Aug 25 - Is God Good?
Healthy easy thing to describe kids with the cookies right make this a little bit more hungry to get out of here in time to get some lunch. But you know, that's that's the thing about God is
He doesn't expect you just to just to know this to believe just a jump in without thinking. But he actually says come and taste and see that he is good.
So I asked a question this morning and we always want to ask a question. When were when were answering anything. We always have to start with the question. The question is what brings us to trying to figure out what the answer is, I asked the question is God good. Can we have this repetition in the church and say God is good all the time and all the time. God is good.
spot Not everyone experiences everything that they have in their lives as something good and we don't always experience the things of God as something good right now. I'm pulling this morning's sermon from Psalm 145 and Matthew 7 7 through 12 a Psalm 145. Is it a great Psalm of David? I mean David is going through a lot of stuff. I mean he's going through so many things. I mean you hit your head saw like trying to hunt him down and he has to go and live in a cave or a while. Right. He's in his life isn't always good. I mean someone paranoid and and trying to make sure that he's trying to maintain his throne and you got this owns up start with a whip who wants to come and you know, and it take over the throne. I saw the solvents I was paranoid about that and so he just goes and tries on David down. And so I'm imagining when I'm if I had to be forced to live in a cave in somebody's trying to hunt me down for for taking their position taking their power and authority. I might not be thinking my life is so good right then. I'm not. So there's a there's a few things that we say all the time and I almost every day we say good morning to each other or good afternoon or good evening. I wondered though do we provide people the opportunity to respond with something other than good? I'm at home wondering cuz of kids and I don't usually have that opportunity. It might not have my day might not have started as good. I'll be honest with you this morning. I wasn't feeling my starting my day starting off as good. Tell sometimes I might say morning, you know, or have a good day, which is looking forward to things that come after that. I might not be experiencing a good morning. And so sometimes we need to say as a blessing to say have a good morning rather than suggesting to somebody that is already a good morning. And we also say that that that our food is good right now. That's some good cooking. That's what I hear all the time. That's what I heard in Texas right to somebody has a good chili or a good steak or some good barbecue. This is a common phrase now. That's some good cooking at work. She's a good cook, you know, something like a long that nature but you know with food not everybody thinks that that particular thing that you ate was good. All right, we all have different taste buds. We all have different things that we like to eat. Not everybody likes steak. I know that's a shock but not everybody likes steak. So we are we also say that someone is a good man or was a good man or a good person when they pass. Until you find out that something on was going on at home that you had no idea about. Until you figure out that there's some character major character flaw or something was going on some violence was happening in the home. Then do we continue to say that that person is good? What we say life is good. Now for some people and life may not be good. Amaya can be experiencing life totally different from what you are experiencing life with you might have opportunities in might have experienced those good things through those opportunities, but maybe they had none of them. Maybe they had the opposite of the opportunities that we had in life. So they are not experiencing life is good. So when I see a sticker on the back of a car going down the highway and my life isn't so good at the time. I roll my eyes. Right where I mumble under my breath. Or say something like that in response to this sticker on the back of the car. They says life is good, but maybe it's not. Maybe it's not.
So in the church, we say that God is good. And sometimes we don't always experience that In this passage that were talking about God's goodness and Matthew 7:7 through 14 it is literally my goodness, but it's not just merely like benevolence right or doing good for another person out of out of your kindness, right? It's not just merely benevolence. And it's also the opposite of Badness which is probably toss. So doing something that is is is that Badness till goodness isn't merely benevolence, but it's also one essential goodness. You are essentially good you have to have to be good right? It's a central its its primary is important for something right. So we talked about essential goodness when we're talking about God. We're also talking about righteousness. Being righteous being morally, correct. Right and we're also talking about Justice that God is just and what he does. God is always correct always right always with what needs to be done always just Till when we can comprehend God being good. It's not just good good just using it as a word like good without defining it in anything is really high and flighty, right? Can you can you think about the word good for a minute? I mean, is there some specific that you can always say is always good?
So I know if I give somebody some food. And I say that is good. Yeah, we could give the person food. Maybe what is good for them might have been getting it for themselves paying for it for themselves working for the food themselves? That might have been a better good for them. Till when we talk about God we're talking about goodness is in the Divine moral perfection, right? I don't understand what Perfection really means because I'm not God. So my my brain is so much last because I'm a creative being on I'm going to corrupted being so I can think of that I can think about being perfect but my thinking would have to be perfect for me to know what perfect means. All right god is perfect and I am not to wind down goes and talks about God God who is why right? That's that's moral perfection when it went down goes and talks about God is love right? That's that's a perfect relationship between us and God. I have no idea what that means. I don't know what the perfect relationship with me and means I don't know what moral perfection is because every time I try to do good It seems to hurt somebody. It seems to affect somebody in a way that I didn't intend. And so I got to figure out what is good. What is it something that I Define or is it something that God to find it? So that's why we go to Matthew. 19:17 is as why do you ask me in this is Jesus talking to
I like to point out of my head. Anyway, let's see what he says. Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus replied. There is only one who is good. But if you want to enter life keep the Commandments and I think this is when Jesus is talking to the rich man, who says that he is obeyed every Commandment that is always done everything good that he keeps looking Mamet first off. I had to think that's dubious. Right? Cuz all of us then so immediately do this would be like I'm okay now give up everything and follow me. Alright, so Jesus hasn't do one more thing that is more than he is willing to give up rights of God's goodness is more than we can do over cells are not on our own and God's goodness is so to perfect and instill right and he's always just somehow. Trust a live out there that it's it's possible. tattoo on arm Psalm 16:2 says I say to Lord you are my Lord and apart from you. I have no good. Again. This is this is David and David is worshipping God. He's praising God and even in his praise. He's acknowledging Lord. I cannot do this perfectly. I will never do this perfectly. And this is the guy that it is said in the word of God all over the entire word of God that God says that David is the one after his own heart. David is the one in the entire word that is said that David is the one man after God's Own Heart.
And David is saying apart from you. I can I have no good right? I can do no good.
the one guy
TV show for me descriptions of God's goodness, and neither. Is there complicated and I'll get the defining a little bit. And after this is originally good right from the start. Are you guys good from the start and he has no start right? Cuz he's infant internal and he actually made time don't ask me how that works. But God made time. The second one is God is independently good. There's nothing else that would rely on that. God needs in order to be good. He doesn't mean anyone else but himself to Define. What is good? He's essentially good right? If God wasn't good. How can God be gotten like I'm not going to follow God of God is good and evil and hateful and kills everybody. I'm not going to follow God God is essentially good and got it infinitely good again, right hand doesn't exist in time it so God is good, but it doesn't mean just alter out time, but in every instance and every point in every decision that could possibly be made by his will God is infinitely good. God is good from the beginning. Praying and God does everything that is perfect. And so that everything that was created right? He has to be aligned with God's will if it was contrary if anything was contrary to God's will he just would not have created it if he didn't want Adam ate the way he made Adam he wouldn't have made him that way. Does that make any sense? If he didn't want the tree of Good and Evil in the garden for Adam to choose he wouldn't have put the tree in the garden in first place. Cuz of God is good from the beginning originally before anything created right God is it is it is independently good because really if it's God's goodness who is based on anything. How could we how could we rely on the fact that God is God. It wouldn't be God to me then something else.
T'god is essentially good night. Because if God wasn't good, he wasn't he wouldn't be God and his perfect will is without conflict right? There's no conflict. There is no wavering on whether or something should be this way or that way and we don't understand that cuz we're human right to every choice that we make. We're always wavering in some fashion. Even after the fact that we made the choice. We still like the double think it
But God still cause creation good. God is infinitely good because God is without and and and and without form in the way they we we want to put God in a box and think about God with the with the human face in the human body. We watching think about God and those ways but God God is infinitely good is infinitely good all the time, and he must be good.
7 I was thinking about okay, like I had to live here and I live in time and so things have to happen in a sort of a certain way, you know, there's a start and I finish and so I had to think about and God's goodness in the how is God good. How is God God good in my life is good, and I've been in in human life, right?
Tyrone God creates because God is good. If you're good, that means you have to have something to focus on to be to give goodness right there has to be a relationship there. There has to be something else in order for something good to happen to relationship and and person Humanity was created because God is good. There has to be something else is there for you to focus that goodness on and so God is good true. The creative act and making Humanity God's goodness extends out from the Divine to humanity. So God is good. God creating God called All of creation inhumanity to be good. Yes even humans in humans. So then God at the end of the end of the creation route week God chooses a day to rest till God is good and knowing the in himself that he is good in the things that he created is good. And so he decided to rest he knew that things were good. He was okay with that. He's in peace with that. And so the piece of himself of God's goodness decided to rest and that to me is not to because if I had to manage like all of creation and Spiritual Beings and everything else and tell them what is good and right and try to maintain every relationship I would be nuts. All right, I wouldn't peanuts. I'm unlimited to what I have here. My my mind and my heart and God doesn't have that God is infinite. He has infinite goodness. 7 guy gives Humanity free will to choose because God is good. I mean what kind of God would would not allow us to choose whether or not we're in relationship with God. That he would not be God to me. Because love can only come through the fact that I can choose to love the person or not. Love the person I can choose to be good or I can choose to be bad. Whichever way I choose God still opens the door for my choosing even though goodness is exactly what he intends for us. Savannah human Humanity us we decide to do our own thing, right we have our own. Well we want to do our own thing and we have the opportunity opportunity to choose whether we're going to choose from the tree that is good and right and and God points is 2 or whether we're going to disobey him and and choose from the tree throat is not we can we can choose to decide whether or not we are going to be good or whether we are going to disobey and be bad. All right, we have that opportunity. We have the Temptation that comes to us and which shows to be contrary. To the will of God God's goodness. Savannah God promises his goodness to humanity and its structure humanity and how to live good right. He gives us his Commandments. He gives us his word. He shows us the ways to be good. He gives instructions for the entire people of Israel and how to live their lives from one year to the next and even Vianney cheers to a a number of years in in saying this is going to be the Year of Jubilee and everything gets made good again. improvises goodness and instructions on how to be good
is so God provides a way for our contrary Humanity to be restored back in the goodness. And that's through Jesus Christ. We don't know how to be good. So we need to be shown in exactly how to be good and Jesus Christ lives his life and instructs the disciples so that they can bend it eventually through his word and through example that through his examples show us and how to live a good life.
Today we can choose to live by that to be obedient to those things to instructions that wore to live. However, we choose to live.
Tell them when we do make that choice when we do choose to believe when we do choose to accept the goodness of God that comes through Christ.
his goodness Phil's off app with his holy spirit cuz then it becomes in a baby come as something of a of the base of us what we want to do then becomes good, right instead of what we wanting to do. It is being bad. We want to do bad and Christ and filling us up with his Spirit who is good. We want to do good. Instead of wanting to do whatever we want. Because we know that it's only through God and only through his goodness that we will ever be good in and out of ourselves. And I know that's a hard thing to say in this day and age because we want to believe that that we are good that we can just do good things. And as long as we do good things and when we die and people say good things about us then as long as people say that we are good. We're good.
But that's not what scripture tells us.
We must come to have faith and believe in Jesus Christ, but because it's only by his goodness and his death and his resurrection that we are made good again. We are made as the image of God again.
And that's hard for us a lot a lot of us to accept because we're still stuck on the fact that that we think that all we have to do is good things and then our life is good.
But God gives us Assurance right when we trust in God when we really trust in his Direction in his instructions when we have faith in him when we know that he is there he gives us a sherance and a piece that we live and move and we're doing good things that he has taught us to do instead of instead of doing whatever we think is good. And that might be good. That might be mad. We don't know. God knows our future and God knows our past and he can find he can give us the way through. Tell God's goodness is also experience as discipline. I if we were just doing whatever we wanted. We don't have discipline, right we just do whatever we want the way we want to do it live life to the fullest, you know, YOLO you only live once so you might as well do it once and get it over with that kind of mentality in that attitude is not a Christian way of living to be honest. If we're living under God and receiving Direction and guidance and instruction from God that we live is God wrecks. And sometimes that might come to us so, you know and in the middle of the night and you know, when we're more sleeping in and God might speak into our lives and into our hearts or while we're praying here. this morning we might hear that as an audible word in some way but most of us I'm guessing down. That's so there's other things that that direct nest in his goodness. I seen that goodness from one person to another one when somebody takes care of a child and they sing the child happy and whole and playing. We see that goodness. We see that goodness when somebody bake something for us like cookies or cakes or you know, 8 celebrates are our birthday or anniversary.
We see some goodness. When somebody just takes care of another person that as her life seems to be and depleting. We see goodness.
When we see each other encouraged one another as we're going through terrible on hard sufferings. We see goodness.
I see goodness.
T'god also empowers Us by his holy spirit to do the things we thought are impossible God heals. hummus And we can pray for healing.
And God can make that happen, but we have to be open to it. Tell God promises and God promises hundreds and I think I don't know if it's a thousand times but God promises so many things hundreds of time in his word about what he will give us in the ways. He renews us and their ways that he gives us hope for the future. Say I think God can't not be good and that's hard to say because I can do whatever you want. Yes. Sure. I can do whatever he wants, but he would not be good and God if he did not do good. Cuz it's God's good God's will.
Otherwise it said God is good all the time and in every way in every circumstance, so it's not it's not just like I'm going to sit down and say this is good because God did this once for this one person hundreds of years ago. And so therefore God is going to do the same thing today. That's not the way it works, right? Because God would not be good. Right, it would be like some sort of contract right that God would have to do this particular thing whether or not it would be hurtful or whether or not it would be good does not work that way. so
when we get to it.
And we don't feel like maybe we don't feel like right now that God is good.
That you're experiencing life. as good what do you allow someone else's faith in God to show you God's goodness. Or will you be that person and show the other person that God is good in that hard time.
To be reminded and be sure that God is good. Maybe you're not sure right now, but you can be in the future. And God is looking out for you all the time. So then I say God is good and God is good all the time. If you don't know that you can borrow that from me today. God is good. And he is good all the time.