Using God’s systems as a way to gain social standing is hypocritical, deceptive, and a sure-fire way to destroy ourselves.

<p>Using God’s systems as a way to gain social standing is hypocritical, deceptive, and a sure-fire way to destroy ourselves.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hope Channel

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2023: God First

Sikhu Daco

Justin Kim

Israel Ramos

Jonathan Walter

01 God: The Upholding Giver

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.

Sebastien Braxton

Callie Williams

02 Cain and Abel: The Conflicting Givers

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

My name is Justin Kim, and you are part of our gang here this episode as we are looking at the topic of God first.

So in the studio we have Kelly to my right and Israel.

Let's go to Genesis chapter 4, and we've been looking at, in our last episode, we looked at God as the creator of systems and order and borders also.

And these borders are there to give us more freedom.

It was actually a very, very high level combo.

And now for the next about 11 episodes or so, we're going to look at little vignettes throughout scripture and the next 1 we look at is in Genesis 4.

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

Father in heaven, We are so privileged that we have the opportunity to study Your Word.

We are grateful, Lord, that You are a giver.

And we pray that as You guide us through this study that we may clearly understand Your heart of giving, but also be challenged to match your heart in our own.

We love you, we thank you for these gifts, and we offer this prayer from our hearts in Jesus' name.

Let's go to Genesis chapter 4, and Callie, can you read verses 1 through 7?

Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord.

Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.

Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.

And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering.

And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell.

So the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen?

If you do well, will you not be accepted?

And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

Okay, so Israel, just maybe give us a quick, quick recap of what's happened with the history of the universe thus far?

Just like about 10 seconds, you know, what's happened?

So, God, Genesis chapter 1, Genesis chapter 2, God is actively involved.

And in that story of creation, its foundation is the foundation of giving.

Why is it that God gives when He creates?

It is in the essence of God's character to give because He loves.

Because He loves, He gives His presence, He gives a gift of His Word, He gives a gift of his word.

He gives a gift of his talents, his gifts.

All of this takes place in Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis chapter 3, we now have the introduction of sin through Adam and Eve.

And then in Genesis chapter 4, we have the immediate, the immediate reaction to what happens when we go contrary to the system that God has established, the system based on giving and love.

Yeah, he like gave the system of like offerings here.

And we know we we should know we should we should be familiar with the story.

Cain's the bad dude and Abel's the good dude, right?

And they're good and bad because of the ways they give.

Well, when you look into the passage, you realize in God's questions there in verse 7, he says, if you do well, will you not be accepted?

So the suggestion here is that God has given a prescribed way as to how that giving should take place.

And so in this gift, the desire to give is not sufficient for God to accept the gift.

So just because you desire to give God something does not make it acceptable to God.

Well, it's interesting that it's not only that he's not giving the right way, but it's the fact that someone else is giving the right way.

And that causes, like the sin occurred way before the murder, right?

I don't know what the sin was, like disobedience ultimately at the end of the day, but there's envy and rebellion, right?

What's the connection between rebellion and giving?

That's really where the core of where we're getting at.

Well, I think the most foundational thing for me is that rebellion can be hidden in such clever ways.

From an outside perspective, you can look at the life of Ken, you can look at the life of Abel, and they look like they're both doing the same thing, right?

And been exposed to the same truths, right?

And so They're both bringing an offering to God.

The thing is that 1 of those offerings comes from the spirit of humility or the spirit of obedience, the spirit of giving, the spirit of God, right?

And the other, even though it looks from a, from a very, you know, a quick, yeah, superficial perspective, it looks like the same thing.

It comes from a spirit of, of rebellion, of disobedience.

I heard that you want an offering, you want an offering this way, but I'm gonna give, I'm gonna obey you and in obeying you, I'm not really obeying you, I'm obeying myself, I'm obeying, I'm choosing to obey what I want to obey for the Lord.

Where does that like, where does that audacity come from?

Like what, what, like you know what I mean?

Like you're talking with the God of the universe He just created me know the universe and like 3 2 chapters ago, and he's like by the way I was going to do this my way like and I and I know I mean ultimately we are we all do that You know the 4 of us.

Yeah, we do that in Mike Mike micro speak for yourself But I think just the audacity and in God's presence like anyway, Well, I think that there's a sort of shift away from a true sense of the character and the awesomeness of God.

03 Noah: The Grateful Giver

This is Inverse, and my name's Justin Kim.

We want to encourage you to go to inversebible.org and look at our Bible study guide that we're looking at for this quarter for these 13 weeks.

We are under the topic under the rubric of God first.

In the studio we have Jonathan and Siku to my right, and then to your right we have Dr.

Sebastian when you're writing an email address to him.

We're going to go to the book of 2 Peter 3, verse 3.

So if you're out there, you have your Bible, so you want to join with us.

And we're looking at different vignettes, different narratives of giving and of the giver.

And this giving is so common today, but it's so rare at the same time.

You may have picked up on the profundity of that comment.

Asiku, can you pray for us because we need the Lord's blessing here.

Loving Father, we are so thankful that you have modeled what giving looks like for us.

We pray that you would change our hearts so that we could surrender to you and become just like you as people who would be givers.

As they were from the beginning of creation.

For this they willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.

But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

But beloved, do not forget this 1 thing, that with the Lord 1 day is a thousand years and a thousand years as 1 day.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat.

Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what matter of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the day, the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat.

Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." Okay, 2 Peter is waxing, I don't want to say eloquent, but it's quite heavy, it's out there.

So the main character in this passage is who, Sebastian?

It's Noah, and There's a lot about judgment, a lot about long suffering, and then there's these elements here.

So Noah lived in a time in which the world had gotten to a place where the Bible says that God regretted that He made man.

And that every imagination and the thoughts of his heart was evil continually.

And during that time, the Bible says that God, that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

And that God called him to build the Ark.

And Noah eventually became a preacher of righteousness while building that Ark.

And from there, 120 years, God shut him inside the Ark with his family and all 2 by 2 of unclean and 7 by 7 of the clean animals.

The world perished in that flood, and Noah was on the other side, and God gave a rainbow as a promise that he would never destroy the world this way again.

And at the apex of that narrative, he offers an offering.

And that's kind of where we're honing on in there.

We looked at different vignettes of giving.

And the first episode, we looked at God, who in his nature is a giver, right?

And all of, excuse me, all of creation gives in its purpose and its whatnot.

And then in the last episode, we looked at Cain and Abel, and 2 little dudes who, I don't know if they were little, but they gave, but 1 gave for the right reason and 1 gave for the wrong reason.

And here, Noah, we're emphasizing different people who gave in the Bible, but here Noah is giving out of what?

So let's look at different parts of 2 Peter.

What is the context of which Noah was living in and preaching in that he gave this offering at the end of the day.

You know, the context of Noah at his time was really different from today.

The earth was much more, there was much more abundance and wealth.

The earth was very close to creation still.

Yes, sin had impacted the way of life and nature, but it was much richer.

In that context, people lived longer, the atmosphere, everything was different in that sense.

People would get hundreds of years old, almost a thousand years old.

So, life experience, the opportunities are vastly different to what it would be today.

But in that context of where it is possible to have incredible wealth and it's possible to have rich life experience and lots of things that you can do.

I mean, if you have a thousand years on your hands, that's a lot of time.

Noah is willing to listen to God's call for a call of total surrender and a call of total focus on 1 purpose, 1 mission.

While everyone else is gaining wealth or engaging in all kinds of activities, Noah chooses to listen to God's call and gives his life, his life work to God's purpose at this time, in His own, so to say, end time of earth's history.

Also, recognizing that this was unheard of, the idea of rain, the idea of floods, the idea of the end of time, so to say, that was an odd thing.

And Noah believed, trusted, and gave everything he had.

Just to highlight, that's the craziness of this offering.

The narrative ends, you know, in the children's stories, he's on the mountaintop and there's a rainbow, and he offers up a nice little present.

That is just 1 small offering in the larger picture of the narrative.

Yeah, and not just only his like life, life energy life, but his the years and I don't know how I should know this but 900 whatever years he lived I mean he's he's given his entire life for a belief yeah yeah radical radical I mean that's we we often kind of just like oh yeah he built the boat and he survived the flood but I mean he's given his entire existence for this belief.

And imagine that the context of this giving was on the impending nature of an inevitable event that he was going to lose everything that he was building.

Because there are people right now who will sit back and say, well, if I'm gonna lose all of these, why matter, why give, right?

And they look at the inevitability of, let's say, you know, in Noah's day was the flood, in our time it would be the second coming.

There's also the analogy, like stuff was destroyed by water back then.

The same kind of parallel thing going on.

04 Abraham: The Faithful Giver

My name is Justin Kim and we are looking at the ARC topic of God first.

We want to encourage you to go to hopetv.org slash inverse where you can look at the back episodes on different narratives of the giver and giving and about stewardship.

And in the studio with me around this round, beautiful table is Siku and Israel.

And to my left and to your right is Callie.

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Series

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2023: God First

11 Ananias and Sapphira: The Unfaithful Givers

Transcript

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Recorded

Parts

01 God: The Upholding Giver

28m

02 Cain and Abel: The Conflicting Givers

28m

03 Noah: The Grateful Giver

28m

04 Abraham: The Faithful Giver

28m

05 Isaac: The Altruistic Giver

28m

06 Jacob: The Promising Giver

28m

07 Ahaz: The Wicked Giver

28m

08 Jeroboam and Hezekiah: The Giving Motivators

28m

09 The Phoenician Widow: The Trusting Giver

28m

10 The Poor Widow: The Extreme Giver

28m

11 Ananias and Sapphira: The Unfaithful Givers

27m

12 The Rich Young Ruler: The End-time Givers

28m

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