The Goodness of God - Part 24 - Testimonies, Part I

We're living in victory The battle's won in victory We've overcome whatever comes our way We're working just to see We're living in victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ Hello, this is Mike and Shara Kennedy with the Living in Victory broadcast. We're going to continue our series on the goodness of God. We are wrapping up this series, and as a result of the whole series being based on the goodness of God in people's lives, we wanted to share some of the testimonies that have occurred in people's lives that range from financial provision, protection, healing, restoration, and the things that these people have experienced, God will do for you if you trust Him, if you ask Him, if you walk in His ways. We've shared this in this series about Isaiah 119. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land. The series is based on John 10.10 and Psalms 34.8. Psalms 34.8 says, O taste and see that the Lord is good. These testimonies are examples that testify of the goodness of God. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him or who has faith in Him. John 10.10, it says, The thief, Satan, the loser, does not come except one of these three reasons, to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I, Jesus, our Lord and Savior, He came that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. So even though the enemy came into these people's lives and tried to attack, he lost, and he will lose in your life as well. You know, we have a few of these different testimonies that we've selected that were actually on Shara's heart. So, Shara, why don't you kick us off by sharing one of these testimonies? Absolutely, and this is one of our favorite things about this ministry. First of all, I wanted to share with you that about a year or so ago, the Lord put on my heart to start asking somebody to church. Just one person every week. And I thought, hmm, that shouldn't be too hard. And then when I started to do it, I realized, oh, this can be a little bit of a challenge.

Well, eventually, it was a result. I had heard a story about a lady that had been in a bar, and she was 22 years old, and she finally got asked to church, and as a result of it, she got saved. And she had confessed that no one had ever invited her to church. My, my, my, 22 years old, and never been invited to church. Brothers and sisters, we need to take that to heart. One of the main commandments Jesus said is in Luke 14, 23, go into the highways and byways and draw them in. Well, if you don't even have enough boldness, if you're ashamed of the gospel, you need to overcome that. You don't want Jesus to be ashamed of you. But if you're afraid to share the goodness of God, the mercy of God, and at least invite somebody to the church, I encourage you to step out in faith. The worst thing they can do is laugh at you. Well, I would rather have somebody laugh at me for inviting me to church rather than be held accountable on judgment day for not even being willing to invite somebody to church. You can do that at a restaurant, a waiter, a waitress. You can invite that servant that is serving you to come and be served a message that will change their life forever. Amen? Amen. Well, it did challenge me, I can say, but I was up for the challenge. I didn't want to be the person, like Mike said, that was in heaven and someone come up and say, how come when you first saw me, you didn't ask me to come to church? Because they said they would have come. You don't have to be a preacher. You don't have to be a pastor. You just have to be a believer to share, hey, this changed my life, man.

We have a good time. Come to church with me. Sit by me. I'll save a seat for you. Invite them to go out to a meal if you want to afterwards. A lot of people come just for a meal. I know that if somebody invites me for a good meal, they got my attention. Well, it's not because I can cook or anything. I didn't say that. Moving right along. Our mom and our grandmother and our aunts are all good cooks. Leave it at that. So anyway, when I go to a salon, of course you might not be able to tell that now, but I've been going there for quite some time and I went in one day and I decided I'm going to ask a couple of girls to church. And both of them decided to come. So I was so excited, they came into church. And one thing I do wanna share with you, you can never be too concerned is, how is this message gonna affect them? God knows when they're gonna come to church. And our pastors or the ministers that are going to be preaching that day, if they prepared properly, and I know ours does, they will preach whatever the Lord leads them to and whatever that is will touch whoever you invited to church life. And it'll be different.

And one of the ladies that I get my hair, she had gone to a different type of church. She was in a different religion and she decided to come. She had pink hair and she had been going through some things in her life. And one of the things that our pastor preached on was being free from sin. And the first thing she told me was, is it really that easy that God can be so good to forgive me of my sins? She was thinking you had to do a bunch of works because where she had been to church, it was all different levels of sin and different levels of work that you had to do to be forgiven. No, Jesus bought and paid for our sins. We talked about in this series numerous times about by the blood of Jesus, we have been redeemed or bought back. Jesus paid for that sin and he died on the cross, went to hell, rose from the grave to redeem us or to cleanse us from every sin. It doesn't matter if it's a murder, if it's a lie, if it's abortion, it doesn't matter what it is, Jesus bought and paid for it for every human being. The key is, are you going to receive it? And she had been taught false doctrines and she was getting free because the truth sets free. He who the son sets free is free indeed.

And it's all based on truth, not man's ideas, not doctrine of man's ideas, but based on the word of God, proper doctrine, proper understanding of what the word says, amen? Right, and she was willing, she actually gave her life to the Lord. Glory to God, right there is a good testimony. That's an awesome testimony. They came to church and God did the rest. He drew her in, it changed her heart based on the thing that the pastor was led to share. And now her name is in the Lamb's book of life for eternity. Glory to God, so excited. She even changed her schedule and she's coming on a regular basis. You see her all the time. And now her life is becoming more prosperous. She's got more clients at her office. She's had money come in for her home. Goodness of God. She's just, her whole life, she's being transformed into a new creation in Christ. She's experiencing the goodness of God. Just like we just read in Psalms 34, eight, oh, taste and see, she tasted his goodness. She's experiencing his goodness and God will do that for you and your household. Right, yes. Glory to God. Well, another story is many years ago,

we met an outlaw biker and his brother, we had been able to lead to the Lord. And he had said, yeah, I want you to meet these guys. Remember Mike? Yeah, matter of fact, when we led his brother to the Lord and he said he wanted us to meet his brother and some of the other guys, you could just kind of see a little look in his eyes, like I want you to, but you know, he wanted them to experience the goodness that he had received when he met Jesus at his Lord and Savior. So he proceeds to introduce Mike and I to his brother. And the first thing he said to us, we had some Christian motorcycle ministry patches on. And he said, you talk about Jesus, I kill you. That's about how he said it too. Of course, that was a real exciting thing to hear. And he was serious about it, wasn't he Mike? Well, he didn't want, he had been around religious people. Yeah. And who wants to be around religious people, hypocrites, false stuff. He hadn't seen the goodness of God. He hadn't seen people love him regardless what he did. Amen? That's right. So religion causes people to push away. Nobody likes false, fake people, but the truth and the love of God draws men into.

repentance, the goodness of God. And that's what eventually his brother started to see in us as well. Well, his son had gotten healed of cancer. That's right. That was what touched him. Glory to God. Another thing that's what opened up the door for this individual. You know, there was a situation with him years ago. He was at a motorcycle rally, Laughlin, Nevada. There were different motorcycle clubs there. It was a big bike week and we couldn't make it that year. He called you on the way. He called me on his way. He was actually in town on his way to the event. And he said, Mike, I don't know what's going on with me, but it's a good day to die. Now, keep in mind, these are not people that just haphazardly say these things. No. They had experienced death in their clubs, different shootouts, stabbings, whatever in that situation. He said, it's a good day to die. And I said, no, it's a good day to live. God will protect you. We could ask the Lord right now for him to guide you and direct you, keep you safe. And he will. So I let him in a prayer, asking the Lord to guide him, to keep him, to protect him, show him when to leave, when to stay, what to say, ask for divine opportunities, ask for mercy upon him. And a few hours later, I get a call from him. Actually, it was after the weekend. He had made it home. We made sure he made it home because something occurred that weekend. Well, I called because there was a shootout. And during that shootout, he had left about 10 minutes before it happened. He would have been right in the middle of that situation going down, but the Lord spared his life where he was not even involved. You say, yeah, but I'm not involved in that type of a lifestyle. He will spare you from buying the wrong piece of equipment, the wrong refrigerator. He will spare you from an accident because you're not at the wrong place at a time where somebody was texting and ran through it. If you turn towards the Lord and you ask him daily to guide your path, guide your ways, he will do that. That's part of the goodness of God. Amen. He's a faithful God. He's faithful. Hallelujah. Well, years later, there was a situation where a family member was going through some serious medical issues. He went on to be with the Lord and we were able to do a fundraiser and that opened up the door to this first man's brother. And over time, he ended up getting saved, radically saved. He's ministering to people today. He goes out handing out books, handing out tracts, praying for people at all kinds of events, setting stuff up. And you know, this guy was a serious, serious national leader in one of the world's biggest clubs there is. Yeah. And today he's telling people about the goodness of God, about repentance. That's right. Amen. That's right. And I remember when he first got to a situation where he got saved,

he decided that he needed to change some stuff. Glory to God. Well, repentance means change. It was real to him. So some of the things he was doing was bringing in a lot of cash and you know, he was in business, all kinds of business. His brothers weren't so excited about his salvation. Well, because he was bringing in money. You know, he's in the business. You got gold and he's in the business to get the gold. You got watches, he's in the business to get the watches. You got a nice motorcycle, he's in the business for a chop shop. He can take that thing and make a different bike out of it. So he's in business, right? And so he decided to shut down some of the businesses and do things the honorable way. He wanted to do it God's way. He wanted to do it God's way. Well, he was trying to get a job and he looked for nine months, I believe, and nobody was responding to it. And so I went over and I said, well, sir, show me some of your applications. Well, he was being honest with what he did. And I said, you know, that's behind you. That's the old man, the dead man. You don't have to tell that. Let's go ahead and write down that that you, hey, you're a motorcycle mechanic. You're a good mechanic. Anybody who can take multiple bikes and put one together, that's a good mechanic. So I said, you're a good mechanic. So we took some of the things that he had learned and put together a resume and an application. Well, he ended up getting a job for the government, working in a government type of position for years. He retired now and he's still serving God. Glory. That's the goodness of God. Well, one thing that was funny about that is there were 200 applicants, and this man had left junior high to become part of a gang lifestyle. And so he had no education after eighth grade, I believe. And he actually had to pass a math test to be hired. And so it ended up being one of a few that were going to be selected, and you had to pass a high security clearance. Background clearance, he made it through. Now, that is the mercy of God. That's a miracle of God.

A favor of God. He can do anything. He can. Glory to God, hallelujah. And he was gonna lose his house, and he didn't lose his house. He didn't lose his house. The Lord provided income for him at a point in time where it was getting real questionable as to whether or not he made the right decision. Well, I got together with him, encouraged him. He stood in faith until, and now he is being blessed, hallelujah. Glory to God. He's still building motorcycles and helping people, but he's doing it the right way. He tells people about God all the time, about the goodness of God. Absolutely. And he's not ashamed of the gospel. Hallelujah. Sharon, do you have another one? I do, absolutely. So a lady, one of the ladies that we met, her and her husband were asleep one night, and her dog got up and woke him up because he needed to go out to the restroom. And so it's two in the morning, and they decide to let her out. And when they let the dog back in, it was full of skunk smell.

Yucky, yucky dew, yeah. Not a fragrance you want in your house. So she normally goes to work on Monday morning, and she decided to call in to take care of the dog because during the week, she can work from home some days and work from home and then work in the office other days. Yeah. And let Sharon take care of the dog. Well, that's why she took care of the dog. It was her, it was the girl, it was the wife. So anyway, as a result that day, they were supposed to, she usually goes into work and leaves by 3.30. And at 3.25 or right at 3.30, when she would be at her car, a parking garage that she parks in, caved in, it was on national news. It caved in. And if she would have been in that car, she would have been, it would have killed her. Destroying cars. Right. Glory to God, the mercy of God, hallelujah. So the Lord protected her by allowing the dog to get sprayed with the skunk. Well, God does not use attacks of the enemy and things of the enemy. Okay, it's not a blessing in disguise. No. The truth is what the enemy meant for harm, God turned towards his, to her benefit.

And he used this situation to protect her, to keep her. Hallelujah, the protection of God. She was spared, not just her life, but even expenses. The aspect of having a car damaged, maybe she wouldn't have been in the car, maybe she would have. Right, that's right. But either way, the car would have been destroyed. Psalms 34, seven in the New International Bible says the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fears him and delivers him. In the last couple of messages, we've talked about angels, ministering spirits and how they can be sent out to protect, how the angel of the Lord camps around to people who reverence him. The word fear here is reverence or honor him. Not everyone gets the protection from the Lord. Right. You say, what? Right. No, if you're willing and obedient, those who fear him, fear him, that means honor, reverence him. He protects those who reverence him, who give him the rightful place in their life. Amen. That's right. Another word for reverence is honor. Right.

Another word for fear here, reverence, honor. God is faithful to those who have chosen to honor him. I encourage you to honor the Lord. And one of the main ways to honor him is by receiving Jesus, his son, as your Lord and savior. Amen. Think of that, he sent his only begotten son to come to earth from heaven, that alone would have been persecution. Right. To come down here as a man and to experience the same things you and I do, the same temptations. That's right. He had to resist every temptation. You say, oh, he didn't have internet. It's the same spirits, it's the same type of situations. There were prostitution, there were all kinds of stuff going on. going on. It's still flesh. It's still sin. He had to experience and resist all of those. And then He went to hell, died on the cross, went to hell for your sins and my sins. And because of that, we have protection. That's right. Protection from the Lord and He will use His angels to help in the manifestation to help protect us. Glory to God. That is a good report. He did that for us just last Christmas. Hallelujah. Yeah, He did. He did. We had to Illinois every Christmas to visit Mike's mother. And we rented a car and we headed up. Nice car. On the day we were returning home to get to our flight, we were actually going to go visit some friends and love on them, but the Lord kept putting something in Mike's heart. It's not time to go. Don't go yet. Don't do that. Stay here. Yeah. And so there was a weather report that there were tornadoes in the area where his mother's house was. And it looked perfect. The weather was just amazing. And we still kept checking

our hearts. Do we leave? And Mike kept getting a check and we got to follow the checks. Don't go. Don't go. And his mother has had some challenges with her memory and things. And we decided we would stay and spend a little more time with her. And at three o'clock in the afternoon, sirens began to go off. I heard them before as a young child with tornadoes coming across the fields in Illinois. You hear those? It's time to get into a safe place because there's something moving your way and it's moving fast with damage intent. Right. And you better get out of the way. Right. And so they said from 3 to 315 that there was a warning and to take shelter. And within nine minutes, a tornado had hit down and lifted the house across the street. I looked out the window. I told Cher to get my mom in a back. They didn't have a basement. Right. Get my mom in a back room in a closet. Right. And I looked out the window and about the time I looked out, a big piece of wood came flying right towards me. Right. Looked like it was going to hit me. And right before it came through the glass window, a wind shear took it up in the air and it put it up on the roof of our house. Yeah. About that time, I saw the whole house across the street, the roof just go in the air, gone. I took off. I didn't have time to get to the back of the house to get to a safe place. Yeah. I just dove behind the couch. And the good thing is that we had spoke to this storm. That's right. We had prayed about it. So my mom's house got very little damage where the one across the street was totally destroyed. The tornado came. It came, knocked out the house across the street, went over my mom's house, came back down on the street behind her and took out houses there. Very lateral damage to my mom's house. Oh, she's got some shingles that came off and a couple pieces of a siding. But the Lord spared us. Yes. As a matter of fact, after it happened, I jumped up because I knew there were people in the house across the street. I ran across the street and there were, the family was still in a little closet. They jumped into a closet and that closet had no roof on it. They had two little babies that were in there. So me and another young man from the neighborhood were helping him get out. We were holding the babies, handing them out to people, helping them get out because there's wires hanging. There's all kinds of stuff that could have hurt somebody. We're throwing off different pieces of furniture and part of the roof and stuff to get them out. That is the protection of the Lord. Part of the goodness of God. Well, the only thing left standing, what was really interesting,

the whole house had almost caved in, but the only thing standing was the walls protecting that family. Yep. All the walls around them. It was all moved or gone or pushed over. Well, the rental car we had, and I missed it here. My mom's got a one car garage and I could have put that rental car in the garage and I missed it. Romans 8.14 says, the sons of God are led by the spirit of God. Earlier that day, I kind of had a check, but my mom, we were in the middle of moving her to another place and doing some things. So her garage had a lot of stuff in it. So it would have taken me an hour to move all this stuff and be able to get this rental car inside. And I thought, eh, it's a rental car. Wrong, wrong idea, wrong perspective. Okay. And, uh, it's actually not the right perspective. because it's still something that is owned by another by a company even though I had insurance and I missed it. I could have had that car protected to the point where it didn't get any damage and instead I left it out and a big limb came and hit a few places in that that car. One of them it took out and it it took out the whole back end of the vehicle. It was over $20,000 worth of damage on this rental car. Yeah, but the Lord took care of it. He took care of it. He had mercy on it. My my my there was mercy there. Yeah. You know so we were able to drive it back and make our flight. We busted out windows in cold weather. We had the heat on just enjoying ourselves driving down the highway and we were able to get it back. The good one good thing about it is is we had put it on a credit card and a credit card paid the deductible. It was so no money out of our pocket. The mercy of God, the goodness of God allowed us to overcome this situation without any anything but I still missed it. I repented for that because I should have had it in the garage but I didn't have the right heart on it. Right. Just the truth. Yeah. I should have went ahead and cleaned out the garage a little bit and put the car inside. Right. Mercy of God is part of the goodness of God. Yeah. The protection. Amen. Hallelujah. If I wasn't there I don't know if my mom would have been outside. As a kid we used to go outside and look for tornadoes and watch it. And she did want to go outside. She wanted to go out and look at it. We actually had to keep her inside or she might have been out if we were not there. Yes, she may have been in the middle of it. She may have been out and something not so good happened to her. Glory to God. Well God is so good. He is. He is doing good things all around us. Amen. And He

will do good things for you as you turn towards Him. As you seek Him. Amen. He is so good. But as I said, it starts with receiving Jesus. That's the wisest thing you can ever do. And when you do receive Him, all your sins are forgiven. You have eternal life in heaven. What more could you ever ask for? Amen. Jesus bought and paid for that price. If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I encourage you to receive Him right now. You can say, Heavenly Father, I believe that you sent your Son Jesus. He came to the earth, died on the cross, went to hell. He paid for my sins. Lord, I ask you to come into my life. Come into my heart. Forgive me for my sins. Be my Lord and Savior. I receive you as my Savior. In the name of Jesus. Amen. If that's you, I encourage you to let us know. Amen. We want to rejoice with you. Well, this is Mike and Sharon Kennedy with Living in Victory. Have a blessed day!