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November 21, 2022 · 26 min · Faith Adventures
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Beth Jones is a Bible teacher and founder of The Basics With Beth, a non-profit Christian teaching ministry dedicated to helping people learn the Bible basics.
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0:00 Hey, guys. This is Beth Jones, I am so glad you have tuned into the basics with Beth podcast. And I'm so pumped up about helping you get the basics of the Bible, or as we like0:12 to say around here, get the basics, live the life and do the stuff. I know you are going to be so encouraged by today's podcast, and I really pray you enjoy0:23 every minute. If you'd like to know more about the basics and what we're doing, just head on over to the basics with beth dot com to get all the deets. And in the meantime, enjoy today's0:35 podcast. Welcome to another week in faith adventures to the land of God's thumbprint. Last week we got into this subject. I'm gonna kinda give you the the overview where we're going. But you know, we're0:47 just talking about this idea that God has a faith adventure for each and every 1 of us. To get us somewhere, to get us not just to go around the mountain, but to get us to this thing called the land of God's0:58 thumbprint. This place where God's touch is on your life, where his fingerprints mark you. Where he distinguishes you. 1 version in the bible in Hebrews 11, it talks about God's people are1:10 distinguished above others. Why? Because of God's handprints, his thumbprints, his presence in our lives. And the way to experience that, to get to this land of God's thumbprint is through the faith adventure.1:22 So we talked about it last week that you know all of us started x marks the spot. Today, you're at x marks the spot. Those of you watching online, all of us here in our season, we are at x marks the spot.1:34 So just take a minute and think about that. What is your x marks the spot right now? What season of life are you in? What circumstances are you facing? What dreams are in your heart? What's going on in your personal1:45 life? How's your relationship with the Lord? How are things going with your kids, with your family? How's your marriage? How about your job? How about the fulfillment, the satisfaction, the sense of1:56 purpose in what you do? Your x marks the spot. How are you? Like just right now present tense. Because the great thing with God, don't you love this about the Lord? The Bible says the paths of the Lord2:09 grow brighter and brighter and brighter until the perfect day, the day of his return or the day that we go to be with him. The paths of the Lord, this faith adventure we're on, they grow brighter and2:21 brighter. So no matter what your x marks the spot is at the moment, you can just know this, God has brighter days ahead. And all the people said, God has brighter, brighter, and brighter days2:33 ahead. And the way that we experience that is this faith adventure, this faith component. So x marks the spot. I hope you have a reference point. I hope you're thinking of something about where2:45 you are. Maybe some things in particular that you're seeking the Lord on. You know, what are you seeking the Lord? Like God, I'm I'm we're here. Our family's here. Our kids are here. My life is here and I'm seeking you2:56 and I'm asking you about some things in order to get to the land of your thumb print. The land Lord of fulfillment, the land where your fingerprints are seen in my life. If somebody dusted my3:08 life for prints, they'd see your prints. They wouldn't see my prints, they'd see God's prints on your life. Right? They wouldn't see your prints on your life so so you know so to speak. They'd see God's fingerprints3:19 marking you. That's what we're talking about. Let's just give me a little introductory setup so you kinda know what we're talking about, where we're going. We're just talking about how do we get there? What's the route?3:29 And we've discovered and began this journey last week, there's several pit stops along the way. We start this journey if we wanna get the God sized3:41 results, we start this journey in prayer ville. We talked last week about 2 things when it comes to prayer ville. We talked about seeking and asking. Really simple,3:52 really basic, just seeking God, just seeking the Lord, inquiring of the Lord, asking God for his input, his wisdom, his thoughts, his plan, his purpose. Lord, we're4:04 laying all the cards on the table because we think we know some things, but God, we don't want our best plan. We want your blessed plan. Right? Amen. We seek the Lord to get his4:16 blessed plan. And then we said then ask. We looked at a fellow last week in the bible by the name of Jabez. Looked at how he sought the Lord and these big prayers he prayed. He asked God for big stuff. So4:28 that was last week. And then I mentioned that today we're gonna talk about Promiseville and that Prayerville and Promiseville very much are twin cities. They really do go together because often times in4:39 Prayerville, God reveals the promise. As you're seeking him, as you're asking very often God reveals things about his promises to you and for you. So today's gonna be on promise ville and 2 things we4:51 wanna walk away with today. We wanna walk away with the idea that we need to hear and we need to believe. Need to hear, need to hear from God. Like I think it's the coolest thought, don't5:03 you? That you can hear from God. Like God Almighty, the God. The most high God, the Lord God Almighty is still speaking to his people in real time,5:15 in present tense time, through his word and by his spirit. He's not some far off God that never speaks. Who's glad? He's still speaking. And so it's important for you and I in promise to be to5:27 hear. To hear from the Lord. To hear the Lord's voice if you will. To get his direction. To get his insight. To get his promise. And then number 2, it's not just enough to hear it. Number 2, we have to5:39 believe it. Because it's in the believing of it that sort of takes us to the next part of our journey. Hear it and believe it. And all the people said, amen. Okay. So with that then, let me share a5:51 couple of setups for you. What is promiseville like? Promiseville. If you went to promiseville, the villa of promise, what is it like? What's the mission vision code of Promiseville? Here's a couple of6:02 scriptures. Just so you know, from God's vantage point, this is what Promiseville is all about. Numbers 23 19 says this, God is not a man that he should lie. He is not human. So he does not6:14 change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? The answer is no. God always fulfills his promises. This is part of the code. This6:26 is part of the ethos. This is part of the mission of promiseville. Joshua 21 verse 45. Not a single 1 of all the good promises the Lord had given to the family of Israel was6:38 left unfulfilled, not 1. Everything he had spoken came true. Deep in your heart, you know that every promise of the Lord your God has come true. Not6:50 a single 1 has failed. Not a single 1. Every promise. So the secret is to hear. Lord, what other promises if they all come true, if not a single 1 of your promises fails? Now, know a lot of my7:01 ideas fail. A lot of my great thoughts fail, but not 1 of your promises has ever failed. Then that motivates me. God, wanna know your promises. I want to hear from you.7:13 What else? First Kings 8 56, not 1 word has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave to Moses. Not 1 word fails. When God speaks, when God makes a promise, listen, you can take it to the7:25 bank. When God makes a promise, not 1 word will fail. Often times, our humanness gets in there. We try to sort it out, figure it out, we try to do it, we try to bring it to pass,7:37 we try to speculate on what it might mean. We do a lot of humanness to God's promises. But the way God intended for it to be fulfilled, it will be fulfilled.7:48 If we'll hear it and believe it. And all the people said, then Jesus in the New Testament when he just made it sort of plain, just boiled it right down. He said, if you can believe,8:01 all things are possible to him who believes. And that's an amazing short little basic statement, isn't it? If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. How is it you get8:13 strengthened in belief? The bible says faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by hearing and by hearing and by hearing the word. So you can believe the more you8:25 hear. That's why we're today we're talking about 2 things. Hear it and believe it. Hear it and believe it. Hear it and believe it. Over and over and over. The thing that strengthens your believing is hearing it. Amen.8:35 You know, we we sang the song, all of his promises are yes and amen. All the promises are yes and amen. It's from first Corinthians. Do you know it's true? All the promises in the bible, in the whole bible,8:47 all the promises are yes and amen. Well, the old testament, the promises always had a certain condition. In Deuteronomy 28, you see things like, if you do this, then8:59 these promises are yours. If then, if then, if then, if then throughout the old testament. Sometimes in the new testament then, we bring that into our thinking like, it's probably still the9:11 if then. But it's not the if then anymore. We've been talking about it because Jesus went to the cross and because Jesus fulfilled all of the if you do these things requirements,9:24 then we can embrace the reality that all the promises for us are yes and amen in him. Amen? Did9:36 you follow? So as we get into this, I want you to, you know, sort of turn the lights on so to speak to be like, okay, Lord, so what are the promises for me? So again, back to your x marks the spot. All9:48 things are possible. From God's viewpoint, with his wisdom, with his supernatural touch, all things are possible. The how and the when and all the10:00 details to be revealed to you from the Lord. He knows all that. Our job is to believe. Lord, I don't know how you're gonna do it. But my job is not to figure out how you're gonna do it. My job is to believe10:12 your promises. Let me just give you a couple of examples real quick. I want you to have a few reference points. At the end, I'm gonna tell you a couple of stories in our experience. But just a couple on the front end10:22 because people deal with all different kinds of things. For an example, when it comes to health and healing, of course, that 1 is, you know, folks are always dealing with things as it relates to health and healing. And10:32 so the Bible, in the Bible, God has given us numerous promises along with his wisdom to discern his pathway for healing and health and wholeness and strength and with long life10:44 he would satisfy us. And I love this because there's a number of people in the church that been going through some different things, very serious things. And just in the last 2 or 3 weeks, we've gotten reports back.10:54 Like, we've had to reread the report. We've gotten reports back just in the last couple of weeks of several VFCers that had pronounced cancer free. Cancer free.11:07 I think we just read 1 like Thursday or Friday you sent us 1 that just somebody else just went to the doctor and found out cancer free. Now that is God's fingerprints. That's the land of God's11:19 thumbprint. What's that based on? There's some folks in the church that are that are getting together and they're getting into the word and they're finding out what is God's word? What is his promise to us about health11:27 and healing? In fact, we're starting a small group for that very purpose for people dealing with issues like that that need their faith strengthened and need wisdom from God to know what it is the pathway looks like for11:38 them to walk on. Health and healing, it would be 1. Fear, a lot of people these days struggling with fear, dealing with fear. Is that God's highest and best? Is that is that the the mission vision code of11:49 promiseville? Anxiety, panic, fear. I mean this is the world we live in. Now the bible does say in the last days that men's hearts would fail them for fear.12:01 But not men and women in the church, not people that are walking with God, not people whose God's hand is upon. The fingerprints of God, the thumbprint of God. No, not his people. He's just12:13 saying in the world, it's gonna be tumult and craziness and in the world men's hearts are gonna fail them, why? For fear. So you and I then need to embrace and need to hear from God about his promises.12:25 But what's your promise concerning fear? What's what's your promise concerning things? Perfect love casts out fear. Step number 1, get rooted, get established, get reestablished in God's12:36 love. I think it's no wonder there's been such an emphasis, not just here at VFC but around the world, there's been such an emphasis recently. Have you noticed? It's not that we love God, it's that he loved us.12:48 We have known and believed the love God has for us. There's been an emphasis on God's love and knowing how much God loves us. You know, we've always focused on how much we love God and that's good but13:00 the emphasis as of the last number of years has been how much God loves us. And I wonder if the Lord in his sovereignty is like, I need my church, I need my people to get a revelation of my love because it's13:12 perfect love. When they know how perfectly they're loved by me, the Lord, perfect love casts out fear. And as things get crazy on the earth, I don't need my people in fear. I need them to be13:23 absolutely established in my love. Amen? So what do you do then? How do you how do you walk that out from13:35 x marks the spot to the land of God's thumbprint? Well, get into the word, you get established in God's love and then you and then you get into the word and God speaks to you things like Psalm 34. I sought the Lord and13:45 he delivered me from all of my fears. All of them. What'd you do? I sought the Lord in prayer ville. I sought the Lord and he13:57 delivered me from all of my fears. Listen, do you know when a baby's delivered, they are not in the womb anymore? They're out. They leave the14:09 womb behind and all the mothers said, hallelujah. Thank you Jesus. When you get delivered from something, you're not in it anymore. I sought the Lord and he delivered14:21 me from all of my fears. We're talking about Promiseville, taking God's promises to the bank. Believing that you can go from x marks the14:33 spot to the land of his thumbprint. What about kids? Maybe you're dealing with, you know, you've got kids that are young ones or elementary age or middle school, you know, different different things going on these days14:43 with kids. I'll tell you a friend of ours, a story of a friend of ours. His parents recognized when he was young that he had some learning disabilities. He was really struggling. Just could not retain could not retain14:54 knowledge. They would teach him something and 3 seconds later they'd say, okay, what did you just learn? And he's like, I don't know. I can't remember. He just could not learn. Struggling to learn and his mom got a hold15:05 of the promises. She got a hold of the promises of God's word about her son and about him having the mind of Christ and about what God could do with his mind. And she began to stand on the word and she began to15:17 decree and declare and pray and believe God. She heard it and she believed it. Now we'll get into patience Actionville and Doubtville later. Didn't happen overnight. It took several years but do you know at a15:29 certain point in time, he was at a at a youth camp, at a certain point middle school camp. Certain point in time, 1 of the ministers called him out and said, hey, God calls you a champion. He didn't feel like a champion.15:38 He felt like a kid with a learning disability and looked upon by others and not always a nice way. And the Lord said, you're a champion for God. And he says, here's what the Lord's showing me. The Lord's showing me that15:49 your brain is like cobwebs. They're just all the connections aren't quite making the right connection but the Lord is healing you right now. He's putting all the connections back together in Jesus name. This kid got16:01 so excited he went home and he told his parents at night, I'm healed. I'm healed. You know? And they're like, okay, you know, right. That's awesome. Of course, they've been praying for it for years. They should've been16:10 like, hallelujah. I I'm sure they were hallelujah. But anyways, long story short, sure enough, there was a marked improvement from that moment on. And then to this day, he's a thriving adult and life is great.16:26 So what are we talking about? I'm just trying to help you. Whatever your x marks the spot is, all things are possible. And Patienceville is a part of it, Actionville, Doubtville, you gotta get around Doubtville. And you16:36 gotta start in Promiseville and Prayerville. Alright. Abraham. Let's look at Abraham. We're gonna do this quick little hopscotch and I'm gonna go fast. So read with me fast. You might wanna look these verses up in your16:47 bible, but I want you to see the big picture of Abraham's life. Here's Abraham on a faith adventure. Genesis 12 verse 1 is where it starts. And God speaks to Abraham 1 day verse 1. He16:59 says to him, the Lord God said to Abram, get out of your country and from your family and from your father's house to a land, the land of God's thumbprint, that I will show you. I will make you, here's the promise, I17:11 will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I'll make your name great, you shall be a blessing, I will bless those who bless you, I will curse him who curses you and then in you all the families of the earth will be17:20 blessed. So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him. And Lot went with him and Abram was 75 years old when he departed. So Abram's at, x marks the spot, just living17:32 life, doing his thing. And then God speaks to him. God calls him. God touches him. Taps him on the shoulder. Abram, I have a promise for you. I have a calling, a purpose, a destiny for you. Here's what17:44 I need you to do. You're gonna have to leave some stuff and you're gonna have to go to some stuff. And you're gonna leave what you know but you're gonna go to this land, the land of my thumbprint and here's what I'm17:54 promising you. And so he gives him what is sometimes known as 7 promises. 7 amazing promises which we'll find out aren't just for Abraham, they are also for you and I. If we are in Christ, we are Abraham's18:06 seed and heirs of the same promise. Well, then what happened? Wow. Awesome promise. I love it when God gives us promises. Abram heard. What happened?18:18 Genesis 15. Let's see what goes on in the story. And behold the word of the Lord came to him saying, this 1 shall not be your heir but the 1 who shall come from your own body will be your18:29 heir. Abram, some time had gone on. He hadn't seen the fulfillment of the promise. He said, well Lord, I don't have any kids yet so maybe it's gonna be my servant Eliezer who you'll fulfill the promise through. And the18:40 Lord said, nope. Good try but Eliezer's not the 1. I told you, he's gonna come from your own body. Verse 5, then the Lord expounds on the promise and this is the cool thing about the Lord and his promises end in18:51 promiseville. God will give you promises as you're reading his word. As you're spending time with God, he'll begin to give you promises. Words in scripture will be quickened to you.19:03 But what I love about the Lord is he just doesn't just do it 1 time. He'll continue to encourage you and expound upon those promises over time. So now Abram needs a little more encouragement so God gives him a visual19:15 aid. Some people are visual learners. God gives him a visual aid. Look at verse 5, then he brought him outside and said, look now towards the heaven and count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said to19:27 them, so shall your descendants be. I'm promising this Abraham. It's gonna happen. Up until now he's got no kids. Verse 6, and and Abraham believed the19:39 Lord. He believed. Hearing and believing. And the Lord counted it as righteousness and said, I'm the Lord who brought you up out of the Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land. I'm going to give you the land19:51 of my thumbprint Abraham. I am. None of my promises will fail. Hang tight. Believe. He did. Then what happened? Now get this. How old was Abram when he got the20:03 promise? 75. Genesis 17 verse 1, when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and20:14 said, I am the Lord God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless and I will make my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face and God talked with him20:26 saying. Now did you get that? You're doing the math there? Almost 25 years has elapsed. Well God, you gave us a promise. I mean, what's taking so long? I guess this stuff doesn't20:38 work. I'll forget the faith adventure. I was at x marks the spot 1 day and I believe God and I I had faith for at least an hour and nothing happened.20:50 25 years, 25 of them had elapsed and still that promise has not been fulfilled in its fullness. But the Lord encourages21:01 Abram once again, said I told you I'm gonna fulfill that covenant. And just fed his faith. Faith comes by hearing. He needed to hear it again. Now chapter 1821:13 what happens? Then the Lord appeared to him by the trees at Mamre as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day, it was the Lord and 2 others. It was a pre incarnate visit from Christ with 2 other angels,21:25 most scholars believe, came to visit Abram. Verse 9, then they said to him, where is Sarah your wife? So he said, here in the tent. And then the Lord said, I will certainly return to you21:36 according to the time of life and behold Sarah your wife will have a son. Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him. Of course, the Lord knew that. Now Abraham and Sarah were old21:48 and well advanced in years and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore, laughed within herself saying, after I have grown old, shall I have pleasure? My Lord being old also? And the Lord said to Abraham, why22:00 did Sarah laugh saying, surely shall I bear a child since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, he's just reiterating the promise and he's making sure this time22:12 now husbands and wives, this is a good 1. He's making sure both both husband and wife are on the same page. You know, sometimes the Lord will give a promise to 1 spouse or the other and the other one's not caught up yet.22:25 The Lord made sure that both Abraham and Sarah were gonna be on the same page here about this promise. Now, we're talking 25 years later. So hello Sarah. It's a lot of22:37 patience. So what happened? Okay. So then verse 14, is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied it22:48 saying, I didn't laugh for she was afraid. But the Lord said, oh no, you did laugh. Turns out, don't you love it? Like that's gotta be in the bible. They named their son Isaac which means laughter which is actually23:00 pretty cool. Okay. So what are we seeing? We're just seeing God gave a promise and he's reiterating the promise and he's adding to it. He's giving him a visual aid and he's just saying, no, really, I meant it. It's for23:10 sure. It's for real. Husbands and wives get on the same page. Then what happened? And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said. And the Lord did for Sarah23:22 as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son whom Sarah had born Isaac then had23:34 him circumcised when he was 8 days old. Verse 5, now Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made me laugh and all23:46 who hear will laugh with me. This is so ridiculous. This is so crazy. We're having a child at this age for who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse23:57 children for I have born him a son in his old age. Who's ever noticed when it comes to God's promises he's never early? He's never late.24:09 Who's noticed the clock is striking 12? Just about the time of the fulfillment. Seems like the clock is striking 12, so we'll get into that in weeks to come. But the idea is that God gave a24:21 promise, it took a little time. He continued to reinforce promise and surely it came to pass at the set time.24:37 Hey, guys. Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast. I really hope you were encouraged. And if you were, I would love it if you would take a moment to subscribe and write us a24:49 review because really that'll help us reach even more people with the basics. And here's the other thing. If the podcast is helping you and if you're getting a grip on the basics, would you consider becoming a financial25:00 partner or what we call our basics ninja warriors and help us take these basics to even more people around the world. It's easy to do. Just sign up and25:12 become a ninja by going to the basics with beth dot com. Thanks again, guys, for tuning in and joining us for today's podcast on the basics with Beth. I cannot wait to see you25:24 next time.
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