More on the goodness of God

I have to preach this Sunday evening. That's right our church is having Sunday evening service and saying "What Super Bowl?". They even asked the biggest football fan in the church to preach that night. So I'm on. And I'm trying to make it as different a service as I can. I'm not sure how that will work yet. But I'm going to preach on the goodness of God. This is my thoughts so far, feel free to chime in.

As I sat back and watched the Colts lose in the playoffs again I was sick. As I type this I thought back and can remember where I sat and my reactions to the last few times the Colts have lost in the playoffs. Once at Rob's in Brownsburg, once I bounced a full sippy cup off of a youth group kid's head... Anyways I sat there and realized that now I want them to win more for them than for me. This group of guys needs to win a Super Bowl. I decided that I was going to do everything in my power to see them succeed. Than I thought again. I'm 5'10 and weigh 195, Oh yeah I'm 31 too. I can't become a player and help them. So maybe I could be a coach, well I'm probably overestimating my knowledge about football and even if I was a football genius by the time I made the pro level even as an assistant these players would probably be retired. So, without committing major felonies, I really cannot help this team succeed. I don't have the knowledge or power to do it.

I'm a huge fan of the Colts. But God is even a bigger fan of ours. Romans 8:31 says that He is for us. God wants you to succeed. He is a fan our yours. How do we know that? Well he came and died for your sins. And example that Chip Ingram gives in God As He Longs For You To See Him is of an uncle that pays a ten million dollar ransom for you when you were kidnapped. Are you worried the next day how that uncle feels about you? No. You know he cares about you. God payed a bigger ransom for you. Know that He cares about you. So if God is a bigger fan of yours than I am of the Colts than what differences are there between my fandom and His.

The first difference is that He has the power to do something. God is all powerful. He is sovereign. He can bring the things into your life that will help you succeed. When we doubt God's goodness sometimes we are doubting His power.

The second difference is that He knows what needs to be done. God knows everything. He knows what you need in your life to help you succeed. When we doubt God's goodness many times we are saying we know more about what we need than God knows.

The perfect example of all this is Joseph. Remember Joseph? Joseph's life kindof starts of by being thrown into a pit. That would be bad. But it gets worse. Joseph is sold into slavery. That would be bad. But it gets worse. Joseph is thrown into prison for something he didn't do. But because of all that Joseph ends up second in command over Egypt. Egypt is the world power at that time. So Joseph is second in command over the world. Except that being second in command really meant being in command because pharoah didn't really do anything. Do you think that when Joseph sat down with his guidance counselor he said, "I want to be thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, and then go to prison."? Joseph trusted God's knowledge and power even when God was bringing things that Joseph knew were bad into his life.

It reminds me of two a days when I played high school football. I swore my coach hated me and just wanted to punish me. He made us run gassers and do monkey rolls. I hated both. They were bad things he was bringing into my life. But they prepared me for football in late October. If I had not done those bad things in August I wouldn't have been prepared to play football in October. Now if only coach had let me leave the bench and put some of that to use...

God knows what's best for us. He has the power to bring it into our lives. He only wants goodness for us. We need to trust that goodness of God through every circumstance in our lives.

whoa long post