In a fixed-pie-thinking world God wants us instead to live with a mindset that lives with an awareness of His ever expanding limitless world of infinite possibility.

00:00:06.010]
I was reminded of a song by Bob Dylan. And yeah, I’m a fan. I do love a bit of Bob called Political World. It’s a world of strife and manoeuvre to secure your slice of the pie. And we see it all the time. Politics turns up everywhere. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the world, in business, even in Church, God forbid their politics is often a part of the mix. By politics. I’m not talking kind of partisan, okay? I’m just talking generally where people come with fixed pie thinking, which means that your success equals my failure or my success equals your failure. If your slice is large, mine must of necessity be smaller, small men, often with inflated egos, pushing pawns around the board, seeking their own. But the thing is, the Kingdom of God is so different to the kingdoms of this world. Now the kingdoms of this world is always asking the question, who will be the greatest of all? And then Jesus sweeps in and says, well, the greatest of all is going to be a servant of all. And then he proved it and lived it out for us to follow.

00:01:28.650]
God lives in an ever expanding limitless world of infinite possibility. If we’re looking at the cake, if we’re looking at the pie, his pie is ever increasing. He knows that to help others is to help oneself with the measure that we meet. It will be metered to us. It will be measured to us give, and it will be given so much, and you will reap much. It doesn’t make sense to the natural mind when we give things away, when we give ourselves away, when we choose to lay down our life for others, we somehow gain it back in a greater measure. And that’s why I believe in sharing what, you know, giving away what you have secured. Hand it on so your hands always remain empty to receive a multiplied return. And I’m not just talking about money here, actually. In fact, I’m talking more about the experiences, the expertise, the learnings that you have come to know and to understand. And finding ways to then crystallise that learning into products, into publications, into digital platforms, being able to crystallise all of that worth in a way that can then be shared with other people. That’s why I’m so passionate about what we’re doing in the Christian creative Academy.

00:03:08.940]
I mean, do check it out. Christiancreative.Academy, check it out. It may be a place that you can find some encouragement and you can move forward with some of your ideas or even discover, like, dig in and find out. Allow God to open your eyes to the worth that you already carry. And we can guess which of these two worlds the Herdman of gehrar pitched their hopes. We’re looking at Genesis chapter 26. We’ve got this God world with the ever expanding pie. And then we’ve got this kind of small political world, this world of competition and comparison with this tiny pie where everyone’s fighting for their slice. And we read the Herdman of Gehras drove with Isaac’s Herdman, saying, the water is ours. And he called the name of that well Essex, because they strove with him. And then Isaac’s servants digged another well, and the servants and the Herdman of Gehra strove for that one also. And Isaac named that one Sitna. Now, it’s interesting, ESSEC. You know, there’s not one detail in the Scriptures that does not carry significance, Essex. The first well that Isaac named after the striving of the herdsman of Gerar with his servants Essex means contention, argument and quarrel.

00:04:50.490]
And as we know Proverbs, that intent tells us only by pride comes contention. But with the well advised is wisdom. With the well advised is wisdom. Make no mistake, the subterranean river that feeds this well, this well of Essex, will always lead back to pride. That’s where it’s going to flow from. Contention flows from pride. I guess it begs the question, have we ever drawn from the well of contention? I know I have in the past, and its waters are always bitter. Seriously, it is not a place you want to drink from at all, and certainly not for too long. Now, with regard to our discussion of faithfulpreneurism over this month, it should be a timely reminder about the nature of money. And I bring this up because contention often flows like here. We can see there was contention here because someone had more than someone else, or someone had something that someone else wanted. The world of competition and comparison begs that we contend for certain things to stand out. And the nature of money is one of contention. It is one of competition. It is one of comparison. It is a good servant.

00:06:24.230]
Money is a good servant in the hands of a good man, but it’s always a terrible master. The deceptive nature of riches and the pursuit of other things can quickly creep in and steal our contentment. And money alone. Really, the reason I bring money up in the discussion here of faithful for tourism is because we are out there in the marketplace and we do believe in being rewarded for our labours. I believe in that. I believe in the blessing of God. I believe in the goodness of God. I believe that there are rewards both here and in the future for those who faithfully follow Christ. But I want to be careful not to measure my worth by the very same, like wonky metrics that the world is measuring. Money alone cannot be the sole pursuit for a Christian creative. Where our treasure is, that is where our heart will follow, Jesus told us. And our treasure is people investing in others and digging for the treasure that they carry and helping them bring their treasure out into the world. That’s our call. Now, I like the minimalists. I don’t know if you’ve ever come across them online.

00:07:51.210]
The Minimalists said they wrote a book and they called it love. People use things, not the other way around. That is a great truth to carry in your heart. And Isaac was well advised coming back to our Scripture in Proverbs by pride cometh contention, but with the well advised is wisdom. I believe that Isaac went to the Holy Ghost and got some advice, and he chose to give place rather than to strive. Clearly, he strove for something deeper, and then the next Port of call was also a hotbed of contention, and he called the next well Sitna. They strove for that as well, and this actually means hatred and hostility. Now one thing leads to another. If we give way to bitterness and contention, contention and disagreements given place and allowed to take root in the heart will lead to hatred and hostility. Now why do you think that we hear Jesus so often address the dangers of unforgiveness, even to the point of declaring that God will give no consideration to our requests if we don’t first forgive those who’ve wronged us. Mark 11:25 and 26 says, when you stand praying, forgive, and if you have ought against any, when you stand praying, forgive.

00:09:25.000]
If you have ought against any that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. He says the same thing about bringing an offering to the feet of the King. First resolve your differences, then bring your gift to the altar. If you desire to prosper, these two Wells will inevitably present themselves, goading you to drive your stake in the ground and refuse to move. We reason that we’re better off to have bitter waters than no waters at all. And there can be a strange satisfaction that comes from hating and blaming others. But really, it’s a poisonous brew that we know will kill us. Yeah, and it can kill us slowly or it can kill us quickly, but it will kill us if we hold on to unforgiveness and grievance. And God’s advice is always to lay our grievances aside, born from the knowledge that unforgiveness binds only the one who holds it in their heart. The bitter man or woman binds themselves with their own chains, and God has better things for us. The pie is not fixed.

00:10:42.210]
There’s more than enough for you, and no man can take the inheritance that God has set aside for you. Now with a well advised we’re told is wisdom. And the Wells of Essex and Sitna are not a place to pitch your future. If your heart today needs to say sorry and let go of past hurts, lay them down and do as Isaac did. He removed from fence. He moved on from that place. Genesis 26:22 now we do not want to stay pitched by Wells of bitterness and hatred. We want to move on to fresher ground, to sweeter waters and to begin to delight ourselves in something that will not only satisfy our own soul more fully, but allow us to satisfy others in the same way.

00:11:41.170]
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. Hopefully it was a blessing to you if it was do please consider leaving a rating and a review on whatever platform you are listening on. I also would love to encourage you to cheque out my new book faithful creative we’ve got a package of resources designed specifically to encourage you in your Christian creative core. You can cheque that out at faithfulcreativebook.com and if you choose to pick it up, use the Promo Code podcast for 50% off so you’ll get it for half price. Have a great rest of your day and God bless Jesus first everything else follows.