What's Really Good?

What’s Really Good?

Today I’m going to preach a message called “What’s Really Good?”

Last week we talked about being in the vine and standing up for the truth.

Today we’re going to talk about what’s happening in our world that is making it so important for us to stand.

The issue that we have today is that the word GOOD is being misinterpreted.

Christians are changing what is GOOD based on the cultures standards and not GOD’S.

We are being deceived into thinking that certain things are GOOD when in reality they’re not.

We live in a world that says “truth” is relative.

What does “relative truth” mean?

It means what’s true for you may not be true for me.

For example, if I were to show you a picture of a painting some of you might say that the picture is beautiful.

Some might say it’s hideous. You both can be right because everyone sees things differently.

The problem is our culture is bringing relative truth into our relationship with God.

Christians are too afraid to say something is wrong or to call out sin.

This is causing believers to be deceived.

The bible teaches us that in the last days many are going to be deceived.

1 Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.”(NIV)

Christians are not going to be deceived by blatant sin. (murder, theft, etc.)

We are going to be deceived by evil that appears to be GOOD!

This goes back to Adam and Eve.

Most people forget why Eve was drawn to the tree to begin with.

It was the GOOD side of the tree not the evil.

Genesis 3:6 “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (NIV)

So God tells Adam not to eat from this tree or they will die.

But look at the words that described this tree.

“good for food”, “pleasing to the eye”, desirable for gaining wisdom”.

These all sound like pretty good things right?

Yet God said not to eat from it.

Now people might ask why would God even put that tree in there?

If that tree wasn’t there then Adam and Eve never would have sinned and life would be perfect!!

But you see God didn’t create robots.

He wanted people to CHOOSE to obey Him and love Him.

Now some people believe there were at least 2500 trees in this garden because scientists say that there are 2500 different fruit bearing trees in the world.

Either way there are probably a lot of trees in this garden.

So because God gave us free will He tells them they can eat from ANY tree in the garden except this one. He wanted to give them a CHOICE to obey or not.

So the devil comes in and does what he does best, DECEIVES

And he deceives by making sin look appealing.

Genesis 3:1-5 “The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” 2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” 4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

The devil is very good with words. He knows just what to say to get you to believe the message he wants you to believe.

But what’s interesting is what the devil did to Eve he does to us.

You see he got Eve to take her focus off of the 2499 trees that she could eat from and focus on the 1 that she can’t.

Instead of her saying, “I can’t believe I have so many amazing trees I can eat from,” she forgets about them and can only think of the one tree she can’t.

That’s exactly what the devil does to us.

Instead of focusing on all the BLESSINGS God has given us and all the good things in our life, he wants you to focus on the one or two things that are not going quite the way you would like it to go.

A big reason why so many people battle with what’s right and wrong is because their knowledge is communicated knowledge instead of revealed knowledge.

Communicated knowledge is something that you believe because you’ve heard someone else say it’s true. (friend, pastor, parent, etc.)

This is a huge problem with Christians today.

They heard some pastor or someone they trust tell them what they believe so they just believe it themselves.

Revealed knowledge is something that you believe because God showed you either by His Word or in your spirit.

Going back to Adam and Eve.

Eve had communicated knowledge and that’s probably a big reason why she was easily deceived.

God told Adam not to eat from that tree.

Adam told Eve at some point not to eat from there.

Think how if the devil was successful in deceiving Eve when she lived in a perfect world with no abuse, betrayal, offense, or anything.

How much easier is it for him to deceive us when we live in a fallen world and have experienced those things?

This is why in James 1:16 and so many other verses in the Bible he says, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.”

The good news here is that if God is saying “do not be deceived”, it means that it's possible to not be deceived.

If you don’t KNOW what the Word says then how can you truly know what is right.

Joshua 1:8 “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”

Listen to what Paul says to Timothy

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”

God gave us His word to teach us and correct us.

2 Timothy 1:14 “Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.”

Hebrews 2:1 “So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.”

The trouble with drifting is that you don’t know when you are.

It’s like being in a boat with no anchor and after a while you look around and realize you have no idea where you’re at.

The problem is that we are letting our culture tell us what is right and wrong and therefore many Christians are drifting away.

So we compromise and say things like, let’s move in together because we love each other and we’ll save money on rent and we’re going to get married eventually.

Homosexuality, it’s all about love and God is love so he understands.

2 Timothy 3:1-5, 12-15 “You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times.2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.” … 12 Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13 But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived. 14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the Holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus.”

Doesn’t that sound familiar?

We live in a day that Christianity is under attack.

We’re being told that what we believe is wrong and we need to change.

But my God is the same yesterday, today, and forever!!

Today we live in a culture that is sooo afraid to offend anyone that we can’t ever tell someone they are wrong about anything.

There’s a video on YouTube that I encourage you to watch that was made 4 years ago.

The title of it is “Gender Identity: Can a 5'9, White Guy Be a 6'5, Chinese Woman?”

In this video a 5’9 white guy goes around to students at the University of Washington to discuss the issue of people being able to use the restroom that they identify with.

So naturally a lot of people didn’t have a problem with people using the bathroom they identify with.

So this man basically wanted to see how far they would go with this.

So he asks them questions like, “if I told you I was a woman what would you say?”

Then he asked “what if I said I was a chinese woman?”

Then he says, “what if I told you I was a 6’5” chinese woman?”

Some people still were going along with it.

Then he asks, “what if I said I was 7 years old?”

He said, “should I be able to go to a first grade class?”

And many of these people said YES as long as you’re not hurting anyone.

My point is this…

It’s not even about the whole transgender issue necessarily.

It’s the fact that we live in a culture that a 30 year old man could say, I feel like I’m 7 years old and want to attend a first grade class and people are too afraid to say NO because we don’t want to offend him.

And this mindset is invading the church.

But guess what?

The TRUE GOSPEL is OFFENSIVE to some people!

And we are not going to stay silent because we’re afraid we might hurt someone’s feelings.

Like I said last week, we will do it in love but we will stand for truth.

Many of you have probably heard of quote that says, “If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything.”

What do you stand for?

Has your idea of what’s GOOD changed with culture or has it stayed firm on the Word of God?

Church my challenge to you is this…

Study the scriptures

Find out what the word of God says about certain things, not what our culture says.

Remember. Good that is contrary to God is not good AT ALL!

So ask yourself this morning, what’s your definition of good?

Altar Call