Can Anything Good Come Out of This

The title of my message is, Can Anything Good Come Out of This?

Can Anything Good Come Out of This? And I want to read John 1 verses 43 to 46.

John 1:43–46

And it says this, the next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee.

He found Philip and said to him, come, follow me.

Philip was from Bethsaida, Philip and Peter's hometown.

Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, we have found the very person

Moses and the prophets wrote about.

His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.

Nazareth exclaimed Nathaniel, can anything good come from Nazareth?

Come see for yourself, Philip replied. So as I was praying this week and meditating

on what the Lord wanted me to say today, I heard these words come into my spirit.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? And I immediately knew this was from

the text that we just read.

And it was when Philip was telling Nathanael about Jesus of Nazareth.

And Nathanael responded by saying, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Why did Nathanael say that? Why did he say that?

And I did a little bit of research and found out that Nazareth was not necessarily a very nice place.

I was thinking while I was sitting over there thinking, well,

what comparisons can I draw with maybe suburbs that we know?

And I thought, let's not go there, but you know what I'm talking about, don't you?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So Nazareth was not a nice place. It was a small village

and it was really of no significance.

And it would seem that even the Jews didn't want to live in Nazareth. Okay.

It was a gathering place for the lower elements of society and there you go

your mind's traveling isn't it comparing yeah yeah no don't go there i'm telling you don't go there.

To be called a Nazarene, if you were from Nazareth, you were a Nazarene,

and it was not necessarily a compliment.

It was actually a little bit of a put-down, like by calling somebody a hillbilly or a hick.

So those sort of comparisons can be drawn. So needless to say,

I think I've explained it well enough, Nazareth did not have a very good reputation.

Okay. So Nathaniel was saying, can anything decent, can anything beneficial,

can anything helpful or useful come out of that place?

And have you ever gone through something that was actually a little bit painful?

Have you been through something that was painful? And I mean,

either physically or emotionally or something that was perhaps heartbreaking

or frustrating, confusing.

Have you ever gone through something that's left you a little bit drained physically,

emotionally, and spiritually?

And have you ever looked at that problem, that situation,

that draining, that pain-producing, frustrating issue, and said to yourself,

this is absolutely the worst thing I've ever gone through. How can anything good come out of this?

Have you ever had that thought about anything? Yeah, yeah.

And you might have said it, but you surely thought it. what good can come out of this?

Or can anything good come out of this mess? Can anything good come out of this

pain, this misery, or this misery-producing situation? Can anything good come out of it?

It was like your Nazareth. It was like your Nazareth. Can anything good come out of that?

And the place, the conditions, the circumstances that you couldn't see anything good coming out of.

And that's what Nathanael was saying about Nazareth.

What Nathanael soon found out was that it didn't matter how low or despicable

or undesirable Nazareth was, something good could come out of it.

Out of all that collection of undesirable, despicable conditions and circumstances,

Jesus came out of Nazareth.

Wow. So you know where I'm going with this, don't you?

Whatever situation, whatever Nazareth situation you may be going through or

have been through, Jesus can come into that situation and bring you through.

The point is, it doesn't matter what it may look like. It doesn't matter what it may feel like.

Jesus chooses to reveal himself and manifest himself in spite of and in the midst of undesirable.

Circumstances in the most unexpected ways who can say amen to that it's what

he does and that's why the Holy Spirit said to tell you something good is going to come out of this,

You may be going through some of the greatest fires of your life,

and it may be the kind that hurts. It may be the kind that makes you cry.

It could be physical, as I said, or spiritual, emotional, could be financial,

or it could be everything at once. Who's been through one of those situations?

The point is it's real, and the point is it hurts.

The first thing I have to say is this. God never promised us that we wouldn't

go through situations like this.

He never promised us a rose garden without thorns, okay?

He never said that you would never be attacked physically, spiritually,

emotionally, or financially.

In fact, he pretty well promised that we would. He promised it.

He said, all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

It's good news, isn't it? It's good news.

I don't expect you to be excited about it, okay? I don't expect anyone to be

excited about the fire, but I just want to remind you, it came with the calling

that you've accepted, okay?

Warfare came with our commission. That's why he gave us the armor of God to put on.

And we've spoken about the armor of God a lot recently.

He never said that fiery darts wouldn't be hurled at us, but he gave us a shield

of faith to deflect those fiery darts from us.

One of the devil's greatest

tools in his toolbox is to

isolate you who's experienced isolation yep one of the greatest tools that he

well the worst tools that he uses isolation and to make you feel like nobody

else has ever felt like you feel while you're going through this but i have to throw this in.

While I would never minimize your pain and your hurt, I promise you that there

is somebody who has been through worse.

And by the grace of God, they have lived to testify it. You can make it.

You can make it. Somebody else has walked through the fire before you and made it.

The devil tried to kill them, but they're here still to testify that God is faithful.

He's faithful on the mountain He's faithful in the valleys He's faithful in

the fire He keeps his word He will never leave you And he will never forsake you.

We have a high priest, praise God. We have a high priest who is touched with

the feelings of our infirmities.

He knows what we go through.

Jesus feels our pain and he cares and you are not alone.

He never promised us that we wouldn't go through the fire, but he did promise

us we would never be alone.

We would never be alone. Doesn't matter how high or how low or how hot it can

be, you can count on Jesus' presence.

And I don't mean just in a metaphorical sense either.

I mean in a tangible way, just like the tangible way we feel his presence when

we're here in the morning.

It feels like he's by your side. That's so good.

When you're walking through fires, don't recommend it. When you're walking through

the fire, keep this in the forefront of your mind.

Somebody else has walked through that fire and they live to testify.

They made it. And so can you. Think of the three Hebrew boys. What were their names?

And Abednego. That's right. Think of them who would testify to you guys right

now if they were here and tell you, you can trust him.

God is able. And they would say to you, whatever you're going through,

you need to believe that something good is going to come out of it.

Who was in the fire with the three Hebrew boys?

Jesus himself was in that fire with them. Who needs a little bit more encouragement

this morning about the fact that we can do it?

We can make it. Who needs some encouragement that good will come out of everything that we go through?

I do. I do. Let's start with Romans 8, 28.

Who can quote that one? Peter, come on. You know it. Come on.

And we know that all things work together for good for those who are called

according to his purpose. There it is, for them.

How about another one? Genesis 50 verse 12, Peter.

Genesis 50:12

All right. It says this, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.

He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

That's Joseph talking there. Joseph said that he was standing on the other side

at that time of his fiery trial, his persecution, his betrayal,

his rejection, he'd been left in a pit.

He's on the other side of that. And he's saying, everything that you plotted

against me and conspired against me and did to me to try to destroy me,

God used it to get me here where I am now.

You say, Tim, do you really believe that? I really do. I really do believe.

Can I believe that this pain, this grief, this frustration, and this misery

can actually be working for me? I do.

I really do. Let's look at another scripture.

2 Corinthians 4 verses 15 to 18 says, all of this is for your benefit.

2 Corinthians 4:15–18

And as God's grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving

and God will receive more and more glory.

This is why we never give up.

Though our bodies are dying Our spirits

are being renewed every day For our

present troubles are small And won't last very

long Yet they produce for us a glory

That vastly outweighs them And will last forever So we don't look at the troubles

we can see now Rather we fix our gaze on the things that cannot be seen For

the things we see now will soon be gone but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Now, this all requires an exercise of faith because you have to look through spiritual eyes.

You know that we have two sets of eyes, right?

I'm not saying we've got two eyes. We've got two sets of eyes.

We've got these two which see the physical, and we've got another two that see into the spiritual.

They're the eyes that I'm talking about at the moment, tell your neighbor,

use your other eyes, use your other eyes, no, the other ones, use the other ones.

If I didn't say anything else today, okay, to you, you've heard enough Bible

truth to get you through anything, okay?

But here's the secret sauce.

Simon made a laksa for us the other night with a secret sauce.

What was it called? That chili?

Chilly crisp oil. Get some of that in your fridge.

It goes on everything. The only thing we haven't tried it on is Nutri-Grain, but that's all right.

Yeah, why not? What do we have it on yesterday or the other day?

Something we made? Fish. Put it on fish. Put it on fish. It's delicious.

So secret sauce. Here's the secret sauce. You've got to keep looking up.

You've got to keep looking up. Look higher than your circumstances, okay?

Look beyond your circumstances.

There's glory coming. Something good is going to come out of this, okay?

Paul and Silas would tell you the same. They would tell you,

keep on praising God. Keep on praying.

Keep on sowing. They would tell you that God is faithful.

They would probably tell you that the most important thing is don't lose your

praise. in the situations that you're going through.

It's a choice to praise God.

It's a choice to praise. It's also a choice not to praise God.

So let's choose to praise God.

In Isaiah 61 verse three, it says, to console those who mourn in Zion,

to give them beauty for ashes,

the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,

that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord,

that he may be glorified.

So Isaiah says by the spirit of God that you have an appointment.

You have an appointment to go and get your beauty for ashes.

To go and get your oil of joy for mourning.

You've got an appointment to go and get your garment of praise for the spirit of happiness.

But you have to show up for your appointment. You've got to go to your appointment.

Tell your neighbor, I'm not missing my appointment.

Who's ever been to the doctor? Yeah, we've all been to the doctor.

Who's ever had blood tests taken?

And then when you get the results or when you know the results come in,

you don't bother going back. Who's ever missed that appointment?

Surely they'll ring if they need me.

If they think, surely they will. But we don't miss our appointments when it comes to God.

I want you to think of every good thing that God has done for you.

Every good thing that God has done for you.

Think about the mess that he brought you out of.

There's a good start. Think about the mess that he brought you out about.

Think about the mess that he kept you from.

Think about how he healed your bodies.

Think about every accident you walked away from and the ones that almost happened but didn't.

Think about those ones if you know about them.

Forget about all the negatives. Forget about the fire right now.

Forget about everything the enemy is trying to do and just get your praise on?

That's what the answer is, praise. Excuse me for a minute while I get this heaviness

off my shoulders and put my praise on. That's what we need to do.

Paul and Silas had an appointment to praise God in the midnight hour.

That was the timing of their appointment.

And it woke the whole jailhouse up.

The Bible says that the prisoners heard them. that means their praise was verbal

it wasn't just internal it was out there it wasn't just a thankful heart but

they had thankful lips and they let their praise come out.

Don't tell me you can't praise God when you yell at one another.

Don't tell me you can't praise God when and scream at the stadium or the football or at the Grand Prix.

Don't tell me you can't praise God when you can cry out when something good

is happening on a sports field.

We need to praise God with our lips, nice and loud.

I'm trying to tell somebody this morning, something good is going to come out of this.

Joseph's palace brought him out of his betrayal and false accusation and took him into the palace.

But Joseph didn't wait till he got to the palace to give God praise.

He gave God a palace praise while he was still in the pit.

Joseph gave God a palace praise while he was still in the pit and still in prison.

I'm gonna tell you something. God has been so good to me.

I'm not going to give him some lukewarm, half-baked, watered down,

2% low-fat praise. No, no.

I'm giving him 100% hot off the grill, hot off the grill praise.

Born in the fire praise. That's what I'm going to do.

Put your hands together and give him some real praise. Come on,

right now. Come on. Thank you, God.

Thank you, God, for what you do for us.

God, you're worthy. Yes, you are.

God, you've been so good to me praise. That's what we need to do.

Yes, I know it's true. God knows what's in your heart, but he wants to hear

it come out of your lips as well. Okay?

Not only that, you need to make the devil listen to your praise as well.

He doesn't see or hear what's in our heart. He needs to hear it,

and he needs to suffer when he hears the praise coming out of our mouths.

He's already heard you crying.

He's already heard you moaning and groaning.

Now it's time to make him pray and praise out loud. Make him pay and praise out loud.

I'm getting ready to place within your hands devil blasting power.

Who wants devil blasting power? That sounds pretty awesome to me, doesn't it?

I'm going to show you why the devil hates a praising Christian. Okay?

Okay. Here we go. your praise is an instrument that God actually uses to punish the devil.

Did you hear me? God uses your praise to punish the devil.

You say, I've never heard that before, but it doesn't make it any less true. Okay.

The devil dreads a praising Christian.

One of the greatest weapons against the kingdom of darkness is our praise.

Let's read about it in Psalm 149, verses five to nine.

It says, let the faithful rejoice that he honors them.

Let them sing for joy as they lie on their beds.

Let the praises of God be in their mouths and a sharp sword in their hands to

execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,

to bind their kings with shackles and their leaders with iron chains to execute

the judgment written against them.

This is the glorious privilege of the faithful ones. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

While we're praising God, you know what we're doing? We're binding the enemy.

We're binding the enemy and we're punishing the devil.

Your praise, wait with me here for a second. Your praise is like tipping salt on snails.

You know you've done it. You know you've done it. Or slugs.

Bit of salt on a snail or a slug, you know what it does?

Dries them up. It shrivels them up and they just melt away. Don't you two go home and try that.

That's what happens to the devil when you praise God. Okay? He starts melting

away like the wicked witch on the Wizard of Oz.

You could hear the devil when you praise if you could hear the devil when you

praise god you could hear him crying out help me i'm melting i'd love to hear that.

I'm trying to some tell somebody this morning that something good is going to come out of this,

your praise is powerful it will get you through it will get you through i don't

know necessarily what your fiery trial might be right now, but I want to ask you,

can you trust God to keep your appointment with him?

Because I can tell you this right now, it's not just about you or me.

Somebody else is watching you while you go through a fiery trial as well.

Somebody's bound up and they're sitting in the darkness of their negative,

confused lives and maybe not with their lips, but in their hearts,

they're asking, is this really worth it?

People are watching us and they're not in any condition to praise God.

They're in a dark place. There's no joy. There's no peace and there's no song.

And then you keep your appointment with God and you start praising him.

And all of a sudden their prison doors swing open and start shaking and chains

start breaking and doors fly open and light comes pouring into the darkness

and their hope springs up.

And salvation breaks forth in their life, and miracles start happening because

somebody praised the Lord.

Somebody kept their appointment and praised the God. They saw that,

and now they are set free.

When Nathanael heard that Jesus was of Nazareth, he almost immediately rejected

him because his thought was, Nazareth is such a terrible place that no good can come from there.

But something good did come from Nazareth Something

good can come from Nazareth And transformed

his life We've all had Nazareth

experiences And when we look at them And

we feel the pain and the discomfort And the frustrations and the confusions

We're tempted to throw everything away And reject that Nazareth situation But

you need to know the one we call the sweet saviour and we call him the Nazarene,

comes out of Nazareth.

I know he wasn't born there. No, he was born in Bethlehem, but he was raised

there and he grew up there.

Friends, if you despise your Nazareth, that situation that you're going through

right now, or perhaps in the past, you might miss the Nazarene.

Many times throughout the scriptures, it's a practice of God to hide his greatest

treasures in the very pain and the very undesirable packaging. God does that.

The tabernacle, have a think of the tabernacle in the wilderness.

It contained an enormous amount of wealth and gold everywhere.

But what was it covered in? It was covered in badger's skin.

Your greatest treasures in life may be hidden in badger's skin.

In other words, they may be in the middle of the greatest fire of your life.

And the three Hebrew boys fellowship with Jesus in the fire,

and they found everything that they needed.

I actually think that they probably weren't that keen about coming out of the fire.

Jesus was in there with them, I reckon. No, don't let us out.

We're quite happy in here with Jesus.

Then comes the king. Then comes the king and calls them out.

And I think they do. They reluctantly exit the fiery furnace and then they're

promoted in the kingdom.

They got through it. They got through it because Jesus was with them. Come on up, Josh, for me.

So I'm here to tell you this morning, if you ever only got the message,

something good is going to come out of this.

Something good. When I come out of this, I will be wiser.

When I come out of this, I will be more anointed.

These are the things that you need to be saying and praising God for.

When I come out of this, I'll be more dangerous to hell.

When I come out of this, I'm coming out blessed.

That's what we need to be saying and thinking. I'm coming out stronger.

I'm coming out bolder, wiser, and more anointed. I'm coming out of this with

a greater testimony than I've ever had before.

Something good is gonna come out of this.

The devil will wish he never sent this trial my way because it's made me stronger.

It was in that fiery trial where I learned how to pray.

It's in the fiery trial where we need to learn to pray.

And I learned the power of decreeing and declaring the Word of God in my mouth.

It was in the fire that I learned how to be more faithful.

I learned that my emotions can't be trusted. It was in the fire where I found

real praise, real praise, not just courtesy praise.

I learned how to dig down deep in my spirit and pull up some real praise in the fire.

But sometimes a real praise can get pretty ugly.

Has anyone ever experienced that, ugly praise? Yeah. In fact,

I think the best praise, I mean the deepest, most genuine praise that God gets

from us is that ugly praise.

Well, we're going through the fire and I wanna praise you, God.

I'm going through this fire, but you are with me and I'm here to praise you.

Never be ashamed to give God some ugly praise. He can take it.

He's got big shoulders. He's got big shoulders.

You may be going through something right now and you may not know it,

but you could be just one ugly praise away from breakthrough.

Praise doesn't have to be.

Music.

Come out of this? Absolutely it can. Absolutely. No doubt about it.

Something good is going to come out of this in Jesus' Name. Are you with me?

Stand then. Come on, let's stand. Let's just give some praise to God right now.

While Josh is playing, let's just speak out some praise to God,

whether it's ugly or beautiful.

God wants to receive our praise. So God, we praise You this morning.

No matter what we are going through, Lord God, what we've been through,

what may be around the corner for us tomorrow, Lord, we praise You for that

situation, because I am going to come out stronger.

We are going to come out stronger. We are going to be a testimony to somebody

else who maybe is already in that fire or about to get into that fire,

and they can look at us and think, I can do this.

I've seen somebody get through this. I've seen it happen.

We want to get through this, Lord, by praising You. So we praise You, Jesus.

We praise You for the situations that come our way. We don't have to like them, but we love the results.

We love the God that brings us through every situation. So God, I pray in Jesus'

Name that as You're bringing us through, Lord, as You're walking next to us,

as You're guiding us, Lord,

that we feel the love and the anointing and.

Music.

The power that comes from knowing the saviour

of the world so we bless you Jesus we thank

you for this word Lord God we thank you that you

came out of Nazareth you are the mighty God you are the creator of this world

and you came out of that place Nazareth and you are a Nazarene and when we go

through our situations Lord God we only need to grab hold of the Nazarene and he will walk with us.

Music.

So Lord, do that in Jesus, in Your Name, in Your Name. We thank You, Father.

We thank You, Lord. I'd love to be able to pray for anybody this morning who

feels they're going through this fire right now.

And I would love to be able to pray with you, for you to strive out of that

situation in new and better ways.

So I'm going to close the service, but if you want prayer, come to the front

and I will pray with you. Angela will pray with you.

Brad and Carolyn will pray with you, If you guys don't want prayer,

I'll pray for you guys and come and receive,

come and receive because the fire is a trial that we will get through in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Music.

So bless you guys. We're going to have a great week. We're going to step through this life.

We're going to give praise to God and we're going to get through it in Jesus' Name.

Music.