“God is GOOD…Never Bad”



“God is GOOD…Never Bad”...Part 2

• READ: Jeremiah 33:11, Psalm 119:68, Joel 2:13-14, Psalm 86:15-16, Psalm 103:8-12, Psalm 145:7-8, Exodus 34:6, Deuteronomy 4:31, Jeremiah 3:12-13, 2 Chronicles 30:9

• Last week we began this teaching about having the correct image of God. Our God is GOOD and is always GOOD…He is never bad and He never does bad things….this is a total mind shift from the way we sometimes think.

• We tend to want to blame Him when things go wrong in the world or in our life….but this is a wrong mind-set that we need to change in order to really have the correct image of the God we love and serve!

• The Bible is clear that many will fall away and many will get offended at God in the last days…if you think about it…you can see how that’s already started to happen just simply by the things our culture says is OK…and by teaching that has come about in the last few years…and from sayings that are popular in our culture

• Last week we talked about the “curse” that has been on the land from way back in Genesis 3 after Adam and Eve sinned…this is one of the reasons for the bad things that happen in our world today….but there are other reasons….

• Today we are going to talk about some of these reasons….NONE of them are because God does bad things to us!

REASON TWO: BECAUSE OF LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

• Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

• Isaiah 5:13 “my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge.”

• God gave us His Word to train and teach us…

• Proverbs 4:20-22 (titled “Wisdom Is Supreme” in my Bible)…”My son, pay attention to what I say: listen closely to My words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are LIFE to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body. “

• Can you see a problem right here????....People simply don’t attend to His Words…they never even think about opening up the Word of God to read it at all!!!!

• How can we blame things on God when we totally go against what He says? It doesn’t make any sense…

• If you don’t have the knowledge of the Word of God…it’s very difficult to pass the tests that come your way…

• Think of it this way…if you don’t know what promises you can claim from the Word of God…you have no way to combat the devil when he throws thoughts at you that are contrary to the Word of God

• Think about the children of Israel…on their way to the Promised Land…that was currently inhabited by giants and all kinds of other people…what in the world made them think that they had any right to go and possess it?.....The PROMISE of God gave them that right! They had KNOWLEDGE of the PROMISE and so they were headed to claim it!

• Same thing with us…we need to know the promises of God so we can know what to claim when the devil tries to throw sickness, disease, lack, and all that other junk at us!

• Just like in the natural world…we need to know things…it’s the same in the spiritual world……EX: my computer…I have no idea how to make things on it work because I haven’t studied the workings of my computer…but Sam has and he can fix it in a flash…because he has the KNOWLEDGE he needs to fix it…same in the spiritual world…we need to have the KNOWLEDGE from the Word in order to overcome trials and tests that come our way!

• EX: Jewel is the queen of finding coupons on line and saves a ton of money every time she goes grocery shopping….she CLAIMS the savings and reaps the benefits….but I don’t have any knowledge of those things, so therefore I don’t save any money….

• If I don’t know about the promises of God…how do I know to claim them so that I can reap the benefits? I DON’T!

• It goes the same for warnings….God tells us and warns us about lots of stuff that might come our way…He also tells us how to overcome the problems…but if we don’t read His Word…we don’t know what to do and when the problems come…we crash…

• A lot of people think that “spiritual learning” is not necessary…..and then they wonder why stuff seems to come their way that they don’t know what to do about….

• They thought that believing IN God was enough and never learned how to BELIEVE God…notice the difference…

• When we believe IN God…that is what begins our search for Him…but BELIEVING God is where we gain right knowledge from the Bible…then we can BELIEVE that knowledge and then the conditional promise or principle on the other side of that knowledge can come to pass for us!

• So why does bad stuff seem to happen even to God’s people…..? What did that Scripture we read say earlier…”MY PEOPLE are destroyed for lack of knowledge”…..even if you are a child of God…if you have no knowledge or information about God or His kingdom or what He says about certain situations…then your brain gets twisted and you start having misconceptions and then we start believing all kinds of mixed-up things

• You may think you know all you need to know….THAT’S where deception comes in and you begin to get offended at God….You may know lots about what God says about living a good, upright, holy life…but you are battling with sickness because you don’t know what He says about your health and therefore you have “accepted” certain things in your life that you should have rebuked or come against…..

• We need knowledge of the promises of God…then once we know what He has promised…we can start believing for those promises in our lives!

• It’s important that we know what promises to claim when we are praying and talking to God…go deeper than just begging God for things…claim the promises that He has in His Word for us…every problem in life is solved by the knowledge of God!!!

• READ HIS WORD!!! Claim the promises!!!

• People seem to have all kinds of excuses for not learning or reading God’s Word…too busy, no time…too tired…then when all the stuff of life happens to them…they have no way of combating it or standing up against it and they are not prepared!.....Then people look up to the sky and say “WHY, GOD?, Why us, God?”

• If they’ll seek God, He can reveal to them that the reason is because they missed essential Bible lessons on faith, authority, divine protection, marriage, money, or on a million other secrets to spiritual success!

• Sometimes it’s not that we haven’t LEARNED…its that we don’t put what we have learned into practice….

• James 1:22 “But be DOERS of the word, and not hearers only, DECEIVING yourselves.”

• It is possible to be deceived into thinking that everything is OK just because we call our self a Christian and we’ve sat in a Bible Study or two…but that’s just the beginning…don’t be DECIEVED!

• Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore whoever HEARS these sayings of Mind, and DOES them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it DID NOT FALL, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And GREAT WAS ITS FALL.”

• What is the promise…command…and warning in these verses?

• It is very important to find out what God has said about certain things and then DO THEM!...

• It’s NOT GOD’S FAULT when things go wrong in our life if we haven’t been DOING what He has clearly told us about and warned us about and even promised us in His Word!!!!...WHOSE FAULT IS IT?????...(ours!)

• LOOK at what Romans 12:1-2 says…”Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of GOD’S MERCY, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. DO NOT conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. THEN you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.”

• We have to RENEW OUR MINDS by His Word…that’s when all the fears and worries and disappointments leave us…and where His plan for our life becomes o so clear!

• We can be free of all the YUCK….

• Remember…GOD is GOOD…Never BAD!

• John 8:31-21 “If you ABIDE in MY WORD, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall make you FREE.”

• 2 Peter 1:3-4 “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the KNOWLEDGE of HIM…by which have been given to us EXCEEDINGLY great and precious PROMISES, that THROUGH THESE you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world.”

• IGNORANCE plays a big part in destruction….we have to read His Word to know about the spiritual laws that protect us from evil…that would give us success in life

• These spiritual laws don’t just quit because someone doesn’t know them….

• EX: How many naïve people are going to fortune tellers, reading books about vampires, dress up as witches on Halloween, or read their zodiac without realizing that these things are considered ABOMINATIONS to God….these things open the door for demonic trouble in life!

• Leviticus 20:6 “If a person turns to mediums and neomancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.”…..also in Leviticus 19:31, Deuteronomy 18:10-13, 20-21,4:19, Exodus 22:18, Leviticus 20:27, Isaiah 8:19, Acts 16:16-19, I Chronicles 10:13-14, Revelation 21:8, 22:15, 1 John 4:13, 1:9, Acts 19:18-20, Daniel 2:27, Isaiah 47:13, 2 Kings 21:6

• NEOMANCEERS…..spiritists, wizards….when I did a google search…all kinds of websites for “Feng Shui” came up…..interesting, huh…..stay away from NEW AGE stuff!!!

• EX: What about people who constantly deal with worry and anxiety? The Bible explains how WORRY is the biggest hindrance to answered prayer…read Matthew 6:25-34 to see what the Bible says about worry…worry shows that you don’t trust God…worry can actually cause physical problems ranging from headaches, to irritable bowel syndrome, to hypertension and coronary disease…YUCK….not the things that God wants for us….James 1:6-7 “Let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for He who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the winds. For let not that man suppose that he will receive ANYTHING from the Lord.”….Matthew 21:21-22 “If you have faith and DO NOT DOUBT—whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”…1 Peter 5:7 “Cast ALL your cares on Him for He cares for YOU!”

• You have to have KNOWLEDGE of God’s Word because when you put if in your heart,…that’s what comes out of your mouth….and what comes out of your mouth MATTERS BIG TIME!!!....I’ve done a huge teaching on this before…so we’re not going to go there now, just know that “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” and Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue”…..SO BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ARE SPEAKING INTO EXISTENCE!

• EX: Just had a phone conversation with someone…she went to the doctor with one symptom and while she was there she happened to cough…she SPOKE out of her mouth…”You better do something about this cough or else I’ll have full blown bronchitis in the morning”…guess what she woke up with?.....full blown bronchitis…..she SPOKE it into existence…spoke death out of her mouth to her lungs…CRAZINESS!

• Watch what you say….because YOU are the cause of bad things happening to you sometimes…simply by what comes out of your mouth! It’s a principle in God’s Word…look it up…read about it…put it into action! POWER OF YOUR WORDS!!!!

• Words can start wars, they can make your home a happy or sad place, they can build up your kids or tear them down….words are very very powerful…..after all….God created this entire world with His WORDS!!!

REASON 3: BECAUSE OF THE DEVIL

• The devil is the trouble-maker…not God!

• Like we talked about last week…Christians who actually feel a sense of pride cause they say “god has given them some sickness and how much that person is learning from it and how he is not questioning why God did it”…CRAZINESS…..

• Why do people completely ignore what the Bible actually says about this…it’s NOT God who gives sickness..it’s the DEVIL!!!

• People don’t realize who their enemy is, so it is difficult for them to fight against him…kinda like terrorists…it’s difficult to stop them because we don’t know who they are til its too late…

• EVIL is ANYTHING that is contrary to God…that includes sickness, sin, tragedy, poverty, rebellion, and all the other yuck stuff!

• We so wrongly tell people …”keep the faith, because God knows what He’s doing”…CRAZINESS AGAIN!!!

• The devil is the thief…not God…John 10:10…”The thief does not come except to steal, kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.”

• When something is killing you, stealing from you, or destroying you…blame it on the DEVIL…not God!

• 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your ADVERSARY the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

• Why do we get all twisted up in our thinking and say dumb things like “Look what God did to me. I just don’t know why God let this happen. Maybe He is trying to teach me something.”……HELLO…..it’s not God…it’s the devil searching for someone to hurt

• The reason he is seeking “whom he may destroy” is because he can’t just kill all the sinners now so no one else could be saved..and he can’t just kill all the Christians so he wouldn’t have to hear any more about Jesus….so just WHO CAN SATAN AFFLICT?.....only those who LET HIM!!!

• When we don’t know or believe God’s Word…when we make choices outside of God’s Will and command…when we put our trust in man instead of God…WE OPEN A DOOR TO THE DEVIL

• The devil and his demons are looking for marriages to destroy, for kids to tempt, for people to fill with anxiety…for people who know nothing about the provision or power and authority that God has given them

• That’s why the Bible says to “guard your heart because it is the wellspring of life”…

• Open doors can come in the form of UNFORGIVENESS, PRIDE, or IGNORANCE

• If you find that you can’t forgive someone…then bitterness and resentment settle in…and that opens the devil…then trouble and confusion come in…even when they believe in God , go to church twice a week, and pray…their prayers are NOT being heard because of the unforgiveness in their hearts….

• James 3:14-16 “But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, OF THE DEVIL. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

• Psalm 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear.”

• God doesn’t tell us to forgive to make things hard on us…He tells it to us for our own benefit…because GOD IS GOOD!!!!

• When we walk in love, we are under God’s protection…

• If you would like to learn more about what the Bible says about forgiveness…just READ IT!

• PRIDE…James 4:6 “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

• Pride..placing yourself higher than others…refusing to submit to God

• God commands us to “love God with all your heart and to love one another” Matthew 22:37-39…when we are full of strife, resentment, rudeness, anger and pride…we are disobeying and are out of God’s protection!

• Ignorance and sin also open the door to the devil…it’s our personal responsibility to keep our hearts clean so the devil gets no place in us…

• Ephesians 4:27 “…nor give place to the devil.”

• The Scriptures label Satan as the “god of this world”…2 Corinthians 4:4

• John 14:30 “I will not speak with you much longer, for the PRINCE OF THIS WORLD is coming. He has no hold on Me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what My Father has commanded Me.”

• Adam and Eve allowed Satan to become the god of this world when they handed dominion over to him by disobeying God….the same thing that we do when we disobey God…we are handing dominion right back to Satan….not a good thing!

• The really good news is that we don’t need to be afraid of the devil…God has given us POWER and AUTHORITY to defeat the devil…this power and authority came through Jesus Christ!

• When the devil killed a totally innocent man, he violated a spiritual law…death is only legally allowed as a WAGE OF SIN…and Jesus was no sinner!....Jesus reversed the curse, took back the keys to the kingdom and GAVE THEM TO US!

• Luke 10:19 “Behold, I give you the AUTHORITY to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over ALL the power of the enemy, and NOTHING SHALL BY ANY MEANS HURT YOU.”

• Did you get that last part……that means that if sickness, disease, or tragedy knocks at your door…you can keep it out!

• We have to USE our authority!...God’s power does the work…but it is our FAITH that triggers that power to get the devil away….You CAN overcome it…but it takes ACTION on your part!

• This could be a whole other teaching on how to defeat the devil…we’re not going to go into all that now…

• Know this…as soon as you learn the powerful truths about the authority you can walk in…the devil will start his little game of making you doubt who you really are in Christ…he will bring all sorts of short-comings and failures up from your past to make you doubt who God says that you are in him

• The battle in our mind is what the devil uses to tempt us with thoughts, suggestions, and wrong reasoning…attempting to get us out of faith and into fear and sin…

• That’s why God gave us 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the KNOWELDGE OF GOD, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

• What we give our attention to has the greatest impact on our heart…think about it…we have a natural tendency to focus on the suffering when we are going through stuff…according to this Scripture…we have MORE suffering if we think on it more…check out Proverbs 23:7 “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

• Our emotions are very powerful…even when you try to reason with someone…trying to reason logically with them…emotions win out…that’s because emotions are more powerful than reason

• EX: addictions: harmful addictions are definitely not reasonable, we know it doesn’t make sense to keep on doing what destroys us…but emotions override reason…

• That’s why using logic to counsel a person out of bad habits doesn’t work…logic doesn’t give them the power to overcome…ACTION does…

• Take ACTION and replace the bad thoughts with God’s Word….find truths in the Bible that give you hope an then SAY THEM!!!!

• EX: 1 John 4:4 “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world”…2 Corinthians 5:21 “we are “the righteousness of God”…Romans 8:1 “there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”……there are about a BILLION more to find in God’s Word!

• If you don’t realize that there is a battle going on for your thought life…then you are prey for Satan…he starts by planting thoughts in your head that are very subtle lies…then he builds on that til your thinking is so totally screwed up and you don’t even realize it!

• EX: like the people who go on talk shows that are getting a sex change cause they just don’t “feel” like they should be a woman anymore….Many FEELINGS are just downright WRONG…been planted there from the devil and allowed to grow into full-blown CRAZINESS!

• Just because you THINK something, DOES NOT mean that it’s right or true!!!

• REMEMBER: God is GOOD….why would He have caused someone to be born in a female body if they weren’t meant to be FEMALE? He WOULDN’T!!!!....that would be cruel and our God is NOT CRUEL!!!

• James 4:7 “Submit to God. Resist the devil and he WILL flee from you.”

• Resist and live in freedom…don’t resist and we’ll have to live with what he gives us…..very not good…but CERTAINLY….NOT GOD’S FAULT!!!

4. BECAUSE OF THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH

• Our present life is largely made up of the sum total of our past choices….some were good…some were bad…but they all had consequences

• SO…the devil himself is not the sole cause of the bad stuff that happens to us…sometimes we have entered into the YUCK with him voluntarily!

• God tells us, He warns us, He commands us, He tries to guide us…but if we are determined to do “our own thing”…then all God can do is watch…

• God doesn’t WANT something bad to happen to us…and he certainly didn’t CAUSE anything bad to happen…sin can punish people all by itself…

• Jeremiah 2:19 “Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will rebuke you.”

• Our choices have consequences…the consequences for sin is DEATH…Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death.”

• It’s a spiritual death…and then it leads to physical death

• Remember that thing called FREE WILL…the choice system is so important to God that He made heaven and earth witness its divine decree, watch what man does, then fulfill the appropriate request…

• Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”

• So…if you choose life…you get blessings….if you choose death…you get the curse

• It’s the Law of Sin and Death

• Lamentations 3:33 “For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.”

• Staying in sin makes you disconnect from God and connect to the enemy…

• Isaiah 59:1-2 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear .”

• It’s so serious that our CHILDREN either benefit or suffer because of the parent’s choices….just like employees of companies either benefit or suffer because of the owner’s choices…just like our country will for the choices of our government…

• It’s another spiritual principle called “sowing and reaping”…Galatians 6:7-8 “Do not be DECEIVED, God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

• Have you ever heard the saying “Your life today is a result of the seed you planted yesterday”?.....so…..if you want your future to be different than your past…PLANT A DIFFERENT SEED!

• This law ALWAYS operates…whether you are aware of this law or not….

• The super good news for Christians is that we are FREE from the law of sin and death!!!!

• Romans 8:2 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me FREE FROM the LAW OF SIN AND DEATH.”

• Y EA!!!!!!...as a Christian we have to live close to God …repentant, humble, obedient….we have to “die to our flesh”….Romans 7:5 “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the LAW, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.”….READ Romans 7:1-6 (An Illustration From Marriage)

• But…did you know that being passive is making a CHOICE too….not studying the Word of God…not seeking Him keeps your heart from being prepared…

• EX: 2 Chronicles 12:14 There was a king in Judah, Rehoboam, who made a passive choice and filed because of it…”And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.”…the result was that he had no peace and was in constant battle with his enemies…..ever been there!!!????

5. BECAUSE PEOPLE IGNORE THE VOICE OF GOD

• Many good people experience bad things because they haven’t been taught how to hear from God….some people don’t even know that God talks..

• Think about this: Have you heard Christians say, “I am never going back to that church again. All the pastor talks about is sin, sin, sin.”…or maybe the issue is money, faithfulness, etc…if you find yourself reacting to a godly pastor’s preaching…then you might need to take a look at yourself….is there a particular sermon topic that “pushes your buttons”? …if the topic is “finances”…could it be because God is not in control of your money?....this is why many people leave form a church…they can’t take it anymore…they have made a decision to close their ears to God’s Word…and they simply can’t bear to listen to it..

• The Bible calls these people “foolish”…building their house on sand…

• If you are born again, then the Holy Spirit has been given to you to “teach you all things”…John 14:26….and to “guide you into all truth, and tell you things to come” John 16:13

• EX: turkey basters to Russia

• God talks to us all the time…sometimes He is trying to warn us about something, or prepare us….it’s kind of like a “sense”…you “just know”….”Your conscience” …if you choose not to listen…He is NOT in control and He has to let the situation play out….

• It takes practice to learn to hear the voice of God…but He does speak to every child of His….

• I wish it was crystal clear all the time…but it’s not…maybe if it was crystal clear all the time it would not require us to trust Him…if we could always see it with our eyes…we wouldn’t need to be led by the Spirit…

• Remember GOD IS GOOD!!!

• EX: from the Bible…Acts 11:27-30 “During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabus and Saul.”….

• Notice it NEVER says that God sent the famine…but God talked to Agabus and helped them through it…..THAT’S HOW GOD IS!!!!! GOD IS GOOD!!!!!!

• Ok….now we know that reasons why bad things happen…..I hope you understand that it is NEVER EVER from GOD!!!!

• God is Always GOOD….Never Bad!!!

• So………………….you say…what about Job….

• GOOD QUESTION!!!!

• The book of Job has been used INCORRECTLY to somehow “prove” that God allows suffering….

• One thing that you need to keep in mind is that job’s spiritual position is COMPLETELY different than our position today…..Job lived before Jesus Christ came to earth…Job actually was born 100 years after Noah’s flood…..WOW…..think about that….

• On a Bible timeline that James gave me…Job was born 100 years after the great flood…his troubles happened when he was 140 years old…lasted for a little less than a year….and he lived another 140 years after his trouble stopped….he lived during the time of Abraham and Sarah…530 years before Moses was born…..so, he didn’t have any of the Bible written down at all

• Even though Job 1:1 says that Job was “perfect and upright, and one that feared God and hated evil.”…being good is not a guarantee that evil won’t come our way…it helps…but it is not a guarantee…

• Job was afraid…He lived in fear…Job 3:25 “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.”….ok…right here….FEAR opens a door to let the enemy in….fear motivates the devil…it triggers him to move in…if you are fearful, it proves that you don’t totally trust God to keep you safe or deliver you…God’s hands are tied by our unbelief….then the devil notices that there is someone he can devour…

• The evil that happened to Job DID NOT come from God…Satan is the one that desired to afflict Job……look what Satan says to God Job 1:11 “Stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.” BUT GOD WOULDN’T DO IT!!!....God was NOT the one that hurt Job…

• When you read the book of Job…it’s important that you don’t take it out of context…the book of Job makes statements that aren’t true at all~…all the words in the Bible are all correct…they are written exactly like they were said…but that doesn’t mean that what was said was right…..READ IT IN CONTEXT!!!!

• Like that saying by Job The Lord gives and the Lord takes away”…..like that song that we used to sing..that would always bug the heck out of me…”Blessed Be Your Name”…the LORD DOESN’T TAKE AWAY…..why do we sing that He does? CRAZINESS!!!!!

• God takes sin and bad stuff away from us…but not GOOD THINGS!.....He takes our guilt away..but NOT our family, or our joy, or our health…..

• Remember when we talked about the rich young ruler last week…Jesus didn’t take his money away…he only ASKED him to give it away because it was hindering his salvation….the young ruler decided to disobey and Jesus honored his choice….but GOD IS NOT THE TAKER!!!

• Some people get off to the wrong foot about the book of Job…lets read Job 1:6-8 “One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came with the,. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you CONSIDERED my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

• In our modern language, “have you considered” means we are pointing something out to someone….but in original HEBREW the word “consider” refers to the heart, the literal Hebrew translation actually reads, “Have you SET YOUR HEART on my servant Job?”

• Since God already knows everything…He KNEW that Satan had been eyeing Job, desiring to tempt him…God was not pointing Job out to the devil…he was only acknowledging who the devil had set his heart on…

• So…why did God ALLOW the devil to do it to Job?...because He HAD to allow it…remember, Satan gained access to people in the earth because of that first sin….so the justice of man’s free will REQUIRES that God allow Satan to tempt, try, and afflict ALMOST anyone….

• Mankind ASKED to know evil, so mankind GETS to know evil….

• That’s why God allows so many awful things…He has to.

• ALMOST ANYONE…because since the cross of Christ, God has given us power over Satan’s attacks and told us “Resist the devil and he WILL flee from you.” James 4:7

• NOTICE THOUGH….the devil was Job’s problem….but Job didn’t realize it!

• Like these statements….BUT….all who witnessed it blamed it on God…”Job 1:16 “The fire of God is fallen from heaven and has burned up the sheep, and the servants. And even Job himself said…”the Lord gives and the Lord takes away” Job 1:21……BUT IT WASN’T GOD AT ALL!!!!....Job was incorrect!

• God even finally says that these things are incorrect…Job 42:7 “For you have not spoken of me what is right.”

• Job’s problem was Satan…but Job never addressed him…never resisted him…probably because he didn’t know to do that

• Overview of Job’s trials…..they lasted less than a year …he lost literally everything but he endured and God blessed him with twice as much as he had before (Job 42:10)

• Job’s faithful endurance is even talked about in the New Testament…James 5:11 “Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is VERY COMPASSIONATE and MERCIFUL.”

• Job expected God to deliver him …and HE DID…because GOD IS GOOD!!!...Job’s obedience and perseverance gave God an entrance into his life to save and heal him!

• Job did the best he could with what he knew…but we have the WHOLE ENTIRE BIBLE…we have no excuse for suffering at the hand of Satan…we need to KNOW God’s PROMISES and claim them!!!!

NEXT QUESTION….WHAT ABOUT PAUL’S THORN???

• People say…”well, Paul asked God to take it way and he didn’t”

• Total misinterpretation of Scripture…some people say Paul was getting prideful so God did it to keep him humble…WRONG

• If you actually read the passage, you will see that Paul was NOT being prideful…and God was NOT the one that gave him the thorn in the flesh…and God DID do something about it!

• Here’s what had happened…Paul had been taken up to heaven to hear wonderful, inexpressible words…he begun to tell others about what he was seeing and learning of God…because of these supernatural events and the other powerful works Paul did…people were beginning to esteem him and come to Christ because of his preaching…

• This is what Paul said, 2 Corinthians 12:6-7 “lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me. And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thron in the flesh was given to me, A MESSANGER OF SATAN, to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.”

• This passage never says that it was Paul that was getting prideful…the PEOPLE were exalting him…lifting him up….OTHER PEOPLE were doing that, not Paul….Paul recognized it and he warned against it

• The passage never says that GOD gave Paul the thorn…it says a MESSANGER from Satan….so the thorn came from SATAN…..

• Think about it…people were exalting Paul and hearing about all the incredible things that God was telling Paul and showing Paul…the devil was losing ground…which he HATES to do…so Satan sent a messanger to buffet Paul everywhere he went….the word BUFFET means a blow from a fist, to strike, to beat, or to contend against…

• So….doesn’t it make sense that the harm to his flesh could have been the persecution that was happening to him everywhere he went?...the devil was trying to slow Paul down….

• This is actually what God told us the devil would do to us way back in Genesis 3……that “he would bruise our heal”……SO WHY DO WE BLAME IT ON GOD.????

• Doesn’t that make more sense then to say that God was showing Paul all this incredible stuff…then gave him a thorn to keep him humble? God doesn’t keep us humble with thorns!!!!! We are to keep ourselves humble by obeying the Word of God!!!

• AND…..what kind of messenger would come from Satan….a DEMON!!!

• So what happened to Paul was that a demon was assigned to him to follow him everywhere he went and hinder his work….

• The evil plot of Satan against this powerful leader of the gospel was to stif up people everywhere Paul went and cause them to persecute and beat him….

• Think about this….if Paul had had a PRIDE problem…the devil wouldn’t have even fooled with him…cause the Scripture says “PRIDE comes before the fall” Proverbs 16:18 and “God resists the PROUD.” James 4:6

• Paul actually tells us what his thorn is 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 “In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. Form the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils of my own false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness…”

• GET THIS…the term “thorn in the flesh” is actually an Old Testament term that God used to describe ONLY PEOPLE…PEOPLE…

• Several times, God warned the Israelites that if they didn’t defeat and destroy all their enemies and their false gods, “they will be as THORNS in your sides.” Judges 2:3…..or “pricks in your eyes” Numbers 33:55

• Even today in our language…we way things like “he’s a pain in the neck”….it means that SOMEONE was BOTHERING ME!!!!!

• Did God do anything to help?

• 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul says “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

• Infirmities…equals weakness…not sickness and disease…refer back to 2 Corinthians 11:23-27…Paul’s list of stuff that was happening to him

• Since the thorn in the flesh is clearly persecution from PEOPLE…and NOT sickness…it should be no surprise that God would not immediately swoop in to help….

• Persecution for the gospel’s sake is the ONE FORM of affliction that God did not promise Christians deliverance from…Jesus actually promised that NO Christians could avoid it…

• 2 Timothy 3:12 “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” (Paul actually wrote these words while he was in prison!)

• God told Paul His GRACE was sufficient…..GRACE is FAVOR…it’s enabling power or divine ability……DON’T YOU THINK THAT IS SOMETHING PRETTY AMAZING FOR GOD TO GIVE PAUL TO DEAL WITH THESE THORN-Y PEOPLE!!!!???

• I think So!!!!! Just as Paul made it through with God’s grace…WE CAN TOO

• BECAUSE GOD IS ALWAYS GOOD….never bad!!!!!!!!

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