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Transcript

How Good Is God? · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Our trust in him works because he's good.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we know he's good.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: We want to look at that this morning.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We want to look into the goodness of God.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there again, like so many things that we have in our in our belief, a lot of us, if we ask if God is good, they'll immediately say, Yes, he is all the time.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And they would be rightfully saying, but a lot of times we look at that and it's on a it's it's it's it's on a surface level.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: There are always more degrees that we can see this and be convinced of it, to be convicted of it.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And something happens to you, the more that you know, the more that you're convinced, the more that you're aware, the more you understand him.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I loved, see, the word of the Lord's flowing this morning.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hear the word of the Lord.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know we're a little place out in a little town in a little spot out in northeastern Texas with a few people here, but God is here and he's speaking.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: His word is flowing on purpose.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: He cares.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and uh he was saying to us as Trita was ministering, he was telling us that this is who he is.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times we're just looking at what God does, but let's look at who he is this morning.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: We'll look at who he is because a lot of times there's confusion, there's questions.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: When you look at the things that God may do or not do, and people have all these questions why does God allow this?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And why didn't God do this?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And why, and all that.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: We want to look at this, we want to have spirit eyes this morning because the inspiration of the Almighty gives us understanding, understanding of God, of life, and of ourselves.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: We want to look at this with open eyes, because there's a big picture here.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: God is good, and he is good all the time.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And goodness is what he does for sure, but it's not just what he does.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Goodness is who he is.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Why is God good?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's because it's just who he is.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Psalms chapter 34, verse 8 compels us, draws us, asks us to taste and see that the Lord is good.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Taste and see that the Lord is good.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's like somebody offering you food that you've never seen before or tasted before, and you may not know, but someone says, Well, taste and see.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And you taste it and you happen to like it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And once you've tasted and seen, you're convinced that it's good.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if somebody ever brings up that that food item again and someone says it's not good, you say, Well, I've tasted it and I think it's very good.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're talking about.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the tasting of God is actually our our experiential knowledge of him.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's what we know of him because it's what we know personally about him.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's what we know of him because we've tasted, uh we've experienced his goodness in our lives.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have experienced God's goodness in your lives?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I want to look beyond, we can now what we can do, and this is a big part of it, because God is good.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So God does good things.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: He does miracles, he does healings, he does wonderful things.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, taste and see that the Lord is good.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: The next part of the verse says, and blessed is the one who trusts in him.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: See, knowing his goodness brings trust.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And really, a lot of times people struggle.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: People uh their lives are a struggle in certain times and in certain situations.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: They feel like they might be struggling to connect with God sometimes when they really when they really need to the most.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's because of not being convinced.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I want to talk about it this morning, and this is why I really talk about it all the time, I guess.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want everybody convinced of the goodness of God in such a way that it brings trust even when you don't see the big picture, that it brings trust in somebody that cares for you, somebody that knows you, and somebody that is just good, gooder than you are, gooder than you can imagine.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody that is just good, because when you know he's good, you can trust him.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh uh uh I mentioned a couple of days ago we were talking to someone and we're talking about how sometimes people will say things to you that are corrective to you.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: They'll say, you know, um, well, I'm not talking about when they say, uh, I'm gonna say this in love.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Usually if they say that, they're usually not.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: You because you can tell when somebody's saying it in love, right?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can tell when somebody's bringing correction to you, but they really like you and they really care.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're not bringing it to make you look small, to make you feel small.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're not bringing it so that you'll do something that they want you to do.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: They really care and they love you.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: When you know somebody loves you, and you know somebody likes you, and somebody cares about you, and they tell you something that may not be, that may not always be pretty, you can trust them in it because you know how they feel about you.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: God is good.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And his plans and his purposes for you are altogether good.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: God knows the plans he has for you, right?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And in a sense, we do.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Not all the details, but we know the plans and the purposes, and he says, trust me, they're good.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: They're not for evil, they're good.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: They're not to hurt you.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: There is not a heavenly conspiracy against you.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not finding something wrong with you so I can bonk you on the head.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm good.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I like you, I care.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: The whole gospel gives us a picture of grace of a God who so loved the world.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2 says, Because of his great love for us.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why does he have great love?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's good.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, so with that, we have questions.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the next graphic here.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I want to show you a picture.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So when we're talking about his goodness, we're talking about absolute goodness.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: No darkness at all.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody came up to me after a service one time and says, Well, God is both dark and light.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, wait a minute, where'd you get that?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: There, God is absolute light, absolute life, absolute love.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: He is absolutely good.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: There is nothing, no ability about him, if I can say it that way, to be bad.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: He is good.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: He is goodness, he's good to you.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a lot of times we'll have we'll have situations where, oh, you heard stories of 9-11 and the buildings that collapsed, and and you'll hear you hear the stories of you know the person that works in the building and they decided not to go to work that day, and they said, Isn't God good?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because they were spared of that.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, of course, God's good.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: But then other, what about all the other people that died in that, right?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Look at we got this picture here, and this is like it looks like a tornado or something ravaged through a neighborhood and it and it demolishes all these houses, but it spared these houses on one side of the street.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so someone from one of those other homes that are still intact could be coming to church talking about how the tornado just came right through and it hit all these houses, but it spared mine.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we'd say, Isn't God good?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, yes.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, God is good.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: But but I always think, I can't help it.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: My brain goes, I can I always help.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: What about the house that got destroyed?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right, is God still good?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's the question.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Is God still good?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And is God good to those who lost their homes?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: He is, isn't he?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: We know he is because we just know him.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: How to explain that sometimes might be a little difficult for some people, but but we know him.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've tasted and seen.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: We know that that he's good.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: When the person testifies and says they were laying off everybody, but and I thought I was going, but but I got to keep my job, God is good.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: But the other person loses their job, is God still good?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: When one person is told that it looks like they have cancer and they they they they pray for a good report, and they go to the doctor and they get a good report, they come back saying, Isn't God good?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody else in the same church had had also a diagnosis of cancer when they went and had their test, they found out it's horrible.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is God still good?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I'm saying, the point that we're making here, is yes, God is good, because if we look at life, if we look at creation, we see abundance, we see goodness, we see blessings.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: All of our lives here have blessings.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there's challenges, but our lives are blessed.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: God has shed his goodness and grace upon all of us, and and that's just who and how he is.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: But there is, there are evil things in this world.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: People do evil things, broken people can do evil things, hurt people can do evil things, blinded people can do harmful things.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's there's tribulation in the world.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: But is God good?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: When we look at these things, a lot of times we take our eyes, we if we take our if we take our eyes off of him who is good, we start looking at things uh like someone says, like through a through a little knothole of our situation.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we may feel the compulsion to try to control that situation.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because this could go horrible, and I don't think I could stand that.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so many times it turns out good.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, most of the time it does.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then for some people, sometimes we we pray for them, we feel for them, we maybe we ourselves have gone through things that just they were hurtful, they were devastating.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: What's going on here?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is God good in the situations?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: If God's good, why does he allow certain things?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: If God is good, why doesn't he stop this?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: If God is good, there again, we want to look beyond just what he does and doesn't do because it's much easier to understand the person, the heart of God just by just knowing that he's good in and in in all situations.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: If we don't know that, this is why people, I think people, because they've only looked at the situations and looked at the immediate, what can God do for me right now?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Many times people have become bitter with God have had to deal with lots of them.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: If God was good, why did this happen?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Why did He let this happen?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't He stop this?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: If God was good, that's a good question.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: God is God good.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things about God is that God is love.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't I don't I can't get into this very very deep today because of time's sake, but a lot of the ideas people have about God being in control are not rightly understood.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: God is in love, not in control in that situation.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the big picture, he's absolutely got everything.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: As truly as he lives, he says, This vision of mine, though it tarries, it shall truly come to pass.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Though it tarries, it shall truly come to pass.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Look at it this way.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody described it this way, and I like it.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's like look, we're all on this cruise ship, but we're going to a certain destination.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that ship is going to is is it's going to go there, and it's going to go well.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: But while we're on that ship, we make decisions and things go into thing.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: We may have an accident and break our toe while we're on the ship.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: We might, you know, we might meet certain people, we might decide that we want to go play the slots, we might want to go to the hot tub.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: We can do all these different choices that God is not controlling.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: But in the big picture, what he says comes to pass because God is good and his goodness prevails, and he's got a good plan and a purpose for you.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going to be with him eternally.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going to know him eternally, you're going to be in his house eternally, he's going to be with you.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're always forever going to be together.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that don't start when you die.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: That started a long time ago.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're aware of it, you're right there with him right now.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he's talking to you and he's loving you.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And right this very moment, he is being good to you.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Whether your life is going smooth right now, or whether you're dealing with something that's really hard, God right now is being good to you because that's just who he is.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you're having a great time right now and you're not struggling with something very hard, God is having fun with you right now.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: He is being good and he's happy with you.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he's enjoying that you're enjoying things right now.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's happy that you've got some peace and you've got some rest in your life and you're you things are going, things are going well.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's with you.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's being good with you, good to you right now.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you're hurting, if you're struggling, he's exactly the same, right?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: He's still being good to you.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: What's he doing?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's drawing near to you.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's comforting you.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's counseling you.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's fathering you.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's nurturing you.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's loving you.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's he's he's he's doing all of these things.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a good thing when someone says, Well, I don't feel that, I don't hear that.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe just knowing this will help.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: He is.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: He is, and it's a matter of just awareness, right?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because people do not trust, and and there again, remember, the reason that they don't trust, the reason there might be some mistrust is that we're not convinced that he's just good.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's horrible to teach that God is looking to condemn us for for our sins, of which there are many.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because if we think if we have that kind of picture of him, it's hard to trust him.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was hard for me.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I I I was taught and believed that if I committed a sin, God was going to bring a punishment commensurate with that sin.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I was always messing up.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I could, I mean, daily, I mean, I could, I could, I could pray.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: I could I could sit in the car and pray while my family's in this door shopping.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I could sit in the car and pray and just have the best prayer time with God, and then as soon as I'm done, the most horrible thought goes through my head.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh God, I'm sorry.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to get punished.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not expecting good from God because I don't trust that God's got good for me.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, my thoughts were that he probably had something bad for me.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe I can't prove this, but I it really, really seemed like that belief kept bringing bad things happening in my life.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: When people don't know he's good, it's hard to trust.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's why they get scared.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's why in their fear, you know that that and it's just it's a matter of that.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this is not an indictment on any of us here, but there's an answer for this is that we want to learn the goodness.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: We want to look and behold, we want to taste and see that God is good.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: It helps us to trust Him.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we don't, we feel like we're on our own, right?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when we we get afraid because we know that on our own we're limited.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: But if we know that God's good, and he means it when he says, I won't leave you, I won't forsake you, I'm an ever-present help.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Give me your care because I care for you.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: We know that, we see that, we've tasted that, we believe that.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Then we can trust Him even if we don't know where we're going, right?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Even if we're not sure where we're going.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I th uh there's so many pictures I got in my brain here.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but when we don't trust, we we can get afraid.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if we get afraid, what do we do?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: What most people, most of us do when we get afraid of a situation, we try our best to control that situation, right?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: We do our best to try to contain it and control it and set things up so that there's some sense of safety for us, but then what we ultimately find out is that control is an illusion.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Humans can't really control anything like that, at best temporarily and usually in an ugly way.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And there is no real control in the hands of a human, because everything's too big.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: But we have God whose plans and purposes are good.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: We have God who is good, God who loves you, God whose will be done.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times just knowing he's good brings the trust.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: When we don't have the trust, there'll be there's stress, there's frustration, right?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Where does that frustration come?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because you just know you can't control this thing, and it's just like, ah.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: We feel alone.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: We feel very alone sometimes in a world with billions of people.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: We can feel very, very all by ourselves in our situation.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Even with people in our own house, you feel alone in your situation.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Helpless, unaware of the big picture of God and his goodness and life and eternity, and this is who you are and where you're at.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're living forever.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're an eternal person.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: You will live forever, you will never ever be separated from God.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's with you always, and he's always going to be with you throughout eternity.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: God is good.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: God is good to the home that was destroyed and to the home that stayed standing.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: He was good to both families.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's good to them in ways that let me describe it this way.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Someone says, this doesn't sound very nice, Rick.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure I'm I'm I'm liking this.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me let me let me let me tell you, we're talking about God.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about wishing tragedies on all of us here.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, at all.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: God is good, he blesses, he will continue to bless.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: But he's not good just because of what he does.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's good because of who he is.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: When God was singing to us this morning, saying, It's who you are, it's who you are, it's who you are, he was just like pulling off over out, pulling open his robe and saying, This is who I am.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because to the family whose home was destroyed by the tornado, where's God now?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: God's with them, he's drawing near, he's not quitting, he's not letting go, he's not leaving.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: He comforts, he's there, and he's the friend that sticks closer than a brother.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, someone says, Well, that's you know, little consolation.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'd rather have my house.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, okay, but we're talking about an eternal friend, someone that's where all the time, even when that's not going on.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: You got all the other things of life that's going on, the good, the good times, the hill, the hills and the valleys of life, and you've got all that going on, is that what you want, what the heart of the human, uh the human heart wants, is this security that comes from somebody bigger than them, loving them and being good to them, and that gives you a trust.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: It gives you a sense of I don't know what's going to happen next week.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: I expect good because God is good.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is somebody talking that I feel like lots of good happens to me.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like God has really, really done good things for me.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Good things.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: But outside of that, there's a person that I'm talking about that I've met and I'm getting to know more and more and more.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the more I do, the gooder he looks, and the more I fall in love with him, and the more I trust him.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you the moment that was when I felt, when I felt his goodness, when I felt his goodness the most in my life, was after the worst thing that ever happened in my life, and I felt like I had nothing left.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: God was good to me.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: God was good.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: He comforted my heart, he gave me a hope and a future, he talked to me, he counseled me.
• 22:00
  unknown: Me.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: He gave me direction.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody was good to me.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: So he wasn't just good because of the situation, because the situation at that moment, if that's as deep as I was with God, then God is horrible to allow that to happen.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And sure, there are things that don't make sense.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: But when things don't make sense, if you know God is good, you'll trust Him and you will have peace.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the greatest treasure you can carry in this life, is that peace.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: These are the riches of life.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now the good thing is it's not either or.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like, well, it's not like, so I don't get to have any any good things in this natural life.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's all just this spiritual stuff.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, God blesses everything.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: You all know that.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Most of you here are very, very blessed.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: I am too.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because God's good.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's who he is.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Even beyond what he does.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: What he does is because he's good, but it's who he is is good.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Psalms chapter 46, verse 1, has this beautiful passage.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Beginning in verse 1.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: He says, God is our refuge and our strength.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's a very present help in time of nothing.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Very present help.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Very present help.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: You see, people don't need, we need different, we need God to be good to us all the time.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, somebody once said, well, if God blessed you too much in this life that you'd forget about him, I totally have not found that to be true at all.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: I have found, because I know he's good, that while things are going really well, you're mindful of him, just like, wow, thank you.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is really good.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: You are so good.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: But when it gets hard, those days when it's a little harder, this is when you've got somebody.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is when you've still got that same God that's good.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Are you all hearing anything?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's an ever-present help.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's always there.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's there.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's a very present help in time of trouble.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, that's why.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Will not be afraid.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: See, I'm telling you this.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the Bible says perfect love casts out fear.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: His love is the perfect love, not human love, right?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: His love does that.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've never learned yet, with my faith, to be able to control everything.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'd like to do.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: I would like my grass to grow two inches and stop and never have weeds.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to be able to control that with my faith and believing.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't figured that out yet.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: But in my situations, what I have found is a God who's with me and likes me, and it I've seen in my soul, I've seen inside myself, my fear level just keeps dropping and dropping and dropping.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's simply because the trust level is coming up.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be with him forever, and so are you.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to outlive all this stuff.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: There is a bigger picture.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not look through the knothole at life and back away and let's look at the big picture, and what we see is goodness from everlasting to everlasting, from beginning to the end.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: We see the goodness of God in all of it.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the hard things are put in proper perspective because they're very temporary and very small compared to this goodness.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, that's why we will not fear.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters roar and be troubled, though the mountain shake with its swelling, see law.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, stop and think about that.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Even though the earth itself would be removed, well, where would we live?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Where would we be with God?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, there is a river.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we get this song that we love.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: There is a river whose streams make glad, the city of God.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: You are the city.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah says it, Revelation says it, you are the city, and the river is God with you, God in you.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: There is a river whose streams make glad.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: It will always feed you, it'll always refresh you.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: It'll always be there.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you, I can promise you because of the one that I trust, that stream will never, ever run dry.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: You will always, always have help.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never be alone for all eternity.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Never, ever, ever.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the one that you'll be with will be good to you.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is how it happens.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: How did the martyrs in the early days, when the Romans were burning us, our Christian brothers and sisters, burning us at the stake?
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: How did they sing with joyful faces and praising God while the flesh was being burnt off their bodies?
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: How can that happen?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: It can only happen because of this river that's making them glad.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Trusting, tasting, experiencing the goodness of God.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody was with them.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: How did Jesus say the night before he was crucified?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Tonight every one of you are going to leave me.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yet I will not be alone.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And God was there.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Reconciling the world.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Reconciling the world unto himself.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: God is just good.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: There is a river whose streams make glad, the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: God is in the midst of her.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: She will not be moved.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: God will help her.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just at the break of dawn, the nations raged, the kingdoms were moved, he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, the Lord of hosts is with us.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: The God of Jacob is our refuge, our safe place, our safe place with him.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Selah, stop and think about that, he says.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Who is God?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Is God good in all these things?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's everything.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: We heard it this morning.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's everything that the human life needs.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was planned from the beginning.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: That was the choice life or good and evil.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: When he said life, he said, it's me.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the life.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Choose me.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm good.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Or choose this other thing.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was intended from the beginning, according to Ephesians 1.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was going to be, even though we made the wrong choice while we were on that ship.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we made we made this horrible choice, the ship was still going in the same direction.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was going to come.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Man would be reconciled.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: There is a river.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: There is a friend.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: There is a comforter.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: There is a counselor.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: When you're convinced that God is good.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: God who created all this beautiful creation.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Only goodness can do that.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: God who created you amazingly.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you're beautiful and you're wonderful and you're amazing in so many ways.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Only goodness can do that.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: When you're convinced that God is good, then we trust him.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: And when we trust him, we are finally at peace.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's the word today.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: God is good.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, the last verse is Isaiah chapter 32, verse 17.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: God is good.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: We are right with him.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that work of righteousness shall be peace.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the effect of righteousness shall be quietness and assurance forever.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: You are in the safest place that you could ever be right now.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you will always be in a safe place.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the mountains will tremble, sometimes the seas will roar and all that.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: You'll feel it in this life.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Once in a while that'll happen.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: But you will be in the safe place.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: You will always be in the safest place you can be.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: You say, well, doesn't our faith change things?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we can believe and receive.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's trusting if we trust him.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: But he's not giving us a spirit of fear where we feel like we have to control everything because we trust somebody that's bigger.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Would you all stand up?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want to pray.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want to pray and I want this prayer to be powerful.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: I want this prayer to impart.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I you're good.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: And in your goodness, in your goodness, I thank you for reality.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, with where we're at.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Reality.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: With Geneva, right, right, right where she sits this morning.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: And with the others that we've mentioned in prayer.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: With every one of us here, goodness.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Just goodness.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: The awareness, let every curtain and veil be pulled back and let everybody taste and have a feast of goodness, goodness, goodness.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let us wake up in the morning and taste goodness.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let us, before we go down, let's taste that goodness and be aware.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let there be a reality that your Spirit reveals.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: And all of my confidence and all of my trust and hope is in you to reveal what none of us can do on our own.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let everyone be baptized in the knowledge of your goodness.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let there be joy, let there be peace, let there be trust, and let love abound.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father, in Jesus' name.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.