4-78. The Heart of True Faith

Luke 16:14-31

Join us this week as Dan and Josh explore the importance of authentic faith, the dangers of legalism, a look at marriage and divorce, and the true meaning of serving God versus material wealth, all through a practical lens and deep dive into Luke 16 and related teachings. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hey, well, welcome. Welcome back. Welcome for the first time to the One Truth Podcast. And two opinions working on uh season four in episode 78. What a deal, Josh. We're glad you're here as we we start. I tell you, I can't complain. Uh I am glad you're here. I'm glad I'm here. I get I get hate mail now that uh I miss every other week or every two weeks or whatever it is. People, I I know you don't miss me, so but you're just making fun of me because I'm not here every week, and I apologize for that. But uh I really just aren't enjoying. Yeah. Oh sounds like a Baptist church.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

Three three misses and you're out. Yeah. I didn't mean to knock your intro off there. Just dragging it down there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

I tell people when they come, like, come once and you don't come back, that's fine. If you come twice and don't come back, that's fine. But if you come that third time, you were on the roll and expected to be there every week.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

So there's your warning.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Well, you've been at least three times, so you better you need to quit missing here on this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Oh, I know it. I uh I've I've been enjoying the 80-degree weather here in June in North Texas. It's been really nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Hey, it has been nice. It's been it's even been nice in Montgomery, other than about the last ten days.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

It has been uh even even in the Fairwind House. I've got a big fan. Yeah. It's been great. I haven't turned the big fan on to suck air in and blow it out yet in the Fairman house. We just got fans above them and it's real nice.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Oh my yeah, move move three hours south, and the humidity will not allow you to not do that. You you have the I know it. We have the fans running constantly. Man, I did have an interesting thing last night. I woke up and it was about about 1 a.m. I don't know, it's maybe 1.45 actually now that I'm thinking about it. But anyways, I woke up and I thought, man, something seems off. Something doesn't seem right. Carrie woke up too, or maybe I woke her up, I don't know. But uh she said, is the power off? And uh I got to looking around, and you know, you kind of wake up and come out of it, and I'm like, you know, there's not any. I mean, it was dark. Not that we sleep with the lights on or anything, but and so I grabbed my phone and and unplugged the charger, plugged it back in. Well, it's not charging. So I thought, well, and so you know, you might be listening thinking, well, yeah, the power went off. What whoopdy do, you know, suck it up, buttercup. But we've got backup generator that runs everything up the hill, not necessarily for the house as much as for the farrowing house, sis, and the nursery. And so I've got alarms on everything, and so I look back at my phone and it's like, oh yeah, 30 minutes ago. I don't know how it didn't wake me up when it called and text and all that, but it didn't. And so my first thought is, well, why is my backup generator not running? And my second thought is, I hope everything's alright in these fair houses. Surely it's the middle of the night, it's probably fine. It's only been 30 minutes, but they're not empty at the moment. So that luckily they at this particular time, now one of them is completely full and the other one's basically full. But as of one o'clock this morning, the one they weren't full, so it wasn't as bad even as it could be. So I go out, got some tripped alarm, I reset the generator, it fires right up. Carrie walks through the fairing houses, things are things are fine, and uh come back. But I'll tell you, it was a uh, I don't know where we are in the moon cycle or what you call that when it's like not really there, but it was dark. And then you know, you're you're used to just you know, we got exterior lights on barns and this, that, and the other. And you walk outside and and and with a backup generator, the power is never literally off. So it's one of the first times I've walked out to this pig farm and it was on just the right moon cycle. And I mean, it is one dark place around here, um, in that with all the the lights and that. And so, anyways, I say all that to waste a minute of your life that you'll never get back and hear about how my generator wasn't running, and I just you know, shockingly enough, it was dark at night in Montgomery. But then it took me about an hour and a half to fall back to sleep after that. So I should have just stayed up and recorded it all right then. But that uh yeah, no, fairing season's going well. Uh not many issues so far, other than losing power one night. But uh anyways, I don't even know how we got on that, but it was nice. It wasn't we've had all these storms and stuff, so the weather, but it was so I walked out and I was like, you know, it'll be alright. And then like, you know, you open the door out of the house, and it's like, oh my gosh, it feels like a sign of steel at two o'clock in the morning. I hope my cells are okay in the fairness, and they were fine. But I guess there should be a little tropical storm today. And we're we're gonna drop this one today, too. So this is the live weather report.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Live weather report. Coming to you live.

SPEAKER_03 5:36

I don't know how much rain we've had, but it's been a lot. A lot. It's rained. This is the first this is Thursday of this particular week. And the first day it has it rained. And it rained pretty significantly.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

But I like it.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

Aiden's mowing right now. I've I've had to give up my mowing for a minute. It's it's so much to mow and I have so many other things to do. I've just had to let him mow for the most part. Cuts into mow. He actually, like, he literally said, Any time that you need me to mow, I will mow all day. I like to mow. Come on. And he's been mowing since 7 30 this morning, and it's currently 12 21. And I mean, yeah, he got a smile on his face out there getting he's probably listening to Haunted Cosmos or Mr. Ballin podcast on something that's anyway. Um might be listening to this one by now, who knows? But anyways, I'm I'm glad he likes to mow. By the time he leaves school, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Well, no, when the kids start pulling their weight, uh it reminds me, and I've probably told this story on here, but my brother and I mowed a lot of yards growing up, and I remember the first time dad took us and we pulled out of the driveway and got on the farm road. And we're sitting three across in his GMC truck that just had one, I mean, there was one bench, there wasn't anything behind us, right? Except for maybe a uh some tool. I don't know, anyway, it don't matter. Uh we put out the driveway on the farm road and he goes, guys, this is the proudest day of my life. And I was like, Whoa, man, he's about to pump us up. What'd we do? He goes, You boys are finally to the size y'all can go mow. And I'm gonna sit and watch you. So he was our chauffeur until I could drive, and then we kept mowing yards. We made a lot of money back then. Now it's better than pig farming.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Maybe not now with what some of the pig prices have that I've seen, but as long as it rained, it was steady.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Lots of mowing to be done. A mowing business in this part of the world's a necessity, I think. I mean, if I mean we don't have a mowing business, but we have a mower that costs enough. I probably should have hired a mowing business.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

I've I've I've penciled that out too, and you'll get a few years and then you might as well bought a mower.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Yeah. Yeah. No, we've decided to mow the whole farm with that zero turn this time, like we used to do. Because it just looks nice and and it kind of makes everything smoother and blah blah blah. And uh yeah, if you stay on top of it, it it's really not that bad. I mean, it's a day of mowing every two weeks or whatever a week, but you get behind it.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

We're st we're still mowing twice a week here. With Reagan calls me a grass hole and weird. Oh, we're still under the 10-minute mark. We're good. She calls me a grass hole, and I wouldn't I don't even like it when someone pulls in my grass out by the barn. I'm like, get off the grass.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

She calls you a grass what?

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Grass hole.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

A grass okay, that's what I thought you said. I was just wanted to clarify on the English there. Grass hole. Uh, okay. Yep. I've never heard of it.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Not to be confused. Not to be confused. Uh yeah, that's a first for me.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

I'll have to write I'll have to look that up in the encyclopedia when we get done. I've never heard that one before.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

I don't know if it's in there.

SPEAKER_03 9:18

What we might could, we could we definitely can't put that on the title on the on the episode banner. There's that that yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Grass holes and mowers. Grass holes and zero turns.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Uh-huh. Welcome back to the summer with Dan the Grasshole.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Uh that that'd be eight seconds, seven seconds, six. We gotta get going. It's been ten minutes and we've done nothing.

SPEAKER_03 9:43

Ten minutes. Welcome. If you're still with us, thank you. We appreciate you bearing with us. Sometimes we like to just discuss some random things of of the summer. Breaks up the monotony. We're 78 episodes into the fourth season of the podcast. As uh, you know, if you've been listening, we've tried to have more guests this time, and uh hope you've enjoyed that. It seems like people like that, so we'll try to continue to do uh as much of that as we can we can make possible uh as we go. But this week we'll be right back in to our study of Luke, which we hope is also the main reason that you're coming, because it's the main reason that we're doing this is to study the Bible, study God's word, and see what it has to say and how it applies to our life and and our relationship with God. So um, if you've been with us before, uh you will know that we're gonna pick right back up where we left off, I think two weeks ago, because I think last week was Weston's episode. So we're gonna be uh picking up in Luke 16, uh, and we'll pick up right in the middle of the chapter in uh in verse 14. So if you haven't uh haven't been listening along, the last episode we uh we covered the first half of this chapter or two episodes ago, 476. And so um if you want to get into the context and kind of where we're at, then I would I would suggest going back and listening in succinct order, uh, when or just going back after you listen to this one, however you'd like to do it. But where we're at here in Luke 16 uh is right in the smack dab middle of a conversation again, as we'll find a lot of the times in the gospels with Jesus and uh this group of religious leaders that's just called the Pharisees, they're ritualist, uh legalist um sect of what you would call some of the most religious people there in Judaism at the time. And as we'll see as we get into a lot of things today, um, a lot of their discussion back and forth were were these were guys and and what Judaism had really kind of turned to in an extent of of just going through the rituals, being one way on the outside um of the way they presented themselves as righteous and holy and and and and doing the things that the law of Moses had commanded, but then even stacking it uh on top of one another to to the extent that they thought they could receive salvation and be perfectly righteous because of the things that they were doing, and what that ultimately led to as legalism always does is a dead heart on the inside that that uh that that well as Christ says elsewhere that that they tithe meant Dylan Cuban and and neglect the weightier things of the law of of love, grace, and mercy. That's a bad paraphrase. But so we're right in the middle of another one of those conversations, and as we ended up uh in 476, the last line there in uh in verse 13 is is you cannot serve God and money. And as we get into today, we're gonna cover the rest of Luke chapter 16. But have that uh as we pick up verse 14, the first line is gonna be the Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all these things and they ridiculed him. So it's still gonna be around that whole contextual thought of Jesus speaking to the Pharisees who were very religious, who had all of these things that they were trying to check boxes for, but inside were full of dead men's bombs, and inside were dead and didn't necessarily have love for God. They they cared about the material things, they cared about their wealth, they looked at wealth as a response from God to being you know counted righteous, and they cared about what the other people thought about them more than they cared about what God thinks about them. And so, in all of that context, kind of we're having this this discussion uh as we jump back into the last half of Luke 16 today with the Pharisees who were lovers of money, as it says there in verse 14. So any initial thoughts before we jump into the into the passage, Dan?

SPEAKER_01 13:40

No, uh if I don't know if we're gonna read it or or what, but I mean there is uh and I I don't as long as we read through verse 15, because yeah, let's just read it.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

I haven't recorded the the reading previous to put on the intro, anyways, and we're gonna drop this out right after. So yeah, let's just uh let's take it like we used to and just go verse by verse and and read through. How about that?

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Sounds great. Uh let's do it. Uh verse 14 of Luke 16 says, The Pharisees who were lovers of money were listening to all these things and scoffing at him. And he told them, and this is Jesus' words here, he says, You're the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly admired by people is revolting in God's sight. And I think we, me, could meditate on that all day, every day. God knows my heart. God knows my true intentions. Who am I performing for? Who am I living for? And I think that's gonna speak differently to some to a lot of folks, but I mean I I there's not much I can say, or I don't know if Josh can say much to that verse, other than, hey, you do what you want, but God knows your heart. You can act how you want, you can you can talk, be, be how you want. God knows your heart. We can't fool God. We can put a front on in front of man, fool men, but you can't fool God. Where I that just that that hits me every and I it's not like I read it all the time, Joshua. Every time I come across Luke 16, 15, that's and what the world finds greatness in, the Lord's like, no, that's let's get rid of that. Let's get your heart right. And it brings me back, am I doing the right things? Am I doing what God wants me to do? God knows my heart. Well, how is my heart? And I guess that'd be a question today. I mean, we can ask the end question at the very beginning is how is your heart? You can tell me, but God knows how your heart is. Is it hardened as the Pharisees were is were? Go ahead, Josh.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

No, yeah, I was going the same place. You you just talked of of you know, elsewhere, like in Matthew 12, when when he's looking at uh at uh the Pharisees, if I'm not mistaken, there you can and and um this actually, yeah, this is Christ's words, not John the Baptist. He calls him a brood of vipers. How can you uh maybe this is John the Baptist? Let me let me not lie. No, it's Jesus. Okay. Uh it says in Matthew 12, 34, you brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So as we were talking about that, you know, the things that kept coming up in my mind is as you might be sitting there, Jesus is doing all these things. Even when you see the Sermon on the Mount and the and the Beatitudes and how he he breaks everything down, he he's looking at this group of people and saying, You religious who on the outside of the cup look one way. God looks not like his man looks on the outside, but looks at the heart, just like Dan's been saying. And then we have this thing that we can look around at our fruit, we can look around at our deeds and our actions and say, What what is the true motive of our heart? Yeah, we can put on a show and be hypocrites and and play act and and make, you know, and that and that's what what these guys are basically doing. And again, you go through certain situations in life and how you respond and that. I think a lot of the trials that we can go through point back for us to be able to evaluate ourselves even more clearly, because I think it's in Jeremiah, I don't have the reference in front of me, um, that that speaks of that even the heart is deceitfully wicked, who can know it? And so so how do how do we know our own heart? How do we know how where we're at? Well, as we walk through life and we compare ourselves in light of scripture and in light of of God's word, in light of Jesus' teaching, as he is here to these guys, what what actually happens? And and I thought the the end of verse 15 is what just all has kind of gravitated most of my attention uh on this passage is for what is exalted among men. Well, I I asked myself the question, what what is exalted among men in the life that we all live? Like what are the things and well what I finally came to is this morning is think back to last time of you can't serve God in money, you can't serve God in material things because what does Christ say? He said you'll either love the one and hate the other. So what what's exalted among men? The material things, what's exalted in the world, the material things, the temporal things, success, fame, money, and so on and so forth, does it mean that that having success is bad? But no, but these guys attributed a lot of that in context to success being favor from God and being poor being the opposite of that. And so if you think again in the gospels and what a lot of his teachings in that light of just because you're wealthy and and have some things accrued here on the earth, um Christ knocks that down. So this is again another one of those teachings that's so upside down to these guys, because in their mind, the the successful and wealthy are being blessed in the eyes of God, and the poor and the downtrodden are being cursed because they they need to be more righteous. And what what Christ is sitting here setting down is saying, no, don't look at it that way. You're wrong. God knows the heart, and the things that you're exalting among men is an abomination in the sight of God. And you can read back through, and I don't have those references in front of me either, how many times in the Old Testament, um, even the rituals that these guys perform on behalf of the law of Moses that had become outward and external only, you know, in our context today, it'd be like going to church, going to Bible study, going to Sunday school, listening to this podcast because you feel like it's a check in the box of what you need to do, but on the inside, it's really just an external, it's nothing to you. It's just something that you feel like you need to do, not something that you'd want to do. And he says, all of that doesn't matter. In the Old Testament, over and over, he says, sacrifice isn't what I want. Christ says it somewhere. I'm trying to think of where. He says, I require mercy, not sacrifice, justice. So you think of again the weightier things of the law, of grace, of mercy, and that. And these guys had had none of that. They were one way on the outside and full of dead men's bones on the inside, and really had a upside down look at at what the point of all of the sacrifices were pointing to. What the the again a broken and contrite spirit you think of the beatitudes that the meek, the humble, not the proud, the sorrowful, the ones who seek to know God, these will be the righteous. Anyway.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

As we move on, it says the law and the prophets were until John, John the Baptist here. It says, Since then the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is urgently, urgently invited to enter it. Everyone is invited to enter the kingdom of God. Some will enter, some will accept that invitation, and we've been through that as a banquet. It's been a few podcasts ago now, not many, this season. Uh that were invited to the banquet. This is everyone, and I and I love it that it's urgently. It's not, hey, yeah, come on. If you want to come, come on. No, this is urgent. This is us, this is Jesus saying, Hey, this is this is pretty serious, right? This is this is the way. Said everybody's urgently invited to enter into it, but it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter in the law to drop out. In verse 18, it says, Everyone who divorces his wife. And marries another woman commits adultery. And everyone who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. And I think there's some context there, Josh. Not obviously not in uh verse 18 there, but uh in in the times, and and if you're listening, I'm and I'm wrong, please tell me, but because I do want to be honorable and correct with with scripture, but in the times it was some of the the men husbands were treating marriage like a fast food menu. Well, I'll take that one today. Give me the number three today, and next week I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna eat the number five. Well, I like this wife here, but I'm I'm gonna divorce her and because I want that one over there, but to make it right, I really need to divorce this one and marry her. And I believe that's that was some of the things that were going on. And so I think that's some of the context there. Josh, you may can can help me out a little more right there.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

Yeah. No, I basically it's interesting kind of studying on that, is is you've got and and I was telling Dan before we jumped on and we were kind of talking about this verse. Like, this is something I I've I've studied a lot, but for personal reasons, because uh you you can take and read that and and and take it uh out of context, take it literally exactly what it says, and say everyone who marries a woman who's divorced from her husband commits adultery. Well, for those of you who don't know, I'm married to Carrie who has a former husband and is divorced, and so uh this has been a uh topic that I've I've looked at strenuously over the last, I don't know, five or six years. Um, and if it's something that you uh would like to talk about more than we can probably cover in today's episode, may call me because I couldn't tell you how many hours I've spent studying cover to cover on divorce and marriage, marriage and divorce and remarriage and that and what it looks like. And and and the the clearest thing I could tell you is that um the the simplest thing is God hates divorce. Divorce is an abomination to the Lord, and and adultery and all that goes with it is sinful. And um, so uh I would not for the moment tell you that that it my life in this particular area is without sin. I would be the first one to tell you uh that it that it has come with sin and it has come with remorse and regret from the sense of that it's not in the way uh that's ideal to the way God ordained, as Jesus says in Matthew 19, that that uh that man and woman should should be together and become one flesh and and let not a man separate what God's joined together. It doesn't say that that uh a man cannot separate what God has joined together because we see in Deuteronomy 24 that there is divorce. They're talking about it here. It's it's delivered more in Matthew 19, uh and in a fuller context of what Dan was kind of talking about of the Pharisees here and the religious leaders of the time and what they were, they were, you know, there were there were two schools of thought there, and we'll get into that just briefly. But um you also see other instances when Christ sets with the woman at the well at John 4 and he tells her, the man you have now is not your husband. You've had five husbands. He he doesn't say you had one original husband and then all of these other adulterous relationships that never equated to a husband because you were still bound to your first one. Um, and again, sinful. Uh this is not an instance where we're gonna sit here on the side and say, whether it's divorce or adultery or homosexuality or anything else, that it's not sinful. It is what it is, and it is something that must be repented of, that must be confessed, it must be said the same thing about what God says about it. But it is by no means, uh, if you look and see, there is nowhere in the scripture that Jesus says this is an unforgivable sin, that this is something that can't be forgiven, this is something that can't be undone. And we see that probably the the clearest in John 4 when he tells this woman, um, you've had five husbands. The one you have now is not your husband. Come and and you know, goes on and all to be forgiven and move forward. And so, and what we see in Matthew 19, um, in the fuller context of this particular teaching of Jesus, uh, when he says that that there's a little pushback when they say, Well, why did Moses command us to give a certificate of divorce? And and he says he didn't command you to give a certificate of divorce, paraphrasing, he allowed you that because of the hardness of your heart. And then there's there's other instances we can talk about in Matthew 5 of sexual immorality and what comes from that, and all of that quickly said, but to say divorce is sinful, God hates divorce, divorce is forgivable. Um we serve a loving, merciful, forgiving Father who says that if we will confess our sins, he's faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. No different than he cleansed Paul from being a murderer, who's now a new creation in Christ and no longer a murderer, but walks under the cloth, cloaked blood of Christ, uh, the person who has committed sin in their life when it comes to marriage, though it's the beautiful, perfect, utmost picture of Christ's relationship to the bride, the church, his bride, the church. Us as mankind have messed it up plenty of times. We have to realize exactly why and how, and um, and and not make any excuses or sidestep for that, um, and and see it for what it is. But that's maybe the highlights off of that. But if that's something that because divorce is is man, it's it's uh prevalent, I guess is the word in our culture and our country, and and no fault divorce, and and that was some of the the two thoughts that Dan was talking about in this time. There was there was really two rabbinic thoughts, the the Shammiite and the Hilalites, Hillalites thoughts. And and on one side it was divorce is okay for any reason whatsoever. And that's pretty much where we are in the United States today. That's not what God says, it's not what Jesus says, but that's what what their interpretation of it was. And so, like Dan said, they were they were if they burnt the bread, they were you know justified for the man to divorce his wife. If they found a better looking woman and and were dissatisfied with that, um and then and then the other side, uh Shamai, their their school of thought was that only for immorality can a woman then become unclean and then justifiably be divorced, which is it seems to be what Jesus um kind of goes with here, and and so would fall more on that side. So, you know, it hasn't been too long ago, I guess, Dan. You might may may be able to specify this better than I can in our country that no fault divorce is not just I mean, it's fairly new, right? I mean, I say new as in 20 years, 10 years, 50, I mean, how long? Longer than that, 30 years? I don't know. I guess could look it up. But wasn't I guess what I'm saying, it wasn't always the case that you could just go down to the courthouse, get divorced for whatever reason you had that there had to be a legitimate legitimate from the element standpoint.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Yeah, and I remember the first time my mom mentioned something about one of my best friends that his mom and dad were getting a divorce, and I I we were in the fourth grade, and I was like, oh no. That's absolutely horrible. Like it it put fear in me. And I s I'm still heartbroken when I hear about it now, but you're right, Josh. I mean take a survey of the kiddos in in your kids' school and how many of them have mom and dad at home. Right.

SPEAKER_03 30:13

No, and and and it's it's the thing, I kind of breezed by this. I think a a large portion of it, if you say, well, how did how did we get to this point? And again, this is speaking as someone who's who's screwed up in this area. So um I'm not I'm not sitting in the ivory tower pointing out at other people. Um I'm coming to you as a sinner saved by grace, talking about something that's affected my life that I've studied immensely. So um it's one of those instances that when we enter into a covenant of marriage with another person, and and we do see that as the utmost picture of Christ and his bride and what that relationship means. And and uh it seems like today, you know, I I've been to well, most recently, uh, one of the elders of their church uh one of their kids got married, and and it was one of the most beautiful wedding ceremonies I've ever got to witness. God honoring, and and you talk about like putting the gospel on display, and then what the picture of marriage is supposed to represent, like it was presented beautifully. But if I was to say the the five weddings I've gone to in the last the last five weddings I've gone to, how often we're on that side versus shifting away from really understanding the the point of marriage and what it represents from that standpoint, um, a lot of us I think miss the mark and understanding the true sanctity of marriage and what what that picture is, and so entering into that covenant, not only uh with the man and a woman, but but with God and what he says about it, and it's his idea and he coming up with it and it's his you know his way, his rules. So lacking that understanding, and and again, not not throwing rocks from an ivory tower, because the more that I grow and understand this that picture of the gospel and of Christ and his church, the more that I grow and understand the sanctity of my uh marriage with Carrie and what what that covenant that we made with one another that is binding and real and what it looks like. And you know, we're clear to sit down with kids and say, like, that this isn't the ideal way. It's not it shouldn't be trial two or trial three or so on and so forth. It's sinful. The ideal is is yeah, you're married for life. It's a sanctity of marriage, it's a covenant between you and the Lord and and not meant to be broken. Um that's uh you know that's how we talk about it. That's that's what it is, and and that's what life is. If it doesn't matter if it's this or or whatever sin that's you, you know, if you're listening and you and you struggle with alcohol, or you struggle with gluttony, or you struggle with you sat down with your family and you say these are the things that I struggle with. I need your help and prayer for me on this, I need your help, and and I want to lead my family this way, and I'm getting a ramble a little bit, but it's it's how we come through life, not saying, Well, this was the way I was born, and I I want to be, you know, like well, me, you know, for for me to look at it and say, Well, me and Carrie love each other, and that's just, you know, like it can't be wrong. If I could tell you at a lost point in my life, I would have said that. Well, that's not saying the same thing about sin as God does. And so, you know, we we're not gonna talk about homosexuality and and and all of that today, but that that's the whole thing in our culture with divorce and that rate and the way it's looked at, and no fault divorce, and homosexuality too, and many other sins, is that we don't say the same thing about it that God says about it. And if we don't do that, then then it's impossible to confess and repent of our sin. Because the first thing in that is is confess. Well, you have to say the same thing about sin that God does. So, anyways, that's all I have to say about that to quote Tom Hanks. But I'll finish that up with if anybody has if you want to talk about divorce and marriage and remarriage, if you disagree with me, man, I'd love to visit with you. Um, reach out to me, text me, call me, email me. I've I've spent a lot of time in my life under conviction to be sure. And maybe I'm not comp completely right. Uh maybe I'm maybe there's something amiss. So I would love to have that conversation with anybody um that we can talk about it further and and and dig into the word and see what God says about it, because that's ultimately I don't want to be right. I want to, I wanna I want to view it as I do everything, like God says it is. So that's that's my ultimate goal. So if you want to reach out, if you're struggling with something, if you want to talk about it, man, um my my phone's open. So Dan's is too. I'll speak for him.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Yeah, and that's fine. Uh I don't know if we've turned this into uh a marriage podcast today or not, but it marriage is not for the weak. E E K and E A K. Uh it is a choice. Goodness. And and I think it's the reason it's so close to the the union between man and woman, the union between Christ and his church, it's because it we we choose each other for life. And we love each other for life. I I I it doesn't say to like each other in sickness and in health. Because there's gonna be some days that that Reagan does not like me. I'm scared not to like her, and that's probably how any good marriage should be. But there's gonna be plenty of days that we don't like each other. But how many days can we sit back and think, man, God didn't like me today? God doesn't like it when I do this, God doesn't like it when I do that. I'm getting on God's last nerves. Why do I keep doing this, knowing that God doesn't like it when I do that? But God chose us. God loves us. God sent his son to die for us. And just like there said before John came, it was all the law and the prophets, and now since John, it's the good news of the kingdom. The kingdom of God that's been proclaimed, and everyone is welcome. Everyone is invited. Well, I can go to bed in the evening time, and obviously uh Reagan and I are working on year 17 in November. I know what makes Reagan happy. I know what Reagan makes Reagan unhappy. And why should I go to bed at night saying, Man, my wife doesn't like me. I sure like it when I go to bed at night and my wife likes me. That helps me sleep a lot better. And Reagan knows my heart, right? Uh just like it says God knows our heart. The marriage between Christ and his church, but the marriage between Christ and you, as a follower of Christ, you know what makes Jesus not like you. And why do we chase after what the world calls good? In my verse, my my Bible, it says, for what God knows your heart, for what is highly admired by people is revolting to God. What the world likes, God doesn't. And so why is our daily pursuit worldly worldly? Or is our daily pursuit godly? Is our daily pursuit in the good news of God's kingdom? Or is it in the stuff that he doesn't like? Are we doing the stuff that's revolting in God's sight? Hey, Josh, I could go down a list and years of my life that I was highly admired by the world. Right? Does that make sense? And I and I one one of the one of the my favorite things about being a follower of Christ, and I'm not I'm not the best guys, but it's the freedom of being a follower of Christ to not worry about what's highly regarded with the world. But when we can find what revolts God, if that stuff is revolting us, then I'd say we're on the right track. We're on the narrow road. We're headed to the the the narrow gate, not the gate that swings broad and wide. And and man, there's nothing wrong with having a little money, I don't think, Josh, but it's when we serve that money.

SPEAKER_03 38:47

No, definitely. I was um I was in well this this will be next week's episode actually, so uh on the road edition, just if you listen this long, you get a little look peek into next week. But I was in Pennsylvania at a uh Lamb clinic and and got to preach afterwards, or in the middle of it. And um, anyways, their uh their shirts and hats and everything on the on the front of it. Their logo was on the side of the hat. I thought that was neat. Um it said seek first the kingdom of God. It was Matthew 6, what is that, 633 maybe? And um same thing, like you just said. No, I mean we we we read all through scripture of of very wealthy men. I mean, with the oldest, you know, a record you talk about Job. That's what we're reading, studying through on Tuesday night. He was very wealthy. Um Abraham assumes very wealthy. I mean, you see people in uh Lydia in uh in Acts that has a large home that that uses I mean, there's a maker of purple fabrics, royalty. We're gonna read a a uh maybe it's a good segue into the parable of uh you see things people that were that were very wealthy. But again, what what uh and and maybe this is the the best way again to segue into the the rest of this chapter in this rich man in Lazarus parable, because again, think back to you can't serve God and material things. That's what he's telling these guys in context of the Pharisees. He says the same thing to us. Like you can't serve both, you can't one's gonna choke out the other because they have opposite, like Dan's been saying here, they have opposite meaning, they have opposite goals, they have opposite endpoints. To to look successful in the world is not gonna look successful in the kingdom of God in that sense. If that's your number one priority, and I always when we get on this topic, I always think about this this analogy and this quote. Um, and I have no way to verify that it was actually said, but there's a movie called Founder that's about that Ray Kroc that took McDonald's from like the single restaurant that it was in California and made it this what it is to know of McDonald's today. I mean, he didn't he made it to this huge franchise that spanned the country and all that. And so whether he truly said this or not, I don't know, but it doesn't really matter. Um it said uh he said, in business, if you want to be successful, if my competitor's drowning, I'm not gonna throw him a life vest or I'm not gonna throw him a life preserver. I'm gonna stick a hose down his throat and drown him. And that's what the world's gonna tell you to do. Do you do you want to, and I can remember when Bronck was on here, maybe we'll get Bronck back on here this season to talk about this, of uh talking about a barbecue deal or whatever, and and a guy saying, like, just giving him his recipes, and he's like, Well, I don't want to, you know, like here's my competition. It's like I bet my God's big enough to provide for both of us. Like, here you go, brother. But that that's the two different entails, right? And and you can you you end up serving one or the other, serve material things, serve the world, be justified in the world, West and Lackey. Young man talked about that last week. Or or serve God, look to him for validation, uh, and and serve the kingdom. So uh again, in that line of thought, back into the context of where we're at in Luke 16, as we get into this parable to finish this up for this episode today, because I know we're getting getting closer on time, but you think of these Pharisees that looked at, and Christ is just picking them apart. Yeah, you you lovers of money, you can't serve God in material things. And again, their thought process of the rich are the ones that have favor in the side of God, and the poor are the ones that don't have that favor. And so imagine setting in their shoes as he tells this parable and what they would hear, and then and then how he explains it. So you want to pick us up in verse 19, Dan?

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Yes, and I'd love to. You'll have to excuse me. Uh I've got a small print Bible today, and like overnight, about three weeks ago, I'm not able to read looking down anymore. So, like if I get it, have you noticed I've been going at an angle here?

SPEAKER_03 43:04

I haven't picked up on that, but if you need me to read, I'll be happy to do so.

SPEAKER_01 43:07

No, no, no, I can do it. I just it takes me a minute to get started because what's and we're gonna get off track. But is reading the dosage on medications? I can't. I don't I gotta go buy a gas station and get some readers. It'd just do it, right? One for 75 or one for 40. Who cares? Just do it. Yeah. Anyway, sorry guys.

SPEAKER_03 43:26

Uh three to five CC's. Ten if they're above 250. Don't don't take that advice if you're listening, you have livestock. That was a joke. Kinda. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 43:37

Anyways, verse 19. Verse 19. Let's see, I didn't have to read it. You told me what it was. I can get the words here. There was a rich man who would dress in purple and fine linen, feasting lavishly every day. But a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, was lying at his gate. He longed to be filled with what fell from the rich man's table, but instead the dogs would come. And lick his sores. One day the poor man died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's side. I man, we could just stop the story right there, Josh. I'm hey. Yeah. What what a deal. The rich man also died, and he was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus at his side. He said, Father Abraham, he called out, Have mercy on me and send Lazarus Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this flame. But now he is comforted here while you're in agony. Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that those who want to pass over from here to you cannot, neither can those from there cross over to us. But Father, he said, I beg you to send him to my father's house, because I have five brothers to warn them, so that they won't also come to this place of torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, they should listen to them. No, Father Abraham, he said, But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. But he told them if they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not have they will not be persuaded if someone rises from the dead. Reminds me of a something I saw the other day.

SPEAKER_03 45:39

It said, If the living knew what the dead did, and not even what the Everybody would be a follower of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 45:47

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 45:48

Now and that this this parable, I always try to be cautious and not read too much into it because and and and I think I'll do well of that today because we're running up against the end of the clock anyway. But um few few big thoughts for me, and then I'll just I'll shut up on it. This parable is always fascinates me because I um I think of the the rich man who's in Hades and the poor man who's at Abraham's bosom or Abraham's side, they could see each other. That's interesting. Not sure exactly what it means, but it's interesting. I I know there's some theological points built off of this, uh we won't jump off into that, but it's interesting. That's one thing. Another thing, again, the Pharisees hear this, and as soon as they hear that the poor man who who was slave to this guy was at Abraham's side, that would have that would have rubbed them the wrong way. And again, Jesus is clarifying in this parable his point to them, I think, in context. And then the other thing that that really gets to me is at the end, is when this guy realizes he's in anguish and torment and agony and a flame, and he says, Let me go back to tell my brother so this won't happen to them. And the response is always neat to me because you know, just earlier in verse 16, we saw the law and the prophets were until John, and that's what what he's saying to his audience there that's listening. And um, so basically he's saying, Up until John, where the were the Old Testament prophets, and now the kingdom is at hand. What he's been saying through the whole gospel. It's right in front of you. All these things he says in John 5 were written of me. You you cling to Moses, you men who don't believe that I am the Christ and Messiah. He wrote about me. And here we get the same thing. If he says, let them go back and and and what's what's Abraham say back to the guy in the parable? He says, They've got the law and the prophets, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. Where are we sitting 2,000 years later here from from when Luke's writing, roughly, and someone says, Man, if I could just see a miracle, if I could just see Jesus, if I could just see this, that, and the other. Here's your same response. You have Moses and the prophets and the Psalms and the Gospels and the Pauline writings, and the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the apostles' letters, all that a long way of sin. You have the Bible in front of you, the breathed out word of God according to 2 Timothy 3, 1 Timothy 3, whichever, that speaks of all of these things, that weaves them together perfectly. I was talking again last week of you think of the Bible, it's 1500 years, written over 1,500 years, 40 different authors, three different languages, I can't remember how many different continents, and it and it weaves just perfectly together. We couldn't do that if we all tried to sit down across the state of Texas with the internet and make something to tell this perfectly seamless story. And it's the only book that's ever predicted that a man was gonna show up, and then he actually showed up, just like it said he was going to. And then that he was gonna be killed in a specific way that wasn't even invented yet when it was written. And then that he was gonna he's the only person that said, I'll raise myself, I will be raised from death three days later, and it happened. And so the same warning goes out to to you today, but the other thing that that's neat to me, the last point in 31, and he says if they don't hear Moses and they don't hear the prophets, if you wanted to put that in today's text, if you don't believe the Bible, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. And these guys that are hearing him tell this parable, not too long from this point, he's gonna die and rise from the dead, and they're still not gonna believe some of them. They're gonna do everything they can to squash it and cover it up, and we're living proof that that didn't work out for them. But it's just neat when you get into I can get into the weeds of that parable and like, man, what does this mean? What does the afterlife look like if this is what this looks like? And was it at that time and is it different now, and so on, but that's the gist. That's the big picture. Uh and if you say, I don't want to read the Bible, Romans 1 says, look around at all creation. Feel the conviction in your conscience that you know God's life.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

You were taking a breath, Josh? That I have. If you're if you yeah. That's a mirac miracle. The blood running through your veins. If you woke up this morning, you're filled with God's grace. But and the way you wrapped it up, I want to wrap it up too. And I'm I'm out of a coach's Bible that we do, and there was there we actually did, not we, uh FCA put in this Bible uh a study over Luke 16, 19 through 31. I I just want to read a couple of questions as they wrap the study up after they did, you know, a little the 10-minute devo for coaches and stuff. It says, How are the five brothers going to learn the truth about heaven and hell? Who's gonna tell them? And it says, How will people today learn that truth? Who's gonna tell people the difference in heaven and hell? The consequences of hell. Because that sign goes right along with this parable, if the living knew, if we knew what the dead people knew, we would all believe. And the last question they asked for for the the study with coaches here, it says, Will you go to heaven when you die? How can you be sure? And we've talked about a lot of different stuff this afternoon, this morning, whatever. I guess you're gonna drop it this afternoon. Uh we've talked a lot uh about a lot of different things. I think we've talked about a lot of good stuff, but none of that really matters if we can't answer that question right there. When you die, will you go to heaven? How do you know for sure? If you know for sure you're gonna go to heaven when you die, it sure makes it a lot easier to work not worry about what verse uh 15 says. Do you have the freedom that a follower of Christ, one that believes in who Jesus was and what he did for us and what he's doing now? Talk about a father's love, and and as I'm sitting here on this podcast, Josh, I've got three kids here, their mama's at work, and those three kids have a chore list to do while I'm on this podcast, right? I told them I'll be there an hour. Now, you and I had some pregame here, so it's been an hour and a half. But that chore list would take 45 minutes of working hard to do. Do you think it's gonna be done when I get off this computer here? And I'm just getting back to the point of obedience. Go ahead, Josh.

SPEAKER_03 53:03

No, no, no, no, no, no. I was I I shouldn't have said anything. I was just I I was making my bet with them myself. I I too have some of that.

unknown 53:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:11

Oh, I do too, when I'm done. I I've got to get some things done. But uh if I'm the father of those three kids and they don't obey me, I'm I'm I'm still gonna love them. I'm not gonna like them. But it's a simple form of obedience. Obedience to who Christ was and who he is and what he's doing, and following him, believing in what he is, who he is, and saving your soul. Saving us from a lost, dark world, saving us from ourself, saving us from worldly pursuits. And y'all don't get me wrong, it's not like I go every day. Well, God, you're providing a day. What do what do I what do you want me to do? You know, I I do have a job, and my wife has a job. We do, right? But where's the heart in all that we do? Where is our heart? How is our heart? Is our heart fixed on Christ? Or are we so easily entangled in what the world has to offer? Win the day. Don't try to win the week. Don't try to win your life in one day. Win the day, right? Win the day. Uh kiddos are going to strengthen conditioning camp this summer. Whatever, it won't even mention that and we have a coach listening. But as the days you don't feel like doing that are the days you get better. The days that seem the hardest to follow Christ, where the devil is throwing everything at you. It may be a day of nothing but prayer that gets you through. Win the day.

SPEAKER_03 54:44

Amen. Awesome. Well, thanks, Dan. Thank you guys for tuning in again. This has been another episode of the One Truth Podcast. We'll see you next time.