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Sermon
of 08-30-03
Ain't
God Good
by
Dr. D.A. Farmer, pastor
Scripture - Romans 8:28;
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
Can you say with me that God is good? Yes God is good to all of us. During school registration recently the Litchfield family sat down to eat their supper. But before they did, I heard the children repeat something many of learned in our childhood. A prayer we would repeat at mealtime. It went something like this: "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. By His hands we all are fed. Give us Lord, our daily bread. Amen."
Do you remember ever singing the song: "God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He's so good to me." We find the goodness of God as a reoccurring theme throughout the Scriptures. Listen to Psalm 100:5, "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations."
Because God is so good, we receive complete pardon and forgiveness. He hears our prayers whenever we call upon Him. We experience fellowship with Him. And we can trust Him so that whatever might happen in our life, we know He is with us. Also, if we search, He promises His goodness can be found. But the puzzle is we don't always see His goodness, especially when something bad happens to us. When we experience heartache, a tragedy, a disappointment, whatever, there are times when it seems like God isn't good or fair. We sometimes feel if God is so good, then why would God allow this to happen to me?
If God is so good, then why the tragedy of 9-11? If God is so good, then why did my dog have to die of old age last month? If God is so good, then why all the suffering, not only in this world, but in my personal life also? Have you ever felt like that yourself? Yes, we probably all have felt that way one time or another.
But we have to remember what our Scripture from Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
The Bible says that everything that happens in our life, good or bad, proves God is good! Do you know what part of our problem is? We spend too much time complaining about the 10 so called bad things that happens in our life, and not enough time rejoicing over the 1000 good things that happen to us.
Yes, 9-11 was a terrible tragedy, but we could be living in Israel where that surprise attacks happens every day. Yes, I lost my dog to old age, but I enjoyed 15 happy years with him. And God has given me Chiquita to not only help me through Alpine's death, but Tabby's death as well who died at the age of 17 last year.
Yes, I have had heartaches and tragedies and disappointments in my life, but God was there to see me through every one of them.
Let's take a look at the "goodness" of God.
First, God sets the standard for goodness: Please allow me to ask, how do you and I determine what is "good" and what isn't "good"? Just what is God's standard for "goodness"? Listen to Matthew 19:16-17,
"And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
V:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."
Most of us know the story here. The Rich Young Ruler had everything money could buy. He was living the good life. One day he comes to Jesus and asked him how to have eternal life. And Jesus wants to teach him the standard for "good" when He ask, "why do you call Me good?"
Apparently the Rich Young Ruler didn't know what "good" was. He may have thought "good" consisted of "good things", or "good circumstances", or maybe "good feelings". He may have also assumed that being "good" would get him to Heaven. You can see that in that part of verse 17 through v:20.
Did you know that goodness is not determined by something we experience as delightful, but by its source? Let me give you an example. I've don't like beets! I firmly believe, at least hope, beets will not be in heaven! But I love chocolate ice cream!
But just because I don't like beets doesn't determine whether beets are good for you are not. Remember now, goodness is not determined by something we experience as delightful, but by its source.
See, chocolate ice cream tastes good and is delightful to me! It makes me feel good. It makes me happy when I eat it. But chocolate ice cream is probably not good for me. That is what Jesus was trying to show the rich young ruler.
His goodness and happiness was not found in his keeping the Law of God. His goodness and happiness would come only by loving God above everything he has. And our goodness will come the same way. We must love God above everything we own.
Listen to the first part of James 1:17; "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." Every good thing has God as its source. And only God can produce that which is good.
Now we may take that which God made "good" and use it for a bad purpose. For example, God made corn, but man made alcohol out of it. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Goodness is not determined by something we experience as delightful, but by its source.
Second, God can turn something bad into something good. Let me ask, how do we answer the fact that God is good even when bad things happen? Again listen to James 1 verses 12-13;
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him. V:13
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:"
One dilemma I find is we use the wrong standard for "goodness". We use our standard. Human standards. Our standard is: "Good" is whatever is "good" for me. For example, nobody really enjoys going to the doctor to receive a shot. Yet, shots are good for us if we are sick.
God's goodness doesn't mean that bad things won't happen to you. We live in a terrible and evil world. And God can take the bad things and bring good out of them. But only if we let Him. We humans have the tenacity to want to blame somebody else for the bad things that happen to us. And because God is always handy, we often blame Him.
But what are we really implying is, since God didn't act the way we thought He should, then He is either punishing us for something we did or He doesn't exist." But, can a person really be mad at a God they don't even believe exists? See how foolish that sounds? Are you going to believe in God only if He acts like you want Him to?
There once was a preacher who, no matter what bad thing you said had happened to you, he had the habit of always saying "It could have been worse!" One day a man in his church decided to put a stop to this and attempted to stump his Pastor at the door after church service.
He told his Pastor, "I had a dream last night", to which the Pastor replied "It could have been worse." The man went on, "I dreamed I died", to which the Pastor replied, "It could have been worse."
"But I dreamed I died and went to Hell", the man stated. The Pastor replied, "It could have been worse."
He thought he had the Pastor this time. "Pastor, what could be worse than dreaming you died and went to hell?' The Pastor replied, "It could have been true!"
You know here is a lot of truth in that. It doesn't matter what happens to any of us, "it could have been worse."
Little Hunter Teel a few weeks back was playing in his yard. He had an accident on his slip and slide. I was called to the hospital where when I entered the emergency room, Hunter was on the bed with a huge peace of plastic sticking out his leg. His mom, dad and I stood around him and prayed thanking the Lord that Hunter wasn't hurt worse than he was.
Look at Romans 8:28 again; "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
Honesty folks, I don't always know what "good" God has in mind when He allows a tragedy, heartache or a disappointment to come into our lives. I don't know, but I don't have to know. What happens in my life may not be good in my eyes; it might be tragic and terrible. I may never understand the purpose of any bad that happens in my or anyone else's life.
But, what does this verse say I am to "know"? It says that I'm to know that all things work for good to those that love and are called by God. That's all I need to know and understand!
Do you really want to know what God's goodness looks like? Listen to Exodus 33:19-22 when God passed before Moses;
"And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
V:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
V:21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: V:22
And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:"
Now jump to Exodus 34:6; "And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth."
That is God's goodness! It's His mercy! It's His love for sinners! It's His longsuffering with you and me! And it's His truth!
Don't ever think that God's goodness means that bad things won't ever happen to you. God is good because He takes the bad things that happen to you and me and brings eternal benefits out of them.
You or I may never see the "good" that comes out of any trouble we may have this side of Heaven. But we can "know" that God means it for our "good" or He would never allow it to happen. God knows what's best for us. We don't! We may think we do, but we can't see the beginning to the end. But He can.
To end I want to tell you a true story I heard at the Church Ministries last week.
There was this young boy that loved to swim. One day he was swimming in his favorite swimming hole when his mother happened to look out her window. About the time she did she sees a huge alligator swimming toward her son. She ran out the door screaming for her son to swim to the boat dock.
Just as she reached the end of the dock so did the son. The mother reached down to grab her son when the alligator grab the boy's right leg with his huge mouth and teeth. The boy started screaming and so did his mother.
About that time a neighbor heard the commotion and grabbed his rifle and ran out the door. When he saw what was happening he started firing his rifle in the air. This scared the alligator and he let go of his hold on the young boy's leg.
A few days later the young boy's pastor visits the boy at the hospital. He asked the young boy if he could see the scars on his leg. The boy pulled back the sheets and showed the pastor his scared leg. The pastor remarked that it was a terrible tragedy.
The young man said, "Oh pastor, these scars on my leg is nothing. Look at this." About this time he pulled up his shirt sleeves and revealed even uglier scars on his arms. The pastor asked where those scars came from?
The young man said, "From my mother who would not let go of me when the alligator had a hold of me."
Friends, the devil has had a hold of us. He's had us in his teeth clamped down on us all our lives. Our bodies are scared from head to toe because of his grip. But as terrible as those scars are in our life, they are nothing compared to the scars in the hands of our Savior.
A Savior that has held on to us when we have experienced heartache, tragedy, or a disappointment! That's His love. That's His goodness.
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