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You’re tired.
Not just physically; though yeah, that too.
You’re tired in your bones. In your soul.
Trying to be a steady husband, an intentional dad, a man of God… but deep down, you feel like you’re falling short. Like you’re carrying more than you know how to hold.
Dad Tired is a podcast for men who are ready to stop pretending and start healing.
Not with self-help tips or religious platitudes, but by anchoring their lives in something (and Someone) stronger.
Hosted by Jerrad Lopes, a husband, dad of four, and fellow struggler, this show is a weekly invitation to find rest for your soul, clarity for your calling, and the courage to lead your family well.
Through honest stories, biblical truth, and deep conversations you’ll be reminded:
You’re not alone. You’re not too far gone. And the man you want to be is only found in Jesus.
This isn’t about trying harder.
It’s about coming home.
stewardship
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[00:00:00]
What's up guys? Super excited to be with you today. I've been really enjoying Chris's uh, series on the morality of God and the Old Testament. Super helpful, especially in. Having conversations with your kids about who God is and sometimes the world's kind of counter perception of the God of the scriptures.
And so we're gonna jump back in with Chris next week for part three. Be really, really helpful. I wanted to talk to you today just quickly. Um, I wanted to dump some ideas before you on some themes that you see in the New Testament roll. Um, mainly the, the concept of stewardship or being entrusted with the gospel.
And so, just for instance, I'm gonna open this up in Matthew 24. Verse 45 through 51. This is the end of the olive discourse. It's kind of apocalyptic language as Jesus is talking about the end, but Jesus says this, who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them food at the proper time.
Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he [00:01:00] comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. And so one, there is a faithful and wise servant that Jesus is admonishing encouraging us to become and the faithful and wise servant stewards, well all that he's been entrusted with as he waits for the return of the master who has gone away for a season.
Verse 47. Uh. Sets up this other picture though of a wicked servant of someone who does not steward well. Someone who grows lazy and lackadaisical and passive, he says. But if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with.
Drunkards, the master of the servant will come on a day when he does not expect him in an hour he does not know, and he will cut him in pieces, put 'em with the hypocrites, and that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so here there's the faithful and wise servant who stewards well, all that he's been entrusted with as he awaits the return of the master.
And then there's a servant on this side who Jesus calls the wicked servant, who does not steward well, who begins to live as [00:02:00] a drunkard and abuse those under him. And when the master returns, he judges rather than rewards. And you see this kind of theme play out, like even with the parable of the talents, right?
There's an entrusting of a certain measure of wealth to each individual. There's three individuals, and those individuals are called to steward that wealth well. And when the master returns, he expects to see that they have multiplied it. And um, so there's this image that just flows through all of the New Testament.
And as I'm. Studying, um, I'm studying first Timothy right now and walking congregation through First Timothy. Uh, you actually see this language in Paul. He's gonna say, over and over I've been entrusted with the gospel, or I, I am a steward of the gospel and these ideas of being entrusted with something and having responsibility therefore, to steward something, flow all through the text of scripture.
And I wanna lay it before you and kind of challenge encourage, uh, you today to make sure you are stewarding well, the things that God has asked you to steward, that you are a faith. And why servant and not a [00:03:00] wicked, lazy lackadaisical one. There's a story from church history that kind of started this journey for me of thinking these themes through, um, UCBS, who's our earliest church historian, whom we have, we have record of.
We know that there were other writers before him, but we don't have their, uh, any transcripts from him. UBS we think he wrote around the year three 10. And he, the story I'm gonna tell you, he's quoting Clement of Alexandria who we know wrote history to, but we don't have the, a transcript of that. Um, but UBS is telling the story that the early church told one another, and it's a story about the Apostle John.
The way that UCBS tells this is that the Apostle John was exiled on island of Patmos under de Mission, who is a particularly evil wicked emperor. But when Deit was. Dethroned. He, when, when he died, uh, John was let off of Patmos and so John kind of went back to work. [00:04:00] And so it's, if you ever hear people talk about in church history, we think that John spent time in his later years at Ephesus.
Ephesus. And that, uh, even Mary, the mother of Jesus was at Ephesus. We think that John spent time on Patmos. He was released, he went back to Ephesus, which became his kind of mainstay, and he spent his time. Doing what he was entrusted to do. Building churches, edifying churches, teaching, writing, um, encouraging elders.
And so there's this story about his life after Patmos. Again, this is church history that I think there's some solid evidence that this is probably true if it's not true. It at least was being taught to the early church. And so the principles were important to them. Um, but there's not a ton of evidence or reasons you should, we should question this.
Um. But the story goes like this. After Patmos John began to work again, he began to work with the churches. He was working with bishops. He was trying to make sure the churches were strong, and he went to a neighboring bishop. I. And when he went to meet this neighboring [00:05:00] bishop, there was a particular young man who had come to faith and Eusebius describes this young man as being, uh, having an a sharp and passionate mind as being physically.
Um, an attractive young man. You see me basically saying the guy had a lot of leadership. He had a lot of natural leadership, and John looked at him and really loved him. And so John took this young man and he brought him to the bishop, who is the leader of churches in a neighboring town. And he says to the Bishop, I'm gonna entrust this young man to you.
And the idea was that John wanted the bishop to disciple him. Now, you think of John's job right now is to make sure the churches have solid leadership. So now he sees a young man who just got. Saved to seems, um, sharp John's going, Hey, hey, hey. Like, let's make sure we disciple this guy. Let's make sure that we raise him up because we could use him.
And so John leaves this young man that he particularly was interested in with this bishop. He entrust him to the bishop to make sure that he's discipled and led well. The story [00:06:00] goes that the bishop did disciple him for a while. The bishop worked with him. The young man was baptized, the young man was trained, um, but the bishop kind of got lazy with it and thought the young man had learned enough and you know, he'd kind of handle himself from here on out.
But the young man began to be influenced by. Young people in the community who the story calls bandits. And so there were some kind of group of kids, young people who were robbing, pillaging, um, basically having fun, taking money, partying, and these young bandits at first. We're just hanging around the young man.
And, but eventually they asked him to join them in their robbing, and so he did. And, and the progress just kept happening where eventually the young man was so involved with all of their violence and robbery, the, and he became, um, kind of the leader of the gang. The natural leadership that John Z saw on him was true.
He rose [00:07:00] to leadership and he became a great, one of the greatest bandits in the region. So John the apostle comes back to that Bishop. Years later, when he comes back to that bishop, he asks the bishop, will you give me now what I entrusted you with? The bishop panics. He looks around at the other pastors with him, the elders with him, and he assumes that John must have sent money to their churches.
And John's asking for the money and he says to the elders, I don't have any money. I Did you get money? I don't. We never got money. And so I. As he looks at John, confused, John clarifies, and John says, no, no, no. The the young guy with all the leadership and all the potential that I really liked, and I asked you to disciple, can you bring him to me now?
And there's this implication that maybe John even had an assignment for him. John knew of a church that needed leadership and thought that he could take this young man over and and stall him as a leader. And so John wanted to see the progress. Bring me what I entrusted you with. Uh, and the story goes that the bishop told John, the man is dead to God.
He has become a bandit and he is now a robber [00:08:00] and a and a violent man. And he lives in the mountains and they just come down to pillage towns and he's dead to God. John is really, really old. And so John says, bring me a horse. And the story goes, they bring him in horse and John makes them lead him towards the bandit.
This young man who's now, uh, in our modern culture, we would call it gangster, and he gets on the horse and he rides. He finds the young man and the story goes that John, again, he's very old. It gets off the horse and starts to approach the young man and the young man out of this like awkward. Confusion just kind of starts to run away from John.
It's not like he wanted to fight this old man, and, and he knows who John is. And John, as he kind of awkwardly tries to walk away, John starts to chase him, and John starts to shout and the young man pauses. And John at one point says, I love you in the same way that Christ loved me, and I would die for you, and you need to come back and serve Jesus, your master.
And John pleads with him. And John does he, he gains the young man. Back to the [00:09:00] Lord. And the story goes that John fasted with him. John prayed with him. John discipled him and restored him to the church. And there's this really funny picture of an old, old man chasing this, um, leader of a gang down and saying, give your life back to Christ.
Uh, and then spending the diligent time to pray with, to fast, to teach, to study, to make sure he gets back on track. And that became a picture for the early church, or at least a picture that was discussed at some times of the bishop who is entrusted with something and lazily walked away and kind left passively.
Left it to be versus John's dogged commitment to do the thing that God called them to do. And John's kind of wisdom to see this young man has leadership and if we don't pour into disciple, someone else will. And John was right. He became something else. And so the idea though, again, lines up with what?
Jesus is teaching us in Matthew 24 or in the Parable of Talents [00:10:00] that there are things that God entrusts us with. There are things that God ask us to steward well. And so I just pulled a few scriptures 'cause I wanted to you to see this in Paul's language and then I'll, I'll unpack this for a moment. Uh, first Thessalonians two, four.
Paul says, but just as we have been. Proved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. So we speak not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. And so Paul says, we've been approved and entrusted with the gospel by God, and so I can't preach to please people. I have to preach to please God who sees my heart.
One Timothy one 11. This is what I'm studying right now in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which I have been entrusted. And Paul here is addressing the fact that there are people in Ephesus. That's where Timothy is. When Paul writes to Timothy, there are people in Ephesus who are teaching doctrines that that aren't sound There.
Kind of playing with these Old Testament passages, genealogies, obscure text, and they're building whole new branches of [00:11:00] doctrine. And Paul says, you, Timothy need to teach and lead in a way in accordance with the gospel that I've been entrusted with Galatians two seven. Remember Paul says, um, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel, g Galatians two, seven, he's talking about a time when he had gone to see Peter and James and the the head apostles.
The apostle said, Paul, you've been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter is entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised. And so the apostles looked at Peter and Paul and said, Peter, you focus on the Jews, Paul, you focus on the Gentiles. You're entrusted with the gospel here. So entrusting implies responsibility and stewardship.
And so then you start to see all these times where Paul's talking about stewardship. And so for instance, in one Corinthians four, one through two, Paul says, this is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mystery of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found [00:12:00] faithful.
I've been entrusted with something mainly for Paul, the gospel, the leadership of the church, the edification of the saints, building a, um, establishing elders and deacons and new regions. I have a responsibility, I've been entrusted with this work, therefore, I have to steward it well with faithfulness, with care, sometimes with boldness, with work.
Um. It really matters. And so I think I'm, I'm trying to lobby all of this at you because I think in our modern culture, many times in our faith, we think of everything with this kind of passive. Slightly lackadaisical attitude. We're obviously saved by grace through faith. We are not trying to earn God's love.
Our primary task in Christianity is to just let God love us, right to be people who are loved. We're obviously not trying to earn anything. But we are trying to steward well what we've been entrusted with. And so on one [00:13:00] hand we are not trying to earn our salvation. We have salvation. We've become sons of God, we've become, um.
Heirs, we've become, uh, slaves, servants of our master, and becoming a son, we arose to a responsibility. So it's really important that you can kind of tease out these two things. You are not trying to earn your sonship by stewarding well, because you've become a son. You now have res, you have skin in the game.
You have a responsibility. And so one, I would say this, um, stewardship, when you're entrusted with things in the faith, we, we, it's a divine command. It's from God. So Paul will say, over and over, I'm an apostle at the command of God because God called me to this. It's not something that I simply desired or, um, hoped to one day achieve.
It was something that God, the sovereign of the universe. Asked me to do. [00:14:00] And so entrusting has to do with command. And so I would say like right off the bat, like what are the things that God has asked you to do? You need to know what God has entrusted you with so that you can steward it well. Well, firstly, we could say that like God has entrusted you guys and me first with our own faith, with our own dis discipleship.
Like we've gotta be committed to serve Christ faithfully day in and day out. That's. Obvious. We have to love God with all our hearts. But for us, I think, and largely why we're here, we have been entrusted with our wives and our children at home to lead them daily towards Christ, to ensure that our kids know the scripture, hear the word of God.
Our kids need to be confident in the gospel that they are loved. There's nothing to achieve. But there are on the other hand, uh, responsibilities that we walk in as Christians. And so the first thing and the obvious thing for us that you have been entrusted with is your home. [00:15:00] You're entrusted with your home.
And it's, it's not something that we should look at concerning the, the health and the discipleship of our family. It's not something we should look at and go. That's a nice idea or something that I one day hope to arrive to. We need to recognize that God has commanded of us. He's entrusted us with these kids, our house, with the discipleship of our children, and we've got to, because we've been commanded and entrusted with these kids, we have got to steward.
Well, we've gotta steward well. Okay, so. Just to tease that out for a moment, and I won't yak at you all day. Um, I just to think about the context of first Timothy. Um, Timothy's in Ephesus, very, very large church. It's later in Paul's life. Ephesus is clearly in Paul's language, started to wander away from the truth.
And so things have gotten off track and so Paul's gonna say things to Timothy like this, teach sound doctrine. [00:16:00] Do not allow for these secondary confusing, mis kind of agnostic, mysterious things to settle into the church, teach sound doctrine. And so. To kind of grab that and apply it to our homes. Like what are we in, what is stewardship for our families?
We need to teach our kids sound doctrine. We need to teach our kids Bible and to love Bible, and it's, it's important that we work through issues like the Trinity and we work through why we believe the scripture is authoritative. Our kids need to have a very good. Space and we can't allow ourselves to become distracted with secondary things, uh, whether that be doctrine or even just life ambition.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen a Christian Guy be more passionate about his kids' financial future and teaching his kids' financial stewardship while he is not. Teaching his kids biblical faith. And so you can become passionate about secondary things, things that even matter, but they can't usurp your main responsibility if your goal.
I've had this guys who their [00:17:00] primary goal in life is just to get their kids to college, and so. All of the conversation is about academics and extracurriculars and athletics, and earning that scholarship. That cannot be the primary. That's a secondary. It's a good goal. It's a good aim, but your primary conversation with your kids must be their faith and.
The love of God for them and the cross and the resurrection of Christ, and how we participate in the life of the body and discipleship in small groups and community. We serve the poor together. These are the things that must be primary as we have conversations with our kids who is. God, who is God. I think that's, again, something Chris is really helping us with, having those conversations with, okay, who is God?
Those are the first conversations. So when Paul looks at Timothy, he says, they're talking about so many things that don't matter. They're confusing themselves. He says, get back to the main thing. The main thing, uh, this saying is trustworthy. He says that Christ came to save sinners of whom I'm the foremost.
Get back to the main thing Timothy. And then when you look at [00:18:00] Paul looking at Timothy, he's gonna say, now Timothy, there are times where you're gonna have to be bold and confront some things. There are times where, you know, things are going on in the church that are out of line and you've gotta settle in and you can't.
He says, um, I urged you to stay. Put an Ephesus, you, you can't turn your head. Put your head in the sand or move on from Ephesus, Timothy, you gotta stay there and address things. And this is one of the hardest things about parenting and about what we've been entrusted with is guys there. There's just a time where you cannot passively put your head in the sand where you know things are going on in your kids' life and your family's, uh, kind of the structure of your family, the atmosphere of your family, you gotta address.
You gotta, you gotta buckle up. Be the, be the head of the home and address some things. And the primary things you need to address are. We're off course, we're distracted. We are not living faithfully and steadfast. We're not committed. Um, I think it's important. For instance, I know I'm just using [00:19:00] writing this analogy for a minute.
Um, it's very clear in the Church of Ephesus as Paul's talking to Timothy, that there are people in Ephesus who are hyper spiritual, who have bolstered themselves up as being super, um, enlightened and powerful. And there's a time as the head of the home to say, look. This isn't about our egos. This isn't about how spiritual we can be like our job is to set a good, healthy rhythm and pace.
A good, healthy rhythm and pace. We're not trying to make our kids fast for 10 days in a row so that they can arrive at a new level of enlightenment. That's not good stewardship. Um, and so, and the same thing Paul's saying to Timothy, some of these people think they're doing well, but they're not good stewards.
What, what we want to do is, I think good stewardship is, is this. Recognizing this is a God-given responsibility. Command this home, these kids, this family, and I wanna be a wise servant who doesn't have flashes of good [00:20:00] stewardship, but who has a consistent longevity of daily discipline. Notice that Jesus says when he gives the parable in Matthew 24 of the wise servant who cares for the house well as a master returns, when he talks about the wicked servant, the wicked servant started off well.
But grew tired of waiting. And so sometimes for us, what we do is we stop and start and stop and start and stop and start. And one of the primary things that needs to arise out of this conversation and outta stewardship is daily consistent. Discipline to look to the Lord, to pray with your kids, to look at the scriptures.
I'm not saying you need an hour and a half a day where you get on the ground and you make your kids look you in the face and recite to you. John one in Greek, like, I'm not saying that, um, but I am saying like, quit with all the flashes, guys. Just make up in your mind, God has asked me to do this, to steward this well.
My first responsibility is the discipleship of these kids. We're not gonna be distracted with secondary things. We're not gonna, on the other hand, have these flashes where we pretend like we're really [00:21:00] hyper spiritual for two months and then everybody knows we're gonna quit. We we're gonna do is we're gonna steward well as we await the return of the master daily bites.
Just little bite size. Looking at the scriptures, we're in church every week. We're like, I'm, again, I'm a big proponent of bible plans, doing the Bible plan. Um, this is one of the things that maybe modern Christian culture has not helped us with as we've really idolized the concept of passion and passion is.
Good. When passion is steward or, or, or disciplined? Well, passion. When we talk about we wanna be passionate for Christ, passion typically means that we have a hot two weeks where we are so excited and on fire and then we have three months of disgust and loathe some Christian living. Then another hot two months when we get to revival and then a low three months.
And so the goal of Christian living is not always passion. Sometimes it's stewardship, faithfulness, daily bite-size, [00:22:00] consistent scripture reading and prayer and honoring God. And so my challenge for you guys today is, um, even with the story of John and this bishop, right, John entrust with this bishop, this young man with a lot of potential.
And the bishop started strong. He started discipling and teaching and leading, but eventually he grew lazy and quit. My challenge for you guys today is if Paul can look at Timothy and say, you are entrusted to steward this church. Well, the concept applies that, that God looks at us and says, here's your home.
Steward it. Well, you cannot start strong and quit. You can't get excited and then have three months of disgust. You've gotta have a co consistency, consistent discipleship. You're entrusted with it. It's your responsibility. You've gotta steward it. Well. This is your task that God's asked you to accomplish.
Again, we're not trying to earn sonship. We have sonship, and because we are sons. We now have skin in the game. And so, Lord, I ask in Jesus' name that you would bless my [00:23:00] brothers listening and sisters that listens it well, Lord, ask that you would use their lives, that you would make them faithful stewards of their home that they would think.
Carefully about what it means to be entrusted with the lives and the spiritual wellbeing of their children, and that we would be better disciples of Jesus in the days to come. I bless you guys in Jesus' name. Pray you have a wonderful week. Next week we'll jump right back in with Chris and the morality of God, part three.