In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of rejoicing in the Lord always and keeping our focus on Him rather than being critical or focusing on the negative. The speaker shares a personal story about a man named Stan who acknowledged his need for salvation but felt unable to accept it. The speaker highlights the goodness of God and how His goodness should lead us to repentance. The sermon also emphasizes the importance of giving thanks always for all things, as a demonstration of our belief in God's goodness and sovereignty.

Well, over the last couple of weeks, we've been talking with you about the goodness of God. And I am firmly convinced that unless we understand that God is good, we as Christians will be buffeted by Satan. Unless we understand the goodness of God, we won't really enjoy the victorious life that Christ secured for us at the cross. Remember when we first started out, I shared with you Tozer's definition of the goodness of God. He said that the goodness of God is that which disposes him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of goodwill toward men. He is tender-hearted and of quick sympathy, and his unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. By his nature, he is inclined to bestow blessedness, and he takes holy pleasure in the happiness of his people. Now, it's good to be back with you today to share these things with you. I have several other things that I am just itching to share with you folks out there, but God is not freeing me up to share with you yet. I have something I want to share with you on temptation, and I have a series that I'm working on now on the Holy Spirit. I'm convinced that we need to know the Holy Spirit. We need to understand God and the person of the Holy Spirit for our lives, but until we can really get into those things, I think we need to know and understand that God loves us. He is love, and that he is good to us. Everything that he does, he does for our good. Now, Heavenly Father, I pray that you would bless today the teaching of your word, that you'd open up our hearts to see that you are good. A.W. Tozer also said that God's goodness is the ground of our expectation. God's goodness is the ground of our expectation. Do you expect God to be good to you? I'd like to take you through the Psalms this morning a little bit, and we'll bounce over into the New Testament some, but the psalmist said in Psalms 27 13, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. And back up in verse 11, he said, teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. In studying the goodness of God, I have found that it's connected with the area of circumstances. Unless you come to the point to believe that God is sovereign, that everything that happens, he is controlling. He allows to happen, or he stops it from happening. He is a sovereign God. Nothing comes into your life or my life unless he checks it. The illustration of the life of Job is a good one on that. Satan had to get permission to come in and touch Job, and that'll be the same way with you and I. Now, I think we need to be careful that we don't give ground to Satan because he can come in legally and buffet and tempt and really tear our lives apart if we give him ground. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 4 not to give place to the devil. Let me take you over to Psalms 39 or 31 19. Listen to this. David said, Oh how great is thy goodness which thou has laid up for them that fear thee and which thou has wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men. Do you understand that hope is given to us by the goodness of God back over in 2713 and here heaven's treasure is his goodness. He is good to us. I want to flip back over to 1st Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 9, read you a verse. But as it is written, I had not seen nor Ear-heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love him. Now one of the things that you'll notice if you go through on the goodness of God is that a lot of our accepting the blessing of God is conditioned on Our believing that he is going to reward us and our loving him Loving him. I think a minute many of us need to quit loving the devil We love the devil by loving the things that he's doing and creating and generating in the areas that he's working the music that he is into the the philosophy that he's Propagating we need to quit loving the devil and start loving God with all our heart with all our soul with all our mind With all our strength and believe that God's goodness is the ground of our expectation quit looking to things like lotteries for our expectation looking to things like luck for our expectation or even Inheritances looking to God not even looking to salary even though you get that but ultimately realize that God's goodness Allows you to get everything that you get listen the Bible says in Psalms 33 5 that the earth is full of the goodness of The Lord the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Do you realize that God is good? It's man that messes things up. It's the devil that messes things up, but God he doesn't mess things up He is good And he does good when he created the earth if you remember earlier and sharing on this broadcast When he when he started creating he looked at what he had done in and he said it was good It was good if you go over to Psalms 65 Psalms Well Psalms 52 1 listen to this and the goodness of God endureth continually. It's not Wavering he's not good one day and bad the next but he is good consistently and then over in Psalms 65 and and verse 4 the psalmist said we shall be Satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy temple and then in verse 11 He said thou crownest the year with thy goodness, you know, I was listening to a group of men talk the other day and And they were talking about the desert storm war that we just come out of last year About how much emphasis was put on prayer? How much emphasis in the beginning of that war and through the war was put on prayer going to God for prayer? Believing God to save our troops to spare our troops to get our men home safely and and the women that were over there Oh, we look to God, but then they noticed and they brought out this point that after it was over it didn't take us long to forget God and we went to patting ourself on the back and looking at our power and And even our president is talking about our great land and all of our strength and everything my friend. We're proud and God doesn't have much to do with proud people One of the evidences of pride is how we? Boast in our own power in our own goodness and our own might but yet we let wickedness carry on in our land Let me tell you there's never been a land to survive There's never been a land to get past the laws of God on Allowing wickedness to go on as it does God is good, but there is a limit He is a God of justice. Also. There is a limit of how far we can push him and push his goodness now the psalmist said That thou O God has prepared of thy goodness for the poor. Let me take this down To where you and I live We live in a hard land We live sometimes in situations that are very hard and let me tell you Jesus Christ had a special ear and a love for the poor He had the poor coming to him all the time those that were brokenhearted Discouraged those that didn't have much they came to Jesus. He loved them You know what James said hearken my beloved brethren hath not God chosen the poor of this world? Rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he had promised to them that love him You know what when John the Baptist sent word to? To Christ to ask him. Are you the one are you the Messiah? One of the things that Jesus said you go back and tell John the poor have the gospel preached unto them God loves the poor many Times I have seen this that it's been the poor those that don't have much in churches that Give the most you remember the widow's might God loves the poor thou O God has prepared of thy goodness for the poor We may not have much down on this earth and the rich may be may be trying to take away What the poor have that's always been like that, but God is good to the poor now Don't think because you don't have much that God doesn't love you This is one of the areas that Satan was that tempted Christ in to give him the kingdoms of the world to give him the riches Of the world and many Christians are falling for the bait when we get into our message on the temptation If the Lord lets me do that I'm going to share with you how many Christians and I will go through scriptures and I give you many stories that I know That are life real stories of tragedy because of believers falling for the lie of Satan Thinking that they had to have money. No, my friend. We don't need money. All we need is God. He is good He will take care of us Just today. I'm not going to share with you what happened, but God was good to me I did something for a friend a Sacrifice for a friend and God before the day was over covered me on that sacrifice Oh, but when we hoard and try to save for ourselves and keep back We just expressed to God that we can't trust him that we don't really think that he is good Listen what the psalmist said in Psalm 69 verse 16. Hear me. Oh Lord for thy loving-kindness is Good. Oh, let me tell you we could just take off on another whole subject on the loving-kindness of God the Lord Jesus Christ the thing that I believe Kept him going kept him Going amongst all the rejection in the jeers and the hard Trials that he went through for his 33 years on this earth was that he lived in the realm of the father's love My friend what realm are you living in? It's a hard hard life if you live in the other any other realm than the father's love and let me tell you Jesus loves you God the Father loves you God the Son loves you. That's all they are. They love you They're pulling for you but if you won't receive Christ as your Savior if you won't come to the point in your life where you just give up and quit trying to struggle even give up on trying to impress God with how religious you are or how righteous you are and Come to the point to realize where you are destitute bankrupt Spiritually bankrupt and you come to God and you say God I'm just a poor old rotten sinner. I Need you. I need you to forgive me of my sins. I need you to save me come into my life My friend if you never come to the point of repentance, you never come to the point of conversion I'm convinced we have our churches full of people today that are religious but lost they've never repented of their sins They think that the cross and the blood of Jesus plus their good works their righteousness Their good behavior their good deeds their giving will get them to heaven. No, it's the blood of Jesus Christ alone That's the goodness of God All of the things that we do Isaiah tells us is just filthy rags Our our righteousness is just like filthy stinking rotting rags compared to his holiness God's goodness was what drove him in his love to come down in the die on the cross for you and me and to Die and be buried and to rise again Truly God is good The psalmist said in Psalm 73 1 truly God is good to Israel Even to such as are of a clean heart Let me tell you one of the reasons that I have missed out on enjoying the goodness of God a Lot of my life is because I did not have a clean heart I thought I could be spiritual and have sin in my life and it just does not work that way if I could Get over to a passage in Jeremiah, and I don't know if I can or not But Jeremiah was looking over here in Jeremiah 2 19 listen to this Jeremiah said thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backsliding shall Reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou has forsaken The Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord God of hosts. Oh I think today we have so much self-righteousness. We don't fear God anymore We don't fear him anymore We think that God smiles and winks at us as we go around and we we do our thing and we play with sin And yet we get up in church and preach and have sin in our life Or we teach a Sunday school class and have sin in our life No, the Bible tells us that God will not be mocked well you so you'll reap and I found that this is true and my friends that that I fellowship with we Have learned that God is holy and he will not be mocked. There's a judgment day coming. There's a reckoning coming and If you think that you're getting away with it, you're not going to get away with it. I'm not going to get away with it We have to have a clean heart the psalmist said in Psalms 86 5 for thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and Plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Let me tell you what we need in America is not more money We need a revival a personal revival in our hearts Starting from the top down or either from the top down up to the top They don't matter which way to go just sort of go. We need to be broken for our sin We need to realize that we need to be forgiven God is ready to forgive for thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and Plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon him. The problem is we're not calling. I remember several years ago With a friend of mine a good friend of mine Pastor Abe pinner who was a professor in a Bible College for many years We went to visit a man and in Guernsey Wyoming where I was pastoring in my first church His name was Stan We went there and we shared with this old man the gospel Jesus Christ how Christ had died on the cross for sin would have been buried and was rose again that he needed to repent of his sins and and believe that Jesus died for him and and Receive him as a Savior and he says, oh, I believe that. Oh, I need that. That's true I've missed that in my life. And then we said, okay Stan. Would you like to do it? He says I can't I can't and we said why he says, I don't know. I just can't there's something holding me back I just can't do it and he cried. I remember he cried like a baby. He just wept He says I can't do it. I want to but I can't I don't know what was holding him back But somewhere back in his life, I believe he crossed the line Where he just rejected the Holy Spirit one too many times my friend. The Holy Spirit is sensitive He's a person and he tenderly draws you and me to him to try to get us saved And then after we're saved he tenderly works with us day after day to to bring us into the goodness of God He loves us, but let me tell you Just like if you were to Day after day batter your wife Make fun of her mock her mock her cooking and the way she does things pretty soon one day You're gonna shut her her spirits gonna be shut off to you. And this I believe is what happens We shut off the Spirit of God. Actually, I believe we get to the point where we don't hear his voice anymore We harden our heart against him and one of the reasons I believe a lot of Christians are not thankful is because we've got hard to Promptings of the Holy Spirit He's been trying to talk to us and get us to listen to him and to listen to what he's saying He's trying to reprove us and get us to repent of something in our life and and we get hard Listen what the psalmist said in Psalms 106 Psalms 106 one praise ye the Lord Oh Give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth forever You know one of the reasons that we're not a thankful people and that we've become such a crabby people is Because we're not experiencing the goodness of God praise you the Lord and we're not praising him either and I'm not talking about when you just go to church on Sunday and You praise the Lord brother. So and so praise the Lord sister and so and you hell you may yell out in church Whatever you do. Praise the Lord But when it comes Monday morning and you go to work and you're a crab my friend you're a hypocrite That's what kind of crab you are we're to have a life that reflects the praise of the Lord and our spirit is to give thanks unto the Lord because we Recognize that he's good. And this is why so many are turned off on Jesus Christ because they've been watching you And maybe they've been watching me when I was carnal Wasn't spirit-filled matter of fact if you're not filled with the spirit right now, what are you filled with? Huh Or you're filled with self be controlled by flesh You're a prime target to be used by Satan praise you the Lord Oh give thanks unto the Lord for he is good his mercy endureth forever You know The Bible says in Ephesians 5 20 giving thanks always For all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? Do you give thanks always for all things you say well No, not all for all things then you do not really believe that God is good You do not really believe that God is sovereign You believe that God is sovereign in some things in your life, but not other things Do you give thanks always for all things? Let me take you back over to the New Testament a little bit I'm gonna take you back over to Philippians chapter 4 One of the things that I have to continually watch my heart is and is in the area of being critical The old prophet spirit in me sure likes to criticize everything. That's dark and dreary But God has told me in chapter 4 of Philippians verse 4 to rejoice in the Lord Always and again I say rejoice the only way that I can rejoice in the Lord and that you can rejoice in the Lord is to keep our Eyes on the Lord Not on all the bad going on around not on Satan, but you keep your eyes on the Lord You keep your gaze on him You may take a glance at these things around you but unless you and I keep our gaze on the Lord We're not going to be thankful and he goes right on down in the verse 8 He says finally brethren what so ever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever Things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report there be any virtue if there be any praise Think on these things, you know, he says The Bible says in 1st Thessalonians 5 18 in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus Concerning you let me tell you if your theology does not have this verse down If your belief does not have this down Pat where you believe it Then you're going to be shaky in your life You're going to be inconsistent and everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus Concerning you that one verse right there will test you and me to see whether or not we believe the Bible and all the Bible 2nd Thessalonians if you want to turn over to 2nd Thessalonians in chapter 1 verse 4 He's talking about all of the persecutions all the hard things that they were going through He said so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations That you endure and then you slip over To like Say verse 11. He says wherefore also and he went through several things in those verses, but he said wherefore also, we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and Fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and Ye ye in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ Let me say this again back up in verse 11. He said that That he would fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power Do you realize that God is working in your life? My friend if you're a Christian and you've trusted Christ as your Savior that Circumstance that you're in right now that you'd like to get out of and get rid of God has allowed that God has allowed that and He's wanting to conform you into the image of Jesus Christ He's got the chisel out and he's a hacking away on the old rough piece of marble and the marbles wanting to get out of there Where are you gonna go? It doesn't matter. You're gonna go to another state. You're gonna move to another town You think well if I move to this town 50 60 miles away things would be better. Uh-huh If things aren't good right there and you're not walking with God right where you're at What makes you think a move of 50 or 60 miles away is gonna make you walk with God? No You learn to walk with God right where you're at and then if God wants it then he'll move you 50 or 60 miles away Or halfway around the world whatever he wants learn to be content right where you're at You know if I was to take you over to some things listen It's taken me a long time to learn to be content in whatever state I am, you know, the Bible says that in Philippians Was that Philippians 4? Verse 11 Paul said not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound Everywhere in in all things. I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me my friend He said that because he knew that God was good He had learned that God was good and that's why he said in verse 19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus He is good He loves you and me and that's the way he treats us he treats us with goodness You know, we quote the Bible passage in Romans 8 28 We could quote it and we say well We know all things work together for good to them that love God to those who are called according To his purpose, but do we do we really believe it? Will you love God no matter what? What is it that will stop you from loving God? What is it? He said in in verse 37 nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us God loves you. He is good to you. He's good to me The problem is we're not good to him. You know that while we're in Romans Romans chapter 2 Listen to this Romans chapter 2 and verse 4 are Despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance You know, you've been thinking you're getting away with things. You're not God is just patiently enduring. He wants to save you The goodness of God leads you to repentance down in verse 8 But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile But glory honor and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first not to also to the Gentile for there's no Respect of persons with God you can have as goodness if you want it Do you want it? Well our times gone for today But I just like to challenge you to get into the scriptures and see how good God is Joseph he had that testimony at the end of his of his life there you meant it for evil Talking about his brother's book God meant it unto good my friend the thing you're going through right now the sickness you have you just love God and trust him and Realize that he means it for good He's got something good in store for you and you may say there's no way in a world that I can see how any good Can come out of this tragedy in my life You get along with God and you let the Holy Spirit minister to you and show you that he is really good Well, I've got to go until next time. I trust that God will bless you and remember this Jesus Christ is all you need is he all you want? God bless you my friend