Podcasts about covetousness

In episode 506 of the Reformed Brotherhood, Tony Arsenal and Jesse Schwamb wade deep into one of Luke's most arresting parables — the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13–21). What begins as a story about a man with a bumper crop and an ambitious barn-building plan quickly unfolds into a penetrating diagnosis of the human heart. The hosts argue that this parable is not primarily about financial planning or the dangers of wealth per se, but about the fundamental theological posture of the creature before the Creator. Framed by two parallel warnings — against covetousness and against anxiety — the parable exposes what happens when a soul tries to find its ultimate rest in the abundance of earthly things rather than in God himself. Rich in biblical theology, literary analysis, and pastoral application, this episode rewards careful listening. Key Takeaways The parable is framed by an inclusio — the warning against covetousness (v. 15) and the command against anxiety (v. 22) are parallel statements that reveal the parable's true subject: the misplacement of ultimate trust, whether in abundance or in the lack of it. The man's sin is not his wealth or his planning — Scripture commends prudence and does not condemn the accumulation of resources. What condemns this man is his complete failure to acknowledge God as the giver of the harvest or to consider any obligation beyond self-satisfaction. The soul-talk is theologically and culturally shocking — In the ancient world, deliberating entirely within oneself, speaking to one's own soul, would have registered as a form of insanity. The Greek construction itself strains to articulate the concept, underscoring how deeply abnormal it is to reason about life without God. The repetition of first-person pronouns is not incidental — "My crops, my barns, my grain, my goods" — five times in three verses. This is not poor stewardship; it is the theological posture of self-ownership, a categorical denial of creaturely dependence on the Creator. God's interruption in verse 20 is itself a theological statement — No private counsel is truly private. God, the judge of all the earth, hears every deliberation of the heart. His use of the word "fool" invokes the full weight of biblical wisdom literature: the one who says in his heart, "There is no God." The contrast is not wealth versus poverty, but two objects of trust — To be rich toward God means holding earthly goods with an open hand, whether one is wealthy or poor. Both the covetous rich and the anxiety-ridden poor are addressed by this parable, and both are called to the same posture of dependence on God. True productivity, like true wealth, is impossible without God — Drawing a thread to Jesse's affirmation of Redeeming Your Time by Jordan Raynor, the hosts note that one cannot rightly use wealth, time, or any other gift without first knowing and trusting the Giver. Key Concepts The Inclusio: Covetousness and Anxiety Are the Same Disease One of the most illuminating structural observations in this episode is Tony's identification of the literary inclusio surrounding the parable. Before the parable, Christ warns: "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15). After the parable, he turns to his disciples and says: "Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing" (Luke 12:22–23). These are not two separate concerns — they are the same spiritual disease expressed at opposite ends of the economic spectrum. The man who grasps for more and the man who lies awake worrying about having enough are both making the same fundamental error: they are finding, or attempting to find, their life's ultimate security in the material rather than in God. Autonomous Inner Counsel: The Insanity of Reasoning Without God When the rich man in the parable "reasoned to himself" and then spoke directly to his own soul, Jesus was not simply describing a man thinking through a logistical problem. He was depicting, in vivid and culturally jarring terms, the posture of the natural man before God — a man who, in the moment of his greatest blessing, seals himself off from the Creator entirely. The hosts note that in the ancient world, this kind of internal, autonomous deliberation would have registered as strange, even mad. The man does not consult Scripture, neighbor, elder, or God. He speaks only to himself. This is, as Jesse frames it, "the soliloquy of a completely autonomous man" — the pattern of Adam and Eve in the garden, reasoning about the world as though they were its own final authority. The folly is not that he thought about what to do with his harvest. The folly is that God was nowhere in the deliberation. Rich Toward God: The Gospel Punchline of the Parable The parable's final line — "So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God" — is not merely a moral verdict. It is a gospel invitation. Tony is careful to point out that verse 21 does not condemn the act of storing up treasure in itself; it condemns storing up treasure for oneself and not being rich toward God. The contrast is between two orientations of the whole person. To be rich toward God is not primarily about giving money to the church, though generosity is surely implied. It is about recognizing that in Christ, the believer already possesses the only treasure that cannot corrode, be stolen, or be left behind at death. The soul that has been given Christ has been given everything. The soul that has only its barns has nothing — and one night, God will make that plain. Memorable Quotes He speaks to his own soul as though the soul — which is like the very seat of a person's relationship with God — could be satisfied by grain. — Jesse Schwamb Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. That's the thesis statement of this parable. So the contrast is: what does life consist in? It consists in richness toward God. — Tony Arsenal This parable confronts every hearer, regardless of net worth, with a single diagnostic question: where has my soul quietly gone to find its rest? — Jesse Schwamb Full Transcript [00:00:57] Welcome to episode [00:01:00] 506 of the Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse.  [00:01:04] Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony, and this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey, brother.  [00:01:09] Jesse Schwamb: Hey, brother. So on this episode, we're diving right back into the parables. We're gonna be in Luke chapter 12, and it's the parable of the rich fool, which is the story basically of a guy who has a bumper harvest, looks at his overflowing barns, and then thinks, "You know what this situation calls for? [00:01:28] More barns." Not a single thought given to his neighbors, to worship, to God who sent the rain in the first place, just barns. Bigger, better, badder barns  [00:01:38] Tony Arsenal: Battlestar Galactica. That's a lot of Bs. That's some good alliteration, though.  [00:01:44] Jesse Schwamb: I thought you'd enjoy that. And Jesus has something to say about this. It's for all of us, actually, and it might not be the thing you expect, but we're gonna talk about all that stuff. [00:01:52] Affirmations and Denials Setup [00:01:52] Jesse Schwamb: But of course, first, here's what everybody needs to do. Gather your loved ones around, get your hearts and your snacks together, 'cause it's [00:02:00] once again time to set forth in an orderly and confessional manner our considered judgments on the things of this world. It's time for affirmations and denials, that part of our conversation where we either affirm something by saying we like it, we enjoy it, it's great, or in contrast, we deny against something that just isn't so good. [00:02:18] So Tony, it's time for your doctrinal statements. Are you affirming with something or denying against something on our episode?  [00:02:26] Tony Arsenal: I don't know about a, I don't know about a doctrinal statement, but I'm affirming with something.  [00:02:29] Jesse Schwamb: Okay.  [00:02:29] Tony's Baked Pasta Win [00:02:29] Tony Arsenal: So you and I have talked before about how much we love the slow cooker meals. [00:02:33] Yes. And, uh, this isn't a slow cooker meal, uh, affirmation, but it is a food recommendation. Um, I've been making this baked pasta, this baked spaghetti dish, that is just so delicious. And the reason it works really well for our family is first, the kids love it, which is, uh, r- rare these days. We- With a two and a, a two-year-old and a four-and-a-half-year-old, they can be very, very selective about what they eat. [00:02:57] This is a consistent winner. Um, but also, like, [00:03:00] the amount that the recipe makes will do lunches and leftover dinners for all four of us for several days. So it's a super simple recipe. I'm actually, this might be a Reformed Brotherhood first, but I'm gonna put it in the show notes. I'm gonna put the recipe in the show notes. [00:03:13] Mm-hmm. And, uh, it's super simple. You just cook up 16 ounces of, you know, pasta. I did, uh, it's calls for spaghetti, but with toddlers it's a little easier if you do something like, um, like elbow noodles or I did bow ties tonight 'cause it was kinda fun and I could be like, "Hey, look, it's bow ties." Uh, it's, it's just some sort of, uh, macaroni product, you know, like a, a spaghetti, angel hair pasta, whatever you wanna use. [00:03:40] You put in two 24-ounce jars of marinara sauce or a pasta sauce. Uh, it calls for a bunch of spices, but you can also just get a pasta sauce that is already spiced. If you want a pasta sauce that has, like, mushrooms or extra basil or something, like, you can buy, like, a more flavored style of pasta sauce, and that'll add [00:04:00] some, uh, some texture to it. [00:04:02] You do two pounds of ground beef, which will cost you, like, $1,000 these days- ... but it's, it's worth it. You could replace it with ground turkey if you wanted to do something- Nice ... uh, a little bit less expensive or maybe something a little bit healthier. Um- You put in like two eight-ounce things of sour cream. [00:04:18] I think it calls- Ooh ... for 12 ounces, but I did, uh, I did 16 ounces today and it was extra creamy. And then just a mess of mozzarella, and you know, a mess of... You, you top it with mozzarella cheese- Nice. Nice ... and, uh, Parmesan. And then you just cover it with foil and bake it for a half hour, and then take the foil off and bake that, uh, for another 15 minutes to make sure that surface cheese is nice and crisp and, like, gooey and perfect. [00:04:42] Mm-hmm. Uh, and it's just, it's just good. It's getting to be that time of year where things are a little colder. Right. And, uh, we... Our, our home is heated by propane, which is expensive, and this time of year, like, I don't actually wanna turn the furnace on, but cooking a nice meal in the, in the stove just sort of takes the, [00:05:00] takes the, uh, edge out of the air a little bit. [00:05:02] So every element of it is great. And like I said, I'll, I'll eat this dish for lunch for the next, like, four days and I'll love every bit of it. So I'll put the recipe in the show notes. It's very easy to make. It's very, very good. If you got kids, it's a winner 'cause it's cheesy and gooey and it's fun. Um, and then you put a side of veggies with it, mixed veggies or spinach or whatever you want. [00:05:25] Uh, and it's just, it's just delicious. It's so, so good, Jesse. I can't even describe how good it is. Um, but it's, it's just really, really delicious. I've made it twice now and, uh, it's just easy. I'm not a very good cook. Your wife is a phenomenal cook, so she's probably able to, like- This is true ... she could probably tweak this recipe and make it, like, a real culinary masterpiece. [00:05:43] But you don't have to be a great cook to put this together. Right. You just boil the pasta, brown the beef, and then mix it all together and bake it for a little while and it's, it's really, really easy and good.  [00:05:52] Jesse Schwamb: I can at least vouch for how delicious it looks. You sent us a picture and it's exactly what you'd expect. [00:05:58] Like, it, it's [00:06:00] a big casserole dish of pasta, which I didn't know the recipe, so I can see it's elevated pasta, really. Got some things that- Yeah ... kinda just take it from, like, just out of the box stuff to something that's a little bit more decadent, and that's what you want.  [00:06:12] Cheese Talk and Recipe Tweaks [00:06:12] Jesse Schwamb: But I was immediately overcome by just the beautiful cascading... [00:06:17] A- as if covered by covenant itself, this pasta was just smothered- ... in this delici- like, not... A- and I don't wanna say, like, not, not too much cheese, like just the right amount. And I could tell it had been baked so that it was not just melted but got the crispiness. Here's what, this is the reason why I make such a big deal about the picture is because my wife is lactose intolerant, and I've learned you can, you can fall into a kind of version of Romans 1 with lactose intolerance. [00:06:44] If there's somebody who's a loved one- ... in particular, and by that I mean I, because we haven't had real cheese in a while, I thought, "I don't need real cheese. Like, we can get this fake stuff. It's, it's really good. It's, it's so delicious." And then you see a picture like that and I immediately thought, "I've exchanged the truth for a lie.[00:07:00] [00:07:00] I want cheese." "I want it so bad."  [00:07:03] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the cheese really is the... I mean, the, the secret to this is the sour cream. Um, I feel like that's really what, what sort of pushes it over the edge. Last time that I made it, the first time I made it, I didn't tell Ashley what was in it. She just knew it was like a baked p- pasta dish, and she was like, "This is so good and creamy, and I... [00:07:23] It's, like, it's really delicious." Um, the sour cream really kicks it over the edge. If, if anything, I would add a little more cheese than I used tonight. Um, it calls for a cup of cheese, which is a lot of cheese. That's eight ounces of cheese. A lot of cheese. Um, it's four ounces of cheese. Um, but I use a little bit more, and I actually think it could u- it could've used a little more mozzarella and make that inner, like, the in- middle gooey part a even more gooey and cohesive. [00:07:48] But it's good. It's really... It's a recipe that's hard to screw up. And even if you did it without cheese, if you just added sour cream or, um, even if you didn't do that, you just added something to sort of give it a little bit of an edge. You probably could do it with yogurt if you were [00:08:00] looking to save, uh, do something a little bit more healthy than sour cream. [00:08:03] Um, and it's one of those dishes, like, you can play with it. You can kinda mess around with it and change it up. Um- I saw one person online who was talking about this recipe who, uh, they, they sprinkled a little bit of cheddar cheese on top of it along with the mozzarella and it gave it a little bit of that sharpness. [00:08:17] So check it out. I'll post the recipe. It's very easy. Um, it was actually in a list of like easy meal plan. Ashley has this packet of like easy meals for busy moms kind of thing. Uh, and it, it takes a bit of time. This one is not one that you would wanna try to do, you know, after a work night trying to get the kids ready. [00:08:38] But again, it's one of those ones kind of like the slow cooker stuff we talk about. Like- Right ... once you get it set and you do it, then like you have leftovers for the week and it heats up real well. It reheats really well. Um, probably don't want to eat it cold because of the ground beef. Could, could get a, you know, get some food poisoning kind of stuff going on there, but it microwaves real well. [00:08:58] Uh, it's very delicious. [00:09:00] You, you know like sometimes when you microwave something, like it's, it dries out. Because this has like the sour cream and the, the marinara sauce, this doesn't really dry out. Um, and it, it stores really well in the refrigerator. You could probably freeze it if you really wanted to. [00:09:14] Uh, it's just really a versatile, easy to make dish. So I'll post the recipe.  [00:09:18] Telegram Tastings and Oreo Chaos [00:09:18] Tony Arsenal: Uh, this is one of those things we, we sometimes forget to talk about our Telegram chat until the very end of the episode, which is like the worst possible time to do a call to action- I know ... for a podcast. How dare we? Uh, we actually have a whole channel in our Telegram chat which you can access by going to t.me/reformedbrotherhood. [00:09:36] We have a whole channel just for tastings, and usually people will do things like hot wing tasting or this time of year sometimes like seasonal Oreos or seasonal candy bars come out or maybe someone gets a new beer or something like that. I would love to see some people make this recipe and do some tastings because maybe I'm overselling it. [00:09:53] Maybe I just love this and it's only so-so, but, uh, I'd love to see what the rest of the community thinks. So [00:10:00] t.me/reformedbrotherhood, make the baked pasta. Tell me what you think. I think it would be awesome.  [00:10:05] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, there you go. There's all kinds of great things taking place out there, and this is that time of year. [00:10:09] Oreo won't stop. I mean, this could be our, the whole topic- I know ... of our conversation tonight, so I'm just gonna avoid it for the most part, but somebody needs to stop Oreo. I tried the Chicken and Waffles Oreo, and It was not good. Uh, maybe that should be my denial- No ... but it's not my denial, but it's not great. [00:10:26] It, well, it's complicated, guys. It's, it's kind of good because it tastes mostly, at least when I ate it... Okay, somebody be the judge. Go, go get some. Grab them from a friend. Do not go buy them yourself unless, like, you think- No ... this is something you're really gonna love. But, uh, and I'm gonna warn you, you probably won't. [00:10:43] But it, it'll taste delicious 'cause you'll be like, "Oh, this is like maple syrupy, and it tastes waffle-y." And then there was, like, something that happened in the back of my throat that was unnatural. It was like a spiciness or a clinginess or, like, a weird spice that I think was supposed to be an analog for chicken.[00:11:00] [00:11:00] Instead, all it was making me do was kinda just make this weird, like, phlegm-like sound as I was at work trying to recover quickly in front of people after eating this Oreo that sniped me. So I don't know where I was going with that except, uh, come hang out at the Telegram chat, everybody, because we've got all kinds of fun tastings there. [00:11:16] Somebody should grab those Oreos. We know you, you got these Oreos out there somewhere, loved ones. Post a little- Yeah ... uh, s- video of, uh, us, or for us, of you trying them  [00:11:26] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I, I find that anything that is trying to emulate a savory flavor that doesn't actually include that savory flavor is usually pretty gross. [00:11:38] And I think it's- Dangerous ... 'cause it's like, it's not like they're putting real chicken into the Oreos. Oh, please no. It's- Yes ... it's like they just have some sort of chemical that tricks your brain, tries to trick your brain into thinking it tastes like chicken. Which with as many things that taste like chicken as there are, you would think that'd be a pretty easy one to nail, but, uh, I'm not even gonna try the Oreo waffles- It's weird [00:11:57] or Chicken waffle. It's weird. May- maybe somebody will like it That sounds [00:12:00] disgusting and-  [00:12:01] Jesse Schwamb: Yes. Yes. I agree. I agree. All right, I'll take-  [00:12:04] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, it was actually, it was actually a, a Coke Oreo, uh, uh, partnership that originally spawned our tasting channel, wasn't it? Yes. I think it was like the... I don't remember what flavor it was, but it was like a Dr. [00:12:17] Pepper flavored Oreo or an Oreo flavored Coke or something like that- Yes ... that was just a, just a total outcome of the fall. It was just disgusting.  [00:12:26] Jesse Schwamb: It is.  [00:12:26] Tony Arsenal: So-  [00:12:26] Jesse Schwamb: Here, so- But ... I don't wanna be too conspiratorial, but I have a theory about this. My theory is that Oreo knows that all they have to do is entice people enough for every person to buy one package of these things, knowing that they may never buy them again, and they'll still make a, a, like bandits. [00:12:41] And maybe it's even better because everything is more expensive these days. So you can't just go with what's normal. So you've gotta like really say, "Well, I'll just, I'll get this one package of Chicken & Waffles Oreos 'cause I'll never get it again. I'm willing to splurge on it." And the joke's on us, loved ones. [00:12:55] Like, we're all out here just throwing Oreos into the trash because ... [00:13:00] that tastes so funky. Maybe not. Somebody go tell me if I'm wrong. Somebody s- go out there and say, "Yes. Listen, these, these are the best Oreos I've, I've ever had."  [00:13:11] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, this reminds me back, way back in my, my Reformed pub days, which I don't like to admit how long ago that was 'cause it makes me feel really old. [00:13:19] But, um, there was a, a long time when, uh, Not Your Father's Root Beer or Not Your Dad's Root Beer, whatever it was, I don't remember what the specific, uh, brand was, but there was a, like a brand of, um, of like alcohol root beer. I think it was like Not Your Father's Root Beer or Not Your Dad's Root Beer or something like that. [00:13:39] It was  [00:13:39] Jesse Schwamb: horrible.  [00:13:40] Tony Arsenal: And it was so awful that it was actually a trend for a while. Man, this, these were the good old days where people had enough money to do stupid stuff like this. But it was a trend for a while where people would buy it just to film themselves dumping it down the drain. And it's like, it's like, yeah, nobody has money for that anymore, but- Yeah [00:13:59] uh, some things are [00:14:00] just so terrible that it's almost... I think you might be right. Like, it's so bad that people buy it to just try it to see how bad it is. Yes. And Oreo s- someone has calculated that, like, they can get enough people to buy it just on the reputation of how terrible it is that they'll still turn a profit on this limited edition run, uh, terrible Oreo Fusion thing. [00:14:23] Um, yeah. Anyway, we could talk about terrible Oreo Fusions- Yeah ... all night, every night, 'cause there's a lot of them and they're gross. But we don't wanna do that, 'cause that's probably not great podcasting. So Jesse, what are you affirming or denying? And I'm gonna be really embarrassed if what you're denying is Oreo Fusion- [00:14:39] cookies. But, uh, what are you affirming or denying tonight?  [00:14:43] Jesse Schwamb: It's not.  [00:14:44] Jesse's Productivity Book Pick [00:14:44] Jesse Schwamb: I think you and I are somewhat, we're interested in productivity, are we not? Mm-hmm. We've actually talked about that a great deal on this podcast. And so I'm hesitant to bring this up because there are so many books, there are so many podcasts. [00:14:56] What more could possibly be said? And so when I came across this book called [00:15:00] Redeeming Your Time by Jordan Rainer with the subtitle Seven Biblical Principles for Being Purposeful, Present, and Wildly Productive, I thought, "Come on. Um, do we really need this book?" And I read it, and I'm really glad that I did. [00:15:13] And my affirmation is exactly his work here. Because it's a little bit like presuppositional apologetics meets Cal Newport and David Allen. He, in fact, one of the things I love is if you're interested in just being more productive or maybe you don't even know what that is, I do recommend you get this book because he basically has synthesized, and he says this, a lot of that writing into one place. [00:15:37] He gives you really practical things. But this is by far the most Christian perspective, I would say that the most Reformed perspective I have ever read on productivity, and I took way more from this book than I ever anticipated I would. To that end, just to give a taste, I wanna read just a couple sentences that are part of his introduction. [00:15:55] This is what Jordan Rainer writes, "Jesus offers you peace before you do anything." [00:16:00] Nearly every time management expert says that the path to peace and productivity is found in implementing his or her system. This is what we might call work space productivity, which claims that if you do exercises X, Y, and Z, then you'll find peace. [00:16:12] This book begins with the opposite premise in what we might call grace-based productivity, which says that through Jesus Christ, we already have peace, and we do time management exercises of X, Y, and Z as a response to worship. And basically, the whole premise of his book is that the most unproductive thing you can do in life is live it without God. [00:16:32] So this is missional. It's intensely practical. Like, he's gonna take you through his own strategy, which really he says, and he gives attribution to so many other authors and experts in the field, that he is synthesizing some of their ideas, but he's doing it under the auspice of the gospel. And this is the first book I've ever found that has this type of final chapter. [00:16:53] There's a whole section on being sure not to make productivity an idol. So this is, like, a really [00:17:00]lovely book. It's incredibly challenging. It's so thoughtful, but it's filled with doxological kind of content that leads me to want to be more productive, not because we have to do productive to, or pr- be productive to, of course, earn anything before God. [00:17:13] Not even that we should feel guilty if we're not, but out of God's grace, He gives us tools, and this feeds our desire to serve and then do so effectively. And so I think that if you have any interest in what it might look like for you, if you're feeling burned out, tired, distracted from things in life, uh, you really should read this. [00:17:32] It'll be worth your time. So wherever books are sold, we're not getting, uh, any kind of commission on this. Just go find Redeeming Your Time by Jordan Rainer. And again, go to the Telegram group. Let us know what you think about it.  [00:17:46] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  [00:17:47] Grace Based Productivity Discussion [00:17:47] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, you know, I think, um, there was a time period where hustle culture or productivity culture was really, really in for Christians. [00:17:57] Jesse Schwamb: Right.  [00:17:57] Tony Arsenal: And, um, I, I think even [00:18:00] in secular, secular domains, non-Christian domains where productivity, hustle culture is kind of, um, is a, a focus, even in those circles and even in those circumstances, the literature and the, the people who are doing blogs and, and YouTube channels, even those people are starting to recognize that we did put hustle culture and, like, being, like, hustling, we, we put that on a pedestal and made it, like, the goal- Right [00:18:31] instead of recognizing, like, the whole point behind, um, behind productivity is it's actually to keep your priorities straight. Right. It's, you know, it's, it's you, you work hard to get things done so that you have time to do the things you wanna do, or so that you are actually able to accomplish the goals you want to accomplish. [00:18:53] And a lot of people have commented, both in Christian circles and non-Christian circles, that we made getting a lot [00:19:00] of things done... And I, like, I don't wanna blame David Allen for this, but, like, this is the name of his book, right? Getting things done was the goal, not the vehicle to the goal. Right. I don't think David Allen would take that approach. [00:19:10] I think actually he's, he's much more grounded than a lot of his sorta, like, successors. But the, the, the switch to turn productivity into an end in itself has really just caused people to burn out. Like, you can only hustle for so long before you need a rest. So it's really refreshing to hear that there's a good Christian work out there that's latching onto that and is actually bringing God's truth and the gospel to bear on it. [00:19:34] That's, that's a book that I, um, I should definitely check out.  [00:19:37] Jesse Schwamb: I highly recommend it. I'm actually going to ... I'm grabbing a copy for a friend of mine who is, I would say, like a nominal Christian. We've had lots of conversations, and he's admitted that he grew up kind of in the Christian faith, has walked away from it, and just, he's one of these guys who knows so much about it, has all the head knowledge, and says things like, "I'll, you know, I'll come back to God eventually." [00:19:56] And it just so happens, he's big into productivity, and he's always [00:20:00] finding that whatever he's reading is really falling short. And so I'm just gonna get this as a gift for him and just say, "Here you go, man." 'Cause I, 'cause the one thing I can say about this book for anybody who's read a lot of productivity stuff, is this is something unlike you've read before when it comes to productivity. [00:20:13] Yeah. Because it is so gospel-centered. The first opening, the whole opening gambit is, like, you can't ... How can you be pr- productive if you don't know the, the or- the origin or, like, the father of time himself? And I'm like, wow. Yeah. Okay, here we go. Let's talk about it. And then you'll be halfway through, and he's given you all of this, uh, format, framework, and structure for how to set your calendar, how to modify your time. [00:20:34] Like, so it's the best of both worlds. You, you get a lot, but what I love is it's very presuppositional. It's like you cannot be productive in life, you cannot find your missional purpose, dist- to understand your calling, and then from there break down your quarterly goals and then your tasks. It's really a lovely way of tying everything back to the gospel, and he goes hard by saying, "Listen, you can, you have a say in directing your calling. [00:20:57] You do not have a say in your mission. That comes [00:21:00] from God himself, who defines who you are and what it means to be human and what it's like to relate to him." And I found that to be just overwhelmingly refreshing, like you said. So I hope that people will pick this up and read it for themselves, but I could see this being, like, a really lovely introduction to the gospel to many who are just interested in how to tackle life better. [00:21:20] And the beautiful thing about the, the Bible is it tells us the truth about the way things are. And so, like you and I have talked about before so many times, Tony, like, there's so much common grace that, of course, all these studies are just f- are kind of, are directly connected to this gospel truth of what it means to do good work and to do it as an act of worship before God. [00:21:38] That's where we find our fulfillment, of course, is in worshiping him, and part of our productivity is that part of worship. So there's a lot of good things to, that could be said there. But I think it's, this has, like, book club written all over it, guys. Get, just get it. Get a bunch of people together. Just book club this bad boy all over the place. [00:21:57] That's, that's my-  [00:21:58] Tony Arsenal: Yeah ...  [00:21:58] Jesse Schwamb: my full affirmation. [00:22:00] [00:22:01] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And, and one last thing I'll say in response to that, I love the idea of giving this book to someone almost as, like, an evangelistic tool. Yeah. Because I think there are a lot of people who, um, life is so busy and everybody is trying to get things done that especially people who already kinda operate in productivity circles, productivity mindsets, they're always looking for the next system that can fix the problem. [00:22:27] Jesse Schwamb: Yes.  [00:22:28] Tony Arsenal: And, like, no system can fix the problem. That's probably part of the point of this book. But, like, everybody's looking for, like, the next system that will give them that, like, 2% efficiency boost or, like, that 5% efficiency boost or whatever it is. And so even though they may never pick up a book that is theological and it's about the gospel, if you give them this book and be like, "This guy's got a really unique perspective on it, man. [00:22:48] I really think it can help you really, you know, I think he- there's some useful insight for your productivity system"- Right ... they'll read that book. They'll put it in their calendar- Yes, I agree ... they'll time block it out. I agree. And they'll read it, and they'll [00:23:00] read it to completion, 'cause that's how people who operate in these circles tend to be. [00:23:04] Uh, so you'll get the gospel in there. So I think that's a really great, uh, a really great tool that people could think about using.  [00:23:10] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. It's like their productivity, or it's like the gospel Trojan horse through productivity. But it's, it's the truth. Yeah, yeah. This is the truth. And that's what I loved about it. [00:23:18] It was unashamed in that this is the way life works, and God is over all, and you've gotta understand these things if, if you wanna be productive. If you wanna know the truth, you've gotta understand the truth. It's gotta be presented to you. And in point of fact, I mean, that's what we're talking about in this whole conversation. [00:23:35] Luke 12 Rich Fool Reading [00:23:35] Jesse Schwamb: In fact, everybody- Yeah ... at Love Ones, drop what you're doing, come find us in Luke chapter 12. That's where we are. And we're getting this thing kicked off because Jesus tells this whole parable about a rich fool in response to a man in the crowd demanding that he settle an inheritance dispute. And as Jesus often does, he refuses to be a judge or an arbiter over earthly po- property, and instead he turns this whole thing to warn against [00:24:00]covetousness, the insatiable grasping after more. [00:24:03] Which, in some ways, is maybe more directly tied into this whole discussion about productivity than I thought. But the parable then follows... It's really not about money management, and that's, you... I've heard this talked about in various ways. Instead, it's about the human heart's naive trust in itself rather than in God. [00:24:22] So I'm going to read for us a couple verses in Luke chapter 12 to start us off, and I'm gonna start in, I'm gonna say verse 13. And, uh, this is from Luke's gospel. "And someone from the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.' But Jesus said to him, 'Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter over you?' [00:24:45] Then he said to them, 'Watch out and be on your guard against every form of greed. For not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.' And he told them a parable, saying, 'The land of a rich man was very productive. [00:25:00] And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?' [00:25:05] Then he said, 'This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have so many goods laid up for so many years to come. Take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry."' But God said to him, 'You fool. This very night your soul is required of you. [00:25:27] And now who will own what you prepared?' So is the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."  [00:25:38] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  [00:25:39] How to Misread This Parable [00:25:41] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, this is, um, this is one of those parables, again, maybe we'll put this in the category of parable with quotation marks. Um, this doesn't always even appear on lists of parables because it doesn't necessarily follow the same format, although he calls it a parable in the, the text here itself. [00:25:58] But in so- some sort [00:26:00] of, like, lists of parables would even say this isn't even in the same category. But, um, this one here is, is another one of those parables that if we, um, w- we talked about this, uh, last week and I think a, a couple, or last time and a couple times before that. The, the parables of Matthew, or in Matthew, the, the parables that Matthew collects of Christ's overall parabolic, you know, figurative speech ministry, almost all of them are very much oriented towards explaining the nature of the Kingdom of God, explaining the nature of, of how the Kingdom of God functions, how the Kingdom of God is currently breaking into the world, how the Kingdom o- of God will definitively and finally break into the world in the, in the eschaton. [00:26:43] Um, w- we can sometimes fall into a dangerous interpretive error if we assume that because Matthew's parables, which the bulk of the parables are in Matthew, right? Matthew has more parables than the rest of the Gospels, um, especially if you're talking about [00:27:00] unique parables. Um- Luke's parables, as we've seen them so far, at least the ones that don't overlap with Matthew, they're not necessarily oriented towards that same Kingdom of God understanding in the strictest sense. [00:27:14] So this parable is not, um... I've heard some that, some people who interpret this in light of the same kind of like, "Stay awake you foolish virgins" kind of theology- Right ... that we saw in, in, in Matthew. Um, this parable is not teaching that same message, at least not in the same way, right? Th- And again, this is not a parable about money management necessarily. [00:27:37] It's not a parable about, um, you know, I think we could fall into error on one side that this is like, "You fool, how dare you ever be concerned about your wealth and your finances and advancing your own wealth?"  [00:27:48] Jesse Schwamb: Right.  [00:27:48] Tony Arsenal: Versus the other side where it's like, uh, you know, people are like, "Well, the foolish part of this is A, B, or C." [00:27:56] This is really a parable about a lot of other things that we're [00:28:00] gonna unpack. But if we read it as a sort of like eschatological parable, which it sort of feels that way, it feels a little bit like it's a sort of final eschatology or a personal eschatology parable. Uh, again, it's not to say there's not elements that speak to that, but if we read this as like some sort of, um, if you don't give away all your resources, if you don't give away all your money, if you're not thinking in terms of a life of poverty, then you're condemned. [00:28:23] If we read it in light of that, that's not right. Right. If we read it in light of sort of like wealth planning strategies, which, you know, this is kind of like the financial version of the Daniel diet, like just taking it totally out of its context, we really can sort of run aground on some bad, some bad interpretive strategies. [00:28:41] Jesse Schwamb: I'm with you on that.  [00:28:42] First Observations and Themes [00:28:42] Jesse Schwamb: All those alternatives seem to really denigrate it, don't they? They cheapen what's here because it's not about what's on the face, and I think that's why it's worth talking about, because there's so much underneath. Which we always say, but I think it becomes more and more plain the more we really try to understand what's at stake, what the commentary is really being produced. [00:29:00] And this, I think, is maybe Jesus could have taken any number of situations or circumstances. He just happens to use this one of property in particular, especially 'cause he was given the entry point, to emphasize something about the sovereignty and responsibility of God, but also our relationship towards him. [00:29:17] I suppose what it means, of course, to be rich in God, which is the pun sign. What I notice like immediately in this is that Luke tells us something like before the man even ever speaks, and that is like the whole point of his wealth, everything he has, is because the ground produced- Like the increase is not attributed to this guy's skill or his labor or even his shrewdness. [00:29:39] And like you said, Tony, we've, we've been in other parables where there's been a lot more commentary about the characters involved, that's been a part of this. All of that- Yeah ... is, is just given.  [00:29:46] Providence And Ingratitude [00:29:46] Jesse Schwamb: Like everything he has is just gi- literally given to him. It's given in the t- passage, it's given to him in this circumstance. [00:29:52] And there is like, I think, a doctrine, even from the start here, I'm seeing like this flavor of like this doctrine of providence like in miniature. Like [00:30:00] every harvest, every dividend, every windfall is, in the biblical worldview, the fruit of God's sustaining and governing hand. And so I love that like that's how I think Jesus opens this up. [00:30:10] And so we're gonna see like the tragedy of the parable is that the man who receives this gift will never once acknowledge the giver. And there's all of this ingratitude, which I think often is like the root beneath every sin. And in this story we see the man enjoys God's bounty while essentially erasing God from the picture entirely, and that's how we start  [00:30:32] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. [00:30:32] Parable Framed By Warnings [00:30:32] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and there's this other... A- and, um, maybe to, not to bury the lead and maybe, I don't know, maybe this is a spoiler warning for the rest of our episode, but it's, if you read this parable, um, you know, what, what do we always say when a, when a passage is a little bit confusing or it's unclear? Read a little bit more, right? [00:30:48] Read a little in front, read a little after, and it usually is pretty clear what's getting said here. So when we look at in front of this, Christ tells you what the point of this parable is. Like, He's using this [00:31:00] parable to explain a previous statement, and that statement is, "Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." [00:31:10] Right? Right. So the parable explains that statement in parable form. And if we read just a little bit after, and I'm sure we'll, we'll get to it more in depth, but He says to His disciples in verse 22, "And He said to His disciples, 'Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, and what you will put on. [00:31:29] For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.'" Right? So those two statements, right? Life does not consist in the abundance of possession, in the front, and life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Those are parallel statements. And usually we look at, this is a, a literary technique called an inclusio, right? [00:31:49] What an inclusio is, is you have a statement at the beginning of a passage or a beginning of a text, and then a similar or sometimes identical or parallel statement after the text [00:32:00] that sort of shows you, it's almost like a chapter break, right? Sometimes, um, that's used to show you where the chapter is. [00:32:07] Sometimes it actually helps us to clarify these statements by recognizing them as inclusios. We see that the pre- the statement before the parable and the statement after the parable are essentially the same statement because they're being used to form this inclusio. Uh-huh. So the fact that we need to be aware, be on guard against covetousness, and the fact that we should not be anxious about our possessions, about our life, about our material things, the not being anxious and the be- being aware of covetousness, those are the same thing. [00:32:36] Or they're s- they're largely similar, largely substantially the same things. Which we did an episode when we were going through our, like, five-year-long systematic theology, um, series. Um, we did a s- we did a, a handful of episodes on, um, on the Ten Commandments, and so I would encourage you to go back and listen to the episode on covetousness because we covered all this, [00:33:00] right? [00:33:00] Whether it's being anxious in terms of, um, being insecure in your material wealth, being insecure in what God has provided for you and not being thankful, you know, kind of almost resenting God because of your lack, that's a form of covetousness. Or whether- Right ... covetousness is taking more of a traditional format of wanting something that someone else has. [00:33:20] Um, both of those things represent a violation of the ninth commandment. And so this parable here is... And I think this will get to where you're, where you've been sort of leading us. This parable here is designed to help his listeners, and primarily hi- like, this guy, right? He's trying to teach this guy, but also he turns to his disciples after this and launches into another section and a further explanation of this concept. [00:33:47] It's here to help us understand not just, you know, the fact that, like, my material we- my material, uh, wealth doesn't really help me after I die. Like, yeah, you can't take it with you. Okay, [00:34:00] maybe that's part of this. Right. Maybe it's kind of the, you know, 1 Corinthians 6, "Don't build on s- don't build out of straw," you know, like, things are gonna burn away, just what you build on a s- on foundation will stay. [00:34:11] Not Wealth But Trust [00:34:11] Tony Arsenal: But more so this is about understanding satisfaction and contentment in whatever it is that God has blessed us with, right? That's right. So this is not a con- condemnation of those who are wealthy. This guy's not condemned because he had a bumper crop and because he's wealthy. Right. He's not even condemned explicitly because he's trying to plan for the future, right? [00:34:30] There's lots of things, to kind of go to the productivity thing. There's nothing wrong with planning for the future. Right. There's nothing wrong with saying, "I had a really good harvest year, and I'm gonna need bigger barns to store all this stuff, to, like, keep all this stuff." It's, it's as I think you're leading us to, it's this seemingly total unawareness that the, the bumper crop comes with certain kinds of, like, obligations and entailments- Right [00:34:56] beyond just I'm gonna celebrate and enjoy my [00:35:00] own wealth for wealth's sake.  [00:35:02] Jesse Schwamb: Right. It's what all of this circumstance reveals about this man, his heart, where he finds his assurance and confidence. So I like where we're going with this. So you're right, if you look at the passage immediately preceding and subsequent, what you'll find is that beautiful... [00:35:16] Well, this is an Oreo sandwich. Unfortunately, we're back to where we started, because we've got- ... w- one cookie is the warning, avoid covetousness. The other cookie is the don't be worried, and the cream in the filling here is assurance or confidence. That is, like, where does our true wealth lie? But more and bey- beyond that, like, where can we hang our hats, so to speak? [00:35:36] Like, what is it that we can be confident that we, we can rest secured in?  [00:35:41] Autonomous Inner Counsel [00:35:41] Jesse Schwamb: And so we get some of the betrayal of the fact that this man is looking at the wrong things, even from that first verse. And then by the time, like, this interesting, this whole internal mon- monologue begins, I think again, like, it's, it's telling to me that he deliberates, like, entirely by himself. [00:35:56] And I think, like, this is kind of this interesting posture of the [00:36:00] natural man that is described in Romans, like, 1, where there's, like, kind of functional, practical atheism. You know? He doesn't ask, like you were saying, Tony, like, "What does the Lord require of me with this abundance?" He doesn't consult scripture, neighbor, or God. [00:36:13] He consults only himself. Which honestly I think is a temptation for us all. Like, that can be our defa- default mode in situations similar to this, where we first start to reason among and with ourselves. And this is, like, the soliloquy of a completely autonomous man who thinks he has his own agency. It's like the very pattern of Adam and Eve in the garden reasoning about the world as though they were its final authority. [00:36:37] So here, you're right. We're, we're getting set up with it's not the circumstances that condemn this man. It's essentially how he behaves, where he puts his trust within those circumstances.  [00:36:48] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  [00:36:49] Soul Talk As Insanity [00:36:49] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and, you know, I've, I've heard, um, and I, I have not validated this myself, so take it with a little bit of a grain of salt. [00:36:56] But there's, there's something, um... I've heard it from [00:37:00] multiple sources, multiple reliable resources that I trust, that this sort of phrase in the middle where it's like he says to his soul or he says to- Yes ... himself, there's something about that that is sort of almost like a form... Uh, I've heard it said, like, that would've been f- viewed as, like, a form of insanity- Mm [00:37:18] in the ancient world. And we've commented this, on this before. Like, um- A large portion of the population doesn't have an internal monologue. And I think, um, i- if I remember right, it's actually, like, a larger portion, it's like a majority portion of the world doesn't have an internal monologue. And what that means is... [00:37:39] A- and hopefully there's some people in our audience that are like, "Oh, yeah, I don't, I, I don't even know what you're talking about when you say an internal monologue." And it's hard for people who are in one side of this to even conceptualize what it would be like to be on the other side of this. But there are people who, um, when they think, they're essentially speaking to themselves. [00:37:59] And then there's people [00:38:00] who, when they think, a- and I, again, I don't even know how to describe this, they don't have an internal monologue. They're not, they're not speaking to themselves in their minds I think, um, probably part of the reason that this was so, is, was seen as so crazy in the ancient world is in the ancient world, uh, the... [00:38:18] I'm getting really far afield here. I'll try to bring it back. Um, in the ancient world, because people didn't read as much, they don't have that internal monologue. The prominence of people being able to read, and especially being able to read to themselves, which is something that even as early as 100, 200 years ago just wasn't common to be able to read to yourself. [00:38:37] If you wanted to read, you would have to read out loud. To be able to just read in your mind, because when we read in our mind, we're speaking words to ourselves, I think our, our, um, culture has trained itself where more, more and more people have this internal monologue. But in the ancient world, this idea that someone would say to themselves or, like, speak to their own selves or sort of [00:39:00] ponder this internally was, has... [00:39:03] Like I said, I haven't validated this independently. I haven't done the research myself, but enough resources that I've read that I trust to have done that have said this. That was itself seen as a little bit of a, of a anomaly and sort of almost a form of insanity. Right. And so I think we've commented that a lot of times the parables have this point in them or this turning point where somebody does something that is sorta crazy. [00:39:29] Like, it's a little bit- Right ... out there, right? You think of the parable of the prodigal son, prodigal father, whatever, however you wanna call it. The idea that, like, the father sort of debases himself and runs out to greet the son, or even the fact that, like, when this, when this selfish son asks for his inheritance, that his father just gave it to him before he died, that is uncharacteristic and would've been seen as a little bit weird or a lot a bit weird. [00:39:55] This idea that this guy stops to sort of self-reflect [00:40:00] by himself entirely internally, right? The little- Right ... literal Greek, and so some translations say this, "So I said to my soul." Even- Right ... um, even that language of, um, almost having to externalize your internal thoughts. He's not... It doesn't say, "So he thought about it himself." [00:40:21] He had to say to his soul. He had to speak to himself. Even the language shows you that the Greek language doesn't have good construction to even be able to articulate what it would be like to think to yourself or to just mull it over internally. That is a strange function here, and it gets at what you've been saying. [00:40:41] He doesn't pause to pray about it. He doesn't pause to go to the gates of the city and speak with the elders. He doesn't connect with his wife. He doesn't ask anybody. He doesn't consult anybody. He does this sort of insane thing that even the Greek language doesn't have words for and has to sort of create this new [00:41:00] construction. [00:41:00] Right. He just stops. He thinks to himself. He speaks to his own soul. And, and then it, like, sort of paints this picture of him saying it out loud. "I said to my soul, 'Soul-  [00:41:10] Jesse Schwamb: Right. ...  [00:41:11] Tony Arsenal: what should I do?'" Like, it's, it's this sort of, like, weird sort of- Weird ... insane, strange feature that we don't pause to think about because we have this internal monologue. [00:41:21] We have this internal dialogue with ourselves, and so we don't think that that's unusual. But that's actually probably one of the main points of the parable is there is this strange feature where this guy doesn't pause to consult with anyone or anything about what he should do with this bumper crop. [00:41:39] He just Acts on his own behalf, thinks through his own behalf. And that should be the key to us that like, hmm, we really should think about what is the point here.  [00:41:49] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. You, you stole what I was gonna say. The soul thing is the super weird thing. I'm glad you already brought it up because when I read this, you can get through most of it and say, "Okay, that's interesting. [00:41:58] Interesting story." And then you get to him [00:42:00] being like, "Hey, soul." And you're like, "Say what?" Yeah. Like, "Who are you talking to? Why are you talking that way? Why are you being so weird about this?"  [00:42:06] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  [00:42:06] My Barns My Goods [00:42:06] Jesse Schwamb: So, like, there's the ju- the just sheer, like, selfishness, and then there's this... It gets escalated, elevated to this, like, soul self-talk, which is super weird, and deliberate, I think, in Jesus' telling of this. [00:42:18] So, like, you're right. You got this repetition of all these, in Greek, like, first person pronouns: my crops, my barns, my grain, my goods. I just counted here five times in three verses we've got either I or my. So it's not simply, like, poor stewardship. It's the theological posture of self-ownership. It's like t- complete denial of the creature's fundamental dependence on the creator. [00:42:38] And then, as if that's not enough, you get this whole verse 19, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry." And you wanna say, "Who are you talking to, man?" So, like, here I think this folly reaches a full and fatal expression to me because he speaks to his own, his own soul as though the soul, which is like the [00:43:00] very seat of a person's relationship with God, could be satisfied by grain. [00:43:05] And so I think this is, like, the fundamental conclusion that Reformers labored to expose. It's really like mistaking the gifts of common grace for the substance of ultimate security. He's trying to create this cookie with all this cream in the middle, but he has nothing there. There's, there's nothing to fill it. [00:43:20] It's like, it's like Augustine's dictum stands over this entire verse like a judgment. The heart is restless until it finds rest in God. And guess what? No barn, however large, can hold whatever only God can give. And so, like, the man's error is not that he planned for the future, like we've been saying. [00:43:36] Scripture commends some prudence. But that he planned as though there were no God to whom he must give account and no eternity beyond the granary, and then beyond that, he takes responsibility for his own soul and tries to self-soothe that soul. My word, I could barely say that. He tries to soothe his own soul in a way to give it confidence merely by the things he owns, separating himself from the [00:44:00] creator, the one who has given him all these things. [00:44:02] It is, I think, Tony, like you said, absolute insanity. It's certainly like insanity raised up against the spiritual man, and yet to the natural man, this seems like... Even in our modern day, in a contemporary context, this seems like the reasonable thing to do, the reasonable thing, to take charge of yourself and to be happy with yourself and to be content with what you provided and to have security in that, and yet this is the great- greatest kind of foolishness that possibly there ever is. [00:44:28] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  [00:44:30] Enjoy Gifts Not Idols [00:44:30] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and I think too, um, you know, the, this, um This is sometimes taught as though, like we've alluded to and said a couple times, it's taught as though the act of saving or, like, investing or even in this case, like, sort of taking a strange risk to try to propel your wealth forward, this is sometimes taught as though the point of this is that you shouldn't do those things. [00:44:56] Right. Like, the act of saving your wealth is [00:45:00] somehow... Like, saving things up or investing or taking a risk is somehow contrary to biblical wisdom and biblical prudence, and I don't, I don't think that's at all the point of the parable, right? And we've, we've pointed out that this parable is sandwiched or Oreo cookied by, you know, beware of covetousness, life does not exist in your possessions, or the satisfaction of life does not exist in your possessions, and then do not be anxious, life is more than food, the body more than clothing. [00:45:28] And the, the, the key phrase here in terms of where this guy's mistake is, not only is the mistake in the idea that, like, he's not c- thinking about what should I do with this in reference to my neighbor or what should I do with this in reference to God. There seems to be no consideration of that at all. [00:45:44] But what he intends to do with it in relation to those statements is entirely self-focused. And it's not, it's not the case at all. Please don't hear me saying it's not okay to enjoy the [00:46:00] fruit of your labor, right? There's all sorts of things in the Bible, lots of teaching in the Bible, um, about the fact that when we work hard and we reap a financial benefit, whether it's in, in this sort of like ancient culture, it's a, you know, a concrete financial benefit, or whether it's in our more modern culture where, like, we just, we gather more money which is sort of like a, I don't know, it's like a social contract of m- evaluating our labor. [00:46:25] Whatever it is, w- it's okay to use your wealth in ways that drives satisfaction. It's okay to enjoy wealth. Like, go buy a nice steak. Go get a nice bottle of wine. Take your wife out for dinner. Go on vac- Like, those things are fine. Buy a nice car. Go on vacation. Those things are fine, provided you're not finding your enjoyment and your satisfaction and, and ultimately that you are not doing those things as the final end of existence. [00:46:53] Right. Right? The, the point that he's making to this young man who says, "Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me," [00:47:00] is, like, you are finding or trying to find your life's ultimate satisfaction in your wealth or in this, like in the wealth that you think you deserve. The flip side of the disciples is, like, your entire life seems to be driven by the fact that you feel like you don't have enough food or you don't have the right clothing. [00:47:21] So the idea that, like, our satisfaction or our security is found in the abundance of our possessions, that is what this parable is railing against Right With a little bit of, I think a little bit of a gospel call here, right? Yeah. There's, there's this element, and this is, maybe this is unique. I don't, I don't, I can't think off the top of my head another parable where God himself is actually in the parable. [00:47:49] I think this is somewhat unique, if not entirely unique- Right ... where God himself now is in the parable saying, "Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you've [00:48:00] prepared, whose will they be?" So this idea that on the one side, those who have abundance are warned against finding their sat- their ultimate satisfaction in the abundance of their possessions, and on the flip side, those who lack abundance are warned against, uh, an utter sense of insecurity in the lack of their abundance. [00:48:22] Jesse Schwamb: Right.  [00:48:23] Tony Arsenal: In the middle there is this chastisement for both of those groups, basically saying your life and your satisfaction and security should be found in the fact that you belong to God and that God is your God. I think that's probably the ultimate payout of this parable, is this idea that like, yeah, whether you have a lot, whether you have a little, whether you have enough, whether you don't have enough, whether you are able to be sort of like enjoying luxury items versus just scraping by or not even scraping by, those [00:49:00] are two realities, and there are Christians who exist in both of those realities. [00:49:04] And some people might push back on this a little bit, but those realities are, are neutral morally, right? You can be rich and, uh, and still be a faithful Christian. You can be poor and still be a faithful Christian. I guess we can probably have some conversation at some point about which of those states it's easier to be a faithful Christian in. [00:49:25] But the fact is, like, you can be in either of those states and still be a faithful follower of God.  [00:49:30] Jesse Schwamb: Right.  [00:49:31] Tony Arsenal: As long as you're not finding your satisfaction or being overwhelmed by insecurity in either of those states, I think, uh, I think you, you, you, you can do both of them. And it's actually funny because... [00:49:44] Maybe not funny. It's interesting. Um, it's also possible to be satisfied in the lack of your possessions, if I can even put it that way, right? There are those who have sort of like placed their security and their ultimate satisfaction in sort of [00:50:00] their poverty or their minimalism, and there are those who are, like, anxious about the fact that they're wealthy. [00:50:06] This parable speaks to all of those things on every level saying, "No, no, no, no, no," like, your relationship to your possessions is not the point. Right. The point is your relation to God and whether you are his children and whether he is your God.  [00:50:21] Jesse Schwamb: Right.  [00:50:21] God Interrupts The Fool [00:50:21] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, there's multi-factor foolishness at play here for sure. [00:50:24] It starts with this idea that he's not crediting, he's not giving attribution, he doesn't understand that he's actually a contingent being and that God provides all these things. Then, like we said, there's this elevation, like you've just talked about, where it moves. That would be- Really foolish enough. [00:50:41] But what's even more foolish is to say to one's own soul, "You know what? Sit back, chill, be confident because you've done all the things. You have all the right stuff. You don't need to worry about anything." Almost implying, like, you can live forever. Just hang out. You have everything that you need, and you did it all yourself. [00:50:58] And so in verse 20, where God [00:51:00] interrupts and speaks to him directly, is amazing because He goes right into, first of all, right into the man's private counsel. So it's a good reminder that no soliloquy is ever truly private. We have the judge of all the earth. He hears every deliberation of the heart, and then He addresses him by this word fool, which, of course, you and I have talked about. [00:51:18] Like, in the Bibl- vocabulary, it's not just, like, an insult abo

After a short break, Jo, Chris and Alex are back for episode eight of the To Rome with Love series, and they open with a quick recap of chapters 1 to 6: the universal problem of sin, Israel's share in it despite having the law, faith as the way into right standing, the Adam and Christ contrast, and baptism as union with Christ's death and resurrection. They point out that chapter 7 has Paul coming back to something he raised briefly in chapter 5 and then left alone: the law's arrival made sin increase. They also flag that chapters 7 and 8 really belong together, and that verses 5 and 6 work almost as headings for the rest of chapter 7 and for chapter 8.Verses 1 to 6 start with the "which law?" question. One reading separates "works of the law" (the covenant markers like circumcision and purity) from "the law" as the whole Mosaic framework, ethical commands included. Another follows N.T. Wright's language of solidarities, where the law is a sphere you take part in, much like being "in Adam" or "in Christ", and Paul gives it an almost personal force. The marriage illustration gets unpacked against first-century practice, where only the husband could start a divorce, so a wife was bound until death. The team push back on reading every detail of the analogy as code. Is the husband sin and death, Christ, or the Adam life? The metaphor is probably doing several jobs at once, and the main point is that death releases you legitimately into a new covenant. Fruitfulness, the natural result of a marriage, becomes the image for what life with God produces, and the alternative is fruit for death. There's also a note of caution about sarx (flesh). Paul doesn't always mean "sinful nature" by it, and every translation choice is also an interpretation.The middle section (verses 7 to 12) takes on Paul's next mē genoito: is the law sin? The discussion separates "is the law sinful by nature?" from "does the law give sin an opening?" The law works as a diagnostic tool, holy and good in itself, and sin takes the opening it creates. The choice of "you shall not covet" is picked out as deliberate, because it's an entirely internal command and it follows naturally from the marriage illustration. There's a pastoral aside about how simply naming a sin from the pulpit can plant the idea. The team then wrestle with Schreiner's description of sin as an "alien power". Scripture personifies sin ("sin is crouching at your door") without making it Satan or a demon, and the team suggest sin works as much from inside us as from outside.That leads into the big question of who the "I" is. The options on the table are Paul himself (drawing on his own experience but not straight autobiography), Adam, Israel personified, or some mix that retells a universal story. They also cover the two readings most common in church life. The first is the pre-conversion reading linked to Origen and Augustine and later German scholarship. The second is the Christian's ongoing struggle, linked to the Lutheran and Reformation tradition. Philippians 3 ("as to righteousness under the law, blameless") is weighed against the chapter, and the team agree that being blameless before the law is not the same thing as being sinless.The final section (verses 13 to 25) covers the "I do not do what I want" passage. The problem isn't knowing what's right. It's approving of the right thing and still not being able to do it. The law is spiritual, but it provides no power to keep its own commands, and whatever you live under ends up filling you and showing in how you live. Paul switching between past and present tense is part of why the debate never settles. The team land on a representative reading with some personal element: this is "pre-Christ" more than "pre-Christian", Israel's story and Adam's story told in the first person, and they argue chapters 9 to 11 only make sense on that reading. It isn't only a Jewish experience either, because devotion to any moral code without transformation meets the same dead end. They close with Paul's use of classical rhetoric (logos, pathos and ethos). His "I" builds a connection with his listeners, and in a way that turns the usual rules upside down, admitting his own struggle becomes part of what makes him worth listening to.Resources mentioned in the episode: Tom Schreiner and Colin Kruse on Romans; Douglas Moo; Ernst Käsemann; N.T. Wright's Paul: Fresh Perspectives and The Climax of the Covenant; Beverly Roberts Gaventa's When in Romans; Michael Gorman; Leon Morris. Suggested pre-reading for chapter 8: N.T. Wright's Into the Heart of Romans. Don't forget the code word for this episode (even Chris missed it on the day).* Big thanks to Tim Whittle for editing and extra production on this podcast. Get more info at Riverlife Church, and find us on Facebook and Instagram.Subscribe to Bible Streams on Apple, Spotify, Google, and Amazon.

Tim White The Dangers of an Earthly Perspective: Covetousness Luke 12:13-21

Pastor John Bingham - I Kings 21

Lindsay Clancy trial: nine women, three men, a dynamite charge, and a reprobate mind. She does not deny killing Cora, Dawson, and Callan. On January 24, 2023, Lindsay Clancy sent Patrick Clancy out for takeout, then strangled her three children in the Duxbury basement. Prosecutors say she acted intentionally. The defense says postpartum psychosis erases criminal responsibility. After five days, the Lindsay Clancy jury told the judge it could not agree. He gave jurors the dynamite charge, a harsh push intended to break the deadlock and avoid a mistrial. Jason Whitlock argues she made herself her own idol, that God handed her over to a reprobate mind, and that feminism relocated the victim from the children to the mother who can still speak. ➢ Show Outline 0:00 - Lindsay Clancy Case and the Deadlocked Jury 1:05 - Idolatry, Covetousness and a Reprobate Mind 2:45 - Abortion Culture and How We View Motherhood 7:17 - Panel Reacts to the Verdict Struggle 11:09 - Sin, Systems and the Cliff of Morality 14:52 - Nihilism, Feminism and the Sin Problem 23:10 - Explaining vs Excusing Behavior 24:51 - Biblical Accountability and Finding Purpose in Prison ➢ Follow Our GUESTS https://www.youtube.com/@AnthonyWalker1 https://www.youtube.com/@TheShemekaMichelle  https://www.youtube.com/@DreAllDay ➢ Subscribe to Jason's other channel https://www.youtube.com/JasonWhitlock?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockHarmony?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockBYOG?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockClips?sub_confirmation=1 ➢ Connect with Jason on Social Media:  https://x.com/JasonWhitlock  https://www.instagram.com/realjasonwhitlock/ https://www.facebook.com/jasonwhitlock ➢ Send Jason an Email FearlessBlazeShow@gmail.com ➢ Support The Blaze Visit https://TheBlaze.com. Explore the all-new ad-free experience and see for yourself how we're standing up against suppression and prioritizing independent journalism. Support Conservative Voices! Subscribe to BlazeTV at https://www.fearlessmission.com and get $20 off your yearly subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

-Chris Scott

Author and Pastor, Luke Kjolhaug, joins Kelsi to talk about his new book, Fear Not: How the Gospel Disrupts Our Deepest Anxieties. The two talk about how "Fear Not " is often less of a command than it is a promise throughout Scripture and how we can rely on Jesus to defeat our deepest anxieties. Luke Kjolhaug is the pastor of Elim Lutheran Church in Osakis, Minnesota. He holds undergraduate degrees from Wheaton College and the University of Minnesota, as well as a master's degree from Lutheran Brethren Seminary. Luke is the author of Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer for the Christian Life. He and his wife Bethannie have been blessed with two daughters.Timecodes: 00:00 Introduction05:30 Personal Connection to Fear Not11:17 Understanding Fear in Scripture13:19 Fear and Anxiety18:10 The Cultural Context of Fear24:39 Wrestling with Fear and Faith29:59 Understanding the Fear of God34:25 Fear of the Future43:27 FOMO and Covetousness in Modern LifeShow Notes:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support 1517 Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1517 Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1517 on Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1517 Events Schedule⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1517 Academy - Free Theological Education⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠More from Kelsi:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kelsi Klembara⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Kelsi on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Kelsi on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kelsi's Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the Show:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠More from Luke: Preorder Fear NotFollow Luke on Instagram

Luke 12:13-21

Preparing His bride | Aug 29, 2026 | PHB You have been called into a priesthood that is far more personal and demanding than occupying a religious office. In Christ, priesthood is not reserved for pastors, bishops, teachers, or those who stand before congregations; it is the calling of every believer. Your first responsibility as a priest is not to minister publicly before people, but to draw near to God, know Him, remain before Him, and offer your life to Him. The pattern of the sons of Zadok reveals what God desires: while others drifted with the corruption and idolatry around them, they remained faithful to His presence. In the same way, you must become someone who can remain true to God even when the culture around you, the people you admire, or even religious systems begin moving in another direction. This kind of faithfulness requires that you deliberately grow in the knowledge of God. You cannot understand His ways merely through assumptions, popular Christian culture, or what other people tell you. Give yourself to Scripture. Learn how God has dealt with individuals, nations, kings, priests, rebellion, righteousness, worship, and judgment throughout biblical history. The more deeply you become acquainted with His ways, the more capable you become of recognizing what agrees with His nature and what contradicts it. God has not changed simply because generations, governments, cultures, and religious systems have changed. The world may use different language today, but human desires, corruption, ambition, idolatry, righteousness, and the need for God remain fundamentally the same. Guard your heart carefully because idolatry is not limited to bowing before statues. Your heart can manufacture its own idols. Covetousness, ambition, money, influence, relationships, pleasure, entertainment, ideology, success, and even religious personalities can gradually become objects of devotion. Whatever continually shapes your desires will eventually shape your judgment. Your heart can be trained toward righteousness, but it can also be trained toward corruption. What you repeatedly watch, listen to, admire, discuss, pursue, and fellowship with is educating your inner man. If you constantly expose yourself to values that oppose God, eventually things that once appeared obviously wrong can begin to look reasonable, desirable, or even righteous. For this reason, spiritual maturity must produce discernment. You must learn to distinguish not only between obvious good and obvious evil, but between what merely looks good and what is genuinely holy. You do not need extraordinary spiritual discernment to know that lying, stealing, sexual immorality, deceit, or corruption are wrong. Even society recognizes many of these things. Mature discernment becomes necessary when something is attractive, respectable, profitable, intellectually persuasive, culturally accepted, or religiously impressive and yet carries a nature contrary to God. Your spiritual senses must become trained through continual obedience to the Word until you can recognize where a path is leading before you have walked far down it. You should increasingly be able to ask, “Where is this taking me? What kind of person is this making me? What spirit is shaping my judgment? Does this lead toward holiness or away from God?” The central offering of your priesthood is also not your money. God wants you before He wants what belongs to you. You cannot substitute financial giving, service, donations, or religious activity for surrender. Money cannot purchase intimacy with God, compensate for disobedience, or persuade Him to overlook a life that refuses His government. You cannot buy God. The offering He seeks begins with your own life. Present yourself as a living sacrifice. Give Him your will, your desires, your ambitions, your pleasures, your time, your body, your relationships, your resources, your future, and the things you would naturally prefer to keep for yourself. When your life truly belongs to Him, giving your possessions becomes a natural consequence of devotion rather than an attempt to purchase spiritual approval. Present yourself to God again. Repair the altar where it has fallen into neglect. Give yourself afresh to prayer and Scripture. Ask God to expose the idols that may have quietly formed within your heart. Allow Him to train your senses until you can distinguish the holy from the profane. Refuse to replace surrender with religious activity. Give Him your life before giving Him your possessions. Then take responsibility for what He places in your hands and for the people He places around you. The goal is not simply to carry the name of a priest, but to become one who truly draws near to God, carries His nature, protects what is sacred, and helps others find their way into the same life.

In this message from Hebrews 13, Pastor Greg Barkman gives a warning about a sin that seems small to men, but is large to God and is a destructive force to mankind.

Next in our writer's list of practical expressions of love we come to covetousness - or more specifically, an exhortation to not allow covetousness to be characteristic of our way of life.We think we know what covetousness is. But as we will see in the exposition of this text, there is more to covetousness that the love of money and material possessions.

There are two very important statements in this verse. Paulsays, first, “Neither at any time used we flattering words.” And then hesays, “Nor a cloak of covetousness.”  Paulis reminding these believers that when he came to Thessalonica, he wasn'ttrying to manipulate them with his words, and he wasn't trying to get somethingfrom them for himself. Let's think first about “flattering words.” Thereis a difference between encouragement and flattery. We should encourage people.We should express appreciation. We should tell people when we are thankful forthem. There is nothing wrong with giving an honest compliment. But flattery isdifferent. Encouragement is given for the benefit of the other person. Flatteryis often given for the benefit of ourselves. Flattery says something nicebecause we want something in return. We may want someone's approval. We maywant their support. We may want them to like us. We may even want to influencethem for our own advantage. Paulsays, “That wasn't how we ministered among you.” He wasn't trying to tellpeople what they wanted to hear. He was telling them what God wanted them tohear. That's an important distinction. Paul would later write in 2 Timothy 4:3:“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but aftertheir own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” Therewill always be a temptation to change the message so that people will like themessenger. But if God has put us in trust with the gospel, as we saw yesterday,we don't have the right to change the message simply to make it moreacceptable. Sometimes God's Word comforts us. Sometimes God's Word encouragesus. But sometimes God's Word convicts us. Sometimes it tells us something wewould rather not hear. A faithful servant of God doesn't ask, “What will makepeople happy?” He asks, “What has God said?” ThenPaul mentions something else: “Nor a cloak of covetousness.” A cloak issomething that covers something else. Paul is saying, “We didn't use religionas a covering for greed.” He wasn't preaching the gospel because he wanted toget rich. He wasn't serving these people because he wanted their money. Hewasn't using ministry to advance himself. Paul's ministry wasn't about what hecould get from people. It was about what he could give to people. And what didhe want to give them? The gospel of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, through theyears there have always been people who have used religion for personal gain.Butthe problem isn't only money. Covetousness is the desire to have more forourselves.  That'swhy Paul's final statement in this verse is so important. He says: “God iswitness.” Earlier in the verse Paul said, “as you know.” TheThessalonians knew how Paul had lived among them. But when Paul talked aboutthe motives of his heart, he said: “God is witness.” People can see ouractions. But only God can completely see our motives. People hear what we say. Godknows why we say it. People see what we do.Godknows why we do it. We might be able to hide our motives from other people, butwe can never hide them from God. Hebrews 4:13 reminds us: “Neither is thereany creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked andopened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Myfriend, there is tremendous freedom when we can live with nothing to hide. Wedon't have to manipulate people. We don't have to flatter people. We don't haveto use people. We simply need to love people, speak the truth, share thegospel, and seek to please God. And at the end of the day, we should desire tobe able to say with Paul: “God is witness.” God knows my heart. Godknows my motives. God knows why I am doing what I am doing. So today, let's askthe Lord to search our hearts and keep our motives pure. Let's speak words thatare true rather than flattering. Let's serve because we want to give ratherthan because we want to get.

What does it mean to live a life fully consecrated to Christ? How do we guard our hearts against the pull of earthly possessions and instead treasure what is eternal? In this episode, we explore the life of hymn writer Frances Ridley Havergal through the lens of Jesus' command in Luke 12:15 to "beware of covetousness." Best known for beloved hymns such as “Take My Life and Let It Be” and "Like a River Glorious", Havergal not only wrote about surrender—she lived it. From joyfully giving away her earthly treasures to using her gifts for God's glory, her life points us to the surpassing worth of Christ and the freedom found in wholehearted devotion to Him. As we reflect on her remarkable testimony, may we be encouraged to lay up treasures in heaven, trust Christ completely, and offer our lives as a willing sacrifice for His kingdom and glory.

Numbers 11 Tyler Dunn // Adult Life Pastor

God calls His people to be set apart, not because they have earned it, but because He has already loved them. Leviticus 20 lays out this call with clarity, commanding God's people to follow His statutes and avoid the ways of the surrounding nations. The reason is not about performance or self-righteousness. It is about responding to a God who has already acted on our behalf. We do not obey in order to be loved. Because we are loved, we obey. Understanding Leviticus also requires recognizing the difference between ceremonial laws and moral laws. Ceremonial impurity involved things like disease or childbirth, which were not sins but required a period of separation. Moral impurity, on the other hand, involved actual sins such as sexual immorality, idolatry, and injustice. The ceremonial laws were fulfilled in Christ, as seen in Acts 10 when God showed Peter a vision declaring clean what had once been called unclean. The moral standards, however, remain and apply directly to the lives of believers today.Holiness looks different depending on your season of life, but the call is the same for everyone. Young men face battles with apathy and lust. Young families can drift into making children the center of everything at the expense of their marriages. Middle-aged believers can quietly step back from serving God without even noticing the years passing. Everyone faces the pull of materialism, pride, and covetousness. The word holy simply means different, and that difference should be visible in how a believer lives compared to the world around them. Importantly, holiness is not about achieving perfection. Salvation is received, not earned. Jesus lived the perfect life we could not live, died for our sin, and through the Holy Spirit gives us everything we need for life and godliness. The practical starting point is simple: ask God to show you one specific area where you have been blending in when He is calling you to stand out, and take one step toward change, not out of guilt, but out of gratitude for what Christ has already done.

What's at stake in fleeing covetousness and fighting for contentment in future grace is eternal life.

You have everything you need. A good job, a house, the car that you want. Individual freedom to follow your dreams, be who you want to be, do what you want to do, go where you want, when you want, dress in the latest fashion—the god of freedom, an idol. Your desires define your path. That is your identity. And each day you strive to build on this identity because it isn't fixed. It evolves based on what you feel and think. There is no rest in this identity. It is an endless pursuit of self. The idol of self isn't like other things we can point to because the finish line is ever moving. We always want to be something or someone more than we are. How much are you thinking about these things? But when did this thinking of self begin? Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:1-5). Eve. She desired to be something she wasn't, having knowledge of good and evil like God. It wasn't because there wasn't perfectly good fruit in the rest of the garden. Eve fell to the idol of self. Satan got her to overthink about all she could have but didn't. From that moment on, humanity began the race with itself, to run continually seeking to be something we are not. Overthinking about ourselves and forgetting to think about God. God created us in his image but not to be gods. Our present cultural norm of self-sufficiency says we don't need anyone or anything to be successful. God? Why would you need God in your everyday decisions and thinking? What we forget is this deception in thought started in the Garden of Eden. The basic definition of self-sufficient is problematic in and of itself. “Needing no help in satisfying one's basic needs, like food.” Last I checked, we are very dependent on not only others, but also on things wildly outside of our human control when it comes to food. Last I checked, we don't control the rain or sunshine required to grow crops. While we have created technologies to help supply water when there isn't any for crops or livestock during a drought, we control less than we believe. The secondary definition of self-sufficient is emotionally and intellectually independent. Eve was seeking intellectual independence when she ate the forbidden fruit. She wanted self-sufficiency. When I think about the Garden of Eden and the beauty, provision and abundance described, my mind drifts off to a place where there was peace and a oneness with the Lord. Yet Eve was tempted. In perfect communion with the Lord, she wanted intellectual independence from God! Thanks to Eve, we don't live in Eden, and ever since the fall, the volume of temptation to self-sufficiency has been dialed up to a fevered pitch with everything in our midst competing against our thoughts of God! Peace and oneness with him seem elusive, even for those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Our days are filled with temptation to lean into idols that make us overthink about ourselves and think less about Jesus! Let's call these the idols of self. Basically, anything that prioritizes thinking of “self” above everything and everyone else, most importantly, thinking about yourself more than God. That fevered noise in our culture about how we can overthink ourselves is anything but peaceful. Appearance. How much are you thinking each day about your appearance? Has this become an idol of self? This can manifest in so many ways so let's just consider a few. Wanting to dress professionally and look nice for work is one thing, but has this become something that takes up a lot of your thinking? Do you worry about what other people are wearing? Do you comment on other people when they are dressed differently? What about your hair and makeup? Are you skipping devotional time with the Lord to make sure you look the best? Are you watching fashion reels on social media or shopping online instead of reading your Bible? Do you seek attention by what you are wearing and get an extra charge when someone compliments the way you look? On average, women spend between $1,500-$2,000 on clothing and $1,000-$3,700 on beauty products and services annually. Again, this is average, and most studies will tell you the more you make at work, the more you will spend on average. Other costs to consider are gym memberships and other cosmetic services many women are using to stay looking their best! None of this is truly “bad” but when you overthink it and it becomes an idol, anything good can quickly become a slippery slope leading you away from your identity in God and closer to what our noisy culture is demanding of you. Remember the Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). If you overthink your appearance, what does this indicate about your heart? Sovereignty. Are you someone that always thinks you are right? Is the sovereignty of self an idol for you? Even believers of Jesus can get caught in this overthinking that lives to expect others to function by their own moral compass. Even if your compass is Jesus, are you lording over people with your views and pushing them away from the true gospel with your rules instead of being loving. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers (Titus 1:10). The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth (1 Timothy 4:1-3). God's Word says these people must be rebuked! You cannot add “your rules” to God's truth! Lately, we have seen people's thoughts on full display through social media. Somehow, we have mixed culture and politics with a message about Jesus that truly does not add up. Judgements when others don't believe what we do or how we do are quick. When you spend time overthinking how other people aren't like you or doing what you want them to do instead of focusing on how God would want you to show up to those that are different from you, sovereignty of self may be an idol. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor (James 4:12)? We are not supposed to be the judge of others. This doesn't mean we should shy away from providing good feedback to others in a non-judgmental way, but we need to avoid thinking we are the end all be all! The only truth is in the Word of God! Only God can truly change things and the more we overthink about our way being the right way, the less we remember God's way! Self-Promotion/Pride. Unfortunately, many who are overthinking about their way being the right way have a significant platform for self-promotion. Even if you don't suffer with thoughts of self-sovereignty, are you thinking a lot about your next social media post or how many views, likes and follows you have? Is the idol of self-promotion taking ahold of your time? If you post something that you feel good about, are you overly disappointed if it doesn't perform well? Maybe you only receive one “like”. How does this shift your mood? Are you angry or discouraged? On the other end of the spectrum, let's say you have a following on social media—many likes and many follows. Are you spending more time thinking about these followers than you are about God? Beyond social media, how are you promoting yourself up at work? Do you think about the next meeting and how you will comment or get noticed? Do you worry when you don't get the last word or when another colleague receives accolades? If you lead a team, how do you balance taking credit or giving it? Are you an I or a we colleague? I did this or we worked together… The Bible consistently warns about self-promotion and pride and not thinking of others. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12). Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. For it is not who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends (2 Corinthians 10:17-18) Remembering pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are; there is no God (Psalm 10:4). Bottom line, if you are thinking about exalting yourself and how it makes you feel, good or bad, more than you are thinking about what God tells you to do in his Word, you are overthinking about yourself! Covetousness. Do you spend a lot of time thinking about things you want or don't have? Even covetousness, a fancy word for jealousy, can be another way of overthinking about yourself. Described as a harmful spirit in 1 Samuel, jealousy can “rush upon us” when we least expect it. In 1 Samuel we learn how Saul is truly jealous of the attention David is receiving retuning from war. He is jealous of how people follow David, so much so that he seeks to harm David both directly and by sending him off to more conflict. Jealousy can create so many thoughts. I wish I had clothes like her. If only, I had the opportunities so and so had. I really like that car that he drives. How can I get these things, or how can I take the good attention away from someone else and get this spotlight on me?! Are you like Saul? Jealous and overthinking about how you wish someone wasn't as prosperous as you? Are you plotting ways to tear them down? Has a harmful spirit rushed upon your thinking? James 3:16 tells us where jealousy and selfish ambition exist there will be disorder and every vile practice. And this is not God's will for us! Remember, our God will supply every need of ours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). God also chooses who he will exalt and when. We are just called to follow him! Overthinking about ourselves is isolating. Whether we are overconsumed thinking about our appearance, thinking we are always right, deciding how we can promote ourselves, or coveting what someone else has, we are simply overthinking about ourselves! All these ways of overthinking don't draw us closer to God or others. These patterns of overthinking can lead to isolation and even depression. We were created for unity with God and community with other believers. Now, how can we shift this overthinking? Releasing ourselves from the culture driven notions that self is the central most important part of our life is first. People and things can never provide for our central happiness! Seeking praise from others will always disappoint us! The gospel is the direct antithesis of the culture of self-idolatry. Jesus invites us to a beautiful life of thinking about him! Start with abiding. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (John 15: 4-5). Abide in my love (John 15:9). In Jesus, you will bear much fruit! Without him, you will do nothing. Remember why you exist. It isn't to think about yourself. You were made for God. Life itself is amazing—a gift from God each day. Turning your overthinking about yourself to thinking about God will bring joy and fulfillment beyond what you can fathom!

Look at Leviticus; Original languages of the bible; Hebrew - inventive written language; Letters with meaning; Additive letters; Aleph-tav = often untranslated; Lack of phonetics; Misinterpretation; Leprosy?; Understanding Rebekkah; Basic principles of the bible; Child-like understandings; Plagues of faith; Strength of women; Starving the mind; Child-raising; Traumatized by ideas; Reading with inspiration; "Holy"; Biblical beasts in Ezekiel; Chinese famines; "The Good Earth"; Repentance; Life-giving spirit; The Way of the World; Idolatry; Apostate church; Wages of unrighteousness; Covetousness; Reliance on Holy Spirit; Masoretic text; Logic of God and the bible; "Logos" = right reason, logical; Tree of Life; Darkening your eyes; Sabbath; Debating; vs finding the truth; "Tropes"; Rituals and forms; Pure Religion; Jots and tittles; Walking in faith; Gen 19:16; Why did Lot linger?; Cultivating a relationship with Holy Spirit; shin-lamad-shin-lamad-tav; Social welfare via government; Your need to obey government; Welfare snares; Biblical confusion; Word of God; Who's inspired?; Reading nature; "Humanity" for animals?; Reproductive rights?; Trusting in the Lord; "Idolatry"; Taking away neighbor's right to choose; Becoming merchandise; Accepting lies; 2 Kings 16:3, 2 Chronicles 28:3; Hivites, Canaanites, Hittites; Love vs authority; Passing through the fire; Freedom of religion?; Biblical harlot riding a beast?; Forcing neighbor; Abraham's smoking furnace and burning lamp; Cursing your children with debt; Context of the bible; Removing scales from your eyes; "gods"; Col 3:5; Following instructions?; No covetousness; Just weights and measures; Eph 5:5; "Whoremonger"; Tyrants; Practicing pure religion; 1 Cor 5:10; Fornication with world governments; Israelites in Egypt; Finding seekers of His kingdom and righteousness; Organizing in Tens; Ps 106:38; Ez 16:36; Placing your children in debt; Prov 2:16; Prov 20:16; Pledging your rights; Rebekkah = resh-biet-kuf-hey; Messaging in names; Divinely chosen wife/mother; Ensnare?; resh-biet-kuf; Daughter of Betheul; Sister of Leban; Wife of Isaac; Mother of Esau and Jacob; Binding others through marriage and influence; "Melchizedek"; Gen 24:21; Possessions of Abraham.

Hear more sermons at http://www.lvbaptist.org/service-podcast/ Watch Our TV Broadcast here: https://www.lvbaptist.org/wfmz-program/ Visit us here: Lehigh Valley Baptist Church 4702 Colebrook Ave. Emmaus, PA 18049

Hear more sermons at http://www.lvbaptist.org/service-podcast/ Watch Our TV Broadcast here: https://www.lvbaptist.org/wfmz-program/ Visit us here: Lehigh Valley Baptist Church 4702 Colebrook Ave. Emmaus, PA 18049

Leviticus 13: Lots of foundational information; "Leprosy"; Keeping the Sabbath?; Keeping it holy?; Word-twisting - Sophistry; Political party lines; Anointing; Tzedek-resh-ayin-tav (Lev 13 "Leprosy"); Moses' dark wife?; 2 Cor 4:16; Physical vs spiritual; Chosen people?; Judgmentalism; Superiority; Ps 69:23; Rom 11:10; Genocide?; Baptism by fire; Temtation of Joseph; "Semitic"; Seeds of Abraham; Plagues?; Spiritual diseases; Tree if Life vs Tree of Knowledge; nun-gimel-ayin = plague; Righteousness vs Witchcraft; "The Way"; Driving away Holy Spirit; Adultery; Korah the sheep; Love vs Force; Sin has consequences; More on Sabbath - order of things; Debt; Taking care of Mother and Father; What is "love"?; nun-gimel-pie negef (plague or stumbling); coming into contact with; Makah - mem-kuf-hey (Plague, blow, wound…); Mass hysteria; Fear not!; Ex 23:38 Hornet (leper + hey) sent by God to destroy; Josh 24:12; Benefits?; Israelites helping Egyptians during plagues; Living in the Spirit; Concern for others; Scattered flocks; Num 16:48 - plague of Korah's time; Pestilence (debar - dalet-biet-resh); Speak, pasture; Giving your life as ransom; Col 3:5 Covetousness = idolatry; Plague of bondage and darkness; Mystery Babylon; Ex 9:14; Plague upon your heart; Caring by faith, hope and charity; Makah vs Nega; mem (flow of the spirit); Spiritual revelation of the bible; What God wants you to do; God allows you to make choices; mem-gimel-pei-hey (megephah); Self-justification; Num 16:48; Standing with Christ; Speaking the ways of Jesus; Cursing your children; Guidance of Holy Spirit; Num 25:8; Staying the plague; Covenant infidelity; Ez 24:16; Zec 14:15; Feast of the tabernacle; Hosea 13:14; Practicing forgiveness; Being still; Seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Leprosy?; Plaguing Israel; Priest diagnosis; Healing leprosy; Moses vs Miriam; "Antisemitism"?; Terah's idolatry; Covetousness in Sodom; Degrees of freedom; Cursing your children; "The Way" of Christ; "America"; Human Resources; Slavery; Releasing from bondage; Judges/gods; Choosing slavery; Allegiance?; Melchizedek; Breaking down walls?; "Altars"; Freewill offerings; "Hedges"?; Boundaries; No coveting; Libraries?; Taxes vs endowment; Provisions through freewill offerings; Peace through charity; Which gods do you serve?; Making the Word of God of none effect; Legal title; Consensual offerings; Jacob's dealings with Laban; Moses - given freedom and leadership; Free souls under God; "Religion"; Altars and wood; Organizing society; Counsel; "Priests" ministering to ministers; Government of, for and by the people; Consent; Rulers offering dainties; Fleshpots; Misinterpreting the bible; Welfare snares; Social Safety Nets?; ayin-vav-resh (skin, to make bare, stir up); biet-shin-resh (skin of the flesh, tidings); nun-shin-aleph (rising); Leprosy - becoming stricken - with what? Confusion? Temptation?; Worshipping wealth; Christ - king and priest; Repentance; Help for co-congregants; Becoming a nation of service; Thinking "kingdom"; Laying down your life for others; Lev 13:6; Garment?; Treachery?; Disease of the spirit; Contaminating; Moving toward righteousness; Removing dependence on forced offerings; Influence and control; Common purse; Democracy; Metaphors; Romulus and Remus?; Lev 13:13; Contagion of ideas; Hospice?; Biting one another; Sacrificing to idols; Darkening your eyes; Sewing underwear of your ministers?; Thinking YOU are the chosen people; Follow Christ's Way!

When you hyper-focus on what you think you lack, you aren't practicing gratitude, and you can become discontent. When you covet what someone else has, you will start to believe that God is withholding something good from you. That means our discontentment is not about our life circumstances but about the state of our hearts.  Melissa Kruger joins the Perrys to talk about a book Jackie stumbled upon when looking for resources on the topic of covetousness – one that Melissa wrote back in 2012 called “The Envy of Eve: Finding Contentment in a Covetous World.” Whatever you're wanting, it will not ultimately be soul-satisfying. We spend our time chasing the contentment we want when it's available to us simply by abiding with Jesus.  Connect with Melissa: https://www.instagram.com/melissabryankruger  https://melissabkruger.com/ Check out Melissa's book, "The Envy of Eve: Finding Contentment in a Covetous World" – https://www.amazon.com/Envy-Eve-Finding-Contentment-Covetous/dp/1845507754 Jackie and Melissa's Ephesians study with Jasmine Holmes: https://www.lifeway.com/en/product/ephesians-bible-study-book-with-video-access-P005843174? Scripture References Genesis 3 Philippians 4:11-13 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 This Episode is Sponsored By: https://weekendtoremember.com — Register now with code PERRY to save $100 on any getaway! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scripture commands contentment. Culture manufactures discontent. Hebrews 13:5 addresses both behaviour and condition. "Conversation" refers to manner of life. This is not limited to speech—it is lifestyle. "Without covetousness"—this is the removal of desire for what has not been given. Covetousness is not possession. It is craving. "Be content with such things as ye have"—this is not passive acceptance. It is active satisfaction. The reason follows: "for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Contentment is rooted in presence, not possession. Have you recently decided to follow Jesus? Take your next step with Jesus: https://cbcgb.co.uk ⛪ ABOUT CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCHES: We believe that our Calvary Baptist Churches are a movement for all people to know God, Reaching Others, Building Lives, Honouring God and Make a Difference.

Defending/destroying "democracy"?; Rights from God?; Declaration of Independence; Which "god"?; Who is YOUR creator?; Truth, and relating to it; Pennsylvania; Social Security "trust"; Voting?; "disciples"; First republic; American Creed; Democracy within a republic; Socialism?; Institutions within the United States; "IRGC"?; Knowing what Christ instituted; Founding fathers on "democracy"; Federalist 10; Social welfare through the state?; Signing up for socialism; Waiving access to rights by obligation; Logos (right reason) of Christ; Democracy - source of tyranny; Obey the Lord, or the majority?; Deut 16:19; Motivation for doing good - affirmation?; "People persons"; Knowing what the bible is really about; "Mystery Babylon"; Welfare snares; Deut 28:1; Reading the bible with Holy Spirit; Meditation; Deut 28:15; Deut 28:27 "botch" of Egypt = Leprosy; Contracting with government; "Israel"; Listening the voice of God; Preferring bondage to liberty; Love of receiving praise; Prov 1:10; One purse; Gathering with kingdom purposes; Seeking His kingdom and righteousness; Christ's "command"; Appetites for benefits; Your consent; Debt obligation; Democracy bad?; Changes during war; Who condemned Jesus?; US Nation of servants; "Vote" = Vow, agree with terms; Tree of Life; Remaining individuals; Binding by righteousness, love, sacrifice; Mt 7:22; Commandments; Blind guides; Accepting lies; Repentance = changing your mind; "Over justification"; Believing you are free; Rewiring your brain; Capgras; Listening to Holy Spirit - step by step; Humility; Admitting you've become merchandise - why?; Covetousness; Idolatry; Take responsibility; Forgiveness; Sacrifice; Intention for voting; Taking the journey back to God's kingdom; Loving truth; Voting in the kingdom; Votive offering; Bible - for government of, for and by the people; God's ministers; Melchizedek; Voting as part of the government; YOU are in the trust fund; No ruling over your neighbor; Only ruling over what you have; Buddy-system times 10; Jud 8:22; What's God telling you?; God is a giver of live; Family = autonomous unit; Undermining family; Your choice; Perfect law of liberty; Defending your right to choose; Covering for covetousness; Waiting upon the Lord; Forming/managing congregations; Listening to God's opinion; Is it a sin to vote?; Are you regulated by approval?; What's important to you?

Colossians 3:5-17 (ESV)Andrew and Edwin discuss the attitudes and behaviors we need to strip off like contaminated clothes and the new ones we must put on like royal, holy garments.Read the written devo that goes along with this episode by clicking here.    Let us know what you are learning or any questions you have. Email us at TextTalk@ChristiansMeetHere.org.    Join the Facebook community and join the conversation by clicking here. We'd love to meet you. Be a guest among the Christians who meet on Livingston Avenue. Click here to find out more. Michael Eldridge sang all four parts of our theme song. Find more from him by clicking here.   Thanks for talking about the text with us today.________________________________________________If the hyperlinks do not work, copy the following addresses and paste them into the URL bar of your web browser: Daily Written Devo: https://readthebiblemakedisciples.wordpress.com/?p=25607The Christians Who Meet on Livingston Avenue: http://www.christiansmeethere.org/Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TalkAboutTheTextFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/texttalkMichael Eldridge: https://acapeldridge.com/ 

"Leprosy"; tzedek-resh-ayin-tav; Modern disease - Hanson's disease?; Destruction of the Temple; Pharisees rejected Jesus; "Religion"; Priests; Spaniard's story; Healing from Priests? Or doctors?; Tree of Knowledge vs Tree of Life; Organizing in Tens, Hundreds and Thousands; Abandoning common purse; Pilgrims; Socialism; Free men under God; "Theos"; Bring ancient scripture into modern time; Degeneration of society; How to use knowledge; Revelation; Bible misinterpretation; Squelching truth; The divine solution; Reserve fund; Gen 2:15; Dress and keep the garden; Dominion; "Eating" of the trees; Organization of knowledge; Caring for others; Loving truth; Two trees; Hiding from God; Substitute solutions; Opened eyes; Treacherous clothing?; Torah vs Torat; Guidance from Tree of Life; Deception; Accepting Jesus?; Mt 7:20 By their fruits; Kingdom of Heaven/God; Foundation on the "rock"; Divine revelation; Foolish men; Not to be that way with you!; Winning back your government?; Becoming merchandise; "We the People"?; Biblical constitutions; Deut 17; Christ's COMMANDS; Voluntaryism; Being doers of the word; Responsibility; Rev 18:11; 1 Cor 16:9; Adversaries; Deut 6:12; Rom 11:9 Welfare snares; 2 Pet 2:3; Covetousness; Sureties for debt; Your relationship to government; Wars and rumors of wars; Debt notes; The rule of force and violence; vs Freewill offerings; Sharing; Charity; US Notes vs Just weights and measures; God of agreements; Allegiance?; Exercising authority; Addiction to benefits; Caring about your neighbor; Usury; License plates?; Use tax; Legal title; Lacking knowledge; Wanting to see the truth; The right way; Government of, for and by the people; "Tens"; Taking back your responsibilities; Love = Charity; Bondage of Egypt; "Israel"; Eating habits; Not wanting to change; Today's "Rome" (image of the beast); Changing of the courts - Equity; The Comforter; Fervent charity; Livestock?; Setting the captive free; "Idolatry"; "Socialism"; Finding God's heart in others; Choose truth!

The Praise O'Clock Show (also known as The Praiseworld Podcast) is the breakfast show of Praiseworld Radio.Host: Goodness Ezeh, Kanyinsola OmojolaQuote of The Day"God's almighty power is not a brute force, but a power that is guided by infinite wisdom and animated by perfect love." — A.W Tozer

Covetousness runs deeper than mere desire — it is believing that what you have isn't enough to be whole. Then busyness disguises the hunger for significance as sacrifice and thrives in the noise that misses God's presence. We've been in its storm for so long we've forgotten the calm. Contentment isn't found in abundance, but in God's supply, living in his potential, not ours. Life Journey's page: facebook.com/lifejourneys.us

Are you a Christian?; Under what law?; What's your direction? Mt 24:5 "Many"; Christ = Anointed; Mk 13:6; Lk 21:8; Striking accord; Strong delusion?; Personal savior?; Words vs deeds; Checklist; Mystery Babylon vs Kingdom of God; Idolatry = Covetous; Choosing a commander-in-chief; Tribe of Ruben; Acts 13:43; "Grace of God"?; Baptism with Holy Spirit; "Pure Religion"; Unspotted by the "world"; Exercising authority; Legal Charity; Dividing house-to-house; Sharing with the needy; Benefit addiction?; "Nicolaitans"; "Baalam"; Social welfare through Charity alone; Welfare weakening people; Brethren of Christ?; What are WE doing?; Mt 6:14; Prerequisites for being forgiven; Abortion; Making marriages work; Covetousness is not okay; Taking care of parents; What saved Israel?; Knowing Abraham, Moses and Jesus; Sacrifice?; Christian conflict in Rome; Tithing?; Misunderstanding "worship"; Jesus, "Seek, strive, persevere…"; Fire of God?; Public Religion; Calling no man on Earth "father"; Owing Caesar; "Eucharist"?; Jesus appointed a kingdom; Cursing your children; Degenerating society; Love requires sacrifice; Getting separate from the world?; Christian in belief only; 1 John 3:10; 1 Tim 3:7; Baptism with fire and Holy Spirit; Why gather?; Socialism; Opportunities to forgive; Right reason of Christ; John 3:16 - keep reading; Sharing the light; Laying down your life; Strengthening the poor; Denominations?; Being a doer of the word; Christ's commands; Seek His kingdom and His righteousness.

Leviticus to Revelation; Studying Greek; Patterns in Hebrew; Untranslated Hebrew word aleph-tav; Spoken Hebrew; Sophistry; Tabernacle?; Calendars; Burning sheep?; Knowing how things work; Feeding society's needy; Offerings; "Chain of service"; Herding sheep; Society governing itself; Following Torah; Public/private religion; Misinterpreting the Old Testament; Human nature; Progressivism; Aleph-tav; Relationship of God and man + faith; Rulers; Taxation; Cain and Abel; Strange gods; Humility; Inspiration and faith via individuals; Freewill offerings only; Charity; Choice!; Sons of Aaron; Seed of Abraham; No exercising authority; Socialism; Tithing by choice; Minster responsibilities; Strange fire; Burnt offering; Forced offerings?; Abraham's faith; Human resources; Border walls; Returning to The Way of God; Forcing neighbors; Lack of faith that freewill offerings will work; Forgiveness; Cursing your children with debt; Child sacrifice; Abraham's struggles; Are you willing to free your neighbor?; Fasting from government benefits; Welfare snares; String delusion; Leviticus about social welfare system; Believing God is in the process; Covetousness = idolatry; Children of disobedience; Amos 5:23 Noise; Building a stone temple?; Oaths?; Righteousness?; Gathering as Christ commanded; Beware of public religion; Aleph-tav-kuf-mem?; Social welfare by civil powers - spoiled sacrifices; Victim mentality; Allowing you to judge others; Listening to the song of Moses and of the Lamb; Aleph-tav - trust in God; Sophistry of "eighth"; Revelation?; Freewill offerings; National debt = child sacrifice; Creating the table of the Lord; How does God want you to live?; Fat = substance/value; Lev 9:22 in the process of time; Bringing light; Nurturing your "spark"; Love of Christ; "Christ"; Healing our nation?; Not the eighth day - but the time coming to pass; shem-mem-yod-nun-yod; Making America great again; Becoming merchandise; Taking care of neighbor; No exercising authority; Lacking eyes to see; Repentance; Stop being covetous!

In this message from the In Christ series, Scott Wiens opens Ephesians 5:3–10 to draw a clear line between darkness and light. He addresses the way darkness often disguises itself as “it's not that big a deal,” “everyone does it,” or “that verse doesn't apply anymore,” and he invites you to see how the gospel reshapes what we desire, how we speak, and how we live. Scott grounds the text in its original setting—Ephesus, a city saturated with pagan worship and sexual permissiveness—and shows why Paul's words were aimed at the church. The call isn't to outrage at the culture, but to personal holiness, integrity, and a community life that is above reproach.Scott defines the four sins Paul names—sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, and corrupt speech—and explains why they're more than behavior problems. Sexual immorality is any sexual activity outside God's design of one man and one woman in a marriage covenant. Impurity points to a mind that celebrates what God forbids, proving you can't separate body and heart. Covetousness is greed turned into worship, which is why Paul calls it idolatry. Then Paul moves to our words—filthiness, foolish talk, crude joking—and gives a surprising replacement: thanksgiving. When we stay close to the gospel and remember the gift of redemption, gratitude becomes our new default, and over time it reorients our vocabulary and our choices.Scott also names the “empty words” that try to excuse sin—cultural permission, selective theology, the claim that biblical ethics are outdated—and contrasts them with the conviction of the Holy Spirit, who will not be silenced in a true believer. He makes a crucial distinction between stumbling and making sin your identity, and he offers the pastoral help we need for real change: do not participate, learn to discern what pleases the Lord, and expose the works of darkness—beginning with our own hearts—through confession and accountability. Along the way, he cautions against “living on the edge,” reminds us that what we focus on is what we reflect, and shows why a life of gratitude leads to freedom and joy.If you're ready to stop partnering with darkness and to walk as a child of light, this message will help you take honest, practical steps. Watch or listen, share it with a friend who needs encouragement, and ask yourself: where do you need clearer discernment this week?We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.Subscribe to our Podcast & YouTube channel to find past sermons, classes, interviews, and more!Find us on Facebook & Instagram

Capitalism in the kingdom; Individuals have a right to what they produce; Socialism and Communism are political systems; One purse; Exercizing power; God's basic institution = Family; Bible story; "Creation"; Doing your own research; Inspiration; Hunting deer; Divine right of kings; Different courts; Persia; False economy; William the Conqueror; Doomsday book; Becoming subject; John the Baptist in Parthia; Fiat money; Legal title; Imaginary freedom; Lack of ownership; "Globalism"; "Babylon"; "Caliphate"; Idolatry; Becoming merchandise; "Breast"?; Davey Crockett; Lady Godiva; Covetousness; Council of Trent; Degenerating society; Women's suffrage; Taking back your responsibilities; Caring for neighbors; Strengthening your character; Vehicle ownership; Free market societies?; Repentance; Why we gather; Overcoming our strong delusion; Understanding the gospel; Wanting everyone to be saved; Organizing in Tens, Hundreds and Thousands; Kingdom vs Congregation; Victim mentality; Leaving judgment to God; Empathy for underdogs; Self-discipline; Loving the sinner; Desiring benefits at the expense of your neighbor; Systems contrary to Christ; Q from Katwellair: False liberty?; False hope?; Dependence on covetousness; Romans; Prayer; Guidance by Holy Spirit; Depending on approval of others?; Blaming others?; The loving way of Christ.

Leviticus: Instructions to the Levites; 400 years of captivity; Jealousy of Joseph; Corruption in city-states; Abraham's altars; Blessings of Melchizedek; Colonizers; Liberty?; The road to freedom; Semites?; "Seed of Abraham"; Tithes?; Warnings from the bible; Cities of blood; THE Way; "Church" in the wilderness; Fig leaves; "Bethel"; Tending sheep; Stripping off fig leaves; Lev 8:1 Speaking to Moses?; Why baskets?; Which door?; Family; Institution of The Church; Wealthy leaders; Lev 8:5 Mobile tabernacle; Golden calf; Cities of refuge; Supreme court?; No exercising authority; Commanders-in-chief; "No kings"?; Rebels; Colonial charters?; Naked?; gods of your government; "Apotheos"; Making things "great again"?; v6 baptism?; Aaron = priest; Permission to be priest; Ordering society; Police powers; Anointing the tabernacle; Pouring oil?; Tongues of fire?; Speaking in tongues?; Living by faith, not force; breastplate hey-chet-shin-nun; Electoral college?; Following Babylon/Cain/Nimrod; "Sanctify"; Freewill offerings; v13 coats? Covering kof-tav-nun-tav; girdle = abnet; sash?; Mitre?; Falling away from the spirit; Bullock's blood?; Burning with fire?; Inspiration; Reliance of Holy Spirit; Moses' system; vs FDR's; Redistributing to needy of society; taking responsibility for neighbors; "No King"ers actually want kings; Social safety net; v27 Aaron's hands?; Freewill offerings; Idols?; Sheep shearing?; Laban's statues; Genocide?; Benefit addiction; Covetousness; Network of priests; Becoming a real Christian; Garments?; Caring for needy; Unmoored imagery; Moses' real intention; Constantine?; Repentance and atonement; Jesus did his part; Distribute all that is offered; Going the ways of Christ; Faith hope and charity; Pure religion; No exercising authority; Ps 104:1; Corban of violence?; Opting out of the world's covetous systems; Urim and Thummim; Seek His kingdom and righteousness - Become a Doer Now!

Leviticus - turning points; What's wrong here?; Words?; Deception and sophistry; Gregory history; Burnout?; Accepting doctrines of men; Replacing the truth; Confusion; Learning Hebrew?; Writing; Alphabets; "Breastplate"?; chet-shin-nun; Questioning your teachers and preconceptions; Honoring parents; Caring - attending to their welfare; Why honor parents?; Monkey story; Old testament altars; Dignity, purpose and affirmation; "Wave offering"; Ex 29:24; "Aaron"; Garments?; Breeches made by the people?; Is God so shallow?; Breast of the ram?; Do you believe?; Ordering the wood; Sacrifice of the red heifer; "Heave offering"; Seed of Abraham; Faith!; "Idolatry"; Covetousness?; Freewill offerings; Creating social bonds; Moses' social security; Fire = wife/woman = caregiver of the family; Contributions for Christ; Righteous redistribution; "Sprinkling"; "wood" = "counsel"; Kickbacks? ;"One Purse"; Choosing what Christ had forbidden; Lev 8:1 Does Moses hear a voice?; Aaron and his sons; Seeking righteousness; Literally?; Tents of the congregation; Where to gather?; Washing Aaron and sons; Baptism; Urim and Thummim?; Chet-shin-nun; "Leaven"; Nakedness?; God breathed life into man; Tree of knowledge?; Sitting in darkness; Bringing light and liberty?; Presumptions; Clothing = status; Pastor?; Strange fire; Ex 29:21; Gleaning meaning; biet-gimel-dalet (garment); Steps?; Authority; Freewill offerings; Responsibility of government; Miracle of loaves and fishes; Oversight; Returning everyone to family and possessions; Making sure all have enough; Mt 20:25, Mk 10:42, Lk 22:25; "Sophistry" article - kidneys given to Levites?; "Burnt" offerings; Rights in God's system; vs man's system; Fixing corruption; Measuring a man's Christianity; "Casting bread upon the waters"; Pure Religion - unspotted by "world"; Dependence on government; Inheritance tax?; Legal title; Benefit addiction; Covetous practices; "breast" = chet-zayin-hey; Communicating with "stones"?; Enlightenment; "chezah" = see, behold, prophesy, provide; Redistributing the wave offering; Breast? Shin-dalet; DOGE?; Repentance; Recreating Christ's system; Service; Learning to be free; Going contrary to God's way; Parental responsibility; Family!; Hate of the day…; Error of Baalam = Deeds of Nicolaitans; Welfare snares; alternate system of Leviticus; Join the Living Network.

Listen to this week's sermon, Parables In Practice preached by Pastor Jason Dunn from Luke 12:13-34.

Dependence:We are a church who strives to live dependently on the power of the Holy Spirit in every area of our lives. We aren't trying to fix ourselves or anyone else with our own power, but trusting His power to work in us and through us.“Three months after leaving Egypt, Israel arrives at Mount Sinai, a location where they spend almost two years. Even more striking, the rest of the book of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and the first part of Numbers (through 10:11) take place at Sinai.”- Tremper Logman 3rd and Raymond Dillard“The people heard the voice of God for themselves and thus could not doubt his presence among them, a presence more directly manifest at Sinai than in any other mode previously since they had first learned of his interest in them. All the people were hearing the voice of God just as Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, and the patriarchs had heard it and as Moses had heard it earlier at Mount Sinai when God first called him. And this time the voice of God was accompanied by such audio and visual displays as to leave no doubt in their minds as to both his presence and his uniqueness…”- Douglas Stuart“This commandment highlights the twisted desires of mankind and the sin of discontentment. Instead of having a thankful heart, the coveter desires what others have. Notice also that this commandment is about the inward nature of the law. Covetousness is about the heart. It is about desire. It may or may not lead to an act, but even if there is no act, it is still wrong because our desire should be on the God who made us and redeemed us. Covetousness, then, involves breaking the first commandment.”- Tony MeridaVerses:Exodus 19:1-2Exodus 12:37Exodus 19:4-61 Peter 2:9Exodus 19:16-20Exodus 20:1Exodus 24:9-11Exodus 20:1-2Exodus 20:3-4Exodus 20:7Exodus 20:8Exodus 20:12-17Leviticus 18:1-4Exodus 20:18-21Exodus 20:21

If you had a billion dollars, what would you do? PF's answer might surprise you — and then he flips the question entirely. In this episode, PF, Esther, Kenneth, and Tunde tackle one of the most uncomfortable questions in Christian culture: how much money is actually enough? PF breaks down exactly what $1 million can cover (house, car, food, kids' tuition) and then asks why none of us would actually be satisfied with that.The conversation goes deeper than budgets. This is about contentment, greed, the pressure to keep up, and why the church needs to be the voice that says "you don't need that" when nobody else will.**In this episode:**- PF's billion-dollar plan (and why he wouldn't cover the church's bills)- The math on what you actually need vs. what you think you need- Why a producer went from happy in a small house to stressed in a mansion- The biblical case for contentment — and what "God supplies your needs" really means- Diaspora pressure: when your family thinks America means you're rich- PF confronts his own greed on camera**TIMESTAMPS**`00:00 - Cold Open: "Ask Me If I Used Church Money..."00:27 - Introduction: Esther, Kenneth, PF & Tunde01:48 - "If You Had a Billion Dollars, What Would You Do?"03:16 - Why PF Wouldn't Pay Off the Church's Bills (And Why That's Wise)05:00 - PF's Billion-Dollar Plan: Pay Off Everyone's Debt05:29 - The Bentley Continental GT Dream (Again)06:10 - "How Much Money Is Enough Money?"07:42 - The $1 Million Breakdown: What You Actually Need09:03 - "A Lot of What We Want Is Not What We Need"09:30 - Lifestyle Creep: 4-Bedroom House, 2 Empty Rooms12:02 - "One Million Can Sort You Out for Life"13:10 - "Our Comfort Is Not Determined By Our Need"16:10 - The Producer Who Went From Happy to Stressed17:34 - "Pride and Lust — Period."18:18 - Would You Judge a Homeless Person Who's Content?20:03 - PF Admits His Rolex Isn't a Need21:14 - Philippians 4:19: God Supplies Needs, Not Wants23:57 - Career Ambition or Covetousness? How to Tell the Difference25:52 - "If the Church Won't Say It, Who Will?"30:40 - Diaspora Pressure: When Family Thinks You're Rich40:04 - What PF Learned From His Wife About Not Caring42:09 - Closing: "When the Fruit Is Turning Your Belly, You've Over-Enjoyed"`

“I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content.” — Philippians 4:11 These words show us that contentment is not a natural propensity of man. “Ill weeds grow apace.” Covetousness, discontent, and murmuring are as natural to man as thorns are to the soil. We need not sow thistles and brambles; they […]

Jim Osman examines one of the Old Testament's most troubling figures: Balaam, the prophet for hire who tried to curse God's people for money. Though God spoke through him, Balaam was driven by greed and immorality, making him the perfect example of the false teachers Peter warns against. This message walks through Numbers 22-24, answering questions about why God used such a wicked man and what it reveals about false prophets today. Balaam's motives exposed his heart—he loved the wages of unrighteousness and deliberately departed from the right way. His morals led him to scheme against Israel through sexual immorality and idolatry when his curses failed. His madness shows the insanity of pursuing money and sin at the expense of eternal well-being. The talking donkey is the least confusing part of the story. The real issue is how someone can speak truth while living a lie, and what that teaches us about marking and avoiding false teachers whose hearts are trained in greed. If you have Christ and nothing else, you're richer than the wealthiest false teacher. ★ Support this podcast ★

Strong delusion today; Tree of Knowledge; Intellectuals; Altars = trusts; Maturity; In, but not of the world; Peace offerings; Artistic interpretation of burning offerings; Sacrifice; "wood" for altars?; Charity = freewill offerings; Cities of blood; "Anarchy"; Exercising authority over others; The sin of Sodom; Gen 18:20; Isa 3:9; Ez 16:49; Weakening the poor; Welfare snares; How to form a free society; Israel the republic; Grain reserves; Government of, for and by the people; Private religion; Melchizedek vs Abimelech; Pharisees not following Moses; No biting one another?; Wood on lively unhewn stones of the Altars; Counsell; Tabernacles; Bonds of the kingdom; Knowing the world's laws; Why go to church?; Daily ministration to the needy?; Eating at the table of rulers; Lot and the angels; Explaining the social welfare system of the kingdom; "Call no man on Earth Father"; Returning to rights and responsibilities; Christ's "command"; Network of Charity; Capitalist systems of economy; "Religion"; Human resources; Bishops distributing grain?; "Corban"; Meat with blood in it; Socialism; Making the word of God to none effect; Blind leading the blind; Judging and being judged; Actions have consequences; Making yourself merchandise; "Leaven"; Anarchists on welfare?; Covetousness; Understanding your position; Cursing children; Gal 3:7; Ez 7:23; Asking for help; Teaching God's system; Loving the truth; Ez 9:9; 1 Sam 8; Saul's election; "Strange fire"; Ez 22:2; Idolatry; Forced sacrifice?; Ez 24:6; Addiction to benefit; Ez 11:3; You're not in Israel!; Cauldrons and fleshpots; Creating socialist collectives; Benefits of Christ?; BEing the welfare of the righteous; "world"; Hab 2:7; Gen 9:4; Lev 17:10; Daily bread?; Biblical context; Ps 69:22-23; Darkened eyes; Right reason; Tree of Life; Act 15:20; Strangling = forcing; Having God as your fortress; Repentance; Rom 11:9; Prov 23:1; Ex 23:32; Sin or evidence of sin?; Ex 34:12; Deu 7:16; Looking for evidence; Fear not! Love!; Practicing pure religion; Emotional thinking; God as ruler; Finding the answer; Listening for God's voice; Faith is required; Faith is a gift; Arguing with God; Learning to care about your neighbor; Acceptance of benefits; Consent; Gen 14:18; Ps 110:4; Heb 5:6; Heb 6:20; Righteous king; Start your own repentance today.

Jesus exposes the idols of our hearts that lead us to covet, want, and compare. As we grow rich toward God, our grip on what others have loosens, and true freedom and contentment are found in Him.

Topics: Meaning of Antinomianism, New Covenant, Respecting the Law, Role of the Holy Spirit, Gentiles and the Law (Ephesians 2:12), Jesus Sent to Israel, Canaanite Woman Faith (Matthew 15), Old Covenant Audience, 613 Commandments not Just Ten, Born Under the Law (Galatians 4:4-5), Deuteronomy Warning (Deuteronomy 4:2), Blessings and Curses (Deuteronomy 8), End of the Law (Romans 10:4), Rightly Dividing Scripture, Led by the Spirit (Galatians 5:18), Grace not a License to Sin but the Power to Overcome Sin, Law Increases Sin (Romans 5:20), Not Under Law (Romans 6:14), Ministry of Death (2 Corinthians 3), Covetousness and Sin (Romans 7), Grace Teaches Holiness (Titus 2:11-12), Insulting Spirit of Grace (Hebrews 10), Strengthened by Grace (Hebrews 13:9), Excel in Grace (2 Corinthians 8:7), No Condemnation (Romans 8:1), Progressive Sanctification Myth, Commandments in the Law Cannot Perfect Anyone (Hebrews 10:1), Perfected for All Time (Hebrews 10:14), Washed and Sanctified (1 Corinthians 6:11), Law Through Moses (John 1:17), Commandments of Jesus (1 John 3:23), His Commandments are Not Burdensome (1 John 5:3), Transfiguration Meaning (Matthew 17), Strength of Sin (1 Corinthians 15:56), Free Grace is Not a Theology (Romans 11:6)Support the showSign up for Matt's free daily devotional! https://mattmcmillen.com/newsletter

Today is day 354 and we are studying The Tenth Commandment. 354. How can covetousness lead to other sins? Covetousness begins with discontent and, as it grows in the heart, can lead to sins such as idolatry, adultery, and theft. (2 Samuel 11; 1 Kings 21:1–19; Proverbs 1:8–19; James 1:14–15) We will conclude today by praying the Collect for the Third Sunday in Lent found on page 606 of the Book of Common Prayer (2019). If you would like to buy or download To Be a Christian, head to anglicanchurch.net/catechism. Produced by Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Madison, MS. Original music from Matthew Clark. Daily collects and Psalms are taken from Book of Common Prayer (2019), created by the Anglican Church in North America and published by the Anglican Liturgical Press. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Catechism readings are taken from To Be a Christian - An Anglican Catechism Approved Edition, copyright © 2020 by The Anglican Church in North America by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

How subtle greed can shift our focus and quietly distance us from God