God Is Good~Arbitrary or Absolute

Well good morning to all of you. It's very good to be here and yes it's been I don't know how long since I would have been here in this building for a service. We were trying to remember and it probably goes back I don't know 20 years so it's a long time.

I don't know if it's good that it's been that long but that's the way it has been it seems like. Roger when you said that if I want to go overtime that's okay my wife poked me and said that's not a good idea so I guess we'll see what happens we'll see how it goes here and what I have to share. I hope you can be blessed.

So I want to start here by discussing or just telling you a little story that took place here recently in the last couple of weeks. Is this the way it should be up here? Okay this has to do with the billboard ministry. There was a one of our phone team members who has related with a man whom I will call Amos for quite a number of years.

I'm not sure how long but Amos lives here on the west coast. He lives in California and they've talked many times and because our calls are recorded I've heard many of their conversations and Amos is a man that wants to serve the Lord. He's had trouble in his life but Mary's troublesome and maybe some other issues I don't know all the details but he recently started in the last several years a trucking business and he called the other day and he told our phone team member he said hey I mean I'm in dire straits he said I need work and if I don't get work this business is going to be in trouble and so our phone team member sent an email out to all of the phone team saying he got a call from Amos and Amos wants us to pray that he could have work for his trucking business.

Later Amos got in touch with Johnny and he said within an hour within an hour of our conversation he said I got two calls I got two calls and he said I have work and he was so excited because of the quick answer both both Amos and the phone team member were so excited because of the quick answer that God had given to their request. Let me take you back about six years this took place also and some of you are familiar with this I am sure but back on January 18 of 2020 a young lady went from her home to where she worked she was a school teacher and she worked in New Mexico and she went there that evening to do something and she disappeared her name was Sasha I didn't know Sasha and I don't know her family I've never talked to her parents maybe some of you have. Sasha didn't come back it was about five weeks later that the authorities found her body near Flagstaff Arizona some 275 miles away from where she was taken.

During those five weeks I am sure beyond the shadow of a doubt that hundreds and hundreds of people prayed and prayed and prayed for her safe return but their prayers were not answered as they desired. Today I'd like to look at a subject that for me personally has been rather difficult throughout my life maybe more so in the last five or six years maybe longer but in the last more recently than earlier and I suspect that there are some of you here in the congregation that also struggle really difficult really much and it's with with this subject and it's difficult for you as well I don't know all of you very well so I don't know what all you have been through in life and this is not an easy sermon for me to share but I will do the best that I can because I think that we need to become more and more grounded in what I want to talk about and I'm here to tell you young people if you are not to where you have been in a situation where this here that we'll talk about has come up and you have wondered about it you probably will be there and it might be sooner than you wish I think we need to become more grounded in this subject because oftentimes this subject doesn't fit well into the events of our lives or at least we cannot explain how it fits and maybe that's where the frustration comes for me so often is I watch life I experience life and I know that this particular subject is I know it exists I know what it is I know what I should believe but it doesn't fit at least I can't make it fit during this time in the last few years I don't recall I was trying to put all of these details together and it's been so long I mean it's been it's been a number of months and I can't quite remember exactly how this all came together but there was a time when I was going through some of this struggle personally that I found myself being subjected to listening to a song and you say why would you why are you saying you were subjected to it well it wasn't my choice that I listened to it and I don't mean to make my daughter who's sitting here feel bad because she had no idea but there's a song I'd like to read to you and it will help you to understand what we want to talk about the song goes like this as I look back as I look back on all of my days so many times so many ways I have been blessed and all I can say God is still good sometimes the night brings sorrow and pain sometimes my tears flow like the rain but through it all he's never changed God is still good and the chorus says God is still good when the waves roll high God is still good all through the night when I've done all I can and I don't understand God is still good clouds of doubt may darken my way the showers of blessing may come any day he'll bring me through and I'll stand and say God is still good and then verse 2 says there have been times I've let him down I have made mistakes but still I have found I may stumble and fall get through it all God is still good mercy still flows from the palms of his hands he will give grace and help me to stand although he knows how unworthy I am God is still good you know it was during this time Amanda was learning to play the piano which she's still learning but this particular song for some reason became a song that she would play Oh probably every day and I was of course I work at home for Christian Aid work remotely and I was sitting in my office not so far away from where the piano is and I would hear this and I'd struggle with that I'd struggle with the message of that song because while I knew I must believe that God is good as I would look back I just couldn't I couldn't fit everything together with that statement in my own life and in the lives of others as I watched what they were experiencing and sometimes that particular song would lead me to frustration sometimes it would lead me to anger sometimes to resignation sometimes to cynicism the verse that was read at the beginning of the service here Psalm 136 verse 1 says Oh give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endures forever the question is God really good as that verse says is that really true I have to admit even to this even now and this has been over the course of the last I don't know how many years now but even the song that I just read to you I have difficulty singing that song but you know I just can't seem to get away from it the statement that David said here in Psalm 136 and what that the writer of that song said whenever that song was written and maybe it's God's way of bringing me back to that struggle back to that reality and I don't want you to think this morning that while I talk about this that I'm trying to suggest that you should come to the conclusion that God is not good many many many many people have come to that conclusion but a bit on the other side of the coin if he is good then the reality does exist that he could not be good if he is not good then the reality exists that he could be good and we cannot avoid that struggle and I do not want to encourage any of you to avoid the struggle and we'll talk about how you can maybe find your way as you struggle with that and whatever is going on in your life the title of the message this morning is God it God is good arbitrary or absolute and for those of you that aren't sure what arbitrary means arbitrary means this based on random choice or personal whim absolute means viewed or existing independently and not in relation to other things how do you view the goodness of God and I do plan to share some some personal experiences with you this morning not to highlight it all myself and not to to make it suggest that I am the only one that's had these struggles I know there are some here that have gone through really really difficult things I would just want to encourage you to consider this particular truth and so to just set the stage here let me let me just give you a few thoughts in relation to the question is God good is God good when circumstances happen that are out of your control and we are we wonder who is in control is God good I remember wondering that as we were working through all of the the angles of where we should live in 2009 and 2010 2011 and coming to the conclusion that we needed to leave Poland come back to the States and the struggle that's been you know 15 years ago now nearly the struggle was profound and trying to understand in the world this fit in to this concept that God is good circumstances that were just seemed so much out of my control were pushing us almost forcing us to go a direction that we did not understand why is God good when there are added responsibilities given to you and you feel like that you don't have a lot of support or additional support to help you with those added responsibilities I recall very very clearly 10 years ago 11 years ago now nearly being ordained to the ministry and I'll just be right up front with you I had no aspirations to be a preacher and I have to say I don't have any but it's not where God has called me but I remember the struggle and I won't go into all of those details because I don't need to but it all boiled down to the reality of God what are you doing and how can this be anything good it's not what I want to do with my life that's not what I feel like I'm gifted in I just don't want it what are you doing he's got good he's got good this morning when you and I experienced losses that defy human logic we just don't understand and many many times death is one of those things that happens we just don't understand my wife and her family many of you know her family Jason and Elsie and children they've experienced a lot of death death when Laura's mother died when she was 13 almost 14 and as time moved on her grandparents died in a car accident her sister died from cancer her stepmom died from cancer you know more recently for you almost four years ago now our grandson died and then last September you know this is not in our family but as I've seen death touch the lives of others that are close to us last September the little boy there in our church that was killed my cousin Leland his grandson or his granddaughter I'm sorry drowned my nephew Steven died just several months ago and you all probably heard of Ramona my my cousin's oldest daughter from Idaho suddenly died just a couple of weeks ago or not even that ten days ago maybe I don't know about you but I don't know how you explain all that it's just not very explainable but it really really pushes hard at this statement that God is good what's good this morning about a 13 year old losing her mom what's good this morning about a family losing their oldest daughter what's good this morning about a family losing their youngest son I don't know I do not know but the question still rings is God good when these things happen is God good when events that lack and when there are events that we experience that lack any clear explanation and me maybe we don't need a clear explanation but was God good when my second son went to Haiti Friday night he got there Saturday morning he was kidnapped 62 days later he came home his suitcase had been open one time and everything he had packed in that suitcase was exactly where he put it 62 days in a what is good about that well we as humans do the best that we can to articulate some kind of goodness and some kind of when we get these senseless experiences and I could sit here I mean I could stand here that today and say well it's good he met his wife there and he's married and we have two grandchildren yes that is good but I'm sorry it still doesn't answer the question how that came to be and only it only reminds us that God can redeem what isn't so good and make it good which he did that but you know it was during that time and this is probably why the struggle for me was real then and continues to be so but it was during that time when they were kidnapped they escaped in December on December 16 and the first part first first part of December I very well remember finding out about a certain court trial that was going on that court trial was down in New Mexico and the man on trial was the man that killed Sasha Krauss and I so well remember sitting in my chair I remember walking outside looking up into the heavens after dark looking to the southeast and pleading pleading with God to allow us to see our son again but all in the context of a family in New Mexico who prayed the same thing and it didn't happen you know all of these things it makes me wonder if God is just trying to say that I just need to consider a new normal a new normal for me but you know if this has to be a new normal do I have to figure out how all of these explanation defying experiences of my own and of other people can somehow be good and I don't know how it is for the rest of you this morning when you consider what you've gone through or maybe what you're going through right now because when you consider the experience that you've had and that you're experiencing now and you feel like they you're not sure what to do with them you struggle with whether you God is good or whether they're suggesting to you a God that's disconnected and in fact I'm concerned you know a God who really doesn't care and I could go down through a long list of other things I won't do that for the sake of time but I want you to know that these things in our lives are difficult and I'm telling you here there's probably some I know there's some sitting here that haven't experienced much for difficult things and praise the Lord you haven't had to but if life continues I can almost guarantee you 100% you will and then what for myself sometimes seriously I have wanted to just go outside and just holler up to the heavens and ask God why why are you letting all these things happen you know to me and to these other people how can this be love how can this show that you really care how can you be good and allow these things what are we supposed to do with these events for which we don't have a good way to explain we can't even explain them a little bit not even a little bit what are we supposed to do this struggle it's not something I think about all of the time but I have to say that in the last few years is something that just comes back over and over and over again and I wonder how can it be you know for me I know I need to accept it I know I need to believe that God cares I know I need to believe that God loves me I know I need to believe that wherever I must walk God walks with me but it just isn't easy it just isn't a piece of cake it isn't a walk in the park as we say it's not and I don't want to I admire those people that can experience something difficult and kind of shrug their shoulders as it were and say well that's just that's God he knows what he's doing I want to shake him and say where are you you don't feel it what do we do with these things are there circumstances deep within your heart are there circumstances that deep within your heart raise questions about God and his character is it okay to have these questions I think sometimes we have we've kind of conditioned ourselves to believe we shouldn't have them if we have them there's something wrong with our commitment well I I don't think there is in fact I think you should struggle with them should we bury them or is it okay to entertain them should we wrestle with them or should we push them aside because after all we know that we must believe that God is good what should you and I do I don't think this morning that I can answer all of these questions and that's not really my goal but I want to my goal today is to encourage you and myself to put the extra effort in that you need to put in to build the foundation upon which your belief about God rests Satan today wants to badly he wants so badly to destroy your beliefs in your convictions because he knows that if he can put a little seed of doubt and that seed can grow he's made huge strides in separating you from the God of heaven my mind goes to a man who called our hotline he was at least in his 50s and I'll call him Doug I forget what his name was and that's beside the point but he wasn't a little bit older and he called he was kind of an angry man he did not like Christianity he said I used to be a Christian I used to go to church I used to follow Jesus but I don't anymore and our team member said well why not and he said I don't because my daughter got sick and we prayed and we prayed and we prayed for her healing God didn't answer that prayer and she died and he said if God couldn't answer that prayer I want nothing to do with him absolutely nothing to do with him and to this day he has nothing to do with God as far as I know what should we do a few foundational points here to consider and then I'll consider this from another angle just a few things for us to keep in mind I haven't read much scripture yet we're gonna look at some verses here the first point that I want you to get a hold of and hold tight to is when God created the world the Bible declares that everything that God made was good says it was very good Genesis 1 verse 1 and God saw everything that he had I'm sorry in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth I think it's the last verse of that chapter or nearly the last verse and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good in the evening in the morning were the sixth day everything he made was good very good you know why it was good and very good it's because God is good and very good what he could what he made could only be good or very good because there's nothing evil or bad that can come from this kind of a God he cannot do that now the things I'm sharing with you do not give you a good explanation as to why something negative happened in your life or is going on in your life right now it doesn't explain that but I think these are points that we have to get a hold of and we have to hold tight to as we wrestle with the experiences of life that God does bring into our lives another thing we need to remember is that sin is present in the world with the intent of messing up that goodness that God made and as you and I know sin has been quite successful in many many ways so successful to the point that I am afraid many of us here in this room can hardly say with much conviction that God is good we cannot hardly say it we know we should say it and please I don't mean to be judging you if that's not true praise the Lord but I know people we know we should say it and we will say it but we're not sure if we just hardly believe it okay that's reality but that's not God's fault sin is present and it's messing with the goodness that God has made to the point that many have turned away because they can't square the badness they see around them with the goodness with the declaration that God is good they can't put it togetherness I just forget it forget it another point to remember is that God is sovereign God is sovereign and overall and the sovereignty of God is a big subject but one thing I believe about the sovereignty of God is that that sovereignty does not cause him to micromanage the events of your life and of mine there was a man who gave had meetings at our church here in the last couple of years Luke Bennett some of you may know him but he was speaking about the sovereignty of God and he pictured it like this he said you know we all have we all have our lives it's like a river it's like a river that's flowing and it's going and God's sovereignty can be depicted as his two hands on either side of that river directing that river the way it wants to go but they don't get in the river necessarily and micromanage everything that happens he directs it but he doesn't micromanage it Psalm 83 to says this furlough thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lifted up the head later on in that chapter the writer says let them be confounded and troubled forever yea let them be put to shame and perish that men may know that thou whose name alone is Jehovah are at the most high over all the earth God is sovereign and I have many times wished that that truth could somehow come into the details of a circumstance and maybe I'm just not mature enough to make it happen I don't know but he is sovereign and he is overall and he is directing the course of your life in spite of the details that you experience another point for us to remember is the decisions today have consequences actions have consequences that's just a reality and you can't blame the consequences of your decisions or of your actions on God it's a natural progression of what will happen if you make a bad decision business decision you will reap those consequences and you can't turn around say God why did that why do you let that happen it's your fault no it's not God's fault it's not because decisions that I make actions that I engage in are going to have consequences and these consequences do nothing to lessen or enhance the truth that is found in the statement God is good those consequences do not affect the truth of that statement consequences are a fact of life and finally then God's goodness is not determined by life's events and that's something that we as humans wrestle with very profoundly because after all what do we have to relate to but life God is not good one day and then evil the next it's just not our God God for some reason it seems very rarely redirects the events of life but he lets them play out according to the way they naturally will play out now it's not saying that he can't he can and he does sometimes I suppose but I believe that most of the time he doesn't and I've heard some say that if he would step in and fix every potentially wrong event or consequence life would be such a mess it'd be so confusing we couldn't even live we couldn't survive and I tend to believe that hard times today are not because God is evil or not good the hard times are because sin exists and in that sin there are always consequences sometimes the consequences for sin that you experience may not be a constant sin of your own it might be the consequence of somebody else's sin but you're going to experience it often the consequences are what we tend to evaluate we tend to evaluate them as bad and because a consequence is bad people conclude that God is also bad or God is not good but please don't forget that a bad consequence is not the result of God not being good it's not and again I wish I could logically explain that to you I'm not sure how to do that but I do want you to try and get a hold of that as you as you move through life and so you ask the question most naturally why does God's goodness allow there to be bad consequences why does he allow that to be if I have committed my life to him shouldn't that mean that I will only have good consequences don't you think that's a good pretty good logic if you've committed your life to a good God then you should only have good consequences in your life well let's see what Jesus had to say about that he says in Matthew 5 you have heard that it has been said thou shalt love thine enemy I'm sorry thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy but I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and he sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust now those verses do not necessarily speak about bad consequences but it does tell us very very clearly that the Sun that we see outside comes up for you and me as followers of Jesus and it comes up for the for the unbeliever as well the reality is that God doesn't necessarily separate us as his children from bad consequences as much as we wish that he would and as much as we can in our hearts say well it has to be I've committed my life to him he has to give me good consequences I'm sorry life speaks differently he does not always do that he's sovereign he's very good therefore he can be called good don't let anybody tell you that he is not and don't let something difficult cause you to raise your fist to heaven and say God I gave my life to you now you need to give me what is good and you haven't so I want nothing to do with you please don't go there the verses I read from Matthew mean that the laws of cause and effect the laws of sowing and reaping the laws of action and consequence will happen to both the one following Jesus and the one who is not following him and you may say well then why should I follow what difference why should if it's not going to be of any benefit why should I follow will you follow because you have somebody going beside you and he's holding your hand and helping you through and as that poem talks about footprints on the sand and it gives you the picture of him carrying you which is a very good picture sometimes I believe he picks you up and carries you that's why you commit your life to no I'm shouldn't say that's why but that is a that's one reason why you do commit your life to him that's one benefit you have that an unbeliever does not a few God facts now it to help us connect with the statement that God is good I mentioned a few of these so I'll go over them rather quickly God is sovereign God is sovereign therefore the claim that he is good this claim is not arrogant it's not arrogant it's just descriptive of who he is it's descriptive descriptive of his character God is sovereign therefore this claim is not contradictory it's simply an element of a bigger picture that goes outside of your ability and mind to explain and comprehend God is sovereign therefore this claim to be good is not arbitrary it is simply absolute it's absolute whether you can understand it or not it's absolute it has nothing to do with whether you're going through life easily or different in a difficult way or an easy way it doesn't matter it's absolute another God fact is that God is the creator and I mentioned that already I've reread from Genesis 1 God is a creator and so the statement that God is good therefore this is the place for me as a created being I'm so I'm sorry therefore there is no place for me as a created being to question the goodness of the one who made me there is no place for that because he's a creator because he's a creator in the statement that God is good he has the right to do with his creation as he sees best he can let cause and effect play out or he can redirect it for some reason he is the one that made you and me he's the one that made this universe he can do that if he wishes and far be it from you and me I hope to sit back and say God you're just not very smart in essence and I'm telling you I hope there's no one here that feels that way but there are many many people that cast those kind of accusations at God say God you don't you don't have it we're very well figured out I'm sorry he made you therefore the statement God is good can be said he is the creator therefore he is not obligated to explain everything that he does to you and me he doesn't have to explain that another God fact God doesn't think like we do Isaiah 55 says for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my way saith the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts and your thoughts he doesn't think like we do he is good therefore we shouldn't try to force his actions or the lack thereof into our little box of understanding Abraham just a beautiful example of a man who did not do that the Bible says by faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place where he should have to receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whither he went faith we shouldn't force the actions of God or the apparent lack thereof to into some kind of a little box where we stand in judgment God doesn't think like we do he doesn't see life like we do we need to accept that we're not going to understand everything again faith is needed move on in Genesis I mean if you go to Genesis 22 you see this carried out again in the life of Abraham God said take your son go to that mountain offer him as a sacrifice I've often wondered what in the world Abraham said I can't imagine he did not say anything the Bible doesn't say that he said anything except yeah let's go and he got Isaac and he got his servants and he got everything he needed and they went God doesn't think like we do therefore we need to accept that we're not going to understand everything in our lives we need faith God doesn't think like we do therefore we need to trust as we question and struggle I've encouraged you not to not to necessarily avoid the struggle but as you struggle don't don't lose sight of the need to trust Proverbs 3 5 and 6 says trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths well you and I can trust this morning because we know that under the struggle we know that under the struggle there's a God who is good therefore you can trust it's a struggle of trust often not a struggle of his goodness fun another another point about God here another God fact God has a plan for each of his father followers Jeremiah 29 11 familiar verse the NIV says for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future because this is true you and I need to focus on the need for faithfulness and not on our perceived need for revealed facts focus on being a faithful individual not on getting all of the facts in front of you and putting them all together so they fit and you come out the other side say yeah yeah I know now God is good I'm 56 years old and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt if your idea is to get all the facts and put them together you're just not gonna get them you're gonna be and stuck really quickly God says God wants you he has a plan for you focus on being faithful and living under the reality of that truth God has a plan therefore you and I need to focus first on obedience rather than first on a clear explanation God has a plan therefore we need to concentrate on following rather than figuring out following him there's a little chorus my Lord knows the way through the wilderness all I have to do is follow my Lord knows the way through the wilderness all I have to do is follow strength for today is mine all the way and all that I need for tomorrow my Lord knows the way through the wilderness all I have to do is follow it's not easy to follow sometimes it's just not I mentioned moving from Poland and we did that was one of the most you know some some may say well going to Poland that was probably one of the most difficult decisions you ever had to make it was a difficult one but I can tell you that coming back from Poland was many many many many times more difficult many more times it really was a struggle of God being good because God called us to Poland and I'll tell you that I thought I was gonna die in Poland somehow God had different plans and we had to follow I remember different conversations my wife and I would have and she's like what are we gonna do here and what are we going to do there and how are we going to do this and I said well I somehow we have to just take the next step just take the next step because there were lots of things to figure out that we didn't know how we were going to figure out and God did figure everything out it all it's all worked out but this is the God fact he has a plan for each of us let's rest in that the last one that I want to mention here is about God is that goodness does not necessarily mean all things are easy and painless goodness means strength and the ability to continue whatever the circumstances are so therefore as difficult as it may be you and I need to concentrate first on God and then on the life event rather than the other way around have you ever struggled with that here's the life event my son's kidnapped in Haiti and I focus on that and I focus on that and I've after all why wouldn't I I'm a parent he's my boy but God's goodness means that we should first concentrate on God and then on the life event doesn't goodness doesn't mean we'll just have an easy life it means we'll have strength and the ability to carry on therefore as difficult as it may be I need to focus on a relationship with Jesus that gets me close enough to touch the hem of his garment like that lady who had that sickness and desperately wanted to be healed life hadn't given her a very easy life and she said if I can just get close enough to him to touch his garment that's all I need just to touch his garment and we know the story she got close enough and she touched the hem of his garment she was healed that's where our focus should be a relationship with Jesus that gets you and I close enough to touch that garment finally then when life gives us these hard things and we get this strength the ability to carry on from God as difficult as it may be you and I need to be accountable to a body of believers so that I do not find myself alone when circumstances seem to declare that God isn't good and I'm not sure what direction to go my dear friends you need each other here you need each other here that's the only way you're gonna make it it's just not gonna work otherwise have you ever been to a funeral of a somebody in the community that has died maybe you have probably you have how many people come in support usually it's very few they just there's nobody there and I've watched some of these dramas with with some of the recent deaths and I've been amazed at how that that that fellowship that Brotherhood steps in and makes life possible for the one who is struggling the Bible says that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care for one for another and whatever and whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honored all the members rejoice with it never never never disregard the power and the necessity of your church here never do it when you begin to do that you have begin to chip away at this statement that God is good and how you think about it you might think you have good reason you might think this group has some really bad things about them I don't know anything about the group here so I don't have not pointing any fingers but don't walk away from them you need them when life is good by our definition and you need them when life is bad by our definition a few man facts now related to the statement that God is good and these I've alluded to I just want to go over them the first one man is finite and man can't see the big picture and that was very real for us has been very real for us in a lot of circumstances and you know I mentioned the kidnapping in Haiti and that just seemed so senseless so ridiculous that my son would go all the way to Haiti to be kidnapped and then well okay I didn't see the big picture and you can turn around say well no you did it he found his wife and he's married he's got two children I didn't see that big picture God did and God I guess has a very that's kind of a strange sense of humor seems to me like but I didn't see the big picture in it because we don't see that we lose sight quickly of anything outside the immediate details and then during that time that's all we could think about it just it was all that we could think about from the time we woke up to the time we went to bed we're finite we tend to believe what our immediate understand our immediate understanding is right and whatever doesn't fit into that understanding is going to be discarded as illogical and untrue that's the way we look at things because we're finite you and I need to focus on a greater faith in God rather than a greater ability to exercise logic and reason logic and reason are good God gave them to us to use you should not quit using them but life's going to serve things to you that logic and reason are going to step back and say look I don't have an answer for that and then what are you going to do may you have the faith of Abraham another another man fact man is limited by logic logic can't always fit the pieces together and so we need to acknowledge that we will not be able to figure everything out we need someone to help us and as we struggle we allow space for a good God to step into that struggle and offer a way forward and as we struggle we need to step forward and embrace our faith to the point where faith gives you and me something that's going to fill in the gaps the logic is unable to address you need that kind of faith that's what Abraham apparently had when Isaac came to Abraham and said I dad we've got everything here but where's the sacrifice the Bible tells us that Abraham told Isaac God will provide now that's faith we might the the skeptics will look at that and say well that was stupid but as a follower of Jesus that's faith and that's where we need to be pointed towards you know man struggles to fit all of life into this truth that God is good and that struggle can cause a variety of responses and I'd like just to articulate a few of those here and I don't know which one will will best describe you but it can be shame shame because of the struggle we think to ourselves why am I the only one struggling with this everyone else seems to easily believe this I don't want to be different or odd so you know I'll just bury this thing I've struggled with that maybe that's our response we have this struggle or maybe we create a facade so as to hide the struggle a facade that says I shouldn't doubt this and if people see me struggling they will question my commitment to God maybe that's the way you deal with these kind of things maybe it's a simmering anger that leads to bitterness and thoughts like God is such a joke the Bible says he is good life shows something completely different I'm not sure I have time for someone like this in my life I am beginning to think he doesn't deserve my worship maybe that's where you're at I hope not but maybe or maybe it's a complete God rejection with thoughts like he didn't answer my prayer my morals are so much better than his I mean look at the Old Testament he allowed genocide slavery suffering did nothing about it he never answered any of my prayers he can't be good if he does nothing to stop evil that happens to the innocent God is a complete fraud I don't believe any of you are here at that point any of you here are at that point but many many people are because they don't know how to they haven't been able to come to terms with this goodness struggle maybe it's a complete I'm sorry maybe it's resignation and grudging acceptance such as well if I have to believe this then I guess I will but it doesn't make sense to me and if there was another way to approach this I'd go that way but since I believe in God and I don't want to deny that I guess I will believe also that he is good I've been here too maybe more than I wish to admit what God would have us to be have us to have is a response like this a quiet face that lifts the head and keeps it up and says something like this I don't understand everything about life I sometimes wish that circumstances would not be as they are I do wrestle with evil and difficult experiences they do frustrate me sometimes and they make me angry but even so I believe in the God of the universe I believe that he cares about me I believe that he knows what's going on in my life I believe that he has a plan for my life I believe he will use every experience to cause that plan to be fulfilled my faith in this God will not be shaken because just because I do not understand that's the kind of response God wants us all to have David says in Psalm 121 I will lift up my eyes under the hills from whence cometh my help my help cometh from God which made heaven and earth he will not suffer that foot to be moved he that keepeth thee will not slumber behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep the Lord is thy keeper the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand the Sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil he shall preserve thy soul the Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth even forevermore beautiful a man that had learned to rest in the goodness of God just a few tools yet before I finish tools that enable you and me to always remain convinced that God is good Thanksgiving Thanksgiving in all of life in everything give thanks the Bible says for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you another tool rejoice in the Lord the Bible says rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice another tool a relationship with God Paul says that I may know him be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God that relationship that brings you and your God together you know him and that relationship is nurtured through your communication with him in prayer and in worship another tool God's peace in our lives Bible says in the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus and finally the last tool intentional engagement with God Paul says it like this finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are a good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you cultivate these tools in your life as you wrestle with with the statement that God is good the verse that was read at the beginning from Psalm 136 will give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth forever because of God's mercy today you and I have the opportunity to struggle sometimes the struggle threatens to overwhelm and we and our anger strike out at God in a way that we should not but his mercy this morning coupled with his goodness always invites you and I to come back to him and allow him to be our God and allow him to write whatever is wrong in our lives God is good I do believe that I believe that with all of my heart it's a struggle it's a struggle that goes on it has come to it's come back to my mind again as I you know think about the things that have happened and of course with my my cousin's daughter just passing away I just brought it back to my mind again how does this work how does this fit but I do embrace this to be true for my life in spite of those questions in spite of those difficulties and for those of you this morning in the midst of such struggles and then you may be caught up trying to wreck it not reconcile this statement from the Bible with your circumstances I invite you to embrace that statement as well remember ye not the former things Isaiah Isaiah says neither consider the things of old behold I will do a new thing now it shall spring forth ye shall not know I'm sorry now it shall spring forth shall ye not know it I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert look forward today don't look back because of the goodness of God God promises to give you and me a pathway forward where no path seems to exist he promises to give you strength to take that next step he promises to always be with you you will never be alone may you somehow find the rest that you desire in the truth and may you somehow somehow find the rest that you desire in the truth of the statement God is good thank you and God bless you