God’s Care: Resilience, Part 8 – Nothing (#954)
Good morning! We’re going to continue our series on God’s Care, specifically focusing on the resilience we have because God cares for us. And last time we focused on “anything,” becuase God can do anything we need. And now we are going to look at the opposite of it, we’re going to look at the word: “nothing.” And just like He can do anything for us, the opposite of that is nothing can hinder us, nothing can stop us, there is nothing too hard for God. So it will be fun looking through some of these records. Let’s start here in II Chronicles Chapter 14…

As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20181021.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
II Chronicles 14:1-15        It is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with few
Psalms 119:165                Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them (can make them stumble)
Ecclesiastes 2:24              There is nothing better than … his soul enjoy good in all his labour
Mark 8:1-9                         Jesus Christ had compassion on the multitude because they had nothing to eat (8:2)
John 16:23-24                    In that day ye shall ask me nothing…Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
Romans 8:38-39               Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!
I Corinthians 4:1-5           Required in stewards to be found faithful (vs. 4 – nothing of which I am guilty)
Philippians 1:27-30          In nothing terrified by your adversaries
Philippians 2:1-5              Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory
 Philippians 3:13-16         Forgetting (caring nothing about) those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those which are before (vs 13)
Philippians 4:4-9              Be careful for nothing
I Thessalonians 4:9-12    That ye may have lack of nothing
I Timothy 6:1-12               Knowing nothing (vs. 4)
We brought nothing into this world (vs. 7)
James 1:2-8                       Perfect and entire, wanting nothing (vs. 4)
Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering (vs. 6)
Teaching
God’s Care: Resilience, Part 8 – Nothing (#954)

God’s Care: Resilience, Part 7 – Anything (#953)
Today we’re going to continue our series on God’s care for us with a focus on the resilience we can have. That we can bounce back from any hardship, any difficulty, any setback in life, and move on and be victorious. We’ve looked at this topic of resilience from many approaches and today we’re going to focus on the word: “anything.” Because, we’ve talked about not limiting God and we all have a tendency, I think at times, to think that whatever is we might need is too hard for God or He wouldn’t want to do it for us, or something like that. Whereas in reality, God is totally unlimited in His ability to take care of us. Really, the only thing that limits God is people. We may not chose to pray and believe His promises or we may want something from somebody else that they’re not willing to help us with. So, God may not be able to help us in the way we want if it depends on somebody else. But God can find another way to take care of us. So we don’t limit God to one way of taking care of us, but we have to know He can take care of anything we might need, and if not one way, He’ll do it another way. So let’s start in Genesis 18:14.
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20181007.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Genesis 18:14            Is anything too hard for the Lord?
Isaiah 55:8-12            God’s ways are higher than our ways
Matthew 6:24-34       We are anxious for nothing, knowing that God is aware of our every need
Matthew 18:18-20     If two of you shall agree…anything they ask, it shall be done
Romans 13:8-10        Owe no man anything, but to love one another
Ephesians 3:20          Above all we can ask or think
Philippians 3:13-16   If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you
Philippians 4:4-9       Be anxious for nothing (moderation – gentleness, patience)
Alternate translation: “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
Hebrews 4:15-16       Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace
I John 5:13-15             This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us (vs. 14)
Teaching
God’s Care: Resilience, Part 7 – Anything (#953)

God’s Care: Resilience, Part 6 – Quietness (#952)
Good morning, we’re continuing our series on God’s care and specifically on the aspect of His care where He gives us resilience. He helps us bounce back from challenges. Last week, one of the verses we looked at was in Isaiah 30 where it says “quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” So we’re going to continue on that theme today, and I’m reminded of an acquaintance of mine that I talked to a few weeks ago who said he had to go somewhere and just get quiet because there was too much going on in his head. And I thought well, this is something we all need and we have a great way to get quiet. We know that there are people who like to go in a quiet and dark room and think, and there are various Eastern forms of meditation that people practice. And they can all be helpful because they help you focus your mind and settle down, but as always with God’s Word we have something even greater by looking to the true God and by having confidence in Him and knowing He will take care of us, that’s where the real quietness of heart comes from. But there’s nothing wrong with those other methods if they work, its just no matter what you do with the human mind, it is never as much as you could do as if you added the Spirit of God. So, I’m all for the human mind, I’m all for people that have learned how to settle their mind down with various types of meditation or other mental exercises and those can be very helpful. But boy you add the Spirit of God and God’s care for us and it just multiplies, gets much, much better. So let’s start in Proverbs chapter one and in verse 33…

As taught by Bruce Mahone 20180930.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Proverbs 1:33        Whoso hearkeneth unto wisdom shall be quiet from fear of evil
Proverbs 17:1         Better is a dry morsel with quietness
Ecclesiastes 4:6      Better is an handful with quietness
Isaiah 7:1-4              Be quiet and fear not
Isaiah 30:15             In quietness and confidence shall be your strength
Isaiah . 32:17,18      The effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever
Jeremiah 30:10        Jacob shall be in rest and be quiet
Lamentations 3:26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD
I Thessalonians 4:11 And that ye study (endeavor, be ambitious, make it your ambition, let it be a point of honor with you) to be quiet.
2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 With quietness they work.
I Timothy 2:1-4           Quiet and peacable life in all godliness
Teaching
God’s Care: Resilience, Part 6 – Quietness (#952)

God’s Care Resilience, Part 5: God Gives Us Rest (#951)
Well good morning! We’re going to continue our series on God’s Care; Giving us Resilience. And there are so many ways God gives us resilience and helps us be resilient, helps us bounce back from challenges and difficulties, and one of them is He gives us rest. Because, we all know from a physical point of view your body can take so much until you need to give it rest, you need to let it recuperate. We know mentally we can only go so far, pushing our brains to do things until we need to give it rest. And God helps us with this rest. He helps us get mental and spiritual recuperation from the challenges before us. He also gives us rest; we’ll read records where He gives them rest from war, He gives them rest from famine, He gives them rest from mental stress. God helps us have rest in many categories in life and we can’t be resilient unless with God’s great care and we were able to have rest. So, let’s start in Exodus 33…
As taught by Bruce Mahone 20180916.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Exodus 33:11-15        My presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest
II Chronicles 14(15)     God gave Asa rest: he built and fought
II Chronicles 20:30      God gave Jehoshaphat rest round about
Psalms 37:7                  Rest in the Lord [be still, silent before the Lord]; Wait patiently for him
Isaiah 28:11,12             This is the rest, this is the refreshing
Isaiah 30:1-17                In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength (vs. 15)
Matthew 11:28-30         He gives rest
I Corinthians 14:21        Other tongues and other lips: SIT
Teaching
God’s Care: Resilience, Part 5 – God Gives Us Rest (#951)

God’s Care: Resilience, Part 4 (#950)
Good morning. We’ll continue today with our series on God’s care for us, with a focus on the resilience we have when we know God cares for us and when we trust in that care.
We’ve already had a couple of sessions on the Apostle Paul and of course he was the Apostle that God gave the responsibility for the age of grace to, or this administration of the church of grace, what we often call the Age of Grace. The information and revelation about that was revealed to Paul, and he revealed it to the first century church in books like Ephesians. So he was quite an accomplished fellow, he grew up as a Roman citizen, which gave him higher status and greater legal rights in the Roman world than somebody that was born as a slave or a freed man; he was very well educated in the scriptures in Jerusalem; he was likely a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of Israel; He did great things. Yet, he disobeyed God and got arrested and thrown in jail for a few years. Yet that didn’t stop him. Even though he made those mistakes, he came back and he continued to teach God’s Word, he continued to get revelation for a number of the Church Epistles while a prison in Rome. So, he showed great resilience. And as I’ve said before, because of what he did there by disobeying God, his life did change. He lost many things, but God gave him other things.
Job is another great example, he had great wealth and family; he lost all of that, but God gave him more. A different family, different wealth, but he had more.
Then we read about Ruth, in a subsequent session where she was doing very well. She had a wonderful husband, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law, but all the men in the family died. In any culture that is difficult, but in that culture its particularly difficult because the women had a very hard time doing business and making their own way without the men to help them. Because of their culture and the way their society was setup. But yet, she trusted God and she ended up with a wonderful husband, named Boaz. She was very well cared for and loved and she had a son that ended up becoming the great-grandfather of King David. So, again she lost many things and she didn’t get those things back, but God gave her other things, which in many ways were even greater then what she had before. That was Ruth.
Now today we’re going to read a similar record of unbelievable resilience by reading about a wonderful woman named Rahab. Now Rahab had grown up on the city of Jericho, which is just down the bottom of the hill from Jerusalem, right where the Jordan river empties into what we now call the Dead Sea. Or sometimes called the Salt Sea because the salt concentration is much, much higher than the ocean. So she grew up there not being taught about the true God, but being taught about the local pagan religions. Yet she had heard about the God of Israel, she had heard about this band of wandering Hebrews going through the desert and everybody they encountered, they beat – they conquered. So she figured this God of Israel must be the strongest and she had decided to trust in this God when she hardly knew anything about.
Which is so different than the Israelites; they had been taught all about the God of Israel, but they wanted to worship the Canaanite gods, the Baels and the Astaroths. So they knew all about the true God and didn’t want to worship Him; she knew almost nothing about the true God, but she did want to worship Him and as a result, when her whole city was destroyed, she came out victorious. And she also, like Ruth, ended up in the Christ-line. As a matter of fact, Boaz, remember Boaz, the guy who married Ruth? We’ll see it in the record, but if memory serves, he was Rahab’s son. So, he grew up realizing it is OK to marry a foreigner as long as she believes in the true God. And remember Ruth’s husband’s other cousin didn’t want anything to do do with this Moabite woman, Ruth. But Boaz was much more open minded, because his mother wasn’t born and raised as an Israelite. She later on in life heard about the true God and chose to believe in Him.
So again these are radical, radical records and what we need to learn from them is not that we should go to war with the Canaanites or try to tear cities down like Jericho, but that God will always come through for you. There are times in life when most of what you have, you will lose. It is not God’s will, but that is just the way people are. God gave people freedom of will. So they’re going to do silly things, you and I are going to do silly things, and we’re going to lose stuff.  Whether it is people or material goods or something else. But, just because we’ve lost something doesn’t mean we can’t come back and be resilient and God can’t give us even greater things. Not to say that what you had before wasn’t good. Not that you want to belittle it, but if it is gone, it is gone. And once its gone, its gone. And sometimes you can get it back, but usually you can’t. You can rarely go back and relive the past. Once something is gone, is is usually gone for good. But God will come back with greater things, if you look to him and trust him. Or you can spend your whole life grieving for what you lost and never move on. And that is not a good way to live. Who wants to live their whole life with grief.
Why not accept what we’ve lost. Why look at Ruth: she could of just stayed in Moab and spent the rest of her time as a mourning widow, wearing a black vale, being upset that her husband had died.  She could have done that, but she chose to go back to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law Naomi and trust in the true God and see how her life moved forward. Same with Paul. Once he got imprisoned in Jerusalem, he could have just given up. He could have said, “well, I goofed up, my life is over, they tried to kill me.”  But, he didn’t. He walked with God, he used his brain and rights as a Roman citizen to appeal unto Caesar. His life was spared, even on the boat trip across the Mediterranean from Cessaria, along the coast on the other side of Jerusalem, by the sea. On the boat ride from there, the boat was shipwrecked, everybody almost died, but he listened to God, he trusted God, God told him what to do and he was able to save the entire ship. So he didn’t quit walking with God and he didn’t quit speaking God’s Word and he didn’t quit carrying out his ministry just because he was thrown into jail. He just had to do it a different way. Because what he had available before, he no longer had. But God provided other things.
And that is why we’re always talking about forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. Much of our past we can hold onto and remember and be thankful for what God has done for us. But other things in our past our just over. Paul’s ability to go up to Phillipi and hang out with the church there, was over. His ability to go to Thessolonica and speak to the saints, that was over. He couldn’t go to Athens and talk on Mars hill anymore, he couldn’t.  But he could talk to people about God’s Word in Rome. He started a fellowship right there in Caesar’s palace, because that is where he was. So, you have to go with what God provides and with what is available and you can’t spend a lot of time worrying about what was in the past and is no longer available. We can’t go back and be two-years old; we can’t go back and be eight-years old and be on your first little-league team. You just can’t do that. That’s over. Whether that was a great little-league team or a crappy little-league team or you never got to be in little-league, it doesn’t matter. That’s over. What we can do now is move ahead with what God has provided for us. And we all have a roof over our heads, we all have three meals a day, we all have wonderful people around us that love us. Some of them want to hear God’s Word, some don’t, but there is always somebody else you can talk to, there is always somebody you can pray for. And the main thing is: God will always be there to take care of you. He will always be there to help you be resilient and show you new things.
Now with that brief introduction, that has probably taken up half of our time…let’s go to Joshua chapter one…
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20180826.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Joshua 1:1-11, 16-18; 2:    Moses is dead.
Rahab believed (Joshua 2:9-12, Heb. 11:31, Mat. 1:5).
Joshua 3:13-17:                  Cross the Jordan (feet in water).
Joshua 21:45:                      Not one word failed.
(Joshua 24, esp. vs. 31: all those that knew Joshua…)
[Joshua & Caleb: Numbers 13:1, 2, 17-20, 25-33; 14:1-5, 26-39]
Teaching
God’s Care: Resilience, Part 4 (#950)

God’s Care: Resilience, Part 3 (#949)
Good morning. We’re going to continue our series today on God’s care for use, which we’ve been doing throughout 2018. And the last few sessions we’ve talked about God’s care leading to us having great resilience. Because God cares for us, we can bounce back from difficult situations. We can have comebacks; we can have turnarounds, they are some of the terms used in business and in sports and things. You’ll see a great athlete who has disappeared for a number of years and all of the sudden he’ll have a come-back and start doing well again. Or a company that was really doing poorly, that will re-organize, re-do how they work, and all of the sudden they will being doing well. Well the same with our lives. We can be very resilient and no matter how tough things get, our lives can turn around we can have a great come back and we can be better than ever.
One example I haven’t put in here and we probably won’t cover in this session is Job. Now there are a lot of challenges about reading the book of Job, but the one thing that is very clear is that he was doing well, and then he was doing very, very poorly. But then he came back stronger than ever. And so, we need to keep that in mind when we have a set back in life, that just because we have a set back, it doesn’t mean that it is the end of our lives, it just means that the way life used to be may be done, but it doesn’t mean God’s done with us and it doesn’t mean He won’t have great things ahead. They may just be very different than the way they were before. But they will be wonderful if we keep looking to God.
And this is part 3, in the first two parts we read about Ahab, Hezekiah, and spent a lot of time focusing on the apostle Paul and the challenges he had when he went to Jerusalem. And the great thing about reading about Paul is that he went there against the will of the Lord. God warned him what was going to happen, he went anyway, he got in a big mess, but God still bailed him out and got him out of there. And Paul continued for many, many years to help God’s people and he received the revelation for many of the church epistles that have so many great truths about this age of grace in which we live, and the body of Christ, and the manifestations of holy spirit, and so many great things. Much of that great revelation was given to him while he was imprisoned in Rome. So, the fact that he disobeyed what God had told him and got in a mess, didn’t end his life or didn’t end his ability to help people. He just did it in different ways. Instead of being able to travel around the Mediterranean and visit the Churches in person, God gave him the revelation to write letters, which became the Church Epistles. And he was able to help many believers in his fellowship there in Rome.
So, things happen in life and we all have a rather bad habit, so to speak, of wanting things to stay just as they are. I shouldn’t say it is a bad habit, it is nice when things are the way you want them it is great to want them to stay that way. But they can’t always stay that way because people have freedom of will and as much as God wants to bless us and can bless us, He can’t control people’s freedom of will. So I could be in a wonderful situation, where everything is just the way I want, but if various people, perhaps including me, perhaps not including me chose to change that situation, so I can no longer enjoy it. Nobody can do anything about it, except the person that chose to change it. But that doesn’t mean God stopped, because He’ll come back with something else.
Remember that record of Elijah? I’m not sure we’ll get into it in this series of teachings, but we get into it from time to time, where God went to the prophet Elijah and said: ‘pray that it won’t rain until I say so.’ So he prayed that it wouldn’t rain and it didn’t rain for a couple years. And the king of Israel, probably Ahab at that time, got all mad and sent people around to find him and kill him. But God hid him. God hid him and told him to go live by the brook Cherub, then that the ravens would feed him and the ravens came and fed him and he was fine until the water ran out. And He said: ‘go to Tyre and see this widow woman and she’ll take care of you.’ So he gets there and the widow woman only has enough food for one small snack for her and her son, yet God stretches that food so that the woman, her son, and Elijah eat for many days, until the rains come back. So the point is: things are different. If Elijah has spent all his time saying: ‘Gosh, I wish God hadn’t told me to pray and I wish we never had this drought; I wish things were like they were before,’ that would have been fruitless because things weren’t the way they were before. Or if he got by the brook Cherub and he got all comfy there, made a little campsite and loved it, and then that ended because the brook dried up and he spent all his time saying: ‘Gee, I wish I could stay here by the brook.’ That wouldn’t work. So, he did what God said and went to Tyre and met the widow woman and she took care of him.
So things will change. And rather than spending too much time trying to hold on to what is gone, we have to look to God and look to what is next. Again, I’m not encouraging us to have loss in our lives, I’m encouraging us to hold on to good things that God gives us, but there are time where there are situations beyond our control where the stuff we’ve had we can’t have. Whether its the financial situation, whether it is physical, material stuff you have, whether it is a relationship with a person or a group; these things change. But God will always be there.
And you will find through out your life that people are going to come and go, but God will be there. It is great when people stay with you, I love it, I’m all for it. But I’ve just found in my life and seen that many people are going to come and go; there here today and gone tomorrow. So cherish the ones that stay with you and the situations that continue to work. But the ones that go and are no longer available, just let them go. Be thankful that they were there as long as they were there. Look fondly on the good parts of them, but let the bad parts just go away and pray that God will open new doors for you, with new people and new situations. And God always will.
And the book of Ruth is one of the most extreme examples of a woman who literally lost everything, but came back unbelievably strong because she looked to God. So with that not so brief introduction, let’s go to the book of Ruth, chapter one…
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20180805.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Ruth 1:1-18; (ch. 2-4) 4:13-22: Ruth chose the true God. Kinsman redeemer. Mat. 1:5.
Understanding eastern customs during this period, often referred to as Orientalisms will greatly aid in understanding.  Bishop Pillai’s work can aid here (http://www.biblecustoms.org/bishop-kc-pillai/old-and-new-testament-orientalisms/ruth)
Ruth 3:7 They drink at the end of a meal (coffee or milk), does not necessarily mean liquor.  Threshing floors are always on a high, rocky place. Oxen and buffalo walk on the grain to crush it down. The mouth of the ox should not be muzzled. The laborer is worthy of his hire.  Work is always done at night by moonlight. No women are allowed at night. The owner comes and sits on a pile of corn in the corner.
Ruth 3:9  She lay down at his feet as a sign of submission, surrender. She was asking him to redeem her, marry her. She asked him to spread his mantle (not skirt) over her. In doing so, he was showing protection, promising to marry her.
Teaching
God’s Care: Resilience, Part 3 (#949)

God’s Care: Resilience, Part 2 (#948)
Welcome. We’re going to continue our series on God’s Care, the one we’ve been doing this the beginning of 2018. And last week we talked about how one way God care’s for us is giving us resilience. And we read about Ahab, and Hezekiah, and we started in on the ministry of the apostle Paul, but there was so much detail that we stopped. We stopped about the time Paul was arrested. But we’re going to pick it up there.
And of course Paul had many ups that downs; everybody has ups and downs in life and Paul had a lot of them and they are very well documented in the book of Acts and to a lessor extent in the epistles. He of coarse had challenges primarily from the other believers, the Judaising believers, the Christians who had become born again, but didn’t want to let go of the old testament law. Paul, of coarse was the one most responsible for teaching about the age of grace and that Jesus Christ had fulfilled the law and that we no longer should or had to follow the old testament law. God revealed that to many people, but nobody more than the apostle Paul, who received the revelation of the great mystery, the book of Ephesians and other parts of the Epistles that really make it very clear. And of course those Christians, the Judean’s didn’t like him, because he said you should follow Jesus Christ, because they did not recognize as the Messiah. They were very mad at him. But just as mad at him were the Christians who, although they were born again, still wanted to follow the old testament law. And we see this today in Christianity, lots and lots of Christian groups don’t really understand the Age of Grace and the deliverance we’ve received through Jesus Christ, they just want to keep people under the Old Testament Law. So we see it very common today, its just a little different. Back then the biggest deal was following the law and circumcising your children.
People don’t seem to argue about that today, they argue about many other things. Pick any topic in life, pick any topic in the scriptures and you can find some group that’s worried about it and occasionally what they say it actually found in the scriptures. Quite often it has no ground in the scriptures whatever, just what they’re into. You know like for instance, there are still groups that don’t like you to go dancing. We’ll if you look in the scripture about dancing, the only example I can think of is when David had a great victory and danced and one of his wives, Saul’s daughter, got mad at him and he basically shut her up in the tower for the rest of her life. She, because it was very godly for him to dance before the Lord. So how you can have a Christian group that says dancing is evil, I’m not sure where you get it from the scriptures. They just don’t like the idea. And that’s just one example, there are so many others. But at any rate that is what Paul was dealing with. And we’re really not going to focus on the difference between the law and grace today, that is a whole different other topic that we’ve spent time on before and the future we’ll spend more time on.
But what we’re going to focus on today is Paul’s resilience. That in spite of being attacked and set up, and tricked by legalistic Christians who should have been on his side, but instead were hindering him. And in spite of the attacks by the Jews, the legalistic Christians that came from a Jewish background, and the Roman authorities, and many other groups. Remember he was stoned to death, we are not going to read about it today, but at one point he was stoned to death by basically a bunch of pagans who thought that he and Barnabas were Greek Gods and when they found out they weren’t they stoned them to death. So they started out trying to worship them and then Paul wouldn’t let them worship them, they stoned them to death. So, he had to be resilient. They literally killed him, but the believers prayed, he got up from the dead and he went on and preached in the next city. That takes resilience. There are people that have a bad conversation with somebody, or have a disagreement with somebody and it sets them into a tizzy and takes them years to recover if they ever do. Well he was stoned to death and he still got up, brushed the dust off his feet, and went to the next town to preach the Gospel.
So Paul had great resilience and it is part of God’s care that He provides what we need so we can be that resilient. And we can read about people like the apostle Paul and so many others in the scriptures who come back from great set backs, great challenges, great difficulties. Sometimes it is because they did something wrong like Paul going to Jerusalem, when God told him not to go. Sometimes it is from other people doing bad things to them like when the counsel of the church leaders told him to go into the temple to offer a sacrifice. They did that to him and then the other Jews there, they’re the ones that started to beat him up and almost killed him. It took the unbelieving Roman soldiers, unbelieving in the sense that they didn’t believe in the true God and Jesus Christ, they are the ones that saved him. And that will happen sometimes in life, the people that aught to be behind you, the other Christians, are the ones trying to kill you and it takes some nice more rational unbelievers to come in and save your bacon, so to speak. So that’s going to happen in life. I’m not saying just love the unbelievers and hate the believers, but there are times when the unbelievers will be the more rational and helpful for you. Because the believers throw you out. Anyway, with that background, let’s pick up Paul before the Sanhedrin.
He’s already been to the temple to offer sacrifices, which is a silly thing to do for someone born again. But the church leaders in Jerusalem were so legalistic they thought it would keep the legalistic Christians happy. Now in retrospect, what Paul should have done is one, not go to Jerusalem and two, if he got there say, ‘I don’t care what you guys say, we’re free from the law, I’m not going to go offer sacrifices; Jesus Christ fulfilled all that.’ But there are all kinds of things he should have done, he didn’t. And we certainly can’t make fun of him because we do sillier things on most days. But Paul did and the result is he is now being dragged before the Sanhedrin, which is the ruling body of Judaism; it isn’t a Roman court, because although the Romans controlled Judea as the Roman province and they had a Roman governor there, just as in the time of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion it was Pontius Pilate, there was a Roman governor there which will come out as we read further. And the Romans controlled the province, but they let the Jewish leaders continue to have their own council and handle their own internal matters. That is the way big empires will often work, they’ll let the locals police small matters, but when they get big, then the imperial government comes in and controls it. So, Paul is before the Sanhedrin, the council of the Jewish leaders, here in Acts 23…
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20180722.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Acts 23:1-10       Paul before the Sanhedrin
Acts 23:11           And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer,
Acts 23:12ff        Paul barely escapes the mob
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
Gal. 6:18              Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with your spirit. Amen.
[[[To [the] Galatians written from Rome.]]]
Eph. 6:24             [[[To [the] Ephesians written from Rome, by Tychicus.]]]
Teaching
God’s Care: Resilience, Part 2 (#948)

God’s Care: Resilience, Part 1 (#947)
Good morning. We’re going to continue our series on God’s care for us and today we’ll talk about it from the point of view of resilience. We all know people that are very resilient and can bounce back from any kind of challenge they may have. We also know people that hit one stumbling block or have one little problem and then they never seem to pick up and move on form there. Well God gives us the ability to be resilient because no matter what may go wrong in our lives, no matter what we may lose, no matter what difficulty may be ahead of us, God can get us through that and move on to the next part of our lives. So we will talk about it today and we may actually continue it for the next few sessions looking at many of the wonderful believers in God’s word who faced tremendous challenges, it looked like totally defeat, it looked like everything was going wrong, yet they came back and not only recovered, but prospered. I think of some people that aren’t in the notes for today, like Job: he lost everything, he – it literally says he survived by the skin of his teeth. Yet when his life turned around, he ended up with more than he’d had before, twice as much. And there are so many people like that. Abraham started with so little and end up with so much, Joseph, in prison in Egypt, went from being the youngest son in a moderately prosperous family to being a slave, then being a prisoner, and ended up being the second most powerful man in that entire part of the world. There are so many records of people who have such great resilience, their lives turn around you can call them — in the business world they call them come-back kings or something, or turn-around kings because they somehow took a bad situation and made it very good with God’s help. So we’ll read about a few of those today and then as I say, we may continue on other sessions to do that. But the point of it is, part of God’s care for us is He helps us be resilient. There may be people that will help you be resilient when you have a challenge, and that is wonderful when they are, but whether there are people there or not to help you be resilient, God will be there to help you be resilient. And He will help you bounce back from whatever challenge you have and come out even more successful and prosperous as a result. So let’s go into first Kings chapter 21…
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 201180708.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
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 20:7-21:40      Paul went to Jerusalem against the will of the Lord
Teaching
God’s Care: Resilience Part 1 (#947)

God’s Care: Reliability (#946)
Good morning! We’re going to continue our series on God’s Care that we’ve been reviewing since the first of the year. Today we’re going to talk about God’s care in the light of His reliability, His faithfulness. We all like things that are reliable. I was talking to somebody the other day that had a rather limited budget to buy a car and we were figuring out how we could find a car that was within budget, but still reliable. Obviously, if you buy a brand new car its reliable. If you buy a used car, you just need to be a little more careful to make sure it has been well maintained and its in good shape. And we all have things that are like that: if we have home repairs done, if we buy a home appliance, if we buy a phone or a computer, or anything; we want one that’s reliable. And the same thing working with people. Sometimes people are very reliable and come through for you; other times they make a lot of promises and never do anything. And we’re all used to that. Ourselves; none of us are perfect. We all have great intentions to do good things and often we follow through, and often something gets in the way and we don’t follow-through. That’s just the way of life. But God is not like that. He is always reliable. He is always faithful. He always comes through for us. And that is part of His care for us. ‘Cause we know that He cares for us and we know that that care is reliable. It’s not sort of fickle, and one day He cares for you and the next day He doesn’t want to bother, so you’re on your own. Our heavenly father, our God, is not like that; He always comes through. So let’s start in the book of Deuteronomy chapter seven…
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20180624.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Deut. 7:7-9                  The LORD God is the faithful God
I Kings 17:1-16           The ravens, then the barrel of meal fed Elijah.
Psalms 36:5-9             Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds
Psalms 92:1-5             To show forth thy faithfulness every night
Psalm 108:1-6             Your mercy (steadfast love, lovingkindness) is great above (higher than) the heavens and thy truth (faithfulness) reaches to the clouds (skies) (vs. 4)
Psalms 119:86            All thy commandments are faithful
Psalms 119:90            Thy faithfulness is unto all generations
Psalms 119:138          Thy testimonies are very faithful
Lam. 3:22-23               Great is thy faithfulness
Romans 8:35-39         Nothing can separate us from the love of God
Romans 12:10-14       Patient in mental pressure, continuing instant [steadfastly, faithful, persevering,  be constant] in prayer (vs. 12)
I Cor. 10:13                 God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able
II Thes. 3:3                  The Lord is faithful, who will stablish you and keep you from evil
II Timothy 4:16-18     The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me
Titus 1:9                      Holding fast the faithful word
Teaching
God’s Care: Reliability (#946)

God’s Care: Father’s Day (#945)
We have been having a series for a number of months, actually since the beginning of 2018, on God’s care for us.  And since today is the day that we celebrate as Father’s Day we’ll be talking about God as our father. God obviously is spirit and He is not a physical father, but He is a spiritual father in that we are born again of His spirit.  So, we’re going to read a bunch of verses that relate to His role as our father. And let’s start in Matthew chapter six in verse seven…
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20180610.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Matthew 6-7:11        He is our Heavenly Father, and He does want us to pray
Matthew 7:7-11        How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (vs. 11)
Matthew 23:1-11      Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven (vs. 9)
John 3:1-5                   Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God
John 14                        The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name (vs. 26)
Acts 1:1-4                    Wait for the promise of the Father (vs. 4)
Romans 1:7                 Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ
Romans 8:15-18         We cry Abba, Father
II Thess. 2:16-17         God our Father hath loved us, comfort your hearts
I Peter 1:23                  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
I John 1:3-4                  Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ (vs. 3)
I John 3:1-2                  And we are!
Teaching
God’s Care: Father’s Day (#945)