Why the Goodness of God is So Important (Psalm 34) | 4/26/2026

All right, OK, good morning and welcome back.

And if you're watching online this morning, grateful that you

were here with us, whether it's live with us at 11:18 on Sunday

morning or sometime in the near future, grateful that you are

here. All right, if you have your

Bibles, please take them and turn to Psalm chapter 34.

Psalms 34 · chapter mention

And I think they we ran out of notes again.

And so they are being printed and you can have them in a

moment. And when Brad heads back in, all

right, if you're watching online, also want to let you

know that you are invited to come be with us in person at 115

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Our services are at 9:00 and 10:30 on Sunday mornings.

All right, so notes again, you can grab those on the back

table. And I'm going to start with

Psalm chapter 34. And we will be reading from

Psalms 34 · chapter mention

verse 8. The Psalmist writes, oh, taste

and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes

refuge in him. Taste and see that the Lord is

good. This morning I want to talk to

you about the goodness of God and why it is so important.

The goodness of God and why it's so important.

Let me pray for us, God, on this beautiful sunny day.

We've chosen to be here and worship together to honor you

and to exalt you again in fellowship and in song and in

giving. And now our heart is to honor

you with attention to your Word and openness and heart and mind

to grow in our understanding about Your goodness and why a

belief in Your goodness is so vital and so important in the

life of a follower of Jesus. So show us, stretch our thinking

and reveal yourself to us. We pray in Jesus name.

And everyone said, hey man. Now, some of you might have

grown up in a tradition of Christianity or maybe you're new

to Christianity, but I must sadly say that many traditions

with this in Christianity do not paint God as good.

Some paint God in this way where where he's painted is like this

ogre of sorts and a throne in heaven with maybe a big staff or

something and he's watching for opportunities to smash you like

an Ant, right? Or maybe you came from a a

tradition where where the wrath of God, and certainly God has

wrath. And we'll even show you some

occasions today in the context of the goodness of God where he

also has wrath and judgment. But if you were from a tradition

of Christianity where they painted God is just this

constant figure, God who is has wrath and anger and rage, then

you will have missed who God is. And it's so foundational to our

faith to get this simple truth. God is good.

Because if you get your head around it and you lean into it

well, then it will shape the way that you follow and chase and

pursue Jesus and the way that you love him and serve him.

If you serve him as a result of the goodness of God, then it

will look differently than you serving God out of fear or

anxiety or the likes. So this morning, my hope is to

increase within you a great understanding and appreciation

and an awe for the goodness of God.

And what I want to show you is that the theme of the goodness

of God is throughout Scripture, OK?

It's a tapestry that's weaved from Genesis all the way to the

end, the goodness of God. You're going to see how often

it's mentioned, OK? Now, when you think about the

attributes of the characteristics of God, maybe

you think about things like the holiness of God.

And certainly the holiness of God is so important when we

think about God. And what's interesting about the

holiness of God is that in Isaiah and in Revelation, when

God is, when there's this vision of heaven and the heavenly

creatures that are around the throne of God.

Isaiah and John in Revelation, they say that the heavenly

creatures are crying continually around the throne.

Holy, holy, holy. This is where the hymn comes

from, right? Holy, holy, holy Lord God

Almighty. It's not just holy, it's the

Lord God Almighty. It's holy, holy, holy.

Why? The songwriter of the hymn is

leaning into Isaiah and John's revelation of what the heavenly

creatures are calling God. And if it, if they're

continually saying holy, then wouldn't it sound like

continually saying holy, holy, holy, right?

You're continually saying it. But John and Isaiah want you to

know that God is not just holy, but he's holy, holy, holy.

So holiness certainly an attribute of God.

God is all powerful. There's nothing that he cannot

accomplish or do. God is loving and God is

omnipresent, meaning he's everywhere.

We just finished the series on the Holy Spirit and we learned

that yes, the Spirit, the presence of God is everywhere.

And then additionally, God chooses to reveal himself in

these unique ways. He manifests his presence at

particular places and people and things sometimes, right?

And he certainly did that in the Old Testament.

You saw him manifesting his presence in in the in the tent

and then in the Tabernacle and then in the temple and in his

people in the New Testament. Now we now the Holy Spirit, we

are the temple that the Holy Spirit abides in.

So thinking about attributes of God, He's omnipresent, he's

everywhere and then he chooses to manifest himself in certain

moments and then God is all knowing.

So a knowledge of these attributes of God, yes, we

should know these, but I will tell you that the goodness of

God is one of the most mentioned attributes in all Scripture.

It's a reoccurring theme. It becomes over and over and

over again. And depending on what

translation you have, I'm teaching this morning out of the

English standard version. But depending on whether you

have New Living Translation or King James or NIV, just in the

Psalms alone, the goodness of God is mentioned 63 times.

And depending on your translation, the goodness of God

is mentioned hundreds of times in Scripture.

And sometimes it's called kindness.

There are other words that that mean likely the same much as

goodness, but I want you to know that the theme of the goodness

of God is there from the beginning in Genesis.

We'll get there in a minute and goes all the way through the New

Testament over and over again. Now, I love that the psalmist

that we read at the beginning, Psalm 34, verse 8, he says this.

Psalms 34:8

He doesn't just say taste and see that the Lord is good.

He says, oh, there's that. OH, oh, taste and see that the

Lord is good. It reminds me, we have some

friends in town from the Grand Rapids area and they were in the

first service with Jace. And yesterday we drove from our

home, which is about 1/2 hour. So we drove over to Petoskey to

Happy Tacos. Anybody been to Happy Tacos in

Petoskey? Happy Tacos man way.

Even if you've been doing Happy Tacos?

OK, a couple of you. It's amazing.

I love happy tacos. I mean, we got tacos in Gaylord.

We have Taco Bell and every so often, if I'm in a hurry, Taco

Bell suffices, right? But I've never said about taste.

I've never said about Taco Bell. It's like, oh, taste and see

about Taco Bell. But when it comes to happy

tacos, we took our friends here yesterday and especially Jay,

she was like, oh, taste and see how good these tacos are, right?

So when the song is and Jason loves to sell, like if you know,

if she has a movie she likes or product that she likes or food,

that's like she's going to tell you about it and she wants to

convert you. And this is true of her faith in

Jesus, right? So we converted some people

yesterday to happy tacos, OK? And they taste and they saw,

they taste it and they saw that they're good.

So the psalmist, that's what he's saying he's it's an

invitation. Taste and see.

Lean in and be open to how good God is.

That's his cry. So a belief in the goodness of

God is arguably the most important belief that you can

have about God because you won't even come, Let's say you come

into salvation with him, but you're not unaware of his

goodness and you see him. You can be saved.

You can, but, but if you missed his goodness, then you will.

You can live a pretty pathetic Christian life.

You can exist, but as far as living in victory and relate in

beautiful relationship with God, you can miss it without an

awareness of God's goodness. So it's important.

Now I want to show you that the original sin, the original lie

of Satan is the lie, or at least the questioning of God's

goodness. We can go to Genesis chapter 3

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

in your notes or on the screens or in your Bible, your device,

wherever you want to read from. And I want you to see this.

This is the story of Adam and Eve in the garden.

Remember, in Genesis 1, God creates the heavens and the

earth, and it's good, but man's really good.

And then he creates Eve and they're in the garden.

They have a relationship with God in Eden.

OK? So watch what happens.

You know the story, you've read it in your children's Bible,

maybe growing up or in last year's Genesis, starting in

verse 1, chapter 3. Now the serpent was more crafty

than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had

made. And he said to the woman, Did

God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit

of the trees in the garden. But God said, You shall not eat

of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden,

neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

Now God had their best interest in mind.

He is a good father. And yet the serpent leads Eve to

questioning God's intent and his goodness.

Did God really say is gotten in a way he's saying, is God really

good? Or maybe God's trying to hold

something back from you. Maybe there's more to it than

the God is letting be known. He was protecting them.

God was. But watch what the serpent does

in verse 4. But the serpent said to the

woman, you will not surely die. He's questioning the honesty of

God, the goodness of God. In verse 5, he says, for God

knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and

you'll be like God, knowing good and evil.

And that was a problem with the tree they were going to eat

from. It was going to twist them up

because they'd only known good. But now they're going to know

the knowledge of good and evil. And the disobedience of God

comes as a result of Satan the serpent tricking Eve into

questioning is God really good? Is he truthful?

Was he restricting them? Was he not generous?

Was he withholding? No, God was trying to protect

them. So the story goes in verse 6.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good, now watch this,

she questions the goodness of God, but she calls the tree good

God. She's not sure he's good

anymore. The tree though, she sees as

good, good for food. And it was a delight to the eyes

and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.

So she took of its fruit and she ate, and she also gave some to

her husband who was with her, and he ate.

So the original sin in this occasion, it might not be that

she ate from the tree. I mean, it's a disobedience, but

what led to the disobedience of eating from this tree?

That goddess said not to eat of the sin initially was missing

the goodness of God, questioning God's motives, God's intentions,

God's heart as a father. This is how Satan tricks Eve.

So what I want to say to you is that the early in Scripture,

right there in Genesis 3, the original way that the enemy

trips us up is by throwing smoke into a belief in the goodness of

God. And when we don't walk in

genuine awe, the goodness of God, we fail to trust, we fail

to serve, we fail to worship and obey and follow.

And This is why throughout the Bible, the goodness of God is

such a dominant theme. It's there over and over and

over again. I'll show you some of them.

I don't have time this morning to show you all of them, but I

just want to show you some of them so that you get, yes, it is

there throughout Scripture. It's a major theme that the

Bible wants us to get. Now Jesus talks about this

serpent, the enemy, the thief in John chapter 10 verse 10.

John 10:10

And he says this, the thief comes only to steal and kill and

destroy. And he says I came that you may

have life and have it abundantly.

And this is what the serpent, the Satan did in Genesis chapter

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

3. He stole away the relationship

that Adam and Eve had with God. They used to walk with him in

the garden in the cool of the day because of their sin that as

a result of them questioning the goodness of God, he's stolen

from them. So Jesus is saying, listen, I've

come not to steal from you, but that you might have life.

And this occasion, the Greek word for life here is Zoe, and

that's become a popular girl's name.

And what does Zoe mean? Well, it's a Greek word for

life. And this occasion it's not just

talking about like a biological life, like breathing.

No, on this occasion it's like God, like life, purpose and

meaning. This is the life that Jesus

wants us to have, not just again living, but having a richness of

life that comes from being in Christ.

Jesus says that's what I came to give you, but the enemy has come

to steal it away. So the first time that the enemy

steals from us again is in Genesis chapter 3, and he steals

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

away Adam and Eve's relationship with God.

Now when I doubt God's goodness, often what it looks like is that

I need to be in control. I need to be the Lord of my

life. And when you become a Christian,

you surrender your life to Jesus being your king and your Lord.

But when you question and you're not confident, sure of the

goodness of God, then it can lead to a time in your life

where you will miss out on this Zoe type of life that God wants

you to have. Now let me show you another

occasion where the goodness of God is referenced.

And this is an Exodus chapter 33.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

And this is when Moses and the children of Israel have been

wandering for these 40 years and the wilderness.

And finally God says to them, OK, it's time for you to get up

and move. It's time for you to go on,

right? So they're going to pack up the

tent that God abides in. And God's like, OK, it's time.

I want you to move on. Now watch what happens in verse

15. And he said to him, this is

Moses speaking to God. And he said, if your presence

will not go with me, do not bring us up from here, which is

a wonderful prayer. God, if you don't go with me, I

just want to stay where I am. For how shall it be known that I

found favor in your sight, I and your people?

Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct, I and

your people from every other people on the face of the earth?

So this is Moses's request of God.

God, if we move from here, we want you to go with us and watch

how God responds to his request. It's going to get around to the

goodness of God. And verse 17 and the Lord said

to Moses, this very thing that you've spoken, I will do.

He'd spoken. God, go with us.

God says, I will. For you have found favor in my

sight, and I know you by name. And Moses said, watch, this is

so profound to me. Moses said, please show me your

glory. Please show me your glory and

watch how God answers. And he said, meaning God, I will

make all my goodness pass before you.

Moses says, show me your glory. And God says, I'll show you my

goodness because my goodness is my glory.

God's goodness equals his glory. And God says, and we'll proclaim

before you my name, the Lord, and I will be gracious to whom I

will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show

mercy. God answers when he says, show

me your glory. God says, I'll show you my

goodness. God doesn't say His Holiness.

He doesn't stray his strength. He doesn't say his glory or his

might, but his goodness. He's going to put it on parade

for Moses to experience. God's glory is his goodness.

So watch what happens. This is so beautiful.

Verse 21 And the Lord said, behold, there was a place by me

where you shall stand on the rock.

So God's presence is there, the Holy Spirit.

And God says there's a place in the rock.

I'm going to put you there. It's going to be called a cleft.

And then he says, And while my glory passes by, I will put you

in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand

until I've passed by. And then I will take away my

hand and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen,

because if he sees the face of God, it will overwhelm him.

It'll be too much. So God's like I'm going to cover

your face in the cleft of the rock and you ask for glory, but

I'm going to show you my goodness.

And my goodness means while I'm coming away from you so I don't

overwhelm you, I will show you my back.

He says So out of his goodness. He protects Moses when he

reveals his goodness. King David also promoted a

belief in the goodness of God over and over and over again.

And I love this recent resurgence in the telling of

David's story. Like on Amazon, I know they have

a series about David and the David movie that Angel Studios

put out. We had a night here to watch it

at the church. And it's so I think these are

wonderful, the retelling of his story.

So, so David's become a popular figure again.

And in Psalm 23, he mentions the goodness of God.

And maybe you know this song because it's David's most famous

Psalm, but he, it's the Lord is my shepherd, right?

So he's painting God as a shepherd.

And watch what he says in verse 5.

He says it's only 6 verses. This is a great song to

memorize. He says, you prepare a table

before me in the presence of my enemies, and you anoint my head

with oil, and my cup overflows. And then David says, surely

goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and

I shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

Watch this. David is saying, God, your,

your, your goodness is going to follow me.

It's going to chase after me. And David had spent years

running from King Saul who was trying to kill him.

So David was used to like something following him, chasing

him, but in this occasion, King Saul again wanted to take him

out. And so David is using the same

language like God chases after me with his goodness and it will

follow me all the days of my life.

I think this is a worthy Psalm to memorize again.

And when you get to that part, we say, and surely goodness will

follow me. Remind yourself in the 23rd

Psalm about the goodness of God that David references.

It's an easy one to memorize. Another one of David's

confessions about the goodness of God is in Psalm 27, starting

in verse one. Now verse 1 is going to start

the setup for the whole Psalm. I'm not going to read the whole

Psalm to you for time, but I'm going to read verse 1 and 13.

But the setup for this Psalm is David referencing the fact again

that he's been running for his life.

So in verse one it says the Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is a stronghold of my

life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

He had enemies, the Philistines and King Saul and the

Amalekites. I mean, he had enemies.

But in this occasion he's saying God is my stronghold, He's my

salvation. OK, so watch when you get to the

1st 13. This is what he says.

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the

land of the living. He's he's an enemy territory,

often running, hiding for his life.

And in this occasion he's just makes his confession.

I believe I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord and the

land of the living. These are wonderful confessions

for you to make. Maybe there's a time in your

life where you feel defeated, you feel anxious, you feel like

enemies and adversaries are around you.

Well, you can confess like David, you can remind your heart

about the goodness of God that is found in the land of the

living, even in the midst of difficulty.

Now there's another Psalm. This is Psalm 73, verse one and

two. And this is a Psalm of ASAP, one

of the other familiar songwriters in the Psalms.

And here's what he says. Now watch, this is really

wonderful what he's saying here, verse 1.

He says truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in

heart. But watch what he confesses

here, he says, But As for like he's saying, God is good, but

it's for me. My feet had almost stumbled, my

steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant when

I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Watch here. He's saying God is good to

Israel. But I took my focus off of it

and I grew anxious when I saw that the wicked were perishing,

not perishing. They were prospering.

The wicked were prospering. That's funny that I'd say

perishing. There's another song where it

says when the righteous prosper, the city rejoices.

When the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.

Ever forget what Solomon is? But I used to play get family

games and when I would win in the family games, like I was

beating like in Settlers of Catan or something, I used to

sing this to a particular relative.

I'll be like when the righteous prosper, the city rejoices.

When the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.

You'd have to been there to see how funny it was.

But so no, ASAP was not saying he's not saying that the the

wicked were perishing. No, on this occasion he's saying

the wicked were prospering and he takes his eyes off of the

goodness of God. And his focus becomes the

prosperity of the wicked. Now, I must say that this is

easy to do now in the era of social media, right?

I mean, you can go online and just see wickedness and evil and

the arrogant painting themselves as so prosperous.

And of course they put it through filters and, and you

know, it's staged a lot of times, but it'd be easy to see

the wickedness in the world and to take your eyes off the

goodness of God. And that's what Asaph is saying.

He's like God is good to Israel. But it's for me, my feet almost

stumbled when I took my focus off the goodness of God and put

it on the prosperity of the wicked.

So my encouragement to you is make sure that you keep your

focus on the goodness of God. Another case in where the

goodness of God shows up in Scripture is in Lamentations.

And my guess is that maybe you've never read Lamentations

before. It's an obscure book in the Old

Testament written by, we believe, the prophet Jeremiah.

And it's written it's, it's a long lament.

And what is a lament? A lament is like a sad song.

It's a song of sorrow. And what is Jeremiah's sorrowful

for? He's sorrowful about the

destruction of Jerusalem. And you might remember in the

era of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, that the

Syrians had first come in and conquered the northern Kingdom.

And then 70 years later, some years later, the Babylonians

came and conquered the southern Kingdom.

OK. And they're going to go into

captivity. And it's a time when Jerusalem

is just destroyed and people are starving.

And why are they in this place? Because they've been disobedient

to God. God had warned them over and

over and over again through the prophets, but they disregarded

God's warnings. And now they're in a situation

where there's this devastation around them.

So watch even in the midst of great punishment and

devastation, watch what Jeremiah says.

And this is in the middle. And maybe you know this passage,

but you didn't realize that this is where it lands.

Maybe you didn't know it was in Lamentations.

He says, remember, he's speaking to God.

Remember my flex affliction and my wanderings, the Wormwood in

the gall, My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down

within me. But this I I call to mind and

therefore I have hope. Now this is a chapter 3.

So up to this point, he's just expressing sorrow and heartache

and he's like, go read lamentations.

It's like it really paints a picture of utter destruction and

horror. OK, so in the midst of this

horror and destruction, he says, but this I call to mind in verse

22, The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end, but they are new every

morning. Great is your faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion, says my soul.

Therefore I will hope in him. And here's where he gets to the

goodness of God. He says the Lord is good to

those who wait for him. The soul seeks him, the soul who

seeks him. It is good that one should wait

quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

In the midst of great horror and destruction, He's reminding his

heart that God is good, and He's particularly good to those who

wait on him and pray and follow after him, believing.

I believe in the goodness of God.

So it's wonderful to see that even in Lamentations when God

has allowed such destruction, that Jeremiah is reminding

himself of the goodness of God in spite of the situation that

he finds himself in. Now an additional time where

there's judgment and God is referenced as being good as a

Nahum. And again, Nahum is an obscure

Old Testament prophet that's much later in the Old Testament.

And you'll find that the in the Old Testament, like Jeremiah,

Isaiah and Jeremiah, their prophecies and books of prophecy

are much longer and more content.

So they're they're kind of the beginning of the prophetic

books. And then those who have smaller

books, will they come later? OK, so Nahum his, his book is

quite short. And who is name writing to?

Well, he tells you who's writing to and Nahum 11, and he says

this is an Oracle concerning Nineveh, the book of the vision

of Nahum and Alkash. What was Nineveh?

Nineveh was the city that God told Jonah to go to, to preach

that they should repent, right? And if you remember the story,

I've been to the place in Israel where Jonah would have left

from. There's like a fish statue maybe

6 or 8 feet tall there that you can stand next to.

And it's what they think at the port that he would have ran from

God. So remember, God says go to

Nineveh. He goes the opposite way.

And what happens? God, he gets swallowed up by

fish and the fish takes him to Nineveh and spits him out.

OK, this is in the Bible. I love it.

And remember Jonah, Why? Why doesn't he want to go to

Nineveh? He's mad at God.

And why is he mad at God? He's mad at God because he says

to God, God, if I go to Nineveh, I'll preach and they'll just

repent and you'll forgive them, right?

Isn't that crazy? You know, And so I know that

some parents are naming their kids Jonah.

I have friends. Your friends are naming their

kids Jonah. I'm like Jonah.

I don't know, man. He wasn't a hero because he

disobeys God. He goes the opposite way.

And then when he gets there, he's mad at God.

And then so watch this. Then when when Jonah, he

preaches and they repent like the king and everybody and

Nineveh, they repent. And so then what happens?

He goes up and he pouts like under this tree, he and that's

how the book of Jonah ends. He's mad at God because God

forgave the Ninevites. OK, That's the story of Jonah.

OK, So watch this 100 years later, Nahum now is writing to

the Ninevites. And in those hundred years, in

the century now that Ninevites have become very wicked and evil

again, and God is gracious, He's given them time to turn to him

again and they don't. So Nahum prophecies this in

verse. Well, he's going to prophecy the

destruction, but watch what he says about God to the Ninevites,

verse 7. He says the Lord is good, a

stronghold in the day of trouble.

He knows those who take refuge in him.

But with an overflowing flood, flood, he will make a complete

end of the adversaries and will pursue his enemies Into

Darkness. So name is saying that God will

and his goodness, because he's good, He will chase after his

adversaries. He will chase after the wicked

and the evil. And he's going to do that in the

city of Nineveh 100 years after Jonah has preached.

Repent so even Nahum obscure Old Testament prophet writing to the

invites. He talks about the goodness of

God. Now Jesus talks about the

goodness of God and he he does it in a very interesting way.

You remember last week. If you missed the message, you

can go get it online at YouTube or wherever you podcast last

week in response to President Trump's AI photo of himself

where he was in the white outfit and with the red sash and some

people thought he was trying to appear as Jesus and he said he

was trying to appear as a physician.

I don't know which it is, but anyways, I from that freak the

message on how we should view self.

How should I view? What should I think about

myself? OK, and you can get mad at

President Trump for it. And what was interesting is both

sides were upset about this, the left and the right.

Rare is it that the left and right are both upset about the

same thing, but they were in this occasion.

OK. So I don't want to talk at

length about that. That wasn't the point, but I

wanted to talk about how how I should view myself.

OK, so so go get that message. But in in the midst of that

message, I also brought up the fact that some of the media was

saying Jesus never claimed to be God.

He never claimed to be God. And I'm like, that's not true.

He claimed to be God over and over and over and over again,

right? And this is one of those

occasions. OK, so Jesus did not shy away

from calling him God. Watch how he does it on this

occasion. It goes to the context of God

being good. Mark 10 verse 17.

Mark 10:17

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt

before him and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to

inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, Why do

you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

So in this moment, Jesus is implying once again that he's

God and that he is good. So when the young rich ruler

says a good teacher, he's like, you can only, I mean, who do you

call good? God's the only one you call

good. And in this occasion, he's

referencing his own goodness and that he is God.

And sadly, the young rich ruler does not follow Jesus because

Jesus says to him, OK, if you want to follow me, sell

everything you have and give it away, and then come follow me.

And he's not able to do that because he loves his things more

than he loves the goodness of the teacher, the good teachers,

he calls them. OK, Now Jesus also talks about

the goodness of God in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Chapter 7. OK, so in this occasion I'm

going to give you again the context of it because again, a

lot of times you'll memorize the verse and you won't forget

what's around it. OK, so Jesus is going to talk

about the goodness of God the Father, but watch what it's

around. Verse 7 it says ask and it will

be given to you and seek and you will find and knock and it will

be open to you for everyone who asks receives and the one who

seeks finds and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Or which one of you, if his son ask him for bread, we'll give

him a stone. Or if he asked for a fish, we'll

give him a serpent. And remember, who was it that

tripped up Eve in the garden? Well, it was the serpent and

Jesus is referencing the serpent and he's saying, OK, if you ask

the Father for bread, he's not going to give you a stone.

And so that belief that tripped up Eve in the garden that that

that the serpent skewed the goodness of God.

On this occasion, Jesus is reminding them to believe that

God is good. When you ask for bread, he

doesn't give you a stone. You ask for a fish, he doesn't

give you a serpent. And he says this.

And when he says this, I don't think it's a slam.

I think that Jesus sometimes use comedy in a way.

He says if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to

your children. And when he's saying this, I

don't think he's like you're evil.

I don't think he's like slamming them.

I think it's kind of a tongue in cheek thing like you people who

are evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children.

How much more will your father who is in heaven give good

things to those who ask him? Jesus is painting God is good

and not only is he good, but he gives good things.

And it's in a sermon on the mount connected next to asking

and receiving and knocking in the door being opened.

And when you ask God for something, he doesn't give you

evil in return. No, he's good and he gives good

gifts. This is how Jesus paints him.

And finally James, towards the end of your Bible, James, the

pastor at the church in Jerusalem, we think the brother

of Jesus, the half brother, he says this and James one verses

16 through 17 similar, he's echoing what Jesus said.

Do not be deceived by the serpent, by the liar, by the

thief. My beloved brothers, every good

gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the

Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to

change. It's society that God blesses

his children and again, not with an easy life, not with lack of

no suffering, no, it's that in the midst of our devastations,

our difficulties, our sorrows, God's goodness can show up in

those moments and give good gifts even there.

And when you carry a revelation of the goodness of God, you'll

be able to trust and love God even when you don't understand

his ways. And I'm, I mean, I must admit,

man, this is this has been a challenge for in my life.

There moments where I'm like Jesus, I don't understand.

I remember my late 20s and early 30s, I was praying for something

and a lot of sorrow wrapped around this prayer that we had.

And there were times where I would pray, Jesus, this would be

so easy for you. This would be nothing for you.

Nothing. It was so easy and I didn't

understand his timing. I didn't understand his ways at

the time, but I've grown to understand them more so when

you. I love the saying, when you

can't trust the hand of God, trust the heart of God.

When you don't see how God is working, just trust the goodness

and the heart of God, even when you get news you weren't hoping

for. Recently I got news about my

shoulder that was not what I was hoping for.

I prayed for something else and the news I wanted is not the

news I got. So I'm navigating through that.

God, I believe in your goodness in the midst of it, so reveal it

to me. Know that the thief who comes to

steal and destroy is telling the same lie that he told in Eden.

Maybe God is not as good as you thought and you have to fight

against that. I love what AW Tozer says.

He says what comes into our minds, but when we think about

God is the most important thing about us.

Tozer was a pastor in the Chicago area in like the 50s and

60s and wrote some wonderful books, The Pursuit of God.

And he says this in The Knowledge of the Holy.

He writes this your view and what you think about God is so

important to who you become. And when you have a revelation

and a knowledge and an appreciation of God's goodness,

then it will shape who you are. And then CS Lewis, of course, if

you know the Narnia stories, I love that the Aslan the Lion

character, when they're searching for the lion, the

question is asked, is he safe? And the answer is, he isn't

safe, but he's good, which is so wonderful, right?

And as Lewis is trying to in that way, kind of paint a

picture of who Jesus is, if you're looking for safe and

mamby pamby, whatever boring, then you're not going to find it

in God or find it in Christ. Is he safe?

No, but he's good, and an awareness and appreciation of

his goodness will shape the way that you live.

Let me close with this. This is Psalm 119, the longest

Psalm in the Bible, and it says profound things about the

goodness of God. The psalmist writes, You've

dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word,

teach me good judgment and knowledge.

I believe in your commandments. Before I was afflicted, I want

to stray, but now I keep your word.

You are good and you do good. Teach me your statutes.

This would be a wonderful prayer.

Take your notes home. Then maybe this week you want to

just maybe once or twice a day, maybe take the notes out and

read through these scriptures and even the simple confession.

God, you are good and you do good.

Just you can confess that over and over and in prayer.

God, you are good and you do good.

Help me to see it when it's hard to see it.

Show it to me God. It will shape and change the way

that you chase after God. So application, let me just wind

down with this. I want to encourage you to

confess in prayers and songs the goodness of God and I love that

we sing here. The all want to see all my life

you have been faithful and all my life you have been so so

good. With every breath that I am

able, I will sing of the goodness of God.

We need more songs about the goodness of God.

We need more prayers to talk about the goodness of God

because we leak and we forget. And singing about it, praying

about it, reading about it helps.

And then my expectation is to you is be aware of the ploy of

the enemy to tear down your belief in the goodness of God.

The lie that he gave to Eve and Eden, He still wants to give to

you. Be aware of it when it comes.

And then I encourage you to be intentional in the midst of

seasons great and seasons difficult to again declare.

Speak it out, believe it. The goodness of God is never

ending. Let me pray for us.

God, I thank you for your goodness.

And I pray there's a church that we would be a church that sings

about, praise about, speaks about, teaches about.

We want to teach our children about your goodness God and it

is a theme that is throughout scripture, not just one or two

occasions, but it is you've gone to great lengths and inspiring

this the writers of the Bible through your Holy Spirit to put

this theme in there over and over again.

So help us have great appreciation and revelation

about it and help us shape the way that we follow and love you

in Jesus name and everyone said Amen.

Before we leave, I just want to take a brief moment and give you

an opportunity. If you're here this morning and

you've never surrendered your life to Jesus, you've never said

Jesus, I want to follow you. I want you to be the Lord of my

life. That's that's the point at which

you become a Christian. You don't have to understand all

the doctrines and all of the creeds, although they're

valuable. And eventually we do want you to

grow in those. But but initially it's just a

surrendering of your life to the Lordship of Christ.

The Bible says if you believe in your heart and confess with your

mouth that Jesus is Lord, then you shall be saved.

And so that's the point of salvation.

Jesus said in John three that you must be born again, like you

were born initially in water from your mother's womb.

And now Jesus says you're born of the Spirit.

And when you're born again, we believe that you become

spiritually alive through the through Jesus and the sacrifice

that he made for us. So I want to pray and if you're

new and you want to become a Christian or maybe you've been

away from the Lord for many years and you want to just re

establish your relationship with the Lord, then you can echo this

prayer with me and you can pray like this.

Heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus name and Jesus I invite

you to become the Lord of my life.

I believe in my heart and I confess with my mouth that you

are Lord and I need your forgiveness.

So I turn for my own sinful ways and I turn towards you and I say

come and be the Lord of my life and forgive me and renew me.

I want to be born again, born of the Spirit in you.

Now I say teach me your ways, you are good and you do good

things. So help me follow after you well

and grow in an understanding of your principles and your heart

for us and your truths. So come and be the Lord of my

life. I surrender myself to you in

Jesus name. And everyone said Amen.

If you pray to receive Christ, I'd love to hear from you.

You can e-mail me at [email protected] or tell a

friend that you made this decision.

And then I have a Bible for you and I have a little white book

that it's talks about your new life in Christ.

You can find me after service or e-mail me and I'll make sure

that I get those too. And we as a church want to

encourage you and your pursuit of Jesus.

So keep coming back and we encourage you to get involved in

small groups and other areas and see what unfolds for you.

All right, let's all stand together.

And before you go, I do want to say a blessing over you.

So if you will prepare your heart to receive this blessing

now before you go. And now may the Lord bless you

and keep you, and may he make his face to shine upon you.

And may the joy of the Lord that is unspeakable and full of

glory, may it abound to you. And may the peace of God that

passes all understanding, may it surprise you in the midst of all

of the challenges that life brings.

And then may the mercies of the Lord, in other words, the

forgiveness of God, that's new every morning.

May it be especially new to you and your mornings to come.

And now may the Lord Jesus Christ guard your heart and your

mind. You are salt and your light.

Go now and be salt and light unto the world.

You are blessed. We'll see you again soon.