0:00:00 - 0:00:21 This is part three of faith, hope and charity. The topic of this presentation is charity. I encourage you to watch the other parts if you haven't yet on faith and hope. This is the final installment and it will be brief, but I hope that the brevity doesn't imply that this is a simple topic uh or that 0:00:21 - 0:00:46 it's not worthy of greater study. We'll just be covering the heads of some ideas under charity. And I highly encourage you to make this a topic of prayer and study and reflection because it may be the most important topic of all. What is charity we read in second Nephi 2624 that Jesus doeth not anything 0:00:45 - 0:01:07 . Save it be for the benefit of the world, for he loveth the world even that he lay down his own life that he may draw all men, all men unto him. OK. So what does this phrase mean that he doesn't do anything except it is for the benefit of the world? What does it mean to be for the benefit of the world 0:01:07 - 0:01:30 ? Well, it has to mean more than the benefit of an individual, the key to understanding this phrase lies in the first two great commandments that the Lord gave. The first one is love God with all of your heart might mind and strength. And the second is love your neighbor as yourself. To understand what 0:01:29 - 0:02:01 it means to love God with all of your heart, mind and strength is its own deep topic. But on a superficial level, it's to give everything you have to know God and to act like He is. So the Lord knows everything and we give lip service to this idea frequently. But if you actually believe that, then you 0:02:01 - 0:02:27 will realize that God being the source of all that is good and also how he is being extensively outside of our awareness. If you combine these ideas, then you will seek Him with everything you have because you'll realize that He is much better than you even know. And you will strive with all that you 0:02:27 - 0:02:50 have to learn more about Him so that you can be better than you are. And as you learn more about Him, you can implement those things that you learn in your life and become good yourself. The second great commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. What does this mean? Well, so if you, if you are 0:02:50 - 0:03:12 learning more about God and you're learning more about what it means to be good, then you will apply what you learn to all of those around you, to your situation and your influence in every way that you interact with everyone around you. And in short, what you will do, you will apply all that is good 0:03:11 - 0:03:41 to all of mankind as if they were all an extension of yourself as if all of mankind were just one being one person, if you will. And that's how you'll act to everyone around you. That's a very simple phrase compared to how complex it ends up being in practice. In Mosiah 217, we read that when we are 0:03:41 - 0:04:06 in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God. And it, it really is that simple. We, it's almost as simple as living the first commandment. We live the first commandment by living the second commandment. Now, it's not exactly that simple because we, we have to learn more 0:04:05 - 0:04:29 about God. We have to acquire knowledge about him and from him. And that's how we learn what is good. And then we can turn around and apply that in our situation and uh treat everyone around us as if they're an extension of ourselves. And that's the fulfillment of the second commandment. Now, I hope 0:04:28 - 0:04:55 that that's raising all sorts of alarms in your head because if you take this just a few steps in your mind, you will find many activities suggested that threaten your security and that's really what it comes down to. So, in talking about this, I hope that I am tripping wires that that trigger some level 0:04:54 - 0:05:23 of fear because that's really what it comes down to. If you practice the second commandment and you exercise charity, you actually love the people around you. You will immediately find yourself at odds with, uh, the, the idea of carnal security or the idea of feeling safe based on the amount of money 0:05:22 - 0:05:52 you have the peace that you have, that it's worldly peace. The absence of struggle. All of these ideas are contrary to charity because charity really puts it out there when you have charity, the only limit is what you have to give. And so if you imagine all of the time, talents, wealth, strength, intelligence 0:05:51 - 0:06:17 , anything else you might have being on call, so to speak, available for the needs of everyone else. You may find uh that idea daunting to say the least. But this really is how it is. Why is it the most important thing? Here's a passage from Paul about charity being the most important of the gifts of 0:06:17 - 0:06:44 God. Why is that? Well, it's the end of faith. So it's not, it's not the termination of faith, but it is the destination of faith. All faith will lead you eventually to charity. And that's because God is love and charity is what God is. And it's why God is everything He does can be explained through 0:06:44 - 0:07:09 charity. If you read the Bible or any other bit of scripture, you can explain absolutely everything He does through charity and it might take some, some study and prayer. But this is actually a key to explain a great deal of mysteries because things that we don't understand in the scriptures, typically 0:07:09 - 0:07:33 , we don't understand them because we're trying to interpret them through our own falling character. But as you draw closer to God in your character becomes more like His, you can see how his character, his character is, the explanation for why He does what He does and everything makes sense. Um First 0:07:32 - 0:00:00 John 48, John says he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love. And everyone I know who's been in his presence says the same thing. And we know what this means beyond what the words say. But it also leaves us hungering and thirsting for more because there's nothing higher or better than this. 0:00:00 - 0:08:26 The love of God. That is the goal of, of everything. It's been said that the why drives the what that if you have a strong enough, why you can handle any what? And uh in my experience, that's true. And the love of God is the why? Now I I will just elaborate on this a little bit. We see the love of God 0:08:25 - 0:08:46 . You have to be careful because love is one of those words. There are many words like this. We get in trouble when we try to interpret this from where we stand. We use this word for many things that are less than its intended meaning. And, and that's the case for many things in the gospel, whether we're 0:08:46 - 0:09:12 talking about uh priesthood authority. Good. Uh There are a lot of words that we, we use a lesser definition for and this is one of them and, and charity, maybe by using the word charity, we can kind of avoid the connotation when we say love. People think love means giving someone what they ask for or 0:09:12 - 0:09:34 what they want. Um And of course, that's not love. Love is about benefit. If God does nothing, save it, be for the benefit of the world, then that presupposes that He knows what will lead to the benefit of the world. And obviously He does because He knows all things and he knows more than we do. So what 0:09:33 - 0:10:00 God provides for us provides us with what we need, not what we want. And um that's very important to understand. Again, we can just touch on these things. This would be a very long presentation if we explored this fully. Um So if God is love and, and the goal is to know God, then obviously you need charity 0:10:00 - 0:10:21 because if you don't have it, you can't perceive it. And if you can't perceive it, how will you know God, if we're just using our weaker definitions of words like love, then we don't actually know God because when we say God is love, we'll think of something like uh you know, a God who just provides 0:10:21 - 0:10:43 a genie God who just provides everything that people wish for. In John 17 3, we read this is life eternal that they might know thee. The only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent charity is the key to knowing God because God is love. And if you don't understand charity, then you can't understand 0:10:42 - 0:11:04 who God is and why He does what He does. So um this is the conclusion of a presentation on faith, hope and charity. So the question is, what's the relationship between faith and charity? And I, I already said that charity is the end of faith. It's the destination that the path of faith will lead you 0:11:04 - 0:11:25 to. And uh the reason is that there's sort of a, a cycle here. These things are interrelated and as you have more faith, you'll grow in charity and as you acquire more charity, you'll know more about God. And that will cause you to have even more faith because you will trust him more and you will seek 0:11:25 - 0:11:50 him more because you'll have a greater understanding of how good He is and you will desire to know more. It's important to note that this attribute of charity is very much contrary to the nature of mankind. I made a video called People are Evil and maybe you should watch that if you haven't, the only 0:11:49 - 0:12:16 way to grow out of that is to learn more from and about God because it's our knowledge of His nature that helps us um make it a part of our own nature and overcome the fallen nature of mankind. In first John four, we read beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God and everyone that loveth is 0:12:16 - 0:12:42 born of God and knoweth God. See, like I said, uh because humankind has fallen, the only way that we can overcome that is through getting to know God being born of Him, loving Him and implementing what we learn. He that loveth not knoweth not God. For God is love in this was manifested the love of God 0:12:42 - 0:13:04 toward us because that God sent His only begotten son into the world that we might live through Him here in His love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins, beloved. If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God 0:13:03 - 0:13:26 at any time if we love one another, God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us, hereby know we that we dwell in Him and he in us because He hath given us of his spirit. So as we acquire more knowledge about God and his character, and we become like that, then we know that we dwell in Him and 0:13:26 - 0:13:48 he in us because it's from Him that, that love emanates the the man in us. The natural man in us is antithetical to the character of God. In fact, if we are still in the flesh, we can't see God. Meaning that if we're not living in the spirit, uh it's not the man in us that sees God, it's the love in 0:13:48 - 0:14:12 us, the spirit in us that sees Him. It takes his spirit to make that connection possible. But if we love one another, it's through, it's through the part of God that dwells in us, through the spirit and that's, that's all very important. So uh what about hope? We've connected charity to faith. But what 0:14:12 - 0:14:34 about charity and hope in Jacob 219, we read after ye have obtained a hope in Christ, ye shall obtain riches if ye seek them and ye will seek them for the intent to do good to clothe the naked and to feed the hungry and to liberate the captive and administer relief to the sick and afflicted. So, obtaining 0:14:33 - 0:14:59 hope in Christ causes us to seek after the welfare of our brethren to seek after the welfare of all mankind. And it will actually drive us to the ends of the earth to care for those that are afflicted, whether that's in material um circumstances or in spiritual circumstances, we will transform our lives 0:14:59 - 0:15:24 to acquire as much as we can from God. And according to his laws, to distribute it to those that have not figured that out or don't have the resources or have made mistakes or poor decisions and we will help them. So that begs the question. So all of this happens after we've obtained a hope in Christ 0:15:24 - 0:00:00 , what does it mean to obtain a hope in Christ? And why would you want that? And why would you expect it? Well, hope in Christ requires that. You understand, at least a little who he is and how he is and, and why that matters. So this all ties back into faith. It's all interconnected. In conclusion, 0:00:00 - 0:16:12 faith, hope and charity are interconnected. Faith is a complete trust in God and knowledge of his will. Character and knowledge. Hope is awareness of and confidence in God's promises. Charity is the love that God has for mankind. And it can only be obtained through trusting God so he can teach you more 0:16:12 - 0:16:37 about himself. And what He knows, the purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to provide a means for you to obtain charity among other things. Faith is the means by which you develop. Charity. Hope provides you the reason to endure what is required to get there. That is something you should study and 0:16:37 - 0:17:05 it's beyond the scope of this presentation. But the path from where you are to how God is includes a massive indescribable amount of struggling and without hope without Jesus Christ. And the hope He gives us, we cannot walk that path. God is love and those who seek and obey Him will develop the love 0:00:00 - 0:00:21 This is part three of faith, hope and charity. The topic of this presentation is charity. I encourage you to watch the other parts if you haven't yet on faith and hope. This is the final installment and it will be brief, but I hope that the brevity doesn't imply that this is a simple topic uh or that 0:00:21 - 0:00:46 it's not worthy of greater study. We'll just be covering the heads of some ideas under charity. And I highly encourage you to make this a topic of prayer and study and reflection because it may be the most important topic of all. What is charity we read in second Nephi 2624 that Jesus doeth not anything 0:00:45 - 0:01:07 . Save it be for the benefit of the world, for he loveth the world even that he lay down his own life that he may draw all men, all men unto him. OK. So what does this phrase mean that he doesn't do anything except it is for the benefit of the world? What does it mean to be for the benefit of the world 0:01:07 - 0:01:30 ? Well, it has to mean more than the benefit of an individual, the key to understanding this phrase lies in the first two great commandments that the Lord gave. The first one is love God with all of your heart might mind and strength. And the second is love your neighbor as yourself. To understand what 0:01:29 - 0:02:01 it means to love God with all of your heart, mind and strength is its own deep topic. But on a superficial level, it's to give everything you have to know God and to act like He is. So the Lord knows everything and we give lip service to this idea frequently. But if you actually believe that, then you 0:02:01 - 0:02:27 will realize that God being the source of all that is good and also how he is being extensively outside of our awareness. If you combine these ideas, then you will seek Him with everything you have because you'll realize that He is much better than you even know. And you will strive with all that you 0:02:27 - 0:02:50 have to learn more about Him so that you can be better than you are. And as you learn more about Him, you can implement those things that you learn in your life and become good yourself. The second great commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. What does this mean? Well, so if you, if you are 0:02:50 - 0:03:12 learning more about God and you're learning more about what it means to be good, then you will apply what you learn to all of those around you, to your situation and your influence in every way that you interact with everyone around you. And in short, what you will do, you will apply all that is good 0:03:11 - 0:03:41 to all of mankind as if they were all an extension of yourself as if all of mankind were just one being one person, if you will. And that's how you'll act to everyone around you. That's a very simple phrase compared to how complex it ends up being in practice. In Mosiah 217, we read that when we are 0:03:41 - 0:04:06 in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God. And it, it really is that simple. We, it's almost as simple as living the first commandment. We live the first commandment by living the second commandment. Now, it's not exactly that simple because we, we have to learn more 0:04:05 - 0:04:29 about God. We have to acquire knowledge about him and from him. And that's how we learn what is good. And then we can turn around and apply that in our situation and uh treat everyone around us as if they're an extension of ourselves. And that's the fulfillment of the second commandment. Now, I hope 0:04:28 - 0:04:55 that that's raising all sorts of alarms in your head because if you take this just a few steps in your mind, you will find many activities suggested that threaten your security and that's really what it comes down to. So, in talking about this, I hope that I am tripping wires that that trigger some level 0:04:54 - 0:05:23 of fear because that's really what it comes down to. If you practice the second commandment and you exercise charity, you actually love the people around you. You will immediately find yourself at odds with, uh, the, the idea of carnal security or the idea of feeling safe based on the amount of money 0:05:22 - 0:05:52 you have the peace that you have, that it's worldly peace. The absence of struggle. All of these ideas are contrary to charity because charity really puts it out there when you have charity, the only limit is what you have to give. And so if you imagine all of the time, talents, wealth, strength, intelligence 0:05:51 - 0:06:17 , anything else you might have being on call, so to speak, available for the needs of everyone else. You may find uh that idea daunting to say the least. But this really is how it is. Why is it the most important thing? Here's a passage from Paul about charity being the most important of the gifts of 0:06:17 - 0:06:44 God. Why is that? Well, it's the end of faith. So it's not, it's not the termination of faith, but it is the destination of faith. All faith will lead you eventually to charity. And that's because God is love and charity is what God is. And it's why God is everything He does can be explained through 0:06:44 - 0:07:09 charity. If you read the Bible or any other bit of scripture, you can explain absolutely everything He does through charity and it might take some, some study and prayer. But this is actually a key to explain a great deal of mysteries because things that we don't understand in the scriptures, typically 0:07:09 - 0:07:33 , we don't understand them because we're trying to interpret them through our own falling character. But as you draw closer to God in your character becomes more like His, you can see how his character, his character is, the explanation for why He does what He does and everything makes sense. Um First 0:07:32 - 0:00:00 John 48, John says he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love. And everyone I know who's been in his presence says the same thing. And we know what this means beyond what the words say. But it also leaves us hungering and thirsting for more because there's nothing higher or better than this. 0:00:00 - 0:08:26 The love of God. That is the goal of, of everything. It's been said that the why drives the what that if you have a strong enough, why you can handle any what? And uh in my experience, that's true. And the love of God is the why? Now I I will just elaborate on this a little bit. We see the love of God 0:08:25 - 0:08:46 . You have to be careful because love is one of those words. There are many words like this. We get in trouble when we try to interpret this from where we stand. We use this word for many things that are less than its intended meaning. And, and that's the case for many things in the gospel, whether we're 0:08:46 - 0:09:12 talking about uh priesthood authority. Good. Uh There are a lot of words that we, we use a lesser definition for and this is one of them and, and charity, maybe by using the word charity, we can kind of avoid the connotation when we say love. People think love means giving someone what they ask for or 0:09:12 - 0:09:34 what they want. Um And of course, that's not love. Love is about benefit. If God does nothing, save it, be for the benefit of the world, then that presupposes that He knows what will lead to the benefit of the world. And obviously He does because He knows all things and he knows more than we do. So what 0:09:33 - 0:10:00 God provides for us provides us with what we need, not what we want. And um that's very important to understand. Again, we can just touch on these things. This would be a very long presentation if we explored this fully. Um So if God is love and, and the goal is to know God, then obviously you need charity 0:10:00 - 0:10:21 because if you don't have it, you can't perceive it. And if you can't perceive it, how will you know God, if we're just using our weaker definitions of words like love, then we don't actually know God because when we say God is love, we'll think of something like uh you know, a God who just provides 0:10:21 - 0:10:43 a genie God who just provides everything that people wish for. In John 17 3, we read this is life eternal that they might know thee. The only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent charity is the key to knowing God because God is love. And if you don't understand charity, then you can't understand 0:17:04 - 0:17:12 that he has and in so doing become like he is and that is the crowning purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ.