Let's turn to Ecclesiastes chapter
6. Ecclesiastes chapter 6. This message was born from Lamentations
3, those verses I sent you Monday morning. John read it again tonight. But those verses say this, the
Lord is good And it says it's good that a man should both hope
and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It's good for a
man that he bear the yoke in his youth. So I began to think
of what the Scripture says. I remember reading several things
that tells us what's good for us. So that's what we're going
to look at tonight, just part of the Kevin and I were talking. Everything in His Word is good
for us. There's seven million things written for our good,
but we're just going to look at seven things, okay? Ecclesiastes
chapter 6. It says this, our text, verse
11. There are many things that increase
vanity. The more what is man, the better. Who knoweth what is good for
man in this life? All the days of his vain life
which he spendeth as a shadow, who can tell a man what shall
be after him under the sun? Well, I'm going to tell you who
can. Who can tell us what's good for us? Only one. God, who is
good, tells us what's good for. Our Creator, our Lord, the only
one who does. He's written this book. It's
good. It's good news. I know you've heard the saying
all your life, if you know what's good for you, you'll... Don't
you? You'll do this, you'll do that,
or you won't do this, you won't do that, you won't go here, you
won't go there. If you know what's good for you. And I'm going to
tell you what's good for you. I'll tell you what to do, what God
says to do, that's good for you. Our Lord said that. He's not giving us something
to save ourselves, but you'll see. Our Lord said this to His
disciples in John 13. If you know these things, happy
are you, blessed are you, if you do them. That's what He said. And may the Lord enable us to
do what He tells us is good for us. Several things that are good
for us. Psalm 73. Go there. We look through
the Psalms and one in Isaiah. Mostly in the Psalms. Psalm 73. Turn over there. What
is good for us? The Lord says it's good through
David. He said it's good for us to draw
an eye to God. Look at it. David was in a bad
way, Psalm 73. He was envious of the prosperity
of the world. He thought they've got nothing
but, they don't have any trouble, and the wicked prosper, and God's
people have nothing but trouble. And he said, my religion, is
it in vain? Ah, he said. And then he went
in the sanctuary, like us, tonight. And he said, I was like a beast. How could I be so foolish? He
said, God's my portion. So he must have been away somewhere,
because your mind wanders. If you're not thinking on the
Lord, that will keep him in perfect peace. His mind has stayed on
David. David began to think of other things. So he says in verse
27, Psalm 73, Lo, they that are far from thee shall perish. Thou
hast destroyed all them that go a-whoring from thee, but it
is good for me to draw near unto God." It's good for me. I've put my trust in the Lord
God. It's good for me to draw near
unto God. Now, Paul said this. He preached,
I think it's Acts 17, that God is not far from us. In Him we
live and move and have our being. But most people are far from
God. Far off from God. They don't know God. They don't
know Christ. That's what we just read there. We need to know God. This is life eternal that we
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ. We need
to know Him. We need to grow in grace and
the knowledge of Him. We need to know Him better, don't
we? James said, Draw nigh unto God
and He'll draw nigh unto you. God is light. If you're not walking in the
light as He is in the light, you're in what? Darkness. God is truth. If you don't know
God and walk with God, you're going to believe a lie. This
whole world is following the father of lies. God is life. Life. And he that hath the Son hath
life, he that hath not the Son of God. I don't care what you
have. You don't have life. God is wisdom. God is wisdom. There is no wisdom
apart from God. God hath made foolish the wisdom
of the Spirit. God is wisdom. God is peace.
The God of all comfort. There is no comfort. Except in
our Lord, in our God. So he says, it's good for me
to draw nigh to God. How do you draw near to God?
How do you draw near to God? How do you come to God? How do
you approach God? Well, number one, Psalm 89 says
it. Psalm 89. Mindy and I have been
talking about this. This is something you need to
remember. God is greatly to be feared. in the assembly of the saints,
to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. You
draw nigh unto God in fear. We never draw nigh to a holy
and righteous God in presumption or pride or carelessly or familiarly. He's our God. He's holy, holy,
holy. We draw nigh unto God in fear.
How do we draw nigh unto God? Look at Psalm 145. Turn over
here. Psalm 145. We draw nigh unto
God by calling on Him. Prayer, that is. Call on Him. Psalm 145, verse 18. You have it? Psalm 145, verse
18. The Lord is nigh unto all them
that call upon Him. To all that call upon Him in
truth. The Lord is near. He is nigh
unto all them that call upon Him. My God, help me. Lord, reveal
yourself to me. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. That's God's promise. He cannot
lie. Somebody not saved, you can't blame God, can you? He
called him. Lord, I don't know you. I want
to know you. Lord, I don't know Christ. That's
my next point. You can't come to God except
through Jesus Christ. He said, No man cometh unto the
Father, but by me. We come to God in fear. We come
to God by calling on Him. And you call upon Him in truth.
What's truth? Christ is the truth. No man knoweth
the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal
Him. You can't know God apart from Christ. The whole world
has got a conception of God, and they've left Christ out of
it. Well, it's wrong. God was manifest in his name.
Jesus Christ is God. That's the only God we'll ever
know. I mean, that is to see and feel and understand. But
God come nigh to God through Christ. He said, No man cometh
but by name. And so we draw nigh unto God
by fear and call upon Him. We draw nigh in faith and calling
on Him in the name of Christ. We draw nigh unto God to worship.
Worship Him. God is to be worshipped. God
seeketh such to worship Him. God is worship. God is spirit.
He worships to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. The true
people of God worship God, rejoice in Christ, no flesh. So we draw an eye unto God to
worship. Well, where is God? We say God's
in the heavens. Well, wait a minute. He dwells
in the assembly of the saints, God's house. You want to draw
an eye unto God, you go where He is. You go where Christ is. You go where He promised to be.
God is known in Zion, Scripture said. In Zion, that's where He's
known. His way is in the sanctuary.
Can't know God, can't call on God, you don't believe, you can't
believe in Him, you haven't heard, and you can't hear without a
what? Preacher. So, we draw a line to God, where
He is. Let's look at Psalm 133. Psalm
133. It says this. Aren't you glad when they said
unto you that the Spirit of God said, let's go to the house of
the Lord? This is where you met God. This is where you met Christ.
Psalm 133. Behold, how good. This is good. How pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity. Where do we dwell together? In
Him. In His house, with His people.
In unity. What are we doing? Worshipping
God in spirit and truth. And this is that precious ointment
that comes down from our head onto the body. Ointment, the
oil of gladness. It's good. What we're doing right
now is good. We draw nigh to God. We don't do it flippantly
or carelessly, we do it in fear. We're calling on God in prayer.
We're coming to the name, the blood, the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. And we're worshiping God. That's
how you draw an eye to God. Secondly, go to Psalm 92. So
it's good for us to draw an eye to God. And it's a good thing
to give thanks unto God. Psalm 92, verse 1. Have it. Psalm 92, 1. It's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord, to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High, to
show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning and thy faithfulness
every night, to do it on stringed instruments. It's a good thing. It's a good thing, singing these
hymns. It's a good thing to give thanks. It's good, it's glorifying
to God and it's good for us. You know that? Thankfulness.
Murmuring and complaining might lead you out of the kingdom.
If you keep doing it. That's why the people didn't
go into the Promised Land, isn't it? They kept murmuring and complaining
and had nothing to murmur and complain about. But they murmured
in their tents. They had a tent. Our Lord didn't have a tent.
But they murmured in their tents. Murmured against God who brought
them out of the pits. Bringing them to the promised
land. Provided their every need. Murmured. Murmuring and complaining is
dishonoring our Lord and it's bad for us. Bitterness. There'd
be no peace, no comfort. Only inward trouble if we murmured
the plague. Right? But now, if you give thanks,
if you have a thankful attitude and spirit, it's good for you. Good for everybody around you.
It's glorifying to God. It's good for you. Listen to
Colossians 3, 15. Let the peace of God rule in
your hearts, to which also you're called in one body, and be ye
thankful. Be thankful. We have everything
to be thankful for, and nothing to complain about. Our light affliction. We have
affliction, but it's light compared to our blessing. So it's a good
thing to give thanks. Brings me to the next thing,
and he said this in Psalm 92, if you still have it. It's a
good thing to sing praises of His name. to give thanks and
to sing. We come here to worship our God,
to draw an eye on our God. We come here and it's good. There's
nothing better than that. Really, there's nothing better
than that. Is there anything you'd rather
do? Seriously, nothing better. David said, I esteem this better
than life itself. Job said, it's more than my necessary
food. So it's a good thing to come
here and draw nigh unto God and give thanks unto our Lord, call
upon the Lord, worship our Lord, sing His praises, sing these
hymns. David got down like the rest
of us. And you've heard me mention Psalm
13. You've looked at it yourself.
One of my favorites. Six verses. Six short verses. Spurgeon called it the Howling
Psalm. Because he three times says,
How long? How long? How long? And don't we say that? How long is this going to go
on? How long am I going to be a sinner? How long will
I have to deal with all this? How long? How long? Well, it
goes from, he goes from pining That's a real old word, man.
You're in pain. It goes from pining to praying,
in the second two verses, to praising. He ends up praising. Or as Spurgeon said, it goes
from sighing to suing. Sue means to petition, to singing. He ends by singing. He starts
by sighing. He ends by singing. He starts
by pining. He ends up praising. That ought
to be us. So when we start pining, we start
praying, we start praising. Start singing. Singing is good
for it. Ephesians 5. Turn over there quickly. Ephesians
5. Now, where was Paul when he wrote
Ephesians? He was in prison. He's in prison. And it wasn't minimum security,
you know, correctional institute. It was a dungeon. They threw Jeremiah in a dungeon. They lowered him down into a
pit of mire by his armpits, ropes, and took those ropes up and left
him there. He's the one that wrote Lamentations.
Good thing he went there in that pit. He didn't think so at the
time. But Paul here wrote in Ephesians
5 from jail to encourage us. He said in verse 19, he said,
Speak to yourselves in songs. Ephesians 5, 19. Speaking to
yourselves in songs. And him, don't murmur yourselves.
Speak to yourselves in psalms. Recall the psalms. We're going
to read a bunch of psalms tonight. Oh, may the Lord recall these
to our mind. And bring them back to our memory.
And hymns. And spiritual songs. Singing
and making melody in your heart. to the Lord. It says, singing
unto Him, giving thanks, verse 20, for all things unto God the
Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. See that? It's
everywhere. Colossians chapter 3, he's in jail when he wrote
Colossians. Listen to this. Colossians 3,
I just read to you, let the peace of God rule. Be thankful. But Colossians 3, 16. Colossians 3.16, Let the word
of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your heart to the Lord. Whatever you do in word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks. It will cheer you up. When you start counting your
blessing, when you start giving thanks, most of your troubles
will fade away. I remind you of the story in
Acts 16 where Paul and Silas have been preaching there at
Philippi. And you know the reason they're
at Philippi. God's going to raise up a church
there. But they've got to go to jail for him to do it. But Paul and Silas were beaten.
It says the people of Moab too rose against them and beat them
with many stripes. And they cast them into prison,
Paul and Silas, and told the jailer, make their bonds tight. Make them miserable. They hated
the church, the people did. And he thrust them, it says he
thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast and
stopped. You ever had your feet in iron? Well, at midnight, Paul and Silas
prayed. They started praying. Oh Lord God, we don't know why
we're here, but we know You put us here. We don't know your purpose
in all this. They're going to. And they're
going to rejoice. They're going to rejoice. I had
to go through this. The Lord's got a church he's
going to raise up here. The Lord's people, he's going to save some
people through their stock, their bonds. He wrote epistles because
he was in jail. I'm so glad. Lord, show us your
purpose in this. Make us thankful. In everything,
let's give thanks. Let's give thanks in these bonds,
in this pain, this suffering. I read they're whipped while
they're bleeding, they're bloody, their faces are beaten up. Have you ever been beaten up
and whipped? No, you haven't. Well, they were. Lord, they prayed. Let us be
thankful in everything and give thanks unto thee, because this
is your will in Christ Jesus concerning. So Paul said, Silas,
let's start singing, brother. Their lips are swollen. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. You know what happened? You know what happened? Their
chains fell off. The door of the prison flew wide
open. The jailer came running in. What's
going on here? The Lord saved that man, saved
his whole house. Was it worth it? Was it God's
will? Was it good? A little pain. Well, a lot of pain. Oh, but
joy cometh in the morning. Let's see. I keep mentioning
2 Chronicles 20. Has anybody gone back there and
read that? Oh, do it. Whatever you do, next thing you
read, go back and read 2 Chronicles 20. Jehoshaphat and all of Israel
were surrounded by the enemy. And they don't know where to
turn. The enemy outnumbered them by a large margin. Jehoshaphat's prayer to God.
He prayed to God. He said, Lord, we have no might
against this. These enemies are against us.
And we don't know where to turn. He said, our eyes are upon thee. Help us. He said, all of Israel
and their little ones before the Lord. And the Lord sent a
preacher. Jehaziel is his name. Only sermon
he preached. He didn't, Johnny didn't even
preach again. He preached it all. He says, the battle is not
yours. It's the Lord's. You will not
need to fight in this. The battle is Lord's. He said,
stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. You know what? So, Josaphat said,
brothers and sisters, let's believe the Lord. This is the preacher.
This is the Word of God. Let's just believe. Let's just
trust Him, okay, in the face of all this affliction, these
enemies. Let's just trust the Lord. He
promised us through the Word of the Preacher. So let's just
trust Him. And then Jehoshaphat said, let's get some singers
out here. He did. He appointed singers.
He said, let's start singing. This is true. He said, let's
start singing. So they all started singing.
You know what happened? The Lord smoked their enemies.
He had the enemies fight each other. John, nobody fired a shot. In everything give thanks. This
is the will of the Lord concerning you. Trust the Lord. I've told you this story before.
Maybe somebody hadn't heard it. George Whitfield was an itinerant
preacher. He'd ride on horseback everywhere
in the United States. He came over from England, rode
in Georgia, and all over. And he preached everywhere. And
he rode on a horseback from town to town. Well, one night it was
raining. It was miserable. It was cold.
It was raining. He was on that horse, and he's
going to preach. He's murmuring, Lord, why? He's cold. He's wet. He's tired. He's going to preach the gospel.
Why can't you just stop the rain? Well, he came around the corner,
and there was a robber behind a tree. And he jumped out behind
that tree. He had a flintlock pistol, flintlock pistol, powdered. He's going to rob him. And he
pointed a gun right at Whitfield and fired it. But the powder
was wet. And Whitfield rode off. He said,
Lord, thank you for the rain. Oh, thank you for the rain. Don't
let me ever complain about the rain. All things work together. We just don't know. On that line here, there's a
point. If we just want to wait, if we just wait. Okay, so he
says it's a good thing to give thanks. It's a good thing to
sing praises. It's good for you. I tell you,
I don't know how many times I get in the shower and I'm feeling
lousy, feeling no good, worthless and all that. I just start singing
and it just lightens my load. I'm telling you from experience.
What's good for us? Go to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. I'll tell you what's good for
you. Good food is good for you. Isaiah 55. Go back there. I need to find it. Where is it?
There it is. All right. Good food is good
for you. How many times did your parents
say, now eat this, it's good for you? Oh, I hated hearing
that. You know, I was meat and potatoes.
That's all I liked, meat and potatoes. And mom served greens. She wanted us to have greens
every meal. I didn't like any greens. Peas. Oh, we had a lot
of green peas. And all I could do was just mix
them up in my mashed potatoes. Seriously, I didn't like greens.
But they're good for you. What would happen to you if you
never ate any greens? Well, your teeth would fall out or something.
Good food is good for you. Well, look at Isaiah 55. Ho,
everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that
hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and
milk without money, without price. All of this is the Word of God.
Wine that maketh glad the heart of man. That's the blood of Jesus
Christ. Milk, the sincere milk of the
Word. Desire it that ye may grow thereby. It's good for you. Without
money, without price. In my hand, no price I bring.
Verse 2, Why do you spend money for that which is not bread?
And your labor for that which is satisfied not. Hearken diligently
unto me, and eat ye that which is good. This is good and good
for you. Let your soul delight itself
in fattening. Read on. Here's what this Word
of God will do for us. Incline your ear and come unto
me, here and your soul shall live. If you don't eat, you'll
die. If you don't eat, you'll die.
I see people, I've seen people over the years lose their appetite
for the Word, for the Gospel, and leave, and they're dead.
They're dead. If you don't eat, you'll die.
This is good for you. Word of God. The only thing really
it is good for you. The Word of God is full of wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Who's that? The Word,
right? It gives us faith, hope, love,
joy, rejoicing, thanksgiving, praise, peace, peace, eat. As I said, my mother and father
made me eat that which was good for me when I was young, and
I didn't like it. I was forced to do it. And what was even worse than
that, I thought, was they forced me to come hear the gospel. And
I didn't like it. I didn't want to do it. Boy, I'm ever thankful. You know
what one of my favorite vegetables is now? And I tell men when she
goes to the store, please be sure to buy some green peas. I love them. Don't I mean, I
love them. I love greens. In fact, I've
eaten for a meal, nothing but greens. A little cornbread. You see, if God creates life
in you, and this is how He does it. We have our children under
the life-giving sound of the word. We make them come and sit
and listen to the gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation.
Like me, I don't want to do that. Yes, you will. And so God, in His good time,
you like this, don't you? You need this, don't you? You're
hungry, aren't you? You're thirsty, aren't you? This
tastes good to you? Nothing better. That's what happened. Good food is good for you. So,
I hope God will use the same word. He's going to. We read
that in Psalm. What did I just preach? Somebody
tell me. 115. Where it says, He'll increase
you and your children. God's going to save some, some,
somebody. Why not all of them? Wouldn't
that be wonderful? Our children. He saved me. He saved me. Brother Kelly, He
saved you and me. That's all for anybody. So, it's good. It's good to draw nigh unto God.
It's good to give thanks. It's good to sing His praises
and worship. It's good to eat, hear His Word. This is how you eat. This is
what you eat with. Keep your mouth shut. Because
these two don't work at the same time. Right? That's why we don't
have question and answer sessions. Right? You wouldn't hear a thing
of words in it. We're all forced to sit down
and shut up. And this is the fear of the Lord.
God is in heaven. You're upon earth. Let your word
be pure. Be more ready to hear than offer the sacrifice of the
poor. Swift to hear. Slow to speak. Slow to wrath. And I tell you
what will happen every time is God will answer any question.
You don't even have to ask a question. God will answer everything. Eventually. You just wait. You lay at your
point. So this is good. What we're doing is good. Isn't
this good? Tastes good to you? Those of you who have tasted
the Lord's grace, it's good. David said, Oh, I esteem your
word better than gold and fine gold and honey, better than a
honeycomb. Oh, it's so sweet to my taste.
Isn't it? Here it is, Lamentations 3. This
is what started this message, Lamentations 3. So it's good
to draw nigh, give thanks, sing praises and worship. It's good
to eat or hear God's Word. It's good to seek hope and wait
on the Lord. Lamentations 3, verse 25. The Lord is good. You know, whatever
the Lord does to us and for us is good. Everything he does to
us is good. If you just hang on. Just sit
quiet now and wait. He's good unto them that wait
for him. Hang on now, you'll see. To the soul that seeketh
him, the soul that seeketh him, seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call upon him while he is near. That's Isaiah 55. Amos said this in chapter 5,
he said, Thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel, Seek
ye me, and ye shall live. Don't seek Bethel, don't seek
here, seek there, this, that and the other. Don't go to Egypt.
Seek the Lord and you shall live. He kept saying that. Seek the
Lord. Seek Him that made the stars. You know, he goes on to
mention the galaxies. You ever read it? God's astronomy? Read it. Don't question me if
you haven't read it. It talks about Orion and the
stars Seek Him who made these things. Why wouldn't you? Why
would you seek your wisdom and answers from man? He's a creature. He doesn't know nothing. He thinks we came from soup.
And that's what's in their heads. Seek God who made all this. So it's good a man seek the Lord. And verse 26 in Lamentations
3 says this, it's good that a man should both hope and quietly
wait for the salvation of the Lord. Hope. Hope. Hope in what? In Him. Romans 8, I was going
to turn but we're running out of time. Romans 8 says we're
saved by hope. But it's not just a hope, a hope,
a hope. Rabbit's foot, a wish, a hope, you know. Hope means
an expectation. Expectation. You expect to get
something to hold your promise to you. Well, hope in Him. God
who cannot lie. And hope of salvation. That God
is promised who cannot lie. We hope in Him. Don't hope in
the world. Hope in God who's good. Don't
hope in the world that's evil. God is good. The world is corrupt.
Don't put your hope in corrupt people. They're out for themselves.
You know that? Every one of them. Money! You
wait and see if they don't turn you, turn on you if there's money
involved. Our Lord now, who is good, was
rich! Here's the one you can believe.
He left all his riches to be poor. That's good. You can trust that person. You
can listen to that person. Hope in Him. Hope in God. Hope in
Christ through His life. Don't hope in dead and dying
things. Don't put your hope... You know,
this world is a hopeless place. It's a hopeless place. But there's
hope in God. There's hope in Christ. Hope
in His mercy. We're all a bunch of sinners.
We're going to be sinners to the day we die. Well, how can
we hope to be in the presence of the holy God who loves righteousness
and hates iniquity? How in the world are we going
to be with God? Hope in Christ. Hope in His mercy and His truth
which met together in Christ. Hope in Him. Hope in His blood. Hope in His righteousness. Don't
hope in the world. Don't put, put no hope in the world. The
world is captive to the God of this world. So, hoping Him. And then He says,
it's good to hope and wait quietly. Wait. Quietly wait. This is, with man it's almost
impossible to wait. You know that? And to be quiet. Two things. That human beings,
it's impossible to keep this shut and to wait. Isn't it? Wait. Wait. Quietly. Wait on the Lord. That means
submit to everything. Don't open your mouth. I can't
help but think about our Lord. We're going to see it soon. As a lamb where shears is dumb,
stood before his accusers. He was guiltless, faultless. Everything they said brought
up about him. Could you take that? If every
charge against you was wrong, was a false witness, could you
take that? Could you keep your mouth shut? Would you take that? He did. Why? He was asked. Isn't that something? Would you
do that? Would you take somebody else's
place and keep your mouth shut and act like you're the one that
did it? Would you? With man, that's impossible.
Kelly, he's God. He's not a man. Aren't you glad?
Oh, my. He was silent, waiting. Our Lord waited, didn't He? Waited
to be gracious. Went through all that. But we
need to wait, quietly sit and wait on the Lord. We need to
wait on His will to be done. You'll make it now. You'll see
it. You don't have to run ahead.
No you don't. Wait. How long? Till you know. Till He makes it plain. Wait
on His Spirit to move. Wait on His leadership. Wait
on His provisions. Oh, we've got to do something. You know, I'm the worst, I guess,
I think. I don't know. But there's somebody
I've got a burden for right now, and I hope the Lord provides
for them. And I want Him to provide for them now. I keep saying, Lord, do something. I need this. Just wait. Listen
to Psalm 27. He says, I would have fainted
unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land
to live in. I would have fainted in this
world. But wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage. He'll strengthen thine heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord. You'll see. You'll see. He'll make it plain. You'll see
Him work. You'll see Him work wondrously. You'll see His acts. And you'll
be amazed. You'll be amazed. Things don't
go as we want them to, and we're all disappointed. Hold on now,
wait. You're going to see something
better. Right? Right, sister? You'll see. God's good. Now,
the last thing. Go to Psalm 119. The last thing. I've saved the
worst for last. I said that's right. What we
think is the worst. The hardest thing. Harder than
waiting. Psalm 119. And John said this
in his prayer downstairs. He quoted it. Psalm 119, verse
71. David said this. You have it? Psalm 119, 71. It's good for
me that I have been afflicted. It's good for you. That's hard, isn't it? That's
hard to be thankful for. Many times it's so hard to understand.
We go through trials and troubles, sorrows, sadness, bereavement,
sin, enemies, sickness, death, afflictions. It's good for us. Good for us. You know whom the
Lord loves? He sends afflictions. I don't
know who it was one time was talking to somebody who was going
through trouble after trouble after trouble. And that preacher
said to him, Amen, Scott. Said, the Lord must love you
greatly to put you through all that. It's for His glory. It's for His honor. It's a testimony
of our Lord. Like Job. Don't you get great
comfort from Job, what Job went through and his testimony and
all that? That's why the Lord did that. God got great glory. Satan was angry. Satan was angry. He couldn't get Job to curse
God. He couldn't do it. And that gave
God, all Job did was glorify God and Satan wanted to curse
him. So he sent thing after thing. God let him. It was good wasn't
it? It was good. I'm so glad that
Job went through all that. Good to be afflicted. Everyone the Lord loves, everyone
the Lord chose, He sends afflictions. Afflictions. And let me remind
you of the children of Israel and I quit. The children of Israel
were in the land of Goshen. They had it easy. They had it
good. They didn't want out. They liked
the world just fine. Right? They weren't having any
trouble. So the Lord sent hard taskmasters,
didn't He? Hard bondage and affliction. They afflicted them. And everyone
in Israel, every single Jew, was calling on God. Every single
Jew wanted out. Needed a redeemer. Needed a deliverer. So they all start calling on
the Lord. Oh my, it's good for me. Good
for me that I've been afflicted. Good to draw nigh unto God. Good
to worship the Lord. Good to give thanks. Good to
sing praises. To eat His Word, hear His Word,
read His Word. It's good to seek Him, to hope
in Him, to wait on the Lord. It's good to be afflicted. Those are just a few things.
Things that are good for us. Okay, stand with me.