Orlando (24:06):

That or Southern Baptist pastor, right?

Austin Thoms (24:07):

Exactly. So let’s see here the five Cs that we’re daily competing against. And I really think it’s constantly attacking who we are as people in our culture today. And those five, and I’ll come back to Mark four, and these five are comparison, contentment, lack thereof, but I had to say contentment because it was a C. So really lack thereof, lack thereof, contentment. So comparison, lack thereof, contentment, our comfort zone, our culture and coveting. And for me, that stems from Matthew four 18 and 19. Now, the parable of the sower also shows up in the written accounts of Matthew and Luke, I can’t remember exactly where in Matthew, but then Luke chapter eight, but I really like how Mark says it in chapter four verses 18 and 19. And he says, others are sown among thorns. So he’s talking about the farmer throwing seeds and it landing in different spots.

(25:05):

And here he is talking about it landing in the thorns and being choked out. So in verse 18, 19, others are those sown among thorns. They hear the message, and this is where I just love how he lays it out, but the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of glamor of wealth and all other kinds of desires, push in and choke the message so that it produces nothing. And that’s the end of the word, but our culture says it’s producing everything. Our culture is saying, keep up with the Joneses, get the bigger house, get the faster car. And it’s a slow drip. It’s a slow drip because, and I believe all three of those things are financial. And I’ve actually heard that from Ron Blue and different people, and I know we could probably debate that, but the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires of all other things is where I kind of get these five Cs from because we hear the word, but it’s so hard to apply it because of these culture things that are pulling us in the opposite direction.

(26:13):

And I really think that’s, if we take it back to the equation and looking at stewardship, I think it’s very similar with stewardship and focusing on results, it easily gets choked out. Again, I think we all want to be better stewards, but again, the question and challenges are we willing, what are we desiring? What are we being intentional about? And are we doing what it takes in order to accomplish that? And I just think it’s so fascinating when Jesus talks in parables like the parable of the sower, can you imagine being a disciple listening firsthand and really have no idea what the heck Jesus is talking about to the point where your firsthand source, but Jesus has to take the time to still explain what he’s getting across in the parables and the sermon on the Mount and different things like that. And yet these discussions are so profound that they transcend time and still live on today. And again, this one specifically looking at it from a financial standpoint, it really just hits home for me on these five Cs. And so I’m happy to dive in real quickly and highlight those five Cs in a quick scripture verse for each of those. Or I’ll also pause again here for you guys.

Orlando (27:34):

I have a question. Yeah, I have a question for one of the verses. So whenever you get to contentment, I have a question. Oh, well, I was going to ask about contentment. Go ahead.

Brian (27:43):

Yeah, well, I wanted to key in on contentment because when I grew up, my parents, they were Christian parents. I grew up in church and we had this thing on the refrigerator about contentment. And I swear that that thing moved with us when we moved houses. It was always a magnet and it was a talk about contentment. And I can even picture, I think there was a tiger on it or whatever. I don’t know why, but it just really stuck with me, the contentment of things. And a question that I have for you, and this might be a little bit outside of the box of some things though, is as a financial advisor, you’re helping your clients achieve wealth in order to help them retire. And how do you work this balancing act? So you might think to yourself, I’m helping this client buy a second boat, I’m helping this client fund generational wealth, and we want to make sure that this is handled with stewardship, right? This is what it’s all about. How do you help these clients along the way in not getting caught up in lack of contentment or covetousness in these areas?

Austin Thoms (28:51):

Yeah, it’s a great question. You know what? That’s not on the outline, so I’m not prepared for that. No,

Orlando (28:57):

I know. That’s why I was hoping you

Brian (28:58):

Thought something good.

Austin Thoms (28:59):

No, no, that’s great. And again, I would say out of all these five Cs, I personally right now probably I’m struggling with contentment the most as well. It’s hard. It feels like a conflict of interest because I’m in the financial realm space and trying, like you said, Brian, to help navigate people on this journey. And I think your answer, or I think your question doesn’t have one direct answer. I do think it’s situational by situation. But yeah, I think a lot of it just comes down to taking the time to put together a comprehensive plan to make sure that they are thinking through everything, both in the short and long-term to see if those types of things make sense in terms of, like you said, a boat or a second house and different things like that. Because God does want us to enjoy what we’ve been blessed with.

(30:07):

Absolutely. What we’re talking about stewarding well with what we’ve been blessed with. And some people financially have been blessed with more and abundance than others, and I hope that’s because they’ve stewarded well, what they’ve been blessed with prior to that. But that also doesn’t say that someone that isn’t as well off financially isn’t stewarding well, it’s just, and I think Orlando actually said this in our podcast episode that he came on for 2300 reasons. Why is contentment is being satisfied with where God has us right now and God and God maybe hasn’t, I believe as I look back in things in my life that I wish would’ve happened or an opportunity would’ve come up or a higher salary would’ve happened, but God was preparing me still and it wasn’t my time and place for that. And so I really, Brian, to answer your question, I know I’m probably not giving a direct answer, but just the more we dive into a person’s financial situation and can uncover things, I think the right answer comes to the top eventually.

(31:25):

And if we’re doing it with the lens of Christ, and if that’s in big or small ways, because like I said earlier, we have clients that our very passionate about their faith and want to make sure everything aligns with that. And there’s others that it is a challenge. And that’s where we can maybe plant seeds here or there and uncover, Hey, could you afford this second home or a bigger boat? Yeah, but what about this area or giving? Or giving has a huge one. Have you thought about a donor advised fund and oh, the impact that something like that could have, right? Yeah. So it’s definitely not in a position of judgment of in this profession, but yeah, sometimes you got to be able to have that conviction and those tough conversations and kind of help people step outside their comfort zone, I guess, which is another C on here.

Orlando (32:19):

Yeah, we’re getting all the Cs, and I love the word of God in how it challenges our hearts and our propensities. If our propensity is to think money is everything, the word of God speaks directly to that. But at the same time, for those who may think there’s righteousness in saying money doesn’t matter, or the opposite side, the poverty gospel, the best I have, the more righteous I am. Well, not necessarily because it’s a good thing to be able to leave an inheritance for your children and your children’s children. So that nuance in the word causes us or forces us to wrestle with these little differences. And essentially, I think it comes down to the heart, the matter of the heart, as you said, it’s a case by case situation. There isn’t one answer for the question that Brian asked that can apply to everyone. That’s right. Maybe someone does have an abundance and they can buy a second note but still have enough to give. It’s not sinful in and of itself to do that, but if someone’s being unwise, maybe that’s not the best thing to do. Yeah.

Austin Thoms (33:28):

Often I see too, people come in sometimes once they’re finally ready to sit down and maybe talk with an advisor, they have specific agenda items like let’s say, Hey, we want to buy a second home, or we have a goal of buying a boat. As we get into the process more, that often reveals other things that maybe they weren’t thinking about. So I’ll go back to the giving side of things, if they’ve never heard of a donor-advised fund, and so not only are you able to give to church and charities of your choosing tax advantages, but you’re also getting tax advantages, especially for people that might be higher net worth. They might be thinking then, oh, I didn’t even think about that. The boat can wait type of thing because, and I’m just using that as an example because you did, but it’s like what I have seen often in working with clients is they maybe come in with their own agenda, but as we get into the process, we are able to identify other things that they might not be thinking about. And I think that’s a great way to instill biblical principles and a mindset, even if it’s not direct, like, Hey, have you heard about Luke and the rich young fool, the building of bigger barns and calling people out? But I think it is a way and an opportunity for us in the complete planning process to identify those things.

Brian (34:47):

Austin, I think this just emphasizes the point that if you are a Christian and you’re seeking financial advice, you need a Christian financial advisor. You need someone to speak into your life and to help you steward this along the way. If you’re unequally yoked in this matter, yeah, you might have an advisor that might look out for something for you if you bring up a specific thing, but they might not be on your side on this stuff. And then you don’t have anyone to help hold you accountable when you get to this point where you are thinking of buying the second house or doing the other thing and realizing that there’s more to the legacy of just leaving money for your children, but leaving a legacy for your children and showing them the areas that you can give in and impact the world for the kingdom of God. I mean, how important are these things?

Austin Thoms (35:34):

Yeah, yeah. Honestly, I can’t think of doing it any other way. I don’t feel like I would’ve been called into this profession if I wouldn’t have been able to do it to the best of my ability to be living out my faith in it as well. Even though like we’ve said, it might be counterculture or counterintuitive and that might not connect with certain people right now in this stage of their life, but it’s just a big part of who I am and how I want to serve people. And I totally agree with you because again, if I’m just being honest, if it’s not there, the deceitfulness of wealth, the worries of this world and the desires for the other thing are constantly going to be choking us.

Orlando (36:24):

So you mentioned that you wanted to touch on a few Bible verses on the seas here, and then we can get into some practical applications, maybe some challenges for the listeners

Austin Thoms (36:35):

Here. So I gave an equation at the beginning, so I don’t want to leave your guys’ listeners maybe hanging there a little bit. But again, my thought process around our character of who we are as a person in that competing force of the worldly ways. And I really think it’s those five Cs that stem from Matthew four and the parable of the sower of what we’re constantly at battle at. And so just real quickly here, comparison, just thinking about our society and our networks and our work, our social media pressures and expectations, it’s constantly around us. We’re constantly comparing ourselves to those around us. Galatians six, four to five, each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else for each should carry their own load. And these are just verses that I have kind of hung my hat on.

(37:32):

Not only have I kind of come up with my own little equation, but when I think about these things that I’m constantly battling with myself, like I mentioned before, contentment, I want to come back to these scripture verses and try to apply it more in my life and take those steps. So I think just comparison in our culture today is a huge thing. And it can be just one subtle thing that starts sending us down this path of a rabbit hole of comparing in bigger ways. We talked a little bit about there just about contentment and being where we’re at in the moment where God has us and not always thinking about that next best thing or that next promotion or that bigger purchase or whatever it might be. And in Hebrews 11, five, just love this verse, keep your lives from the lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.

(38:26):

God says, I mean, how awesome is this? Never will he leave us. Never will he forsake us being in that moment where he has us being content with what we have. Man, what a constant battle of being content, but longing for more longing for the desires of this world. And to a certain degree, again, we’ve talked about it, it’s about your heart. It’s not that seeking and desiring things is bad, but if that’s the focus, and that’s all we’re worried about, we’ve missed, man. Yeah, we definitely can. Our comfort zone, second Timothy two, Timothy one, seven, for the spirit God gave does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and discipline. I mean, this one, it’s a little bit opposite. This one’s, man, I got it easy right now. We have two incomes. We have the kids in the right school. Our lifestyle is good.

(39:21):

Let’s not make any changes because that might rattle the cage a little bit or that might require us to sacrifice or that feels hard. I got to stay on this easy path. And so just that whole challenging ourselves to step out of our comfort zone and being okay doing that when it comes to sacrificing our culture, I think that’s another C that kind of falls in line with comparison. It’s just all around us. Romans 12, two, don’t be conformed by the patterns of this world, but be transformed, excuse me, by the renewing of our mind, and it’s his good pleasing and perfect will for him to test and approve that for us. And then finally, coveting Luke 1215, I mentioned earlier the rich young fool. He said, watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in an abundance of these possessions.

(40:19):

And again, and that kind of goes back to contentment too. If we’re not being content, there’s a good chance that we’re coveting. And again, we all fall short. We all do it. But again, going back to Brian’s thought there on doing this from a Christian perspective, when we start going down this path, we’re sinners. We’re going to be until our eternal glory with God someday. But what I hold onto is as I start going down this path and I make mistakes, hanging my hat on these scripture verses, and our faith to get us going back down this path that we should be on is just a big part of it. Even though I fail every day at it again, it’s just that lifelong process. It’s that spiritual process. And it plays into that last part of the equation there of being in the word, being educated.

(41:19):

Again. Jesus taught and spoke on this topic, money, wealth, possessions more than any other topic, so should we, but also giving us the grace to know that it’s hard work, that it takes a lot of work and not to get discouraged because like I said before, we are competing. We are competing. And just real quickly here, and I’ll pause. I was listening to a podcast episode the other day and kind of going along the lines of this whole, how it’s hard, how the, our culture and world is constantly pulling at us. I was listening to this episode on John Maxwell’s new book, high Road Leadership, and he was talking about, and this was more designed for leaders, but again, I think it’s something that applies to all of us when it comes to hard things in our life. And he said, first of all, no leader has two good days in a row, meaning that there’s always challenges and always obstacles that come up.

(42:11):

But what I really liked he said, is we do hard things in life, not for things to get easier, but to be prepared for the next hard thing and that we can’t do harder without doing hard. And so that was just a way for me, again, to kind of channel this back to this episode and stewardship and financial wellness. And again, we’ve talked about, it’s personal, it’s private, it’s hard. It is hard to be a constant force against something that is telling us opposite. But in that process, we are learning to do hard things. Well, not necessarily easy, but we’re learning to do hard things well so that we’re prepared for that next thing that comes our way all while striving for whatever that result is. And in this case, being better stewards of what we’ve been blessed with when it comes to our financial resources.

Orlando (43:09):

Absolutely. So to wrap up here and to give some encouragement to the listeners and ending on where they can find you, where they can find 2300 reasons why, I know we’ve said a lot, we’ve discussed a lot, but is there any final thoughts or words of encouragement for those listening and where we can find all that you

Austin Thoms (43:36):

Have? Yeah, a couple things here. Just again, thank you for this opportunity here as we wrap up. It’s been fun sitting on this side of things. I’ve definitely done a lot more talking on this episode, and so I hope it flows okay, and not a whole lot of it has to be Xed out here, but no, and I like doing this on my episode too. And why don’t I just start with that before I forget. So 2300 reasons why you can find it on any podcast platform. Orlando actually just came on a couple episodes ago that hasn’t launched yet, but we’re actually doing YouTube here. His episode will probably be the first one on YouTube, so be on the lookout for the video side of things. Love what you guys are doing. I’ve used you guys as an example with our team as well. So keep up the good work there.

(44:24):

But yeah, all podcast platforms. And as you mentioned, I’m an advisor at Wealth Advisors Group up on the north of Fort Wayne, so I’m happy to pass along my contact information, my email or website. I don’t know if you guys have show notes or whatever, but I’m happy to, yeah, we can put it in notes, get that to you guys as well. But yeah, 2300 reasons why on all platforms. But to leave some challenges or make maybe the listeners thinking, stepping outside their comfort zone or just walking away with some things here. Number one, it takes intentionality for everything that we just talked about, certainly does. None of this comes natural. None of it comes easy. And that again, is the foundation of why I think Jesus spoke on this so much. Money has an incredible opportunity to be an amazing blessing for us to use in our life.

(45:17):

It also has the ability to seek, kill, and destroy, and that’s where the constant battle comes in. I have a picture on my desk, it’s a canvas, and I was trying to figure out where in my office to put it, and it’s a picture of a tortoise going down this path, down this road with this huge mountain ahead of them, and it’s out in the future. So again, it’s just a reminder of this slow process as we go through hard things, as we face adversity, like climbing a mountain and we’re moving as slow as a tortoise sometimes when it feels like we’re getting there and I couldn’t figure out where to put it, so I put it right next to my computer. So I’m constantly looking at it. So I don’t think it’s going to go up on the wall just because I constantly get to look at it.

(45:58):

So that whole thought process of being intentional and trusting the process, that spiritual process, part of the equation, what are we desiring? I think that’s a question we need to ask. Are we desiring a stronger relationship with God or are we desiring a stronger relationship with the world? Again, he is not of this world. He is greater than this world. The world is trying to distract us from God and the desires of the world lead to dissatisfaction. So I think that kind of goes back to contentment of being present and enjoying where God has us in this moment. The moment we start desiring thing after thing after thing, quite often leads to dissatisfaction. So much of this, and I think another point here, Orlando mentioned this at the beginning and even in your intro, it’s so much more than money. It’s our time talent, our measures, our emotional life, our physical life, our relationship life, mentally emotional.

(47:07):

It all goes hand in hand. Finances, financial wellness is a big part of it. We can’t silo out these things because we need it. We need it to be together. Two other things here real quick. We’ve talked about it often gets brought up, one Timothy six, a lot popular verse, love of money is the root of all evil and how at times has gotten misinterpreted. I would challenge the listeners to read the whole chapter of one Timothy six. I think there is so much profound wisdom and knowledge in the entire chapter of Paul writing to Timothy, to the church of Ephesus where Timothy’s at at that time of very wealthy and high influential city at that time, and a lot of these principles coming up in that chapter. And so yes, that’s a key verse, but I would challenge if people are looking for, we’ve talked through a lot of different verses here, but if someone’s looking to kind of get started, man, I think certainly there’s parables and things like that, but I would challenge people to read the full chapter of one Timothy six.

(48:13):

Excellent. And then finally here, and I just added this and I know you guys probably don’t even have your notes, but I thought about it last night, what are we doing in our life and with our resources to eventually hear Well done thou good and faithful servant? And I think we can talk through all of these things and equations and five Cs and this or that and give stats about where we’re at debt wise and poverty wise and all these things. But what are we doing with the time, talent, resources, treasures? What are we doing with our life and our resources to ultimately hear? Well done thou good and faithful servant.

Brian (48:50):

That’s a great word, Austin.

Orlando (48:51):

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Austin, thank you so much for your words, the encouragement. Great conversation, quite honestly. I could continue just chopping it up here and talking. But yeah, thank you so much for joining. As we said here, Austin can be found on all the different podcasting and soon to be video platform of YouTube 2300 reasons why Austin,

Austin Thoms (49:20):

Tom, yeah, Toms. Yep, yep, yep. Toms No, that’s okay. That’s okay. Goodness. Yeah. But wealth advisors group, wealth ag.com, and I can get you guys my email as well. Love to just if people have questions on this topic. I love talk and shop, and I know a lot of your listeners probably aren’t in the Fort Wayne area, but you never know. And a cup of coffee, breakfast, lunch, I’m all about it. So anything we can be doing to further God’s mission.

Brian (49:52):

Absolutely, and as we said, I mean, it is so important. If you don’t have a Christian financial advisor, you’ve heard one now.

Austin Thoms (49:59):

Well, that’s not the motive of this or the heart of this, but it’s the heart of, like Orlando said, it’s where our heart’s at and our heart is constant pursuit of fulfilling God’s mission here on earth and furthering his kingdom. So I appreciate the platform, the opportunity to share my small portion in my small world, and just very grateful and humbled by the opportunity.

Orlando (50:25):

Alright,

Brian (50:25):

Thank you, Austin. Thank you. Austin invested with purpose is brought to you by Timothy Partners, limited advisor to the Timothy Plan Fund. Timothy Plan is America’s first pro-life pro-family investment company, focusing on both mutual funds and ETFs. Some of our podcast guests may have a relationship with Timothy Partners limited on behalf of Timothy brand, including affiliations, partnerships, or sponsorships. However, guests are not compensated for their appearances and their opinions do not constitute paid testimonials. Please be aware that investments carry risks and individual experiences may vary. Consult with a financial advisor for personalized advice.