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Let us pray.
You are the source of love in its purest form. Love is patient and kind and not jealous or envious of others. Love doesn't brag or act arrogantly. Love doesn't demand its own way and is not easily provoked or defensive. Love believes the best and grieves over the sins of others. Love rejoices in the truth. Love never fails in your eyes. It covers a multitude of sin.
Love is the greatest priority in your kingdom. Without love, nothing I do has much value. If I do anything for an ulterior motive other than love, you know and will expose the truth. You exalt the humble. Teach me to be more loving today. Amen. Thank you for listening to today's daily prayer. For more inspiration and an incredible message from our feature pastor, stay tuned to Pray.com's Sunday service.
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Welcome to Basics with Beth TV, and I'm so glad you tuned in to today's episode. We are wrapping up our study by talking about two things today. We're going to talk about this whole idea of keeping the main thing, the main thing. In our last episode, we talked about the main thing is the great commission, leading people to Christ, being a witness for Christ.
But in this episode, I want to talk about the final two things, and that is living out the great commandment and then living by great faith. Okay, so that's going to be our wrap up as we talk about getting a grip on the basics of serving God. All right, so let's talk about the great commandment. What is this great commandment? Jesus told us all about it in Matthew 22, verses 36 through 40.
Somebody came up to Jesus and said, teacher, which is the greatest law? Which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Well there's a lot of things in there. On one hand Jesus was letting us know and letting them know, hey these are the two greatest commandments. All of the commandments, all of the law, all of the prophets can really be summarized in these two commandments. But really the truth is even those two commandments we can't keep.
because we're selfish by nature. We can't even keep those two commandments. So Jesus comes on the scene to fulfill the law. He kept all the law and these commandments. And then he gave us by grace, the ability to have a relationship with him, with the father through Jesus, even if we didn't keep these commandments, which is amazing, which is amazing grace. And yet the principle is here as well. Still, the principle is here.
when it comes to this great commandment. What is the great commandment? Two things. Love God, love people. So if you and I will just focus on loving God and loving people, it's the most amazing thing. Really all of the other things in the Bible that we want to do and to be as a Christian, to live a life pleasing to the Lord. Do you know all those other things will come into play? They'll come into focus and you'll live them out. You'll walk them out. So let's keep talking about this
Law of love that were to live under this great commandment loving God Loving others in first Corinthians 13, of course the famous love passage You know it you've heard it many times at many weddings, but the basic essence of it is this I'm gonna hit the high points here if you start in verse 4 the basic essence is love suffers long It's patient and kind it does not envy. It does not parade itself. Love doesn't boast. It
It's not puffed up. It does not behave rudely, does not seek its own. It is not self-seeking. It is not provoked. It is not easily provoked. It thinks no evil, does not rejoice in sin or iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Man, love is something else. Verse 8, love never fails.
So there is this thing, you know, of course we know a lot about love, we've heard a lot about love, but the truth is love never fails.
You know, if we'll be patient, if we'll be kind, if we won't be easily provoked. One version says love keeps no record of wrongs. Wow! Think about that. You're not keeping score. Love doesn't keep score. And Jesus said, look y'all, live by the great commandment. I mean, this is the great commandment. Love the Lord and love your neighbors yourself. And if we'll do the first Corinthians 13 kind of love,
which is going to take the help of the Holy Spirit to do, we'll see that it never fails. I'll give you a quick story. I remember years ago, I just graduated from college. It was one of my first jobs and I was working at a TV station, as it turns out, for a gal and she was really a nice gal, but I
But I thought, man, I thought for sure when I first started working there, I thought she does not like me. I mean, I just got the vibes, you know, you know, those vibes. I was not getting the good vibes. So I would come into work. I'd be at my desk and she'd walk in and say, hi, so-and-so and nothing, not hello, nothing. I'd say, how was your weekend? And be like, fine. And how are your kids? And fine. I mean, like nothing. There was no,
Bridge being built. Do you understand the bridge stopped and then we plummeted into the ravine? So I was like, no, I'm just gonna try to love never fails. Okay, fine. I'll just try to keep being loving every day.
"Hello, how you doing?" Well, one day, and I never got anything back. I mean, I really thought she didn't like me. I thought, "Why'd she hire me? "I don't even think she likes me." Well, then one day I heard her mention that she liked Reese's peanut butter cups. I just overheard this. And I thought, love never fails. I'm gonna buy a Reese's peanut butter cup on my lunch break, and I'm gonna bring it back and put it on her desk. So I did, I bought a Reese's peanut butter cup, but actually, funny thing is, I ate one of them.
did i ate one of them i don't know why i think i was hoping she would think oh isn't that nice she's sharing her Reese's with me well anyways i ate one and then i put it on her desk and i said i heard you liked Reese's peanut butter cups thought you'd like my other one well do you know the power of a Reese's peanut butter the power of a candy bar do you know from that moment on we were like best friends
I'd say hello in the morning. She'd be like, well, good morning. How are you? I mean, literally on a dime, we became like besties. And when I finally left that place to head to my next assignment in life, she was sad to see me go. And do you know what? I was sad to go. What in the world happened? Love never fails. And sometimes you just need some creative ideas from the Holy Spirit, possibly a candy bar. So Jesus told us to live for the great commandment. Okay.
- Hey, thank you so much for watching the program today. And I wanna take just a moment to encourage you and to cheer you on in your pursuit of God and his word and truth. And the reason for that is this, we all know we are living in unusual and uncertain times.
And the thing is, we're getting so much information that's coming at us, whether it's through the media, through social media, whether it's through just our Google searches, whether it's just the world we live in. There's so much information coming at us, and there's a big question we're all asking. What is true? Who can I believe? Like, who's telling me the truth? And it seems that so many people are disillusioned because they don't know who to trust.
and who's actually telling us the truth. But the good news is Jesus himself said this. He said, "I am the way and the truth."
in the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus went on to tell us, listen to this, Jesus went on to tell us as he was praying, he said, "Father, thy word is truth." God's word, the Bible, is truth. And then Jesus told us the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. He'll guide us into that truth. Now, being a Christian, listen, we have such an advantage.
We have the advantage of being able to access truth, God's word. And Jesus himself, by the power of the Holy Spirit, will explain it to us. He'll help us to understand the truth and he'll give us that truth radar, that truth detector on the inside. So that as we travel through life, as we walk out God's plans and purposes for our life, we have this internal truth detector and we hear something and we go, oh, nope,
that's not the truth, that does not register. Or we hear something else and inside we're like, that's true, I know that's true. How do we do that? We can only do that if we have a strong, rich foundation in truth. And that's why we have spent 30 years helping people get a grip on the basics, the basics of the Bible to strengthen your truth detector.
We have so many products and resources. Our team has put together so much stuff just for you to help you in this regard. Things like a regular podcast. Things like, of course, this television show. Things like a smart TV channel that you can access on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire Stick to watch all of our programs. Things like a YouTube channel. Things like 20-some books, travelogies.
translated into, by the way, 20 some languages. I mean so many resources all designed to help you get the basics, to strengthen your truth meter on the inside. And so I want to encourage you, you can, in fact let me tell you about one of the things we have. It's an online university with 12 courses.
All courses are each $12, but you might want to test drive it. In fact, we encourage you to do that, to go to thebasicswithbeth.tv and you can follow all the different links to test drive one of our mini courses in the Basics University for free.
test it out and let God strengthen your foundation in the basics of his word and strengthen your truth meter. All right. So I just wanted to share all of that with you and encourage you and stir you up. So thanks for joining me.
On one hand, it is true we're to love God and we're to love people, no doubt about it. But the only way and the only reason we can even do that is because God first loved us. And we've talked about this many times, but I just want to reiterate it. 1 John 4
Verses 7 and 8, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God. For God is love. In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His Son as a propitiation for our sins." Verse 11, "Beloved, if God so loves us,
We also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time, but if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. So what did we learn in that? Well, we learned that we are to love one another, but verse 10 says, it's not that we love God. It's that he loved us.
because he loved us then beloved those loved by God love one another so you need a revelation that it's not that you love God it's not that you're perfect it's not that you're some super Christian no it's that he loves you and he loves you just as he loved Jesus
In fact, Jesus prayed that in John 17. He said, Father, before I go to the cross and ascend to heaven to be with you, I'm praying. I'm praying for my disciples and I'm praying for all those who will believe. That's you and I. He says, Father, I pray that they will know that you love them as you have loved me.
that we would know the revelation is that we would know that God loves us just exactly as He loves Jesus. He's just as pleased with us as He was pleased with Jesus. And the only reason that we get that benefit is because of Jesus. We get the benefit that it's not that we love God, it's that He loved us. And so from that place,
of being loved, we can love. We can love others. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God. That is you. That is me. And we can do it. And man, there's fulfillment when you have no strings attached.
Do you know how cool that is? When you have no strings attached, you're not expecting a thank you. You're not expecting any kind of a perk. You're not expecting any kind of inside favors. No, you're just loving people because God loved you. That is freedom. That is power. That is awesome. And that's the great commandment. Love the Lord and then love our neighbor as ourself. In fact, what did Jesus say?
I'm giving you a new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you that you love one another. By this will all men know that you are my disciples. If you have a love one for another man, do you know how much you stand out and how refreshing it is as a Christian to be a loving Christian, not a judgmental Christian.
not an angry Christian, a loving Christian, Jesus-focused Christian, truth-filled Christian. We live in such a culture of hatred, such a culture of just stirring up trouble all of the time, and for you to be the kind of person that is loving, unconditionally loving, that's amazing. In fact, the Bible does talk about when you have an enemy,
I was just reading this the other day in Proverbs. Proverbs 25. If you have an enemy, it says to do good things for your enemy. If you see that they didn't bring their lunch to work, the Bible says go ahead and give them your lunch, your enemy, because that is going to speak volumes to your enemy. They would expect you just to get them back.
But when you give them your lunch, you do something for your enemy. In the New Testament, it says it's like heaping hot coals on his head. Like I think they come to themselves and go, man, what kind of a jerk am I being? This person's so loving. I need that kind of love. I need to know that God, that Jesus that has somehow put that kind of love in them, that they would do something so good for me. I'm their enemy. I've been bad-mouthing them. I stole their promotion.
etc, etc. You get the idea? We're to love people and I'm not saying it's easy, but yet on the other hand, it is easy because it's not our love. We yield to God's love. You catching this? Okay, I hope you are. Let's wrap up then. I want to talk about the great faith piece of this. What are we talking about today? Getting a grip on the basics. These are the basics, y'all, of serving God.
What is it? The great commission. Let's keep the main thing, the main thing, the great commission, be a witness for Christ. Living out this great commandment, the law of love, but then the wrap up, and I think this is the fun one as well, living by great faith. I mean, God is inviting you. He's inviting me to a faith adventure. There is nothing boring about
about the Christian life. Okay, so faith is what pleases the Lord. Let's dig into this then. Let's look at Luke chapter 7, and this is the story of the centurion. I'll pick it up in verse 2. So it says, "...a certain centurion's servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him, pleading with him to come and heal his servant."
And when they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly saying, this is the one that you should do something for. He's so deserving. Verse five, he loves our nation. He's built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with him. Okay. So the servants of the centurion say, Jesus, come heal the centurion's servant because he's sick. And this guy deserves it because he's, he's helped build our synagogue. So then verse six, then Jesus went with them.
And when he was already not far from the house, Jesus wasn't to the house yet, the centurion sent friends to Jesus and said, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not even think myself worthy to come to you, but just say the word and my servant will be healed, for I also am a man under authority. And I say to my servant, Lord,
Go, and he goes. And to another, come, and he comes. And to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him and turned around and said to the crowd that followed him, I say to you, I have not found so great faith, not even in all of Israel. What's this story about? This is a story that a centurion said, Jesus, I know who you are. I know the power of your words.
And I was going to have you come to my house to heal my servant, but nevermind. You don't even need to come to my house. I don't need you physically here because your word is that powerful. Just say the word and my servant will be healed. And then he went on to say, I understand this principle. I understand the principle of the authority of someone in authority's words, because I say to my servants, go and they do it and stop and they do it.
He said, just speak the word and I know my servant will be healed. And Jesus was astounded. Do you know in the Bible, there are only two times that Jesus said, I have not seen such great faith. I've seen a lot of faith, but I have not seen such great faith as this in all of Israel. Okay, what was so great about the faith? What was so great about the centurion's faith? It's basic, it's simple. What was it?
Simply this, the centurion took Jesus at his word. That is it. That is what faith is. Faith is taking God at his word. Faith is not a feeling. Faith is not a circumstance. Faith literally just takes God at his word. And Jesus marveled. Man, wouldn't you just love to make Jesus marvel with your faith that you believed his words? Well, let's keep reading then and let's find out more about it.
Why is faith so amazing? Well, the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 1 and in Galatians chapter 3, the just believers, we're supposed to live by faith. In Hebrews, we're told that without faith, it's impossible to please God. For whoever comes to God must believe that he is, that he exists, and that he's the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Okay, here's a question for you.
Why? Why do you think without faith it's impossible to please God? Why do you think that's true? See, sometimes we think, well, man, if I don't have faith, that's probably upsetting to the Lord. He's probably very disappointed in me if I don't have faith because, you know, without faith, without faith, it's impossible to please God. So you better have some faith. I mean, that sometimes is how that comes off. That's not the heart of God.
Why is it impossible to please God without faith? Because God knows everything we receive from Him, everything, including salvation, including wisdom, healing, including the success on the job, including all the wisdom we need to raise a family. Everything we need from God, His favor, His goodness, His blessings, it comes to us through faith. He knows that the avenue, the vehicle, the way things come to us
is through faith. And when those things come to us, salvation, all of God's goodness, then God is so pleased. Like any good parent, man, He is so pleased when His kids are blessed with the things He has paid a mighty high price to purchase for us.
So without faith, it's impossible to please him. Why? Because he knows in that case, you're not blessed. You're not saved. You're not getting his goodness. But he's so pleased when you have faith because then you can be saved. Then you can receive his goodness. Are you catching this? Are you seeing this? So faith is
is simple. It's basic. It pleases the Lord because it gives you and I access to God's goodness and especially to salvation. Okay. So I hope you got it. I hope that makes sense. Let's keep going. Then we're talking about keeping the main thing, the main thing. And this idea as Christians, the oxygen we breathe, the way we live is by
faith. Okay. Second Corinthians five, verse seven. He says this, the apostle Paul said, we walk by faith, not by sight. In second Corinthians four 13, he said, and since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what was written, I believed, therefore I spoke. We also believe and therefore speak. So here's the question for you. How do you know if you have faith?
How do we know? What's the litmus test for us to determine, "Yes, I have faith." Here's what it is, the spirit of faith. What is it? It's what we believe in our heart, it's what we say with our mouth. That is the equation for faith. What you believe in your heart plus what you say with your mouth equals faith. And you can just think about it in your own life. You and I, we are where we are now in our lives.
Really in essence that we are living the result of our faith We're living right now in real time the result of what we have believed in our heart and what we have said with our mouth and
For example, if we have said, if we have believed in our heart for years, we're nothing, we're failures, nobody loves us, nobody cares about us, I'll never amount to anything. If we've believed that in our heart, and if we have said that throughout the years, well, I'm nobody, nobody likes me, I'm a failure. If we've said those things, then I guarantee we're probably in a place in life right now that is discouraged, depressed, not very successful. And all that is, it's just the fruit of faith.
The wrong kind of faith, but faith nonetheless. Well, you can turn that around today. You and I can turn that around today. By doing what? By taking God at His word. Believing what He said about you. That you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. That He has a divine purpose for your life. He knows the plans He has for you. To give you a hope and a future. Not a plan for calamity or disaster.
He's got good things in store for you. You can just believe that. And then you can start saying that. And do you know your heart and your mouth is like a rudder on a ship and it will take you to the port.
of you can do all things through Christ. It'll take you to the port of you're successful in life. It just takes a little bit of time to apply your faith, but it is a faith proposition. I just want to give you an example. It's a faith proposition, okay? Hebrews 11. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. By faith, we understand that the world were framed by the word of God so that, now get this,
so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Well, that just is an oxymoron. The things that are seen were not made from things that are visible. In other words, they were made from things that are invisible, unseen. How does that work? Faith
is the substance of things hoped for. Another way to say it is faith gives substance to the things you hope for. Okay. So let me just give an analogy here. Let's say you hope for some things. Let's say you see God's word promises you all kinds of things and you and hope rises up. You hope for like, yes, I hope it's true. It's like hope is like a blueprint. If you've ever built a house or seen a blueprint for anything,
When you look at the blueprint, you get the hope of what that house could look like. But the blueprint is not the house. The blueprint is just the drawing and the hope of what could be. How do you get the house? How do you get what's on that blueprint to turn into the house? Faith. Faith gives substance to the blueprint or to the hope. Hope is future.
Faith is now. So I hope in the future I get what's on this blueprint, but in order to get it, I've got to do something now. What do I do now? I just start building. How do I build? You build with faith.
Faith gives substance to the thing you hoped for. So in other words, by faith, you believe in your heart and you say with your mouth what God's word says about you, about your body, about your health, about your marriage, about your kids, about your family, about your destiny, about your purpose, about your life. And your faith will build, give substance to the blueprint of
that you can see and hope for. I hope that makes sense. You get it? Do you follow that? It's so basic, it's so simple, and yet it's so profound because the things that are seen now were made from things that were unseen. That is faith. Faith pulls out of the invisible realm substance, and then it's created in your life.
in your marriage, in your health, in your success. I mean, you know, right, go down all the categories of life. Can you see that? It's a, as someone has said before, it's a sixth sense, this faith sense. So I hope it all makes sense. And I believe it does. We've talked about it many times. We'll keep talking about faith.
Because why? To just live by faith. It's the main thing to live this faith adventure, man. It's fun. It's fulfilling. And God's got a great plan for your life. So you might say, how do I get more faith? Don't go yet. Don't go. How do I get more faith? Here's how you get more faith.
comes by hearing and hearing by the word. The more of God's word you hear, like watching television programs like this, by taking online courses, by reading books, by reading your Bible, by learning and hearing the word, faith comes and then your faith gives substance to the things you hope for. Man, what a blessing. What a blessing. Did God give us the advantage or what?
All right, well, our time's up. I hope you have loved our time together. I hope you've enjoyed getting a grip on the basics of serving God. I can't wait to see you in our next episode as we pick up with another subject. It's going to be great. I'll see you right here on The Basics with Beth.
Thanks for watching today's show. We hope this message helped you to get the basics, live the life, and do the stuff. Be sure to set your DVR so that you never miss an episode. For more of The Basics with Beth Jones or to watch programs on demand, visit thebasicswithbeth.tv. The podcast, The Bible in a Year with Jack Graham, is a moving and inspiring biblical audio experience that will help you master wisdom from the world's greatest book. In each episode, you'll learn to apply biblical principles to everyday life.
Each cinematic episode is a journey through the Bible's most profound stories that will strengthen your appreciation of the Word and inspire you to keep learning. Listen to The Bible in a Year with Jack Graham on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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