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If I could find one word to sum up all that our God is, it would be "good." Everything about God is good! James told us that "all good things come from God!" If something good happens in your life, then you ought to thank and praise Jesus Christ because He is the one who brought that good thing! Blessings do not come to you by chance! Everyone of us here have been blessed beyond what we deserve! Everyone of us can name something that God has done for us. It may be as simple as recovering for a sickness or God may have forgiven you of many horrible sins, but whatever it is everyone has a reason to be thankful to God and to praise Him! We praise and applaud men when they do things that we like. We are quick to let someone know when we appreciate something! But what about God? Has our worship today reflected the blessings that we have received? Have you really thanked God in a way equal to what God has done for you!? We ought to praise Him, because God has been good to us!!

God has gotten a "bad rap." It is very unfortunate that a few people in the world that do not even have a relationship with God have influenced people into believing that God is not worth serving. I have many times heard "well I can't serve that God because I don't understand why this happens or why He allows this to happen. God can't be as good as you say." And when I look at the lives of those people, I see that they are really making no effort to get closer to God and the very things that they are complaining about as being unfair, they have never given God a chance to fix! There are people today like there were in the prophet Micah's day who are saying "where is God?" "Does God even care about us?" "Does God really still bless people today?" But Micah stood up and asked a question that I would like to ask today:

Name me another God that is like Jesus! You can't find nobody like Him! You can search the world over and look at every religion and every idol and you will not find a God like the One that I serve! The gods of this world are cruel gods without mercy and who demand cruel sacrifices without giving any blessings in return! They cannot hear, think, or respond to their worshippers and their only value is in being a kind of "security blanket" for their followers!

But there is no God that can top Jesus Christ! There has never been another God before Him and there will never be another after Him! He is willing to forgive our sins; even came down to earth and shed His very blood so that we could be forgiven! Micah said that when He is angry, He will not stay angry forever but He delights in showing mercy! He is a God of compassion and forgiveness and is willing to take our sins and cast them into the deepest part of the sea! You cannot find anybody else or anything that is as good as our God is! He loves to show kindness; His delight is in showing mercy! If you do not see the benefit of serving Him and obeying His commandments then you've been believing a lie because our God is worth serving! You need to stop listening to what others tell you God is like and find out about His mercy for yourselves! How can you know whether or not God is good until you've tried doing things His way? The scriptures say:

If you really try to do things God's way then you will find that He is good! If you have never had the blessings of God in your life, then you need to make some changes in your life to match His Word so He can bless you! Too many people make a "half-hearted attempt" to serve God and then when they do not receive the blessings that they think that they should receive, they say well "living for God is not all that great!" If you think that, then you have never really tried living for God with all of your heart and soul! Because if you will taste and see, you will find out that God is good!

God didn't get you into your mess. God didn't get you into the situation that you need deliverance from, yet God is willing to help you get out of it! That's the kind of God that I serve: He finds His delight in showing mercy! If you have a different view of my God, then you need to come taste and see and find out for yourself: There is no other god in all of the universe like Jesus Christ! He is good and He delights in showing mercy!

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In my personal devotion time, I have been reading the book of Jeremiah and it has to be one of the most depressing books of the Bible. Jeremiah was known as the "weeping prophet" because he was used by God to bring such messages of gloom and doom. Page after page, chapter after chapter, tell of how God was bringing judgment upon Israel because of their idolatry and immorality! God spoke in great detail through Jeremiah of how the Babylon king Nebuchadnezzar would come through with his armies and tear down the temple and the walls of Jerusalem and burn the houses and cities surrounding it. Jeremiah would get up and prophesy about how that so many Jewish people would be killed that they would run out of places to bury the dead! It is a book of judgment and in fact Jeremiah also wrote the book of Lamentations after all of the prophecies had come true. Lamentations is actually a poem in which Jeremiah weeps over the ruins of the formerly great city of Jerusalem.

When people do not think that God is good, it usually comes from seeing the judgments of God and misunderstanding them. Someone might say "If God is good all the time, then why does He bring judgment upon people." or "If God is good all the time, then why does bad things happen in the world?" "How come my family is at war with each other, and how come I was abused when I was younger, and how come this happened in my life?" They allow their questions and reflections of the bad things that has happened in their life to cause them to believe that God is not good and does not want to bless them.

It is a fair question: "If God is good and delights in showing mercy to people, then why have all of these bad things happened in my life?" "Why are so many of our lives in shambles?"

Let me answer your question by stating that Satan is a liar and the Father of all lies! He is a deceiver - has been for a long time -- and will not change today. What a deceiver does is convince you that something is different than it really is. The Bible talks about Satan's plan to deceive the whole world! He wants you to view God falsely! He wants to deceive you into thinking that sin is only bad because God says it is. That things are only sinful because God made them that way. The devil wants to deceive you into thinking that things are only morally wrong because the church says that they are and that if there were no church, then there would be no sin and all things would be good!

And his master plan of deception is, for the most part, working! Satan has people believing that "a little sin" doesn't really hurt anything. He has the world believing that sexual sin and fornication is only wrong because the Christian church says it is. As long as nobody finds out, there is nothing really wrong with it. The devil has the world convinced that the church is just out to stop all things that "are fun" and to keep you from having pleasure. There's really no reason to stand against anything because as long as you don't do anything "really" bad, you will be okay and can make it on your own! It's Satan's grand plan of deception that he started way back in the Garden of Eden when he told Eve, "God knows you really are not going to die, He just doesn't want you to be wise and really enjoy life!" He made sin seem to Eve as something that it was not and he is still in the same business today! The deception that sin really doesn't hurt anything!

That is a lie from the pits of hell! If there were no church and there were no Word of God for you to turn to, sin would still destroy your life! God did not label things as sinful just to ruin your life or take the fun out of things! The things that God calls sin are the very things that destroy your life, your happiness, your body, your relationships, and your very existence. When God calls something sin, He is crying out "It will destroy you! The devil has made it look enticing because he is out to destroy you!" The devil purposefully makes sin look appetizing and okay because he wants to see your life destroyed! Who are you going to believe really cares about you and loves you: Jesus Christ who came and died for you so that you could have deliverance from sin and eternal life, or the devil who has never done one good thing for you except the temporary pleasures of sin? Sin may be fun for a season, but the season always ends! And the end result of sin, whether you classify it as big or small, will be the destruction of everything that is precious to you! God is not being cruel when He says He hates sin, but is actually being good and loving because He is trying to get you to stop doing the very thing that is destroying you!

They did not like it when Jeremiah preached that they must stop sinning or else the judgment of God would fall! They tried to kill him many times and finally succeeded, but not before God's prophecies had come to pass! Even today, there are many churches that do not want the preacher to mention sin. They would rather the preacher deal with the symptoms rather than the root of the problem! They would rather return to their problems on Monday with a warm feeling after Sunday rather than hear about what is not pleasing to God in their lives. Christianity today does not focus on Repentance and living according to God's Word but rather on hype and emotionalism to make people feel better!

But I do not mind being like the prophet Jeremiah, because when I preach about sin and things that we need to change that are sinful, I am actually opening up the windows of blessings in your life! What God has labeled sin are the very things destroying what it is you long for: happiness, peace, and joy! God has actually labeled things sin out of His love for you! He could allow you to keep making the same mistakes and living the same way and be completely destroyed in this life and then spend eternity in a lake of fire in torment, but He said, "no, I'll get involved! I'll come and die to provide a way out of their sin! I'll prepare a place for them to go that is paradise with streets of gold and many mansions! I'll give them a written word to follow so that they can learn about the things that are destroying them and how that they can overcome them. I'll even call men who are sensitive to my voice to preach and remind the people of the way to live that is blessed!" God cares for you! The reason that you've got a preacher that is willing to confront areas of your life and teach in areas that hit a little too close to home, is because God loves you enough to try to expose the very things that are causing hurt to your physical and spiritual person! God loves you enough to expose the very things that are causing your relationships with others to not be what they should! God IS good, and that is why He hates sin: because it is destroying the very people that He loved enough to come and die for!

Don't you believe the lie of Satan that God loves to punish people and bring judgment upon them! God does not choose to judge anyone, but rather we choose to bring it upon ourselves by our sin! The judgment is a result of our sinful lifestyles! The people of Israel had time and time again turned to worshipping idols. They were committing fornication with everyone and even sacrificing their children to idols. They were a greedy people who were not fair in their wages or efforts and who blasphemed the Lord God and cursed His holy name, and then looked around and when they began to reap the results of their sinful actions and pain and suffering and destroyed relationships came, they blamed it on God saying "see, if God really loved us, He would not allow this to happen to me!" Actually, the pain in their life was a result of their decisions and their sins and they didn't even realize that God was actually trying to save them from themselves by sending the prophet to speak the truth to them!

You see Micah said, that God desires to "pass by the transgressions of our heritage." "Transgressions of our heritage" refers to reaping the results of your parent's and grandparent's sins. There are vices and abuses and bad things that have happened in your life that are a direct result of your parent's sinful actions. People die, but evil spirits never do. That's why there are whole families that are haunted in successive generations by spirits of alcoholism or abuse or depression. Those spirits walk through the open door provided them by the sinful desires of a grandfather and then stay with the family. The crazy thing is that the devil has some people believing that it is God who is making their children alcoholic or it is God that is making their children depressed, but it is not God that is doing the destruction, but sin! Sin carries over it's destruction into the next generation!

But God spoke through Micah and said that God desires to "pass by the transgressions of the remnant of our heritage." God is good! He desires for you to be able to break out of the cycle of sin and overcome that abusive behavior, and alcoholism, and depression! We serve a God that desires to pass over the sins of our fathers and grandfathers, and instead of cursing their children, bless them and develop a relationship with us! God is good! And He delights in showing mercy! He delights in breaking the cycle of sin! But you must first stop blaming God for what has happened in the past! It's not God's fault, it is the result of sin! God wants to help you, He wants to set you free from the past! But you must realize that the good deliverance that you need comes from Him! You cannot do it on your own!

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Right among all of the judgments that God was prophesying to Israel, God stopped and sort of said "now I want to get one thing clear." God stopped during all of the judgments and said "I don't want anyone to misunderstand me" and then He went on to say what we read in our other text:

God said " I don't want you to get to thinking that all of these judgments are my perfect will!" "I don't want you to get the impression that I love bringing judgment!" "I hate having to bring bad judgments!" "What I delight in is in giving "lovingkindness, judgment, and rightousness in the earth. Those three things are the things in which God delights.

The word lovingkindness is always used to express God's grace and mercy! All that we have already been talking about how that God loves to take people who do not deserve to be blessed and change their life and bless them! He loves to take people whose lives have been ravaged by sin and turn them into spiritual princes abounding with both physical and spiritual blessings from God! He died on Calvary so that we could escape the curse of death that we deserved! That is God's lovingkindness!

The word judgment here is not necessarily negative. It means to do right in every given situation! It means to grant authority and privilege! What God was saying was that He delights in giving mercy to those who do not deserve it and then to go far beyond even that in giving blessings! He loves to forgive us and then bless us beyond our imagination. He loves to not only get us out of our difficult situations but to also give us authority and privilege! He takes ordinary sinners and delivers them from sin, but He does not stop there: He makes them sons of God and heirs of His riches! He's preparing a mansion for you; It's in a city where the streets are paved with pure gold! God wants to do so much more than just save you from the results of your sin, but He wants to give you a new body one day and to forever rule and reign with Him! God is good!

He also delights in righteousness in the earth. The best definition for righteousness that I can find is "the most perfect fairness in all cases." That means that God will always treat you right! God will never leave you nor forsake you! You may forsake Him, but He will not forsake you! God never changes! If you and someone else are in the same situation, then God will always treat both of you the same! He is fair and just. Abraham said "will not the judge of all the earth do right?" He lived by trusting in God's righteousness and you can too! God will always do what is right in a situation. If it seems to you that He has not been fair, then remember that you do not know everything about the situation! God is good and righteous, and it delights Him to be so!

And God said in our text that if any man is going to "glory" in anything, then glory in the fact that God delights in mercy, justice, and doing right! "To glory" means "to derive your happiness from." It means what makes you happy! If you "glory" in sin then that means that you trust in sin to make you happy! And I can tell you: your happiness won't last long! If you "glory" in others or money for your happiness, your joy will fail! But true joy and true happiness is found in glorying in the fact that God delights himself in lovingkindness, privilege, and fairness! God is not going to let you down! You can be happy that whatever may come your way, a good and just God still sits on the throne of the universe, and nothing will ever change that! God is good, and you can depend upon it!

You may think that Jesus Christ is different today than He was when He walked the earth, but I can tell you that He still desires to do miracles and wonders and to give blessings! Jesus Christ will never change! He wants to bless us and love us! And He will always do what is right! That means that you can never rightfully charge God that He let you down! God doesn't let you down -- people let you down and you may let yourself down -- but don't ever think for a minute that God can fail! Is there anything that God cannot do? Yes, He cannot lie, He cannot sin, and He cannot fail! The only sure thing that you can trust in is God!

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Here recently I felt the revelation of God showing me some things that I was facing in this community. Immediately after God gave me this revelation, several people -- unknowingly -- were used by God to confirm what He had said. We know from scripture that the devil is not omnipresent -- that is he cannot be in every place on the earth at once. So there is an organizational system where there are certain demonic spirits that rule over certain areas. I do not have time to do a Bible study on this right now but we can learn this from the book of Daniel and God sending an angel to answer his prayer because the "prince of Persia" withstood the angelic messenger. In other words, Daniel received his answer later than he wanted because the demonic power of the area did not want him to receive revelation.

I felt like God identified one of the chief evil spirits of Medina County for me last week and I will tell you what it is. One of the chief evil spirits of this area is a spirit of discouragement, depression, and fear. These are the tools that the devil uses in this area to keep people from finding God. When Satan gets worried about somebody getting spiritually free, he brings discouragement, depression, and fear to them. It does not mean that you are backslid, because this month even I as pastor have felt the onslaught of the enemy, but it means that the devil is worried about what you are doing and the progress that you are making in God. I've got a scripture to combat that devil today in your life!

God is not the one that gives you the spirit of fear! Whenever you feel that discouragement, or despair coming on! Whenever fear comes haunting you, know that it is NOT from God! God is good and does not move upon you to disillusion you or confuse you! God has not given us the spirit of fear; But God has given us POWER, LOVE, and a SOUND MIND! What I am saying is that many of you have not been able to get victory over the discouragement because you did not know where it was coming from. But I am telling you today: It's not from God and so you do not have to receive it! He's given you the power to deal with it! The next time you feel that spirit of fear and disillusionment come upon you, you say "in the name of Jesus Christ, I REFUSE to accept it!" The devil can only bring it upon you if you will accept it! Don't believe his lies! He is the Father of them! Devil I refuse to get discouraged! I refuse to get depressed, I refuse to allow fear to grip my lives! I refuse to accept it by the power in the name of Jesus Christ! God has not given it to me, but He has given me power, love, and a sound mind! In the name of Jesus, receive your spiritual breakthrough today!

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In the time of Elisha, we find the people of God in a bad situation. The scriptures say in II Kings chapter 6 that the massive Syrian army had surrounded the city of Jerusalem and all of Israel was afraid. Elisha's servant went out the next morning to look around the city and all he saw was the Syrian Army and he came back worried asking the man of God "what are we going to do?"

Elisha told him "fear not!" Then Elisha asked God to open his eyes and to be able to see in the Spirit. When God opened the eyes of the young servant he no longer saw only the Syrian army but everywhere he looked the mountains behind the enemy were filled with horses and chariots of fire! We need to ask God to allow us to look at our situation through the eyes of the Spirit rather than the natural! When you have a situation that looks at first glance like God has failed or God has let you down, you need to pray "God open my eyes in the Spirit and help me to see what is really going on" because God is GOOD all of the time and if to the carnal eye it seems that all hope is lost, you can rest assured that if you can view the situation the way God sees it, that God already has the victory planned! The chariots of fire are already around the enemy! Get your eyes off the situation and trouble and get your eyes on the Spirit of God! The Psalmist said:

It's time to get our eyes off of our valleys and get them on the Hills where Jesus is! It's time to stop viewing life through what our natural eyes can see, and start trusting in God! He will not fail you! Remember: no matter what it looks like, He is GOOD and has already made a way out for you!

One other point about this story really stood out to me this week. II Kings 6:17 says that when the servant looked, he saw the horses and chariots of fire in the hills "surrounding Elisha." They were there not because of the sinful people in the city and not because the city was Jerusalem. God did not send help because He just wanted to help out the Jews or protect the king. The horses and chariots of fire sent by God were there "surrounding Elisha!"

You see, the power of one man who believes that God is good and trusts completely in Him is awesome! God will do whatever it takes to deliver him! The only man in the entire city that really believed that God could deliver them and that God was good enough to serve with all of his heart was Elisha, and yet God sent the army of heaven to surround him and deliver him! Why? Because God loves, delights in, blessing and showing mercy and doing right especially to those who will praise Him and by their faith and lifestyles show that they know that He is good! God heal our vision today! Let us see you and our situation like it really is! Help us to get a revelation that everything you do is for our good because you delight in being good to your people!

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Jesus in Matthew chapter 7 taught us how we should think about receiving good things from God:

God wants to give you good things, but you have to express your faith with action. Notice that your request is only given to you if you ask for it! The door is only opened IF you knock! Don't you dare refuse to ask and then walk out of here and say that God failed you! If you will ask, you will receive a blessing because "everyone that asketh receiveth!" If you are looking for a closer relationship with God, you will find it! If you are expecting to receive nothing from God, then you will receive nothing!

God is good!! But I'm preaching to people who have not seen the mighty outpouring of the blessings of God because of one of three reasons: 1. You did not realize that God delights in showing mercy and so you thought that there was no way that God would ever do anything for a sinner. 2. You have believed the lie from hell that sin doesn't really do anything bad, and have not realized that God correcting sin through a preacher or His Word is actually an expression of His great love for you. or 3. You simply have not asked or sought the Lord for your situation! I do not know what exactly your case is today, but I am here to tell you that you can receive something great today! You can turn your life around with repentance and asking the Lord to get involved in your situation! God is good, He cannot help Himself and He DELIGHTS in showing mercy, justice, and always doing what is right! God wants to bless you, and is simply waiting for you knock on the door of opportunity. You can do that by beginning to praise Him for His goodness! When you remind Him of His goodness, it reminds Him of what He loves to do! He delights in blessing His people!