God’s Abundance: Your Future (#924)

Good morning.  We will continue our series today on God’s abundance.  As we’ve seen in the last number of sessions; God has tremendous abundance.  Abundance of righteousness, abundance of an ability to call on him, abundance of financial supply; in just every part of life, God has abundance.  What we’re going to talk about today is God has great abundance as far as plans for our future.  Some people get very worried about their future, they maybe rely on one thing and if that one thing doesn’t come through, they figure: we’ll that’s it: that didn’t happen, so I have nothing good to look forward to.  Or maybe they had only one or two things, they had like two options, and if they don’t work out, we’ll they’re toast.  Whereas, the reality is God has an abundance of great things in store for us; in the near term and in the far term.  And it is important to know that and be aware of the huge abundance God has for our future.  So we’re going to cover a number of different verses, looking at this from different angles today.  Let’s start in Jeremiah 29…
As taught by Bruce Mahone 20170723.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Jer. 29:11-13              An expected end [NRS – a future with hope – 3615, tiqvah – hope, expectation, grounds for hope](vs. 11)
                                    “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (vs. 11 – NIV)
I Tim 1:1                     Lord Jesus Christ our hope
Col 1:3-5                     For the hope which is laid up (NIV: stored up) for you in heaven – vs. 5
I Pet 1:3-5                   Begotten us again unto a lively hope be the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead – vs. 3
Rom 5:3-5                   Knowing that tribulation worketh patience
This doesn’t mean, of course, that we have only a hope of future joys – we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and troubles.  Taken in the right spirit these very things will give us a patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us. (JBP)
I Kings 21:18-29         Ahab was wicked, but humbled himself (vs. 29)
II Kings 20:1-11         Hezekiah sick unto death, prayed, and healed (vs. 7)
Acts 20:7-21:36          Paul went to Jerusalem against the will of the Lord
Acts 23:11                   And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer,
Acts 24:27                   But after two years Porcius Festus left Paul bound.
Acts 25:10                   Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat
Acts 27:23-24             For there stood by me this night the angel of God, Saying, Fear not, Paul;
Acts 28:23                   He expounded and testified the kingdom of God concerning Jesus
Acts 28:30-31             And Paul dwelt two whole years preaching the kingdom of God
2 Tim. 4:16                   Nevertheless, the Lord stood with me
Teaching
God’s Abundance: Your Future (#924)

God’s Abundance: Call Upon Him (#923)
Good morning, as you can tell from our web site, we’ve been going trough a series of sessions on God’s abundance.  And the focus is on (and I don’t know if we’ll hit all of them) at least some of the many, many ways that God has great abundance for us.  The obvious way is our fiancial abundance, but there are so many other ways where He has just lots and lots of abundance for us.  What we’ll talk about today is we have the abundant opportunity to call on Him at any time.  Some people think thay can only call on God when they’re hanging by their finger nail off the end of a cliff or when their on their last nickle and about to starve to death, or when they’re being attacked by vulcans, for you Star-Trek fans.  But of course none of that is true; we can, and should call on the name of the Lord at all times.  He wants us to.  Think of a young child, a very young child, that really can’t do anything without his mother, or some other nice person taking care of him.  That is the way we are; we are God’s kids.  He didn’t call us Titans or anything; we’re  His kids.  We need God’s help, we need God’s support, we need His direction; in all that we do.  And He will always be ther for us.  So, it is appropriate that we call on the name of the Lord at all times.  So, let’s get started.  And there are a couple of other words that are very similar in context: crying unto to the Lord, seeking the Lord, we’ll see a few of those pop up here, but we’re going to focus on “calling on the Lord.”  Let’s start in I Samuel chapter 12…

As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20170709.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
I Sam 12:1-12             They cried (called) on the Lord, and dwelled safe (vs. 10-11)
II Sam 22:1-4               I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised (vs. 4)
Psalm 17:6-7               I have called, for thou wilt hear
Psalm 63:1                   Early will I seek thee
Psalm 86:5-7               In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: thou wilt answer me (vs. 7)
Jer. 29:10-14                Ye shall call upon me and I will hearken unto you (vs. 12)
Ye shall seek me and find me (vs. 13)
Hosea 7                       No one called upon the Lord (vs. 7)  No one cried unto Him (vs. 14)
I Cor. 1:2                      To all that call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord
Teaching
God’s Abundance: Call on Him (#923)