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Hope Channel

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2023: God First

Sikhu Daco

Justin Kim

Israel Ramos

Jonathan Walter

01 God: The Upholding Giver

Sebastien Braxton

Callie Williams

02 Cain and Abel: The Conflicting Givers

03 Noah: The Grateful Giver

04 Abraham: The Faithful Giver

05 Isaac: The Altruistic Giver

06 Jacob: The Promising Giver

07 Ahaz: The Wicked Giver

08 Jeroboam and Hezekiah: The Giving Motivators

09 The Phoenician Widow: The Trusting Giver

10 The Poor Widow: The Extreme Giver

11 Ananias and Sapphira: The Unfaithful Givers

12 The Rich Young Ruler: The End-time Givers

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.

And I don't know if you've noticed, but we have a totally different set, a different setup.

And in the studio We have Israel and Siku and Jonathan.

And we have you guys out there who are watching on TV or on video or you're listening through our podcast.

We have a totally different format, right?

And Hopefully this will allow for a much more interesting conversation.

We've got more organic and I don't know what the right vibe word is.

But this quarter we are in the book of, we're not in a particular book, we're in the concept of stewardship, of stewardship, of giving, of these stories throughout the Bible that talk about us giving to God, but also God giving to us in this exchange between the 2.

And the quarter is called, the next 13 weeks, it's called God First.

Hebrews chapter 1 is where we will start.

And before we always, before reading scripture, let's have a word of prayer.

Our gracious Father in heaven, we want to thank you so much for your goodness to us.

And we want to thank you that you have been and you continue to be the great giver of life and of every good gift.

And so we ask now for the gift of your presence as we study your word, that you would be with us in Jesus' name.

Siku, can you read Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 through 4?

It reads, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

Okay, so my understanding is in the New Testament, you have the 4 great Christological passages that talk about Jesus.

Hebrews 1, 1 through 4 is definitely 1 of them.

But Jonathan, for what we're trying to get out for this lesson, I know we can spend like maybe another whole quarter just on these 4 verses.

But what are some things that that we can extract from this for the to get into the conversation?

I mean, as you said, there's a lot to see here, but I really like how the author brings out in verse 3, it says, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power.

So here we see that Jesus who is God through His word upholds all things.

He is the creator and not only creator but he's also the sustainer.

So Jesus gives in creation, he builds out of nothing, you know, reality.

He weaves it all together, but then he also sustains by, you know, providing life, providing everything, all the resources, everything that is needed for life to continue.

So let me ask this question, like what does that mean to uphold, right?

Like we know that the Bible says uphold, like is he, within our modern context of science, of now that we understand that, you know, the earth is not the center of the universe, but the sun is the center of our solar system and gravity and magnets.

But with all the things that we understand about the universe, like God upholding the world, how do we bridge that?

How do we process that in our contemporary context?

I like that it says, upholding all things, not that upholding the earth.

And it's capturing now, like, quote, the birth of stars, you know, and intricate details that before were not seen, you know, in how the universe is built up and functions.

And science hopes to learn more about the universe and its extent.

All those things that science is learning, God holds together, right?

So everything falls apart if it's not for God in his unimaginable power, making sure that everything is in its right place, doing its right thing.

And then, you know, if something, if a star, you know, happens to get out of its orbit and collides into it, it could be catastrophe, right, for the Earth.

So the fact that we continue to orbit the way that we do, and the sun is in its place, and all these things, and the universe all together, that is God's power that holds all those things together, not just scientific formulas, and equations, and laws of science.

That God is the author of all those things and he holds it together.

It seems like the universe is a very chaotic place.

Yeah, I mean, you look at the randomness of the universe and it's almost a very scary place.

You know, there's like liquid diamonds raining from, you know, the sky and some planet, there's like liquid magma that's like super cold and super hot, whatever.

But in the midst of that chaos, there's also order that we see.

Yeah, we see this exchange of order and whatnot.

So let's go to Genesis chapter 1, where chapter 1, Verse 2, there is definitely that that void and chaos.

But then God is in the process of ordering all this.

Israel, can you read from verse 1 through 3?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided light from darkness.

God called the light day and the darkness he called night.

So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Yes, then God said, "'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, "'and let it divide the waters from the waters.' "'Thus God made the firmament and divided the waters "'which were under the firmament from the waters "'which were above the firmament.

"'And God called the firmament Heaven, "'so the evening and the morning were the second day.

So what are some things that we can extract from this passage?

We established that God is upholding all things with his word.

And then we see in the midst of what there was chaos and God is, is ordering.

I think it's best when we look at Genesis chapter 1.

You know, when we look at the Bible, we normally think about it as a book, but it's really a collection of books.

I like to look at the Bible actually as a letter.

And if the Bible is looked at from that perspective, then Genesis 1 is an introduction to who God is.

If Genesis 1 is an introduction to who God is.

Series

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2023: God First

01 God: The Upholding Giver

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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03 Divine Design

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InVerse, 4th Quarter 2021: Deuteronomy

11 Life or Death

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InVerse, 4th Quarter 2020: Education

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