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[0:00] So, my name is Tom. I'm from Australia. And if I call you cheeky, it's a good thing in Australia. So, I don't know what it means in America. So, oh, thank you, Philip. You're so kind.

[0:13] I better not put on the speaker, hey? So, my name is Tom from Swansboro. We bring greetings from down at the coast there. We're still there. It feels like we should have been washed away the last week. So much rain and stuff that's happened.

[0:27] I'm sure it's been the same here. So, I'm going to tackle one of these kind of hot topics that we're going through. And my particular topic this morning is God good. We're going through the series of sermons where we're like, these are difficult things.

[0:44] And if you've been around anywhere where there's people who are either Christian or non-Christian, this is a hot topic. Is God good? Why do horrible things happen to children? Why do horrible things happen to nations?

[0:54] And couldn't God have stopped this? Or like when you get a punch in the middle of the night on your way home, 20 miles from any garage or town or place. Haven't you said, where is God? Aren't you meant to be good? What is going on here? Aren't you meant to be looking after me as your son?

[1:11] And so, I'm going to try and tackle that. I can't say I'll give you a definitive answer. I'll give you what the scripture says. I could make this a really short sermon. But just before I do that, let me tell you, it is a wonderful privilege to be here.

[1:24] I love it when I'm with Jess and your team. I have high regard for your guys. And yeah, it is a great privilege for me to be here. So, here's the shortest sermon you've ever heard.

[1:38] Those things happen. Some of the things happen. The one thing we're going to look at a little bit is that when God conquers Jericho, you all know the story of Jericho. When you're in kids' ministry, you walked around and sang the song seven times around, blah, blah, blah.

[1:52] And then God destroys Jericho. And the men, the fighting men of Israel have to go in and kill all the living people, including children.

[2:04] What? Do you not know that about the story of Jericho? So, I could make this a short sermon. God is God. And He's going to do what He's going to do.

[2:18] And the Bible says when we see Him face to face, and we will all be under His judgment. We're all under His judgment until we see Him face to face. But because we know Christ, He's taken our sins upon Him.

[2:29] But when we see Him face to face, the Bible says we will declare all His works to be righteous. Because we'll suddenly get it. Because with our finite minds and our emotions and all that, and all the kind of political tensions we live in, it's hard to understand.

[2:46] The men had to go in and take little children and kill them. And there are some reasons for that. And so, I'm going to try and get into this. It's going all really silent in here.

[2:57] Like, oh, why did I come to church today? It's a creepy sermon, this one. So, is God good?

[3:12] Yes, He is. He is totally good. Good. And I think what happens for us often is we take the things of Scripture and the things of God, and we dumb them down to how we want them to be.

[3:26] Like, you know, we have a picture of what a good God is. He gives me the best job in town, and I never get a punch in my car, and my garden doesn't have weeds. And we have all these things we lay upon God that actually are not His responsibility in any form or shape.

[3:41] We dumb Him down to a Western culture, consumeristic kind of God. And He is definitely not that. He is the God of all eternity. He's going to be who He is, and He's going to do what He's going to do.

[3:52] And no matter what you and I say, that's never, ever going to change. And I like that because it makes me secure. I'm happy. I don't understand it all, Lord, but You're in charge.

[4:03] I love that. Let's go for it and get on with our lives. So, let's read some Scripture together. Exodus chapter 33 from verse 17 to 19. And it says this, And the Lord says to Moses, This very thing that you have spoken I will do.

[4:18] For you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name. Moses says, Please show me your glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord.

[4:30] And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. It's His choice. This is talking about His goodness. Psalm 145, verse 5 to 7.

[4:42] On the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of Your awesome deeds, and I will declare Your greatness. They shall pour forth the flame of Your abundant goodness, and shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

[4:58] Even the deaths in Jericho should be able to sing forth about His righteousness, because it is about His righteousness, actually. Luke 18, 19, And a ruler asked Him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

[5:12] And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. And so Jesus even declares that God is good. He is full of goodness.

[5:23] And so we want to answer some of these questions. And so what I want to do just a little bit quickly this morning, and then we'll move it across a little bit, is I just want to talk about God. I'd like to take the Bible.

[5:34] I think the Bible is like a photo album. I mean, you've all got photo albums at home, and probably here. If I said, Hey, bring me your phone. Let's see some summer pics. You'd show me you on the beach, and you in your new boat, and blah, blah, blah.

[5:46] And we'd see all these cool pictures of you, and it'd tell us something about your character and that. So this book, The Word of God, is a photo album of this amazing God. And the way we call this particular part of the album that I'm going to touch on just quickly this morning is His attributes, His character traits, who He is.

[6:04] And that will help us. And honestly, what I think it does every time we look at the attributes, it takes us back a little bit. We see how big and awesome and amazing it is. And our next step should be to stand on our chairs and start worshiping and praising Him because we are reminded how amazing He is when we look at the attributes of God.

[6:26] So let me talk a little bit about this. So we want to understand His nature, His attributes, His character, His essence. That's who He is fundamentally. He's eternal.

[6:37] He's omnipresent. He's omnipotent. He can do whatever He likes, however He wants. And attributes are the qualities that He has. They're His nature. They're the expressions of His life as He lives His life out.

[6:50] As He does things, the attributes are actions that express who He is. And we get a whole bunch of them. And so I'm going to go through some of these really quickly. And let's see where do they start.

[7:03] Yes. Here we go. Here's what God's attributes are. Who is God? What is God like? What kind of God is He? An attribute of God is something true about Him.

[7:15] As limited beings, we'll never fully grasp who God is totally. So even the Jericho thing, we may not grasp it fully. But God does make Himself known to us in different ways.

[7:26] And there's two ways in particular, through the Word of God, and then nature around us. I was up in North Carolina a few weeks ago with Una. And I love North Carolina.

[7:38] The beauty up in the mountains. There are some things about North Carolina that are just amazing. So through creation, I mean, you guys have your own river right here. I can't understand why you aren't doing your baptisms in the river yet.

[7:49] But anyway, so spoilt, and you're ignoring the blessings that this God has given to you. We discover little by little, He's overwhelmingly glorious and awesomely God.

[8:06] Describing God with mere words truly falls short of capturing who He is. Our words simply cannot do justice to describe our holy God. God possesses attributes.

[8:19] And so let's go through them. I'm going to go through these really quick. And number one, God is infinite. He is self-existing without any origin.

[8:30] He doesn't need any help to be around. Cardossians 1, 17 says, And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Second one, God is immutable.

[8:44] He never changes. I, the Lord, do not change, so you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Malachi 3, 6. God is self-sufficient. He has no needs.

[8:55] For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life within Himself. John 5, 26. God is omnipotent. He is all-powerful. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made.

[9:08] Their starry host by the breath of His mouth. Psalm 33, verse 6. I don't know if you've noticed this, but there's recently more and more stuff coming out through NASA and that about the universe and the planets and all the rest of it because they've got telescopes that go further and all the rest of it.

[9:23] And every time they put one of those things on TV and tell us, wow, this is out there, we should just like, eh, that's just our God. You just discovered something more about our omnipotent, amazing God out there.

[9:35] You're just finding things about Him. He's omnipresent. He's always everywhere. Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence?

[9:46] If I send to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me and your right hand will lay hold of me.

[9:59] Psalm 139. God is wise. He is full of perfect, unchanging wisdom. Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways.

[10:14] That's a good scripture for us this morning. Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways.

[10:25] We look at Jericho and we have to say, I don't get it other than your God. God is good.

[10:40] He is infinitely unchanging, kind, and full of goodwill. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

[10:51] Psalm 34. God is just. He's infinitely, unchangeably right and perfect in all He does. This is a good one for us in Western culture, but for me anyway.

[11:02] Maybe not for you, but for me. God is just. He is infinitely, unchangeably right and perfect in all He does. The rock. His work is perfect for all His ways are just.

[11:15] A God of faithfulness and without injustice. Righteous and upright is He. Deuteronomy 32 verse 4. Jericho tells us that He was just in what He did there with those kids.

[11:27] God is merciful. He's infinitely, unchangeably compassionate and kind. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

[11:40] So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. So you've got to apply that to Jericho. So these little kids all get slaughtered. And God tells us He's a merciful God.

[11:52] Where do I find God's mercy in that? Well, this is how I find it. This is how it helps me. Because those kids hadn't reached the age of accountability where they could choose to sin or not sin. So the minute they died, breathed their last breath, they were with God in heaven.

[12:07] I see His mercy there. I see His goodness. I see His kindness. And I'll tell you in a little bit why some of those things had to happen. 12, God is gracious. God is infinitely inclined to spare the guilty.

[12:19] The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and great in kindness. You know, when He destroys Jericho, the Canaanites living in Jericho, He'd been warning them for nearly 400 years.

[12:33] We can't... He is a merciful God. 400 years? Okay, you haven't listened for 400 years. I'm going to fix this now. Because remember that area of land He'd given to His people when they made their journey from Egypt and were heading down, that was where they would establish the kingdom of God.

[12:50] That's eventually in those areas where Jerusalem would be built and eventually Jesus would come. It was part of God's plan. And He had these squatters and people who worshipped idols and did weird, ungodly, ritualistic things.

[13:06] And He does not want that in His people or where He's going to establish His nation. And so they have to be removed. It's just like one of you buying a piece of ground here in New Bern. And every time I come to you, I'm always looking for, is there an empty church or something?

[13:21] You guys need to get something. I saw one down the road. I'll tell you about it afterwards. But it's like you buy an old house down this part of town here and you walk in there and there's, you know, there's old trash cans inside and half an old Chevy inside and a Harley.

[13:35] If you find a Harley there, won't you? Let me know. I'll come fetch it for you and take it away. And there's junk and there's been people sleeping in there and it's dirty and all the rest of it. Do you move into that place just like it is?

[13:47] Or do you get rid of the rats and the rabbits and the budgies and whatever else is in there? You get in there and you pull a Jericho on there. Because that is your inheritance.

[13:57] That is where you're going to raise your family and there's stuff in there that shouldn't be there. That's exactly what Jericho is about. 400 years of warning. And there were even, as God wages holy war on them, in Deuteronomy, there is even rules of holy war to keep God straight.

[14:21] I mean that lightly. I mean that respectfully. And this was the rule. If you open your doors and gates wide and allow us to come in, we will spare you. What did Jericho do?

[14:33] They shut up their gates, closed all the doors so God had to attack and deal with them. God is loving. God infinitely, unchangingly loves us.

[14:46] Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

[14:57] If you know Him, you know His love. Two more. God is holy. He's infinitely, unchangingly perfect. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

[15:09] Revelations chapter 4 verse 8. And then the last one. God is glorious. He is infinitely beautiful and great. His radiance is like the sunlight. He has rays flashing from His hand and there is the hiding of His power.

[15:24] Habakkuk 3 verse 4. And Tozer says this. There's a little quote from this great author. For the goodness of God, and that's what we're talking about, God's goodness today. The goodness of God disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of goodwill towards men.

[15:39] He is tender-hearted and of quick sympathy and His unfailing attitude towards 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.

[15:55] Just like His other attributes, God's goodness exists within His unchangeableness and infinite nature so that He is unchangingly always good, His mercy flows from His goodness.

[16:09] God is good. But we don't always understand it. We don't always experience it or we think we don't. I want to tell you folks, sometimes the things that go on in our lives that we think are really hard, it's actually the Father showing up.

[16:22] He said, Hey, here's my boy. Here's Jesse, my boy. He's had a nice run. Things are going well. He's the pastor of New Bern. Woo-hoo! But man, there's a couple of things I need to shape in His life.

[16:36] Puts us through challenges and changes and pressures and all the rest of it because He's a faithful Father. And all these attributes apply when He deals with us and He loves us.

[16:50] Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalmist is inviting us just to believe that God is good. The psalmist affirms his experience God is good.

[17:05] Just believe. Live in that. Every minute of every day. In verse 19 he makes the remarkable announcements.

[17:17] Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Even with a good God who is sovereign over everything. He has the power to do whatever He likes. Good people still suffer.

[17:28] But that doesn't mean He's not a good God. He uses our suffering to put His glory and wonder on display to others as we live our lives. And then He also reveals Himself to us in those moments when you're having the hardest time.

[17:44] Because He wants you to know more of Him and He wants you to have a revelation of Him. And this is the psalmist writing these things saying God is good all of the time. And if you go and read the psalms you'll see the psalmist had some really, really horrible times.

[17:58] And the psalmist punchline is this and this should be our punchline and it is for many of us and it will be for many of us. It's a really hard time. I sing a song how great He is and then the last song of the psalm is and He delivers me from all my problems.

[18:17] He's a good God. He may sometimes use things to shape us and grow us and deal with us and discipline us so we become more and more like His Son but we will never ever be able to say He does not deliver me from all my problems.

[18:36] From all the things I'm shaping. Let's talk a little bit about the goodness of God. This is the goodness of God causes God the Father to be kind, to be cordial, to be benevolent and full of good towards men.

[18:52] He's tender hearted and quick of sympathy. His unfailing attitudes towards all moral beings is open, frank and friendly. By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and goodness and He takes holy pleasure in the happiness of His people.

[19:08] God's goodness exists within His unchangeableness and infinite nature so that He is unchanging. He is always good whether He's judging, blessing, whatever, He's always good.

[19:22] I'm just telling you what the scriptures say folks. I'm not trying to convince you or anything. I'm telling you what God says through His written word to us. He is always good.

[19:33] His mercy flows from His goodness like a river in His goodness to us that we see that His purpose to be good in a special way to His people. And when we come to know Him through Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior then there's even more special purpose of His goodness towards us.

[19:49] He wants to shape us and grow us to look more like Christ, to touch the world with the goodness and the beauty of who God is and what better way to first paint some portraits of who He is and how He operates on my own heart so when I get out there in the street or when I go to work or I go and recreate or whatever man it's from that place that I have walked with Him I can talk about the goodness of God and demonstrate the goodness of God.

[20:14] I think Christians find it easier to affirm the goodness of God when things are going well. Yeah, you walk in here how's it going?

[20:26] Yeah, I got a promotion this week my wife bought me that holly I've been waiting for God is good next week how's it going? I got fired holly got stolen where's God?

[20:41] Same God yeah this is true for all of us in this room and can I give you a little secret I'm an older guy now I've got secrets I can tell you if you don't learn the lesson the first time He's going to keep on teaching you we think we can just skip the lessons that God's teaching us about His goodness and His holiness and all the rest of it and the things He's working in our we can just skip those over no, no, no, no I want to go to that you don't go further in your Christian walk until you learn each lesson that He's teaching you on the journey His mercy flows from His goodness like a river listen folks we are all under the judgment of God there will come a day when each one of us will stand before God and we will face His judgment we'll give an account He's not Father Christmas He's not small g God He's big capital G God

[21:41] He's not a God of our design in Western culture He is the God of the Bible the eternal the one and the only God and our culture is changing every day it's been interesting to me the last season some of the biggest churches some of the biggest names in sort of pastoredom you know pastors in the United States of America are changing for us who God is guys who've stuck to biblical pattern for 20, 30, 40 years are suddenly saying nah that's not right this is wrong and God's not like that and you see our whole culture changing at the moment and for us at One Harbor we are going to stand firm God is who He says He is we're not budging on that however difficult that gets within the culture that we're living they're changing what God has said they're changing what God has done they're changing the character of God no He's just nice Santa Claus He doesn't ever judge He doesn't correct He doesn't give you a little spanking now and then just a happy old chappy do whatever you like

[22:47] I'll tell you it's in our culture and if we're going to count for the King and take the world by storm and live in all the vision that One Harbor believes in oh my gosh our picture of God has just got to get stronger and stronger to the biblical picture of God and you could live 3,000 years and you would still not have a full revelation of who God is I mean this is this is how it feels for you and I on our journey we'll be on our journey and then the next adventure comes along or the next situation we've got to deal with and it's like God shows up oh my gosh we never saw this about God he's amazing he's fantastic it's awesome now we've got everything settled we know who God is let's just sit in our armchair and watch some football or something Olympics but we hardly know a thing about him and then the next day there's another thing comes up oh my gosh one of our kids are sick or this is happening or they're moving somewhere else God where are you just be patient Tom I'll show you haven't I shown you before and as you patient and you look to him boom he pulls back the curtains like oh my gosh he's got this and sometimes when he pulls back those curtains and shows us he doesn't give us the answer we want he gives us the answer he wants and they're not not good they know what

[24:06] I would like but I step back or the two of us together and we see oh my gosh our picture album of God just got a little bit bigger a little bit more we got a little bit more faith muscle to step out and do some things for the king because we just saw more of who he's like and he wants to work like that in every single one of us who knows Jesus as savior and if you don't know Jesus as savior today he wants to reveal that he is the holy God that just like all of us who sit under his judgment for your sin and you have no way around that judgment because you have not met Jesus as your savior because this good God you remember we're talking about we're talking about Jericho where the babies and children were killed this good God takes his own son and allows him to be slaughtered in Jerusalem for our sins now there's goodness that you've got a taste of there's goodness you've got to eat of if you don't know Jesus today you've got to have some of that goodness poured into your life by saying

[25:15] Jesus I'm a sinner I thank you father for what you did for me by sending your son and letting him die in my place I receive him today as my lord and savior and you walk out of here on a journey with God like nothing you've ever experienced in your life and I hope that's going to be true here today so let me read a little bit of Joshua to you about the story of Jericho the promise of the Israelites and I'll try and show you a little bit of why God did some of these things and at the end of the day you just I just want to be honest with you I can't bring any argument to say well do you see God was justified and then all I can say is he's God but there were some factors of why he did what he did in that moment and some of those factors affect you he let me get to that I don't want to jump the gun because I like that part of the story Joshua now Jericho was shut up inside and outside means locked up because of the people of

[26:15] Israel none went out and none came in and the Lord said to Joshua see I've given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor and you shall march around the city and all the men of war going around the city once thus shall you do for six days seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams horns before the rams horn and when you hear the sound of the trumpet then all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat and the people shall go up and everyone straight before him I blowing the trumpets with the ark of the covenant trumpets also declare that God is coming it's like you do before the queen of

[27:16] England or the king of England they blow trumpets the armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets and the rear guard was walking after the ark the ark of the covenant is the presence of God while the trumpets blew!

[27:38] shall shout so they all involved in this it's like a good church community so he caused the ark of the lord to circle the city going about it once and they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp on the seventh day they rose early at the dawn of day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times it was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times and at the seventh time when the priests had blown the trumpets Joshua said to the people shout for the lord has given you the city and the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the lord for destruction just that verse again and the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the lord for destruction!

[28:19] that is when he says all that's including children only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers!

[28:31] whom we sent but you keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction lest when you have devoted them you take them away of the devoted! things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it but all silver and gold and any vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord they shall go into the treasury of the Lord so the people shouted and the trumpets were blown and as soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet the people shouted a great shout and the wall fell down flat and the people went up into the city every!

[29:00] man straight before him and they captured the city then they devoted that word devoted means to kill then they devoted all in the city to destruction both men and women young and old oxen sheep and donkeys with the edge of the sword I mean I get the donkey thing but sheep and oxen but God so the Lord was with Joshua and his fame!

[29:25] was in all the land so good God a couple of things out of that I think I said this already we are all under God's judgment our life will be measured by him God could make your last breath right now if he wanted he chose when your first breath would be on this earth he could make your last breath right now if he chooses!

[30:00] the only answer I find in scripture you don't have a sacrifice good enough I don't have a sacrifice good enough to be with him so he brings his son and kills him on our behalf he dies in our place that's a good God that's a God full of goodness what about the woman and children the right answer there good God why how is this possible we think in our western culture in such short time frames God and the scriptures are thinking in hundreds and thousands of years and so way back God had promised this land would be his people's land and eventually Jerusalem would come and out of that would rise the Savior Jesus Christ so that we could know him so God has this plan for this land and he does not want these people there because they practice all sorts of idolatry they do all sorts of witchcraft they do weird magic and all the rest of it he does not want them influencing the people of

[31:12] Israel that to be are a pure people who purely serve the living God and to prove the point I just read you some of the instructions that God gave to them and actually some of them ignored the instructions from God went and did some of those things and guess what happened they had to be destroyed again because they allowed all that stuff to come into their community where God had a certain way he wanted to be worshipped they brought some of this junk from outside into that and God had to say I'm going to deal with you again and again and again and again and that is the story of Israel the whole time and so what God's doing is purging this ground this land that he's promised to them this area that he's promised to them of everything because he does not want them to be influenced in any way including the children so God had this long plan unfolding we think in short little plans like that this was

[32:14] God's plan and he's unfolding it as he can he's still a God of goodness he's still a true and righteous judge he is God and he will do as he wills but he's also a God of grace he demonstrated his grace to these Canaanite people for 400 years for 400 years they knew he was going to come and you need to get out of the way else they'll deal with you that's a God of grace that's a good God who lets us know and let them know he's a God of grace he demonstrated his grace for 400 years as I've said already and there's rules of engagement in the book of Deuteronomy how you can invade a city you can prevent a whole lot of the death if you do according to God's way they didn't we were driving here this morning and I was late a little bit we left a bit late so

[33:16] I push the little limit on the speed and this other dude in a truck comes zooming past me and I there this God who sent them she believes in his purposes and ways and so it's like her moment of salvation

[34:17] I have faith in this God and so God can use and say hey when you bring out the people that have put their faith in me she's one of them bring her family mom and dad cousins aunties whatever she comes out because she put her faith in Christ that's how we miss the judgment of God in eternity we put our faith in Jesus Christ and she becomes part of the lineage of Jesus go and read the lineage of Jesus in the gospels and there's Rahab in there she goes from really bad lady in a really bad city to part of the blood line of Jesus Christ through salvation it's awesome is God good absolutely absolutely he is good with this God you know where you stand he's fulfilling his promises and purposes he's promised the people of Israel they will be his people he's making it happen they would have a land of their own he chose Cana he has to clean out Cana and it's very interesting if you go and read

[35:20] Bible history the only time God killed people in this context this kind of context is when it had to do with the land of Cana in all the other country all the other lands that he would go and conquer through his people for different reasons there was no punishment of death it's just Cana he does not want anything left that will worship a weird idol or practice weird magic or anything else he wants a pure people he's setting up a pure!

[35:49] land for them to work and function in no other place did he do killing except in Cana they have to collect all the medals to worship and they get on with it this is Cana is going to be where the people of God live and worship God there could be nothing left of their demonic worship systems he is a good God Jesus is a good God and it's interesting as you come towards the end of the story and I'm going to bring it towards an end it's very interesting they are told to take some of the precious metals or all the precious metals and give it to God but Achan takes some and he opens the door wide again for God to have to deal with him he's just a good

[36:53] God I want to ask you as a dad or a mom when your kids are hungry do you feed them something of course you do you you you make them a milkshake or a fruit salad or something like that you feed them because you're a good dad and a good mom and when your kid crashes his bicycle in the garden and drives into a lamppost or crying and kiss them better oh my gosh dads will be look it's going to cost me for that wheel but anyway I'll help you but what about when your kid needs some direction aren't you a good dad and mom then as well stop doing that George Cyril you're not watching that TV show it's not good for yourself don't you do that too whose image are we made in we made in the image of

[37:59] God we need to live that way so a couple of things I think that needs to happen here well let me carry on here let me go further okay so I think what happens often we lose sight of the justice of God the character of God we ask questions like how how could God do this actually our question should be why does he not kill us all to be honest the most shocking part of the story of Jericho is his love for his rebellious people from the moment we are conceived we under God's judgment and it's a death sentence every moment of every day is a day of execution for all of us unless we know

[39:01] Christ and even when we know Christ there come a day when you say it's your time Tom it's your time Jess three responses to God's goodness number one ask God for more of his goodness keeping in mind that some of his goodness could be cupcakes from heaven and some of his goodness could be real horrible medicine from heaven do you want that God or do you just want this old schmoozy Walmart kind of God I want both and even as I say that there's like a like a quiver in my heart like what am I saying publicly because I've learned God takes us at our word so I look forward to this week okay I'm going to get some cupcakes in heaven over here oh God I knew you were going to get hold of me in that part of my life sometime!

[40:04] being a blessing to others just being kind to other people you greet them nicely how about this little one this is one I throw out everywhere I've ever been in the world where you work there's at least one horrible person there I hope it's not you because then we got a problem but I encourage you this week to show the goodness of God to that one horrible person because he or she is the most grumpiest person in the whole business just walk over there Sylvia how you doing and she may react horribly like what's it got to do with you but she's probably or he's probably built up all sorts of gods and all the rest of it you got to push through that with God's kindness and love I want to encourage you that's the second thing and then number three meditate on

[41:09] God's many blessings to us this venue I drove here in a nice car I've got clothes at work I've got an amazing wife who cooks like an angel I've got friends here that have had for 20 30 years I've got newer friends that I've had for maybe 20 months or 2 3 years and ha got my mate Oti sitting in here somewhere around here oh my gosh reflect on his goodness to us it doesn't mean only the positive things I've just mentioned it also means the moments where he showed up in our life and dealt with us that is his goodness too I was thinking of driving in the car because we chatted a little bit in the car and I have to learn better to understand that when you see something in me that needs some help I have to see God's goodness I don't always and she's sharp very sharp painfully sharp in a good way yeah

[42:20] I walked up to the thing and we had I'm being honest we had a little spat in the car not violent or anything we cleaned it up asked forgiveness I did so I could get up here with a pure heart and as I was walking across the house I thought you know what I'm going to talk on the goodness of God and I just rejected some right there in the car sometimes it's a little illogical I don't quite get how it works but the truth of it is good this goodness of God should overflow into our marriages!

[43:00] God this morning so if you here or watching online do you watch online here? You don't have it okay I'm just by faith if you're there this morning you may need I don't know I know very few of you but you may need to see your status change from that of sinner who does not know Christ to forgiven sinner who knows Jesus as his savior that can happen right in your seat that's how powerful the goodness of God is and so you can sit there and say God I realize I'm a sinner I've misunderstood your dealings with people and myself the things that have made me angry about the church and even the death of children the death of children that's a hard thing they all went to heaven that's the one grace that

[44:00] I find in that but God had to clean that place out so he could have a pure people through which the line of Jesus could come those kids died in a way for you and for me if you don't know Jesus meet him today and guys here will help you and then for those of us who know Jesus we probably have forgotten a little bit about his goodness because everything's not going well and I would be convinced that about 80% that goes on in our life that's not nice is God wanting to use that to shape us to be like him what's going on in your life today when you break the bread and take the cup if you one of those people just say God as I embrace this bread and embrace this cup today I embrace afresh your dealings in my life have a go God go for it let's do this together and see what happens so this meal we're about to take is a celebration of his death of the father having to put him to death so that we could live the bread his body broken the cup his blood shed and let me read you the scripture and

[45:20] I'll make one more comment and then I'm done for this part of the morning Matthew 26 it says now as they were eating Jesus took bread and after blessing it broke it and!

[46:20]  a good God all of the time we praise you for that in Jesus name Amen heard