Goodness of God

Preacher: Pastor Adelupo Aderemi

 

          Hallelujah! What You cannot do does not exist, when the melody is gone, we look to You oh Lord; when life is not helping, we look to You oh Lord; when sorrow comes, we look to You oh Lord; when there is no joy, we look to You oh Lord, You are a great Rewarder.

 

Father we thank You; we thank You for the gift of life, we thank You for 70 days of 2024, it’s been a wonderful year yet, oh Lord we thank You. What You cannot do does not exist, awesome God, we adore Your name, we worship Your name; we return glory, we return praise, we return honor to Your excellent name.

 

Thank You for the blessing of life, thank You for coming down this morning to put life in us, thank You because we are on Your side that’s why we are alive today, if it has not been the Lord on our side, we would be dead; if it has not been the Lord on our side, enemies would have gotten us; if it has not been the Lord on our side, Nigeria would have been in war; if it has not been the Lord on our side, we will not be here singing this morning.

 

Thank You for being on our side, thank You for being a wonderful Father that You are, oh Lord, glory, honor, praise, dominion belong to Your name oh Lord.

 

As we share Your word this morning, speak to us Yourself, let it be Your word from You, not from any man; let Your children hear You directly, and Father by the end of the message, let all of us be blessed richly in the mighty name of Jesus.

 

Thank You eternal Father; once again, thank You for the gift of life, it’s only the living that can praise You, blessed be Your name, Jehovah, in Jesus name we prayed.

 

          Welcome to church this morning! I want to appreciate our father in the Lord, the Pastor in charge of province, for this opportunity; I want to thank members of the Board of Pastors and Pastorate for giving me the opportunity to bring the message this morning.

 

In the RCCG, we have a set of beliefs, the same way I believe they have in other missions, so periodically, the church sends elders to come and remind us (old members) or teach us (new members) about the belief of the church, our doctrines. So today in this church is meant for doctrinal teaching, we are going to be having one of our elders to come and teach us in the afternoon (second service), but during the first service, I was advised to speak on something along that area too, something to do with doctrine.                       

 

So this morning, I will be speaking on what I consider to be our major belief that there is a God who made everything, our Creator. Because I don’t want it to look like a classroom setting – oh, we believe in God, we believe in His trinity, I’m going to try to make it a bit more interesting, so I’ll be talking about the “Goodness of God” , and that’s a very wide topic that cannot be treated in 30 – 40 minutes that we have here.    

 

          I will be talking about the goodness of God in the life of a popular Bible character, David and that’s also a wide topic, so I’ll try and restrict it to part of God’s goodness in the life of David, and it’s not going to be about David, it’s going to be about God, I’m just using David as a case study, so let’s bear in mind that it is about the goodness of God, not about David.

 

And what I want us to get from this message is the goodness of God in your life, in my life, David is just a case study, so at the end of the message, the idea is for you to be able to realize or come to a better knowledge of God’s goodness in your life, in my life.

 

Our God is a good God, a good Creator, the Savior, the Redeemer, our Father. The Bible says when we were yet sinners He died for us, Romans 5: 8; even when we were yet to be saved from our sins, He died for us.

 

That song says ‘I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy (His) power throughout the world displayed; then sings my soul, the Savior Lord to thee, how great Thou art, how great Thou art’, you know the song very well.

 

          We had in December 2023 as our theme ‘Divine Goodness of God’; like I said before, if we are to discuss the goodness of God in the Bible, we’ll begin from Genesis 1 and we will not stop until we get to Revelation 22. Genesis 1 where He chose to form man in His own image and gave him authority over all things; He saw that man needed a companion like himself and He gave man a partner, Genesis 2:18. He made man fruitful and gave him command to multiply and replenish the earth, Genesis 1: 28.

 

So like I said, we’ll continue to talk about the goodness of God until we get to Revelation and see the cosmic battle that the good God is fighting for us behind the scenes in every facet of life.

 

          There’s a story in Revelation 12 that talks about what we see on earth with the corresponding equivalent in heaven; those of us who know that story very well, Revelation 12 is the story of Cosmos as it actually happened in heaven – the dragon fighting with the woman over this child, trying to kill Jesus, so it’s always God at work doing something or the other for us.

Like I said, we are going to put ourselves into part of David’s life, so we’ll go to the story about David and our Bible text is from Psalm 65: 9-13, a Psalm of David, so I’ll just go through quickly, it’s talking about David talking about God; “Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.

¹⁰ Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof. ¹¹ Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.¹² They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side. ¹³ The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing”, praise the Lord.

          Before I continue, let me just wish our mothers Happy Mother’s Day today, forgive me for not saying that earlier. Congratulations to the mothers in the house; congratulations to those who are born of mothers, I guess I’ve covered everybody there, praise God! God will bless you richly for us and continue to use you to guide and guard and direct us in the way of God in Jesus name, praise the Lord! Many happy returns in Jesus name.   

We were introduced to David in 1^st Samuel 16 when God sent Prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his sons as a replacement for the reigning King Saul; we know the story of David very well. Jesse was blessed by God with formidable team of young men who can be king; they were kingly in appearance and they were renowned warriors, 1^st Samuel 16: 6 – 10 tells us about them.

 Let us quickly know about the children of Jesse, “And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord‘s anointed is before him. ⁷ But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

⁸ Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this. ⁹ Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. And he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this. ¹⁰ Again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The Lord hath not chosen these”; so they were all kingly in appearance, their father was proud of them, he brought them before Samuel but God did not choose any of them.

          Like all proud fathers, Jesse presented seven sons, all well qualified to the prophet but God did not choose any of them. But there was an eighth boy not apparently reckoned with who was not available to be presented, the prophet had to remind Jesse if anyone had been left out, it was only after the prompting of the prophet that Jesse remembered there was a young child who was keeping the flock in the wilderness.

We know the story very well; David was brought in from the jungle and lo and behold, he was God’s anointed. This was the beginning of God’s goodness in the life of young David; picked from among eight brothers who ordinarily looked more qualified, this reminds me of the story of people – maybe some of you are like that or somebody like me, who were born by grace.

I always tell myself I’m not a Samuel, I’m not a Joseph, I’m not a John the Baptist, I was not a child that was looked for, I’m a sixth of six children, praise God! Two brothers already, three sisters already, so nobody was actually looking for another child, just born by grace, maybe you are like me too.

They looked for Samuel, they looked for John the Baptist, but sixth out of six – that’s my mother’s side, don’t let me tell you about my father’s side, I don’t have any position there, praise God.

So some of us are like that, maybe David was also like that, he forgot him maybe because he had many children, the others were there so he can’t even remember, praise God! They already had boys, they already had girls and someone just came along, he said okay, thank God for him, we can have him as well, so some of us were born by grace unlike those that their parents prayed for fervently, and God bless all those who were born by grace among us in Jesus name.

          Like Samuel and Joseph, the grace of God continued in the life of David; while at work in the wilderness looking after the sheep and goats for his father, the devil knowing his potentials sent bears and lions to attack David but Bible tells us David tore the animals to pieces.

Imagine a teenager dealing with a huge bear or ferocious lion; David gave his testimony in 1^st Samuel 17: 33 – 37, he actually said he pursued the bear, he pursued the lion, they had taken what they wanted to take, he followed after them – a teenager. For those of us who watch Discovery Chanel, you cannot take a prey from a lion, just let him go with what he has taken and then run for your life, but David pursued it, (he said he) tore it into pieces, that was God’s grace in the life of David, God’s goodness in the life of David and He has that plan for you as well, praise God.

This was no Samson, Samson was heavily built, he was not heavily built physically; we always see the Bible pictures of David, small, normal 16-17 year old tearing lion to pieces, tearing bear to pieces, that is God’s work in the life of David, praise the Lord.

Then Goliath came along; the devil was not satisfied that David tore lion and bear to pieces, he now sent Goliath, a giant, a wall of attrition, a mountain to still stop David from the plan of God from his life. Goliath came along, he was proud, he was arrogant, he was spiteful, he was disdainful, he was a hindrance and mountain of calamity to King Saul and the entire army of Israel which incidentally included some of David’s older brothers, we also know this story very well.

David, by the goodness of God brought this mountain down; we have the assurance of God that (we shall) by the goodness of God we shall overcome our mountains as well in Jesus name. You will overcome your mountain, I will overcome my mountain; you will overcome your Goliath by the goodness of God in Jesus name.

          God has many ways to overcome mountains for us, we should not put God in a box. You know we have this idea of saying this is the way God works for Mr. Femi and that’s the way He’s going to work for me, it doesn’t work that way, we should stop putting God in a box.

He defeated Goliath for David in a way; for you, He may take you over the mountain, He may bore a hole through the mountain for you, He may take you round the mountain, that is God for you, He is Sovereign, you cannot put Him in a box, He’s the Adonai God; He can flatten the mountain for you; He can drown the mountain in the sea for you, just allow Him to be God, He’s a good God, praise the Lord!

He can cause us to fly as an eagle over the mountain and soar above it, God has many ways of dealing with mountains in our lives but just allow Him to be God in His own way.

          Then another challenge, David became a renowned warrior in the land and was leading the army of Israel on war campaigns against bigger, stronger and more formidable nations – the Amalekites, the Ammonites, all the ‘vites’ of the Bible and David defeated them all through the goodness of this God. Remember it’s not about David, it’s about God and I pray for you today that God will give you victory over more formidable opponents and competitors in business in the name of Jesus Christ. No matter how big they are, the goodness of God will make you outperform them in Jesus name.

          Then it was around this period that King Saul turned against David, he became extremely jealous of David’s achievements; the devil pushed him (Saul) to seek David’s elimination, you know it’s always been the devil that sent bear, sent the lion, he sent Goliath, he now sent King Saul. The devil will not relent, he’s an unrelenting fool, so the fact that you just defeated him doesn’t mean he will not fight again, we need to keep standing, he will keep sending additional foes, I’m sure we have that experience of the devil already but we’re not majoring on him today, we’re majoring on God and we shouldn’t major on the devil anyway because they defeated him already, praise the Lord!

King Saul turned against David; he pursued David through the nooks and crannies of Israel to take his life but the goodness of God saved David from King Saul. There was a particular time that he nearly caught David but God intervened at the nick of time, 1st Samuel 23: 25 – 28, it’s very instructive, “Saul also and his men went to seek him (that’s David). And they told David; wherefore he came down into a rock, and abode in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon.

²⁶ And Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them.

²⁷ But there came a messenger unto Saul, saying, Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land. ²⁸ Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Selahammahlekoth”.

God will send a message to that person pursuing you; God will distract them; Saul was distracted, he heard news from home that there was problem at home; God will send philistines after those pursuing you, they will distract them and then you can pursue your God-given goal in Jesus name. In peace and quiet, God will send that person that will completely and totally distract them.

          So Saul had a negative report from home that made him abandon the pursuit of David and I pray for you this morning that God will make that unrestrained pursuer of your destiny to be distracted. God will cause trouble to multiply for them such that they will not have time or ability to pursue you any longer; they will not have time to pursue your destiny any longer.

God gave victory to David over King Saul as we see in 1^st Samuel 24: 12 – 15; when he actually had a chance to kill Saul, the goodness of God in his life prevented him from doing so. I pray for you today that by the goodness of God, you would not have to avenge yourself of your enemies. God will take over your battle and avenge for you.

          If you know the story very well, Saul almost met his death immediately after David just left him, it was like God saying leave him for Me, I’ll deal with him, don’t use your hand to kill him, he’s God’s anointed. You will have sweatless and effortless victory in Jesus name. Your victory will be sweatless and effortless in the mighty name of Jesus.

          Now David became king despite all the travails; the whole idea was not to let him fulfill destiny but God gave him king and then internal enemies took over; he had defeated the external enemies – the bears, the lions, the Goliath, the King Saul, now internal enemies came.

To be sure all the things we are saying about David, he was a very ineffective father, we know his story about adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his top soldiers. David had problem with lust which is an internal enemy, we all have to contend with internal enemies – some of us it may be anger, some of us, it’s pride, some of us it’s lust of this, lust of that, some of us it’s love of money, these are internal enemies, David had his own internal enemies too, he had become king already but the internal enemy would not leave him alone.

Maybe like David, you had made a mess of your life through internal enemies, God is saying to you today that there’s room for forgiveness. God forgave David, he committed adultery, not only committed adultery, he now committed murder to cover adultery and to who but one of his trusted generals, praise God!

But God forgave him; don’t forget we are talking about the goodness of God     , this same God, so good, so merciful forgave David, Psalm 51: 10 – 12, David cried for help when he was confronted by prophet Nathan about what he did wrong, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. ¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit”, praise God.

David prayed and God answered him. And like David, maybe you are here too, you thought you have made a mess of your life, thank God for that song from the choir – there’s nothing that God cannot do, nothing that God cannot do does not exist, praise God! God can still turn your life of mess into a message and that’s what God will do for you in Jesus name, but what you need is to come clean like David and the loving goodness of God will save you in Jesus name.

          So like we said, David’s first internal enemy was his flesh, and I pray for you today and as I pray for myself that the unregenerated flesh will not get you into trouble. It is the flesh that is not born again, our spirit is born again but your flesh is not born again, that’s why you crave for things and it’s up to you and with the grace of God to suppress the flesh. It wants to eat when you should not eat; it wants to sleep when you should not sleep; it wants to play when you should not play; it wants to be looking at what you shouldn’t be looking at, praise God!

David looked, he did not take his eye away because he was king. In those days, even now, kings are – that’s why the Yorubas call them ‘ka bi o o si’, the one you cannot question, go and get the woman for me and the poor people just went to get the woman for him and the woman too could not question, king is calling you, she had to go and answer, praise God! May God help us against our internal enemies, the flesh.

Some of us use our power, you may not be a king but you are powerful in your place of work, you are powerful at home, you have authority over some people and you lord it over them unnecessarily – internal enemy, watch out for that internal enemy, praise the Lord!

          So that was one, God forgave David but there was still more problem for him; Absalom, one of his children, supported by one of his trusted aides, Ahitophel, rebelled against David; they chased David out of the palace, they chased him out of Jerusalem, praise God! But this good God brought David back; this God that we are talking about restored David to the throne, by the special grace of God, Absalom was defeated and David returned to Jerusalem and to the palace. You will be restored from that position where men have dislodged you in Jesus name. You will repossess your lost possession.

Some of us have lost something that we do not even realize we’ve lost; God will give you that thing that you are not even aware that you have lost in Jesus name. You will be restored, you will regain possession I the mighty name of Jesus.

          David’s internal trouble did not end there, another son, Adonijah, staged the coup when he saw an opportunity, 1^st Kings 1, and he had the support of the strongest general in David’s army, Joab. Joab incidentally was David’s nephew, son of one of David’s sisters; Joab joined hands with one of David’s children to stage a coup against David, they wanted to make Adonijah king while David was still alive, how can two kings be on the same throne? Praise God!         

Internal enemies – his own child supported by his own nephew to chase him out of the palace but the goodness of God helped David, praise God. The mercies of God helped David to overcome this last challenge and he succeeded in anointing Solomon as king in his stead, that was God’s plan for David, praise God. He was able to eventually make Solomon king in his stead; the goodness of God helped David to hand over to a successor chosen by God; David was able to finish strong and well despite all the vicissitudes of life he faced, he died peacefully and contentedly, the goodness of God kept him, 1^st Kings 2: 10 – 12.

“So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. ¹¹ And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem. ¹² Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly”, praise God. So David was able to finish well; he was able to like Apostle Paul say I’ve run a good race, 2^nd Timothy 4: 7 – 8, I have done well, praise the Lord.

But today, like I said earlier, we are talking about the goodness of God in the life of David. I didn’t mention the topic in the first place, it’s the Goodness of God or the Goodness of God in the Life of David, praise God.

We just come into a new year, 2024, and it’s already 70 days of that year, the promise of God for you (and I) is that this year will be better than the previous one in Jesus name. God is rekindling our hope and He has a plan for a turnaround for us as individuals, as families, as church and as a nation.

Here in CTL, we have as our theme for the year, God of Divine Turnaround, praise God! There shall be a turnaround for you; there shall be a turnaround for me; there shall be a turnaround for our nation, for your business, for your family this year 2024 in Jesus name.

          As I begin to close, let’s look at Deuteronomy 11: 10 – 12, it talks about God’s plan for our year, “For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: ¹¹ But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: ¹² A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year”.

God is talking about our 2024; for the Hebrews that He was talking to in Deuteronomy, they were looking at the Promised Land; for us, we are talking about the year ahead, the ten months that is still left for this year, God is saying that I will water the land for you, My eyes will be on it from now till the end of the year; that I will make it a land of fruitfulness for you; that is the promise of God for us, that’s why we are talking about the goodness of this God, the wonderful God, the One that we believe in as a mission, the One that we believe in as a church, the God that’s the Maker of heaven and earth, the only God.

He says from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. So what this passage is saying is that we will have God’s care and goodness in this year; for you and I, the goodness of God and favor of God is guaranteed in the New Year.

          So like I said earlier, we are talking about the goodness of God in the life of David and let’s look at ourselves, let’s situate ourselves in the place of David, how has God been good to you from the beginning of your life till now? Maybe your journey is about 40 years, maybe yours is 45, maybe somebody’s journey is 70 years, how has God helped you? Over the seas, over the waters, over the rail, over everywhere, you’ve travelled, you come back, this good God has been there supporting; some of us have had surgeries, dangerous surgeries that others have not recovered from, praise God!

We have domestic accidents at home, we have accidents on the road and God saves us all the time. I had a ‘small’ domestic accident (well, I call it small now) at home after church last Sunday; I was trying to put the fan on and I stumbled and I hit my rib against the reclining chair, it could have been my head on the floor, praise God! It was very painful, for about 10 minutes I was stunned, I just sat on the floor and I was feeling immense pain; I thought I had cracked one of the ribs, it was a major fall, just last Sunday, praise God!

So these are things we go through with the goodness of God; it was painful, the pain went down a bit after about ten minutes and I went out with my wife for a function, I got there and I couldn’t eat because breathing was a bit difficult and I couldn’t swallow but I can do that right now. It made me remember the goodness of God; at a point, breathing was difficult, you know normally you breathe in you breathe out, you don’t realize you are breathing, but because my rib was aching I was feeling it; each time I tried to breathe in and out, I was feeling the ache, it was like I had a broken rib, just a small domestic accident inside the house, I wasn’t inside the car, I just fell, I just lost my balance, I fell backwards and I just managed to escape the glass table, I could have fallen on the glass with bigger injuries.

These are things we take for granted every day, God is always good, this merciful God, this Creator, this Redeemer, this Sustainer, this Provider, He’s always watching out for us, praise God! Because what if I had fallen on the glass table with cuts maybe in the artery, the only person at home was my wife with me, no driver, nobody to rush anybody to the hospital and God kept me. I’m saying this as a testimony, I’m sure you have testimonies too of God’s goodness in this 70 days of 2024, I’m not talking about previous years, I’m talking about this 2024, how God has saved you, especially those that we did not even realize that we are involved in, our God is a good God, merciful, always abounding in mercy; if He can do that for David, He can do that for you as well as we bow our heads to pray this morning.

Reflect on God’s goodness and choose to be on His side; Psalm 124 says if it had not been the Lord on our side, where will we be? Reflect on God’s goodness, how He has helped you, how He’s helping you, how He will help you, and if you don’t know this God that we are talking about, you don’t know Him sufficiently well enough but you’ve heard about His goodness in the life of David, as we pray this morning, but for some of us our prayer will be thank God for Your goodness in my life as you begin to mention those goodness; for others, the prayer is that God, I want to know Your goodness, I want to start enjoying Your goodness, maybe because you haven’t started enjoying His goodness and it’s because  you are not known by Him, can you just wave your hand this morning and let’s pray quickly so that you can begin to enjoy the goodness of this God.

He’s a good God, He’s also a consuming fire, praise God! We have examples also of those in the Bible, I could choose to use today to explain His other side as well because we are talking about God; I can choose to talk maybe next week if I’m asked to do this again on the consuming power of God and I will give you example as well, praise God. So don’t be on His other side…     

[Altar call]

Heavenly Father, King of glory, we want to return glory, we want to return praise, we want to return honor to Your name, oh Lord. Thank You for Your goodness, thank You for Your loving kindness, thank You for being our Savior, thank You for being our Redeemer, thank You for being our Daddy, glory be to Your name oh Lord, accept our praises this morning, accept our thanks Jehovah, in Jesus name we prayed.    

Thank You Jesus,

Salvation Prayers

If you don’t Know Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour and would like to accept him into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, Please say this prayer:

Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from You. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward You. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that Your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send Your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your Will for the rest of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

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