1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,640 Dr. Ryan here. 2 00:00:03,640 --> 00:00:09,120 Today I want to talk to you about is inheriting things bad? 3 00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:12,360 There's a Bible verse that talks about inheritance. 4 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:21,280 It says, Proverbs 19, 14, houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent 5 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:22,720 wife is from the Lord. 6 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:24,900 Two things happening in the scripture. 7 00:00:24,900 --> 00:00:27,800 First of all, houses and wealth are inherited from parents. 8 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:35,680 There's a lot of different ideas about inheritance. 9 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:46,560 Is it wise to take the hard-earned accumulated wealth from parents and distribute it to sons, 10 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:52,280 daughters, offspring, family members? 11 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:58,560 Well, the reality is there's no clear answer. 12 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:04,040 What we do know is that God teaches us that we're stewards of every single thing in our 13 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:05,040 lives. 14 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:11,360 So, if you're given an inheritance in your life, something that you didn't earn, but 15 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:15,840 that a family member earned and then they had given it into your care, the wisest thing 16 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:22,680 that you can do is to understand that we don't own anything in our life. 17 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:29,600 We are simply managers for the time that it's under our care. 18 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:35,600 So right now I'm 48, I have a home, I have a few other things, not much. 19 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:44,120 Now, while these things are under my care, I'm responsible for them. 20 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:49,720 Someday my house will go to my family. 21 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:52,920 Everything that I have will go to my family. 22 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:56,760 Now that's just your physical assets, but let's talk about the other assets that you 23 00:01:56,760 --> 00:01:57,760 have. 24 00:01:57,760 --> 00:01:59,080 Let's talk about your relationships. 25 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,280 Let's talk about your marriage. 26 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:03,140 Let's talk about your family. 27 00:02:03,140 --> 00:02:05,040 Let's talk about your friendships. 28 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:08,440 Let's talk about the influence that you can have if you're good at a sport or you're good 29 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:11,480 at an activity or if you have a lot of education. 30 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:16,640 All of these things we are stewards of. 31 00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:19,760 We're just managers of. 32 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:23,520 A lot of times we get this wrong. 33 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:28,640 One of the ways that you know that you're a mature follower of Jesus is if you view 34 00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:35,040 everything that you have in life, not as being yours, but just as being something that God 35 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:39,460 entrusted you to get to manage for a little while. 36 00:02:39,460 --> 00:02:43,800 Just guess what, when we die and we go to be with the Lord, someone else is going to 37 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:46,720 manage the stuff that we have. 38 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:52,520 When you think about things in that light, you understand we don't really own anything. 39 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:56,440 We just get to be good stewards and good managers of it for a while. 40 00:02:56,440 --> 00:02:58,160 Which brings us back to this verse. 41 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:07,460 If that's true, houses and wealth are inherited from parents, the question shouldn't be is 42 00:03:07,460 --> 00:03:09,680 having an inheritance good or bad? 43 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:14,880 The question we should ask ourselves is this, am I a good steward of everything that God's 44 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:17,520 given me in my life? 45 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:22,680 All my relationships, of my education, of my experiences, of the calling of God upon 46 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:27,220 my life, of the things that I'm supposed to do to make a difference in this world. 47 00:03:27,220 --> 00:03:32,840 If you're being a good steward of all of those things, then of course you would say, Lord, 48 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:34,960 give me more. 49 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:39,080 To whom much is given, much is required, and you're also able to make a bigger impact if 50 00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:43,880 your focus is on God and you're having a godly focus with your life. 51 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:45,680 These things are good. 52 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:48,720 Then this verse pivots, it says, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. 53 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:54,360 There's a juxtaposition happening, houses and wealth, it's one asset class, but a prudent 54 00:03:54,360 --> 00:04:01,220 wife is from the Lord, a wise wife, a godly wife, a humble wife. 55 00:04:01,220 --> 00:04:06,160 These are a gift from God. 56 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:11,200 Using the juxtaposition of this verse, this is actually more of a gift than an inheritance 57 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:18,160 from parents, and that's a powerful principle for us to understand in our life. 58 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:20,200 Well, thanks so much for joining me. 59 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:31,840 Until next time, I hope you have a beautiful day.