Goodness of God – Part 1 Lawson Perdue

Welcome, friends, to today’s broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. I’m gonna be sharing from a live service where I’m teaching on the goodness of God. The goodness of God is really foundational to our faith. And amazingly enough, there are more scriptures in the Old Testament about the goodness of God than the New Testament. So open your heart and receive the word of God today. Thanks so much and blessings. Let’s just begin to look at the goodness of God. First thing I wanted to share on when we talk about the goodness of God is, that this is God’s witness of himself. So turn with me to Exodus 33. This is in the life of Moses. We’re gonna look in Exodus 33:11-19. It says, “The Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face as a man speaks with his friend.” You can see goodness in that. “He turned again to the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man did not depart out of the tabernacle. Moses said unto the Lord, ‘See you say to me, bring up this people and you have not let me know who you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know you by name and you have found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray you, if I found grace in your sight, goodness, show me your way that I may know you.'” Listen. Listen to Moses prayer. What did Paul pray in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know you.” That’s the goal of gospel. And you see that not only in the New Testament, but you see it in the Old Testament. “‘That I may know you and I may find grace in your sight, and consider that this nation is your people.’ And he said, ‘My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.’ And he said unto him, ‘If your presence does not go with me, carry us not up from this place for wherein it will be known here that I and your people have found grace in your sight. Is it not in that you go with us, so shall we be separated, I and my people, from the people that are on the face of the earth.’ And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will do this thing also that you have spoken, for you have found grace.'” He found goodness, he found favor. “‘And I know you by name.’ And he said, ‘I beseech you, show me your glory.’ And the Lord said to him.” Listen to what the Lord said, verse 19. Exodus 33:19, “‘I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and show mercy on whom I will show mercy.'” And it goes on to say this in verse 22, “It will come to pass, while my glory passes by that I will put you in the cleft of a rock.” He was covered. How many of you glad that we’re covered in the presence of Jesus. “And will cover you with my hand while I pass.” Now in Exodus 34, he’s in the presence of God. And the Lord passes before him. It says in verse five, “The Lord descended in a cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.” So this is what God says about himself. I like to see what God says about himself. “And he proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness, in truth, keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. And that will by no means clear the guilty.'” What that essentially means is, do you know what sin still has to be paid for? There still has to be a price paid, right? Because he can’t just overlook sin, right? So God paid for sin in the person of Jesus. Now we see an evidence of this in the life of Jesus. Jesus says this in John 10:10 and 11, “It’s the thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy.” Of course you know this one, “But I’ve come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.” You might have life and have it to the full, to overflowing, in abundance. Extravagant, rich, abundant, good life. But then he goes on to say this in verse 11, “I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.” So this is what God says about himself, this is what Jesus says about himself. Amen. So this is God’s very own witness of himself. The goodness of God, as we go in the scripture, was first revealed in creation. If we go back to Genesis 1, when God created everything, In the beginning God created the heaven and earth, and it was without form and void. And the spirit of God moved on the deep, I believe the spirit of God hovered. And then God began to call, right, creation into existence. I love to study it in the Hebrew, it’s really amazing in the Hebrew what comes out of it. But he starts with the lesser of creation, and ends with the highest of creation with his humanity. But when he gets done, after he gives us purpose and he gives us authority, and he blesses and gives us, you know, things to carry out what he told us to do. He says in verse 31, “God saw everything that he made, and behold it was very good.” Everybody say very good.

Very good.

God’s creation is very good. God made man in his own image, in his own likeness. He was the highest of his creation. He said, he’s very good. Hallelujah. That’s what God said. So it’s revealed in creation. Now, we know that after God created, right, everything, created man, he placed man in a beautiful garden that he made, as we read on down in verse seven, Genesis 2:7-9 it says, “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” He blew into him. The wind of the spirit, “And man became a living soul, a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there he put man whom he had formed, and out of the ground, God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” God made things good. He put man. Man’s the highest of His creation. He places him in a beautiful garden. He makes grow in this every tree that is pleasant to the eyes, right, and good for food. Hallelujah. You know, he just made a beautiful place for humanity. And he says, “And the tree of life, also in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” It says, “And a river,” as we read verse 10 through 12, “went out of Eden to water the garden. And from there it was parted and became four heads. The name of the first is Pishon, that which encompasses the whole land of Havilah where there is gold.” So he puts in this garden, what? A river, right. The river represents life, right. And he puts gold in it. Praise God. Hallelujah. He puts provision, he makes provision there. Praise God. So the goodness of God was revealed in creation. But not only is this God’s witness of himself, it’s revealed in creation, but God’s goodness is revealed in his promises. How many of you love the promises of God? I just love the promises of God. How many of you’re glad that you can believe the promises of God, that God is faithful to keep his word, and God will do exactly what he said? I’m so glad that I found out when I was only 14-years-old. You know, I knew it before that, but we really didn’t focus on it, we really didn’t talk about it. We really didn’t believe much in it. But when I was 14-years-old, when I first heard Andrew Wommack teach, that’s what came to me the very first night, I have a Bible full of promises that I can believe, and I started believing. And listen, it changed my life. It’s transformed my life. And guess what? My life just keeps getting better and better and better. And I keep believing and seeing and believing and seeing. Believing. I believe it, right, and I say it and I see it, and I say it and I see it, and I believe it and I say it and I see it. I talked about that before. You gotta see. You know, faith sees the invisible, right. You see what the eye of faith. So you see the promises, and what, when you meditate the promises and you meditate the word, what it really does is changes the picture on the inside of you. And if you can begin to see God for who he really is, and then see yourself for how God made you, and then begin to see the world from the perspective of God, it’s a change of perspective. Amen. ♪ I see the evidence of your goodness ♪ They were singing about it tonight. They didn’t know I was gonna preach on this one when they prepared that message. And then they were singing about. ♪ I will build my life ♪ Amen. Upon your love, on your goodness, on your favor. But when you get a change of perspective, and begin to see, you know, if God wants to see. I believe that God wants us healed more than we want to be healed. He wants us to prosper more than we even wanna prosper. But we get in the way of it. But if you can begin to see yourself the way God sees you, begin to see him for who he is, begin to see yourself, and then begin to see the world from God’s perspective. But so many people have a different perspective, right. Their perspective of God, their perspective of their situation, you know, but you gotta change it. You gotta begin to see from the perspective of God. And you begin to see it, it’ll change it. Now, Numbers 10, let’s turn to Numbers 10. I’ve actually never heard anybody share this scripture, but I just saw it. I thought it was kind of interesting. It’s actually Moses speaking to his father-in-law. And so in Numbers 10:29 “Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel, Moses’ father-in-law,” or maybe it’s the son of his father-in-law, “‘We are journeying to the place which the Lord said, I will give it to you. Come with us and we will do you good.'” We’re on a journey, we’re going somewhere. It’s gonna be good. Hallelujah. You come with us, and you’re gonna be blessed. ‘Cause truly listen to what he says, “The Lord has spoken good concerning Israel.” Do you know that’s still true? God has spoken good concerning Israel. Did you know Dr. Lester Sumrall? He talked about this, before Israel became a nation, the early part of the 1900s, these traditional churches said, well, Israel will never be a nation. All those scriptures that talk about that, they’re all figurative. And against all odds, Israel has become a nation. And against all odds, they have remained a nation. And I’ll tell you, by the grace of God, I believe they’re gonna remain a nation till Jesus Christ comes again. I’m teaching on Daniel. Daniel has some amazing things to say about it. He said some amazing things through the spirit of God, and I’ve gotta get a little more revelation as I’m going through. You know, understanding, I’m not talking about going into Revelation. Daniel and Revelation correspond a lot, but I gotta get some more understanding. But it’s amazing to understanding Daniel. But you know what God said to them? He’s kept his word and his word has never failed. Amen. Hi friends, we’ve been sharing on the goodness of God and we’ve got these teachings and many others like them, absolutely free of charge on our website at charischristiancenter.com. Their downloadable audio, downloadable video. And we also have a great kids curriculum free of charge. Thanks so much. We’re back to the word. Blessings.

December, I found someone who said that Habitat for Humanity build home for the low income people. And so I went and applied and they said, no, we’re not taking application. Then January, God told me to call again the office. By May I was approved.

You got a five bedroom, two bath house within a year. It’s exactly what Jesus told you. And you said what you believed. Religion will try to tell you that all these promises are no longer true. But my Bible says in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 1:20, “All the promises of God in him are yes and in Him amen to the glory of God by us.” When God sent Jesus, he said yes. When we believe it, we say amen. And God gets all the glory. I got accused the other day. They said, “Well, Lawson boasts a lot.” David said, “I’ll make my boast in the Lord.” The Bible says that boasting has been excluded by the law of faith. I’m just bragging on Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Let’s look at this. Deuteronomy 28. We’ll start in verse eight. You can read the first 14 verses, I read all 64 or 68. 68. There’s 14 blessings, 54 curses, verses. I read ’em all, ’cause I’m redeemed from the curse, and I want to know what I’m redeemed from. I’m redeemed from weak knees and heart failure, and I am redeemed from the botch of Egypt, and emerods. That’s tumors. I’m redeemed from poverty. I’m redeemed from slavery. I’m redeemed from spiritual death, and Jesus has put the last one, physical death under his feet when he comes again. I’m redeemed from all those things. I’m redeemed from it raining dirt on my crops. We need some rain, Jesus. Thank you. All right, so Deuteronomy 28, we’re gonna be in verse eight. Just start right there. “The Lord shall command the blessing on you in your storehouses.” How many of you got some storehouses? Al Jandl wrote a book years ago, it’s a good book called “The Storehouse Principle.” Andrew Wommack said, “Pastor Lawson, you ought to read that. That reminds me of you.” Al was a pastor, he didn’t have any extra money, so he figured out, where could I find some extra money? Well, my tape ministry, he said, has a little extra money. So he took that tape money and he started putting it in his freezer, his refrigerator in a bag until he got some money saved up. And then, you know. Praise the Lord, when I came here, people said, what’s your vision? I said, stay around and you’ll see it. Hallelujah. Stay around. After a year I said, I got 25,000 saved, after two years I said, I got 50,000 saved. After three years I said, I got a hundred thousand saved. After four years I said, I got a quarter million saved. I saved up about a million dollars, and then God gave us the opportunity to buy our first building and we got a great deal. Amen. We built that building out on Elkton we owed 620,000, Jesus said, pay it off and save money. Hallelujah. Then God opened the door to buy this, supernaturally. I’m still believing him to fill it up. When I look out here today, do you know what? We got more people here tonight. It took us two or three years to get this many people sitting in this room altogether with everybody. So anytime that we’re over 20, I say we’re way ahead of where we started. It took me six months to get to 20 people. Took me a year to get to 40. Hallelujah. So I just rejoice. Hallelujah. I rejoice in the good that God has given us. I rejoice. He’s a good God. He’s a faithful God. He never forgets his word. Hallelujah. So many people are so shortsighted, they can’t see anything. They can’t see what the eye of faith, all they can see is what they… Hallelujah. “The Lord will command His blessing on you in your storehouses, in all you set your hand unto. He will bless you in the land which the Lord thy God gives you.” He’s gonna bless you. “He will establish you a holy people to Himself, as he’s sworn unto you. If you keep his word, the Lord God, and walk in his ways. And all of the people of the earth shall see that you’re called by the name of the Lord, and they will stand in awe of you.” King James says, “They’ll be afraid. They’ll stand of awe. And the Lord will make you plenty of goods in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your cattle, the fruit of your ground, in the land which the Lord swear to your children to give you. And the Lord will open to you his good treasure.” That’s worth something. “The Lord will open to you his good treasure, the heaven to give rain to your land. We live under an open heaven, in it’s season, and bless the work of your hand. And you will lend to many nations.” I was thinking about it the other day, we’ve got fruit in India, we’ve got fruit in Nepal. We’ve got fruit in Thailand. We’ve got fruit in Europe. We’ve got fruit in Russia. We’ve got fruit in the Ukraine. We’ve got fruit in the Middle East. We’ve got fruit in Africa. We’ve got fruit in the Congo. We’ve got fruit in South America. We’ve got fruit in Mexico. We got fruit in Canada. We got fruit on the east coast. We got fruit in the Midwest. We got fruit in Arizona. We got fruit in Texas. We got fruit. Fruit everywhere. Fruit everywhere, fruit everywhere, fruit everywhere, fruit everywhere. You’ll lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Glory to God. I’m so blessed I get to do this. I’ve got fruit in Nepal. I’ve got fruit in the Netherlands. I’ve got fruit in Germany. I’ve got fruit in Malaysia. We’ve got fruit in Singapore. We got fruit in China. We got. Blessed are those who are sow beside all waters. We’re sowing. Listen, we hear from all these countries all the time, and we’re gonna have a harvest. We’re gonna have a harvest. Oh, he’ll open the heaven. Can I read this out of the modern? I love this one, modern English. I’m gonna read the same verses, verse eight through 12. “The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and all that you set your hand to.” You gotta do something. Somebody was meeting with Aaron the other day, asking him, “How can I prosper? What can I do?” He said, “Well, this is what I’ve done. This is what I taught my friend.” Aaron took his friend, who has a doctorate degree, who wasn’t making that much money. He tried to help him sell watches. Aaron sells, watches does great. The guy couldn’t do nothing. Aaron had to take all his watches and sell ’em for him. So he is buying a different brand, Omega. So Aaron sold his watches for him, got him outta debt. But his friend has a gift with computers. So he started selling Apple computers, laptops. He’s making $200,000 a year, had three high school students employed, working out of his garage. That’s not bad, is it? He said, listen, you could do anything. Just figure out, start doing something, and figure out what you’re good at. I remember one time when Aaron was in college, he came home and he went over to Starbucks, and he saw some coffee bar in the trash at Starbucks. And he said, “Daddy, let’s go get it.” So we drove over there and got it. He put it on Craigslist and sold it for $300 to a church, and they were happy to get it. And somebody just threw it in the trash. Some people can’t see. There’s so much provision, there’s so much blessing. Aaron said, go start doing something. Figure out what works, and then just stay at it. You know, it’s easy to make a million bucks. You figure out how to make a thousand, and do it a thousand times, a million. Not hard. And then figure out how to live on less than you make. Give the first 10%, save the next 10%, or invest it somewhere else. Don’t put it all in the same basket, okay. Look at, what are we in verse 8. “He’s gonna command his blessing on you and your barns. All you set your hand to. He’ll bless you in the land which he has given you.” God has given us the land. “He will establish you as a holy people to himself, just as he swore to you, if you’ll keep his commands of the Lord and walk.” We got fruit in Mexico too. Bobby Crow calls me. Bobby Crow takes care of me. Once while I just go down and put a thousand dollars in his account. Then I take a picture of the deposit and I send it to him. Hallelujah. Text it to him. I love Bobby. He’s a good man. “He’ll establish you a holy person just as he swore, if you keep his commands and walk in his ways. All the people of the earth shall see that you’re called by the name of the Lord, and they’ll be afraid of you. And the Lord will.” Look at this in verse 11. I love this in the modern English. “The Lord will make you overflow in prosperity, in the offspring of your body, in the offspring of your livestock, in the produce of your ground, in the land, which he swear the fathers to give you. And the Lord will open to you his good treasure.” Oh his treasure. “The heavens to give rain to your land in it season, and to bless all the work of your hand. And you will lend to many nations. You’ll lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.” Isn’t that good? Praise the Lord. Do you want a couple more? Oh, I guess I’m out of time. Praise the Lord. I’ll give you a couple more. Deuteronomy 31:6 says, “Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear for the Lord your God, He goes with you and he will not fail you or forsake you.” But I love this one. Joshua 23:14. He says, “Not one thing has failed, not one thing.” This is Joshua at the end of his life. How many of you would like to have a testimony like this? “Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. Everything has come to pass, and not one thing has failed thereof.” My conclusion is this, God is a good God. He’s always been good. He’ll always be good. It’s revealed in creation, it’s revealed in his promises. It’s revealed to us in Christ. Amen. God is a good God. How of you can say God’s been good to you? Amen. If you’re living, if you’re breathing, God’s been good to you. Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve been with us today. We’ve been sharing on the goodness of God. Amazingly enough, a lot of people in the body of Christ really don’t understand the fact that God is ultimately good, and he’s good all the time. He never changes from that. In fact, James says, “Every good and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” If it is not good and is not perfect, it could not come from God, because that’s all God has to give. And when you get a revelation of that, it will change how you begin to receive from God. It will change how you see God, and it will help you minister to others the goodness and the grace of God. Thanks again for being with us today. Blessings.

Faith isn’t complicated. It’s simply trusting God by knowing who he truly is. God is absolutely good. Like Daniel did, who stood strong against the odds, you can live in victory no matter the challenge. God’s goodness is running after you. Discover these life-changing truths in Pastor Lawson’s teaching, “Spirit of excellence, lessons from Daniel, and the goodness of God,” both $20 values, yours free today. Download them now at charischristiancenter.com.

Friends, it’s great to have you with us today, and I want to invite you to attend services with us at Charis Christian Center, in Colorado Springs. The atmosphere is amazing. Recently in one service, I had people from 10 Nations and several states. They watch us on a regular basis online, and they said, this is amazing. So if you can’t come physically, come and attend online at Charis Christian Center or YouTube. Blessings. Friend, we here at Charis Christian Center and Grace For Today believe in being good stewards of the resources that God has given us. So we pay a professional service that’s actually available to help you do that in a couple of ways. Number one, you can make a will absolutely free of charge with professional legal help. And number two, you can go to Tax Smart Ways of Giving. You can find them all on our website.

Thanks for watching Grace For Today. This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000. Or to partner online, go to charischristiancenter.com/give. You can write us at P.O. Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on Grace For Today.