Hello my friends, I’m pastor Troy Brewer of Open Door Church in Burleson, Texas and I want to welcome you to God Today. You know, if you’ve ever wondered, “I really wonder if God is good?” Maybe sometimes you even think that God is mad at you; I’ve got great news for you today. God is not mad at you. If you’ve ever thought that God is mad at you or punishing you or just indifferent to your suffering, my question to you is this: Who told you that? Somehow we’ve gotten the impression that God is this mean old man way up in the sky, waiting to spit on our breakfast if we mess up somehow and that is just not the truth. Lost job, crumbling marriages, rebellious child, and we think God must be punishing me for something that I did. Financial problems, health issues, natural disasters. Well I think God must be judging me because I messed up when I… Hey stop that. This is wrong thinking and it comes from the pit of hell. The devil, your adversary, wants you to believe this lie so that you will doubt your father’s goodness. Don’t doubt that. You see, the devil hates it whenever we know and understand how good God truly is. It shines a very bright spotlight on how evil, and defeated, and weak he is. He hates to be reminded that he’s not God and that he’s already been defeated. Why should you be defeated by a defeated devil? Know this, God is not waiting for you to sin or to mess up so he can squash you. He’s just not. That’s not who He is. That’s not what God does. God is looking to bless you. God is looking to partner with you.
You know there’s this incredible scene at the end of this book called The Agony and The Ecstasy which is written by a guy by the name of Irving Berlin and it’s this historical novel about Michaelangelo. And it illustrates this point: Okay, so there’s this aging Pope Julius II and he’s visiting the nearly completed Sistine Chapel. Michaelangelo has to help him up the last few runs of the ladder and he gets him up there and he gets to where they’re looking at that painting where God is about to impart the gift of life into lifeless Adam. Now Julius had fought terrible and ruthless wars in the name of the church and he had blood on his hands, and he wasn’t even sure if it was a just case anymore. However, as he looked at Michaleangelo’s pictures of God, a smile comes across his cracked lips. “You truly believe that God is that benign?” he asked the famous painter. “Yes, father,” Michaelangelo replies. Then Pope Julius says this, “I most certainly hope so, since I’m going to be standing before Him before long. And if He is as you have painted him here, then perhaps I shall be forgiven of my sins.” You know looking at that painting, the pope saw an image of God different to the one he had lived with his entire life. It was a revelation to him that God was not killing life, but that God was actually giving life. That was a revelation to the Pope. It had never occurred to him that God was good.
That painting, you know, the one where the finger of God is reaching out to impart life into a lifeless Adam. That painting actually started a revival when people saw that image painted high as if they were looking into heaven; a new revelation of God’s goodness spread into Europe and even beyond. So, my friends, God is love, he is light, he is life. He will never bring you hatred, he will never bring you darkness or death. Those things were either brought to you by the devil or even by our own nature. Many of those things, sadly, are self-inflicted. God is good. Do not let yourself entertain any other thought other than “God is good.”
I want to pray for you. Father, God. I pray God for a brand new revelation of your goodness to be upon us. I pray, Father, in the Name of Jesus, God. That we would see the goodness of God in the land of the living. And God as you reveal your glory to us, cause your goodness to pass before us. In Jesus Name, Amen. Hallelujah. My friends, Im Troy Brewer, and I call you the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, and highly favored of the Lord.