Latest / Biblical Lessons from Lives / ABLE: A Video Podcast Inspired by Heroes, Villains, and the In Between

Transcript

ABLE: A Video Podcast Inspired by Heroes, Villains, and the In Between · Biblical Lessons from Lives

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Heroes, Villains, and the In-Between, the podcast inspired by the book from author Sebastian Luceto.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Each episode explores the lives of real people from Scripture.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Not just the heroes and villains, but everyone in between.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoy this episode, be sure to follow us.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Heroes, Villains, and the In Between.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: The field was quiet in the early light.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Dew clung to the grass like fragile glass.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: The earth breathed slowly, as if the world itself was pausing between heartbeats.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: And among the flock moved a man, quiet, attentive, and patient.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: He knew every animal, not just their shapes, but their ribbons.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: The strong ones that pushed ahead of the herd, the timid ones that drifted behind.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: He could recognize them by the sound of their breathing.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: In the dark, this was not routine work.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Not to him.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: This was care, responsibility, and life entrusted into his hands.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: When the time came to bring an offering, he did not rush.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: There was no scrambling.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: He walked slowly among the flock, looking for the one to choose.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Then he found it, the firstborn, the best among the flock, unblemished, full of life.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: This was the best of his flock, and he would give it up as a sacrifice.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, it cost him something.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: It meant trusting that what remained would be enough.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: It meant believing that provision did not come from what he held back, but from the one to whom he gave.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this was odd.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: There was no sacrificial order yet.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: No one had written down the rules.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: There was no law, no temple, no priesthood, no ritual handbook, nothing telling him exactly how to do this.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: So what guided him?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was faith.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: More than leftovers, more than convenience, God deserved honor.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Nearby, another altar was rising.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Another brother, a farmer, preparing his own gift.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Another offering carefully arranged.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: The moment looked similar.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Two altars, two offerings, two men doing what seemed right.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: But something unseen stood between them, not in the offering itself, but in the heart behind it.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: The shepherd gave in faith.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: One trusted God with his best.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: The other simply fulfilled an obligation.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: And heaven responded to each.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Scripture says God regarded the offer from the shepherd, that his faith had been seen.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: As for the other brother, the farmer, the offering remained, placed on the altar, arranged with care, but unacknowledged.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because this was never about the ground or the gift or the appearance of devotion.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was about the heart.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: One brother gave from faith, the other from obligation.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: One trusted God with his best, the other gave what cost him little.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: And in that quiet field, before laws were written and rituals defined, a truth was established that would echo through generations.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: God does not measure what we bring, he weighs why we bring it.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: That day the air changed between the brothers.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: What had once been shared ground became divided space.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so conversations shortened, glances hardened.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: One brother carried peace, the other carried resentment.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Before anything happened, God spoke a warning to the farmer.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sin is crouching at the door, he said.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: But you must rule over it.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like a predator waiting, ready to devour, Sin on the hunt.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Choice was his.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: One day, the brothers walked into the field together, alone, with only the sky and the sheep as a witness.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Then it happened.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: The violence came without warning, sudden, unrestrained, powerful.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: When it was over, only the farmer remained standing.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: The shepherd was dead.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: The ground that had once received his offering was now soaked in his blood.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: But there was a witness who could not stay silent.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Where is your brother?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: God said.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: The question wasn't asked for information.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: It was an invitation, truth, for confession.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: But the answer from the farmer came back cold and hardened.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Am I my brother's keeper?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: He said.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: But what happened in that field did not disappear into the quiet, because nothing offered in faith and nothing taken in violence ever remains unseen.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: The soil carried witness, and the innocent blood of the shepherd cried out for the truth.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Scripture would later say something extraordinary.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Even in murder, the shepherd still speaks.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Not through words, through faith.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Faith that pleased God.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Faith that trusted without instructions.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Faith that gave first, not last.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Faith that honored God before the world understood how.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: Only near the end of the story, after the blood, after the silence, after the questions, do we finally hear his name?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Abel, the first worshiper whose faith was recorded, and the first man whose righteousness cost him his life.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: His story did not end in that field because faith like Abel's echoes through generations, through scripture, through every quiet act of devotion offered without applause.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: It reminds us that God sees what the world cannot measure.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Not just what we give, but the heart behind it.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And faith offered quietly still speaks long after the voice that offered it has gone silent.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, hello, welcome to Heroes Villains and the In-Between, a book that was just published.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: From that book, you've seen a creative narrative before we began this teaching.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: Today we're going to teach about Abel.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: When you look at Abel's life, it occupies very few verses in Scripture, yet God gives him a place among the heroes of faith in Hebrews chapter 11.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Jesus called him righteous Abel.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, his blood is compared to the blood of Jesus in Hebrew.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: So he's significant, and we can learn from his life.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Abel never wrote a book, he never performed a miracle, he never preached a sermon.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yet in Hebrews 11, verse 4, it says, By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead still speaks.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: He's the first recorded worshiper of God after the fall.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Abel was a shepherd.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: Genesis 4, 2 says, then she bore again, this time a brother Abel.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Now Abel was a keeper of the sheep, and Cain was a tiller of the ground.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: So Cain was the older brother, Abel was the younger brother.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: Abel was a shepherd, you know, following in the footsteps of Moses and Abraham and David, you know, he was a shepherd.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: And through that we learn that God really isn't impressed with our position, he's impressed with our heart.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: Now Abel's offering reveals his faith, and that's the important part of today's message.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: In Genesis chapter 4, verse 3, and in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: Abel also brought the firstborn of his flock and the fat thereof.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: And the Lord respected Abel and his offering.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: Now, there's three or four characteristics here and revelations that we can glean in Scripture.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: One is that Abel brought the first.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't wait to see what was left over.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't look at what remained.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: Proverbs says, Honor the Lord with your possessions and with your first fruits of your increase.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: God deserves first place.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so when you're looking at the two of these guys, one of them is giving the first.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: One of them gave of the best.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, as you continue on, the Bible says that he gave his best.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: It was the fattest, it was the richest portion that belonged to God.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: Faith never asks, What is least that I can give?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: What am I obligated to give?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: Faith always asks, how can I honor God with my best?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: That sums up the difference between these two.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: The offering wasn't about vegetation or an animal.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yet I was brought up and taught that that's what it was.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when we look at Abel's offering, it was by faith.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: Hebrews tells us, Hebrews 11, 4, by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Faith is the difference, guys.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: Faith and understanding who God is, what he's done for us, who Jesus is, what he's done for us.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: Understanding that and then honoring them with our heart, which worship is an expression of our heart.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: So, but God accepted Abel, the man, before he accepted his offering or his gift.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: The Bible says in Genesis 4, and the Lord respected Abel, hear that.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: Respected Abel and his offering.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: Notice the order.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: God respected Abel and his offering.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, but Cain's offering, you know, when we look at it, many believers believe that, you know, that Cain's offering was rejected simply because it came from the ground.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: Now, in the process of time, we learn that animal sacrifice was an integral part of the law.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: But the law wasn't giving here.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: These guys were honoring God with the work of their hand.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: What they earned, what they did, what fortunes they built, they gave God.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: One gave out of honor and respect that you're my provider, and the other gave out of obligation.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: So when we look at even Cain, what God said to Cain, Genesis 4, 5, but he did not respect Cain, the man, and his offering, and Cain was very angry and his countenance fell.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: So the Lord said to Cain, Why are you so angry?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Why has your countenance fallen?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: If you do well, you will be accepted.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: If you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire shall be for you, but you shall rule over it.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: God even warned Cain, you know, God gave him an opportunity to repent, I believe, as you've seen in the creative narrative.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: But worship reveals the heart.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Jesus said, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: Abel's offering declared God first.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: His heart said, God first.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: His offering said, God first.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: His offering said, I give God the best in the first.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: Cain was about himself.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: It was simply fulfilling an obligation.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, you gave me the land.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm farming it.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm obligated to give you something, so here it is.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: And his heart is revealed.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: Cain's heart is revealed as being evil.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: When you look at 1 John chapter 3, verse 11, it says, For this is the message that we've heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: Not as Cain, who was a wicked one and murdered his brother, why did he murder him?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because his works were evil and his brothers were righteous.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: Simple anger.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know, simple envy, simple strife.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and he became Abel became the first martyr.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't do anything wrong.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: We don't see him telling Abel, I mean Cain anything.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: We don't see him saying, you know, Cain, if you did right, you'd be accepted.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't even pre- He didn't even he didn't nothing but what he thought was right for God, and he died for it.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: And it it's it we we see here in Scripture that it was the wickedness that was in Cain already, and the righteous thinking that was in Abel already.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and and so even in Hebrews chapter 12, and this is interesting, uh, verse 24, there's a comparison between the blood of Abel and the blood of Cain.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: Here's what it says Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, to the blood of the sprinkling, that sprinkles better things than that of Abel.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Abel's blood cried out for justice.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus' blood speaks of forgiveness.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: Abel's blood condemned.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus' blood redeems.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, only Christ can satisfy God's judgment while extending mercy.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Abel still speaks to us today.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: What does he teach us?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: What does his life teach us?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: God looks at the heart before the offering.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: So putting it in practice in our life, do we, when we sit down to pay our bills at the end of the month or the beginning of the month, do we pay all of our bills, the gas bill, the electric bill, the phone bill, the mortgage, insurance, and then the offering?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: The tithe?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Or do we do it first?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: Is that the first check we write?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: Being biblical, it's the first check we should write.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: We shouldn't look at what's left.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, people ask me all the time, do I give off the gross or the net?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: You give off the gross.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: They were commanded to take a tenth, a tithe, from if you had a hundred acres, the first ten acres went to the priesthood.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: If you had a hundred new sheep, you know, the first ten went to the priesthood.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: Okay?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, today, what is your gross?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: It goes from that.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: And you say, you may say, well, we're not under law anymore.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: No, we're under grace, which gives us a higher privilege.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: Under grace, we should give more than a tithe.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: We should give more than an offering because our privilege is so higher.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Abraham, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, we're not sons of God.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: We're sons and daughters of God.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: We have a higher position, a higher privilege, and a higher responsibility.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, what do we do?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: How do we reflect on this?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: What are some discussion questions after our teaching?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: A good one is when God looks at my heart, does he see Cain or does he see Abel?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: Or does he see some of both?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, faith is the foundation of acceptable worship.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: 2 Corinthians tells us if we give begrudgingly or out of necessity, God doesn't like that.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: He doesn't even love it, he doesn't even accept it.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: God loves a cheerful giver.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: He always does, right?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: God deserves our best.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, reflect on this.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when two people pass, you know, we do we go to their funerals, what do they leave behind?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's eternal.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: They go in with only what they did for the Lord.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: Us, salt, fruit, light, what we did for God and his word?
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: Or do we go in with, I gave you, I gave to you?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, you did out of obligation.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: You squeezed that hundred dollar bill so much that the ink was was spreading on it.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: So reflect on these things.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: The other thing is jealousy, envy, strife.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: These are things in us that came as a result of the fall.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: As a result of the fall, Adam and Eve, the first negative emotion they felt was fear, then shame, then guilt, then low self-esteem, and envy and jealousy, and all of that spring off of that.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: We're not called to think those things.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, ponder that.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know, are you envious or jealous at someone?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: Because you have your own track and I have my own track.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: I should only be happy for what God is doing in your life.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: You should be happy for what he's doing in my life.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: Because we're co-workers together, we're the same body.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: So here's the thing: let's learn from Abel.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, our book, Heroes, Villains, and the In-Between, has 66 of these teachings on 66 people that never wrote scripture whose life tells a story and whose story can teach us a lesson.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: God bless you and have a great day.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for watching.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Heroes, Villains, and the In-Between.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: If today's episode challenged or encouraged you, we'd love for you to help others discover it.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Follow the podcast, leave a five-star review, and share this episode with someone who you think might enjoy it.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Every episode is based on Sebastian Lucido's book, Heroes, Villains, and the In-Between.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: The book features 66 biblical character studies that reveal the victories, failures, and life-changing lessons found in Scripture's most unforgettable people.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can order the book on Amazon or at Barnes Noble or at Biblical LessonsFromLives.org.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's Biblical Lessons From Lives.org.