of the beginning of the lint. Is Fat Tuesday, right, that's Fat.
Speaker 2:Tuesday. Yeah, exactly right. But those 40 days are symbolic of representing Jesus 40 days in the wilderness and he fasted for 40 days and prayed, and so historically in the church it's been seen as a time for us to give up something, to fast in a certain way. Some people cannot fast from food because of health reasons, so they don't need to do that. But maybe they can fast from social media or they can fast doing something else, or maybe sometimes people take on starting to do something. You know a new habit, like reading the Bible every day or praying every day, or praying more than five minutes, or you know something. It's a time to grow in our spiritual life with God. So that's what the season of blunts all about.
Speaker 2:It starts on Ash Wednesday, it ends on Easter Sunday and for some people, you know, they give up sweets or they give up soft drinks or they give up whatever. And for years and years my wife and I gave up sweets. We still do that this year and so I used to really like I mean, I still do like chocolate. Who doesn't like chocolate, you know? But but I used to eat a lot of chocolate. Don't do that anymore, but you know, whenever I try to eat healthy. A chocolate bar looks at me and just snickers.
Speaker 1:Just going to go right in there.
Speaker 2:We're going to go right into the dad jokes right there. This we did. Now I got a question for you. Yeah, anything.
Speaker 1:Now we know that, and there's been a lot of discussion on this, and that's why you just brought it up when we end on Easter Sunday is it at sunset or is it sunrise? Because I have a lot of people there like well, we just need to go out and go to town and eat, and you know, and there's been a lot of discussion on this 12 o'clock in one second Well there you go.
Speaker 2:You can be technical, you cannot be technical, but however you want to do it, I remember years ago I was at a church. I was young in my ministry. I was in a church and and I was telling everybody that I'm giving up chocolate for Lent. Okay, back that time I was an avid marathon runner. I ate a lot, ate a lot of chocolate and all that kind of stuff. Well, that was good for me. I didn't. I just did it anyway, and so this is a true story.
Speaker 2:So we lived in a home owned by the church, called the Parsonage, and it was about three blocks from the church. And on Fat Tuesday you know we didn't celebrate Fat Tuesday at that particular time but on that Tuesday night at 11 o'clock the doorbell rang at the house. Now, at a pastor's home, when the doorbell rings after dinner or the phone rings after dinner, it's normally not a good thing. Okay, normally it's you know, someone's in the hospital or someone's you know had an emergency or something's happened. That's not good. So the doorbell rings at 11 o'clock at night and open the door and this woman from the church by the name of Beth is standing at the door and she and I said hey, hello, beth, how are you? And she said and she just all. She said we opened up the screen door. She had a double layer chocolate cake in her hands 11 o'clock at night. She said you have one hour.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll try See what I can do. I can see what I can do. And then you froze the rest and hit it on Easter Sunday. I don't know, probably did, probably ate a big chunk of it.
Speaker 2:Put the rest in the freezer. Easter Sunday morning bam Eat the rest of the thing.
Speaker 1:Have a sugar hot going to church, yeah yeah, it's one of those things I would have thought you would have just stood up there and you should have pulled this out and just pulled out a big chocolate bar on Easter Sunday and just started eating it during the sermon.
Speaker 2:You know and I remember, years ago I was preaching and and I told the story, which is still true to this day. I said whenever we have cake like best, basically birthday cake at our house we eat it every meal until it's gone. We ate at dinner, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever we eat it, so it only lasts like two days, right? So I'm preaching about this and and this, I still remember this this little girl, she's like 12, 11 or 12. She's sitting with her dad in church and I say you know, one of the things we do in our family is that when we have cake, we eat it every meal until it's gone. And this little girl leaned over to her dad and said I like him.
Speaker 2:I can hang out with this guy. I can hang out with this guy. Let's have some cake. I like this guy. He teaches good sermons.
Speaker 1:Dad, are you listening to this?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were talking about that. And you know, and cake, I love good cake, but you know cookies is my weakness.
Speaker 2:You like cookies. What's your favorite cookie?
Speaker 1:You know I got to go with a chocolate, chocolate chip.
Speaker 2:You know chocolate or chocolate chunk.
Speaker 1:Even I have problems walking through that cake. I can be nice, I can do a little sliver cake and call it good, but chocolate chip cookies and and I just can't do that.
Speaker 2:You gave up carbs for lent.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I gave up carbs, you know. So after Easter we'll bring you some chocolate chocolate.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:Trying to work through that no carb thing, which is it's not a big deal, but I mean it is a big deal. But it is you know it's only been, you know, you know not that long. So we're going through Lynn here, so so, but you know it's, it's, it's it's. If it was easy, then you're probably not doing right. You know it's something you got to what?
Speaker 2:this ties in with our theme of the day, which is stewardship and stewardship. So many times in the church we simply think of that, especially in the Methodist tradition that I grew up in. We think of that only as money, and it's such a bigger topic than just money. There is a money aspect to it and we'll get to that in just a minute, but but it really the true meaning of stewardship is realizing that everything we have comes from God. I mean, every breath that we breathe is a gift from God, every heartbeat we have is a gift from God, and the question is we are the manager of that gift.
Speaker 1:We're not the owner.
Speaker 2:We're not the creator, we're the manager. And and so in the Bible, when someone was talked about being a steward, they weren't the owner, they were the manager. And so we're the manager of what God has given us. And the question is how are we going to take care of what God has given us, you know, whether that's our bodies, whether that's our minds, whether that's our emotions, our mental health, our spiritual health. How are we going to take care of that? What are we going to do to be healthier in all aspects of life? And so it's far bigger picture than just giving money to the church, even though sometimes that's kind of how we limit it, but it's really. How are we going to live life? How are we going to treat other people? How are we going to? If we're in business, how are we going to take care of our business? How are we going to?
Speaker 2:take care of our employers or employee. How are we going to do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know and that's exactly where I was going to go you know we're the caretakers you know caretakers of His creation and and everything is part of that creation. You know the business we run from, the corporate leadership, the employees we have the ability to to wake up and to be able to be, you know doing what we want to do and you know there's a lot to this and and I think it's it's emphasized not only in corporate, but I mean it goes all the way into the old and new Testament. So it's a very strong thing, you know, and that's why we were talking about this subject being so powerful, because this isn't something that's, that's a thought that's came up and somebody created this. You know there's a lot of discussion. You know let's talk about this. It was created, you know, two years ago. I mean, this stuff been around, this is a subject that's that's well discussed over many, many years.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and we can start from the very first story in the Bible about Adam and Eve. And so when Guy created the Garden of Eden, you know, but Adam in the garden, you know, he basically say it's you know, I'm putting you here so you can take care of it, and and. So then he created Eve, and you know, their responsibility was to steward, to be good stewards of that garden and to take care of what God has given them. Obviously, they, they didn't do that, you know. And and so you know they left, they got kicked out of the garden and and.
Speaker 2:But the question is, it's really an issue of stewardship, you know, are we taking care of what God has given us to steward? Are we taking care of our children? Are we taking care of a business? You know, we might have started a business and grown into a multimillion dollar empire, and you know that's fantastic. The question is, what are we doing with our employees? What are we doing with the money that God has blessed us with? And and.
Speaker 2:So that's really a great thing, because in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 18. We read these words but you shall remember that it is the Lord, thy God, who has given you the power to get wealth, so you might have built a business up from scratch, which, I'm thinking a lot of people do, and that's awesome. Okay, I wasn't called to do that, but God gave you the wisdom, god gave you the energy, god gave you the know-how, god gave you the discernment and to pick the right people to do the right thing, and you've made some really wise decisions, and that's all fantastic. How are you going to honor God with all of that that he has given you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's one from the corporate we sort of talk about. You know it's a tough balancing act. A lot of times we want to be good stewards, we want to do good in the world, but a lot of times we have outside influences. You know we have to make money. You know we have stockholders, investors that are pressurists to do this, but you're trying to take a path of being a good steward. You know social, you know social competence, you know sustainability and all this stuff and you have these outside influences that are doing it. So it's a giant balancing act from a corporate standpoint. And one of the what was the story? We were talking about the cell of the house or whatever they did on that. So it led me believe. You know we were talking a little bit before. Yeah, yeah, the sphere is a fire.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Exactly right. An act, chapter five? Yeah, exactly right. There we are.
Speaker 1:I knew I'd have. I was trying to remember their names, you know, as far as being able to say I'm right, because I don't have them in front of me, but we were talking about them and you know, I think about that from. You know my real estate, real estate company. I mean, I deal with investors and we're always constantly trying to do the right thing because most of the time sometimes they have multiple people that are involved with this. You know multiple people that are trying to make some money on this and you know it's one of those things that I see this come from the investor side.
Speaker 1:If two or three investors are trying to, I've got this one deal going right now that they're trying to work it out with the multiple layers of investors and all this and it's becoming very convoluted. But you know, the stewardship sort of has to come out from somebody there, right, you know, because there's always decisions to be made. They're going to put you in a good light, not only with God but the people around you, and I think that's part of the stewardship is how you balance that act of doing what's right in the world compared to making money, because we a lot of times we're not good at that. You know, as a society, we tend to put things first instead of you know the other things that we really should be putting first in life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes we put profit over people and so we don't, are not good stewards of our people. But that story that you're referring to in Acts 5, and in Acts 5 and in the history of the early church that's the story of the entire book of Acts is a story of the early church. And so in the early church there was a huge movement with the people that they were caring for one another. And there were thousands of people, and so some people who had money or homes or things like that, they would sell them and then they would give the money to the church. And so we see that this couple and a nice and so far they they sold some what they had. And they went up to Peter and they said, okay, just give an example, because we don't know the exact dollar amount, let's just say they sold this for $1,000. Well, then they go up to Peter and say, okay, peter, we sold this for $800. We're going to give you the $800.
Speaker 2:And and Peter was prompted by the Holy Spirit to say well, why are you lying to God? You're not just lying to me, you're lying to God. And and so it's like okay, if they wanted to say hey, peter, we sold this for $1,000, but we're going to keep $200 and give $800. Then they would have been totally honest. The fact is they didn't. They lied about it and and so then so he just we read in the story he just died, I mean right there on the spot, and his wife wasn't in the area. So she comes back in later and Peter asked hey, didn't you sell the property for this much? She goes, yeah, and so she lied too, and so she died instantly, and so it's like, wow. So the real story is we need to be honest with others and God about what he has given us and what we're going to do with it. I remember preaching a sermon I told you this before the show is reach a sermon on this particular passage one time, and after that it was known as the give or die sermon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I wasn't familiar with the story where you started talking about it Like wow, I mean okay yeah.
Speaker 2:You know past that, you know offering, past, that break again Offering, we're going to pass it.
Speaker 1:We're going to pass a deep bucket this time, yeah, so yeah, so that one really really struck me as a you know it was a great story.
Speaker 2:But here's the other thing Everybody on the planet, young, old, I believe, if you're breathing, god still has a purpose for you on this planet.
Speaker 2:Yes, Everybody has gifts, talents. Everybody has the same number of hours in the day. It's amazing to me that some people who are very, very busy okay with their work, are also people that give a lot of time volunteering. You know they could volunteer for the Salvation Army. They could coach softball league. You know baseball league boy. You know Boy Scouts, girl Scouts, whatever they, they, they volunteer their time, they, they want to give back to others what they have been given, and other people they don't do anything.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's all about themselves, and so to me that's an issue of stewardship, and so one of the things about this particular topic is how are we going to handle and manage afterward the, the gift that God has given us, which is the greatest gift, is life itself and and the new life that we have in Jesus Christ. How are we going to, how are we going to manage that? How are we going to steward that and so? So let's just take one of the passages of scripture. Before we do that, let me ask you a question, then we'll get back to that.
Speaker 1:Let's talk a little bit about that, because that's always been a thought that I've had in my head and discussion. You know we talk about money versus donation of your time. You know from a church. You know, if I go become a greeter at the front door, does that relieve a little bit of my financial obligations, where I can keep a little bit more money in my pocket? Or and I'm trying to play the instigator- on the other side to spark a conversation.
Speaker 1:This isn't me thinking about it, but I'm really trying to think because I mean there's a lot of people that have well, I'm not gonna give to the church because I donated my time at the bake off and I do this and I hear it a lot and I'm just sort of curious, you know, from a firm standpoint of somebody that's had more than a year and a half into the thing, right how you say it like 45 to a year or two, but anyway so.
Speaker 1:but I wanna have a discussion on that Cause I know we have a lot of church leaders and we have a lot of people that are, you know, churchgoers, that have that you know ethical dilemma in their head.
Speaker 2:So let's just say this, let's just take that reasoning, that rationale to say if I give my time, I don't need to give my money. Okay, let's just say can we use that rationale in any other area of life? The answer is no, If I go-.
Speaker 1:A non-rational person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if I go and say you know what, I'm gonna spend a couple hours picking up trash at the golf course so that I don't have to pay the fees to play golf, that would never happen. Okay, if I go and say I'm gonna pick up trash outside the grocery store today so I don't have to pay for my groceries, that would never happen, but it happens so often in the church. You know, if I volunteer my time, teach in Sunday school, then I don't have to give money. No, you don't have to. Here's the thing. You don't have to do anything. No, the whole point is that God wants you to want to do it. If you do it because you feel you have to do it, then don't do it, you know. Just don't do it Right.
Speaker 2:The goal, I think, and the reason I think this season of Lent is so important, is maybe you should think about God, help me, get to the point where I want to do this. You know I don't have the desire, but I wanna have the desire. Okay, to do this, and maybe part of this season of Lent you can say okay, god, help me grow to the point where I wanna give my time and I wanna give the money that you have given. I wanna give part of that back to you. And so I've seen that.
Speaker 2:I've heard that many, many times in my life in my ministry. And I don't try to argue with people, I'm just saying I just pray and say I'm hoping that someday they'll want to do both, because the church needs both, right? I mean, we need to pay salaries, or we need to pay our missions, or we need to do this or whatever. And if everybody just gave their time which we need people to give their time you know you have a lot of great nonprofit organizations that need people to give their time, but they also need people to give their money so they can do their mission, and so I think both are important.
Speaker 1:Great. You know, because I'd heard it and I knew you know we'd never had this discussion. But I know, just as an outsider, I've heard it so many times through different people in the church and everything, and you being at the heart of the church, I'm sure that you had many stories. That's why I wanted to bring it up, because you know, I hear the dilemmas and the discussions going back and forth and you know everybody has a good way of justifying everything. You know, and I think that's the beautiful thing that, like you said, if you gotta get to the point where you want to right, if it's in your heart, you can do that and you figure out if you give you're gonna receive more, if you give, you're gonna receive more. And if, even if not, do a little test on it. You know, start giving and see if you receive more and if it does keep it up. And as long as you keep receiving more, I promise it it's a good way to go about it, right?
Speaker 2:Exactly right. And so we don't want to get to the point where we give to get. Okay, we want to give so other people receive. You know, we're gonna give so that our children will have Sunday school material, or they can go on a mission trip, or they can go to camp, or we have music for the choir or we have material for communion for Lord Supper. We want to be able to do that. We want to be able to keep the lights on, we want to keep the building clean, we want to make sure the lawn is mowed, and so those are the kind of things that we give money so that the church can be about its mission.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, but there is a scripture passage that you know God wants us to obey him, but not so that we're burdened by it. We want to grow to the point. God wants us to grow in our relationship with him so that what he asks us to do is not a burden. We do it because we do it joyfully. We. The Bible says God loves a chill forgiver, and it's not just talking about money, it's talking about I give my time, I give my heart. You know, I'm willing to help with the youth group, I'm willing to make dinner for the vacation Bible school. I'm willing to go and help with the senior citizens a luncheon because I just want to serve.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and I think that's one of the things that you know. You go back to stewardship and what you can do with your gifts that you're gave through. You know the Lord, what are you doing with them? I know that I've struggled over the times, right, you know, of going this and going down this path, knowing that I need to be on this path. But I mean, I had multiple paths going and they were trying to work, but you know where do you draw the line? You know from stewardship, you know I know my gifts, I know where my path should be, but the path is sort of on the dirt road right now instead of the super highway, right, that's how I was explaining it.
Speaker 1:You know, if you're out there on the dirt road, what's it gonna take to get you back to the super highway? Is it the gifts that are inside you, the path that you feel like you need to be on, compared to the path you are on and how do you work? And I think that ties in that stewardship of what your gifts that are given as a person.
Speaker 2:Exactly right. So let's just break down stewardship. So there you know. We have core values in our business. We have, hopefully, core values in our life.
Speaker 2:Well, there's some core values in stewardship. Let's just talk about four of those. Okay, one is identity. So the basic thing about identity is Do we see that God is our Creator? Do we acknowledge who created us and that he gave us life? He gave us a purpose and he wants us to discover our purpose in him. So where is our identity? Who do we get our identity from and what's that? And the hope is, from the biblical point of view, is that we get our identity from Christ.
Speaker 2:Okay, the second core value is trust. Do we trust God to provide for us or do we not? And that is a huge aspect of stewardship. Do we believe that God's going to take care of us or do we have to believe that we're going to take care of ourselves? So that's another big core value.
Speaker 2:Another core value about stewardship is gratitude, and unless there's gratitude, there will never be generosity. So gratitude and generosity are like they go in the same realm. So if we're not grateful to God, if we're not grateful, we're not going to be generous. And once we begin to be grateful to God for what he's done, or for the church of what they've done in our life, or the people that have blessed us, then we're going to be generous. So that's another one. The last one is love. We give out of love. We give because we love what the people are doing. We love the people that we're involved with. We don't give to get something in return. We give because we love to give or we love to help a particular thing. So those are the four, in my opinion, are the four core values of stewardship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think a couple of those that you can tie into the corporate. What you give is the gratitude Is it your boss? And the generosity of giving your time. Are you going to pass it on, the knowledge that you have?
Speaker 1:I know that I try to give back. I'm a big giver back in the construction industry Just because I learned it. I didn't grow up in the construction industry. I've learned it through a lot of people. They've gave me the wisdom, the knowledge. I try to give it back through a lot of my seminars, a lot of my teachings, a lot of my mentoring just coaching with some of the new guys on the block and all that. So I'm constantly trying to give back.
Speaker 1:And then I know it sort of falls on the generations to pass that knowledge down. If we're not stewards and this is outside the construction industry, the saw industries I mean a lot of the information, a lot of the wisdom and stuff is not being passed down over the years Because maybe the family was in the restaurant business and then all of a sudden the son wanted to go to become a flower delivery boy I don't know what it might be and a lot of that knowledge is being there and that's steward to that information. If I could go back and I know that we did this a lot through our grandparents and stuff, recording in them, telling stories and writing stories, did it with my dad and all that stuff. But man, those are things that I think we need to be stewards of, the information and I think the Bible in itself. What a great stewardship to be able to document all this stuff and then pass it down through the wisdom over the years.
Speaker 2:Exactly right. And so let's go to a passage of scripture that really talks about stewardship. But any lesson that Jesus always has more than one meaning. Okay, there's always more than one lesson we can learn. One's an obvious lesson and one's not so obvious lesson. But let's look at this particular passage. I don't know how much time we have left, but it's in the book of Matthew. Chapter 25 begins with verse 14. It's called the Parable of the Talents, and so I mentioned this a little bit at our podcast last week, but I'll go into a little bit more.
Speaker 2:So there was a man who was going to go on a trip and he pulled together his three servants. He gave one 10 talents, one five talents and one one talent. Now this is where some people need to process this. A talent back then was 75 pounds. Can you imagine getting 75 pounds of money? That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money.
Speaker 2:A lot of times we think of the talent, as you know, like something that he does. No, he gave them a ton of money. So even the person that had one talent, he still had 75 pounds of money. That is a lot of money. So he goes on a trip. The servant that got 10 talents, he invested, he got 10 more. The one that got five, he invested, got five more. The one that had one, he went and hit it in the ground. And the man comes back and he says oh, good and faithful servant to the 10, and then the five.
Speaker 2:And the one with the one, he says well, I just knew you were, you know, a shrewd person, and so I hid your money in the ground and and the master goes well, you should have just put it on the in the bank with interest, and I would have got my money with interest. And and so so many times we see this lesson and we think about it. It's pretty obvious. We say, oh yeah, what do I do with what was given me? And that's a great lesson. What did the servants do with the money? And so we can ask ourselves what do I do with money? What do I do with my life? What do I do with my time? That is an obvious lesson. But there's a deeper lesson and that is what did the money do to the servant?
Speaker 1:right? Didn't he give the the talents based on their abilities, or yeah?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we, you know there's different versions and so we can say, yeah, he knew that this person could do great jobs. Who gave him 10 and the other person gave him five? You know, and this person? He didn't know how he's gonna do, so it gave him one, but even with the one he still had a lot right and so many times learned that I didn't know it was 75 pounds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 75 pounds.
Speaker 2:Did not know that it's like that is still a lot. And so so many times we look at ourselves and we think, well, they got so much more than I did, you know, and I don't have very much, so I'm not gonna do a whole lot. So the so one of the lessons is it's not what the service did with the money, but what did the money do to the servant? Mm-hmm, and in that particular case, the, the servant just Just got angry and he just hit it and he did nothing. He did nothing. And and so what a great lesson for us, or a challenge to us is like, what are we gonna do With what we have been given?
Speaker 2:and what what is with what we've been given? What are we doing? What is it doing to us? Is it is making us jealous because we don't have more? We don't have that talent. You know, I wasn't given the talent to be a great sports person, a great baseball player. You know, I wanted to be, but I didn't have the talent to do it. I Didn't have the talent to do, you know, be an Olympic athlete. I didn't have the talent to do this, but I had a talent to speak, you know, and study the Bible and and to do that. So so I tried to do the best I could with what God had given me, and I think that is part a, really one of the core Issues of stewardship.
Speaker 2:Are we gonna do the best we can with what God has given us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then even you know taking a little bit farther is developing those resources. You know making yourself better. You know investing into yourself Through God to make yourself. You know enhance what you're, what you're here to do.
Speaker 2:Exactly right, because when I started preaching back and way a long, long time ago, you know I didn't stop there. I tried to do better every, every Sunday, and I did that for 45 years tried to always make the next sermon the better sermon. And so the question is whether you build a house, whether you do, you're an attorney, whether you're a doctor, whether you're a school teacher, are you gonna always try to be better at what God has given you, to improve yourself, just to be a greater blessing to the next person?
Speaker 1:and you were pretty good there towards the end before you're a turn.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much. I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed getting out of bed coming to church, you know so you know it there, but.
Speaker 1:But I got, you're in the room with me now so I get my own private In the studio.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, dr Posey, you know it is that time you've made it this far. But you know, if you're not familiar with our show, we talk a little bit about the biblical, we talk a little bit about the leadership and we throw in some dad jokes, and sometimes we do it at the beginning, sometimes we do it at the end and Lo and behold, luckily for you, we made it to the end, where you didn't hear any dad jokes.
Speaker 2:You got any good dad jokes. We talked about Adam and Eve and their responsibility to be stewards of the Garden of Eden. So what excuse I did Adam give to his children as to why they no longer lived in Eden? I don't know your mother ate us out of house and home.
Speaker 1:There we go.
Speaker 2:Wow, I like that you like that you're rolling, I'm gonna have to really study out my yeah, would you.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm gonna have to go because I've just got bad ones again, so I'll just just give us a bad.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I can't.
Speaker 1:Remember the one I mentioned. It was like we groaned on it. What did the tree say to the lumberjack who became a forest steward? I don't know would you believe it? I'm leafing it all to you I.
Speaker 2:Should have asked you to do that. Sorry, audience, that's. That's almost as bad as the one I gave last week.
Speaker 1:That was.
Speaker 2:That was the growing in my own there okay so some people you know, give up different things for lint we talked about that earlier some people might give up beef, you know, or meat for lint. So what do you call a cow with two legs? Mmm, lean beef nice.
Speaker 1:I know a lot of those, but I'm not gonna go through. I.
Speaker 2:Know.
Speaker 1:Anyways, so we'll keep the show good while we're there. So, hey, thank you for again for joining us. Check us out online. Biblical leadership show calm Again. We're always looking for some good dad jokes.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:We'd love to help you out. So biblical leadership show dot com and I'm Tim Lansford, this is dr Dean Posey, and dr Dean has a good work for you Says great day, make it a great day, guys, have a great day. Whatever you may be doing, we'll talk to you next week.
