Monthly Archives: January 2020

God is Never Late (#985)

God is Never Late (#985)
Good morning! Today we’re going to talk about a topic we touch on now and then, but don’t necessarily focus on; which is simply that God is never late. And that sometimes is a hard thing for us to get used to because we’re used to people always being late and often being late ourselves. People are all over the map with this kind of thing. There are those that say they’ll be over at three-o-clock, for them it means that they’ll arrive anywhere between five and nine PM, and there are cultures where that is how they look at time. And there are other people that say three o-clock and they lock the door at 3:01 and won’t talk to you. And people are anywhere in the middle there. Everybody has a different sense of time and what is reasonable. And I was told at one point of my life that if you’re going to a dinner party its polite to show up five minutes late, because if you show up five minutes early, your host might still be scurrying around getting the meal ready. So, it is impolite to arrive early. I have other people say that if you don’t arrive ten minutes early, then that is not good. So, people are all over the map, but God is never late. He always gets us what he promised us when he promised it. But sometimes we have to be very patient until things fall into line. And sometimes there are a lot of things involved that we don’t know about. Sometimes God has to wait on people to be ready and do what they are told; you know what God tells them to do. Because they don’t want to listen to God. There are other times where other circumstances have to fall into place, and other times we just don’t know what is going on.
I always think of that time in Jeremiah where everybody pleaded with Jeremiah to go ask God whether they should stay in Jerusalem or flee to Egypt and God didn’t tell them or Jeremiah for ten whole days. There are other times where Jesus Christ walks into a situation and clearly gets revelation and immediately heals somebody or raises the dead or makes the blind see. So, there are times where God moves very quickly, there are times where God makes people wait awhile. And we don’t always know why (unless God tells you you don’t know why — sometimes He’ll tell you and sometimes He won’t), but what we do know is that for what He has promised He’s never late.
So, we’ll read a few scriptures along those lines and you can read the whole Bible on this topic and virtually every chapter in the Bible would have something that applies to it. I obviously had to pick a few that we could fit into our fellowship schedule so I’ll read a few — and a lot of these are very familiar verses that we read from time to time, but we’re going to look at them from the point of view of God not being late. So let’s start in Psalms 27…
As taught by Bruce Mahone 20200126.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Psalms 27:14              Wait (qawah – expect, look for) on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart.
Psalms 37:1-9, 34-37 Vs. 5: Commit thy way – “roll thy way upon” the Lord (vss. 9, 34: qawah – wait with expectation)The end of the perfect man is peace
Vs. 7: Rest in the Lord [be still, silent before the Lord];Wait patiently for him
Psalms 40                  I waited (qawah – vs. 1) patiently (intently – waiting I waited) for the Lord, and he heard
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit (vs. 2).
5 You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted. (NRSV)
Psalms 62:5-8          My expectation is from him (God), vs. 5
(Psalms 130) Forgiveness with God (vs. 4), that he may be feared (revered). I wait (with expectation) for the Lord (vs. 5). Watch for the morning – includes guards, keepers
Ecclesiastes 7:8-10 Better is the patient than proud in spirit (disposition). [patience better than pride]
Isaiah 40:28-31       They that wait (with expectation) upon the LORD shall renew their strength
Lamentations 3:26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD
II Thessalonians 3:1-5 The Lord direct into patient waiting for [patience of] Christ
Teaching
God is Never Late (#985)

Always Ask (#984)

Always Ask (#984)
Welcome! Our first fellowship of the new year, and as we were kidding each other before I turned the recorder on, 2020 is the year for great vision. And we’re glad we can have such great vision and what we are going to talk about today is something we touch on now and then, but we haven’t had a whole session on it for quite awhile. About the importance of asking. We all know people who like to ask for stuff; I know people that ask me for so many things that frankly they become very annoying. Even if they know I’m not going to give it to them, they will ask me for silly things just to be annoying. So it has its limits, but in general, you have to ask for stuff. ‘You, need help; you ask for help. You’re at the store and can’t find something you ask somebody. If there is something you want to accomplish, some project; and you can’t figure it all out, you ask somebody that knows more than you do. And asking is important. And we know it works with people, we know it works when you want to order a a sandwich at a restaurant, we know it works in many, many categories of life; it also works with God. And some want to people say: God just knows; He’ll just give you stuff, why should you bother. And there are verses that talk about how God knows, the hairs of your head are numbered and God knows what you need. And that is absolutely true, but He also tells us to ask. You go into a restaurant and they may have a hundred things on the menu, but unless you are somebody like me or my parents that always order the same thing, and you got the same waiter every time, they’re generally not just going to put the food down in front of you — you have to ask. And the only reason they do that is because twenty times you did ask for the same thing and they sort of got used to you. But you have to ask and God wants us to ask. We have the freedom of will to ask and He wants us to. God is not going to control your life and decide everything you should have and just throw it in front of you. There are a lot of things He will do for you, but they’re generally because we ask. OK, let’s start in Judges…

As taught by Bruce Mahone.  20200112.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Judges 3:9, 15          When the children of Israel cried unto the Lord (asked), God raised them up a deliverer
I Kings 3:5, 9-10      Solomon asked for an understanding heart (vs. 9)
II Chronicles 20:1-4 All Judah gathered to ask help of the Lord
Psalms 105:40        The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven
aiteo – ask, request, require, demand
Matthew 6:1-8        Your father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him (vs. 8)
Matthew 7:7-11      Ask and it shall be given unto you (Luke 11:9-13 – holy spirit)
Matthew 21:22       And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive
John 14:12-14         If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it
John 15:16               Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name
John 16:23               We can go right to the source when we ask!
Ephesians 3:20       He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think
James 1:5-6             If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God
I John 3:22               Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments
I John 5:13-15         If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth…we have the petitions [requests] that we desired
Teaching
Always Ask (#984)