Charlie Loften: The questions we wrestle with as Christians about who God is, how do we live out our faith, what is the Bible, what is the truth of the Bible, what are we supposed to believe? How are we supposed to live? There are really big, deep questions that we ask each other, that we ask God, that we wrestle with ourselves. And that's why the Cultivate podcast exists, to help us go deeper in our understanding of who God is, his word, and the way that he's called us to live. Everyone, welcome to the Cultivate podcast with The Grove Church.
I'm Charlie Loften.
Abigail Boone: I'm the lead pastor there, and I'm here with Bagel, DJ Bagel. DJ? I forgot the DJ
Charlie Loften: line. New York City. Yes. Got the you got the vintage looking kinda hog hat.
Abigail Boone: Yeah. But it's very new.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. Yeah. But it's vintage looking.
Abigail Boone: You can tell the Kinda looks like Sandlot.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I I know this is maybe behind the scenes. Maybe we're not so stuck like this, whatever, but it's Act Tech, it's actually been a while.
We recorded a lot.
Abigail Boone: We recorded
Charlie Loften: a lot of episodes all at once
Abigail Boone: before Yes. Did. You took a little adventure.
Charlie Loften: Summer trips hit. While they may have only missed one week, we've missed this
Abigail Boone: Yeah, for a while.
Charlie Loften: For many weeks. Yes.
Abigail Boone: You were out of town for a while, it Well, felt
Charlie Loften: that's sweet to say.
Abigail Boone: I obviously didn't text you about missing you, but felt like was a parts
Charlie Loften: of two different weeks back to back. But I really only missed one Sunday. You just did teach one of those. It just felt like a lot. Yeah.
Felt like a lot to some people. People who knew, people who didn't know, like, oh, Charlie was gone one Sunday. That's it.
Abigail Boone: See, as someone with no kids, my life doesn't change once summer hits. But everyone around me, their life changes. And so I forget that they have vacations to take and camps to drop off at and sports camps and relative things like that, but, like, my life doesn't change. It's just hotter. That's it.
Yes. Exactly.
Charlie Loften: Do you have any vacations coming up?
Abigail Boone: No. Well, I have a bachelorette trip.
Charlie Loften: Oh. You gonna be on the show? On the show? You said a bachelorette trip. Just thought maybe like Is that a show?
The Bachelorette?
Abigail Boone: Oh, I thought you were mean bachelorette trip. I was like, that sounds like
Charlie Loften: a phenomenal I can't even the bachelorette
Abigail Boone: is what it's No. All We're going to Colorado to celebrate one of my friends. Nice. So that feels like a vacation that I'm paying for, like, because we're also paying for her.
Charlie Loften: Where in Colorado?
Abigail Boone: Boulder. Nice. Yeah. We kinda got a sweet deal because I have some friends that live there, there, and they knew someone that had an Airbnb that gave it to us for a discount.
Charlie Loften: I also have friends in Boulder, and guess what?
Abigail Boone: We know each other.
Charlie Loften: They're the
Abigail Boone: same Yes, they're great people.
Charlie Loften: They're the same friends.
Abigail Boone: But other than that, it was just visiting grandparents. I'm not very good at scheduling vacations. That's some people's like, they have a dream list of where to go. I have a dream list of cameras to get. You know?
Charlie Loften: Well, fair enough. I would rather work this week and buy a camera than not work this week And lose money and spend money to go on a trip. And now I'm even further away from getting my camera.
Abigail Boone: And this is a hot take, but for someone who has spent many years at the beach, like significant time, I hate the beach. Really? That is stanky. You get sand all over you. The ocean is dangerous, and it's not even fun to swim in because you're just getting knocked around.
It gets in your mouth, disgusting, and it's boring. You just sit there. And my family is a are beach bums to the tee. Like, they just wanna sit there, bask in the sun, and read.
Charlie Loften: Is that your hottest take? Have we now eclipsed your take on horses?
Abigail Boone: Maybe. Maybe. It's just like and all of the towns are like everything's beach themed. And I'm like, you don't go to New York oh, I guess New York has a lot of New York stuff. But it just feels all corny and not actually that nice.
That is called tourist
Charlie Loften: trap, right? It's like everything is just kind of designed around tourists, and it just feels cheesy.
Abigail Boone: Like, long ago, you visited when I was in Florida. Me? I was You did. Okay. And your family took us to Fudd Puckers.
And I was like, of all restaurants to go in the town of Destin, we're going to the tourist destination.
Charlie Loften: Guess what? We were guess what we were? Tourist. We were tourists. Would you wanna go to Chick fil A?
Abigail Boone: No. I just wanna go to, like, Dewey Destin's or Dilly's? No. Don't go to a chain. Go to a local restaurant.
Charlie Loften: Isn't that like, Fudd Parker's only exists in Destin. For real? Yes. It's not Fuddruckers, the the burger place. I think that is only a Destin place.
Abigail Boone: I knew a lot of people that were alligator handlers.
Charlie Loften: There you
Abigail Boone: go. But yeah, so I don't like the obvious vacation to take in the summer is go to the beach. Thank goodness my family has been I grew up going to the beach every single summer, but my family has not done it in years, I'm like, that's great.
Charlie Loften: I
Abigail Boone: would rather get a lake house. Let's do something like that. So no vacations for me.
Charlie Loften: And it's also like there because of your previous job, beach work work Is associated Yeah. Is beach is a place where you go to work.
Abigail Boone: And it just felt like it's a place I'd live. It's not like a cool destination. I lived there for ten weeks of the summer. Right. And it's like it gets old after day three.
Charlie Loften: Fair enough.
Abigail Boone: So I'm over it.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. Okay. I can't wait for the hot takes to roll in.
Abigail Boone: Okay. There'll be more.
Charlie Loften: That's right. I mean, people people people are people are gonna people are not gonna like that. My god. They're gonna like
Abigail Boone: I know.
Charlie Loften: Each slander. And even to the degree that I might agree with some of what you said Yeah. I kept it to myself. Okay. Alright.
So we are still in the parables. Yeesh. And the ones we've got over the next couple of weeks, I think you're really gonna like. I think you're gonna make that face. Yeah.
That one. Alright. So right here doesn't give away
Abigail Boone: anything. 12.
Charlie Loften: Luke chapter 12. You're just gonna you just the the name's great. The parable of the rich fool. Fool. We're we're already we're already giving this guy grief.
Alright. And from from the very beginning, we're gonna get easily the context. Verse 13, Luke chapter 12, someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. So right off the bat, everybody's around, big person in the crowd. And like, can you imagine, like, just even the setup of that?
Huge crowd, hundreds, if not thousands of people. And all of a sudden, guy, Jesus. Jesus. Tell my brother. I'm sure he's probably pointing at his brother.
Sure.
Abigail Boone: My
Charlie Loften: brother's give me some of the inheritance. Like
Abigail Boone: That would be Like, Jesus was talking about? Like, that's
Charlie Loften: Say that again?
Abigail Boone: I feel like we're not at a wealth management conference. Like
Charlie Loften: And had Jesus called for questions? Got anybody got any questions out there? Okay. You
Abigail Boone: called on the wrong person.
Charlie Loften: I mean, yeah. So someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Verse 14, Jesus replied, Man who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?
Abigail Boone: Okay, so he's on my side? Like, this is a random topic to
Charlie Loften: I am bring bothered by your question.
Abigail Boone: Yeah.
Charlie Loften: I mean, like, don't like that you asked this particular question. I don't think it's just in this context, but just like, what are you even on about?
Abigail Boone: Yeah. Yeah.
Charlie Loften: But, again, this this goes to the thing that you and I think have talked about a few times, how Jesus gets all this credit for being super sweet
Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
Charlie Loften: And Paul gets all the
Abigail Boone: He's an angry
Charlie Loften: He's an angry longtime coach. I mean, that like, if if I said that a New Testament Bible character said that to somebody, man, who told you? Why why are you asking me?
Abigail Boone: Anyone starting with a man.
Charlie Loften: Right? I mean, that's like, oh, well, that's obviously Paul, maybe Peter. Oh, Jesus.
Abigail Boone: Right. So wait. Did they think that Jesus had some type of authority over how man to manage your funds post death?
Charlie Loften: I think it is less about Jesus' authority as, you know, Dave Ramsey. I'm thinking of
Abigail Boone: my dad. My dad literally deals with trust.
Charlie Loften: Right, I think it would be he is an expert in the law, he's an expert in Jewish teaching, Jewish customs. Okay.
Abigail Boone: So they assume he covered all of that?
Charlie Loften: Yeah. And so it would be less about the money. It's like, but what the way that our dad has died and the way that my brother has handled the inheritance is not appropriate to Jewish laws and Jewish customs, and you as an authoritative teacher can speak to that.
Abigail Boone: Okay.
Charlie Loften: I think I think it's less it's it's less, Jesus, what should I do with my four zero one k? Mhmm. And more about just general cultural moral fairness. Okay. Of like, if if all of a sudden your brother got all of the inheritance from your parents and didn't give anything to you or your sister, you might would come to me and say, Hey, you know my brother.
Hey, could you talk to him? Okay. Right? Not like
Abigail Boone: It's an emotional appeal, not
Charlie Loften: a problem. An emotional and moral appeal of like, Yeah, you're of doing your sisters wrong here. Okay. You should do something different. I think that's where this is coming from.
Then he said to them, Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. So at this point, I'm not sure what this guy's like. I would have turned inside out by now. What?
Because you'd be embarrassed? Right. I mean, like, I asked I had the courage or boldness or whatever to ask Jesus this question, and Jesus' first response is, Man, who who I'm not your judge. And then the second was, Hey, guys. And while we're on the topic, don't be greedy.
Abigail Boone: Like, I'm just good example trying out of you. I was
Charlie Loften: just trying to see if my brother could get healed. Yeah. Anyways. And he told them this parable. The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.
He taught he thought to himself, what shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, this is what I'll do. I will tear tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years.
Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry.'
Abigail Boone: Okay. Pause. Is it illogical to tear down the barn to build bigger ones?
Charlie Loften: Yes. What has this guy done at this point? Like, from your general assessment, has this guy done anything wrong at this point?
Abigail Boone: I mean, in my mind as a business owner, that's what I would do too.
Charlie Loften: Right. I've got more supply. I some place to store my supply. Yeah. And if I store all of this supply, then I will be able to sell all of it.
It won't get ruined. Right. And then I can make more money from this abundant supply. All of this feels
Abigail Boone: It's not wrong to be successful.
Charlie Loften: Nothing of like, what am I supposed to do with all these crops? Well, I should just burn them and let them rot? No. You shouldn't do that. Like, at this point, the setup of this is Seems fine.
Do you know the word innocuous? Sometimes a word
Abigail Boone: I know that word. I don't think I could use it.
Charlie Loften: Like, no no bad. No bad. No nothing nothing bad. Fairly innocent. But God said to him, you fool.
Woah, that's tough. But God said to him, you fool, this very night your lie this very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.
Abigail Boone: That feels like a massive assumption. You could be successful and
Charlie Loften: Well, first of all, it's a made up guy.
Abigail Boone: Sure. Okay. You're right. I shouldn't offend him.
Charlie Loften: So whatever assumptions Jesus is making about this guy in his heart are completely true because it's a person that Jesus made up in his But own I think he doesn't put the assumptions, he doesn't make it explicitly. He doesn't go, Once there was this greedy guy who never gives anything to God and is very selfish with his stuff and never gives anything to the poor and doesn't tithe well, and he had a lot of excess one year. He doesn't set it all up. He sets it all up in a very normal this is normal. And you read it, especially for us, twenty first century Americans, we read it as like, well, that's right.
I made more this month than I normally would. Mhmm. And so I took what I normally would pay my bills with and put that in my checking account, and I took the rest
Abigail Boone: Moved it.
Charlie Loften: And I moved it into a long term savings account. Mean, if all you did, we've already mentioned his name once, if all you did was say that first part of that story, Dave Ramsey would be like, Well, finally I got somebody here who knows what they're talking about. Right. You get that emergency savings going up, and then I Snowball? Yeah.
No more. You got any debt on that, on those crops? You bought any new tractors lately we need to pay off? I mean, like, yeah. He would
Abigail Boone: have a mic just like this.
Charlie Loften: They're sitting at a very professional
Abigail Boone: Yeah, looks like a newscaster desk.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. Mean, Dave Ramsey would be very proud. Yeah. It's a smart thing to do. So I think there is an intentional setup here of I'm going to talk to you as if this is what normal people, this is just a normal person doing a normal situation, but then turns and it's almost like, You heard that as normal, and did you even consider the fact, Wait, has this guy been generous yet?
Okay, so that's what he's suggesting. You hearing it didn't even ask the question, I wonder if this guy is a generous person, I wonder if he is a kind person, I wonder if he is a faithful tither. You didn't even think about that. All you heard was, That makes really good, solid business sense. What you heard, that's what they heard, that's what you hear in general.
Just the setup to the story by itself, there's he hasn't done anything wrong. Mhmm. And so Jesus isn't necessarily rebuking him for doing something, quote, wrong Mhmm.
Abigail Boone: But Having a posture.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. Not having done something that is right. Mhmm. What is the way that he says it? This is how it will be for whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich towards God.
Abigail Boone: In meaning, like, generosity or in relationship to God?
Charlie Loften: That's a really good question because anytime Jesus says something that feels a little bit vague Mhmm. Or weirdly stated, because that's not like a that's not a common phrase.
Abigail Boone: Rich
Charlie Loften: toward God. You should be rich toward God.
Abigail Boone: How to Toss-up money.
Charlie Loften: I'm looking at you, God.
Abigail Boone: Yeah. Make it right.
Charlie Loften: I'm gonna be rich toward you. Like, rich towards God, that's not a phrase you would use. It's not a phrase anyone would use. It's not a phrase that Jesus uses. Again, generous is a word that you would use.
Giving is a word he
Abigail Boone: would have used. Connected to the store up your treasures in heaven?
Charlie Loften: Yeah. I mean, again, that's let's say, don't just store up your treasures in heaven. They'll on on the earth, store up treasures in heaven. Yeah. That's a that's what he's meaning?
That makes sense. But, again, being rich toward God, I think it's meant to make you go that anytime Jesus uses what I would call awkward phrasing, I think it's meant to make you go, Because it would have been very easy. This is how it will be for whoever stores up things for themselves but is not generous. Yeah. Who stores up things for themselves but does does not not tithe to the temple.
I mean, both of those things, they're very straightforward. And you okay. Well, I know I know the application to make from this. Yeah. But you use an awkward phrase, and now here it is, we're two minutes in, we're still
Abigail Boone: Trying to figure out.
Charlie Loften: We're still trying to talk about it. What does it mean to be rich towards God? That has to be the immediate question. You're sitting there, and maybe you're even nodding along with the story, Yeah, rich guy, rich guy boo, rich guy. What?
Yeah. Right? Because you got two groups of people in the crowd. You got the guy who asks, Hey, Jesus, make my brother split the inheritance with me, whose head is completely inside his cloak now. And any rich people in the audience right now are just kinda like
Abigail Boone: Also, probably there's people that are like, and then they're like, Wait.
Charlie Loften: Right. Yeah. Rich people are like, oh, he's kind of taking shots at us. And the poor people are like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, what?
Yeah. Because that's not something that, again, it's not a rebuke of wealth. Is how because he could also end it, this is how it'll be with whoever stores up things for themselves. Yeah. Yeah, hard stop.
And then that's just a condemnation of wealth. Right. And there are times that Jesus condemns certain sorts of wealth. He certainly condemn He certainly warns about wealth, not to the degree that your Bernie Sanders types say that he does, but it's also not zero of that. But that doesn't seem to be what this is.
This is how it will be for someone who happens to have an abundant crop yield one year. I I get that is not that's not Jesus' rebuke. What is the rebuke?
Abigail Boone: Having that much and not being also generous with what you have.
Charlie Loften: Is that where we decide rich toward God means?
Abigail Boone: I think. Because, I mean, it it that's very broad of, like, you could be rich in I want to live according to his design and do what he's called us to do. And, also, that's gonna, in turn, make you rich in your relationship with him.
Charlie Loften: Right.
Abigail Boone: Because you know that that trend on Instagram and TikTok that's, like, rich in life because and then there's just a video of, like, a dad playing with their kids. Right. Right. Stuff like that where it's, like, that's a roundabout way of if you don't get abstract metaphors or whatever. Like
Charlie Loften: Yeah. I think I think I think it would be easy. I I again, I think in our political landscape, like, there's a group that would say, this is just a full condemnation of wealth in general Mhmm. Which doesn't seem to be because the the setup the setup, again, was intentionally normal.
Abigail Boone: Well, and, also, I feel like that like, Jesus worked to provide and like Yeah. So I don't think
Charlie Loften: it is a full condemnation of wealth. But on the other hand, it's like, this is how it's gonna be for anybody who isn't rich toward God, so be sure to be kind to your neighbor and sweet to your mom and you go to church on Sunday. Be a good person and you can still have the big barns. Is clearly tied towards what I do with what has been given to me.
Abigail Boone: What did he call it
Charlie Loften: here? Have acquired this wealth. Abundance of possessions. You have acquired this abundance, and all you could think about was how am I going to be rich toward myself with the abundance? Right.
Abigail Boone: Because there is a posture that you can go into, even I've thought about it more specifically in the last couple of years of owning my own business of like, I need to hold on to as much as I can and have a ton of storage. But then the joy I felt when I've been able to bless my family or bless friends or, like, do things like that where it's like, yes, there's abundance of security, but is there abundance of generosity?
Charlie Loften: Right.
Abigail Boone: And and security still ends up being there.
Charlie Loften: Then Jesus said to his disciples, therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, about your body, what you will wear, for life is more than food and the body more than clothes. And so a very familiar passage there that ends up with, Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you as well. And so he immediately pivots from that story to just teaching against fear and anxiety around money. And so we go from wealth is bad to
Abigail Boone: Fear of absence of wealth.
Charlie Loften: Yeah, fear of not having enough. If this rich man is rich towards God, he might not have enough. However, he defines enough. You know, but if I build bigger barns and I'll store all this, then I will have enough. I'll have a good reserve.
I'll have a good reserve, and I'll be fine. In fact, I'll be able to kind of just chill and Take season off? Yeah, eat, drink, and be merry. I enjoy can the life that comes from this abundance, which you're kind of like, yeah, you worked hard and you had favorable circumstances. Yeah, you should be able to do that.
And God never, Jesus never says, You should not enjoy
Abigail Boone: Again, what you
Charlie Loften: it is that in isolation. But then because of the weirdness of the setup, the weirdness of the rich towards God, and the immediate pivot to, therefore I say to you, don't worry about finances and provision.
Abigail Boone: I
Charlie Loften: mean, he turns it on his head. It's like you're really wanting him to be like, Rich people are awful. Right. But really, again, no matter where you are on the scale
Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
Charlie Loften: You're struggling here.
Abigail Boone: Well, I think there's a podcast I listen to of a guy that grew up in poverty, whatever, however close to the line, but was in varying forms of poverty throughout childhood. Insanely successful actor has more than enough money, spouse has more than enough money. He has the same exact amount of anxiety about finances from his child. It's like it wasn't enough to get to this abundant place. He still has the same anxiety of provision.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. And so Jesus is kind of getting at core concerns that are universal around money. Hey, give me my inheritance, bro. I'm not I'm not no. No.
While we're here, don't be greedy. And then, like, and then he tells this parable.
Abigail Boone: He doesn't say no to giving the inheritance. He just He just says, why are you asking me about I'm
Charlie Loften: not I'm not I'm not I'm I'm not I'm I'm not playing this. Yeah. And then he says, Don't be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. And he tells this story, and you're like, Yeah, stick it to the greedy people.
And then he says, But this is gonna be true of anyone who is not rich towards God. And then says, And you should stop worrying about money. And again, everybody's now taking a shot. Yeah. The guy, I mean, the guy that asks the question gets the most shots, and then greed, and then you're like, the poor people are like, Yeah, greed.
And then he tells that story, Yeah, rich people, greed, boo, building bigger barns, yeah, boo, God took his life, yeah. And then all of a sudden it turns to, Well, now I'm doing that great here either. Am I being rich towards God with what I have? And am I being paralyzed by anxiety? Because, I mean, we got the big three all here in one big thing.
Again, this is like if you you know, Charlie's cord and what's he gonna say? Hey, talk about money. Pull the cord. Right? I mean, beware of greed, be generous with God, and free yourself from anxiety.
Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
Charlie Loften: And he pulls them all he puts them all here together in one big package where the the setup you think the setup's going one way, but, again, eventually, it's just his his big picture teaching about all of the perils that come with money.
Abigail Boone: Yeah. And a reserve is not gonna solve any of it.
Charlie Loften: Right. But I just to to me, the verse 20. But God said to him, you fool, this very night your life will be diminished.
Abigail Boone: Does that mean, like, he's gonna die? Yeah. Okay.
Charlie Loften: Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?
Abigail Boone: That's a bummer to think about because there's difference there's in I've set up provision like, my dad's setting up provisions for this is what you guys will get covering funeral costs or covering, like, things where, like, we're not having to be burdened with our parents' things once they pass away.
Charlie Loften: Right.
Abigail Boone: But there's so many things of, like, me setting up a savings plan to go get whatever camera I was talking about earlier. If I die, that, like, nobody benefits from the amount of cameras I've stored up in my life, you know?
Charlie Loften: Well, but I think the thing that you have going for you is your whole life isn't geared around the acquisition of a new camera. Yeah. I saved up all this money so I can buy this new camera, I'm gonna get it tomorrow, and you die that night. You're not gonna be like, Oh, I never got that camera.
Abigail Boone: Yeah.
Charlie Loften: Because you have also prepared yourself for life is so much more than saving up resources to acquire new things that I will both enjoy and use for business.
Abigail Boone: I
Charlie Loften: I would like to think that if I died before the night before a dream vacation that I wouldn't get to heaven and God would be
Abigail Boone: like, again, come on. You send me back down real quick? I was just I about was to close
Charlie Loften: to this, exactly what I wanted. And then again, I've got what money I have left is going to be used to bless my family, which will then be used generously for, hopefully, generations to come. And I have set up a plan both with what I have to make an impact and to be rich towards God, and my whole life is not centered around, I've acquired all this stuff and I'm going be able to just chill for several years because I can live off of what I have in the giant barn. Right. I mean, I am, you know, again, you get the Dave Ramsey trifecta here, right?
I mean, I'm doing that. I am doing the equivalent of putting crops in a barn for me to come to a point to where later in life I can live off what's in that barn. Yeah. But my life isn't centered around spending the money that I've put in that barn.
Abigail Boone: Right. It just feels so funny to me to think about a pastor retiring.
Charlie Loften: Is that because pastors don't make enough money? Or No. Pastors should never stop doing that? I can't I can't do it full time forever, Abigail.
Abigail Boone: No. I know. But it is still, like, does a missionary ever stop being a missionary?
Charlie Loften: Does a creative person ever stop being creative?
Abigail Boone: No, I legitimately cannot imagine retiring. Until I'm, like, too outdated to know how to manage the software and stuff, I'm like, I don't know why I would stop.
Charlie Loften: Well, there's a difference between what you do and having a job. You imagine a point to where you didn't have to do these things, but you just Did them anyways? You got to do it just when you wanted to, how you wanted to, you know, just, oh, it's really cool. I got to create this thing, and I never had to. There's a reason why you don't do this as a volunteer.
And it's not just that, well, I need to eat food, it's just there's some parts of it I don't like. What if you only got to do what you liked? It'd
Abigail Boone: be fun. Yeah. It'd
Charlie Loften: nice. It'd
Abigail Boone: be nice.
Charlie Loften: I am going to retire someday.
Abigail Boone: Ways off. Long ways off. Another fifty years.
Charlie Loften: Have mercy.
Abigail Boone: I'll cart you up on stage. 103 years old. We'll install a ramp.
Charlie Loften: What's up, guys? Welcome to the Cultivate.
Abigail Boone: And they'll be like, while he's out, let me fill you in.
Charlie Loften: Whatever. You're 80.
Abigail Boone: In fifty years, I guess.
Charlie Loften: Right? You're not we're not doing this. No. Somebody needs to retire us.
Abigail Boone: I'm forever young.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. Yes. And and and yeah. So, you know, but God said to him, you fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you. Again, it's it it really I I think the whole thing kinda takes a turn from the acquisition of wealth to the orientation of your life.
Abigail Boone: Especially when you hook it around the your life will be taken tonight of like, what are you really all about?
Charlie Loften: Will your life have mattered? Or it was all built around putting stuff in this barn and living off of it, and if that is taken away from you You have nothing. What was or is even the purpose of you? Mhmm. Which again goes down to just this core sense of what is our relationship with money like?
Yeah. Money is not my life. The use of money is not my life, it is something that I do that I need in order to do life, but it is
Abigail Boone: not my life. It is the most frequently a part of our life thing that's not our life.
Charlie Loften: Yeah, and it's a very difficult distinction to make. And so, how do I root that sort of thing out of my life? How do I avoid greed? How am I rich towards God? And how can I free myself from anxiety?
I mean, this is probably the top two or three things that Jesus talks about all throughout
Abigail Boone: the that money is one
Charlie Loften: of the most. If broaden it out and say, probably the number one thing that Jesus talks about is the kingdom Yeah. Of And we still don't really know what that means.
Abigail Boone: We'll get there by end of the like me
Charlie Loften: and you. Mean the broader system.
Abigail Boone: The general public, yeah. Sure you I know exactly what it means. Exactly. We're all together all night.
Charlie Loften: It's not things that we're still fighting about in theological circles. But funny, if we nail into the very specific things, I think it's number one. Yeah. If kingdom of God is just a broad category and there are many different aspects underneath it, then that's number one. But if we're talking about the very specific things, I think I think money is number one.
Abigail Boone: Well, it's also, I feel like, one of the number one reasons that couples have stressors. Number
Charlie Loften: two. Okay. Infidelity is number one.
Abigail Boone: That makes sense.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. And but I do believe That's why I'm
Abigail Boone: not married.
Charlie Loften: I I do believe that it is the number one reason of of of individual anxiety and fear. So and Jesus is trying to help them with that and just uses this this this guy's question as a platform, not just to talk about that, but just to talk just, again, all of it all together. This is like the short example of everything that Jesus has to say about money. Be aware of greed. Don't center your life around it.
Be generous towards God. Don't be anxious. As you
Abigail Boone: said, the man
Charlie Loften: And again, it's just crazy. Yeah. That guy's He's close. He's done. And it's amazing to me, again, as someone who speaks for thirty two to thirty five minutes on a on a Sunday, how in, I don't
Abigail Boone: know Just a quick
Charlie Loften: ninety seconds worth of conversation, he was just like, it took us thirty minutes to try to unpack it. That's how powerful he is. Yeah. Anyways, thank you. Of course.
Bagel Boone, DJ DJ Bagel.
Abigail Boone: DJ Bagel.
Charlie Loften: Thank you for joining us. And so please, if you have any questions, send them at abigailhatesthebeach@thegrovechurch.org. No. Info@thegrovechurch.org. Would be great.
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