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, The Grove Church.
I am Charlie Lofton. I'm the lead pastor there, and we are here with Bagel. Bagel Boone.
Abigail Boone: Bagel Boone. Bagel Boone. Okay. But I've been, you know, we've
Charlie Loften: been hanging out a little bit today. Yes. What's what's this hat? This Lucha Libre. What is it?
What is
Abigail Boone: Oh, Luchador. It's a brand that's out of, I think, Arizona. It might be New Mexico. They don't have any connection to any of these things. They just made a fun New Mexico Nacho Libre feeling hat.
The Lichador's over here.
Charlie Loften: Right. A brand of
Abigail Boone: And there's something over here.
Charlie Loften: A brand of what?
Abigail Boone: It's It's just a hat. It's a brand.
Charlie Loften: It's just
Abigail Boone: a hat.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. We're just gonna make a fun
Abigail Boone: hat. Yeah.
Charlie Loften: Oh, okay.
Abigail Boone: I think they have t shirts maybe. Okay. But they're just in that location. And it felt like Western
Charlie Loften: Mexicana. It's actually a really cool hat.
Abigail Boone: I love that.
Charlie Loften: It it it feel it it fits your vibe.
Abigail Boone: Thank you. I was with my mom when we got it.
Charlie Loften: Nothing like talking about hats in a primarily audio podcast.
Abigail Boone: Tune in online.
Charlie Loften: Try it.
Abigail Boone: And you'll see it.
Charlie Loften: Go to YouTube to see Last
Abigail Boone: variety of hats throughout our seasons of filming.
Charlie Loften: So I start wearing hat.
Abigail Boone: I actually was thinking last week because I was looking at hats that might I wanted to get from my dad. And I was like, I don't think I've ever seen Charlie in a hat. Do you never wear them?
Charlie Loften: Not never, but very rarely.
Abigail Boone: Is it just like Hot.
Charlie Loften: Hot. I'm hot. You just said hat, and I'm hot. It just makes me hot. Really?
My my head has started sweating.
Abigail Boone: That's do you feel that way about your beard?
Charlie Loften: Sometimes. I get a probably you probably won't see the beard in the summer.
Abigail Boone: So if I get you a hat, would I just never see you wear it? Or would you wear it out of obligation?
Charlie Loften: When would I wear it?
Abigail Boone: Any day. Yeah. I'm not not I'm
Charlie Loften: not I'm not gonna suddenly become a hat
Abigail Boone: guy. Okay. Well
Charlie Loften: If I'm gonna be outside for a long period of time and I need to
Abigail Boone: Cover.
Charlie Loften: Bald spot protection.
Abigail Boone: Doesn't work.
Charlie Loften: But also, this was that's that's why they make spray sunscreen. Just
Abigail Boone: Oh, you don't.
Charlie Loften: I don't put sunscreen on my bald
Abigail Boone: spot. Your head? Doesn't your hair get all crunchy?
Charlie Loften: I don't have that much hair.
Abigail Boone: You have hair to get crunchy.
Charlie Loften: Why why would I care that the hair right here surrounding my bald spot is crunchy?
Abigail Boone: I just imagine, like, little kids at the pool and their mom just lathers them up and their hair is like off because they just got sunscreen rubbed in their hair.
Charlie Loften: But the spray stuff doesn't
Abigail Boone: do that.
Charlie Loften: Take your word for it. We are we are several weeks now into
Abigail Boone: parables. This week, one is coming the eighth one. Okay. So we've knocked out a lot here, including Q and A, but
Charlie Loften: Right. And this is the one one of the ones that you said you were most looking forward to. Yeah. Because there's a script
Abigail Boone: so many times.
Charlie Loften: There's a series of parables that Jesus tells back to back to back. The lost coin, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and then the prodigal son. They all kind of go together thematically. Mhmm. We covered the coin and the shepherd, we kind of covered those together.
This one is kind of the third in the series, and it's similar themes, but it definitely Something that's lost. Yeah, it's long. It's much longer and makes a different point. So yeah, in each one of these three parables, something is lost, and we see the reaction of the person who lost it when they get it back. This is much more in detail, and so probably most people have some familiarity with the parable of the prodigal son or the parable of the lost son.
And to remind ourselves, and we talked about this when we covered this last time, the context in which Jesus is saying these things, Luke 15 verses one and two. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them. Do you remember what we talked about? Why why those two verses are important?
Abigail Boone: I'm sorry. I was trying to get into your right translation, and I missed what you said.
Charlie Loften: Okay.
Abigail Boone: Are you reading an IV?
Charlie Loften: I am reading an IV. So we don't understand the context in which Jesus is giving these. So there's these people that are kind of undesirables that are spending a lot of time with Jesus, and the Pharisees are upset about that. Yeah. So we've got these two groups that Jesus is kind of talking to simultaneously.
And really the idea is communicating to both the Pharisees and to the tax collectors and sinners why it is important to Jesus personally that He spend time with sinners.
Abigail Boone: And
Charlie Loften: so it's like, hey, it's like somebody somebody's got a sheep and they lose a sheep and they and then wants to go get that sheep and bring it back, or you've lost a coin, you want it, you want to get it back. And so just talking about the heart, and each one of those kind of ends with this idea in the same way I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angel of God over one sinner who repents. And so it's like you've lost something and get it back. That's how God feels when a sinner turns his life around. And so the third parable
Abigail Boone: Do you in think this I said series this point, they're like, bro, we get
Charlie Loften: it. Who?
Abigail Boone: The Pharisees.
Charlie Loften: The Pharisees?
Abigail Boone: Yeah.
Charlie Loften: I don't know that there's ever a point in all of the gospels where you can rightly say that the Pharisees were like, okay, I get it.
Abigail Boone: But like in, like, an annoyed way, like, you don't have to give us three examples.
Charlie Loften: No. I I I my guess is that they were stubborn enough to be like, no. Okay.
Abigail Boone: No. No. Okay. Okay.
Charlie Loften: All right. Parable of the Prodigal Son, Parable of Lost Son. Luke 15, verse 11. Jesus continued, there was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, father, give me my share of the estate.
So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country, and there squandered his wealth and wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death? I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. So he got up and went to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, kissed him. The son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, quick, bring the best robe and put it on him.
Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate.
Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. The older brother became angry and refused to go in, so his father went out and pleaded with him.
But he answered his father, look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes on, you kill the fattened calf for him. My son, the father said, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.
Part of me, like, I read that and I'm just like, what do we have to add to that? We should
Abigail Boone: just kind of just let that
Charlie Loften: sit and just kind of walk away and be like, boom.
Abigail Boone: What? I feel like you're probably gonna add a lot of shocking stuff.
Charlie Loften: Oh, I don't know, man. It's just so powerful. It's just I'm just saying.
Abigail Boone: Can't Can I say one thing that's not the main point that always sticks out to me with this story? Perf. He says, I long to eat the pods of the pigs. And every time I read it, I'm like, just do it. Like, would have it been insulting for him to take the pigs' food?
Charlie Loften: He may have felt that it would have been gross. Mhmm. But also more than that, he, you know, if if my if if, you know, I own the pigs, and I give you this bucket of food, and I say, feed the pigs this bucket of food, if you eat it instead of feed it to the pigs, you're technically stealing from me.
Abigail Boone: I guess so. Yeah. He's really down and out, though.
Charlie Loften: That's pretty bad.
Abigail Boone: And he had integrity to not steal food.
Charlie Loften: Well, I mean, yeah, so he's he's in he's in such a bad way. Yeah. He wishes he could do it, but he knows he can't get out
Abigail Boone: of going out and I can now. I don't want to
Charlie Loften: add jail to all of this.
Abigail Boone: I guess that's fair.
Charlie Loften: All right. So we got three characters here in the story. We've got the father, the younger son, and the older son. Historically, the prodigal son is the one who was
Abigail Boone: What does the word prodigal mean?
Charlie Loften: As soon as I said that, I mean, I'm pretty sure it just means lost. But I was like, I don't I wanna be precise here because of the YouTubers. Well, mean, at its simplest, it's just someone who is very wasteful. So he spends a lot of money. But over time, the word prodigal has come to just kind of mean kind of a wayward son.
And so then people will debate, which one of the sons is the prodigal son, the younger one or the older one, because they both seem to have problems. Well, technically, the word prodigal, if it means the one who wastes a lot of money, it would have to be the younger one. But if you're asking the question, which one of the sons doesn't get it? Both. Both?
Yeah. But in different ways. Yeah. So you got these three characters, older son, younger son, dad. Make sure we're kind of tracking with what Jesus' story here is.
The dad represents
Abigail Boone: God.
Charlie Loften: God. Older son?
Abigail Boone: The Pharisees.
Charlie Loften: The Pharisees. Younger son?
Abigail Boone: The sinners.
Charlie Loften: The sinners.
Abigail Boone: And so
Charlie Loften: he's sitting here in a group of talking to a group of Pharisees and a group of sinners. And he tells this story. The first two were just kind of just more generic. God rejoices over losing something someone and getting it back. Now we are just putting a lot more into it, and now everybody has a character they identify with.
Right. There's God, and here's you, and here's you, and here's how God views you, here's how God views you, and here is my perception of how it is that you view God. So he starts with the story. He says, a dad a younger son comes to his dad and says, I want my inheritance. What is that son really saying?
Abigail Boone: Mean, don't you get your inheritance when they die?
Charlie Loften: Okay, yep. Therefore I
Abigail Boone: don't care that you're alive. Go ahead and give me what's mine.
Charlie Loften: I'm sick and tired of waiting for you to die. Your only value to me really is
Abigail Boone: My inheritance.
Charlie Loften: My inheritance. Is it okay with you if we just pretend that you're already dead so I can get what's mine and get out of here?
Abigail Boone: But like seemingly, he was already living in a pretty comfortable position.
Charlie Loften: What's that?
Abigail Boone: He was already living in a comfortable
Charlie Loften: The young son?
Abigail Boone: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Mean Like their house was a seems like a nice house.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. I mean, would imagine What's the end want? Yeah. You would imagine, like, they've got multiple servants. They're they're working, you know, they've got they've got goats.
They've got they've got fattened calves, they have these parties, they've got nice rings, nice clothes, they've got all these different things. This was a wealthy family, and this younger son says
Abigail Boone: Give me more.
Charlie Loften: Being with you, I would rather have less without you than all of this with you. Yeah. It's pretty greedy. And it's incredibly hurtful.
Abigail Boone: Yeah.
Charlie Loften: It's not just, hey, can I have some money? I go see what's out there. Can I have some money? Like, to tie it to your inheritance where it's like
Abigail Boone: This is all you have to give me?
Charlie Loften: Yeah. Can we just pretend that you're dead already?
Abigail Boone: Yeah. But he gave it to him.
Charlie Loften: So now, yeah, so now we are at the craziest, this is what makes the premise of the story so ridiculous. It is an insanely insulting thing for the younger son to have asked. And it is crazier that the dad would say yes to it.
Abigail Boone: Because he could have just said, no.
Charlie Loften: I mean, most of the people here who are gonna listen to this, a lot of them were born born, maybe not in the South South, but, you know, in the South. I mean, like, we can all imagine coming to our dad and being like, dad,
Abigail Boone: he would laugh at me.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. Laugh at you, smack you upside the head. Yeah. Throw you in your room. I'll give you an
Abigail Boone: inheritance. Right. Wapow. Yeah.
Charlie Loften: Right? I mean, just like and that would be the that makes more sense. Oh, you shouldn't spank your kid. Like, Okay, sure, whatever. But logically, it would make more sense.
The story goes, the younger son says this to the dad, and the dad goes, well, I mean, can leave, but I'm not giving you anything. Well, I mean, I like half your idea.
Abigail Boone: Because that would have affected his household income.
Charlie Loften: Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was loss for him. It was insulting. It wasn't going to be good for anybody.
Abigail Boone: And
Charlie Loften: so the thing is, you're one of the sinners, and you're hearing yourself in the story. Jesus is not just it's not like He's only painting the Pharisees in a bad light here. This is kind of what it's like to You're
Abigail Boone: kind of like, You need a water?
Charlie Loften: I'm fine. You are like someone who did this to your dad.
Abigail Boone: I
Charlie Loften: mean, ultimately, one of his bigger points is gonna be the way that the older son reacts to him coming back. But the premise here is it doesn't look good for them. And again, I think there is something about, and we'll see this again in a couple weeks, when we look at the parable of the unforgiving servant, and it says that the servant ran up a debt of thousands of talents, which ends up being the equivalent of billions and billions of dollars modern And day so you've got all these examples. In order for Jesus to adequately describe what the grace of God looks like
Abigail Boone: He has to something big.
Charlie Loften: He has to tell a story that just doesn't make any sense. Yeah. And so then, and to continue to pile on this ridiculous story that Jesus is telling, He says he goes to a foreign country, so he leaves the protection of being God's chosen people. He goes to a foreign country, spends his money on lavish living, and according to the older son, at least including prostitutes, is living as far away as he can from his dad physically, culturally, relationally, emotionally, spiritually, everything, does everything counter to his father's values, to the point then where he ends up bankrupting himself.
Abigail Boone: Which is crazy. Right. To spend that much? Yes. That's crazy.
Charlie Loften: And then ultimately ends up in a job feeding nasty food to what they would have considered the most unclean of the animals.
Abigail Boone: Pigs are?
Charlie Loften: Yes. I mean, pigs were you could not eat pigs. They were considered unclean. You didn't mess with pigs. Pigs are I mean, it it is it is, from their perspective, the dirtiest animal that you could possibly imagine.
Abigail Boone: So they never had bacon?
Charlie Loften: They never had bacon.
Abigail Boone: That's a loss.
Charlie Loften: I know. It's too bad for them.
Abigail Boone: Interesting. Okay. So they'd be like scum of the earth.
Charlie Loften: That's Right. I mean, to to even be with a pig is bad enough. Okay. To have a job that where you're taking care of pigs is bad. And and even on top of that
Abigail Boone: You envy them.
Charlie Loften: You envy the pig's food. Yeah, that's pretty low. So Jesus is telling a highly exaggerated story to say, this is how bad it is, which is important for us because, again, similar to the parable of the unforgiving servant, it's not like the younger son looks at his dad and says, I don't think I want to be with you anymore. And he goes and moves next door and starts a
Abigail Boone: family, It right? Mean gets really far. I've never considered going to another country being out of where
Charlie Loften: that is so far. It is so un I mean, it's just out there. It's like Jesus could not have, you know, I mean, this is about as much as you could say to describe. He was doing the exact opposite of everything that he was ever told in the worst possible ways.
Abigail Boone: In the most offensive way.
Charlie Loften: And so then, it gets to the point where he comes to his senses. He comes to his senses, and what does he say?
Abigail Boone: Even my father's servants.
Charlie Loften: So I'm gonna home to my dad, and then I'm gonna tell him what?
Abigail Boone: I've sinned against heaven and you, which is a really interesting phrase to me.
Charlie Loften: Well, because
Abigail Boone: Wouldn't it be, I sinned against God and you?
Charlie Loften: Yeah. Well, that's what heaven
Abigail Boone: They thought the same thing.
Charlie Loften: That's what that phrase means.
Abigail Boone: Okay. Okay.
Charlie Loften: And so then what is he gonna ask his dad to do?
Abigail Boone: Can I be one of your servants?
Charlie Loften: Can I be one of your servants?
Abigail Boone: So he has, like, right sized his wrongdoing.
Charlie Loften: Well, let's think about it for a second. Because what Jesus in all of three of these stories, you got the story of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and now the prodigal son. In each one of these stories, what Jesus is trying to communicate is God loves sinners way more than you realize. And so he goes after that lost sheep and just rejoices, goes after that lost coin, rejoices. And so what we're seeing here in both of these sons is do either one of them fully recognize the love of the Father?
Abigail Boone: How much he desires
Charlie Loften: to so provide you to the younger son comes to his senses, quote unquote, and says, my servants are well taken care of. I'll go to my dad and say, make me one of your servants. So I ask, in that, does the son as of yet understand
Abigail Boone: To that extent, no.
Charlie Loften: He doesn't.
Abigail Boone: He doesn't understand his dad's excitement for him.
Charlie Loften: Yeah, does not, he thinks of his dad as a generous man.
Abigail Boone: But resentful.
Charlie Loften: But he would never accept me again as his son. And so I don't want to necessarily place our post resurrection Pauline theology on Jesus' parable, but to the degree that we can or should, he does not understand grace, He does not understand the overwhelming love of the Father. Because that is not if you were to say, Okay, well, you need to ask God for forgiveness and accept Christ, wouldn't be like, hey, God, I'm not worthy. Let me just be one of your servants.
Abigail Boone: Right, you're being adopted into the
Charlie Loften: Yeah, you're being brought in as a son. So he's halfway there. I'm not worthy to be called your son.
Abigail Boone: He knows the right place to be. I'm He doesn't know
Charlie Loften: sorry. But then to recognize then that, no, I want you as my son. And so even though Jesus has told this highly exaggerated story to where the sinners who were hearing it is like, Jesus doesn't think very highly of us, does he? Yeah. To to describe us that way.
Abigail Boone: Well, he probably also is hitting the nerve of they think they have to clean themselves up.
Charlie Loften: Right. And
Abigail Boone: so that's I assume they would relate to that, that they're too unclean.
Charlie Loften: And so that's the big point that Jesus is making with them. Your situation may be worse than what you think that it is, but what God wants to give you is greater And than what you can so now we've got the dad, and the son is coming back, I'm sure, just kind of rehearsing the story. Right? This is what I'm gonna say. This is I'm gonna say to him.
This is I'm This is what I'm say to him. And then it says that while the son was still a far way off, the father saw him and ran. A couple of things to understand. One is that would have been undignified.
Abigail Boone: To run?
Charlie Loften: Yeah, especially under those circumstances. Your disgusting, sinful, rebellious son, and I'm to run like a kid. It'd be undignified to run really at all, but especially under those circumstances. I'm going to go run? No, no, no, come here.
So again, communicating that to the sinners. Again, just like in the parable of the sheep and the coin, the Father is actively pursuing.
Abigail Boone: Doing all of the work.
Charlie Loften: And if you think about it, there's probably one road out from the property. So everything that the Father possesses is behind Him. He's not looking at his crops, he's not looking at his servants, he's not looking at his house, he's not looking at his cattle, his livestock, or anything like that. He has got that all behind him, and he is looking out this road that his son left six months ago? Yeah.
Two years ago? Every day. I mean, not just a coincidence. And it just so happened, at the very same time that the son came back, the dad happened to glance over. You get the impression from the story that he is actively hoping that this is going to happen.
And he runs to him and does not even let his son finish his little speech that he had been preparing before he's like, ring Calf. Calf, garment, party,
Abigail Boone: let's
Charlie Loften: go, And so in the same way, it would have been a little bit, again, a little bit hurtful for the sinners to have heard how bad Jesus is describing their situation just as strongly he describes how much love and unconditional forgiveness the Father gives to him. And so it would have been like, ow, oh.
Abigail Boone: Right, yeah, slingshotting a little bit. So I know we have the Pauline very detail laid out of really packing in. This is what Jesus did. He reconciled. It's not us, any part of that.
What have they been like like, I'm sure in Paul's time, it was like, you're saying that the cleanse state that we looked for is in our hearts now and, like, that's confusing. What have they been, like, tracking with that a little bit of, like, the work that you think you have to do to be righteous? You're saying that Jesus or the Father is doing I
Charlie Loften: don't think anybody here in this story would have any idea what Jesus was talking about.
Abigail Boone: Okay.
Charlie Loften: I'm sorry. What?
Abigail Boone: You think he was ever discouraged?
Charlie Loften: Who, Jesus?
Abigail Boone: Yeah. Every story you've said they don't understand what he's saying.
Charlie Loften: Well, I think he knew that he was teaching them something different.
Abigail Boone: Okay.
Charlie Loften: That he was having to completely reorient them. Of just like, hey, listen, this is how much God loves people even when they're sinners. He wants them back and is not looking for them to earn the right back. Well, clean yourself up first. Go over there in the creek, clean yourself up, find yourself some better clothes, then come back here and talk to me and beg for my forgiveness, and then I'll set up this series of penance that you can do.
Yeah, because
Abigail Boone: that's the only format they knew at that point.
Charlie Loften: Right. I mean, we we have to
Abigail Boone: mercy seat and the scapegoat of like Right.
Charlie Loften: And I mean A lot of
Abigail Boone: death has to happen.
Charlie Loften: A calf was sacrificed on his behalf, but as a celebration, not as an offering. Yeah, it's like there was just unconditional love and reception of the Son coming back. Even though at this point, and this is where we've got to be careful with the theology that we're adding into it, even though He doesn't quote fully get it yet. I mean, just Him turning towards Him. Just having to receive And just like, yeah, I mean, so it's like, you know, we would think about it like to many those who receive and believe or repent and believe.
I mean, he repented and he believed that his father was relatively kind, all of the work, all of the forgiveness was done by the Father. And so meanwhile and this is where the story gets a little for me. The son the older son is out in the field, and the party has started.
Abigail Boone: He's not there. He doesn't even know. I know.
Charlie Loften: How does he know? Does he know? You got to Send somebody out there. You just wonder. Again, I don't want to read too much into it, but is what Jesus is communicating here, is there really is still a great emotional distance between what the Father is up to and the work of the Son.
There's a disconnect there. And it's not that socially, probably the dad should have sent a hey, tell Steve that Lee's back. You know what I mean? I
Abigail Boone: imagine the thought process of just being with the father, that like it's just representative that he wasn't with the father. He's out in the
Charlie Loften: field He's out there working, and at such a distance that it was almost like he was unreachable.
Abigail Boone: Yeah.
Charlie Loften: And he's like, what is going on here? And ultimately, your brother's back. Conga lines are going. And this is where it gets really powerful for me. The other brother became angry and refused to go in, so his father went out and pleaded with him.
But he answered his father, look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. Is that true?
Abigail Boone: Do we have proof it's not?
Charlie Loften: You never gave me even a young goat.
Abigail Boone: Well, I guess he ate with his father at some point.
Charlie Loften: How many meals do we think this son missed?
Abigail Boone: Right, none.
Charlie Loften: And he never in however many years, let's say thirty, thirty years, never once was able to have his friends over and them also eat?
Abigail Boone: Yeah.
Charlie Loften: Never?
Abigail Boone: Yeah. He's been over exaggerated big time.
Charlie Loften: And here's how he describes his relationship with his dad. I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. I wouldn't imagine either of those things are true either.
Abigail Boone: Never disobeyed? There's no way.
Charlie Loften: And slaving for you. So this is the picture that Jesus is making of the way that the Pharisees view their relationship with God.
Abigail Boone: Yeah, they would think they would
Charlie Loften: have I have been been working nonstop for you, and I've never done anything wrong ever, and you don't give me anything. I mean, just what And it's such a great picture of the way that we can get into a mindset of how do I view my devotion to God?
Abigail Boone: Well, that feels like a vending machine.
Charlie Loften: Right? And so I don't think of God as a father that loves me. I think of Him as a vending machine. He's a hard taskmaster, and if I do the right things, I should get good things from him. And if I don't, then I'm going to be mad.
And because of that, I miss out on the fact of the constant number of good things that God is doing for me. How can you look at a Father who has provided for you your whole life, has given you everything?
Abigail Boone: You're still living at home, bro.
Charlie Loften: And then what does the Father say in contrast to that? Everything, He says, You are with Me, and everything that I have belongs to you. Which that is true, because we've already split up the inheritance. Everything that that Son sees and touches every day belongs to him
Abigail Boone: Future.
Charlie Loften: Almost. Like, not but it's all his.
Abigail Boone: It's not going to be his.
Charlie Loften: You're not cultivating you and your brother's. You're cultivating and taking This is all It's all yours. When the time is right, all of this will belong to you.
Abigail Boone: See, this is the part that I'm like, my dad would absolutely rip my head off. You're with me.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. You're with me.
Abigail Boone: Like I just would not last two seconds in the presence of my parents if I acted like that. So he doesn't respond that way.
Charlie Loften: What is the dad's overarching objective?
Abigail Boone: To be with
Charlie Loften: them. He wants to love his sons. I love them so much. I just want you to be in my presence, and I want that to be enough, and I want to be in good relationship and fellowship with you. That is what I want.
And you've got this one guy who's just rebelling, is like, give me stuff and get me out of here. I just want to live amongst the world. And the other one, just again, just views his dad as some sort of harsh boss, some selfish boss who won't give him anything like, look around you.
Abigail Boone: But that is kind of interesting when you're saying the younger son kind of had a misunderstanding of thinking he could just be a servant, but that's still a miss. This son is misunderstanding that, like, you already got what you think you're working for.
Charlie Loften: Right. It's already all yours.
Abigail Boone: And so it's still just a slight misunderstanding. And
Charlie Loften: you are with me. I'm the kindest, most gracious, loving father one can imagine. It's like, you're with me, we've got a relationship, we're connected, and everything is yours when the time is right. And I think about this for us, and I like to teach on this, especially to people who are living in a ministry context, where you're like, there's a couple of different ways to really kind of think about the labor that I'm doing for God. Because there's things that God's called us to, right?
To serve, to give, to live a certain way, and there really are two very distinct ways that we can think about the life that God has called us to. One is, God's always telling me what to do, and I don't get anything for it. Or you're with me, and you are a co heir of the entire universe. Everything that you see belongs to you. It's all already yours.
Like, you've never missed a meal. I am with you, and everything is yours. Those really kind of are our two choices. And I think way too often, we are that older son thinking about all the things we have to do for God and how He doesn't bless us, and all we can think about is maybe one thing that He didn't do that I wish that I'd Well, there was this one time I wanted to have a party, with my friends, maybe we could have a goat or something, you wouldn't even let me do that. And I'm like, what?
Abigail Boone: Every other meal.
Charlie Loften: What are you even on about?
Abigail Boone: Everything
Charlie Loften: is yours. But for now, I need you alongside the servants out there working, doing all of this, And when the time comes, it all belongs to you. And in the meantime, you are in fellowship with a God that loves you.
Abigail Boone: That just feels like the Garden of Eden.
Charlie Loften: And so we just have this story about just this overwhelming love of this incredibly loving God, and how it seems like nobody gets it. And I think there is just a I know that Jesus is speaking about this in a very particular context to try to help the Pharisees understand how much God loves sinners, and while the sinners are here, you can also hear how much God loves you, and how much this doesn't depend on your ability to quote, get right.
Abigail Boone: So you'd say that's the main thing?
Charlie Loften: Yeah, I mean, is. This is how much God loves sinners.
Abigail Boone: Okay. Because it started out with the Pharisees asking Him why.
Charlie Loften: Yeah. They're mad about it. Why does He think He should be hanging out with sinners? Like, you don't understand. This is how much God loves sinners.
Like a guy who lost his sheep, like a woman who lost his coin, or a or a dad who loves his son so much that no matter what he's done, he will always want him back if he will come back. And so that's its main point, but I think it is important for us in, again, a post resurrection world to look at that attitude of that older son. That is such a prominent attitude out there. Why do I do the things that I do? Why am I being obedient to God?
Why am I being faithful to Him? What is the long term motivation? I mean, eventually, that son is going to get burnt out and get really mad and just burn the crops down or something, right? Or do something stupid like the younger son did. Because he does not simply appreciate how favored, to use a more modern word, how privileged he is to be the son of that father, and is so overwhelmingly privileged that he loses sight of it.
And that's where we are. We are a favored son. We are with the Father. Yeah, He's given us a job to do. Go work the fields, like, great.
Gladly. I get everything that I ever need. I get this incredible relationship with the Father. And one day, it will all belong to me. I'm a co heir with Jesus in everything that is.
Mhmm. Of course, I can get up tomorrow and go work the fields again. Oh, tomorrow, next thing? Yeah, okay, I can go up and work the fields again.
Abigail Boone: Does this feel like the Garden of Eden to you?
Charlie Loften: Does what feel like the Garden
Abigail Boone: This feels like the story of, like, God's initial plan was to be co heirs and us just be with him, and then greed pulled us out, or pride, whatever it is. But it just feels like the Father is inviting them into what God's original plan was when he was
Charlie Loften: laying out the ground. There's definitely some parallels there, but we definitely are already living in a fallen world when it comes to Right. The telling of this story. Again, the theology of this parable doesn't match up exactly one to one, because the Pharisee, the older son who was there with him, is there with him, but isn't really And with so we don't match up perfectly with that older son, but we can easily slide into an older son mentality of why am I being faithful to God?
Abigail Boone: Well, and totally miss all the blessings that you're already living in.
Charlie Loften: Right. I get so obsessed by what I don't have, or what I don't have yet, that I lose sight of all the overwhelming blessings that God currently gives me. And if I can't really see in my heart how blessed I am just to be with the Father.
Abigail Boone: I would say that's probably something that's hard for people to wrap their minds around. That even if he didn't, even if he wasn't privileged, there's still a privilege of having a relationship with his Father.
Charlie Loften: With a with a loving Father who who will do everything he can to provide for you and to give you life. And it's like, they thought of everything in terms of work and didn't have any real concept of relationship. And it is really easy. It's really easy to start thinking about the tasks that God has called. Now I gotta give money too?
Or now I gotta serve at church too? I've got to act a certain way? What else do you want from me? And can I get at least a goat? You're like, what on earth are you talking about?
Because the reality of it is, like on any particular given day, if you went to this father's house, you would see a whole bunch of people out there working. And some of them are servants, and at different times, one or two of them are sons. And from a distance, it all looks the same. But the closer and closer you get, it should become very obvious which ones are the sons.
Abigail Boone: Right, relationally.
Charlie Loften: Relationally, there's a joy in it. I am a privileged son of my dad, and I'm cultivating this, which in part belongs to me. And when I'm done, I get to be with my rich, generous, kind dad. And it is an indictment on both sons and all of us that we can live with such a generous, kind God and still end up being like, I think I'd rather go to a foreign country and spend all my money on wild living, or sit around and be resentful that there's some God that thinks He can tell me what to do, and not give me exactly what I want all the time. And again, I I can only imagine what the Pharisees are thinking at this point.
Abigail Boone: As he's telling these stories.
Charlie Loften: As he's telling the story, it's just like, what?
Abigail Boone: Right.
Charlie Loften: Like, I don't understand what you're saying about why the Father would forgive that sinner for one. And then what are you saying about me exactly? And to me, it is one of I mean, it's number one for a reason.
Abigail Boone: Yeah.
Charlie Loften: It's the reason why it's the parable that everybody knows the most. Because it's just it's that along with the Good Samaritan, which we'll get to in the next couple weeks too. Any final thoughts or questions?
Abigail Boone: Why is it indignified to run?
Charlie Loften: Well, just imagine right now imagine there's a ceremony. Like a plane comes in, the president and the vice president are at this end, and
Abigail Boone: And they run at us.
Charlie Loften: And then somebody comes down off the plane, and the president takes off running. What would that look like on the news?
Abigail Boone: Funny. Yeah. Ridiculous.
Charlie Loften: That's not what presidents do.
Abigail Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Charlie Loften: That's just not what presidents do. And that is not what wealthy landowner fathers do.
Abigail Boone: Okay.
Charlie Loften: That makes sense.
Abigail Boone: Yeah. That's fair.
Charlie Loften: Anything else? That's great. All right. Thank you, guys. Thanks for joining us.
Thank you as always, Bagel. Of course. And thank you for being here and encourage you to check us out. If you don't know much about us as a church, thegrowthchurch.org/connect, and you can find out about our services online or in person. You can send us questions.
Anything that we can do to help you, please let us know, and we continue with our parables over the next several weeks. Encourage you to come back next week, and thanks again for joining us. Thank you for listening to the Cultivate Podcast. Our hope is that you are taking steps to go deeper in your faith, that you are asking big questions, and you're looking for answers. We hope that we can be a resource for you through our podcast and any other way that we can help you.
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