The Fruit of the Spirit Week 7 • Psalm 107

Sunday, July 10th • Beau Bradberry

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" — Psalm 107:1

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Show Notes

July 10th, 2022 • "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" — Psalm 107:1

–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch

Creators and Guests

Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

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Well, good morning.

If you've got your Bibles, open them to Psalm 107.

That's where we're going to be this morning.

It is good to be back with you guys.

I'm on the, I feel like, the summer tour.

It was youth camp a couple weeks ago.

My family had the opportunity to get away this two weeks ago, so we went with you last Sunday

to head to the beach for vacation, where it rained four out of the seven days that we

were there, which normally that is a downer for your beach trip, but it was wonderful because

I took more naps during those four days than I think I have in my entire life, which what

that communicated to me as a 43-year-old senior pastor coming out of taking the kids to youth

camp was, I know you're starting to realize you're not as young as you used to be, but you're

really a whole lot older than you would like to admit, right?

But it was a good time of rest, a good time with the family, but it is fantastic.

It was wonderful to be back with you guys this morning and open as we look at Psalm 107.

Well, a couple of changes that we've had to make.

We had a lot of things going on today, so we had to make some adjustments.

How many of you have enjoyed the rain?

It's been good, right?

Your yards are looking good.

Yards are looking real flush, thick.

It's perfect.

The downside is part of Building 2 flooded on Friday with all that wonderful, wonderful rain.

So we're going to still continue to count it as a blessing, though.

So we're not using part of Building 2 until we can get some of the things taken care of

over there.

So we do have a meeting for the parents who have middle schoolers going to Black Mountain,

and we had communicated that it was going to be in Building 2.

It will not be in Building 2 after the service today, and instead it'll be right over here

in room 102.

And so all the parents of middle schoolers who are going on the Black Mountain mission trip

or who are interested in going, y'all can head over to room 102 after the service is over

with.

And then as the announcement said, we're going to be meeting with Rick and Tina Nolan tonight

to hear all that God's done and look forward in hearing about what they feel like God is

leading them to do next in ministry as they continue to follow Him.

And we were going to do that in Building 2 tonight at 6 o'clock.

We will still have light refreshments time with Rick and Tina, but we will also meet in 102-104

here.

So we'd love to have you all there.

Lastly, and definitely important, this week we're going to be leading a team.

My wife and I will be on that trip with some other adults leading our high schoolers

to do VBS for Hope Valley Church in Salt Lake City.

And so we're excited about being able to go and to do that.

Pray for us as we're on this trip.

I'll talk to Lisa Van Ham this morning.

Lisa's our VBS director, served wonderful with us this year in our VBS.

And then she's going to be leading the VBS in Salt Lake as well this summer.

And I said, all right, how many volunteers did we have to do our VBS?

And she said, well, we had 88 volunteers, even more volunteers than that, that were working

for months to create the design, the stage, all of those kind of things.

So, and if you were here for our VBS, you saw how absolutely wonderful it was and God glorified

and so grateful for all of those volunteers and the families that were part of that VBS for us.

The change, and this is the prayer, we're moving from 88 volunteers to 21 volunteers, all right?

We're moving from months to get all of the stage and everything ready to like three hours before the VBS starts, all right?

So we just want you to pray for us as we're, as we're doing all this.

We know that God is in control and we are absolutely excited to see all that the Lord is doing.

I talked to Dustin Stopman, who's the pastor there a couple of weeks ago.

And when we first heard about this opportunity, it was just going to be us doing a VBS four nights throughout the week.

And I say just a VBS and you guys know how much that's included.

And he said, well, I've got some other opportunities for you guys to do.

And so what's changed through all that is on Saturday, we'll be hosting two different block parties,

as well as canvassing a neighborhood to let them know about the work that's being done.

If they want to be a part of the VBS, please to do that.

But then also we're doing an evening VBS Monday through Thursday.

And in the morning, he asked us if we'd be willing to do a park ministry that morning where we go out into these parks.

And if you're not aware, Salt Lake City is less than 2% evangelical.

So more than likely, every person we talk with not only does not have a relationship with Jesus Christ,

but more importantly, hasn't probably even heard the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so we'll have those opportunities to do that.

Here's why I'm telling you our schedule, all right?

Here's why I'm letting you know all the things that we are doing.

If you're awake during that week, chances are we're interacting with someone who is far from the Lord,

who does not know him, and it may be the first time they're hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So if the Lord lays it on your heart, just pray for us.

We're excited to see that 14, 15, 16-year-old, 18-year-old kids are going to be the ones who are doing all the worship,

who are teaching all of the Bible passages,

who are doing all of the skits and all of the projects and all of the games and everything that is going on.

We as adults will be there to support and encourage, but they're running with this.

And so I want to encourage you to pray for them as they do what the Lord is calling them to do.

Well, this morning's message, I'm excited about it.

We're about to jump right in.

I realized this, taking notes.

I got a journal that I journal all my notes in for every message that I've ever written, different ones.

And I went back and looked over, and I believe these are the most handwritten notes that I ever started with.

Now, I can dense them down, but the most notes and excited to look at this as we continue to look at the fruit of the Spirit.

So Galatians chapter 5, starting in verse 22, says this,

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

So this morning, what we're going to look at is we're going to look at and understand this word goodness.

Now, this word goodness is only used in the form goodness four times in the New Testament,

but the word that it comes from, the word for good, is used way more than that.

So as we look through and understand what goodness is, we're going to look at this and understand what does it mean for something to be good.

Now, I want to ask you this, how do you, as an individual, define what is good?

Whether it be a good act that someone does for you, whether it be a good TV show that you watch, whether it be a good day outside.

Like, I know some of you are loving the heat, right?

And I can't wait for January to get here where we have those two weeks where it's cold.

Like, that's what I'm living for, all right?

Like, how do you define what is good?

Because we can all disagree on what is good, right?

I was thinking about this this morning.

Let's think about food.

Everybody's got their favorite food.

Everybody thinks about what foods are good.

Well, we've got four individuals in my family.

Me, my wife, my daughter, Emma, my son, Grayson.

We eat most of our meals together.

We cook them all in our kitchen.

The restaurants we go to, we go together.

We've gone through these last 14 years of trucking right along with this.

But if you were to ask us, right, what food is good, there's going to be some agreement, but there's going to be some disagreement as well.

Several years ago, we were down at the beach, and we'd gone to a restaurant, and I posted this video on Facebook years ago, and it cycles through.

And every time it cycles through, I share it again because I love it.

But I ordered a big plate of raw oysters, and I love them.

And we're sitting there, and Grayson's like, I'd like to try one of those.

I'm like, absolutely.

So I doctored up, right?

I had to get it out there, get it on the cracker, get some cocktail sauce, hit it up with some hot sauce, hit it with a squirt of lemon.

I handed it to him.

He popped that thing in his mouth.

And for about a second, he wasn't sure, right?

And then he went, oh, that's pretty good, right?

And he gave me, and he helped me eat most of the rest of them.

And so Emma, right, brothers tried something.

I want to try something, too.

So she said, I'd like to try an oyster.

I was like, yeah, absolutely.

So I doctored hers up exactly the same way.

And she puts that thing in her mouth, and as fast as it went in her mouth, it came back out of her mouth, right?

She took it out, and she handed it to me, and just in reaction mode, I was like, I'll eat it, right?

So, like, no oyster gets wasted, right?

But we disagree on what's good.

Emma says oysters are bad, right?

Grayson says broccoli is bad.

He doesn't like broccoli.

But he knows that if his mama fixes it, he's got to eat at least one, right?

So we call it the thank you bite on the plate.

And he puts it on the plate and eats the broccoli.

But Emma, oysters are bad, not good.

Grayson, broccoli is bad, not good.

And Erin, I don't understand this, right?

Y'all seen, some of you have seen our garden.

We like to garden, we like to grow stuff, we like to can stuff, right?

We got all that stuff in our house, and she grows cantaloupes.

I love cantaloupe.

And she pulled a cantaloupe out of the garden the other day, and it was perfect, and I put it in the refrigerator overnight.

And Saturday, I sat down and ate that entire cantaloupe, and I asked her, do you want a piece of it?

And she said, no, cantaloupe is nasty, right?

She doesn't like the cantaloupe.

Now, I love oysters, I love broccoli, I love cantaloupe.

If you can figure out a dish that has all three of those ingredients in it, I'd probably be okay with that.

But do you know what I think is disgusting?

I mean, just like the food, that if you tell me I've got to eat this, I just can't.

It's raw carrots.

I know, right?

You're like, what?

Like raw oysters?

But no, like the snap of them drives me crazy.

The taste of them?

Like every piece and part of a raw carrot is just nasty, unless it's on a salad with about three pounds of ranch dressing.

Like I can run with that, right?

But that's it.

That's it.

But the rest of my family, right, they would say, no, raw carrots are good.

We love raw carrots.

Raw carrots are good for you, the way they taste, like every part of that.

You see, when it comes to talking about the word good, when we talk about goodness, we need to understand that we all have different standards, and we all have different preferences.

Well, I was raised with sports.

I love sports.

I think sports are good.

I was raised in the arts.

I love arts.

I think arts are good.

I was raised reading, and I love reading.

I think reading is good.

Right?

We all have different standards.

We all have different preferences based on who we are.

And so oftentimes, our definition of good, and this is neither a negative or a positive statement, is based on self.

I think that's good.

And you think that's good.

But today, what we're going to do is we're going to look at a biblical standard of not just what is good, but better, who is good.

Who is good?

And that he is our standard of goodness.

Right?

So goodness is the state of being good.

And Paul, as he walks through this with us, is saying, display the good that is in you.

All right?

So, number one, and we'll get to Psalm 107 here in just a little bit, but I want to kind of walk us through, get us all on the same standard of what we mean by good.

Number one, God alone is good.

God alone is good.

Mark 8, I'm sorry, Mark 10, verse 17 and 18.

And as he was setting out on this journey, this being Jesus, a man ran up, knelt before him, and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone.

Right?

So, this rich young ruler, this is the story of it in Scripture.

He runs up to Jesus, and he addresses him as an earthly teacher.

And what Jesus is saying is, we know, like, Jesus is good.

He's the embodiment of good.

His very character is the fullness of God and the goodness of God.

But Jesus says, if you're going to address me in an earthly manner, don't you need to understand that only God is good?

Only God is good.

Right?

As we were a little kid, maybe even before we learned John 3, 16, right, we learned that prayer.

God is great, right?

God is good.

God alone is good.

And God has no evil in him.

There's not one part, no, one attribute.

There's not one moment.

There's not one fleeting second in the existence, the eternal existence of God that God is evil.

That God in very, his character and his nature and who he is to the fullness of it is fully good.

He has no evil in him.

And the opposite of that, you and I, in and of ourselves, right, apart from the goodness of God,

the Bible tells us that we are not good.

This is what Ephesians 2 tells us.

This is what Romans tells us.

Right?

We are not good.

While I was on the beach this past week on the days that we could be there, I went total like pastor nerd

and just listened to sermons all week long.

And listened to a guy who's preaching through the book of Genesis.

And here's what he says.

He was talking about the fall.

And he's talking about the depravity that fills man and consistently with man.

And the fact that man in and of ourselves left our own vices like we are evil short of the goodness of God working in and through us.

And here's what he said.

He goes, so many people want to argue about the goodness of man.

Even Christians want to argue about how we are good.

And he said, the only problem I have with that is the Bible.

That we've got like one page, the beginning of Genesis where we get it right.

And then the rest of it is because we're not good in the full display of God from the beginning to the end and continuing on to the day of his goodness.

God alone is good.

The second thing as we go through this before we jump into Psalm 107 is God's plans are good.

God's plans are good.

Romans 8, 28.

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose.

All things are good.

All things.

All God's plans are good.

Now what God has planned for your life and my life is good, but that doesn't mean that it's easy.

It doesn't mean that there's not moments of difficulty.

It does not mean that there's not pain.

It does not mean that we don't need to fight to endure.

In fact, the exact opposite of that.

But God's plans are good.

All things work together for good.

And the joy in that means this.

Every moment of pain, every moment of suffering, every moment of difficulty, every moment of persecution,

every tear that you've wept, every hurt that you've felt that God is using that in a particular way in your life

that is not logical to man to create within you a deeper level of faith and goodness for your life.

Every moment of it, every moment of from cancer to criticism is a moment of God working in you and through you to do good.

All of it.

And his plans are good.

And then also God's work is good.

God's work is good.

Genesis 1, 31, the first part.

This is a repeat verse.

And God saw everything that he made and behold, it was good.

It's very good.

It was very good.

We just saw that God will do is good, but also what God has done is good.

And that means you.

And that means me.

And the work that God has done in you and with you is good.

I read an author this week, and this is right before we jump into Psalm 107, so if you want to start jumping there.

And here's what he wrote.

That God is the final standard of good, so all that God is and all that God does is worthy of approval.

That if God is the final standard of good, then what he is, who he is, is good, and what he does is worthy of our approval.

Like, you and I are not quality control that come in afterwards and say, well, you should have done it differently.

We're not upper management that says, not your plans, but my plans.

God is the final standard of good, so all that God is and all that God does is worthy of approval.

So what we're going to look at it in Psalm 107, and we're going to read all the way through it.

But what we're going to look at here is we're going to look at and see how do we view God's goodness in our life.

How do we look at these moments that can seem painful, these moments that can seem hurtful, and understand that they are good in what God is doing.

So we're going to move quick, stay with us, jump in Psalm 107, verses 1 through 3.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble, and gathered in from the lands, from the east and the west, from the north and from the south.

I want to begin with this this morning.

We praise because he is good.

I hope we aren't here worshiping because we just like the song, because we like the message, because the building is comfortable.

I know it's a little hot, right?

Because you got your friends here.

But we are here in the display of what we just sang because we testify to, we speak to the goodness of God.

Because I am a recipient of that.

And I understand.

And so I declare, even on my bad day, even in that moment of the goodness of God.

Sometimes, sometimes I'm standing here and I'm worshiping it and I see the tear in your eye.

And experience that within myself.

And what we're doing is we're not worshiping because everything around us is good.

We're worshiping because the one who's in us and who's the object of our worship is good.

And that's it.

He says his steadfast love endures forever.

And let the redeemed say so.

Let us say so.

So, the psalmist here, which most, a lot of people think it's David.

I don't know that it's David.

But he's going to give us some illustrations.

Some pictures that we can see.

Of events that would be common in the life of Israel.

And what we will notice, while the settings may be different, are common in our life.

Now, I was telling Berger this morning, talking through this message.

I was like, you know, I feel like we've got to rush through this.

But I promise you, we're going to come back at some point in time.

And we're going to take several Sundays.

And we're going to walk through each one of these scenarios in Psalm 107 to fully understand the goodness of God.

So, I apologize that this is going to be a Cliff Notes overview of these as we work through this this morning.

But Psalm 107, starting in verse 4.

The psalmist writes,

Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in.

Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble.

And he delivered them from their distress.

He led them by a straight way until they reached a city to dwell in.

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man.

For he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul.

He fills with good things.

So, the psalmist writes, and we get a picture of the desert.

Now, it may feel like we're in the desert right now, right?

But we understand we're in the tropical desert, right?

With the humidity that we experience, right?

Now, the desert, it may be a nice place to visit, but it's not where you want to stay.

Now, I know we've got some families here recently that have come to our church who have moved here from the great state of Arizona, right?

And so, what happened in the great state of Arizona is something called technology, right?

Where they built houses with air conditioners, right?

And running water.

Because without that, right, Arizona would not be considered one of the top states to move to in the United States, would not be one of those today, right?

Because it is a desert state that's there, right?

You don't want to just go out into the desert and say, I'm good.

You're not.

The desert's a place to die, right?

So, it might be a nice place to visit, but it's not where you want to stay.

And in the Bible, the desert is often associated with a place where people go because of their rebellion and running from the Lord.

And so, what does the Lord do?

He graciously turns them over to the desert.

Do you want to go?

Do you want to run?

Do you want to rebel?

Go.

Then go.

And the word that's used is wander.

They wander in the desert.

One day, we were at the, I think it's the first day that we were at the beach this past week.

And Emma had left her shoes at the end of the boardwalk as we walked out onto the beach.

And then we got out to that beautiful South Carolina sand that absorbs every bit of the heat, right?

And her bare feet touched the sand.

And immediately, she looked like an NFL running back, like high-kneeing through it, right?

Because it was hot.

And so, where she needed to go, she didn't zigzag.

She straight-lined it to the water, right?

Because in that, in the straight line, is where we go.

And here's what we see.

That God, in his goodness, he takes the wanderer and he sets their path straight.

I don't know about you, but have you ever had a spiritual time in the desert?

I have.

I have.

Through my fault, through my decisions, through my choices, through my rebellion, through my sin, I bring myself into the desert.

And what I do is I wander through it, zigzagging, trying to figure out how I'm going to get myself out of it.

And in the moment that I cry out to God, submit my way to his, what does he do?

He makes my path straight.

And takes me right where he needs me to go.

Right?

And that's what we see.

That's in God's goodness.

He takes the wanderer and sets their path straight.

Let's look at verse 10 through 16.

Some sat in darkness, in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons.

For they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High.

So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor.

They fell down with none to help.

Then they cried to the Lord.

This is going to be a theme.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and burst their bonds apart.

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man.

For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts into the bonds of iron.

So now we've moved from the desert to the prison cell.

Both, both brought there by the choices and the patterns of the sins of their heart.

Now let's just all agree, amen, on this.

That one of the things that we can draw from the psalmist is our sin is going to take us to some bad places.

That's where our, that's where your sin, you may think your sin is taking you the easier route.

You may think your sin is going to take you the more pleasurable route.

But I can tell you from God's word and from experience that our sin just takes us to bad places.

And what the psalmist says is they rebelled against the words of God and they spurned his counsel.

But what we see from this, the beauty of this, is that God disciplines and sets free.

God disciplines and sets free.

Oh, I love my kids deeply.

I love my kids in a way that I didn't think that I could ever love anyone.

I love my wife.

The day that I met her, I shared the story, I got a long way to go, so I'll cut that short, right?

But the love for her, the love that I have for them, I didn't know what it would be like to look at them as their dad one day, right?

And I love them too much for not to discipline them.

I love them too much for there not to be consequences to their actions.

And God is our heavenly father.

He loves you and I too much to not give us consequences for our sins.

But it's not to punish us.

It's to discipline us.

That's what he does.

That's what he's doing as our sin leads us in bonds and shackles.

What we choose, but he sets us free.

What we choose, and then he sets us free.

They choose their sin.

They choose their bondage.

They choose this and they cry out to the Lord and he sets them free.

Think about this.

God, I'm going to do marriage my way.

I'll choose my way.

And God, in his grace, in his kindness, in his goodness, he disciplines.

We cry out.

We repent.

And what does he do?

He sets us free.

Verse 17.

Continue in God's goodness.

Some were fools through their sinful ways and because of their iniquities suffered affliction.

They loathe any kind of food and they drew near to the gates of death.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress.

He sent out his word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction.

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man.

And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of his deeds and songs of joy.

What we get here is the picture of someone who is sick and nearing death and what God does.

And we can take that biblically and begin to understand that God saves us from our sin.

He's good.

The Bible tells us that not only are we sick because of our sin, but that we're actually dead in our trespasses and sin.

But God, because he's good, loved us.

Ephesians 2 tells us.

Ephesians 2.8.

And made us alive with Christ.

Right?

Your sin and my sin, they're a death sentence.

They're a death sentence.

But Christ, through his sacrifice, heals, delivers, and sets free.

Not because we're good, but because he is.

Because he is.

Let's keep going.

Verse 23.

Some went down to the sea and ships, doing business on the great waters.

They saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep.

For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.

They mounted up to heaven.

They mounted up to heaven.

They went down to the depths.

Their courage melted away in their evil plight.

They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wit's ends.

They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

He made the storm be still.

The waves of the sea were hushed.

Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man.

Let them extol him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of elders.

Here's what we're going to understand, in our life, in our evil that we choose, in our paths that we determine, in our life as we just walk through, in our best abilities, right, to be obedient to the Lord, that doing life comes trouble.

The very first verse here says people are doing the business, and they get onto these boats.

And what happens, look at verse 25.

I don't know if you've ever been in a boat when a storm comes, but a small wave can feel like a skyscraper.

And what the psalmist says is he takes the waves up to the heavens and then brings them down into the depths.

And I don't know about you, but I've never been on a boat when that happens, but I've been out there in life when all of a sudden the storms of life begin to surround me and consume me.

And it feels like from the top to the bottom, from the top to the bottom.

And here's what I want us to see.

Here's where I think the big idea is from this, about God's goodness.

That in those moments of your life, whether it's on the quiet glass of the water or the rough storm of the sea, that God holds us in his hand and he gives us hope.

There is not a moment in your life, and I don't care how out of control you think your life is, your life and my life, we are not in control of it.

But there's not a moment where he is not in control.

And in the seasons of life, of the storms, what he's doing is building a firm foundation of hope.

And reminding us in reminding us of who he is.

And when we've walked through the fire, we've walked through the storm, we know even more and at a greater depth of the goodness of his love.

Let's look lastly, verse 33.

Before we look at how we're going to display the good of God, let's look at verse 33 through 42.

He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste because of the evil of its inhabitants.

He turns a desert into pools of water, a park's land into springs of water.

And there he lets the hungry dwell, and they establish a city to live in.

They sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield.

By his blessing, they multiply greatly.

And he does not let their livestock diminish.

When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, evil, and sorrow,

he pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes.

But he raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks.

The uprights see it and are glad, and the wickedness shuts its mouth.

Lastly, what I want us to see in the goodness of God is that he's working.

God is working.

These verses list some works that don't really seem to make logical sense, right?

Rivers into desert and springs into dry ground.

But what I want you to be reminded of and know this morning is that God is always working.

When our kids were little, really little, toddler little, vacation was a great idea that very rarely played out well.

You were there with me on that, right?

Parents of toddlers, like, I get it, that's the struggle.

That's why we bring grandparents, right?

Like, grandparents, we know what we're doing, right?

You are instant child care on the beach.

That's what you're there for, right?

But I remember when our kids were little, we would take them out into the beach,

and we would play, all four of us together as a family, and we'd build sandcastles, and we'd play games, and we'd go out into the water, and we'd go on walks, and we'd pick up seashells, and all of those kind of things.

And then Aaron and I would have to look back and forth to each other, like, all right, whose turn is it?

Oh, it's your turn.

Go sit under the umbrella and just don't do anything, right?

And that was so good.

And it lasted for about five minutes, right?

When one of us yelled, like, help, because the kids have gone that way, you know, right?

But for us, we're like, I got to stop.

I got to rest.

I don't know what to do in this moment.

I don't know how to figure out this season of life.

I've got to take a break.

I've got to have somebody come in and help me.

But what we look at and what we see is that in all of these circumstances, in all of these moments, we see the very working hand of God that while we rest, He's working.

While we don't understand a plan, He's working.

While we don't know how tomorrow will turn out, He does, and He's working.

That in this and through this, through the prison, through the desert, through the sickness, through the storm, through it all, God is working.

And in that is the definition of His goodness.

As we see the work and the plan of God.

And the psalmist writes in verse 43,

Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things.

Let him consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

To be wise, we put our house on the rock.

To be wise is to trust.

To be wise is to remember the goodness of God.

Let me wrap up this piece, and then I promise this is going to be quick for us.

About God's goodness.

And I was reading an author, his name is Wayne Grudem.

He's a theology professor.

And he wrote this.

I'm going to have it on the screen.

Just stuck with me, and just hit with me, and reminded me this week.

That God's mercy is His goodness toward those in distress.

His grace is His goodness toward those who deserve only punishment.

And His patience is His goodness toward those who continue to sin over a period of time.

I think we can all say amen.

To God's goodness.

To God's goodness.

God's goodness to you is in our eyes displayed to us through His mercy, through His grace, and through His patience.

So how do we show God's goodness?

So how do we show God's goodness?

I can't calm the waters, and neither can you.

I can't set the captive free, and neither can you.

I can't get myself out of the desert, and neither can you.

So how do we display this goodness?

I don't think this is an all-encompassing, but it was just three things that I was reminded of this week.

And we'll close with these.

Number one, choose Jesus.

Number one, choose Jesus.

Luke 10, 41 and 42, the story of Mary and Martha.

If you've raised in the church, you've heard this so many times, right?

Martha's been running around, getting everything done, getting everything taken care of, but Mary has been just sitting at the feet of Jesus.

The Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Get this, underline it in your Bible.

Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken from her.

It's not just that the world wants you to choose bad.

I think at some point in time, for the most part, you and I are pretty good at not choosing the very bad.

But what God desires for us is not to choose the lesser good, and to choose him.

He's our portion.

So this week, in your life, in my life, the choice is choose the good portion.

Choose Jesus.

Number two, very simply, do good for others.

Do good for others.

Galatians 6, 10.

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially those who are of the household of faith.

Do good for others.

This isn't complicated.

Choose good, not vengeance.

Choose good, not hate.

But you're like, but you just established, you just said at the very beginning that good is based in preference.

If we take the world's, but what we understand through this, that good means to do the godly.

And so to do the godly, to do the good, may be a difficult conversation that you have with a brother and sister in Christ to draw out a sin that you see is headed into a desert.

To do the good may be to serve when you don't really want to serve, right?

You want to be served.

But Jesus says that he came to serve.

So, do good.

What does that mean?

Well, in that moment, do the godly.

So we're going to choose Jesus.

We're going to do good for others.

And then lastly, and we'll end on this.

Share the gospel.

Romans 10, 15.

And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

Gospel means good news.

Church, we are not a faith of works.

We don't settle just simply for the display of good.

Our works.

The works are good.

The works are a part.

But it's got to be with.

It's got to be with the reason for the good.

And it's Jesus.

So we don't scatter all over the world.

We don't scatter into our homes.

We don't scatter to our places of work.

To build up the name of the church, the name of the pastor, the name of yourself.

We go and we serve and we do good and we proclaim the name of Jesus.

Lord, we thank you so much for your goodness.

God, I thank you for your grace given to me this morning in the Bible that is filled with so much more about the goodness of who you are, Lord.

That it could not be wrapped up into one message this morning.

But God, in your goodness and your kindness, Lord, I thank you for your word that you give us this morning.

Lord, I thank you for your goodness to us as through our sin we've wandered through the desert.

Lord, I thank you for your goodness to us as we've been enslaved and imprisoned to our sin, Lord.

And in that, you discipline and you set free.

Lord, I thank you that in your goodness, as we were dead and lost in our trespasses and sin, you healed us.

And you made us alive.

You took these dead bones, Lord, and you made them purpose to live for your name and your renown.

Lord, we thank you for your goodness that while the storms of life approach and they consume us and they take us,

Lord, there's never a moment where your children are not in your hand.

And, Lord, the storms are for a purpose.

They strengthen our faith, make our foundation more firm.

And, Lord, remind us of the goodness of your continual work.

We thank you and praise you, Lord.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.

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