Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] God is good.
[00:00:04] And we're not doing the all the time thing, but you don't have to call in response. I know churches of Christ are struggling with that, but God is good all the time.
[00:00:15] No matter what happens, no matter in what scenario and what situation, God does not deviate from goodness.
[00:00:23] God is good.
[00:00:26] Now when we say that, a lot of times though, when we proclaim it, oh, God is good. Have you heard that?
[00:00:35] We, we typically just mean, oh, it went my way.
[00:00:43] Now there's nothing wrong with whenever something goes one's way to say God is good and to acknowledge and to use any moment at any time and as a chance to proclaim God's goodness. You do not need to censor yourself when praising God. Don't ever censor yourself when giving God the glory.
[00:01:07] When I was in high school in southwest Arkansas, I had a lot of friends who went to the ER around this time of year.
[00:01:23] We didn't have modern technology in southwest Arkansas.
[00:01:29] We had explosives.
[00:01:33] Just kids just throwing bottle rockets in the air.
[00:01:43] In the name of bottle rocket implies a bottle, not gravity.
[00:01:53] And thing would just spin and just shoot towards somebody. At our drive in movie theater, we get bored with the movie and we go to the back and throw bottle rockets in the air.
[00:02:04] And almost every time somebody's parent would have to be tracked down and they would have to leave Jurassic park early and then go to the ER and we get word back eventually. Now we weren't texted or anything like that. There was no system set up like that. You would just hear, Billy got to keep his finger, you know, whatever the, like praise was. And people would say, oh, God is good.
[00:02:38] But the truth of the matter is that God is good. Whether Billy has a finger or not, that God is good, whether the procedure went well or not, whether the test results come back negative or positive, God is good.
[00:02:52] Whether death happens or healing happens, God is good. No matter the situation, no matter the case, God is always good. Now we do not. Then once we get that in our mind, we don't have to do some backward math where we say, well, it must have God is good because he must have been wanting this kid to hurt, hurt himself so that this kid will learn a lesson. And so that's not it either.
[00:03:22] Chaos.
[00:03:26] No kid has ever thrown a bottle rocket in the air and had God go part of the plan.
[00:03:35] It doesn't happen that way.
[00:03:37] Like we are as a species, dumb. Sometimes we make bad choices just as kids and then we grow up and just continue to make poor choices at times and maybe they're not, you know, dumb choices, but that lead us to the er. But sometimes they're dumb choices that lead us to the marriage counselor.
[00:04:01] And no matter how that trip goes, God is still good. Sometimes they're dumb choices that lead us to get a loan that we don't need or whatever, so on and so forth. Like we can make our own choices and God's goodness is not affected by our poor thought, but still God goes along with us.
[00:04:25] Philippians is one of my favorite books of the Bible because he calls out two people at the end for fighting by name.
[00:04:36] And I feel like you should know this by now because I've referenced it maybe seven times in five years.
[00:04:45] Times seven, seven to 49. I can do math, I've referenced it a lot. But Euodia and syntyche are, and this is the Greek word bickering.
[00:04:59] It is a just a back and forth. Now here's the crazy thing, we don't know what it's about.
[00:05:07] You would think in a letter where Paul is trying to solve some disagreement with, he would say, you know, Euodia, you've made some good points and Syntyche, you seem to be in error here, but you seem to be correct here. And we're going to come to a win win situation.
[00:05:28] And the win win situation is not that some people get their way and the rest of the people get their way. And some everyone's happy and no one's pleased.
[00:05:42] That's not what Paul does. Paul says, I would hope that you would have the same attitude as the king, the promised messiah, Jesus, who even though in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but humbled himself to become a man, not just a man, but a man who died. And not just a man who died, but a man who died on a cross, a criminal's death.
[00:06:16] And that as he humbled himself, God exalted him and God placed him at his right hand. God put him on the throne and every knee will bow at the name of Jesus because he is the promised king. So maybe have the same attitude as Jesus.
[00:06:35] Let's live together in joy. Paul says, because as much as joy is mentioned in Philippians, so is the word same.
[00:06:46] We share the same, this, the same that there's a unity of joy.
[00:06:52] So Philippians is not the book of joy.
[00:06:57] Philippians is the book of unified communal joy.
[00:07:03] It's not the book of I'm happy all the time. It's the book of we as a community find joy in the sacrificed and redeemed king.
[00:07:15] And so it's bigger than just a blog post about joy.
[00:07:20] It's this beautiful.
[00:07:23] It's this beautiful solve to a problem that we all have experienced where we want our way and they don't want our way and they think their way is the right way and it's not.
[00:07:38] I know better. And then finally, whenever we've argued about it and we've gotten to the point where I win the argument and they leave and I get my way and oh, God is good.
[00:07:53] That's not the good work that God started in us. Through Jesus, our good God is good all the time.
[00:08:10] Through difficulty, through brokenness, through trials, through joys, through celebrations, through injuries, and through healing, God is good.
[00:08:26] And so we don't have to correct all the bad things in life to somehow rework it where, oh, it turns out God is good. You know, this was bad, but it turns out God is good because we have a lesson.
[00:08:43] But that's what God has always done, is not plan bad, but use brokenness to his glory.
[00:08:56] God doesn't put brokenness on the schedule.
[00:09:00] But once brokenness comes, God is not confounded because God is good.
[00:09:07] And when we say God is good, what we mean is that no matter what bad comes our way, that God's goodness overcomes it.
[00:09:18] That the king who was to be the promised son of be the promised Messiah shows up and mankind rejects him and crucifies him, puts him in a tomb. God doesn't. God doesn't say, I can't do deal with this bad God resurrects his king and exalts him.
[00:09:43] And so our good God is not planning chaos so that we learn lessons, but walking alongside us as we walk through chaos, injury and broken bodies. And we were on the lake yesterday with my fam, my in laws, my family, they were going to watch the sermon today, but I pulled the Internet.
[00:10:18] But just know, like, I'm having a great time. I went fishing. I haven't been fishing forever, since I was a kid and it was different. Like we caught stuff when I was a kid. We just ate snacks on a boat, we caught things and Nolan caught a couple of fish and we just. So he was so pumped and it was such a fun time. And then I just realized, like, I can't be in the sun very long.
[00:10:46] The tops of my feet look like the sports section at an Arkansas Walmart.
[00:10:57] It's just full razorback red.
[00:11:01] It is.
[00:11:02] I.
[00:11:04] I look like I'm turning into like a devil hobbit or something. Like it's.
[00:11:09] I'LL quit making analogies in a second. It's so bad.
[00:11:13] But like, I just, I every and everyone that looked at me because, you know, you're walking around with flip flops on or bare feet around the house and every single one of of Rachel's family members, I had this conversation seven times where they came around, said, oh, my goodness, your feet.
[00:11:33] Yes, I'm sorry that you had to see.
[00:11:37] Hurts. It hurts right now.
[00:11:43] I thought that maybe I would preach with my feet in the Baptistry this morning.
[00:11:48] It's not easy, but like, I'm frail.
[00:11:55] Aren't you reminded of that pretty regularly when you sleep wrong and you're like, well, I guess this month's over.
[00:12:08] I'm gonna hurt like this for a little bit.
[00:12:10] Like we're frail. We're frail so physically, but we forget about our frailty emotionally, intellectually.
[00:12:18] We forget about how, like, in my heart, I'm a little broken too, and I'm going to make some poor choices along my way.
[00:12:33] And I am so thankful that in my frailty and that in my brokenness, both physically and emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, all the ways that kind of combine to make this Venn diagram of Benjamin I that God, the God of good, walks with me the whole time.
[00:12:59] God is not embarrassed of my brokenness, but is along with walks along with me through every valley and over every mountaintop. The good God is with me.
[00:13:16] Valleys and mountaintops, There goes God shining through every disagreement and every argument, through every like things that aren't just when I don't get my way, there's the good God.
[00:13:36] My goodness.
[00:13:38] Isn't it best to get our way the way of God wants like when I get my way because God is with me.
[00:13:50] And I might not know that that's what's best for me, but that is what's best for me.
[00:13:56] And he's called me to something.
[00:14:00] He's called me to be that for others.
[00:14:07] We talked in class this morning about Paul claiming himself as an ambassador of Christ.
[00:14:15] And he goes into the world knowing that the King has sent him to proclaim something and that God is using us. The good God is using us to be his goodness in the world.
[00:14:32] And so Paul, in light of this difficulty that the Philippian Church is having, Paul speaks into that conversation and begins with a work that was started in them.
[00:14:53] Philippians 1, verse 3 says, I thank my God every time I remember you. I'm constantly praying for you with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you. That language matters. Knowing that he's going to have to handle a dispute later because of. This is why I thank God, because of your sharing in the good news from the first day until now.
[00:15:31] And I am confident of this that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.
[00:15:47] This tells me so much about God and the way this good God functions in our world, in our life.
[00:15:56] Go back to that last scripture, if you wouldn't mind, Aaron.
[00:15:59] I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work like God started this movement. God started this goodness in the world. As we said last week, all heaven breaking loose into this world of evil and chaos. That where we go as a community, as members of this community, as members of God's kingdom, where we go, we represent, we are ambassadors of a good.
[00:16:27] And so the goodness of God must be felt wherever we go.
[00:16:32] We can't be fussy.
[00:16:38] And I know that's a small application, but my goodness, sometimes we need to be reminded to stop being so fussy about things.
[00:16:48] Now, I don't mean that about me. Like, sometimes you hear preachers and they'll say. They'll say, you know, people fuss about church. Fuss away, fuss away. God's began a good work in me. It is not to completion yet.
[00:17:03] Tell me what I need to fix. I'm happy. Like, I'm good to go.
[00:17:06] Just don't tell your neighbor what I need to fix, because that's not fair to me.
[00:17:14] But, like, I don't. I don't mean this in the terms of, like, you. You shouldn't get upset when things don't. Like things at church. You don't like them. Like, go for it.
[00:17:24] This is. This is how healthy community functions is. We're gonna, like, have disagreements and talk about them openly. But what. What I mean is, like, when you go out into the world and your salsa gets low, the goodness of God does not get fussy when.
[00:17:45] When it's obvious that the refs have been paid off and bribed against your team. You know, the goodness of God does not get fussy when you don't get your way out in the world. The goodness of God does not.
[00:17:59] It's working towards something bigger. And we're quite aware, we should be at least quite aware that we represent a good God in the public sphere.
[00:18:11] And so God has began a good work in us, in our community in this Christian kingdom. And not just us, but all of the kingdoms around Tyler. We're all hoping to represent the good work of the good God, it says, and I'm confident that he did. Obviously, he did start this good work in us. And I'm confident that God, the one who started it, will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.
[00:18:55] The good God is not done completing his good work in us.
[00:19:07] When I was 25, 24, started preaching, 22, I got married, which Rachel and I don't clap for this, but Rachel and I celebrate 20 years at the end of this week because mainly, don't clap because she's not here to enjoy it.
[00:19:26] She exists.
[00:19:30] But there's a. Like, we have this. We've been married for 20 years.
[00:19:37] That's most of my life.
[00:19:41] And when I got. When I said I do, I was a horrible husband.
[00:19:52] Not like, in the sense of, like, I was mean.
[00:19:57] I just. I remember one time Rachel was going to make. It was just me and her, and she was going to make many pizzas. She said, I'm going to make many pizzas tonight. I said, all right, good.
[00:20:08] I like pizzas and smaller versions of things.
[00:20:14] I didn't bring up that they sell big pizzas, you know, but she was going to make them with biscuits and, like.
[00:20:23] But she told me about the biscuit part of it.
[00:20:27] And I said, well, my grandmother makes them with English muffins.
[00:20:33] Yeah, y' all. I know now.
[00:20:37] Where were you then?
[00:20:40] She didn't get mad, but she was like, what? I'm making them. I'm making them the way I want to make them. I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot about that.
[00:20:49] But, like, I mean, obviously, I know. Like, again, I know now.
[00:20:54] And you probably all have those memories of marriages and relationships where, like, you were like, oh, well, I mean, I said that back then, but that was a mistake.
[00:21:03] I know now.
[00:21:07] And what's beautiful about the walk of God, walk with this good God is at 43 now, when I'm 63, I know I will look back on 43 and say, oh, I know now.
[00:21:27] And God isn't upset with me about that.
[00:21:33] Our good God is along for the journey, along for the ride of our life.
[00:21:40] What a blessing that he is patient with us, that God is patient with us along the way.
[00:21:49] And we're going.
[00:21:50] I'm confident it's going to be completed.
[00:21:55] God started a good work in you. And listen, every time you hear that notion that I don't, as a Christian, I don't. I'm not enough. I'm not this, I'm not that.
[00:22:07] That is not the God who is good, that is evil.
[00:22:16] The God who is good is confident in our journey.
[00:22:20] That if we walk with the God who is good, if we walk with our good God and our saving king, the Holy Spirit, we can be assured that this good work, he starts in us, he completes in us. He sees us through. Through.
[00:22:44] Right now can be a mess.
[00:22:49] Sometimes right now is great.
[00:22:52] Sometimes right now is a mess.
[00:22:54] And I don't know where your right now is, but wherever it is, the God who is good is not in the past wishing you would have done something different, wishing you would have followed his plan a little closer.
[00:23:14] The God who's good is not in the future waiting on you to arrive.
[00:23:19] Whatever your right now is, there too is the God who is good right here, right in this moment.
[00:23:33] And so we have a hope in Jesus in the presence of this good God.
[00:23:43] And that's all we need.
[00:23:46] Sometimes we put our hope in.
[00:23:49] Well, things will turn out all right when our hope should be in Christ.
[00:23:55] Sometimes we put our hope in our kids will make the right decisions.
[00:24:02] Spoiler alert.
[00:24:07] Not all the time.
[00:24:11] But our hope's not in our kids. Our hope's not in our spouse. Our hope is not in our church being perfect.
[00:24:21] Our hope is in Christ.
[00:24:24] And that's all the hope we need.
[00:24:28] Our hope is in this God who is good. And that's all the hope we need.
[00:24:35] And if I can remember in this, right now, in this part of this story, this one little moment that the God of good is with me, is rooting for me and loves me, then the good I'm called to do in the world, it makes it all that much easier.
[00:25:01] I'm not alone when we go out there.
[00:25:06] I'm walking with the God who is good.
[00:25:11] If your right now is messy and you want to pray with someone who loves you deeply, I'm up here. We have people, we'll have people in the back who want to pray with you or just go grab someone, make them pray with you.
[00:25:28] The call is to go out into this world and represent the goodness of God in a place knowing full well that the good God is by me as I go, within me as I go, ruling over me as I go.
[00:25:46] But we might need strength as we go.
[00:25:49] So find somebody to pray with, find somebody to talk with. But whatever you need this morning, please come forward, go backward, go sideways, as we stand and as we sing.
