How does sexuality reveal the heart of God?

<p>How does sexuality reveal the heart of God?</p>

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Hope Channel

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

Justin Kim

Israel Ramos

Jonathan Walter

Callie Williams

01 Counter-Cultural

Sebastien Braxton

Sikhu Daco

02 Naked

03 One of Two Gifts

04 Incredible Sex

05 Marital Sexuality: Oneness

06 Marital Sexuality: Twoness

07 Marital Sexuality: Sameness of Nature

08 Marital Sexuality: Difference

09 Interconnectedness

10 Pre-Marital Sexuality

11 When Things Go Wrong

12 Beyond Sexuality

13 Purity

Could it be that sexuality could reveal the heart of God?

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.

Hey everyone, this is Inverse, and my name is Justin Kim.

We're so happy that you're with us in the studio.

We have Siku, Israel, and Sebastian, and we are looking in a Bible study on the topic of biblical sexuality.

So we want to give you a little bit of heads up and a warning that if you have minors or this topic ain't your cup of tea for now, that you want to put this on pause and fast forward to another episode.

So we're gonna get into this topic in Ezekiel chapter 16, Ezekiel chapter 16 under the rubric of beyond sexuality.

I want to ask you, Siku, before we have prayer, what are some things that you remember from this quarter?

We're in episode 12, we're almost wrapping up here, and we've covered a lot.

A lot of mountains, a lot of valleys, and a lot of lakes in between, and what are some sights that you remember?

I think something that was important was just the description of what biblical sexuality looks like, so that biblical sexuality, according to the Bible, sexuality is good.

It is, it requires elements of sameness between the individuals who are involved, elements of difference between them, that it takes more than 1 person, i.e.

2, but then it also brings those 2 people together as 1.

So I think those are the 5 elements of biblical sexuality that come out and then, you know, aberrations from that become deviations from what the Bible teaches.

And if you're curious about some of these principles, you can go to inversebible.org and catch up.

And I think in between episodes 3 to episode 8, is it 4 to 9?

Anyway, watch all of them and you'll get, you'll catch up where we are in episode 12.

So Sebastian, if you can pray for us and we'll get into scripture right afterwards.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we have covered so much by way of principles and guidance that is much needed.

And Lord, we pray today that as we think beyond sexuality and its spiritual and prophetic ramifications and instruction in our lives, Lord, we trust that this may help to deepen our own relationship with you.

We love you and we thank you for hearing and for answering this prayer.

And we offer this prayer from our hearts in Jesus' name, amen.

So we are in Ezekiel chapter 16 and Israel can read verses 60 to 63, please.

It says, Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and your younger sisters, for I will give them to you for daughters, but not because of my covenant with you.

And I will establish my covenant with you, then you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame, when I provide you an atonement for all that you have done, says the Lord God." Okay, thank you.

So, we are talking about this topic of sexuality, and it's very, very interesting that the Bible does not hold back from some of the riskiness associated with this topic.

And sometimes within the church and sometimes Christians, we don't want to go where God has gone.

And hopefully this discussion has been an efficacious discussion, a topic for you all watching and We're trying to kind of be sensitive with that line.

We want to address what the Bible addresses, but treat this as a holy topic.

But we know this topic has been on every other channel out there, and we want to treat it with the respect and the sensitivity that it needs.

But when you go to chapter 16 of Ezekiel, the Bible does mention the sexuality.

So share with us, what is the context of chapter 16 and what's going on here?

And he starts off at the beginning of the chapter and he's talking about the beginnings of their relationship.

And he likens it to, in that context, to the love that, I guess, a parent would have for a child who's adopted.

So it's like you find this child on the side of the street and the child is, there's nothing desirable about this child.

You're not taking the child in because they're like amazing or they're like so cute and cuddly.

So he adopts them as his people out of his love for them.

And he invests in them, in that relationship.

So God talks about the relationship that he has with these people as something that he initiates, not for the merit of the people that he takes as his own, but out of his great love for them.

As this child grows up, the way that they respond to the way that God has treated them is disproportionate.

So he's talking about, I guess it's his grievance in the situation where he has invested so much in this relationship, He has loved, but then the response that he gets is not 1 that you would expect from what God has been putting in.

Well, this chapter has about 63 verses and Sikhu, you described really, there's a really self-contained narrative in chapter 16.

When I read over chapter 16, it seems like there's different kind of loves that are mentioned.

As you said, in the beginning, there's a kind of a parental love.

There's this kid, a baby in the middle of the road, and he just kind of takes care of it.

Then it kind of transitioned into a, not a parental love, but a romantic love.

Then it goes into a sacrificial love, and then a God kind of Lord, servant love.

But it's all kind of compositely looked at here, okay?

Yeah, well, 1 of the first scenes that is very captivating is how it is that this individual encounters a baby.

In verse 6, it says, I passed by you and I saw you struggling in your own blood.

Yes, and I said unto you, in your own blood live.

And so you have this concept of not just any kind of baby, but a baby that's like in the worst condition possible, found in the middle of the road, covered in its own blood, ready to die.

And in that encounter God sees that person and and takes it in right adopts it as he who said as their as his own child and It portrays a picture of the condition of an individual that is without God, right?

There's nothing in us as human beings that make us valuable outside of the very breath of God in us, right?

I mean, we're really, we're made, we're made up of, essentially, we're made up of dirt.

And, and it was God's intention that the value that we received, even though Adam and Eve were beautiful in their form, they were still worthless, right?

And it wasn't until the breath of God was instilled in them that they became valuable.

And so this is similar to the condition, outside of the fact that this individual comes and adopts this baby, she's a worthless child ready to die in her own blood.

Okay, this child is, I wanna kinda push through because this is a long narrative, and I know you guys want it, but we gotta keep going.

I think it kinda pushes the narrative in verse 14.

It goes to the point that Israel is saying your fame, he's talking about this child, your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty for it was perfect through my splendor, which I had bestowed on you says the Lord God.

So, so you have this worth now, but it's a worth that is bestowed on you by God.

And then the contrast comes in verse 15, but, but you trusted in your own beauty, play the harlot because of your fame and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it.

And it's like, I invested all of this and the reason that you have this beauty is because of me.

The reason you have this fame is because of me.

Like anything that is meritorious that you have is because of me, but then you take those gifts that I have invested in you and you play the harlot?

Like you waste them on frivolous relationships that have no meaning, you know?

Like playing the harlot, it's not just you had an affair, Like you're going out on the streets and just anybody that comes around you're like, well, it says here that in verse 22, in all your abominations and acts of harlotry, you did not remember the days of your youth.

And it goes down and actually describes each of her lovers in it.

So to speak, Verse 26, you committed harlotry with the Egyptians.

Verse 27, in the middle there, the daughters of the Philistines were ashamed of your lewd behavior.

Verse 28, you also played the harlot with the Assyrians because you were insatiable.

Indeed, you played a harlot with them and were still not satisfied.

Verse 29, moreover, you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the traitor Chaldea and even then you were not satisfied.

Verse 30, how degenerate is your heart seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.

So this isn't, she's not only flirting with people, this is a sexual encounter, like with all these, now not literally, but now this country of the people of Israel are worshiping the gods of all these people around.

God uses harlotry as a medium to convey what, Sebastian?

Well, he's using it to convey the spiritual infidelity and unfaithfulness to the covenant that we've entered into with him.

And, you know, we did a whole season on covenant.

So whenever I see that word, I get semi-excited, and then also nervous that, you know, can take us off a whole different direction.

But this idea that God promised to do all these things for her, and what we're seeing in this story, as we looked at in our series on the covenants, He did all these things for her.

Series

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

12 Beyond Sexuality

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

02 Naked

27m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

13 Purity

27m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

09 Interconnectedness

27m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

01 Counter-Cultural

27m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

03 One of Two Gifts

27m

InVerse 3rd Quarter 2023: Leviticus

12 Purity

29m

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

09-Relationship Matters

27m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

07 Marital Sexuality: Sameness of Nature

27m

InVerse 1st Quarter 2025: Renewing the Mind

02 Restoring the Whole Person

28m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

04 Incredible Sex

27m

InVerse 1st Quarter 2024: Jesus & Liberty

07 Understanding Theocracy

28m

InVerse 2nd Quarter 2025: Back to the Altar

02 An Altar Appears

28m

Sound Doctrine