Guest Speaker Mark Green | The Goodness of God

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey, good morning, church. How's everybody doing today? Awesome. One of the guys caught me before the service and he said, I already warned our cameraman that you move around a lot. But since the last time I was here, I turned 60. Nobody told me that when you turn 60, things show up. That's uninvited. Like my knees are like crazy, but it's awesome. I'm so excited to be here with you guys. Great church, man. I'm telling you, if I lived in Amarillo or within about an hour's drive, I'd be here every Sunday. And let me just tell you, I just want to take just a moment to talk about Pam and Richie, man, just what an amazing gift they've been to us. And just so encouraging and so loving and so supporting. In fact, when we transitioned off staff here and transitioned to the craziness of Oklahoma City, it's been a little ride. We just felt so prepared. And what I love about them is they saw this before this ever existed. They were praying for this before this ever existed. And they have spoken this. In fact, part of what we're a part of today is because of the faith they stepped out and the vision God put on their heart. So can we just take a moment to honor Pastor Richie and Pastor Pam? Thank you guys, man. Thank you. Love you guys. Love you guys. Awesome. Well, I know you're a church that believes in the power of life and death in your tongue. Am I right? Come on, somebody. So let's stand together if you're able to, and we're going to make some declarations. Here we go. Let's say it together. God is who he says he is. God will do what he says he will do. I am who God says I am. I can do all things through Christ. God's word is truth, and God's word is alive and active in me. And now, because of what Christ come on, let me hear you, church.

unknown 1:55

Deeply love.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

And deeply love. Come on, give somebody a high five, and then you may be seated. It's a great day to be in church. Man, I'm so glad that you're here today. But I have a question for you. Have you ever just felt God calling you into something new, but the old is still right in front of you? The wonder of God is this He doesn't need perfect conditions. I'm gonna give somebody some freedom today. So many times we're afraid to step out because we're waiting on the perfect conditions. Can I just remind you, church, that God doesn't need perfect conditions? God doesn't need a live prophet. God doesn't need a perfect worship service. And God, listen to this. God doesn't even need a believing crowd. Sometimes He brings resurrection life in the most unexpected, unlikely, and even dead things. Do you know that God can use dead things? You look in the Bible and you see where He's used a dried up bone. We're gonna be talking about that today. God can use a failed dream. God can use a broken past. God can use a person who feels like they have nothing left to give. And that's the breathtaking goodness of God. He is so powerful, he is so generous, and he is so willing to move that he can use you right where you are in the current season that you're in with all of your limitations. Come on, somebody, that's the goodness of our God. So today we're going to take a look at one of the most unusual stories in the Bible, a story that at first glance seems strange. In fact, when we read these two verses together, it's going to seem a little bizarre. So if you've got your Bibles, I want you to open them to 2 Kings chapter 13. We're going to read verses 20 and 21, and then we're going to camp out there for a while. So this is what it says. Elisha died. Somebody say he died. Elisha died and was buried. Now, Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. Once while some Israelites were burying a man, listen to what's going on. So Elisha was the prophet that had led Israel, did some amazing things. In fact, that's the person that the nation of Israel would look to to get instructions or directions, and now he died. On top of that, Moabite raiders would come in every spring, and they would try to take over Israel. So they were continually under attack. So they lost their leader. They were continually under attack, and now they were in the midst of a funeral when these Moabite raiders are coming in. So you got to hear what happened. This is absolutely crazy. Once, while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders from Moabite, they were Moabite raiders. Listen to this. So they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. Now Elisha had died. Apparently the tomb was open because the Bible doesn't say they had shovels and they dug it open. There was an open tomb. They see the raiders coming. They're carrying a dead man and they threw him on top of the bones. If that's not crazy enough for you, listen to this. When the body, what body? The body of the dead man they just tossed into the ground. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet. Now, in 40 years of ministry, I've done a lot of funerals, but I can tell you, church, I have never been to a funeral when the dead body caught up and just left. At that point, funeral's over. I'm not sure I'm even hanging around for the chicken and the mashed potatoes. I'm out. So hidden in these two verses is a powerful revelation of the goodness of God. Somebody say God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good. Do you know God's goodness doesn't depend on whether you get things perfect or not? We're gonna look at that today. So Elisha, the great prophet, had performed many miracles in Israel. A couple of those you might remember the stories. You remember that there was a story of a lady in the Bible that was in so much debt that the creditors were coming to take her son. All she had was a little bit of oil until Elisha showed up. And Elisha started multiplying that oil, or should I say, God started multiplying the oil through Elisha so that that lady sold all of the oil, paid off all of her creditors, and lived a blessed life. Come on, somebody. Do you remember the story of Naaman, the warrior that had leprosy? Naaman is a warrior, he's got leprosy, which is a debilitating disease. He has a slave, literally a slave girl, in his house that knows what he's facing, and she says, If only my Lord will go see thee, a prophet Elisha. So Naaman goes to see Elisha. Elisha doesn't even show up for the meeting. Elisha grabs his attendants and says, Hey, just go tell him to jump in the dirty water for a bit. And it was so ludicrous that Naaman was mad. And he refuses to do it. Well, one of his one of his friends close to him, how many of you know you've got to have the right people around you? You have the right person around him. He said, Listen, if he would have told you to do something miraculous, would you have not done it? Absolutely. Then why won't you do this simple thing? So he goes and gets in the river and he comes out healed from leprosy. So there's another story about the Shunammite woman's son, and that's a bizarre story. But this the son had died, and Elisha goes in, and I want to encourage you to read that story because the way that he raises him from the dead is just bizarre in and of itself. So the Elisha, the one who over and over and over God had used in powerful ways to bring incredible miracles, he was dead. He was buried. In other words, you could put it this way: the man of God was gone. Their best days seemed like it was going to be behind them, and their future looked a little bit bleak. Israel was facing threats from the Moabite raiders in the middle of fear and uncertainty. They're dealing with the death and this funeral procession, and in the middle of the funeral procession, here come the raiders again. So in a panic, come on, somebody, in a panic. It wasn't a prayer meeting, it was a panic. They threw the dead man onto Elisha's tomb in a panic. And when the corpse touched Elisha's bones, come on, the impossible became possible. Life exploded, and what was dead now stood to life again. Church, I want to tell you this isn't just a miracle story, it's a picture of the relentless goodness of God. Even in death, even through a dead prophet's dry, dusty bones, God's life-giving power still breaks through. Why? Because our God is a good God, and his goodness pursues us with resurrection power, whether we have our stuff together or done. Listen, how much stuff did that prophet have? Nothing. He's dead. Dry bones. And you might be thinking today, God can't use me. Come on, somebody. If he can use some dry, dusty bones, he can use you. If he does a miracle through something that seems to be thrown away, he can use you today. So today I want to share three key points about the goodness of God based on this passage. So I want to encourage you to take notes. Here's the first thing I want you to write down. God can use dead bones to bring people to life and he can use you. Come on, somebody. God can use dead bones to bring people to life and he can use you. Look at your neighbor and say, He's talking to you today. Come on, somebody. The prophet Elisha was dead by every human measure. He was finished, done, no life left. The great prophet who'd been God's instrument of power and deliverance for listen to this decades was now just bones in a tomb. For Israel, they could have looked at this and said, We have no hope. The protector is gone, and the miracles are over. But God use those very bones as a point of contact for resurrection power. Why? Because it is always about the goodness of God. Think about that. God didn't need a living prophet, God didn't need a fresh miracle. God didn't even need ideal conditions. He used what was left. Come on, somebody. Do you have anything left? Well, let me just ask you this. Do you got breath in your lungs? You got some stuff left, and God will take even what is left to demonstrate that his power and his goodness have zero limit. Come on, church. God's power has no limit. His goodness doesn't depend on human vessels. Why? Because the power was never ultimately in Elisha, it was always in God. Did you catch that, church? The power of life always, somebody say always, the power of life always comes from God. Even after the prophet's death, God's goodness remained active, available, and astonishingly powerful. Think about it. Sometimes we're afraid to step out on what we think God may be speaking to us because we've lost something. Could be a loved one, could be a mentor, could be a dream, could be a season of passion. Man, I remember when I used to, man, if God would have said, attack hell with a water pistol, I'd have started loading my gun. Could be a ministry that was once thriving, but something happened, and that ministry doesn't long no longer exist. Many of us, church, face tombs, literal and figurative, and wonder this is God, has God's goodness run out? I want to tell you today, out of the word of God, the absolute answer is it has not run out. God's goodness outlives every servant, every moment, every moment, and every era. His mercy doesn't die when people die, his mercy doesn't die when circumstances change, his power doesn't expire when the heroes of our faith expire. It was there before we ever got here, and it's going to be here long after we're gone. His power is unlimited, church. The apostle Paul put it this way: 2 Corinthians 4 7, he says, We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. Where does the power come from, according to that verse? Come on, I want you to think about a clay. Think about a piece of pottery. There was a potter that put that clay, took some clay. You remember the potter's wheel? They they'd spin the thing and they'd put the clay on there, and they'd begin to form the inside and the outside of that. And then they'd dry it in the kiln or whatever the thing is called, and and it became this beautiful piece of pottery. And oftentimes in that pottery, you'll put things in them like plants or something beautiful inside of that. From time to time, the pot will break or it'll be discarded. Let that be a metaphor for our lives. Because there is a potter that has put us together. The Bible says he knit us together in our mother's womb. And he's given us the power of all of heaven to work through us. But when that pot is gone, the potter still lives. When the pot is broken, the potter can reform and continue to move in people's lives. Come on. Elisha was just a clay, a jar of clay. And when he was gone, the power of God was still there. God's goodness flows from his unchanging character, not from our changing circumstances. Come on, church, can I just tell you this? If you're going to wait for your circumstances to be perfect before you're used by God, the devil will make sure the circumstances are never perfect. But when you step out in imperfect circumstances in times that don't make sense, and you follow God anyway, I'm telling you, God will use you to start a work that will have no end. So even when the prophet is dead and buried, God is still alive and working. Come on. Because it's not dependent on the pot, it's dependent on the potter. So have you buried something precious to you? Reach out to the goodness of God again. Because his power is not limited by death or by loss. God's goodness can use dead bones to bring people to life, and he can use you. So the second thing I want you to write down today, okay? God's goodness brings life even in unexpected and undeserving moments. Come on, somebody. How many have ever felt like this? I don't, I God can't use me because I don't have duck, my ducks in a row. I don't even have ducks, I have geese, and I don't even know where they are. That's typically our lives. But what I want you to see in this crazy moment filled with fear and uncertainty, the dead man experienced revival. Notice the details. This wasn't a planned prayer meeting at Elisha's tombs. It wasn't a faith-filled request. It was a hasty, fearful act in the middle of a raid from the opposing enemy. They simply threw a dead body in a grave, listen to this, just to save themselves. They weren't praying, they weren't fasting, they weren't seeking God, they were running like a scald dog, and they wanted just to shed some dead weight. They weren't expecting a miracle, but when the dead man's bones touched Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet. And I love that because this reveals a surprising and extravagant goodness of God. He is good simply because he is good. I love that Pastor Richie started putting that in us years and years ago. God gave him a revelation of the goodness of God, irrespective of our choices today. So many times we try to disqualify ourselves because we don't have our stuff together, or we make a blunder or slip, or we just do something that's not in our character, and the devil wants you to focus on that blunder, and God's saying, Listen, this whole thing wasn't dependent upon you, and it's still not dependent on you. If you'll just step into the goodness that I have for you, you'll experience forgiveness like you've never known, and a power in your life that you've never experienced. Not because we have enough faith or perfect theology or the right actions. The man was dead. His friends gave up on him and then abandoned him. There's no faith mentioned, there's no cry out to God, just a desperate disposal of a corpse. And God still acted. If that's not a drop the mic moment, I don't know what is. This reveals something absolutely beautiful. God gives life in the most unlikely places and the least deserving situations because his goodness is rooted in his character, not our performance. Many of us get this backwards, and this is what we say. Well, I just can't muster up enough faith, and when I muster up enough faith, God will be good to me. Come on, somebody, God is good to you despite your faith. This miracle happened in the moment of panic with little to no faith. They might have made declarations, but the declarations went right out the window because they were running. God's goodness went ahead of their faith. Friends, that's the goodness of the gospel of Jesus. Ephesians 2.1 says this. When we were, what's that word? When we were, when we were dead in our sins. It didn't say when we were sick in our sins, when we were struggling. It says we were, we didn't deserve rescue. Most of us, we weren't even looking for God. But in his goodness, he sent his son Jesus Christ to the cross. Jesus died, was buried, and on the third day rose again, irrespective of how we were living our lives. Can I say it this way? Because of how we were living our lives, the goodness of God began to overtake us. And now anyone that comes into contact with him by faith, the Bible says, is raised alive. Just as the dead man touched the bones of Elisha and lived, so we touch Christ by our faith by simply just reaching out because I'm just going to accept what you've done to me, and that's all we do. And we rise from spiritual death. Ephesians 2 goes on to say, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. God's goodness brings life even in unexpected and undeserved moments. Well, we're getting ready to land this plane in a moment. But before we do, I want to talk to you about this. God's goodness does not wait for perfect conditions. God's goodness breaks into our panic. God's goodness breaks into our anxiety. God's goodness breaks into our failures. God's goodness breaks into the things that we've lost, and we're in a season of mourning. God's goodness breaks into our graves. Even in the middle of raids, in the middle of panics, in the middle of attacks, in the middle of crisis, in the middle of changing circumstances, in the middle of chaos, God releases resurrection power. So, big deal, Pastor Mark, what does this mean for us today? Don't despair over your life. Don't despair over what you've lost. Don't despair over the mistakes you've made. Don't despair over the times that God called you to step out and you didn't, the time that you had an opportunity to share your faith, but you just didn't because of fear or whatever. Because God specializes in resurrection. Bring your dead dreams to God. Bring your dead relationships to God. Bring your dead faith to God. Because his goodness is greater than your loss. Just connect with Jesus. The bones of Elisha in this story were just a temporary picture of what Jesus made permanent. Elisha's, think about this. Elisha's bones brought life to one person. Jesus is continuing to bring life to people that are willing to reach out by faith. Stay connected to him in his word. Stay connected to him in prayer. We like to say it this way: just plow. Pray. God, what are you speaking to me about? And then listen. And then when he speaks to you, oh, obey. Step out in obedience. And when you pray and you listen and you obey that, you will see the W. You will see the wow of God. Stay connected to Him. Prayer, prayer, obedience. Life flows from your contact with Jesus. Let me take it a step deeper. Expect in your life the goodness of God to show up in unexpected and undeserved places. The thing about God is He can turn your worst moments into testimonies of His power. The raiders meant harm, but God brought life in the midst. The goodness of God is on display in these bones. And it brings this life-changing truth. He can use you even when you feel finished. He will be good even when your faith is small. Whatever tomb you're facing today, throw yourself, run to the goodness of God. What does it mean? Trust Jesus. Some of you have been staying up late worrying about stuff. Come on, when you go to bed, just give it to Jesus and go, I'm gonna sleep good tonight. Because he's gonna take care of it. Why? He's the resurrection and he's the life. He rose from the dead so that you might live. If you need resurrection power in your life, if you need resurrection power in your marriage, if you need resurrection power in your health, if you need resurrection power in your purpose, if you need resurrection power in your soul, Jesus is here. And he's not limited by anything. So let us start living as people who have been changed by that resurrection power. And maybe you've been changed. Let me tell you this: share the good news with somebody. The world is full of dead people walking around. Point them to Jesus. I don't know what to say. Well, just tell them your story. Every person has a name, every name has a story, and every story matters. And God will use your story to bring people to Jesus. Because He's the one whose touch gives life. The old phrase says this God is good. And all the time, say it again, God is good, and all the time, God's goodness doesn't stop at the grave, it doesn't stop when circumstances change, it doesn't stop when your fear is bigger than your faith. He is still good. His goodness is not limited by your intimidation or your fear. His goodness reaches into the tomb of the dead things in your life, and he calls dead things back to life again. So if you're here today and maybe you're feeling dead on the inside, or maybe there's a sense of hopelessness that's tried to attach itself to you. Or maybe you're here today and you're just kind of buried under a load of sin. You've tried to get away from it time and time again, and you find yourself going back to that thing again. Or maybe fear or failure is trying to attach itself to you. I got good news for you today, church. Jesus is alive. Come to him, reach out by faith, and he will make you stand up again. Look to Jesus. There's a video out by Sons of Sunday called I Looked Up. If you've never heard that, you need to listen to it today. Sons of Sunday, I looked up. The singers of the song literally wrote their story in these verses. And they're the guys at Brandon Lake, Steven Furtick, Leland Moring. There's there's six or seven of these guys that we see on the stage leading worship, but what we don't know is the backstory of the depression that they walked through and the hell they walked through and the addiction they walked through. And every verse is one of their stories. And then you get to the chorus which says, I looked up, I looked up from the bottom, and I saw you. It was all you. See, Jesus didn't come to make bad people good, he came to make dead people live. And maybe today you need to be reminded that the same God who raised a man through Elisha's bones and raised Jesus from the dead offers the same power to you. Maybe today you'd say, I'd like for somebody to pray for me. Because I'm asking God to revive some things in my life. I'm asking God to heal some broken things in me. I'm asking God to restore some things that the enemy has stolen. I'm asking God to return a prodigal son or daughter that's walked away from the things of God. Or maybe you're here and you'd say, I just don't feel like my faith goes past Sunday morning. I attend, I can check off the Sunday box, but that's when it ends because when I walk out, there's no difference on Monday than when I walked in on Sunday. Or maybe you've even said, I've already put my time in and served in the past, it's time for somebody else to do that. And God is speaking to you today about getting more involved. Or maybe it's been a long time since you've just prayed for somebody that's been far from God. Maybe it's been a long time since you shared your story. And maybe today you'd say, I just need a fresh touch from God. I need a fresh touch from a life-giving savior. Church, can I remind you that God's goodness brings life in unexpected and undeserved moments? So I'm gonna ask every head to be bowed and every eye closed. We're getting ready to go back into a moment of worship. And this moment is not just a time filler of, well, we run out of things to do, so we're just gonna sing now. This moment is a holy moment for you. And the question that I have for you is this will you take a step of faith today? You don't have to have great faith, you don't have a lot, you have to have a lot of faith, and you might be saying, My fear is bigger than my faith. You don't have to get that in order. Will you just take a step of faith today? And let this altar ministry team pray with you. I don't know what you're facing, I don't know what you're dealing with, but I know that our God is able. We're going back in a moment of worship, and as we begin to sing in a moment, we're going to stand in worship. And if God is stirring your heart, can I encourage you to take a step of faith today and come let our ministry team pray for you? And you might just discover that that same God that worked through some dead bones to bring a dead man to life is going to raise up some things in your life. So, Lord, we just pray in the name of Jesus have your way in this place in Jesus' name.