The Goodness of God - Part 4 - When is God Not Good?

Hello, brothers and sisters. This is Mike Kennedy with the Living in Victory broadcast. We're going to continue our series today about the goodness of God. I've got a question for you. When is God not good? We're going to get into that in today's message. This series is based on Psalms 34, 8 and John 10. We're going to read those, but join your faith with me, amen? Heavenly Father, we come to you asking you for grace, understanding, wisdom. Help us to be doers of your word, to apply your word. Father, we touch and agree in this. Help me to express your word, to explain it, that people grow in it, that we get light and revelation and live in your goodness, Lord. We thank you for it in the name of Jesus, amen. Psalms 34, 8 says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him or who has faith in him. John 10, 10, the thief, that's talking about Satan, does not come except for three things, to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they might have life and they may have it more abundantly. He wants you to have an abundance, fulfilled life, amen? There's a big difference between good and bad. God is not bad. He is good, always good, amen? It's not a good day when you've got tubes in your arms in the hospital, when you're laying in pain. It's not a good day when you're under extreme financial pressure and you can't pay your bills. It's not a good thing whenever you've been thrown under the bus, misrepresented, lied upon, amen? People will try to tell you, well, that may be good.

You just don't know it. You're not that dumb. You're not that naive. You can tell if it's good or bad. Well, maybe it's a blessing in disguise. God does not disguise things. He makes it revelation to us, amen? Only in certain religious circles do people even talk that way. God is good all the time, amen? He's good when you get a bad doctor's report. He's good when you have financial problems. He's good when you've been lied upon. He's good when you're locked up in prison, amen? God is still good to you. His mercies endure forever. Come with me over to Genesis chapter 1, and let's talk about when God started doing good things to man and good things on this planet, amen? Genesis chapter 1, verse 4. This is in the beginning, and God saw the light and said that it was good. Verse 10 of Genesis chapter 1, and God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters he called seas, and God saw that it was good. Have you ever went out and walked in a forest or in a field or a park? That's earth. That is good, amen? Have you ever went to a beach and saw a sunset? Maybe ate a lobster or some fish. Oh man, that's good, amen? Genesis chapter 1, verse 12 says, and the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind, and God saw that it was good.

The whole earth runs on sowing and reaping, amen? A seed that's planted produces after itself, whether it be trees, crops, fruit, amen, animals. They reproduce and like kind, amen? Verse 18, and to rule over, God created man, and to rule over the day and night and to divide the light from darkness, and God saw that it was good. You ever lay down at night, look up at the stars, or fall asleep without the sun in your eyes? Oh man, that's good, amen? And then wake up in the morning and there's a bright sunshine. It's good. Amen verse 25 and God made the beast of the earth according to its kind cattle according to its kind and Everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind and God saw that it was good You ever been to a zoo and saw some of the beautiful creatures. God has created God said it was good. He made things for our enjoyment verse 28 then God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and Multiply fill the earth and subdue it. This is talking about man God told man to be fruitful to multiply and to have dominion Over the fish of the sea over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth The first thing that God did with man was empower him With dominion with authority over the things of the earth you have been empowered you have been given authority. Amen Not just give him a place to live. You have been empowered and authorized I've taught a series on that it's available on our website YouTube places like that that you have been Empowered and authorized a man empowered for what power to multiply The power to multiply is part of the blessing of increase. Amen God created the power for us to prosper to increase to multiply to succeed He has empowered you he has built that within you, but you must do it his way. Amen Genesis 1 verse 31 says then God saw everything that he made in indeed It was very good. Glory to God If it's not good, then it's not God I'm gonna repeat that if it's not good, then it's not God. This is simple. Don't try to make it hard

Don't try to get all theological and religious if it's good. It's God. Amen On what day did God create poverty? Was that the second day or the third day? What day did he say? Oh AIDS is good Heart attacks are good. Cancer is good strife. Now. That's very good No, there was no such thing everything God did was good. Amen He didn't say behold poverty is good. Nah Not at all he made Abraham the father of faith very rich glory to God People believe that if you become a Christian you cannot have fun You cannot party cannot have fast cars Harley Davidson's a mansion a nice ground in the ground pool Oh but you can go to Kmart and get one in blue light special blow-up ones that you can Your dog runs up to puts his paw on and scratches it and it you know pops No, that's not God has better for you if that's where you are Thank God for it, but he has plans to bring you up a man You know God created the idea of parties Whenever the wayward son the one that went out party and wasting all the the father's money came back What happened the father he went and got the best clothes the best ring and put on a big party for him Partying was God's idea Celebration amen, we're gonna celebrate for eternity Think of this. What was the first miracle Jesus did the very first one our Lord and Savior The master did the first one he turned water into wine. He made party supplies. Amen Genesis chapter 2 verse 22 It says then the rib which the Lord God had taken from them from man He made into a woman and he brought her to the man. Don't tell me God's not good I got a good wife. Amen. He created my wife glory to God in Proverbs 1822 I've got scripture to say I got a good thing. I'm married a good thing because Proverbs 1822 says he who finds a wife finds a good thing And obtains favor from the Lord So I got a good thing and I get favor from the Lord because of my beautiful wife glory to God

God is good to me. Amen part of the goodness of God is the peace of God hallelujah, God wants us to live in peace and Timothy it says to pray that we may lead peaceful quiet lives John 14 1427 Jesus said peace I leave with you my peace I give to you and not as the world gives do I give you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid you need to live in peace take the piece that Jesus left here for us amen you don't get peace outside of God's plan outside of God's will for your life you find peace in his presence in his place for you amen the word shalom peace prosperity is included in that you do not need to yield to fear it says do not be troubled neither let it be afraid any trouble any type of intimidation is not of God timidity is not of God dread is not of God they are not peace amen you do not need to yield to fear we're supposed to resist fear in the spirit that is behind it fear and worry are sin amen we need to resist it God wants us to live joyful peaceable lives you know happiness that is nothing but a short little spurt short little period of time it comes and it goes oh I'm happy today because oh this happened for me I'm sad today because of this it's about what happens to you now joy of the Lord is consistent it doesn't waver oh it may go up and up as you get more light of his goodness amen it's consistent of regardless of what is going on around you what is going on in your life the attacks of the enemy and Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 10 Nehemiah said go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks oh it sounds like oh taste and see that the Lord is good go and enjoy choice food that means good food amen and sweet drinks and send some to those who have nothing prepared in other words the goodness of God means you have more than enough you can eat your full and still bless other people glory to God you know if you if you do not have some prosperity in your life you can't bless other people last week Sharon I took a couple of bikers to a nice seafood restaurant blessed them

with stone crab no less oh it was so good that is the goodness of God if we were broke we couldn't do that we got to minister to them share the goodness of God to them love on them pray with them God got glory in it amen Nehemiah said go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have nothing prepared this day is holy to our Lord do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength you want to get strong start praising him another outlaw biker he told me last week he was extremely depressed and he didn't know why he was here he was ready to get quit and give up I said you know what you need to go into your room turn your phone off you need to turn on YouTube some praise music he said well I'm about ready to go pray I said no you need to go and praise him praise him worship him amen build up your your strength by joy dance to the Lord praise to the Lord amen he said man I came up he goes I'm doing better now after he did it see the joy of the Lord it's a spiritual force and it has strength within it to build you up depression that will take your strength and take it from you it will bring you down it will weaken you depression is a lack of strength you lose your joy and you can't maintain the pace you're running it will slow you down it will weigh you down and you won't be able to complete the race that God has for you amen see sorrow works death in someone's life in Colossians chapter 1 verse 9 it says for this reason we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom in spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him being fruitful in every good work that's part of the goodness of God is fruitful amen being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God whenever you have more knowledge of God then you understand how to fight you understand how to overcome how to come up how to prosper how to win and keep winning amen glory READ VERSE 11 STRENGTHENED WITH ALL MIGHT ACCORDING TO HIS GLORIOUS POWER. NOW KEEP IN MIND HE'S GOT THE POWER. HE DEFEATED SATAN. HE CREATED THE HEAVENS. HE CREATED THE

EARTH. HE CREATED THE SUN. THAT'S SOME POWER. AMEN. HE CREATED YOU AND ME. THIS IS THE POWER THAT WILL WORK IN YOU AS YOU PRAISE GOD. SO IT GOES ON TO SAY STRENGTHENED WITH ALL MIGHT ACCORDING TO HIS GLORIOUS POWER FOR ALL PATIENCE AND LONG SUFFERING WITH JOY GIVING THANKS. REMEMBER THE WORD SAYS THANKS BE TO GOD WHO ALWAYS CAUSES US TO TRIUMPH. THANKS BECAUSE YOU HAVE FAITH IN GOD AND THAT HE'S GOING TO BRING YOU UP AND LEAD YOU INTO VICTORY. HE'S GOING TO BRING YOU OUT. AMEN. SO IT SAYS GIVING THANKS TO THE FATHER WHO HAS QUALIFIED US TO BE PARTAKERS OF THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS AND THE LIFE. JUST THINK ABOUT THAT. YOU CAN BE A PARTAKER IN THE ETERNAL GOODNESS AND GLORY OF GOD. THANK YOU LORD. VERSE 13 HE HAS DELIVERED US FROM THE POWER OF DARKNESS. YOU DON'T NEED TO OH LORD DELIVER ME. NO YOU NEED TO STAND RESIST THE ENEMY BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN DELIVERED. YOU NEED TO BEAT YOUR FLESH. WE GOT A FAMILY MEMBER THAT IS KEEPS THAT KEEPS TELLING US OH PRAY FOR ME THAT I GET DELIVERED FROM ALCOHOL. NO POUR IT OUT GET RID OF IT. THERE'S SOME PILLS THAT WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL THEM TO TAKE THAT WILL GET YOU SICK EVERY TIME THAT YOU START TO TAKE ALCOHOL. YOU CAN RESIST IT. AMEN. YOU CAN OVERCOME IT. YOU CAN DEFEAT IT. BUT THEY DON'T WANT TO. THEY TRULY JUST LIKE THE TASTE OF IT. AND THEY WANT TO RATHER THAN WORKING AND RESISTING THE SCHEMES. THEY WANT EVERYONE TO TAKE CARE OF THEM. THAT'S NOT GOD. AMEN. HE HAS DELIVERED US FROM THE POWER OF DARKNESS AND CONVEYED US INTO THE KINGDOM OF THE SON OF HIS LOVE IN WHOM WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. MY MY MY. Psalms 103 1 says bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. David is talking. This is King David. He is talking to his soul. His insides saying I'm going to do it. I may not feel

like blessing the Lord but I'm going to bless the Lord with everything that's in me. I'm going to bless his holy name. That's just like what I told that biker the other day. Man go start blessing him. Go start praising him. He didn't feel like it but as he started to do it he started getting strength. He started getting peace. He started getting joy. Verse 2 bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits. So as you bless him and you make your mind not forget you start thinking about he protected me here. He blessed me with this. I was able to do this. Oh I may not be uh snow skiing today but man he's blessed me with that ability. I've done it before. I've seen the mountains. I've seen the ocean. I've traveled. I've eaten good. I may not be eating good today but boy he gonna bring me up and I'm gonna eat good again. Amen. This is the goodness of God and forget not all his benefits. God's got bennies. Amen. David is speaking to his memory. Forget not all of his benefits. Amen. I speak to my mind. I say I've got the mind of Christ. I don't forget anything. I've got a great memory. I will never lose my mind. Amen. You need to speak that over yourself. I will never lose my mind in the name of Jesus. Let's look at some of the benefits. Some of the bennies of his goodness. Amen. Verse 3 it goes on to say by back up to verse 2 bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits. It's got a colon there. So the next ones are benefits. Verse 3 who forgives all. All your iniquities. All your sins. He forgives. Amen. Your sin is removed. Now that's a big benefit. That means that we don't go to hell. We don't have to pay for the mistakes we've made because Jesus has already bought and paid for it. Who heals all your diseases. Amen. Anybody ever been healed of something? Well sure you have. You may have a scar

from something 20 years ago. If you haven't been healed of that little one inch cut a couple years ago there's a problem. You better go have it looked at. Amen. Receive the healing of Jesus. No. He put that healing in you. Who heals all our diseases. By the stripes of Jesus we have been healed. We are healed. Amen. So here we are where King David spoke to his mind. His memory. And now he's speaking to the inner parts of his body. Verse 4 who redeems your life from destruction. The word redeem means to buy back, to get back or win back, amen. He paid the ransom cost for you to recover from attacks of the enemy, from destruction. Now that's goodness, amen. Even if it was due to your own stupid decisions, your own mistakes. I am so thankful that I've been bought back, that I've been redeemed out of destruction because I've made a lot of mistakes, amen. You know, graves, the graveyard is full of young people to old people who had plans of things that they were going to do today, tomorrow and instead they're in front of their Creator. Are you ready to meet your Creator? You need to be ready today, amen. But until that time comes, you need to experience His goodness now and if you receive Him as your Lord and Savior, now you can experience His benefits today and forever. He's a mighty long time. Every miracle, every one of them started with a problem, okay. There are two parts. There's the Godward part and there's man part or the inward part, amen. Mark 5 is about a demon possessed man living in a graveyard. Now whenever I said there's a God part, we don't need to focus on God's part. He will do His part. We need to focus on our part, what God told us to do. Isaiah 119 says, if we are willing and obedient, in other words, we got the right heart and we do it, we will eat the good of the land.

God will do His part. Mark 5, verse 8, it's about this man who was living in the graveyard, demon possessed, amen. He was a nudist, goth, cutter, cut himself, amen. He cried out day and night with no peace in his life. He was not experiencing the goodness of God. Mark 5, verse 8 says, for he said to him, come out of the man, unclean spirit. So Jesus walked up. This man was possessed, cutting himself, goth, nudist. People were afraid of him. He was breaking stuff, destroying stuff and Jesus walked up and spoke to the demon that was inside him and said, shut up, come out, you unclean spirit. Mark 5, verse 15 says, then he came to Jesus. This is the man that was possessed. He came to Jesus and saw the one who had been demon possessed and had an allegiance sitting enclosed and in his right mind and they were afraid. So here's all these people from the area. They come up and they see this demon possessed man is now normal. He is now in right mind, amen. He's no longer in the insane asylum. He's no longer destroying things, beating things up, cutting himself and he's a, he goes up and he gets set free and the people see that and they're like, oh my, what power is this? Well, that power is working in you as a child of God. The amplified version of Mark 5, 19 says, but Jesus refused to permit him, but said to him, go home to your family, family and relatives and friends and bring back word to them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has sympathy, oh my, for you and has mercy on you. See, God has mercy on you too and wants you to prosper. He wants you to bring, to bring you out of things in attacks of the enemy, areas where

the enemy may have strongholds in your life. He will set you free. He has set you free. You've got to receive it by faith. Take it. Amen. There was a woman who could not stand up straight in Luke 13, 10. These are examples of the goodness of God. Luke 13, 10 says, now he was teaching in one of the synagogues. So he was in the church on the Sabbath day. So it was a Sunday morning and behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. So she's bent over walking, looking down, trying to look up the top of her eyes to see people's face. Most of the time she was looking down at dirt, at dirty toes, feet, amen, walking into things because she couldn't see that there was a limb sticking out here. That's not the goodness of God. Verse 12, but when Jesus saw her and called her to him and said to her, woman, you are loose from your infirmity. That word means free, released. And he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. In other words, he laid hands on her. There was peace and joy, health imparted into her and she was able to stand up. Now that is the goodness of God, but let me explain the next couple verses and what the ruler of the synagogue did, the pastor, the religious leader. He said, but the ruler of the synagogue answered with ignomination, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath and he said to the crowd, there are six days on which men ought to work, therefore come out and be healed on them and not on the Sabbath day, don't work on Sunday. This guy never healed anybody, actually the healer is God, amen? The healer was in the house that day, Jesus is God's manifestation as a human being.

So the ruler of the church, just religious junk, that's the pastors, the only one here that is telling them not to, that this is wrong. You know, a lot of pastors, they say, well, you just got what you deserve, or God's trying to teach you something, telling people who already know they're going to hell that they're going to hell. That's not the goodness of God. The goodness of God is that you don't have to go to hell, amen? You don't have to suffer. So then the Lord answered him and said, hypocrite, does not each of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall? Well, yeah, they did do that, and lead it away to water it. So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, in other words, a daughter of the faith covenant, God's daughter, whom Satan has bound, remember John 10, 10, the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. So Satan has bound her. Think of it, for 18 years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath. Ought not this woman be loosed. That's what God's thinking about you if you've got attacks in your life, financial attacks, physical attacks. If you are locked up and you have repented and got right, God's telling you, man, you're a child of God. You ought to be free. You ought to be loosed. You ought to be in the blessings of God, the goodness of God, amen? No matter what you're dealing with, turn towards God, give him praise, ask him to show you what to do to come up and out, and he is faithful to show you, amen? Well this is Mike Kennedy with Living in Victory. Remember, 1 John 5, 4 says, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith, our trust in him and in his goodness, amen?

Well have a blessed day.