Speaker 1 0:00

Hi , thanks for listening to this episode of the Goodly Talks podcast . Let's jump in .

Exploring God's Goodness and Nature

Speaker 2 0:05

As I was pondering about what to speak about tonight . I'm one of those people who I don't typically just sit down and start to write . I ponder for like a week or so , or however much time I have , before I actually have to come up with something . And I started pondering , knowing we had made a schedule . And so I started pondering a few weeks ago about what I was going to talk about tonight . And as I began my ponder , I always begin by saying Lord , what would you like me to talk about ? Sounds like a good idea , right ? Which is what I did . And all I heard was one word . It's a good word , the word goodness . And I thought okay , I like that . You know , I can do that . Feel confident , I can speak about your goodness .

Speaker 2 0:48

And it's funny because I think automatically when I think about , you know , laying the foundations at Goodly and the things that I would normally want to speak about first , I'm almost always going to say I want to speak about the Father Heart . I want that to be a foundation , and I think it will be a foundation , because it's a foundation of who Alan and I are and how we live our lives . And so the truth is , you're going to hear the message of the Father Heart woven in between all these different things . I think goodness , though , is something more or different from that , and that's what we're going to talk about today is is what is the goodness of God , and how do we partner with it ? You know how do we experience it . So that's kind of where we're going . Sound good , all right ? Well , let's start here . Psalm 100 , verse five says For the Lord is good and his love endures forever . His faithfulness continues through all generations . So he is good . Yeah , it's his character , it's his nature , it's who he is . It's not something that he has to work up or become , and it's not something he can be separated from . It is who he is . He is good . Do we agree ? All right ? Good , I'm so glad , see , we're agreeing on scripture . This is all good , it's all coming together . There are so many scriptures that declare his goodness , and I love that , because you can't sort of be at a loss for finding one . Let's just say that .

Speaker 2 2:32

But it also seems like there's an enormous amount of confusion , mostly in the world , but even sometimes in the church , about whether he's good or not . I kind of understand the world , not understanding it . I'm real sad that the church doesn't really get it . Sometimes he's good , like he's really really good , isn't that wonderful ? I wonder what it would look like if all the children of God just kind of started living like he was actually good . I don't know , maybe the world would actually want to follow us to find out what we're about . Depending on our background , depending on our life's experiences , things that we've been through , even sometimes well-meaning things that people have said , we can start to diminish God's goodness , can't we in our heart . Let's look at who God says he is .

Speaker 2 3:25

I love looking at the beginning of the book and let's just see what scripture actually says again about the Lord . Now the setup for this , of course , is you know , moses has said show me your face , right ? He's like show me who you are , I want to see you , I want to know you . And God says okay , and he passes by him . And as he passes by him , it says this and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord , the Lord , God merciful and gracious , long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth . So remember , moses has said tell me who you are . And he has said okay , I'm going to answer that fully . This is who I am . I want you to know me . I want you to know that I am merciful , that I am gracious , that I am long suffering and that I am goodness and truth I'm abounding in . It , isn't that good .

Speaker 2 4:38

That verse always reminds me of another verse that we see . That's Galatians 5 , 22 , and 23 . It says but the fruit of the spirit is love , joy , peace , patience , kindness , goodness , faithfulness , gentleness and self-control . Against such things there is no law . I think we see here the very DNA of God . This is who he is . And then he's saying as we partner with the Holy Spirit , as he fills us and we start to look like the donor , we become this , we represent this , we carry this right Love , joy , peace , patience , kindness , goodness , gentleness and self-control . So goodness is within the very DNA of God , and the closer that we get to him and the more that we look like him , we carry that goodness with us . Isn't that cool ?

Speaker 2 5:38

I think what's really cool about is you can't make this happen . You know that right . You can't just power your way into this . All you can do is actually surrender and let the Holy Spirit bring this out of your life , right , bring these wonderful fruits out of your life . Here's the thing as much as I said . You know we can't make this happen . It's also not an instant thing , is it ? You know how we work out our salvation with fear and trembling . This kind of works out as well in our lives as we go along . Yeah , have you noticed You're maybe a little bit more patient than you were when you first got saved . Anyone , anyone A little kinder , a little gentler , maybe ? Right , we're all works in progress . God's doing it in us , and our main job in life is to just say yes , right , just all the time he issues an invitation . Yes , you know how about this ? Yes , I know that sometimes we say yes and then we go . What did I just say yes to ? And he also knows that too . So he's good .

Speaker 2 6:44

My main thought , of course , just returning to this , is that goodness is within his nature , and I don't think it's up for debate . If we are people that believe the Word of God , then we are people that know he is good . Yeah , let's look at this . Psalm 23 , verse 6 says Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever .

Speaker 2 7:19

I kind of have a visual that goes with this . Like , no matter where we're walking , this is the visual that goes on in my head . Welcome to my head . It's scary in there . You don't want to stay too long .

Speaker 2 7:29

No , you know , when we're walking it says goodness and loving kindness are following you . It's like whatever you're walking into , it's right here . If something's following you , it's right with you . Does that make sense ? So there's no place you can go when you are outside of his goodness , because he's following you . And I think sometimes what actually happens is we take a snapshot of our lives where maybe we're having a day where you know it's raining , the kids are crying , whatever all the things that we wish weren't happening were happening you know what I'm talking about that day and we're like where's your goodness , where God , you know . But we're doing it in this little tiny snapshot , not in the overall spectrum of what he's doing . Does that make sense ? Or even what he did yesterday , maybe , or what he might do tomorrow ? Do any of you ever do that ? To just kind of like , feel the moment and be like , oh , and that doesn't mean the moment's not real .

Speaker 2 8:26

Like you guys , you're allowed to have your emotions and be in the moment and be like this feels really hard and God wants to come and meet you in that really hard place and be real to you there too . What I'm trying to encourage you is don't let yourself get to the place where you think , because things are really hard right now , god has stopped being good . He can't have , because he is good , yeah , and so whatever is happening right now , it's temporal , it's just a moment , and it's going to shift because God is bigger . I often think sometimes we're not seeing the goodness of God because we're not looking for it . We're maybe even looking for proof of the opposite , like , sometimes , our perspective .

Speaker 2 9:17

Have you ever noticed that when you get in the gray mood , everything starts to look great ?

Speaker 2 9:21

You know what I'm talking about .

Speaker 2 9:23

So I think sometimes we can end up in seasons where it feels like there's so much hard that all we're noticing is the hard things and we're not noticing any of the bright lights or the things that God is actually doing on our behalf . Am I the only person that has these moments ? Yeah , so goodness is not subjective to whatever our day feels like . He is good , his goodness is there , and I think , actually , if we would say , ok , in this moment , god , I'm struggling to see your goodness , will you help me , will you open my eyes to see the goodness that you've placed around me ? I think he will show you he's done it for me time and time again where I'm like , ooh , you know , and he's like OK , I see you , I see you and you're allowed to be there , but also , do you want to look up , because I want to meet you and I want to show you the good things around you ? I say all that to say I think it would be good if we could live in an expectation of goodness instead of something else .

Speaker 1 10:31

Yeah .

Speaker 2 10:34

I was pondering in my ponder this week . Welcome , welcome , john 1010, .

Trusting in God's Goodness Through Trials

Speaker 2 10:42

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy . I came that they may have life and have it abundantly .

Speaker 2 10:52

I think sometimes our negative experiences come down to nothing more than there's two different job descriptions going on here . Does the enemy have a plan for your life ? Sure , yeah , he does . His plan is basically to destroy anything that God wants to do . That's good , right .

Speaker 2 11:11

Here's the thing . I don't spend my life focusing on what the enemy's up to . I don't know if this is the right way to say it . I'm not that interested . God is so much bigger that I'm not worried about what the enemy's plan is . Yeah , but are there two plans ? Sure , there's two plans . Are hard things going to happen ? Yup , is everything in your life going to be like chocolates and roses ? No , however , his goodness will be with you through it all . Does that make sense ? It doesn't change , don't you love that God is so much bigger ? Psalm 27 , verse 13 and 14, . It says I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living . Wait for the Lord , be strong and let your heart take courage . Yes , wait for the Lord .

Speaker 2 12:14

I've had many situations . Alan referenced my testimony a little bit . Many of you know my testimony . I can't remember how you worded it Something in horror , shock , horror , something you know , horror . There were lots of pain involved , in my childhood experiences particularly . But I did the math and I realized I have now been saved for 37 years . Thank you , don't do the math . And in those 37 years , even though I've been saved , my life has been given to the Lord . There's still been lots of challenges . There's been lots of trials . There's been lots of places where I could have gone like , hey God , do you still know where I am ? Have you still got my GPS coordinates over here ?

Speaker 2 12:57

I was telling Alan one this morning and he'd never heard it before , but I actually was cliff diving once and I was with about 14 people . We had driven these boats across the lake to this place where you could jump off of a cliff , thus cliff jumping , and we got over there . We had all climbed up . Now that I think about it , it was insane what we were doing , but we were in our 20s and at that point you think you're like I don't know , you can't die , or something I don't know . And so we had all climbed up to these little ledges because we had driven by and seen these ledges and all of us were like we should jump . We had all scurried up and managed to get on these ledges .

Speaker 2 13:36

Well , a storm rolled in and I got hit by lightning . Me and my friend Teresa out of the 14 of us got hit by lightning . Now we went to the hospital and we were fine . I don't know how we were fine , so I guess that's God's goodness right there , but I was literally like we got hit by lightning . I was like , seriously , god , you didn't know , I was here , yeah .

Speaker 2 14:02

So , in case you're wondering , it doesn't feel great to get hit by lightning , but I've had lots of those seasons where I'm like Lord , I'm struggling to find you in the midst of what I'm experiencing right now . I remember a number of years ago going through a season where part of my testimony is that I was married and that my first husband had an affair with a friend of mine and he laughed . And then I was single for about eight years and I had gone on a trip with some friends of mine and after eight years I had arrived at it's easier for my heart to stop hoping . It's easier for my heart to just go . You know what ? I'm gonna be single for Jesus , which there's nothing wrong with being single for Jesus , but that wasn't actually what God was speaking to me about . That's how I was protecting my heart . So it makes sense says a little bit different . I was traveling and speaking at the time and stuff . I'm just gonna do this , I'm gonna do these things and I'm gonna give up what my heart actually wants and I've seen no evidence in eight years that this ship is going to turn .

Speaker 2 15:09

You know and it wasn't that I hadn't seen evidence of God's goodness in other areas . I didn't feel like I was seeing it here and I wasn't viewing it as God's protect to me . Until a week from then I would meet Alan , because I didn't know that right , because we never do know that right in those seasons , you don't know what's gonna happen and I lost sight of God's goodness and thought I would help him out by shutting down my heart so that I could function right . I'm sure you guys are familiar with that pattern and have done that in different ways , and I don't think God even gets mad about it or anything he's like oh , I get it . I get that this is painful , but actually my goodness wants to meet you right in the midst of that as well . Yeah , I have seen God time and time and time again come through With his goodness .

God's Goodness in Every Situation

Speaker 2 16:02

We have been in incredible credit card debt . Seventy two thousand dollars worth of credit card debt and Somebody send us a check for 76 , you know . But in the moment that you're in the credit card debt and you don't know that the check is coming , it doesn't feel like God is very good . But I think those are exactly the moments where we need to go . Okay , I may not see it , but the word says it , and so you are and I'm not letting go . I've had just as many moments where we're in the midst of something you know , in the midst of loss , in the midst of betrayal , whatever it is , and the longer that I've walked with the Lord , the more that I've been able to camp out in the okay , god , I didn't see this coming . This is super painful , but if there's one thing that I know , it's that you're gonna turn this around for good , because it's what you do , and it's probably gonna be pretty cool to see how this thing happens .

Speaker 2 17:04

One of my Favorite verses I would say it's a life verse is Romans 828 and the Lord . When I first got saved I was dealing with all kinds of stuff . So I got saved . But I'm living in a scary situation and I was suicidal and anorexic and I just had a whole bunch of things going on . And I remember Reading this verse and the Lord saying to me this is gonna be what your life is like . I'm gonna redeem everything . And I remember thinking that is not possible , like I had no idea of the bigness of God . I really didn't . I was just barely surviving . But he gave me this verse and I mean , do you guys remember yahoo addresses ? My yahoo address was Romans 828 ? Because I was like this is it like I'm declaring this thing even though I don't see it ? You know I was like , okay , god , I don't see it , but you're saying it . So , romans 828 , let's do it . So we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those that love God and are called according to his purpose . All things , even the things you think he can't possibly redeem . He works together for good , right , like when we sing about him being a miracle working God . That's not just like healing or whatever . It's so much more than that . He's not constrained by the things that we think constrain him . Yeah , a Number of years ago I'm trying to think when the song was released some of you musicy people might know this musicy people , that's a new term , you're welcome but Jen Johnson released a song called the goodness of God .

Speaker 2 18:52

I'm thinking it was sometime around 2016-17 somewhere in there , and I remember hearing that song and I would just drop with it . Each time I was like it's my song , like this is my song , and I really never had a song that I felt like this is like my anthem , the goodness of God song , you know . And Anyway , I remember teaching a group of students and and I had said like hey , this is my song that you know . And and I had said the words you guys probably know this song , but it's like all my life you have been faithful . All my life You've been so , so good .

Speaker 2 19:29

And and I was talking to these students and afterwards one of them came up to me and said how can you say that when you have the testimony that you have , they weren't offended , they were just like I don't . I don't understand . How can you see God's goodness , you know , when you stand up there and you talk about the abuse that you went through and the fear and the loneliness and the you know , abandonment and all the things , and I Don't feel defined by those things . I honestly feel defined by his goodness . I Feel , like every single thing that I've walked through he has so removed the power from them that yet those are still the realities of what I went through . But I was never alone or I'd never be here right now .

Speaker 2 20:18

In his goodness , I'm still alive . In his goodness , even though I tried to kill myself twice . It never worked Right . In his goodness , I'm not only standing upright but loving life . Yeah , in his Goodness , because of his goodness , I'm able to be a person who is present with other people . Like again , a lot of times when you hear a testimony like mine , you expect to see something different , maybe standing in front of you , and I don't think it has anything to do with me . I think it has everything to do with him . He just sort of went oh , we're gonna take care of that now , we're gonna , and and so nicely , like it's , not even like he did all of it at once Because I think you'd combust , but just so kindly , so kindly Just removed every little barb , because he's good , because his goodness is going to win . In every situation he wins and your , his and his goodness and loving kindness follow you everywhere .

Speaker 2 21:25

So good right , I don't believe that God's plan for my life is that I would experience the amount of pain and sorrow that I did . I think that was the enemy's plan . I don't think it was God's plan . But again , God redeems all things . So it's almost like it doesn't matter what the enemy plan , because it really doesn't , Because God's plan is always bigger and it's always going to trump whatever the enemy had planned , do you agree ?

Speaker 2 22:07

I like to think about the story of Joseph and I like to think about his journey . I don't know if any of you have ever done this . For many , many years . I think about his journey and then I ask the Lord , where am I in the journey ? Because I feel like I could relate to him in many ways . Like life feels like it should have gone this way , but then , you know , sold into slavery and then falsely accused , and then he goes to prison . I mean , he's just having one bad thing after another , right , even though he has all these amazing prophetic words about what God's going to use him for . He's having one thing after another that's going wrong . Right , you know the story . But then he actually gets to where God completely redeems the situation . And I used to say again , because I felt like I could so relate to him . I would be like , ok , where am I in the story ? Like , am I at part of ourselves ? Have I made it to prison yet ? Like , what a weird statement . Have I made it to prison yet , you know ? Because I could see myself in this story and looking for God to actually bring whatever he was going to bring .

Speaker 2 23:15

But I love what Joseph says at the very end of the story . When he's with his brothers and they're so sad about what they've done . He says don't you see ? You planned evil against me , but God used those same plans for my good . What if the thing that God is doing in you right now , the goodness that he's going to shine through you , isn't just for you , but it's actually for a much larger community around you ? I bet you it is . I bet you it is . I bet you , whatever the thing is that right now you're working out with him and you're saying , god , I need to see your goodness here . That breakthrough affects other people in kind of like a ripple effect . I love that the goodness that God showed to Joseph didn't just buy his own freedom , but actually bought the freedom of a nation . I believe that God's goodness to me didn't just help me be upright and part of society , but allowed me to give something to other people around me . God's goodness to you isn't just for you , but it's for everybody you come in contact with .

Speaker 2 24:40

It's for your family , it's for your kids , it's for your community , it's for the people that work with you who maybe have never gotten in touch with God's goodness , but they see a walking representation of it right in front of them when you walk in the room , Because remember from Galatians 5 , you're carrying his goodness everywhere you go , and that's not like a heavy weight , you understand right ?

Speaker 1 25:06

It's not like oh , here I go carrying his goodness .

Speaker 2 25:10

Such hard work . It's just like we get to just show up and love well and carry his goodness wherever we go and he will affect everywhere we go . I was also thinking in my pondering about goodness . And again back to OK . So there's probably a couple of plans going on . There's your plan , there's maybe some plans that other people have around you for your life , there's the enemy's plans and there's God's plans . So there's a bunch of plans , yeah , but I think again , god so overwhelmingly wins .

Speaker 2 25:46

I was thinking about you , remember , when Balaam is trying to curse the people of God , and he's trying to curse them , and every time he opens his mouth , god causes blessings to come out instead of curses and he gets frustrated . He tries to do it even better and it's more and more blessings . Right , I was thinking about that . I was like God is so big , his blessings towards you are so big , his goodness towards you are , so it's so big . What if we actually started believing that ? What if we actually started partnering with that ? What if we actually started saying , ok , god , help me see your goodness ? Today ? I think that there is an invitation for us to experience his goodness , and the nature of invitations is you actually have to open it and respond If you just carry around the envelope and you never check what's inside . Yeah , you've got an invitation , but you sort of missed a couple of steps there and that's why you don't know where to show up to receive whatever it was . I think he's issued an invitation to us to experience his goodness on a new level .

Speaker 2 27:08

The Bible says taste and see that the Lord is good . Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him . His goodness is to be experienced . He wants us to experience his goodness and again , there's whole portions of the church that are afraid of experience . I have an issue with that because the Bible is a book of experiences . I think experience is good and God actually wants to meet us with his goodness that we would experience it . I think God is so into you understanding goodness that he actually built your bodies to know what goodness is .

Speaker 2 27:51

He could have made it so we only see the whole world in black and white , but he didn't . We see it . We see it in color . Why so much joy in seeing colors ? Right ? Is anybody else right ? I mean , you're like I think so . I've never tried black and white , but yeah , he's built us to experience the world around us . He could have made the world silent . I don't know why he would , but he's given us this ability to hear beautiful things , like nature I was going to say like babies crying . That's maybe not that beautiful , maybe not that beautiful , but it can be Like music . He's built our bodies to be able to receive goodness . How about taste buds ? Didn't have to give us taste buds , did he ? But he did give us taste buds , which means we can taste butter .

Speaker 2 28:45

Let's talk about butter for just a minute . It is God's goodness that butter exists . We're a big butter household . We actually eat Kariah Gold butter on crackers . We don't need the cheese , just the butter . Thank you , thank you . Clearly , we have some other butter people in the room , so that's wonderful , I think , since we're built to experience his goodness and he is good , which we've already established . If we're not experiencing it , then there's maybe something that's in the way . Yeah , will you go with me that far ? All right , so let's look at that for a second .

Speaker 2 29:24

I have some questions for us to ponder . We're going to have a pondering moment , a quietness pondering moment , because we have to after I've said the word this many times . Here's the first thing I want you to ponder Are we living in expectation of goodness or of disaster ? Are we expecting to see his goodness come around the corner ? Are we expecting another thing to happen , another bad thing to happen , or maybe even just another neutral thing , a myth thing to happen ? Lord , would you align us with an expectation of your goodness , I wonder , do we not see his goodness ? Because we are only actually assessing if he is good when things are in upheaval , so we're not really thinking about his goodness when we're in the midst of his goodness , but when we're having the bad day or the bad moment of the bad season , we're , like like me , on the rocks right . I think it's really easy to do that .

Finding God's Goodness in Life

Speaker 2 30:54

I think , as people maybe I'll just speak for myself it's really easy to take goodness for granted when goodness is all around you . It's in the moments when you're like I'm struggling to find it right now , when I feel all these other things going on , but usually that's when we want to start assessing . Right , don't ? That's not the moment to assess . That's probably the moment to lie on the floor and let God be God right and come and meet you where you're at .

Speaker 2 31:22

My third thought is are we practicing thankfulness ? I think thankfulness is a huge key to break through on so many areas , especially in the moments when we're like it's gray today , or maybe it's darker than gray , maybe it's graphite . I don't want to go right to black , it's going to be fine , you know , in those moments if we could go okay , instead of assessing whether I think you're good , father , will you help me be thankful , because thankfulness actually opens a door for us to be able to see what God's doing . So I have some suggestions of things we can be thankful for . In case any of us are having a graphite day , there's tons of things , really , that you can use to point towards God's goodness . And again , I don't think here's what I'm not doing .

Speaker 2 32:17

I'm not saying pretend that things aren't hard and pretend that things don't hurt or don't do that . It's not going to help you to pretend right . God is happy to meet you right where you're at , with whatever you're going through , all of your emotions , all of your mess . He's not intimidated by any of it and he wants to be with you in the midst of it . Yeah , what I'm saying is in the midst of it , while you're with him , while you're huddled in there . Sometimes what's really helpful for our hearts is to figure out what can I see that God is doing , even when he's not doing the thing that I wish he was doing the most at this moment . Does that make sense ? So I'm not suggesting that the things that you're going through aren't real . I'm just offering us a choice to live in the tension of . He is good and my life is not perfect . Right , he's still good and things still need to change here .

Speaker 2 33:17

Some of the things for me that point towards his goodness are things like family , like I look at Alan and my little kitties and I'm just like , wow , god , you're so good , you know , you're so good . Look at this , look at this little family that I have here . Look at this incredible husband that I have . What did you say ? That's right , amen . But seriously , I didn't think my life was going that way . I'm so incredibly blessed . I have amazing friends . Look at this wonderful church , a little baby church . Right , there's things around you that you could start to be thankful for .

Speaker 2 34:05

If those things feel like maybe too big , what about things like ? I use this example all the time because I am thankful for I love showers . Showers are like the best and I think , from having done missions work and you don't get to have a shower , or you do , but you're sharing it with cockroaches and it's really cold . Showers are wonderful . So I usually start there when I'm like , oh , I love that . I'm having a hard time seeing your goodness , I'm having a hard time feeling thankful . I almost always start with showers and then butter is in there somewhere too . Let's just be honest , right ? So sushi , raw fish , I'm all about that . Nature helps me tons .

Speaker 2 34:40

Focus on his goodness . Yeah , I think it's supposed to . I think so many people I've met they're like oh , go outside and you know you see the beautiful things around you and you just are like I feel so much closer to him . I think he does that . I feel so much closer to him . I think he designed it that way . Yeah , I always love this time of year when everything's in blossom , except for the allergies . Part of that scenario I love . I love when everything's in blossom because it reminds me winter is over , everything is seasonal . If you are in the midst of a space where you're having a hard time seeing , the goodness of God , it is seasonal , it is temporal , it will pass , and then you head into spring . Yeah , that's what it reminds me of Romans 8 31 .

Speaker 2 35:35

If God is for us , who can be against us ? Listen , people can try , right . Doesn't really matter , though , because if God is for you , it doesn't matter who's against you . I think , if we look for goodness , then we'll start to see it on display , and I think I know that if we're in a moment where we're like I can't see it , if we ask the Holy Spirit , he'll show us , because he's good , like that Right , because he's the helper . He came to help us see things the way God sees them . So I wanted to do this for a minute . I'd love for you all to just take a moment and just close your eyes and just have a little conversation with the Holy Spirit . That goes something like this Holy Spirit , is there any place where I am missing the goodness that you're trying to show me in my life ? Holy Spirit , is there any area where I have missed the goodness that you're trying to show me ?

Speaker 1 37:11

Are you there ?

Speaker 2 37:28

I'm just going to get you to repeat after me , holy Spirit , I thank you that you are here to help me . Lord , I ask that you would help me see your goodness around me . Lord , I acknowledge right now that I believe the Word of God , and the Word says you are good and your goodness is extended towards me , and so this evening , I receive your invitation to taste and see that you are good . Thank you , god . Thank you , god . I'm just going to pray over you guys . Holy Spirit , I thank you that you are good and you are present and you are powerful , lord . For each person here , lord , I ask that if any of us are stuck in a gray season , lord , that you would bring a spring , that you would bring a changing of seasons . Lord , I ask that , for each person here , that they would feel your goodness and your loving-kindness surrounding them and following them everywhere that they go . And , lord , I thank you that , because of your goodness , you redeem everything . So , father , I speak redemption over whatever the circumstances are of the gray Lord , that you would come in and you would redeem like only you can do . Lord , I thank you that you are present , that we are never alone , that we are never without you . And , lord , I ask that you would move mightily on our behalfs , lord , as we look for goodness , would you fix all the other stuff ? Help us to focus on you , god . Give us blinders that help us focus only on you In Jesus' wonderful name , amen .

Speaker 2 40:49

The last thing I wanted to share with you in my pondering was I was thinking about Romans 2 , verse 4 , which says it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance .

Offering a Homecoming

Speaker 2 41:03

You know , it's because of His kindness , it's because of His goodness , that we want to be with Him in the first place , and I think we would be remiss if we didn't at least offer and say if there is anyone here who you didn't know he was kind , who didn't know he was good and you didn't know he wants to be in relationship with you , then I've got great news , because Jesus wants to come and be real to you today . And if that's you , if you're thinking I didn't know that or I used to know that , but I think my heart needs to come home , I want to offer a homecoming . So I want to ask you to do this .

Speaker 2 41:48

I'm going to ask you to just everybody to bow your heads and to close your eyes and just pray , and if you are here tonight and you need a homecoming , you want to give your life to the Lord , either for the first time , or return to Him , then I'm just going to ask if you would raise your hand , okay ? Well then I feel . All pray with me . As a prayer of remembrance , let's say this Lord Jesus , I thank you that I am yours and tonight again , I give you my heart . I ask you to be Lord of my life , I ask you to lead me and I ask you to surround me with your presence , and I commit my yes to you in your wonderful name , amen .

Speaker 1 43:07

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