God’s Abundance: Persistence (#926)
Good morning, we’ll continue today with our series on God’s Abundance. We’ve seen that God has abundance available for us in many, many ways. And today we’re going to talk about persistence. God is abundantly persistent to be there to supply our needs, to direct our paths, to give us the desires of our hearts, to protect us in every way. And, as the result, we need to be abundantly persistent in our prayers, and our looking to God. We hear stories all the time about people that are persistent. Think of some of the stories we’ve heard: what, did Abraham Lincoln lose the first five elections he was in? And I think the first one he won, was to be President. Something like that. And there are other people that you read about, like great football coaches: that guy that was the famous coach of the Greenbay Packers forever, I can’t remember his name. But he just failed and failed and failed, and then all of the sudden he was coaching a team that went on to beat everybody in the country for years. And not that we’re all looking for failure, but we all have challenges, we all have some successes and failures. And the people that tend to succeed are people that just persist. If they have successes, they keep at it and get more successes. No matter how many failures they may have, they don’t care, they look beyond it, and they move ahead. And so we know this even in the business world, we know it in the sports world, we know it in the political world, and how much greater when we have God promises. That was just people with their own determination, and you can do an awesome lot with your own determination. But imagine when you add the blessing of God and the power of God in there. Then you can go way, way beyond what somebody with their own persistence can do. Some we’ll be reading about how God wants us to be abundantly persistent when we go there. Because He is abundantly persistent to take care of us, so He wants us to be abundantly persistent as well. So, let’s start in Luke chapter 18…
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20170820.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Luke 18:1-8          Men ought always to pray, and not to faint
Gen. 18:20-33      Abraham reasoned with God about Sodom’s destruction
II Kings 4:18-37   He walked in the house to and fro…child sneezed seven times
I Kings 18:41-45  Elijah prayed, and it rained – James 5:17-18
Mark 8:22-25       Men as trees walking
Rom. 1:8-13          I purposed (determined) to come unto you, but was let (forbidden)
Col. 4:1-4               Praying…that God would open unto us a door of utterance (vs. 3)
Rom. 12:10-14      Patient in mental pressure, continuing instant [steadfastly, faithful, persevering, be constant] in prayer (vs. 12)
Teaching
God’s Abundance: Persistence (#926)

God’s Abundance: Patience (#925)
Today we’ll continue our series on God’s Abundance, with looking at the the concept of Patience.  God has great patience with us, and as a result we need to have great patience, being imitators of God: we need to patient with ourselves, with other people, and mostly on waiting on the Lord and expecting Him to take care of us, and in not getting impatient about that.  Patience is a great topic, I had a friend the other day that said: “One doctor said another one, thank you for your patience” … I wasn’t there so I’m not sure the guy laughed of not.  But in any rate, lets start in Psalms 37…
Verse Listing and Notes
Psalms. 37:7       Rest in the Lord [be still, silent before the Lord]; Wait patiently for him
Psalms. 40:1       I waited (with expectation) [patiently and expectantly] and he heard
Eccl. 7:8-10         Better is the patient than the proud in spirit (disposition). [patience is better than pride]
Luke 8:15            Fruit with patience (steadfast perseverance) [by persevering]
(Luke 21:5-19     In your patience possess ye your souls)
Rom. 5:2-5          Patience leads to [brings about, produces] hope, which maketh not ashamed
Rom. 12:10-14    Patient in mental pressure [continuing steadfast, faithful, persevering in prayer]
Rom. 15:1-6        Patience and comfort of the scriptures [through patient endurance and the encouragement drawn from the scriptures]; the God of patience.
2 Cor. 6:1-10       In MUCH patience
2 Cor, 12:11-13   In ALL patience
Eph. 4:1-6             Walk worthy of the calling wherewith you were called.
Vs. 2: With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing (holding up) one another in love (NRSV+)
Col. 1:9-11            Strengthened unto all patience with joyfulness
1 Thes. 1:3            Patience of (proceeding from) hope
1 Thes. 5:14-15    Be patient toward all
2 Thes. 1:3-4         We glory for your patience and believing
2 Thes. 3:1-5         The Lord direct into patient waiting for [patience of] Christ
Heb. 12:1               Let us run with patience [patient endurance] the race before us
As taught by Bruce Mahone 20170806.  All rights reserved.
Teaching
God Abundance: Patience (#925)

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)

God’s Abundance: Righteousness (#922)
Good morning. We’re going to continue our series on God’s Abundance today. As you can see from the web site, we’ve covered a number of topics where God just doesn’t give us things, He gives us lots of them, and we’re going to talk today about God’s Righteousness and how unbelievably abundant His Righteousness is towards us. As you know in much of Christianity, they will tell you you are righteous through Christ and then give you a big long list of things to do to earn your Righteousness. And, if you do one thing they don’t like then they tell you you are not righteous anymore — that is a common occurrence. Well, as we’ll see in the scriptures, as many of you have read, already: that is not the way God operates. God makes us righteous and we are righteous: absolutely, 100%, not through our works, but through the work of Jesus Christ. But, getting that into our heads: that we are really righteous, and living that every day can take a little more mental effort, but the righteousness itself is completely paid for.  There is nothing you could do to not be righteous before God. And before I start, let me say that the two words: righteousness and justification, come from the same Greek word. Because Jesus Christ justified us, the result is we are righteous. It is like if you clean the dishes, the dishes would be clean. That is the same verb, but in English we have two different words. We are justified, means to be made righteous. So you’ll see the word justified and the word righteousness show up. And the word justified is interesting, people have come up with cute little puns about it, like: “to be justified is just as if I never sinned,” and it is true because Jesus Christ has paid for our sins. And righteousness is a word that William Tyndale came up with when he was making one of the first translations of the Bible into English. He came up with it because he felt when you’re righteous, you’re basically right with God: there is no conflict between you. We know what it means to be right with a person: when you get along, when you see eye to eye; there is no disagreement. And we also know what is like to not be in right with somebody: and have big disagreements, and fights, and arguments. We’ll when it comes to us and God, we are right with God. Not through our works, but through the work of Jesus Christ. So because we’ve been justified, we are right with God. So you’ll see the word justified and the work righteousness show up over and over today. Let’s start in Deuteronomy chapter six….
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20170625.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Deut. 6:25                 It shall be our righteousness if we observe to do
Prov. 28:1                  The righteous are bold as a lion
Prov. 18:10                The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe
Isaiah 32:17               The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever
Acts 13:39                   Justified from all things that you could not be justified by the law
Romans 3:20 ff          By the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified (vs. 20)
Romans 4:1-5            Faith counted for righteousness (vs. 5)
Romans 5:1-8            Justified by faith (vs. 1)
Romans 10:9, 10      Believeth unto righteousness.
I Cor. 1:30                  Christ Jesus is made unto us righteousness.
II Cor. 5:21                 That we might be made the righteousness of God.
Gal, 2:16                     A man is not justified by the works of the law
Gal. 2:21                     I do not frustrate the grace of God – if righteousness is by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Gal, 3:11                    The just shall live by faith
Phil. 3:9                     Righteousness through the believing of Jesus Christ.
Heb. 4:16                  Come boldly to the throne of grace (cf. vss. 14-15)
Righteousness is the God-given justification (freedom from the penalties of sin) whereby a person stands in the presence of God without any consciousness of sin, guilt, or shortcomings.
Because we have been justified, we are righteous.
The whole world is trying to earn righteousness by their own deeds, which they can never do.  We have the joy of walking in the righteousness which he already accomplished for us, by his perfect, accomplished believing as our lord and savior.
Teaching
God’s Abundance: Righteousness (#922)

God’s Abundance: Care (#921)
Good morning!  We’ll contine today with our series today on God’s abundance.  We’ve talked about so many areas where God provides not just a little bit, but a lot, and today we’ll talk about God’s care.  The word care is used in, and obviously, we’re used to that where somebody cares about you, they take care of you, they’re concerned and they do stuff for you.  God does a lot of that for us.  And it is also used another way in the King James Bible in the sense of worrying and being mentally distracted.  What we would call today being stressed out, freaked out, or generally discombobulated.  And the scriptures spend a a lot of time telling us not to worry about stuff.  And the reason we don’t have to worry is because God cares about us.  I mean imagine if you all worried about something that you had to accomplish, but then you realized, wait a minute, there is this other person on my team that is so good and going to take care of everything and I don’t have to worry about it anymore.  I can just sort of let it go, because somebody else has it covered.  We’ll we have that in spades because we have God taking care of us and because God so cares for us that there is really nothing for us to be worried about.  And that’s what we’ll look at today and its in abundance, that is the main thing, because the whole series is on abundance.  Some of these topics we’ve covered before, but we’re gong to cover them from the point of view that God not only takes care of us a little bit, but a lot.  And He has much care for us; so let’s go to Matthew 13….

As taught by Bruce Mahone 20170611.  All right reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Mat. 13:1-9; 18-23    The care (merimna – anxiety, worry, care) of this world can choke God’s Word
Mat. 6:25-34              Take no thought (merimnao – to be apprehensive, have anxiety, be anxious, be (unduly) concerned ) for tomorrow
Luke 10:38-42            Thou art careful (merimnao) and troubled (agitated). One thing is needful
Phil. 4:4-9                    Be anxious for nothing (moderation – gentleness, patience)
Don’t worry over anything whatever; tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer, and the peace of God, which transcends human understanding, will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus – JB Phillips
Philippians 4:6-7   6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  7 If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. – NLT
I Peter 5:6-9                Casting all your mental distraction (merimna) on him, for is is aware (melo) of your needs
Psalm 1                        Meditate on God’s Word
Prov 3:5-6                    He shall direct your paths
Phil. 3:13-16                Reaching forth unto those things which are before
Teaching
God’s Abundance: Care (#921)

God’s Abundance: Steadfastness (#920)
Today we’ll continue our series on God’s Abundance and we’ll talk about the abundance of God’s steadfastness.  God is very, very steadfast; He is very reliable.  One of the things we heard in manifestations today was God said: “I am the one you can always count on.”  And that is great,  Because as we’ve talked about many times in fellowship, we love people, we work with them, we expect the best from them, but sometimes people fall short.  Either because they don’t care or because they try very hard but just can’t seem to figure out how to come through for you.  Either way, God’s the one you can always count on.  So with people, we do the best we can and we enjoy them the best we can, but ultimately God is the one we can always count on; as Mary-Rose and Brian prayed for and we heard in manifestations.  So we’ll talk about God’s steadfastness, we’ll read a bunch of verses talking about God being steadfast and we’ll also read some verses about believers, people, being steadfast.  God is encouraging us to be steadfast, because we are to be imitators of God, so there are people who the Bible said were steadfast in their confidence in God and we are encouraged to be steadfast as well.  But the focus, the main focus, today will be on God being steadfast.  So, let’s start in the book of Ruth.  A wonderful believer: Ruth; Joshua, Judges, Ruth…
As taught by Bruce Mahone on 20170528, all rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Ruth                                   She was steadfastly minded (determined) [1:18]
Daniel 6                             He is the living God, and steadfast for ever (vs. 26)
Psalm 13:5-6                     I have trusted in thy steadfast love
Psalm 18:46-50                God shows steadfast love to his anointed, and to his seed forevermore
Psalm 23                           Surely goodness and steadfast love (vs. 6) shall follow me
Psalm 107:1                     O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his mercy (steadfast love) endures forever
Psalm 108:1-6, 12-13      Your mercy (steadfast love, lovingkindness) is great above (higher than) the heavens and thy truth (faithfulness) reaches to the clouds (skies) (vs. 4)
Psalm 112:1, 7-8              His heart is fixed (vs 7 – steadfast), his heart is established (vs 8 – steady)
Psalm 136                         Mercy: love (NIV), lovingkindness (ASV), steadfast love (NRSV)
Isa. 26:3-4                         Stayed on thee – steadfast (Expositors Bible Commentary), well stayed, steady (ICC)
Luke 8:15                          Fruit with patience (steadfast perseverance) [by persevering]
Rom. 12:10-14                 Patient in mental pressure, continuing instant in prayer [continuing steadfast, faithful, persevering in prayer]
I Cor. 15:58                      Be ye steadfast unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord
II Thes. 3:5                       Love of God & Patient (steadfast) waiting
I Peter 5:6-9                     Whom resist, steadfast in the faith
Teaching
God’s Abundance: Steadfastness (#920)

God’s Abundance: Love (#919)
We’ll continue our series on God’s abundance today, looking into the abundance of love we get from God, our Father.  There are so many things we’ve looked at in this series that God provides abundantly for us and one of them is His tremendous love.  So that is where we will focus today.  Let’s start in Deuteronomy chapter 7 and in verse 8…
As taught by Bruce Mahone 20170514.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Deut. 7:8         God’s motives
Deut. 23:5       God turned the curse (of Balaam) into a blessing, because He loved
Ps 13:5-6         I have trusted in thy steadfast love
Ps 27:7-14       When my father and mother forsake me the LORD will take me up (vs 10) Wait (qawah) on the LORD and he shall strengthen thine heart (vs 14)
Ps. 36:7-9        How excellent (precious) is thy lovingkindness
Ps 92:1-2         To shew forth (declare) thy lovingkindness in the morning
Ps. 119:165     Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend
Jer. 9:23, 24     He knoweth the Lord which exercises lovingkindness (vs 24)
Jer. 31:3           With lovingkindness He drew us.
Rom. 8:28        All things work together for good
Ro. 8:38, 39     Nothing can separate us
Eph. 1:4-6        Holy and without blame, lovely and acceptable
I Thes. 4:9-12  You are taught of God to love one another (vs. 11 – aspire to lead a quiet life, aspire to live quietly, let it be a point of honor with you to keep calm)
II Tim 4:9-18    All men forsook me, but the Lord stood with me
Teaching
God’s Abundance: Love (#919)

God’s Abundance: Daily Living (#918)
We’ll continue our series on God’s abundance today with Daily Living.  Last time we talked about Eternal Life, which is great. But today we’ll get into to Daily Living, our life on Earth, here.  There are those in Christianity that focus so much on eternal life and the return to the Lord, that they forget about living every day.  And of course there are people that go the other way, where people focus so much on daily living that they forget that the Lord is coming back.   We try to do both.   And as you may have heard me say before, many people like to talk about the joy of eternal life and the return of the Lord.   What was the statement that people used to use?  I can’t remember, but what tried and I came up with was that it is not just eternal life and the return of the Lord, but it is mirth on the Earth from your rebirth.  It is not exactly Biblical, but it worked.   And this was a play on the other phrase on eternal life that I can’t remember right now.  But in any rate, it is mirth on the Earth from your rebirth —  we want to enjoy life every day.  And then have the return of the Lord to look forward to.  So in a day where we are having a super day, we’re just loving life; we just say, this is great and it gets even better when the Lord returns.  On a day when everything is not the way we want it and we are not at all happy with it, then we remember: I’m going to get through this and then the Lord is going to return.  It will be great; either way will be great.  So today is about mirth on the Earth from your rebirth.  We’ll start in Deuteronomy chapter 32…
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20170430.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Deut. 32:44-47     It is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life
Eccl. 2:24               There is nothing better than … his soul enjoy good in all his labour
Eccl. 5:18               It is good and comely … to enjoy the good of all his labour
John 10:10            I am come that they might have life (zoe) – more than abundantly
Rom 1:16-17        The just shall live (zao) by faith
Rom 6:1-4            Walk in newness of life (zoe)
Rom 8:1-8            To be spiritually minded is life (zoe) and peace (vs. 6)
Rom 12:10-21     Live peacably (eiraneuo) with all men (vs 18)
I Tim 2:1-6           A quiet and peacable life (bios) in all godliness and honesty
Teaching
God’s Abundance – Daily Living (#918)

 

God’s Abundance: Eternal Life (#917)
Welcome to Resurrection Sunday.  How great it is that our whole society and large chunks of the world, including our country, seems to take a day off to remember and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I think that is wonderful.  Its good stuff, even if there are people where their ony connection to Christianity in going to chuch on Chirstmas and Easter; we’ll thats something.  At least they a little bit of some version of the Word of God and they do remember the great accomplishments and sacrifice and ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  So we are going to continue our series we’ve been doing for a number of sessions on God’s abundance.  And today, the aspect of God’s abundance we’ll talk about is eternal life.  And you’ve got to realize, we have to admit, that in a lot of ways eternal life trumps every other type.  We’ve already talked about God being abundant and protecting His people, about providing for His people, and helping them in many ways, directing their paths.  These are great ways that God helps, but you have to realize eternal life is great.  I mean, lets talk financial abundance, its wonderful what God can do for you, but whatever He does for you isn’t going to last more than about a hundred years.  But what about the rest of eternity?  Well, that is where the eternal life comes in, where God takes care of us, so I think its the greatest aspect of God’s abundance you could possibly talk about is the eternal life we have and that all started with the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Yet even before Jesus Christ was on the Earth and carried our his ministry and was raised from the dead, you can read about eternal life in the book of Job, so lets start back there.  Job, Psalms, Proverbs…  Here in Job 19…

As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20170416.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Job 19:25-27:
19:25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
19:26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
19:27 Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me! (NASB)
Mat. 28:1-10        He is risen
Luke 24:1-8          Why seek ye the living among the dead?
Acts 1:22               A witness of his resurrection
Acts 4:1-4              Being grieved that they preached the resurrection
Acts 4:33               And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of
the Lord  Jesus and great grace was upon them all
Acts 17:16-21       He preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection
Acts 17:31-32      He hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from
the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked
I Thes 4:13-18     Wherefore comfort one another with these words
Teaching
God’s Abundance: Eternal Life (#917)