It's all Good!
God is good all the time and all the time God is good!
What's good you may ask? All of it! Absolutely everything, as long as God is involved in the details. That should really be the Christians mindset, shouldn't it?
Does everyone know what an aura is?
1. An invisible emanation or field of energy believed to radiate from a person or object 2. A distinctive but intangible quality that seems to surround a person or thing; an atmosphere:
Everyone around you including yourself is a product of your environment. Your mindset, your attitude, the way you handle yourself, your actions, everything you do and say affects not only yourself, but everyone you coming contact with!
Some will say, because they can and they know they can. I can do as I please and say whatever I want, it's a free world you know. My business is why business!
While technically that would be correct, it doesn't make it right. TBS our job is to be a light to the world, not to stifle it. And that's what our environment that we create should do, not only for us but for others as well.
Matthew 5:14-16 NKJ
14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
The Voice; And you, beloved, are the light of the world. A city built on a hilltop cannot be hidden. 15 Similarly it would be silly to light a lamp and then hide it under a bowl. When someone lights a lamp, she puts it on a table or a desk or a chair, and the light illumines the entire house. 16 You are like that illuminating light. Let your light shine everywhere you go, that you may illumine creation, so men and women everywhere may see your good actions, may see creation at its fullest, may see your devotion to Me, and may turn and praise your Father in heaven because of it.
Scripture says our actions should point others to Christ! Creating a godly atmosphere in every situation, isn't always easy. And temptations and trials will always be prevalent. But it's what the word tells us that we should be doing. Usually it's a battle of the "wills!" Will I, or won't I do what the word says to do?
Have you ever walked into the middle of a conversation and then all of a sudden, it gets real quiet and you get the sense that an argument has been going on.
And you think to yourself, man is there a lot of tension in here or what?
What you were sensing there was an atmosphere.; a negative atmosphere. Did you know it takes a tremendous amount of energy to be negative? It's true, God created us to be positive influence to others and to be a light to the world.
And when we do the opposite, our actions become contrary to what the word instructs us to do. And that takes a tremendous amount of energy, to contradict the word of God!
While it takes a large amount of effort to argue at all, I wonder what would happen,
if we were to continually channel all of our efforts, to create a positive atmosphere instead of a negative one?
In fact, what could happen if we could create an on going “An Atmosphere of Faith” in our lives? A constant expectation of something good happening, no matter what the circumstances of life may dictate!
Illus. Sermon central
The story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"
One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation, the friend remarked as usual,
"This is good!"
To which the king replied, "No, this is not good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail.
About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.
As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.
As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend.
"You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown
off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just
happened. "And so, I am very sorry for sending you to jail for
so long. It was bad for me to do this."
"No," his friend replied, "This is good!"
"What do you mean, ’This is good’? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?"
"If I had not been in jail, I would have been with you."
TBS We can have a constant expectation of something good in our lives if that's what we want. Because the Bible says that God will give us the desires of our heart. The expectation to where, when you came upon a need that you saw, you would all ready be ready to respond, to the need.
You would be a “faith first responder” You wouldn’t have to call all the prayer warriors, that you know and get the prayer chain started, you would be a prayer warrior.
The Lord wants us to have confidence in our relationship that we have with Him,
Knowing that we can bring any thing, or any need to Him and He will respond. It may not always work out the way you think it's going to, but God will always work out every detail, to best benefit you and your situation!
Matthew 7:7-8 KJ
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Now when you pray and ask God to open a door, what do you do after he opens a door? You walk through it, right? TBS Faith without works is dead and it is, isn't it?
Sometimes I think that we tend to think that this scripture might only apply to ourselves. I suppose if you were only thinking about yourself that would be true. But if you were thinking of others and doing what the earlier scripture instructs us to do, it would be an opportunity to let your light shine!
Will you always know what to do? Probably not, maybe not ever. But that's where faith comes in and allows your light to shine anyways. Even when you don't know exactly what you're doing!
Thing is, with faith don't have to know, if you are a willing vessel God will lead and instruct you completely!
There is a story in Mark chapter 2, that is a real faith builder, about some faith first responders and what they did.
Mark 2:1-12 MSG.
1-5 After a few days, Jesus returned to Capernaum, and word got around that he was back home. A crowd gathered, jamming the entrance so no one could get in or out. He was teaching the Word. They brought a paraplegic to him, carried by four men. When they weren’t able to get in because of the crowd, they removed part of the roof and lowered the paraplegic on his stretcher. Impressed by their bold belief, Jesus said to the paraplegic, “Son, I forgive your sins.”
6-7 Some religion scholars sitting there started whispering among themselves, “He can’t talk that way! That’s blasphemy! God and only God can forgive sins.”
8-12 Jesus knew right away what they were thinking, and said, “Why are you so skeptical? Which is simpler: to say to the paraplegic, ‘I forgive your sins,’ or say, ‘Get up, take your stretcher, and start walking’? Well, just so it’s clear that I’m the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both . . .” (he looked now at the paraplegic), “Get up. Pick up your stretcher and go home.” And the man did it—got up, grabbed his stretcher, and walked out, with everyone there watching him. They rubbed their eyes, incredulous—and then praised God, saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this!”
Now what they could've done is the typical thing that everyone does, when their around someone who is sick. I'll pray for you and if you need anything you let me know and then walk out of the room. But they were willing to do more than just say a prayer. They were willing to go the extra mile for their friend!
I believe, before they ever carried that man and lowered him down to be in the presence of Jesus, there had to be an atmosphere of faith and expectancy that something could be done for their friend. It may have been beyond their abilities, but they knew it wasn't beyond Jesus abilities!
Maybe one of them said, Man we need to get you to see Jesus. Everywhere Jesus was, there was an atmosphere of faith and expectancy! TBS. There was an Atmosphere of Faith, there was an expectancy in the air, people had come from all over to have their needs met,
Let me tell you why an Atmosphere of Faith is so important for every Christian…
God responds to our Faith, not our tears, or our needs, but to our faith!
Hebrews 11:1,6 NKJ
1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
6. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Now faith it says, you know we should have faith all the time.
But there are going to be instances where your going to need some “now faith” some “right now” faith!
The friends of the man, knew he needed a touch from Jesus, but there was no way they could get him close enough to Jesus,
Even though they had faith, they needed to hook it up with the one who had endless possibilities, they needed some right now faith, they needed a "help me now Lord" moment!
The Lord will bring to mind a lot of things if you ask Him. Things like scriptures, ideas, lots of different things to encourage you, when you call out to Him in faith.
I've seen it happen countless times in my own life when I've been working on things and trying to figure out a solution to a problem on my own, but to no avail. And the moment that I called out to God and ask him for help, He instilled in me exactly the right thing to do!
There are times that I have thought to myself, that makes perfect sense! And then there are times that I thought to myself, never in 100 years would have I figured or thought to do that. But yet, it was exactly what needed to be done!
I believe it was the Lord who inspired the idea, to cut a hole in the roof and get their friend where he needed to be, He can always make a way, were there seems to be no way. Jesus is the Way Maker!
The key is to act upon the Lords prompting, the moment He prompts you! Amen?
If your not going to be willing to act on what God tells you to do, then it makes no sense to ask in the first place, right?
If we're ever going to see the miracles come to fruition that we ask God to do, then we must be obedient to do what He tells us to do to receive our miracle!
I would say, what they did that day, would qualify as obedience and also a pretty diligent act of faith, wouldn’t you?
Their were probably those who were there that thought and I’m sure some who said under they’re breathe, what in the world are you doing? Who do you guys think you are?
And then I’m sure their were a lot of others, who were there that day who said, why didn’t I think of that!
True faith is relentless and never quits until it gets its desired result!
Without Faith in God that He can do everything He says He can do,
everything we do in our Christian walk is empty, because of self reliance!
For example, we can sing songs about how God can move mountains and how good He is to us, but unless we believe that our worship touches the heart of God and that He responds to us, we might as well be singing in the shower.
We can pray, but unless we pray in FAITH, in His ability and truly believe that what we are praying for is possible, we are just wasting our time and everyone else’s we ask to pray with us.
Makes you wonder why anyone would ask someone to pray, if they weren’t going to believe,
TBS. if we will do our part, God will certainly do His Part.
Matthew 19:26
New King James Version (NKJV)
26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
That’s what the men thought with their friend, if they could get him to Jesus, the impossible would become possible.
Do you know what they were creating?
an ATMOSPHERE OF FAITH?
They were hooking their faith up with Jesus faith. They were relying on Him and when He saw their faith, TBS. He was, Impressed by their bold belief!
They were diligent in their faith, they took action and the crippled man reaped the reward! Still today, God is on the outlook looking to and fro for diligent faith to reward! Amen!!
God is looking for men and women, who will lift up the name of His Son Jesus and be a light to this world. To see the glass always half full and be willing to call upon his name to keep the promises He has made!
Illus. By Bobby Scobey
There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. "Well," she said, "I think I’ll braid my hair today." So she did and she had a wonderful day. The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head. "H-m-m, " she said, "I think I’ll part my hair down the middle today." So she did and she had a grand day.
The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head. "Well," she said, "today I’m going to wear my hair in a pony tail." So she did and she had a fun, fun day.
The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn’t a single hair on her head. "YEA!" she exclaimed, "I don’t have to fix my hair today!" Attitude is everything.
No matter what you face in life, God has already been there and created the opportunity for an atmosphere of faith for you. To not only help you get through it, but to help you rise above it.
We serve a Good God don't we?
Amen? Let us pray!
