The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - What’s in Your Spiritual Wallet? (Long Term Investments)

Episode Date: February 9, 2018

“Where your treasure is there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:21)” In this episode, Jeff helps and challenges you to locate the treasure in your life. What is it that you pursue, protect, or are preoccupied with? If your heart is in your hobbies, property, or 401k then there is your treasure. But if your heart lies within the kingdom, your treasure will follow. While listening to this episode, take a look at your life right now to discover God’s will in it. There is no better way to invest in your spiritual wallet. We’d Love to Hear from You Do you have comments or questions for Jeff? Email Jeff at [e-mail]. You may hear your question or comment in an upcoming podcast episode!

You're listening to the Jeff Kavan Show, episode 51. What's in your spiritual wallet? Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show.

Hey, my friend, thanks for joining me again this week, as we are talking about all things related to being disciples of the Lord and the details that go into that on a daily basis, decisions and goals and the way we're going to spend time and so forth. And it's always good to meet with you every single week. I appreciate your feedback also. We're going to be talking this week about what's in your spiritual wallet, specifically, looking at long-term investments in our life. and investing our life in things that really, really count and that will stand the test of time.

And I think it's good once in a while to just kind of take stock of how we're living our life, what we're investing our time, our money, our passion into, and to see if this is something that is really going to last for eternity, or is this something that's going to be burned up and it will be done away with and it will not be a part of our eternal portfolio, if you will. So that's what we're going to be getting into. Hey, I want to let you know there's a brand new study out, a brand new study out from Ascension Press, and I am so pleased to introduce to you a new teacher, a new speaker,

at least with Ascension Press, a good friend of mine, Sonia Corbett, and she has just produced a marvelous new study for us, and it's called Fulfilled, uncovering the biblical foundations of Catholicism. Now, Sonia spoke at the National Catholic Bible Conference in Houston this last year and just knocked it out of the park. Everybody loved her and you're going to fall in love with this girl. She's really a good teacher, not to mention that really catchy southern accent that she has, but she does a great job of talking about the biblical foundations of Catholicism. And I think that you and your church are going to welcome her and you're going to benefit from her ministry.

She's a convert to Catholicism. And so she brings a little bit of both worlds to the study, which I think personally is a real asset. And you can find out about her study by going to ascensionpress.com and looking up fulfilled. In fact, I'll put it in the show notes for you. I'll put a link there and just check it out. I think you're going to be impressed with Sonia.

And we're looking forward to many more studies from Sonia coming up in the future. In fact, we've got some other people right around the corner, too, that we're going to be introducing you to, and we're really excited about that. Hey, I've got something I want to ask you this week on the show. As you know, every show I typically will say, don't worry about writing this down. All the information will be in the show notes, and we do have really comprehensive show notes for a show like this. and we got to thinking the other day and we were wondering if by chance, and I'm just going to throw this out to you, but I need your response for this, by chance, do you want me to send you the show notes via email every week automatically? Because some people say, well, yeah,

I was in the car and I was listening and then I was going to look at the show notes, but then I forgot when I got home and then I remembered a couple weeks later, blah, blah, blah. So I thought, well, what if we just sent them to you every week? If you registered and said, yeah, I want the show notes every week. And it was a reminder that there was a new show posted, and here's the notes for it. If you're interested in that, here's what I need you to do. I need you to send me an email stating that. And it's a very simple email, The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. I'll say that one more time. It's the Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com. And just tell me, yeah, I'd like to get those show notes every week.

And then I'm going to meet with my outstanding team, and we're going to decide on whether we're going to do this based on your response. And then we'll let you know. We'll let you know. Hey, I do appreciate you going to iTunes and rating the show. It's really helped a lot. And I continually encourage you to share the show. show with other people who need to hear some of these points about being a modern day

disciple. As I look at the topic this week, what's in your spiritual wallet, I think it really came about as a result of a huge dip in the stock market last week, over 600 points, I believe it was, a worst drop in over two years. And listening to people kind of panic about that made me think about investing, you know. You might have a 401k, you might have some kind of retirement, you know, a plan that you are continually contributing to. And maybe you're getting up there into the 50s and early 60s and you're really starting to watch it and tweak it a little bit more. And you're nervous about the future. Is your investment really going to last? Is the money going to be there when you need it for the future? Well, that got me thinking about

you know, investing our time and our passion here in life for things that really matter. I can't imagine what it must be like to suddenly realize that you're coming up on 60, 61, 62 years old, and you suddenly realize, I have not made any investments for my future as a retired person. And you're kind of caught short. That's one issue. But the thing that I want to address today is even more serious, and that is what happens at the end of our life, and we realize that we spent 70, 80, 90 years of our life invested in things that simply are not going to show up in our portfolio in eternity. They're going to be burned up.

It's going to be gone. And I got to thinking to myself, oh, that's got to be kind of a sick feeling, you know, to realize that everything I have been doing has been for myself. and it's my own kingdom and I have nothing to show for myself as far as God's kingdom and investing in eternity. That's what I want to talk about today, a little bit about money, a little bit about that long-term investment in your life, and perhaps today will be nothing more than a tweak for you. And it's just a reminder that, hey, whether you like it or not, you're an investor.

Yeah, you might not be investing in a 401k right now because you don't have the, you know, the extra cash, but you are an investor in eternity. And I'm not sure if you're making the deposits there or you're spending everything on this life. So that's what I want to look at. And as I say that, please know, I'm also talking about myself. You know, most of the times when I talk about things on this show, it's because I am interested in growing myself. And I have found that if I am interested in that, there are probably other people who are interested in that. as well. Maybe you remember that commercial. Remember that Visa commercial? Life takes

Visa. I like that. Life takes Visa. Well, they certainly do. Life takes visa. Be careful. Debt can take your life. And that's one of the things we run into, don't we, is that oftentimes we are overextended in debt and we become slaves to owing credit card companies and all the loans that we take out. And it steals our joy. It steals our mental health. And it certainly can steal from the ability to invest in eternity. Okay. So one of the things that we have to learn about money before we even talk about investing our lives and our time in our money is that we have to change our relationship with money. Second Peter chapter one in verse three, by the way, these are in the show notes. Remember, if you want the show notes every week, you got to let me know.

2. Peter 1.3 talks about how we are stewards and not owners. We have been given everything to live a wholesome life, and we are stewards of everything that we have, whether it be the possessions, the money, the influence, whatever it might be. We are stewards. We are not owners. And that's one of the mistakes that we make right off the bat is that we think we're owners of everything that we have, And if you are an owner, then it becomes kind of a selfish game of protecting and, you know, setting up walls around yourself, rather than being a steward of all that God has entrusted to us. Now, the real truth of the matter here is that the psalmist nailed it. Psalm 24, 1 and 2, where he says, the earth is the lords and everything in it.

The earth is the lords and everything in it. And so we are stewards, not owners. Now, this is a little bit shocking when we take a look at the studies about different denominations giving every year and how much they give to the church and to the work of the kingdom on an annual basis. Let me share this with you here. This is very interesting. Among Christians, Catholics are the lowest givers. Now, don't fight with me on that.

I'm just giving you the statistics. Catholics are the lowest givers and yet often the most wealthy and educated. They're identified, Catholics are identified as being people who have a lack of spiritual engagement with money. And I think that this is true, is that many Catholics today lack a spiritual engagement with money. They see money as simply theirs, they are owners, but not necessarily. stewards of it. Members of the Assembly of God reported giving $2,985 per household every year. That's 2985. Baptists reported 2479, 2,479 per household. Presbyterians reported 1,635. Lutherans reported 1,196, and rounding it up at the end, Catholics.

we're again last with $819 per household. Now, if you give a lot more than that, don't write me and say, well, that can't be true. These are just national statistics that Catholics are the lowest givers. And I think this has something to do with our lack of spiritual engagement with money, seeing money and seeing our time and our passion as being opportunities to invest in something beyond herself

that's going to last for eternity. Matthew said something interesting in the gospel, chapter 6, he said, basically, locate the treasure in your life. He said, for where your treasure is, there your heart will also be. And so if your treasure is in hobbies, that's where your heart is. If your treasure is in property, that's where your heart is. If your treasure, your true treasure is your 401k, well, welcome to your heart. but if our heart is in the kingdom, then our treasures should follow.

And so I would ask you this week to locate the treasure in your life. What is the treasure in your life? What is it that you pursue? What is it that you protect? What is it that you study about? What is it that you are preoccupied with in your thinking for where your treasure is? There your heart will be also. Now, the question comes up, you know, what's really wrong with money?

What is wrong with money? Because oftentimes people become very, very sensitive about money. They don't want to talk about money. They don't want to reveal their income and so forth. So what's wrong about money? Well, nothing. There's nothing really wrong about money. But what 1st Timothy 610 says is that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

It doesn't say that money is the root of all evil. it's the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil. Ecclesiastes 510 put it this way. I'm reading out of the NIV Bible in this particular text, whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. And isn't that true?

I remember listening to a story of a millionaire. And he was talking about how his goal was to, to have a million dollars in the bank. That was his goal. He was only making about 30,000 a year or something like that, but his goal was to have a million dollars in the bank. And when he achieved his goal and had $1 million in the bank, suddenly he realized that his heart was not content

and that he wanted two million. He wanted to double his money and his heart was preoccupied with doubling his money and then he found out that there were, once he got $2 million, that many of his colleagues had five to ten million in the bank and suddenly he grew dissatisfied and he wanted that. And there was no end to that cycle. You see, financial troubles and the love of money can pay a toll on your mental health and your well-being, your relationships, and your peace of mind like very few things can. It's one of those preoccupations that just doesn't

let you go unless you learn contentment and godliness, contentment and godliness. I would even say that if you're in ministry, if you have some kind of lay ministry, you're involved in whatever it might be, you need to watch yourself. I have seen a whole rise up in young ministers and ministries today of people who are preoccupied with money and gaining money. And, and investing themselves in sort of the spiritual market. We've got to be careful about that. Their heart is in the right place. Now, the Bible does say something about a good shelter.

You know, a good shelter, and we talk about a shelter for our retirement and those long-term investments. The scripture says in Ecclesiastes 712, that wisdom is a better shelter than money. Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this. Wisdom preserves those who have it. Ecclesiastes 712.

And so when we start to think about long-term investments in our spiritual portfolio, what's in your spiritual wallet, wisdom should be part of the cash in your wallet because wisdom will preserve you, whereas money can go away. As we saw just in this last week with a 600 point, dip in the Tao and it affected everyone's mental well-being. At least many of them were discouraged and

depressed over it. Ultimately, our security is in Christ. You cannot serve God and Mammon at the same time, says Matthew 633 and Luke 1613. Mammon, an Aramaic word for wealth or some people even talk about a God of a God of wealth. You can't serve God and money at the the same time. It can't happen in a Christian's life. And we also learn a couple of other principles, like, for example, in Proverbs 15, 16, that we learn the principle that less is oftentimes more, as it says, better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. Hebrews chapter 13, verses five and six, we need to be free from the love of money that leads to contentment. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with

what you have. For he has said, I will never fail you nor forsake you. Hence, we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? So as I look at my spiritual wallet, one of the things that is very important to remember a very powerful principle is that if being free from the love of money leads to contentment. And in all the studies that I've ever read, where people commented in their 70s and 80s about what they would do differently in their life if they looked back,

one of the common denominators always was I would spend less time pursuing money. Now, let me ask you, that's on this side of heaven. I'm not talking about the eternal side of heaven, but this side of heaven, If that many people say, guys, it wasn't worth it, then should we listen? I think we should. I think we should.

I'm going to take a break. When we come back, I want to talk about a beautiful barber coat from England that I had that the moths got and they tore it apart. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. It's hard to live out your Catholic faith on your own. In fact, the Bible reveals that we need a community of people to help us on our journey of faith. If you're interested in finding that community by joining or starting a small group study, visit ascensionpress.com and sign up for a free Ascension account. With your account, you'll get all the tools you need to start walking with others towards Christ.

Thanks for coming back. We're talking about what's in your spiritual world. wallet and kind of taking stock of what you're investing your life and your time and your energy, your passion, your money into. And we can either invest for the things of this world or we can invest in God's kingdom. We can lay up treasures for ourselves that are going to last forever and ever. Before the break, I was talking about a nice barber coat. If you're not familiar with barber coats, they're kind of the coats of the royalty in England. They're not that, not terribly. expensive but they're nice they last a long time and I had a barber coat still do but I had one and I had it in the garage for a period of time and kind of forgot about it out there and then I was

cleaning that portion of the garage out and I ran across the coat and I noticed that mice and moths or both got to it and had whole parts of it were chewed and needless to say I was disappointed that the nice barber coat had become food for mice in the garage. But it reminded me of what it says in Matthew chapter 6 and verses 19 and 20, which is very, very important text for us, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where where thieves do not break in in steel. So let me just pause there and ask you a question right now.

Where are you laying up your treasure? By treasure, we're talking about, certainly, money. We're talking about time. We're talking about passion. We're talking about the efforts that come as a result of your daily work. Where do you lay up your treasure? Where is your heart at? The scripture says in Matthew 6 here with a sermon on the mount,

that we can make a decision about where the treasure is going to go. We can make a decision about where our time is going to go and our passion is going to go. And we have a choice. Do we lay it up in a place where moths can get to it, mice can get to it, rust can get to it, or are we placing our investment outside of those things that can consume it and destroy it?

If you're working for the kingdom of God, I'm not talking about if you're working for the church, I'm talking about in your life, whether you're a surgeon, whether you're a teacher, whether you are an engineer, whether you're a stay-at-home mom or dad, the work that you're doing is it going towards eternal things rather than just temporal things. Good question. Later on in that same chapter, Matthew 6, starting in verse 28, Jesus asks the question, and why are you anxious about clothing. Consider the lilies of the field how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory, was not a raid like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothed? You,

O men, of little faith. Therefore, don't be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all, but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. You see, that is so key in the show today. Seek first His kingdom in His righteousness. What is His kingdom? His kingdom is where he's ruling and reigning. Take a look at your life and where you're at right now, what is his will for your life? If you seek that first and you do that and you seek his kingdom and his righteousness, he's going to take care of all these things that even the Gentiles worry about. We can spend our time on the things that really

matter rather than laying up treasure here on earth. This topic really speaks to me personally right now. And it's a challenge to me on a daily basis to make sure that I'm investing in the proper way. It's a challenge for me to look into my spiritual wallet and to see what I'm investing. Psalms 39 in verse 6 says, surely man goes about as a shadow. Surely for not are they in turmoil. Man heaps up and knows not who will gather. And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope. is in thee. My hope is in thee. Beautiful thought. We begin life and end life with what? Nothing. You begin life and you end life with nothing. Where are you going to park your wealth so that it lasts forever? Where are you going to park it? What's in your spiritual wallet? Well,

we're told in the scripture that there are proper investments. we are to invest in eternal things what are those eternal things that we we spend our time investing in well one people people are eternal and they're going to last forever and ever and so when you when you sow towards people when you give towards people when you invest your time in people that is eternal and you are mimicking god you are imitating god who invested himself in people by giving his only begotten son who died for us. And so if you start investing in people and their eternal good, you're imitating God.

And that's the essence of being a disciple of Jesus is imitating God. So invest in people, invest in the work of his kingdom, church, justice, your relationship with him on a daily basis in prayer and seeking his face. Oh, the hunger in my heart right now to want to get closer to God. If you put Warren Buffett and Jesus Christ next to each other, I want to invest my time in Jesus.

Warren's good, don't get me wrong. Berkshire Hathaway, great company. But Jesus, that's where I want to invest my time. So invest in eternal things. Proverbs 1917 says, He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done. Now, this verse contains the final ingredient

for really inspiring the concept of laying up your treasure in heaven. Like Isaiah 57 and 58 in Psalm 34, this proverb establishes a close identification of God with the poor. If we want to invest in eternal things, look to the poor and invest your time and your energy. To be merciful and giving to the poor is to lend to God. And God will repay the kindness by all means. Jesus did not coin the expression laying up treasure in heaven. Did you know that? He didn't coin it. Jesus did not coin the expression lay up your treasure in heaven more than a century before the Christian era Ben Syrac

penned these words in Syrac 29 verses 10 through 12 lose your silver for the sake of a brother or a friend and do not let it rust under a stone and be lost lay up your treasure according to the commandments of the most high and it will profit you more than gold store up alms giving in your treasury, and it will rescue you from all affliction. Isn't that beautiful? Love it. I absolutely love that. Now, I want to end by giving you this scripture from Luke chapter 12, which is really powerful that talks about the two types of investments that we can make. And I want to just share this with you. This is really, really powerful. And then I want to couple it with 1 Corinthians 3.

You say, Jeff, you're reading a lot of scripture this week. Oh, yes, I am. Because this is the heart of it. This is wisdom for us. Now listen to what Luke 12 says. And he told them a parable saying, The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do?

In other words, he's got a windfall here. He's got some money, right? What shall I do? for I have nowhere to store my crops. He said, I'll do this. I will pull down my barns, build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul,

Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Take it easy, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool. This night, your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. My friend, I want you to be rich toward God. I want you to be rich toward God.

Can you imagine the feeling that many people experienced after looking at their physical portfolio and their 401K, realizing that they had not invested in Apple or Amazon for the last 15 years, and they missed the big one. Listen, don't miss the big one. Don't miss the opportunity to invest in eternity, long-term investments. Now, Paul, I'll conclude with this, Paul gives us a little bit of an idea of what we should be investing in and not investing in. He says in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verses 10 through 15, he said, according to to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and another

man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation, which is Jesus, with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple

and that God's spirit dwells in you if anyone destroys God's temple God will destroy him for God's temple is holy and that temple you are and so I want to leave you with that thought are you building upon the foundation of Jesus Christ with things that will last

like gold, silver and precious stones or are you building on the foundation of Jesus out of wood, hay and straw the end will tell what you end up with but I encourage you as I encourage myself today let's invest our lives for things that are going to really matter

what if speaking naturally 40 years ago you had invested in all of these major companies and you kind of forgot about it but you made those investments and in retirement all of a sudden you realize my word I've got five million dollars would it make you happy I think so in the same way spiritually, if you invest in the kingdom of God and once you die and you arrive in heaven and suddenly realize

wow, the investments that I made on earth during that little bit of time really panned out for me. Wouldn't it make you happy? I think it would. Together, you and I, let's wise up. I invite you this week to take a look at what's in your spiritual wallet and make sure that you are investing toward eternity in the things that Jesus and the Blessed Mother would invest in.

And let's forget about our own kingdoms, shall we? Let's forget about our own selfishness, and let's look to his plan and his priorities. Now, again, I encourage you to go to iTunes and rank the show. Give me some comments. Love to hear your comments, or you can write me at The Jeffcaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And again, if you would like to get the show notes every week, I need to hear that from you.

And then we'll make a decision as to whether we'll just send those out every week with a reminder of the weekly show. Got some other shows coming up, too, some smaller ones, just some encouragement for every week. We'll let you know about that. That is coming up. And check out Fulfilled with Sonia Corbett. She is a wonderful teacher. You're going to hear a lot more from her. And I am privileged to introduce her to you.

let's close in prayer shall we in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit lord i thank you today for giving us life i thank you lord for guiding us and directing us and giving us your plan and your priorities and your power and lord help us to discern what's in our spiritual wallet and to make the appropriate changes the adjustments so that our portfolio will reflect your will and desire. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you, my friend, this week.

I hope that you have a great week, and I hope you find some good eternal things in your spiritual world.