Deep Dive: God's Goodness "Nearness Is the Good"

Elder Michael Tolliver presents the goodness of God as an essential, unchanging attribute that defines His very nature and all His actions. The text argues that true goodness is not found in material wealth or physical comfort, but is instead embodied in the person of God and His presence. By analyzing Psalm 73, the author illustrates how human perspective often falters when comparing the prosperity of the wicked to the trials of the righteous. Ultimately, the source contends that God’s benevolence is most perfectly revealed through the gospel of Jesus Christ and His sovereign grace. Believers are encouraged to recognize that even in times of suffering, nearness to God remains the ultimate definition of what is good.

Each month, Elder Tolliver offers a spiritually encouraging book to help you in your walk with Christ for any size donation. Please go to biblicaltalks.com website to take advantage of this opportunity. 

Transcript

Framing God’s Goodness

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Let's deep dive and conversate the scriptures. Welcome back to the deep dive. We are uh we're back at it today, and we are tackling a subject that honestly, when I first looked at the title of the source material, I thought, well, okay, I know this. Right. Everyone knows this. It's it feels incredibly familiar. But the more I read through this text, we're looking at a sermon by Elder Michael Tolliver.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Right, The Goodness of God.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Exactly. And the more I read it, the more I realized I have actually been looking at this entire concept through the completely wrong lens.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Aaron Powell Well, it's one of those classic cases where familiarity breeds uh well, maybe not contempt, but definitely a lack of understanding. Yeah. We think we know what a word means, so we just sort of stop thinking about it altogether.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Aaron Powell Totally. And this word is goodness.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Specifically the goodness of God.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

But before we get into the heavy theology of it, I uh I actually want to start with something way more mundane. I want to talk about your garage.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

My garage.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yes, you derive.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

You definitely do not want to talk about my garage. It is a total hazard zone right now.

The Storage Unit Paradox

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Right. And that is exactly the point. I was reading this statistic the other day while prepping for this deep dive, and I just can't get it out of my head.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

What is it?

SPEAKER_01 1:34

The self-storage industry of the United States generates something like $39 billion a year.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

That is billion with B.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

That is a staggering number. I mean, it's effectively an entire economy built on the premise that we have too much stuff and literally nowhere to put it.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Think about the absurdity of that for a second.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

We work hard, we buy a house.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

The house has closets, it has an attic, a garage. We fill those spaces up to the absolute brim.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

And instead of saying, okay, I have enough, or uh maybe I should just donate this old jet ski from 1998.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Right. We say, no, I need to rent a 10 by 10 concrete box three towns over to keep this stuff safe.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Exactly. We are paying rent for our junk.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

It's what you could call the storage unit paradox. We're living in this era of accumulation where we have so much perceived abundance that it actually becomes a burden we have to manage.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

It is overflow as a problem. Now, here is where the source material flips that completely on its head.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Elder Tolliver introduces this concept of God's storage. But the difference is God isn't storing junk.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

He isn't hoarding broken furniture or old clothes that are out of style.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

No. The text argues that God has a reserve, an absolute overflow, but it is an overflow of

God’s Infinite Reserve Of Good

SPEAKER_00 2:53

pure goodness.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

It is blessings and favor and benevolence that are stored up specifically for those who revere him.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

It's a really fascinating image because we usually think of God reacting to us in the moment.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

You know, we pray and he figures out what to do.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Aaron Powell Right. But this suggests he has a warehouse.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Warehouse.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Exactly. It's the idea that God is not scrambling. He isn't waking up in the morning checking his pockets and thinking, oh man, I hope I have enough patience to give to my people today.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Or enough joy.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Right. He has a massive infinite reserve.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Aaron Powell, which sounds amazing, right? Like God has a warehouse of good stuff for me. Sign me up.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

But here's the catch, and this is really the core tension of our deep dive today. Okay. If that warehouse exists, and if it's so incredibly full, why are we all so miserable half the time?

SPEAKER_00 3:38

That is the critical question.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

I mean, if you walk down the street right now and ask a random person, is God good?

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Almost everyone says yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Exactly. Even

Redefining Good Beyond Circumstance

SPEAKER_01 3:47

people who aren't particularly religious will often say, Yeah, you know, the man upstairs is looking out for me.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

It's a cultural truism. God is good all the time. It's literally a call and response in many churches.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

You say God is good.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

And the congregation says all the time, it's reflex.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

But the source points out a massive disconnect here. If we really believe that in our bones, why are we so quick to complain? Right. Why do we spend 90% of our mental energy focused on what we lack rather than that warehouse of goodness?

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Because we have a definition problem.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

A definition problem.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Yes. The mission of this text, and really our mission in this discussion, is to completely redefine what we mean when we use the word good.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Because we treat it like a mood.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Exactly. Or a stroke of luck.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Right. Like I found $20 on the sidewalk, so God is good.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Or I hit all green lights on the way to work. God is good.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

But what if I hit all red lights?

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Right. Or we complain. Right. The source is arguing that goodness is not a reaction to circumstances, it is a foundational attribute of God's nature that persists even when things are going terrible.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Okay, let's unpack this. Because I think we need to start with the anatomy of this word goodness. That's it. The source makes a really strong distinction right out of the gate.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Goodness isn't just something God does, it's who he is.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

This brings us to what theologians might call the ontological argument for goodness.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Whoa, pause. Ontological. That is a $10 word right there.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Well no.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

You can't just drop that and keep walking.

Ontology Of Goodness Explained

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Break that down for us.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Fair enough. So ontology is the study of being, existence itself.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

So when we say God's goodness is ontological, we're saying that goodness isn't just a habit God has picked up.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

It's not a behavior.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Right. It is the very fabric of his existence.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Okay, help me visualize that.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Think of a firefighter.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

A firefighter. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

A firefighter does brave things. They fight fires, they save people. Sure. But when they go home and they take off the uniform and sit on the couch to watch a football game, they aren't fighting fires anymore.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

The action is separate from the person.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Exactly. They can stop being a firefighter, they can retire.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

But the source argues that God cannot stop being good.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Because it's not a uniform he puts on.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

No, it's not a mood he's in today because he had a good night's sleep. It is his skin. It is his DNA. Wow. If God ceased to be good, he would actually cease to be God.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

That is a heavy concept because it implies that goodness doesn't really exist outside of him.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Precisely. And the text actually dives into linguistans here to prove the point, which I found fascinating. Aaron Powell, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Let's talk about the etymology of our English word God.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Did you know where it comes from?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Honestly, I assumed it just meant supreme being. Or maybe creator.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

It actually comes from the old Saxon root meaning the good.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

The good.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Yes. So quite literally, for centuries, our language hasn't been able to distinguish between the deity and the concept of goodness.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Aaron Powell They are completely synonymous.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

You cannot speak of God without speaking of good.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Which leads perfectly into what I'm calling the separation clause in the text.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Because the author gets a little spicy here.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

He does.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

He argues that you can't have one without the other. He notes that society and schools and our culture try to teach values or morality. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Which is essentially trying to teach goodness.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Right. While simultaneously removing God from the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

And the argument here is that this is a logical impossibility.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Aaron Ross Powell But play devil's advocate with me for a second. Okay. Can't I be a good person without believing in God? I mean, I know plenty of atheists who are kind, generous, moral people.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

They return their shopping carts, they donate to charity. Is the source saying they aren't good?

SPEAKER_00 7:33

That is the crucial question. And the source isn't saying a person who doesn't believe in God can't do kind things.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

But it is asking a deeper question. By what standard are you measuring kind or good?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

The yardstick.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Exactly the yardstick. If you remove God, who is the very definition of good, then good just becomes what I like. Or what society agrees on right now.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

And history shows us that what society agrees is good can change very quickly and become very, very dark.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Precisely. So without the sun, that being God.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

You can have a flashlight, which is human morality.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

But the battery eventually dies.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Or worse, you start calling the dark light.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

The source quotes Jesus on this specifically, Luke chapter 18, verse 19.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

What does he say?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

That says there is only one who is good.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

That is an absolute claim.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

It is. You cannot have the fruit if you chop down the tree. If you detach goodness from God, you're just left with human preference, which is incredibly shaky ground.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

It's like trying to have sunlight without the sun. You can't just bottle the light and get rid of the star.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Great analogy.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Now let's go back. Way back. The source traces this thread of goodness all the way to Genesis chapter one.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

The creation narrative. Yes. It's the refrain of the entire opening chapter of the Bible. God creates light, and what does he say?

SPEAKER_01 8:50

It was good.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

He creates the land.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

It was good.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

The seas. Good. It establishes

Language, Morality, And The Yardstick

SPEAKER_00 8:56

that the baseline for existence, the environment God intends for us, is goodness.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

But then, and I totally missed this in my previous readings of Genesis, the text points out the very first time God says something is not good.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

It's a really jarring moment in the text.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

This is Genesis 2.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Right. Up until now, everything is perfect. Then God looks at Adam and says, It is not good for the man to be alone.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

What's fascinating there is that the not good isn't sin.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

No.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Adam hasn't sinned yet. He hasn't eaten the fruit. The not good is a lack of connection.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Precisely. It highlights that God's intention is always for a specific type of environment.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

He saw a lack which was solitude.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

And his goodness compelled him to solve it by creating a companion.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

But almost immediately after establishing this perfect goodness, we are introduced to the central conflict.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

That tree is the stage for the battle. It sets up the choice.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

But before we get to the fall, there's one more aspect of this anatomy of goodness I want to touch on.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

The interaction between Moses and God.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Ah, yes. Exodus 33. This is a pivotal moment in the source material.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Because Moses is basically asking for the ultimate VIP pass.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

He is.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

He asks to see God's glory. He wants the fireworks. He wants the cosmic light show.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

He wants to see the face of the Almighty.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

And God's response is so telling.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

It really is. He doesn't say, I will show you my power.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

He doesn't say, I will show you my wrath.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

No. He says, I will make all my goodness pass before you.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Wait. So glory equals goodness.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

In this context, yes. The expert insight here is that God's glory is his goodness on display.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

When we talk about the radiance of God or the heavy weight of his presence, which is what the Hebrew word for glory, kebab, actually means. We are actually talking about the sheer intensity of his benevolence and character.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

So his goodness is the shiny part of who he is.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Exactly. It's the radiance.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

I love that image. Goodness isn't a soft, quiet, passive attribute. It's the radium blinding glory of the creator.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

It's active.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

But and here is where it gets really interesting, and for where we have to get real for a second. If God is so radiant and good, and if he has this infinite warehouse, why does life often feel so

Genesis: The Pattern Of Good

SPEAKER_01 11:12

incredibly bad?

SPEAKER_00 11:13

And this brings us to part two of our discussion: the crisis of perspective.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Because the source spends a significant amount of time analyzing Psalm 73.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

And specifically the figure of Asaf.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

I feel like ASAF is the patron saint of everyone who has ever looked at their Instagram feed and just felt totally depressed.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

That is a very accurate modern translation of his experience.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Introduces to ASAF. Who is this guy? Is he just some random complainer?

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Far from it. Asaf isn't a nobody. He's a Levite. Okay. He is a worship leader. He was appointed by King David himself as a chief musician.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Aaron Powell So he's not just a guy in the pews.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

No, this is a man who knows theology. He writes songs about God. He leads the choir.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

He's deeply embedded in the religious establishment.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

He is a professional believer. He's in the inner circle. He knows all the God is good chants we talked about earlier. Exactly. And Psal 73 opens with a statement that sounds completely right.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

He says, surely God is good to Israel.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

It's a true premise.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

But the source argues he draws the completely wrong conclusion from it.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

He thinks because God is good, my life should be smooth.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

I should have money.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

And the bad guys, the people who don't care about God, they should have it rough.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

This is the good life envy. And I think we all deal with this.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

ASAF looks around and what does he actually see?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

He sees the wicked. And not just that they exist, but that they are doing great.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

They are winning.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

They are driving the nice chariots, their kids are healthy, they seem to have zero stress. He says their bodies are healthy and strong.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

They don't seem to be plagued by human ills.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Right. So the people who mock God are winning. And Asaf, the worship leader, is struggling.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

And this causes a massive spiritual crisis.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

The text says ASAF nearly lost his footing.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Because he looks at the wicked and assumes they are mocking God without any consequence.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

But worse, he looks at himself and falls into deep self-pity.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

He says, In vain have I kept my heart pure.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

That is such a heavy, brutal statement. In vain.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

He's basically saying, I wasted my time being a good person.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

I follow the rules, I worshiped, I stayed clean, and for what?

SPEAKER_00 13:24

I'm suffering, and that guy over there who cheats on his taxes is living it up in a mansion.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

But the source notes that ASAF's

Glory Revealed As Goodness

SPEAKER_01 13:31

vision was entirely distorted here.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

He was painting with incredibly broad strokes.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

He exaggerated the happiness of the wicked.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

He looked at their highlight reel and compared it to his own behind-the-scenes footage.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

It's the classic social media trap, but thousands of years before social media even existed.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Look at their vacation photos. They must be happy.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

He assumed they had no problems just because he couldn't see them.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

But he calls himself out later, right? He uses some pretty harsh language about his own mindset.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

He does. He confesses later in the psalm that he was senseless and ignorant.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

And that he was like a beast before God.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

A beast, like an animal.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Yes. Think about how an animal reacts to the world. If a dog is fed and warm, it's happy. If it's hungry or cold, it's miserable and mad.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

It only responds to physical stimuli.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Exactly. ASAF realizes he was judging God entirely based on his physical comfort level.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Just like an animal would.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

He wasn't seeing spiritual reality at all.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

So what changes? Does he win the lottery?

SPEAKER_00 14:30

No.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Does lightning strike the wicked guys in front of him?

SPEAKER_00 14:33

The circumstances don't change at all. The location changes.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Ah. Verse 15 says Asaph entered the sanctuary of God.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

The sanctuary. It's the turning point of the entire text. Because when he gets into the presence of God, away from the noise, away from the envy.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

His perspective shifts from the immediate to the ultimate.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

He sees the end of the wicked.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

He realizes that what looked like stability was actually slippery ground.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Slippery ground. That's a terrifying image.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

It makes me think of someone walking on a frozen lake that's just about to crack.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

It is. He realizes their success is a total setup. It's an illusion of security.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Because without God, they are walking on ice.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

And their destruction when it comes will be sudden and total.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

He realizes that having it all without God is actually a nightmare scenario.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Because it makes you feel self-sufficient right up until the moment you crash.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

So the shift wasn't that ASAF got what they had.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

No, it's that he realized what they didn't have.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

They didn't have a foundation.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Which brings us to part three of our discussion: the true definition of good.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Because ASAF walks away from this sanctuary experience with a completely new dictionary.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

He redefines the term entirely.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

His conclusion is the nearness of God is my good.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Let's pause on that. The nearness of God is my good. Contrast that with his old definition.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

The old definition, the one most of us use by default.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Is goodness equals no pain, no poverty, no sickness, plenty of comfort.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

If I have that, God is good.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

But the new definition, the one ASAF arrives at, is goodness equals communion, intimacy, and dependence on God.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

And there was a real paradox here that the source highlights.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

The prosperity of the wicked actually worked against them.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Right. Their ease hardened their hearts.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Because they didn't need anything. They didn't need God. It pushed them away.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Meanwhile, Asaph's affliction,

Asaph’s Crisis In Psalm 73

SPEAKER_01 16:22

his suffering, his jealousy.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

It softened his heart.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

It forced him to run to the sanctuary. It forced him to lean on God.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

So in a strange counterintuitive way, the affliction was good because it produced nearness.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Man, that is a tough pill to swallow.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

It really is.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

I think most of us, if we are completely honest, we want the nearness and the cash.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

We want the intimacy and the easy life.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

But the source takes a really strong stance here against what it calls the prosperity-only gospel.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

It does. It explicitly refutes the idea that health and wealth are the only signs of God's favor.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

There is this powerful anecdote in the text about Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

I loved this story. It's so dramatic.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Tell us about the medical test.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

So Dr. Pentecost is teaching a class or preaching, and he shares with the room that his wife had to undergo a very serious medical test.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Presumably for something life-threatening like cancer.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Right. The suspense is very high. And then he reveals the results came back negative.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Meaning she's healthy.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

And naturally the room explodes.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Right. The class shouts, God is good, praise the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

It's that reflex we talked about earlier.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

And it's a valid feeling. Relief is good.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

But Pentecost stops them. He silences the entire room.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

And he says something that just sucks the air out of the building.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

He asserts if the test had been positive, God is still good. Wow. That is the crux of the entire argument.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

God is good in opening doors and in closing them.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

In healing and in sickness.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Goodness is a constant variable. Our circumstances are the changing variable.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

If your definition of goodness depends entirely on the test result, you don't have a theology of God's goodness.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

You have a theology of favorable outcome. Exactly. That leads us directly into the really heavy stuff. Part four suffering and sovereignty.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Because if God is good when the test is positive and good when the test is negative.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

How do we process the pain of the negative test?

SPEAKER_00 18:18

This is where we have to be incredibly precise with our theology, or we end up really hurting people.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

The source does not say cancer is good. Let's be very clear about that.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Okay, because that sounds insane.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Sickness, death abuse, betrayal, these are results of a fallen world.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

They are not good in themselves.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

No. But the text leans heavily on Romans chapter 8, verse 28.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

People misquote this verse all the time.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Constantly. They say everything happens for a reason or it's all good.

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But the text doesn't say that, does it?

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No. It says God works all things together for good.

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Works. It's an active verb.

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It means God takes the debris of our life, the tragedy, the pain, the stuff the enemy meant for evil.

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And he acts like a master weaver.

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He takes that dark thread and weaves it into a picture that ends up being good.

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So he doesn't necessarily send the storm, but he uses the rain.

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Or even if he permits the storm, it has to pass through what the source calls the filter.

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Explain the filter. I found this visual really helpful.

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Imagine a massive fortress or a high security clearance zone.

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Okay.

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Nothing gets into the fortress without the king's explicit permission.

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Right.

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The source argues that for a believer, you are inside that fortress.

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Aaron Powell So if something even something terrible like a virus or a financial collapse or an attack.

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If it reaches you, it had to get a pass from the king.

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That is deeply comforting, but also kind of terrifying.

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It is.

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Because it means he let it in. He signed off on the permission slip for my pain.

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He did. And that brings us right back to trust.

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Think of a surgeon.

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Okay.

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If a stranger walked up to you on the street and cut you open with a knife that is assault, that is pure evil.

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Definitely.

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But if a surgeon cuts you open with a knife, you literally sign a waiver allowing him to do it. You pay him to do it.

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Why? Because I trust

Envy, Illusions, And Slippery Ground

SPEAKER_00 20:09

his intention is to heal me, not to stab me.

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Exactly. I trust that the wound is necessary for a better outcome.

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The goodness is in the intent, not the immediate sensation of the knife.

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The source uses Joseph as the prime example here.

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We all know the story, but think about the brutal details.

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His brothers threw him in a pit. They discussed murdering him.

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They sold him into slavery.

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He was falsely accused of rape. He was thrown in an Egyptian dungeon for years.

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It is a literal horror story.

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If you were Joseph in the middle of that dungeon, you would not say life is good.

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No, you wouldn't.

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But years later, when he is ruling Egypt and he saves his family from starvation, he looks at those same brothers and says, You meant it for evil.

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He doesn't deny their sin.

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Right. But he adds, but God meant it for good.

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Two completely different intentions for the exact same event.

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The brother's intent was destruction.

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God's intent through the exact same event was salvation.

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That is the absolute sovereignty of goodness.

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It requires a massive amount of trust.

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It's easy to say on a deep-dive discussion, it is incredibly hard to live when you're sitting in the hospital waiting room.

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Exactly.

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Ideally, that trust is anchored in the ultimate demonstration of goodness.

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Which brings us to the gospel.

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Part five.

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The source argues you cannot understand the good news without first understanding the bad news.

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The bad news being that our personal storage units are totally empty.

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Worse than empty. They are in massive debt.

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The text says humanity is bankrupt.

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We are sinful, broken, and completely separated from God. We don't have any goodness of our own to trade.

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So the solution isn't just us trying harder to be good.

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No, it's goodness wrapped in flesh. The source presents Jesus as the literal embodiment of God's goodness entering human history.

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But there is a point here in the text that might ruffle some feathers.

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Discussion on sovereign grace.

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Yeah, this was really interesting. And it honestly sounded a little harsh to me at first. The idea that God didn't owe us redemption.

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It's a critical distinction between justice and grace.

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Justice is getting what you deserve.

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Grace is getting what you do not deserve.

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Aaron Ross Powell The text points out that when the angels fell Lucifer and his followers, God did not provide a plan of redemption for them.

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They fell and they were judged, period.

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So he didn't owe them a second chance.

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Correct. And logically, he doesn't owe humanity a second chance either.

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Aaron Ross Powell If God were merely fair, we would all face judgment for our sin. That would be fair.

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The fact that he saves any humans is an act of sovereign voluntary goodness, not an act of obligation.

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That really changes the whole gratitude dynamic.

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How so?

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Well, if you think you're owed a salary, you don't thank the boss when the check comes you earned it. But if you receive a massive financial gift you absolutely didn't earn and frankly didn't deserve because you were a terrible employee, the gratitude is totally different. Precisely. It turns entitlement into true worship.

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And the source warns that this goodness isn't just sentimental.

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It's not just a warm, fuzzy feeling.

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No, it is meant to lead to repentance. There is a severity

Nearness To God As True Good

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to God for those who actively reject this goodness.

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It's an open door, but if you refuse to walk through it, the door eventually shuts.

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Okay. We've gone deep into the theology, the suffering, the filter, and the gospel.

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We have. But I want to pivot to something a little lighter now, something more tangible.

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Part six experiencing goodness in the everyday.

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The source talks about sensory goodness.

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I absolutely love this section.

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It's an argument from design, but focused entirely on pleasure.

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The author points out that God could have easily made food nutritious without any taste.

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We could have just eaten flavorless nutrient paste to survive.

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Like those sci-fi movies where everyone eats gray sludge. Here is your daily caloric intake.

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Exactly. Or think about vision. God could have given us eyes that only see black and white outlines.

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Just enough to navigate and not bump into walls.

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But he didn't. He gave us a world completely saturated in color.

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The deep blues of the ocean, the vibrant greens of the forest.

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He gave us melody and birds. He didn't have to make birds sing, they could just squawk to communicate.

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He gave us fragrance and flowers. He gave us spice and sweetness.

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The source calls these the unnecessary extras.

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Unnecessary extras. I love that. They aren't strictly needed for survival, so they must be proof of benevolence.

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They are gifts.

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It's the creator saying, I don't just want you to live, I want you to actively enjoy living.

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It's a deeply affectionate goodness.

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It is. And to illustrate this trust in God's provision, this idea that He truly wants to give us good things.

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The source tells the grocery store parable.

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This is my absolute favorite part of the whole text. It's such a simple story, but it really hits home.

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It's a classic. So a little boy is at the grocery store with his mom.

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They are checking out at the counter.

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And the grocer, who is a really kind older man, offers the boy a handful of candy from this big glass jar on the counter.

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Go ahead, son, take a handful, the grocer says.

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And the kid just freezes. Which is weird because usually kids are like vacuum cleaners for sugar.

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Right. But he refuses to take it.

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The grocer tries again. Come on, don't be shy, take a handful. But the kid just shakes his head no. Finally, the boy looks up and asks the grocer to grab the candy for him.

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So the grocer, probably pretty amused, reaches his big hand in a bit, grabs a massive scoop of candy.

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Way more than the kid could have ever held.

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And dumps it into the kid's hands and his pockets.

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Later outside the store, the mom asks, Why didn't you just take it yourself? You're usually not shy about candy.

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And the boy delivers the punchline.

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He says, Because mom, his hands were bigger than mine.

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Boom. That is the lesson.

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It is so profound in its simplicity.

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We spend so much time trying to grab blessings with our own small hands.

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We rely on our own limited strength, our own limited wisdom, our own limited networking.

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We constantly try to force doors open.

Beyond Prosperity-Only Theology

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But trusting God allows for the handful of a king.

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It's about letting go of control to actually get more of the goodness.

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If I grab it, I only get what I can carry. If he gives it, I get what he can carry.

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And that requires resisting the urge to control everything.

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Which is exactly where the enemy attacks us.

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This leads us to the final section, part seven. The source argues that Satan's primary attack in the garden wasn't on God's power.

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No. Satan didn't walk up to Eve and say, God isn't strong enough to stop you.

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He didn't even start by saying God doesn't exist.

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He started by questioning God's goodness.

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Did God really say you can't eat that? Is God holding out on you?

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Is he keeping the best stuff for himself?

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That is the root of all temptation, isn't it?

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The suspicion that God is secretly stingy, that he's a cosmic killjoy who doesn't actually want me to have fun.

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That is the wedge. Because if you believe God is withholding something good from you, then obedience completely stops making sense.

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Why would you obey a God who doesn't want you to be happy?

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So the logic of trust is if God is good, then his prohibitions, the thou shalt nots, are actually for our good. Exactly. It frames the commandments not as arbitrary restrictions on our joy, but as guardrails for our absolute protection.

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If a good God says don't do that, it means that thing will ultimately hurt you.

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It's like a parent telling a toddler not to touch the hot stove.

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It's not because the parent hates the child, it's because the parent knows what fire does to skin.

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The antidote to Satan's whisper, then, is anchoring ourselves deeply in scripture.

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The source says we need to interpret life through God's character rather than interpreting God through life's circumstances.

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That is the key shift.

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If you interpret God through your circumstances, you will always end up confused or angry.

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Because circumstances change like the weather. One day is sunny, one day is a category five hurricane.

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If you judge God by the weather, you'll think he's

Suffering, Sovereignty, And Trust

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bipolar.

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But if you interpret your circumstances through the lens of God's unchanging good character.

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Then you have stability.

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You can look at a massive storm and say, I do not like this storm. It hurts.

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But I know the captain is good, and I know the ship is secure, so we're going somewhere safe.

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That brings us full circle to exactly where we started.

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We've covered a lot of ground today.

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We really have. We've moved from the storage unit paradox to the ontological nature of goodness.

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The crisis of ASAF, the redefinition of good as nearness, and the ultimate proof in the gospel.

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It's a really comprehensive journey. We've moved from a shallow God is good because I got a front row parking spot theology.

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To a deep, resilient God is good, even though I am walking through the valley of the shadow of death theology.

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So as we wrap up this deep dive, let's summarize the key insights for you listening.

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If you only remember three things from this hour, what should they be?

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First, goodness is a person, not a circumstance. You cannot have good without God. It is his very nature.

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Second, envy of the wicked ignores the much bigger picture. Their success is slippery ground, so do not trade places with them.

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And third, suffering is not evidence of God's absence. It can be the very tool he uses to bring you into his nearness.

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And I want to leave you with a final provocative thought, something to chew on as you go about your week.

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We talked about ASEF's profound conclusion. The nearness of God is my good.

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It's a very challenging standard.

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I want you to really ask yourself if you lost everything else, your wealth, your health, your comfort, your status.

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Would the sheer presence of God be enough for you to genuinely say life is good?

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That is the question that separates the theoretical believer from the one who truly knows his heart.

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And remember the image of the hands. Stop trying to scoop up life with your own small hands.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

Trust the big hands.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Thanks for diving in with us.

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See you next time.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Have you grown too comfortable with compromise? Is your sense of sin dulling under the weight of cultural excuses and moral relativism? The Vanishing Conscious by John MacArthur isn't just a warning, it's a spiritual defibrillator, jolting the heart of a church tempted to trade holiness for hallow approval. In a time when blame shifting, guilt denying, and sin sanitizing run rampid, MacArthur calls for believers back to the sacred urgency of personal holiness. This is a confrontation, gracious but unflinching. Drawing from the scripture with laser clarity, MacArthur shows that the path to peace and freedom run straight through confession, conviction, and courageous obedience. You'll be equipped to expose the cultural drift away from moral responsibility, recognize how sin disguises itself through modern justifications, pursue holiness that doesn't flinch under pressure, and reclaim the power

Joseph: Evil Reversed For Good

SPEAKER_02 31:24

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