Abundant Life Saso Mendez & Ben Arellano

Abundant Life Episode 46

In this episode Saso and Ben discuss the Sovereignty of God.




Websters 1828
Sovereign - Supreme in power; possessing supreme dominion; as a sovereign ruler of the universe.
Key Verse
Psalm 147:5 - Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.


God is Sovereign


Proverbs 16:9
Proverbs 19:21
Proverbs 21:30
Ecclesiastes 7:13
Lamentations 3:37
Matthew 10:29
John 19:10
James 4:13-15
Revelation 3:7


Life Examples:


Economy, President, Governor, injustices
Row vs. Wade
Divorce
Tragic accident in 2009
Injury
Job Loss


Bible Examples


Job
Paul left in prison by Roman Governor Felix as favor to Jews
Joseph
Jesus crucifixion


God does what pleases Himself


Job 42:2
Psalm 115:3
Isaiah 14:27
Isaiah 43:13
Isaiah 46:10
Daniel 4:35
Ephesians 1:11


You can trust God because He has a plan for you

God is not the author of sin and evil, but he does allow trials and adversity.


Romans 8:28-29
Ephesians 2:10
Psalm 138:8
Jeremiah 29:11


Recap


God is sovereign
God is in control
God is never caught off guard or surprised or experiences unexpected developments
God is not the author of sin but allows trials for various reasons
God does what pleases Himself
We are not in control and others are not in control of me
We may not like our circumstances but they are always ordained by God
God loves and has a plan for you


We can trust God

Psalm 18:30

It’s not always easy to trust God in trials and adversity, but we can trust Him because He truly is sovereign.

Proverbs 3:5-6

 

Abundant Life Episode 45

In this episode Saso and Ben discuss how God blessed and worked in their lives in 2022.



Prayer & Fasting Daniel 9:3

Marriage Conference James 1:2-4

Wedding Ephesians 5:32-33

Concert Psalm 147:5

Job Promotion Jeremiah 17:7-8

Salvation! Romans 10:8-10, Psalm 34:8

New Years Resolution Romans 12:2

Read the Word! Numbers 6:24-26

 

Abundant Life Episode 44

In this episode Saso and Ben discuss how Christians can be content with God, because God is enough.



Enough - That satisfies desire, or gives content; that may answer the purpose; that is adequate to the wants.
- Websters 1828

Key Verse

Philippians 4:19

This is such a powerful truth, God is more than enough, because if it is true, which it is, it means we that we should be trusting God to meet our every need. Yet, we have this nasty sin called unbelief that leads us down a dark path into further sin.

We are living in a time where many so called believers are bible illiterate. The reality is that many Christians don’t know the truths and promises of God found in scripture and therefore they fall victim to unbelief. They simply don’t believe God is enough.

Rather we are bombarded by ads that tell us we deserve more, we are plagued with instant gratifications that social media brings, we place our hopes in an elected official, we commit sin and feed our flesh because we simply don’t believe that God is more than enough.

It’s interesting that the scripture deals with this idea of unbelief and in fact we did an episode on the topic of unbelief, episode 17 to be specific. Unbelief is like a cancer for unbelievers as the scriptures tell us that Satan blinds them from seeing the light of the gospel.

2 Corinthians 4:4

This speaks of unbelievers, but Satan does this same thing to believers to keep them as if they were still in bondage. It’s like the Andy Griffith show where Otis grabs the jail cell key hanging from the wall and lets himself out of jail. Christians have been forgiven and have been freed from the bondage of sin, yet we live like as if we were still in bondage.

Christian, do you deal with unbelief? Do you believe that God is more than enough? Or are you discontent? Do you lust for more? Are you intrigued by the world?

Throughout the Bible we see this theme of unbelief and it all started in the garden of eden. Adam and Eve chose to believe the lie of Satan that God wasn’t enough, they wanted more, they wanted to be like God. And in single act of sin, Adam brought down the human race into sin.

Genesis 3:1-7

Lucifer was cast out of heaven with one third of the angels as he lusted to be greater than God.

Just like Adam and Eve, we are ruined by our own hearts as we lust for more because both discontentment and covetousness are both rooted in unbelief.

The apostle John warned us about this. He told us not to lust for the shiny things of this world, but instead trust and obey God.

1 John 2:15-17

The problem

Our problem is that we get our eyes off of God and we then put our focus on ourselves. We look at ourselves, our circumstances, our failures, our sin, our short comings. We compare ourselves to others. We are by nature selfish and we love to think about ourself and how we can live our best life now. Joel Olsteen's book, Your Best Life Now is a lie, your best life is only for believers and will come when you are in glory with our savior Jesus.

We complain and grumble and we believe the lie that God is not enough or that God is not in control, or that God doesn’t love me, or that God doesn’t bless me.

It’s this unbelief that drives us to a place of discontentment. Once we reach that point we start looking for fleshly things that will satisfy us. We then simply seek to feed our flesh and please ourselves which is always through some sort of sin. Not everyone sins the same, not everyone is tempted by the same sin, but we all have fleshly desires and our bent and bondage toward sin can only be broken by Jesus.

The problem with that is that the flesh can’t be satisfied with things of the world. God is the only one that can satisfy our souls. He is the one that gives peace to our souls. He is the one that gives us joy. He gives us comfort. He gives us the power to say no to sin. He is the one that truly gives us contentment and satisfaction.

Abundant Life Episode 43

In this episode Saso and Ben discuss the how Christians must place their hope in God in times of discouragement and life's trials.




OPENED - Unclosed; unbarred; unsealed; uncovered; revealed; disclosed; made plain; freed from obstruction. - Websters 1828


Key Verses

2 Kings 6:15-17

Elisha’s servant was troubled with the armies that had encompassed them about, but Elisha was not fearful as he was able to see the presence and protection of God. “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”

Romans 4:19-21

The promise he was referring to is the promise given to Abraham that through Him all of the families of the earth would be blessed. God in a sense had opened his eyes to the promise He had given him where he could visualize and see the great nation that would come from him. The opening of our eyes is the faith we must have in God to see the great things He has promised us and the great hope we have in Him.

Sometimes these emotions come with the trials of life.

What are the giants in your life? What do you fear? What makes you feel hopeless? What makes you anxious?


Sickness, disease, cancer, terminal illness
Personal offense, someone said/did something to hurt you
Personal loss, home lost in fire or natural disaster
Loss of loved one
Divorce or marital problems
Elections & Economy
Rumors of wars
Midlife crisis
You’ve committed that same sin again that has you ensnared or a sinful habit that you can’t kick
Difficult boss at work, or difficult co-workers


The scriptures not only speak truth and give you hope, but the scriptures are so relatable. The book of Psalms is always a comfort to me whether you are on the mountain of life or in the valley because there is something you can always relate with.

Psalm 38 is a lament when you lay your troubles at the feet of Jesus realizing your sin has brought on the trouble and you are discouraged.

Psalm 38:17.

Psalm 42, is a lament when you are oppressed and persecuted and discouraged.

Psalm 42:11

Psalm 73 is a Psalm of wisdom written by Asaph sharing his thoughts of discouragement as he observed the prosperity of the wicked.

Psalm 73:2

Here are more examples in scripture that you can relate to when you are discouraged or feeling hopeless.

Elijah was in the midst of a drought and God commanded him to go and ask a widow to feed him. The widow basically had nothing left, except a little bit of flour and she was basically preparing for her and her son to die of hunger. She must have been fearful and discouraged. In fact this is what she said: 1 Kings 17:12

Goliath the philistine was taunting the Israelites because he was a mighty warrior, a confident giant. Although we know how the story ends, the fact of the matter is that the soldiers were scared and discouraged.

1 Samuel 17:11

Elijah had just experience a great victory when God consumed his alter and then he slayed 450 prophets of Baal. But after the great victory he ran for his life after Jezebell threatened his life.

1 Kings 19:4

Can you imagine how fearful and discouraged the Israelites were as they were trapped between Red Sea and Egyptian army expecting to be executed?

Exodus 14:10

How about Joseph and Mary fleeing to Egypt to avoid Herod's vicious execution of young boys in attempt to kill Jesus. Imagine the fear and discouragement? Can you imagine what Mary would have thought?

Fear not

Haggai 2:4-5  - Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work (building of the temple): for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts: According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.


2 Timothy 1:7
Isaiah 41:10
Isaiah 41:13


Trials of life

1 Corinthians

Paul had gone through the ringer to the point where

Abundant Life Episode 42

In this episode Saso and Ben interview Mike Baldwin, ex-police, as they discuss dealing with trials in the workplace.



Key verses

Colossians 3:23-24 - And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

Resources


Dr. Tillotson's sermon on Hinderances to Answered Prayer
Baldwin Performance


 

Abundant Life Episode 41

In this episode Saso and Ben discuss the topic of being renewed and how to get on fire for Jesus!



Key verses

Titus 2: 11-14


RENEW'ED, participle passive Made new again; repaired; re-established; repeated; revived; renovated; regenerated. - Websters 1828



Grace -  Appropriately, the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him. - Websters 1828


Romans 11:6

We know salvation is an act of grace from God, and it is from His deep well of favor, and love that He has for mankind that He would send His Son to die for us. It costs us nothing but to Him it came at a great price.

Romans 5:2

The act of Jesus dying for us gave us direct access to this grace. We would have no hope or chance if He did not send His Son to die for us. What an amazing picture of His love and unmerited love He has for us!

After salvation which appeared to all men, we get His grace to help us live this Christian life.

Romans 5:20

No one would argue with you that sin is abundant in this world. It does not take long, and you do not have to go far to find sin. 

Although sin is abundant and abounds, God’s grace abounds much more. Although it may seem as though we have no hope against sin, this verse tell us differently as grace abounds more than the sin in this world. Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world.

God’s Grace of Salvation

Being on fire for Jesus all starts at salvation. Salvation was only possible because we not only have a just God who cannot overlook sin, but we also have a loving God, who looked at His creation with love and compassion and made the ultimate sacrifice to make it possible for mankind to be brought back into a relationship with God.

2 Peter 3:9

I’m so thankful for the truths in this verse. I’m thankful for God’s patience. I got saved a little later in life and if God didn’t have patience and sent Jesus back before I got saved, who knows if I would have ever received Jesus as savior.

The Deist believes that God created everything, but then was no longer interested after creation. In other words they would say God is the clock maker, and winds the clock, and lets it go.

God is ever present in the affairs of men today! It’s God’s grace that sacrificed the first animal in Genesis to cover Adam and Eve, it’s God, who commanded Israel to sacrifice animals to cover their sin, and ultimately it was that those animals represented and pointed to Jesus who was the ultimate sacrifice.

The Gospel of Jesus never gets old! The world needs to hear the gospel of Jesus so they can know the grace of God but, the believer must always reflect on this story, because this Gospel is truly the fuel we need to be on fire for Jesus. 

Christian, would you sit and reflect on the gospel and your salvation, think about where you’d be without it, think about your eternal destination without it and then think about how blessed you truly are, how you have a relationship with the King of kings.

A Christian’s “why”

The why is simply implying what motivates you to keep going every day, especially when things are not going right, everything appears to be failing and you basically want to quit. What they have found in the business world is that money is typically not people’s motivation for leading a business. Leading a business can be tough, and people could likely the same amount of money or more working for someone else and therefore money is not always the driving factor.

The Christian walk is similar in the fact that It’s hard. We need motivation in those valleys of life when we have a sense of hopelessness or brokenness, or maybe it's just tiredness and fatigue, maybe it’s burnout, or a sense of complacency, or simply lack of motivation. Maybe there are days where you just don’t want to do this Christian thing anymore. There are going to be some difficult days ahead for every Christian.

For a Christian, the