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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

God has given us 2 gifts of which we can choose from, 1 of which is singleness.

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.

If you've been around young adult or single communities out there, there is always that 1 auntie who's out there trying to get people married off.

On this episode we're going to look at the gift of singleness.

My name is Justin Kim and in the studio we have Sebastian, Israel, and Siku with us.

We are looking at the topic of sexuality, and it is a very sensitive matter, as we have covered in the last 2 episodes.

And we want to encourage you that if you have minors, or maybe if the subject is not appropriate, to be mindful that this is the topic, and that viewer discretion is advised.

Siku, if you can pray for us, and we'll jump into Isaiah.

Loving Father, we're so thankful that we can come to your word to find guidance on all aspects of our lives.

And we pray that now as we're going to discuss particularly singleness in the context of biblical sexuality, that the Holy Spirit would be our teacher, put words in our mouths so that the ideas that are presented are not our own thoughts, but are representative of what your word teaches.

I know we said Isaiah, but we're going to actually go to Isaiah eventually.

Matthew, Matthew chapter 19, Matthew chapter 19, verse 10 through 12.

And Sebastian, if you can read those verses for us.

His disciples said to him, if such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.

But he said to them, all cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given.

For there are eunuchs who are born thus from their mother's womb.

And there are eunuchs who are made eunuchs by men.

And there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.

He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.

So we are looking at this topic of biblical sexuality.

We will cover it in a couple episodes from now that sexuality requires 2 individuals, not 1, not 3, not 4, 2.

And there's something powerful about that number.

I mean, He uses the word eunuchs in the old way.

And I want to ask Israel, like, why is it that...

Let's just...we're just gonna back...zoom out a bit.

And I'm gonna ask you a long time ago, like a long time ago when you were single.

For us it's been very recent, but for you it was like a long time ago.

Yeah, anyway, so especially in church communities, no, people wanna like find the single person and get them married off.

And for what it's worth, we do appreciate their ministry, so to speak.

I mean, a lot of marriages have happened in that respect.

But why, There's this passion that people feel like that singleness is not a form of righteousness and marriage is.

I think part of that just really has to do with the fact that some people are old school, you know, and then tradition has set in the minds of people that they think marriage is an essential part of growing up.

And so, I think more than it being a biblical reason for why these people in church want to marry you off, It has to do with their sense of stress, you know, you're not going to be happy, you're going to be single for the rest of your life, you're not going to ever find the happiness that you're craving for.

And so I think more out of a sense of fear that people won't be happy, they kind of try to push people along, I never had that situation, Sebastian on the other hand, so I think that that's really, that's really, and then I think you couple with that the fact that marriage is a biblical thing and so there are, you know, people think to themselves, unless you're married, you're not following that whole command of God, you know, that it's not good for a man to be alone, or that, you know, God made male and female, created He them to be in His image.

So, there is tension between verses like this, where Jesus says, or Paul says, it's better that you shouldn't be married.

And then they always balance that with God saying that it is not good for man to be alone.

Well, I think 1 of the tensions you have to navigate in that discussion, right, between what Paul and Jesus are saying, In the same passage in Matthew 19, He's saying, you know, in the beginning, it was not so, right?

So, it shows that when God created humanity, His ideal was for marriage to exist, right?

Everyone to experience the joy of that intimacy.

But in a sinful world, we find that there is a blessing and a goodness to singleness.

And I think Jesus' point is some people make themselves for that reason to build up the kingdom of heaven's sake.

And I think a lot of people who push that direction are sometimes trying to vicariously live through other people.

And I've had individuals that, you know, I was having conversations with and they were trying to push me and push me and push me, you know, early in my collegiate years, like, hey, go ahead and get married.

And, you know, I had my own reservations, right?

I had my own setbacks in prayer that, you know, I felt like God wasn't moving me in that direction.

And finally, after persistence, the person just came out and told me like, well, Sebastian, I just want you to get married because, you know, when I got married, you know, I got converted after I was married and my spouse did not follow You know in that same path and it's been tension in our marriage And I want you to experience the joy of having someone in the same faith in marriage And I'm like I understand your situation, You know, and obviously that's a sad situation, but at the same time, you know, we have to be careful that we're not pushing people into premature marriages.

Right, for the sake of my own resolution emotionally that I'm trying to vicariously.

They're often imposing their experience on another person and say, because it was that way, and if it happened to me, it would have rectified my situation, so I need to push it on somebody else.

I think Sebastian's butchersing what Israel said, but I think that sometimes imposing what our cultural expectations are, and then we justify it with scripture.

And so then we're using the Bible to, you know, to say, to, to Godify it, you know, holify it, but really it's just, yeah.

And there are some cultures that where it is culturally righteous to be married and they just kind of, like you said, they just take Bible and they put it in and there's other cultures that don't have that, you don't see that pressure.

I want to go back to scripture here, which I just find a little bit to be, a little bit, I always read scripture with a little bit of a humorous bend, especially of the 12 disciples.

In verse 8 and 9, Jesus is talking about, hey, you know, you should only get divorce if there's sexual immorality, right?

We're going to cover that in a future episode about divorce.

And then the response to that was in verse 10, as the disciple said to him, if such is the case of a man with his wife, then it is better that he doesn't marry at all.

Like I just find that to be kind of an interesting reaction.

And that's the context of which Jesus talks about singleness.

Okay, let's go to Sebastian and then to C.

And consider the fact that in their minds, they're thinking it's probably more likely that the guy is gonna commit adultery, right, than it is for the woman.

So in their manner, like if this is the case, like you can only leave unless she sleeps outside.

So, you can almost see in the disciples' mind that the problem societally almost implied in there is There was male issues, right, with fidelity, but not so much on the female side, probably for various other cultural reasons.

But I think the drive towards singleness is to avoid pain.

And 1 of the things that I find in relationships and singleness that stems from the life of Jesus is, Jesus didn't live His life to avoid pain.

And then the disciples, I don't want to be locked into a situation.

Series

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

03 One of Two Gifts

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

09 Interconnectedness

27m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

02 Naked

27m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

01 Counter-Cultural

27m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

07 Marital Sexuality: Sameness of Nature

27m

InVerse, 2nd Quarter 2019: Family Seasons

02-The Choices We Make

28m

InVerse 3rd Quarter 2023: Leviticus

12 Purity

29m

InVerse, 2nd Quarter 2021: The Promise, God's Everlasting Covenant

13 The Invitation

28m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

13 Purity

27m

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

08-One to Two

27m

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2023: God First

06 Jacob: The Promising Giver

28m

Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

12 Beyond Sexuality

27m

Sound Doctrine