Hope Channel

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2019: "The Least of These" : Ministering to Those in Need

Sikhu Daco

Justin Kim

Israel Ramos

Jonathan Walter

01-God Created

Callie Williams

02-Blueprint for a Better World

Sebastien Braxton

03-Sabbath: A Day of Freedom

04-Mercy and Justice in Psalms and Proverbs

05-The Cry of the Prophets

06-Worship the Creator

07-Jesus and Those in Need

08-The Least of These

09-Ministry in the New Testament Church

10-Living the Gospel

11-Living the Advent Hope

12-To Love Mercy

13-A Community of Servants

Find out more on this episode of Inverse.

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Now here's your host, Justin Kim, with Inverse.

We always want change around us, but how does God change the world?

We asked that question in our opener and on this episode we're gonna look at how does God use the church as an agent of change.

With me in the studio today we have my good friends we are in our last episode we've been in a we were missing 2 of our friends but our team has gone through 13 weeks this is our 13th week on the topic of justice and mercy throughout the entire Bible.

So, Siku, you're going to read the Bible verse, we're going to go to Hebrews 10, verse 23 and 24.

But, Callie, please pray for us before we get there.

Father in heaven, we thank you for giving us instruction in all things and we thank you that you even have guidance in these areas of change and faithfulness and Lord so much more and so I pray that as we study we would glean lessons that are practical to our lives and we would love Jesus more because of them.

Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23 and 24, Siku at your pleasure.

Please let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider 1 another in order to stir up love and good works.

And read verse 25 too, it's not occluded by just, it's a good verse.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting 1 another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

Yeah, so Israel, we've gone through a lot of concepts, justice, mercy, social justice, community outreach, and really at the end of the day we want change to happen around us.

We're seeing here that God uses a community, a church.

What's He specifically saying in Hebrews chapter?

Hebrews, there's a lot to say about it because I'm actually right now studying the book of Hebrews and just a little bit ago I was writing a book so I mean a paper oh you're writing a paper so I have a lot to say about this yeah so tell us so the book of Hebrews is actually is actually a sermon and this is we're now getting towards the conclusion of the sermon to God's people here.

And what is taking place is that the church is suffering from, we talked about in a previous episode, the church is suffering here from fatigue.

When they first became Christians, when they first became followers of Christ, they were persecuted, they were willing to do all these different things for Jesus, but as time has gone on, it's just like, man, this is a tiring experience.

So this is the early church though, when things are like perfect and ideal...

Some people are tired of church today, but 2000 years ago...

People were tired, just as tired as we are now.

And so what the author of Hebrews, which people believe is Paul, I believe is Paul, is essentially saying getting together as the body of Christ helps against fatigue.

And it is the change of the world, many times we think that it's something that happens, boom, just all at once, but no, change takes a very long period of time, and it's a marathon, it's not a sprint, and so Jesus says, essentially, if you want to be able to endure, if you want to be able to effect change, then you have to be willing to run the marathon, not run a sprint race, and in order for you to do that, you need the body, the community of Jesus Christ.

Yeah, there's that idiom that if you want to go fast, you go alone, but if you want to go far, you go together.

I wanna make sure I get that idiom correct because we've misquoted idioms in the past.

In verse 23, just going with, there's the communal aspect, but the thing that brings a community together and what helps to avoid this wavering is the knowledge that he who has promised is faithful.

So it comes back and doubles back to our confidence in who God is and that he is faithful to what he has promised.

And that is what gives a community of faith the courage to move forward in spite of the odds, in spite of the fact that sometimes you're working and working and working and it feels like you're seeing no results.

But because he who has promised is faithful, that gives you the courage and the confidence to keep stirring each other to love and good works.

Do you guys have examples of, Kelly if you want to answer this go ahead, but if you don't want to we'll come back to it with the first question.

Examples when you were tired of church and maybe someone gave you some encouragement or some people or some way, some manner, and you're like, dude, and then you just.

Israel, and both of you are nodding your head, and so we'll get them and we'll come back to you.

I remember a long time ago, and you're familiar with this, when we were starting a youth movement, GYC, and the amount of energy and effort that that took is just an incredible, I mean, you really, you give, we gave to God essentially our early 20s.

And there's a little, yeah, early, later 20s, yeah.

And I remember that there were times when I was really down it down just because it was just a lot of work And I remember specifically receiving an email from someone telling me their experience.

And it was like, look, I was at a GYC, and this was the year, and this was the speaker, and this is what they said.

And because of this, I am a Christian today.

And I remember that the impact that that has had on my life is just significant.

Many times to this very day, when I'm tired, when I'm weary, when I feel as though my life doesn't really, is not really making an impact, I'll go back to that email and I'll read it and it'll bring some sort of encouragement to me.

And I have the privilege and the pleasure to meet people constantly around the world that will come to me and say, this was the GYC that I gave my life to Christ or that impacted the trajectory of my life, that called me to be a minister, to give up my regular job to do something more radical for Jesus.

And this has constantly served and continues to serve for me as an inspiration.

This is a good opportunity to put a shameless plug that Maybe Inverse has been a blessing to you.

We want to hear your testimonies and look us up on social media and share your stories.

And if not just only Inverse, but any other show on Hope Channel or any person in the ministry or anyone in campus ministry or youth ministry or whatnot, send them an email, send them a certain text and encourage them.

This is what we do as a church and in this digital society, shouldn't we do that more through our digital forms of communication?

You know, the phrase that he uses in verse 24 at the beginning, he says, let us consider 1 another in order to stir up love and good works.

And for me, probably most recently, having little kids, I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old, And going to church can be challenging.

And I remember this 1 Sabbath you're tired from the whole week and you know I'm there with my children who are being loud and it's just like Lord should I just leave the church you know But then how do you train them to sit through church if you're never in the church?

And I know as a single person, I would have looked at that situation and not thought much of it.

But being in it, it felt like my world is collapsing.

And after church service that Sabbath, several older moms, their kids are grown up in college, et cetera, they just came to me and gave me a hug.

And they were just like, we see you, girl.

And it wasn't a judgmental, like, oh, your kids are so loud.

Like, it was just like, girl, we see you.

And 1 mom came to me, she was like, I was praying for you today.

You know, just the thought, wow, they cared about my situation.

And it's a small thing, but it encouraged me to say, you know what?

I'm going to come to church next Sabbath, and I'm going to bring my children, and we're going to sit through church, and the Lord's going to give me wisdom for how to help my kids to make it.

We're going out, GYC youth movement, you're raising kids, and these are big things, but there gets tiring And sometimes we need encouragement, we need infusion of courage to keep that wheel going.

Sorry to exclude you, but we want to include you and encourage you on your walk with Jesus.

So I'm reading this book right now about spiritual disciplines, And it talks about the things that maybe automatically come to mind, like studying the Bible and praying.

But then the extra 1 in my mind was he talked about is communing with the church and communing with each other.

Series

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2019: "The Least of These" : Ministering to Those in Need

13-A Community of Servants

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2019: "The Least of These" : Ministering to Those in Need

12-To Love Mercy

27m

InVerse, 4th Quarter 2023: Adventist Heritage

11 The Gospel in Action

29m

InVerse, 2nd Quarter 2019: Family Seasons

02-The Choices We Make

28m

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2020: Foundations of Discipleship

07-Process of Discipleship - Plant

27m

InVerse, 2nd Quarter 2020: How to Know God’s Will for Your Life

13-Seek Ye First

27m

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2022: Hebrews

13 Let Brotherly Love Continue

27m

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2022: Hebrews

12 Receiving an Unshakeable Kingdom

27m

InVerse 4th Quarter 2025: The Book of Joshua

03 Time of Transition

28m

InVerse, 4th Quarter 2019: Nehemiah: Principles of Biblical Leadership

09-Through Hidden Opposition - Discernment

28m

InVerse 4th Quarter 2025: The Book of Joshua

02 Lessons in Leadership

29m

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2020: Foundations of Discipleship

02-Goal of Discipleship

27m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

01 Counter-Cultural

27m

Sound Doctrine