God is Good | All the Time (Derik Fuller)

Morning everyone. I hope that got you excited.

If you want to turn to your Bibles for Psalm 27, I'm going

to read it through for our scripture reading this morning.

The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom should I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my

life. Whom should I dread?

When evil doers came against me to devour my flesh, my foes and

my enemies stumbled and fell. Though an army deploys against

me, my heart will not be afraid. Though a war breaks out against

me, I will still be confident. I have asked one thing from the

Lord. It is what I desire, to dwell in

the House of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the

beauty of the Lord and seeking Him in His temple.

For He will conceal me in His shelter.

In the day of adversity. He will hide me under the cover

of His tent. He will set me high on a rock.

Then my head will be high above my enemies.

Around me I will offer sacrifices in His tent.

With shouts of joy I will sing and make music to the Lord.

Lord, hear my voice when I call. Be gracious to me and answer me.

My heart says this about you. Seek his face.

Lord, I will seek your face. Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger.

You have been my helper. Do not leave me or abandoned me.

God of my salvation, even if my father and mother abandoned me,

the Lord cares for me because of my adversaries.

Show me your way, Lord, and lead me on a level path.

Do not give me over to the will of my foes, for false witnesses

rise up against me, breathing violence.

I am certain that I will see the Lord's goodness in the land of

the living. Wait for the Lord.

Be strong and let your heart be courageous.

Wait for the Lord. Thank you, Laura.

For those of you who don't know Laura, Laura is our camp

director for the summer. You can be praying for her and

for the team as we get ready for camps that are going to launch

just in a couple weeks. Here we have seven weeks of

camp, tons of kids. If you want to volunteer, I know

Laura would love to talk to you. We can always use more hands as

we have the opportunity to bless families and kids in our

neighborhood. In case you can't figure it out

from the title, we're going to talk about the goodness of God

this morning and next week and next week.

Pastor Kirk is going to lead us as we talk through giving thanks

to God and we're going to celebrate.

As we celebrate on Celebration Sunday, we have so much to give

thanks for. One of the first prayers that I

learned was the just filled with theological depth and richness.

God is good, God is great, and we thank Him for our food.

Amen. That was probably the most heard

prayer that I heard as a kid growing up.

And, and it's good to thank God and his goodness.

But as we come this week, I want to address what I think is the

elephant in the room when we come to a topic like the

goodness of God. And that is, how good is God

really? Like, is he, is he really good?

I mean, it's one thing for us to say, right?

Some of you, you grew up in church settings where it was a

common refrain to say God is good and the people would

respond with all the time. Then we would say all the time

God is good. But is that true?

Is he really good all the time, even in times like these, Even

in times where missiles are flying between countries and

places like Iran and and Israel, in places like Ukraine and

Russia? Even when in this moment right

now, 3 million people are on the brink of starvation in Sudan and

South Sudan with almost 35 million in desperate famine

mode? Is he good even in the spaces

and times that we live in on this globe where there seems to

be so much that isn't good? Is he good even in my life?

Even when my marriage is falling apart, even when my kid has

given in to the demons of addiction, even when my finances

are a disaster, even when I'm struggling to figure out how to

put food on the plate and a roof over my head?

Is he good in that? See, we end up in this space

where we say, if God is good, why doesn't he do something

about and you can fill in your blank this morning because I can

guarantee you in this room, we all have a blank to be filled in

there. There's all a spot where some of

us are struggling with believing the goodness of God because of a

circumstance that's going on around us or a circumstance that

is going on in our lives and in our heart right now.

We say, if God is good, why? And I just want to say I don't,

I don't know why you're facing what you're facing this morning.

I don't know why God has allowed this chapter to be part of your

story. I don't know why you are walking

through this moment. But there's two things I know

and I am certain of. First, saying God is good does

not mean saying that what you are walking through and going

through is good. Those are two different things.

So I don't want anyone here this morning who is struggling and

suffering and walking through deep waters to hear me say what

you are going through is good. I do want you to hear this.

God is good all the time. That's the other thing I know

even in the times where your heart is doubting, even in the

midst of the struggle that you are going through, even as your

heart cries out, why? Even in the moments where maybe

even right now you're tempted to just shake your fist at God and

say if you don't fix this, I'm done.

I'm out of I'm out of here. In fact, I know listening here,

watching later, there are people in this space or who will hear

this message where you've got 1 foot out the door already

because you are struggling to believe in the goodness of God.

But I can say that God is good all the time because God's

goodness is not rooted in your or my circumstances.

God's goodness is rooted in his character.

That's what we mean when we say God is good.

This is the reminder that the Psalm, Psalm 27 that Laura just

read for us. It's a reminder of God's

goodness, not because of what David was going through.

In fact, Dave went through some terrible stuff.

We don't actually know where this is falling in David's life

because it could have fallen in so many places.

David was mistreated. He had horrible things happen

his life. He was the cause of some

terrible things that happened in his life.

He lost children. You think your family is a mess?

David's family was a train wreck.

David had 1/2 son who raped his half daughter.

He had another son who caused a armed uprising, split the the

Kingdom and tried to take him out.

He is his family was a mess. David knew what it was like to

live in not good circumstances and yet here he calls out about

the goodness of God. We see it in the words, right?

He's talking about the fact an army deploys against me.

Some of you feel like that's your life right now.

There's an army deployed against you're just up against it.

War breaks out against me. Some of you are in the thick of

conflict right now. He cries out, don't leave me or

abandoned me. Why does he cry out don't leave

me or abandoned me? Because he feels like he's been

left in abandoned. He feels lonely.

He feels in this all alone and isolated.

But despite his circumstances, David can cry out these things.

He's my light and my salvation. He he's my stronghold and

shelter. While the war is raging, well,

the armies are coming. He's my stronghold and my

shelter. Well, well, I'm I'm feeling

isolated, alone. What does what does David say?

I know the one who cares about me more than my own father or

mother, who will never abandoned me.

Knowing that the goodness is not about our circumstances, but

it's about the character of God himself.

It moves the if. Here's what I mean by that.

See, our natural tendency is to ask this question.

If God is good, then why? That's a natural question to

ask, but David's knowledge of God's character moves the if for

him. It moves it to here God is good

even if and moving that if makes all the difference.

And so my prayer for you this morning, whether you're here in

person watching online, you listen to this later, is that as

you have your eyes open to the goodness of God, as David had

his eyes open to God's goodness, that your if would move, even if

your circumstances don't change. The God would move in your heart

and give you the confidence and certainty of his goodness the

way he did. David, even when you're in the

midst of the storm, that you would know that despite the

clouds of the sun still shining, just struggling to see it.

And and here's why I want you to know this because some really

powerful things happen in our life when we have the certainty

of God's goodness. First is this when you know that

God is good all the time can make your fear take flight.

That's that's the the cry here of David in the 1st 4 verses.

Listen to these words again. He says the Lord is my light and

my salvation. Whom should I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life.

Whom should I dread when evil doers came against me to devour

my flesh, my foes and my enemies stumbled and fell.

Though an army deploys against me, my heart will not be afraid.

Though a war breaks out against me, I will still be confident.

If your person who is overcome with worry and anxiety this

morning, I just want to let you know you've got a big blinking

red alarm going off in your heart that is warning you that

you're struggling to know and see and believe in the goodness

of God. And I don't, I don't say that at

all as a judgment. We all go through that.

I'm, I'm saying this to you so you have some understanding of

where worry and fear and anxiety come from.

They come from a struggle to believe that God is as good as

God actually is, to be confident in that.

Sometimes the biggest enemy that we face isn't the enemy that's

out there, it's the enemy that's in here.

It's the fear that wants to overtake us when we struggle to

believe in God's goodness, right?

And and fear is not usually something that is a big struggle

for me to a fault. My wife will tell you there have

been a number of times where I should have a lot greater level

of fear so that I don't injure myself, hurt myself, do stupid

things to myself. It's not usually my issue, but

let me share a time when fear started to grab a hold of my

heart. Some of you may not know that we

were down in Florida when they began to shut the world down for

COVID and everybody was trying to figure this stuff out and,

and we were just about to enter into a leadership transition

here at the church. And so Pastor Kirk and I had

been talking and meeting the board of a meeting and the board

was just ready to tell the staff the plan to have Pastor Kirk and

I start into this new role and new position.

Everything starts to shut down. On top of that, Amanda is

immunocompromised and we didn't know what's going on with this

virus. And it seemed pretty clear that

any time that a virus comes out, she's at greater risk than

anybody else. We got all this stuff going on

and I'm starting to look and then I start to get bombarded

with emails and phone calls of people who are fearful on all

sides. And I just got to say everyone

was scared. They just showed it in different

ways. Some people got panicked, some

people got angry, but all of it came out of fear.

And as that's happened and IBM bombarded with this stuff, I

thought, Lord, what is going to happen?

What are we going to do? How do we move through this?

What do you do? What do you do when everything

seems to be swirling and it just seems to be going out of

control? You do what David does first.

You remind yourself of how God is good.

You tell yourself He's my light and my salvation.

But whenever you struggle to believe in the goodness of God,

you know what you do. Look at the cross.

You wonder how good God is. He's so good he bled and died

for you. You know where God is in your

suffering, running into it to rescue you and save you on the

cross. He's the stronghold of your

life. It's amazing how you don't have

to control everything when you have a firm confidence that you

know the one who's in control of everything.

Mind yourself. No, no, he's the sovereign Lord.

He's God. He speaks the universe into

existence, held in place by His power.

Every atom in the universe sticks together because of God.

If you're in Christ, even in your current circumstances, you

can know that nothing is out of control because God's in

control. Well, this God is my light,

right? There was two things as a kid

that would set me at ease when I was a kid, scared of the dark.

And that was one other time where I was often scared.

When I was a kid, I was scared of the dark all the time.

So if I woke up and I had a nightmare, I need one or two

things. First, turn that light on. 2nd,

if the light was going to be off, then I wanted my dad there.

I wanted my dad there because there's something about having a

dad who you know and trust and who's just bigger than

everything else, right? When you're a kid, man, there's

nobody bigger and badder than your dad.

And that's actually true for us as Christians.

On Father's Day, we got the greatest father of all, and

there's nobody bigger or badder than him.

Dad. I just want to say this to the

dad's side note. That's be the type of dad that

builds faith and confidence in your kids and their heavenly

Father. Be that type of dad.

You won't be it perfectly, none of us are, but be the type of

dad who can be counted on, who keeps his word, who protects his

family and his kids. So you got to remind yourself of

how God is good, but you also have to remind yourself of how

God has been good. David actually goes back to

another time in his life where he was up against it.

He said I had this time where my enemies, they were going to

devour my flesh, but God showed up.

In your own life, you need to be able to think back to the times

where it's been dark before, but God shows up.

He answers prayers. Remind yourself that the same

God who was good to me in the past is good today and will be

good in my future. I can think about this again

from my life. One of the things that I did

when I was in that space of fear, I was like, listen, we've

done the job transfer. I mean, one at one point Amanda

and I lived in like 4 cities in five years.

He got us through. We've done the job transition

thing. I, I know how to do this.

He's always been so good and gracious to us, and the entire

time that Amanda and I have been together, she's never been

hospitalized despite all the stuff as we should never had to

stay in the hospital. Brace God.

And I just, no, God's got this. He cares for her more than I do.

You need to remind yourself of God's goodness in your past, and

you need to remind yourself of God's goodness in the lives of

others because sometimes our stories feel like they're not

enough. And that's why a story like this

in the Bible, you can look at a guy like David.

You can see how God showed up in David's life and protected him

and got him through and say that God is my God.

He'll get me through. That's why it's so good to be in

community because we need people who will speak into our lives

and share with us and tell us about how we're not in this on

our own. They're praying for us.

God has shown up in their life. He's going to show up in our

life. He's the same God.

Next thing I want you to see, not only does it make fear take

flight, but knowing that God is good will change the way we

pray. I don't know about you, but my

first prayer when I'm up against it, when things are going rough,

is usually this. Lord, Get Me Out of this.

Lord, fix this, God. God cure this disease.

God, fix my finances. God, heal this relationship.

Get Me Out. And I want to say those are all

valid prayers. Call out to God, Bring him your

struggles. Cast all your cares upon him

because He cares for you. But listen to how David prays.

I've asked one thing from the Lord.

It's what I desire. Not to get out, but to get in,

to dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life,

gazing on the beauty of the Lord, seeking him in his temple.

See, David realizes that the most important prayer is not

God, Get Me Out, It's God, let me in.

By the way, it's also a prayer that God answers yes to every

time, right? This is, this is our story.

This is the gospel story. Jesus came to us in our

distress, in our trouble, knowing that we could not make

it to God on our own. God comes to us so that we can

come into his presence through Jesus Christ, so that we can be

made right and made clean. We could never our work our way

to God. So God came down and did all the

work in the person of Jesus to save us.

Again, I say to you, we so often ask where God is in our pain.

The answer is He came down into it.

He's right here with us. He's doing the only thing that

can rescue us from it. When we accept what Jesus did

and choose to follow Him, the promise is His presence now

forever. His presence comes in the person

of the Holy Spirit. If you have called out and

accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit has come

down and is dwelling with you, and you are now the temple of

the Lord, and we collectively together function as His temple.

He takes up residence. His presence is there and so

foretaste of what it's going to be like forever when we get to

enjoy God's presence, the new heaven and new earth for all

eternity, just like it was back as God originally created it to

be with Adam and Eve in the garden.

And then this, He will conceal me in His shelter in the day of

adversity. Why do I want God?

Because when I'm with God, here's what I know.

He'll conceal me in His shelter in the day of adversity.

He'll hide me under the cover of His tent.

He'll set me high on a rock, then my head will be high above

my enemies around. When you are in it, you just

feel like you're drowning, right?

You just struggling to stay above water.

That's where some of you are, that you're just struggling.

And there's this picture of God just lifting David up and his

head is up high and he's he's floating.

So you aren't in this alone, and you will overcome, because if

you are in Christ, Christ is in you first, John 54 says.

Everyone who has been born of God, everybody who knows Jesus,

has trusted him as Lord and Savior, has been redeemed,

overcomes the world. If you're with Jesus and the

Holy Spirit is in you, the question isn't whether you're

going to get through this. The question is when are you

going to get through it? Because you will get through it.

You have overcome the world through Christ Jesus.

And what does this truth do for David?

It drives him to worship. Knowing that God is good all the

time will drive us to worship. He says I'll, I'll offer

sacrifices in his tent with shouts of joy.

I will sing and make music to the Lord.

What drives our worship as followers of Jesus is not that.

Maybe if we sing to the Lord, he'll help us.

Maybe if we sacrifice to the Lord, he'll hear us.

Maybe if we worship to Him, He'll answer us No, No, no, no,

no, no, no. We don't praise God so that He

will be good to us. We praise God because we know He

is good and because He is good, He will do good.

That changes our worship because all of a sudden we sing to

remind ourselves to be stirred up in our hearts about His

goodness. I want to encourage some of you

who who come in late all the time and kind of miss the

singing. Sometimes your heart needs a

song more than it needs a sermon.

Because sometimes what we need is in our heart, not just in our

heads. We'll we'll sacrifice because in

his loving kindness, in his goodness, we know that he has

sacrificed for us through Christ Jesus.

We'll worship Him with our whole lives.

No, not so that He would do something for us, but because we

know He's worthy of our worship. Now here's the thing.

No matter how deeply we know this in our head, in our hearts,

doubt creeps in for all of us. Doubt creeps in about the

goodness of God. You hear it here in David's

voice. Lord, Lord, hear my voice when I

call. Be gracious to me.

Answer me. My heart says this about you.

Seek his face. Lord I I will seek your face.

Don't hide your face from me. Don't turn your servant away in

anger. You've been my helper.

Don't leave me or abandoned me. God of my salvation, even if my

father and mother abandoned me, the Lord cares for me because of

my adversaries show me your way, Lord, lead me on a level path

don't give me over to the will of my foes for false witnesses

rise up against me breathing violence.

Knowing that God is a good God will comfort us in our doubts

when those doubts come. One of the reasons that creating

space in our lives to spend time with God on a daily basis to

create regular rhythms of spending time together with God

in community is so important is because we need to be reminded

our hearts and our heads right His, his heart says to him, His

heart says to him, seek his face and then he has to tell himself

I will seek his face. It is heart and will, and

sometimes it's the will to just show up at your discipleship

group, to show up at church, to sit down and open the Word of

God regularly on a Sunday or on a on a weekday morning and come

to Him in prayer. It's the will to do that that

creates the space for God's goodness to begin to work its

way out into your heart. Do you know that some of you are

here today because God is good? Because even though you didn't

want to come today, God drew you in because He knew you needed

this this morning, even when you doubted it.

You needed to know you are loved.

You needed to know you are not abandoned.

You needed to hear from the Holy Father.

He's faithful. You needed to know those things

and God in His goodness knew you needed them.

So He brought you here, and I'm not saying that that'll get you

through all the way to the other end, but it'll help you take

another step forward. If there's any part of you that

doubts God's love and God's care, I want you to hear that

God loves you. He cares for you.

Some of you, you struggle with believing the goodness of God

because like David says, even if my father and mother abandoned

me, so you have deep, deep father and mother wounds in your

life. And so every time something goes

wrong, every time things get iffy, every time it gets

chaotic, you had moms and dads who just frankly weren't good.

They weren't good moms that I'm so thankful.

We got so many good dads here. And I pray that God will

continue to raise up good dads here at Forward Church to be

great ambassadors for the Heavenly Father.

But some of you need to know that despite the fact that you

had a mom or dad that abandoned you, that wasn't good to you,

God's good. He cares, He loves you.

And even though you're in this right now, he's not done with

you yet. He's not going to give up on you

and He's not going to run away from you.

Even though my father and mother abandoned me, the Lord cares for

me. Do you know the best thing that

you can do when you're doubting God's goodness?

Two things. First, be honest.

That's sometimes a revelation of in churches, which is just the

dumbest thing. I can't say this enough.

This is the space and place that you can be real.

This is the number one space where we should be able to be

authentic about what's going on in our lives.

Be honest with God. That's what David is.

He's honest, man, lonely. I don't know if you care.

I'm down here, I'm struggling. What are you doing?

God? Be honest.

But then the second thing, lean in rather than run away.

So that's what that's what David does.

He leans in, he doesn't run away.

He comes in closer. And some of you are so close to

giving up on God today. God's not giving up on you.

Just keep crying out to him. Keep searching for him.

Keep showing up. Don't run away.

Let this be your cry like David's was.

My heart says this about you. Seek his face and then, Lord, I

will seek your face. Would this be the day where some

of you would plant a flag who are close to letting your feet

go out the door in a relationship with God and say,

no, I'm going to plant a flag. I will seek his face because

he's good. And then listen how this ends.

I'm certain that I will see the Lord's goodness in the land of

the living. We'll see where his doubts went.

I'm certain I will see the Lord's goodness in the land of

living. Wait for the Lord.

He's got to preach to himself again.

We got to preach to ourselves. You can't just have Pastor Kirk

or Pastor be preaching. You got to preach to yourself.

Wait for the Lord. Be strong.

Let your heart be courageous. Wait for the Lord.

I want to share with you, as we come to a close here, the story

of someone in our congregation who's been walking through what

it's like to find the goodness of God in the midst of

circumstances that aren't all settled.

And so this is Laura's story. You don't know you were on a

mountaintop until you're staring up at it from the valley.

I remember Christmas 2023. It was a normal Christmas.

I remember being at home Christmas morning.

My kids were spending some time playing with their toys and my

husband and I were enjoying the first Christmas where we could

have time to open our presents in peace.

I remember my dad texting me saying are you going to be the

last ones to arrive when you live the closest to us?

During a present exchange that year, I remember my

sister-in-law gave my mom a devotional titled The Lives We

Actually Have. It was 100 Blessings for

Imperfect Days. Little did I know how important

that devotional would be because 2024 was coming.

My dad's unexplained leg pain started to worsen in the new

year until I went over one Saturday in February and

recognized we were not dealing with just like pain.

He was facing the reality of cancer.

My dad went into the hospital around the first week of March

and would die at the beginning of May.

To explain my experience, imagine that there's a treadmill

that was going at top speed. When he was diagnosed, my whole

family jumped on that treadmill and started running.

At first we were keeping up, then we started to gradually

fall behind. With each stride I could see

that we were moments away from slipping off the back of that

treadmill and then the treadmill just stopped and my family,

minus my dad, were projected forward, falling into a big pile

on the ground. As a primary care practitioner,

I remember thinking, what is the point of doing what I do?

My dad was my number one patient and I could not keep up with it

all to save him. After my dad's death, my family

started to pick themselves individually up out of that

mess. We all suffered in different

ways and there was a lot of hurt and discord.

A family that the hospital was in awe of her being so United

was falling apart. By the end of 2024, my marriage

got its turn. My husband and I were at odds

with each other. I remember thinking, what did I

do to deserve all this coming at me from all directions?

My child, who I had had a traumatic birth with, started to

have lymph node swelling, which was the source of my dad's

cancer. I started to worry and become

anxious. I was experiencing trauma

stacked onto trauma. Then to add to even more

challenges in my life, at the beginning of 2025, my husband

lost his job. But in the words of my disciple

ship group, family but God. But God used my dad's situation

to shine a light into that hospital to minister to the

healthcare providers who were caring for him.

But God spoke to my dad early one Monday morning to tell him

to prepare to go to glory, and to allow him the ability to tell

us it was time for him to go see Jesus.

But God surrounded my dad and family with Christians from that

moment on to usher him into glory.

But God dissolved my fears about being a primary care

practitioner through a miraculous dream where doubt and

indifference were put in their place.

And His truth and His light shone through that darkness.

But God walked with me through those terrible days of family

discord by providing me with the fruits of the Spirit.

But God provided me with a Christian magazine article about

how dancing saved my marriage, prompting my husband and I to

dance ourselves back into the marriage God had planned for us.

But God walked with us through multiple medical appointments.

But God will provide an opportunity for my husband's

employment. But God sent me this passage on

my daily devotions one year after my dad's death.

Isaiah 4318 to 19. Do not remember the past events.

Pay no attention to things of old.

Look, I am about to do something new.

Even now it is coming. Do you not see it?

Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the

desert. See, you can easily look at my

story and question why God didn't show up in a big way or

why does God not lift me out of this wilderness experience.

My dad still died, my family is still figuring things out

without him, my child's lymph nodes are still big, and my

husband is still job searching. But through it all I have come

to know that the question is not when will He Get Me Out of this

fire, but rather it is am I going to trust the One who's in

the fire with me? When I start to focus on how He

is showing up His daily mercies, I start to realize that all is

well if I just have Him by my side.

As the song Highland says. No less God within the shadows,

no less faithful when the night leads me astray.

You're the heaven where my heart is in the Highlands, and the

heartache all the same. Blessed is the one who trusts

the Lord. Jeremiah 17, seven to 8.

By the way, two days after, yeah, you and Claire, two days

after Laura filmed that her husband Matt got a job.

See how God moves your if when you see His goodness, remind

yourself today of who He is. Call out to Him to let you in,

even if He's not going to take you out of all the things that

you're going through. Don't fold, don't run away.

Plant your flag. Seek His face, and I am certain

that you and I will see the Lord's goodness in the land of

the living. Wait for the Lord.

Be strong, let your heart be courageous.

Forward Church, wait for the Lord.

Let's pray, Father, you are good, you are great, and we do

thank you for your food. We thank you for everything.

It's so easy for us, God. It's scared, simple people who

struggle to see the whole picture, who don't know the wise

to get frightened and to want to run off and run away.

God, would you convince us in our hearts today that.

The best place that we can be is in your presence, God.

Would you steady hearts that are shaking today?

Would you put your arms around those whose hearts are crying

out on this Father's Day? For those who have maybe lost a

father, would you let them know that they have not been

abandoned? You're there with them.

God help us to know your goodness even when what we're

going through isn't good. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.