Where's the Good?
Where's the Good?
Psalm 23
By Pastor Dean
I know hearts are tender this morning and I don't want to to go too far to talk about things that are sensitive. And yet my pastor's heart wants to shepherd this church family. In the summer of 2013, in the church where I pastored, I shared the message that I'm going to preach to you today. There were two families that summer in our church that experienced extremely hard circumstances and it affected everyone.
And there was a need to focus on who God is. And God directed me to the passage and the thoughts that I'm going to share with us here this morning because I think it is a similar situation. And again, my pastor's heart wants to do that.
I have a daughter named Elena, and a lot of dads have a daddy's girl, right? A daughter is a daddy's girl. She was a daddy's girl. In fact, when she was little, I called her the Velcro kid because I would walk in the door and she would wrap her arms around my legs and not let go.
And she was kind of the daddy's daughter in our family, but she has a sweet way of saying things. And sometimes she would hear me as a pastor talk to our church family about hard things and she started saying, dad, that was your Papa pastor talk. You were being Papa pastor.
And there is that heart in me. I want a shepherd, I want a pastor. But there's just somewhat of a if I could say it this way just a fatherly love and wanting to help, wanting to point hearts to God and to truth in a difficult time.
So that's what I hope to do here today for all of us. When life is good, we say God is good. When we experience some unexpected extra blessing or financial income or experience that we enjoy just anything where the circumstances seem to be positive, we say God is good.
It's harder for us to say God is good when the circumstances are not, when life is hard. We know as Christians, that's what we're supposed to think, that God is good. We know that all things work together for good, don't we? We know that from God's word.
But it can be challenging for us to think about that. And we might even have the question, well, where's the good? Where's the good? And I hope this morning to point to some scripture that will help answer that question. It is Psalm 23.
Psalm 23. Here is a man who experienced hardship and trial. Was David, the King of Israel.
We know he went through lots of various hardships. Some of them were related to his role as King. Some of them were in relationship to his King Saul, who attacked him.
His own son betrayed him and then died violently. Had family issues, all kinds of problems, military threats. But this man was able to declare truthfully and authentically the goodness of god and he journaled about that.
It's amazing, isn't it, that in the Psalms we have the journal of different individuals, but especially of David in his hard, in the hardest of times. And Psalm 23 is like that. Let me read it for us.
He said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You see it there in verse six, don't you? He is declaring the goodness of God and he is saying that He Himself is experiencing God's goodness and will continue to experience God's goodness all the days of his life. So the question is, where is the good? How does the good show up in your life? There's an outline on the back of your bulletin today.
I hope that will help you to keep track and have something to take with you. And I've made it so that hopefully everyone of every age can fill in these blanks and take them and think about them and maybe talk about them with family members later. And I'm not going to be showing it up here on the screen.
I will state them clearly, I'll repeat them. So you should be able to capture these. So where's the good? Well, in verse one he says, the Lord is my shepherd.
The Lord is my shepherd. So number one, the good is that you have a relationship with God. You have a relationship with God when you see capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.
In the Old Testament, that represents the Hebrew word Yahweh, and that is the name that God gave for Himself in relation to his people. So it's a relational title. He's saying, this is who I am to you.
But the word means I am. It's the self existent one. In other words, God exists all by Himself.
He doesn't need anyone. He doesn't need anything. He is the I am.
He is the self sufficient, self existing God. He needs no one. He needs nothing.
Jesus said before Abraham was. What did Jesus say? How did he complete that? What did he say before Abraham was? What? Tell me out loud. I am.
So Jesus said he is this same God. So if you know Jesus, you know Yahweh, you know the I Am. You know this god.
He says the Lord is my shepherd. This is not just a title this is not just a job. This is not just a profession.
A shepherd cared for his sheep. Jesus said, I am the what kind of shepherd? Good shepherd, didn't he? I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
So are you hearing the connections here? So you have a relationship with God. God is the self existent one, the self sufficient one, the I AM. Jesus.
Is that God? Jesus is the good shepherd, and he cares for you as a shepherd. And when you're saved, when you're a Christian, you have a relationship with Jesus Christ to the great God of Heaven, to the Yahweh, the self existent one. He laid down his life for you.
Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them. So he knows you. You hear his voice.
He knows you. They follow Me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. He showed his goodness for you by bringing you into a relationship with Himself and giving you eternal life.
And you have the certainty of that. So because he loves you, because he gave his life for you, you can know of his goodness for you. And that puts you into a lifelong relationship with God.
That puts you into a close relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I'm just going to ask you this morning, do you have that relationship with God? Do you have a relationship with God? Is he your father? Is Jesus your savior? Have you trusted in Jesus to save you for your sins, from your sins because he died on the cross in your place? Have you trusted Jesus? And is he your savior? And if the answer is no, then I invite you and urge you to trust in Jesus and Jesus alone to save you from your sins. If you have, what goodness is yours? God.
You have a relationship with God. You are in a relationship with Jesus Christ. He is your shepherd.
He cares for you. He speaks to you. He guides you.
He provides for you. We need to remind ourselves of that and say, oh, is that ever good? Isn't God good to allow me to have a relationship with Him? So where's the good? You have a relationship with God. Here's the second way.
Number two, that good shows up in your life. Number two, you will have everything you need. You will have everything you need.
He says in verse one, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. To want is to lack it's, to not have something that you need.
I want you to notice something here that's related to that. I see at least three problems that we struggle with in times of crisis. One of them is a sense of need.
In verse one, we need we need things. We need help. We need comfort.
We need answers. We need strength to go on. Sometimes there are material needs, physical needs, but then look at verse four.
He says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Fear is a problem that we struggle with as well. We are afraid of what might happen.
And then in verse five, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. So there is adversity, there is opposition. And often we feel that spiritual opposition.
And God has a solution for want and for fear and for adversity. In fact, he is the solution for all of those. And with a crisis comes need.
There are material needs. There may be a loss of income, there are bills, there are expenses. There are decisions to make.
People need direction and need wisdom. There's a need for healing, physical healing, spiritual, emotional healing. There is a need when we just feel like we can't go on.
We don't know what to do next. We don't know how to face the next day. We need, we lack.
There are needs that go with a crisis, but there is nothing that you need that God will not provide. He says, I shall not want. Where does that provision come from? Well, in verse two, he makes me to lie down in green pastures.
So God provides the nourishment that we need. And that may be that could certainly include physical nourishment, but certainly it includes the nourishment for our souls, the strength that our souls need. Jesus said this, do not worry.
Do not worry saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? He said, don't worry about the needs that you might face tomorrow, next week, next year. Your Heavenly Father knows you need all these things. Just grab hold of that.
Your Heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things you Jesus said in Matthew 633, seek first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Put God first. Focus on God.
Live your life out for God, honor God. He's going to take care of you. And that includes those basic daily needs that you might worry about.
So he provides for us materially, green pastures, a source of nourishment, still waters, quenching your thirst. And we feel that need. We become even mentally, emotionally, humanly, thirsty.
We want help. We want relief. We want satisfaction.
God said to the apostle Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness, your inability, what you lack in strength to move forward. He said, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. You know what Paul said in response to that? Paul knew how to focus on the goodness of God in his need.
He said, I will boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I take pleasure in needs, he said, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Two Corinthians chapter Twelve.
So Paul got it. Paul was able to say, I am in desperate need, I am unable to move forward. I can't change these circumstances, I can't fix the problems.
I don't have it within myself to handle this. God says, I know my grace is sufficient. Paul says, okay, I'll rejoice in my need.
In other words, he was saying God is good and I can rest in Him and I can trust Him for that. There's great reassurance in that. So what do we do with this truth that you will have everything you need? Well, first of all, believe it.
Just exercise faith. God I believe you. I accept this as true.
I will anchor my mind and my heart and my tendency to be anxious or to be afraid to this truth that I'll have everything I need material, physical, emotional, spiritual, going forward. But then you can act on that faith by asking God, can't you? He wants us to pray. He invites us to ask.
In fact, he instructs us to ask. So you get up in the morning and you're not sure how to face the day. And if you're going to have the resources, material resources or mental resources to face that day and what it holds.
God, I need you today. I need your help today. You know what I need today? I'm asking you to meet my needs today.
I'm asking you to meet my family's needs today. He invites us to ask so we can act on this promise and exercise our faith by asking and then not worrying about it. That's our tendency, isn't it? To worry or be afraid? And we can also accept the fact that if God hasn't provided what we think we need, sometimes we need to realign our view of what we need with God's, don't we? And say, well, if God hasn't provided it right now, he's my good Heavenly Father, he knows what I need.
So I can say, okay, God, maybe my sense of need is off. And so I need to realign my sense of need with you and Your will and what you're allowing right now. And so I'm going to rest in that.
I'm going to wait on you. I'm going to accept the fact that you've not given me this at this moment and trust Him in that way. Now, I want you to make these personal.
I want all of us to make these truths personal today. So I'm going to say this in the first person. I'm going to use the word I.
I have a relationship with God. I will have everything I need. And I want to ask you do the same thing right now.
I want to ask you to say these out loud with me. Are you ready? I have a relationship with God. I will have everything I need.
That brings us to number three. Look at verse three. First part of verse three.
He restores my soul. He restores my soul. Number three is your brokenness will heal.
Your brokenness will heal. He a l heal. The word restore means to return to a right condition.
Crises have a way of breaking us, of crushing us. And I know how it feels in many cases, not every situation, but I've either seen or observed firsthand what happens. I know the pain of physical injury, and not only the physical pain, but how it can take you down, how it can discourage you and the process of therapy and recovery.
I know the experience of having someone I love just be suddenly gone. I've known the hardship and heartache of even seeing someone I love and respect. Like I would say, David was Saul seeing someone in a whole different kind of situation than we're addressing here in our church family today.
But this happens. This is one way that people experience grief and brokenness. Seeing someone that we respect, maybe a leader who in some way departs from God's best God's will, is in a position of leadership and they do something that, erodes, other people's trust.
And again, I'm not talking about something happening here. I'm just saying that's one of the ways that we experience this brokenness, the brokenness that comes when people struggle with sin. Someone has a sin in their life and they're entrapped in that, they become enslaved to it.
A Christian and struggle with that sin. And the anguish and the guilt that goes with that and the despair that goes with that brings a brokenness. And the brokenness that comes with having a child, having a son or a daughter who at one point professed to believe God and was seemingly following God and then turns away, turns away from God and denies what they once said they believed.
So what I'm saying is there is a brokenness, there is a hurt that comes with these things. But I have also seen firsthand, and I have experienced that we have a God who heals. We have a God who restores.
How does God restore us? How does he heal our brokenness? Let me suggest three ways. One is through truth. The truths that we find in God's word, we find in Scripture.
Stabilizing truths, we find in Scripture mind renewing truths, we find in Scripture truths that point us to the God that is greater and the God who is better than anything we experience or anyone in our lives. And the scriptures point us to the truth about God and his will and his purposes and his promises. And his truth helps us to heal.
We read those truths or we share those truths with each other. Ephesians four speaking the truth in love, sharing truths with each other that encourage and build up and strengthen. So finding those truths in God's word, sharing those truths with each other, singing those truths to each other as well.
So truth restores and heals. Our brokenness. Secondly, the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit does this. What is the title or the word that Jesus used of the Holy Spirit? He said, When I go away, who will come? What did he call him? The comforter. Comforter.
God is with you. God is in you, in the person of the Holy Spirit. If you're a Christian and he is your comforter.
And the Holy Spirit helps our thinking, and the Holy Spirit conveys God's love to us. Paul talks about that in Romans, chapter five, about how God has demonstrated his love toward us. And it's the Holy Spirit who pours the love of God into our hearts.
So the Holy Spirit's in you. He is speaking to you. He uses the agency of the word of God to speak into your life and to encourage you and comfort you.
Walk in the Spirit, allow the Holy Spirit to be your comforter. So God brings healing and restoration through truth, through the Holy Spirit, and then he also does it through friends. Through friends.
I think of Galatians, chapter six, where Paul says, if any of you is overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual, remember the next word, restore. Restore. That one.
He's talking about a friend. He's talking about somebody who comes up and just says, hey, brother, hey, sister, I care about you. I see you're struggling.
And yes, it could be a sin, it could be a lack of trust, a lack of faith in God. That brother, that sister is stumbling, is faltering, is hurting, and somebody just comes up and says, I love you, my brother, my sister, I'm praying for you. Can we talk? Let me urge you, just keep walking with God.
And friends do this, don't they? Friends are agents of restoration in our lives. Praise God for friends who love us, pray for us, encourage us and speak truth in our lives. Now, I want to go one step further on this idea of brokenness, just for a second, because I want to encourage you.
And I know that you, the people of Northridge, have a heart to minister to others, don't you? You do. You want to reach out, you want to minister to other people. One of the incredible realities of our brokenness and the hard things we go through is that they enable us to minister to other people.
Because you know what other people experience, and you've experienced at the lowest possible point in your life god's goodness. And one day down the road, you're going to have an opportunity to turn around to somebody else and say, I know, and I can tell you I survived it, and God was faithful through it, and he'll do the same for you. You'll be able to do that.
God uses our brokenness as a way for us to minister to others. Just keep that in mind for later. Your brokenness will heal by God's grace.
Let's say them out loud together the first one ready. I have a relationship with God. I will have everything I need.
My brokenness will heal. Number four, you will know what to do next. Number four, you will know know what to do next.
I see this in the second part of verse three. He leads me in the paths of righteousness. For his name's sake, he leads me in the paths of righteousness.
Many times in a crisis, you lose your bearings. When I've experienced it, I've felt like I was in a dark tunnel, like I was in a black hole. It's like being caught in a current of water and you go under and the current is spinning you around and you don't know where the bottom is.
You don't know where to put your feet down, to push yourself back up. You've totally been disoriented. You've lost your bearings.
It's a dark tunnel, a black hole, and it's hard sometimes to even know the way forward. What do I do next? And I'm telling you, god will show you what to do. He will show you what to do.
The paths of righteousness means the right way. The right way. He will lead you in the right way.
He will lead you in his way. And it's not just for your comfort or for your relief, but he says, for his name's sake, doesn't he'll lead you in the way for you to go so that you can glorify Him through your hardship and through your crisis? I want to suggest some actions to take so that you will know what to do next. And these are very simple, but I think they help.
What do you do? What do you do when you don't know what to do? Pray. In fact, look over in my Bible. It's right across the page.
Psalm 25. Look at Psalm 25. Verse one.
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. And these words are coming from darkness. These are not coming from a place of experiencing nice, pleasant circumstances.
These are coming from a place of darkness. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God.
I trust in you. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me indeed.
Let no one who waits on you be ashamed. Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause. Verse four.
And you can just pray this show me your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.
On you. I wait all the day. So just ask God to show you his way.
Lord, you said that you would lead me in the paths of righteousness. So just like David in Psalm 25, for my place of darkness, I am asking you I'm praying, I'm asking you to do that. I write notes in the margin of my Bible, and when it's something personal, I use a green micro pen.
Green color. As I'm looking at this right now, I have two dates by verse four, psalm 25, verse four, two dates. When I prayed that prayer and I needed God's direction, and I look back at those two dates, and underneath one of them I wrote.
He did three exclamation points. He did. He directed me.
He showed me his way. So I encourage you to make that your prayer. Lord, what do I do? What do I do next? What do I do now? You're going to lead me.
What do you do in a time of crisis? How do you know what to do next? First of all, pray. Secondly, wait. That's what he says he's doing.
Verse three, one who waits on you. The end of verse five on you. I wait all the day in Psalm 25.
Waiting is just trusting. It's resting. It's not running around in a panic saying, Lord, when you're ready, you'll show me.
If something's supposed to change, you'll make it clear. If I'm supposed to go in some major different direction, you'll let me know. And I'm just resting.
I'm just trusting in you. Pray. Wait.
Thirdly. Read. What? Read what? Read God's word.
The tendency is in a time of crisis sometimes, to let that go, let that drop. Things get busy, things get hard. Honestly, sometimes emotionally, it can even be hard to open up your Bible.
Do it. Just read the word. Read a verse, read a psalm, read a chapter.
Continue listening to the voice of your good shepherd. Continue listening for the voice of God in his word, and he will direct you. Pray.
Wait, read fourthly. Give thanks. Give thanks.
Thank you. God, you are good. Thank you that you have directed my life in the past.
Thank you that you will direct my life. You will show me what to do next. And then grow.
Grow, pray, wait, read, give thanks, and grow. Hard times are growing times. Hard times are growing times.
There was a man who I would call him a ministry friend and even somewhat of a mentor. He was actually the interim pastor at Calvary Baptist before I became the pastor there. For about a year older than me, his wife got cancer.
They tried various treatments, and the treatments were not successful, and she went to be with the Lord. But he had a little saying. Again, I don't think it was original with him, but this is what he would say.
He said it before his wife got cancer. He said it while his wife had cancer. He said it after his wife died of cancer.
He said, If God is not doing something for you, he is doing something in you so that he can do something through you. If God is not doing something for you, he is doing something in you so that he can do something through you. That's not just a catchy phrase.
There's some truth there. In other words, for you. Means, if he's not changing your circumstances, if he doesn't seem to be doing what you'd like him to do, so if he's not changing what's happening in that moment to please you, then you can know that he is doing an inner work.
If he is not changing your circumstances, or we might even say if he has allowed circumstances that we wish did not happen. And that's not changing, it's not going away. We're in that waiting mode that David describes here.
So if that's what's going on, then we can know that he's doing a work in us. He is shaping, he is purging, he is refining, he is developing character in us so that he can do something through us, so that he can use us, so that we can be even more effective in glorifying him and ministering to others and reaching others for him. And I just think of that in connection with God's direction and how he helps us know what to do next.
If God wants you to do something different or unusual or go in a new direction, he will show you and you will know another way that God shows up, another way that God's goodness shows up in your life in a time of crisis. We find in verse four. Verse four.
I would like you to each look at verse four and just read it silently to yourself. Psalm 23, back in Psalm 23, verse four, and just read it silently to yourself. Number five, you are safe.
Number five, you are safe. This verse is so beautiful and it is so real. It's good to go back and just meditate on it, think about what it means, personalize it for yourself.
Let me talk about a few of the words when he says, though I walked to the valley of the shadow of death, though the word though indicates this is not what I anticipated, this is not what I expected, this is not what I would want, though. But even though this is what's going on, I'm walking. That indicates an experience.
I'm walking through this experience. It could be a season. I am going through this season in my life.
The valley of the shadow, it comes close to you, it overshadows you. You feel the darkness, you sense the shadow. So it's very close to you, this experience.
So though I walk, though I experience this deep, dark place and the shadow is touching me and I feel that he says, I will fear no evil again. Fear is a very real human emotion. It's what we feel when we're concerned about what's going to happen.
We're concerned about harm coming to us. We're concerned about being hurt. Evil indicates harm, danger or calamity.
All right, so he says, even though this is what's going on, he says, I will fear no evil. Now, is that a self sufficient courage? Is David just kind of saying, I'm going to get through this and I'm. Going to make it and I'm not going to be afraid.
No. Look at what he says next. For you are with me.
You are with me. I think it's good to get used to saying that. It's good for you to say that to God.
That's what he's doing. Is he informing God, hey, God just a reminder. You're with me.
No, he's not doing that, is he? He's declaring that in faith. He's claiming that in hope. Really? He's reminding himself, isn't he? You are with me.
Let's practice. Say it out loud. You are with me.
You can just say that to God anytime, can't you? Anytime, anywhere, by yourself, with people. You're with me. And it's a praise to God.
But it's also a reminder to yourself, isn't it, that you are not alone and that he is there. The Rod, he says, and the staff comfort me. How could these instruments, how could this weapon and this tool be a comfort? Well, the Rod was a club.
The shepherd used a club to fight off the predators. So God is with you to protect you. He used the staff.
It was a crook to pull back the wanderers. So God is with you. When you're struggling, when you feel like wandering, when your heart is going astray it's going the wrong direction.
And he's just there saying, oh, come on back. Satan is the roaring lion. He wants to destroy you.
He wants to take you down. He wants to discourage you. God's presence is with you.
The Holy Spirit is in you, and he protects you against Satan even protects you against yourself as a wandering sheep. We do still stray, and we can take comfort in that. You're there.
You are safe. No matter what the threats from without or from within. You're safe with God.
You're not alone. God is with you. You're going to be okay.
God's got you. He's got you. Number six, we find here of these truths that remind us of the goodness of God.
Number six, you are more important than you think. You are more important than you think. Now, I'm not trying to build up your self esteem, but you do need to understand that you are important to God.
You're important to God. And that's what we see in verse five. So David says to God, you prepare a table before me.
The presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.
What's he talking about here? Well, he's changing the imagery from talking about a shepherd, and now he's talking about another kind of person. He's talking about a host. He's talking about someone with a home.
And they've invited you to their home and they're showing you hospitality, but they're showing you hospitality that's like over the top. It's very generous. And this is what in the Eastern culture, a host would do to show honor to the person that's there as a guest.
Okay, so that's why I'm saying this indicates you are more important than you think. You are important to God. In the Eastern culture, dinner was a big deal.
They would spend days preparing, days preparing for this meal. And David says, you prepare. You've been getting this ready for me.
And he says, you anoint my head. So this was a ceremonial anointing. Again, a way of showing honor to a guest.
My cup runs over. He's saying that there's more here than I even have room for. You're overdoing it.
It's too much. But it's a way of showing honor. And David is saying that's what God was doing for him.
He's saying you have poured out blessing in my life. That's more than I can even handle. And in doing so, you are showing me that you care about me.
Faith and I have visited, by the way, Faith's not here today because we had plans for several weeks now for her to go and help her mother back in South Carolina. Her mom had to sell her house and is moving into an apartment in two weeks. And Faith is helping her pack up.
So actually, I took her to the airport this morning before coming here, and she's on her way there. She'll be there till Thursday. So that's why she's not here today.
But Faith and I have had the opportunity to visit some different missionaries, and we visited some missionaries in the Basque region of France. That actually kind of crosses over into Spain as well. So Spain and France, some missionaries that our church supported there, and the husband of the missionary was actually from France, so he grew up in French culture.
And when we went to their home for lunch, they provided for us a classic traditional French lunch. And what that involves is course after course after course after course after course, literally. So the first one's like a little snack.
We call it an appetizer, right? Just a few crackers and cheese or some nuts or little snack, little something to drink, maybe some juice, a little special drink. And then out comes the soup. So then comes the soup course.
So you have your soup. And then there may be more than this, but this would be kind of a typical thing. After that would come the main course.
So whatever meat that is. And I don't remember what we had then as a separate course. And after the main course is the salad.
Okay, so you got your appetizer, you got your soup, you got your main course, and you got your salad. Remember, this is lunch. And also an interesting about their culture is that this was not just, bam, sit down, stuff your food, and run.
This took like three, 4 hours. So we're talking and talking and talking and sitting there, and they would bring out more food and bring out more food and maybe even seconds on one of those courses. So we're getting into the main course and then the salad.
And then they bring out the cheese and all these just wonderful cheeses and good smelling and tasting and strong cheese and sweet cheese and all that. Then we have the cheese course and I'm full of my eyeballs. I mean, I can't imagine eating anything more after that.
Then they bring out the dessert. Then there's dessert after the cheese. It's like, I don't know if I can eat this, but they have them in kind of small pieces so that you can enjoy a little bit of dessert.
And it's talking and sharing and just enjoying and no rush. And it was literally three 4 hours that we spent there having lunch. And when you're on American mindset, American time, you're like, I think we to be going here and I got stuff to do, kind of thing.
But if you can just sort of forget about it and there are cultures I know where you can just sort of sit and relax and enjoy not worrying about time, right, just being with people. And once you kind of get in that mindset, it's nice. You just enjoy being with.
The point is that we were served an overabundance of how much food it was and the kinds, the variety of food. Why they wanted to show us honor, they wanted to bless us. And that's what Dave is describing here.
You know what he's saying here? He's saying that God pours out blessings in your life and he just floods your life with his grace and his goodness. And we know that when there are problems, the problems and the hardships and the heartaches are what are most prominent in our minds. And they fill our minds, they occupy our minds.
And it's good for us to step back and say, wait a minute, god has been so good to me. And let me think about all the blessings that he has given to me and the ways that he has shown his goodness to me. And remember, he's doing that because he honors you.
He cares about you, he loves you. He treats you as his honored guests. You have fellowship with the King of Kings.
You are heirs with Christ. You in Christ are seated in heavenly places with Christ. He honors you with this incredible demonstration of grace.
So remember, whatever God is doing, whatever God is allowing in your life, he loves you and he honors you. And you are more important to God than you even realize, than you think. There's one more way that God shows his goodness to us and that we experience it.
And that's in verse six. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Number seven, you are on your way home.
We are all on our way home. God's goodness is his favor. His blessing? The word mercy here is that Hebrew word Heste that means his covenant loyalty, his faithfulness, his steadfast love.
He cares. He loves. He's committed to you.
Where's the good? Here it is. The goodness of God, the steadfast love of God will follow you, is with you every day that you live. Every day, every day, everywhere you go.
Is God good to you on a good day? Yes, he is. Is God good to you on a bad day? He is. Is God good on the worst day of your life? All the days of my life.
And we would have to say, he is. He is. And when the good days and the bad days are over, then what? And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
We'll be there. And it's like God says, you know that palatial home that you thought you were visiting as my honored guest? Actually, that's your house, and I'm your father. And this is where you're going to stay.
This is where you live. He's not only having us for dinner, but we're going to live with Him forever. Jesus said in John 14, I go to prepare a place for you.
And where I am, you'll be with me also. There is a place. There is a home.
He says, there are many rooms, many dwelling places. There's enough for everybody. And that's where we will be together.
So where's the good? Will you say them out loud with me? All seven? You ready? I have a relationship with God. I will have everything I need. My brokenness will heal.
I will know what to do next. I am safe. I am more important than I think.
I am on my way home. We're just together here this morning, and no rush, right? Don't worry. I'm not going to take a whole lot longer.
Just a couple things I want to do here. As we're together, as we close, we're going to pray. We're going to listen to a song, and we're going to sing a song, okay? So first of all, let's pray.
Let's just bow our heads together. I just invite you to commune in your heart with your God. And you might just want to say, god, I needed this.
You are good. You, God, are good. Please help me.
Remember your goodness. Believe in Your goodness and be encouraged by your goodness. God, I struggle with being angry, resentful, unbelieving, despairing.
Forgive me. That's what's needed. Thank you for being my good shepherd.
Thank you for being my gracious host. Thank you for being my generous father. God, we do ask for Your help, your grace, your enabling power to believe and to build our lives around these truths.
And we praise you today for Your goodness. In Jesus name. Amen.
To our team. Just a couple things. One thing I'm going to do different here.
I'm going to actually go ahead and show the video, and then we're going to sing that song after communion, okay? All right. It's calling a little bit of an audible here. All right.
So we are going to have communion as well. Dory, thank you, by the way, for pointing me to this video. I'm going to show.
You shared this with me last night, and I want to share a little bit of background to this video we're going to show in just a second. I mentioned two families at the beginning of my message that were in our ministry, and one of them is the Hamilton family. How many of you know who Ron Hamilton is? Patch.
The pirate. Okay. All right.
They were in our church there in South Carolina. He was our music pastor. And if you know their story, you know that Ron had to have one of his eyes removed because of cancer pretty early in his adult life.
And he wrote a song after that, rejoice in the Lord. Now I can see he wrote, Lost an eye, now I can see testing comes from above in 2013, the summer that I mentioned, on Mother's Day, their 34 year old son died, named Jonathan, died tragically. And after that, this family demonstrated the grace of God in their lives in an unusual, remarkable way.
And I think they are a testimony to all of us when we go through a difficult time. They stood on the platform of our church and they played. Their musicians they played and our choir sang and their family sang.
My hope is Jesus on Christ the solid rock I stand that was their testimony in that time. They also continue to rejoice in the Lord. And Dory shared this link with me, and I thought, you know what? That'd be good for all of us.
So I believe this was recorded years later. I think the date on it is 2017. So this is their family.
Their son Jason, the youngest son, is the soloist, and other family members and members of their team are in this video. And if you know the song, you might just want to sing along with them a little bit. But I just thought it'd be good for us to listen to it and let it speak to our hearts.
Rejoice in the Lord God is good. And then we're going to have the Lord's supper. So we'll just stick together here a few more minutes.
So when you're ready, if you could hit play and just be blessed and encouraged by their song. So Jordan, when mind his servant and molding amen. Give thanks to the Lord though your testing seems long in darkness he give it the song.
Rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake. He know with the end of each path that I take.
For when I am tried and purified I shall come. For as gold I could not see through the shadows, so I looked at the cross of my savior. Instead, I bow to the will of a master that day.
Then peace came and tears fled away. Tears now I can see nothing comes from above. God strength and purges in.
Love my father knows best and I trust in his care through purging or fruit I will bow rejoice in the Lord he makes no mistake he know with the end of each path that I take for when am. Trouble shall cause you as God. I can't think of a better way to focus on the goodness of God than through the Lord's Supper.
So I'm going to invite our deacons to come and prepare.