Jeff Miller

June 7, 2015

God is Good

God is Good...to Me!

Jeff Miller

June 7, 2015

God is Good

Five Personal Benefits from the Lord:

PROVISION : I am Content. (Ps 23:1-2)

PATH : I have Direction. (Ps 23:3)

PRESENCE : I have Security. (Ps 23:4)

PEACE : I am Comforted. (Ps 23:5)

PROMISE : I have Hope. (Ps 23:6)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

00:01-00:03
Open up your Bibles to Psalm 23.
00:04-00:14
We've been going through this series called "God is Good." The series has been through the book of Psalms and God is good.
00:14-00:17
That's something like we learned when we were children.
00:17-00:26
Well, the truth is, as I've been sharing with you and I'm going to keep sharing with you, That is the most disbelieved doctrine in the Bible.
00:28-00:39
Over creation, over the Trinity, over the miracles of Jesus, the most disbelieved doctrine in the Bible is just simply this, God is good.
00:40-00:43
Remember that was Satan's point of attack in the Garden of Eden.
00:44-00:48
Did God really say, "Looks like God's holding out on you." Is God really good?
00:48-00:52
Was the essence of what Satan was getting at.
00:53-00:58
In our series we've seen God is good and I respond to God's goodness from Psalm 100.
00:59-01:02
We've seen that God's Word is good from Psalm 19.
01:02-01:05
We've seen that God's grace is good from Psalm 32.
01:06-01:08
Last week we were in Psalm 13.
01:09-01:16
Last week we were turning a question into an exclamation going from God is good to God is good.
01:17-01:27
Now this week, I don't think we could do a series from the book of Psalms without covering the 23rd Psalm.
01:29-01:50
And with all of our talk this past month that God is good, God is good, God is good, the truth is all of this means nothing until you get to the point in your life where you can and say, "God is good to me." That's what we were praying earlier.
01:51-01:52
And that has been my hope for this series.
01:53-01:57
I don't want to just give you factoids about the goodness of God.
01:57-01:57
Like, oh, that's interesting.
01:58-02:01
I guess the Bible does say that God is good.
02:01-02:06
It doesn't mean anything until you get to that place where you say, "He's good to me.
02:06-02:07
God loves me.
02:08-02:15
God cares about me." Remember we're going in Psalm 23.
02:16-02:17
In the 23rd Psalm.
02:17-02:18
Let's read it.
02:20-02:22
Psalm 23 says, "The Lord is my shepherd.
02:25-02:26
I shall not want.
02:27-02:30
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
02:31-02:34
He leads me beside still waters.
02:36-02:37
He restores my soul.
02:39-02:51
He leads me in paths of righteousness For His name's sake, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.
02:52-02:56
Your rod and Your staff - they comfort me.
02:57-03:00
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
03:01-03:02
You anoint my head with oil.
03:03-03:04
My cup overflows.
03:05-03:10
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
03:11-03:15
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
03:17-03:19
Psalm 23 was written by David.
03:19-03:23
For David was a king, David was a shepherd.
03:24-03:36
And in the 23rd Psalm, David was surely thinking back to his time as a shepherd, thinking, you know what, I was really on it when it came to taking care of these sheep.
03:38-03:50
I was so dedicated to taking care of the sheep, And David thought to himself, "You know, God's like a shepherd to me." This is a concept that's all through the Bible.
03:51-03:55
In the Old Testament, it's in Psalm 80, Psalm 95, Psalm 100.
03:55-03:57
It's in Isaiah 40, 49, and 63.
03:57-03:59
It's in Ezekiel, chapter 34.
04:00-04:05
You get to the New Testament, Jesus talked about the Lord being a shepherd in Luke 15.
04:06-04:09
Jesus said that he is a good shepherd in John chapter 10.
04:11-04:14
All through your Bible, God is known.
04:15-04:18
He has revealed himself as a shepherd.
04:18-04:25
And you know, God could have chosen a lot of different concepts with which he could have revealed himself.
04:26-04:30
You know, the Bible could say, well, God's like a professor, because he teaches us things.
04:30-04:33
And that's true, but that doesn't cover everything.
04:34-04:35
We could say that God's like a security guard.
04:36-04:37
He watches over me.
04:37-04:40
And that's true, but that doesn't cover everything.
04:40-04:44
We could say God is a doctor.
04:45-04:48
You know, he heals physically and he heals spiritually.
04:49-04:50
But that doesn't cover everything.
04:52-05:09
The way that God has revealed himself, the concept that really covers the character of God and our relationship with God, The Lord is my shepherd.
05:12-05:16
That says something about us because we are sheep.
05:18-05:23
It says a lot more about God because He is a shepherd.
05:24-05:27
On your outline today, I encourage you to take notes as always.
05:30-05:32
Five personal benefits from the Lord.
05:33-05:41
The title of the message again, "God is good to me." And there might be somebody that's been through this series with us that says, "You know what?
05:42-05:50
I'm still not convinced." "I'm still not convinced." If you're not convinced after going through Psalm 23, nothing is going to convince you.
05:51-05:54
Five personal benefits from the Lord.
05:54-05:56
Number one is provision.
05:57-05:59
I am intent.
06:01-06:01
Revision.
06:01-06:03
Let's look at the first two verses again.
06:03-06:12
I was speaking with Mark Gort, one of our elders, this morning and I said, "You know, Psalm 23, I could probably just stand up, read it and sit down.
06:12-06:22
It's so beautiful and there's nothing that I can do to add to it." Let's just look at the beauty of this Psalm.
06:24-06:38
David, again, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Look at this next phrase, "He makes me lie down in green pastures." Okay, so in this image, God is a shepherd and we are what?
06:40-06:41
We are sheep.
06:41-06:47
God is a shepherd and we are sheep, and He makes me lie down in green pastures.
06:49-06:52
Because these pastures are green, they're full of life.
06:55-06:58
I love the fact that it says that He makes me lie down.
06:59-07:01
I was thinking about that, I was meditating on that this week.
07:01-07:03
What's the significance of lying down?
07:03-07:12
And you know, so I'm thinking about the message and I'm going through my day thinking about the message and I look down and I saw my dog lying down.
07:12-07:14
How many people have a dog?
07:15-07:16
Okay, how many people have a cat?
07:17-07:18
We're praying for you.
07:19-08:07
you have a dog or a cat, you totally get this concept of the peace of the provision that comes from lying down. You see, my dog, he's a bit he's a bit neurotic, he's a bit skittish, and if he thinks there's somebody outside, he's constantly pacing and sniffing at the windows and pacing and he's gone to the door and he's pacing, he's restless. Or if there's somebody at he can be very nervous. We've had people at our house staying in our spare room where the dog's just pacing outside the spare room like, "There's somebody else here. I'm not sure if he's supposed to be... Do you know there's somebody in this room?" He's just skittish.
08:07-08:19
But you see, when he's at peace, he's lying down. And my dog's too big to be a lapdog, but if you have a lapdog or a cat, you I get that, that picture of peace.
08:19-08:20
He makes me lie down.
08:21-08:22
It's that provision.
08:24-08:26
I'm in a safe place.
08:27-08:30
When I'm with You, I don't feel the need to wander.
08:30-08:32
I don't feel nervous.
08:35-08:37
I'm resting in Your provision.
08:38-08:39
What a beautiful picture.
08:42-08:44
And it says He leads me besides still waters.
08:46-08:50
I read that sheep won't drink from rushing waters.
08:50-08:50
Is that true?
08:51-08:52
Anybody here have sheep?
08:54-08:55
Ok, so we're just going to assume that's true.
08:56-08:56
Ok?
08:57-08:59
But sheep won't drink from rushing waters.
09:00-09:02
I heard that from a shepherd, actually.
09:02-09:03
A real life shepherd.
09:05-09:06
So you see the picture here.
09:06-09:08
He leads me beside still waters.
09:08-09:13
God's not taking me any place to provoke me or agitate me.
09:13-09:17
Or, His provision isn't something that's going to stir me up.
09:18-09:21
His provision is something that I am to, again, rest in.
09:24-09:25
Provision, I am content.
09:30-09:49
Notice He says, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." In other words, David is saying, "Because God provides for me, I have everything that I need." Can you say that?
09:50-10:02
Let me ask you honestly, can you speak those words and believe them in your heart truthfully saying "I have everything that I need." Can you say that?
10:05-10:22
When you say, "I have everything that I need because I have the shepherd." Sometimes we scoff at the provisions that God has given us.
10:25-10:30
The fact of the matter is, God has perfectly provided for every single person in this room.
10:32-10:38
And sometimes we look at what God has provided us and we say, "That's it?
10:39-10:46
I want something more." And we become like Israel in Numbers chapter 11.
10:46-10:47
Do you remember that story?
10:47-10:51
God led Israel out of Egypt by Moses.
10:52-10:58
And when God was leading them through the wilderness, there weren't sheets, okay?
10:58-11:00
It wasn't like Moses said, "Okay, guys, we're going to stop here.
11:01-11:10
get an MTO, they didn't have that. So what did they eat in the wilderness? Do you know? Do you remember this story? They ate something called manna.
11:11-11:33
And do you know what manna means? Manna means, "What is it?" The name of the food came from the question, "What is it?" Manna was this stuff that formed on the ground and Israel would gather it up and it was actually the most perfect food ever made.
11:34-11:39
And it was fully nutritious to Israel.
11:39-11:40
And you're like, well, how do you know that?
11:41-11:44
There's an interesting saying in the Old Testament.
11:44-11:47
It says, "Your clothes did not wear out "and your feet did not swell." How many people remember that?
11:48-11:52
You know, when you were wandering in the wilderness, your clothes didn't wear out and your feet didn't swell.
11:52-11:53
And that phrase always kind of bothered me.
11:53-11:56
Like, what's up with the swelling feet thing?
11:56-12:05
Like, God was saying your clothes didn't wear out, which I have to take by faith because I have two boys, and somehow God miraculously kept their clothes from wearing out.
12:05-12:08
But what's up with the feet not swelling?
12:09-12:10
Well, I did some study on that.
12:11-12:13
Have you ever heard of the medical condition called beriberi?
12:14-12:21
One of the symptoms of beriberi, it's a disease that malnourished people get, and one of the symptoms is swelling feet.
12:22-12:30
So when the Lord says, "Your feet didn't swell," What he was saying was, you notice that when I fed you in the wilderness, you didn't get sick.
12:30-12:31
You weren't malnourished.
12:32-12:36
He was saying the provision that I made for you was perfect.
12:36-12:38
When you get to Numbers chapter 11, you know what Israel did?
12:40-12:42
Israel was looking back in their time in Egypt.
12:42-12:46
They're like, oh, we wish we were back in Egypt because we had meat to eat there.
12:47-12:49
You were slaves in Egypt.
12:50-12:52
They go, but at least we had meat.
12:54-12:58
You mean to tell me, what a testimony to human sinfulness.
12:58-13:08
God has provided the perfect food, and all you have to do is bend over and pick it up off of your front lawn, and that's not good enough.
13:09-13:10
We're like that sometimes.
13:11-13:17
We look at this glorious provision that God has given us, and we're like, but we want something else.
13:21-13:22
And we become like spoiled children.
13:24-13:27
I'm not going to spoil the story for you, but read Numbers chapter 11.
13:28-13:31
You'll see that the Lord was displeased with their reaction to His provision.
13:35-13:41
You see, it says, "He makes me lie down in green pastures." And people are always looking for greener pastures.
13:43-13:45
The grass is always greener on the other side, isn't it?
13:47-14:01
You know, you have a single person that says, "Oh, if I could just meet the right person and get married." Then you meet the married person that says, "My life was so much better when I was single." Oh, you mean back when all you were interested in was finding somebody to marry.
14:02-14:03
Grass is always greener.
14:04-14:18
Or, "My life would be so complete if I could just have children. I just want to have children." And then I meet people that have children that say, "My life was so much easier before I had children." The grass is always greener, you see.
14:19-14:22
Instead of taking the provision that God gives you and say, "You know what, God?
14:22-14:27
If this is what you gave me, like the manna, it's perfect.
14:27-14:30
If this is what you gave me, your provision is perfect.
14:30-14:31
I am content.
14:31-14:32
The Lord is my shepherd.
14:33-14:36
I shall not want.
14:38-14:41
But really what it boils down to is there's really three things that people want.
14:43-14:47
There's really three things that people want, and it's more, better, and different.
14:50-14:54
more money, better clothes, different spouse.
14:57-15:01
And it never lives up to expectations.
15:02-15:12
And if there's somebody here right now that's thinking, you know what, I think instead of the spouse that I have, I would be better off with somebody else.
15:13-15:14
I'm just going to tell you this.
15:14-15:17
You can believe it or not, but you will find out that it's true.
15:17-15:19
It never lives up to expectations.
15:21-15:21
Because here's the facts.
15:24-15:27
When you want more, you find out that more isn't always more.
15:29-15:32
Sometimes all more means is more headaches, more problems.
15:35-15:39
And when you want difference, you find out that different isn't always different.
15:40-15:42
I've seen it so many times in ministry, it breaks my heart.
15:43-15:51
a lady leaves this knucklehead guy, or this guy she thinks is the world's worst knucklehead because this guy was so much better.
15:51-15:56
And then she finds out that this guy is eight times the knucklehead that husband number one was.
15:58-15:59
Because different isn't always different.
16:00-16:01
The truth is better isn't always better.
16:02-16:05
You think that it is, but it's not.
16:07-16:08
The point is the Lord is my shepherd.
16:08-16:10
I shall not want. I'm content.
16:11-16:13
"I am content." Great quote from John Piper.
16:13-16:20
He said, "Faith is the experience of contentment in Jesus." Isn't that a great quote?
16:21-16:25
"Faith is the experience of contentment in Jesus." That's what faith is.
16:26-16:32
And he went on to say, "It is the fight of faith to stay content." That's the fight of faith.
16:33-16:36
You see, it's not about striving after more.
16:37-16:40
The fight is being content with what God has provided.
16:42-16:45
The provision, "I am content." Glorious promise.
16:45-16:47
God will give you everything that you need.
16:49-16:52
The Shepherd will give you everything that you need.
16:54-16:56
The Shepherd has always given you everything that you need.
16:58-17:09
But you see, when you understand that God is good to me, like David, you can say, "I shall not want." I have personal benefits from the Lord.
17:09-17:09
Path.
17:09-17:10
I have direction.
17:11-17:12
I have direction.
17:12-17:13
Look at verse 3.
17:14-17:15
He restores my soul.
17:18-17:19
Only God can do that.
17:20-17:24
He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
17:24-17:28
He leads us not just down any old path, but a new path.
17:31-17:33
He leads us down a path of life.
17:35-17:39
See, by nature, we're walking on a path of sin and shame and regret.
17:39-17:41
And the shepherd comes along and says, you are mine.
17:41-17:43
And we're heading down a new path.
17:43-17:44
You don't live like that anymore.
17:45-17:51
That's one of the questions that we ask people at Harvest Bible Chapel, whether they want to be a member of the church or they want to be baptized.
17:52-17:56
One of the questions we ask people is, how has your faith changed you?
17:57-18:01
Tell me the difference that Jesus Christ has made in your life.
18:01-18:06
Because the truth is, if your faith hasn't changed you, Your faith hasn't saved you.
18:08-18:13
Jesus isn't some add-on, like my life is pretty good, I'll just add Jesus to the mix.
18:13-18:14
He's not an add-on.
18:14-18:19
When the God of the universe comes in and dwells your heart, you're gonna change.
18:20-18:21
You're going to radically change.
18:22-18:24
David says, "This is what my shepherd's like.
18:24-18:28
"He's taking me down a new path." Not just any path, the path of righteousness.
18:28-18:29
A perfect path.
18:32-18:33
Why does he do it?
18:33-18:36
Well, he says, "He leads me in paths of righteousness." Why?
18:36-18:37
For his name's sake.
18:39-18:40
It's all about his glory.
18:40-18:50
God says, "I want you and the world "to see how loving and good I am." The glorious promise is the shepherd leads you down a better path.
18:51-18:52
We have direction.
18:52-18:59
We're not sheep left out in the field to our own devices trying to wander around and figure things out.
18:59-19:05
We have a shepherd saying, "This is the way that we're going to go." I have direction.
19:07-19:09
And that's a good thing because look at number three, presence.
19:10-19:10
Presence.
19:11-19:12
I have security.
19:15-19:16
Look at verse four again.
19:18-19:24
He says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.
19:25-19:33
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me." See, he leads us down a path of righteousness.
19:34-19:37
It doesn't say he leads us down a path of ease.
19:37-19:37
Did you notice that?
19:38-19:41
It's a path of righteousness, not a path of ease.
19:41-19:52
Because in the very next verse, he says, "I'm walking in." Like David, how bad is it?
19:53-19:55
How bad does it get sometimes?
19:56-19:57
We can identify with this, can't we?
19:58-19:59
How bad does it get?
19:59-20:10
Sometimes you're like, "I'm kind of in a valley right now." And David's like, "Yeah, it's a little worse than that for me actually." I'm like in a valley of shadows.
20:10-20:12
That's my valley.
20:12-20:13
It's pretty dark right now.
20:14-20:17
I'm in a valley of shadows right now in my life and I'm really having a hard time.
20:18-20:19
David's like, "No, no, no.
20:19-20:24
It's worse than that." I'm in the valley of the shadow of death.
20:24-20:26
Is there anything worse than that?
20:28-20:30
And the truth is, that's how it seems for us, doesn't it?
20:30-20:32
It seems so dark at times.
20:33-20:33
We're in this valley.
20:35-20:37
A valley of the shadow of death.
20:38-20:40
Boy, that took a depressing turn, didn't it?
20:42-20:43
Like, how did we get there?
20:44-20:51
I mean, wasn't it just like a verse - my memory's not good sometimes - but wasn't it just like a verse ago that we're lying in green pastures and drinking out of still waters?
20:51-20:52
Wasn't that just like a verse ago?
20:53-20:54
A couple verses ago, right?
20:55-20:56
I didn't imagine that, did I?
20:57-21:03
So how did we go from these green pastures and these still waters to...
21:03-21:04
how did we get there?
21:06-22:14
I was thinking about that this week and I asked Erin to remind me this story. When she was a teenager, her and some of her friends went to Sandcastle. When they left Sandcastle, you know Sandcastle, the big water park down there, and it was at Homewood. But as they were leaving sandcastle, Aaron said they noticed that all of the sudden there was no traffic anywhere. Aaron's like, "Well this is really weird. They went from being in all this traffic, all of a sudden they're driving down this street and there's no traffic anywhere. And I know some of you Pittsburghers are thinking that sounds like a great thing." Well, Aaron said that night when, you know, they turned on the Channel 11 News, like one of the lead stories, there was a shootout happening in Homewood and they had the footage on the news and you'll never believe what they saw on the news. Their car driving down the abandoned street and Aaron's like, "That's our car! That was us!" They saw themselves on there like, you know, shootout between gangs down in Homewood.
22:15-22:49
There they are. They're like, "How did we get there and I was studying this this week I'm like whoa whoa wait a second like I look at these first couple verses and I'm like that's where I want to be that's where I want to be then all of a sudden we're in the valley of the shadow of death like how did I get there well help me exegete the passage here how did we get there The Lord is my shepherd, so it stands to reason that He must have led me there.
22:50-22:50
Right?
22:52-22:56
If I'm following the Lord, He must have led me there.
22:59-23:08
You're like, "Well, why would God do that?" You see, the truth is, in your life you will walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
23:08-23:12
You will encounter evil.
23:12-23:20
Notice he says, "I will fear no evil." I wish that that verse says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'm not going to come across any evil." But it doesn't say that.
23:20-23:24
He says, "I'm just not going to fear it." Why?
23:26-23:27
Here it is.
23:28-23:29
You are with me.
23:30-23:32
For you are with me.
23:36-23:48
When I was in junior high, there was this girl that liked me, but there was this other guy at the same high school that liked this girl.
23:50-23:52
And I'm sure you've heard this story before.
23:52-23:53
People ask me, was that girl Aaron?
23:54-23:55
No, it was not.
23:56-23:59
This girl liked me, and there was this other guy that liked this girl.
23:59-24:08
And this other guy, he was one grade ahead of me in school, but he was about five years older than me.
24:10-24:11
I want you to think about that for a second.
24:12-24:16
He was one grade ahead, but he was five years older than me.
24:17-24:18
So you get the picture.
24:20-24:26
This guy said to me, if you show up at the dance, I'm going to kill you.
24:29-24:32
I was a stupid kid, 'cause guess what I did?
24:33-24:34
I went to the dance.
24:34-24:36
I look back, like, what were you thinking?
24:37-24:39
This guy was twice my size.
24:41-24:43
He was like eighth grade, full on beard.
24:44-24:47
You know, I think he drove the school bus, actually.
24:47-24:49
And he said he was going to kill me.
24:50-24:51
And I showed up anyways.
24:53-24:55
And I remember showing up.
24:55-24:56
I don't know why I did it.
24:56-24:59
Like I said, please don't ask me to explain it because I don't know, okay?
24:59-24:59
I don't know.
25:00-25:09
But I show up and I had this friend that was-- he was a great comforter because he was like, I am not making this up.
25:09-25:13
But this friend of mine says, he's probably going to try to stab you.
25:16-25:22
And he said, he's probably going to try to get the knife in between your ribs and try to stab you in the heart.
25:22-25:24
I'm like, thanks for that.
25:26-25:27
Spoiler alert, right?
25:29-25:34
I just remember this one moment, and I will never forget it.
25:34-25:38
If I live to be a billion years old, I will never forget this moment.
25:39-25:47
I can take you to the spot in the school where I was standing, right by the one cafeteria door where this guy comes up and gets in my face.
25:49-25:53
And I'd like to tell you that I was like, I was not.
25:56-25:59
I was trying not to have an accident in my pants, if I can be honest with you.
26:00-26:01
I was scared to death.
26:01-26:04
I thought my-- I literally thought my life was over at this point.
26:06-26:15
And as he stared down at me and my life flashed before my eyes, I regretted not telling my mom that I loved her one more time.
26:16-26:26
All of the sudden, out of nowhere, comes this giant hand from behind this guy and lands on his shoulder.
26:29-26:32
And he said, can I help you with something, Carl?
26:35-26:36
He turned around, and do you know who was there?
26:37-26:37
It was my big brother.
26:38-26:40
I had no idea he was there, honestly.
26:41-26:42
I had no idea he was there.
26:44-26:45
He goes, can I help you with something?
26:47-26:50
Carl goes, I was just leaving.
26:52-27:01
there and said, "You were just leaving." And there was a Carl-shaped hole in the wall, like in the cartoons.
27:02-27:03
Boom!
27:03-27:05
I mean, we saw nothing but dust cot.
27:05-27:06
He was gone.
27:08-27:11
And I was like, "That's right.
27:11-27:12
"You was just leaving.
27:14-27:25
"Because apparently, you don't want none of this." Oh, I was Arthur Fonzarelli the rest of the night.
27:25-27:29
I'm like, "Do you see the way he took off?" It had nothing to do with me.
27:31-27:42
But I'll tell you what, my whole demeanor changed because all of a sudden, I was like, "I didn't know Darren was here." That changed everything.
27:43-27:55
All the fear that I had was gone There was someone much greater was there that was going to protect me.
27:58-28:03
And you see, David says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Why?
28:05-28:06
Because you're with me.
28:09-28:14
See the difference is, I didn't even know my brother was at the dance.
28:15-28:20
David says, "Well, I'm not fearing any evil because I know God's with me.
28:21-28:36
know that He's there. And when you know that the presence of someone that powerful is there who is going to protect you, you're like David. You say, "I'm not afraid of anything because He's with me.
28:37-28:49
Because He's with me." The shepherd, he knows the way. The shepherd's ready for anything. That's why he says, "Your rod and staff comfort me." He says, "You're ready You can pray for anything. God can handle it.
28:50-28:51
He can handle it.
28:51-28:55
And the glorious promise is if the shepherd led you to it, He's going to lead you through it.
28:57-28:59
If he led you to it, He's going to lead you through it.
28:59-29:05
If He leads you through the valley of the shadow of death, He's going to lead you through it, because He's going to be with you.
29:07-29:07
2 more.
29:08-29:09
Number 4, peace.
29:10-29:11
I am comforted.
29:13-29:19
It says, "You prepare a table before Me "in the presence of my enemies." Like, well, hang on a second.
29:21-29:22
What's with this image here?
29:22-29:24
Like, I'm trying to get into the text.
29:24-29:35
Like, okay, I'm a sheep, and I'm lying down, and I'm drinking out of the waters, and I'm walking through the valley, and I'm not afraid of anything because the shepherd's there, and he's got his rod and his staff, and okay, I'm totally there.
29:35-29:39
Now all of a sudden, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
29:40-29:45
Okay, so I'm a sheep, and I'm sitting at his dining room table, and like, who's the enemy of the sheep?
29:45-29:49
like Wile E. Coyote and like, what's this image here?
29:49-29:51
I gotta explain something to you.
29:55-29:58
David wasn't like all over the place in his mind here.
29:59-30:10
You see, shepherds, when they were out leading their sheep and in the fields, they would, you know, it wasn't like they would punch in, go home, sleep, go back to work the next day.
30:10-30:14
They would actually have a tent where they would stay while they were leading the sheep.
30:14-30:19
And in those days, it was called the Bedouin law of hospitality.
30:20-30:28
But there'd be people in the wilderness, whether they were on the run from robbers or dangers, people that were fleeing in the wilderness.
30:29-30:38
If they saw a shepherd's tent and they went into the shepherd's tent, that shepherd was obligated to protect this guy that was fleeing.
30:39-30:40
The Bedouin law of hospitality.
30:41-30:48
He's like, "As long as you're in my tent, "You are my brother and I will protect you." That was like their unwritten rule.
30:49-30:52
So that's the image that he shifted to here.
30:52-31:08
We went from, "Okay, I'm a sheep that's being led, "and now I kind of see myself as that guy in danger "that came across the shepherd's tent, "and he's serving me." That's why he says, "You prepare a table before me "in the presence of my enemies.
31:09-32:08
"You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows." The perfumed oil was for guests. It was refreshing from the wilderness. Okay, it wasn't like, you know, hey we got a shower in the back, or hey I dragged the bathtub out with me, you can go clean yourself up. That oil was to refresh people in the wilderness. The fact is refreshing is something that we all need. When my boss is mistreating me at work, when my spouse and I aren't seeing eye to eye, when my kids are more than I can handle, I need the refreshing that only comes from being in your presence. And it's always available. I could add there's something special about going to church because you see we want this worship time to be a time of refreshing for you.
32:11-32:47
You see, the world is going to beat you up. The world is going to be rough. And when you come in here, we want this to be a place through our worship, through our prayer, through our fellowship, through getting into Word. We want this to be a place of refreshing where you take that time just like that just like that fleeing guy gets into the tent and the Shepherd refreshes him and takes care of him. This needs to be a place where you come in It's a world where we love you, and we want to minister to you, and encourage you, and let this be a place where the Lord personally comes and brings refreshing.
32:50-32:51
So peace, I am comforted.
32:51-32:57
The glorious promise is that when I am weary, the Shepherd will bring refreshing.
32:58-33:00
And then finally, the promise.
33:01-33:02
The promise, I have hope.
33:04-33:05
I have hope. Look at verse 6.
33:07-33:21
He 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." These promises from God are things that you need to hold on to.
33:21-33:29
Even in the times of the valley and the shadow of death that you don't even know if your shepherd is still leading you, you know that he is in your head, but you might not feel it in your heart.
33:29-33:31
I want to encourage you to hold on to these promises.
33:31-33:34
I can preach about 12 sermons from this verse.
33:36-33:38
I want to give you the overview here.
33:38-33:40
First of all, he says, "Surely." You see that?
33:40-33:46
"Surely, how certain am I that I will experience the goodness and mercy of God?
33:46-33:48
How certain am I?" 100%.
33:49-33:50
He says, "Surely I will.
33:51-34:03
There's no doubt." Secondly, notice he says, "Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me." Again, we're not lost sheep that have to try to find the shepherd.
34:03-34:05
Some people think about God that way, you know.
34:06-34:08
Like we need to try to search him out.
34:08-34:09
We need to look for God.
34:11-34:13
You know, the Bible actually says the opposite.
34:15-34:16
The Bible says God's looking for you.
34:17-34:18
God's after you.
34:19-34:20
How did Jesus compare?
34:20-34:26
Jesus said, you know, it's like a woman has 10 coins and she loses one and she tears the house upside down looking for the lost coin.
34:26-34:27
That's what God's like.
34:29-35:03
Or like the shepherd has 99 sheep has a hundred sheep and one wanders away, that leaves ninety-nine. And he leaves the ninety-nine to go after the one that was lost. Jesus said that's what God's like. He's one who pursues you. He goes after you. That's why he says, "Goodness and mercy will follow me." Isn't that great news? Even in the times of your life, whether you're in a season of depression or maybe you're involved in sin and you're in a period in your life where Like, I'm not, I haven't really been pursuing God.
35:04-35:05
There's great news.
35:05-35:06
God's pursuing you.
35:06-35:08
He's not gonna give up on you.
35:09-35:10
He's calling you to repentance.
35:10-35:12
He's calling you back.
35:12-35:13
He's after you.
35:15-35:18
And notice he says, "All the days, all the days.
35:18-35:24
"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me "all the days of my life." All the days.
35:24-35:27
I'm not abandoned during a rough season of trials.
35:30-35:32
The promises are for here and now, all the days of my life.
35:35-35:37
The promise is also for the future.
35:38-35:43
He says, "And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." God is good.
35:45-35:48
Not just in this life, forever and eternally.
35:49-36:00
The glorious promise is this, "The shepherd will be good to me, now and forever." Maybe there is somebody here who is a valley of the shadow of death.
36:00-36:03
Maybe for you, maybe you have been going through that for a few days.
36:06-36:10
Maybe, maybe there is someone here that has been going through that for a few weeks.
36:12-36:18
Dare I say there might be somebody here that has been going through the valley for a few years.
36:21-36:30
Maybe there's somebody here that is going to be in the valley until you leave the earth.
36:30-36:53
Maybe you have, whether it's some great loss in the family or a chronic health condition that you're like, "I hear what you're saying, but unless the Lord does something supernaturally miraculous right here and now if things progress as they are, what it looks like to me that I'm going to be walking through this valley for the rest of my life.
36:55-36:56
You see, there's a glorious promise.
36:58-37:00
The promise is this, there's much more than this.
37:02-37:06
This life is not all that there is.
37:07-37:15
This life is a moment, it's a breath, it's a blink, and your best days are ahead of you, because you're heading to heaven.
37:17-37:22
And yeah, along the way, there's going to be some obstacles, there's going to be some bumps in the road.
37:23-37:30
But none of this compares to the glory that awaits us in the place where the Shepherd is ultimately leading us.
37:32-37:33
So who are you following?
37:35-37:37
Are you following the ways of the world?
37:39-37:41
Are you following yourself?
37:43-37:49
Or like David, you sit back and say, You know, the Lord is my shepherd.
37:52-38:03
When you know the Lord is your shepherd, you're going to find His provision, His path, His presence, His peace, His promise.
38:06-38:08
And you will say, "God is good.
38:11-38:13
God is good to me." Let's pray.
38:15-38:22
Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your goodness.
38:25-38:29
And we know, Father, that You are not obligated to be good to us.
38:30-38:36
It's not as if we have done something wonderful for You where we deserve Your goodness back to us.
38:40-38:44
The truth is You love us because you love us.
38:45-38:47
You love us because that's who you are.
38:48-38:50
That is your character.
38:50-38:52
That is how you revealed yourself in your Word.
38:52-39:03
And God help us for the times that the enemy comes in and would convince us - would try to convince us, would try to tempt us to this lie that you're not good.
39:07-39:12
Father, during those times valley.
39:16-39:41
Remind us of the truth of your word. During those times that we might be on the path of righteousness, but we're not sure we still see the Shepherd, remind us that you are with us and you will never leave us and forsake us. For the times that we feel surrounded by enemies, Remind us that you prepare a place for us at your table.
39:44-40:02
Father, as we close this series, I pray that those three words that we saw in your word Continue to echo in our brains and in our hearts.
40:03-40:07
Let our very souls bring out this glorious truth.
40:09-40:10
God is good.
40:12-40:14
In Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Psalm 23

On a scale of 1-10, how content are you? What are areas where you struggle? How can you grow in contentment?
Why would the Shepherd lead you into the valley of the shadow of death?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

May 31, 2015

God is Good

God is Good?

Jeff Miller

May 31, 2015

God is Good

Questioning God's goodness takes me to a BAD PLACE . (Ps 13:1-2)

The Progression of Depression:

I am FORGOTTEN . (Ps 13:1a)

I am FORSAKEN . (Ps 13:1b)

I am DEPRESSED . (Ps 13:2a)

I am DEFEATED . (Ps 13:2b)

Moving from "God is Good?" to "God is Good!"

Get REAL with God. (Ps 13:3-4)

Look at the BIG PICTURE . (Ps 13:5-6)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

00:00-00:10
Psalm 13, we're going to read this before we get out and look through it, but Psalm 13 says, "How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever?
00:12-00:14
How long will you hide your face from me?
00:16-00:21
How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
00:22-00:25
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
00:27-00:30
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
00:31-00:43
Light up my eyes, lest I sleep, the sleep of death, lest my enemies say I prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
00:46-00:51
But I have trusted in your steadfast love, my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
00:52-00:58
I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
01:01-01:02
God is good.
01:03-01:08
And in this series through Psalms, we've seen that the goodness of God affects me.
01:09-01:11
And we've seen that God's Word is good.
01:12-01:16
And last week we discussed how God's grace is good.
01:17-01:28
But this week, notice on your outline, the title of this message is "God is Good." But I want you to draw a question mark beside that statement.
01:30-01:40
So the title of the message today really is, "God is Good." The punctuation makes a big difference, doesn't it?
01:42-01:58
And at the risk of sounding like a grammar Nazi, and being someone that maybe sometimes corrects people's grammar as they're speaking, or especially if I read something, my mind, my eyes just drawn to that stuff.
01:59-02:24
The punctuation is very important. If you don't believe me, just think about the difference between these two statements. "Let's eat," comma, "Grandma." Is punctuation important?
02:25-02:25
Yeah.
02:26-02:27
Here's a little marriage tip.
02:27-02:39
Guys, when you mess up and you're apologizing to your wife, make sure that you enunciate the right punctuation.
02:39-02:41
It might not even hurt you to say the right punctuation.
02:41-02:51
You know, guys, you mess up, you say, "I'm sorry, comma, I love you."
02:53-02:54
[laughter]
02:54-02:55
That's nice.
02:55-02:57
Because if you don't have the comma, what do you got?
02:57-03:03
"I'm sorry, I love you." That doesn't fly in my house.
03:04-03:05
No, this is no joke.
03:05-03:07
I saw a magazine cover.
03:07-03:10
It was for some pet magazine.
03:11-03:15
The cover said, Rachel Ray was on the front.
03:15-03:16
You know Rachel Ray, the cook?
03:17-03:28
The cover said, "Rachel Ray finds inspiration "in cooking her family and her dog." (audience laughing) Like, I think there's some commas missing.
03:29-03:36
Rachel Ray finds inspiration in cooking, comma, her family, comma, and her dog, but that's not what it said.
03:36-03:39
It said she found inspiration in cooking her family and her dog.
03:40-03:43
And I thought to myself, maybe Rachel Ray should just eat graham rock.
03:46-03:57
And the question mark here is important because when we talk about God is good, I've already shared with you that that's the most doubted doctrine of the Bible.
03:58-03:59
You can line them all up.
04:00-04:04
Creation, eschatology, the Trinity, virgin birth.
04:06-05:06
Those things are all debated, but the number one doubted doctrine in the Bible is just simply this one, "God is good." And we get to a Psalm like this where that exclamation point we've been using, "God is good!" There are times that we say, "God is good?" Sometimes we do say it, not with that exclamation point, but we say it with a question mark and I shared with you when we started this series in my worst moments I've been there and you've been there you've been there if you're going to be honest with me and honest with yourself you've had moments in your life that you're like I know that God's good but I'll tell ya I'm just not feeling it right now I'm just not but I got some good news for you if you've ever had that thought and you have You are in great company.
05:08-05:15
Because you know, when I was planning out this psalm series, every, you know, July or August I go, "Wait for a week and plan a preaching calendar." And I think last year it was in August.
05:17-05:32
But when I was planning the preaching calendar, understand, when I was like, "I want to do this series in psalms called 'God is Good '," but when I picked the psalms that I was going to preach, I didn't have one of those giant, you know, bingo rollers with the little ping pong balls in them.
05:32-05:34
I'm like, I wonder what Psalms I'm going to do.
05:35-05:38
Psalm 100, you know, like the Pennsylvania lottery.
05:38-05:40
Okay, well, we're going to do Psalm 32.
05:40-05:42
Apparently, that wasn't how that came about.
05:43-05:44
I'm going to let you in on a little secret.
05:44-05:50
The reason that I picked the Psalms that I did is because there are different types of Psalms.
05:50-05:53
And my goal was to cover some of the major types.
05:53-05:58
For example, when we did Psalm 100, that Psalm is called a Psalm of Praise.
05:58-06:02
When we did Psalm 19, that's called a Psalm of Wisdom.
06:02-06:04
And there's other Psalms like that.
06:05-06:06
Psalms of Praise and Psalms of Wisdom.
06:06-06:12
When we did Psalm 32, that's categorized as a Psalm of Thanks or Thanksgiving.
06:12-06:14
Many different types of Psalms.
06:16-06:23
But do you know the type of Psalm that by far outnumbers every other type of Psalm?
06:23-06:24
Do you know what it is?
06:24-06:26
They're called Psalms of Lament.
06:27-06:27
Did you know that?
06:29-06:32
There's individual laments and there's community laments.
06:33-06:39
But laments outnumber every type of psalm, other types of psalm.
06:41-06:45
Because it's very common to the human experience and the truth is we've all been there.
06:47-06:51
If you've ever had to deal with an addiction, you've been there.
06:52-06:58
If you've ever had to deal with a family member that has an addiction, you've been there.
07:00-07:09
If you've ever dealt with fear, maybe fear over their downsizing at my work, I might lose my job, what am I going to do for my family?
07:10-07:12
If you've ever dealt with fear, you've been there.
07:14-07:18
If you've ever dealt with a chronic health issue, you've been there.
07:21-07:26
If you've ever dealt with a death in your family, you've been there.
07:28-07:35
If you've ever dealt with a marriage that's falling apart, you've been there.
07:36-07:44
If you've ever dealt with adult children that are not walking with the Lord, you have been there.
07:47-07:56
If you've ever dealt with any type of disappointment in life, you know, I was really expecting this to happen, I was counting on this to happen, and it didn't happen.
07:57-07:58
Why didn't it happen?
07:59-07:59
You've been there.
08:02-08:10
And in those times, we're walking through the valley, and we're asking ourselves, "God is good?
08:12-08:39
God is good?" but God is good? I mean I might think I know it in my head but my heart right now is not sure. Well we're gonna get to a much better place today. First of all in your outline, questioning God's goodness takes me to a bad place.
08:41-08:48
Let's look at this psalm again together shall we? When you're going through a trial you lots of questions.
08:50-08:53
One of the questions you might have is, why is this stuff happening?
08:55-08:57
How much worse is it going to get?
08:57-08:59
Or how is this going to be resolved?
09:00-09:06
But the number one question that people have when they're going through a trial, you notice in verses one and two, it's the same question four times.
09:07-09:07
Did you see it?
09:08-09:08
What's the question?
09:10-09:11
How long, right?
09:12-09:14
That's the number one question when you're going through a trial.
09:14-09:16
How long am I gonna have to go through this?
09:17-09:17
How long?
09:18-09:19
How long until I'm done with this?
09:19-09:23
How long until this trial that I'm going through is in the rear view mirror?
09:27-09:31
In other words, how much more of this can I take?
09:32-09:34
Honestly, how much more of this can I take?
09:34-09:42
Because we know that hard days seem to go slow and great days seem to go fast, don't they?
09:43-09:43
True or false?
09:44-09:45
I don't have to convince you.
09:45-09:46
Do you know why?
09:46-09:48
I don't need to convince you, is because you live in Pittsburgh.
09:51-09:52
What does that have to do with anything?
09:54-09:57
In Pittsburgh, how fast does summer go by?
09:58-09:59
Yeah, right Laura?
10:00-10:00
Snap, it's over.
10:01-10:05
Okay, follow up question, Laura, since you seem to be on the ball this morning.
10:06-10:08
How fast does winter seem to go by?
10:09-10:11
How long was last winter?
10:11-10:12
Seriously.
10:13-10:17
Isn't it true that the hard days seem to go longer than the easy days?
10:18-10:19
We go through that every year on our calendar.
10:20-10:21
How about vacation?
10:23-10:25
How about vacation? You guys got vacation coming up, right?
10:26-10:27
How long does vacation last?
10:28-10:31
Like, we just unpacked and we're packing up again?
10:32-10:33
So a week of vacation flies by.
10:34-10:38
How long does the work week go by compared to the vacation week?
10:39-10:39
Do you see the point?
10:41-10:41
The point is this.
10:43-10:45
When you're having great days, they seem to go by quickly.
10:46-11:02
When you're having hard days, when you're going through a trial, time seems to drag, it drags, it drags, it drags, and you get to ask yourself the question that David asked here, how long?
11:04-11:06
How much longer am I gonna have to put up with this?
11:07-11:10
How much longer am I gonna have to endure this?
11:10-11:11
When's it gonna end?
11:12-11:16
I can't take anymore. I can't go one more day living like this.
11:16-11:20
I just can't do it. That's why David says how long?
11:21-11:34
How long? You know I was studying that this week and you'll see with me here that these questions aren't really random or repetitive. These questions are actually a progression. Jot this down in your outline.
11:35-11:38
These questions are sort of a progression of depression.
11:40-11:42
Because they're all a little bit different.
11:42-11:44
Notice first, look at the first question.
11:44-11:46
How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever?
11:49-11:51
The first step in the progression of depression is this.
11:51-11:52
I am forgotten.
11:53-11:54
I am forgotten.
11:56-11:57
Do you see that in your text?
11:58-12:02
He's like, God just forgot about me.
12:02-12:03
You know what?
12:04-12:05
Maybe benefit of the doubt.
12:05-12:08
I'm sure God has bigger fish to fry.
12:08-12:17
And I don't know, God's got this whole global thing happening and maybe He just forgot about me.
12:18-12:20
You know, I'm kind of insignificant.
12:22-12:24
Maybe He just forgot.
12:24-12:26
And maybe He'll get around to me.
12:26-12:30
Maybe at some point He'll remember and He'll get back around to me.
12:31-12:38
And then it progresses to letter B. Look at the second question.
12:39-12:47
"How long will you hide your face from me?" To write this down, not only I am forgotten, it steps to I am forsaken.
12:49-12:52
And you see the obvious difference between the two, don't you?
12:54-13:05
This is much worse than the first, because the first is like, "Well, maybe God forgot about me in the second question. No, no, he knows, but he's hitting his face for me.
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This is intentional. God knows what's going on in my life, and do you know what he's doing?
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He's like, "I know what's going on, but I'm just not paying attention. I'm hiding my face.
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I'm not paying attention.
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I don't care. I don't care." If you and I both know that's not true in reality, but is that truly how it feels sometimes?
13:29-13:49
or false. It does. There's time you know it's not true, but there's times you feel like God, you see this and you're up in heaven going, not my problem today. It feels like that. That's the next step in this depression progression. I'm forgotten, I'm forsaken.
13:49-14:00
And then you see the next question here. I'm depressed. Let her see I am depressed. How this doesn't sound like a man depressed.
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How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
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How long must I take counsel in my soul?
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You know something interesting about people?
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People are great at giving other people counsel.
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You're great at giving other people counsel, but you are lousy at counseling yourself.
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You are.
14:27-14:29
You are lousy.
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You are the world's worst therapist when it comes to counseling yourself.
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You are.
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You're terrible.
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You should not recommend to go to yourself to get counseling from yourself because you are a horrible counselor.
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You're horrible.
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You're great for other people, sure, but you're absolutely horrible counseling yourself when you're down.
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You know why?
14:54-14:56
Here's the things that you say to yourself.
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I'm so lame. I'm a loser. My life stinks.
15:01-15:04
Why does this happen to me? You wouldn't say that to somebody else, would you?
15:04-15:06
Would you say that to somebody else?
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You know, my friend Ken comes to me and he's like, "Pastor Jeff, I'm just having a really hard time." You know why, Ken? Because you're a loser.
15:13-15:17
That's why you're having a hard time. I would never say that to Ken.
15:17-15:21
Because I don't believe that. But you know what, I say that to myself all the time.
15:22-15:24
You know why you're struggling, Jeff? It's because you're a loser.
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You can't do it. You're inadequate.
15:29-15:32
You're a failure. That's how I counsel myself.
15:32-15:40
And if you're honest, that's how you counsel yourself. Something like that, you're not good enough. That's exactly what he's saying here.
15:41-15:45
Do you see that? How long must I take counsel in my soul? I'm counseling myself.
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That is a bad idea, counseling yourself.
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And then I'm depressed.
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Look at the next statement he makes.
15:57-16:01
He says, "And have sorrow in my heart all the day." I don't need to sell you on this.
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But when you're depressed over some trial that's going into your life, it consumes your every thought.
16:10-16:15
It's the first thing you think of in the morning, and it's the last thing you think of when you go to bed.
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It's what you think about when you're getting ready for work.
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It's what you think about when you're in the car going to work.
16:20-16:22
It's what you think about while you're at work.
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It's what you think about when you're on your way home from work.
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It's what you think about when you are home from work.
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And it's what you think about when you're getting ready for bed.
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This just keeps going over and over all the day.
16:32-16:33
Sorrow all day. Sorrow all day.
16:34-16:36
Keep replaying the tape in your...
16:36-16:38
The young people don't know what tape is.
16:39-16:46
Keep replaying the digital media in your mind over and over and over and over and over.
16:48-16:50
That's somebody that's depressed.
16:50-16:59
So we go from "I'm forgotten" to "I'm forsaken" to "I'm depressed." Look at this last one.
17:00-17:10
"How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?" Just write this down. "I am defeated." At this point, I'm not even fighting.
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At this point, I'm looking for a white flag to start waving. I'm defeated.
17:17-17:23
Now there's a couple mentions in this song that you've seen, a couple mentions of enemy.
17:24-17:36
You're like, "Well, who's this enemy that David's talking about?" And I, you know, this week I went through, you know, a dozen scholars and commentators and theologians much smarter than me, and they all agree.
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We don't know.
17:40-17:40
We don't know.
17:40-17:56
But you know what, I think God's Word intentionally keeps it generic because it applies to every one of us and we don't miss the point. It doesn't matter who the enemy is, what matters is the point that he's trying to make and the point is just simply this.
17:57-18:12
This is rock bottom. This is rock bottom. I've been forgotten, I've been forsaken, I'm depressed and now I just feel completely defeated. I'm defeated. It's over. Nothing is ever going to change. Life is always going to be like this.
18:12-18:15
nothing can fix this. Does that sound familiar?
18:16-18:19
That's somebody who is defeated.
18:21-18:23
That's the progression of depression.
18:24-18:26
That's not why we came here, is it?
18:27-18:38
So on your outline, we're going to move from "God is good" to "God is good! Who's with me?" Okay, let's do it. Let's do it.
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This is real easy to understand.
18:44-18:45
Real easy to understand.
18:45-18:46
Extremely hard to apply.
18:48-18:53
You can teach your children this and you're going to leave with it up here.
18:53-18:55
The question is, are you going to do something with it?
18:55-18:56
That's the question.
18:57-19:00
So how do we get from God is good to God is good?
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Number one, get real with God.
19:05-19:06
Get real with God.
19:08-19:09
Look at verse three with me again.
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He says, "Consider and answer me, O Lord my God.
19:14-19:25
Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death." He says, first of all, "Light up my eyes." You know, I'm living in this dark cloud.
19:25-19:28
God, I need you to revitalize me.
19:30-19:35
I'm in this dark place right now, God, and what I need is for you to show up and revitalize me.
19:38-19:40
He talks about, you know, what's this?
19:43-19:44
Lest I sleep the sleep of death.
19:45-19:46
What's he talking about?
19:47-19:49
Many of you know exactly what he's talking about.
19:49-19:57
Because if you've ever been to the point of being depressed, where you feel like, I just wish I were dead, my life is over.
19:58-20:00
It's not even worth being alive anymore.
20:00-20:02
That's how depressed I feel.
20:02-20:04
my life is completely worthless.
20:06-20:07
He's saying that's where I am.
20:08-20:17
And God, unless you show up and you revitalize me, unless you show up, God, and light that spark in me again, I might as well be dead.
20:21-20:22
And here's what we take from this.
20:22-20:24
You see, God wants you to be honest with Him.
20:26-20:35
And I know as a young Christian, when I started reading the Bible, I remember I was shocked when I read the Psalms. I really was. I was shocked.
20:35-20:39
I'd be reading the Psalms and I'm like, "You can't say that to God.
20:40-20:45
Can you believe what he said to God? He just accused God of hiding his face from him?
20:45-20:50
Wow, I can't believe he said that." Well, that's the beautiful thing about the Psalms.
20:51-20:53
They're honest. They're honest.
20:55-20:59
I don't know where you're from, but where I'm from, life isn't always rainbows and puppies.
20:59-21:04
Okay, I don't live in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood, and the Psalms reflect that.
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Life is really hard sometimes.
21:08-21:11
And the great news is, I can be really honest with God about that.
21:12-21:13
God wants me to be honest with Him.
21:15-21:17
And newsflash, I can't hide anything from Him anyways.
21:19-21:41
I can't get down on my knees and say, "God, everything's okay, just check it in," and walk away from that, and God's up in heaven going, "I noticed a little trouble in young Jeffrey's voice today. I wonder if there's something concerning him. I wonder if Jeff might be mad at me for something. I can't hide anything from God. He already knows.
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So that's why when you get in your face and say, "God, I gotta tell you something. I feel like you forgot about me. I gotta tell you something, God. I really feel like you abandoned me on this, God.
21:53-22:01
I've been praying for this, and I'm not seeing an answer, and I can't make sense of it, God." He can handle it, okay?
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You're not going to shock, I'm not saying to be irreverent, okay?
22:05-22:06
I'm not saying that at all.
22:08-22:12
Not saying be irreverent, what I am saying is you need to be honest with God about how you feel.
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Like, "Look God, I'm hurting right now, and I don't know how I'm going to take my next step." Be honest with God.
22:22-22:27
There's great power and there's great peace and there's great comfort in crying out.
22:29-22:39
But I just want to encourage you, when you're at those low points, take it to God, even if you don't feel like it.
22:39-22:44
When you read verses 1 and 2 with me, did it sound like David felt like praying?
22:44-22:46
He felt like he was abandoned.
22:48-22:51
But you see, he didn't let his feelings dictate what he did.
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He goes, "I might feel like God forgot me, "I might feel like God abandoned me, "but I'm still going after God.
22:58-23:00
"God, consider and answer me." He was still praying.
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It doesn't matter how I feel.
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What I know is that God is there and he's gonna listen.
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So that's what I'm going after, and I'm gonna get real with God about that.
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Take it to God.
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A lot of times, we avoid God.
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During trials, we avoid God.
23:16-23:17
So who do we take it to?
23:18-23:19
Well, there's really three sources.
23:19-23:21
One is a lot of times we take it to ourselves.
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We already talked about that.
23:23-23:25
We just keep counseling ourselves.
23:26-23:28
A lot of times we take it to other people.
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And we just become the Debbie Downer complainer.
23:32-23:38
You sit down with me for two or three hours, let me tell you how miserable my life is.
23:39-23:40
Yeah, that sounds great.
23:40-23:42
I'll put the coffee on.
23:43-23:45
We take it to other people, but we don't take it to God.
23:46-23:47
But we live in a day.
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We take it to a third source.
23:50-24:00
You take it to social media, which, look, I love social media because I have friends, pastor friends, friends from arresting, I have friends all over the world.
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It's great to catch up who's having babies, who's getting married, you know, who has babies that are getting married and pictures of their dogs and stuff like that.
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I love that.
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I get a little worn out sometimes because some people take to things they should be taking to God.
24:16-24:23
It's like, man, I am having, I'm having a really, really rough time in my life right I have nowhere to turn, oh Twitter.
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I'll put my complaints on Twitter.
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Or I just had the worst day of my life.
24:30-24:32
You should be on your face crying out to God about that.
24:32-24:36
Instead it's like, here comes a Facebook status update.
24:37-24:46
Okay, you know, my 500 friends, only 60 of whom I really know, let me tell you how miserable my life is.
24:49-24:52
It can be a great form for a lot of things, but it is not a good form for that.
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My encouragement to you is take it to God.
24:56-24:57
Take it to God.
24:59-25:00
Look at verse 4.
25:03-25:19
He says, "Consider and answer me," and in verse 4 he says, "lest my enemies say, 'I have prevailed over him,' lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken." "Lest my enemies say, 'That's sold in the wound.
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That's being kicked when you're down.
25:22-25:31
That's adding insult to injury when you're already down and out and your enemy comes by to rejoice over it.'" It's rough.
25:32-25:39
But the second part of verse four, notice he says, "Lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken." Like, what does that mean?
25:40-25:44
Like, my enemies are looking at me and I'm just like shaking.
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And my enemies are rejoicing because I'm shaking.
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Like, that's not what that means.
25:49-25:51
What he's talking about is his faith.
25:52-26:09
Some translations say, "Let my enemies see me move." He's talking about, "My faith is shaken." The world loves nothing more than to see a Christian fail.
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The world loves nothing more than to see a Christian fall on his face.
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And I don't mean in prayer. I mean have an epic failure.
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The world loves that. The world loves it.
26:26-26:28
By the way, we saw it last week.
26:29-26:30
Actually, maybe it was a couple weeks ago now.
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I don't know how many of you followed this story with the Duggar family.
26:35-26:36
You know the Duggar family?
26:37-26:39
How many people know the Duggar family? It's on TV.
26:39-26:43
They have this show, what's it, like 130 kids and counting or something?
26:45-26:46
19. Oh, okay.
26:48-26:50
Once you have more than five kids, others count.
26:51-26:54
You can have six or you can have, you know, a thousand.
26:55-27:31
count after five but I'm not going into the details about the crime the crimes that were committed but here's what I do want to point out why did that story get so much attention the reason that story got so much attention is because the family especially the parents are so bold about their faith on their television program And many people, even before these crimes came out that happened, many people hated this family just because of that.
27:32-27:35
Just because they get on TV and they're like, "We're Christians.
27:35-27:40
We love our church and we support our church." The world hated them already.
27:42-27:50
But then when we see this horrible failure that took place, the world's rejoicing over that.
27:52-27:56
I'm not going to tell you, when the news broke, you know how I found out about it?
27:57-27:57
I don't follow it.
27:58-28:00
My wife loves those TLC shows.
28:00-28:01
To me, they're all the same.
28:02-28:09
You know, 19 Kids, The Little People, whatever, my 900-pound life, whatever, it's all the same stuff.
28:09-28:11
They're all trying to convince you that their life's just like mine.
28:12-28:14
Okay, great, then I don't need to watch it.
28:14-28:15
Okay?
28:15-28:16
I'll just go live mine.
28:16-28:19
But my parents are not here today, so I can say this.
28:19-28:20
He just loves these shows.
28:22-28:24
And I don't really care about them either way.
28:25-28:33
But how I found out about this whole Duggar thing was a friend of mine who doesn't love the Lord texted me.
28:34-28:36
He's like, "Did you hear about the Duggars?" He said, "I knew those families.
28:37-28:38
I knew that family was a bunch of freaks.
28:39-28:41
I knew..." And he just was like...
28:41-28:42
And I texted him back.
28:42-28:48
I said, "Why do you hate them so much?" I mean, he was so rejoicing.
28:48-28:49
Like, "See?
28:49-28:49
I'm not going to be a Duggar.
28:49-28:59
And I said, "Well, I'm not going See see I knew there was something wrong with those people and look at them. I'm just like Like why are we why are we so excited about this?
29:02-29:21
They're hated just because of their faith just like those duck call people that I don't watch either But here's the point to the world God's reputation is connected to his people's reputation to the world And that's not my opinion, that's actually in the Bible.
29:21-29:23
Write this reference down, you can look this up later.
29:24-29:25
Deuteronomy 32, 27.
29:27-29:36
The Lord speaks of this in Deuteronomy 32, 27, that to the world, God's reputation is connected to his people's reputation.
29:37-29:38
Do you understand what that means?
29:39-29:55
That means when the guy stands up and says, "I love the Lord, I love the Lord," and then and he fails miserably, the world's like, "Mm-hmm, he trusted God, look at him now." All big Christian, big Christian, look at him now.
29:57-29:59
He trusted God, and what did he get out of it?
29:59-29:59
Nothing.
30:01-30:02
He's a failure.
30:03-30:06
The stupid religion and, you know, idiot.
30:07-30:08
And look at him now.
30:08-30:10
Look at him now, where's your Jesus at now?
30:11-30:14
The world loves to see Christians fall.
30:16-30:17
This is God's epic word.
30:18-30:21
So we need to move from God is good to God is good.
30:22-30:24
Got this reference down.
30:24-30:26
This is a Bible verse that you must have memorized.
30:27-30:29
If you don't, I encourage you to get on it this week.
30:30-30:32
There's a glorious promise in Hebrews 4.16.
30:33-30:41
It says, "Let us then with confidence draw near "to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
30:43-30:44
That is a beautiful verse.
30:45-30:46
That is a beautiful verse.
30:47-30:55
What that's saying is we can get real with God, we can go before God first of all, he says confidently, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.
30:55-30:57
You can go to God confidently.
30:57-31:00
You don't need to go to God with your tail between your legs.
31:00-31:02
Like, oh, I blew it.
31:02-31:04
I'm so sorry, God, I blew it.
31:05-31:12
Confidently doesn't mean arrogantly, it just means like, look, God, You know me and you know my weaknesses.
31:12-31:14
And I got to tell you, I blew it.
31:15-31:17
I got to tell you, I'm going through this trial right now.
31:17-31:19
Whatever it is right now, it's burdening your heart.
31:22-31:23
You can go confidently.
31:23-31:23
You can go directly.
31:25-31:27
You don't need to go to me or some priest or whatever.
31:27-31:32
You can go to God directly to his throne and you can go needy.
31:34-31:36
to find help in time of need.
31:37-31:38
God wants you to come to him needy.
31:39-31:39
And here's the great thing.
31:41-31:42
God's never going to turn you away.
31:44-31:52
And according to this glorious promise in Hebrews 2 verse 16, there's only two things on the menu that God's going to serve off.
31:53-31:54
And that's mercy and grace.
31:56-31:56
That is so important.
31:57-32:00
Because people think if I go to God, I'm going to get condemnation.
32:01-32:04
No, there is now therefore no condemnation to those who have Christ Jesus.
32:05-32:10
If I go to God, he's really gonna, he's really going to rebuke me hard, no.
32:11-32:13
What did he promise that you would get when you have need?
32:14-32:14
What did he promise you?
32:15-32:19
He promised that you would get mercy and grace in your time of need.
32:20-32:25
So that's why when the trials come, and you're saying, how long, how long, how long?
32:26-32:26
You know what?
32:27-32:32
God said I can go right to his throne and get mercy and grace.
32:34-32:39
And finally, how do we get from moving to God is good to God is good?
32:41-32:42
Look at the big picture.
32:43-32:45
Look at verses 5 and 6 with me again.
32:47-32:51
He says, "But I have trusted in your steadfast love.
32:52-32:54
My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
32:54-33:02
I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me." So the question here is what's the turnaround?
33:04-33:05
What's the turnaround?
33:05-33:08
I was studying this a lot this week.
33:09-33:10
You know something I don't see in the text?
33:11-33:14
I don't see an answer to his prayer.
33:14-33:14
Do you?
33:14-33:15
Do you see that in there?
33:15-33:17
Do you see an answer to his prayer?
33:18-33:21
Do you see some type of resolution to his problem?
33:22-33:23
I don't see that.
33:24-33:26
So what happened between verse four and verse five?
33:27-33:35
He went from despair and defeat and despondency to He's worshipping.
33:35-33:36
What's the turnaround?
33:38-33:43
See, that's the thing that I find most about this passage, is this glorious truth.
33:43-33:44
You need to write this down.
33:45-33:49
Your circumstance doesn't need to change for your emotions to change.
33:50-33:53
Write that down, because that's what we see here in the text.
33:54-33:59
circumstances don't need to change for your emotions to change.
34:01-34:04
Well, I'll be happy once this problem goes away.
34:04-34:09
Your circumstances don't need to change for your emotions to change.
34:11-34:15
Like, well, okay, granted, I see what you're saying in the text.
34:15-34:16
There's a dramatic shift.
34:16-34:17
But I have a question.
34:17-34:20
What brought the change in David?
34:21-34:22
What made the change?
34:22-34:25
Well, the answer is right in the text.
34:27-34:28
We're going to do a test here.
34:29-34:33
I already told you I'm a little bit of a grammar Nazi, so now it's your turn to test your grammar skills.
34:34-34:40
I'm going to read a clause, and you're going to tell me if it refers to the past, the present, or the future.
34:41-34:44
Okay? Past, present, or future. Multiple choice.
34:45-34:47
You have a 33 and a third percent chance.
34:49-34:49
Okay?
34:50-34:56
But I have trusted in your steadfast love, past, present, or future.
34:57-34:57
Past.
34:57-34:58
Past.
34:59-35:00
Very good.
35:02-35:03
Number two.
35:04-35:08
My heart shall rejoice, past, present, or future.
35:09-35:09
Future.
35:10-35:10
Right.
35:12-35:16
I will sing to the Lord, past, present, or future.
35:17-35:18
Oh, that was the meatball.
35:19-35:20
Future.
35:23-35:30
Finally, because he has dealt bountifully with me, past president of Future, past.
35:31-35:33
Very good, fellow grammar Nazis.
35:35-35:37
So, do you see it?
35:39-35:43
He wasn't focusing on the here and now.
35:44-35:51
this moment of despair What changed his emotions was looking at the past in the future both?
35:54-36:58
Did you see that Because our biggest danger when we're in depression over some type of trial Our biggest temptation our biggest tendency is to get stuck in the moment My life is so miserable Why is my life so hard you're just looking at today dude, you're just looking at today What you need to do like David here, this is what changed his emotions he looked at the panorama of his life and There are two conclusions that he came up with that are also true of you I promise you it's true of every single person in this room. It's these two glorious truths The first one is this things haven't always been like this Things haven't always been like this. I can't say God doesn't care God's not involved in my life Can I can I look back at my hip than my past history and see an absent God?
36:58-37:05
Absolutely not. I like David can say God has dealt battlefield with me. Has God ever done anything good in your life?
37:06-37:08
Has God ever done anything good in your life?
37:09-37:11
Jared, has God ever done anything good in your life?
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Yeah?
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Rachel, how about you?
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Emily?
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We can just go on down the line.
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Has God ever done anything good in your life?
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Absolutely.
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Everyone in this room can say that.
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So like David, we can say things haven't always been like this.
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So I can rejoice over everything that God has done.
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Here's the second glorious truth, and that is this.
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Things won't be like this forever.
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Things will not be like this forever.
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might feel like it. But things will not be like this forever.
37:46-38:00
You realize in eternity, when you're in heaven, and you think back to your life on earth, do you know how long that's going to seem to you? Your life on earth, do you know what that's going to seem like to you? That's going to seem like a second compared to eternity.
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You're going to look back at this time, like I was only on the earth, but a heartbeat.
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Things aren't going to be like this forever.
38:12-38:23
We can say, "God has been good to me," and we can say, "My best days are ahead of me." So in the meantime, what are we going to do?
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Well, just what it says here, "I will sing to the Lord." You see, the problem with this, the emotional problem with David here, and the emotional problem we get into. Our emotions are down and singing is how we worship God with our emotions. So ultimately we can make a choice. We can choose to keep singing the blues to myself or we can sing praises to the Lord to lift our spirits. So looking at verses 5 and 6 again, have you trusted in God's fast love? Well, if you have, your heart should rejoice at what is to come. Has God dealt bountifully with you? And I would say, let's say, praising God ahead of time for what's coming. Let's pray. And then we'll say, Father in heaven, we do get to know you. We stuck in the moment.
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We're like David more times than we care we've been.
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But I pray that we would take a page out of David's book here and come to you with our trials.
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Come to you with whatever is burdening us.
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Stop preaching to ourselves.
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Stop complaining to others.
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But to come to you, God I pray that you would help us to look at the big picture.
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Like David, every single person in this room can say, "God has been good to me." For those in this room who are born again believers in Jesus Christ, we know that their best days are ahead of them.
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You have prepared a place in glory where we will forever be separated from the presence of sin and death and destruction and hurts and disappointment and discouragement.
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All of those things are going to be things of the past.
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Our best days are certainly ahead of us.
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And when we're going through trials like today, give us eyes of faith to look at what's ahead.
40:54-41:02
remove us from questioning Your goodness and joyfully singing about Your goodness.
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And we will praise You in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Psalm 13

David mentions his "enemy" in verses 2 and 4. How would you apply what he says to your own life?
Why is David's focus on the past and the future in verses 5 and 6? What does this tell you about how you should view your life during a trial?
CHILDREN'S QUESTION Have you ever felt like God is ignoring you? What should we do when we feel that way? (Explain to your child that God IS there, and He DOES care, even if it doesn’t feel like it. Sometimes when we are sad, we feel alone and that God has left us - but He promised to NEVER leave us!)

Breakout Questions:

Did you abide through prayer and Bible reading this week? What specifically are you moved to change or apply this week and how are you going to apply it?

Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

May 24, 2015

God is Good

God's Grace is Good

Jeff Miller

May 24, 2015

God is Good

What Fires Me Up About Grace:

I am FORGIVEN ! (Ps 32:1-2)

I have nothing to HIDE ! (Ps 32:3-5)

I have nothing to FEAR ! (Ps 32:6-7)

I have nothing to FIGURE OUT ! (Ps 32:8-9)

I am LOVED ! (Ps 32:10-11)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
int: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

00:01-00:04
Amen. Open up your Bibles to Psalm 32.
00:05-00:06
Psalm 32.
00:07-00:16
We're going through this series right now called, "God is Good." And when we get to the end of this series, that's what you need to take away with you.
00:17-00:18
There's one simple truth.
00:19-00:20
God is good.
00:21-00:24
And it is the most disbelieved truth of the Bible.
00:25-00:40
I mean, it's easy now when we're in church and we're singing on our laps, but Monday morning, when we're facing trials or the troubles are coming, we all have a tendency - myself included - we have the tendency to say, does God really care?
00:40-00:42
Is God really good?
00:42-00:47
That's why we're taking our time to get into God's Word to understand what it says about His goodness.
00:48-00:50
You're like, well, what is so great about God?
00:50-00:51
Well, the answer is everything.
00:52-01:51
Because as it pertains to us, there's one thing that really hits us as being good about God, and that is His grace. We're going to talk about grace today. We talk about grace a lot in the church. What does that even mean? I'd like to explain to you first of all what it means by way of illustration so that we understand grace as a little different from some other terms that we use. I want you to imagine that you have a 16 year old son. Okay, some people in our congregation do have children about that age. So just imagine you have the 16 year old son and your 16 year old son goes to a party. And at this party there's another 16 year old boy that doesn't really care for your son.
01:53-02:42
and things get heated up and this other boy kills your son. Now if you set out and track that other boy down and kill him, that's called vengeance. If you go out and track that boy down and bring him to the law, bring him to the authorities to go through the legal process, that's called justice. And through that process, if that boy was on trial and there was some some way that you could convince the judge to drop all the charges and let him go free, that's That's called mercy.
02:45-02:56
But if you took that boy into your home, and you raised him like he was your own son, that's called grace.
02:58-02:59
That's an illustration.
02:59-03:01
There's definitions that we can give you about grace.
03:03-03:05
Grace is getting something that you don't deserve.
03:06-03:08
That's where it's different from mercy.
03:08-03:10
Mercy is not getting what I do deserve.
03:11-03:14
Grace is getting something that I don't deserve.
03:15-03:20
But the best definition I've heard for grace is this, and I want you to jot this down.
03:20-03:22
This is the best definition of grace.
03:23-03:26
It's God giving to me what He requires from me.
03:28-03:31
God giving to me what He requires from me.
03:32-03:33
What does God require from me?
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He requires me to be perfect.
03:37-03:39
He requires me to be righteous.
03:39-03:41
He requires me to be holy.
03:44-03:45
I'm not.
03:46-03:50
I am so far from any of that myself, but God requires that of me.
03:50-03:58
And in his grace, God says, "Jeff, I'm going to give to you what I require from you." And that's what God did through Jesus Christ.
03:58-04:02
That God, through Christ, gave us the holiness of Jesus Christ.
04:03-04:05
God gave us the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
04:06-04:07
He imputed that.
04:08-04:09
He put that onto our account.
04:10-04:22
So because of Jesus Christ, because of Jesus' work on the cross, through Jesus' resurrection from the dead, God gives me His holiness.
04:25-04:28
That's getting something that I don't deserve.
04:30-04:30
That's grace.
04:32-04:38
I could go on and on with definitions, and honestly no one definition can really cover or how awesome grace is.
04:38-04:46
So we're gonna look at a Psalm describing what grace means to me and what grace means to you.
04:48-04:49
So let's look at what the Psalmist says.
04:51-04:56
If you have your outline, the title of this message is "What Fires Me Up About Grace." I get fired up about some things, right?
04:57-05:03
I get fired up about penguins hockey and I get fired up about a lot of sports, actually, if you ask my wife.
05:03-05:07
But the thing that fires me up more than anything is God's grace.
05:07-05:09
You're like, well, what fires you up about grace?
05:09-05:10
It's all in this Psalm right here.
05:11-05:12
Number one, jot this down.
05:12-05:13
What fires me up about grace?
05:13-05:14
I'm forgiven.
05:15-05:16
I am forgiven.
05:17-05:19
Look at verses one and two.
05:19-05:24
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
05:25-05:31
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
05:34-05:35
Obvious point here, right?
05:35-05:36
Very poetically put.
05:36-05:41
But there's four words that you need to have circled or underlined in your Bible.
05:41-05:44
Transgression, sin, iniquity, deceit.
05:45-05:50
He's talking about sin, but he's saying blessed is the man that has this issue settled.
05:52-05:56
And there are a lot of Christians that don't understand this.
05:57-06:02
And there's a lot of Christians that are walking around without joy because quite frankly, they don't get it.
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When you put your faith in Jesus Christ and receive Him as your Lord and Savior, you are forgiven.
06:11-06:14
It's not someday I hope that God forgives me.
06:14-06:19
It's He puts me in a state where I am forgiven.
06:19-06:20
I'm forgiven.
06:21-06:22
Like, well, what if I mess up tomorrow?
06:23-06:24
You're forgiven.
06:25-06:26
All of your sins are forgiven.
06:26-06:30
God has pronounced you not guilty of your sin.
06:31-06:40
And I love how Isaiah talks about this in Isaiah 53, in verse six, but Isaiah says that we all like sheep have gone astray, each to his own way.
06:40-06:42
And a couple of weeks ago, we talked about sheep, right?
06:42-06:43
Like who's a sheep?
06:44-06:44
Who's a sheep?
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Yeah, we're dumb sheep.
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The Bible says we are dumb sheep by nature.
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We're wayward, we're rebellious, we're defenseless, and most importantly, we need a shepherd.
06:53-06:57
And Isaiah 53, six says, we all like sheep have gone astray, each to his own way.
06:59-07:01
I love the second half of that verse.
07:02-07:08
He says, "But the Lord has laid the iniquity "of us all upon him." And I'd like to illustrate that for you.
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Just imagine that instead of being a Bible, imagine that this book has written down every sin that I've ever committed.
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And it would have to be a much bigger book, okay?
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It would have to be several volumes of books.
07:21-07:25
But we're just going to pretend that all of my sins are written down in this book.
07:25-07:28
And you see, when God, let this hand represent me.
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When God sees me, what God sees is my sin.
07:32-07:35
Like, look Jeff, look at all of the sin that you've committed.
07:37-07:39
Now let this hand represent Jesus Christ.
07:40-07:45
The Bible says in Isaiah 53, six, that the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all upon him.
07:46-07:53
So when Jesus offered himself on the cross, what he did was he took my sin on himself.
07:54-07:56
So now what does God see when he sees me?
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The answer is no sin.
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Nothing.
08:00-08:08
He sees me as being perfect and complete because Jesus came along and took my sin on Himself.
08:10-08:13
The Lord has laid the iniquity of us all upon Him.
08:15-08:24
And you're like, "Well, that sounds fantastic." If you're visiting with us, you're like, "What does it look like when somebody receives He's that forgiveness of sin.
08:25-08:31
And they want to give public profession of faith that they've received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
08:31-08:32
What does that look like?
08:32-08:34
It looks like this.
08:35-08:43
Rachel Molchan from our church last Wednesday night making the public profession of faith in Jesus Christ through baptism.
08:43-08:46
What a beautiful picture of baptism.
08:46-08:53
You're identifying with the death of Jesus Christ and you're identifying with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
08:55-08:56
What's all the celebration about?
08:56-08:59
The celebration is, I'm forgiven.
08:59-09:00
I'm forgiven.
09:00-09:08
God does not hold my sin against me anymore because of what Jesus Christ has done.
09:09-09:09
I'm forgiven.
09:10-09:13
And some people think that that's where grace stops.
09:14-09:17
Like yeah, God in His grace forgave me, but grace goes way beyond that.
09:17-09:19
We have more psalms to get through.
09:19-10:09
But number two, write this down, to hide. I have nothing to hide. Look at verses 3 and 4. First of all, he says, "For when I kept silent," meaning about his sin, obviously, "for when I kept silent, my bones wasted away. Through my groaning all day long, for day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer." Some of you can give first-hand testimony to this, but the most miserable person in the world is a Christian that's stuck in sin. True or false? The most miserable person in the world is a born-again believer that's stuck in sin.
10:10-10:18
It's miserable. And see, here's the good news. It is a grace of God to pursue you.
10:18-10:21
You see, he's talking about the guilt and the agony that he felt.
10:22-10:26
That guilt and agony that you feel, that doesn't mean that you're out of God's family.
10:26-10:32
It doesn't mean that I need to pray and ask Jesus to forgive me again, because we already talked about that.
10:32-10:33
The forgiveness issue is settled.
10:34-10:49
You're like, "So why is it that when I'm stuck in sin, why do I just feel so, 'Ugh!' Why do I just feel, 'Ugh!' Like, 'Ugh!' Why do I feel like that?" Well, the answers actually, I've got this reference down, the answers in Ephesians 4.30.
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As Christians, that's called grieving the Holy Spirit.
10:54-10:59
In that passage, the Apostle Paul says that when we're in sin, what we're doing is we're grieving.
10:59-11:06
He says, "Don't grieve the Spirit of God." We're grieving Him when we're stuck in sin.
11:08-11:13
He says, "For day and night your hand was heavy upon me." Your hand was heavy.
11:14-11:14
What's that like?
11:15-11:16
Jesse, will you come up here?
11:16-11:17
Will you help me out?
11:18-11:18
Please?
11:19-11:20
Ready, please?
11:21-11:21
Thank you.
11:23-11:24
What does it mean?
11:24-11:36
It says, "For day and night your hand was heavy upon me." I don't even have to illustrate this, because if you're a follower of Christ that's ever been stuck in sin, you know what this feels like.
11:37-11:40
The hand of God being heavy upon you.
11:40-11:42
And you just feel miserable.
11:43-11:49
"Why do I feel so miserable?" Because your heavenly Father has his hand on you and you're not involved in any sin.
11:49-11:53
We're not gonna confess that here, but I'm not gonna put you in the spotlight yet.
11:53-12:15
But if Jesse were involved in a sin that he's not dealing with, that he's not taking to the Lord, God's hand is on him saying, "Jesse, that's not who you are, man." See, the Holy Spirit within you is going, "You see, you're doing this, "but you know that's not the way of the Lord." And you feel the heavy hand of God upon you.
12:15-12:18
And sometimes we kind of feel like, well, I'm just gonna step out of that.
12:18-12:20
And God's like, no, I'm right here with you, man.
12:20-12:21
You can't go anywhere.
12:21-12:22
I'm gonna walk with you.
12:22-12:24
I'm gonna walk, we're gonna deal with this, okay?
12:24-12:25
This isn't who you are.
12:26-12:29
This isn't how a born again follower of Christ is.
12:29-12:31
And I'm going to keep my heavy hand on you.
12:31-12:34
And we're gonna deal with this together like father and son.
12:34-12:35
That's what David's saying here.
12:36-12:38
In the hand of heavy, thank you so much, Jesse.
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The hand of God was heavy upon him.
12:45-12:51
And that's why you have to understand there's great freedom in these verses because what he's saying is, you know what, I have nothing to hide.
12:53-13:04
I thought in my stupidity/arrogance/whatever, I thought that I could hide my sin from God, and then I realized that God had His hand on me.
13:04-13:05
He wasn't going to let me.
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I wasn't going to let me keep hiding this thing.
13:09-13:10
There's great freedom in that.
13:12-13:13
You don't have to hide anything.
13:14-13:15
Because God knows.
13:16-13:17
God knows.
13:18-13:37
And if you're a born-again believer here today, and you're stuck in some sin pattern, whatever it is, whether you're involved in a relationship that you shouldn't be involved in, or you're looking at stuff on the computer that you shouldn't be looking at, or you've been taking some shortcuts at work that you really shouldn't be taking, and you felt that God's hand has been upon you like, "This isn't how we act.
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This isn't who you are in Christ.
13:39-13:44
This isn't the way you are." I've got some fantastic news for you.
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You don't have to stay there.
13:49-13:50
You don't have to stay there.
13:53-13:54
What do I do about it?
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Well, look at verse 5.
13:56-14:00
He says, "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.
14:01-14:11
I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and you forgave the iniquity of my sin." Here he talks about confessing his sin.
14:12-14:14
What does it mean to confess your sin?
14:14-14:31
It doesn't mean that you go into a little phone booth without a phone and there's some clergy person on the other side, and you tell him what you did, and he's going to give you some prescription of "just say these things and everything's great." That's not biblical confession.
14:33-14:34
What's biblical confession?
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It's just this.
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Biblical confession means I agree with God.
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That's confession.
14:39-14:40
I agree with God.
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Because you see, when we're involved in sin, we try to rationalize it, don't we?
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Like this isn't so bad.
14:46-14:48
Well, I can get away with this.
14:48-14:50
I'm really not that bad.
14:51-14:54
Confession is when you get to that place that you say, God, You're right.
14:54-14:55
This is sin.
14:56-14:57
You're right, God.
14:57-14:58
I should not be doing this.
14:58-14:59
You're right.
14:59-15:04
This is wrong for a born-again believer in Christ to be acting like this.
15:04-15:04
You're right, God.
15:05-15:06
I should not be doing this.
15:06-15:08
That is what confession is.
15:10-15:15
Confession is saying, thank you for the forgiveness that you already purchased through Christ.
15:16-15:21
God, please give me the victory over this sin by realizing that victory has already been won.
15:24-15:28
So if you're stuck in sin today, you don't have to stay there.
15:29-15:31
You don't have to stay there.
15:31-15:32
God wants you to confess.
15:32-15:34
He wants you to agree with Him.
15:34-15:38
He wants you to thank Him for the provision that He's already made in Christ.
15:41-15:43
He wants you to make things right with someone you may have wronged.
15:44-15:47
And then, you move on.
15:48-15:49
You move on.
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You deal with it.
15:51-15:54
You trust God for what He's done to deal with it.
15:54-16:03
Make any human restitution that you need to make - whether I need to apologize to you for the way I acted, I need to repay you for something that I took from you.
16:03-16:07
You got to do that, do that, and then move on in forgiveness.
16:09-16:10
I'd like to pause right now and just have a quick prayer.
16:11-16:15
Because I really feel that there's somebody here right now that this is really resonating with.
16:15-16:18
Like, yeah, yeah, I've been stuck, and I can't get unstuck.
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Well, today's the day that you can get unstuck.
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OK, will you just bow with me quickly?
16:23-16:27
Father, I don't know people's hearts, but you do.
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And I would be foolish to think that in a group of people like this, there's not someone here today that just feels stuck.
16:36-16:46
I know I shouldn't be doing this and this is wrong, but they've been foolishly trying to hide their sin when you've already dealt with their sin.
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And what you want is like a child coming to his dad saying, "Dad, I messed up." You're looking for that, Father.
16:57-17:02
I want them to know that Christ has taken their sin away.
17:02-17:03
And there's no condemnation.
17:06-17:09
In Your grace, Father, You're going to keep Your heavy hand on them.
17:11-17:12
Father, we thank You for that.
17:13-17:17
I pray that today is a day of a fresh beginning for somebody here.
17:19-17:24
Because they get to the place today where they say, "I've got nothing to hide." God already knows.
17:26-17:27
In Jesus' name, Amen.
17:29-17:31
So I'm forgiven. I have nothing to hide.
17:31-17:32
Look at number 3.
17:32-17:33
I have nothing to fear.
17:34-17:36
I have nothing to fear.
17:37-17:39
Look at verse 6.
17:40-17:44
Not only is God not against me, but God is actually for me.
17:44-17:45
Look at verse 6.
17:45-17:52
"Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to You at a time when You may be found.
17:53-17:57
Surely in the rush of great waters this month, reach Him.
17:59-18:13
You see, if all of this is true about God's forgiveness and about the way God will pursue you even when you're in sin, if all of this stuff is true, if this is how God is, then why wouldn't I pray?
18:14-18:26
See, he says, "offer prayer at a time when God may be found." The godly that he references here will pray to God How God has promised to answer.
18:28-18:30
What He's saying here is the ungodly wait until it's too late.
18:31-18:33
I can give you a lot of Bible passages talking about that.
18:33-18:35
The ungodly wait until it's too late.
18:35-18:40
They just put it off, put it off, I'll deal with this later, I'll deal with this later, I'll deal with this later, and then it's too late.
18:42-18:47
They go, "Oh man, when is it too late?" Well, I can tell you this, it's not today.
18:49-18:50
It's not too late.
18:50-18:54
If there's something that you need rescued from today, fall out today.
18:55-18:58
Look at v. 7. He says, "You are a hiding place for Me.
18:59-19:00
You preserve Me from trouble.
19:01-19:08
You surround Me with shouts of deliverance." These personal claims are just expressions of joy.
19:10-19:11
I have this circled in my Bible.
19:12-19:13
The word "Me" - do you see it in v. 7?
19:13-19:14
It comes up three times.
19:17-19:20
He says, "You're a hiding place for Me.
19:22-19:24
You preserve me from trouble.
19:25-19:27
You surround me with shouts of deliverance.
19:29-19:40
You've got to get from concepts about God on a page, or concepts about God in a sermon, to this applies to me.
19:42-19:49
That's why some people are walking around without joy because they haven't personalized these promises of God.
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Yeah, yeah, God is gracious.
19:52-19:54
I see that in like Billy Graham's life.
19:54-19:56
And yeah, God makes great provision.
19:56-19:58
And I see that in my neighbor's life.
19:59-20:00
Notice he says me.
20:00-20:01
God's good to me.
20:01-20:02
He's good to me.
20:02-20:04
And we're gonna have a whole sermon about that at the end of this series.
20:05-20:06
But God is good to me.
20:06-20:08
But we can't ignore it because it's in the text.
20:10-20:11
God's good to me.
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And because of that, I have nothing to fear.
20:16-20:30
Do you know that there is nothing, there is nothing that's going to happen to you God's permission. Did you know that? God has said a lot of things in His Word, but there's one thing that God has never said, and that's "whoops." He's never said it.
20:30-20:57
God's never been over here like, "I'm taking care of the Mastorinos here." "Oh my gosh, what happened to Mucko? I wasn't even paying attention!" That's never happened. That's never happened. There is not one thing that's going to happen to you outside of God's permission, outside of God's sovereign permission. Nothing That's why David says, "I have nothing to fear." I have nothing to fear because I know He's watching me.
20:57-20:58
I know He's taking care of me.
20:59-21:00
I'm not afraid of anything.
21:02-21:22
He went from groaning earlier, verse 3, groaning all day long, to shouting, being surrounded with shouts of deliverance, knowing that God is for him and God is for you.
21:25-21:27
So what fires me up about grace?
21:27-21:28
Well, I'm forgiven.
21:28-21:29
I have nothing to hide.
21:29-21:30
I have nothing to fear.
21:30-21:33
Fourthly, I have nothing to figure out.
21:34-21:36
I have nothing to figure out.
21:39-21:40
Verse 8 is a shift actually.
21:41-21:43
God is talking in verses 8 and 9.
21:44-21:48
He says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.
21:48-21:56
I will counsel you with my eye upon you." God's grace, He doesn't just forgive us.
21:59-22:00
God doesn't just say, "Okay, you're forgiven in Christ.
22:02-22:03
I'll see you when you get to heaven.
22:04-22:06
Good luck figuring things out." Notice these words.
22:06-22:09
He says that He's going to instruct.
22:09-22:10
He's going to teach.
22:11-22:12
He's going to counsel.
22:12-22:15
And what that tells us is that God doesn't just forgive sin.
22:16-22:18
God changes sinners.
22:20-22:22
Like, well, as God's children, we always get it, don't we?
22:23-22:25
We always do everything perfectly.
22:25-22:26
We always have everything figured out.
22:27-22:30
And we always do what's absolutely appropriate in every circumstance, right?
22:32-22:34
That is certainly not my experience.
22:34-22:37
Sometimes my experience takes me to v. 9.
22:38-22:56
Where He says, "Do not be like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curved with bit and bridle or it will not stay near you." He's saying don't be stubborn or stupid like a horse or a mule.
22:57-22:58
God says you're not an animal.
23:00-23:02
You are a child of God.
23:02-23:03
You have understanding.
23:05-23:08
You're not an animal, but the truth is sometimes we act like it.
23:09-23:11
Sometimes we act like we have no understanding.
23:12-23:14
And I don't have a horse or a mule.
23:14-23:15
Anybody here have a horse or a mule?
23:17-23:17
Anybody?
23:18-23:19
Nobody here has a horse or a mule?
23:20-23:20
Okay, great.
23:21-23:22
So it's not just me.
23:22-23:28
So sometimes when you're reading the Bible, you're like trying to figure out like, I wonder what that's like or what that's talking about.
23:28-23:33
And I'm reading this this week, and I'm like, well, this is kind of hard because I don't have a horse or a mule.
23:34-23:36
But do you know what I do have?
23:38-23:38
Children.
23:40-23:44
And quite honestly, sometimes that's like having a mule.
23:46-23:48
And I was thinking about this this week.
23:49-24:03
The Lord says, "I want to instruct you and teach you, don't be like a horse or a mule." He says, "must be curled with bit and bridle." Basically, what He's saying is you shouldn't be like an animal that I need to snap the leash on to keep you close to Me.
24:03-24:05
I was thinking about this week.
24:07-24:20
we have family rules just like you have family rules, but one of our family rules is we call it the parking lot rule. You know what the parking lot rule is? When we get out of the car anywhere, like, "Don't run off boys, my boys are 10 and 9.
24:20-25:56
Don't run off." Why? Because there's always some maniac flying through the parking lot like they're at the Indy 500. Like, "Don't run off. Stay close. I want you to stay close to me. I want you right here as we're going through the parking lot." Okay, we don't need to mow down while somebody's trying to do like the the Target 400 or whatever. Like, stay close to me. And if your kids are anything like my kids, your kids are probably perfect, mine aren't, they don't always stay close to me. So you know what that is, right? Like, if my kids won't stay close to me, I'm just like, you are staying close to me and I will take their hand and I will hold their hand across the parking lot. You're do that? It's because I love them so much that I'm not like, "Look, I'm going to give you some instruction. I want you to stay close to me, okay? And if you don't, well, that's your problem. It's I love you so much, I am willing to grab on to you and I will drag you across the parking lot instead of risking you getting hurt because I want you to stay close to me." And you see, folks, sometimes God's like that with us. Sometimes God grabs us by the hand and says, "Look, I'm going to keep close to me, I'm going to hold your hand across the parking lot and I shouldn't have to do this. You should know the way you should go. I should instruct you and I counsel you and I teach you, but sometimes you're just not quite getting it. But God says, I love you so much that I'm not going to let you cross the lot without holding my hand. Because I don't want you to hurt yourself. Sometimes he does that.
25:58-26:04
Isn't that great news? Isn't it great news that God doesn't discard us, he deals with accordingly.
26:06-26:08
That's why this is so fantastic.
26:08-26:12
You know, being instructed, being taught, being counseled.
26:12-26:13
That's good news.
26:13-26:14
You don't have to figure life out.
26:15-26:25
I wonder how we're supposed to do things in the church, and I wonder how God would have our household, and I wonder what kind of employee at work God would have me.
26:25-26:29
We don't need to figure that out because God says, "I'm going to be right there and I'm going to instruct you.
26:30-26:33
I'm going to counsel you." That is great news.
26:34-26:40
What that tells me is I have nothing to figure out because God is my Teacher.
26:42-26:45
And finally, I am loved.
26:47-26:48
I am loved.
26:48-26:49
Look at v. 10.
26:51-27:02
He says, "Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord." So the choice is laid out.
27:02-27:07
You can enjoy everything that he's been talking about in this psalm as a child of God.
27:07-27:11
Or, you have the option of forfeiting all of this.
27:13-27:16
You have the option of not receiving Christ by faith.
27:16-27:18
You have the option of rejecting God.
27:19-27:20
You have that option.
27:22-27:27
But taking that option means you're still guilty of sin.
27:28-27:30
You're still going to live in shame.
27:31-27:32
You're going to live in fear.
27:33-27:36
You're going to constantly be trying to figure things out on your own.
27:37-27:42
That's why he says for the people that want to reject the grace of God, he says many are the sorrows of the wicked.
27:44-27:52
Without Christ there's not only no hope for eternity, but you don't have hope in this life either without Jesus Christ.
27:52-27:53
But look at verse 11.
27:54-28:06
But be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
28:06-28:09
But if you are in the Lord, stand up with me please.
28:10-28:13
If you are in the Lord, if you're in the Lord, let's get some music going here.
28:13-28:19
If you're in the Lord, who is ready to celebrate?
28:20-28:24
Is there anybody here today that can say, "I'm forgiven"?
28:24-28:26
Is there anybody here that can say that?
28:26-28:28
I am forgiven in Christ.
28:28-28:28
Let me hear you.
28:30-28:32
Anybody here forgiven in Christ?
28:32-28:33
Come on.
28:34-28:36
Are you free from sin and death?
28:36-28:37
Are you free?
28:37-28:37
Come on.
28:39-28:40
Does grace fire you up?
28:40-28:42
Is there anybody here today that says, "You know what?
28:43-28:44
I got nothing to hide.
28:44-28:48
God loves me and he deals with me when I say this." Is there anybody here that can say that?
28:49-28:49
Come on.
28:51-28:54
Is there anybody here today that says, "I got nothing to fear.
28:54-28:59
When I walk out these doors today, there's nothing that's going to happen to me outside of God's permission.
29:00-29:06
Anybody here say, "I got nothing to fear, nothing to fear." Is there anybody here today that says, "You know what?
29:07-29:09
I am so glad I don't have to figure life out.
29:09-29:16
God is my counselor and God is going to protect me no matter what." Anybody here glad that the Lord is your counselor?
29:19-29:21
And then is there anybody here that says, "You know what?
29:21-29:22
I'm loved.
29:22-29:25
I am loved and you know what?
29:25-29:34
I've felt a lot of times in my life that I wasn't loved, but I see God in his word has revealed that he loves me with an infinite and eternal love.
29:34-29:37
Is there anybody here that says, you know what fires me up about grace?
29:38-29:38
I am loved.
29:39-29:40
Anybody, anybody?
29:42-29:48
Well, the psalmist says what we need to do in response is to be glad and to rejoice and to shout.
29:48-29:49
Are you ready to shout?
29:50-29:51
Are you ready to shout?
29:52-29:54
Let's get fired up about Grace, come on!

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Psalm 32

Define "grace" - what does it mean and what does it mean to you?
God has promised to instruct you and teach you (Ps 32:8). How does He do that? How has He been doing that for you?
Share a personal testimony of why YOU are thankful and celebrate God's grace!

Breakout Questions:

Confess anything you have tried to hide from God. Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

May 10, 2015

God is Good

God's Word is Good!

Jeff Miller

May 10, 2015

God is Good

God Has Made Himself Known:

General Relevation: God's CREATION (Ps 19:1-6)

Special Relevation: God's WORD (Ps 19:7-14)

God's Word is Good!

I NEED God's Word. (Ps 19:7-9)

It lead me to LIFE . (Ps 19:7a)

It WISES me up. (Ps 19:7b)

It BRINGS me joy. (Ps 19:8a)

It GUIDES my way. (Ps 19:8b)

I WANT God's Word. (Ps 19:10-14)

I see it's VALUE . (Ps 19:10)

I see it's IMPACT . (Ps 19:11)

I see it's AUTHOR . (Ps 19:12-14)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

00:01-00:05
Turn in your Bibles with me please to Psalm 19.
00:07-00:13
While you're turning there, I do have a couple of announcements I'd like to make in addition to the ones that Amanda had made earlier.
00:14-00:19
I had mentioned about today we're honoring moms and I said mother figures also.
00:20-00:26
And many of you know our grandma Barb that has visited here on several occasions.
00:27-00:31
She's not biologically related to anybody in my family.
00:31-00:41
But we call her "Grandma" because she has been such a motherly/grandmotherly figure in our lives for...
00:41-00:44
gosh, since like 1996, 1997.
00:44-00:45
We go way back.
00:46-00:53
She doesn't have children of her own, but she certainly qualifies in the mother category.
00:53-00:55
That is true for some ladies.
00:55-01:00
Maybe if you've never had your own children, you have been a mother figure to somebody.
01:00-01:03
We certainly celebrate you today as well.
01:03-01:03
Amen?
01:05-01:15
Also, as you know, the earthquake that had recently hit Nepal resulted in massive devastation.
01:15-01:21
And I don't know if everyone here does know this, but we actually have a Harvest Bible Chapel in Nepal.
01:22-01:26
A lot of devastation to the church, of the church.
01:27-01:36
And if you're wondering, is there a way that we can give to help support rebuilding, we are going to send out an email this week.
01:36-01:39
And I'll get it posted on our website as well if you're not on our email list.
01:39-01:41
But I've talked to our elders about this.
01:41-01:43
We are not going to be taking an offering here.
01:44-01:46
What we're going to do is have it available on our website.
01:47-01:47
We'll send the email out.
01:48-01:56
But there is a website where you can go where you can give to help with the relief efforts rebuilding after the earthquake in Nepal.
01:57-02:05
Terrible devastation, but it's going to be an opportunity that the Lord is going to use Harvest Bible Chapel in Nepal to minister to hurting people.
02:06-02:13
And we look forward to seeing how the Lord is going to glorify His name in the midst of that horrible event.
02:14-02:15
Alright, Psalm 19.
02:16-02:17
Let's bow our heads and pray.
02:19-02:21
Father, just now we're turning to Your Word.
02:23-02:27
It's just simply my prayer today, Father, that we would take Your Word as seriously as You do.
02:28-02:33
Your Word actually tells us that You've exalted Your Word even above Your name.
02:35-02:38
And Father, we live in a day where people have denied it.
02:38-02:40
People have discredited it.
02:40-02:41
Have tried to.
02:43-02:44
People have defied it.
02:46-02:47
But Your Word still stands.
02:48-02:50
And it will stand forever.
02:51-02:57
with our prayer that it would minister to our hearts over these next few moments.
02:58-03:01
I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
03:02-03:17
Our series is "God is Good." And I shared with you last week, going into a series like this, I did have the thought that there were going to be some people that would think that seems awfully elementary.
03:18-03:19
I mean, God is good.
03:19-03:22
That's like one of the first things to teach our children, right?
03:22-03:24
When we sit down to pray at mealtime, you remember the prayer?
03:25-03:26
God is great.
03:27-03:29
God is - what's the rest? Go ahead.
03:30-03:31
Amen. Right.
03:31-03:33
You know the rest of it?
03:33-03:33
Like the bonus verse?
03:34-03:34
How many people know that?
03:35-03:38
"By His hand, we are fed.
03:39-03:44
Give us, Lord, our daily bread." Ok, some of you know that one.
03:44-03:47
But my point is, we teach children from a very young age that God is good.
03:48-03:51
And we come Sunday morning And we worship God.
03:51-03:51
God is good.
03:51-03:53
And we talk about the Lord.
03:53-03:54
And we pray to the Lord.
03:54-03:55
God is good.
03:55-03:56
God is good.
03:56-04:05
But I shared with you last week, when tragedy comes into our lives, Satan would cast a big shadow of doubt over that.
04:06-04:08
I got a phone call yesterday from our cousin in Florida.
04:10-04:11
Her husband had passed away.
04:12-04:15
He'd been battling cancer for quite some time.
04:15-04:17
And she texted me again last night.
04:18-04:27
And she said one of her well -meaning friends came to her and said, "I don't know what you've done to deserve this." Because it wasn't too long ago, she had to bury her son.
04:29-05:15
So to lose a son and her husband in such a short span, her unofficial counselor came to her and said, "I don't know what you did to deserve this." But you have to see that that's one of the ways the enemy would plant that seed in your head. Yeah, what did I do to deserve this? Maybe God's not as good as I thought He was. And I just simply said to her, knowing you, I'm sure you are thankful for the time that you did have with your husband, and you are thankful for the time that you did have with your son. And you look forward to the day when you'll be reunited with both of them for eternity. And she said, "Amen!" with like 12 exclamation points.
05:17-05:21
But you see, we are not going to let Satan get a victory there to cast this shadow of doubt.
05:21-05:22
Is God good?
05:22-05:23
Is God good?
05:23-05:25
I thought He was, but look at all of this stuff that is happening.
05:25-05:26
Is God good?
05:28-05:30
As I said, it is Satan's oldest ploy.
05:31-06:07
And with this sermon series, I simply want to do one thing, and that is to go right at the heart of this lie that Satan would have you believe that God isn't good, that God doesn't love you, that God isn't for you. We're going to attack that lie with one simple statement and the statement was from Psalm 100 verse 5, "For the Lord is good." So in Psalm 19, I want you to take some notes here. God has made himself known. Look at this on your outline. We're going to be talking about two things. This is some Bible Bible College 101 type stuff here.
06:08-06:14
In Psalm 19, we see that God has made Himself known, and He's made Himself known through two ways.
06:15-06:20
And the first way is what is called general revelation, meaning God's creation.
06:22-06:25
I want you to look at the first six verses to see what we mean.
06:25-06:30
This is how God has made Himself known to us on the earth.
06:30-06:37
It says, "The heavens declare the glory of God, The sky above proclaims His handiwork.
06:39-06:43
Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
06:44-06:50
There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard.
06:52-06:58
Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.
06:59-07:00
Like, wait a second, what's he talking about here?
07:00-07:11
He's talking about there's all this declaring and proclaiming in speech, and then he turns around and says, "But there's no words." And you totally understand what he's talking about.
07:12-07:20
When you look at God's creation, God is preaching a message through His creation without words that everyone hears.
07:21-07:26
When we look at creation, what we see is God's glory on display.
07:28-07:40
And any time you've looked at a sunset and thought to yourself, "Wow! Look at that!" Do you know what it was that made you go, "Wow! Look at that!" Do you know what that was?
07:40-07:42
That was God preaching to you.
07:43-07:47
That was a sermon without words that He was preaching to you.
07:48-07:59
If you've ever stood on the beach and looked out the massive ocean waters before you and seen the waves and thought to yourself, "Wow!
08:01-08:04
What is it that makes you go, "Wow!
08:05-08:13
You are responding to a sermon that God is preaching to your heart!" That's what is making you feel that.
08:15-08:24
If you've ever looked up at night and seen the stars on a clear night, and thought to yourself, "Isn't that beautiful?
08:25-08:37
It's another sermon from God." If you've ever held a newborn baby in your hands, looked at this perfect creation from God, and thought, "Wow!
08:39-08:46
What a miracle!" You know, being a pastor, one of the perks of being a pastor is when somebody has a baby, I get to go to the hospital and see the baby.
08:47-08:48
And I love that.
08:48-08:51
I especially love how babies smell, and you guys know that.
08:51-08:53
I'm always like grabbing your baby, sniffing their head.
08:53-08:56
There is no better smell in the world than a baby's head.
08:58-08:58
True or false?
08:59-09:00
True.
09:01-09:02
It's not even up for debate, Jay.
09:03-09:04
It's true.
09:05-09:18
But you know, a phrase I hear almost every time without exception is people say, "What a little miracle!" What is it about that little person that makes you go, "What a little miracle!
09:18-09:21
What a beautiful, beautiful gift!" What is it?
09:22-09:26
It is because God is preaching a sermon to your heart without words.
09:27-09:33
is called general revelation. The Bible speaks much about that. Actually Romans 1.
09:34-09:59
Verses 18-21. We're not going to turn there, but you can jot that reference down. But Paul's point in Romans 1, he says God has made himself known through creation so that no one has an excuse. There's no one that's going to show up in heaven and say, "Oh my gosh, God, I didn't know you were real." It's clear because God, as the psalmist is pointing out here, God has been preaching this message worldwide, constantly.
09:59-10:03
Look at creation, because design demands a designer.
10:05-10:10
You don't look at a painting on a wall in an art gallery and say, "Wow, that was a beautiful accident.
10:10-10:21
It looks like somebody must have knocked a gallon of paint over onto a canvas." You know that because somebody designed it, there had to be this designer somewhere.
10:21-10:23
And that's what happens with creation.
10:24-10:25
God demands a designer.
10:27-10:28
Look at v. 4.
10:30-10:38
He says, "In them, in the heavens, He has set a tent for the Son." Why does He talk about the Son?
10:38-10:44
Well, because so many people groups and tribes all throughout history have worshipped the Son.
10:45-10:57
Here in the Psalms, David says, "My God created that Son that you worship, by the way." Speaking of the Son, v. 5, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber.
10:59-11:03
Something else I get to do as a preacher a lot is conduct weddings.
11:05-11:17
And just like I've had the joy of holding that newborn baby so many times, I've also had the joy at weddings to see this guy who we typically know is a slob, kind of a bum.
11:17-11:22
You know, we're kind of glad that this woman is marrying him to help clean him up a little bit.
11:22-11:24
You know the guy that I'm talking about, right?
11:24-11:25
You know who I'm talking about?
11:26-11:35
The guy that's like, he's in there, he's getting ready for the wedding, and you know he's ready as tucks, and he's going to make himself the most dashing man on the planet.
11:35-11:39
And you know, you know he's just in there getting himself ready for the wedding.
11:39-11:41
And like, you're waiting for him to come out.
11:41-11:42
And you've seen it, right?
11:42-11:45
He comes out, and it's just like...
11:47-11:48
(singing)
11:49-11:53
People say, "Wow, you clean up well." That's a silly picture.
11:53-11:55
That's exactly what he's saying about the Son.
11:55-11:57
He goes, "You know how glorious the Son is?
11:57-12:00
The Son is like that bridegroom coming out of His chamber.
12:01-12:03
Coming out, 'I am ready to get married!
12:04-12:06
And I've never looked better!'" And glorious.
12:07-12:08
He says that's what the Son is like.
12:09-12:11
Again, God's general revelation.
12:12-12:19
Then he says, "And like a strong man, runs its course with joy." I related to the baby thing.
12:19-12:21
I related to the bridegroom thing.
12:21-12:25
But this strongman running thing, no frame of reference there.
12:26-12:28
But I've seen it on TV, right?
12:28-12:29
The Olympic runners.
12:30-12:31
You've seen them, right?
12:31-12:35
Running and their muscles rippling with every step.
12:35-12:38
And like, wow, look at the power.
12:39-12:42
And he says that's what the sun is like on its course.
12:42-12:46
It's like this powerful runner on its track.
12:47-13:00
"As it's rising, it's from the end of the heavens, and it's circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat." Talking about the power of the sun.
13:01-13:02
And his point is obvious.
13:03-13:10
If the sun is this powerful, if the heavens are this glorious, what does that say about their Creator?
13:12-13:12
Right?
13:14-13:15
Awesome.
13:16-13:17
That's the Word. Awesome.
13:18-13:19
That's general revelation.
13:20-13:26
But David spends the rest of this psalm talking about what is called special revelation.
13:26-13:27
That is God's Word.
13:30-13:34
Now see, general revelation isn't enough.
13:35-13:39
You see, general revelation was intended to make people seek God.
13:40-13:42
I'm going to say that again. It's important.
13:42-13:46
General revelation was intended to make people seek God.
13:47-13:56
But God has revealed Himself - His character, His grace, His mercy, His salvation, who He is, what He's about.
13:56-14:00
God has revealed those things about Himself in a book.
14:01-14:02
In the Bible.
14:03-14:12
And that's called "Special Revelation." This book contains things that you can only find out about God in between the cover of this book.
14:15-14:20
You don't look at a sunset and say, "Whoever created this must be awesome.
14:21-14:23
Do you know what else I assume about this Creator?
14:23-14:33
Is that He sent His Son to die for my sins, and that He's gracious and merciful, and He's preparing this place for me." You don't come up with that stuff by looking at a sunset.
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But the general revelation I've always been intended to make you go into this book to say, "I want to know the One who created this." That special revelation.
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And that's why at Harvest Bible Chapel, we are committed to expository preaching.
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Expository preaching is simply this.
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We go through a book of the Bible verse by verse.
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We take a chunk at a time.
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What does this say?
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What does it mean?
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How can I reflect this truth into my life?
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You know, for those of you guys that have been with us the last couple of years, we went through the Gospel of Mark, verse by verse.
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We started in the first verse of chapter 1.
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We ended in the last verse of chapter 16.
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And expository preaching.
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That's what we do.
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That's why a couple of weeks ago when Mark Gort got up and preached, it was preaching the Word of God.
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Last week, when Jane Auer gets up to preach, it will be preaching the Word of God.
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If you've been around the block at all, you see that there are a lot of churches that don't do that.
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We actually grew up in this church.
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Remember, the sermons would be something like this.
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Johnny went to buy some ice cream, and a small was 60 cents, and a medium was 80 cents, and a large was a dollar.
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Johnny asked a waitress and she told him the price of the ice cream.
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Johnny said, "I'm going to buy a medium." And she gave him a medium and he gave her a dollar because he wanted to have enough to leave her a 20 cent tip.
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He could have bought the large, but he bought the medium to give her a tip.
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And we should all be like Johnny.
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Now let's sing that closing song.
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I'm sure Johnny's a great kid.
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And I'm sure Johnny's grandmama is so proud of him.
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There is nothing transformational about a message like that.
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That is not expository preaching.
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And that's the way much preaching is going now.
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We just tell stories and we want to make people laugh, and we want to make people cry.
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But to actually take the time to dig into the text, to say what did God say?
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It's becoming more and more rare.
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That's why at our church, when you go to one of our small groups, we talk about the Word of God.
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Whether it's one of our regular couple small groups or our men's Bible study, ladies' Bible study, we talk about the Word of God.
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Young people go to our youth group, Arrow.
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Dan Thompson is going to teach them the Word of God.
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That's what we are committed to because Romans 10.17 says this, "So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ." You should write that reference down.
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That is so important.
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Why are we so fired up about the Bible?
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Is it because it's in our name?
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Harvest Bible Chapel?
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The reason we're so fired up about the Bible is because according to Romans 10.17, faith Faith comes from only one place, and that is the Word of God.
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Faith doesn't come from anywhere else.
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It comes from God's Word.
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And you know, church, there was a day that I thought it's my job to try to defend the Word of God.
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And there is certainly a time and a place for apologetics.
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Love apologetics.
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Time and a place for it.
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But you know what?
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The older I get and the further I go in ministry, I've come to realize that God's Word is like a lion.
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You don't have to defend a lion.
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What you've got to do is let that lion out of the cage.
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He'll take care of himself.
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And that's how I feel about the Word of God.
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I don't need to stand up here and try to sell you on the Word of God, or try to defend the Word of God to you.
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I'll let the Word of God out of the cage.
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It'll take care of itself.
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Right?
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So, message today.
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God's Word is good.
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God's Word is good.
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But first of all, on your outline, I need God's Word.
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I need God's Word.
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Look at v. 7.
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He goes from this general revelation, creation, we know God through the glory of creation, and all of a sudden, v. 7, He shifts, obviously, to the Word of God.
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And you're going to see a pattern here.
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He gives a synonym for the Word of God.
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And then he gives a descriptive word, and then he talks about the effect that it has on a person.
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I'm going to go through these quickly.
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First of all, write this one down.
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Verse 7a - "It leads me to life." Why do I need the Word of God?
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Because it leads me to life.
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I'm dead in my sins by nature.
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The Word of God leads me to life.
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Verse 7 says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." That word "law" sees God like a teacher in a classroom.
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He says this law is perfect, or entire, or spotless.
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God's Word is like an operator's manual.
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You have one for your car, you probably have one for your lawnmower, and you have one for your kid too.
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You have one for yourself.
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This is your operator's manual.
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Because this book reveals who you really are.
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This book reveals your true condition.
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This book says that God created man and woman as upright beings, as perfect beings, but because of sin, we are cursed and corrupted and fallen and we've got a problem.
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Because of our rebellion, because of our separation from God, what we deserve is His judgment.
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that what we deserve is hell.
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But this book tells you that not only is God just and holy, God is also loving and gracious.
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It is God's will that none should perish.
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So what God did was He said, I'm going to step in and I'm going to save you from My own wrath.
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And that's what Jesus Christ did when He died on the cross.
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He took your sin on Himself.
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And He rose from the dead to give us eternal life and the promise of heaven.
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That's why when the Bible says the law of the Lord revives the soul, this leads you to life.
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You see, it's not this leather or the paper in here that gives you life.
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It's who this points to.
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This book points you to the Person of Jesus Christ whom you so desperately need.
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So the law of the Lord, it does revive your soul.
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It does give you life.
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It does transform you.
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Because it shows you who you really are.
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Interestingly, when you study the Bible, do you know there are two things in the Bible that are called the power of God?
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Did you know that?
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When I think the power of God, I think of some earthquake or lightning or like judgment power.
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There are two things that the Bible says is the power of God.
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One of them is Jesus Christ.
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1 Corinthians 1.24 says that Jesus Christ is the power of God. You know what the other thing is that the Bible calls the power of God? The answer is in Romans 1.16 where Paul says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God." So if you want to unleash God's power into your life, you do that by getting into this book, because And if you know people, maybe you work with some people that you're like, "Man, would I like to unleash the power of God on that guy?" You know how you do that?
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You share the gospel with them.
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Because the gospel is the power of God.
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You know that when you share the word of God with someone, that's what you are doing, is unleashing God's power on them?
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I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God.
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Awesome.
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So it leads me to life.
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Secondly, it wises me up.
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It wises me up.
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2nd half says, "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." Testimony, that sees God as a witness, meaning this.
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The Bible is God's self-disclosure.
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The Bible is God saying, "This is who I am." Don't sit around and wonder what I might be like.
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God says, "Here is exactly who I am.
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This is who I am." God's self-disclosure.
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He says that testimony of the Lord is sure, meaning it's true or certain.
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And I love this last phrase.
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He says, "Making wise the simple." I did a little word study on that.
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You know what that word "simple" means?
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Simple means literally easily seducible.
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Easily seducible.
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What that means, some people will believe anything.
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You know somebody like that?
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They will believe anything.
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Don't point.
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Some of you are like, I know somebody like that.
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It's my mom on Mother's Day, really?
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But some people believe anything and we can thank the internet for that because if it's on the internet, it's got to be true.
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But I'm not going to mention names, but I know somebody like that in our own family.
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Anytime one of these internet rumor thing comes down the pike, this person treats it as gospel truth.
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And this person will call me and say, "Jeff, if you're passing a car at night and they don't have their lights on, don't flash your lights to get them to turn their lights on." You haven't even heard this one.
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Why?
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because there's a gang initiation.
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And what they do is to get people to flash their lights at them, and then they will track you down and murder you to death.
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And where did you hear that?
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It's all over the internet.
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And for a while, tell me you remember this.
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Tell me you remember the hypodermic needles everywhere, right?
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Hypodermic needles in the gas handle pumps.
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How many remember that one?
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Gotta be careful at the gas station.
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Criminal masterminds putting AIDS -filled hypodermic needles in the pump handles.
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Movie theater seats, oh, I should have told you before you sat down, but movie theater seats, people are putting hypodermic needles in the cushions so people go and see a movie and they're getting the black plague injected into them and my favorite was like the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese.
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Don't take your kids into the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese because guess what it's filled with?
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"Hypodermic needles!" Some people will believe anything.
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That's kind of a silly example, but it gets serious when some people believe anything about spiritual matters.
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See, that's what this is talking about specifically.
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Because when it comes to God, or whoever God is, some people will believe anything you tell them.
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You get a smiley preacher on TV that says, "God wants you to have your best life now, because worship is all about you." They're like, "Yeah, that's right, it's all about me." And then you get another preacher on TV that says God wants to give you a trillion dollars if you send me a thousand.
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And oh yeah, God wants me to be rich.
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And then you have the next guy come along that says, "You know what? God hates you.
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God's judgment is coming because God hates everyone and God is mad at you.
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Oh, I feel so guilty, God is mad at me." And then the next guy comes along says, "You can't really know God." And you're like, "Yeah, you know what? I guess that's really the truth, is you can't really know God." And all these goofy ideas about God come down the pike. What's the solution? Well, look at it. It says, "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." What that's saying is you get that guy, or you get that girl that's believing everything that comes down about God and says, "No, no, The Word of God settles it.
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You're grounded now.
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You have a foundation on the truth of God's Word.
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So when all this stuff comes down the airwaves, you're like, "I don't believe that for a second, because I know the truth about God.
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God has revealed Himself here.
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So when you're telling me that God's still mad at me over my sin, And I know that's not true because of what the Bible says.
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It takes that easily seducible person and gives them a foundation to say, "I'm not thrown about by every wind of doctrine because God's Word wises me up." Next, it brings me joy.
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Look at verse 8.
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It says, "The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the hearts." Precepts.
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That sees God sort of as the governor.
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And it says that these precepts are right, or in other words, they're just, meaning simply this, God's ways are right.
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That's what that means.
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For example, when we talk about money and handling wealth, say this is what the Bible says about that, we're just, well, this is how you handle wealth.
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How do we know?
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Because God's way is right.
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That's how we know.
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And we do it according to what the Bible says.
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And we spent January talking about that, didn't we?
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Here's how we handle wealth.
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How can you be so sure of that?
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Well, because God's ways are right.
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Here's how God says I should love my wife.
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Here's how God says I should disciple my kids.
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Here's how God says I should be an employee at work.
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Here's how God says the church should be conducted.
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How can you be so sure about those things?
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Well, because God's ways are right.
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And He wrote them down for us.
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That's how I'm so sure.
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But notice, he says that these precepts rejoice the hearts.
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So let's dispel this notion that these precepts are some kind of burdensome, "God giving me all these rules and regulations." And that's certainly not how David saw the Word of God at all.
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He said, "I get great joy when I read the Word of God." And it blows your mind even more when you understand that David didn't even have the New Testament, right?
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David didn't know about the death and resurrection of Jesus.
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He had the revelation of God from the Old Testament.
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But even through God's law, God revealed His heart.
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You can't miss that.
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Like when God says in the Ten Commandments, "Do not commit adultery." Do you know why He said that?
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Because He's a God of keeping His Word and keeping His covenant and being faithful.
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He wants His people to reflect that truth about Him.
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You see, even in the law, the law was meant to lead us to Christ, but even in the law, we see the heart of God.
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That's why David says, "It gives me great joy to study the Word of God, because I see the heart of God.
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I see God's ways, and I see God's ways are right." You know, I could get any two people to stand up here.
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If I got one person who is living in sin in some way, and I get somebody that is living Jesus Christ, those testimonies would be consistent no matter what two people I brought up.
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I've seen it a thousand times.
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I've met so many people that are living in sin and are absolutely miserable.
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This thing that they think that they want is destroying them.
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And they're miserable.
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Every time, 100%.
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Do you know what else I've seen?
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The person that is living in Christ, The person that is trusting Jesus Christ every day.
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The person that is spending time in prayer.
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The person that is in His Word.
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That person is walking a path of joy.
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Every time.
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I'm not saying that life is perfect.
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But you see, the person that knows the Lord and knows the ways of the Lord, there's joy built right in that.
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So much more can be said.
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Let's move on to the next one though.
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It guides my way.
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It guides my way.
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Look at the second half of verse 8.
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"The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." Commandment?
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That is just what it sounds like.
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That's an order.
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He says it's clean, it's clear.
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That's what the word "pure" means.
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Here he simply says it's light for our darkness.
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Same kind of concept.
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The person that says nobody tells me what to do and will continue to persist in rebellion stumbling around in their own darkness.
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David says, "No, you know what, I'm the person that says, 'I need God to light my way.
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I need God to light my way.'" And how does God do that?
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He does it through His Word.
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That's how God lights your way.
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He does it through His Word.
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Then verse nine, quickly, two things that are connected to the Word of God that he mentions.
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First of all, he says, "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever." Fear, that's awe, that's reverence, that's worship.
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How do we worship in spirit and in truth?
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Well, we do it according to the Word of God.
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That's how we do it.
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Then he says, "The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." That word "rules" could also be translated "judgments," meaning simply this.
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God's decisions have already been revealed.
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God's judgments have already been made known.
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That's why I can stand up here and say, if you turn from your sin and you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will be born again and you have the promise of eternal life.
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How can you say that?
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Because God's judgments have already been declared.
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You have the promise of heaven.
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I can also say, if you choose to reject Jesus Christ, if you choose to reject the only source of life and holiness and godliness, God will give you what you want sends you to hell forever, cast out of His presence because you chose to want nothing to do with your Creator. And you say, "What gives you the right to say something like that?" Because God's already made His decision and He's told us about it in His Word. And that's why David says, "The rules of the Lord, or the judgments of the Lord are true." They're true. They're righteous altogether. So it leads me to life, it wises me up, it brings me joy, it guides my way. You won't find this stuff anywhere else. You can go to any library any place in the world, grab any book off of any shelf on any subject and you're not going to find this anywhere else but in the Word of God.
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All that to say, I need God's Word because I need it. Because I see what it does in a person's life.
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We go down the home stretch here. Got this down. I want God's Word. I want God's Word.
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This is the response to the Word of God. I know we're covering a lot here and I really commend you for your discipline here in studying God's Word with me. I want God's Word. Verse 10, I see its value.
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I see its value. He says, "More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold." Here he is just simply pointing out the value of the Word of God. He says, "When I see everything that the Word of God can manifest and produce and do in my life, I want the Word of God more than I want money.
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Even a lot of money. The Word of God is more And there might be somebody here that's like, "Yeah, I'm not really with the money analogy thing.
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That illustration doesn't really hit him.
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Here's one that'll hit everyone." He says, "Sweeter also than honey, the drippings of the honeycomb." Now he's using an illustration appealing to our appetite, right?
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If I were to write the Bible, and I'm not, God didn't ask me to, He's kind of already done that, didn't need my help.
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But if I were, I would say that God's Word is sweeter than a Milky Way midnight.
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How many people have had a Milky Way midnight?
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A couple of you?
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Where have the rest of you been?
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Wasting your time doing what?
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Seriously.
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I'll tell you how amazing they are.
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When our kids go trick-or-treating and they come home, that's the first thing I do.
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Dump the buckets, hand over the midnights.
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And then you do whatever you want.
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My kids know that.
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I will shake them down like a mob boss.
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I love those things.
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You don't have to talk me into eating one.
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Like if Darla showed up next week and she had one, and was like, "Pastor Jeff, would you like a Milky Way Midnight?" "Yeah!" "I can't believe you asked." "Yeah!" And see, that's the point about God's Word.
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He's like, I don't come to God's Word like, "I should probably read it.
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I'm going to feel really guilty if I don't read it.
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My preacher says I should read it." He says, "Oh, this is so good!
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I want to read this!
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I want to know more about the Lord!" It's sweet.
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Maybe if the Milky Way thing doesn't insert food of your craving.
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You see the value.
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Secondly, I see its impact.
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I see its impact.
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Look at v. 11.
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"Moreover, by them..." Meaning, these words of God, these facets of God's Word that He just laid out.
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"Moreover, by them as your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward." God's Word so often does have a two-sided promise.
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When God tells you not to sin, do you know what He is saying?
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God is saying don't hurt yourself.
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That's why when God says don't, He says don't hurt yourself.
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And when God's Word says do this, what He is saying is you will maximize your joy by living according to these principles.
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The two-sided promise.
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This is the way of righteousness, this is how my people experience joy, and you see the impact the Word of God has.
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And then finally, this is last and most important, why do I want God's Word?
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Because I see it's author.
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Because I see it's author.
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Like, where do you get that?
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Look at verse 12.
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What you're going to see is notice David launches right into prayer here.
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He's like teaching about the Word of God and it's just like boom, prayer time.
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He just jumps right into it.
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He says, "Who can discern his errors?
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Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
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Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins." And there you see just two different kinds of sins.
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Hidden faults and presumptuous sins.
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He says, "Let them not have dominion over me.
38:58-39:01
and I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
39:03-39:15
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord my rock and my Redeemer." Here's the motivation for wanting to be in the Word of God.
39:17-39:23
Because it's only by being in the Word of God that you're going to know the heart of the author of the Word of God.
39:25-39:29
And this prayer, this is what I want you to see in this prayer.
39:30-39:42
This prayer from David as he closes this psalm is just simply a man who has a heart like the heart of the author of this book.
39:43-39:44
You know how the Bible describes David?
39:46-39:47
God says David is a what?
39:48-39:51
A man after my own heart.
39:52-39:55
This gives us some insight as to why the Lord would say that.
39:57-40:04
Because you see, for the person that says, "Well, Jesus died for my sins, so it doesn't really matter if I sin.
40:04-40:11
Sin's not really a big deal." That shows you that that person doesn't really know the heart of God.
40:13-40:14
But the person that says, "You know what?
40:15-40:16
I know that I'm forgiven.
40:16-40:18
I know there's no condemnation in Christ.
40:18-40:22
I know that I have freedom in Christ, but I don't want to sin.
40:23-40:26
That shows that that person's heart reflects the heart of God.
40:28-40:30
Sin is destructive, rebellious, and wrong.
40:31-40:37
And here you just see the heart of a man that says, you know what God, I want to live in a way that just honors You.
40:37-40:41
I want to live in a way that represents You to people that are watching.
40:41-40:45
And God, I want to live in a way that glorifies Your name.
40:46-40:55
And the more you spend time of the God who wrote this book, the more your heart becomes like God's heart.
40:57-40:58
God's Word is good.
41:00-41:13
And only when you see how it blesses you, will you go from "I need God's Word" to saying "I want God's Word." That was the introduction.
41:13-41:13
Here's the sermon.
41:15-41:15
Read it.
41:17-41:18
Let it change you.
41:19-41:19
Let's pray.
41:21-41:27
Our Father in Heaven, Your Word says so much about Itself even in this one little chapter.
41:28-41:35
God, we just want to pause right now and thank You for giving us this revelation about Yourself.
41:36-41:48
We would be sitting down here confused and coming up with all sorts of crazy ideas about what You might be like how we could make you happy, or...
41:49-41:51
You've laid everything out for us.
41:52-41:54
You've shown us who we are. You've shown us who you are.
41:54-42:01
And you've shown us what you've done for us through your Son and the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
42:03-42:08
So Father, it's my prayer for this church that we would be a people who love your Word.
42:09-42:17
That we would be a people like David that say, "I love God's Word more than I love money." I love God's Word more than I love candy.
42:18-42:22
I love it because of what it does to me and what it shows me about God.
42:24-42:26
Father, give us confidence when we come to your Word.
42:28-42:30
Because we know, Father, that that can only come from you.
42:31-42:34
Your Holy Spirit has to be teaching us.
42:34-42:39
Your Holy Spirit has to be showing us what it is that you're saying in your Word.
42:40-42:58
Lord, I pray, especially for those times that the shadow of doubt creeps in over your goodness, we would turn to this precious book that you gave us and say, "God is good." Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Psalm 19

Explain the difference between General Revelation and Special Revelation. What is the purpose of each?
How can I grow in desiring God’s Word more (Ps 19:10)?
Share a specific way God's Word is impacting you in this season of your life.

Breakout Questions:

How is your personal intake of God's Word right now? How can you do better? Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

May 3, 2015

God is Good

God is Good!

Jeff Miller

May 3, 2015

God is Good

God's Goodness Affects Me...

It makes me RESPOND . (Ps 100:1-2)

It makes me RELY . (Ps 100:3)

It makes me REACT . (Ps 100:4)

It makes me REMEMBER . (Ps 100:5)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

00:00-00:03
Excellent, open up to Psalm 100.
00:05-00:07
Psalms is right in the middle of your Bible.
00:09-00:16
And today we're going to be looking at Psalm 100 as we kick off this sermon series over the next several weeks.
00:19-00:20
A very simple title.
00:22-00:24
God is good.
00:26-00:27
God is good.
00:30-00:31
Look at Psalm 100 with me.
00:31-00:31
Are you there?
00:33-00:38
Psalm 100 says, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
00:39-00:41
Serve the Lord with gladness.
00:42-00:43
Come into His presence with singing.
00:44-00:47
Know that the Lord, He is God.
00:47-00:48
It is He who made us.
00:49-00:54
And we are His." We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
00:56-00:59
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.
01:00-01:01
Give thanks to Him.
01:01-01:02
Bless His name.
01:04-01:06
For the Lord is good.
01:07-01:12
His steadfast love endures forever and His faithfulness to all generations.
01:14-01:15
Look at v. 5.
01:15-01:23
The first phrase says, "For the Lord is good." Underline that in your Bible.
01:23-01:24
Highlight that.
01:26-01:27
The Lord is good.
01:28-01:33
This is the most fundamental and one of the most important doctrines in the entire Bible.
01:34-01:36
The Lord is good.
01:38-01:46
But the reason that we're spending several weeks talking about this is because this is often the most disbelieved doctrine of the Bible.
01:47-01:52
Understand, church, you have to be so careful here, because this is Satan's oldest trick.
01:52-01:57
Do you remember when God created Everything was good.
01:57-01:58
And everything was good.
01:58-02:00
And then the Lord made man and woman.
02:00-02:02
And it was very good.
02:02-02:06
And you get to Genesis 3.
02:06-02:09
And you get to the first question of the Bible.
02:10-02:11
You know what the first question of the Bible is?
02:12-02:14
Satan shows up in the form of the serpent.
02:15-02:23
And he says, "Did God really say you couldn't eat off any of the trees in the garden?" No, He didn't say that.
02:23-02:25
But why did Satan ask that?
02:26-02:32
Understand church, what Satan was doing was trying to cast this shadow of doubt over God's goodness.
02:32-02:42
Satan showed up to Adam and Eve and he said, "Is God really good?" Sounds to me like he might be holding out on you a little bit.
02:42-02:45
Maybe he's not as good as you thought he was.
02:45-02:48
He's trying to make you doubt God's goodness.
02:49-02:52
And that is still Satan's trick.
02:52-02:53
He's still doing that today.
02:54-03:04
questioning this statement from Psalm 100:5, "For the Lord is good." And sure, we believe that in church, don't we?
03:05-03:07
It's the content of what we sing.
03:07-03:08
It's the content of what we proclaim.
03:09-03:10
It's how we pray.
03:11-03:12
God is good.
03:13-03:19
But even for believers - listen, even for believers, doubt can creep in.
03:21-03:29
Sure, we believe it's Sunday, when Monday rolls around, and we're looking at our finances, and we just can't seem to get ahead.
03:29-03:32
God, I've been struggling in this area for so long.
03:34-03:35
Or you have another health setback.
03:35-03:40
It looked like you were progressing in your illness, getting better.
03:41-03:44
Now it looks like the illness is progressing over you again.
03:44-03:46
God, what are you doing?
03:48-03:50
Or you've been trying to save your marriage.
03:52-04:03
And just when it looks like this spouse that hasn't been getting it, finally takes a step forward, the next thing you know, he takes three steps back.
04:05-04:09
We start to wonder, "God, what are you doing?
04:09-04:10
Why would you allow this?
04:10-04:20
God are you really good?" And understand that this is a heart issue, not a head issue.
04:20-04:30
If I can confess before you, in my worst moments, I've wondered, God, do You even care?
04:31-04:49
When I've dealt with health issues with my own children, and some of the severe developmental delays that we struggle with, there have been times in my heart - I'm just being honest with you - there are times in my heart that I've said to God, Would you even care?
04:51-04:51
I know you're there.
04:53-04:54
I know you have all power.
04:54-04:59
And I know that you've heard my prayers over and over, and I know you've heard my wife's prayers over and over.
05:01-05:04
Don't you care what we're going through?
05:05-05:13
Don't you see how answering our prayers would greatly benefit us and our marriage and the kingdom and the church?
05:15-05:18
As I said, those are bad moments.
05:19-05:22
There are times that my own heart has wrestled with that.
05:24-05:29
And when that happens to me and when that happens to you, you fall into the place where Satan wants you.
05:31-05:32
The shadow of doubt.
05:34-05:35
Is God really good?
05:36-05:38
So we have one point.
05:39-05:48
In this entire sermon series, over the next several weeks with all of these Psalms that What we're going to be looking at in this sermon series will center around the Psalms.
05:48-05:51
There's one point in this whole series, and that is this.
05:52-05:55
God is good.
05:57-06:02
The question as we kick this off is just simply this.
06:02-06:05
Do you believe that God is good?
06:06-06:09
Do you believe that God loves you?
06:10-06:14
Do you believe that God is for you?
06:15-06:23
And I'm sure many of you today would stand up and say, "You know what, Pastor Jeff, I think that I do.
06:24-06:33
I know that I want to, but you know what, sometimes I'm not really sure if I believe that." So how do I know if I really believe that?
06:33-06:37
In your outline today, here's what we see in Psalm 100.
06:39-06:41
Very simple message, but it's this.
06:41-06:42
God's goodness affects me.
06:43-06:45
How do you know that you really believe that God is good?
06:45-06:49
You know because God's goodness affects you.
06:50-06:51
God's goodness affects me.
06:52-06:54
And how does God's goodness affect us?
06:55-06:56
Number one, write this down.
06:56-06:57
It makes me respond.
06:59-07:00
It makes me respond.
07:00-07:02
Look at verses 1 and 2 again.
07:02-07:37
says, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into His presence with singing." And looking at the verbs, just looking at the verbs there, he says, "to make noise," he says, "to serve," and he says, "to come into the Lord's presence." And here's the thing, everybody does that. Everyone here this morning did those three Everyone here this morning made a noise.
07:38-07:43
While the band was up here leading the worship time, everybody was making a noise.
07:44-07:55
And everybody here came serving in some capacity, whether it was putting out signs or handing out bulletins or getting things set up in the lobby or working in children, people were serving.
07:56-08:00
And obviously you've come here because you want to come into his presence.
08:00-08:05
Everyone does those things, but look at these modifying words.
08:06-08:09
Look at these words that put emphasis on these verbs.
08:10-08:11
What are these called? Adjectives?
08:13-08:14
English class was a long time ago. Adjectives.
08:15-08:20
So we all do these things, but look at these modifying words.
08:21-08:23
These descriptive words.
08:25-08:27
It says to make a joyful noise.
08:27-08:28
Who makes a joyful noise?
08:31-08:33
When you were singing, were you just making noise?
08:34-08:37
Was there joy in the noise that you were making?
08:39-08:42
And when it talks about serving, what does he say?
08:42-08:42
Serve the Lord how?
08:43-08:44
With gladness.
08:45-08:46
Many people served.
08:46-09:02
How many people served this morning saying, "I'm glad to serve." And then he says, "Come into His presence with singing." Was the music just part of the agenda for you?
09:03-09:08
Or was music the way that you were worshipping God with your emotions?
09:10-09:12
That's why we worship with music, by the way.
09:12-09:17
That's why at Harvest Bible Chapel, we place such a premium on that music time.
09:17-09:21
Because that's how we worship God with our emotions.
09:22-09:24
I want to talk about serving for a second.
09:26-09:27
Because this is very important.
09:28-09:40
He says, "Serve the Lord with gladness." When we talk about serving, you know, serving begrudgingly or serving while you're complaining, that doesn't even work in human relationships.
09:42-09:48
Like my wife Erin, for example, I enjoy serving her because I love her.
09:50-09:54
The reason I do the things that I do for Erin, which is never enough, it's never going to be enough.
09:55-09:56
I could never do enough for her.
09:58-10:02
But the reason I do the things that I do for her is because I love her.
10:03-10:14
But how would Erin feel if she got home from work and I said, I made you a nice coffee.
10:15-10:21
You know, I get so sick of it every day, trying to take care of the kids.
10:21-10:23
And all I got to stop everything and make your iced coffee.
10:24-10:28
It's just, it just eats up time that I don't have.
10:29-10:32
Or, you know what, I did a load of laundry.
10:33-10:35
I never know what I'm doing with the laundry.
10:36-10:38
I just throw it all together and it's never good enough.
10:40-10:43
Or she comes home and I say, you know, I did the dishes.
10:45-10:47
I hate doing dishes, Erin, by the way.
10:47-10:48
I hate doing dishes.
10:49-10:51
How many people live in this house anyways?
10:52-10:53
I hate doing dishes.
10:54-10:56
"Oh, I did the dishes for you.
10:57-11:10
I did the dishes because I knew you'd be expecting me to do the dishes, so I love you." I would think that Aaron would rather that I don't do those things than do them while I'm complaining.
11:13-11:16
I would suggest to you that perhaps the Lord feels that way in our service.
11:17-11:28
That when we come serving, complaining, "I came to help set up the church today but so and so was there and he really gets on my nerves and oh and then he's always this and that.
11:29-11:38
Now I gotta put the signs out again and every Sunday I gotta put the stupid signs out like people don't know where the church is." Do you think that blesses the Lord?
11:39-11:41
When we serve with complaining?
11:43-11:46
He says serve the Lord with gladness.
11:47-11:51
And when we talk about serving the Lord, there are several wrong motivators.
11:51-11:52
I want you to write these down.
11:52-11:55
There are several wrong motivators in serving God.
11:55-11:56
Several wrong motivators.
11:56-11:57
Number one is guilt.
12:00-12:03
Guilt says this, I better serve or people will think I'm lazy.
12:04-12:05
You know, I'm kind of looking around.
12:05-12:09
Everybody else is doing stuff, so I'm going to feel guilty if I don't do stuff, so I better do stuff.
12:11-12:13
That is a wrong motivation to serve.
12:15-12:16
Number two is obligation.
12:17-12:22
obligation says, "I better serve, because I have to if anything's going to get done around here.
12:24-12:31
You know, if I don't do it, nobody else is going to do it, so I better do it." That is a wrong motivation to serve.
12:33-12:36
Thirdly, a wrong motivation is thinking that you're earning favor with God.
12:38-12:40
"I better serve if I want God to be good to me.
12:42-13:12
If I want God to help me with my finances, or if I want God to help get my family in If I want God to get me this promotion, I better serve at the church. That is a wrong motivation to serve. Fourthly, serving for people. For people. I better serve because Jeff's counting on me. I really don't feel like doing it and frankly I'm sick of doing it, but Jeff asked me to do it so I better do it. That is a wrong motivation to serve. I hope, I sincerely hope nobody in this church is serving for me.
13:14-13:14
What does that mean?
13:15-13:22
If I would drop over dead this afternoon, you're going to say, "Well, I just wonder how long it lasted, but I guess that's over." No!
13:22-13:23
The ministry keeps going.
13:24-13:24
Okay?
13:24-13:25
It's not about me.
13:25-13:29
I'm just one little part of this body of believers.
13:31-13:33
Those are all wrong motivations.
13:34-13:38
None of these are going to result in authentic and lasting service.
13:41-13:48
And if you felt a twinge of truth in any of those as motivation for why you're serving, that should be a big red flag for you.
13:50-13:51
I'm gonna give you a test.
13:52-13:55
Four questions, these are all true or false, eyes on your own paper.
13:57-13:59
Okay, no copying off your neighbor.
14:00-14:02
This is a test, true or false.
14:02-14:04
Number one, I love to give.
14:05-14:06
I love to, true or false.
14:06-14:08
Now be honest, don't give church answer.
14:09-14:13
Honest. Honest. We're going for honesty here, right? We're going for authenticity.
14:13-14:23
So, do you love giving? When it's offering time, you know, I love giving. We talk about Romania and, you know, the mission work that we're getting involved with there.
14:24-14:25
I love giving.
14:26-14:28
True or false for you? True or false?
14:30-14:35
Number two, I consider serving a privilege, not a duty.
14:36-14:38
I consider it a I am privileged.
14:38-14:44
I am thankful that I have opportunity to serve at that church.
14:46-14:47
True or false?
14:49-14:53
Number three, I do what I do at this church for Jesus Christ.
14:53-14:54
I do it for Jesus.
14:56-14:56
True or false?
14:58-15:02
Number four, I feel a personal joy when I serve.
15:03-15:06
You know, while I'm doing what I'm doing, I just feel very fulfilled.
15:06-15:08
I feel like this personal joy.
15:08-15:12
I'm looking forward to getting to church on Sunday so I can serve.
15:12-15:13
I'm looking forward to that.
15:14-15:18
Sunday is my favorite day of the week because I love going and serving.
15:18-15:19
True or false?
15:22-15:27
If you put false for any of those, it should be a little red flag for you.
15:29-15:38
2 Corinthians 5.14 says, "The love of Christ controls us." That's what the psalmist is telling us.
15:40-15:47
The reason we do what we do, it's a natural response to the goodness of God.
15:47-15:48
That's why we do what we do.
15:48-15:53
Because God's been so good to us, the love of Christ controls me.
15:54-15:56
It makes me respond.
15:57-16:00
Number two, it makes me rely.
16:01-16:02
It makes me rely.
16:02-16:03
Look at v. 3.
16:03-16:05
It says, "Know that the Lord, He is God.
16:06-16:10
He who made us, and we are His.
16:11-16:16
In other words, He is God and I am not.
16:17-16:25
Right? He is God and I am not. And that's a phrase you hear me say often and many of you know that. You're ready to say it, right?
16:26-16:29
That's something we have to constantly be reminding ourselves.
16:29-16:31
He is God and I am not.
16:31-16:37
But look at this next verse, or next phrase rather. It says, "We We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
16:40-16:41
I'll talk about sheep for a second.
16:43-16:47
You know sheep are the dumbest animals in the animal kingdom.
16:49-16:52
And I know many of you are aware of my aversion to cats.
16:55-17:02
But quite honestly, just being objective, sheep are the dumbest animals in the animal kingdom.
17:03-17:04
And I can prove that.
17:05-17:11
Very simply, what do you call the guy that they hire to babysit the chickens?
17:12-17:12
What's that guy called?
17:13-17:16
Oh, there is no guy that they hire to babysit the chickens, right?
17:16-17:19
There is nobody because chickens just kind of take care of themselves.
17:21-17:25
How many of you have been driving down the road and you see chickens like along the side of the road?
17:26-17:29
I always wonder, how do those chickens know to stay off the road?
17:30-17:32
They just do, right?
17:33-17:34
Colonel Sanders might be driving by.
17:35-17:39
But what do you call the guy that they pay to babysit the cows?
17:41-17:45
The answer is, there is nobody that you pay to babysit the cows.
17:45-17:48
They just kind of take care of themselves throughout the day, right?
17:50-17:53
What do you call the guy that they pay to babysit the sheep?
17:54-17:55
A shepherd!
17:55-17:56
We knew that one!
17:57-18:06
Sheep are so dumb that they require a person to watch over them so that they don't kill themselves accidentally.
18:07-18:09
Because they are that stupid.
18:10-18:14
They are weak and they are wayward and they are defenseless.
18:15-18:16
Sheep are completely defenseless.
18:17-18:19
That's another reason you need a shepherd.
18:21-18:31
You know, if something attacks my dog, my dog knows to fight and to bite back and paw and dance around and juke and jive.
18:32-18:33
The dog knows how to do that.
18:33-18:36
And some animals have horns that they use to defend themselves.
18:38-18:40
How do sheep defend themselves?
18:42-18:43
They can't.
18:44-18:54
If a sheep's getting attacked, his best hope is that whatever's attacking him would be willing to not kill the sheep if the sheep was willing to give him some wool to make a sweater.
18:54-18:56
That's like his only option.
18:56-18:59
Like just, I'll make you something out of my fuzzy here.
19:01-19:03
That's the only option that a sheep has.
19:05-19:06
Helpless, weak, wayward.
19:07-19:08
Here's the thing, church.
19:11-19:13
You are a sheep.
19:15-19:17
And it is important for you to rest in this truth.
19:19-19:21
This isn't an insult, church.
19:21-19:22
This is reality.
19:22-19:24
You are a sheep.
19:25-19:28
And there's somebody sitting here right now saying I am not a sheep.
19:29-19:30
I am a lion.
19:32-19:32
You are not a lion.
19:34-19:43
You may be a sheep that thinks you are a lion, but a sheep that thinks it is a lion, eventually realizes that he is not a lion.
19:45-19:46
So what's the point?
19:46-19:48
Why does the Bible tell us that we are sheep?
19:48-19:53
The Bible tells us that we are sheep because we are so desperately in need of a shepherd.
19:56-19:59
That's why Jesus in John chapter 10 came along and said what?
19:59-20:00
I am.
20:01-20:02
The Good Shepherd.
20:03-20:05
Jesus said that His sheep know His voice.
20:06-20:08
Jesus said that His sheep follow Him.
20:11-20:16
We are so unfulfilled and powerless when we start to rely on ourselves.
20:18-20:20
No confidence in the flesh.
20:20-20:26
You know, a sheep is happiest and safest when it is closest to the shepherd.
20:28-20:31
Oftentimes I hear people making fun of Christianity.
20:31-20:33
One of my favorites - have you ever heard somebody say this?
20:34-20:36
They say, "Christianity is a crutch." How many people have heard somebody say that?
20:36-20:42
"Christianity is a crutch!" You know what the response to that is?
20:44-20:49
The response is, "Yes, it is." He says, "I don't have the strength to make it on my own.
20:51-21:04
I am completely reliant upon Jesus Christ for everything." And the sheep says, "I wouldn't want it any other way." So God's goodness affects me.
21:04-21:05
It makes me respond.
21:07-21:07
Serving Him in gladness.
21:07-21:11
It makes me rely on Him as our Shepherd.
21:11-21:13
Thirdly, it makes me react.
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It makes me react.
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Look at verse 4.
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He says, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving." Underline the word "thanksgiving" in your Bible.
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"And His courts with praise." Here it is again.
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"Give thanks to Him." "Bless His name." So not only do we respond outwardly in service, but we respond inwardly in a thankful attitude.
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were training in Chicago back in 2010 under James McDonald, it was a season where we didn't have a lot of money. Harvest was gracious to put our family up in an apartment, provide for us so that we didn't have to work while we were training, but we still owned a house back here that we were paying the mortgage on, so money was extremely tight. I was recovering from a very bad haircut And I don't want to get into all the details about the haircut right now, but let's just say I had a not ideal haircut and It was so short that I had to wait for it to grow it a little bit so that I could get it fixed Well in Elgin, Illinois where we were training there was this Place that we drove by all the time that had this big neon sign in the window. It said haircuts $5 Not having a lot of money.
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I $5 haircut.
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What else do you need to know?
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That's just being a good steward, right?
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And I can go and get this fixed.
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I had this stripe of bangs across the front, and it was-- so I show up at this hair place, walked right in.
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There were no customers.
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They took me right to the chair.
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The girl came up, and I said, you know what?
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I would just like it short and choppy on top, and just a little short around the sides and the back, but I want you to leave some hair on top, OK?
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I don't want buzzed or anything like that, OK?
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I just want you to leave a little bit of hair on top.
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And the lady looked at me and she goes, [IMITATING BUZZING] And I go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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I want hair on top.
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I want you to leave some hair.
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And she is sheering me.
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And I'm like, no, no, I don't want shade.
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(grunts)
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At this point, I'm like, it's too late.
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It's too late.
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And I'm saying, just don't be a jerk.
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Try to be nice, it's too late.
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Being mean isn't gonna do, just complaining or criticizing, just be nice.
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So, while she was shaving me, I said, have you lived in Elgin long?
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And she mumbled something.
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But I didn't quite make out what she said.
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Maybe it was the anger, maybe it was the clippers.
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I couldn't make out what she said.
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And she's going to town on my head.
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And I said, how long have you worked here?
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She mumbled something else that I didn't quite understand what she was saying.
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And I'm like, well, I'm really having a hard time hearing.
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can't understand a word this woman is saying. I asked her something else, you know, "Are you from around here originally?" and she said something, but this time I understood what she said. It was Spanish.
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Then the pieces fit together. This woman didn't speak English, so when I told her not to shave my head, she had no idea what I was saying.
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So I'm like, well, we're just going to have to make the most of the rest of this.
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Well, while she was cutting my hair-- I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but this is a true story.
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But while she was cutting my hair, she was extremely close up-- and I'm going to use you, Ken, here-- she was extremely close up while she was shaving me.
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But she kept doing this thing that was a combination between a hiccup and a burp.
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I'm going to try to demonstrate that for you.
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It sounded something like this.
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And she did it like every seven seconds.
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So she's shaving my head, and she's like an inch away from my nose.
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And she's like,
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[GRUNTING]
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You're like, Pastor Jeff, that's so gross.
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Tell me about it.
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I was there.
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So now I'm completely bald, grossed out, and I go up to the front to pay.
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And I'm standing at the counter, and there's nobody there.
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I'm fuming.
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All of a sudden, out of this side room, this Latino man jumps out of nowhere.
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He's like, ho, ho, ho, senority!
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And I'm like, $5.
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Adios.
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Why did I tell you that story?
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Oh yeah, I remember now.
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There were so many things that I could have been thankful for.
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The fact that we didn't have much money but I found a place that would cut my hair for $5.
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The fact that I didn't have to wait.
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The fact that I had transportation to get there.
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the fact that we were able to make that happen. I had a lot of things to be thankful for but what do you think I remember about that encounter? That woman burped in my face the entire time and if we're honest Many times in our lives, we have 10,000 things to be thankful for, but we have a tendency to dwell on one or two negative things, true or false.
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And the reason thankfulness is so important, you know Romans 121, jot that reference down, but Romans 121 says that there is a link between faith and thankfulness.
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Specifically, Romans 1 says there's a link between unbelief and ingratitude.
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You find me a person that lives a life of being ungrateful all the time, I'll show you a person that has no faith.
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That's what Romans 1 says about unbelievers.
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Romans 1 says, you know what their problem is?
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They refuse to be thankful to their Creator.
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That's the problem.
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They refuse to acknowledge that God is good to them.
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And they refuse to be thankful to God for His goodness.
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That's the problem with unbelievers.
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The question for you - are you a thankful person?
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Are you a person that looks at the big picture?
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Do you thank God, again, for the 10,000 things going well in your life?
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Or do you focus on the few hardships that you're facing?
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You need to think of different categories, in different compartments of your life where you're experiencing God's goodness and God's provision, and you're seeing God at work.
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There's so many arenas where that's happening right now in your life.
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Let's not focus on the one or two negative things right now that are going on in our lives.
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So God's goodness makes me react.
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And finally, it makes me remember.
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It makes me remember.
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Look at verse 5.
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It says, "For the Lord is good.
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His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations." Speaking of thankfulness, is thankfulness an issue of the past, the present, or the future?
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Which is it? Pop quiz.
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Thankfulness.
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Is it an issue of the past, present, or future?
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It's an issue of the past, right?
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looking back to say, "Look at how God has been at work in my life." It's an issue of the past.
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Remember in Luke chapter 17, Jesus healed ten lepers as they were going.
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And how many came back and said thanks?
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Do you know that story?
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How many came back and said thanks?
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One.
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Do you remember what Jesus said?
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Jesus said, "Where are the other nine?" And do you know what that tells me?
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It tells me that the Lord expects us to be thankful.
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He expects us to be thankful.
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And it's a very natural thing, and if you're a parent, you totally understand this.
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It is a natural thing, parents.
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You expect your children to be thankful.
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True or false?
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We have this play out in our home all the time.
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For example, Kate, I can talk about it.
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He's in the Harvest Kids thing, right?
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And Cage will say, "Daddy, can I have a drink?" And I'll get him a drink and hand it to him and he'll walk away.
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I'll say, "You're welcome." "Cage, you're welcome." He's walking away.
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"Cage, you're welcome!" He'll turn around and say, "I heard you." And just keep on walking.
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We experienced it last week.
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Last week we were on vacation.
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Aaron and I have been wanting to do this for the last few years decided to just go for it this year.
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But we took our children to Universal Studios in Orlando and Islands of Adventure.
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How many people have ever been there?
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The place is amazing.
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But it's two parks.
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And there's the Universal Studios side that has movie-themed rides and shows and parades and all this stuff.
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And then there's Islands of Adventure that's all these different theme parks.
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There's the Marvel theme park in Harry Potter and Dr. Seuss and all these other things.
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But Aaron got us a three-day pass where you could go to either park.
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So we flew down to Orlando.
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We spent three days, morning to night, hiking through all of these parks, and dining out, and getting the kids things, and then back at the hotel on the water slide, and in the pool and eat whatever you want.
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We got home Thursday night, you know how it is at the end of vacation.
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Flew back, drove home, in the door, put the suitcase down, and it was getting near bedtime and I was completely exhausted.
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I said, "All right, Cade, we need to get ready for bed." He said, "Wait, you're gonna tell me my story?" Usually every night I tell him a bedtime story. He goes, "You're gonna tell me, you're gonna tell me my story." I said, "You know what, buddy?" I said, "Daddy's exhausted. Why don't we just get ready for bed and we'll pick it up tomorrow." He goes, "Not fair! Not fair!
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I just flew you to Florida. We just spent a lot of money. We let you do whatever you want for the last five days. Not fair! To bed with you!
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But you know honestly church that's me sometimes. Look at how much God does for me and provides for me and blesses me and and there's times that something doesn't work out maybe the way that I wanted to work out I didn't get my story God and I turned to God and I said God this isn't fair what what we can be just like that when we don't take time to remember that's why I want to encourage you I've told you before you should keep a prayer journal and this is mine but what I do is I organize things by you know things I get in the friendship registers when you put a prayer request in there the first thing I do every week is I write this prayer request down right here and then over in this column I have people that I'm regularly praying for I have some family members extended family members even some people here in this church that are just always on that list because of some chronic health issues and whatnot.
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So I have people stuff up here, Aaron, Owen, and Kate always at the top.
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And then down here I have church stuff, areas of ministry that I'm praying for for the church.
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I encourage you to do that, to keep track of who you're praying for.
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But here's why I want you to do that.
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While I write the people down over here, on this other side, you can see here's an example, if your eyes are really good, but on this page I write how God answered the prayers.
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Like this one for example, this is from my birthday of 2014.
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But I was praying for Milo Stroup, Good report from the doctor. I put that update there.
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Here is a marriage that was struggling for a long time.
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Not anybody in this church, but friends from outside the church, where the husband seemed to be having a change of heart.
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We were seeing God answer the prayer. We've been praying for God to change this man's heart, and God was. And I wrote that down here.
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There is a family, actually from this church, that I've been praying for because I'm about to have a baby. Praise.
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They had their baby. Mom and baby are healthy.
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And I encourage you to do this because this lets you look back.
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God's faithfulness to all generations. This lets you look back at your own personal history and say, "Look, God is so good. I've been praying for these things, and this is how I've seen the Lord show up." Just grab a blank notebook. They're like a nickel. It's staples, okay?
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and use this and see how the Lord has been faithful in answering your prayers.
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Take time when you pray to go over that list of how He's answering prayer.
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This is what I do. I go through and I just give thanks.
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"God, this is how You answer. I just want to say thank You.
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I want to say thank You the way You answered this prayer, God." Take time to be thankful.
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When we live in God's goodness, it makes me remember that God is good.
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And this sermon really is just the introduction to the series.
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My goal over the next several weeks is we want to get this truth that God is good, we want to get it from our head to our heart.
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Or in other words, we want to get the truth that God is good from Sunday morning to Monday morning.
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We want to get it from Sunday morning to Wednesday morning.
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God is good.
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God wants you to know His goodness.
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God wants you to experience His goodness.
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And God wants you to display His goodness.
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God wants to use you as a showcase to a lost and dying world that so desperately needs to know that God loves them.
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God wants to display that through you.
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The fact is, knowing that God is good.
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Knowing that God is good changes everything.
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You pray because He loves you.
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He is for you.
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You serve because you're in a love relationship with your Creator, with your Savior, and you have a heart to want to express your love in service because God is good.
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Knowing that God is good eliminates doubt in hard times.
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It lets you cling to Romans 8:28.
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It says what?
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"God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." Knowing that God is good lets you hold on to that verse.
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When things are going south, when things are crumbling around you, you say, yes, my circumstances are hard, but I know that God is going to use this to ultimately benefit me because He is good.
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And in the same vein, knowing that God is good eliminates anxiety and worry from your life.
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Because this good God said that He would never forsake you.
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He said that He would be with you at the end of the age.
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Will you bow your heads and pray with me please?
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Father in heaven, you are good.
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Father, sometimes we doubt that.
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Sometimes, Father, we're standing beside Adam and Eve.
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In the garden, when the serpent said to Eve, "Did God really say?" Sometimes, Father, we're kind of right there, wondering if your Word has made it abundantly clear.
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And this most significant act in history You have forever settled the matter that You love us, that You are good toward us, and the grace that You have shown us through the death of Your Son.
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Father, we thank You that You took our sin and You put it on Jesus Christ and You punished our sin while Your Son was crucified.
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We thank You, Father, for the resurrection, the eternal life that You give, hope of glory that you've promised us all in the work and in the person of your Son. Father I pray especially for those here right now who are struggling.
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I know that there are many who are struggling with various trials. Father I pray whatever happens whether it's a phenomenal outcome or maybe it's not the outcome that we've been praying for but whatever happens father I pray above all things that we see your hand of goodness through the trial we praise you God and we thank you in Jesus name

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Psalm 100

Why is "love for God" the only real motivator to work for God?
What is the connection between faith and thankfulness? What is the connection between faithlessness and ungratefulness?
How is God's past faithfulness a motivator for today? How can you allow it to motivate you today?

Breakout Questions:

Has your testimony this week been faithful to the love you have for Jesus Christ in both your words and actions? How? Pray for one another.

God is Good...to Me!

God is Good?

God's Grace is Good

God's Word is Good!

God is Good!

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

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