Latest / The HighDive / Ep. 22 | In The Beginning | Created From Dust, Sustained by God

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Ep. 22 | In The Beginning | Created From Dust, Sustained by God · The HighDive

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: I have a confession to make.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: They say confession is good for the soul.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a public confession.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it is.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, a couple episodes ago, we were making a big out of deal, a big deal out of our 20th episode coming out.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: 20's a big deal.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, apparently I can't count.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: So, well, our 20th episode has already dropped.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is like 22, I think.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: 21, 22, somewhere in there.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I could hang on a second.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let me look it up.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think what what we talked about that day was that um of all the podcasts, most of them don't make it to 20.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, 99% of them stop producing by the time.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we by making it to 20, which we have passed, apparently.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: We are in the top 1% of all podcasts.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty good.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been a top one percenter.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Our parents would be very proud.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations, mom and dad.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: You now have top one percenters, right?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a pretty big deal.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's awesome.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I just looked up Pastor Phillips' episode dropped last week.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: So this is technically episode 22.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe we need to analyze like where the drop-off happens after 20.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like I don't know.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: If 99% of them go to 20, how many get to 22?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: We may be even more leader.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I missed that moment.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: I apologize.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And also then you owe me, you owe us, you owe us all little.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, here's the other confession.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: I have I have purchased the gold stickers.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: I have them.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Where are they?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: They're in my office.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that doesn't do us any good here.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, so I apologize.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all will see me at some point.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have a gold sticker on.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: You could wear one every day.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's right.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, enough banter.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, more will probably happen, but my name's Ricky.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is Alan, and this is the High Dodd Podcast, where this is a Ministry of Calvary Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And we're glad that you are here as we continue in this journey of through the Genesis study, is what we're kind of focusing on right now.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: And if you maybe have found us for the first time, I mean, what we're really trying to do is build off of and go deeper into a high dive of uh what we looked at this past Sunday.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're this past Sunday, we were looking at Genesis chapter two, verse seven.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And this is kind of that key moment where God deliberates, he slows down, he uh kind of the text doesn't literally say this, but I get this imagery.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like he gets down on his knees, he he gets his hands dirty, he gets onto our level, he forms humanity out of dust.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's the key thing we looked at.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about today.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he breathed his breath into his nostrils.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: So there's significance in that and the differentiation that makes of this created being the breath of life.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, so this Passani, we kind of looked at, you know, we're dust, uh, we are breath.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, he is the potter worth of clay.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so maybe maybe we can play off of that dust thing for an idea.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I'm I want to reflect back at a comment that or an observation that we made is, you know, if if I'm dust and you're dust, every other human being is dust, there are two values that theoretically should start to build out of that.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: One is the dignity and the view of the value of life and trust.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I I kind of want to spend some time talking about each of those a little bit.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: When you what do you think about when you hear that observation, factual observation, we're dust, and everybody's dust.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what do you what do you start to think about?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think that when you look at chapter one and chapter two in the creation of man, chapter one focuses on um let us make man in our image.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So humanity are our image bearers, the Adam bear the image of God.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then this shared dominion thing, right?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: In in chapter two, the emphasis seems to be a little different, like they're not like juxtaposed, but they're just a little different.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Where God forms Adam, there's an there's a connection there.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because if when you look at the creation account, like God says, let the earth bring forth, and it does.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So by I guess by technical measure, animals are also dust creatures.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um and but in all those in those accounts, the ground, the earth is simply obeying what God is commanded to do.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: But when you get to chapter two, verse 7, where God actually forms Adam, like you said, it God now is actually physically involved.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's not just saying, and it was so, as you read, as we see over and over again in chapter one.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: In chapter two, here we're seeing an intimate connection to God actually forming human from the dirt of the ground.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that if we are all then descendants of this Adam, then we are all dirt and dust.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I think that that's to me, what that helps me see is there's an equality in humanity because we're all basically the same thing.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: We're all created to bear the image of God.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're we not created to bear.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: We we are created in the image of God and in his likeness.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we're all made of the same stuff.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's not one better than the other.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And there should, I think that should help us see how we interact with humans and how we interact with other people.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean uh what we value within people.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's a couple of levels there.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: One, well, I've said this often, comparison is a trap.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so so many of our insecurities flow out of our comparing ourselves to others, and we think they're better than me, or I'll never reach that level, or whatever it may be, when in reality, yeah, they're just dust too.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so it should start to kind of equalize where comparison starts to creep in.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you probably well, they put their pants on just like I do, you know.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I that's a kind of a humorous way to say it, but we're all human beings.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And regardless of the perceived success, status, economics, or social circles, we all deal with the same pressures, fears, and insecurities.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's uh another way, the ground is level at the cross, you know.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so uh I hope that starts to reframe some of the insecurities people have.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it even goes deeper when we look at society and culture today.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is not new for 2026.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's been this, you know, no, how we how we define people, right?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Social constructs, racial barriers, um, economic differentiators, the the the true one percenters, and they're in a pleasely different league.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: We allow those uh to create walls between us, and then we use those things as leverage to exercise power or authority or belittle injustice, injustice, the oppressed, all those things start to come out of it.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when dignity should be the value that starts to build out of the reality that no, we're all dust, right?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're all desperately in need of God.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, desperately in the world.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or we're all we're all image bearers.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you when you continue on chapter that verse in chapter two, it God forms this thing, and it simply isn't, it's a being in the dirt, inanimate, incapable of doing anything, until God then breathes into its nostrils and he becomes a living soul.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's it's the fact that apart from God, we're just minerals and elements and compounds.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: We are there's there's something unique about us in that we bear the image of God, but that we contain and we breathe the breath of God.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that is what has made us animated and a living soul.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so not only are we earth creatures, but our very breath is sustaining us, and it is the breath of God that makes it possible.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh in your sermon the other in this sermon Sunday, in your kind of opening introduction, you're sort of like hook, had everybody breathe, take a deep breath.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and I and I think that reflection, if we just if we just stop and reflect on that for a moment, that breath, that thing that sustains us.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think if we've we've had conversations over the last couple weeks about this idea too, and this sort of the last breath that you take is a exhale.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um there seems to be a consistent theme in the old testament and into the new testament, that the breath in humans is the Spirit of God that sustains us.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there's there's some relationship there.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think because of that, because of where we come from and where we're going, and the thing that sustains us, um, I think that if we will, if we will see other humans that way, uh, we can avoid potentially those traps of comparisons, those traps of they are and I'm not, or whatever it may be.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and hopefully it will inspire us to treat other humans well, yeah.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: To be to not oppress, to bring justice, to look for mercy.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um because Micah 6.8 and action.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, put it in practice.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't want to get political.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I do, I don't know.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: I just whoever are the movers and shakers or manipulators in society, I just find it intriguing that there is a heightened racial tension around election cycles.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Always, it seems so.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: It just I'm expecting there to be something uh between now and November.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: But either way.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: But uh Because it's a thing that is used to divide.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: When we as humans are all the same, right, and we crave connection with one another.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: I I just think like if if we could learn in, and I think the time to learn this is when there isn't chaos.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh now one, I I'm gonna go back.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: You and I have not lived through some of the historic uh highly tense racial seasons in American history, but I've lived through some.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I I reflect back on the George Floyd incident, and as tragic as that was, one thing that a good thing that came out of it is people started listening to each other more.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And we were listening to one another retroactively in response to tragedy.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas if we could just learn these principles, how God has created us in his image by design for relationship out of dust, breathe the life into us.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's his breath.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean, it should create, build those bridges, break down those barriers, whatever analogy that we you want to use, so that we could see one another as image bearers of God, regardless of melanin tone, regardless of social structure, regardless of economic brackets or tax brackets.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're we're all sinners in the hands of an angry God, as Jonathan Edward said, like desperately needing redemption, right, and celebrating the life that He's given us together through His Son.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's a there there should be an opportunity for restoration, reconciliation.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there should be an opportunity to to live out justice and mercy when we understand who we are and how we're made and and how God has put us together.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think that what happens in chapter three and then following causes us to think more highly of oneself than we should.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's fair.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: As a result of that, we we've we place ourselves at the center of the cosmos instead of God at the center of the cosmos.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, we distort the plan and the original design, both of humans and of how we are to interact with it.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and we lose sight of the fact that without his breath sustaining us, we would be turned, we would return to dust.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't give him credit or glory or honor or praise for that simple sustaining breath of life that he's given us.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we think, I think, I think, because of sin in the world.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think, I think, I think, because of sin in the world and our response to it, um we tend to want to preserve ourselves at a at all expenses and all cost, as opposed to thinking about the life of others.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that these verses in chapter two, if we'll just meditate on them and reflect on them and what are the logical outcroppings of those, it should impact how we see others and how we interact with them.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think at first pass, I agree.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think at first pass, when when you read or hear the statement, you are dust, that could be taken as a little bit of demoralizing and diminishing, and like, what?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just nothing but dirt.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think rather than that being a diminishing, it should raise the value of how we see ourselves and how we see others, as being the intimacy and the nearness of God, being formed by God.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: But all of us are in that same boat, so to speak.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think out of that, then when we begin to apply those values, it should make it easier for us to answer questions regarding the value of human life and the sanctity of life, whether that's on the birth end as it relates to the abortion or on the death end as it relates to euthanasia.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: It should break down social constructs as it relates to uh racism and the like, because we see ourselves and we see others in light of God's mercy.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I agree.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I I I can't I I can't say for sure.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: I just I can't help but imagine that when Paul, in light of Christ and the gospel, is writing in Ephesians, and he's describing this dividing wall that has been destroyed, this thing that separated Jews and Gentiles, right?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to say there's neither Jew nor Gentile free nor sleep melt.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like he begins to break down these things that differentiate.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: I can't help but think there's an element of what's happening in chapter one and chapter two of Genesis that is at an at a foundational thought process where he's where he's coming from.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: That when you when you understand how God intended for humans to be and how God intended for humans to interact with one another, and then you get to experience the gospel, the impact of the gospel is it it kind of returns humans to this Eden.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: It gives us the opportunity to live in Eden again, to walk with the in the in the cool today with the Lord and to be in fellowship with Him.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're still broken people, we're still sinful people.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean we're perfect and without sin, but it gives us it gives us a glimpse glimpse into what that ideal will eventually look like.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I can't help but think there's some of that maybe in Paul's mind as he's thinking about what he's writing in those passages.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: I I agree.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we've we've said often that this is meditation literature literature.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take a risk and meditate with you.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: A thought that I have, I don't know that I've verbalized this because truthfully it just hit me.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think the the beauty and the honesty of this.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was talking with somebody in our church this last Wednesday, and uh, you know, they were picking up kids from youth group, and I was just kind of hanging out, and I talked to them in the parking lot, and they were reflecting back on the observations on the age of the earth, of it, you know, it can be old and new at the same time, and you know, just the aha moment of uh comparing to Jesus' miracle of turning the water into wine.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so as we finished that conversation, I just made the very honest um observation.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: I said, hey, it's fun.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: We're learning together.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: So in a I'm yeah, in an I'm learning to way.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: So man, I I don't mean this in a pious way.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've read Genesis 1 and 2.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I missed something personally until recently.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: See, I always the thing I missed caused me to say the differentiator between human beings and the rest of creation is that all of creation, God spoke, and it was, and humanity, he got down and formed it.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: However, all right, chapter two, verse 19 says, Yeah, now uh out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heaven, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: So he also formed every living creature, well, not the sea creatures, right, every land, yeah, the birds and the animals, he formed them out of the dirt.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: So the differentiator is not that we were formed out of the dirt and they weren't.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: The differentiator is, oh, but the breath of life has been breathed into us, which makes me wonder.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: This is the meditation part.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's an observation.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the meditation part.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: There is an undeniable connection between humans and animals.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh we have three dogs.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have three dogs?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: I have one dog.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: You have one dog, Moxie.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: So there is there is this indelible impression that animal the animals have on humanity and the relationship that we share.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I have had pet fish before.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: I have had pet fish before.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: But oh, do you remember very long?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember, by the way?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh, we're gonna pardon us.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go on a all right.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we had an aquarium in our bedroom growing up.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember coming home from school one day and the goldfish had jumped out, was laying on the floor?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was traumatizing.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: What in the world is this?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: How did I wonder?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: How did you get out?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Did it jump?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or did mom take it out?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Or David.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Or David.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds like a David Smith thing.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder what they'll do when they see this.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, uh, what that's a little traumatizing.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, so here's the meditation.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is that maybe a deep-rooted reason why there is some level of intimate connection between animals and humans?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: However, also out of that is also the what separates us when we get into that does my dog go to heaven conversation.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're a different kind of creature.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Your your dog doesn't have the breath of life.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Now, do I believe animals are in heaven?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: I do.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: I do too.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: The line will lay down with the lamb.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: I believe they're there.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: I I have no biblical basis for this, but uh, well, I have a very mild and and uh small biblical basis for this.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: If God felt like uh two of every kind were needed on the ark, I seem to think two of every kind will be in heaven, at least.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter, sure, but there is clearly a difference, even as we build a bridge to breath.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I have a dog right now who's having respiratory issues.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: He's old, he's got congestive heart failure.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh bless him, he's a sweet little boy.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, um, he just breathes instinctually.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: He just breathes.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: I can't look at him and say, hey, take.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: A deeper breath.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: But he's just he is a he is a living creature, sure, but he doesn't have the breath of God in it.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: I can look at you and say, hey, can you just take a deep breath?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And willfully, I can do that.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I just in a meditative way, I think there is affirmation on understanding maybe why we're so connected to animals, but also how we're distinctively different, and it comes into the breath of life.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now I don't have an answer.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're meditating, we're just thinking.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you read verse 19 out of out of the ground the Lord had formed every beast.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Which comes right after verse 18, where the Lord has an internal dialogue, and the Lord says, It's not good that man should be alone.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I will make a helper fit for him.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then we get animals, and animals that come to Adam, and Adam So, in other words, I I think that you're there is a design relationship that there is a design relationship between these animals that are in in between, hey, it's not good for man to be alone.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make animals, and they go to Adam, Adam names them, and Adam realizes go back to verse 18, I'm alone, there's no one like me.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then God makes Eve.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I I don't know.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's there from the framing of the text, before, after, and in the middle, the middle section seems to suggest that these animals have something more more important in the story than just God made animals.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: They help Adam realize something.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: There is a connection.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: And there may be so I don't know.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's an interesting.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, lesson, let me go that one step further.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this is another interesting observation.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I it affirms, it does truthfully then affirm why and maybe why we should uh have a connection with animals.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: It also maybe even helps to explain there are legitimate times where an animal, uh most commonly a dog or a cat, right?
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, an animal can help soothe the emotions of a person.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because there is some layer of a connection there, but it's not, it's not the design that God has for us.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the warning is some people uh still choose to live in isolation because they're allowing that animal, that screen, um that bottle, something else to soothe the emotions and becomes a substitute for what God intended.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that is true community with other human beings that also have the breath of God.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that bear his image.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: So truthfully, the difference is humanity, we bear the image of God, yeah, and we have the breath of God.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: And we have the breath of God.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Both starts with B, which makes that a good sermon.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you just need a third B.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um breath.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: What were your two?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Bearing the image of God.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Breath of the Spirit of God.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: We have the breath of God, and because of the only begotten Son of God, we have salvation.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, we got three points.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, three points.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of, speaking of that breath, though, there are kind of two that's a thread that runs throughout scripture.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: So really early on in the story, we get ruach, which is uh, you can maybe help us see what that is in Hebrew, because it can mean a couple of different things.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so that would be the Hebrew word ruach, and then uh it it starts to come pneuma in the Greek.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: In the Greek.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: So that word can mean a couple of three things.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: What what do you want to tell us about?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh all right.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: So in the Hebrew, the word the word ruach is used to describe a variety a couple of different things.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: One, it can be used for spirit.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: So in the Hebrew, when you see the word spirit, the Hebrew word underneath that is probably ruach.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when you see the word breath inside of the Hebrew, that word is probably ruach.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when you see a word for mind or conscience, in the Hebrew, it's probably the word ruach.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you see the word wind, in the Hebrew it's probably a word for it's ruach.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: Or some variation.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: So what seems to be consistent with all of those is that it is a word that is describing some kind of animating force or energy, something you can't see, but it causes things to happen.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: Which most often the third person of the Trinity is associated with.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you think of the wind, you don't see the wind, but you can see that it is causing trees to shake around, right?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Hebrew would use the word ruach, right?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or if I breathe something, I can see things move because of my breath.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: So there's some that would be a ruach.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if you think about spiritual beings, they are ruach.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're having, I can't see them, but it's obvious there there's something happening.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in Genesis 2, the spirit of God hovering over the face of the deep, it is the ruach of Elohim.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is the spirit, ruach of God, Elohim.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: When we see breathe the breath of life, Genesis 2, it is the Ruach of God.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a this ruach is important because it's it's it's an interesting word that that sort of communicates this sort of invisible force, this invisible energy, this invisible power that is animating or causing other things to do things or causing other things to respond.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's you can't see it, but it's having an effect on things.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, wind, breath, spirit, right?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's the word ruach.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what when it's applied in Genesis 2.8, where God breathed into man ruach and he became a living soul, the the way that it seems to be framed is that the spirit of God, Genesis 1.2, Ruach of God, is what animates humans.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have the breath of God in us that causes us to exist and cause us to be able to live.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: And without it, we would die.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: We would return to dust.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And God, the scripture talks about God will remove his spirit from man and he will return to the dust.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's this connection in Genesis 1 and 2, that the the the invisible thing you can't see, life, force, energy, power that causes humans to have life is the very sustaining breath of God.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's an important idea because as you follow that throughout the old throughout the scriptures, um, there are a lot of important and interesting things that happen and wind or breath or are are intimately connected there to show that God's presence is showing up.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh for example, uh, I love the imagery of Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry dribble.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and uh verse uh Ezekiel 37, 8, it acknowledges uh there was no breath in there.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so even you see in verse 9, like God comes from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on the slain, yeah, that they may live.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so there is this there's imagery of when things are dead and God breathes life, it can come back to life, which uh you know is a foreshadowing of what we later see Christ teaching in the gospel, or Paul enforcing reinforcing uh in his letters of understanding this death to life and and the spirit breathing into us, uh new life, you know, uh life 2.0, so to speak, right?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right, yes.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so there's a beautiful image, even the thread of breath and the spirit's movement in our heart and life, yeah, to not only understanding the dignity that we have, but also the hope that we have.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you follow that line, like if you were just to do a study, just follow the idea of breath, wind throughout the Old Testament.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and and you'll find things like uh in the book of Judges, um, where the Spirit of God will come upon them and then they will have this amazing ability or power, right?
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Samson, for example, becomes super strong.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't think Samson looked very strong.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't think he was a big, bulky muscle guy.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Man, when I because when I go back to my philanograph and five years old, he was pretty strong.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: He was pretty guy.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think the power I think the fact that he looked like a weakling little dude who all of a sudden could take the doors, the doors off the gate is what makes him look like that's the power.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, um, but the spirit of God would come upon him, he could do these amazing things.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Moses, when Moses is on the mount, like he had the Spirit of God upon him, and he actually kind of glowed, right?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's these, you find these things, and there's always like when when God finally enters into the tabernacle, right, at the end of at the end of Exodus or whatever it is, and God finally descends, it's this wind that is described, this flame.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: This so as you follow and you see that pattern, you'll begin to recognize that the wind, the ruach, um, this invisible, animating force, power, this presence of God that shows up, um, gives people a 2.0 expression of the power of God.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then it leaves them, right?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: It comes upon them and it leaves them.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this desire in the text in the Old Testament, that's like, man, one day, wouldn't it be nice if we could just experience that all the time and have the Spirit of God on us all the time, instead of it just be our breath, but we actually can experience the Spirit of God with us.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Moses has this conversation with the 70 elders, and they all experience it.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, wait, what's going on?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, wouldn't it be great if ever all the people of God could experience this?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then when we get to Acts and we see them in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, and it's just the same description, this wind comes brushing in from this, and they hear this rushing wind and this flame of fire.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like you, it's the same imagery that happens as God taping over the tabernacle.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and instead of it coming upon them and leaving, it it becomes, He dwells within them.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: We are the temple of God, we become the temple of God.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and now we because of the work of Christ, we have the ability to have that the the spirit of God, the 2.0, if you will, right, um, in dwelling with us all the time and experiencing the fruit of the spirit, right?
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, um, temperance, self-control against such things, there is no law.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that that I appreciated your independent fundamentalist King James Irrison quoted that.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: The good job.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, well, I couldn't get it any other way.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I I think the Spirit of God is an important idea that we see in Genesis 2, that it gives us the energy, that gives us that force, that the breath to live.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think the foreshadowing of rise to come.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think the full arc of that then is creation, Genesis 1 and 2, the fall and the curse of death, Genesis 3.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: Even at the end of Genesis 3, though, fulfilled in the promise, new creation, yeah, and as part of that new creation is this spirit-filled life of yes, uh, when we look at now, like we are the dwelling place.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh like little tabernacles.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right, absolutely.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: Which I don't want to get too far into that because next week's sermon will be looking at Eden as a sanctuary and stuff.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that temple imagery, but what that even means for us as we are those little tabernacle tabernacles.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: But just kind of sticking with the breath thing is uh okay, the the wind, the breath, the spirit of God dwelling in us, dwelling on us, filling us every day.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's encouraging.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because of that, if we look at the promise of God that I'm never gonna leave you, I'm never gonna forsake you, I'm always gonna be with you.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's that movement and reminder of the spirit of God in our life, that wind, that breath, that okay, you are with me.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I just think that's beautifully encouraging.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I do too.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because I I think even more so, like God breathes life into humanity.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: We look at that same imagery uh to 2 Timothy 3.16.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like even scripture is God breathed out.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're we're not left without hope.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like he has breathed his own life out of his word to humanity so that we have now more resourcing and more understanding of the depths, of the riches, of the extravagance, of the abundance of God's love and presence in our life, which is where we can live out hope every single day.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Agree.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: So any other thoughts?
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: Any closing thoughts?
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, I think that's good.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of things I think we can meditate on.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: I pray that you meditate on, is uh, you know, beginning with a reminder of okay, you are dust.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's that dignity and that trust, because uh the dignity helps me see others the way that God sees them and begin to see myself the way that God sees me.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: That trust is okay, he's the potter, I'm the clay, he's shaping me.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like, I I don't want to let the version of me today when I'm reading this podcast define as the end product because he is he is still shaping me and molding me every single day.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: And the reminder of that, building into that breath, is is the spirit of God in me every day, uh, working out my soul, my own salvation, being conformed more and more into the image of Christ.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so wherever you are in your journey today, I hope you find some encouragement, some motivation in that.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, maybe not from us, but from the Lord, maybe some conviction on maybe you're not seeing others the way that God desires for you to see them, or maybe you are living in isolation.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: I love that dog, but don't let that be a substitute for real community with real humanity.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so I hope you're encouraged by that.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: But until next time, man, this is the High Dog Podcast, Calvary Baptist Church.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: You can go into the show notes to get a URL to find us online.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: We love to hear from you.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: We love your feedback.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: We would appreciate a review, a like, a share, a comment, whatever.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that's encouraging to us.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: We welcome your feedback because we want to always work to get better to deliver the best podcast uh resource we can for you.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: But also, we would love for others to know it.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: And when you leave that review or share it, it helps more people find us.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: So until next time, bye.